ON ST. PATERIUS, BISHOP OF BRESCIA IN ITALY.
BEGINNING OF THE 7TH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Paterius, Bishop of Brescia in Italy (St.)
By the author I. B.
[1] Among the illustrious Bishops of the city of Brescia, Paterius is listed by Bishop Rampert in his sermon on the translation of St. Philastrius, the age of St. Paterius, Bishop of Brescia which was published by Surius under July 18th. Most agree that he lived around the beginning of the seventh century after Christ. For it seems certain that Elias Capreolus errs in book 4 of his Brescian history when he assigns Bl. Paterius to the times of the Emperor Marcian. For who would believe that after St. Philastrius, who was a contemporary of St. Ambrose, seventeen Bishops had presided over the Church of Brescia in the approximately sixty years to the reign of Marcian (for Paterius is the seventeenth from Philastrius), and from him to Rampert, in 380 years, barely as many? But the age of Paterius will be fairly certain if it is established that he was a disciple of St. Gregory -- about which more later.
[2] His fellow citizens venerate him at the altars on the 21st of February, on which day the Roman Martyrology mentions him thus: his name in the Martyrologies "At Brescia, St. Paterius, Bishop." Galesinius adds, "and Confessor." Benedict Dorganius in his Benedictine Calendar: "St. Paterius, Bishop, of admirable sanctity." Arnold Wion: "At Brescia, St. Paterius, Bishop of that same city, disciple of Pope St. Gregory, a man of admirable sanctity." Menard has the same but adds that he was also conspicuous in learning. Wion in book 2 of the Tree of Life calls him a monk; in book 3, page 56, he says he was a monk of St. Andrew's at Rome. Neither Ferdinand Ughelli in volume 4 of his Italia Sacra, nor John Francis Florentinus in his Chronological Index of the Bishops of Brescia, mentions any monastic profession. Both make him a native of Antioch, while Wion (whom we more readily follow) makes him a Roman.
[3] Concerning his relics, Florentinus writes as follows: "His ashes, formerly translated from St. Florian on the Colle Digno translation of relics to the church of the same Saint which is seen in the village of St. Euphemia, were brought by the Fathers of the Cassinese Congregation into St. Euphemia at Brescia in the year 1478." He thus indicates a twofold translation; Ughelli indicates only one: "His bones," he says, "rested for a longer period in the church of St. Florian in Colledigno, and were thence translated to the church of St. Euphemia of the Cassinese monks in the year 1478." The same author also calls him St. Antherius, or Paterius.
[4] Anthony Possevinus in his Apparatus, and the already cited Wion, as well as Menard, whether he is the same who compiled the exposition of Scripture maintain that he is the same author whose Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, excerpted from the books of St. Gregory, survives. Sigebert, Honorius of Autun, and Trithemius, when they treat of Paterius the writer, make no mention of an episcopate. Sigebert in his book on Writers, chapter 43, writes thus: "Paterius, Notary and Deputy Chancellor of the Roman Church, collecting all the testimonies of divine Scripture through which Gregory elucidated the obscurities of his exposition, published three books, two on testimonies of the Old Testament and one on testimonies of the New Testament; and he called the codex itself the Book of Testimonies." Trithemius relates the same about him, but somewhat more fully; Honorius more briefly; and Possevinus in Sigebert's own words. Bede mentions his books in book 7 on the Canticles, near the beginning, with these words: "I have heard, moreover, that Paterius, a disciple of the same Bl. Gregory, collected from all of holy Scripture whatever Gregory had explained piecemeal in his works, and gathered them in order into one volume... But I have not yet merited to see it."
[5] That Exposition has been appended to the works of St. Gregory, as reviewed by Peter of Tusignano and dedicated to Gregory XIV. he excerpted it from the books of St. Gregory But there are now only two books: the first on the Pentateuch, the books of Judges and Kings, the Psalms, and Solomon; the latter on the New Testament. The Exposition on the remaining books of the Old Testament seems to have been lost. The author indicates the occasion and time of undertaking the work in the preface: "While I was reading through the writings of our most blessed and Apostolic Gregory, our Pontiff, and (I would add) your nurturer, more frequently, and the very lucid satisfaction of his words was persuading me to be with them continuously and more eagerly, I found in them something of incomparable excellence." And after a few words: "Provoked therefore by the burning desire for this matter, I had begun to pluck certain things from those testimonies in a certain brevity, passing over others by neglect. While this was happening, as my conscience is my witness, against my will and though I more carefully took precautions that this should not be known by anyone in any way, it came through certain persons to the notice of the same Apostolic Pontiff, our lord. with Gregory himself approving and encouraging him He then began to kindle me by exhorting me with those persuasive words, drawing me toward heavenly things, which Your Blessedness knows, so that I should more diligently complete what I had begun negligently -- in such a manner that I should designate in the heading both the work and the book in which the testimony was placed to be read, or from what it had arisen. Weighing the burden of this task and the impossibility of my own strength, caught in uncertainty, like a sailor troubled by a severe storm of waves, I fled, fearful I confess but trusting, to the harbor of his prayers, knowing that what was commanded me by so great a Bishop, and a thing destined to profit the edification of many, could not be impossible. And presently, spurred on by the support of his command, taking up the task with whatever diligence I could, I collected together in one the gathered testimonies of the Old and New Testaments."
[6] And at the end of the same preface, he thus addresses the person to whom he dedicates his work -- perhaps Boniface IV or Deusdedit, or certainly (as I believe) some Pontiff among those who followed most closely after St. Gregory: "These things I have endeavored to send to Your Blessedness," and dedicated to one of Gregory's nearest successors? he says, "not by a venture of presumption, but stirred by love for your study, which long burns in the search for the divine word, knowing especially in the sayings of our aforementioned Pontiff how great is the eagerness of your mind to know. From many volumes composing a few things, I have been eager to send them, beseeching with humble prayer, as best I can, that when the care of my labor in this work shall have pleased you, or whoever shall read it, they may deign to be intercessors for me before the Lord, so that, having cast off this burden of corruption, I may be found worthy to be freed from the chains of my sins."
[7] Here he sufficiently clearly indicates his own age, since he writes that he was encouraged to undertake this work by St. Gregory, the same may indeed be considered to be him who died on March 12th, the year of Christ 604, in the 14th year of his pontificate. That St. Paterius, Bishop of Brescia, lived around the same time is sufficiently clear from the catalogue of Bishops of that city in Ughelli; so that for this reason it seems credible, as learned men judge, that they were one and the same. For what Aubert Le Mire annotated on chapter 43 of Sigebert is far from the truth: "It is established from the Miscellanies of Gerard Vossius, volume 5 of the Library of the Fathers, that Paterius served as a legate to the Irish under Pope Celestine I." Indeed it was Patrick, as is clear from the cited passage; Le Mire seems only to have read the index of the Cologne edition, where "Paterius" was printed.
[8] whether he was a monk? Arnold Wion, in his Notes to the Benedictine Martyrology, perhaps in order to prove more strongly that Paterius was a monk, cites from Trithemius this beginning of his work: "While I was reading through the writings of our most blessed Apostolic Gregory, our Pontiff, and also our nurturer unto God," etc. But Trithemius only has: "While I was reading through the writings of the most blessed and Apostolic..." with no further word added. And neither he nor Bede, both Benedictines, state that he was a monk.
ON BL. PIPPIN, DUKE AND MAJOR-DOMO OF THE KINGS OF AUSTRASIA, AT NIVELLES IN BRABANT.
The Year of Christ 646.
Preliminary Commentary.
Pippin, Duke and Major-Domo of the Kings of Austrasia, at Nivelles in Brabant (Bl.)
BHL Number: 2606, 4960, 6854
By the author I. B.
Section I. The Duchy of Brabant. The homeland, lineage, and dignity of Bl. Pippin.
[1] More recent writers on Belgian affairs proclaim Bl. Pippin as the first Duke of Brabant. Brabant is to this day the foremost of all the provinces of Lower Germany, embracing twenty-six cities fortified with ramparts and walls, Brabant, a great province of Belgium and among them those noble ones: Brussels, Louvain, 's-Hertogenbosch, Breda, Bergen op Zoom, and (which, formerly a march of the kingdom of Lotharingia and a border of the German Empire, enjoys the title of a special province, although for many centuries past it has coalesced with Brabant under the same laws and rights, under the rule of one Prince) Antwerp, second to none of the rest in riches and magnificence; and finally Tienen, Nivelles, and others; besides seventeen towns enclosed by no walls. It is bounded roughly by the rivers Meuse and Scheldt. What peoples formerly settled within these bounds has been said elsewhere. Most were Teutonic, that is, Germanic; formerly occupied by Germans by whom the original inhabitants, once conquered, either withdrew to other shores of Belgium or merged into the same name with the newcomers. Soon all were subdued by the Romans and restrained by suitable garrisons, and gradually entered into marriages and alliance with them, as happens, by the Romans and from them learned the cultivation of civilization, their language, and -- what is chief -- the Christian religion afterward. Whether kings or dukes of their own presided over each of these peoples, even under Roman rule, is not clear. Perhaps at first kings were left, as elsewhere; and concerning the Eburones this is evident from Caesar. Afterward, under Roman Prefects and Governors, the provincials had their own magistrates. As the power and authority of the Roman Republic declined in Gaul, Germany, Britain, and elsewhere, various barbarian nations again crossed the Rhine and ravaged these provinces. But the greater force came from the Franks, part of whom had previously obtained a precarious seat in Toxandria (which now for the most part belongs to Brabant) from Julian the Apostate. These, unlike the others, did not merely ravage the countryside and carry off plunder, but began to fortify camps, storm the garrisons and fortresses of the Romans, and wrestled with the Romans in Belgium with mutual slaughter for more than seventy years. When they had subdued it, like a river in flood they spread over all the rest of Gaul as far as the Pyrenees under the leadership of Clovis. Although it is certain that an immense slaughter of men took place at that time, not all of the Belgian or Roman stock was entirely cut off. by the Franks But when no help appeared from elsewhere, they yielded to the authority and name of the Franks. Hence it is possible to observe throughout the Lives of the Saints and other ancient histories Bishops or Dukes of Roman, even senatorial, blood; and the grandfather of St. Arnulf himself (whose son Ansegisel was the son-in-law of Bl. Pippin) is said to have sprung from senatorial stock.
[2] Whether our Pippin, then, was a Frank, a Roman, or of Belgian or German origin, Bl. Pippin born in this land say of the Aduatici or Tungri, we honestly confess we do not know. Consult, if you wish, Peter Divaeus in book 3 of his Brabantine Affairs. There are those who assert that he was descended from the most noble among the Franks, and others from the ancient Kings of the Tungri; they even weave genealogies, but of such a kind as to move learned men to laughter -- mere trifles. The contemporary author who was at Nivelles, already of mature age, when St. Gertrude died eighteen years after her father Pippin, speaks thus briefly about his lineage in her Life: "But to insert into this discourse the order in which she assumed her genealogy of earthly origin would be tedious. of most noble lineage Who living in Europe is ignorant of the loftiness, the names, and the places of this lineage?" Others have added more about these things. The author who wrote the miracles of St. Genulphus the Bishop, published by us on January 17th, nearly 1200 years ago, calls him in chapter 2, number 4, "a man of outstanding nobility." He was the son of Carloman and Emegardis, about whom nothing trustworthy is read in the ancient writers. The more recent Life of Pippin, about which more below, calls Carloman a Prince. Divaeus wants him to have been a Major-Domo and produces no authority. He was an illustrious man: that alone is established. He appears to have had fine properties in Hesbaye, and perhaps at Landen, whence more recent writers invent for Pippin himself the surname, unknown to the ancients, of Landesius, Landensis, Landinus, Landisius, de Landis, Landiniensis -- and they claim it was then a great city. Thus the manuscript Martyrology of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels, under February 21st: "At Landen, then a great city of Brabant, the deposition of Duke Pippin," etc. Christian Massaeus conjectures it was built by King Lando, and relates other equally futile things about Pippin's ancestors. Landen, a town he developed It is now a small town of Brabant on the river Gete; but since Pippin is recorded to have been buried there, as we shall say below, it can be supposed that he himself built or developed it, just as the other Pippin developed Herstal, and his grandsons developed Leptines, Jupille, and other places, especially around the Meuse.
[3] Was Pippin then Duke of Brabant? He was indeed a Duke, and presided over the palace of three most warlike Kings -- Chlothar, Dagobert, and St. Sigibert -- in Austrasia, he possesses extensive properties and under them administered military affairs with the highest authority. Likewise in that tract of land which is now called Brabant, he either received extensive properties from his ancestors or obtained them by the munificence of Kings. where afterward the Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant began to be named some centuries later. That there was a Duke in those parts about a hundred years after Pippin, namely Chrodobert, is clear from the Life of St. Eucherius on February 20th. Whether Pippin administered that duchy in particular, or perhaps possessed one or more counties by his own right, is uncertain. For in Hesbaye, where Landen is, four counties are known to have existed at the time of Charles the Bald, two centuries after Pippin; and as many in Brabant.
[4] And indeed in Brabant, the husband or son-in-law of the same Pippin's sister, Witger, had fine properties, about which the Life of St. Rayneldis, Virgin and Martyr, to be published by us on July 16th, speaks thus: "The most blessed Virgin Rayneldis was born of the most noble parents, from the castle of Conde, which is situated on the river Scheldt. For in the reign of Duke Pippin, father of the most holy Virgin Gertrude... her father, Count Witger by name, held the office of the Duchy of all Lotharingia, as also Count Witger, his relative and held the primacy among the Palatine Princes... His property was above the aforesaid castle called Conde, and Amniacum, and Uginiacum, with many other estates whose names it is not expedient to recite here. He therefore took in marriage a royal maiden, the daughter of the sister of the aforesaid Duke, named Amelberga... From her, therefore, God gave him a most holy offspring: Emebert, later the most blessed Pastor of the holy Church of Cambrai; and three daughters, of whom one was called Gudula, another Rayneldis, father of Sts. Gudula and Rayneldis and the third Pharaildis, as is found in the Life of the most blessed Gudula." We gave a twofold Life of St. Gudula on January 8th, of which the earlier was written after the year 1048, as we showed there; whence it follows that this Life of St. Rayneldis is much more recent. Therefore it is not surprising if it is sprinkled with errors, such as that Count Witger is said to have held the office of the Duchy of all Lotharingia, when the name of Lotharingia, or the kingdom of Lotharingia, was not known until more than 200 years after the death of this Pippin and Witger -- when Lothair, son of Emperor Lothair and grandson of Louis the Pious, died without children in the year 869, and his uncles Louis the German and Charles the Bald, and then the same Charles the Bald and Louis, son of Louis the German, divided his territory among themselves, not without wars. Nor does it seem to me that the writer of that Life erred only in this, but also wrongly places the castle of Conde on the river Scheldt, thinking that Condatum was the town of Hainaut at the confluence of the Haine and Scheldt, when it appears to be Contich, a notable village midway between Mechelen and Antwerp, some miles from the Scheldt. For since St. Rayneldis, daughter of Count Witger, handed over her patrimony to the monastery of Lobbes, the monks of Lobbes acknowledge that they possessed very extensive properties at Contich (which is now commonly called Contick), lord of Contich, or Contick and still retain certain rights, the rest having been sold to Cardinal Granvelle; but at Conde they deny possessing anything or remembering that anything was possessed by their predecessors.
[5] The same monks of Lobbes still hold the village of Saintes, in old Brabant, where the body of St. Rayneldis is preserved, from her donation, and the village of Saintes although part of the jurisdiction has been alienated. That Witger's possessions -- whether ancestral or from his wife's dowry -- were in Brabant may be conjectured from the Life of St. Gudula herself, in which in chapter 1, number 3, the following is read: "The blessed Virgin Gudula had a most worthy birth in the district of Brabant... from parents distinguished by an eminent lineage according to the dignity of the world, and who had attained the heights of honor in the administration of public affairs. Her father was Witger, whom we have learned held the fasces of a county; and her mother is known to have been called the most noble Amelberga... For she was connected by blood to St. Gertrude, who, being the daughter of Pippin, manfully spurned earthly marriages so that she might be fit for the heavenly bridal chamber." In the other Life of the same Gudula, chapter 1, number 1, the following is found: "In the times of King Sigibert, who was the son of King Dagobert, there was a certain Count named Witger in the district of Brabant, praiseworthy in his character; to his bed there clung a most worthy wife, whose name was Amelberga, sprung from the sister of Pippin, the renowned Major-Domo." Baldric of Tournai, in the Cambrai Chronicle, cited by us in Section 2 of the Life of St. Emebert, or Ablebert, on January 15th, writes thus: "He, born from the district of Brabant, from parents most illustrious in the dignity of both life and lineage, was born of his father Count Witger, a holy man, and his mother Amalberga." Concerning St. Amelberga, or Amalberga, or Amulberga, and her husband Bl. Witger, we shall treat on July 10th, where she is said to have developed the town of Saintes, which was donated to Lobbes by her daughter Rayneldis.
[6] Brabant (as it was usually written in former times) was principally that region in old Brabant which is now bounded by the Scheldt and the Senne, and extends from Oudenaarde, Ghent, and Dendermonde as far as Brussels and Halle, and beyond. Part of it afterward yielded to the authority of the Counts of Flanders, part to the Counts of Hainaut; part was retained by the Counts of Louvain, who called themselves Dukes of Lower Lotharingia and of Brabant (the name being drawn from Brabant), with their territory extending to the Meuse and the borders of Batavia. Pippin's properties also were once at those borders, since even now there exists there a town called Mons Sanctae Gertrudis, or Geertruidenberg, which Otto I mentions in a diploma published by Le Mire in the Notice of the Belgian Churches, as follows: "The inheritance of St. Gertrude, situated in the district of Toxandria on the river Striene, in the estate called Bergom, with its integrity pertaining thereto: three islands, the first Bieuelant, the second Spiesant, the third Gerselre." Hilsundis also, Countess of Stryen, among the properties which she donated to the monastery of Thorn, founded by her for the benefit of her daughter Benedicta, names Mons littoris, which is the same Geertruidenberg: "Where," she says, "the most blessed Gertrude lived bodily and has a cell consecrated by Bl. Amand."
[7] The etymology of Brabant, about which we are speaking, learned men are now investigating. Justus Lipsius of Louvain in book 1, chapter 13, says: whence the name of Brabant? "'Bant' signifies a border: thus Oosterband and Westerband are called what others inaccurately pronounce or write as Austrovantia and Westrovantia. And this region was indeed a border area between both kingdoms" (of Lothair and Charles, as he had already explained, and thereafter of the Franks and Lotharingians, or Germans), "and therefore 'Brac,' from 'crasso' (fallow), perhaps because these fields often lay fallow and were uncultivated: which we call 'braecken' and 'braecklandt.'" But the name belonged to the region long before that partition of the kingdoms. St. Boniface in the Life of St. Livinus calls it "the land of Brabant," or, as another codex has it, "Bracbentisia." St. Livinus himself, a hundred years before St. Boniface and two hundred before that division, writes thus in a poem to St. Floribert, Abbot of Ghent:
"The impious people, stirred up by barbaric tumult, Here the Brabanter rages and, bloodthirsty, seeks me."
Others derive the name from "Bant," which signifies a league or bond, and "Brack," meaning salty -- because at the borders of Brabant, from Zeeland onward, the river Scheldt suffers the tides of the sea and rolls its waters salty from it. Hence perhaps it came about that the allied peoples who dwelt along the Scheldt called their entire territory "Brackbant" or "Brack-kant." What if the region received its name from the sagacity of its inhabitants and their swift disposition for plunder? For "brack" also signifies a hunting dog.
[8] What the character of the Brabanters was in the age of Bl. Pippin may be perceived from the revived Life of St. Livinus, where St. Boniface writes: "When the venerable Bishop entered with salutary steps, he admired the most pleasant, spacious, and exceedingly delightful land, abounding by the kindness of the Lord in milk and honey, the inhabitants of that age were remarkable and overflowing abundantly with the fertility of diverse crops and trees and the abundance of all good things. Also the inhabitants, shining with the personal beauty of their bodies, composed in the cultivation of their garments, honorable in speech and the gravity of their character, magnanimous men, outstanding warriors, fit for royal military service, and worthily conformed to this world in every exercise of their studies. Ps. 31:9 But because, according to the Psalmist's voice, but given to vices 'like the horse and mule which have no understanding, they are constrained by bit and bridle,' by the instigation of Satan, transgressing the law of God, they were defiled by adulteries, robberies, thefts, perjuries, and murders, like fierce dogs biting one another with pestilential madness, each defrauding the other in turn by deceit, felling one another by mutual slaughter," etc. Such were then the morals of the Brabanters -- not perhaps of all, but of those nearer to Ghent, among whom St. Livinus preached the Gospel and obtained the crown of martyrdom. The rest of Brabant, especially where the Toxandri once dwelt, does not have the same fertility as old Brabant. But the virtues of its inhabitants that St. Boniface praises are now common to the whole remaining people: the vices have been abolished by the cultivation of religion, so that the Brabanters now easily yield to none of the Belgian peoples in courtesy, skill at arms, the pursuit of civil prudence, and gentleness.
[9] In this tract of land, therefore, and among such peoples as we have described, Pippin had his private properties; Pippin rules more widely in Belgium and moreover he enjoyed the highest authority in the kingdom of Austrasia. For, as the Annals of Metz published by Chesne in volume 3 of the Frankish Writers have it, "he governed with just laws the people dwelling between the Carbonarian Forest and the river Meuse, and as far as the borders of the Frisians, in vast territories." The ancient author who interpolated the first Life of St. Gertrude, written by a contemporary, reports these things more fully: "Pippin," he says, "son of the most noble Prince Carloman, who together with Bl. Arnulf, under Kings Lothair and Dagobert, governed with just laws the people dwelling between the Carbonarian Forest and the rivers Meuse and Moselle, as far as the borders of the Frisians, in vast territories." Concerning the Carbonarian Forest, which is now the greater part of Hainaut, our Aegidius Bucherius treats accurately in his Roman Belgium, book 12, chapter 11.
[10] We have a certain Life of St. Arnulf, transcribed from an ancient codex of the Chancellery of Vich by our Francis Lahier. and in Germany In it Anchises is said, by the counsel of his father Arnulf, to have taken in marriage the daughter of the Prince of Germania Secunda, Pippin, named Begga. And shortly after, what the author means by the name of Germania Secunda is indicated: "He had entered the region of the Thuringians, which is no small part of the province of Germania Secunda, in which Cologne is the Metropolis."
[11] The same Life of St. Arnulf (to indicate here in passing what will be examined more carefully elsewhere) has the following about Waldrada, sister or aunt of Bl. Pippin: "From this Pippin's sister, named Waldrada, Gualchisus was born, who begot St. Wandregisel, Confessor of Christ." Bouchet in his genealogy of the Kings of France, page 62, says that Waldrada, married to the same Walchiso, was the mother of St. Wandregisel. a kinsman of St. Wandregisel Wassebourg on folio 17 asserts the same, and says that she was the maternal aunt of Pippin of Herstal; whence it would follow that she was a daughter of Pippin, and sister of the Saints Begga and Gertrude. More trustworthy is the testimony of the author who dedicated the Life of St. Wandregisel to St. Lantbert, Bishop of Lyon, and who professes to have known some of the things he writes from his own observation and most of the rest from the most truthful account of the venerable monks who adhered to him over a long time. He therefore writes: "His father, named Walchiso, sprung from a most noble lineage, was the cousin of Pippin, the most excellent Prince of the Franks." Whence it would follow that Waldrada was the mother of Walchiso and not Pippin's sister but his aunt. But these matters will be discussed in the Life of St. Wandregisel on July 22nd.
[12] An old writer on the Major-Domos of the royal house, published by Andre Chesne in volume 2 of the Frankish Writers, reports that Pippin was the first Major-Domo in Austrasia. This is by no means accepted by us. For King Childebert of Austrasia had Florentianus as his Major-Domo, whom St. Gregory of Tours in book 9 of the History of the Franks, chapter 30, writes was sent by him together with Romulf, Count of his Palace, in the 14th year of the same King, the year of Christ 589, to the Poitevins to collect the tax. whether the first Major-Domo in Austrasia? Indeed Regino and several others, and even the Life of Pippin which we shall give below, write that St. Arnulf himself administered this same dignity blamelessly before his pontificate. Yet the author of the Life of Arnulf himself, who testifies that he learned some of the praiseworthy deeds Arnulf performed from those narrating who were his intimates, and most by his own knowledge (and therefore, as will appear later, was more than two hundred years older than that writer of the Life of Bl. Pippin or St. Gertrude), does not in the least affirm this, but only calls him a Domestic and Counselor of King Theudebert -- though with such a prerogative of favor and power that six provinces, which from that time and now are governed by the same number of Domestics, were ruled under his administration by his sole judgment. Whether Pippin was Major-Domo before Austrasia was subjected to Clothar, and of all Austrasia or only the lower part, we shall inquire below. Theoderic, Abbot of St. Trond, in the Life of St. Landrada the Virgin, writes that Arnulf and Pippin were simultaneously Major-Domos under Clothar: "Pippin," he says, "son of Carloman, together with the man of God Arnulf, later Bishop of Metz, were the Major-Domos." Both, however, were Austrasians. Whether they held this office simultaneously with equal power, or in different parts of the kingdom, let him determine who asserts it, four centuries and more after Pippin and Arnulf.
Section II. The Life of Bl. Pippin. His deeds while Clothar II lived, up to the year 628.
[13] Two printed Lives of Blessed Pippin exist: one published by Surius under February 21, the other by Chesne in volume 1 of the Scriptores Francici from page 594, from a manuscript codex of Claude Doremieux of Arras. The latter is excerpted verbatim from the first book of the Tripartite Life of St. Gertrude, Two Lives of him: which we shall present on March 17. The author was a member of the monastery of Nivelles, as is evident from what the same Life records concerning St. Itta, or Iduberga, mother of the same Gertrude and wife of Pippin: "His wife, therefore," he says, one written by someone of Nivelles "the venerable Itta, sprung from the most illustrious nobility of Aquitaine, as we know without doubt from the conveyance of her possessions made to us. Which indeed our Church held for many ages, as long as peace prevailed, and our tax collectors were accustomed to bring back from them a great sum of money each year. But at length, as the tumult of wars grew stronger, because the property was far away and could not be visited without danger to envoys, it gradually began to be neglected, until finally it passed into other hands." It appears to have been written after the year 900 of Christ. For after treating in book 1, final chapter, of the sons of Louis the Pious -- Lothar, Louis, and Charles -- he adds the following: "But why should I labor to recall other kings or emperors from this glorious stock, after the year 900, when their number is so great and confused by the similarity of names, that so many Charleses, Carlomans, Lothars, Pippins, and Louises can neither be conveniently explained in a brief narrative nor encompassed by the narrow compass of memory."
[14] That Life was, however, composed long before the year 1100, around which year Stephen, Abbot of the monastery of St. James at Liege, composed three books on the Life of St. Modoald, Bishop of Trier, and dedicated them to Thietmar, Abbot of Helmwarden. At the beginning of book 1 he speaks thus: "His sister was named Itta, long before 1100, a most venerable woman, devoted to God in faith and good works. She indeed, joined in marriage to the most illustrious Duke Pippin, most noble in lineage and wealth (which among the powerful is as remarkable as it is rare), namely in the eminence of his honors and the humility of his character, when cited by Stephen the Abbot in the Life of St. Modoald, merited by divine providence to obtain a spouse in the lawful bed who was of one mind with her in every pursuit of piety. That the powerful may learn from his example to be humble, who are accustomed to glory in vain power, let them not disdain, I pray, to hear what I deemed it useful to insert into this work concerning the praises of her husband, not unworthy of it. At the time when that illustrious Duke and most true Father of his country departed from human affairs, he struck all Austrasia with such grief that the lamentation for him could in no way be compared to the lamentation for kings. For he was of the most upright life and the purest reputation," etc. And in book 2, shortly after the beginning: "At that time there flourished in the palace men most energetic and at the same time most devout: among whom Pippin stood preeminent, son of Carloman, a most illustrious Duke and Mayor of the Palace under Clothar, Dagobert, and Sigebert, most powerful kings: whose praises, because we have briefly touched upon them in the preceding book, let us now, where the matter requires, discuss somewhat more at length his counsel and equity, his prudence and fortitude. At that time Dagobert held power, under whom the same Duke, invested with a dignity differing but little from the sublimity of royalty, ordered all the affairs of the kingdom with the most prudent arrangement, excelling as much in fortitude in war as in justice in peace." And what follows in number 2. Then he adds some things from number 5 and more from number 6. Nor is it surprising that St. Modoald became Bishop in Austrasia and that his sister St. Itta married Pippin there, though they were from Aquitaine: since, as was noted on February 1 in the Life of St. Sigebert, many provinces in Aquitaine were subject to the kings of Austrasia.
[15] The first chapters, therefore, of that Tripartite Life, which has been published elsewhere under the title Life of Blessed Pippin, excerpted from the Life of St. Gertrude: we shall present here from two manuscripts of the monastery of Rougevallee (Rubea Vallis) of Canons Regular near Brussels, collated with manuscripts of the monasteries of St. Maximin and Bonfontaine, and with Chesne's edition.
[16] The other Life, published by Surius from a manuscript codex that was written with gravity, as he himself noted in the title, the other contracted from it was contracted from the former, after at least the year 1140, when the Counts of Louvain were already calling themselves Dukes of Brabant. For it begins thus: "The venerable Pippin, Duke of Brabant, son of Prince Carloman and his mother Emegard, was Mayor of the Palace of France under King Clothar of the Franks and his son Dagobert. Invested with which dignity, differing little from royal lordship and sublimity, he ordered all things with prudent arrangement." It adds other things that are narrated in nearly the same words in the former Life up to number 4. Then it interposes the following: by a certain Brabantine German: "Blessed Pippin, therefore, first of the kings of Austrasia, afterward Prefect and glorious Duke of lower Austrasia itself, was German in language and nation. He was therefore the glory and honor of the Germans, the mirror and model of the Brabantines, the way and example of good conduct. This blessed Pippin, father of fathers, illustrious Duke, after he had most vigorously governed the Royal House and lower Austrasia committed to his trust, was called to a homeland that will endure without end, to receive a worthy reward for his fidelity. His death struck all Austrasia with such grief." And what follows up to number 9. From which words it is clear that the author was a German, that is, from that part of Brabant which uses the German language: and that is by far the largest part, with only Nivelles and the district called Roman Brabant, or Gallic, retaining the French language. What the same author relates about the translation of Pippin, we shall reproduce below. As for his particular emphasis on lower Austrasia having been administered by him, I think this is said because he had ancestral possessions in lower Austrasia, was born there, and, as we have said before, seems to have held a Duchy there even before he was appointed Mayor of the Palace, and defended it against the neighboring Frisian enemies and the Saxons across the Rhine. Otherwise, the seat of the kings of Austrasia was at Metz, as we have shown elsewhere, where he presided over their palace. Whether, however, at the beginning of his reign Dagobert resided at Metz, at Cologne, or elsewhere, may be questioned.
[17] Many other writers of Gallic and Belgian history treat of the deeds of Blessed Pippin, as does our Christopher Brower at length in the Annals of Trier. Yet no one precisely records his age. He seems to have been born around the year 580, Pippin born around the year 580, or not much later, since in the year 613, when, upon the death of Theoderic, King of Burgundy and Austrasia, Clothar obtained the monarchy of the Frankish kingdom, Pippin already possessed great authority. Fredegar testifies to this in chapter 40 with these words: "Clothar, through the action of Arnulf and Pippin and the other nobles, in 614 he induces the Austrasians to submit to Clothar II: enters Austrasia." This is narrated more fully in the fragment of Erchanbert found in Chesne, volume 1, page 780, in this manner: "King Clothar of the Austrasians, after Kings Theoderic and Theodebert, who were brothers, had died, received their kingdom, by the counsel and aid of Pippin the Elder, who at that time was Mayor of the Palace."
[18] But how was he Mayor of the Palace, when Fredegar writes in chapter 40 that Sigebert, the son of Theoderic, was sent by his grandmother Brunhild into Thuringia with Warnacher, the Mayor of the Palace? was he then Mayor of the Palace? Moreover, Clothar, as the same author records in chapter 42, came to meet Sigebert with an army, already having many Austrasians with him through the action of Warnacher, the Mayor of the Palace. Was Pippin previously Mayor of the Palace under Theodebert, but, because he had adhered to him with the utmost fidelity, was he removed from that dignity by the victorious Theoderic, and did Warnacher, who had already been Mayor of the Palace in Burgundy, exercise that office in both kingdoms? After Brunhild was killed, the same Warnacher, as Fredegar writes, was installed as Mayor of the Palace in the kingdom of Burgundy, having received an oath from Clothar that he would never in his lifetime be removed from that office. In Austrasia, Rado assumed this degree of honor. What then became of Pippin? Was he himself, who had rendered such distinguished service to Clothar and the kingdom, likewise degraded? Or did he perhaps remain Mayor of the Palace of lower Austrasia, placed over the ancient palace of the Ripuarian kings at Cologne, while Rado administered upper Austrasia, namely Alsace and the neighboring territories? Or rather, did Erchanbert suppose that Pippin held the dignity of Mayor of the Palace at the time when he most deserved it, when he won the Austrasians over to Clothar, although it was actually conferred on him somewhat later?
[19] Not much later, certainly, as the same Erchanbert writes, the King sent the aforesaid Pippin into Austrasia with his now grown son Dagobert, to be established there as King, and appointed Pippin himself as his Mayor of the Palace and tutor. This occurred in the year of Christ 622, or the preceding year. Fredegar, chapter 47: "In the year was he first in 621 given as moderator to King Dagobert 38 (another codex has 39) of the reign of Clothar, he made his son Dagobert sharer of the kingdom and established him as King over the Austrasians: retaining for himself what the Ardennes and the Vosges excluded toward Neustria and Burgundy." How great a glory to himself and benefit to the Austrasians the noble character of Dagobert produced, confirmed by the instructions of the wisest and holiest men Arnulf and Pippin in every praise of royal virtues, who under him becomes outstanding, can be seen in the Life of Pippin, number 5, and number 11, in the very words of Fredegar. The same things are amplified by other authors and commemorated by us elsewhere.
[20] That the young King waged wars against the neighboring Saxons and Frisians, both peoples highly trained in arms and impatient of peace because of their innate barbarism, under his leadership he wages wars, being vigorous in battle and eager for glory, can scarcely be doubted; and in these campaigns he made use chiefly of Pippin as his leader. But these events have not been recorded in detail in writing. In the Deeds of Dagobert, chapter 14, and in the Deeds of the Frankish Kings, chapter 41, and in Aimon, book 4, chapter 18, there is a famous mention of a battle with Bertoald, Duke of the Saxons: which, if it truly occurred, was undertaken under the leadership and counsel of Pippin, even though the aforesaid authors do not mention him. But since Fredegar passes over it in silence, certain learned men consider that the testimony of those three writers, who lived several centuries after Dagobert's time, is not sufficiently established. Brower in book 7 of the Annals of Trier, at the year 628, page 411, seems not to dare to present it as something he has investigated and fully ascertained: "Meanwhile they relate," he says, "that Dagobert vigorously conducted operations against the Saxon nation." And then: "They say that Clothar killed all the males whom his sword found taller than itself." Even less certain is what is recorded in our native Chronicles, that Ritzard, King of the Frisians, a most bitter enemy of the Frankish and Christian name, was slain by the hand of Pippin himself in some battle or other, and that the spoils of honor fell to him.
[21] Meanwhile, Dagobert exacted punishment from a wicked man: to which Pippin and Arnulf are said to have urged him, but not to the infamy of the treachery that appears to have been involved. Fredegar narrates the matter in chapter 52, though this chapter is absent from some manuscript copies: "In the year 41 of King Clothar, when Dagobert was now ruling beneficially in Austrasia, a certain noble of the illustrious Agilolfing clan (that is, the Agilolfings, or Bavarians), named Chrodoald, fell into the displeasure of Dagobert, at the instigation of the most blessed Bishop Arnulf by his counsel punishment is taken of a courtier who oppressed the innocent, and Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, or also the other leading men elevated in Austrasia, because this same Chrodoald was enriched with very many possessions, was a covetous invader of the goods of others, given to pride, full of arrogance, and nothing good was found in him. When Dagobert now wished to put him to death for his crimes, Chrodoald fled to Clothar, to beg that he would deign to spare his life and that of his son. When Clothar met Dagobert, among other conversations he entreated for the life of Chrodoald. Dagobert promised that if Chrodoald would amend what he had done amiss, he would not be in danger of his life. But without any delay, when Chrodoald had come with Dagobert to Trier, by Dagobert's order he was killed. Bertharius, a man of Scarponensis, with drawn sword cut off his head at the door of the chamber." Brower seems to have read the earlier words of Fredegar thus in some copy, or at least to have understood them thus: that Chrodoald is said to have been elevated in Austrasia at the instigation of the most blessed Bishop Arnulf and Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, or also the other leading men (or perhaps Primates). For he writes thus: "Dagobert had enrolled Rodoald the Bavarian, of illustrious and good lineage among the Austrasians, by the counsel and encouragement of Bishop Arnulf and Pippin the Mayor of the Palace, among the number of his friends, and, to show how dear the man was to him, had bestowed upon him no inconsiderable honors." Moreover, the fact that immediately upon returning to Trier he is said to have been killed contrary to the given pledge is evidence that he had persisted in his former arrogance, since Dagobert's action is not recorded as having been reproved by Pippin, Arnulf, or by his father Clothar.
[22] In the following year, namely that of Christ 626, the 42nd of the reign of Clothar, as Fredegar writes in chapter 53, "Dagobert, in royal state and by his father's command, came honorably with his nobles to Clichy, not far from Paris, and there took in marriage Gomadrud, the sister of Queen Sichild. After the wedding, on the third day, a serious dispute arose between Clothar and his son Dagobert. For Dagobert demanded that all things pertaining to the kingdom of the Austrasians should be restored to his dominion. This Clothar vehemently refused, being unwilling to concede anything of this to him. Twelve Franks were chosen by these two kings, so that by their arbitration this dispute might be settled. he obtains the other portion of the kingdom from his father, Among them the Lord Bishop Arnulf of Metz was also chosen, along with the other bishops, so that with great benignity, as befitted his holiness, he might speak between father and son for the concord of peace. At length, by the bishops and the wisest men among the nobles, the father is reconciled with the son: and restoring to him the established kingdom that pertained to the Austrasians, he retained under his own dominion only that which lay on this side of the Loire or in the territory of Provence." Aimon has the same in book 4, chapter 12. Which cities and provinces beyond the Loire the kings of Austrasia possessed was explained on February 1 in the Life of St. Sigebert. It seems sufficiently clear that Pippin was among those twelve arbiters of the royal disputes, given both his supreme dignity among the Austrasians and his fidelity toward both kings, admirably proven in very many matters.
[23] Another pious act of Dagobert, of which the same Pippin and Arnulf were the authors, is commemorated in the Diatribe on the Three Dagoberts, book 1, chapter 5, he bestows goods upon the Church. from the book of Marquard Freher on ancient Lupodun, or Laudenburg, which the same King donated to the Church of Worms. The charter was given at Mainz, on the second day before the Kalends of October, in the sixth year of his reign; the Austrasian one, of course, for before the sixth year of his western or occidental Frankish reign, Arnulf had already abdicated the episcopate and retired to the wilderness. That charter begins thus: "Dagobert, King of the Franks. We wish all to know that we, thinking of the remedy of our soul and of future recompense, have wholly resolved in our mind to make the Churches of God co-heirs of our allodial lands and to augment the places of the Saints. On this matter we have taken the good counsel of our nobles: Pippin, who is Mayor of the Palace, Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, and Hunibert, Archbishop of Cologne: and we trust thereby to obtain the mercy of God and to earn the suffrages of His Saints." The rest may be read at the place cited, along with the rescripts and statutes established by later kings and emperors to confirm that donation.
Section III: Deeds accomplished by Blessed Pippin, or by his counsel, from the year 628 to 639.
[24] "In the 45th year of his reign Clothar dies," says Fredegar in chapter 56. That was the year of Christ 628. Dagobert, however, The same Dagobert in the year 628, upon the death of his father, not knowing with what dispositions of the nobles and peoples the envoys he was thinking of sending to Burgundy and Neustria would be received, advanced his army to the borders of Austrasia. Because in all these matters he used especially the counsel and assistance of Blessed Pippin, it is fitting to record here in the very words of Fredegar what is summarized somewhat more briefly below in the Life, numbers 5 and 11. "Dagobert," he says, "seeing that his father had died, orders all the nobles whom he ruled in Austrasia to advance with the army. He prudently subjects the Burgundians and Neustrians to himself, He sent envoys to Burgundy and the West (the printed editions erroneously have 'Austrasia') to declare that they should choose his rule. When he had come to Rheims, approaching through recommendations, all the bishops and nobles of the kingdom of Burgundy are known to have submitted themselves there. But also the greater part of the bishops and nobles of Neustria are seen to have sought Dagobert's kingdom. His brother Charibert strove, if he could, to assume the kingdom: but his will, on account of his simple-mindedness, achieved little effect. Produlf (the brother of Queen Sichild), wishing to establish his nephew in the kingdom, had begun to plot against Dagobert: but the outcome of events proved the fortune of this affair."
[25] "When the kingdom of Clothar, both of Neustria and Burgundy, had been seized by Dagobert, a portion of Aquitaine conceded to his brother Charibert: the treasures captured and brought under his dominion; at length, moved by compassion and using the counsel of wise men, on this side of the Loire and the border of Spain which lies in the direction of Gascony, as well as the Pyrenean mountains, he is known to have conceded to his brother Charibert districts and cities for his maintenance, which could suffice for him to live in a manner resembling a private state: the district of Toulouse, Cahors," etc.
[26] About the same time occurred what is narrated in the Life of St. Magnus, or Magnoald, on September 6, although there things are attributed to King Pippin, brother of Blessed Carloman, which clearly pertain to this Pippin. When, therefore, three years after the death of St. Gall, in the very year that King Clothar died or not long afterward, the wicked Duke Otwinus and the prefect Erchonald had plundered the monastery of St. Gall, killing many of the monks and scourging and wounding Magnoald and Theodore, not much time later Pippin (who, as is said a little earlier, was called Mayor of the Palace) sent a large army Pippin defeats the Alamanni: to devastate the province of the Alamanni and subject it to his dominion and that of the Franks. When the whole land was filled with hostile incursion, Otwinus and Erchonald, not knowing which way to turn, killed themselves with the sword, so that the divine vengeance accomplished upon them might manifest the signs collected. This Pippin is said to have sent this army into Alamannia because he held the greatest authority with Dagobert and had urged him to wage this war against the Alamanni in vengeance for the sacrilege.
[27] A little later in the same Life, mention is again made of this same Pippin. in Rhaetia a place under his jurisdiction, suited for hunting, For St. Wicterp, Bishop of Augsburg, speaks thus of the place where the monastery of Füssen was built by the same St. Magnus: "That place is very narrow and uninhabitable, and now various wild animals dwell there: deer, many boars, very many bears; and on account of their multiplication the Lord King Pippin keeps that forest for the exercise of his hunting." Then further below: "The aforesaid Bishop Wicterp set out for the glorious King Pippin, who at that time ruled all Germany and all Gaul, with letters of St. Columban to King Clothar with a letter of Blessed Columban which he had addressed to Clothar, entreating on behalf of the holy men Gall and Magnus dwelling in his kingdom, that he might kindly cherish them in the love of the Lord and grant them suitable places, as occasion permitted, in his dominion. But since King Clothar was quite unable to fulfill this on account of the attacks of various enemies of God, the aforesaid glorious King, out of love and at the request of his most dear brother Carloman, who for God's sake, leaving behind the temporal glory and pomp of kingship, had given himself to a monastery, and out of the generosity of his almsgiving, as well as the petition of the aforesaid Bishop, deigned to enrich that place with some consolation of his largesse. When the aforesaid glorious Prince had received the letter, restored to him, moved by his brother's petition, he began to inquire diligently of his nobles from Alamannia what sort of place it was that the aforesaid Bishop requested to be enhanced. Then Duke Gunzo of the provinces of Augsburg in Rhaetia, answering, said: 'Truly, Lord King, that place is indeed poor in resources, but excellent for hunting, if the impediment of vermin were absent: for very many deer, fallow deer, and fawns, and various ibex dwell there, as well as a great multitude of bears and wolves.'"
[28] "Bishop Wicterp then began to narrate the virtues of the blessed man, how with the Lord's help he killed the dragon and the other miracles learning of St. Magnus's miracles, which the Lord deigned to manifest through his merits and prayers, and how that place was purified where Blessed Magnus dwelt. And hearing these things, the glorious King Pippin,"
greatly moved in spirit, said: "In truth I have learned that although that place is so poor in resources, yet through the merits of so great a man it will be celebrated with widespread fame, he gives it to him and founds the monastery of Füssen; just as we have already heard that the place where the body of Blessed Gall appears to rest has become famous." He therefore inquired of the aforesaid Gunzo where in the neighboring places he could find tributaries from that same district who should deliver revenues annually to the royal coffers. He then adds more about that illustrious donation, and then this: "The bishop Wicterp, adorned with these comforts of royal power and honored with its distinctions, and with the excellent gifts bestowed upon Blessed Magnus by King Pippin, returns joyfully to his homeland, charging the blessed man with all diligence," etc. And these things certainly pertain to Blessed Pippin, and were ignorantly interpolated concerning Carloman, brother of King Pippin, which are wrongly ascribed to King Pippin. by the person who, several centuries later, interpolated the Life of St. Magnus written by Theodore his companion, since Saints Magnus and Wicterp died nearly a hundred years before Pippin, the brother of Carloman and son of Charles Martel, became King. But of these things more fully in the Life of St. Magnus, and certain matters already indicated on January 16 in the Life of St. Tozzo, who succeeded St. Wicterp in the See of Augsburg. Now let us return to Dagobert, obedient to the most wise counsels of Blessed Pippin.
[29] In the year 634 (or perhaps toward the end of the preceding year), Dagobert undertook to travel through the kingdom of Burgundy and establish justice everywhere, which the previously cited Fredegar narrates thus in chapter 58: Dagobert in the year 634 administers justice in Burgundy, "Dagobert, when he had now reigned for the seventh year (some copies have the sixth) over the greater part of his father's kingdom, as I mentioned above, enters Burgundy. So great a fear had the arrival of Dagobert struck into the bishops and nobles established in the kingdom of Burgundy, and the other nobles, that it was cause for wonder to all. He had brought great justice and joy to the poor. When he came to the city of Langres, he judged with such justice among all his nobles, both the exalted and the poor, that it was believed to be entirely pleasing to God, with the utmost diligence and the approbation of the people: where no bribe intervened nor respect of persons, but justice alone, which the Most High loves, prevailed. Then proceeding to Dijon, and indeed sitting at Latona for some days, he had applied himself with such attention to judging with justice the entire people of his kingdom. Full of the desire for this benevolence, he neither took sleep for his eyes nor was sated with food, thinking most intently that all might depart from his presence rejoicing, having received justice."
[30] Up to that year, the year of Christ 634, Dagobert retained his royal seat among the Austrasians, and accomplished what has been recounted chiefly by the counsel of Pippin. all of which he accomplishes by the counsel of Blessed Pippin, Fredegar testifies to this: "Up to that time (up to, that is, the seventh year of the western reign, which we have mentioned), from the beginning when he had begun to reign, using first the counsel of the most blessed Arnulf, Bishop of the city of Metz, and of Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, he governed with such prosperity the royal government in Austrasia dwelling in Austrasia, that he received immense praise from all nations. Moreover, fear had so strongly shaken his enemies by his effectiveness that they eagerly seized upon the opportunity to submit to his dominion: even the peoples and is venerated by remote nations: who dwelt around the border of the Avars and Slavs eagerly sought him out, so that he might go behind them prosperously, and they faithfully pledged to bring the Avars, Slavs, and other nations under his dominion by public force." After the departure of Blessed Arnulf (which occurred in the year 630), "still using the counsel of Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, and of Hunibert, Bishop of the city of Cologne, and being strongly admonished by him, he embraced with such prosperity and love of justice all the peoples subject to him ... that he governed them so that no preceding King of the Franks surpassed him in praise."
[31] And these things continued until Dagobert came to Paris (as the same Fredegar interjects), in the same seventh year of his western reign, the year 634 of Christ: in which, having passed through Burgundy, as we have said, with the highest commendation for justice, and having killed Brudulf, the uncle of his brother Charibert, at Chalon, in the year 634 he moves to Paris: he came through Sens to Paris, and there, leaving Queen Gomadrud, Brudulf's sister, in the villa of Romilly, where he had taken her in marriage, because she was barren, with the counsel of the Franks (the Neustrians, I believe, whose obsequiousness he then began to be won over by, and to be seduced from the path of virtue), taking Nanthild, one of the girls from the monastery, in marriage, he elevated her as Queen. he repudiates his wife and marries another, A certain manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, which had been Goldast's, has that Nanthild was one of the girls from the household, namely of Queen Gomadrud. So also St. Bathild, raised from the household of Erchinoald, who then governed the Palace, to the marriage of Clovis II, as is said in both Lives of hers on January 26. In the following year, the year of Christ 635, the eighth of his reign, while Dagobert was touring Austrasia in royal state, he took to his bed a certain girl named Ragnetrud: by whom in that year he had a son named Sigebert. But before this child was born, Dagobert, returning to Neustria, choosing the seat of his father Clothar, resolved to reside there continually. "Having forgotten all the justice which he had previously loved, given to avarice and luxury: driven by the impulse of cupidity, he wished to fill new treasuries with spoils plundered from everywhere, from the properties of Churches and nobles; given beyond measure to luxury." So Fredegar in chapter 60, and these things are also narrated in the Life of Blessed Pippin, numbers 6 and 11.
[32] We saw above, on February 6, that St. Amandus the Bishop, he is rebuked by St. Amandus: like another John the Baptist, fearlessly reproved the public crimes of the King and was therefore exiled by him, as Baudemund, his disciple, testifies in these words in chapter 4 of his Life, number 16: "The Bishop himself, while he rebuked the King for capital crimes -- which no other priest dared to do -- was, by the King's command, expelled from his kingdom, not without injury." What did Pippin do in the meantime? Did he flatter the royal lust and himself too abandon the path of justice? Blessed Pippin also admonishes him, What he did, with what greatness of soul he chastised the King's crimes, with what prudence he overcame the machinations of his rivals, is declared in numbers 6 and 7 of the Life, and especially in Fredegar's own words. With which Aimon concurs in book 4, chapter 20: "The heart of Dagobert," he says, "was thought to have been turned away from God and completely alienated, had he not, coming to himself, resolved to redeem his sins with alms. There was in his kingdom Pippin, one of the most powerful of the Austrasians, attached to his intimacy, and conducts himself prudently, who hated the wicked and did not mix with the lawless. Certain malignant persons set about making him odious to Dagobert. But protected by the Lord's clemency (whose precepts he followed in maintaining justice), he both escaped the prepared snares and proved himself most faithful to the King by persuading him of useful things."
[33] But for what reason did the hostility of the Austrasians especially blaze up against him, as Fredegar says? "Many and most of the nobles," as the same writer records, "groaned at Dagobert's wickedness": odious to the Austrasians, and those Austrasians especially who had admired his extraordinary integrity of life. They were also universally aggrieved because they saw the royal court transferred to Neustria, to the great detriment and disgrace of the Austrasian kingdom: and this they perhaps attributed to Pippin's counsel, since they saw him adhering to the King even in Neustria. Their fury went so far that they were defeated more than once by the Slavic Wends, who deliberately let themselves be conquered by barbarians: although they could have conquered them, especially in Dagobert's ninth year. So Fredegar, chapter 68: "This victory which the Wends gained against the Franks was not so much won by the strength of the Slavs as by the demoralization of the Austrasians, since they saw that they had incurred hatred with Dagobert and were being continually despoiled."
[34] Nevertheless, even in Neustria, Pippin looked after the interests of the Austrasians. In the year 635, when a son was born to Dagobert, divinely destined as King for the Austrasians, he arranged, with the father's consent, for him to be baptized at Orléans with solemn ceremony. On this matter Fredegar writes: In 635 he brings King Sigebert's son to Orléans, "Pippin himself in that year went with Sigebert, Dagobert's son, to King Charibert. Charibert, coming to Orléans, received Sigebert from the holy font." Baptism was conferred upon him by St. Amandus the Bishop, who, expelled from the kingdom of Dagobert as we have said, and seeking more remote places, as Baudemund writes, "was preaching the word of God to the nations" in the kingdom (as we have conjectured in his Life) of Charibert, among the Basques. He was barely at last prevailed upon by many prayers from Dagobert himself, and from those whom he had engaged as intercessors, namely Saints Eligius and Audoenus, to consent to perform this saving office. "The holy man therefore received," where he is baptized by St. Amandus in the father's presence, says the same Baudemund, "the child in his hands, and blessing him made him a catechumen. And when, the prayer being finished, no one from the surrounding multitude had responded 'Amen,' the Lord opened the mouth of the child, and in the hearing of all, he responded in a clear voice, 'Amen.' And immediately, regenerating him in holy baptism and giving him the name Sigebert, St. Amandus then filled the King and all his army with great joy." Dagobert himself was present at this ceremony, as is evident from the whole context of Baudemund. Aimon, who wrote around the year 1000, thus explains the matter: and the infant responds 'Amen': "In the eighth year of his reign, Dagobert received a son. When afterward the venerable Amandus, Bishop of Maastricht, according to the custom of the faithful, was signing him in the city of Orléans, in the presence of the father and likewise of Aribert, King of Aquitaine, after the prayer was finished and no one from the great multitude of the army responding 'Amen,' the Lord opened the mouth of the child, who had completed no more than thirty (Baudemund has about forty) days from birth, and in the hearing of all he responded, 'Amen.' Immediately therefore the holy bishop regenerated him, and King Aribert raised him from the sacred font. Great amazement with exultation from this event filled not only the kings but all the bystanders." Aimon has used a parachronism, writing that St. Sigebert was baptized by St. Amandus, Bishop of Maastricht. Amandus was indeed then a Bishop: but not yet of Maastricht; rather, he had been ordained for the conversion of the nations, with no definite See assigned. Even more greatly mistaken is William Rebreuiettes, who in the French Life of St. Gertrude, chapter 4, page 35, says he was then Bishop of Paris.
[35] Pippin, moreover, in order to yield for a time to envy, undertook to rear Sigebert and, with Dagobert's full consent, carried him off to Aquitaine, he is reared by Blessed Pippin in Aquitaine, where the dotal possessions of his wife St. Itta were situated. Sigebert of Gembloux narrates this in his Life of St. Sigebert, composed from more ancient records, chapter 2, number 6, in these words: "Glory hardly ever, if ever, escapes envy. Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, who conducted himself cautiously and prudently in all matters of the kingdom and the palace, good in counsel, terrible in fortitude, praiseworthy in every respect for his cultivation of justice and the steadfastness of his fidelity, the more he surpassed all in favor, the greater was the envy of nearly all the Austrasians that he had kindled against himself; his rivals watching for an opportunity to remove him from the King's side: either to separate him from the King's heart, or to have him put to death. But he, knowing how to control his own spirit, did not wish to be conquered by evil, therefore withdrawing from the royal presence: but conquered evil with good. For, to free both himself and the whole kingdom from the scandal of discord, seizing Sigebert, the King's son, to rear him, he yielded to the faction of the envious and hastened to Charibert, the King's brother, dwelling in Aquitaine. Not much later, when the small cloud of this tempest had passed, the serener air of concord returned more joyfully." Charibert died in the year 636, and all of Aquitaine reverted to Dagobert.
[36] When Sigebert was already three years old, he was given as King to the Austrasians, so that they might thereby be roused to defend their borders. So Fredegar in chapter 75: "In the eleventh year of Dagobert's reign, when the Wends, in the year 638 he becomes King of Austrasia: by the order of Samo, were raging fiercely and frequently crossing their border to invade the kingdom of the Franks, devastating Thuringia and the other districts, Dagobert, coming to the city of Metz, with the counsel of the bishops and also of the nobles, and with the consent of all the leading men of his kingdom, elevated his son Sigebert to the kingdom in Austrasia and permitted him to have his seat in the city of Metz. He appointed Hunibert, Bishop of the city of Cologne, and Duke Adalgisel of the Palace, to govern the kingdom. Giving his son a sufficient treasure, he worthily (as was fitting) elevated him to this summit of power: and whatever he bestowed upon him, he decreed should be confirmed individually by written grants. Thenceforth the Austrasians, by their effort, are known to have usefully defended the frontier and the kingdom of the Franks against the Wends." Aimon commemorates the same things in book 4, chapter 26.
[37] In the Life of Blessed Pippin to be given below, at number 11, where this chapter of Fredegar seems to be cited, the following is found: "He appointed Cunibert the Bishop, Duke Adagisel, and Pippin the Mayor of the Palace to govern the kingdom," says Dagobert. was this under the guardianship of Blessed Pippin? More is said to this effect in numbers 8 and 9. In the Deeds of the Frankish Kings, chapter 42, the following is read: "The aforesaid King had by his Queen Nanthild, of Saxon lineage, two sons, Sigebert and Clovis. He sent his elder son Sigebert to Austrasia, together with Duke Pippin, established in the kingdom; but he kept Clovis, the younger, with himself." But Clovis had not yet been born when Sigebert was made King, nor were both born of the same mother. These two facts deprive of all credibility what is said about Pippin. Sigebert of Gembloux in his Chronicle, at the year 640, writes thus: "King Dagobert sends his son Sigebert as King to the Austrasians, under the guardianship of Pippin and Bishop Chunibert." The same Gembloux author, in the Life of St. Sigebert the King, chapter 3, number 7, has the following: "He committed the guardianship of the King, fearing for his boyhood, to Cunibert, Archbishop of Cologne, and Duke Adelgisel: but the care of the kingdom of the Austrasians and the oversight of all things he imposed upon Prince Pippin." Fredegar, who is much more ancient, being a contemporary of Pippin himself, differs from these accounts; for in chapter 85, which we shall cite below, this does not seem to be the case. he writes that Pippin, the Mayor of the Palace, and the other dukes of the Austrasians, who up to the death of Dagobert had been retained under his dominion, "sought Sigebert by unanimous agreement," etc. Aimon concurs with Fredegar's view in book 4, chapter 36: "Pippin," he says, "who under Dagobert, with some of the leading men of Austrasia, had dwelt in the Palace, upon his death betakes himself to Sigebert."
Section IV: Blessed Pippin's daughter Gertrude betrothed to Christ; half of Dagobert's treasure secured for Sigebert; the monastery at Meldert built at the tomb of St. Hermelindis.
[38] At that time occurred what the contemporary writer of the Life of St. Gertrude narrates in this manner: "Therefore, while the holy maiden of God, Gertrude, was in the house of her parents, Blessed Pippin entertains Dagobert at a banquet. at the feet of her mother of blessed memory, Itta, day and night, she meditated on the word and wisdom of God, dear to God and beloved by all, and she grew beyond her contemporaries. This was the first beginning of her choice for the service of Christ, as I learned through a just and truthful man who was present with her. When Pippin, her father, invited King Dagobert to a noble dinner in his house, there came a certain pestilential young man, the son of a Duke of the Austrasians, who asked the King and the parents of the maiden that the maiden be joined to him in marriage according to the dignity of the world. On account of ambition and mutual friendship, it pleased the King: and he persuaded the father of the maiden that she should be summoned with her mother into his presence. But since they did not know why he had called the child, she was asked amid the feasting by the King whether she would wish to have that youth, adorned in gold and dressed in silks, as her betrothed. [in whose presence St. Gertrude spurns a noble suitor, professing herself the bride of Christ,] But she, as if filled with fury, rejected him with an oath and said: 'Neither him nor any other earthly man -- only Christ do I wish to have as my spouse.' So that the King himself and his nobles greatly marveled at what was said by a small girl at God's command. That youth, however, departed confused and full of anger: the holy maiden of God turned to her mother. From that day her parents knew by what King she was beloved. But fourteen years later, when her father Pippin had departed this life," etc.
[39] In the Tripartite Life of St. Gertrude, book 2, chapter 3, and in other works assembled from the former by various authors, it is said that shortly afterward the devil cast upon her venerable father Pippin a suspicion of this kind: that he should believe that purpose of preserving virginity was childish levity, nor afterward urged by her father to marry, not divine inspiration, and that therefore he wished to join her in marriage to the young man who had asked for her. But that she was hidden by her mother, and then set out for the eastern parts of Francia with the priest Atalong and the deacon Bernard, with her mother's knowledge, and dwelt in the place that was afterward called Carleburg, until she learned the suitor had died. But that these things scarcely seem credible, we showed on February 2 in the Life of St. Hadeloga, section 3: nor did she therefore flee to Franconia, which will need to be reexamined on March 17 in the Life of St. Gertrude. When she was sought in marriage, she was not yet twelve years old: for she died in the thirty-third year of her age, in the year of Christ 664, whence it follows, as is also said in her Life, that she was fourteen years old when her father Pippin died in the year 646. Moreover, it occurred more than two years before Pippin's death, since Dagobert himself died two years, one month, and two days before Pippin. Did she then go, at such a tender age, with her most wise mother Itta consenting, to so distant a region where idolatry still raged, as is evident from the Life of St. Kilian, who was crowned with martyrdom there forty years after Blessed Pippin's death? What of the fact that in the time of St. Boniface, about one hundred years after the death of the same Pippin, the relics of St. Kilian are said to have been revealed to the same Atalong, who was ignorant of Kilian -- perhaps had hardly even heard his fame, which had gradually faded into obscurity, as is said in the Life of St. Kilian himself on July 8? How then could a man who had lived there so long a time before not have seen the Gospel preached there, not have heard that he was crowned with martyrdom? but perhaps other things: Certainly, if any daughter of Pippin named Gertrude came there to flee marriage, with that holy Priest, she was the daughter of another Pippin, as we have there indicated according to the opinion of others as well.
[40] Therefore in the sixteenth year of his western and Burgundian reign, the year of Christ 644, on January 19, Dagobert died: upon the death of Dagobert in the year 644, January 19 and his son Clovis, as Fredegar writes in chapter 79, "in his tender age assumed his father's kingdom. All the nobles of Neustria and Burgundy elevated him to the kingdom in the villa of Massolac. Aega, with Queen Nanthild, whom Dagobert had left behind, governed the Palace." Then at last Pippin returned to Austrasia and arranged that a portion of Dagobert's treasures should pass to his son Sigebert. So the same Fredegar in chapter 85: Pippin returns to Austrasia: "When Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, after Dagobert's death, and the other Dukes of the Austrasians, who up to the death of Dagobert had been retained under his dominion, had sought Sigebert by unanimous agreement; Pippin, together with Chunibert, he and other nobles secure for King Sigebert half the paternal treasure, just as they had previously been joined in the cultivation of friendship, and had now again, as before, most firmly bound themselves to preserve their friendship perpetually: and each drawing to themselves all the nobles of the Austrasians prudently and with gentleness, and governing them kindly, they secured their friendship and bound it to be kept forever. Therefore, through the dispatching of envoys, the portion owed to Sigebert from the treasures of Dagobert is demanded from Queen Nanthild and King Clovis. For its restitution, a meeting is appointed. Bishop Chunibert of the city of Cologne and Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, together with some of the leading men of Austrasia, sent by Sigebert, came all the way to the villa of Compiègne: and there the treasure of Dagobert, by order of Nanthild and Clovis and at the insistence of Aega, Mayor of the Palace, is presented and divided equally. A third part, however, of what Dagobert had acquired, Queen Nanthild had kept. Chunibert and Pippin had this treasure, which was Sigebert's portion, brought to Metz, presented to Sigebert, and inventoried."
[41] The same things are narrated, in nearly the very words of Fredegar, in the Deeds of Dagobert. Aimon in book 4, chapter 36 shows that it was chiefly at Pippin's suggestion that Sigebert claimed that portion of the inheritance. "Pippin, therefore," he was the principal author of this counsel, he says, "who under Dagobert, together with some of the leading men of Austrasia, had continually dwelt in the Palace, upon his death betakes himself to Sigebert: and having joined a bond of friendship with Bishop Chunibert (as before), he and Chunibert together offered useful counsels to the aforementioned King. By their advice Sigebert sends envoys to his brother Clovis to demand the portion owed to him from the paternal treasures," etc. Gembloux, in the Life of St. Sigebert, chapter 3, number 9: "When in all things," he says, "there flourished between them a God-pleasing concord, yet in the matter of one affair discord nearly crept in. For when King Sigebert demanded the portion of the paternal treasure owed to him, the nobles who were on the side of Clovis tried to resist him. But since Prince Pippin and Archbishop Cunibert pressed the matter firmly and reasonably, they wrested by their authority from the unwilling magnates of Neustria, the Neustrians initially resisting: through the mediation of justice, an agreement that they should come by arrangement to the villa of Compiègne, and there the King's treasure should be divided by an even balance, and each one's portion be suitably given. They came," etc.
[42] During these days, as far as conjecture can ascertain, the body of the Virgin St. Hermelindis was discovered, St. Hermelindis, his relative in whose honor Blessed Pippin built a monastery. We shall give her Life on October 29; from it we shall now bring forward what pertains to Pippin and that discovery. She, born of noble parents, was closely related by blood to the most blessed Gertrude, as is said in her Life. The shorter Life published by Surius from a manuscript of Maastricht states: "From her noble lineage is said to have descended Pippin, father of St. Gertrude." Leaving the villa of Odenca, commonly now called Ter Donck, near the village of Leuven (Lovenjoel), which her parents had given her for the use of her service, she withdrew to the village of Bevekom: thence, at an angel's bidding, to a place then solitary, formerly called Meldrica, or Meldrishem, and Meldradium, now commonly called Meldert. There, having completed her life in the most holy manner, she is said to have been buried by angels, and, the body buried by angels, as the Life states, "lay hidden from the regard of the world for forty-eight years." At length her body was discovered in the following manner, and honored with many human offerings and celestial prodigies, after 48 years, as the Meldert records and the Corssendonk codices relate.
[43] There was a certain man in the villa called Wareloos, who, having been entrusted by his lord with all his goods while the lord himself was far away, was preparing to go to him. When he was making his journey through the aforesaid place, consecrated by the visitation of angels, it happened that he could proceed no further, but, night intervening, he kept watch the whole vigil of that night, sitting upon his horse. At the hour of midnight, the island shone with a wondrous light. a light appearing at night to a certain man at that place, Suddenly the man was shaken with fear, and his knees knocked together with terror. I believe, however, that he was of no small merit, who was deemed worthy to behold so remarkable a miracle with the gaze of his own eyes. For with the light, choirs were heard by him singing with indescribable sweetness, venerating the Son of the most high Father in the chastity of so great a Virgin. When the light had departed and the light of day had dawned, the aforesaid man devoutly marked the place with his own signs: and giving thanks to the Most High for the ineffable miracle, resuming the journey he had begun, he came to his lord. There, having fulfilled his lord's service as quickly as he could, and having obtained leave to travel, he returned to the aforesaid wilderness. For the divine light had already penetrated the depths of his heart. Not forgetful of the light he had seen, he kept watch solicitously and devoutly at the monument he had marked.
[44] Therefore, as he kept vigil and waited expectantly for the spectacle of divine illumination, a most brilliant light shone forth, and this was repeated, and marked the place with an ineffable miracle as a memorial of his faith. Certain now of the sacred vision, he returned joyfully to his own place, and more joyfully to return to the duties of divine service. For when he came to the rights of his own possession, taking the price of a very good house as an aid for his support, he erected it there, he builds a chapel there, and in honor of the holy Virgin, built a chapel over her tomb, and living there with temperance, he met the end of his days in peace. Worthy indeed was the merit of the man's holiness, and admirable the firmness of his faith, whose alone the service in this work was pleasing. For there were many in those days who could have rendered a greater service of devotion. But if I dare to confess by truthful reasoning, they were not worthy of so wondrous a manifestation. Revealed therefore in this manner, through the works of the aforesaid man, it was spread far and wide. To this ineffable gift came people of every age: and a concourse of peoples takes place, some of lower rank, others distinguished by illustrious nobility; married women and virgins, suppliant matrons and continent widows: and all nations, if I may so speak, came at the report of the miraculous sign, proclaiming the wonders of Christ. As the fame of its greatness grew, human praise also began to grow: and the more devoutly it was sought, the more gloriously it was found in miracles. For, that the minds of the faithful might be more firmly established, those who venerated it received a memorial of their belief. For when the earth's solid surface was broken open, a sarcophagus appeared, it is discovered: in which lay the body of the inviolate Virgin.
[45] At that time Pippin the Duke held the first position of power in the kingdom after the King among the Franks, glorious in the sight of the people, more glorious in the sight of the Lord, who himself also had begotten a daughter, namely St. Gertrude, marked with the privilege of the highest blessing. This aforesaid Prince, learning of the events and receiving the fresh report of blessed fame, Pippin builds and endows a monastery of virgins there, came swiftly and devoutly to the place: and raising the sacred body from the tomb, he enshrined it with due honor and enriched the place with a very great multitude of estates, laying the foundation of a monastery where the people of God might worship Christ. Out of reverence, therefore, for the most high God and the merit of the most blessed chastity, the same Duke completed a church for the Virgin, equal in the fellowship of the Saints; establishing there a choir of holy Virgins who should unceasingly offer the sacrifice of due praise. He also gave a considerable number of servants, who should constantly render all the duties of service. At length, when the shrine of the precious temple was completed and adorned with sacred gifts and ministers, he established the custom of ecclesiastical worship and confirmed the authority of the holy rule: and that those dwelling there might fulfill it with more devoted struggle and effort, he subjected to them a company of clerics who should serve in turns at the solemn celebrations of the Masses. For there was a community near the monastery of Blessed Bavo the Confessor on the hill that is called in German Calfsberghe, which in our language means "Calf's Hill." Meanwhile, when all things that were to be built there for the work of God were completed, the most noble Duke withdrew, refreshed in no small measure by the grace of God.
[46] These things are in the Life of St. Hermelindis from the manuscripts of Meldert and Corssendonk, which we shall give in its entirety in its proper place. Of both monasteries, that of Meldert and that of Calfmont, they say that no trace now survives. Therefore in the Meldert manuscript, where the building of the monastery by Pippin is treated, which no longer exists, there is written in the margin "At Nivelles" -- ignorantly, for the monastery of Nivelles was not built by Pippin but after his death by St. Itta as widow and by her daughter Gertrude. There is no mention of the monastery of Meldert in the shorter Life of the same Saint published by Surius from a manuscript codex of the Church of Maastricht. But concerning Pippin, the following is found in chapter 3: "From her noble lineage is said to have descended Pippin, father of St. Gertrude, whose merits Blessed Hermelindis strove to equal." But it should be corrected to read "who strove to equal the merits of Blessed Hermelindis." For St. Gertrude was easily born thirty years after the death of St. Hermelindis. but its memory preserved in Einhard: However, mention of that monastery is made in the Miracles of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, which Abbot Einhard wrote, and which are found in the latest edition of Surius for June 11. For in book 4, chapter 22, it is said that at the relics of those saints in the church of St. Servatius at Maastricht on the Meuse, "a certain boy named Folchard, from the monastery called Meldradium, who was pitifully twisted and contorted in his legs and feet ... was cured in the sight of all the people." I believe that this monastery and that of Calfmont were destroyed when the Normans afterward ravaged that region of Belgium. The goods of Calfmont, say the Meldert people, are now possessed by the Church of St. Bartholomew at Liege, and those of the Virgins by the Beguines of Leuven. If this is true, it was perhaps established by agreement between the Duke of Brabant and the Bishop of Liege on the occasion of the wars of Hesbaye between those two princes.
[47] Cardinal Baronius in volume 8 of the Annals, at the year 631, number 8, attributes another distinction to Pippin, this most holy Prince, which actually pertains to his grandson Pippin of Herstal, namely that he was accustomed to go barefoot to visit Bishop St. Wiro so as to confess his sins to him. Wiro had come from Scotland, Which Pippin, Duke of the Franks. together with St. Plechelm, likewise a Bishop, and Otger a Deacon, to Francia, and being kindly received by Pippin, they preached the Gospel in those parts which were not yet sufficiently cultivated in the Christian faith (on the borders, as I think, of the Frisians, Saxons, and Germans). Finally, on the Mount of St. Peter, as it was then called, now the Mount of St. Odilia, at the Mount of St. Odilia in Guelders on the river Ruhr, not far from Roermond (a city afterward built, which is now an episcopal see), they established their residence with the Duke's consent, and built a monastery. That act of Christian submission and piety which we previously mentioned is narrated in the Life of St. Wiro, to be published on May 8: "He was held," it says, "in such veneration by the aforesaid Duke of the Franks he went to St. Wiro barefoot, for the sake of confession, that he revered the Bishop as guardian of his soul, on account of his remarkable holiness of life. For he was accustomed to reveal to him the slippery falls of human frailty: nor did he disdain, for the sake of Confession, to go to him unshod and to obey the command of his mouth. He was also frequently summoned to attend the counsels of the elders, since he was both capable in counsel and not lacking in eloquence." Similar things are found concerning St. Plechelm in his Life on July 15. "But Pippin, the King of the Franks, incomparable in his esteem," it says, "held him in such veneration that each year, at the beginning of the Lenten season, descending from his palace, and St. Plechelm, barefoot and having laid aside the royal purple, he hastened to the aforesaid place which the Saint had inhabited, and took counsel with him as to how he might govern the helm of the kingdom according to the Lord's will and increase the greatness of holy faith in himself and in his subjects. There also, having made confession of his sins with the high Priest of the Lord and received penance, he wept over what he had contracted from his human nature."
[48] That these things were done by Pippin of Herstal was written by John Gerbrand of Leiden in his Chronicon Belgicum, book 2, chapter 16. He was the one of Herstal. Likewise by John Molanus in his Natales Sanctorum Belgii. Willebrord Boschartius also confirms it at length in his book on the Apostles of Frisia. Baronius, at the place cited, because he supposed that Pippin of Herstal, after he had taken a son from a concubine (perhaps more than one), had a mind entirely turned away from God and piety, could not believe that anything of such sublime humility was undertaken by him: but he transferred it to his grandfather, not his grandfather, the father of his mother Begga, Blessed Pippin. Yet elsewhere he acknowledges that St. Wiro prolonged his life to the year 700 and long beyond.
[49] We have not yet read any other ancient writer who has narrated that deed, except in the Lives of St. Wiro and St. Plechelm. But those Lives show that St. Wiro lived long after Blessed Pippin, for they affirm that he proposed to himself for imitation, excelling in the admirable greatness of merits and virtues, Patrick, Cuthbert, and Columba, who died before Wiro was perhaps even born. pillars of their homeland, lights of the earth; desiring to follow their examples and aspiring to emulate their holy sanctity. Cuthbert was still a boy when Blessed Pippin died in the year 646: in the year 651, while tending sheep, he saw the soul of St. Aidan being led to heaven by angels, and then, still a youth, he embraced the monastic life; he died in the year 685, not at a very advanced age. From this, therefore, it can be determined that St. Wiro, who is said to have imitated the virtues of St. Cuthbert, does not seem to have been born yet when Blessed Pippin died. Moreover, St. Plechelm, the companion of St. Wiro, is not the same person (as some have rashly believed) as Pectelm, as the Venerable Bede calls him in the last chapter of his History of the English Nation, saying that he was then, namely in the year 731, Bishop of Whithorn (Candida Casa): for seventeen years had then elapsed since the death of Pippin of Herstal. But let us return to Blessed Pippin.
Section V: The death, translation, and honors rendered to Blessed Pippin as one of the Blessed.
[50] At length, therefore, distinguished by very many benefactions, Pippin departed this life on February 21, in the year of Christ 646.
Thus Fredegar, in chapter 85, after recounting the division of Dagobert's treasures which we have related above, adds: "After the circuit of a year, Pippin dies: Pippin dies February 21, 646 and his passing caused no small grief to all in Austrasia, because he had been loved by them for his cultivation of justice and his goodness." The same is found in the Deeds of Dagobert, chapter 47, and in Aimon, book 4, chapter 38. Sigebert of Gembloux amplifies the mourning of the Austrasians in his Life of St. Sigebert the King on February 1, chapter 4, number 10, in these words: "The following year brought the greatest grief to King Sigebert and his kingdom, to the great sorrow of St. Sigebert the King and the people: when Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, was taken from this light: who had reared Sigebert himself from boyhood, and had supported the weakness of his childhood and adolescence with the strong arm of his aid. He was in every way useful to the kingdom, in lineage, power, prudence, and fortitude beyond all others renowned; he made his son Grimoald heir of his affairs: his children: and he left behind him two daughters, Gertrude and Begga, to the praise and glory of his family." St. Begga is venerated on December 17. John Chapeauville, in his annotation to chapter 54 of Abbot Hariger, from a marginal note in a manuscript codex of Aureavallis (Villers), adds Viventia, who, he says, rests at Cologne in a convent of holy Virgins. was St. Viventia among them? We shall treat of her on March 17, the day on which she is venerated, the same day as St. Gertrude, and perhaps for that reason she has been considered her sister, a daughter of Blessed Pippin: but we have as yet no evidence to support this.
[51] Pippin was buried not at Nivelles, as Christian Massaeus writes in book 14 of his Chronicle, but at Landen, from which his body was later translated to Nivelles. At what time that translation took place, I have nowhere found. I do not doubt, however, that it occurred many centuries ago. The manner of the translation is thus commemorated in the Life of Pippin published by Surius: "The body of this blessed man was laid to rest, body buried at Landen, with the honor that was fitting, in his own city of Landen, and there it lay for a long time: until, by divine impulse, faithful men translated it to a more eminent and more celebrated place; not allowing so precious a treasure to be hidden in the humble enclosure of a poor village; deciding that a distinguished lamp should be placed translated to Nivelles, not under a bushel but upon a candlestick, so that it might shine by merits and signs for all who are in the house of God, as can be seen to this day. Matt. 5:15 Moreover, to show of how great merit he was before God, the following miracle is reported to have occurred on the day of his translation. For when his venerable bones were being raised from the tomb where they had long been placed, to be transferred to the city of Nivelles, a place more fitting for his veneration, this was done, as was proper, with abundant burning tapers. And when the faithful people, over so great a distance of land from Landen to Nivelles, were following the venerable relics with lights, the tapers over 30 miles not extinguished by the wind, and the breeze was very windy, not a single one of the tapers is reported to have been extinguished by the force of the winds, until they arrived at the desired place. His sacred relics were then placed, as was fitting, in a fitting casket beside the shrine of his daughter St. Gertrude: publicly carried in procession: which are carried in procession every year on the Rogation days by the clergy, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is praise and glory forever and ever, Amen."
[52] Many recent writers who have illuminated Belgian antiquities mention this Translation. It is remarkable what John Molanus writes about Pippin in chapter 13 of his booklet on Martyrologies, or in the preface to the Martyrology of Usuard: what was his former anniversary like? "Iduberga," he says, "the mother of Blessed Gertrude, was indeed elevated together with Pippin and the nurse of Blessed Gertrude at Nivelles, in the monastery that was formerly her daughter's, but for four hundred years now a college of Canonesses; and yet anniversary Masses for the dead are still celebrated there for her and Pippin." On what authority Molanus learned this, or whether he saw it done in person, he does not indicate. If that custom prevailed in his time, it is now obsolete. The same author, in his supplement to Usuard published in 1568 on the 21st day of February, has the following: "The book of anniversaries among the Canonesses of Nivelles: Dispersed vigils of St. Pippin." How could anniversary Masses be said for him if he was written as a Saint even in the old Necrology? They had evidently been celebrated in earlier times, before he was enrolled in the register of Saints or Blessed, either by the public authority of the Church or by the unanimous piety of the peoples.
[53] Concerning him, Francis Haraeus, excellently versed in the affairs of the Saints and by no means an overly lenient critic, at the beginning of his Annals of the Dukes of Brabant, writes thus: called Blessed, "Blessed Pippin (so he is called on account of his remarkable holiness joined to his military virtues, which is rare)," etc. And a little later: "He passed to a better life at Landen, a small town of Brabant, then the seat of government of lower or Cis-Mosan Austrasia: but translated, with a reputation for extraordinary holiness, he now adorns, together with his most holy daughter Gertrude and his wife Itta, the city of Nivelles." We have previously noted that Landen does not seem to have been the seat of government of Austrasia but a town or village (as it is called in the cited history of the Translation) on Pippin's estates. In the more recent Martyrologies he is always adorned with the title of Blessed or Saint. Baldwin Willot, one of our own, in his Belgian Martyrology; William Gazet in his Ecclesiastical History of Belgium; Aubert Le Mire in his Belgian Calendar, call him Blessed: but St. Ludger, whom Gelen cites as giving him the title of Duke of Agrippina Cologne, does not speak of this Pippin but of the son of Charles Martel, who later became King, as may be seen in the Life of St. Swibert on the Kalends of March.
[54] Our own Herbert Rosweyde, in his Lives of the Saints published in Dutch, calls him Saint Pippin. and Saint, So also does Ferrari in his general Catalogue of Saints: "At Landen in Brabant, St. Pippin, first Duke." Our Andrew Boeius in his Flemish Martyrology: "At Nivelles, the birthday of St. Pippin, Duke of Brabant, father of Saints Gertrude and Begga." Saussay likewise styles him Saint in his Gallican Martyrology and adorns him with a distinguished eulogy. Finally, Molanus in the later edition of Usuard in 1583 adds the following: "On the same day, the death of St. Pippin. And, Dispersed vigils of St. Pippin, whose body rests at Nivelles in a portable tomb and is carried about in the Litanies: as also that of Iduberga and the nurse of St. Gertrude." The same Molanus, in his Index of the Saints of Belgium, writes thus of his remains: "He rests at Nivelles in a casket, beside the altar of his daughter St. Gertrude. Which casket is also carried about in the Litanies, although he is not enrolled in the number of the Saints." Concerning that honor paid to his relics, Saussay has the following: "He rests at Nivelles in Brabant, where he is also venerated with the honor due to Saints: for his body, long since elevated and afterward, on account of his famous merits, placed in a portable casket, is customarily carried about for veneration, together with the reliquary of his most holy wife Iduberga, every year by the Clergy on the Rogation days with great solemnity." And this is indeed an honor that is usually rendered only to Saints or the Blessed, even though he is not venerated with an Ecclesiastical Office. Le Mire also records that the relics of Pippin, of his wife Iduberga, and of St. Gertrude are carried about in procession in individual caskets.
[55] By the authority of Matthias Hovius, Archbishop of Mechelen and Primate of Belgium, a Processional was published in the year 1602, adapted to the rites of the Roman Church, invoked in the Litanies. so that it might serve all the Churches of Belgium which had adopted the Roman use or would adopt it in the future. In it a Greater Litany is prescribed to be chanted on the Monday of Rogation days, in which many Saints who flourished in Belgium are invoked, and among the rest, St. Pippin. However, to what extent that Processional was approved by the Roman Congregation of Rites, or received by the other Churches of Belgium, I have not been able to ascertain.
[56] In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints, the name of Blessed Pippin is inscribed on February 20 with these words: "At Nivelles, the deposition of Pippin I, Duke of Brabant, father of St. Gertrude. He died in the year of salvation 647." Sigebert records his death in the same year in his Chronicle, as do many more recent writers. He died in the previous year, the third of Clovis II. that he died in the year 646 is proved. For it is established from Fredegar, chapter 83, and other sources that Aega, Mayor of the Palace of that same King, died in that year. But the Deeds of Dagobert, having narrated the death of Pippin in chapter 47, add the following: "Aega also, in the third year of King Clovis, was stricken with fever at the villa of Clichy and died." By which words it is clearly indicated that Pippin died before him. The first year of Clovis was 644, from January 19; therefore the third year was 646.
LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,
from the Acts of St. Gertrude his daughter.
Pippin, Duke and Mayor of the Palace of the Kings of Austrasia, at Nivelles in Brabant (Blessed).
BHL Number: 3493
From the Acts of St. Gertrude.
PROLOGUE.
[1] It is very well known and spread abroad by celebrated fame that the father of the most blessed and God-beloved Virgin Gertrude was Pippin. But apart from his name, all other matters of his life and deeds remain unknown to nearly all who are ignorant of the histories. We, therefore, collecting a few things found scattered in the deeds of the Franks, have taken care to compose them in our own style into a continuous narrative. This we wish to set before the beginning of our proposed work, so that if anyone should desire to know the lineage of that most noble Virgin, he may seek it from this Life more familiarly than from elsewhere.
[2] Pippin, then, was the son of Carloman, Duke and Mayor of the Palace under Clothar, Dagobert, and Sigebert, most powerful Kings. Blessed Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, Invested with which dignity, differing but slightly from royal sublimity, he ordered all things with the most prudent arrangement, and excelled as much in fortitude in war as in justice in peace. He was most faithful in keeping faith toward the King, and most tenacious of equity toward the people, and in adjudicating the cause of both, he persisted with the firmest judgment of mind. He did not regard the gifts of the people to subvert the royal right, nor did he attend to the favor of the King to crush the justice of the people. defender equally of royal right and of the people, For he preferred God, the King, to a human king: by whose command he knew it was forbidden to honor the face of the powerful or to regard the person of the poor in judgment. Lev. 19:15 He therefore defended the things of the people for the people as much as he restored to Caesar the things of Caesar. He strove to direct all the sentences of his judgments according to the standard of divine justice.
[3] This fact is proved both by the testimony of the whole populace, as we shall show below, he employs St. Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, as his helper, and especially by this: that he took as the associate of all his counsels and affairs Blessed Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, whom he knew had grown in the fear and love of the Lord. For if he himself, through ignorance of letters, perceived anything less clearly, Arnulf, as the most faithful interpreter of the divine will, most rightly declared it: for he was instructed in the teaching of the sacred Scriptures and had irreproachably administered this same dignity before his episcopate. then St. Cunibert, Bishop of Cologne. Relying on this helper, he restrained the King himself with the bridle of equity, whenever the King wished to abuse his royal power in disregard of the law. After the death of the aforesaid man, he took care to have as partner in this administration of affairs Blessed Cunibert, Bishop of Cologne, illustrious with an equal reputation for holiness. You can perceive with what ardor for equity he burned, who chose such circumspect guardians and such incorruptible arbiters for his counsels. For since he was averse to wickedness and most attentive to upright and honorable pursuits, he always made use of the counsels of holy men in the exercise of holy work.
[4] First, therefore, this excellent Prince, having been made Mayor of the Palace under King Clothar, the father of Dagobert, obtained the chief power and the highest place of veneration with the King: because the same King recognized him as most devout toward the Lord God in piety and in fidelity toward himself. appointed moderator of the young King Dagobert, When the King proposed to establish his son Dagobert as King in a most ample portion of the kingdom, but placed little trust in his tender years and immature judgment, he believed this man, above all other Princes, to be the one whom he should appoint as guide of his tender age and overseer of the royal administration. He therefore committed the youth to his hands and, relying on the counsels and industry of this most prudent mentor, sent him to Austrasia to reign.
[5] Having received the young man, Pippin strove to adorn him with the best character, to instill in him the fear of the Lord and the love of justice, teaching what is written: "The king who judges the poor in truth, his throne shall be established forever." Prov. 29:14 he so instructed him, By his prudence, Dagobert not only administered this part prosperously, but also obtained the whole of his father's kingdom, which was very extensive, after his death: that he reigned successfully, even though both his brother Charibert and many of the nobles strove with the utmost effort to seize the royal power for themselves. But the faction of those men was quickly crushed by the wise counsels of the most prudent Duke. dear to all by the merit of his virtues: Dagobert, therefore, quickly established in his kingdom, by generosity, justice, clemency, and the other arts that befit a king, bound all to himself with the closest love; and by the industry of his good mentor, he shone with such splendor of celebrity that he surpassed all the kings before him in more illustrious fame, and all proclaimed him with immense praises.
[6] But he held to this royal path, this standard of virtue, as long as he endured the sound teaching of his most wise master, and did not heap up masters for himself according to his own desires. Happy if, according to the wise man's admonition, he had chosen this one man out of a thousand of his peacemakers as his Counselor. Song 8:12 Sirach 6:6 1 Kings 11:4 afterward falling into adulteries, But at length, after the example of Solomon, his heart was perverted for a time through women: and, as is usual when amid great abundance of wealth and unchecked liberty, mortal nature is prone to consent to sin, on account of the affluence of riches and favorable successes, he was drawn away from what was good and honorable to what was wicked, and closed his ears to salutary admonitions. Sirach 6:6 1 Kings 11:4 He began therefore to burn with both avarice and lust, to fill new treasuries with the goods of Churches, and plundered into rapine of Church property and, besides his concubines, whose number was vast, to abuse, contrary to Canon law and royal dignity, the incestuous embraces of three Queens. Pippin reproves him: Moved by this grief, Pippin rebuked him with the most candid speech, reproaching him for being ungrateful for the Lord's greatest benefits.
[7] But Dagobert, obeying his obscene lusts rather than wholesome admonitions, preferred, in the manner of a madman, to destroy his physician by any means rather than to recover from the frenzy of his depravity. To which crime he was not a little incited by the perverse suggestions of reprobate men, he prudently avoids the King's and his rivals' snares: who maliciously envied the virtue of Pippin. But Pippin, like the holy living creature having eyes before and behind, circumspect on every side, conducted himself prudently in all things. Yet, to use the very words of the History of the Franks, "the love of justice and the fear of the Lord, whom he loved, delivered him from evils." Fredegar, ch. 61 Nor is it surprising if, corrupted by such great worldly glory, a King not yet perfect in the way of the Lord fell from his teaching into the house of fornication and the desire for murder, when David himself, who was chosen according to the Lord's heart and who had the Prophets as his instructors, as soon as the weight of adversity was removed, was seized by such levity of a wanton spirit that he first rushed into the illicit embraces of another man's wife; and then, to suppress the infamy of the crime he had committed, compounded adultery with murder by killing a devoted soldier. But the benign God, who purged David from his committed crime through repentance, likewise preserved Pippin innocent from the shedding of righteous blood by denying him the opportunity. For Dagobert, seeing that he could in no way be caught by snares, and also reflecting by sounder counsel that the standing of his dignity would be undermined if he should destroy a man who was noble, powerful, he regains his former favor with the King: and accepted by the people for his fidelity and justice, gradually turned his mind, and began to revere the excellent Duke all the more.
[8] Finally, he so changed his conceived malice into peace and favor that, entrusting his son Sigebert to him without suspicion, he sent him to Austrasia to reign, having experienced in himself Pippin's fidelity and effective industry, he successfully governs Austrasia with St. Sigebert the King, still a boy: by which he had prosperously administered this very part of the kingdom while his father was still alive, and after his death had achieved control of the whole kingdom, overcoming all adversaries. The same prosperity was therefore transferred, through the most prudent counsel of this same governor, to the son: so that while Sigebert reigned, but Pippin governed and lent his service, the Austrasians thenceforth vigorously defended their borders against the barbarians, by whose most frequent incursions they had previously been harassed.
[9] Moreover, after the death of Dagobert, Pippin would have transferred the entire kingdom of the Franks to Sigebert, had not the father previously made a compact with Sigebert, after a description of the whole kingdom, that he, content with Austrasia, should allow Francia to his younger brother Clovis. In the power of this Clovis, he obtains for him a portion of the father's treasure: and of his mother Queen Nanthild, the most abundant treasures of King Dagobert had been left undivided. Demanding their division together with Bishop Cunibert, Pippin obtained it according to his own arbitration and had the just portion received brought to Metz and presented to King Sigebert.
[10] he dies, But when that same year was completed, the excellent Duke and truest Father of his country departed from human affairs. His death struck all Austrasia with such grief that the lamentation for him could in no way be compared to the lamentation for kings. to the great grief of all. For he was of the most approved life and the purest reputation, a dwelling-place of wisdom, a treasury of counsels, a defense of laws, a terminator of disputes, a bulwark of the fatherland, an ornament of the Court, a guide for Dukes, and a school for Kings. Who indeed, if, after the example of blessed Job, he had wished to proclaim his own praises, could most truly and without fault have said in the person of the wisdom which had most abundantly filled him: "By me kings reign, and lawmakers decree what is just." Prov. 8:15
[11] But lest I appear to have fabricated a novel fiction about the life of the most blessed Duke, The aforesaid things are confirmed by the words of Fredegar, it will not be amiss to set before the eyes, as testimony of his holiness, the very words that are found inserted in various places of the History of the Franks, here collected into one. They read as follows. ch. 58 "Up to that time, from the beginning when Dagobert began to reign, using the counsel of the most blessed Arnulf, Bishop of the city of Metz, and of Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, he governed the royal government in Austrasia with such prosperity that he received immense praise from all nations." ch. 58 And a little below: "After the departure of Blessed Arnulf, still using the counsel of Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, and of Cunibert, Bishop of the city of Cologne, and being strongly admonished by them, he embraced such prosperity and love of justice that he so governed all the peoples subject to him that no preceding King of the Franks surpassed him in praise." Likewise, after the narration about Dagobert's three Queens and concubines: "Seeing these things, Pippin, since he was more cautious than all and very resourceful, most full of faith, was beloved by all for the love of justice with which he had instructed Dagobert while he was using his counsel; yet he by no means forgot justice for himself, nor departing from the path of goodness, when he approached Dagobert he conducted himself prudently in all things and showed himself cautious in everything. ch. 61. The zeal of the Austrasians rose vehemently against him, so that they even tried to make him odious to Dagobert, so that he might rather be killed. But the love of justice and the fear of God, which he had diligently embraced, delivered him from evils." And somewhat further below: "Dagobert, coming to the city of Metz, with the counsel of the bishops and also of the nobles, elevated his son Sigebert to the kingdom of Austrasia, and appointed Bishop Cunibert, Duke Adagisel, and Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, to govern the kingdom: by whose effort thenceforth the Austrasians are known to have usefully defended the frontier and the kingdom of the Franks against the Wends." ch. 85. Likewise, shortly after: "When Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, after Dagobert's death, and the other Dukes of the Austrasians, had unanimously sought Sigebert by conspiracy; Pippin, together with Cunibert, just as they had been bound together in the cultivation of friendship, and had now again, as before, pledged to preserve their friendship firmly and perpetually, and drawing to themselves all the nobles of the Austrasians prudently and with gentleness, governed them kindly." And then: "Bishop Cunibert and Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, sent by Sigebert, came all the way to the villa of Compiègne, and there the treasure of Dagobert, by order of Nanthild and Clovis, is presented and divided by an even balance. Cunibert and Pippin had the portion of Sigebert brought to Metz, and it is presented and described to Sigebert." The final tribute to his praiseworthy and most honorable life, the same History concludes with these words: "After the circuit of a year, Pippin dies, and his passing caused no small grief to all in Austrasia, because he had been loved by them for his cultivation of justice and his goodness." Who would desire further testimonies of his industry, his power, and his goodness?
Notes