ON ST. WANINGUS, CONFESSOR, AT FECAMP IN GAUL.
Around the year of Christ 683.
PrefaceWaningus, at Fecamp in Normandy (St.)
[1] The name of St. Waningus is inscribed in the sacred calendars by Molanus on the fifth before the Ides of January: "In Normandy," he says, "the deposition of Blessed Waningus the Confessor. He founded the noble monastery of Fecamp and sheltered the exile Leodegarius." Fecamp, or Fiscannum, The birthday of St. Waningus commonly called Fescam, is a town with a monastery situated in view of the sea between Dieppe and Le Havre, about forty miles from the city of Rouen, as Glaber writes, bk. 4 of his history, ch. 4, whose words we gave on January 1 in the life of St. William, Abbot of Dijon, who was the second founder of this monastery around the year of Christ 1000, at the request of Richard II, Duke of Normandy, having introduced Benedictine monks. Consult there no. 1 in the prolegomena, and chs. 6 and 16 of the life. Wion agrees with Molanus and calls him a Saint; but errs when he writes that he flourished around the year 730. He seems rather to have died around the year 683, since he lived twenty years after that ecstasy of which we read in the life, which he had while Lothair III still reigned. Nor is it approved that Ferrari in the general catalogue calls him a monk of Fecamp. Dorganius in the Benedictine Calendar: "Of St. Waningus the Confessor." The same is found in Hugh Menard, but on the previous day, that is, the sixth before the Ides of January. More fully, Saussay: "On the same day in Normandy, at the monastery of Fecamp, the deposition of St. Waningus the Confessor. Illustrious both in birth and virtue and very powerful in wealth, he bestowed very many estates as a votive gift for the use of the servants of Christ; and having entrusted his own and only son to spiritual service under the happy direction of St. Wandregisel, he spent all his resources on works of piety. He also built many monasteries. And building the one at Fecamp -- at the admonition of St. Eulalia, Virgin and Martyr, who appeared to him divinely -- on the estate where he was residing, he consecrated it to her memory. There he merited to receive and shelter St. Leodegarius, Bishop of Autun, afterward a Martyr, as an exile. And at last, enriched with sheaves of these and other good works, and also honored with divine visions and revelations, he migrated to eternal joy."
[2] His Life The Life of St. Waningus, though mutilated, was copied from the papers of the monastery of Fecamp and sent to me from Rouen by our R.P. Frederic Flouet, which Hugh Menard expressed more briefly in bk. 1 of his Observations. He further relates that St. Waningus, after that ecstasy of which we read in the life, was relieved of his illness by the prayers of Saints Audoenus and Wandregisel. And that holy Hildemarcha, admonished by a divine revelation, came voluntarily to Rouen and met holy Wandregisel, by whom she was placed in charge of the monastery of Fecamp -- which he derived from the lives of St. Audoenus and St. Wandregisel.
FRAGMENT OF THE LIFE
From an ancient manuscript of the monastery of Fecamp.
Waningus, at Fecamp in Normandy (St.) BHL Number: 8811
From manuscripts.
[1] The homeland, wealth, and rank of St. Waningus There was a certain man in the territory of Rouen, named Waningus, sprung from the illustrious stock of the Franks, vigorous in arms, rich in wealth, and powerful in the extent of his estates. He was among the first men of the Palace in the times of Lothair the Younger, with whose counsel King Lothair bravely governed the kingdom of the Franks.
[2] For this holy man frequently visited the oratories of the Saints and earnestly sought their support with diligent prayers; he built many monasteries in and from his own possessions. He builds monasteries The illustrious Waningus was a notable helper to Blessed Wandregisel in the construction of holy places, and most devoutly bestowed upon him very many estates as a blessed gift for the use of the servants of Christ; and to that same holy man he entrusted his son and heir Desideratus to be trained in monastic disciplines under the form and institution of the holy Father Benedict. He did this lest the same Desideratus should withdraw the estates offered to God by sacrilegious pride and unjustly claim them for his own dominion, as is the way of the rich. This man, devoted to God, was thinking of entrusting himself to the monastic order and leaving earthly things along with the world. But divine Providence had arranged otherwise, for people advance toward God by different pursuits. His zeal was therefore in the restoration of churches, in the building of monasteries; for he built many on his own inherited lands. He venerates St. Eulalia He venerated the holy virgins who had departed from this world, and especially the holy Virgin and Martyr of Christ, Eulalia. And so he had consecrated many places to God in her name.
[3] Since, then, discussion has begun about the building of holy places carried out through St. Waningus, the servant of God, the miracle which the Lord deigned to work in that same servant of His ought not be passed over in silence. We noted above that the aforesaid Waningus was very wealthy in worldly possessions and had built many monastic dwellings on his own properties, among which is one well worthy of memory and distinguished in monastic religion, which was thus built by the arrangement of heavenly grace. In the Archbishopric of Rouen, there is a district on the sea called Calcegius, in which the aforementioned man had no small possessions, one of which is called Fiscannum, where he established a monastery in the name of the holy Trinity and gathered a congregation of virgins as nuns, and turned his entire devotion to them. For he loved, venerated, and cultivated with his whole heart the blessed Virgin and Martyr of Christ, Eulalia, whom we mentioned above, and earnestly commended himself to her prayers. For she had gone to Christ her immortal bridegroom and had received the unfading crown of victory; she loved her admirer Waningus and, reigning with the Lord in heaven, cared for his salvation. One night, therefore, the Virgin appeared to him and said: "Waningus, [St. Eulalia appears to him and advises him to build a monastery of virgins at Fecamp] it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. You possess riches in this world, of which you have offered a part and retained a part. The monasteries which you have built on your properties, and the estates which you have offered to God through the hands of Saints Audoenus and Wandregisel, are held as pleasing in the eyes of the Supreme Pontiff. Now, therefore, to crown your good works, in your estate of Fiscannum build a monastery in the name of the holy Trinity. And having gathered a congregation of holy virgins, you will send a delegation to Bordeaux..." After which words the vision of the Virgin vanished.
[4] Then the holy man, awakened from sleep, began to consider how he might fulfill what the holy virgin had commanded. In haste, therefore, he went to the blessed Audoenus and Wandregisel and explained to them the sequence of the vision. Then the holy men, with the Holy Spirit revealing, said: "If you fulfill the vision you have seen as quickly as possible, you will open for yourself the gate of heaven. Hasten therefore, He seeks permission from the King and present yourself before the King, and strive to accomplish with his help what the blessed Virgin has commanded you." Then the holy Priests, at the most humble prayers of Blessed Waningus, approached the King's presence and obtained his permission for this work to be done. The King, rising reverently before them and yet more reverently offering them friendly kisses, rejoiced at their coming with his entire royal retinue. Then the blessed Archbishop of Rouen began to preach about the punishments of the infernal gehenna, about the blessedness of heavenly glory, about the corruption of bodies, and about the dreadful day of judgment at the resurrection. After this they asked King Lothair the Younger, who governed Francia with his holy mother Balthild, for a private audience, to reveal the purpose for which they had come. This the King granted; and lending them his ear, he gave what they asked and also bestowed royal gifts which they did not ask.
[5] Then Blessed Waningus returned home joyfully, having first obtained the King's permission, and quickly built the monastery at Fiscannum. In that place he was seized by a violent fever and was caught up in an ecstasy of the mind; he became most like a dead man, simultaneously struck with fear and cold. The dead body was adorned with funeral garments; a bier was prepared; he was carried to the church with mourning; and funeral rites were celebrated as is the custom. While ill, he sees the punishments of hell, etc. Then he saw the punishments of the damned and the rewards of the elect, and that he would survive for twenty years, and that Blessed Eulalia, to whose prayers he had commended himself, had obtained this. Then, when Blessed Waningus had returned from so bitter a vision and from on high and was restored to health, the holy Confessors Audoenus and Wandregisel, King Lothair, and all his nobles, together with the entire multitude of people, seeing the miracle that had taken place, gave thanks to God, who by His benign mercy had brought back the illustrious man Waningus from death and restored him to life. He recovers through the intercession of St. Eulalia Then at last, when the monastery at Fiscannum had been completed through Blessed Waningus, and also consecrated by the Bishops of Gaul, and three hundred sixty-six virgins had been gathered, Blessed Waningus entrusted the monastery to the aforementioned holy men Audoenus and Wandregisel, that they might more diligently instruct the holy virgins in regular disciplines. The rest is missing.
AnnotationsANOTHER FRAGMENT
From another manuscript of the same monastery.
Waningus, at Fecamp in Normandy (St.) BHL Number: 8813
From manuscripts.
[1] Many days of many ages therefore passed by, and no one was found worthy who might either build the oratory that had been indicated, or to whom the ineffable Trinity of supreme clemency might declare the sign for building. For the lofty height of divine Providence was waiting for a man whom, free in the flesh from carnal desire, it might consecrate by the Holy Spirit and keep as a delectable temple. For it was fitting that a man, himself a spiritual temple of the Lord, should build a bodily temple for the Lord -- one who, having considered the image of his own interior, might conceive how he ought outwardly to order and build a temple for the Creator of all things. Wherefore at last holy and glorious Confessor Waningus is chosen for the building of the oratory after so great a deliberation, Waningus, an illustrious man, wealthy and holy and once chosen, he is advanced. The nobles of Gaul admired the excellence of his noble deeds, and the heavenly court rejoiced at the grace of his heavenly character. For he possessed what not many, but indeed few of the wealthy, are wont to possess: both a desire for eternal things and an abundance of temporal goods -- by the merciful expenditure of which he received neither the favor nor the recompense of any mortals.
[2] By the grace of such merits, therefore, he was held as a friend of the Lord, distinguished in the world, and familiar and confidential to King Lothair. For King Lothair had entrusted the greatest part of his kingdom to Blessed Waningus. No less also in the ordering or administering of the entire government did he follow and heed the prudent counsel of the blessed man. He governs the province of Calcegius King Lothair had entrusted, I say, to Blessed Waningus the province of Calcegius, which on account of the abundance of its ancient forests and the pleasant hunting of diverse wild beasts he loved very greatly, and reasonably judged that it should be committed to no one except a familiar and faithful man.
[3] Blessed Waningus, therefore, faithfully guarding the forests entrusted to him, frequently visited them, and in visiting surveyed them -- not so much rejoicing in the sport of capturing He often spends time in the forests or the gain of captured wild beasts, as seeking in the shade of the solitary forests relief from carnal tumults. With such zeal, therefore, he judged the woodlands of Fecamp more suitable, and judging them so, frequented them -- unaware of the revelation of Duke Ansegisus; of the manifestation of the holy place by a past revelation; and of the reverence to be observed toward the future oratory. For St. Waningus showed no reverence to the holy place. Rather, he frequently either coupled his hounds there, or stretched his nets, or chased fleeing beasts, He falls ill or stripped the captured ones of their hides. The divine Majesty, taking pity on this transgression -- or rather on the man's ignorance -- in order to correct it, chastised the holy man and gave a clear sign for completing the oratory. For a sudden burning heat of violent fevers seized the holy man, which, weakening the frame of his entire body and cruelly depriving all his limbs of every strength, threatened to take away his life and to bring on present death.
[4] As the affliction therefore grew worse, the vital force was wholly confined, In an ecstasy he sees the rewards of the just and the punishments of the wicked once confined it was extinguished, and when the outer man was consumed, his inner man was stretched forth and led away in a kind of transport of great ecstasy. He was led away, I say -- St. Waningus -- to the glorious abodes of the blessed and to the cruel torments of wretched men; where he beheld how great were both the crowns of the just and the punishments of the reprobate, and upon his return he narrated them and openly set them forth by the evidence of his own deeds. Having seen the dwellings of joyful blessedness and of perpetual misery, St. Waningus is presented before a certain Judge and is set down and placed before the lofty throne of His Majesty. But when he contemplated the boundless splendor of the throne, and the terrible aspect of Him who sat upon it, and the innumerable multitude of those standing around, and contemplating was terrified, he fell; and prostrate with his whole body before the presence of the Judge, he lay as if lifeless and confounded. Then the Judge said: "How is it, Waningus, that you do not know the valley of Fecamp, which is to be consecrated to my name, and by your ignorance dishonor it? By what reason do you not shudder to defile the place of my consecration, paying it no heed? Do you not fear to incur my wrath, whose omnipotent will you faithfully acknowledge?" He had spoken, and the chorus of the elders standing about confirmed the sentence of their Emperor with a stern look of gravity. But holy Waningus, greatly terrified, in no way opened his mouth or presumed to raise his head from the ground. St. Eulalia obtains for him twenty more years of life But by the purity of his soul he both confessed his fault and begged for pardon and offered the sole excuse of ignorance. While all the glorious ones standing by were silent, and by their silence attested both the discipline to be imposed and the indulgence to be shown, the holy virgin Eulalia alone arose; and taking up the cause of the prostrate man, she softened the severity of the merciful Judge and obtained pardon for the ignorant one; and by her intercession she prolonged the present life of her familiar friend St. Waningus by an extension of twenty years. The holy virgin Eulalia was therefore heard, and to her who was heard holy Waningus was commended, so that she might perfectly instruct him as to how he should establish the holy oratory and to what persons he ought to commit it once established. The virgin said to him: "You will recover, She admonishes him to build a monastery at Fecamp Waningus, and you will live, and you will be restored to your possessions. Go to the valley of Fecamp, and in the valley of Fecamp diligently seek from the inhabitants the place that was manifested to Duke Ansegisus, and once found, cultivate it without delay. There faithfully build a fitting temple of the supreme and undivided Trinity. And when the temple is completed, you shall entrust it to holy virgins, over whom you shall take care to set as illustrious Abbess Childemarcha, a virgin of Bordeaux, and there a renowned mother of many virgins."
[5] When at last the words of so great a revelation were finished, St. Waningus received life with health and health with life; and when all his members had equally recovered, he sought out King Lothair and explained to him the entire sequence of his revelation. Moved and terrified by these things, King Lothair said: "Make haste, my son Waningus, return and diligently seek the holy place according to the truth of your account; and with my resources and yours, build the palace of the Supreme Emperor as quickly and as gloriously as you are able." With Lothair's consent he builds it Hearing this with a joyful spirit, Blessed Waningus returned at once to the province of Calcegius; and entering the forest of Fecamp, he sought out the aforementioned place, found it, and cultivated it. With workmen engaged in the glorious work, ancient oaks were felled and laid low, and brush and thorns were uprooted and burned; and the place of the heavenly dwelling was thoroughly cleared and freed from the thickets and briars of the ancient wilderness. Foundations were laid, and with incredible speed the sacred walls rose up, and as if by the omnipotent operation of divine power the roofs were set in place, and the buildings encompassed all that the prior revelation had foretold.
[6] Lothair visits it When the building was therefore finished and completed, the King of the Gauls, Lothair, was invited; the holy Fathers of many cities were summoned and assembled; and the oratory was distinguished and consecrated with the title of the Creator and Governor of all things; and once consecrated, it was liberally endowed with royal treasures and estates, and enriched and enlarged with abundance of all manner of riches. King Lothair commanded holy virgins to be gathered, and once the virgins were gathered, according to the vision of Blessed Eulalia, he set over them Childemarcha, a virgin of supreme holiness, and devoutly committed and entrusted the governance and administration of the entire Church to the holy and most blessed Confessors Audoenus and Wandregisel. Sacred virgins are established there The sacred virgins assembled, wrote out irrevocable pledges of promised virginity to their heavenly Bridegroom, and by the sweet fragrance of their manner of life admonished and inflamed all the surrounding provinces to serve the Almighty Lord. The blessed Trinity, the unchangeable God, rejoiced both in the completed temple and in the chaste service of the assembled virgins; beholding the daily and nightly and unceasing praises of three hundred and sixty-six of them, He both promised them deliverance from death and prepared for them in the abiding city the unfading crown of blessed recompense.
[7] At that time the blessed and glorious Martyr Leodegarius was brought to Fecamp; St. Leodegarius is sent there as an exile whom the savage and wicked apostate Ebroinus had unjustly expelled from the see of his bishopric, despoiled of his abundant possessions, and cruelly deprived of all power of speech by cutting out his tongue. But when the glorious Martyr and Bishop entered the sacred temple of the Most High and Almighty, and heard the angelic voices of the singing virgins, he recovered the use of his lost tongue; He recovers the use of his severed tongue and over the course of two years, living among the holy virgins, he set before them an example of humility and peace.......... And he watered and made fruitful the hearts of his hearers with the voice of heavenly teaching. St. Waningus serves the monastery Beholding the unexpected glory of the glorious temple and the heavenly religion and multitude of the holy congregation, Blessed Waningus reviewed all the riches of his own property and assigned them for the use of the holy virgins. And throughout the entire course of his life he displayed the humility and obedience of complete service in that same Church, after the manner and custom of those who serve there. When Blessed Waningus had died........ the rest is missing.
Annotationsa Ansegisus was the son of St. Arnulf, husband of St. Begga, and father of Pippin of Herstal.
b Elsewhere his health is said to have been restored by the prayers of St. Wandregisel and St. Audoenus, in whose lives these events are related as follows: "In which place (Fecamp), while he was staying, he suddenly suffered an ecstasy, and the punishments of the damned and the felicities of the just were shown to him, and he heard by divine revelation that he would live for a span of twenty years, and that the holy Martyr of Christ, Eulalia, to whose prayers he had been accustomed to commend himself diligently, had obtained this from the Lord. But the Martyr of Christ herself also appeared to him and admonished him to build a monastery on the aforesaid estate where he was staying, and to commit its governance to no one of his own family. When she had returned to the heavens, he summoned the man of God Wandregisel and explained to him the order of the vision, and at the same time, cured of the fever by which he was oppressed through his prayers, he received the desired health, and immediately began to build the aforesaid monastery as he had been admonished." These are from the life of St. Wandregisel. Conformable matters are related in the life of St. Audoenus in these words: "Among other miracles of virtue which that distinguished Prelate performed, this must by no means be passed over: that he restored the illustrious man Waningus to the desired health by his prayer. That Waningus was indeed very wealthy and powerful, but seized by a bitter illness, he saw in ecstasy many punishments of the impious. And while he was still oppressed by the same illness, Bishop Blessed Audoenus, having first prayed, bestowed his blessing upon him, and his former health was restored to him. Moreover Audoenus exhorted him to dedicate that place to God. For he had been admonished by Blessed Eulalia to build a monastery at the command of the holy Bishop Audoenus on his estate at Fecamp, where he had long been bedridden; and at the same time it was indicated to him that he would live twenty years in the body. And so, restored to life and returned to himself, he besought the most distinguished Bishop Audoenus to be willing to come to him together with the Priest of Christ Wandregisel."
c In the life of St. Audoenus the King is called Clotharius who went to Fecamp: "There was present also the young King Clotharius, son of King Clovis the Younger, eager with great desire to see that remarkable miracle which had been wrought in Waningus. Not only the King, but also all the nobles and the entire multitude of the people who were with him saw it, and praised the mercy of Almighty God, and began to honor and venerate Blessed Audoenus."
d St. Hildemarcha is celebrated on October 25. Her life is cited in the acts of St. Wandregisel, where, as also in the life of St. Audoenus, the same things are cited as here.
e We shall give the life of St. Leodegarius on October 2, which was published by Andreas Du Chesne in volume 1 of the Writers of French History, in which these things are found concerning Saints Leodegarius and Waningus: "They handed St. Leodegarius over to a man named Waningus, so that under his harsh dominion he might breathe out his tormented spirit. To whom Ebroinus said: 'Take,' he said, 'Leodegarius, whom you once saw as a proud man, and place him under your custody. For the time of his calling will soon come, receiving what he has deserved from his enemies.' Since his lodging was far away, they placed the holy Martyr of God upon a lowly beast of burden," etc. And a little further on: "Bishop Hermenarius petitioned Waningus for access to approach the Martyr of God. And when this had been granted to him even on account of his own merit (for all feared the savage tyrant like an enraged lion), he took care to tend his wounds diligently, and to refresh him with drink and food as best he could, and to clothe him in the best garment he had. For now he bestowed reverent honor upon him not as upon an earthly man, but as upon a translated Martyr. For which reason he merited from him not only pardon for past offenses, but also a blessing for the future. For after Waningus brought him to his own home, with the grace of God accompanying, his lips began to grow back more swiftly against nature, together with his tongue, and moreover words began to flow unceasingly from his mouth beyond what was customary. When Waningus learned of this miracle, he did not harden his heart to inflict harm upon him as had been commanded by the tyrant; but on the contrary, now recognizing him as a Martyr of God, he received him and brought him to his own monastery called Fiscannum, where there was a congregation of nuns and virgins, over whom presided Childemarcha, a handmaid of Christ."
III. From another manuscript of the same monastery.
Waningus, at Fecamp in Normandy (St.)
From manuscripts.
[1] Meanwhile it came to pass that the Canons of Fecamp imitated the ways of other Canons, Canons hold Fecamp around the time of the arrival of the Normans entering the broad ways of perdition and voluptuously pursuing the luxuries and slothfulness of temporal things. When the most prudent Duke Richard heard of this wretched life and living wretchedness of the Canons, and by hearing came to know it, he was greatly grieved; and abhorring the character and conduct of these depraved men, he speedily sent legates to Cluny Richard I orders monks to be introduced for them by his son and summoned St. Maiolus with prayers of great humility to Fecamp, and entreated him to arrange and order a new Church according to the rule and institution of St. Benedict. To whom St. Maiolus said: "I will undertake the magnitude of this labor, dearest son Richard, on this condition: that throughout your entire duchy you donate to the Lord the custom which is commonly called pannage, and decree that no prince under your authority shall exact it any longer." Thereupon Duke Richard, not by the disease of avarice but by the hidden providence of God disposing and transferring to St. William the Abbot the glory of ordering the holy Church, acquiesced to the counsel of his men and did not grant the holy petition of St. Maiolus; whence it came about that St. Maiolus returned to Cluny, and the correction or expulsion of the Canons was delayed for some time. The same Duke Richard, as is recorded in the same place, when near death, commanded his son Richard II to substitute monks after ejecting the Canons from there.
Annotationsa We add these things so that the successive series of religious orders in that monastery may be known. This appears to have been written by the same author as the preceding fragment. They are perhaps parts of a more extensive Chronicle.
b Glaber, in the life of St. William of Dijon, no. 20: "For there was living in the carnal manner, with the yoke of the rule cast off, a frivolous little band of Clerics." When the Canons succeeded the nuns we have not discovered.
c Richard I, third Duke of Normandy, succeeded as a boy his father William in the year of Christ 943, upon the latter's death; he himself died at Fecamp in the year of Christ 996 -- William of Jumieges, bk. 3, ch. 12, and bk. 4, ch. 20. In the Fragment of the History of Aquitaine published by Du Chesne, vol. 2 of the Writers of French History, it is said that he "built the monastery of Fecamp in honor of the supreme Trinity, where he himself is buried, and he established monks." Ordericus Vitalis, bk. 4 of his Ecclesiastical History, writes that the monastery of Fecamp was nobly founded by the first Richard, Duke of the Normans, and generously enlarged with many honors and riches by the second. More accurately, Glaber cited above writes that the Church in the place of Fecamp was more honorably reformed by him.
d We shall give the life of St. Maiolus on May 11.
e It seems that the word "numinis" of the divinity is missing.
IV. From another manuscript of the same place.
Waningus, at Fecamp in Normandy (St.)
From manuscripts.
[1] The noble man of Normandy, Richard, son of the first Richard, expelled the regular Canons from the monastery of Fecamp; Fecamp is reformed through St. William he humbly sent legates to St. Benignus at Dijon, compelled William, the eminent pastor of that place, with great prayers, and committed to him the governance of the monastery of Fecamp under the rule of Blessed Benedict, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand and one.
[2] At that time William the Abbot, of blessed memory, was illuminating all parts of the Roman Empire with the abundance of his religious life, and was reforming and kindling the tepid spirits of many Abbots by the example of his fervor. For Blessed Maiolus had appointed and established as Abbot and Master over the Church of Dijon this man, eminently learned in the liberal arts and ecclesiastical disciplines and endowed and illuminated with the grace of nearly all the virtues.
[3] Abbots of Fecamp In the same manuscript codex there exists a catalogue of the Abbots of Fecamp:
William, the first Abbot of Fecamp, born in Burgundy, was of noble lineage. In a certain memorial book concerning the aforesaid most holy Father of pious memory, we learn that he illuminated all parts of the great Empire with the abundance of his religious life. And since he knew that unless one has competed lawfully, one will not be crowned, he strove to persevere in the good work he had begun at the monastery of Fecamp; governing the monasteries most gloriously for twenty-nine years, he closed his last day and, as we believe, is happily crowned in Christ. He lived twenty-nine years. John.... an Italian, who went to Jerusalem: he sat for two years. William the Virgin, commonly called "la pucelle," a great almsgiver, of the diocese of Bayeux, twenty-nine years. Roger, of the diocese of Bayeux, thirty-one years; Ordericus Vitalis mentions him in bk. 12. Henry, forty-nine years; under him the Precious Blood was discovered. Ordericus discusses his election in bk. 13. Radulph (Raoul), thirty years. Richard, three years. Richard Morinus, five years. William Napaille, thirty-one years. Richard de Trieges, sixteen years. William de Putot, twelve years. Thomas a Sancto Benedicto, twenty years. Robert du Putot. Peter Roger, who became Supreme Pontiff as Clement VI.
Annotationsa Richard II, fourth Duke of Normandy, succeeded his father in the year of Christ 996 and departed this life in the year of Christ 1026.
b We have shown above in his life that St. William died at Fecamp in the year of Christ 1031.
c In governance, that is.
d Ordericus Vitalis, bk. 4 of his Ecclesiastical History, attributes five years to his governance.
e Concerning this William, whom he calls "de Roz," Ordericus writes at greater length in bks. 3, 4, 8, and 11.