Hilarius of Poitiers

ON ST. HILARY, BISHOP OF POITIERS IN GAUL.

A.D. 367.

Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers in Gaul (St.)

From various sources.

Section I. The renown and public veneration of the name of St. Hilary.

[1] The Pictones, ^a people of Aquitaine — called Pektones by Ptolemy — are today divided into three bishoprics: Maillezais, Lucon, and the most celebrated of all, Poitiers. The seat of this last is the city of the Pictavi, or Pectabori, as our ancient manuscript catalogue of provinces has it; The city of the Pictavi. afterwards called Pictavis, Pictavum, the city of Poitiers, and so forth. Whether it is the Augustoritum or Limonum of Ptolemy, let others inquire. When an episcopal see was erected there is not recorded. The catalogue of Cl. Robert and others presents as the first Bishop St. Victorinus, distinguished by his writings and by his martyrdom suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, as we shall relate on November 2; Galesin asserts that the people of Poitiers were instructed in the precepts of the Christian religion by him under the Emperors Probus and Carinus.

[2] In the lists of Demochar, Chenu, and Robert, St. Hilary is recorded as the tenth Bishop, though in the manuscripts cited by Robert he is the ninth, with the omission of Pascentius I — whom we should perhaps more correctly call Maxentius I, Hilary, its Bishop. the elder brother of St. Maximinus II, Bishop of Trier, who seems to have already been in his see when the latter set out for Trier to St. Agricius (of whom we have already treated). And yet Maximinus himself was already Bishop in the year 336, when Athanasius was exiled to that place. Some confuse this Maxentius with St. Maxentius the Recluse, of whom we shall speak on June 26, and others with Maxentius II (if there was indeed ^a second, whom they commonly reckon as the fifteenth Bishop of that see). For the claim that Maxentius, Maximinus, and Jovinus (who is venerated on June 1) were disciples of St. Hilary, we do not sufficiently approve, since Maximinus appears to have been considerably older than Hilary.

[3] Furthermore, the Fathers of the Council of Paris I, in the year of Christ 362, while Hilary was still living, call him ^a faithful preacher of the name of the Lord. Praised by the holy Fathers: St. Jerome, St. Jerome, in book 17 of his Commentary on chapter 61 of Isaiah, at the words "The glory of Lebanon shall come to you," says thus: "Lest I draw out the meaning at great length, do not the holy and most eloquent Cyprian the Martyr, and Hilary the Confessor of our own time, seem to you" (he addresses the Virgin Eustochium) "to have been trees once lofty in the world, who built up the Church of God?" By the same writer, on Psalm 58, Hilary is called "a blessed Bishop and, amid the storms of the world, ^a great sustainer of the Church" — when, indeed, as he says in his book against the Luciferians, "the whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian." Where he also adds: "Some remained within their own communion; others began to send letters to those Confessors who were living in exile under the name of Athanasius; not ^a few lamented the alliance they had formed with the better party out of despair; but ^a very few (as human nature goes) defended their error as if it were deliberate policy. The ship of the Apostles was in peril: the winds pressed hard; the sides were battered by the waves; no hope remained. The Lord is awakened; He commands the storm; the beast dies; calm returns. I shall speak more plainly: all the Bishops who had been driven from their own sees returned by the indulgence of the new Emperor. Then Egypt received its triumphant Athanasius; then the Church of Gaul embraced Hilary returning from battle; then, at the return of Eusebius, Italy exchanged its garments of mourning," etc. The same Jerome celebrates Hilary's learning with distinguished encomiums, some of which will be cited below.

[4] Nor does Augustine yield to Jerome in this: for in book 6 of On the Trinity, chapter 10, he writes: St. Augustine, "Hilary was ^a man of no small authority in the exposition of the Scriptures and the assertion of the faith." And in book 1 Against Julian, chapter 3: "Who does not know the Gallic Bishop, worthy of reverence, to have been ^a most fierce defender of the Catholic Church against heretics?" And in book 2 of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 40, where he shows that what has been well written by pagans should be converted to our use, he employs these words: "Do we not see how laden with gold and silver and raiment" (that is, the learning of the pagans) "Cyprian, that sweetest of teachers and most blessed of martyrs, came forth from Egypt? How laden Lactantius, Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary?"

[5] Cassian likewise, in book 7 of On the Incarnation, chapter 24, writes: "Hilary, ^a man of all virtues and distinctions, Cassian, distinguished in life as in eloquence, who grew as ^a master of the Churches and ^a Priest not only by his own merits but also by the advancement of others, and amid the storms of persecutions stood so unmoved that through the fortitude of his unconquered faith he gained even the dignity of ^a Confessor." We pass over the innumerable testimonies of more recent writers, as well as many from other holy Fathers.

[6] That dignity of Confessor is confirmed by the sacred records of nearly all the Churches. His feast day, January 13. For (to omit the true Roman and St. Jerome's Martyrologies, in which only the name and place are briefly expressed, as is customary) the Martyrology of Centula, bearing the name of Bede, has this: "At Poitiers, St. Hilary, Bishop and Confessor, magnificent in faith and virtue." The printed Bede, Ado, and very many manuscripts: "At Poitiers, St. Hilary, Bishop and Confessor, who, on account of the Catholic faith, was exiled for four years in Phrygia; among other virtues, it is reported that he raised ^a dead man to life." Nearly the same is found in Usuard, Bellinus, and the Roman Martyrology. In the manuscript of Ado from St. Lawrence at Liege, it is added: "He also, while in exile, exhorted his daughter, named Abra, by letter, to preserve her virginity." Rabanus: "And at Poitiers, the burial of Hilary, Bishop and distinguished Confessor, who under the heretical Emperor Constantius was driven into exile in Phrygia on account of the Catholic faith. Among other virtues it is reported that he raised ^a dead man by prayer." The manuscript of St. Maximinus, Notker, and the Cologne Martyrology agree. The German Martyrology, Ghinius, and Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology narrate more details drawn from his life. The manuscript Florarium and Viola Sanctorum designate him as patron of women in childbirth, lest they bear dead offspring — perhaps because he restored to life ^a child who had not been initiated with baptism, so that the child might also receive spiritual life.

[7] In the old Roman Missal printed at Venice in the year of Christ 1508, no mention of St. Hilary is found. From the manuscript appendix to the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, Gavantus cites his feast. In the Roman Breviary, Celebrated on various days. edited by the authority of Paul III through the work of Cardinal Quinones in the year of Christ 1535, with the office of the Octave of the Epiphany omitted, St. Hilary was celebrated on January 13. But in the same Breviary when later revised, the Octave of the Epiphany was restored, and the feast of St. Hilary was moved to the 31st, on which day it is also noted in the ancient Breviary of Evora. At last the following clause was added to the Roman Martyrology: "His feast, however, is celebrated on the following day." And so on the 14th before the Kalends of February it is observed with ^a semi-double office in the Roman and most other Churches.

[8] Formerly on January 13. It is recorded on this January 13 in manuscript calendars and in Missals printed in the fifteenth century — the Swedish and that of the Order of St. Dominic — in the Breviaries of Antwerp and Britain according to the use of the Church of Sarum or Salisbury; likewise in Breviaries published at the beginning of the sixteenth century — those of Brussels, Bruges, Utrecht, Rouen, Windesheim, and others — in which, after the office of the Octave, ^a commemoration of St. Hilary is appended. In the Sarum Breviary, the lessons of the second nocturn present his life in ^a brief compendium. On the same day, Wandelbert writes: "On the Ides, the devout people of the city of Poitiers serves Hilary, The Shepherd who illumined them with his own honour."

[9] He is celebrated on the day before the Ides in the fourth Calendar of the Capuan manuscript codex, and on the 5th of the Kalends in the printed Capuan Breviary, in Michael the Monk's fourth part of the Sanctuarium: And on the 12th. "St. Hilary, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor, lesson 3" — which the same Monk notes were composed from the Acts described by Fortunatus. He is recorded on the same day in the old Calendar of Cambrai and in others.

[10] But on January 14, Galesin has this: "At Poitiers in Gaul, St. Hilary, Bishop and Confessor. Having been made Bishop, he discharged the pastoral office with the highest praise. A defender of the Catholic faith, he was assailed by many plots of the Arians, and at last, through the treachery of Saturninus, Bishop of Arles, was exiled to Phrygia. Recalled thence to his Church after four years, he so acted that by his pastoral zeal all of Gaul, having repudiated Arian impiety, maintained the Catholic faith. Distinguished also for other deeds marvellously and divinely performed, and for his teaching, he departed to the Lord under the Emperors Valens and Valentinian." And on the 14th. Molanus likewise, in his second edition, transferred the words of Usuard to this day. The Martyrology of the Order of Preachers: "At Poitiers in Gaul, the feast of St. Hilary, Bishop and Confessor, who, on account of the Catholic faith which he strenuously defended, was exiled for four years in Phrygia; among other miracles he raised ^a dead man. He departed to heaven on the Ides of January, but his feast is celebrated today. Double feast." The Calendar of the Breviary of Saint-Omer: "Hilary, Bishop and Confessor. Great double, for and after" — that is, from first vespers to second vespers inclusive, as is evident from the office, in which nine lessons on his life, three hymns, ^a prayer, antiphons, and proper responsories are read.

Section II. Writers of the Life of St. Hilary.

[11] All who have collected the lives of the Saints in this age have treated the deeds of St. Hilary at considerable length: most copiously, Jean Gillot, when he edited his works at Paris in 1572; and Jean Bouchet in Part I of the Annals of Aquitaine, chapter 6 and the nine following; Baronius also in volumes 3 and 4 of the Annals of the Church. Setting these aside, we shall bring forward contemporary or at least ancient writers: first, St. Jerome in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, Whence this life is drawn. where he briefly reviews the works Hilary wrote; then Sulpicius Severus, who in book 2 of his Ecclesiastical History narrates the labours he undertook in defence of the Catholic religion against the Arians in various councils and in exile. Next, Fortunatus, who comprehended his life and miracles wrought after death in two books, which we have collated with various manuscripts. To these we shall add one miracle from St. Gregory of Tours, book On the Glory of Confessors, chapter 2; several from Flodoard, book 4 of the History of the Church of Reims, chapter 48; and some from Bouchet. Finally, we shall discuss various matters concerning the translation of relics.

[12] One thing may here be called into question by someone: Who is this Fortunatus, and who is Pascentius the Pope, by whose command the Life of Hilary was written? There was Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus, an Italian Presbyter, who at an advanced age, having long resided in Gaul, was at last created Bishop of Poitiers and flourished with distinguished praise for learning and piety. John Trithemius in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers asserts him to be the author of this Life, though he cites one book, not two. Whether Venantius Fortunatus is its author. The same view is held by Bouchet in the Annals of Aquitaine, Bellarmine in On Ecclesiastical Writers, Possevinus in the Sacred Apparatus, Vossius in On Latin Writers, Molanus in his notes on Usuard, Matthias Lambert in his Life of St. Hilary published in Flemish, Jacques Tigeou in the Life published in French, Heinrich Fabricius in the German Life, and others. This was also Surius's view, who wrote that the author was Fortunatus, then still ^a Presbyter; Garnefelt in the third edition added that he was afterwards Bishop of Padua and flourished about the year of Christ 570 — but we believe he meant to write Poitiers. Gillot, in his edition of the works of St. Hilary, prefixes the life from Surius, with Surius's own heading: "by Fortunatus, then still ^a Presbyter." In his own commentary on the deeds of St. Hilary, he calls the author of the life simply Fortunatus, while citing as ^a different person Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, who flourished about the year 590 — so that he seems to have recognized two Fortunatuses. Baronius in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology says: "Fortunatus wrote the deeds of Hilary in two books, but from many things barely touched upon ^a few." He also mentions that Venantius Fortunatus has an epigram on the same subject in book 2. Yet Baronius does not distinguish between the two Fortunatuses, since he considers them one and the same in volume 4 of the Annals of the Church, at the year of Christ 369, number 25: "There survives," he says, "an epigram of Venantius Fortunatus on the same St. Hilary, who likewise published two books, the first of which is entitled on the life, and the second on the miracles of St. Hilary."

[13] Our Christoph Brouwer, in the Life of Venantius Fortunatus which he prefixed to his poems published and annotated by him, acknowledges him as the author of this work also, on the authority of Surius, The style is not what is found in his other writings. though with some hesitation on account of the variation in style. He thus writes: "From the testimony especially of Surius, it is established, first, that Fortunatus wrote the life of St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, in two books, which are read on January 14 — yet more sparingly, and not with his usual richness, so that one may detect the trace of another hand. There survives ^a preface to that life addressed to Pascentius, Bishop of Padua, in which with his characteristic modesty he earnestly excuses himself for having dared, among mighty rivers — the Euphrates, as it were, of St. Hilary, and the Nile of Blessed Jerome — to extend his own dry courses." Thus Brouwer.

[14] When Bishop Pascentius lived. But Pascentius was not the Bishop of Padua, but of Poitiers — the third of that name. Concerning whom Claude Robert writes: "XXIX. Pascentius III. To him Fortunatus dedicates the Life of St. Hilary, calling him 'holy lord and most blessed Pope in his merits.' He succeeded Pientius by command of King Charibert, having previously been Abbot of the basilica of St. Hilary." So Gregory of Tours, book 4, chapter 18. Charibert died in the ninth year of his reign, that is, in the year of Christ 570; and Pascentius did not preside for many years after his death. For in the time of Sigebert, Maroveus obtained the bishopric of the city, as the same Gregory of Tours says in book 9, chapter 40. But Sigebert was killed in the year of Christ 575, in the fourteenth year of his reign and the fortieth of his age, as the same Gregory of Tours writes at the end of book 4.

[15] Claude Robert writes that Venantius Fortunatus came from Italy to Gaul in the year of Christ 575 — that is, after the death of Pascentius III. When Fortunatus lived. He cites the Chronicles of Regino and Sigebert: the former makes no mention of Fortunatus at that date; the latter writes thus at that year: "Fortunatus the poet, coming from Italy, is famous in Gaul." That he came earlier is evident from poem 4 of book 6, where he praises King Charibert as still living. Indeed, since Athanagild, King of the Goths in Spain, died in the year 567 — through whose mediation Sigebert married his daughter Brunhild and Chilperic married Galswintha — it is clear that both marriages occurred before that year. But Fortunatus, whom Brouwer observes to have come first into the kingdom of Sigebert, had nevertheless already departed to Aquitaine when Galswintha was received there. For he himself sings thus in book 6, poem 7: "After several cities, she reached the fortress of Poitiers, Passing the day in royal pomp (Where the illustrious Hilary, truly great in those regions, Was both born and laid to rest, thunderous in eloquent speech; Thracian, Italian, Scythian, Persian, Indian, Getan, Dacian, Briton — In his eloquence each drinks hope, takes up arms. The sun pours forth its generative lights by its ray, he by his word; The one gives day to mountains, the other faith to minds.) I, ^a newcomer, indeed beheld her passing by, Borne gently on ^a turning silver tower."

[16] But granted, you will say, that the mutual acquaintance and friendship of Venantius Fortunatus and Pascentius III was great, our author nevertheless addresses ^a different Pascentius, as seems clearly inferable from his preface, in which he asserts that Pascentius was nurtured by St. Hilary: "You have deigned, O Pascentius," he says, "to urge me to set down in words the deeds of the most sacred man Hilary the Confessor, who from your very cradle nurtured you familiarly before his footsteps as ^a kind of special household slave, so that I might repay in words the gift bestowed, and if not fully, at least embrace and touch upon it in some part; so that when the voice of the shepherd (so often heard, as it were) and the life of the most ancient Pastor (perceived with the eyes) should resound in the ears of the flock, he might approve the ministry and you might not conceal your affection." Thus Fortunatus. But Pascentius III was created Bishop nearly two hundred years after the death of St. Hilary. There was another Pascentius, reckoned as the second, The age of the elder Pascentius. and those who call Maxentius the predecessor of St. Hilary call this one Pascentius I. He succeeded St. Hilary directly, and was perhaps chosen for that reason — that he had been so educated in his house from boyhood that in him the doctrine, zeal, and piety of his master could be recognized. Bouchet calls him ^a disciple of St. Hilary. He appears to have asked St. Jerome to write the Life of Hilary; which Jerome refused, as is here related, having attempted it but judged himself unequal to the material and therefore kept silent.

[17] The author continues: "And since it would be more prudent for me to admire than to speak, it would have been more fitting to entrust this to Blessed Ambrose to write about his brother, in whom words are joined to virtues." St. Ambrose of Milan could have formed an acquaintance with the most celebrated Bishop Hilary before his own episcopate, Whether St. Hilary was known to St. Ambrose. either in his native Gaul or in Italy — he being himself ^a man of distinction, though somewhat younger — especially since Hilary is reported to have cultivated the region of Insubria after his exile, where Ambrose was perhaps then attending to public or private business, being shortly afterwards appointed governor of Liguria and Aemilia. Hear Rufinus, book 10 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapters 30 and 31: "Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, was recalling each and every Church, their unbelief having been abjured, to the soundness of the right faith — especially because he found Hilary, St. Hilary labours in Italy. whom we mentioned as having long since been driven into exile with the other Bishops, now returned and established in Italy, engaged in the same endeavour of restoring the Churches and repairing the faith of the Fathers. Except that Hilary, ^a man gentle and placid by nature, and at the same time learned and most apt at persuasion, managed the matter more diligently and fittingly. He also published books nobly written on the faith, in which he so diligently set forth both the wiles of the heretics and the deceptions practised on our people and their ill-credulous simplicity, that he corrected by most perfect instruction both those present and those far distant, to whom he could not discourse in person with the living voice. Thus these two men, like magnificent lights of the world, illumined Illyricum, Italy, and the Gauls with their splendour, so that all the shadows of the heretics were put to flight even from hidden corners and recesses." So writes Rufinus concerning the labours of St. Hilary in Italy, to which he returned again later when at Milan he attempted to expose the deceitful faith of Auxentius to the Emperor Valentinian. It was then, therefore, that so close ^a friendship may have developed between him and Ambrose that our author here calls them brothers.

[18] Gregory of Tours, in his book On the Glory of Confessors, chapter 2, says that many miracles are reported to have been displayed at the tomb of St. Hilary, which the book of his life contains — without naming the author, which he does elsewhere when Venantius Fortunatus is responsible. Thus in chapter 96: "Albinus the Confessor, whose book of life was recently written by Fortunatus the Presbyter," etc. And in chapter 45, after relating ^a miracle concerning St. Severinus, Bishop of Bordeaux, he adds: "Yet after we wrote these things, we learned that his life had been written by Fortunatus the Presbyter." And in book 5 of the History of the Franks, chapter 8, concerning St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris, he writes thus: "If, however, anyone zealous wishes to investigate carefully the miracles he performed in the body, let him read the book of his life which was composed by Fortunatus the Presbyter, and he will find everything." He also cites the same man's poem in his book On the Glory of Martyrs, chapter 42. Gregory became Bishop of Tours in the year 572 and died about the year 596, on November 17. Fortunatus, friend of St. Gregory of Tours. Venantius Fortunatus dedicated his poems to him. For having travelled to Tours to visit the tomb of St. Martin, and having marvellously commended himself to Bishop Gregory, he composed many verses at his request on various subjects and narrated nearly his entire life. May it not be inferred from this mutual goodwill of the two men that Gregory would by no means have omitted the name of Fortunatus, had he known him to be the author of this Life also?

[19] What if an older Life of Hilary, dedicated to that ancient Pascentius, was revised, expanded, and published anew by Fortunatus? Bouchet passim in the Annals of Aquitaine, and Saussay under November 25, write that St. Justus, ^a Presbyter and disciple of St. Hilary, committed his life to writing. Whether an ancient life of St. Hilary was polished and published by Fortunatus. Perhaps Venantius Fortunatus published it from the archives of the Church of Poitiers, augmented with ^a second book of miracles; and just as nowadays those who have merely published lives of saints written in antiquity are commonly regarded and cited as their authors — Metaphrastes, Lipomanus, Capgrave, Surius, and others — so Fortunatus may have been believed to be the author, and his name perhaps inserted in the prefaces where that of Justus formerly stood. He may also have added another preface addressed to the younger Pascentius. Thus, since the Life had been dedicated to two Pascentii by two authors, the Pascentius was thought to be one and the same, the sole author Fortunatus, and the latter preface — which alone was his — was omitted. The words of Saussay concerning Justus are: St. Justus, ^a disciple of St. Hilary, wrote his life. "Afterwards St. Justus set out to St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, at that time the singular light of the faith. Received by him into his training and fellowship on account of his shining character and the manifest grace of the Holy Spirit, he was ordained Presbyter and directed to the people of Perigueux, where by his preaching of the Gospel he both confirmed the faithful and converted many pagans; he also repressed with vigorous resistance the heretics who were spreading Arianism with destructive hand. Then, returning to St. Hilary, he remained his chief companion and collaborator. When he attended him at his death, he perceived ^a most sweet fragrance and beheld ^a most splendid light, with which the dying saint, as he breathed forth his blessed spirit, filled the entire chamber. This is that Justus who, as the faithful companion of the blessed Bishop, described with ^a truthful pen the glorious deeds which he had witnessed. His writing, which was long preserved by posterity with great reverence, was cited by Hildebert, the most learned Bishop of his age, at Tours in an assembly of the Fathers, as testimony of proven authority. Nor was Justus merely ^a faithful recorder of the deeds of St. Hilary, but also ^a marvellous imitator of his character and miracles — among which he became renowned at Poitiers for the wonderful and frequent liberation of captives. For this reason the people of Poitiers, moved by the clear evidence of his holiness, thought to appoint him to fill the place of the deceased St. Hilary, and would indeed have chosen him, had not this disciple of humility, judging himself unequal to so great ^a burden, removed himself in good time." But enough of these matters.

[20] Bouchet cites the life of that holy Justus, which we have not yet seen. Perhaps also Hildebert of Le Mans. He calls Hildebert by the name Hildebrand, Bishop of Le Mans, who wrote the Life of St. Hilary in the time of Henry and Eleanor, Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine and King and Queen of England, whose marriage fell in the year of Christ 1151, as the Westminster chronicler attests — though Henry was not yet King at that time. But no Hildebrand sat at Le Mans at that time. Blessed Hildebert, made Archbishop of Tours from the see of Le Mans in the year of Christ 1129, died on December 19, 1136. He wrote the Life of St. Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, which we shall give on April 19, and in verse the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, and of other saints.

[21] But even if we grant that the Life of St. Hilary was first written by St. Justus or another, and perhaps dedicated to that elder Pascentius, we nonetheless judge it more probable that the Life which is in our hands Venantius Fortunatus either wrote it or polished it. was by Venantius Fortunatus — either drawn from ancient monuments and polished somewhat (whence perhaps that diversity of style from his other works), or composed afresh. For the form of address to Pascentius is the same in the first and second books; and the second book is certainly by Venantius, even from the fact that in its first miracle he narrates that Probianus, Bishop of Bourges, was still living when he wrote — who attended the Second Council of Paris in the year 555 and the Third in 557, and died before 573, since his successor Felix subscribed to the Fourth Council of Paris in that year. For the statement that Pascentius was educated before St. Hilary "as ^a kind of special household slave" indicates that he was trained from boyhood in the Church of Poitiers, not brought in from elsewhere. What is said about St. Jerome, unless it is transcribed from the earlier life, can be explained as meaning that Hilary's deeds are so illustrious that even St. Jerome himself would not easily have undertaken to write them, and that someone like St. Ambrose must be sought, who, as he honoured his brother Satyrus, might celebrate Hilary with fitting praises. For if the first book were by ^a contemporary author, why does he not mention the councils held in Gaul after the exile? Why does he call him "a most ancient Pastor," who would have lived recently?

Section III. The homeland, studies, and marriage of St. Hilary.

[22] The homeland of St. Hilary: Poitiers, Venantius Fortunatus repeatedly says he was born, buried, and reared at Poitiers, as in book 2, poem 16, and elsewhere, especially book 8, poem 1, writing of himself: "Dwelling at Poitiers, where the holy Hilary once Was born in the city, ^a Father known throughout the world." The author of the Life calls him only an Aquitanian: "The Blessed Hilary, therefore," or at least Aquitaine; he says, "Bishop of the city of Poitiers, had his origin in the regions of Aquitaine, which is separated from the British ocean by nearly ninety miles." Saussay asserts that he was born at the village of Clarus, not far from the castle of Passavant, in the territory of Poitiers itself, of ^a noble family named de Muret, his father being Francarius. But Clarus is ^a village, according to others, Clarus village, and the castle of Passavant is in the territory not of Poitiers but of Anjou, on the river Layon, which flows into the Loire. Bouchet testifies in chapter 6 of the Annals of Aquitaine that some believe him to have been ^a native of the town of Bourg (perhaps Taillebourg) on the river Charente in the land of the Santones; others from the lower territory of Poitiers, at ^a place they call Nalliers. According to others, the town of Bourg. St. Antoninus calls him ^a Bourges native (part 2, title 11, chapter 3), though we have observed that this word sometimes signifies the people of Bourges. Bouchet himself adds that in the parish church of St. Hilary at Clisson (which he calls Clesse, near Mortagne in the territory of Poitiers) the tomb of his parents was discovered twenty years before he published his work — that is, about the year of Christ 1500. His parent. He calls the father Francarius but does not give the name of the mother. Clisson is five leagues from the city of Nantes and seven from Mortagne, on the small river Sevre.

[23] Where he studied. Bouchet, and Saussay following him, say that in the first years of his life he was of dull intellect, and that he went first to Rome, then to Greece, and acquired the ornaments of wisdom, rare erudition, and eloquence through the assiduous study of ten years, etc. This perhaps rests on the authority of St. Jerome, who writes that he was assisted in Greek letters by Heliodorus, ^a Presbyter and later Bishop of Altino (Epistle to Marcella): "With whom," he says, "he was so intimate that he would ask him how things that he could not understand had been said by Origen." But these were rather conferences of learned men consulting one another. Gillot says that nothing is found about his education in letters — where he was instructed in the liberal arts or under what teachers he made progress.

[24] Some deduce from his own words in book 1 of On the Trinity that he was converted to the Christian faith as an adult, through reading the books of Moses and the Prophets, Whether he was converted to the faith as an adult. and washed in the bath of regeneration. But there may be someone who deduces from those words not so much ^a conversion as an ascent from true contemplation, by certain steps as it were, to ^a higher knowledge of the most holy Trinity — by which the mind is said to be called to ^a new birth through faith and entrusted to its own power for obtaining heavenly regeneration. Concerning his baptism, at any rate, received long before his episcopate, he himself testifies at the end of his book On the Synods: "Regenerated some time ago, and having remained in the episcopate for some while, I never heard the Nicene faith except when about to go into exile; but the Gospels and the Apostles taught me the meaning of Homoousios and Homoiousios" — where he indicates his study of Sacred Scripture. Vincent of Beauvais (book 14, chapter 25) and, following him, St. Antoninus at the place cited write that he was always an excellent Christian. Fortunatus says below in the Life: "From his very cradle his earliest infancy was nourished with such great wisdom that it could already then have been understood that Christ had commanded ^a soldier necessary for His own causes to be reared, for the obtaining of victory."

[25] Married before the episcopate. He took ^a wife and begot ^a daughter from her. Then, as Fortunatus adds, he restrained himself by his own discipline, intent, as if indicating the future form, so that an irreproachable Priest might be prepared in the temple of Christ. The Roman Breviary says that in his marriage he lived as if ^a monk. For he knew that Bishops were always either virgins, afterwards continent, or continent after marriage, or widowers who had had only one wife — but certainly chaste forever after the priesthood, as was later written by St. Jerome, whose reproach against Jovinian in book 1 against him confirms the continence of Bishops, so that we marvel at Bouchet's denial that it was asserted by the ancients. "You certainly confess," says Jerome, "that ^a man cannot be ^a Bishop who begets children while ^a Bishop; otherwise, if he is discovered, he will not be held as ^a husband but condemned as an adulterer."

[26] When his daughter was born. When Hilary's daughter was born is evident from the fact that at the time of her father's exile she was already of marriageable age. Bouchet says he entered into marriage long before the death of Constantine the Great, who died in the year of Christ 337, and that he was made Bishop before the year 340. He testifies, as was said above, that he had remained in the episcopate for some while before the disturbances raised by the Arians in Gaul, and that he had learned the meaning of homoousios and homoiousios from Sacred Scripture, not from the Council of Nicaea.

Section IV. Exile. Time of death.

[27] A synod of Arles was held in Gaul in the year of Christ 353. At it, Arian councils. or certainly at the Synod of Beziers, of which we shall speak presently, Hilary was condemned by Saturninus, Bishop of Arles, ^a member of the Arian faction, as one who ought not to be heard as ^a Bishop — as he himself testifies in his book against Auxentius. There followed in the year of Christ 355 the Synod of Milan. Concerning this, Hilary himself writes in his memorial to Constantius: "After the Synod of Arles, when Bishop Eusebius had opposed the crimes of these men together with Paulinus, he was ordered to come to Milan, where the synagogue of the wicked had already been assembled." Many orthodox Bishops were then driven into exile, in the consulship of Arbetio and Lollianus, as Sulpicius writes below at number 2. St. Hilary, as he says in his memorial to Constantius, Hilary does not communicate with them. separated himself, together with the Gallic Bishops, from the communion of Saturninus, Ursacius, and Valens, after the exile of the holy men Paulinus, Eusebius, Lucifer, and Dionysius.

[28] That he was still in Gaul at that time is established from Sulpicius Severus's account of the Life of St. Martin. For in the year 356 Martin obtained his discharge from military service from Julian Caesar, as soon as the latter came into Gaul and assembled the army at the city of the Vangiones. "Thereupon St. Martin," says Severus, "having left the military, sought out St. Hilary, Bishop of the city of Poitiers, whose faith in the things of God was at that time tried and recognized, and he remained with him for some time. Hilary attempted to bind him more closely to himself by imposing the office of the diaconate upon him, He consecrates St. Martin as Exorcist. and to attach him to the divine ministry. But when Martin had very frequently resisted, crying out that he was unworthy, Hilary, ^a man of lofty intelligence, understood that he could be constrained in this way: if he imposed upon him an office in which there would seem to be some element of humiliation. Accordingly he ordered him to be an Exorcist. Martin did not refuse this ordination, lest he should seem to have despised it as too lowly. Not long afterwards, being admonished in ^a dream that he should visit with pious solicitude his homeland and parents, whom paganism still held, he set out with the approval of St. Hilary. Bound by many prayers and tears from Hilary to return, he undertook that journey in sorrow (as they report), declaring to the brothers that he would suffer many adversities." So writes Severus, who continues with St. Martin's journey to Italy, his residence at Milan, and his flight to the island of Gallinaria, and from there his return when St. Hilary was coming back from exile to Italy and thence to Gaul. For this reason the same Severus should be understood to have combined two councils — that of Arles and that of Beziers — for the sake of brevity, when he writes: "Moreover, councils were held by our party at the towns of Arles and Beziers in Gaul." For the Synod of Beziers was assembled not immediately after that of Arles, but with the Synod of Milan intervening.

[29] At the Synod of Beziers, therefore, in the same year 356, when Saturninus was preparing to impose the Arian heresy more openly and boldly after the chief Bishops had been proscribed, St. Hilary, having foreseen from afar the most grave danger to the faith, offered to the Gallic Bishops — who had been driven by the faction of the pseudo-apostles to the Synod of Beziers — an examination of this heresy. But they, fearing the public conscience, refused to hear what he put before them, thinking they could deceive Christ about their innocence if they willingly remained ignorant of what they would afterwards do knowingly. He is cast into exile in the year 356. Hilary was then expelled from his see by Constantius and from that time kept in exile the whole period, as he himself writes of himself in his book against Constantius. And St. Jerome below, in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers: "Hilary, Bishop of the city of Poitiers in Aquitaine, was exiled to Phrygia from the Synod of Beziers by the faction of Saturninus, Bishop of Arles."

[30] He takes part in the Council of Seleucia. In the fourth year of his exile, the year of Christ 359, the Synod of Seleucia in Isauria was held, to which the same Hilary was summoned and came. From there he proceeded to Constantinople and requested an audience with Constantius, so that he might dispute about the faith in the presence of his adversaries. But being ordered to return to Gaul, he dissipated the darkness of the heretics by the splendour of his teaching throughout Illyricum and Italy, He is sent back to Gaul. and thus arrived home in Gaul about the end of the year 360. In that year Jerome says in his Chronicle: "Through Hilary, Gaul condemned the treacheries of the Synod of Ariminum" — which was in fact principally accomplished at the First Council of Paris, held in the second year of Pope Liberius, the second of the Emperor Julian, the year of Christ 362. This preaching of the divine word by Hilary on his return journey is extolled by Socrates (book 3, chapter 8), Sozomen (book 5, chapter 12), and Rufinus (cited above at section 2).

[31] He dies, January 13, 367. "In the sixth year at last after his return, he died in his homeland," says Severus. Since the day of his death is believed to have fallen on the Ides of January, it should apparently be assigned to the year of Christ 367, in which the Emperors Valentinian and Valens were completing the third year of their reign and commencing the fourth on February 25. St. Jerome says in his Chronicle: "Hilary, the Bishop, dies at Poitiers." Most manuscripts listed in Pontacus, as well as the edition published by Aubert Miraeus, assign these words to the third year of the same Emperors — the very year in which, according to the same source, Gratian, the son of Valentinian, was made Emperor at Amiens on the 9th day before the Kalends of September in the consulship of Lupicinus and Jovinus, as is established from Idatius. But Gregory of Tours (book 1 of the History of the Franks, chapter 36, or, as others divide it, 39) writes: "In the fourth year of Valentinian and Valens, St. Hilary, at Poitiers, full of holiness and faith, having performed many miracles on all sides, departed to heaven." He called it the fourth year because they were about to begin it in the following month of February. Thus Hermann the Lame, under the fourth year of Valentinian and Valens, the year of Christ 367, inserted the words of St. Jerome into his own Chronicle: "Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, dies." Haraeus also assigns the same year of death in his Life, as do others.

[32] Not 369, nor did he come to Milan ten years after the Council of Ariminum. Baronius considers that he died in the year 369, on account of the words of Auxentius, the Arian Bishop of Milan, addressed to Valentinian and Valens. Hilary had urged, even with importunate persistence (as he himself writes in his book against Auxentius), that Auxentius was ^a blasphemer and should be altogether regarded as an enemy of Christ; and had added that he believed differently from the Emperor himself and all others. Moved by these things, the Emperor ordered that they be heard by the Quaestor and the Master, with about ten Bishops sitting together. There Auxentius deceitfully feigned his faith, and then, among other false assertions, gave ^a letter to the Emperors, the beginning of which is: "I indeed, most pious Emperors, consider that the unity of six hundred Bishops ought not, after such great labours, to be reopened by the contention of ^a few men, the decrees made ten years ago being set aside, as the records also show." Baronius (year 369, number 6) is wholly of the opinion that the Council of Ariminum, held in the year of Christ 359 in the consulship of Eusebius and Hypatius, is meant here. But if that most mendacious heretic writes truthfully in this passage, how could Hilary have died on the Ides of January in the year 369? The Synod of Ariminum was not concluded until the end of the year 359 or even later, since the members, having already been shut up for the seventh month, were exhausted within ^a single city by the hardship of winter and want, as Severus writes below. But from the end of the year 359 to the beginning of 369, Auxentius could not in good faith count ten years. Moreover, after Auxentius wrote those things, Hilary returned from Milan to Gaul and wrote his book against Auxentius. So that even if those words are to be understood in good faith as referring to the Synod of Ariminum, and ten years are to be counted from it to the disputation held at Milan, and time is to be allowed for Hilary both to return to Gaul and to compose his letter to the Bishops against Auxentius — it must necessarily be admitted that he could scarcely have died before the year 370, at least by the Ides of January. Of his return he himself testifies: "When this mystery of iniquity, long concealed, could no longer be kept silent, and I said that everything was being fabricated, the faith denied, God and men mocked, I was ordered to depart from Milan, since there was no freedom to remain in the city against the King's will." But let it be granted that Auxentius's letter speaks of the Synod of Ariminum: it must still be admitted that the numbers are corrupt; and so perhaps he wrote not ten years but five or four. For not six hundred Bishops assembled at Ariminum, but somewhat more than four hundred. There were not 600 Bishops at Ariminum. So writes Severus below, at number 4: "Thus, with Masters of Offices dispatched through Illyricum, Italy, Africa, the Spains, and the Gauls, four hundred and somewhat more Western Bishops were summoned — or rather compelled — and assembled at Ariminum." Athanasius, in his letter on the synods of Ariminum and Seleucia, near the beginning: "They assembled at Ariminum; and the Bishops in that assembly were four hundred and more." And near the middle: "To these bear witness also the Bishops who now assembled at Ariminum, four hundred and more."

[33] We therefore entirely judge that St. Hilary came to Milan to act against Auxentius and met Valentinian [Councils held in the East and the West after the death of Constantius against the Arians.] when the latter, having been created Emperor on the very intercalary day of the bissextile year 364, and having soon divided the empire with his brother Valens on the 4th day before the Kalends of April, departed for Milan, as Ammianus Marcellinus writes (book 26, chapter 10). For then, as is reported in book 12 of the Miscellaneous History, chapter 3, the Bishops of the Hellespont, Bithynia, and all who preached the Father and Son to be consubstantial, sent to him as legate Hypatius, Bishop of Heraclea in Perinthus, so that he might deign to be present. When Hypatius had approached the Emperor and communicated the delegation of the Bishops, Valentinian replied: "It is not fitting for me, ^a layman, to meddle curiously in affairs of this kind. Let the Bishops, to whom such matters pertain, assemble as they see fit." Sozomen reports the same (book 6, chapter 7). The Council of Lampsacus soon followed, held in the year of Christ 364. Nor were the Western Bishops, especially the Gallic ones, less active than the Eastern, as is evident from the synodical letter previously sent from Paris to the Eastern Bishops, in which mention is made of letters sent from the Eastern Bishops to St. Hilary concerning the controversy at hand, so that, being more closely united among themselves, they might protect the orthodox faith. That letter survives in Sirmond, volume 1 of the Councils of Gaul, sent, as he supposes, in the year of Christ 362. In it they say: "We hold Auxentius, Ursacius, Valens, Gaius, Megasius, and Justinus to be excommunicated, in accordance with your letters; and certainly, as we have said, in accordance with the declaration of our brother Hilary, who declared that he would have no peace with those who follow their errors," etc.

[34] St. Hilary meets Valentinian at Milan. It appears, moreover, that Hilary went from Gaul to Milan, whether on his own authority or that of his fellow Bishops, as soon as he learned that the Emperor was approaching, whose mind had to be forestalled against the wiles and treachery of Auxentius. The Emperor was at Milan in the months of June, July, August, November, and December, in the consulship of Jovian Augustus and Varranianus, the year of Christ 364, and in the following year, in the consulship of Valentinian and Valens Augusti, for nearly the entire year. When Valentinian was there. So about forty rescripts dispatched from there throughout the world, in the Theodosian Code, testify. If these proceedings against Auxentius were undertaken by Hilary in the year 369, why did he delay so long? Why did he neglect the danger? Why did he not seize the more favourable opportunity that presented itself in Gaul itself? For in the consulship of Gratian and Dagalaifus, in the year 366, from May onward for nearly an entire year, Valentinian was at Reims, as very many rescripts testify. In the years 366, 367, 368, 369, he was almost always in Gaul. Then in the following year 367, after having been gravely ill — as Ammianus testifies (book 27, chapter 12) and Zosimus (book 4) — in the consulship of Lupicinus and Jovinus, Gratian was elevated as Augustus at Amiens on ^a tribunal by his father, the Augustus Valentinian, on the 9th day before the Kalends of September. So Idatius records. And why did Auxentius inscribe his letter "To the most blessed and most glorious Emperors Valentinian and Valens, Augusti"? Why not also to Gratian, already an Augustus, whose name is found appended in very many of their rescripts, as is commonly shown? In the following years as well, Valentinian Augustus resided nearly always in the Transalpine regions, as our Brouwer most learnedly demonstrates in book 4 of the Annals of Trier. And indeed, as Ammianus Marcellinus testifies (book 27, chapter 22), in the early part of the year 368, Valentinian together with Gratian crossed the Rhine and made war upon the Alamanni; having defeated them on ^a mountain not far from the source of the Neckar, the soldiers returned to their winter quarters and the Emperors returned to Trier. There follows the year of Christ 369, in which St. Hilary is said to have met Valentinian at Milan to act against Auxentius. But concerning that year Brouwer writes: "The following year, in which the Gauls had Viventius as Prefect, was almost entirely spent by Valentinian and Gratian at Trier, in ordering the state and in the repair both of the frontier and of the army. The rescripts transmitted from there to the various magistrates of the provinces during nearly all parts of the year indicate this. We read fifteen rescripts given at Trier in the consulship of Valentinianus Nobilissimus and Sextus Aurelius Victor." But let this suffice concerning the year of St. Hilary's death.

EULOGY OF ST. HILARY

From St. Jerome, book On Ecclesiastical Writers.

Writings of St. Hilary. Hilary, Bishop of the city of Poitiers in Aquitaine, exiled to Phrygia from the Synod of Beziers by the faction of Saturninus, Bishop of Arles, composed twelve books (a) against the Arians. And another book (b) on the synods, which he wrote to the Bishops of Gaul. And commentaries on the Psalms — namely the first and second, and from the fifty-first to the (c) sixty-second, and from the one hundred and eighteenth to the last — in which work, imitating Origen, he also added some things of his own. There is also his memorial to Constantius, which he presented to him in person at Constantinople while still living. And another against Constantius, which he wrote after his (d) death. And ^a book (e) against Valens and Ursacius, containing the history of the Synods of Ariminum and Seleucia. And one against the Prefect (f) Sallustius, or against Dioscorus. And ^a book (g) of hymns, and another of mysteries. And (h) commentaries on Matthew. And (i) treatises on Job, which he translated from the Greek of Origen according to the sense. And another elegant little book against Auxentius. And some (k) letters to various persons. Some say he also wrote on the (l) Song of Songs, but this work is unknown to us. He died at Poitiers, in the reign of Valentinian and Valens.

LIFE OF ST. HILARY

By Sulpicius Severus, book 2 of his Ecclesiastical History.

From Sulpicius Severus.

[1] When our party did not accept the sentence of the Arians which they had pronounced against Athanasius, an edict was published by the Emperor that whoever would not subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius should be driven into exile. Moreover, councils of Bishops were held by our party at the towns of (a) Arles and Beziers in Gaul. The Councils of Arles and Beziers. The demand was made that before they should be compelled to subscribe against Athanasius, they should rather dispute about the faith; nor should the matter be investigated only after the verdict on the person had been settled. But Valens and his associates were eager first to extort the condemnation of Athanasius, not daring to contend about the faith. From this clash of parties, (b) Paulinus was driven into exile. Meanwhile there was an assembly at Milan, The Synod of Milan. where the Emperor was then present. The same contention yielded nothing on either side. Then (c) Eusebius of Vercelli and Lucifer, Bishop (a) of Cagliari in Sardinia, were exiled. Meanwhile, Dionysius, Bishop of Milan, subscribed his consent to the condemnation of Athanasius, on the condition that an inquiry about the faith should be conducted among the Bishops. But Valens and Ursacius and the rest, fearing the populace, who preserved the Catholic faith with extraordinary zeal, did not dare to profess their sacrilegious doctrine. They assembled within the palace and sent out ^a letter under the Emperor's name, filled with every depravity — with this intent, that if the people received it with willing ears, they might advance their desires by public authority; but if it were received otherwise, all the odium would fall upon the Emperor, and it would be pardonable, since he, being at that time still (d) ^a catechumen, might reasonably be thought not to know the sacrament of the faith.

[2] Accordingly, the people rejected the letter when it was read in the church. Dionysius, because he had not consented, was driven from the city; and immediately ^a Bishop was substituted in his place (e). Liberius also, Bishop of Rome, St. Hilary is sent into exile. and Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, were sent into exile. (f) Rhodanius also, and Dosanus the Bishop (who, being gentler by nature, had yielded to the Arians not so much by his own strength as by the company of Hilary) were involved in the same fate — though these men were prepared to suspend Athanasius from communion, provided only that an inquiry about the faith were conducted among the Bishops. But the Arians thought it best to remove the most outstanding men from the contest. Thus those whom we mentioned above were driven into exile, (g) forty-five years before the present time, in the consulship of Arbetio and Lollianus. But Liberius was restored to the city ^a little later, on account of the Roman seditions. The exiles, however, are well known to have been honoured by the zeal of the whole world; money was heaped upon them abundantly for their expenses, and they were also visited by delegations of the Catholic laity from nearly all the provinces.

[3] Meanwhile the Arians preached the sacrilegious tenets of heresy not secretly, as before, but openly and publicly. Indeed, by interpreting the Council of Nicaea in their own favour — which they had corrupted by the addition of ^a single letter — they had cast ^a kind of darkness over the truth. For where homoousios had been written, The corruption of the Council of Nicaea by the Arians. which means "of one substance," they said that homoiousios, which means "of similar substance," had been written — conceding similarity while they removed unity, because similarity is far distant from unity. For example, ^a painting of the human body is similar to ^a man, and yet does not possess the reality of ^a man. But some of them had gone further, affirming anomoousios, that is, ^a dissimilar substance. And the contest had so far advanced that the world was entangled in sacrilegious doctrines of this kind. For Valens and Ursacius and the rest whose names we have given had infected Italy, Illyricum, and the East. Saturninus, Bishop of Arles, ^a violent and factious man, was oppressing our Gauls. The opinion was also held that Hosius from Spain had fallen into the same treachery — which seems the more astonishing and incredible because for nearly his entire lifetime he had been the most steadfast champion of our party, and the Council of Nicaea was regarded as having been completed under his leadership — unless, his age having given way (for he was more than ^a hundred years old, (h) as St. Hilary reports in his letters), he had become senile. By these things, with the world in turmoil and the Churches languishing from ^a kind of disease, ^a less acute but no less grave concern occupied the Emperor: for although the Arians, whom he favoured, seemed to have the upper hand, the Bishops had not yet agreed among themselves concerning the faith.

[4] Accordingly, he orders ^a synod to be assembled at Ariminum, ^a city of Italy, and commands (i) the Prefect Taurus The Council of Ariminum, A.D. 359. not to dismiss those gathered together until they should agree upon one faith — with the promise of ^a consulship if he should bring the matter to effect. Thus, with Masters of Offices dispatched through Illyricum, Italy, Africa, the Spains, and the Gauls, four hundred and somewhat more Western Bishops were summoned — or rather (k) compelled — and assembled at Ariminum. The Emperor had ordered that provisions and lodging be given to all of them. But this seemed unbecoming to our party — that is, the Aquitanians, Gauls, and Britons — and they preferred to live at their own expense, rejecting the imperial rations. Only three from Britain, lacking means of their own, made use of the public provisions, having refused ^a contribution offered by the others, thinking it more proper to burden the treasury than individuals. I myself heard our Bishop Gavidius relate this, as if with some reproach; but I feel far otherwise, and I attribute it to the praise of Bishops that they were so poor as to have nothing of their own, and that they took from the treasury rather than from others, burdening no one — (l) thus offering an excellent example in either case. Nothing further worthy of record is reported about the rest; but I return to the order of events.

[5] After all had been gathered together, as was said above, ^a separation of the parties took place. Our party occupied the church; the Arians seized another building, vacant at the time and by design, as ^a place of meeting — but they numbered no more than eighty. The rest were of our party. Accordingly, nothing was accomplished in frequent assemblies, our side remaining steadfast in the faith and the others not yielding from their treachery. At last it was resolved that ten delegates should be sent to the Emperor, Delegates are sent to Caesar. so that he might learn what the faith and opinion of each party was, and might know that peace with heretics was impossible. The Arians did the same, sending an equal number of delegates to contend against ours before the Emperor. But on our side, men were chosen who were young, not very learned, and not very cautious; while from the Arians were sent old, cunning men, powerful in intellect and steeped in the habit of perfidy, who easily prevailed before the Emperor. But our delegates had been instructed not in any way to enter into communion with the Arians, and to reserve all matters for the full synod.

[6] Meanwhile in the East, following the example of the West, the Emperor orders nearly all the Bishops to assemble at the town of Seleucia in Isauria. St. Hilary attends the Council of Seleucia. At this time Hilary, now in the fourth year of his exile in Phrygia, was compelled, along with the other Bishops, to be present — transportation having been provided through the (m) Vicar and the Governor — although the Emperor had given no specific orders regarding him. The magistrates merely followed the general command by which they were ordered to compel all Bishops to attend the council, and (n) willingly included him among the rest — as I conjecture, by the direction of God, so that ^a man most thoroughly versed in divine matters might be present when there was to be ^a disputation about the faith. When he arrived at Seleucia, he was received with great favour and turned the minds and sympathies of all toward himself. First he was asked what the faith of the Gauls was — for at that time, since the Arians were spreading false reports about us, we were held in suspicion by the Easterners as having believed, after the manner of Sabellius, in ^a triune unity of ^a solitary God. But having set forth his own faith in accordance with what the Fathers had written at Nicaea, he bore witness on behalf of the Westerners. Thus, with the minds of all set at ease, he was received within the bond of communion and also into their fellowship, and was admitted to the council. Then proceedings began, and the authors of the wicked heresy were discovered and torn from the body of the Church. Among them were (o) George of Alexandria, Acacius, Eudoxius, Uranius, Leontius, Theodosius, Evagrius, and Theodolus.

[7] He goes with the delegates to the Emperor. But when the synod was concluded, ^a delegation was decreed to the Emperor to report what had been done. Those who had been condemned also set out for the Emperor, relying sufficiently on the strength of their allies and on the Emperor's support. Meanwhile, the Emperor compelled the delegates of the Council of Ariminum from our party to unite in communion with the heretics, and handed them ^a creed composed by the wicked — wrapped in deceitful words — which, while the treachery lay hidden, spoke of Catholic doctrine. For it abolished the word Ousia as ambiguous, rashly employed by the Fathers, and not derived from the authority of the Scriptures, under the appearance of false reasoning — so that the Son should not be believed to be of one substance with the Father. The same creed confessed the Son to be similar to the Father; but within lay ^a fraud prepared, so that He would be similar but not equal. Thus, when the delegates had been dismissed, the Prefect was commanded not to dissolve the synod until all should profess by their subscriptions that they agreed with the creed that had been drawn up. And any who might resist more stubbornly, provided their number was no more than fifteen, should be driven into exile. But when the delegates returned, though they deprecated the imperial force, communion was denied them.

[8] Indeed, when what had been decreed became known, there was greater confusion of affairs and counsels. Then gradually many of our party, overcome partly by weakness of mind and partly by weariness of their sojourn, surrendered to the adversaries — The fall of the Western Bishops. who, after the return of the delegates, had gained the upper hand and held the church after our party had been expelled from it. Once the inclination of minds had been made, they went over in crowds to the other side, until the number of our party was reduced to about twenty. But these, the fewer they were, the stronger they were; and the most steadfast among them was held to be our (p) Phoebadius and Servatio, Bishop of Tongres. Because these had not yielded to threats and intimidation, Taurus approached them with prayers and, weeping, besought them to take ^a milder course. The Bishops had been shut up in ^a single city for seven months; exhausted by the hardship of winter and by want, they were given no hope of return. What would be the end? Let them follow the example of the majority and take authority at least from numbers. But indeed Phoebadius declared himself ready for exile and for any punishment that might be demanded — that he would not accept ^a creed conceived by the Arians. Thus the contest was drawn out for some days. When little progress was being made toward peace, he himself also gradually weakened, and at last was overcome by the condition that was proposed. For Valens and Ursacius, asserting that the present creed had been conceived on Catholic principles and proposed by the Easterners on the Emperor's authority, said it would be sacrilege to reject it — for what end would there be to dissensions if what pleased the Easterners displeased the Westerners? Finally, if anything in the present creed seemed insufficiently expressed, let them add what they thought should be added; they would give their consent to whatever was appended. This favourable declaration was received by the willing minds of all, and our party no longer dared to resist, now desiring to bring matters to some kind of conclusion. The fraud of the Arians. Then professions conceived by Phoebadius and Servatio began to be published, in which Arius was first condemned, and all his perfidy. Yet the Son of God was not also declared equal to the Father, without beginning and without time. Then Valens, as if assisting our side, appended ^a proposition in which ^a hidden deceit lay: "That the Son of God is not ^a creature like the other creatures." The fraud of the profession deceived the listeners. For by those words, in which the Son was denied to be similar to the other creatures, He was nevertheless declared to be ^a creature — only superior to the rest. Thus neither party could fully think itself the victor or the vanquished, because the creed itself was in favour of the Arians, while the professions added later were in favour of ours — except that one which Valens had appended, which, not understood at the time, was at last perceived too late. In this way the council was dismissed — begun with ^a good beginning but consummated with ^a shameful end.

[9] Accordingly, with affairs flowing too prosperously and according to their wishes, the Arians hasten to Constantinople, to the Emperor. There they compel the delegates of the Synod of Seleucia whom they found, Eastern Bishops are terribly harassed. by imperial force and the example of the Westerners, to accept that wicked creed. Many who refused, harassed by injurious custody and hunger, surrendered their captive conscience. Many who resisted more steadfastly were stripped of their episcopate, driven into exile, and others put in their places. Thus, with the best Bishops either terrified by fear or led away into exile, all yielded to the treachery of the few.

[10] St. Hilary is sent back to Gaul. Hilary was present there at that time, having followed the delegates from Seleucia, with no definite orders concerning himself, awaiting the Emperor's will — in case he should perhaps be ordered to return to his exile. When he perceived the extreme danger to the faith — the Westerners having been deceived and the Easterners being overcome by wickedness — he (q) publicly presented three memorials requesting an audience with the Emperor, so that he might debate about the faith in the presence of his adversaries. This the Arians most vehemently refused. But still an exile. At last, as if ^a seed of discord and ^a disturber of the East, he was ordered to return to Gaul, without the pardon of his exile. But when he had traversed nearly the whole world, infected with the evil of treachery, uncertain in mind and tossed by ^a great weight of anxieties — since to many it seemed that communion should not be entered into with those who had accepted the Synod of Ariminum — he judged the best course of action was to recall all to amendment and repentance. By frequent councils within Gaul, He leads back the fallen Bishops. and with nearly all the Bishops acknowledging their error, they condemned what had been done at Ariminum and restored the faith of the Churches to its former state. Saturninus, Bishop of Arles, ^a truly wicked man of evil and depraved character, resisted these wholesome counsels; but even beyond the infamy of heresy, having been convicted of many and unspeakable crimes, he was expelled from the Church. Thus the strength of the party was broken when its leader was lost. (r) Paternus of Perigueux also, equally demented and not refusing to profess the treachery, was expelled from the priesthood; the rest were pardoned. It was established among all that it was by the service of Hilary alone that our Gauls were liberated from the sacrilege of heresy. But Lucifer, then at Antioch, held ^a far different opinion. For he condemned those who had been at Ariminum to such an extent that he even separated himself from the communion of those who had received them back under satisfaction or penance. He dies. Whether he determined this rightly or wrongly, I would not dare to say. Paulinus and Rhodanius died in Phrygia. Hilary died in his homeland in the sixth year after his return.

p. Also written Foegadius, Soebadius, Phoedarius, Febadius; more correctly, in Scaliger's opinion, Phoebadius — commonly St. Fiary — Bishop of Agen in Aquitaine, venerated on April 25. Gavidius succeeded him; this is the one Severus cites here. St. Servatius, or Servatio, is venerated on May 13.

q. These three memorials do not survive. They were different from the books against Constantius, which were discussed above. See Baronius, year of Christ 360, number 3.

r. He is absent from the catalogue of Bishops of Perigueux in Jean Chenu and Claude Robert; but they enumerate only seven Bishops before the year of Christ 1000.

LIFE

BY FORTUNATUS.

BOOK I.

PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] To the holy lord and most blessed Father in his merits, Pascentius the (a) Pope, Fortunatus sends greetings. Admonished by the pressing zeal of your devout heart, most blessed Pope, you are ever intent and exercised in divine acts with the observance of your sacred vocation, and you are engaged that you might be further exercised — so that it is easy to see that you were both born and advanced for the cultivation of ecclesiastical discipline, since you irrefragably preserve the foundations of the Catholic dogma of the ancient dispensation, and for the edification of your most beloved people, like ^a good builder adding something more, you hasten to continue the summit of the structure, not without the fear of God. Moved by love of this work, you have deigned to urge me Pascentius urges Fortunatus to write this Life. to set down in words the deeds of the most sacred man Hilary the Confessor, who from your very cradle nurtured you familiarly before his footsteps as ^a kind of special (b) household slave, so that I might repay in words the gift bestowed, and if not fully, at least (c) embrace and touch upon it in some part — so that when the voice and, as it were, the life of the most ancient shepherd should resound in the ears of the flock, he might approve the ministry and you yourself might not conceal your affection.

[2] But when I measure the poverty of my own talent, I so recognize the strong immensity of Blessed Hilary that it seems to me almost as difficult to speak of it as to touch the sky with ^a finger. He excuses his own inadequacy. Especially since even the torrent eloquence of Blessed Jerome (as I hear) refused to attempt it — he who judged himself so unequal to the material that he kept silent. But I, whom no irrigating streams of any learning come to aid, whom scarcely the attenuated drop of ^a meagre trickle has moistened, breathing nothing from my own fountain — by what temerity would I wish to extend my dry courses among the mighty rivers, the Euphrates of Blessed Hilary and the Nile of Jerome, when concerning that man even the most learned men, whatever they were able to say, said less than he deserved? And since it would be more prudent for me to admire so holy ^a man than to speak of him, it would have been more fitting to entrust this writing to Blessed Ambrose about his brother, in whom words joined to virtues flourished. Yet even if with my modesty I render obedience to you and perhaps an injustice to him of whom I do not speak worthily, we believe that what is committed through devotion may be pardoned. And lest ^a protracted page generate tedium rather than engage the listener, let us now set forth his life.

CHAPTER I.

The marriage, episcopate, and exile of St. Hilary.

[3] The Blessed Hilary, therefore, Bishop of the city of Poitiers, had his origin in the regions of Aquitaine, (a) which is separated from the British ocean by nearly (b) ninety miles. Among the Gallic families he was not obscure in the lamp of nobility; The homeland of St. Hilary, indeed, more than others adorned with the grace of high birth and the added lustre of his heart, his lineage, he came forth like ^a shining morning star among the stars. From his very cradle, his earliest infancy was nourished with such great wisdom his studies, that it could already then have been understood that Christ had commanded ^a soldier necessary to His own causes to be reared for the obtaining of victory. His wife and daughter. At last, having ^a wife and daughter, he so surrendered his venerable mind, filled with the Lord, to be formed by the rules of the Church that, while still established in the lay state, His innocence. he possessed the grace of ^a Bishop by divine direction. So intent was he on restraining himself by his own discipline, as if indicating the future form, that an irreproachable Priest might be prepared in the temple of Christ.

[4] He shuns heretics even as ^a layman. For that which still seems very difficult among mortals — for anyone to be so careful as to refuse to share ^a meal with Jews or heretics — the most holy man so abhorred the enemies of the Catholic religion that, I will not say ^a banquet, but not even ^a greeting was shared with them in passing. He avoided this, supported by the example of David, lest by sharing ^a table with heretics it should become ^a stumbling-block to him Ps. 68:23. O what ^a most perfect layman, whose imitators even Priests themselves desire to be — for whom to live was nothing other than to fear Christ with love and to love Him with fear! He edifies all. His followers run to glory; those who turn aside, to punishment. To the believer, rewards succeed; to the one who refuses, torments. Admonishing all concerning the work of pious religion, now instructing some in the confession of the inestimable Holy Trinity, now inviting others with the promise of the heavenly kingdom, he did not cease to sow in the people the words of truth, abounding with the fruit of faith.

[5] When this was known about St. Hilary — since so great ^a light, even if it had wished, could not be hidden (for it was necessary that it should transfer the darkness of others into light) — with the harmonious favour of the people, or rather by the proclamation of the Spirit of God, He is made Bishop. the man long destined for the mysteries was at last chosen as ^a Priest for the sacred altars. His reputation grew in him daily, the handmaid of his virtues; nor was his fame content merely to illumine the surrounding regions of Gaul, but filled foreign nations and lands, as the grace of his merits ran its course — and it was so ordered that the glory of the blessed Bishop should swiftly serve throughout the whole world.

[6] Therefore in the time of the Emperor (c) Constantius, when the Arian heresy was sprouting with poisonous blossom from its venomous root, (d) then the most holy man, stripped of fear and clothed with the fervour of faith, He bravely opposes the Arians. like ^a standard-bearer and warrior through the midst of the battle-lines, amid the roaring of enemies and the swords of heretics, thrust himself forward — secure in the love of Christ, fearing nothing of his own death, fearing only lest ^a prejudice against the faith, God forbid, should prevail. Hence by the Bishops (e) Valens and Ursacius, who persisted stubbornly in disturbing the Church of God with their perverse creed, the Emperor was persuaded to condemn to exile the most learned man of whom we speak, together with Dionysius of Milan He is sent into exile in Phrygia. and Eusebius of Vercelli. For the heretic could accomplish nothing against the invincible eloquence of St. Hilary. The enemy of the faith hoped that he could cast some clouds over the Catholic splendour if such ^a man, shut away in exile, were absent from the contest — since whenever any perverse person wished to contend with him, he was, as it were, mute and lame, able neither to bring forth words nor to run in his responses, but, as though swimming in the sea, was plunged beneath the wave of his eloquence. And so, sent into exile in Phrygia, ^a region of Asia, he gave thanks for the increase of his virtue — for the farther he departed from his own soil for the name of Christ, the more he merited to be drawn nearer to heaven.

[7] When he had arrived at that desired place, we must not pass over in silence what was divinely granted to him. For at that time, the Holy Spirit revealing it to him, he learned that ^a certain young nobleman, very wealthy and very handsome, was seeking to bind to himself in the bond of marriage his most Blessed daughter (f) Abra, whom he had left at Poitiers with her mother. He persuades his daughter Abra to virginity. But he, by the intervention of constant prayer, had provided for her ^a heavenly bridegroom without stain. Presently, when an opportunity presented itself, he sent ^a letter to his daughter, written in his own hand, seasoned with sufficient salt and, as it were, infused with aromatic ointments — which is preserved at Poitiers as ^a treasured gift. In it he indicated to her that her anxious father had provided for her such ^a bridegroom whose (g) nobility ascended to the heavens, whose beauty surpassed comparison with roses and lilies, whose eyes dimmed the light of gems, whose garment outshone the whiteness of snow, whose ornaments gleamed with inestimable splendour, whose riches enclosed kingdoms within them, whose wisdom flowed forth incomprehensibly, whose sweetness put to shame the honey of the comb, whose chastity endured unstained, whose fragrance was sweet with perfume, whose treasures stood without diminishment. He added, therefore, to his admonitions that his daughter should not join herself to anyone, separating from her mother first, but should wait for the father who had been promised to her, and for the bridegroom who was to come likewise with the promise. Abra received this sweetly, and, as it were, embracing her future bridegroom in her father's letter, she followed the admonition with confidence, not dissolving herself in marriage to anyone. But how she reached that bridegroom, the place is reserved for the following section.

CHAPTER II.

Deeds in exile, return to Gaul.

[8] He sets out for the Council of Seleucia. Meanwhile, as the perversity of the Arian heresy was spreading throughout the whole world, ^a general edict of the Emperor was issued ordering all the Eastern Bishops to assemble at (a) Seleucia, ^a town of Isauria, to debate what they held concerning the truth of the faith. Then, among the rest, in the (b) fourth year of his exile, St. Hilary was compelled to come from Phrygia to the aforesaid place, (c) having been given transportation to make the journey, to attend the synod.

[9] When he had approached ^a certain small town, he entered the church on the Lord's day. Immediately (d) Florentia, ^a pagan girl, burst through the crowd of people He baptizes St. Florentia. and declared in ^a loud voice that ^a servant of God had arrived there. Running to his feet, she did not cease to petition him until she had faithfully obtained from him the sign of the cross to be made over her. Florentius, her father, followed her, and the entire household together merited to be baptized in the name of the Lord. This Florentia, leaving her parents and clinging to his footsteps, was led all the way to Poitiers. She proclaimed that her father was not the one by whom she was begotten, but the one through whom she was reborn.

[10] After the council he approaches the Emperor. When he had arrived at Seleucia, he was received with great favour by all, because divine mercy had brought forth so prudent ^a man, known for his singular erudition, as ^a spectacle to the world, where the faith was to be judged. Then, after the examination, when the enemies had been identified and suppressed and the decrees had been set down in writing, ^a delegation bearing the favourable results of the synod was directed to the Emperor. St. Hilary went with them, although it had not been enjoined upon him, fearing lest the condemned perfidy might still gain strength against the dogmas of the faith.

[11] But it would take too long to relate how, at the Synod of Ariminum, through contrived pretence, heretical fraud, relating one thing from another, crept in with ^a serpentine glide; and how afterwards the same calumny was inflicted upon the delegates from Seleucia through the wickedness of the Emperor. When the athlete of Christ, Blessed Hilary, recognized this, he grieved deeply that the devil's falsehood had prevailed at Ariminum — He demands ^a public disputation with the heretics. to such an extent that it was even infecting the Eastern regions in the same way with contrived colours of depravity. Having presented three memorials to the Emperor, he poured forth his prayers that, in the Emperor's presence, with the adversaries assembled, he might have the liberty of disputing about the faith against the heretics — lest falsehood obscure the truth, lest wickedness prevail over justice, lest the Emperor resist God, lest perfidy rebel against the faith.

[12] Whereupon Valens and Ursacius, terrified by the guilt of their conscience — since, if the opportunity of contending were given, they recognized that they would soon be overthrown by Hilary's arguments — worked upon the mind of the Emperor, already to ^a great extent captive, to urge the man of God to return to Gaul, saying that while he was present, the heretical machinations could not succeed. He is sent back to Gaul. Under this pretext, he was compelled to return to Gaul, considering himself to be suffering exile all the more because he was leaving behind there the disturbance of the Church, without having achieved the conclusion of the disputation. O blessed Bishop, who in the utmost danger, even before ^a judge hostile to him, approached the tribunal of the Empire without fear of torment! Truly with all his being he loved the kingdom of Christ, he who did not fear Constantius in his sovereignty. For in that he thus exposed himself to open danger for the Lord, he desired martyrdom, had there not been lacking an executioner; and yet his spirit received the glory, even if the occasion did not bring the punishment. But I testify that this very man was preserved at that time by the divine will for the correction of many. For that nearly the entire world, confounded by grievous error, He convenes many synods. was through Hilary brought back to the way of truth by synods frequently held in Gaul, the voice of many confesses. But what difference does it make whether he was made ^a Martyr for his own sake unto eternal life, or lived longer so that the rest might not perish? Therefore, even though the sword of the persecutor did not take away his most holy soul, he himself did not lose the palm of martyrdom.

[13] And so, when Hilary was returning to his homeland, then Blessed Martin — equally not hidden by the light of his merits, He has St. Martin as ^a companion of his journey and ^a follower of his virtue. who had been (e) subsequently appointed an Exorcist by the same St. Hilary — upon learning of his approach, hastened to meet him at Rome. When he learned that Hilary had already passed through, he followed him all the way to Gaul. For Martin, who while still ^a catechumen had merited to see Christ clothed in his own cloak, would not have devoutly hastened to meet him unless he had foreseen in him ^a spirit full of mysteries in every respect. Nor is it surprising that he who first saw God in the beggar should afterwards recognize Him dwelling in the Teacher.

[14] This also — so noble ^a miracle — it is not fitting for us to pass over. For when he drew near (f) the island of Gallinaria, He banishes serpents forever from the island of Gallinaria. he learned from the report of the local inhabitants that immense coils of serpents without number roamed about there; and on account of this, although the island seemed close to them, because of the inaccessible place it seemed farther from them than Africa. Hearing this, the man of God, sensing that victory over the bestial foe was coming to him, descended to the island in the name of the Lord, preceded by the aid of the Cross. When the serpents saw him, they turned to flight, unable to endure the sight of him. Then, fixing his staff in the ground like ^a boundary marker, he designated by the power of his virtue how far they should be allowed to go; and no longer was it permitted them to occupy what he had forbidden — as if this island were not dry land but the sea, since they always dreaded to touch that part. It was easier for them to cross the sea than to disobey his voice. O immovable boundary, planted by ^a word! It is evident how much better the second Adam is than the first. The first obeyed the serpent; the second has servants who can command the serpents. The first was cast from the seat of Paradise through the beast; the second drove the serpents from their own lairs. The ancient serpent laid aside its falsehood, having learned to obey ^a command. O the sweet and (g) pure medicine of Hilary, before whom the venom was put to flight without delay! He restored land to men, because inhabitants migrate to the place of the beast. But let us return to the order of events.

CHAPTER III.

Raising of the dead. Death of daughter, wife, and of Hilary himself.

[15] When he returned to Poitiers from exile, all rejoiced together with the greatest enthusiasm He is received at Poitiers with the utmost joy. that the Church had received its Bishop and the flock its shepherd. And as if all had then returned to their homeland with him, they wept that without him they had been exiles. And so, when he had commanded Blessed Martin to remain at the village of (b) Liguge, there Blessed Martin merited, by divine power, to raise ^a dead man to life.

[16] At length, after some days, ^a certain infant died without the regeneration of baptism, condemned by ^a double death: he had lost the light of the present life, and he was not free from the punishment of the age to come. Then the mother of the dead child — who was no longer ^a mother, since she no longer had ^a son — threw herself at the feet of St. Hilary, and, preceded by her tears, poured forth the body of her son, crying out: "Martin, still ^a beginner, recalled ^a dead catechumen to life. You, O Bishop, restore, I beg, my son either to me or to baptism. You who are recognized as the Father of the people, obtain, I pray, He raises ^a dead man. that I may be called ^a mother." When the man of God was moved to pity by her entreaties — for she asked more with tears than with words — he, in the sight of the people, had recourse to his accustomed arms and prostrated himself upon the ground. Presently the pallor of the dead child gradually turned to ^a rosy hue; the cold limbs grew warm as the spirit was recalled; the eyes, the doors of the eyelids opening, recognized the unfamiliar light; the voice, air being drawn in, was formed and brought forth from the dwelling-place of the breast; the steps of the revived child were extended in his own footsteps; and the entire structure was renewed to the state of its former foundation. What more need I say? The Priest lay in the dust until both rose together — the old man from prayer, the infant from death. Behold ^a praiseworthy life, which by prayers drove death from another's body! He despoiled hell, having his hope in Christ. Death held no rights there where Hilary exerted the force of prayer. But so great ^a deed cannot be more adorned by our words than by his own merits. Now, however, we must relate what we (c) promised above — how he heaped the remaining miracles upon this one.

[17] At length, when he found his most Blessed daughter Abra — to whom he had sent ^a letter from exile — safe, he addressed her as the affection of ^a father and the eloquence of an orator could. What shall I say? Hilary addressed her — He obtains from heaven the death of his daughter Abra. to whose eloquence we scarcely dare to compare anyone after him, except one who, like him, had been filled with the divine Spirit. He tested her spirit: whether she wished to attain the bridegroom whom her father's grace had provided. Then willingly and eagerly she prayed that she might be quickly joined to him. When the pious father recognized her will, intent on his prayers, he did not cease until, without pain and without defilement, in his presence, his daughter departed from the mockery of this world to Christ. With his own hands, as was fitting, he consigned her to (d) venerable burial. O glory of ^a funeral, which is considered better than life — because what it snatched from the earth, it transmitted to heaven! Truly, as I consider it, it was more to die thus than to be raised from the dead. For certain salvation consists in not being stained by sins. How many would wish, their possessions having been surrendered along with their life, to purchase such ^a departure, if perhaps they might find ^a merchant! What difference is there between the mystery of the infant who was given life and the daughter who was given death, except that he raised the one for baptism and destined the other for the kingdom; and that in the one the possibility of sinning still remained, while she had ended her life unstained?

[18] When the mother of Blessed Abra saw this, she petitioned the Bishop Then also for his wife. that she too, if she might be worthy, being snatched from the guilt of the world, might be presented to the kingdom with her daughter. Considering her prayers, by constant prayer he sent her also before him to glory. (e) Who would have thought that such ^a man so loved the Lord that he despised the affection of wife and daughter? Yet in this he is recognized to have loved them more, since through him they were transferred to perpetual light.

[19] Who would attempt to unfold the abundance of his irrigating intellect, or whose words could equal his words? How he wove together books on the undivided Trinity in ^a (f) swelling style, The books of Hilary, or how he unlocked the writings of the Davidic song in (g) elevated discourse, passage by passage! How provident he was in discernment, how profound in exposition, eloquent through learning, wonderful through virtue, manifold in his arguments, his erudition, subtle in resolution, astute in accordance with prophecy — or rather, prudent, in the Lord's words, as ^a serpent, not losing the grace of the simple dove! Matt. 10:16. He himself was the salt of ^a seasoned intellect, ^a fountain of speech, ^a treasury of knowledge, ^a light of doctrine, ^a defender of the Church, ^a conqueror of its enemies. Whoever reads his words will believe that he does not merely speak but thunders. It was beyond human wisdom to judge so carefully concerning religion. But whoever wishes to know him, let him recall his exiles, consider his merits, reread his volumes, weigh his words, his various labours, survey his daily signs. While he survived in this world, he either wrote the documents of the ecclesiastical faith, or trampled the heretical crimes by fighting, or bestowed the help of miracles upon those who sought them — which, by the Lord's will, continue to this day through his prayers. But my tongue does not suffice to set forth individually, as is worthy of him, all the works of the Holy Spirit who worked and spoke through him. May the pious man grant me pardon, because I have passed over much, having barely recorded ^a few things.

[20] Thus the life of the most blessed Hilary departed from this present world to Christ with glory, in the reign of Valens and Valentinian, His death. with the earth mourning and heaven rejoicing — through the same Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK II. ON HIS MIRACLES.

PROLOGUE.

[1] To the holy lord and most blessed Father in his merits, Pascentius the Pope, and to the inhabitants of the Church of Poitiers, flourishing perennially in the fruitful love of Christ, Fortunatus sends greetings.

Reasons for writing. Since the ancient authors of pagan volumes were motivated by the cause of inflated reputation to display to all the pomp of their eloquence — while amid the fortunes and funerals of kings, that is, amid prosperity and adversity, in ^a confused order of speech, they (a) attempted in ^a manner to sing and weep at the same time, so that either those who spoke or those of whom they spoke might at least live on in books, even if they had perished vainly in empty deeds — why should I, impelled by the prompting of ^a better hope, suffer the living merits and victories of the supreme Confessor to be passed over in silence, not without, God forbid, incurring heavenly punishment? For I would scarcely be paying my due debt even if, with untiring voice, I sang continuously day and night of the splendour of the unfailing lamp of Blessed Hilary. By what ignorance, pray, would I be ensnared, or by what offence driven, to persist in such ^a purpose under ^a heavy torpor — so that while those deceived authors, with lengthy treatment, fashioned something from the dissolved image of shadows and animated dust-reduced corpses with false praises, I should relate nothing about the Saints who abide and, what is more blessed, flourish daily in the kingdom of Christ? Especially where there appears to be ^a different cause for the rewards of the different parties: for the pagans wished the fruit of their labour to consist only in vain favour, while we ought to plant our hope in the intercession of the blessed. The intercession of the Saints is to be sought. If we here pay them the tribute of our words, there we gain their joys. Therefore let the active tongue render its praise to him from whom hearts first conceived this affection. For it is openly believed that his good deeds are envied if what we have learned about him should seem to be concealed by silence.

[2] Many miracles of Hilary are unknown to the author. Rightly, therefore, together with the rest, he compels me also to speak of him — he who releases even the mute to speak. But although I have not been able, with the lapse of years stealing them away, to reach all that he performed while living in the body, or how much he accomplished after, amid the applause of Angels, he departed from the contest of the world as ^a victor to Christ and eternal rest, yet I desire at least not to deny to needy memory what miracles the merciful one has granted in the present time — so that whoever receives these things with faithful hearing, as is fitting, may both rejoice to learn of the past and trust that similar things will be done in the future by the power of the Confessor.

CHAPTER I.

The sick, blind, lame, and lepers healed.

[3] When Probianus was hanging at the boundary of life, with his end already uncertain, The dying Probianus is healed. and envious death was hastening to snatch from his parents the hope of his infant's recovery — not considering the bitter funeral of the little child, nor regarding the longings of his groaning old age, greedily enclosing all that it found, concluding everything beyond its lot — yet by the sole intercession of Blessed Hilary there remained for the dying child an occasion of salvation. His father Franco and his mother Periculosa — who, with her son's name reversed, was more in peril of his death — already meditating as it were the obsequies of the deceased, carried him with great grief and weeping into the tabernacle of the Confessor. Then St. Hilary, displaying the medicine of ^a secret art from his Author, accustomed to restore the profits of health from the losses of death, by the working of his word suddenly raised up the crumbling structure of the child's limbs and reformed it to its former state, as if nothing in it had been loosened. Immediately he dried the tears of the parents as the weight of joy came upon them; he closed up their groans as their desire was fulfilled — where now there was no cause for sorrow, but rather they wept for very joy. What punishments, what torments did death itself then suffer, when it thus lost what it believed it was seizing? Surely, when, victorious, it could not strike the other, it struck itself, now vanquished. He later became ^a Bishop and paid annual vows. This Probianus afterwards merited to obtain the pinnacle of the (a) pontificate, and to this very day, at the shrine of his physician, each year the debtor of life pays his tribute.

[4] This miracle also — so singular for the glory of its bestower — must be recalled to the memory of the people. For when two men had come from (b) the Cahors region, disfigured by the stains of leprosy, Two lepers are cleansed by the dust of the tomb of St. Hilary. placing the hope of their salvation in the intercession of St. Hilary, they persisted in washing their heads with the dust that was wiped from his tomb mixed with water, and anointing the rest of their limbs. They faithfully applied such ^a cure to themselves (c) until the ulcerous variety of that infirmity migrated as ^a captive from the body it had held captive — so that, deceived in its comforts, it left unviolated the complexion it had invaded and did not retain the appearance of ugliness it had brought with it. After innumerable wounds, therefore, ^a single skin was restored over all their limbs. That countenance, long defaced by filth, began in both of them to be repainted with its own image, and not to be recognized for what it had been through the infirmity. For through the most faithful washing of the dust, ^a purifying Jordan was found for them at Poitiers; and they did not go to the river, but the river came to them. From this the compassion of the Confessor shone forth so remarkably Afterwards they were promoted to Holy Orders. that it both spared them the labour of ^a long journey and granted them their prayers for health. O what proofs of inestimable virtues shone forth, where the impurities of the tomb cleansed the stains of leprosy! What skill of what physician could have accomplished this — to bring the benefits of medicine from such dust? Of these, (d) Castricus was ordained Deacon and (e) Crispus Subdeacon, and they clung to the service of him by whom they had been healed until the end of their lives. And rightly did they choose to bear the yoke of the (f) Lord, from whom they had been set free from punishment.

[5] A contracted hand is healed. A certain girl, coming into this life, had drawn with her ^a dead right hand, formed thus by nature, and the contracted threads of the sinews had gathered the feeble hand into the shape of ^a ball; the loose fabric of the fingers drooped on its own thread. Then, coming to the tomb of the most Blessed Hilary, through his intercession she was restored to the living offices of her hand. Gradually ^a mobile vigour crept into the numb joints and nails. After long periods of time, ^a hand was then born for her when she experienced the gifts of the Confessor. She had come forth dead from her mother's womb; she returned alive from the tomb of the Saint. Behold how generous is the mercy of the rewarder, that he supplied the limbs which nature had not produced.

[6] Sight is restored to ^a blind man. Nor is it fitting to pass over what befell ^a blind man, (g) fortunate after his vows. For when he was hastening intently to the shrine of Blessed Martin to recover his sight, passing by the church of St. Hilary he entered it. While the clergy were celebrating the vigils in their usual office, at daybreak, his eyes being opened, he himself began to announce the day to others — he who had always needed to hear it. For him there had always been ^a single night; that night St. Hilary purged his darkness. He who had never seen the ornaments of the day — for him ^a new sun of wondrous brightness began to rise. Then all things were fashioned for him, when he merited to see their creation; and, so to speak, in ^a manner the world was born for him after him, when it became known to him. The blind man was hastening to approach the church of Blessed Martin; but this Saint deigned to illuminate him in his own church. How great the grace of the giver shines forth, who anticipates the desires of the suppliant!

CHAPTER II.

Victory obtained, and other miracles.

[7] What worthy thing shall I also relate of so royal ^a mystery, which was conferred by him upon the King? For when King (a) Clovis, about to fight against ^a heretical nation, had his armed battle-lines in readiness, (b) in the middle of the night he merited to behold ^a light coming from the basilica of the blessed man upon himself, He promises and obtains victory for Clovis with light and voice. and was also admonished to hasten down — though not without prayer at the venerable place — to engage the enemies. Diligently observing this and attending to prayer, he advanced to battle with such prosperity — as though another would fight for him — that within the third hour of the day he obtained from the Lord ^a victory beyond human expectations. There, the multitude of slain corpses was seen to have raised (c) hills from themselves into mountains. Behold prodigies to be terribly dreaded, and miracles to be delightfully embraced! It was not enough for him, for the comfort of the King, to display ^a sign of light, unless he had also openly added admonitions of voice. Something similar occurred in the time of the Israelite people by the same cause of virtue. For there ^a pillar of fire had preceded the people; here the figure of ^a lamp admonished. I would wish to know what was the secret mystery of so great ^a fire, so manifestly displayed. But as far as I can discern by his inspiration, I shall not be silent. For against the heretical battle-lines, just as he once did not cease to fight in the body, so (d) he believed that the steadfastness of battle against the Arian Alaric had returned to him in the spirit. How great was his eagerness for the worship of the Catholic religion at all times, since even while placed in rest he did not lack an abundance of solicitude! For he who then in the synod brought forth faithful words to confound the enemy, here on the battlefield wielded the arms of victory.

[8] Again, ^a contracted hand is healed. A woman in the village of Tonnay, while carrying water for her work on the Lord's day (it is not for me to know what sin prompted this), had her hand drawn in, the course of the veins being dried up. Then she was warned by ^a revelation to hasten to the shrine of the Saint if she wished to be healed. Trusting in this message, she ran joyfully, as if with the forerunner of her own health. And while the psalms were being sung in the church, likewise on the Lord's day — on which the punishment had preceded — the release brought joys. Behold the lovable custom of the singular patron, who, in order to find something to bestow, even seeks out the causes! O blessed Hilary, to be sung by the heart, mouth, and voice of all! Whose generosity is so abundant that he not only does not hide himself from anyone, but actively presents himself! Let us come to other fruits of venerable miracle.

[9] A paralytic is healed. A certain paralytic girl, advanced in years, was living without the offices of life. Within the funeral of her dead body, only her surviving soul throbbed, and in her entire corpse her eyes alone, as it were, were alive, and, as if dead, her waking eyes watched over the limbs within her. Her torpid tongue did not run nimbly within the chamber of the palate; nor could ^a voice, drawn up from the depths of the breast, be arranged into words; her hand, when released, grew languid and did not perform the services owed to nature; nor did her unsteady foot sustain (e) the ruins of her limbs. Still the unformed mass of her entire body lay torpid. When she was placed within the church on the day of his feast, she was raised up with immense rejoicing before the eyes of all. And thus in the body of ^a single disabled person the Saint accomplished many miracles: he strengthened the weakened traces of the knees, he fitted the stiff tongue for flexibility and facility of voice, he armed for the work of wool-making the palms that had once been feeble, and he animated the lineaments of the internal organs by the grace of his pious gift. At last the old infant burst into speech, and — what is most notable — with her first voice she sought the nourishment of milk. Therefore, that such food should be demanded before all else — what else is to be understood, than that when she was healed, she believed herself then to have been born for the first time?

[10] Nor let so faithful ^a mystery be removed by harmful forgetfulness. When two merchants had come to the basilica of the Blessed one, having ^a piece of wax as if jointly held in common, The offering of one unwilling to give is rejected. one of them addressed the other, urging that they should at least willingly offer it, however small ^a thing, to so great ^a Confessor. But he spent his words in vain upon the mind of his unwilling partner. He himself, however, prostrated himself in prayer with his associate, and secretly placed the wax before the screens of the awe-inspiring tomb. Immediately the form of the wax divided itself into perfect equality, and the portion of the faithful offerer was accepted, while the other portion, in the sight of many, was repelled by rolling away to the other screens, by divine direction, with every contempt — as though the Saint was unwilling to seize what the other man had not devoutly offered to him. And since he always abhorred what did not come from faith, he is as certain in his judgment as he is merciful in his favour. O how incorruptible this arbiter shines forth! (f) He is more scrupulous in the examination of ^a gift than that creature which chastely produces wax is in the selection of flowers. Then he who had refused to offer, confounded by the testimony of his admitted crime and struck by the guilt of immense shame — after he saw the reproaches of such great disgrace sprouting from the root of his own conscience, and beheld the crimes of his secret thought revealed in plain sight — he reflected, groaned, and wept, so that at least by the irrigating fountain of tears he might wash away what he had defiled by ^a sinning heart. Afterwards, chastened by the judgment of the wax, he offered greater things.

[11] Likewise, when on ^a certain night, according to custom, ^a candle had been lit there, it happened that the burning candle fell upon his tomb — of him who by his intercession gives life to the dead — so that it burned thoroughly upon the (g) covering-cloth on which it fell, yet without any damage. Fire does not harm the covering of the tomb of St. Hilary. For the wax was found lying along the full length of the candle, the wick having been consumed — as if the wax itself had made ^a barrier between the fire and the cloth, so that through it the cloth was found to be defended by the very substance which could have burned it. Observe the miracle: so that the command of the Confessor might be obeyed — he who always knows how to subdue and consume — here the fire feared the wax. The very substance that it had taken as an aid for burning seemed to have resisted it. But among these things, this rather admonishes us to say that, by the power of the Confessor, the flames which the wax produced were extinguished, and by ^a reversed order, that by which it could be devoured was itself smothered. The diverse elements seemed to have exchanged their nature: lest the fire should do any harm here, the cloth served as marble, and the wax as ^a river. But how small ^a thing is it for him to extinguish the light of ^a candle, who kindles the light of the blind? Or when at the tomb of another's corpse he restores the fire of the eyes, how easily do we believe that from his own tomb he can expel the flames?

[13] I would wish, still insatiate, to sing the miracles of the most sacred man, as if in ^a special hymn, but I fear that, where I desire to show my devotion, Epilogue of the book. I may seem to be blocking the mind of the listener as tedium arises. Grant me, pious one, pardon for the smallness of this text; attribute the fault to circumstance — lest, while I desire to avoid the weariness of men, I seem to incur the displeasure of the Confessor, of whom I would be saying too little even if I filled whole books. But I presume to say less about you, rather than more, so that brevity may more readily invite the people to read about you — with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

ANOTHER MIRACLE OF ST. HILARY.

From St. Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of Confessors, chapter 2.

The most blessed Hilary, in the fourth year of his exile, returned to his own city and, having completed the course of his good work, departed to the Lord. At his blessed tomb many miracles are reported to have been displayed, which the book of his life contains. But in particular, two lepers were cleansed at that place. There was ^a mountain in the territory of (a) Gevaudan called (b) Helanus, having ^a large lake. Rustic superstition at the lake of Helanus. At ^a fixed time, ^a multitude of peasants, as though offering libations to that lake, would cast in linen cloths and garments that serve for the use of male clothing; some threw in fleeces of wool, many also forms of cheese and wax and bread and diverse articles — each according to his means — which I think it would take too long to enumerate. They came with carts, bringing food and drink, slaughtering animals, and feasting for three days. An annual storm sent by the devil. But on the fourth day, when they were to depart, ^a storm of thunder and violent lightning would overtake them, and so great ^a rain with ^a violence of hailstones would descend that scarcely anyone of them thought he could escape. This happened every single year, and the ignorant populace was involved in error. But after ^a long time, ^a certain Priest from that city, having been assumed to the episcopate, came to the place and preached to the crowds that they should cease from these things, lest they be consumed by heavenly wrath. But his preaching was in no way accepted by the rude peasantry. The superstition and storm suppressed by the relics of St. Hilary. Then, by divine inspiration, the Priest of God built ^a basilica in honour of the Blessed Hilary of Poitiers at ^a distance from the shore of the lake, in which he placed his relics, saying to the people: "Do not, my children, do not sin before the Lord! For there is no religion in ^a lake. Do not stain your souls with these vain rites, but rather acknowledge God and pay your veneration to His friends. Worship St. Hilary, the Bishop of God, whose relics are here deposited; for he can be an intercessor for you before the mercy of God." Then the people, pricked in their hearts, were converted; and leaving the lake, they brought all the things they had been accustomed to cast into it to the holy basilica. And thus they were released from the error by which they had been bound; and the storm was thereafter forbidden from that place, nor did it any longer cause harm at this solemnity, which belonged to God, after the relics of the blessed Confessor were placed there. (c)

OTHER MIRACLES.

From Flodoard, History of Reims, book 4, chapter 48.

[1] There are here at Reims (a) two churches in honour of St. Hilary: one within the city, A paralytic healed. in which recently ^a certain girl, lame and paralytic, was raised up by divine power. The other, ^a more ancient church, is situated before the Gate of Mars, which (b) the holy Bishop Rigobertus gave to our predecessors, the Clergy, for their burial. For some time — namely before the departure or expulsion of the Lord (c) Artaldus the Bishop — this church was distinguished by frequent miracles. Whence it was also then repaired by him, with the citizens also lending their support, with new roofs and ceilings. A blind man given sight. For ^a certain blind man named Paul, admonished in ^a dream to go to that same church, where he would receive his sight, came there, and having recovered his sight without delay, departed seeing.

[2] A certain one of the Bishop's servants, while going to that same church, encountered ^a fisherman with fish before the doors of the church. Seizing them as if about to buy them, he took them. But the poor fisherman, so that St. Hilary might settle the matter between him and the thief, hurled the cries of curses upon him with ^a mournful heart. A thief punished. But the other, despising such words, entered the church as if to hear Mass. While he was standing there, he suddenly fell down, and, grievously tormented, was cast out. From this torment he suffered for no small time. In the cemetery of this church ^a certain (d) servant of God of Scottish origin was once buried.

OTHER MIRACLES.

Written in French by Jean Bouchet.

From the French of Jean Bouchet.

[1] A certain woman, equally oppressed by poverty and languor of strength, came to the basilica of St. Hilary at Poitiers. A sick woman healed. There, having poured forth her prayer to God and the holy Bishop, she was seized by ^a light slumber and seemed to see the Saint, warning her to go to the church of (a) St. Peter and implore his aid, which she would immediately experience. She obeyed at once and recovered her strength.

[2] At the time when the Danes burst into Aquitaine and inflicted terrible devastation far and wide, The deceit of ^a barbarian detected. ^a certain wicked man among them professed that he wished to give his name to Christ and be washed in baptism, promising that he would bring much profit to that province if Count (b) Arnulphus would consent to receive him from the sacred font. The Count agreed. The barbarian was washed in baptism, not to embrace the Christian religion in earnest, but to investigate its rites with curiosity. Dressed in white according to custom, he was led into the choir of the church to the tomb of St. Hilary. The sky was clear and cloudless; but ^a sudden force of wind tore the white garment — of which he was unworthy — from his head and body, and, raging through the basilica in ^a whirling storm, it vanished into the air. The barbarian, obstinate in his ancestral superstition, departed.

[3] (c) A certain woman named Goda, blind and with legs so miserably contracted that she could not walk without another's assistance, invoked the aid of God and St. Hilary A blind and lame woman healed ^a third time. and devoutly visited the church at Poitiers, where she obtained sight and the ability to walk by divine power. But scarcely had she returned home when she was seized again both in her eyes and in her legs. She returned to Poitiers and departed well again. This happened ^a third time. At last she resolved to reside in houses nearby, which she purchased after being healed again, and served ^a devout servitude to the Saint by sweeping the church and performing other tasks of that kind. They say this occurred because in her former dwelling she was repeatedly committing some kind of sin by which she provoked divine vengeance.

[4] Frotbandus, Abbot of the monastery of St. Genevieve at Paris, had sent relics of St. Hilary to ^a nearby village, to be inserted into an altar. Serpents put to flight. While this was being done, two enormous serpents that had lurked beneath it came forth with ^a foul hissing and, having gone out of the church, were immediately killed. So true is it that serpents have no safe resting place wherever the relics of St. Hilary are present — for he both put serpents to flight in former times and overcame the serpentine tongues of the heretics.

[5] A demoniac healed. A certain woman, with ^a demon inhabiting her body, was deprived of her senses and reason. She was brought to the church of St. Hilary at Poitiers; prayers were poured forth to God and the Saint; the demon was driven out; and she was free thereafter from all his infestation and, indeed, from her illness as well.

[6] About the year of Christ 1080, (d) William Geoffrey, Count of the Pictones (he who (e) founded the New Monastery at Poitiers), would come at first light to the morning prayers that were celebrated in the church of St. Hilary, accompanied by only two servants — ^a footman and ^a chamberlain. Entering the church, he struck with his feet ^a bundle wrapped in ^a cloth. He ordered ^a servant to pick it up, and Lost property recovered. upon learning that it contained twenty-five pounds minus four denarii tied together, he had it carefully kept. Then, intending to go to Rome, he ordered the servant to take the bundle along, so that — since he did not know to whom it should rightfully be returned — he might dedicate it to God there. Having crossed the Alps, he stopped at the house of ^a noble man who was his friend. Over dinner, various conversations were held about the tombs, miracles, and patronage of the Saints — with William especially extolling the wonders that occurred daily at the relics of St. Hilary at Poitiers. His host contradicted these claims, for he said that scarcely ^a year earlier, returning from Compostela, he had come to Poitiers and visited the church of St. Hilary very early in the morning, and having made ^a brief prayer (since his companions had already gone ahead), had offered four denarii; but when, about to leave, he noticed that the rest of his travel money — about twenty-five pounds wrapped in ^a cloth — had fallen from him, he searched everywhere in vain, poured forth many prayers to St. Hilary, and departed empty-handed. William understood that this was indeed the very bundle he had found. He therefore asked his host whether, if the bundle were produced before him, he could recognize it. The host begged him not to mock him. The Count ordered the bundle brought; and as soon as it was displayed, the host recognized it, and with even greater certainty when, the coins having been counted, he saw that four denarii were missing — the ones he had offered to the Saint. Both therefore gave thanks to God and to the Saint, and to the Count himself, who was no less exulting at the novelty of the miracle.

[7] William Rufus, though he lacked one leg, was accustomed, out of singular devotion to St. Hilary, to visit his church on horseback — even though his domestic resources were rather meagre. A theft prevented. He was in the habit of leaving his horse at the church doors while he devoutly venerated the shrine. A passer-by one early morning leapt onto the horse and rushed to the city gate (for the basilica of St. Hilary was now enclosed within the city walls), but was prevented by some hidden force from exiting. He tried the other gates, and not one failed to bar the thief's passage. This turned his mind from the crime he had begun. But he feared that if he returned the horse to the basilica door the magistrate would seize him and demand the penalties for theft. He entrusted the horse for the time being to ^a woman he knew, for safekeeping, and went himself to the church, intending to take counsel on the spot. He found Rufus greatly distressed by the loss of the horse and all but reproaching St. Hilary for allowing his horse to be stolen. The monks of that monastery were consoling the man as best they could, when suddenly the thief presented himself; and whether detected by the expression of his troubled countenance or recognized by some divine impulse, he was apprehended and confessed his crime. The horse was returned and he was pardoned.

[8] At the time when Henry, King of England, and his wife (f) Eleanor held power in Aquitaine, ^a disease unknown and deadly was spread abroad by divine vengeance. It consumed the limbs with ^a kind of fire that could not be seen; only foul ulcers and sores, not unlike cancer, gaped open. Many mortals were killed by it, having first been driven into some kind of frenzy. (g) I am not yet able to conjecture fully what kind of plague this was, The disease of "burning," or sacred fire, healed. unless it was that venereal disease which the common people call the Neapolitan disease. It then occurred to many to implore the aid of St. Hilary. Having devoutly visited his basilica, they received heavenly medicine. As the fame of this benefit spread among the people, as usually happens, very many were roused and flowed together in waves — both the sick themselves and their parents and friends. There was ^a certain pious matron who, inflamed with divine charity, voluntarily devoted her efforts to treating the foul, dripping ulcers of the wretched, while they kept sacred vigils in the basilica itself. One night she saw St. Hilary in pontifical attire, accompanied by other Bishops, going around to each one keeping vigil there and sprinkling them with water; all were found well the next day. The writer who recorded this reports that there was ^a threefold distinction among the sick who came there: some recovered upon visiting the Saint's shrine, others while travelling on pilgrimage to it, and others as soon as they left their own homes.

[9] A book of pious prayers, elegantly adorned with silver, had been found by the custodians of the church. A certain man took it — not to keep it by theft, but only to copy out the prayers. A certain young man was accused of the theft, and upon questioning, sometimes confessed the crime when overcome by torture, sometimes denied it. Therefore more severe torture was ordered: his hand was plunged into boiling water. Many spectators were present, among them the one who had taken the book. In public, in the middle of the church, the young man's hand was plunged into the boiling water, Innocence defended. and he suffered no pain or harm whatsoever. But as he drew his hand from the vessel, ^a drop splashed upon the face of the guilty bystander. Immediately the man was tormented by immense pain, his face swelling in ^a hideous manner. He therefore confessed publicly what had happened; and when the young man was acquitted, the real offender was also freed from his pain.

[10] Another similar miracle is recorded. A certain sacristan was falsely accused of having stolen one of the sacred vestments of the Church, which they call copes. He denied the crime and was prepared to disprove it even by fire. At that time, the customary form of proof at Poitiers, Again, when the guilty party was revealed. formerly received from the Goths, was by ordeal. An immense pyre was erected in the basilica itself. Having poured forth prayers to God and St. Hilary, full of faith and confidence in divine aid, he walked through the midst of the flames, his garments not even touched by the least heat of the fire. And immediately the one who had committed the crime was apprehended, and the vestment was recovered.

[11] A certain young man at Poitiers, deaf and mute from birth, seeing many flock to the tomb of St. Hilary, began himself to frequent that church A deaf man obtains hearing. and to serve its caretakers and ministers — assisting the sacristans and custodians in sweeping the church and performing the night vigils. One night, therefore, while keeping watch alone, he approached the tomb of the Saint, spread his arms in the form of ^a cross, and devoutly besought him to come to his aid. Hilary appeared to him as he prayed, in pontifical vestments, and asked what he wished. The formerly deaf man heard, and replied that he desired — if it so pleased God — to have the faculty of hearing and speaking bestowed upon him by his aid. The Saint said: "You shall hear, by God's granting me this favour; but that you may also speak has been entrusted to the patronage of St. Martin. Go to his tomb to give him thanks." The next day, therefore, he heard and understood everything that was said to him, and having said farewell to the custodians of the church with his customary gestures, he departed for Tours. There, when he wished to spend the night in the church of St. Martin, he was repulsed by the custodians. He obtains speech at the tomb of St. Martin. Outside, therefore, before the very doors, he spent the night in vigil, repeatedly pouring forth prayers to God and St. Martin. The next day he prevailed upon the sacristans by nods and gestures to allow him to remain inside the church for the following night. Here, as he prayed with ^a remarkable fervour of spirit, St. Martin appeared to him and commanded him to speak. He then spoke fluently, both then and ever after. The next day he related the entire matter; but it was not believed until it was confirmed by the testimony of the people of Poitiers.

[12] The same writer who committed these two miracles to writing also testifies that, when returning from Myra — where he had gone to venerate the tomb of (h) St. Nicholas — he saw in ^a certain place the walls of ^a ruined or collapsed church. Inquiring of an old man found there what building it had been, he learned that it had once been erected to St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers. Various diseases healed. For when Hilary was returning from the exile to which he had been banished by Constantius, he had arrived at that place toward nightfall, and since there was no house or cottage nearby to which he might turn aside, he entered ^a certain hollow stone tomb (for there was ^a cemetery there) and spent the night in it. When he departed the next day, the clearest water flowed from that same tomb; and those sick who bathed in it were immediately restored to health. When the news spread, very many flocked from all sides, and from their offerings was built the church whose ruins he now saw — which, neglected amid warlike disturbances, had now collapsed. The same writer adds that he also saw that tomb still moist.

[13] (i) At Bazas (a city of Gascony), the feast of St. Hilary was customarily celebrated, and all servile work was devoutly suspended from first vespers. A certain woman, however, who was accustomed to wash the linen furnishings of the church, despising the common piety of the people, dared to mend some garment or other. She was first seized by immense pain in her right hand, A violator of the feast punished. which then became so contracted, the sinews being convulsed, that it was joined to the elbow. She understood that this punishment had been divinely inflicted upon her for neglecting the feast. With many tears, therefore, she besought the Saint to forgive her. Yet she did not obtain the restoration of the former vigour of her right hand before the following feast of Pentecost. But when she was then in the cathedral, which she had seen to being swept, late in the evening, She is healed. she fell asleep and seemed to see ^a magnificent tomb, and ^a Bishop coming forth from it and addressing her with these words: "You offended God by neglecting the precept of the Church concerning the celebration of my feast; and therefore you have paid the penalty. But now your prayers have been heard, and you shall recover your former health." At the same time he took her right hand and restored it to its former position. When she awoke, she felt her hand to be strong as before. She therefore went to Poitiers and gave thanks to St. Hilary in person, and venerated his tomb — which was exactly as it had appeared to her in her sleep.

[14] When William Geoffrey, Count of Poitiers, and his son William ruled in Aquitaine, ^a certain nobleman came from (k) Burgundy — from which they were originally descended — to Poitiers, intending, as he said, to visit the Duke, his kinsman. When he was about to return to his own people after some time, the Duke offered him various gifts. The nobleman courteously refused them all; but said that, if the Duke's favour could grant him this, he desired to purchase certain estates which the Canons of Poitiers, who held them with full right of ownership, possessed in Burgundy, adjacent to his own house. Avarice chastised. The Duke promised to negotiate with the Canons. The Canons consented, the Duke lawfully transferring to them in exchange the village of Arsay in Aunis near La Rochelle. The following night, St. Hilary presented himself in ^a dream to that Burgundian and addressed him thus: "You came here, stranger, to despoil my Church of its possessions!" And he struck him three or four times on the head with his pastoral staff. The man was startled out of his sleep, crying out loudly. Servants rushed in; he recounted to them the dream, which was no idle one, and displayed the blows inflicted by St. Hilary. When the Duke learned of this, he ordered the Canons to keep both their former village (called Longuerue) and Arsay as well.

[15] A certain blind man long and earnestly prayed to St. Hilary for the faculty of sight, and having gone to Poitiers, spent many days in the same vows and prayers. One night he seemed to see St. Hilary in his sleep, declaring this to him: "Tomorrow at dawn you will find two Canons of this Church" (he expressed the name of each). "Announce to them on my behalf that they should correct their sinful life; Sight restored; wayward men warned. if they do not, they will shortly pay the penalty. But that they may believe, when the solemn trisagion is customarily sung during the solemn Mass which will take place today in this basilica, you will recover sight more keen and firm than you have had in all your previous life." Waking, and not considering the dream vain, when he had been led to the Saint's basilica and learned that those two Canons were conversing with one another, he approached them, addressed each by name, and related what he had seen and heard. They indeed scorned his words as the trivial terrors of dreams; yet, since they were conscious of their own crimes, they were struck with no small fear, and anxiously awaited the outcome of the other portent by which the threats were confirmed — as did their colleagues and the other Priests of that Church, to whom the blind man had indicated that his sight would be restored. When, therefore, it came to the trisagion, they surrounded the man, and as soon as "Sanctus" had been chanted three times, they beheld both his eyes opening and him clearly and distinctly perceiving all things; and they gave thanks to God and St. Hilary. Hildebrand, who recorded this miracle, says he did not learn whether those two Canons amended their ways, but that it is certain that they died shortly afterwards.

[16] Gregory, Archbishop of Tours, in his book On the Glory of Confessors, chapter 53, writes that within the territory of Poitiers itself, which borders on the city of Nantes — that is, in the village of (l) Ratiatum — ^a certain (m) Lupianus, St. Lupianus, baptized by St. Hilary, famed for miracles. passing away while still in his white baptismal garments, was laid to rest, who is said to have received the gift of baptism from Bishop Blessed Hilary but to have departed from the body soon after. By God, the generous giver of all good things, so great ^a grace was bestowed upon him that at his tomb ^a blind man merited to receive sight, ^a paralytic the power to walk, and ^a mute man the gift of speech.

[17] The same Gregory, in the same book, chapter 52, narrates that Thaumastus — (n) admirable in holiness in accordance with the meaning of his name — Bishop of the city of (o) Momoiacum, having been expelled from that same city for some unknown reason, sought the town of Poitiers; and there, persevering in ^a good confession, he ended his present life St. Thaumastus, who died holily at the tomb of St. Hilary. and had his tomb before the very atrium of Blessed Hilary. From this tomb, dust scraped off and consumed by many so healed the pains of teeth and fevers that those who consumed it marvelled at its effect. For that blessing was so frequently experienced that the sarcophagus was visibly pierced through in more than one place. I believe it to be one of the tombs seen in the chapel of St. Bartholomew; for one is perforated in many places, and women are still accustomed to scrape dust from it with ^a knife and mix it with the food of their little ones to cure colic pains. There are many such tombs, in which some believe the parents of St. Bartholomew to be interred. But I have seen no certain testimony of this, nor can I imagine who would have brought their bodies from Palestine to Poitiers — unless perhaps, while they were still living, they (p) followed St. Martial here, as did St. Amator and St. Verona.

[18] If I wished to pursue all the miracles that have been wrought here by the merits of St. Hilary in our memory, I would weave an immense volume. For at least five hundred persons whose mind had been disturbed and whose reason had been displaced Very many miracles of St. Hilary. have been restored to themselves there; and scarcely any are brought there who are not, after some time, either entirely healed or else die. He is also invoked to repel temptations against the orthodox religion, and by young men who are of duller intellect for learning letters; and indeed very many have affirmed to me on oath that they have experienced the present aid of the Saint in this matter.

p. On the age of St. Martial himself, we shall inquire on June 30. St. Amator, ^a disciple of St. Martial and Apostle of Cahors, is celebrated in the Gallican Martyrology on August 20; St. Verona, or Veronica, who is said to have wiped the face of Christ as He carried the cross, on February 15, or according to others February 4.

FIRST TRANSLATION OF ST. HILARY.

From various sources.

[1] After Hilary had departed from this life, deliberation was held as to the place where he should principally be entombed. Bouchet (part 1, chapter 14) relates that some advised he should be laid in the chapel of the episcopal palace which he had built — where the abbey of St. Hilary de la Celle now stands; The place of St. Hilary's burial. others maintained that he seemed to have chosen for himself ^a tomb in the church of Saints John and Paul, where he had buried his wife and daughter, and that his last wish should be honoured. This opinion all accepted with great assent.

[2] Priests, patricians, and ^a numerous populace accompanied the funeral, The funeral. all shedding tears abundantly, with many candles shining. The tomb-chamber was covered with walls and ^a vault — wooden, indeed, but elegantly gilded. While the body of the holy Bishop was being borne hither, ^a paralytic who had been confined to his bed for two years, perhaps roused by the noise of those passing by and having learned what was happening, A paralytic healed. raised his eyes and hands to heaven, praying to God that by the patronage of the pious Bishop, whom he believed already received into heaven, his strength might be restored. Scarcely had the prayers been formed when, vigour spreading through his limbs, he leapt from his bed and joined the funeral procession. The burial. The body of Hilary was placed between the bodies of his wife and his daughter Abra; each had ^a marble tomb, whether placed at that time or in the years immediately following — certainly they were found at the translation.

[3] A short time before Clovis gained possession of the kingdom of Gaul, certain devout men of Poitiers, intending to place ^a stone vault over the monument, ordered the earth around it to be dug up. Then ^a window was discovered on the right side, and ^a wall blackened by the smoke of candles once placed against it. The opening of the tomb. This was evidence that the monument had once been in the open, and that through that window there had been an unobstructed view of the Saint's tomb itself. But since the church had been overthrown more than once by warlike disturbances, the chapel had been covered with earth, lest any injury be done to the sacred body. Moreover, ^a most sweet odour exhaled from that window, which seized the spirits of the masons with ^a kind of holy awe, A miraculous fragrance. so that they declared they did not dare to proceed, being, as they said, covered with sins. Three Priests, their souls first seriously purified by confession, entered through the window and reported that the vault was gilded, that three marble tombs were beneath it, the middle one being Hilary's. The translation prevented. The citizens resolved that the sacred relics should be transferred into the city. But when one of the Priests died the next day, ^a second was struck with paralysis, and the third with blindness, they judged that this plan was by no means approved by heaven, and having blocked up the window, they desisted.

[4] What wars brought destruction to the church of St. Hilary at Poitiers will be easily understood by anyone who remembers those ancient devastations of the Gauls. For even before the irruption of the Franks, Aquitaine devastated by the Vandals. the Vandals and Alans first entered Gaul by crossing the Rhine on the day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of Arcadius VI and Probus — as Prosper relates — that is, in the year of Christ 406. And as Bede writes (book 2 of his History of the English, chapter 11), many other nations together with them raged throughout all of Gaul. And, as St. Jerome was then writing, "They devastated everything in the provinces of Aquitaine, of the Nine Peoples, of Lyons, and of Narbonne, except for ^a few cities — which the sword wasted from without The church of St. Hilary overthrown. and famine from within." Then indeed, as Bouchet asserts, part of the city of Poitiers and the basilica of St. Hilary itself were overthrown. The same Vandals, Alans, and Suevi entered Spain in the era 447, on the 4th day before the Kalends of October, ^a Tuesday, in the consulship of Honorius VIII and Theodosius III — as is found in the Chronicle of Idatius — that is, in the year of Christ 409.

[5] Shortly after, Aquitaine was handed over to the Goths, who held it for about ninety-five years. They were at last defeated by Clovis in the year of Christ 507, Its translation. and Poitiers passed under Frankish rule. Then the relics of St. Hilary were translated, once safety for Catholic piety was established. We shall give the history of this Translation as it is set forth by Blessed Peter Damian in his second sermon, volume 2. Its festive commemoration is customarily observed on June 26 and November 1. On the latter day, St. Hilary is celebrated in the Martyrology of Usuard printed at Lubeck in the year 1475, in Bellinus, and in the manuscript Florarium — with no mention made of the translation. Molanus in his additions to Usuard and the German Martyrology specify this at the same date, On what day it is observed. as does Maurolycus on June 26; and on both days Galesin, Ferrari, and Saussay. Bouchet (part 2, chapter 4) thinks the Translation occurred on June 26, on which day the solemnity was subsequently celebrated, with ^a most ample indulgence also obtained from the Popes. Ferrari says it is assigned to that day in the records of the Church of Poitiers, because November 1 is impeded by the feast of All Saints.

[6] Saussay has this eulogy on November 1: "At Poitiers in Aquitaine, the translation of St. Hilary, Bishop and Confessor, accomplished by the ministry of Angels, who bore the body of the most blessed Confessor — the precious instrument of divine glorification — from the old suburban monastery church, in whose crypt it had been laid, to the new basilica in the city, which Tredelinus, an Abbot of noted piety, had erected by divine command, Accomplished by Angels. and honourably deposited it in the place prepared for it — while the Bishop watched and marvelled. After having completed the solemnities of the dedication of the church, the Bishop was preparing, following the nocturnal prayers in which he and the Abbot and monks had been engaged, to transfer that precious treasure from the old site to the appointed sanctuary. For this wondrous anticipation he rendered abundant thanks to God together with those assisting, who had honoured the new obsequies of His beloved Bishop with the service of Angels rather than of men." The same writer, more briefly, on June 26: "At Poitiers, the translation of St. Hilary, Bishop and most illustrious Doctor of the Church, when his most sacred body was drawn from the tomb where it lay by the ministry of Angels and wonderfully conveyed to the new basilica of the monastery which Abbot Tudelinus had built in his honour." On both days he treats of the same translation. In the Supplement, again on June 26: "At Poitiers, the translation of St. Hilary" — which words in the Index at the end of the book are referred to ^a second translation, which he nowhere mentions. The Abbot Tudelinus, who is called Tredelinus and Tridolinus in the homily of Peter Damian found in Surius for this day and prefixed to the works of St. Hilary, is Fridelinus, or Fridolinus, as he is called in the Roman (1606) and Lyons (1623) editions of the works of Peter Damian; he is venerated on March 6.

[7] There are two churches of St. Hilary in the city of Poitiers: one of the monastery of the Order of St. Augustine, commonly called St. Hilary de la Celle, where he is believed to have lived and died. The Abbot of that monastery, Pascentius, as we said above, was made Bishop of Poitiers in the sixth century. The other is ^a collegiate church, Two churches of St. Hilary at Poitiers. whose Dean uses episcopal ornaments, and no Canon is admitted to the college without first having his character investigated. So writes Choppin (book 1 of Sacred Polity, title 8, number 7), and from him Claude Robert. This church is, as Du Chesne relates from Bouchet, the one which had been built by St. Hilary in honour of the holy Martyrs John and Paul, where he himself was afterwards buried together with his wife and daughter. For this church, the old one having been frequently overthrown, was rebuilt anew and is now enclosed within the city walls. It is commonly called the major basilica of St. Hilary, or Saint-Hilaire le Grand.

ON THE TRANSLATION OF ST. HILARY

SERMON OF BLESSED PETER DAMIAN.

[1] Let us rejoice and exult, most beloved, as we solemnly gather to recall the sublime merits of Blessed Hilary. For the very dignity of his distinguished name invites us, so that our mind, filled with spiritual joy, may cheerfully rejoice. The relics of the Saints are to be honoured. It is no less worthy that, while we behold the clod of his body and its slight dust brought forth with so great honour among men, our mind should weigh how great ^a weight of glory he possesses in the heavens, where true and incomparable honour resides. But let us now briefly review the history of this translation, so that no one may henceforward have any grounds for doubting the illustrious origin of this solemnity.

[2] Now when Fredelinus, Confessor of Christ, was laudably governing the monastery of Blessed Hilary, which is situated in the (a) suburb of Poitiers, and was distinguished there by the notable disciplines of holy living and the distinguished dignity of his character, St. Hilary commands the transfer of his relics. Blessed Hilary appeared to him manifestly in ^a (c) vision, and among other things commanded him with ^a certain authority of living power that he himself, together with the (d) Bishop of Poitiers, should without delay approach the (e) King of the Franks, who then held the reins of government, and confidently request the funds with which the monastery might be enlarged and made more magnificent. To these words he further added that, when the monastery had been newly restored, the holy Abbot should provide ^a suitable place in which his body, once translated, should be laid to rest. Discharging this mission of happy oracle, the King received them graciously and kindly and bestowed upon them magnificent gifts of royal generosity.

[3] His monastery is restored. The ministers of the Lord, therefore, building the monastery anew from the foundations through masons and bricklayers and magnificently restoring it, persevered with untiring labours at their begun tasks until they not only brought the fabric of the rising structure to its completion, but also clad the walls on both sides — that is, within and without — with the splendour of radiant mosaic. In this work, when the amount of the royal gift ran out, the Bishop did not cease to supply from the ecclesiastical revenues what was lacking. At last, therefore, when the monastery had been perfected not only in the structure of its completed fabric but also dedicated with the blessings of the priestly office, they soon demolished the tomb in which the holy body had been buried.

[4] (f) On the appointed day, therefore, on which they were to transfer the holy remains, on the preceding night, while the Bishop and the Abbot alike were keeping vigils and prayers throughout the night, they suddenly beheld the blessed Angels drawing the holy body from the tomb, which had already been opened, The body is transferred by Angels. and placing it with their own hands in the place that had been prepared for it.

[5] When these things had been accomplished, Blessed Hilary admonished St. Fridolinus in ^a vision to substitute in the governance of the monastery ^a certain (g) man of Scottish origin who was related to him by kinship, and to hasten himself to the island of (h) Gallinaria to build ^a church in honour of the same Blessed Hilary. Monasteries built elsewhere in his honour. He promptly and humbly obeyed the command of the blessed Priest, and built not only what had been commanded but also four (i) other monasteries in his honour. Although the (k) Life of Blessed Fridolinus, in which this history is said to be related, has by no means come into our hands; but what is written here became known through the testimony of fraternal report. This, therefore, is the cause of this sacred solemnity; this is the venerable matter of today's celebration: that in the Translation of the sacred body the devout people of the faithful may rightly rejoice — to whom the army of Angels paid the funeral honours.

[6] Moreover, on the occasion of this venerable Translation, the other deeds of the blessed man also return to our memory, Miracles of St. Hilary while still living. so that what was accomplished long ago, now brought back before your eyes, may seem in ^a manner recent and new. For as soon as we begin to discuss the deeds of this venerable man, there immediately comes to mind how he, as an impenetrable wall of the Church, withstood the missiles of the heretics, and how, as an invincible warrior, he crushed the perverse dogma of the Arians by the grace of Catholic truth. Nor should it pass unnoticed that, when he was heading for Seleucia, ^a town of Isauria, to fight against the treachery of the heretics, ^a pagan girl, divinely instructed, announced the arrival of so great ^a Priest, and therefore, together with her father Florentius and the entire household, merited to receive the sacrament of divine baptism. Nor does that distinguished miracle escape memory: that on the island of Gallinaria the venomous rage of immense serpents could not endure the power of so illustrious ^a Bishop, but, as if terrified by the crash of thunder, did not presume to pass even the mark of ^a worthless staff that he had set up. And this also comes in turn to memory: that the same outstanding Bishop not only raised ^a child who had died without the grace of regeneration and restored him alive and well to his mother, but also, having instructed him in the rudiments of the true faith, added him to the children of Holy Church.

[7] These, therefore, and many other marks of his virtues come before us on the occasion of this venerable Translation, which kindle us to the love of God and devotion to this illustrious Priest. Clearly, while Holy Church venerates the Translations of many just persons, which were accomplished by the diligence of men, with how much greater zeal of devotion is this one to be solemnly recalled, which was accomplished by the hands of Angels! Why the tomb of Moses is unknown, while that of St. Hilary is so glorious. But what does it mean that the Lord Himself buried the body of Moses, and yet did not wish his tomb to be known to men? While the body of Blessed Hilary He not only translated before men through Angels, but also exalted the glory of so great an honour to the reverence of the entire Church? Deut. 34:5-6. For concerning Moses it is written: "Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord's command; and He buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; and no man has known his tomb to the present day." What, then, does it mean that the one is unknown, while the other is daily visited with such great glory of Christian devotion? What, I say, does it mean that Moses is removed from the knowledge of men, unless that the occasion might be removed lest he who was known to have been so dear and familiar to God should receive divine honour from the perfidy of the Israelite people? But the bodies of the other Saints are not hidden, so that, as they are frequently visited by the approach of Christian devotion, both radiant signs of virtue may be wrought through them, and the accumulated sum of their blessed merits may increase for these. Moreover, some of the faithful are for this reason enclosed after death in more prominent tombs: to impress their memory upon the living, so that they may not neglect to render them the works of piety. Hence it is that ^a burial place is customarily called ^a MEMORIA — namely, so that through it the living may be reminded and the dead may receive refreshment.

[8] But what does it mean that certain Saints took such great care to provide tombs for their bodies? Abraham, for instance, purchases ^a double cave from the sons of Heth for four hundred silver shekels. Why the Patriarchs wished to be buried in the land of Canaan. Jacob and Joseph direct all the desire of their mind toward the same cave and demand that their bodies be carried there after death. What, then, does it mean that the holy Patriarchs — who clearly declare themselves to be dust and ashes, who certainly despise their bodies and all bodily things in the contemplation of heavenly things — so greatly desire their bodies to rest in the land of the Canaanites? Why do they prefer that place above other parts of the world for their rest, unless because they knew that the Author of human salvation would be born there from their seed? Hence Jacob beseeches his son Joseph, saying: "If I have found grace in your sight, place your hand under my thigh, and you shall do me kindness and truth, that you may not bury me in Egypt, but I shall sleep with my fathers, and you shall take me from this land and lay me in the tomb of my ancestors." Gen. 47:29-30. But why did Jacob ask that his son's hand be placed under his thigh as ^a sign to confirm the promise, unless because he knew that He who is the supreme Truth was to be propagated from his own seed? The blessed men, therefore, were already clinging in their innermost being to those borders of the land which they already perceived through the spirit to be trodden by the footsteps of the Saviour — which they already saw with interior eyes to be empurpled with the precious blood of the Lord's body — so that their bodies might there await their resurrection, where they knew the Author of blessed resurrection Himself was to rise.

[9] Let us too, most beloved, direct the clear gaze of our mind to Him. Let us hasten to Him with the eagerness of burning desire, even when we cannot reach Him by the progress of our feet. And while we offer the reverence of worthy devotion to the relics of whatever Saints, let us direct the gaze of our mind to that one and singular Body Why the Body of Christ is called the Promised Land. which we believe to be ineffably exalted in the glory of the Father's majesty. That, indeed, was the land to which the blessed Patriarchs and Prophets then sighed — the land, that is, flowing with milk and honey. For milk flows from the breasts of the flesh, but honey comes from above. And because the substance of the Lord's body came forth from the womb of the Virgin, while His divinity descended from the Father's majesty, rightly is the body of the Saviour called the land of promise. This land is said to flow with milk and honey together because in the body of our Redeemer there is both the substance of true flesh and the ineffable sweetness of the Godhead. Col. 2:9. "For in Him" (as the Apostle says) "the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily." And elsewhere: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." 2 Cor. 5:19. May He deign to lead us into this land of the living who did not disdain to endure the mortal conditions of our earth — so that we may there be fed on milk and honey, and be satisfied with the presence of our Saviour and the honeyed sweetness of His divinity: who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

SECOND TRANSLATION OF ST. HILARY.

From various sources.

[1] Whether the relics of St. Hilary were subsequently carried to Paris by Dagobert, or were perpetually preserved and venerated at Poitiers, Whether the relics of St. Hilary were translated to Paris. is disputed by more recent writers; and it is not easy for us to pronounce which side we should agree with.

[2] Alcuin Flaccus, in his homily on the feast of St. Willibrord, expressly asserts that in his own time — namely, under the reign of Charlemagne, ^a century after the death of Dagobert — the remains of Hilary were at Poitiers: Authors who deny it. "More blessed," he says, "does fruitful Poitiers exult in the relics of the Blessed Bishop Hilary than in the exchange of buying and selling." Blessed Peter Damian, in his sermon on the Translation above (number 7), presupposes that in his own time — that is, about the year of Christ 1060 — they were still at Poitiers: "Which thing God," he says, "not only translated before men through Angels, but also exalted the glory of so great an honour to the reverence of the entire Church." And this he soon explains: "Where it is daily visited with such great glory of Christian devotion."

[3] Bouchet testifies to the same, both in the miracles related above and in part 2, chapter 4. Here pertains what the continuator of Aimoin writes in book 4, chapter 44, concerning the aid given to the people of Poitiers by St. Hilary: "In the second year after these events," he says, "the aforementioned Hugh the Great (father of Hugh Capet) besieged Poitiers; but it availed him nothing. For while he was besieging that city, one day the Lord thundered with great terror, and ^a whirlwind tore his tent from top to bottom; Poitiers defended by St. Hilary. and ^a great stupor seized him and his army, so that they could scarcely escape. Immediately, turning to flight, they withdrew from the siege of the city. The Lord did this through the intercession of Blessed Hilary, who was always the protector and defender of that city."

[4] Aimoin himself, in book 4, chapters 17 and 33, describes the church of St. Denis built by Dagobert; and in chapter 20, the despoiling of the church of St. Hilary by the same king, in these words: The church of St. Hilary despoiled by Dagobert. "Among other spoils of the Churches of Gaul taken on the occasion of adorning the basilica of St. Denis, he is reported to have carried off the doors, wrought from cast bronze, from the church of St. Hilary at Poitiers; and when he had ordered them transported by sea into the Seine, so that they might be brought thereby to Paris, one of them, swallowed by the river, was never afterwards found." But nothing about the relics of St. Hilary — nor do the other ancient writers mention anything, as Bouchet shows at length in part 2, chapter 5. Du Chesne published many deeds of Dagobert in volume 1 of the writers of Gaul, transmitted by contemporary or certainly ancient writers; but not one of them mentions ^a translation of the relics of Hilary of this kind.

[5] Bouchet says the first to write that such ^a translation was made was ^a monk of St. Denis, the author of the great Chronicle of France in the French language. Jacques Du Breul, in book 4 of his Antiquities of Paris, calls this man Guillaume de Nangis, Who write that the translation was made. who flourished in the year of Christ 1300. Robert Gaguin followed him in book 3 of his History of the Franks. Yet Bouchet denies that either of these two deserves credit, since they commit other enormous errors. The words of Gaguin are: "As though everything were owed to the worship of St. Denis, Dagobert the King transported by sea from Poitiers to St. Denis the bronze doors of immense weight, the baptismal font where the Priests performed the mystery of baptism, and the body of St. Hilary — with no compensation made for the sacrilege. Yet he did not gain the entire plunder: for one of the doors, while committed to ^a ship to be transported by the ocean, slipped into the waves and was hidden forever. But because some occasion for sinning readily assists wrongdoers, they say the cause of the sacrilege was the rebellion of the people of Poitiers. To suppress them, Dagobert, judging that everything belonged to him by right of war, after he had ravaged the fields and depopulated the city, ordered all the walls demolished, the ground ploughed, and salt sown in it to induce sterility." So writes Gaguin from the great Chronicle; in which it is added that ^a new city was rebuilt on ^a different site from the first. How credible these things should seem, the churches themselves declare — some of which are reported to have existed several centuries before Dagobert, as Bouchet asserts. He admits that some sacred relic of ^a St. Hilary — but not necessarily the Hilary — is in the abbey of St. Denis, to which ^a chapel is also consecrated. And indeed there were very many Hilarys in Gaul. Saussay celebrates twelve in his Gallican Martyrology.

[6] More recent writers, moreover, write that the relics were consumed by fire at the hands of the Calvinists in the preceding century. So writes Lawrence Surius in his Commentary on Events in the World at the year of Christ 1562: The relics are reported to have been burned by Calvinists in 1562. "At Poitiers also, those desperate and wretched men produced notable examples of their atrocity. They also raged in ^a terrible manner against the churches and residences of the Canons. There were preserved there the bones of Hilary, the most holy Bishop, whom St. Jerome not unworthily calls the trumpet of the Latin language against the Arians; and also of Radegund, Queen of France, whose devotion to God was extraordinary and whose life was most holy; and of other Saints as well. These bones and sacred relics those impure villains cast out and, according to their custom, burned." And Saussay, under November 1, after treating of the earlier translation made by St. Fridolinus, adds: "Whence it is that the deserters of the ancestral faith are overwhelmed with immense shame — they who, with astonishing audacity and hands deserving to be cut off, tore from that place, to be defiled not so much by insults as by their own profane contact, the limbs of the blessed friend of God which Christ willed to be handled by the ministry of the purest spirits and laid in the chamber of rest and glory; and they did not shrink from consuming them in the flames of which they themselves were worthy." So writes Saussay, who assumes as beyond doubt that the body was taken by the heretics from the place where it had been deposited by St. Fridolinus.

[7] But the monks of St. Denis claim the remains of the holy Doctor for themselves not solely on the authority of Nangis or Gaguin, but also on the basis of the ancient records of their monastery and the constant tradition of their predecessors. Jacques Doublet certainly testifies in book 1, chapter 42, of his History of the same monastery, that ^a chapel exists there sacred to the august Mother of God and to Saints Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, and Patroclus, Bishop of Grenoble and Martyr; Other arguments for the Translation. and that the bodies of both are preserved there; and that Dagobert had once donated Hilary's body, taken from Poitiers, after he had subdued the Pictones, who were revolting against him together with the Gascons.

[8] In the casket, moreover, in which these sacred relics are enclosed, two official documents were found. The first is expressed in these words: "In the name of the Lord. Let the sequence and tenor of this public instrument be clearly evident to all: that in the year of the birth of the same Lord 1394, Indiction 11, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the eighth day of the month of September, in the 16th year of the Pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ and our Lord, the Lord * Clement, by divine providence Pope; before the Reverend Father in Christ and Lord, the Lord Guy, by divine mercy Abbot of the monastery of St. Denis in France, in the diocese of Paris; and also the venerable and religious men Brother Philippe Gaudefredi, Almoner, Pierre Bidault, Doctor of Decrees and Official, Jean de Fontenay, Preceptor, and Guillaume Roquemont, Cantor of the same monastery; in the church of the same, namely in the chapel of St. Hilary; in the presence of me, the undersigned public Notary, and the witnesses subscribed below, personally appeared The Count of Poitiers seeks and obtains some relics of St. Hilary from Paris. the Illustrious and Most Excellent Prince the Lord Count of Etampes, and the venerable and circumspect Master Anselm, Treasurer of the Church of St. Hilary at Poitiers, declaring that they had been sent on behalf of the Most Illustrious Prince and Lord, the Lord Duke of Berry and Auvergne, Count of Poitiers, to the said church of Blessed Denis, humbly requesting and requiring from the said Lord Abbot and the Convent of the same place certain pieces or particles of the Relics of the same St. Hilary, promised to the said Lord Duke by them, as they asserted. Which Lords Abbot and Religious aforesaid, graciously assenting to the petition and request of the said Lords Count and Treasurer, graciously delivered and granted to the said Lords Count and Treasurer, in the name and on behalf of the Duke, ^a certain particle or piece of the same Saint, from the posterior part toward the right ear, in the shape of ^a triangle, containing in length and breadth ^a space of three fingers, or thereabouts; and also the lower jaw or chin of the same head. Concerning and about which things the said Lords Abbot and Religious requested that ^a public instrument be made and delivered to them by me, the undersigned public Notary. These things were done in the church and place aforesaid, in the year, Indiction, month, day, and Pontificate aforesaid, in the presence of the noble man Lord Jean Moncelli, Knight, and Jean de Vivario and Nicolas de Bohemia, Goldsmiths of our Lord the King, together with many other witnesses specially called and requested for the premises. And I, Jean Meresse, Clerk of the diocese of Beauvais, the aforesaid public Notary by Apostolic and Imperial authority, was present when called at the said request, petition, concession, and delivery of Relics, and all and singular the things aforesaid, on the said day as stated above, together with the afore-named witnesses; and I saw and heard these things so done, and for these reasons I granted this present instrument drawn up by another hand; and in testimony of the premises, subscribing here, I affixed my public seal when required and asked."

[9] The other document reads thus: "John, son of the late King of France, * Duke of Berry and Auvergne, and Count of Poitiers, Boulogne, and Auvergne, and Peer of France, to all who shall inspect the present letters, greeting. We make known that from the Reverend Father in Christ, and our beloved Abbot and Convent of the monastery of Blessed Denis in France, we have had and received, by ^a gift made to us by them, the lower jaw or chin and ^a certain piece from the right side of the head of Blessed Hilary, extracted by them from the reliquaries of their aforesaid monastery. Which Relics, on account of the great devotion which we bear toward the same Blessed Hilary, and especially in his Church at Poitiers — of which we are Abbot — dedicated in his name, He donates them to the monastery of St. Hilary at Poitiers. we signify by the tenor of these presents that we have bestowed upon that Church of Blessed Hilary at Poitiers. In testimony of which we have ordered our seal to be affixed to these our present letters. Given at our lodging at Nesle in Paris, on the 10th day of the month of September, in the year of the Lord 1394. By my Lord the Duke, you and my Lords the Counts of Etampes and Sancerre being present. Signed, Gontier." Bouchet indeed mentions this donation, but interprets it as referring to some other Hilary. But how could the Duke have been ignorant, if it was known to the whole world, that the relics of St. Hilary were at Poitiers?

[10] In the year 1601, on the Kalends of July, ^a Sunday (as the same Doublet writes), Pierre Verinand, Prior of the monastery of Nouaille in the territory of Poitiers (there is another Nouaille in the region of Arras, Others donated to the monastery of Nouaille. which is commonly called Saint-Vaast), and Jean Bourdillon, Subprior, presented ^a petition to the Grand Prior of the monastery of St. Denis and the entire congregation, requesting that ^a particle of the relics of St. Hilary be granted to them. They obtained one tooth and one finger and transported them to their monastery.

[11] Likewise to the church of Romainville. On the same day, to the Curate and Churchwardens of Romainville, dependents of the monastery of St. Denis, for the dedication of their church, ^a small bone of St. Hilary, ^a tooth of St. Peter the Exorcist, and ^a small bone of St. Patroclus, Bishop of Grenoble and Martyr, were granted.

[12] When Godefroy de Saint-Bellin, Bishop of Poitiers, learned that the relics of his glorious predecessor had been graciously granted to the monks of Nouaille, he too wrote to the congregation of St. Denis and its Grand Prior. We here give the letter, translated from the French: "Sirs. The Prior and Subprior of the abbey of Nouaille, situated in my diocese of Poitiers, having returned from you, reported to us that they had not only been aided by your favour and full assistance against the efforts of their commendatory Abbot, The Bishop of Poitiers requests some. whose schemes your help restrained for the time being, but had also been given relics of St. Hilary, formerly Bishop of Poitiers, one of the patrons of Nouaille. For which reason I both render you the greatest thanks and am led to hope that I too may obtain some to be placed in my cathedral church, which I received stripped of every ornament, displaying only bare walls. If you heap this benefit upon me, I shall both pursue it with ^a grateful memory and shall be recompensed by perpetual participation in all the prayers that shall be offered in this church. But I would wish, if you consent to my petition, that you enclose and seal those relics, as were those that were brought to Nouaille. They shall be placed in the most fitting and suitable location possible. I wish you health with all the submission of spirit I can, Sirs." A little below: "Your humble Brother, devoted to all services, de Saint-Bellin, Bishop of Poitiers."

[13] Some are donated to him. When other letters had been written by the same Bishop and the Chapter of the Church of Poitiers, ^a portion of the forehead of St. Hilary was sent to Poitiers. The following testimony of this matter was recorded in the public registers: "Godefroy de Saint-Bellin, by the grace of God and the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Poitiers, and also the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Poitiers, to the Most Illustrious Prince Louis of Lorraine, Abbot, and also to the Grand Prior, the Religious, and the Convent of the most celebrated monastery of St. Denis in France, of the Order of St. Benedict, in the diocese of Paris, greeting in the Lord. We acknowledge that ^a portion of the forehead of the Most Blessed Hilary, formerly Bishop of Poitiers — whose sacred body was translated from this our city to your monastery in the time of the most ancient Fathers, as we profess on the faith of history — has been bestowed upon us and donated to be placed with honour, as is fitting, in our Church of Poitiers, not without great consolation to the faithful of Christ dwelling here, and has been granted to us at our request by you. We certify this by the tenor of these presents. In testimony and witness of which we have caused these presents, signed by our hand, to be sealed by our secretary and by the secretary of our Chapter, and we have ordered and caused them to be confirmed by the affixing of our customary seal and that of our Chapter. Given at Poitiers on the twenty-fifth day of the month of November, in the year of the Lord 1602." A little below: "I, Godefroy, Bishop of Poitiers, in my own hand. Michelet, scribe, by mandate of the said Chapter. Bellin, by mandate of the said Lord, the Reverend Bishop of Poitiers."

[14] Likewise to the Archbishop of Auch. In the year 1604, on November 28, the Archbishop of Auch obtained ^a tooth and ^a small bone of St. Hilary from the same monastery of St. Denis. So far Doublet. Claude Robert also mentions the relics sent to Godefroy the Bishop in his catalogue of the Bishops of Poitiers, number 97. But those violated by the heretics were doubtless the very ones which Duke John had received from Paris. Andre Du Chesne, in his Antiquities of the Pictones, writes that the body was translated to the monastery of St. Denis, among other authors. Jacques Du Breul, who enumerates the authorities supporting each opinion, does not express to which side he himself inclines.

[15] Some relics of St. Hilary at Benevento. Some relics of St. Hilary are reported to exist elsewhere. Marius de Vipera writes that some are at Benevento in the church of Santa Sophia, and that ^a church was erected in his honour outside the Golden Gate, which was formerly ^a Benedictine monastery and is now annexed to the Cathedral Chapter. Antonio Vincenzo Domenec, in his catalogue of the Saints of Catalonia, under August 11, treats of the relics of St. Hilary of Arles, though he incorrectly writes that January 14 is celebrated.

[16] On the borders of Belgium, not far from the monastery of Liessies, is Wallers — Some at Wallers in Belgium. commonly called Wallers — ^a village celebrated for the concourse of people who flock there to see and honour the relics of St. Hilary. An arm-bone is displayed there, enclosed in ^a silver case fashioned in the likeness of ^a human arm.

Feasts of St. Hilary there. The feast of St. Hilary is celebrated there with notable devotion on January 13, which they call the twentieth day — that is, from the Nativity of Christ. The proper office of St. Hilary, according to the ancient rite, is recited. The attendance of the people is smaller at that time, on account of winter rains and cold. But on the Kalends of May, an almost innumerable multitude assembles. For the dedication is celebrated on that day; yet the office is of the holy Apostles Philip and James, and ^a solemn procession is held.

[17] Again, the fifth day of May is observed by the people with the greatest celebration, with ^a remarkable concourse of people and ^a procession to be held. On that day, the relics of St. Hilary are believed to have been first brought there, although nothing committed to writing is found. The entire office of him is recited. The Church is dedicated to him as patron, together with its high altar, and another chapel on the right, in which, every Friday, ^a Mass of St. Hilary is chanted for the members of the confraternity, who are called members of St. Hilary. And ^a confraternity of St. Hilary. Very many ex-votos hang upon the walls — crutches, wooden and wax legs — memorials of recovered health. The noble lord Charles de Croy, Lord of Chimay, who had married Louise d'Albret, sister of the King of Navarre, in the year 1518, had those relics of the Saint enclosed in ^a silver casket, and the heraldic arms of both are engraved upon the casket itself.

[18] The patronage of St. Hilary is especially invoked to avert apoplexy, gout, and kidney pains. Miracles. Recently, too, sight is reported to have been restored there to Nicolas Pulain of Macon. Nearly infinite other miracles are said to have been wrought, which will perhaps shortly be published in written form, as the Reverend Philippe Pierman, Canon of the Premonstratensian order at Saint-Feuillien and Pastor of Wallers, gave hope in recent years.

[19] It will be worth the effort finally to give the epitaph of St. Hilary, which Claude Robert testifies he unearthed from an ancient codex: Epitaph of St. Hilary. "Hilary of Poitiers, the Bishop, rests in this urn, The fearsome defender of our faith. Serpents could not endure the sight of him: I know not what darts the Saint bears in his countenance."

* This is the Antipope, called Clement VII.

* [Son] of John.