Rumold of Mechelen

ON ST. RUMOLD OF MECHELEN

In the 8th Century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Rumold, Bishop and Martyr, at Mechelen in Belgium (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. On the first illustrators of the Acts of St. Rumold, the Apostle of the people of Mechelen, and on the difficulties occurring in them.

Mechelen, a most famous city of Belgium, noble for its Metropolitan and primatial see, and also for the supreme Senate of Burgundy, which elsewhere, as a province distinct from the rest of Belgium with its suburban villages, illustrious with the title of a county and other prerogatives, A view of Mechelen. I describe a little more fully, is situated in the heart of the renowned duchy of Brabant. You would not incongruously call it a gem, and that a most precious one, inserted into the Brabantine ring no less elegant, between Brussels, Antwerp, and Louvain, at an equal distance of nearly four leagues from these. This sacred metropolis of all Belgium venerates, as its tutelary Patron and exceptional protector, St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, formerly its Apostle, teacher, indeed founder, restorer, and propagator of all religion, faith, and piety, and that with such, so singular, and so constant veneration, that it can truly be said, to yield to none of the other Belgian, perhaps not of the whole Catholic world's, cities, in this part, if it does not snatch the palm from all. How truly I declare these things, this our treatise will teach, in which some things must be explained at the beginning, which may more clearly represent the idea of the whole matter.

[2] The greatest difficulty of the work About to give therefore the Acts of a Martyr and pontiff most illustrious in all Belgium, on the very threshold it has pleased to preface, both about those, who undertook the same province before me, and about the greatest difficulty of administering it according to its merit. Among the sheets of Heribert Rosweyde, the first contriver of our work, whom those who have weighed his lucubrations more attentively will never sufficiently praise; among the sheets of Rosweyde, I say, left to our predecessors Bolland, Henschenius, and Papebroch, I seem to detect some things, from which I conjecture, that he wished nearly a hundred years ago to attempt that, which I am now, the series of our affairs so bearing, compelled to execute. I confirm the conjecture from a letter given to him by our Father John Martin, a man of the highest expectation, but prematurely snatched from us, whom Rosweyde had consulted about the affairs of Rumold; perhaps that he might extend a helping hand to Ward, who was commenting much about St. Rumold, to whom he had lent the Life edited by Domyns, long and much but in vain sought by me in our Museum. It will not be irksome to insert the whole Martinian letter here, that it may be evident by what an impassable road we enter, while we resume the abandoned post left by them.

[3] I return to you the life of Blessed Rumold with immense thanksgiving. I have tried, but tried only, to respond, by seeking and investigating, from our Martin whether I might find anything, that could be of use to Your Reverence. What I found, I send; namely a particular office of Blessed Rumold, handed to me by the Reverend Lord Peter vande Wiele the Archdeacon, and, unless I am mistaken, composed by him, and sent to Rome, that it might be confirmed by the Apostolic See. He drew it, both from the life of Blessed Rumold, and from tradition, and others: for the old office of Blessed Rumold, together with the archive and almost all the furnishing of the church of Mechelen, perished by fire, whence anything certain can scarcely be sought from Mechelen. There are easily twenty paintings in the chapel of St. Rumold, to which on account of antiquity, faith can be had, the Archdeacon thinks: from them he himself drew many things, and I more at leisure, if I shall understand it to be of use and welcome to Your Reverence, in good faith will draw and send. Those things which the Archdeacon has in his office, he himself props and proves either by his own or his ancestors' testimony, by places, streets, and their names. Whence from him (as he seems to me a man of great judgment) I would think it should be sought, if we wish anything to be obtained. Let us not, slight ones, attempt great things. About the life of Blessed Rumold we will give nothing. On the occasion of the new Archbishop, we would have narrated and adorned something about the institution of the Clergy, unless all things were wrapped in Cimmerian darkness. Farewell.

[4] The day and year of the writing are not appended in the letter, a letter to Rosweyde: but I easily attain them from the Library of our writers, in which Martin is said to have been admitted into the Society in the year 1613, but to have died in 1625. But since a new Archprelate is indicated, about to come to Mechelen or already arrived, and he can be no other than the most illustrious Jacobus Boonen, it seems sufficiently certain, that the letter was written about the year 1621. But those lessons about Blessed Rumold, which in that letter he signifies he received from the Reverend Lord Archdeacon, I found joined with other manuscript lives of ours, never approved or received in use, nor, I think, ever to be received; either because they did not please at Rome, or the venerable Chapter itself, filled with so many most learned men. The most ample former Dean of the Metropolitan, the Reverend Lord Antonius de Mol, noted in his adversaria, that in the year 1622 it was treated by several that the approval and confirmation of the office of St. Rumold might be obtained at Rome, but that this lacked success, those things which were afterwards done show. Furthermore about de Wiele's lessons there will be treatment in what follows, now let us pursue those things, which may confirm the truth of the Martinian letter, or the greatest difficulties, which occur in these matters.

[5] That most true things were written by Martin, the most learned man Jean Antoine de Gurnez (whom henceforth we shall call Gurnez) experienced, a presbyter of the Congregation of the Oratory, likewise from Gurnez, in his Historical Torch on the life of St. Libert, kindled with nine dissertations, which would that it could shine a little more before us with light and clarity, in the most dense, obscure, and slippery forest, which we are compelled to enter. He seems to have laboriously inquired into many things, but indeed often to have heaped up more grammatical erudition than historical truth. The same testifies and many times professes Gramaye, the compiler of a Mechelen history, or shall I say a little history, sampling many things, scarcely explaining anything, everywhere opposed to himself, so that not undeservedly the praised Gurnez compares him to Proteus and Vertumnus, applying to him the saying of Lipsius about Lazius: A man of much industry and reading: judgment and faith, there are places where you may seek. There are indeed places where you often may seek, by the testimony of the most noble man and far the most expert in Mechelen affairs, Lord Daniel Francis Cuypers, Lord of Rymenam, and most worthy Clerk of the city itself, since Gramaye everywhere calls them Mechelen monuments, to which plainly opposed things teach those very most thoroughly examined diplomas from the Mechelen archive, collected by the aforesaid Lord in a most elegant parchment work and most accurately exacted to the faith of the autographs, and which sufficiently prove, that in Mechelen affairs, both sacred and profane, Gramaye was a leaping erratic historian, whom on this one title someone might excuse, that he preferred to salute the most obscure matters, than to explore them more laboriously to historical criticism.

[6] adducing several to the same matter, To return to Gurnez, that praise is owed to the most diligent man, that with far greater effort, judgment, and skill, he elaborated his work; mixing in not a few things, which will conduce to illustrating the Acts of St. Rumold, although he professes to have everywhere encountered dense night, darkness more than Cimmerian, the hiding places of antiquity, quicksands, rocks, perplexed labyrinths, which Lipsius repeatedly deplores in him, assigning that darkness, with which Belgian history is overspread, to the paucity of writers and to evil fate, that neither in our nor in another tongue the affairs of our ancestors have been carefully and faithfully handed down, and the few, which exist, have been sprinkled with fables or mockeries. Hither also look the words of our Bucherius, related by the same Gurnez page 120: You see, friendly reader, how greatly one must labor in these things so abstruse, so ancient; so that you may not wonder, if with second and third cares, there always occurs something to be corrected or added. Likewise these of Pontus Heuterus: So great was the simplicity or barbarism of men at that time: that in a matter of small moment they were excessive: but when diligence was needed, you would say they slept or did something else. To which is added, that in the course of so many centuries, and through various vicissitudes of affairs, the labors of many diligent writers have perished. Suppose, through those monstrous rampagings of the Northern peoples, by which all things were consumed with iron and flames.

[7] It helps also to hear the praised Gurnez speaking in another place, in the last dissertation of his Torch, alleging the Norman rampagings; inquiring into the time of the martyrdom of St. Libert, which since Gramaye had left undecided, he himself proceeds to deplore the destruction of ancient writers. More cautiously therefore I deplore, he says, since the darkness about that matter is great, that writers are lacking to confirm or direct; for few and scatteredly, as I complain elsewhere, and in passing, they touch [it] in other histories: so that it was of necessity rather than of my will or counsel, that I expressed almost the whole face of the Norman devastation; that from these and other things which I subjoin, you may judge with me what is certain in this history, what probable. For if any things had been committed to writing by eyewitnesses or ear-witnesses of the neighboring age, those underwent the same lot, as most ancient monuments, of which almost none escaped the torches of the Normans, soon of the Hungarians. About which matter you can see Molanus in the Natales on July 30, September 19, October 1, Miraeus everywhere, Bucherius in the Tongres disputation chapter 3 at the end. And lest you believe this a recent dirge of a lamenting mourner-woman; you should know that Ebo, about whom elsewhere, prelate of the Rheims, and during one summer in the year 822 the Apostle of the Normans in handing on the Christian sacred rites and softening minds by piety, complained of like things about other barbarians. The writings of the life, he says, of Donatian and of holy Remigius and of innumerable Saints, know to have been destroyed by the devastation of the Vandals. These things, if you substitute the Normans for the Vandals, square so aptly with the deeds of St. Rumold, as if they had been studiously devised about them.

[8] More is not needed, that it may be evident to everyone; that it is an altogether arduous thing, to illustrate the deeds of that Saint, the people of Mechelen confessing the same. in which most learned men long ago confessed that they found so much darkness, hiding places, roughnesses, labyrinths, and whatever can be called ambiguous and uncertain, and furthermore the learned of Mechelen acknowledge [it], whose aid, work, counsels, conjectures, and expertise in these matters it was necessary to use more than once. The same all things our Francis Baert long ago observed, while he walked in that darkness, to our greatest grief touched by hemiplegia, and so compelled to leave to another his efforts to be brought to an end, which I now undertake to do, intending so to use the things of another, that I shall distinguish his observations from mine, either by appended, according to our usage, initial letters of the name and surname F. B., or by expressing it otherwise, whatever was elaborated by him, as he is most versed in Irish matters. He himself selected two lives, or if you prefer, encomia, one of the Abbot Theodoric, the other of John Domyns, pastor of Gavere, with a brief commentary prefixed to each, and some annotations, which in their places in the course we shall more distinctly indicate.

[9] Our Baert had been preceded in the same arena by the Reverend Father Hugh Ward, What Ward intended. a most learned man of the Order of the Irish Friars Minor, formerly Professor of Sacred Theology at Louvain and a hagiographer, in a fairly large posthumous work on the Acts, martyrdom, ancient liturgy, and fatherland of St. Rumold, revised and in some things supplemented by the venerable Father Thomas Sirin, and edited by him at Louvain in 1662, in which those aforesaid Lives of our Saint by Theodoric and Domyns are explained by several notes and observations. I have often marveled at a work of such bulk in such a penury of solid matters, but while I unroll and peruse all things more attentively, I see this one thing treated of by design, that, arguments being sought from everywhere, that at last be proved, that St. Rumold, the renowned Martyr, Archbishop of Dublin, Apostle of the people of Mechelen, advocate of sterile spouses, of farmers, fishermen, shopkeepers, and sailors, was and ought to be called by nation an Irishman, which aim, whether he has sufficiently attained, from the observations of Baert and others in its place we shall inquire. Certainly in his preface Ward most expressly professes this with these words: Truly for altars and hearths here, if anywhere else, one had to fight, for the native and kindred Saints, and the most illustrious ornament of the nation. These things had to be foretasted for the knowledge of our whole lucubration; now let us inspect more deeply the Acts themselves and their authors and interpolators.

§. II. On the writers of the Acts of St. Rumold; and first about Theodoric Abbot of Saint-Trond.

Here we begin to apply the complaints of our learned Belgians mentioned above, to the Acts of the most holy patron of the people of Mechelen, Rumold, The first writer about St. Rumold, Theodoric whose sufficiently confused series of deeds or life we know to have been consigned to writing only three hundred and more years after the martyrdom, from the sole oral narration of the people of Mechelen for so many ages, I think, made to a writer, who first did not weave a history, but somewhere held an encomium or panegyric oration to the people, in praise of our Saint, whom he had understood to be venerated at Mechelen as by nation a Scot Irishman and slain by the impious, passing from there at Saint-Trond to Ghent, and hence again to the monastery of St. Trond. Nor is there reason that we should wish to scrutinize more deeply or to imagine archives of ancient Mechelen, utterly overthrown by the Normans, from which more ancient monuments about St. Rumold could be drawn; this one prop and the only one remains, on which the whole mass of the things to be said here may rest. But there is among all historians, and in Ward himself (who however did not sufficiently distinguish the old from the new), a received rule, which it has pleased to express in his words, that there is always to be preferred… the author nearer to the very deeds, although perhaps of a less polished phrase; inasmuch as he is to be judged to be as far from disguise and fallacy, as from the suspicion of novelty, as one who deserves the firmer faith and veneration, the companion of old age, the more he approaches the very fountain and first source, less contaminated by the turbulent conveyance of channels.

[11] And these things indeed obtain, when about the deeds of a Saint or of any other several write, some nearer to the age of him, about whom there is treatment, others a little more remote: but here we are compelled to confess, that the first of all, who pursued the life of St. Rumold, is posterior to him by three whole centuries, and wrote his work at that time, in which after the devastations of the Normans, nothing at all about matters both sacred and profane survived, which could safely enough be produced, except the sole names and deaths of illustrious men, to whom then the fame surviving among the peoples had added, shall I say, or attached, many things for affection or piety; so that even for industrious and perspicacious men, of whom then there was great penury, it was most difficult, without loss of truth, to recall from destruction the almost buried memories of the Saints. Those who have tried to accomplish this; we must confess them to have so often and so foully hallucinated, that as often as I have unrolled the lucubrations of our predecessors, I have vehemently marveled, that by their labors, studies, and industry, so many intricate and involved monuments could be illustrated. To say nothing of the Servatii and the Diatribe on the Bishops of Maastricht, the Vedasti, Amandi, Pippins, and innumerable others, scarcely a day occurs in the Acta, on which writings of this kind have not had to be shaken out and laboriously cleared. But Henschenius, taught by long experience, in volume 2 of March page 593 plainly asserts, that the Lives of St. Lambert, Bavo, and others in Belgium, in the 11th and 12th centuries — and this fights even more for the following centuries — were ineptly reformed and interpolated.

[12] Furthermore the penury of genuine Acts about the Saints of Belgium, when many Lives of the Saints of Belgium all too clearly show so many most brief commentaries about them in the whole Semester already edited, to name those which first occur to memory, about St. Aldegund of Trunchinium, St. Ida of Ghent, Idaberga of Bergues-Saint-Winoc on the 20th, about St. Rotrude on the 22nd, about St. Theodulf of Lobbes on the 24th, about St. Oduinus of Hougaerde on the 25th, about St. Clotsende of Marchiennes and Adilia of Orp on the 30th, in the one month of June, where, the Acts being either not found or rejected, the cult alone could be established. But in others one must often conjecture or almost divine, as in St. Aya on April 18 and her holy spouse Hidulf on June 23, in St. Wiro on May 12, in St. Dympna on the 15th, in St. Itisberga on the 21st of the same month; in St. Gudwal and Godoald on June 6 and 7, and very many others to be found there everywhere: lest it seem a wonder or a novelty, if we try here to know something above the common crowd, or to clear away antiquity more scrupulously, which, by the testimony of Henschenius, volume 3 of February page 180, otherwise venerable, is obscured by a foul stain, while fictitious fables scarcely worthy of the lucubration of little old women are brought forth.

[13] Let no one therefore turn it into a fault for me, that I make much of the judgments of Henschenius, were badly reformed. or if you so wish, his opinions, inasmuch as I have known him to be excellently versed in discussing Belgian matters, so that he most evidently demonstrated the prejudices of the people of Bruges, however inveterate, about the parricides of Blessed Charles the Good, to be false, and other things now most known to learned men he drew out from darkness by incredible labor. Treading in his footsteps, I shall not fear to bring forth many things both here and elsewhere, although they will displease the common people, content with the approval of learned men, whose examined opinions I hold. Whatever therefore there be about the various writers, interpolators, or deformers of the Acts of St. Rumold, lest after their manner we wander into uncertainty, that author will have with us deserved veneration, who excels by whatever antiquity; and so to all the rest, who wrote about St. Rumold, he is to be preferred, who nearer in age, although distant, as I said, three centuries from the Saint, first left to posterity those things, which thereafter, according to the zeal of various hagiophiles, were adorned, reformed, and amplified: whether truly or falsely I do not here dispute; I shall narrate each in order, that of them a fair reader may prudently be able to determine.

[14] There is therefore as first encomiast of St. Rumold (for Balderic, who wrote a little before him, Abbot at Saint-Trond to be explained more fully afterward, testifies only about the name, hermitage, and martyrdom) there is, I say, as first encomiast the most Reverend Father and Lord Theodoric, whom from our manuscript chronicle of Saint-Trond Baert thus depicted: This man, having first professed the monastic life at Saint-Trond, but on account of the frequent contentions of the Abbots, by which all things were disturbed, the monastic discipline going to ruin, had betaken himself to Ghent to the monastery of St. Peter, that there in peace and quiet he might serve the Lord. But thence in the year 1098 led out by the Bishop of Liège, he was consecrated Abbot to the monastery of St. Trond. The dignity which, the brothers asking, the Emperor striving, the Bishop compelling, he himself had unwillingly undertaken, he bore with no less piety than praise; for he recovered not a few goods of his monastery from the hands of usurpers, restored the buildings, which had almost all perished by fire; and restored the monastic discipline to its former vigor, the Cluniac reformation being introduced. But he was, according to the standard of his time, excellently cultivated in letters, and on the more solemn feasts he spoke to the people, and on that occasion drew no small subsidies of money, for restoring the monastery, from his hearers. These things are narrated at greater length in the Saint-Trond chronicle. Thus far he, things which can be seen in the aforesaid chronicle toward the end of book 5 and the whole of book 6, where Rodulph, the successor of Theodoric in the office and in monstrous persecutions, and so an eyewitness, describes the hardships of that monastery in a lamentable style.

[15] To us pertains the brief eulogy of Theodoric: Since he was ready in the Germanic and Walloon tongue, distinguished in virtue and erudition, excellently learned in the liberal arts, in prose and verse second to none, sonorous with a sweet and very high vocal quality, of a short but fair person, and of middle age. And elsewhere: For he was most pleasing both to clergy and people and monks, most acceptable by his much knowledge of letters and the jubilation of his distinguished voice, and most serene with most placid manners and cheerfulness of countenance. See Achery's Spicilegium volume 7 page 397 and 409. Furthermore page 398: In the year therefore from the Incarnation of the Lord 1099 (Read 1098, as it is in our Ms.) Theodoric, formerly nourished in the same place, to govern the same church, by Lord Olbert the Bishop and the chief men of Liège, a third letter now being sent, was at last recalled from Flanders, from the monastery of St. Peter at Ghent, I know not whether more recalled or compelled, and on the Nones of March consecrated presbyter and Abbot of our place. How great a desolation he found within and without, believe me, everyone who reads these things, because by no force of genius can I express it. Page 402, the author doubts whether he should call it a Jerusalemite, or rather a Babylonian desolation. At last page 418 he records the death of Theodoric with these words: But he died on the 7th of the Kalends of May, the day of the Greater Litany, in the year 1107, having spent in the Abbacy nine years, three months, less six days. Reckon from the day on which he received the staff, on the 3rd of the Kalends of February, in the already said year 1098.

[16] From these things the age, merit, and learning of Theodoric become abundantly known, he held the oration probably at Ghent nor is there anyone who doubts, that among other lives of the Saints, which Valerius Andreas narrates, he elaborated this one too about St. Rumold. I proceed with Baert: Among his writings is found a Latin oration on the life of St. Rumold, which he himself seems to have recited to the people at Liège, on the festival of the same Saint, which is there celebrated on October 27, at least from the time of Bishop Notger, who flourished in the tenth century, about whom we shall treat more fully. One might however suspect, that that oration was held at Mechelen on the feast of St. Rumold by Theodoric, specially invited, and not unwilling to speak; while he passed that way going from Ghent to his monastery of St. Trond, about to be Abbot. But to this opinion are opposed certain formulas of speaking, which are found in that oration: for he says: The inhabitants call it Mechelen, by which phrase we do not ordinarily use, when we treat of the present place. I fully subscribe, but what if it was said at Ghent, on some feast day now inclining toward evening, as you have at no. 16, before monks, skilled in Latin speech; for to speak in Latin to the common people seems incongruous; but from elsewhere it is established, that Theodoric never had more leisure for writing and speaking, than while he led a tranquil life on Mount Blandinium. I add Baert's last observation.

[17] But Theodoric wrote in the fourth century after the death of St. Rumold, about those things which, passing through Mechelen, he had learned: when now the church of Mechelen, erected into a collegiate by the Bishop of Liège Notger, with twelve prebends founded. He wrote, I say, not those things which he himself had seen, or which he had received from those, who had seen, but those things which by investigating he had learned from the mouth of the common people, simply relating those things, which by long tradition through their ancestors, had come to their knowledge. Nor do I believe, that Theodoric related all things, but only those, which he judged congruous to reason and history, and so at least credible. But the opportunity of investigating was afforded by a stay of some days in the city of Mechelen, when he was going from Saint-Trond to Ghent, or from Ghent to Saint-Trond. This oration of Abbot Theodoric, I persuade myself to be the most ancient and especially genuine monument about St. Rumold, which exists in writing, and I shall persuade myself so so long, until something more ancient, or more genuine come forth. The same it must be, and altogether is, the opinion of the men expert in their native affairs among the people of Mechelen, candidly confessing, that the histories of this part of Brabant more ancient than the 11th century are most rare, which can be called true and genuine. Most correct therefore is Baert's conviction, that in the Acts of St. Rumold, Theodoric alone is to be trusted, until something more ancient or more genuine come forth.

[18] This we have hitherto sought in vain, and any further investigation will be empty, and this is the more ancient and more genuine instrument, Theodoric himself sufficiently insinuating, that nothing was omitted by him, by which he might acquire an accurate knowledge of all things, having searched even to the origin of the Saint, to his parents and great-grandfathers, about whom however from the people of Mechelen he plainly testifies that he discovered nothing certain. Nor had Balderic, more ancient than Theodoric, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, discovered anything, while he wrote the Cambrai chronicle, in which in book 2 chapter 47 he speaks to this effect: At Maslinae too there is a monastery of canons, where rests the precious Martyr of God Rumold, by race a Scot Irishman, who leading the eremitic life was there martyred: so that I cannot sufficiently wonder, whence those who, removed from Theodoric by so many years and perhaps centuries, compiled some Germanic, I mean Belgian, Legend, soon given a Latin form, found things so illustrious and so splendid, adorned with nearly perpetual prodigies, from which so various things, always more augmented, came forth, which by no efforts and labors of ours are we able to reduce to exact truth. Which things, when they had been more than once proposed to the learned of Mechelen, all whom we consulted on that matter confessed with us that one must stop at Theodoric alone. But let the over-zealous hagiophiles take note, who imagine that something is detracted from the Saints, when something is not granted to their Legends; let them note, I say, that it is not immediately convicted of falsity, what cannot be approved as genuine. This alone we assert, that faith is to be had before the rest in that writer, who could hand down purer things, and handed them down more prudently. The other writers we by no means neglect, indeed we wish granted to their narrations all that verisimilitude, which learned men shall have found in them.

[19] It remains, that I subjoin a few things, about the genuine and especially sincere copy of Theodoric's own work, which Ward produced genuine, from which certain interpolators did not hold back their hand; impelled, I suppose, by this cause, lest from it those things should be refuted, which they themselves had judged should be gradually attributed to their Saint: in this most unskilled, that they did not notice, that their interpolations were ineptly and ridiculously inserted into Theodoric's text; indeed that Theodoric himself, a man most learned in his age, was made to contradict himself childishly, as will afterward be more fully demonstrated. I consulted several manuscripts under Theodoric's name, some of which immensely deviated from its first purity, with many things disturbed, truncated, and inverted, so that the features of Theodoric are scarcely recognized. Nor did Surius have an uncorrupted copy before his eyes, nor other sufficiently known compilers of Legends, but one foully depraved in the exordium and several other places, such as exists among us in Ms. in a smaller form, as also another drawn by Rosweyde from a Ms. codex of St. Saviour at Utrecht, with which the aforesaid editions almost agree. Ward and before him Colgan have deserved excellently of Theodoric, who, all those spurious, supposititious, and adulterated versions being rejected, judged that the fountain must be consulted, from which more certainly and more safely they might draw for us the purest water, that is the genuine offspring of Theodoric himself. And we have plainly resolved to follow this edition, about which it helps to hear Ward himself speaking page 58 and 59.

[20] in Surius and others interpolated. But since learned men note in Surius, that the phrase of the ancient autographs has often been alienated, and the very series and narration of the things themselves sometimes mutilated or changed; this Life of Theodoric I had given on the faith of a parchment Ms. codex in the famous abbey of Aulne, of the Cistercian Order and the territory of Liège; which therefore you may esteem genuine, because others seemed either more contracted, or augmented by certain fragments of another style, than that one had been first written by the author, or, as is believed, held as a sermon. Wherefore thinking this Aulne codex more exact than the rest, which I had then seen, in the year 1626, being present there, I transcribed it word for word, that, the Surian reading being omitted, it might be edited. For the rest, after, by the work of the Reverend Father Friar John Colgan, Lector of Sacred Theology, Surius was compared with the ancient autograph of the Saint-Trond monastery itself, where the author acted as Abbot, and it was established, that the Aulne codex had first been transcribed from the Saint-Trond one and faithfully, certain very small variations and transpositions of words being removed, I seem to myself to have followed the Saint-Trond copy, as the place itself denotes, as a more genuine and less adulterated offspring of Theodoric, to the word and the apex (which is not from a bad or now antiquated orthography) etc. Altogether rightly, skillfully, and faithfully; for neither could the genuine narration of Theodoric ever have been drawn out more sagaciously or prudently: to which alone therefore before the rest faith is to be had, is as certain to us, as what is most certain: although Henschenius rightly observed in volume 2 of March cited above page 593, that it is established, that he plainly erred in adjoining the years of Christ and certain Emperors and Pontiffs, as there he shows about the age of St. Bavo, and more must be said on the Kalends of October. These things about Theodoric's Legend; we proceed to the other one edited in type.

§. III. On the Legend written in Belgian by an Anonymous author and given a Latin form by the Reverend Lord John Domyns.

The much ampler Legend of John Domyns, I call it the next, because I know of no intermediate one so amply extended and edited in type, whether it was written and augmented by one, or by several in the course of time. But that one is fully and broadly drawn out through 29 chapters in Ward, and a distinct history, with various additions, which together fill 42 pages, in the form, as we say, of a quarto, for it is extended from page 12 to 53; whereas the whole panegyric of Theodoric, comprising many miracles, in the same edition reaches only to eleven pages, from which if the aforesaid miracles and other digressions be cut away, the whole material of the Saint's Acts may conveniently be contracted to three or four faces pages. Nevertheless the common people everywhere received that Legend, to say nothing of some things even more amplified, than that earlier one exhibits, as is manifest from the life last published under the name of Wachtendonck, about which elsewhere: now let us look at the matter proposed. Baert described the edition of Ward, about which he thus speaks page 57: Domyns's translation therefore (which the Reverend Lord Alexander vander Laen, Archpresbyter of Mechelen, testified to be genuine, and duly to agree with the autograph, a collation of the copies being made) I gave on the faith of a codex printed at Brussels at the press of Michel Hamont in the year of the Lord 1569, a copy of which the Reverend and of good memory Father Heribert Rosweyde made for me, having left great longing for himself among the Hagiologers, taken from the living two years ago. The title prefixed by the same also to his translation, the same I affixed, and his dedicatory letter to his fellow-citizens of Mechelen, because it contains some things bearing on the present matter, otherwise than another of his to the Reverend Lords Canons, therefore here omitted.

[22] That dedication too could be added, although from the other the author's intent is sufficiently understood. not entirely reprinted by Ward, That very life is noted in our indexes, and the same copy is doubtless indicated, which was lent by Rosweyde to Ward, and afterward granted to others, by whom probably it was not returned. Lo the title, as it is expressed by Ward: The life of the divine Archprelate and Martyr of Christ Rumold, President or exceptional Tutelary of the people of Mechelen. By John Domyns of Mechelen, parish priest of Gavere, formerly given a Latin form and put in type. Hebrews 13. Remember your prelates, who have spoken to you the word of God, whose end of conversation beholding, imitate their faith. To the Senate and people of Mechelen, John Domyns of Mechelen says hearty greeting. The particle "formerly" indicates a greater mark of antiquity, than the same dedicatory itself displays, from which it is clear, that Domyns composed that life, when the deliriums of the heretics of this age had prevailed, and their monstrosities clamored even to hoarseness against the religious institutions of our ancestors: from which alone at first reading I had judged, that the author must have written about the year 1570. Why these and other things of the kind were suppressed by Ward, I vehemently wonder: the year Domyns himself expressly marks in the first dedicatory, to be restored by me in its place, with these words: From Gavere of the divine Virgin Mother of God, on the very eve-days of the Lord's Ascension, from the cradle of Christ in the year 1569. Nor did the Scottish Irish insignia please Ward, expressed once and again, which afterward, both from Domyns's Ms. found by the work of the Reverend and most learned Lord Canon Sebastian vanden Cruys, and then from the printed copy, which our Louvain library furnished, I have judged should be inserted into the Acts themselves. But let us return to our purpose.

[23] Thus Domyns begins the other dedicatory to the Senate: dedicated to the Chapter and the Magistrate, Behold for you, most prudent Men, the history of St. Rumold, your divine Tutelary, depicted in Latin by me in whatever style. Hitherto indeed you have worn it in your hands printed in German, but because very few copies now exist, I judge that I have done a not unfruitful thing, in rendering the life of the same Saint into Latin: and that especially for the sake of those, who besides the maternal tongue also know Latin. Nor do I doubt, but that what I have tried to accomplish, will be welcome to you, according to your usual benignity etc. Where I would wish you to observe, that the writer was more solicitous about style, than about the exact truth of the matter, as from his epilogue you will more clearly perceive, while in this manner he concludes his work: The series of miracles (friendly Reader) which in the German copy is already annexed to the foregoing, I have here designedly and willingly omitted, not indeed for this reason, that I should reject it as fabulous and less verisimilar, or even esteem it unworthy of this Latin version. I, to speak what the matter is, by this rude little work of mine, only wished, to show the way to the learned, with whom I a little manikin am by no means to be compared, by which namely they may treat these things, by me described with a rude wit, at last more polished and in better Latin, and according to the magnificence of the matter.

[24] it is mutilated and more elegant than truer; To us a narration of matters worked over to a correct criticism would be far more welcome, by whatever circuit of words at last circumscribed. It would especially displease, that he designedly and willingly omitted the series of miracles, did I not somehow gather from our Mss. of Utrecht and of Rouge-Cloître, that nothing is contained in that whole series, which is not drawn from Theodoric. Yet for that cause I asked my friends, to bestow effort to find that Belgian Legend in whatever way; which at last most recently, when these things were now to be subjected to the press, happily came to pass, when in an auction an old Belgian copy was put up for sale, [and] procured for me by the Reverend Lord Cornelius Paul Hoynck de Papendrecht, Metropolitan Canon and Secretary of the most Excellent Archbishop; accurately examined through all. But why I am more eager for those more ancient ones, those will not wonder, who have well ascertained how much these things are to be valued in these matters: but this indeed was the more necessary here, because either from the series of miracles, or from other adjuncts, we might as it were be led by the hand to certainly detect, at what time first that Belgian Legend was compiled by the Anonymous author, which is offered to us, as a monument of the most remote antiquity, whereas, in my judgment at least, it can scarcely be older than the 14th, indeed perhaps the 15th century. That I conjectured this not unhappily, the very Belgian copy, so long desired, teaches; but that I rightly judged before, the refutation of Ward's arguments will show, by which he laboriously contends for the aforesaid antiquity, as necessary for his aim.

[25] nor indeed so ancient Thus he begins his animadversions page 53: That the Anonymous author is to us the first writer of this life, who exists, will become perspicuous even from this alone, that he is the most ancient of all, who wrote what is preserved and believed, among the most ancient monuments of the church of Mechelen, whether first in Latin or in the vernacular tongue of the Belgians the Acts of this Martyr, here translated by Domyns into Latin. He proceeds page 54: Furthermore that this same Anonymous author is prior to the rest, a reason founded on authority demonstrates: for of the named writers of the affairs of Rumold, the most named and first is Theodoric….. but it is established that those things were hidden from him, which are openly had in the Anonymous about the parents of Rumold, the stupendous beginnings, the conception, birth, baptism, and discipline under holy Guallaserus, and the wondrous election to Archbishop, which Theodoric confesses both in express words and by deed; for in chapter 2 he says: But the parents and great-grandfathers we have passed over in silence, either because we discovered nothing certain about them, or because we esteem it superfluous etc. and those things, which were most worthy of mention, he omitted in fact, mention being made of some matters of lesser moment, and less pertaining to the life of the Saint; namely because he did not see them, and accordingly they could not be drawn from him, or from the authors whom he read, nor does there exist any more ancient or more recent than the Mechelen codex, in which they are read, except such as derived from this as from a first origin.

[26] But the epoch of this very origin we seek; but the most learned man will pardon, if I pronounce this manner of his arguing in historical matters alien from the purpose. than he wished to persuade himself and others. No one could have investigated the affairs of Rumold with greater diligence, or sought out the truth from the people of Mechelen with greater care, than Theodoric did; nor was anything hidden from him, whatever with at least some probability or verisimilitude, after three whole centuries from the glorious martyrdom of the Saint, adhered to the memory of the people of Mechelen; among whom about the parents of Rumold, the stupendous beginnings, the conception, birth, baptism, and discipline under holy Guallaferus, and the wondrous election to Archbishop, then doubtless it had not yet been thought of. Whence undeservedly is this Theodoric accused, as if he had somehow designedly omitted those things which were most worthy of mention, and which then at Mechelen ought to have been most known, mention being made only of some matters of lesser moment, and less pertaining to the life of the Saint. But I reckon that Theodoric said so many things, that if anyone should wish to weigh each thing on a most rigid balance, the faith both of Ward and of others would waver. And what at last can be desired from a man, writing after three hundred and more years from the Saint's departure, when he so devoutly attests, that he discovered nothing certain about them.

[27] Let us follow Ward: But conversely, there is nothing to read in Theodoric, Ward, heaping up many things, which was hidden from the Anonymous author of Mechelen. This argument is no more correct. From that antecedent it manifestly follows; therefore the Anonymous author had Theodoric before his eyes, and added the rest of the ornaments from his own, just as we know to have happened in six hundred Legends, which the ampler they are, by the concordant opinion of all the learned, the more they lose of credibility. But certain miracles are lacking in the Anonymous author, perhaps posterior to himself. In a word: Domyns had read so many stupendous things in his Anonymous author, that he thought the miracles done after death should be neglected, holding it enough thus to conclude the life with him: For the Most High, wishing to declare the holiness and merit of so great a Martyr, cured several sick, and gave many signs in his favor; which the Belgian writer subjoined in order by way of an appendix, almost received from Theodoric, as our two Mss. of Utrecht and of Rouge-Cloître show, about which more elsewhere. There is therefore again this preposterous inference: Wherefore, I would think that some mutilated compendium of this Anonymous author was read by Theodoric etc. He ought to have inferred, that all the Theodorician matter was taken over by the Anonymous author, and augmented immensely with stupendous beginnings, conception, birth etc., which would have remained far better enclosed within the Theodorician limits. But these things had to be assumed by Ward, that even from this Legend he might show, that from every age St. Rumold was held an Irishman, at which his whole most laborious lucubration uniquely aims.

[28] But Ward did not yet sufficiently trust his demonstrations; by which he thinks this is demonstrated; for page 55, inquiring into the times of the Anonymous author, he thus proceeds: For the rest, at what time the Anonymous author lived, is not easy to trace, although he seems nearly neighboring to the very age of Rumold. First, because in chapter 22 he insinuates, that some contemporaries of his were eyewitnesses of the miracle of the conversion of the staffs of SS. Rumold and Gummarus into leafy trees. Secondly because in chapter 29 he indicates, that the body of the holy Martyr Rumold still lay buried in the first place, tomb, and chapel, and so had not yet been raised from the earth, nor placed in an eminent sarcophagus, by the public authority of the Bishop and clergy, and consequently neither had Rumold yet been venerated with a solemn festival and liturgy … whereas however about so illustrious a Martyr, most famous for the praise of miracles and piety, it is hardly credible, that among his most devout clients, he was not, too long after the martyrdom, celebrated with heavenly honors, after the manner of the rest of the Saints. Thirdly at last; that he omitted those miracles, which were wrought not very far from the end of the century, in which Rumold went to heaven. From these three antecedents, this conclusion must follow, that the Anonymous author was nearly neighboring to the very age of Rumold.

[29] but which most easily These therefore are the Wardian bases, by which he props the whole pretended antiquity of his Anonymous author, but which it is obvious to anyone to shake with no effort. The first argument is founded on these words of the Anonymous author, chapter 22 in Ward page 33: Very many beholding that, who attested this very thing. Rightly; but by what, I beseech, rule either of Dialectic or of Grammar will it be drawn from the cited words, that some contemporaries of the Anonymous author were eyewitnesses of the miracle of the conversion of the staffs? It is to be lamented, that some interpolator was not cunning enough, to insert in that place the particle "to me" or "to us"; otherwise whatever is there affirmed, can most truly be predicated by me of the miracles of Christ the Savior himself, namely that they were wrought "with very many beholding, who attested this very thing," although none of them was contemporary with me. Indeed by a similar argument it would be proved, that he was not only contemporary with the Saint, but even an intimate disciple: for he narrates what the angel said to St. Rumold, what to his parents, and many things of the kind, which no one could know, unless he heard it from the Saint himself. I appeal to all, who will read the cited chapter, whether it would come into the mind of even one single one, to hammer out thence, what Ward thought he had detected there.

[30] are torn apart here and elsewhere, What he wishes to elicit by the second antecedent, however often I have weighed it, I confess, I do not at all understand. Lo a reasoning in equal form: Theodoric indicates, that the body of the holy Martyr Rumold still lay buried in the first place, tomb, and chapel etc. His words are: Count Ado carries that sacred funeral, placed on a vehicle, to the PLACE WHERE IT NOW RESTS, and procures the burial at great expense, no mention being made of any elevation, therefore he was nearly neighboring to the very age of Rumold, he whom we have shown above to have been three hundred years distant from him, which however is Ward's consequent; the form is equal on both sides, but equally false is the consequence. Let us dismiss these things: about the first elevation of the Saint, there will be a place of speaking elsewhere, where we shall also refute another opinion of Ward, who thinks the aforesaid elevation, and the translation to Steynockeseel, was made in the time of the Normans, which although they may be clothed with some verisimilitude, yet are altogether repugnant both to history and to the tradition of the people of Mechelen. It is moreover ridiculous to imagine, that the bodies of the Saints, a few years after death, were raised from the earth, since there are very many, which remained buried for many centuries; which about St. Rumold Theodoric most plainly pronounces, but about the others buried at Sarchinium, or at Saint-Trond, we shall show below. The last argument is now sufficiently dissolved; the Belgian work of the Anonymous author now drawn from darkness, openly demonstrates, that he omitted none of those things, which in Theodoric he had found apt for his theme. Now by a slightly more apt manner of investigating, as probably as can be done, the age of the often-mentioned Anonymous author must be established, and the other writers of the deeds of St. Rumold must be treated. For which let there be

§ IV. At what time the Belgian Anonymous author seems to have written, and in what language the most common Legend was first written.

Hitherto we have somewhat negatively overturned the antiquity of the Anonymous author, by refuting those things, on which Ward thought it rested, the age of the Anonymous author could be gathered besides that from his confession, indeed from a collation of both the Theodorician and the Domynsian life, it is established, that nothing is read in Theodoric, which was hidden from the Mechelen Anonymous author; or, what comes to the same, that the Anonymous author used all the Theodorician matter, and that thence it most correctly follows, that the so-often-mentioned Anonymous author is younger than Theodoric, and so does not surpass the 12th century in age, in which how obscure was the history of the deeds of St. Rumold, no one, who has even saluted Belgian affairs at the threshold, would dare to deny, who has not presumed to struggle blindly against the torrent of all our writers; and to oppose the most plain testimonies of Theodoric and of the Mechelen Chronicle. And hence I leave it for the prudent reader to consider, whence that Belgian Legendary attained things so minute, so singular, so distinct, in such dense darkness, that he related even the very messages of the angel in Ward chapter 2, 5, 7, 10, 14 in most express terms, just as also the words, addresses, answers, orations, prayers of all the persons, and secrets of this kind, which in Domyns are so described, as if the Anonymous author had been present to all, an ear- and eye-witness. But these will be the material of our annotations.

[32] Here it must be examined by design, whether nowhere the Anonymous author exhibits some chink, from the time of the archbishopric of Dublin, through which a more accurate knowledge of him can be reached. The first Baert opened for himself in this, that the title of Archbishop of Dublin is so often repeated, which it is not verisimilar to have been fabricated by the Anonymous author: whence it is consequent, that he wrote in such an age, in which the archbishopric of Dublin had been instituted, and so something about a Prelate of such a name had become current in Belgium: and it seems certain, and this we shall demonstrate in the course, that the dignity of Archbishop was not known at Dublin before the year 1152: there is therefore another consectary, that that life could not have been adorned before that time, which is a sufficiently certain proof, that he is posterior not only to the age of Theodoric, but at least to the year 1160. Indeed the epoch of the writing must be removed still further, if Guallaferus preceded St. Rumold in the archbishopric. But in what manner the titles gradually accrued to our Saint, we shall inquire in the course, when about the age, race, episcopate etc. there will be treatment; for the present controversy it is enough, that the Anonymous author, whoever he be, could not have composed his work already grown up before the 12th century.

[33] Baert's reasoning rests on Domyns's paraphrase, in which all things are roundly and intrepidly defined; unless Domyns had first named him. but yet the paraphrast himself in his Warning to the Reader, in Ward page 46, voluntarily confesses the change made by him with these words: You will not wonder, candid Reader, that the place where this divine Rumold formerly exercised the episcopal office, is called by me Dublin, whereas however the author of the German booklet, whoever he was, seems to name the same place from a DEMON, or DEMONIACAL, in which matter he hallucinated, unless I am mistaken, on account of the long lapse of time. Indeed Domyns, frightened off by the title of Archbishop of Duvelensis, sought in Ireland a name most closely approaching, and by his mere arbitrary judgment substituted Dublin, by which reasoning the dignities of St. Rumold were gradually polished away, as we shall say elsewhere. But indeed from these things it would follow, not indeed that Baert's conjecture does not conclude, for establishing the age of the Anonymous author; but certainly changes of this kind, shall I say or depravations, show all too manifestly, how little faith can be had in the Mechelen monuments, in which we see the chief circumstances of things so notably corrupted, so that someone more perspicacious than Domyns, would not make Dublin out of Duvelensis, but seriously inquire, whether perhaps Blessed Rumold gave the name of his town, to the village of Duffel situated near Mechelen. Everywhere shallows, everywhere quicksands. But what if another chink afford a little more light?

[34] From the fame of the Kings of Sicily, Let us meditate a tiny bit on chapter 1, in which I shall propose these words to be weighed: When the King turned these things over in his mind; a certain one born of illustrious birth, namely the daughter of the most illustrious King of Sicily, whose name was also Cecilia, was extolled before him with wondrous praises. Sicily and Cecilia agree well enough, but how easily those praises flew over from Sicily into Ireland at that time, I indeed do not sufficiently understand. For the rest, through Sicily a chink lies open, which may teach us to seek, at what age especially the Kings of Sicily were known among the Belgians. I beg the readers, to deign to consult Ward's annotation on this passage page 79: it will not repent of the labor, on account of the much Irish erudition heaped up there, nowhere else to be found; the consequence of which at last is, that since Ward does not find a King in Sicily at the age of St. Rumold, out of his zeal for his fatherland, he thinks, that Casilia must be substituted for Sicily. Let us not trifle: I, from the sole name of the King of Sicily, do not doubt to conclude, that the Legend was written in that century, in which fame had brought into Belgium certain illustrious deeds about the Kings of Sicily and Naples; unless by a new miracle we imagine, that the life was written in Ireland, which brought here, was wrongly understood, against which Ward fights, who page 55 openly and truly pronounces, that scarcely anything about the deeds of Rumold is found among the ancient Scots Irish.

[35] most known in the 13th century, Nor let us ruminate more subtly; the Domynsian Legend is the work of a Belgian man, probably a popular writer of Mechelen, who finding the royal lineage in the interpolated Theodoric and the shorter Legends, with no trouble made the father King David, which name he knew was not unknown in Scotland (the Mechelen Chronicle preferred to call him John), but summoned the mother Cecilia from Sicily. I return to the argument, and thence again I elicit, that the century must be found, in which the names of the Sicilian Kings had especially become famous, such as in the 12th and 13th centuries they were most known. This latter agrees better, although I would not shrink from the former either; especially for this reason, that I find no memory of any translation in this and other manuscript lives. It agrees, I say, for, since gradually, as happens, the sacred and profane nobility of St. Rumold had grown, in an authentic diploma of the year 1265, which exists with the praised most noble and most illustrious Cuypers, by which Walter Berthold disposes of the care of the fabric of the church; I find these words, of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, Patron of the said church, after which afterward followed the title of Archbishop. "First" Bishop sufficed in the 13th century, nor is anything more ready, than that a little after, for the nobility of his race too, there should have acceded Sicily then most celebrated, which gave to St. Rumold as mother Cecilia the daughter of the King of Sicily. You desire evidence: impute it to the darkness, in which we are involved; greater light would be needed, to perceive more clearly those things which are wrapped in it, but whatever effort and diligence we have employed, it has hitherto been impossible to dispel that night.

[36] For the rest, nothing solid can be opposed to our conjecture, it is argued that the Legendary flourished at that time, unless someone, bringing aid to Ward, contends, that Domyns, just as he formed Dublin out of Duvel, so feigned Sicily out of Casilia. Gratuitously indeed, but who would forbid to charge such uncertain documents with forgery? Furthermore that Domyns closely followed the Belgian Legend in this point, the Mss. of Rouge-Cloître and of St. Saviour at Utrecht prove, in which the name of Sicily is equally plainly expressed. The very Belgian autograph settles the matter with a peremptory argument, in which there is the same formation both of the kingdom and of the royal bride, Cecilia. However it be, let those who will fence among themselves, both about the race and about the episcopate of Rumold, which others place in modern Scotland, we, adhering to the Domynsian text, think that the age of the Belgian writer has been drawn out by us sufficiently probably from the Kings of Sicily; and although Baert had not rightly argued from the archbishopric, from elsewhere it will remain proved, what has been said, namely that by no certain authority is it established, that the dignity of Bishop was ascribed to St. Rumold, before the most recently cited diploma of Walter of Grimbergen, from which it is evident, that he was distinguished by such a title at least in the year 1265: whence again flows our consectary, that about the thirteenth century, and perhaps the one next following, the Anonymous author, the first author of the Domynsian Legend, flourished and wrote. Now let us pursue the other part of the proposed title, namely in what idiom the Mechelen Legend was first written.

[37] The so-often-praised Ward page 56, about the first, who first wrote in Latin; in what style or speech that Belgian Life was written, brings forth a conjecture: Finally I think nevertheless that this same history of the Anonymous author was written first in Latin rather than in the German tongue, both because it so more frequently happens, namely that the lives of the Saints are translated into the native and vulgar idiom from Latin, rather than conversely; and also because at least the proper lessons about the Saints wont to be chanted in their churches, are commonly written in Latin, and are, with respect to other narrations, either coeval or prior. But those, which formerly were read about Rumold in the church of Mechelen, while it was not cathedral, if they are not the same, which exist in the ancient and modern Breviaries of the diocese of Liège (to which it had been subject before the year 1559, until first it was erected at once into a Metropolitan and Cathedral), it is credible that they perished, whether by human carelessness, or by the injury of the times, or of the heretics. For although I have laboriously inquired into them, nowhere have I found genuine ones, which can be shown to be not more recent than Theodoric. About the Breviaries we shall treat below. In passing I note, that Ward erred, when he says that Mechelen belonged to the diocese of Liège, which was always subject to the see of Cambrai in spirituals, as we say; but let us return to our purpose, in what language the Mechelen Legend was first written.

[38] Ward's opinion does not displease, to embrace which I am induced by the Mss. cited above and soon to be weighed, the one of St. Saviour at Utrecht; the other of the monastery of Rouge-Cloître, of both of which the beginning is altogether the same and word for word: then rendered ampler in Belgian; There reigned in the kingdom of Scotland a certain King by name David, in the city called Verwyck (otherwise Veerwich) which is the principal and capital city of the whole kingdom. For he took to wife a noble and illustrious spouse, the daughter of the illustrious King of Sicily, named Cecilia etc. which differ only in the manner of writing from the more elegant phrase of Domyns, to polishing which alone we have shown above from his own words that he aimed. If I sufficiently perceive the analysis of the whole matter, it seems verisimilar to me, that the Legend was shorter, first elaborated from Theodoric and other accruing traditions, but at the end of the 12th century, or the beginning of the 13th, by someone not sufficiently skilled in Latin, which then with other ornaments either one or another devotee of the Saint amplified, and which afterward the most famous collector of the Brabantine Hagiology at Rouge-Cloître, Gillemann, who died in 1487, polished. From some similar copy of the Legend, it is certain, that the Mechelen writer composed his vernacular version, as he most openly indicates page 34; from this at last came forth the masterly work of Domyns, about which we have now said enough.

[39] translated into Latin again by Domyns. By recollecting a little more attentively and deeply, we shall approach the head of the matter as near as we can. The Domynsian Belgian Anonymous author, inasmuch as he is in great part ampler than the Tongres, Utrecht, and Rouge-Cloître Legends; it is altogether fitting to establish him as posterior to these: for these, since they relate all the first Domynsian chapters, end in that conference of the holy Rumold and Gummarus, which by Domyns is placed in chapter 22; but from Theodoric, whom in express terms by name the Ms. of Rouge-Cloître cites, they draw the martyrdom and miracles. But the Domynsian Anonymous author, having progressed further, in eight whole chapters subjoined very many things about St. Libert, and other deeds of St. Rumold, and about his martyrdom, which are lacking in the Mss., by no means to be omitted, if they had been known to their writers, or if they had drawn their Legends after the Anonymous author and from the Anonymous author. But indeed those manuscript Legends very often cite metrical antiphons from the Liège ecclesiastical Office, with this or a similar phrase: Hence it is that in the matins Office of the same Saint this antiphon is sung, for instance about the Saint's birth: Born of a serene stock, Rumold the renowned man, to the most lovely things of the heavens sighs from his marrow. Likewise that, about his infancy: Sprung from the royal lineage of the Scots, with honesty he adorns the life of his manners from infancy; with the rest in their order, which we shall give in §9 of this commentary, where the whole Office is described: from which some shreds, the metrical reckoning being abandoned, have been inserted into the Domynsian history.

[40] The genesis of these now obsolete [works is explained,] That very Office is therefore more ancient than the manuscript lives of Tongres, Utrecht, and Rouge-Cloître, and if I dare to bring forth a conjecture, the first ampler life could have been wholly metrical, embellished according to the freer genius of a poet, which afterward another in prose speech, but with the same power of daring, amplified in that manner, in which today it is related in the aforesaid Mss.; to which at last acceding the Belgian Anonymous author, so deduced the whole matter, as it is circulated under the name of Domyns. And that is, unless I am most vehemently mistaken, the genuine genesis of those Legends, more speciously than truly adopted at Mechelen, although I have not obscurely observed, that they, as well as Domyns, are today there utterly unknown; whereby indeed for nearly eighty years the Wachtendonck history has deleted them all from the memory of men, these Legends wont to be worn in Belgian by the hands of the whole people with the commentary of Gramaye; but with slight loss indeed, inasmuch as from those Legends it omitted nothing at all, but heaped up other things no less wondrous, and so most welcome to the unlearned common people, as we shall say in the following paragraph.

[41] Now the more ardent zealots of St. Rumold will ask me, as also the age of the Liège office. to what century I think the Rumoldian Office of the Liège Breviary should more probably be referred? What I think, I shall not dissemble. I shall show below §. 8, that no Martyrology is found, into which the memory of St. Rumold is inserted on July 1, which can be proved to be more ancient than the 14th century, and thence by a not unfounded conjecture I shall gather, that to the publication and extension of the cult of the most holy Martyr the chief occasion was given by the most famous translation of the body, and the most solemn elevation of the year 1369, when it was deposited in that first most precious shrine, soon plundered by the impious spoilers of churches, as will afterward be demonstrated from an authentic instrument. About Liège it is permitted to conjecture otherwise; for since there St. Rumold was formerly venerated on October 27, and is still venerated; but is recorded for that day in some Usuardine codex of the 12th century, as I shall say below; it can more easily be admitted, that the ecclesiastical office was perhaps received at Liège from the 13th century itself: from which this other conclusion will be deduced, that the aforesaid Office was composed toward the end of the 12th century, furthermore that the manuscript Acts, as they are received from Utrecht, Tongres, and from Rouge-Cloître, posterior to that, coalesced about the same time, namely then, when, by the testimony of Henschenius, as we said above, the lives of many Saints of Belgium were ineptly reformed and interpolated. But the Domynsian Legend, much ampler, was composed by the Mechelen Anonymous author in the 15th century; which in the sixteenth next following Domyns, not sufficiently entire, gave a Latin form.

[42] These things, as I had long ago determined sometimes by groping and by combining matters from various congruences, The Belgian Life written 700 years after the Saint's martyrdom. I wished to leave so written, that it may be evident, that I would have defined nothing rashly, even if the Belgian life had remained buried in its darkness. But when the autograph itself is open, the not sufficiently sincere faith of Domyns is voluntarily refuted, who wished those things expunged from his version, whence the time of the Belgian writing is openly gathered, omitting the defenses mixed in by the author in the antepenultimate chapter, by which he demonstrates that St. Rumold can be and is truly called a Martyr, against those, I think, who, by the testimony of the Mechelen chronicle, contended that he should be venerated with the rite of a Confessor. Among other arguments he uses this, that not without an evident miracle and a testimony of true martyrdom could fresh blood then appear on the sacred crown of the head, when now for seven hundred years, he says, he had been slain. The author alludes doubtless to the causes, why the former gilded reliquary was opened at Easter of the year 1480, when namely the sacred bones of the Blessed Martyr, and especially the skull, displaying the wound inflicted on the head, had to be shown to some incredulous persons. But from the SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS, which had then elapsed from the Saint's slaying, it is invincibly concluded, that the Belgian Anonymous author, whom Domyns had before his eyes, wrote toward the end of the 15th century, after the aforesaid visitation had been accomplished, about which in the other part of his little work page 204 he asserts rather roundly some things, which on his sole authority I would not admit, and that especially because then in the very reliquary instruments were found, from which it was established, that the sacred body had lain in a wooden shrine for seven hundred and four years, namely, those which he himself computed; but of which thing the authentic diplomas to be produced a little after do not make even a word: from these we have wished to draw out nothing else, except the age of the Anonymous writer.

§ V. On the other Writers of the Legends of St. Rumold.

The manuscript Legends of Utrecht and of Rouge-Cloître, We have assigned as the chief and capital sources Theodoric, the manuscript Acts, and the Domynsian Belgian Anonymous author, from which flowed all things, which others committed about this holy Martyr at least with some verisimilitude either to type or to writing; but the two more famous, Theodoric and Domyns, as the original writers, Ward prefixed to his dissertations on the fatherland of St. Rumold. But now in our museum exist the aforesaid twin manuscript Legends transcribed by the care of Rosweyde, one from the Utrecht codex of St. Saviour, whose title is: The Life of St. Rumold Archbishop of Duvelensis; where, the prologue of Theodoric which is read in Domyns, afterward augmented, being neglected, it begins from the first chapter: There reigned in the kingdom of Scotland a certain King by name David, in the city called Verwyck (otherwise Verwich.) There follows the greater part of the Domynsian life, as probably it was first composed, divided into no chapters, but variously interpolated with rhythmic antiphons from the ancient Liège office, yet so, that the martyrdom is drawn from Theodoric, the cause of which thing we have already given, the miracles being rejected to the end, among whose narrations several fragments of rhythms drawn from the aforesaid office are interspersed. The other manuscript, received from Rouge-Cloître, is very similar to the other, but more variegated than the former, the exordium of Theodoric being added, and after the Legend, divided into 24 chapters, a new chapter being sewn on by another, the passion and miracles from the same Theodoric being subjoined; about which Legend Ward is to be heard, comparing it with another similar one of Tongres: but from prejudices, wrongly supposing, that the aforesaid Legend was received from Domyns; whereas nothing is more certain, than that the Anonymous compiler scraped together all his things from those Legends and Theodoric.

[44] as also the Tongres one seen by Ward Thus speaks Ward page 56: Someone could think, that the Tongres manuscript codex with the Reverend Lord Canons regular there, excels Theodoric and the Belgian Anonymous author, unless it were established by a collation made, that its whole former part was drawn from this; but the latter from that, and indeed verbatim. (namely someone so doted, that out of two whole works, he collected two badly-sewn shreds.) Wherefore I dismissed it, although it is at hand transcribed thence, because it has nothing either of antiquity, or of authority, nothing of matter or of elegance (except that it mentions the Bishops of London and of Léon to have been present at the consecration of St. Rumold) beyond those very words of theirs, there less neatly and more recently heaped up, although it was lately offered as a gift to the Mechelen Senate and gratefully accepted, the copyist thinking, who offered it (which I too at first thought) that there was contained some singular monument. Wherefore I judged its edition superfluous, as also of the others more recent, which the Reverend Fathers Lippeloo and Grass the Carthusians, Ribadeneira, Haraeus, and other moderns compiled from Theodoric, Domyns, or from the Tongres Ms. collected from these, or another codex of Rouge-Cloître scarcely differing from this, for they bring forth nothing, a very few words being removed, further than those more ancient ones, whom, although they are sometimes of a less polished phrase, I have forewarned the reader are always to be preferred in a historical matter, at the same time that I have determined to put the very words of the authors at the foot of the letter, as they say.

[45] That "at the foot of the letter," if Ward had rightly observed [it], they are more ancient than the Domynsian Anonymous, he could have noted other things in the Tongres Ms., from which he would altogether have perceived it to be more ancient than the Anonymous of Domyns, why he left them untouched, whoever always has before his eyes the aim of the most learned man, contending for the fatherland of St. Rumold, easily attains. The Bishops of London and of Lincoln, or nearly Lincoln, our Mss. too express: but about the Duvelensis Archbishopric Ward kept deep silence, although in the same Tongres Ms. it certainly must be related, if that codex escaped the hands of corruptors. I have never learned to seek elegances and things more neatly heaped up in ancient Legends, the less polished of phrase and the shorter they are, the greater antiquity they savor to us, and the greater authority therefore they deserve. For the rest the Tongres codex contains nothing of a singular monument, which our Mss. do not exhibit word for word, which I dare to prefer to it, certainly far more ancient than the Domynsian, I altogether do not doubt. In the rest Ward thinks well: for in Theodoric and Domyns are found all things, which in the Mss. of that I have very often read not without great admiration, that since they were written after Theodoric, they relate things so wondrous and prodigious, which were unknown to him, as is abundantly established from his silence. I have doubted sometimes, whether it was worthwhile, to edit one of those Mss. in type; but, since, as we have already said, they are contained in Theodoric and Domyns, what need was there to fatigue the reader by repeating the same series of things? Yet that I may free my faith with the people of Mechelen, I shall take care to represent the whole Legend to them in its place. We return to Ward.

[46] He proceeds page 57 at the end; But Theodoric, who from these and Theodoric because he is of a more ancient style, shorter, and also more elegant (he could have added more simple and more truthful) I have prefixed to the Domynsian translation, although this is more copious in matter and material, and more worthy on account of antiquity (which Ward believed he saw) although also him as a most approved author (indeed uniquely to be approved) of the life of St. Rumold and also of other Saints all Catholic writers, treating of them, followed with unoffended foot, Surius, Molanus, Baronius, Antonio Yepes the Spaniard, the very learned author of the general Chronicles of the Order of St. Benedict, and the rest to be named below, of whom only Molanus seems to have turned over the Mechelen Mss., the rest only Theodoric, even before Surius and now more than a hundred years ago, put in type at Louvain; with other Lives of the Saints. What Louvain Legend he here indicates, I do not sufficiently understand: our most ancient Louvain edition is of the year 1485, but in it confusedly arranged, no life of St. Rumold appears. Meanwhile Ward here truly asserts, that all Catholic writers followed Theodoric with unoffended foot; but this too is certain, that not all saw the genuine work of Theodoric, to whom alone would that the people of Mechelen had always adhered.

[47] To our matter serves also another observation of Ward page 58. (in which and others many have hallucinated) For the rest, he says, it was the gross error of someone (the name must be spared) that the Life of this Martyr exists in Ms. at Waulsort, composed by St. Forannan, the first Abbot of that place, and supported by no foundation of truth. For when I had examined all the ancient documents of this monastery now six years ago, I found nothing there written by the author Forannan, except the life of St. Eloquius, translated thither by St. Forannan his kinsman, and pontiff of Donaghmore in Ireland; and a certain pious meter on the vanity of the world: which indeed by the sole conjecture of learned men, not by ancient writing, is ascribed to Forannan, unless perhaps the most learned Molanus saw someone, who asserts it, and nothing without great judgment, erudition, and faith ….. Likewise it is the carelessness of Wion, that the life of Rumold edited by Theodoric was printed at Brussels in the year 1569, whereas that is Domyns's, which then first came forth there, differing from Theodoric's narration by the whole heaven, and unless we are vehemently mistaken, just as far removed from historical sincerity.

[48] He composed his Legend. That here at last at once and for all both the Wardian and all others' arguments for the antiquity of the Domynsian Legend may be plainly torn apart, it will suffice, from the cited Ms. of Rouge-Cloître to transcribe those things, which are read in chapter 24, where the history, having first been brought to the conference between the holy Rumold and Gummarus, thus proceeds: Meanwhile the most blessed man and truly God-worthy priest Rumold, father of his fatherland and in his times a lamp shining in darkness, put to flight the gloom of sins all around, and went advancing and growing in good things, until, crowned with all virtues, he met into a perfect man, and reached the prize of eternal felicity, which the Lord hastened to grant him through a contest. But the very order of his passion, since I know it to have been clearly though briefly described lately by a certain venerable Abbot of St. Trond in Hasbania, therefore I do not pursue it with my style, but remit the reader's zeal to his writings. That Legend therefore, and those similar to it, the Tongres and the Utrecht, are posterior to our Theodoric: but that the Domynsian Anonymous author received all his things from those and from Theodoric, is most evident even from the very confession of Domyns, who drew thence the city of Guervic and the Duvelensis archbishopric and the rest: therefore they take useless pains, who meditate to feign Domyns's Anonymous author more ancient than Theodoric and the Legends; besides that at no. 42 we have demonstrated his true age.

[49] The 24 lessons almost Domynsian. The hallucinations of other writers too could be related, who, plucking some things here and there, adding others of their own, afforded posterity an occasion of erring. But indeed there is no leisure to misuse effort in examining those writings, since all things must plainly be recalled to the springs assigned above, from which the very ecclesiastical offices of the diocese of Liège have been woven together with a wondrous mixture, as below we more fully deduce. The twenty-four manuscript Lessons about Blessed Rumold would deserve a place, from the particular office of the church of Mechelen not yet approved, about which in the first paragraph from Martin's letter we have spoken, and which we said were composed by the Reverend Lord Peter vande Wiele, divided into various days for somehow celebrating the octave of St. Rumold. But neither do I see these to be of much weight, inasmuch as they are a mere compendium of Domyns, with the eulogy of Molanus, likewise distributed into various lessons; which latter we are about to give below. Other Legendaries whether native or foreign I do not enumerate. About Surius I have already mentioned above. When you hear Haraeus named; suppose to yourself a not sufficiently well-woven compendium of the Surian Legend offered to you. Cornelius Grass in the edition of Zacharias Lippeloo attributes a new title to St. Rumold, falsely citing Theodoric, whereas the life there printed is contracted from Domyns alone. In vain shall I recite others; even if you adduce ten, I shall demonstrate that they received all things from those same sources. Nothing here remains, except that in few words we review that life, which under the name of J. V. W., Dean of the church of Mechelen, was last published in the year 1638.

[50] I have read and perused it more than once most attentively, extended to two above fifty chapters, The Legend of Wachtendonck, 79 pages, in a slightly smaller form than the Domynsian in Ward, in almost that style, which Domyns in his epilogue had so greatly desired, when he showed the way, by which namely these things, described by himself with a rude wit indeed, might at last be treated more polishedly and in better Latin and according to the magnificence of the matter; which most magnificently performed the man then most ample; afterward most illustrious Bishop and Archbishop. For there Domyns from the codex of Rouge-Cloître is so rendered into a more fluid and adorned Latin, that nothing else seems to have been done in the whole first twenty-four chapters, except this one thing, that Domyns should speak more polishedly and ornately; and the things which in him were not sufficiently arranged chronologically and genealogically, the years and the neighbors of Ado being marked, should be very liberally determined, and other not unpleasant digressions should be mixed in, which I shall not delay in examining one by one, since they are plainly obvious. Let it be permitted to insinuate in a word, that someone has not rashly thought, that perhaps an orator from a school neighboring to St. Rumold ministered a helping hand to Wachtendonck, although for the rest we are not ignorant that he was a literate man and skilled in Latin.

[51] He is shorter and more contracted in relating the miracles in chapter 25, augmented from vernacular chronicles, 26, 27, and 28, but to all he snatches the palm of daring, when in chapter 29 from chronicles of no authority, perhaps cobbled together in Belgian by some bungler, he brings the whole Pontifical court of Leo III, and the imperial court of Charlemagne, about the year 803, to Mechelen, as to some metropolis worthy of such august majesties, which at that time scarcely deserved the name of a town, shall I say, or of a municipality. Certainly no encomiast of St. Rumold, however exceptional, had hitherto presumed to devise so glorious an apotheosis of the Saint; namely when he thus concludes the aforesaid chapter: At Mechelen, in the said shrine of the Martyr (Rumold), Pope Leo III held a sermon in the Latin tongue in his praise, and conferred some offerings on the church. If Theodoric himself, preceding the chronographers by nearly 500 years, had handed down such things, he would find no faith with those skilled in Frankish history: what, I beseech, will he deserve, who reviews similar things nearly in the tenth century after St. Rumold's departure? There has not yet arisen one, who may demonstrate to us, that St. Leo III ever set foot in Brabant, whatever churches consecrated by him there some imagine. Wachtendonck alleges various manuscript codices, those, I think, which the very Reverend and most learned Sebastian Crucius, Graduated Canon of the Metropolitan church, exhibited to me, thinking the same about them as I, namely the same, which Lipsius formerly thought in his Lovanium chapter 2: What annals? Those plebeian and trite ones, most of which (and especially the beginnings) a drowsy old woman would seem to have composed: or what Molanus thought, when he shows in his Louvain commentaries, that our vulgar histories are full of lies. Wachtendonck likewise cites Vincent on antiquity. We seek other witnesses and sureties; at least by right we demand, that codices of this kind, so often cited in the same life with the name concealed, are worthy of such authority, that in matters removed by so many centuries they may deserve historical faith, such as they will find with no wise men. The things which are said in the two chapters next following about the irruptions of the Normans, can more easily be saved. Chapter 32 for the greater part we altogether reject: 33, as far as pertains to the miracle, as Theodorician, ought not to be rejected, as neither the four next, even to 37 inclusively.

[52] Let us run through a few other things. In chapter 38 it is asserted, that the Religious women of Blyenberg, he heaped up things more to be wondered at than approved. for the cause of the growing Clergy, migrated in the year 900 to the place, where now dwell the Fathers of St. Augustine in the hermitage. Away with antiquarianism, too eagerly snatched from those same chronicles: it will be most difficult, before the 13th century, to find monasteries at Mechelen, except only the monastery of the Canons of St. Rumold, which about the year 1050 Balderic mentions. Nor do those things which are had toward the end of the chapter have any appearance of truth: The Clergy urging at the Holy See, the blessed Martyr Rumold in the year 930, all things being discussed in order, is inscribed in the number of the Saints: but under Alexander IV as Pontiff, that feast day, the very octave of John the Baptist, is appointed. This latter from Molanus or from the Martyrology cited by him passed to others, but in vain hitherto have I investigated monuments, from which it could be proved, Theodoric most openly contradicting, whose express words are these: But lest anything be detracted from the celebrity and office of the Baptist, on the octave from this day the office of the Martyr is observed, therefore nearly two centuries before Alexander IV (for he died in the year 1261) the festival of St. Rumold had already then been translated. The former can in no way be admitted, for no more ancient solemn Pontifical canonization is acknowledged, than is that of Udalric celebrated by John XV in the year 993. How good compilers of wondrous things are those unlearned vernacular chronographers; from whom Wachtendonck took his things, so unmindful are they of themselves in arranging and combining matters. Certainly that former unheard-of canonization should have sufficed them, about which in the preceding number we have treated, instituted by Leo III in so august an assembly, a Latin sermon being held in the Saint's praise. The miracle of chapter 39 is also read elsewhere: The remaining thirteen chapters will in their place be recalled to the anvil.

[53] The origin of the archbishopric of Dublin. Let it be permitted here cursorily to observe, that the whole and so specious tradition of the Dublin Archbishopric of St. Rumold grown up among the people of Mechelen, rests on a most slight, indeed on altogether no foundation, since it was forged by Domyns alone, first in the 16th century, nearly eight hundred years after the Saint's martyrdom, against the plain formula of all the manuscripts, both Latin and vernacular. And about these indeed we have Domyns himself as a confessing culprit above no. 30. You will not wonder, candid reader, that the place, in which this divine Rumold exercised the episcopal office, is called by me Dublin etc. About the Latin ones it cannot be more evident, from what is related a little above, since our two Mss., the Utrecht one of St. Saviour and the one of the monastery of Rouge-Cloître, express no other archiepiscopal see of Wallaferus and Rumold, except Duvelensis. And this the Belgian Anonymous author had so formed, through Duvelen, although page 34 he asserts, that in his Latin autograph he had read Dubbelensis, with double bb. But no metropolis of that name, you say, is to be found in all old or new Scotland. I do not deny it; and this very thing affects me with the greater stupefaction, that with so weak an argument for the Dublin archbishopric the vindicators of the native traditions fight. I wonder at this even more in the writer of the Wachtendonck life, who, the Rouge-Cloître Hagiology being everywhere cited, but the name of the episcopate suppressed, substituted for Duvelensis, he too, the Dublin see, no reason of the change being given, which Domyns, in that part more sincere, did not omit to indicate. But about these things there will be discussion in §7.

[54] There the episcopal dignity of the Saint will be treated, in the one next following his fatherland and parents, Concerning the Irish Saints very many difficulties. which are subjects in the Scottish and especially Irish Saints excessively obscure and intricate, as long ago in the Acta it has been observed in more than one place, since often the genealogies of the British Saints, who migrated into these parts, swarm with fictions, as you have in the Acta of June 25 page 95 about St. Adalbert of Egmond, the pretended son of Edilbald King of the Deiri, and in other places, which it is not ready to assign now. Another example, no less akin to these dissertations, Bolland exhibits in volume 2 of May page 311, when in assigning the fatherland and episcopate of St. Wiro he sweats much, with no greater worth of effort than we are about to do here. Let there be seen there §2, from no. 11, whence I premise these few things to the following inquiries. St. Wiro is said to be by fatherland a Scot: Bolland asks, whether, as often as Scotia is named, the writer is to be understood of old Scotia or Ireland? He indeed denies that consectary, that as often as some Saint is called a Scot, or sprung from Scotia, he should immediately be held an Irishman: nor conversely, that he should be reckoned born in that region, which alone to this time retains the name of Scotia, because he is called a Scot, if from elsewhere it becomes evident, that he was begotten and nourished in Ireland. To be noted there too, are the things which he discusses about the episcopal see of Dunblane, to which perhaps the Duvelensis [see] of St. Rumold must be reduced: the orthography above, Dubbelensis, even more closely approaching, which seems to have a slightly greater affinity with Dunblane. The rest do you compare with those things, which about our Saint's fatherland and episcopate, whether Scot or Irishman, we now begin to dispute.

§ VI. On St. Rumold's fatherland, age, and parents.

We descend gradually to particulars, for unraveling which a little more accurately those things had to be premised, How doubtful these things are, which would place the faith and authority of the documents and writers in their true grade. These things therefore being dispatched, first we investigate, of what country St. Rumold was, at what time he lived, what parents he obtained. In deciding which that I much waver, those alone will wonder, who, accustomed to those recent Legends of theirs, esteem the things which they find in them so undoubted, that they would count it a crime to call them even from afar into doubt. So today among many St. Rumold is held without controversy the son of the Kings of Scotland David and Cecilia, the disciple of Wallaferus Archbishop of Dublin, and afterward his successor in the same metropolis, whereas however all those things, examined by the correct norm of criticism, are nothing less than verisimilar, much less endowed with that truth, which the lovers of native affairs so easily imagine for themselves. The most ancient memory of St. Rumold, which exists anywhere in the Martyrologies, is found in the Utrecht Usuard, which in our edition we called the Rosweydine, and to pertain to the 12th century. But there on October 27 it is read most simply: Of Rumold the Martyr; and so in the Ado of St. Laurence at Liège it is also marked: On the same day at Maslinae, of St. Rumold the Martyr. But the things proposed must be examined. I begin from those which about St. Rumold's fatherland Baert judged.

[56] the huge work of Ward shows; The Reverend Father Hugh Ward praised above, he says, has tried studiously and learnedly to persuade many, that St. Rumold was by nation an Irishman, against certain hagioclepts Saint-thieves of Scotland-Albany, who wish to claim him for their own fatherland; whose arguments Ward altogether enervates, solidly showing, that no Scotia was known to the ancient historians, except that island, which we now call Ireland; and so in the hypothesis he rightly concludes, that St. Rumold, if he was a Scot, was an Irishman. But would that he had as clearly shown, or it could be shown, that he was sprung from Scotia: in which turns the hinge of the question. Certainly however many testimonies of Martyrologies and sacred historians are adduced by Ward, for asserting Ireland as the fatherland of St. Rumold, since none are more ancient than Theodoric and the Domynsian Anonymous author, it is evident that from them nothing more can be concluded than from those. And since all things flow from these sources, nothing can contribute to the decision of the controverted matter, whether few, or many, whether sacred, or profane historians, having followed the same sources, narrate the same thing by writing: for these are led, they do not lead; and they show the light indeed, but do not illuminate.

[57] in which although he refute the Scots, But neither Theodoric nor Domyns are of such authority, that they can settle the question: for, as we said above, they did not write those things, which they themselves had seen, or had received from those, who testified that they had seen: but those things which by obscure fame and long tradition had come to their ears. But at the time at which they wrote, as also now, whatever was foreign in Belgium, was called Scottish, by a common proverb, arisen thence, as I reckon, because Belgium had received many of its first teachers from Scotia, which is Ireland. But those, having left their fatherland, sought Rome out of piety on pilgrimage, or other places, more famous for the relics and monuments of the Saints, and the same, if, God so disposing, they had found an apt place somewhere, built a monastery, and adopting companions from the natives, traversing the regions all around, those whom they found there still blinded by diabolical superstitions, they converted by preaching and miracles, instructed in the mysteries of the faith, illuminated with holy baptism, and consecrated to the worship of the true God.

[58] it does not prove that St. Rumold was not an Englishman, Among these I do not doubt that St. Rumold must be numbered; yet thence it is not altogether clear, that he was an Irishman. For he could, born among the Anglo-Saxons, instructed in the precepts of the religious life in some Irish monastery of the Scots, indeed having professed the monastic life, and been initiated into sacred orders, having set out with other apostolic men into Gaul and Belgium, or even to Rome for the sake of piety, at last have fixed his see at Mechelen, a monastery being founded there. Nothing foreign is here said by me, I believe whoever shall have weighed the history of Bede will confess, especially what he has in book 3, chapter 27; where when he had narrated, that in the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred sixty-four a pestilence raged through Britain and Ireland, he thus proceeds: There were there (in Ireland) at that time many of the noble and also of the middling of the nation of the English, who in the time of the Bishops Finan and Colman, the island their fatherland being left, had withdrawn thither for the sake either of divine reading, or of a more continent life. And some indeed soon faithfully gave themselves to the monastic conversation, others rather rejoiced to give attention to reading by going around through the cells of the masters. All of whom the Scots most gladly receiving, took care to furnish them daily sustenance without price, books too for reading, and gratuitous teaching.

[59] The same Bede book 4, chapter 4 about holy Colman, and a monastery being immediately constructed, he says…. he placed the English there, the Scots being left in the aforesaid island (In Inishbofin). together with many other Saints instructed in Ireland. Which monastery namely is held even today by the inhabitants of England: for that very one, which now made great from small, is commonly called Mayo, and all having been converted long ago to better institutions, it contains an excellent swarm of monks, who gathered there from the province of the English, after the example of the venerable Fathers, under a rule and a canonical Abbot, in great continence and sincerity live by the proper labor of their hands. Hence, and from those things, which the praised Bede narrates in book 5 chapter 10, 11, and 12 about the Apostles of Belgium and Germany, it is evident, that many nobly born among the Anglo-Saxons, having embraced the monastic life in Ireland, thence set out to preach the faith into Germany and Belgium. Such were Wichbert, Swibert, Willibrord and companions, both the Ewalds etc. who by all were held Scots and Irish: why should not St. Rumold too have been such? Certainly the Saxon name Rombaut, with the common fame, by which he is believed an Irishman, seems to persuade it. And this is the most just and most true glory of the Irish nation, that they not only announced the faith to Germany and Belgium themselves, but were even the teachers of those, who spoke to us the word of God.

[60] Thus far Baert, according to his skill in handling Irish matters, In a matter so doubtful, most prudently and most verisimilarly. Nor does it please me to contend with Ward and Sirin about the fatherland of St. Rumold. Whether they have proved or not, that he was an Irishman, little concerns me; although from Bosschaert on the first Apostles of Friesland, it could most easily be shown, that Rumold as well as Willibrord was truly an Anglo-Saxon. I have already said that it is fixed with me, not to depart from Theodoric, both in those things which pertain to the fatherland, and those which pertain to the age and parents. But since the praised colleague Baert has already treated enough about the race, I shall add a few things, about to stick in defining the age, and inquiring, whence so illustrious a birth gradually accrued to St. Rumold. I would only wish the learned readers warned, that the first paragraph of this our commentary must always be held before the eyes, by which from the common complaint of the Belgians we showed, that the true and genuine histories, but especially the sincere and entire Acts of the Saints, have so perished, that it is by no means a wonder, if very often by groping, indeed somehow by divining, we draw out from darkness, if not altogether true, at least verisimilar things.

[61] The first and most ancient writer of Belgian affairs, worthy of the esteem of the learned, is he whom I praised above, whatever he be called a Scot by Balderic, Balderic Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, who is reckoned to have written his chronicle about the year 1050, from whose words this one thing is certainly drawn, that St. Rumold was a precious Martyr of God, by race a Scot, at Maslinae (that is in that very place, where the more noble part of Mechelen is now seen) led the eremitic life and was there martyred. It will not be irksome here to note in a word, that some, who wrote about the Saint, childishly play on that word "apud" (at/near), as if it ought to be so taken, that St. Rumold led the solitary or monastic life not at Mechelen, but in a place near Mechelen; which place afterward acceded to the city of Mechelen. These I would wish to learn, that that particle is by the sacred writers, especially the Martyrologists, everywhere taken for the very city in which the Saint is venerated; whence "apud Caesaream, apud Tarsum, apud Nicomediam," etc. sounds altogether the same, as "Caesareae, Tarsi," etc. as can be demonstrated by innumerable other examples. Add that at the time of St. Rumold there scarcely existed traces of that city, which is now called Mechelen, for that, after the depredations of the Normans, first began to be built into some form of a town, is in confession: and these are the Maslinae, existing in the 11th century, and, as we shall say elsewhere, growing, about which Balderic speaks. I return to the argument.

[62] To Theodoric Scotia is certainly Ireland. The next writer to Balderic, who mentions St. Rumold, is the Abbot Theodoric himself whom in the second paragraph we depicted in his genuine colors. He, explaining the matter a little more distinctly, according to the traditions of the people of Mechelen, said that St. Rumold also was sprung from Scotia; from that Scotia namely, whence he designates these other four, Kilian, Fursey, Columban, and Bertuin, to have come forth: From the number of these, from this most remote corner of the world, blessed Rumold shone out. Lo the apple of discord and the material of such great conflicts, from this namely, that by Theodoric our holy Rumold was ascribed to those Scots, about which I forbear to dispute more fully: but thence is not yet drawn out the epoch of his age to be fixed, for securely determining which Theodoric scarcely suggests anything, unless one think it can be gathered from what has been said, that St. Rumold went out from Scotia at the same time, at which those other four set out to their missions. But since it is established, that Columban, Fursey, and Kilian, perhaps also Bertuin, reached the goal of their labors before the end of the 7th century, it would follow as a consequence, that St. Rumold flourished in that same century, by which the whole tradition of the people of Mechelen would be overturned, among whom there is a constant opinion, that the Saint was crowned with martyrdom in the year 775, although that calculation is rather arbitrary.

[63] Neither from Theodoric nor from Gramaye, Nor should you say, that Theodoric's encomium betrays the age of St. Rumold not obscurely, from his familiarity and conjunction with Count Ado, whose times from the faith of diplomas Gramaye explored in the Mechelen history book 1, §3, when he brought forth to us an old instrument of Pippin given at Paris in the year 753, on the 22nd day of August, in the third year of his reign, by which he hands over to Ado, his kinsman, land in the middle of Bratuspantium, where the Scheldt receives the Dyle, called by the Franks Maslinae, which sounds to us "the line of the sea." If then the donation was made, and Rumold was received by Ado, after he had long lived with a sterile spouse, what doubt can remain, but that the Saint's age has been rightly and chronologically established. Gramaye, asserting many things freely, I do not believe; but who would produce his diploma or at least an authentic fragment of the diploma, no one has hitherto been found. In a brief period all things stagger. The year of Christ or of the Incarnation is not wont to be appended in the diplomas of Pippin: the days are counted in the Roman manner by Kalends, Nones etc. The year 753 must have been, at the least, Pippin's fourth: Bratuspantium ought not to be supposed for Brabant, as I show more fully elsewhere, although in Sigebert it is read and many contend for it: the situation of Mechelen, where the Scheldt receives the Dyle, altogether deceives, nor is the "line of the sea" to be made more of. Therefore whether from this pretended diploma, or from Theodoric, to demonstrate the just age of St. Rumold, is much more difficult, than credulous men esteem. What can be elicited from Theodoric, and agrees excellently with our calculation, is this, that St. Rumold was slain before the rampagings of the Normans in Belgium were thought of.

[64] How well the more determinate reckoning of times of Domyns and his followers holds together, nor from Domyns or others it does not please to examine more scrupulously. The age of the Latin Anonymous author, the forerunner of all, we thought must be recalled to about the end of the 13th century, at which time a distinct series of the life of St. Rumold and of the deeds done by him could by no means be had, the Mechelen chronicle testifying, that some centuries after his death the memory of the Saint was obscured. For the rest it does not seem that one should depart from the aforesaid epoch, unless the martyrdom of St. Libert, by Theodoric so involved in the irruption of the Normans, compel us, that Molanus and others everywhere defer it beyond the year 880, by which it would be necessary to admit, that that holy disciple of Rumold prolonged his life to nearly a hundred and thirty years, which to be scarcely credible, the most learned men, my Mechelen friends, voluntarily confessed to me, who would not unwillingly suffer, if the martyrdom of St. Rumold were drawn back to the beginning of the 9th century. But to me indeed it is certain, not to deviate from the established calculation, although it does not rest on an undoubted foundation. There accedes some weight of authority from the old Lipsian codex of the Sigebertine chronicle, to which in the edition of Miraeus at the aforesaid year 775 is written: St. Rumold the Bishop is slain by the impious. You will note, that Sigebert died in 1113.

[65] The received opinion of the people of Mechelen is confirmed by our old manuscript chronicle of the Dukes of Brabant, the age of St. Rumold is rendered undoubted: brought down, if I am not mistaken, by various Affligem monks to the year 1470, in which it is thus had: In the time of this Carloman (the brother of Charlemagne) flourished the holy Rumold of Mechelen and Gummarus of Lier, and several other men and women of great sanctity. This Carloman at last in the year of the Lord 771, in the third year of his reign, migrated from this world. This chronological note of Carloman's death is most true, and accordingly adds to that chronicle so much faith, that I easily believe, that the former part of it was composed by him, who in another manuscript Ninove Chronicle is wondrously praised, and is said to have brought down his chronicle even to the year of the Lord 1143, which from some indications I seem to have gathered. And this becomes the more verisimilar, from this, that there St. Rumold or Rumbold is not yet called Bishop, which title, all things being duly weighed, I do not think began to be attributed to him, before the end of the 12th century: certainly no writer of any moment, before those times, that I at least know, endowed St. Rumold with such a dignity; whence the supplement of Sigebert related above, to pertain to the 13th century or perhaps later, I plainly persuade myself. But about that dignity a place of speaking follows more properly; it remains to investigate the nobility of St. Rumold.

[66] That Theodoric died in the year 1107 is beyond controversy, but the royal race from David nor is it doubtful, but that his Rumoldian panegyric pertains to the end of the 11th century: but in it about the illustrious lineage of St. Rumold you would not find even a word, much less, whence you could assert royal birth to the Saint. Lo Theodoric's words: When he advanced into a man, finding nothing to which he might aspire in his own land, he thinks of a foreign land, in it he wholly equips and prepares himself; with no one indeed impeding, no dignity resisting, no one wishing to raise him to the royal summit. All things are plain: Finding nothing to which he might aspire in his own land. Can these, I beseech, square with a King's son, then already an Archbishop? But who would believe it verisimilar, that Theodoric, who had so solicitously sought out all things from the people of Mechelen, which could pertain to the glory of their holy Apostle, would have omitted so notable a circumstance, if then among the people of Mechelen that tradition of royal lineage had prevailed? Who would believe, I say, that he would dare to express in such plain words: Finding nothing to which he might aspire in his own land, he thinks of a foreign land? But, you will say, those things could afterward have become known, and be proved from other documents. Forsooth, while the memory of St. Rumold was so obscured, I speak from the Mechelen Chronicle, that even about his martyrdom there was doubt. This we easily grant can be persuaded to others, to us, who weigh the moments of historical arguments, without more certain authority it will never so seem.

[67] it was plainly unknown to Theodoric; This we seek, what monuments exist worthy of faith, from which the Saint's fatherland, age, and lineage can safely, at least verisimilarly be circumscribed; and whence gradually may become plain, the almost immense superaddition of that tradition, so that he who at first simply, from the mouth of the common people, [was] a Scot, afterward a son of a King, then of David and Cecilia, finally sought for the throne, although already an Archbishop, was compelled to flee. For hitherto from the monuments, of four centuries after the Saint's death, we have probably proved this one thing, that he was sprung from Scotia or at least from some island of Britain, but no more begotten of royal blood, than those holy four Kilian, Fursey, Columban, and Bertuin, whom Theodoric established as equals to St. Rumold in Apostolic zeal. All the other things, which could contribute anything to so illustrious an origin, were at that time at Mechelen so unknown, at least obscure and doubtful, that the praised writer does not doubt to testify; that he passed over in silence his parents and great-grandfathers, either because he had discovered nothing certain from them (the people of Mechelen), or because he esteemed it superfluous, to seek in the trunk the savor of the fruit, which it is established sprouts sufficiently and more than enough in the branch. Excellently said, prudently and wisely; nor is any other glory to be summoned for any Saints, or for this Rumold, than that which proceeds from proper virtue and sanctity.

[68] ineptly inserted into his text, To this inquiry I shall set a conclusion, by briefly proposing, by a conjecture, in such dense darkness not improbable, some genesis of St. Rumold's nobility. From Theodoric it is now clear, that there was at Mechelen toward the end of the 11th century a profound ignorance about St. Rumold's parents. The first grade of illustrious blood was added to him by him, who depraved Theodoric's encomium, in that manner, in which we have already said it exists in Ms. with us, edited by Surius and others, where for these very words of Theodoric: But his parents and great-grandfathers we have passed over in silence etc. these things are wrongly substituted: But lest we altogether pass over his parents or great-grandfathers in silence, for he existed sprung from a royal lineage; born of the illustrious King of Scotland, about to be his heir ….. This man at last was about to obtain the scepter of the kingdom; the insignia of his race, the comforts of delights, the summits of the prelacy, he esteemed slippery etc. But that you may manifestly notice the unskillfulness of the forger, after so illustrious titles attached to St. Rumold, he had not brain enough, to expunge the following words of Theodoric: When he advanced into a man, finding nothing to which he might aspire in his own land, he thinks of a foreign land, which compared with the foregoing, involve a not obscure contradiction. Nevertheless from such a corruptor flow the first lineaments of royal blood and the episcopate, which afterward opened a field to the Anonymous writer, in which he might spread the sails of his eloquence, seeking a King in Scotland, the metropolis of the kingdom, a mother from Sicily, and other such things so unskillfully fitted together, that some writer with us in Ms. deservedly censures thus the beginning of Domyns.

[69] Domyns's first words are: King David formerly held the helm of the kingdom among the Scots, in the metropolitan city of Guervic etc. whence Domyns is beaten by the Scots. To these the observer: As I ran through the catalogue of the Kings of Scotland in the history of the Scots of Hector Boece the Scot, a man by far most learned, written to James V King of Scotland, two Davids in all offer themselves as Kings of the Scots, of whom the former was in order the 91st King of the Scots, who, after nine and twenty years of affairs duly administered, in the year from the rise of the Christian religion 1103 set the end to his life. The latter David was in order the 98th: he in the 39th year of his reign, but of Christ 1370, died. But now since Rumold lived about the year of the Lord 700, namely with the blessed Gummarus, this above all is perspicuous, that neither of the Davids was the father of Rumold. And since more Davids are not found in the catalogue of the Kings of Scotland, no David King of the Scots was the father of Rumold. And this foundation about the father of Rumold collapsing, who would not reckon all the rest of the history of his life more empty than Sicilian trifles, which at the very threshold immediately stumbles, indeed more truly, strays so far from the door? Thus he, contending for Scotia as the fatherland of St. Rumold. But what wonder, that he strays so far from the door, who confounds many things; indicating this only, that he sought some David as King in Scotland, who seemed apt to him, that he might be called the father of St. Rumold. And this is the whole inextricable genealogy of the Rumoldian nobility, by the Scots as well as the Irish, which they involve in innumerable other quibbles, who try to explain it with Ward, or to reconcile it with the Domynsian Legend; which everywhere happens by the opinion of our predecessors, as has been abundantly indicated above.

§ VII. On St. Rumold's Pontifical dignity.

From the same source proceeded St. Rumold's prelacy, about which nothing is to be found in the more ancient Balderic, Theodoric, St. Rumold's episcopal dignity, the Utrecht Usuard of the 12th century, the Ado of St. Laurence at Liège, the old codex or the Affligem chronicle of the Dukes of Brabant, so that you may easily admit our conjecture said above, that first in the 13th century the title of Bishop was ascribed to St. Rumold, as the supplement of Sigebert has: St. Rumold the Bishop is slain by the impious. That vague and indeterminate prelacy did not please the Anonymous writer, but just as he invented St. Rumold's parents from I know not what traditions, so he thought he could fit to him an episcopal, indeed archiepiscopal see, which however he expressed so barbarously, that where in the world it ought to be sought, neither the Irish, nor the Scots have hitherto sufficiently detected; nor would Ward have detected it, unless Domyns's clever metamorphosis had opportunely succored. These things are not said with this intent, that I should think the episcopal dignity undeservedly ascribed to the most blessed Martyr: far be it. For that he was a Bishop, I have already declared in the very title, not indeed of Dublin, as I warned above, and here by design shall show, but from the number of those, whom it is most ascertained crossed over in great numbers from the British islands into Belgium, Gaul, and Germany. These things must be repeated a little more deeply, those being premised again, which about the same argument Baert disputed: to which we shall subjoin our own.

[71] although it is not mentioned by the ancients, He takes his beginning from a negative argument from the often-praised chronicle of Balderic, in which, while St. Rumold is said to be a precious Martyr of God, by race a Scot, and to have led the eremitic life, no mention is made of an episcopate. But what forbids, he says, a Bishop to lead the eremitic life, afterward interrupted by the preaching of the word of God? Altogether rightly; for several others too from Scotia and other parts in Belgium, being Bishops, seem to have embraced the same kind of life. Whatever however there be about it, again I use Baert's words, that he was Archbishop of Dublin, can by no reasoning be believed. For Dublin was erected into a metropolis and archbishopric, about four hundred years after St. Rumold's martyrdom. Let us hear as witness of this matter James Ware, who although a non-Catholic, yet diligently scrutinized the monuments of the Irish churches, in his commentary on the Prelates of Ireland, edited in the year 1665, in which about Gregory, the first Archbishop of Dublin, he has thus: This Gregory, as soon as he was elected, crossed into England, that there according to custom, he might receive consecration from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and besides letters from the King, written in his favor, he brought with himself commendatory letters from the Clergy and citizens of Dublin. He received the first orders from Roger Bishop of Salisbury on September 24, 1121, and on the 2nd of the following October (the customary profession being made) at Lambeth he was consecrated by Rodulph Archbishop of Canterbury, as Bishop of this church.

[72] nor can he be called archbishop, All these things are so clear and perspicuous, that they breathe truth. He thus proceeds: After his return, when he had sat about 31 years (namely in the year of the Lord 1152), John Paparo the Cardinal, and Christian O-Conarchy Bishop of Lismore, both Pontifical Legates, convened a synod at Kells, where the pallium was handed to him, and the archiepiscopal dignity then first granted to this see. So it is handed down by most. But if we believe the archives of this church; he received the pallium in his cathedral church, on the Lord's day on which is sung, Lætare Jerusalem. Known is this Lord's day, the fourth of Lent, which in that bissextile year, the second Dominical letter E running, Easter falling on March 30, was the 9th of the same month, by a clear and round calculation. Which lest anyone believe to lose anything of faith, because they are narrated by a non-Catholic, let him consult the sources themselves, which Labbe adduces in the historical Chronology part 2 page 498 under the canon of the year of Christ 1151; where he will thus read: John Paparo, Legate, was sent by Pope Eugenius into Ireland, to convey palliums to four Archbishops, whom he had instituted in that island, about whom Henry, Roger, Robert etc. If these do not suffice, go to Baronius at the same year 1151 no. 4, relating all the very same things more fully, which so agree with Ware's words, that an egg could not be more like an egg. Now I resume Baert's text.

[73] or Bishop of Dublin, I do not think, he says, that a firmer argument can be found to be desired, by which it may be shown that St. Rumold was never Archbishop of Dublin. But perhaps he may have been Bishop there, before that church was adorned with archiepiscopal dignity; and therefore he was named and believed Archbishop, because his successors in the episcopate were such. This too is difficult to assert: certainly Ware wished to define nothing. This is the beginning of his commentary on the Bishops of Dublin: About the Saints Waro, Rumold, and Sedulius, and about a certain Cormac, who are said to have administered the see of Dublin before Donatus, mention is made in the Historians. But on the contrary in the old monuments of this church, from which I would hardly dissent, this Donatus, otherwise Dunan, is handed down to have been the first Bishop of that see. Whether he was the first or not, I shall not define. But it is certainly established, that he was the first Bishop of the Ostmen of Dublin. I shall not omit here to note, what to the first edition of On the Prelates of Leinster of the year 1628 Ware himself with his own hand wrote: Let it please to see, Cardinal Baronius in the notes to the Roman Martyrology, and John Molanus in the little Index of the Saints of Belgium on July 1, and Friar Zacharias Lippeloo in the Lives of the Saints, on the same day and month. The said, there in the Life and martyrdom of St. Rumold, treat of a certain Guallaferus Archbishop of Dublin; of whom no mention is made among the following Dublin bishops. Let us relate the rest of his words from the larger edition.

[74] As to the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, since that see was first erected in the 11th century it in the heart of the city, Sitric, son of Amlav, King of the Ostmen of Dublin, and this Donatus, built for the secular Canons, about the year of salvation 1038. But the secular Canons Lawrence Archbishop of Dublin changed into regular Canons of the Aroasian Order about the year of the Lord 1163. About the foundation of the church thus the black book of the same church. "Sitric King of Dublin, son of Ableb earl of Dublin, gave to the Holy Trinity and to Donatus the first bishop of Dublin a place to build the church of the Holy Trinity, where the arches or vaults are founded, with the following lands, namely Beal-dulek, Rechen, Portrahers, with villeins and cows, and corn; and also conferred gold and silver sufficiently to build the church, with the whole court." The church being built: this Donatus raised near it an episcopal palace, in the place, where now are the houses of the Dean. He moreover constructed a chapel of St. Michael, which he who succeeded him after some centuries, Richard Talbot, erected into a parish church. At last Donatus died on May 6, 1074, and in his Cathedral church near the high altar was buried.

[75] Instruments of this kind Ward ought to have consulted, it may be shown from certain monuments; when through whole 36 pages from 138 he so laboriously sweated for the more ancient Archbishops and Bishops of Dublin, at last reducing all things to the Domynsian Legend, into which the name of Dublin was wrongly inserted, a thing he could so easily have observed. But lest we deviate from Baert's argument, he concludes it in this manner: And so in the monuments of the church of Dublin Donatus is named the first Bishop of the Cathedral church, erected about the year one thousand thirty-eight, nearly three hundred years after St. Rumold's martyrdom; and at the same time the Cathedral chapter was founded: and so if St. Rumold was Bishop of Dublin, he was so three hundred years before the Cathedral church, and before the Chapter was founded there, and sat for so short a time, that no memory of him survived among the people of Dublin, no successor for nearly three hundred years, except perhaps one or another, about whom there is equally doubt. How credible these things are, I leave to be judged by the judgment of the prudent reader.

[76] I venerate however the ancient tradition of the people of Mechelen, and I do not dare to deny the pontifical dignity to St. Rumold; but neither do I dare to define, of what church, it can be admitted from tradition: when or from whom he received episcopal ordination; for these things are exceedingly uncertain. But while inquiring about these, I read through and more attentively consider the history and Acts of those Fathers, who begot us in Christ Jesus through the Gospel; if for a while it be permitted to use conjectures, until from elsewhere a clearer light shine, I shall not fear to believe him rather a Bishop of Mechelen, than of Dublin, consecrated by St. Willibrord. Let us hear the venerable Bede book 5 chapter 12 of the History of the English. There when he had narrated the deeds of St. Willibrord in the conversion of the Frisians, and of other Belgians, he subjoins: For not long after, he himself also appointed other Prelates for those regions, from the number of those brothers, who either with him, or after, had come thither to preach, of whom several have now fallen asleep in the Lord.

[77] not that he was Bishop of Mechelen, These things, I say, to one considering and comparing them with those traditions, which the people of Mechelen have about St. Rumold, it seems exceedingly verisimilar, that St. Rumold, born in Anglo-Saxony, led the monastic life in the Mageonian Mayo monastery of Ireland; where when he had heard the fruit, which St. Willibrord with his companions was bearing in the conversion of the Belgians, and perhaps also the glorious martyrdom of both Ewalds, which they had undergone in ancient Saxony, kindled with zeal for souls and desire of the same crown, came across the sea into Belgium: and, as was in use with nearly all the Saints coming thence, having made a venerating pilgrimage to Rome to the thresholds of the Apostles, returned into Belgium to St. Willibrord, and was by him ordained Bishop; that he might pursue the preaching of the Gospel, which St. Willibrord had begun around Mechelen, Lier, Antwerp; and, churches being built, and presbyters being consecrated, might render firm and stable the conversion of those nations. So St. Rumold can be called an Irishman, and be believed a Bishop, if not of Dublin, not incongruously of Mechelen, inasmuch as consecrated and sent to instruct and preserve those people in the faith.

[78] but a regionary or Apostolic [Bishop,] Thus far the firm and solid observations of our Baert, to which for that part I subscribe, that St. Rumold neither was nor could have been Archbishop of Dublin; as also from that head we have evidently shown, that no one more ancient than Domyns ever dreamed of Dublin, and that it is therefore, among the Mechelen traditions, the most recent of all. I add here the suffrage of a learned and likewise curious investigator of native affairs. The Reverend Lord van Gestel, pastor in Westrem, writing to the most illustrious Canon Crucius on January 15, 1717 in these words: They assert, he says, that he was Bishop of Dublin in Ireland, others Archbishop; but I know not with what faith; since the episcopate of Dublin was erected in the year 1038, but into an archbishopric in the year 1152. That I may briefly say, what I think, about the episcopate of St. Rumold, I think that by the Apostolic mission of Pope Stephen, he was a Bishop for the conversion of the infidels. He too therefore subscribes to Baert for the other part, that nevertheless, he must altogether be said to have shone with episcopal dignity. Nor is it so much of a fault, if the prelate of Mechelen be named from the chief place of his preaching and martyrdom, although that appellation is very improper, which would have to be attributed to all the Scots or Irish, the heralds of the Gospel among us, from the place which they cultivated, and so St. Livinus bishop of Ghent, St. Forannan of Waulsort, SS. Wiro and Plechelm of Roermond, St. Foillan of Fosses, St. Kilian of Aubigny in the territory of Arras: others would receive a denomination from other places, which to be incongruous, no one who has more attentively inspected the matter will deny. For that reason, I would prefer, Gestel again agreeing, to call St. Rumold a Regionary, or Apostolic Bishop, of which kind very many recur in our Acta, and such as on this very day not long ago we described, St. Leonorius, a Bishop of no certain see in Armorica or lesser Britain: to whom it would be permitted to add St. Amand and others, long of no See, but true Apostolic Bishops.

[79] But lest we be compelled to go out of our Belgium; I have just now indicated six such Bishops, of which kind very many other Irish in Belgium; all Scots; SS. Livinus, Forannan, Wiro, Plechelm, Foillan, and Kilian. Add to these other Scots, or Angles or Irish, St. Liephard at Hunno's court, commonly Hunnecourt, not far from Cambrai; St. Suitbert, among the Teisterbant; St. Coban, among the people of Maastricht; St. Vulganius, in the parts of Artois; among the people of Lens, commonly Lens, St. Luglius, in the Fasti of Miraeus on October 23, translated to Lillers, but himself too an Archbishop of Ireland: others elsewhere. Let there accede six Bishops in the abbey of Lobbes alone, ordained for the planting of Churches, Abol, Amulwin, Ermin, Theodulf, Ursmar, Vulgis, of whatever race or nation they were. For the Angles and Scots there is the plain testimony of Sigebert in his chronicle at the year 651: Many from England and Scotia, going on pilgrimage in Gaul, sowed the word of God, and bore much fruit to God, namely Etto, Bertuin, Eloquius; of whom the former two, we know were Bishops: St. Etto today rests in the monastery of Leuze; St. Bertuin at Malonne. Lo how many Apostolic Bishops, most of them Scots, Angles or Irish, illuminated our Belgium at nearly the same time with the light of faith; so that it is no wonder, if in their number too St. Rumold be placed. If furthermore to these you reckon those most noble two Apostles of the Belgians and Frisians, SS. Willibrord and Boniface, with so many of their companions, most of them Bishops, about whom in Willibrord Bosschaert, cited above, On the first Apostles of Friesland; all difficulty will vanish with no trouble. But who is ignorant, that some of them penetrated into our Brabant, as Baert has already sufficiently indicated.

[80] I certainly see that nothing more probable, nothing more verisimilar can be adduced, whom either St. Willibrord, or the Pope consecrated. by which the most received tradition of the people of Mechelen about the episcopate of their holy Apostle and Patron may remain in good repair. Nor let anyone, that I may say again, be struck by so great a number of Bishops conveyed to us from the British islands, since in those times, nothing was more familiar among the Britons, than to multiply Bishops, so that in Ireland alone one St. Patrick is said to have consecrated 365 Bishops. But what more nearly pertains to our matter, we have Bede as witness, that Willibrord himself appointed many Prelates for our regions; with whom since St. Rumold was nearly coeval (for he died in the year 736) nothing is more ready to think, than that he was of the number of those brothers, who either with him, or after him came hither to preach, consecrated by St. Willibrord himself, or by another Bishop, perhaps by the Roman Pontiff (whether he were Stephen III or another); which Baronius, to be related in the following §, seems to have wished to indicate not obscurely, by these words: Who going to Rome, and initiated by the Apostolic office by the Pontiff. Nothing here is asserted, which exceeds the limits of verisimilitude, much less which is repugnant to historical truth; as is that Dublin archbishopric, I dare to say, a fable, forged a century and a half ago first by Domyns; to which the other equally inept little narration of the Anonymous writer about the Duvelensis archbishopric ought not greatly to be preferred, by investigating far outside the known world.

[81] The old seal of the Mechelen Chapter. Let there accede a final confirmation, drawn from the most ancient monuments, which exist at Mechelen, namely from the very seal of the Chapter of Mechelen, which used in the 14th century, in the collection of Mechelen Diplomas the most officious co-laborer in this Commentary, the most noble and most illustrious man praised above, Cuypers, exhibited to me; he exhibited, I say, and caused to be delineated one of the many impressions of that seal, impressed on authentic rescripts of the aforesaid 14th century, in which St. Rumold, adorned in episcopal habit, you yourself with your own eyes contemplate.

On the obverse face all things are simple; on the other, the added arguments of martyrdom and I know not what others, especially a lily and an eagle, which are not expressed in the most ancient seal of the year 1304, let others divine the cause, I shall not bring forth my conjecture. For the rest that the aforesaid Dean and Chapter used this until the erection of the archbishopric, can be demonstrated from the work of the praised Cuypers. At what time the insignia of the Scottish kingdom were adopted, in the following § we shall try to indicate.

[82] Henschenius's judgment about the Apostolic Bishops. Lest I seem to have disputed all things, said in this paragraph, from my own sense, it will not be irksome to strengthen the same with the suffrage of my predecessors, with whom about the holy British Bishops, driven thence into Gaul, Germany, and Belgium, there is frequent and often repeated discourse: and first indeed in St. Liephard, whom we just now named, slain near Hunno's court in the year 640 by malevolent men, in volume 1 of February page 494, Henschenius declares, that there existed in that century, indeed and in the following ones, many Apostolic Bishops, affixed to no see. But more expressly in volume 3 of February page 25 he asserts, that several holy Bishops came in the eighth century from Scotia and Ireland into Belgium and the neighboring provinces, for the cause of disseminating faith and piety. In other places I find more than once, that many Apostolic men, restorers of the ancient religion, propagators of piety, most of the provinces of our Belgium owe to Ireland and Scotia. About the number of Abbots you will make a conjecture, if you remember, that in the Waulsort monastery alone three Saints of this kind are numbered, Forannan, Cadroe, and Maccallin. Again about St. Silvinus, who also flourished in the eighth century, in the same volume page 26, Henschenius has thus: But several holy men at that time, that for joining the nations of the heathen to Christ, they might be strong with greater authority, were ordained Bishops. Although for the rest both there and elsewhere he does not dissemble, that it has happened to many Apostolic men, that for the sake of veneration they have been called Bishops. That I may forbear more; in whatever class you place St. Rumold, it is undoubted, that now for about seven centuries the title of Bishop has most constantly adhered to him. And let these things be said enough, for vindicating the pontifical dignity to our Saint: now in what manner his cult was instituted and propagated, as accurately as we can we shall inquire.

§ VIII. On St. Rumold's cult, from Theodoric and the Martyrologies.

That St. Rumold's name is not inscribed in the ancient or classical Martyrologies, as we call them, let it seem a wonder to no one, since at the end of the eighth century he obtained the laurel of martyrdom, his cult extinguished by the Normans and his memory being nearly abolished by the incursions of the Normans, only two centuries afterward the fame of his sanctity and miracles began to grow famous, and that perhaps only in that part of Belgium, which was nearest to Mechelen, preserved by the pious and constant tradition of the inhabitants: from which doubtless flowed the so-often-praised, however brief, eulogy of Balderic: At Maslinae too there is a monastery of Canons, where rests the precious Martyr of God Rumold, by race a Scot, who leading the eremitic life, was there martyred. We have already more than once protested, that we, after applying long and indefatigable diligence, could nowhere find, neither through ourselves, nor through others, a more ancient testimony of the Rumoldian sanctity and martyrdom. The sermon of Leo III in the Latin tongue in the year 803 before Charlemagne in praise of the holy Martyr held at Mechelen, and the canonization in the year 930 made all things being discussed in order, which by the writer of the Wachtendonck life are so confidently narrated in chapter 29, and chapter 38, were utterly unknown to all, who wrote about St. Rumold's Acts before the year 1638, adopted from recent vernacular chronicles.

[84] The restoration of the sacred cult, nearly extinguished by the Normans, is renewed by new miracles and the work of Notger, as the vernacular Mechelen Chronicle testifies, for the memory, it says, of St. Rumold was greatly obscured; is owed partly to new miracles, by which the Saint's name was made more famous, and again the Saint began to be venerated, although there was doubt, whether he should be called a Martyr or a Confessor; partly to the signal zeal of that great Notger Bishop of Liège, and temporal Lord of Mechelen, who since he held the episcopate from the year 971 to 1007 with the immortal glory of his name, lived precisely at that time, in which Mechelen emerged from past calamities, and through the cult of St. Rumold its patron so grew, that some wish, that some part of it was then surrounded with walls. This seems certain, although it is not read in Chapeauville, certain, I say, it seems, that by the aforesaid Notger at least the Mechelen college of twelve Canons was endowed, about which from the more ancient writers our Bartholomew Fisen thus writes, in the Flowers of the church of Liège on April 10 chapter 3: The Normans had deformed Mechelen with its temples: Notger undertook to restore it, for it already then pertained to the territory of Liège. He founded a college of twelve Canons, the dignity of a Provost being added. And this is the college or monastery mentioned by Balderic, which he testifies was constructed from antiquity (namely by holy Rumold himself), founded by Ado and St. Libert, and was especially augmented with royal emoluments, with the donations of Notger; through which we must suppose, that St. Rumold's cult was wonderfully illustrated; until, Theodoric passing that way, it was brought about, that some Legend or at least a panegyric eulogy was composed by a not ignoble writer.

[85] the feast having even then been translated to July 1. Our thesis returns, already so often asserted, namely, that the first, who committed St. Rumold's deeds to writing, at least whose oration has come to us, was the aforesaid Theodoric, from whom about the Saint's cult and several of his miracles we are made more certain, than from any others whatever, afterward augmented and adorned according to the genius of the writers into Legends. Thus toward the end of his eulogy speaks Theodoric: Let us now at last return to the solemn day of the Martyr, which on the eighth of the Kalends of July is famous for his deposition: nor undeservedly, that on which day the nativity of the Precursor, according to the angelic proclamation, is celebrated with joy on earth, on the same, on account of the merit of the Martyr, there should be exultation to heaven and earth. But lest anything be detracted from the celebrity and office of the Baptist, on the octave from this day the office of the Martyr is observed. And this is the unique and sole foundation, on which rests the tradition, about the slaying of the Blessed Martyr, perpetrated on the very feast day of St. John the Baptist, and about the translation of the same feast and Office to the eighth day following, which why the Mechelen Martyrology related by Molanus ascribed to Alexander IV, I plainly do not see. But in what manner, and with what Office, toward the end of the 11th century St. Rumold was venerated by those Canons, there is no one who can divine. Let it be enough for us, that we have Theodoric testifying about so ancient a cult. Why among the people of Liège the festival was already long ago celebrated on October 27, is equally uncertain: but about that we shall treat in the following §.

[86] The Saint's fame became famous in the 14th century, That St. Rumold's cult was not so widespread, as the Wachtendonck life asserts, is manifest from this, that no Martyrologies more ancient than the 14th century, the Utrecht one alone excepted, make memory of him; so that I have not rashly suspected above, that the Saint's veneration scarcely passed beyond the Mechelen limits or the surrounding peoples. Nor have I grounds whence to conjecture, that in the 12th century it extended itself much more widely, unless perhaps then happened the translation of Steynockeseel, as it is now wont to be recited among the people of Mechelen in the proper Office of the diocese, about which there will be treatment in §13. The chief epoch of the more famous cult seems to have to be drawn from the building of the church, not in the year 960, as the Wachtendonck life wishes in chapter 40, but most probably toward the end of the 12th century, as from the diploma of Walter Berthold cited above it seems can be gathered, first begun: about which matter there will be disputation elsewhere. But I would believe that a singular glory accrued to the Saint, from his sacred relics being transposed into a most precious shrine, in the year 1369, as I shall also show more fully elsewhere, which solemnity, in my judgment at least, was the cause, why into various sacred fasti of that time the commemoration of St. Rumold is found recorded. Several Martyrologies, which, by the received phrase, are called the augmented Usuard, are evident arguments and testimonies of this matter. Among codices of this kind, in my recent edition of Usuard, which forms part of the supplement of June, I have reviewed two of Utrecht and one of Leiden, in which on June 24, which is believed the true day of the martyrdom, I read thus: At Mechelen, the passion of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr. The Hagenau one, in a manner not much dissimilar: At Mechelen of Brabant, of Rumold Bishop and Martyr. Molanus's supplement thus too briefly on the same day: At Mechelen, of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr. Thus those codices on June 24, no mention being made of royal blood, none of the Dublin archbishopric: so that I may not here repeat, what I showed above, that in the more ancient Utrecht or Rosweydine Usuard, of the 12th century, he is decorated with no other title than that of Martyr, just as also in the Laurentian Ado at Liège.

[87] For the first of July stand other ampler Usuards, of which the first is the Louvain one: as the ampler Usuards prove; At Mechelen, the passion of St. Rumold Martyr, Bishop of Duvellensis (for which in the printed edition crept in Dunellensis) son of the King of Scotland. With an ampler eulogy the Lübeck-Cologne edition decorates the Saint, which did not see the whole Mechelen Legend. These are its words: In Brabant, in the city of Mechelen, of St. Rumold Bishop of Ireland and Martyr, son of the King of Scotland; who although he suffered on the very day of the nativity of the Lord's precursor, yet his solemnity is here festively performed. Greven likewise in his supplements: In Brabant, of St. Rumold Bishop of Ireland and Martyr, who suffered indeed on the 8th of the Kalends of July, but his celebrity is here more festively observed. Molanus follows with an ampler oration on this day, from some ampler Usuard, sometimes proper to the people of Mechelen: At Mechelen, the passion of St. Rumold most glorious Martyr and pontiff, son of the King of the Scots, wonderful in signs and doctrine. Who spurning the throne of royal loftiness, and the honor of pontifical dignity, sought Mechelen, divinely revealed to him, which on the 8th of the Kalends of July he consecrated by martyrdom: but because on the same day is celebrated the nativity of the most holy Baptist and precursor of the Lord, the Roman Pontiff Alexander IV instituted that the passion of our Martyr be solemnized on the Octave of the aforesaid nativity.

[88] This the more recent Martyrologists, whether monastic, or others, followed emulously. I begin from Maurolyco, thus corruptly writing on June 24: to whom others acceded. At Mechelen, of St. Romoaldus Bishop and Martyr. Galesinius on the same day deformed the name, but on July 1, on which Maurolyco does not mention him, he followed the footsteps of Molanus, just as also Canisius. But Ghini, thus ox following ox, consulted the little Index of Molanus, from which we shall give the encomium below. Almost the same did Bucelinus, Saussay, and others, whom here to describe is superfluous. More briefly does Menard, but whatever style all those moderns use, as also the Anglican one, and other eulogies heaped up by Ward, or which are circulated in the Scottish works of Dempster and Camerarius, they indicate the source whence they drew their things, nor multiplied a hundred times do they have more authority, than they received from their predecessors. Let the Roman Martyrology suffice: At Mechelen, the passion of St. Rumold Martyr, son of the King of the Scots, and Bishop of Dublin. In the notes Baronius adds nothing, which is not better illustrated from elsewhere: to me before the rest his brief, select, and entire narration in the Annals at the year 775 no. 11 has always pleased: In this same year is crowned with martyrdom at Mechelen in Belgium holy Rumold, an Apostolic man, by race an Irishman: who going to Rome, and initiated by the Pontiff into the office of the apostolate, coming to Mechelen there preached the Gospel, and converted that people to Christ. And when by the word of God and the excellent example of virtues, and by miracles he had planted that church from new shoots, he watered the same with his shed blood.

[89] Baronius's notable eulogy about the Saint. Baronius could not more briefly, more simply, more neatly, and more circumspectly embrace the whole matter: for excepting the sole word Irishman, there is nothing which can be called into controversy by anyone; nor indeed did it please me to dispute much about the Saint's fatherland. This alone must now be handled, that we may demonstrate that St. Rumold's once-established cult grew by the most constant piety of the people of Mechelen, which from what is to be said about the elevations, translations, expositions etc. will more and more afterward shine forth. Let the little Index of the Saints of Belgium by Molanus, added to the last edition of Usuard, have here its proper place, which I think can safely be ascribed to the very author, inasmuch as its dedicatory marks the year 1573, since the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, first published in the year 1595, were collected only from his sheets, by the testimony of Miraeus, in the codex of pious Donations page 85, with these words: For the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, which now exist, were arranged and edited not by Molanus himself, but by Peter Loo, from the sheets of Molanus, by the command of Henricus Cuquius, then Chancellor of the University of Louvain, afterward Bishop of Roermond, while I was then engaged at Louvain in theological studies. Let these things be noted incidentally: now from the very little Index of Molanus we shall excerpt the Rumoldian things, which although they differ little from those which are handed down in the Natales, nevertheless had to be inserted here, that it may be evident, what little streams, the fountain being deserted, Molanus followed, otherwise a sufficiently accurate investigator of matters of this kind.

[90] Nor do we turn it into a fault for him, that he more excessively favored the traditions of the people of Mechelen, shall I say, Molanus in the little Index or the more recent Legends, not sufficiently examined by him, instructed by Domyns, unless I am much mistaken; yet so, that in the first edition of his Usuard he did not dare to put Dublin in the text of the Martyrology, but only in the margin to add it from his own, by which he sufficiently shows, that that matter is of a more recent age, and was found in no other Martyrologies, nor in the manuscripts consulted by him, the Carthusian one of Zelem and of Rouge-Cloître. And indeed it is clear from all those cited above, that no other title is ascribed to him in the purer Martyrologies, than that of Bishop and Martyr, or Bishop of Ireland, which agrees in every way with our opinion, so that thence too you may deservedly conjecture, that all those words are received from the constant opinion of the people of Mechelen, plainly received at least in the 13th century. Only the Louvain codex wrote "of Bishop Duvellensis," which it had from no other source, than from those manuscript Legends of the Mechelen Anonymous author, about which see above §3, 4, and 5. Baronius in the revision of the Roman Martyrology described Molanus, the marginal note being transferred into the text, whence there is read "of Bishop Dublin," not "of Archbishop." But in the Annals, speaking from a purer source from his own, he more prudently abstained from the royal titles and the Dublin episcopate, content with that notable eulogy, than which we warned above that nothing more sincere and more certain can be given. Lo now the words of Molanus from the little Index.

[91] Saint Rumold Archbishop and Martyr, from that part of Scotia, which today is called Ireland, he mixed in some popular things, his fatherland, parents, nobility, and Dublin archbishopric being deserted, went to Rome, and thence, the Pontiff's blessing being had, according to the apparition of an angel came there, where the river Scheldt discharges itself into the sea, and by nature, according to the course of the Moon, slips and flows through. That is, to Mechelen; where he so planted the rudiments of faith, that he is deservedly held the Apostle of the people of Mechelen. He was there kindly received by Count Ado, and his spouse, whose offspring St. Libert he baptized and educated in sanctity; and set him over clerics living regularly. But in the year 775, on the feast days of the Baptist, two assassins with an axe inflicted a dire wound on his head, whence soon the Martyr departed. One was impelled to this crime by greed for gold; the other, because he had been rebuked by the prelate for adultery. His birthday is celebrated at Mechelen, on the Kalends of July, where he has a silver and very sumptuous reliquary, whose equal you would not find in these regions: and the same place he has decorated with many miracles, and not rarely with victory against enemies. But Mechelen is the only city in the Mechelen country: equally distant from the chief cities of Brabant, Louvain, Brussels, and Antwerp. It is also called Machlinia, and by the French Malina. Which word is now out of use in Latin speech; but at one time it was very common, when also Lier, a neighboring town, was called Ledo. But Ledo and Malina are read for the ebb and flow of the sea in Augustine book 1 on the marvels of Holy Scripture chapter 7 and elsewhere. Whence from the flow of the sea, these names were given to the aforesaid towns, was noted three hundred years ago in the histories of Rumold and Gummarus. But Rumold's feast is, by the constitution of the first Synod of Mechelen, a double through the diocese, of nine lessons through the province.

[92] In the Natales is prefixed the eulogy, which from Molanus's Usuard we gave above; the text of the little Index is contracted, more prudently cut away by Miraeus, the digression about Malina and Ledo being omitted: but at the end first comes forth the translation of Steynockeseel, about which in the more ancient writers I have hitherto found not a word. Lest therefore the same things be repeated to nausea, we have not thought those things should be transcribed. Nor indeed can the authority of Molanus or Loo contribute anything here, unless they produce monuments, which rest on such faith, that any prudent estimator of matters can acquiesce in them. The matter the illustrious Miraeus seems to have weighed a little more attentively in his Belgian Fasti, cutting away some of the aforesaid things, which he noticed to be not sufficiently certain, at least liable to controversy; he could also have omitted the royal stock, if he had scrutinized each thing more leisurely. He thus begins: Rumold, born of royal stock among the Scots, his fatherland being left, thought the ministry of Christ should be preferred by him to all perishable things. To Rome therefore, out of zeal for perfection, and that he might visit the thresholds of the Apostles, he set out. Being on the journey, he omitted no occasion of preaching the word of God. Established at Rome, frequenting unceasingly the memorials of the Apostles and Martyrs, with many kisses and tears he embraced them, and so represented to his mind the contests of the warriors of Christ, that he was wholly snatched into the desire of martyrdom.

[93] But divinely admonished to descend into the parts of Gaul, the Pontiff's blessing being obtained, he came to Mechelen. There received most kindly by Count Ado, about the race and the place of the episcopate not long after to his spouse Eliza, prayer being poured out, he foretold fecundity etc. But Rumold planted the orthodox faith at Mechelen and in the neighboring places with such zeal and such result, that he is deservedly held the Apostle of the people of Mechelen. Him therefore, strenuously discharging the office of preaching, two assassins etc. His body the assassins, to conceal the crime, submerged in water; but a divine light radiating from above, through Count Ado being extracted from the waters, was buried in the city of Mechelen, where even today his sacred bones are preserved, in the illustrious basilica of his name, which Notger Bishop of Liège about the year 1000 augmented with a college of 12 Canons, and Pope Paul IV in the year 1559 ennobled with a Metropolitan see. There follows the text of Balderic, about which enough elsewhere. Then: For the rest, of what place Rumold was Bishop, before his coming to the Belgians, one may deservedly ask: the Irish, according to the tables of the Roman Martyrology, call him Prelate of Dublin in Ireland. Some Scot perhaps would say, that he was Bishop of Dunblane in Scotland. This I know, that the Archbishops of Mechelen bear their family insignia mixed with the insignia of the kingdom of Scotland, in one shield, in honor and memory of their patron, by nation a Scot.

[94] deservedly doubting: on which occasion Rightly here Miraeus observed, that neither about the place of the episcopate, nor about the race, is it sufficiently certainly established. This of more curious inquiry he added, who at last could have been the author to the Archbishops and Chapter of summoning the insignia of the kingdom of Scotland to Mechelen after the middle of the 16th century? Was it, because before the Chapter had been ignorant, that their patron was a Scot? Indeed at that time he was held an Irishman, and declared Archbishop of the See of Dublin by Domyns. A plainly involved business. In vain have I hitherto sought the true cause of that matter, which, unless I am mistaken, must be sought from Domyns himself, the insignia of St. Rumold, when in the so-often-cited life of the Saint he expressed the insignia of St. Rumold, found I know not where in the world, in this manner.

That these were unknown at Mechelen before Domyns, the seal of the Dean and Chapter related in the paragraph just preceding seems sufficiently to prove, which we showed was there in use, before the church was raised to a metropolis. I appeal again to the Mechelen diplomas in Cuypers, the modern seal of the Chapter, among which for the year 1599 is related a Seal of this kind, even today in use.

You see here a new seal, different from the former, larger, more elegant, and adorned with the Scottish, or partly Domyns-Rumoldian insignia, of which change no other reason can be adduced, than that the Chapter then Metropolitan, wished to imitate its Archprelates, to whom I think the aforesaid Domyns shone before, representing on the front of his work the family shield of Cardinal Granvelle mixed with those Scottish insignia, unless you show this was first done by Granvelle himself, for that, which Miraeus noted, cause, namely in honor of his Patron by nation a Scot. Let him solve the knot better, and Granvelle's shield are exhibited. who can: however it fall out, in the Domynsian Life I find the shield of that first Archbishop thus related.

The example was followed by Granvelle's successor Hauchin, as see §16. Hovius followed, in some rescripts others followed even to the most illustrious Alphonsus, under whom I understand that custom ceased. In what manner the shields of the Archbishops are mixed with the Affligem one, does not pertain here. That little digression has detained me long enough. I return to the Saint's cult.

[95] The Irish and Scottish Martyrologies. But lest the Irish or Scots can complain about me, this paragraph, already prolix enough, I shall conclude with that Martyrology, which Ward page 89 calls of the Saints of England, Ireland, and Scotland, printed in English and in Ms. at Rome in the College of the English, in which on June 26 and October 27 is read: At Mechelen in Brabant, the passion of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, son of the King of Ireland etc. as above. Likewise on October 27: At Mechelen in Brabant, the translation of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, son of the King of Ireland; who being ordained Bishop of Dublin in the same kingdom, for the sake of devotion, visited the thresholds of the Apostles at Rome, and thence returning into lower Germany, first in the Mechelen territory planted the faith under Count Ado, and deserved to be the Apostle of that province. Afterward in hatred of Christ he was slain by two assassins in the year 775. Whose venerable body was afterward translated to Mechelen, with great solemnity and veneration, and in a notable bier, distinguished with silver and gems, and decorated with other ornaments, was deposited: at which the Lord works diverse signs of miracles. By Alexander IV supreme Pontiff he was placed in the list of the Saints. Thus far the writer, approving indeed the cult, but for the rest mixing in several things, which from what has been said and is to be said are plainly refuted, so that to linger longer on them would be superfluous. Let us pursue the rest.

§ IX. On St. Rumold's cult from the ancient ecclesiastical Offices among the people of Liège.

The Proper of St. Rumold Not the least glory of St. Rumold is, that for about three centuries or more, in the prince church of Liège he enjoyed a proper Office, which whether it was conveyed thither from Mechelen; or on the contrary, composed there, was communicated with the people of Mechelen; the one in doubtful matters I shall call a problem, or could it seem an enigma, to solving which no one would easily find an equal, unless Ward narrated such open things, when he testified that he had sought the Mechelen Office in vain, and today the most learned men candidly confessed, after the matter was accurately examined, that at Mechelen no proper ecclesiastical Office about the holy Patron was ever in use, before that, which now exists, under the most illustrious Jacobus Boonen, compiled in the year 1634 from the eulogies related above, or rather from those writings, which the author of the Wachtendonck life especially consulted, or had then prepared for the edition, which followed a little after; whence too is excerpted the single lesson, which for the second nocturn is placed first about the Translation to Steynockeseel, on October 19, and likewise another, on the 27th of the aforesaid month, about the Bringing back of the same Saint from Steynockeseel; which how not sufficiently clear and plain they are, will appear below. Indeed I shall confess, that I do not sufficiently understand, how it could happen, that among such illustrious and magnificent arguments of cult and veneration, that one, of a proper Office in the proper church, was lacking. The feast of the Recollection of the sacred relics, dispersed by the impious iconoclasts in the year 1580, is established by undoubted monuments, about which we shall treat in the course, as each thing must be arranged in its order.

[97] Once celebrated at Liège: A surer and more ancient cult of St. Rumold, therefore, which is sought from the ecclesiastical Office, must be fetched from Liège, where it is altogether clear, from the editions which exist in our Museum, that the most express observance of the Mass and Breviary was held, not on July 1, but on October 27: but why on such a day rather than on July 1, however laboriously I have inquired, it has not yet been granted me sufficiently to ascertain: unless perhaps that church was acquainted with the above-cited Rosweyd edition of Usuard's Martyrology, in which on such a day it could read, "Of Rumold the Martyr"; or rather it followed the ancient Ado in the codex of St. Lawrence, in which he is venerated both on the same day and under the same title. A very ancient Missal, in the form they call octavo, we obtained from our former college of 's-Hertogenbosch, under this title: "Missal of the illustrious church of Liège, which will be found for sale in the gracious University of Paris, in the street of St. James, at the sign of the pelican or of St. George." On the last face of the book this note is appended: "This Missal of the illustrious church of Liège was completed in the renowned city of Paris, at the cost and expense of Godefridus de Marnef and Wolffgang Hopyl, in the year of the Lord and Savior of the world 1509, on September 26." Whether there was an earlier edition is unknown; nor is it sufficiently established, as I said above, in what year the aforesaid church of Liège first made a Mass of St. Rumold. But certainly it is no vain conjecture that it was received in the 15th century, perhaps even a little earlier, about which to inquire further, in such uncertainty of matters, I judge superfluous. Vardæus on page 47 alleges ancient Missals, both manuscript and printed; I, from our purer source, shall take the whole as it stands, after first noting that on that day, October 27, two Masses are there extended: the first of the Vigil of the Apostles Simon and Jude, the other of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr.

[98] At the Introit: "The just shall rejoice &c." entirely and fully, as it is read for a Martyr. Then "Glory to God in the highest &c." Then the Collect: The Mass, "O God, who by the intercession of blessed Rumold, thy Martyr and bishop, didst by thy power make solid the waves of the falling river, and didst wondrously snatch from the depths of the waters one submerged from the bonds of death: mercifully grant, that by his intercession we may be snatched from the perilous billows of this world, and, with thee as guide, be happily led through to the harbor of eternal blessedness. Through our Lord." Which alone is said. Epistle: "The Lord gave confession." The common is indicated, or from the Common of a Martyr Bishop, as it is placed in that Missal at folio 5. Ecclesiasticus 47. Gradual: "Lord, thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness, thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stone. ℣. He asked life of thee, and thou hast given it him: length of days for ever and ever. Alleluia. ℣. O Martyr, mirror of the world, Rumold father of prelates, call back the fallen people to the state of true life, thou who didst call back the little child from death, lifeless under the weight of the river."

[99] Sequence: "Let us jubilate to our salvation, to Christ, with equal vow, for the memory of the Saint: whom blood poured out adorns, in which the Sequence. and the frequent exercise of virtues, with heavenly glory. O Rumold, holy Martyr, lend thine ear to so great praise; grant thy patronage to thy servants. Thou who didst forsake possessions, and royal dignities, for the grace of poverty. To the just, despairing of offspring, by thee, with words of truth, a son is promised. The same, born, thou didst baptize, whom after death thou didst call back, while he was being submerged in the river. The woman's hand, long paralyzed, restored, we know to be by thy gift. A soldier, almost suffocated by a throng of demons, being cured, through thee began to live. A captive woman, while she sadly complains, knows no cold, but is veiled, though not yet having a garment. It is no light thing to declare whom and how many thy merits are wont to adorn. Therefore, partner of the angels, be thou patron of thy little servants, in the presence of Christ. And, aided by thy prayer, defend us from everlasting death, pardon having been obtained. Amen." Gospel, "Let your loins &c." Gospel: "Let your loins be girt." In the Common, folio 12; which is of Confessors. Offertory: "Thou hast set, O Lord, on his head a crown of precious stone; he asked life of thee, and thou hast given it him, alleluia." Secret: "Be appeased, O Lord, by the offered gifts; and, by the intercession of blessed Rumold thy Martyr and bishop, defend us from all dangers. Through our Lord." Communion: "Great is his glory in thy salvation, glory and great honor shalt thou lay upon him, O Lord." Postcommunion: "We beseech thee, almighty God, that we who have received the heavenly nourishments may, by the intercession of blessed Rumold thy Martyr and bishop, be fortified by them against all adversities. Through our Lord."

[100] From the ancient Breviaries There follows in Vardæus the ecclesiastical Office of St. Rumold from the printed Breviary of the diocese of Liège. I do not see why he neglected to note the year of printing. With us there exist three different editions, of which the first bears this title: "The winter part of the Liège Breviary, aptly distinguished from the summer one, and reduced to a chief and hitherto unseen line of completion; and printed in the gracious University of Paris, by the labor and diligence of Wolffgang Hopyl, in the year of the Lord 1506, on the last of July." Likewise another: "Breviary of the sacred church of Liège, comprising the new offices of very many Saints…. most recently, this year, from the incarnation of the Word 1520, fashioned at Paris." These two former editions are printed in Teutonic letters, commonly called Gothic; the third in purer Roman ones, but the first face is lacking. On the last page: "Printed by the types of Joannes Latius in the year 1558." All these in reporting the Office of St. Rumold are alike, and from some one of them the praised Vardæus excerpted his own, the lessons being omitted, which I have not thought should be passed over. Have therefore the oft-mentioned Office transcribed in full.

[101] On October 27. At First Vespers, Antiphon: "The militant Church, concording with the triumphant one, the proper antiphons at Vespers: let it joyfully and exultingly keep the solemnities of Rumold." The Psalms of one Martyr. Antiphon: "A star risen in the region of the Scots, noble, gives a wondrous light in the land of the Brabanters." Antiphon: "In Mechlin (is it not Malina?) the Light shone forth with prevailing virtue, where, a station being made, it melted the cold things." Antiphon: "But there the Light, having suffered an eclipse, shines again brighter than the sun, not to suffer defect any more." Antiphon: "For by frequent signs through Rumold the people flourishes; and also the land, which receives him as patron divinely." Hymn: "Let us praise the counselor of the heavenly hall, Rumold the beloved prelate of Christ, whom by God's nod happy Mechlin cherished as an exile. In which, praying, it raised the dead man, whom it adorned with holy works; and it sanctified it by his own blood poured out. There the Martyr's body is laid up, the languor of suppliants is driven away, if the pious devotion of the languishing leans upon faith. Let us therefore praise with gladness the man illustrious for wondrous sanctity, that with the same we may enjoy the everlasting solemnity. May the blessed Trinity grant us this, and the undivided unity of the same, that the everlasting pleasantness of paradise may be given us. Amen." Responsory: "O illustrious star, rare, knowing no solace, giving safety to the despairing, and the space of life: a way to the blind, harmony to the deaf, joy to the mournful; and relieving the punishment of diverse languors. Verse. Verdant in the rose-garden of heaven, he is bedewed with divine dew, contemplating with glad countenance the King in his beauty. And. Verse. Pray for us." At the Magnificat: "Let whatsoever is contained in the world, in its spherical figure, give thanks and rejoice: let praise be proclaimed to Rumold, whom by praising the heavenly people venerates with us." Collect: "O God who by the intercession."

[102] Invitatory: "Exulting let us jubilate to Christ, the rose of Martyrs, the proper Invitatory, who carried Rumold into the flowery garden of roses. Come." In the First Nocturn. Antiphon: "Born of a serene stock, Rumold the illustrious man, sighs from his inmost marrow for the most pleasant things of the heavens." The Psalms of one Martyr. Antiphon: "Sprung from the royal lineage of the Scots, he adorns his life with honorableness of manners from infancy." Antiphon: "Soon, growing in tender age in wisdom, flourishing in sanctity of life, he spurns transitory things." Verse: "Glory and honor." Lesson I: "Committing himself therefore to the counsel of the Divinity, blessed Rumold, by a compendious pilgrimage returning to Italy, where it raises itself on the ridge of the Apennine mountain, passes over, and entering the Gauls, disposes himself into those western parts, where the river Scheldt sends back the tide of the sea even into the Rupar, a place the inhabitants call Mechlin, on account of the sea's 'malina,' which at certain times, in consonance with the horned moon, now make an approach, now a recess, nor beyond the strait of this place do they exchange damages or gains." Responsory: "Let the people venerate Rumold, whose pious life let it modulate his praises with full breast. Whose life and doctrine once flourished at Mechlin, now endowed with his body. For raised on the summit of virtues, like the sun he shone forth amid the throng of the people. Life."

[103] Lesson II: "A certain one of the nobles, Ado by name, ruled the county, likewise all the antiphons; with a wife equally noble in manners and in race; both religious, both flourishing before God in conjugal chastity, so that you would think them those ancient ones, Abraham and Sara, except that the third, Isaac, was absent." Responsory: "This is the prudent and faithful Jacob, who for the sake of Rachel's beauty, leaving his parents and fatherland, tends toward the sight of God through contempt, spurning ignominy. Verse. Race and delights, the summit of the prelacy, royal riches the consecrated man tramples. Spurning." Lesson III: "These with their wonted religion soon invite the man of God when seen, lead him into their hospitality, share him in their banquet, ask and obtain that he abide with them: happy in such a guest, at whose entry they were gladdened with a divine blessing." Responsory: "Having discharged the office of the archprelacy, spurning the honor, not the burden: the throne of glory being left, he lies hid in exile. Verse. Taming his body, he tramples torments, slaughtering in himself the vices of the flesh. The throne."

[104] In the Second Nocturn. Antiphon. Bright in his noble birth, more illustrious in virtue, the nine lessons from Theodoric, gracious in aspect, more lovable to all. Antiphon. Pressing on from virtue into virtue, the lovable man, by God's grant, mounts the seat of the Archbishop. Antiphon. Exalted unto honor, humble in glory, enlarged in the assessment of goods, he lives in want. Thou hast set. Lesson IV. For on one of the days, while alone and without witnesses he was performing something divine, conceiving in his whole mind the spirit of prophecy, with hand laid on he offers prayer, and blessing them both, he promises fruitfulness, promises himself as godfather, and foretells the child by name. Response. According to the word of the man of God, like a new Elisha, the barren one is made fruitful, whose offspring at length he washed in the sacred font, the one whom the river's course had deprived of life. Verse. And so the Saint restored the comfort of the parents, the submerged son, to life. Whom. Lesson V. The astonished parents lend faith, more readily certain that nature could be overcome than that Rumold could lie. Efficacy accompanies the faith, and according to the saying of the man of God, from her who was before barren a son is born; received, he is presented to the man of God. He washes the one taken up in baptism, and imposes the name Libertus. Response. The enemies of piety at last, esteeming him a despiser of plenty, a lover of vanity under the guise of poverty, impiously slay the man of poverty. Verse. As a reddening little rose by its own blood, he seeks the heights of heaven by martyrdom. Esteeming. Lesson VI. Meanwhile his age had advanced even to adolescence, and from the teaching of his pious instructor the sweet little boy had grown together into the form of every good. The parents with their kinsfolk courtiers rejoiced, and daily pondered upon the future heir. The night of greatest grief darkened the day of such gladness, and wrapped the whole house in a murky cloud, and blinded it. Response. O man to be wondered at and proclaimed, to whose merits the throng of demons yields and obeys, which thirsts for the life of the soldier, already worn down by torments. Verse. Soon freed from the throng by which he is pressed, half-alive he is made safe. Which.

[105] they have been briefly received. In the Third Nocturn. Antiphon. Desiring God alone, he descends from glory, making for desert places, he despises lofty things. Antiphon. At length led into the desert by the holy Spirit as guide, where now Mechlin is situated, he rested from the tumult. Antiphon. There he preached Christ, by the holy merit of his life, but also he consummated his course by a happy martyrdom. Verse. Crown. Verse. Great. Lesson VII. For on one of the days, while the boy was playing games with his coevals on the shore of a riverbed, and while he trusted too much to the bank of the wave, he entered into danger, and slipping he is submerged. With a sad roar the whole shore is at once shaken, and one is cast in to draw out the sinking boy, but in vain every effort of the swimmers failed. The captive prey is led away before their eyes, and swallowed up is enclosed within the vaulting waves. Response. A woman vexed by the pain of old age, having a withered hand, rejoices at health graciously obtained through the merits of Rumold. The servant of Christ, an old miracle of Christ, works a new one by his merit. By health. Lesson VIII. Rumold meanwhile was absent; rumor thunders even to the parents, and, suspecting nothing the less, pierces them with an irremediable wound. The present grief weighed against the former gladness, outweighs it; and the more glad they once were over the newly-born son, the more sorrowful are they now over the drowning of the dead one. Response. While the captive woman complains of the discomforts of cold, a wondrous thing, and only meditates upon coverings at home, she feels the comforts of garments, by which she is not veiled. Verse. Clothed with the weight of charity, the pious father comes to the aid of the wretched woman. Of garments. Lesson IX. For nothing is lost without grief, except what is possessed without joy. What they should do, whither they should turn, what counsel they should take, they knew not: this alone the hope, that as by his entreaty as by his prophesying they had received the habit they did not have, so by his prayer they might recover the one they had lost. Response. The cunning fox suddenly seizing the cock; at whose crowing the woman, safe at her matins, striking the clock, ceases, left destitute. Verse. O the merit of Rumold to be proclaimed, the fox brings back the little cock alive. Whom. Te Deum. Verse. Great is.

[106] Lauds. Antiphon. To our God let there be pleasant and seemly praise; who fills clean hearts with grace; again all things proper at Lauds. who, the wave of the sea divided, opens for his own a way through the depths to the heavenly things. Antiphon. Let hearts and lips rejoice, chanting with sonorous voice the praises of the Martyr; whom to better goods, on this day at the hour of death, the King of light carried over. Antiphon. Happy and blessed servant, not lifted up by dignity, nor by the glory of parents, slain by the unworthy, he mounts the heavens crowned, the victory won. Antiphon. Let this present day be glad, let it be joyful without end, on which, the valley of misery left behind, and the house of Egypt spurned, the athlete of Christ approaches the King of glory. Antiphon. What he thirsted for he contemplates, in contemplating he is delighted, in being delighted he enjoys, in fully enjoying he is satisfied, satisfied he is not burdened, while he thirsts for that whereby he is fed. Hymn. Of the heavenly hall. as above. At the Benedictus, Antiphon. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who carried the little servant here dwelling without complaints to the palace, where, the veils removed, he sees without cloud, in jubilation, the face of him who reigns in heaven. At Second Vespers, which are of the Apostles, for the suffrage or commemoration of St. Rumold, Antiphon. O Rumold, rose of God, who hast now entered into the tabernacles of the King so beautiful, with the comeliness which thou didst thirst for, tasting with full mouth, may the stain of sins be blotted out through thee, and may the glory of eternal life be conferred upon us.

§ X. On the same cult of St. Rumold from the Breviaries of Aberdeen, and of the Canons Regular of the Windesheim Congregation.

Thus far the primary Office, the first and proper one, by which I have been able anywhere to ascertain that St. Rumold was once venerated; nor would I have thought of several others proper to him elsewhere, the Aberdeen Office in Scotland had not, in investigating other things here and there, there fallen into my hands two Offices concerning our Saint: the one a Scottish manuscript of the Cathedral church of Aberdeen, taken from an older one, printed in the year 1509; the other in the Breviary of the Canons Regular of the Windesheim Congregation, from that Brussels edition of Franciscus Foppens which exists with us, bearing at the beginning the year 1672, but at the end the year 1678. Concerning the age of the Aberdeen one, we shall pass judgment from the title. It runs thus: On St. Rumold (in the text of the Office it reads Rumaldus), Bishop of Dunkeld, or of Dunblane in Scotland, son of the King of the Scots, Apostle and Patron of the people of Mechlin, Martyr. From the Breviary of the Cathedral church of the city of Aberdeen, formerly in parchment, now printed at Edinburgh, in the reign of King James IV, in the year of the Lord 1509. I omit here the observations which could be made upon the bishopric of Dunkeld or Dunblane, for concerning these I have often testified that I do not wish to dispute: it is obvious to anyone to observe that the Scots are not so disarmed as to cease even at this time to contend for claiming St. Rumold for themselves. It is enough for us to gather from the aforesaid title that this Aberdeen Office is not later than the fifteenth century, in which especially the fame and glory of St. Rumold was spread everywhere. There exists with us another collection of the Saints of Scotland, to which it is wrongly prefixed in the title that St. Rumold flourished under Constantine Pogonatus in the year 670; in the rest, however, it agrees with the former.

[108] Who arranged the Antiphons and Lessons I forbear to inquire, since nothing certain about it seems able to be found: this I might safely say, that to the composer of that Office there shone as a guide that manuscript Legend, older than the Domynsian one, it was composed from a Ms Legend, which is circulated under the name of the Tongeren, Utrecht, and Rouge-Cloître ones, weighed by us above in §5. Some Antiphons prove this, not taken in full from the Liège one, but more probably excerpted from there, whence also the lessons proceeded, drawn out at the compiler's discretion; whereas the Liège ones have pure unmixed Theodoric as author. The Aberdeen Office also lacks responsories, some Antiphons, and other things, just as will be plain to the eye to one comparing the immediately preceding paragraph with this. I could indeed have refrained from transcribing those lessons, content to have pointed out the source whence they flowed; but since I wish to rest not on my own authority, but on that of the monuments such as it is, which I have gathered not carelessly concerning the glory of St. Rumold, it has not irked me to insert the whole Office itself here. It remains to be noted that in the church of Aberdeen the feast of St. Rumold is celebrated on July 1, as he noted who appended this clause: Friar Alexander Kennet, a Scot of Aberdeen, a wholly unworthy religious of the Seraphic Order, saw to its being written. Thus begins the oft-mentioned Office.

[109] as the antiphons at Vespers teach Antiphon at the Magnificat in First Vespers: Born of a serene stock, Rumold the renowned man; toward the loveliest of the heavens he sighs from his inmost marrow: sprung from Scotland, of royal lineage, by the integrity of his ways he adorns his life from infancy. Prayer. O God, who, by the intercession of blessed Rumold thy Martyr and bishop, didst by thy power make solid the waves of the gliding rivers, and didst snatch the one submerged for three days from the bonds of death out of the moisture of the waters: grant, we beseech thee, by his intervention, that we may be carried over from death to everlasting life. Lesson I. In the kingdom of Scotland there was a certain King by name David, who for the present dwelt in the renowned city of Berwick. He took to wife a noble consort, Cecilia by name, daughter of the illustrious King of Sicily; who, as soon as the spouses had long dwelt together, loving each other mutually, but more fervently giving thanks in turn to almighty God for their seed. But thou, etc. Lesson II. Who, when they had been regenerated by the wave of holy baptism, led their life holily, in all the doctrine of God. These, since they had no offspring whom they might expect to be the future heir in the kingdom of Scotland, ceased not night and day to pour out prayers to almighty God for an heir. But thou, etc. Lesson III. To a certain man therefore of great holiness and religion, Wallaferus by name, at that time Bishop of the church of Dunkeld, they have recourse, whose man's holiness throughout the whole kingdom of Scotland had been divinely spread abroad. Him they asked, that he would deign to pray to almighty God, that he might grant them offspring, a successor in his said kingdom. But thou, etc.

[110] and all the lessons Lesson IV. The said Bishop, acquiescing in their prayers, the King and Queen in turn prostrate themselves in prayers: in which place they received from the Lord such an angelic response: Thou shalt receive noble offspring, not only comely in limbs, but illustrated with virtues, in whom what is well-pleasing to God shall be done, and through whom a great multitude of people shall be converted to the Lord. But thou, etc. Lesson V. At length, according to the divine oracle, the Queen conceived, and thence bore a son of wondrous beauty. Whereupon the parents, rejoicing not a little, devoutly besought the aforesaid Bishop, that he would baptize this their son with his holy hands: who, assenting to those exhortations, baptized that son of theirs divinely, in the name of the Lord, imposing the name Rumold. But thou, etc. Lesson VI. Who indeed thereafter, most tenderly nurtured, filled with the grace of the holy Spirit, in the fifth year of his age, is handed over to the aforesaid Bishop to be educated in sciences and morals. He, of good disposition, under the same father, a most famous man, received with the utmost diligence and a fervent heart the cups of sciences, wisdom, and virtues. But the boy Rumold, obedient to his parents according to the precept of the Lord, came to the paternal royal palace; but he reckoned all the royal riches, and all the pomps and fleeting honors of the world, as nothing, and spurned them as contrary to his soul. But thou, etc.

[111] Lesson VII. And all these things being spurned, humbling himself in the church and the royal chapel, taken from the same source, day and night he lay prostrate in devout prayers. All things that were given to him he distributed to the poor and needy, he visited the weak, the infirm, and captives, and diligently fulfilled the works of mercy according to the Lord's precept. Wherefore in his praise we sing with devout voices: Growing in wisdom soon at a tender age, flourishing in holiness of life, he spurns transitory things. But thou, etc. Lesson VIII. Then, by the merits of the blessed man, adorned with the pontifical mitre, in the upper parts of Gaul, while he was there making a sermon to the people, a certain leper begged alms of him, although he was a gentile. To whom Rumold answered: Earthly alms, since I have neither gold nor silver from which to give thee, I have not; but spiritual alms, and this which is mine, I give thee: wherefore in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I say to thee the more swiftly, arise, and raise thyself up from the place in which thou sittest; believe in God, and thou shalt be cured of thy leprosy. And at this word he straightway rose again, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little boy, and he believed and was baptized. And when he had been brought to Rome, he was then kindly received by the Roman Pontiff. But thou, etc. Lesson IX. But returning from the city of Rome, he came through Lombardy; where he found various sick and suffering people seeking help for their infirmities. And so the holy man Rumold, understanding that they were vexed by a demon, pouring forth prayer first, by devout prayer invoking the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that demon went out, and seizing the hands of the infirm, they were straightway restored to health. At length returning through Gaul, he came to Mechlin, where then the place was very deserted: where, after various and most wondrous miracles wrought through the same man of God, he underwent martyrdom for the name of Christ, and there he rests in blessed peace, affording health to the infirm and the sick even to the present. But thou, etc. Responsory, antiphon, psalm, hymn, and chapter from the common of one Martyr and bishop.

[112] There follow the antiphons at Lauds arranged from the Ms. Legend, and those things which are proper at Lauds, which in the Liège Office serve as responsories; as I have rightly said above, the compiler of this Office never saw the proper Liège one. The chapter is, Every high priest. The hymn, O God of thy soldiers, etc. Thus at the Benedictus and at the Magnificat in Second Vespers, all things differ from the Liège one, transcribed from the aforesaid responsories, indeed from the cited Acts. In the foregoing lessons many gaps, truncated, imperfect, and distorted periods occur here and there, which it has not pleased to correct or restore, that the skill and industry of the author may be the more apparent, who spent all the seven first lessons in narrating the beginnings of the life, neglecting through carelessness the more certain deeds of the Saint, which he plainly seems to have been ignorant of. Much more polished are the three Windesheim lessons, contracted not from the Ms. Legend, but from Domynsius, with some things corrected or passed over which displeased the writer, and chiefly in this, that he did not judge St. Rumold to be called Archbishop. To define the determinate time at which the feast of St. Rumold began to be celebrated among the Canons Regular of Windesheim is not within my power; nevertheless I establish this as certain, that their present lessons are not older than Domynsius, and so were first adopted after the year 1569, probably in the century just elapsed, after the example of the people of Mechlin. That my conjecture was true was proved by the subsequent information of the Reverend and Erudite D. Canon and Scholastic, Nicolaus Slaets, from which I learned that only in the year 1655 did St. Rumold begin to be venerated by the praised Canons of Windesheim. It will be useful to set this Office also before the eyes, in which our Saint is reckoned among the Canons Regular.

[113] The Canons Regular of Windesheim Feasts of July. On the third day of July. On the feast of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, of the Canons Regular. Double. This was the first of his. All things from the common of one Martyr, except those which follow. In First Vespers it has only a Commemoration, and a Commemoration is made of the Octave of the Holy Apostles. Thus far the rubrics; then this Prayer is set down: May the venerable supplication of blessed Rumold thy Martyr and bishop reconcile us, we beseech thee, O Lord, to thy Majesty: that we who unceasingly offend through our frailty may be expiated by his assiduous prayers. Other rubrics note that the lessons of the first nocturn are taken from the occurring Scripture; then for the second nocturn: Lesson IV. When David King of the Scots was now held by no hope of offspring, by the prayers of the Bishop of Dublin he obtained a son, and at the same moment, brought forth into the light, he received the name of Rumold. The boy, endowed with an excellent disposition, from his very cradle abstained from his mother's breasts three times a week, which abstinence he observed even to the end of his life. Under the bishop of Dublin, until his fifteenth year wondrously imbued with the discipline of the arts, he is recalled by his father to the royal court; where, devoting himself to prayers, almsgivings, and the other works of piety, comforted by an angelic vision, he so devoted himself wholly to nakedness, poverty, and affliction of the body, that he most constantly refused the royal marriage and kingdom offered to him by his parents.

[114] from Domynsius they took theirs, Lesson V. The bishop of Dublin having died, by angelic admonition, in his place, though resisting with all his might, he is appointed. Having entered upon the pontificate, he drew many from the camps of the demons to the service of Christ, led more from disgraceful deeds to penance, and relieved innumerable needy ones both by words and by alms. His father having died, by warning of a heavenly messenger, he departed from the kingdom, and hastening to Rome, resigned his dignity into the hands of Stephen the Second, the supreme Pontiff: begging this one thing of the princes of the Apostles, that by their prayers they would obtain for him the most longed-for laurel of martyrdom. And so, by warning of an angel, seeking Brabant, dwelling among the woods and thickets of Mechlin, he both obtained by his prayers a most happy offspring for Ado the Arch-count who was destitute of the hope of offspring, and restored that same offspring, when dead, to life. Lesson VI. From that Prince, when he had obtained a place in those regions, among the shady elms, he built a monastery of Canons Regular, and a little chapel of St. Stephen, the help of merciful God so favoring him, that although, while the Huns and Danes were ravaging in hostile fury, the surrounding regions, monasteries, and churches were consumed by iron and fire, the place of Rumold remained untouched in all things. But while he was building the sacred edifice in a more august form, and going to the workmen, exhorted them more fervently to avoid the foulness of vices, but especially of adultery; one of them, most corrupted by every kind of lust, turning in infamous hatred against the most holy man who gave salutary warnings, killed him, wounded by a strong blow from ambush, and to conceal the crime sank the body in the river flowing past. But betrayed by a certain wondrous light, and fished out, it was honorably buried in the sacred edifice with the greatest concourse and wailing of the peoples. In life and after death, he shone with miracles.

[115] It will not be amiss to have noted in a word, that there exists with us an old Diurnal at the end of which is read: the cult begun not so long ago This work of the Diurnal was completed, according to the order of the Canons Regular of the Chapter of Windesheim, by the honest man Theodoric Martens, master of the printing art in the city of Antwerp, in the year of salvation 1500, in the eighth year. In the aforesaid Diurnal there is no commemoration of St. Rumold, but among the additions written in a more recent hand is found the prayer common to it; O God who by the intercession, etc. So that it is easy to grasp that not only the Office but also the canonical status of St. Rumold is of more recent age, inasmuch as he found a place in that liberal Breviary only first in the twenty-seventh century i.e. very late.

§ XI. On the cult of St. Rumold from the more recent Breviary of the people of Liège, likewise from the Breviary and pictures of Mechlin.

The old Liège Office in §9 has been most sufficiently proved from the aforecited Breviaries; in which I would have it observed, the proper Office having been struck out among the people of Liège, that all the lessons are taken word for word from the marrow, so to speak, of Theodoric's encomium, except that here and there they are faulty; the antiphons, hymns, verses, responsories, and chapters smacking of another style, namely the rhythmic style of that poet, who, not content with Theodoric's panegyric oration, raised his muse to far more eminent things, singing lofty things about the serene stock, the royal lineage of the Scots, the royal riches, the office of the Archbishopric, and other decorations of this kind, of which, however, some, especially in the antiphons of Lauds, can conveniently be applied to any Saints whatever, at least to Martyrs. This is unusual, that the more illustrious part of his life, which consists in the blood poured out for Christ, is passed over. In all that rather long Office, there is deep silence about Dublin, inasmuch as before Domynsius no memory of that appellation anywhere exists. But of these things there is no leisure to dispute again, nor to inquire more laboriously in what year the proper Office of St. Rumold, very recently described by us, was first struck out of the aforesaid Liège Breviary; that this was done between the year 1558 and 1623 is evidently established from our copies, for we have a later edition and another of the year 1636, from which are absent all things which pertain to St. Rumold, except a single lesson, which on October 27 is the fourth, or the first of the second nocturn. I do not think it will be unpleasant to the reader if that whole office be subjoined here also, by which there will appear the novelty in the lesson, though most brief, somewhat adapted to the more recent Mechlin style.

[117] a single lesson has today been substituted. This is the title: On October 27. On the feast of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr. Double. The Prayer has in the last edition a changed final clause, which there runs thus: Grant that by his merits, snatched from the waves of this world, we may be happily led to the harbor of eternal blessedness. The lessons of the first nocturn are to be taken from today's common: From Miletus. In the second nocturn, lesson IV. Rumold, of that part of Scotland which is called Ireland, sprung from noble parents, and made Bishop of Dublin, went to Rome, and having received the blessing of the Pontiff, according to the apparition of an angel made to him, came thence to where the river Scheldt empties itself into the sea at Mechlin: and there he so watered the faith of Christ, planted by St. Lambert the Bishop, that after him he is held the Apostle of the people of Mechlin. Who, while he insisted on propagating religion there more and more, at length, by two assassins, one of whom was rebuked by the bishop for adultery, gravely wounded in the head, consummated his life by martyrdom. Responsory. The robe of gladness. Lessons V and VI from the sermon of St. Augustine the Bishop, The triumphal day of the blessed Martyr, as in the common of one Martyr. In the third nocturn, the homily on the Gospel Let your loins be girded, as in the common of a Confessor not a Bishop. The ninth lesson is read from the Gospel of the vigil of Saints Simon and Jude. I am the true vine, etc. Thus our last edition, but in the other of the year 1623, the ninth lesson is set from the Gospel, Jesus coming down from the mountain. By this nothing is contained except the proper Liège Offices; another later one is mixed with the Roman rite.

[118] The Mechlin proper was published in the year 1635. We said at the beginning of the cited paragraph that neither by Vardæus nor by anyone else has it hitherto been able to be found, what proper Office at all the church of Mechlin, whether collegiate or metropolitan, celebrated concerning St. Rumold, older than that which the most Illustrious Boonen prescribed by his decree on August 25 of the year 1634, and which from the similarity of the prayer and of the things narrated I judge to have been composed by the same man who four years later committed to print that most ample latest life. But that there was no more ancient Office, those twenty-four lessons of the Reverend D. vande Wiele the Archdeacon seem sufficiently to prove, which we showed in paragraph I that Martinius sent to Rosweyde, and which are said to have been composed to this end at the beginning of the seventeenth century, that, Roman approbation having been obtained, they might be distributed throughout the whole octave of St. Rumold. I wish to be deceived; but until a Mechlin office older than today's shall have been exhibited, so long shall I hold it persuaded that none existed. He who afterward inquired into that matter more accurately, the very Reverend and most Erudite D. Nicolaus Jacobus Slaets, Licentiate of Sacred Theology, Metropolitan Canon and Scholastic, confessed that in the Mechlin edition at Henricus Jaye's of the year 1629, nothing proper concerning St. Rumold is found: the present lessons having been first inserted in the edition of the year 1635. There is indeed noted an Office of the passion of St. Rumold with the octave in all things as today, except that neither the collect nor the lessons of the second nocturn are proper. Likewise, he says, there are had Offices for the feasts of the translation, the relation, and the recollection of the relics, but all are from the common. Meanwhile, that nothing be wanting from us, we shall describe from the modern Mechlin proper those things which are recited of St. Rumold on July 1, in the metropolitan church and in the diocese, under the double rite of the first class with octave, by decree of the provincial Synod of the year 1570, chapter 4 on feasts. At Antwerp the Office is made under the semidouble rite on July 7.

[119] Lesson IV. Rumold, Archbishop of Dublin, of that part of Scotland whose lessons are described, which is now called Ireland, and born of the royal stock of that nation, having forsaken his fatherland, his parents, and the succession of his lineage, judged that the ministry of Christ was to be preferred by him to all fleeting and perishable things. From his fatherland therefore he set out for Rome in zeal for perfection, and that he might visit the thresholds of the Apostles and present in person venerate the religious places. Set on his journey, he passed by no occasion of preaching the word of God: at times also, where the matter required, he employed miracles for the conversion of the infidels. Set at Rome, ceaselessly frequenting the memorials of the Apostles and Martyrs, he so represented their combats to his own mind, that, inflamed with the ardor of martyrdom, he was wholly carried away into desire of it. Lesson V. But divinely admonished to descend into the parts of Gaul, having obtained the Pontiff's blessing, he came to Mechlin. Where, most kindly received by Count Ado, not long after he foretold fruitfulness to his wife, and initiated the offspring received with baptism, and imposed on him the name of Libertus: whom also afterward, submerged in the waters, he recalled to life. This Libertus, when the Scythians and Danes were laying waste everything by war from the seacoast even to the Colony of Agrippina Cologne, fleeing into Hesbaye to remove himself from the danger, was immolated to God as a victim before the very altar of St. Trudo. Lesson VI. But Rumold planted the orthodox faith at Mechlin and in the neighboring places with such and so untiring zeal, and with so great an increase, that he is deservedly held the Apostle of the people of Mechlin. Who, while he insisted on propagating religion there more and more, at length, by two assassins, one of whom was rebuked by the Bishop for adultery, gravely wounded in the head, consummated his life by martyrdom. His body those same assassins, that they might conceal the crime, sank in the water: but a divine light radiating from above, it was drawn out of the waters by Count Ado, laid in the edifice of St. Stephen, then translated to the church which is now the metropolitan one. In the first nocturn is read From Miletus, in the third, the homily on the Gospel If anyone wishes to come.

[120] There ought to be subjoined here other Offices proper to the Mechlin metropolis, The pictures of the chapel of St. Rumold, concerning the translation of the relics to Steynockerzeel on October 19, concerning the relation made thence, on October 27, concerning the recollection of the sacred relics, on November 3, which, to tell the truth, pertain no less to the cult of the Saint than do those things which have already been fully set forth above in this and the preceding paragraph. But since these are to have their proper place, there remains to be fulfilled the last part of our title, concerning the ancient pictures of the people of Mechlin, preserved in the almost round chapel of St. Rumold, which occupies the corner of the cemetery, and arranged round about in a circle, of which Vardæus enumerates twenty-three on page 107, describing the epigraphs of each rendered from the Belgic into Latin, and observing all things so studiously and minutely, that from the voyage, from the dress, from the form and arrangement of the garments, I might almost say even from the very gestures, he gathers that which he chiefly aims at, that St. Rumold was most certainly born in Ireland. But this he most deplores, that some old effigy of the Saint has been set aside, formerly hung in his little chapel at Mechlin, before the altar of that same Saint and chapel ….. In which St. Rumold was expressly and in his own terms asserted to be the son of the King of Ireland. Let Vardæus dismiss his complaints; the surviving pictures easily compensate for the loss, from which he reckons that he has, above all, established that which he sought.

[121] I attentively contemplated the images themselves with several most erudite men of the Chapter, they are not older than the fifteenth century, and among other things this was observed, that more pictures are described on the vernacular panel than are hung in the little chapel, doubtless for that cause, not ill noted by Vardæus, that the chapel, made narrower after its restoration, did not contain them within its compass, or perhaps some perished, broken or torn apart by the iconoclasts, or by some other mishap. There survive, if I rightly remember, twenty-three, so that he who copied the inscriptions of each for Vardæus's sake seems to have reckoned rightly. About their age there was some dispute among us, some estimating them, from the ductus of the Belgic characters, older than is just, but there was found no one who would dare to pronounce them older than three hundred years. The Belgic manner of forming letters by no means surpasses the fifteenth century; I, to speak candidly, think it scarcely reaches that age; nor indeed do the pictures bear such antiquity before them, nor are they of great authority, but formed at the painter's discretion, as will soon be plain. Nevertheless, granting and conceding that age, this alone would be proved, which I have often insinuated, namely, that after the first elevation of the sacred body or the more solemn translation of 1369, indeed many years after, they were composed from popular traditions, and, unless I am much mistaken, renewed in the course of time. Certainly one may wonder that, in the destruction of the former and greater chapel of the year 1580, the heretical iconoclasts kept their hands off them, unless, through fear of the impious men ravaging the sacred things at that time, they were timely hidden in a safe place. Perhaps there will not be lacking those who suspect that some were restored from the memory of earlier ones, and the explanations of the pictures appended according to the capacity of the writer.

[122] nor sufficiently conformable to the Legends. However the matter stands, I embrace and venerate them, as true arguments and monuments of the Rumoldian cult and of the piety of the people of Mechlin toward their most holy Patron, and so I exhibit here the epigraphs of each, some of which say more than the pictures relate, but the pictures themselves more than once contradict the Legends, however ample. Let us begin from the first, to which the assigned title runs thus: St. Rumold confirmed the faith, healed many sick out of charity. His father, departing from life, counseled him to abdicate the kingdom and the bishopric. The first part of the inscription is handed down by no Legend-writer: the second is opposed even to the Domynsian Anonymous himself. Vardæus, noticing this, as he has a wedge ready for every knot, thus strives to save the latter part. But that which is written in the first image, he says, that the parent, now near to death, persuaded Rumold to the abdication of temporal and ecclesiastical rule and honor; since the authors and written monuments hand down the opposite, is ambiguous; unless you presume of the father's devotion and piety that he changed the counsel given before, when he now held the vanity and falsehood of the perishing world the more evidently perceived, the more strongly was impressed upon him the consideration of the eternity now to be begun: or, if you prefer, that the Flemish writing, in many places worn away by age, perhaps originally signified something other than now appears. We leave these things to the judgment of the prudent reader, to whom that trite saying will at once occur: To painters and poets there was always equal power of daring whatever they please.

[123] The inscription of the second picture is of this kind: St. Rumold crossed the sea, Stephen Pope II is wrongly adduced, as a singular friend of God, in a little boat woven of wicker. To a man in France born blind he restored sight; very many sought him. The first, as Theodorician, I do not reject. The French miracle belongs to the later Legends. The third is piously supposed. III. St. Rumold, having resigned the bishopric into the hands of the Lord Stephen Pope II, thereafter gave himself to works of penance. I prefer with Baronius to believe that by the supreme Pontiff, whoever he was, St. Rumold was initiated into the office of apostolate. But that the name of Stephen Pope II is so boldly here marked, is not an error of the painter, says Vardæus, or of another concerning the person; but the use or abuse of very many, who once so spoke and thought, that Stephen was really the second, to be passed over in the series of Popes, on account of the brevity of the time during which he survived his election, since he died within four days, and of even that little space was deprived of the last and next-to-last day of his own power, as Baronius narrates from Anastasius the Librarian for the year 752, number 10. What Vardæus wishes to hint at here, I do not for my part grasp. In vain is the error or fiction of the painter and of others excused, to whom the Pope to whom St. Rumold came was no more known than the year or day of his birth, or of his departure from his fatherland to undertake that long pilgrimage. But it is not pleasing to dwell on examining each epigraph of the pictures; some things must be left to the consideration of erudite readers. Let us hasten to the next.

[124] IV. St. Rumold ardently begged for martyrdom. The angel answered: Friend of God, rejoice; for thou art heard. The inscriptions of all, And license having been obtained from the Pope, he bade him farewell. At length in the end the treasure of his repose is manifoldly blessed. Let the picture itself be looked at, whether all these things are expressed. V. St. Rumold, approaching the territory of Mechlin, found on the very day of Good Friday a copious multitude wantonly leading dances: soon he announces to them the lamentable proclamation of the Lord's passion. Count Adolph called him to himself by intermediaries. VI. As a prophet he foretold that Elisa the countess would bear a son, and imparted to her the grace of fruitfulness, she having already passed the years of fruitfulness. VII. The Countess bore an infant named Libertus; Rumold baptized him heir of Mechlin. VIII. This infant having been submerged for three days, when the Saint learned of it, by his prayers on bended knee he restored him to life and safety. IX. St. Rumold here expels a demon: the freed man is left wounded even unto death; the people intercede for him with the Saint, that he may also obtain bodily health. X. St. Rumold and St. Gummarus frequently meet midway on the Lier road with crosses and ecclesiastical banners: the staffs, which they had fixed in the earth, began to put forth leaves. XI. St. Rumold accused a certain one of his workmen of adultery: this man, thinking within himself, I will easily withstand thee, invited another to his murder. XII. St. Rumold fell for the truth, rebuking the sins of the workmen; from heaven a light shone upon the body cast into the waters. XIII. God would not have this light hidden, which light taught others the faith. Fishermen came upon the body; they found it concealed. The Count grieved vehemently.

[125] are reported in order. XIV. The Huns, Danes, and Northmen were assaulting Mechlin: St. Rumold as patron defended it. A certain one, touching the golden cock, falls backward. XV. This Nun is placed in a boat; no one could move it from the shore, until she was exposed: she is covered with a heavenly garment. XVI. A certain Nun, long being a keeper, knew the hours by the crowing of a certain cock; it is seized in the sight of the sisters by a fox, and against nature is brought back alive by it. XVII. At a certain time, while the gentiles were ravaging, the body is carried into a certain fortress, Steynockerzeel: an infirm lord is healed, and writes St. Rumold heir of all his goods. XVIII. A certain woman having a withered hand, bringing it to his sepulchre, drew it out healed: three possessed persons are freed from the demon. XIX. Langerus, a priest of a more dissolute life, twice lost the light of his eyes; confidently imploring the Saint's help, he immediately recovers it. XX. Mechlin being surrounded by a long siege, a certain captain, going out in the name of the Lord, and bearing a rib of the Saint on his shield, repelled all the besiegers in the power of God and by the help of the Saint. XXI. St. Rumold frees Mechlin from many and various dangers: his rib gives a blessing in the conflict; in memory the body is carried about with many lights. XXII. St. Rumold is the patron of the exercising of merchandise; he protected his clients by land and sea. XXIII. A certain Dignaris otherwise, Helinardus, having fallen in the hunt, perished by his horse; he is carried to Mechlin to the sepulchre of the Saint, and comes back to life.

[126] Doubts concerning the aforesaid pictures, The epigraphs of the pictures now described, not sufficiently cohering with the images themselves, sometimes opposed to the Legends, more in number than the pictures themselves are, and other things of the kind attentively observed, had given occasion to certain conjectures, which I had not hitherto dared to bring forth, being destitute of the due foundation by which I might confirm them from somewhere. It was doubtful whether the inscriptions were taken from the Legend of the Belgic Anonymous, or rather whether the Belgic Legend itself was framed to their norm: it was likewise doubtful whether these same, or other pictures, were to be seen in the ancient chapel; and so whether another hand had not afterward been added: but so long as that vernacular life could not be found, it was in vain to divine about unknown things. When therefore it came into my hands, my first care was anxiously to inquire whether in the Legend itself such inscriptions or epigraphs were not found. And lo, at the very first glance, I come upon them, and observe that the whole little work is not divided into chapters, articles, or paragraphs, but with titles mixed in here and there, and that even in the midst of a flowing and still-incomplete construction, so that very often the sense of the sentence is disturbed. And the aforesaid titles are plainly so conceived that they suit some picture rather than the history, with the particle here always set first, or such is here a representation, as if in a drama spectacles were exhibited.

[127] That you may perceive the matter a little more clearly, take the idea of the Belgic little work. It is a booklet of two hundred twenty little pages, in large characters, in a small format of 12, legibly enough, from their comparison with those things which are had in the Belgic life, although described with many abbreviations and useless rubrics by a certain nun-sister, Anna van Thienen, with this clause added at the end: written in the year of the Lord 1555, doubtless from the autograph, which she had undertaken to follow. Further, on page 7, into the not-yet-completed construction is most ineptly inserted this passage: Here are joined in matrimony the King and Queen of Scotland; so that you may easily see it to be a scene rather than an epitome of things to be said. On page 8, the sense is equally unskillfully disturbed: Here the King and Queen beg offspring from the Archbishop (Walaferus). The same tenor is on page 11: Here St. Rumold is baptized. Page 16: Here the angel of the Lord addresses St. Rumold as he is at prayer. Again page 19: Here the father and mother allure St. Rumold to marriage. Then page 26: Here the angel reveals that St. Rumold is to be consecrated Archbishop. Page 34: Here St. Rumold is ordained Archbishop of Dublin. Page 38: Here St. Rumold announces the Word of God to the people in his archbishopric.

[128] Page 40: Here the angel commands St. Rumold to depart from his paternal kingdom. by comparison, Page 44: Here St. Rumold crosses the sea, carried in a little boat woven of wicker, covered with an ox-hide, smeared with melted pitch. Page 47: Here St. Rumold heals a heathen paralytic, and imparts to him the grace of baptism. With the same phrase always and from the same source it proceeds. Behold the following: Page 51: Here St. Rumold resigns the episcopal ring to the supreme Pontiff. Page 59: Here St. Rumold is admonished by an angel to leave Rome. 61: Here St. Rumold bids farewell to the Pope, having received his blessing from him. 65: Here St. Rumold frees a man possessed. Page 68: Here St. Rumold preaches the Gospel to the people leading dances in the wilderness. Page 70: Here St. Rumold is kindly received by Count Ado and his wife. Page 82: Here St. Rumold washes the son of the Count in the sacred waters, and imposes on him the name of Libertus. Page 86: Here Libertus the son of the Count is submerged in the waters, and is searched for by the people. Page 96: Here St. Rumold and St. Gummarus mingle pious colloquies. Page 108: Here Libertus is drawn out of the waters by the prayers of his holy godfather. Page 121: Here St. Rumold sows and plants for the sake of avoiding idleness. Page 126: Here St. Rumold sees to the building of the chapel, which still stands at Mechlin. Page 133: Here the holy man Rumold is killed. Page 142: Here the fishermen wonder at the light which appears to them among the reeds. Page 145: Here the sacred body of St. Rumold is found in the waters.

[129] And by these twenty-six principal programs the whole of that Belgic Legend is distinguished, they are the more easily solved. which I would not difficultly believe to have been described word for word from the pictures formerly exhibited, and not very aptly thrust into the context of the work, which nevertheless Domynsius preferred almost to follow, rather than to distribute his version into other sections. Hence for the solution of the foregoing doubts it is given to gather, that all those images, as they once existed, are older than the Belgic or Domynsian Legend, and so pertain, as we conjectured before, to the end of the fourteenth century, after the deposition of the sacred body in the gilded shrine, indeed rather to the beginning of the fifteenth, and that their subjects were taken from the Latin Acts, then most widely current, which the Belgic Anonymous expressly confesses on page 34 to have had before his eyes, as we related a little above. I said, as they once existed, for of those of today, among which several miracles and other inscriptions substituted for the former are represented, the case is not the same, although we have already freely admitted, by the judgment of the erudite men of Mechlin, that if not all, at least some, bear before them an age of about three hundred years, unless most of them, broken and torn by the iconoclasts, were thereupon formed and restored to the norm of the older ones, and the epigraphs augmented at the discretion of some unskilled person. I will note here again, that Domynsius did not render the Belgic autograph entirely, since from the cited page 34 and others he suppressed in silence some things which could have contributed to the illustration of the matters. Now let us pursue the other things which also pertain to the cult.

§ XII. On the burial of St. Rumold, and on the first elevation and translation of the sacred body.

In the church built by the Saint Concerning the first deposition or burial of St. Rumold, we have as witness, in these Acts, one alone, who may be called the more secure, certainly the less straying, our often-praised guide Theodoric, where at number 9, having related the slaughter of the Saint perpetrated by the assassins, the miracle of the light appearing above the body, and the same drawn out of the waters, he thus subjoins concerning Count Ado: That most sacred corpse he draws to land with jubilation; placed on a vehicle, he conveys it to the place where it now rests, and procures its burial with notable expense: nor was the finger of God lacking, working straightway wondrously at the clod tomb of his Martyr. These things, in other words and with longer phrasing, but in plainly the same sense, the Domynsian Anonymous narrates in chapter 29, in our edition number 40, noting more expressly: that the sacred body was carried into the little chapel, which the Saint, while he was alive, had himself built. And indeed not only a monastery built, but also a church built by St. Rumold, Theodoric likewise hands down at number 7, in these words: There are gathered the troops of those warring for God, all things grow which pertain to the uses of the church, even to the sum of the completed work. And this same is the church which in Theodoric at number 10 is called the church of our Martyr, which in the time of the Norman incursions remained unharmed. In the following number 11, it is thus had: A woman, a registrar, the same also a nun, Gerlendis by name, had with pious devotion attached herself to his church (St. Rumold's). Again at number 14: A certain man, Lantegerus by name, who had grown up in the church of B. Rumold. Likewise at number 17, that mercenary soldier, broken and as it were destitute of all strength, is carried by others' hands to the church of B. Rumold.

[137] If those pious and religious conjectures of Vardæus are of any worth, The sacred bones were certainly elevated, as is to be supposed probable, then not indeed under Leo III, or Notger of Liège, but yet not many years after Theodoric, the glory of St. Rumold having been spread by the fame of his miracles and the life written and published by him, it was seriously thought of by the people of Mechlin, then a little more opulent, to elevate the sacred treasure, doubtless in the course of the twelfth century; that is, when, the tumults of the Grimbergen war having been settled, and the lords of Berthold received into favor by the Duke of Brabant, under their dominion or patronage (they called it advocacy at that time) the commonwealth of the people of Mechlin began to flourish and grow more from day to day; the clergy also then increasing, illustrated by the favors of the Bishops of Cambrai, as is told more at length in the corollary subjoined to the Acts; so that they took counsel about building an ampler and more magnificent church in honor of their most holy Patron, and in that very century or the next, the thirteenth, set their hands to the work. Of this matter we have an irrefragable witness, the diploma elsewhere cited, by which, for the fabric, if I am not mistaken long since begun, but then to be advanced, many things are arranged in the year 1265. Certainly that in that century the relics of the holy Martyr were elevated and already then placed in some shrine ought to be established from this, that during that famous siege of the year 1303 the aforesaid shrine (so the Mechlin Chronicle relates) was carried by two Canons processionally from the church into the marketplace …. thence brought by the same supplication to the gate of the cemetery (Kerckhof-poorte), the citizens praying for victory through the merits of St. Rumold, etc.

[138] To this pertains chapter 48 of the Wachtendonck Legend, sincere enough in this part, in the time of the famous siege: if it did not exceed the due bounds. It runs thus: In this year (1303) Mechlin was besieged by John Duke of Brabant, with the citizens of Louvain, Brussels, and Antwerp called out to assist him, on the fourth day of Holy Week. The cause of the siege some recount to be that the people of Mechlin opposed the sale of half the city made to the Duke by Hugo de Chalon Bishop of Liège without the due solemnities: others, that they were unwilling to admit the prefect appointed by him for the city: let the inquiry rest with them. By this siege there was so great a want among the people of Mechlin, that they were bound either to die fighting or within a day or two to surrender themselves. Set in such straits, while they deliberate among themselves what to do, with various proposals put forth here and there, a good counsel occurred to them, that, the help of the blessed Martyr being implored, with the bier (which, made of cypress in his honor, was covered with a cloth variegated with golden lines) they should make a procession round about the walls of the city, with bare feet and in linen: a vow also added, that they would resume it every year, in perpetual future times, if the siege were lifted. The resolution taken, they appoint as their leader the English knight Peter Dondelaer, who, having placed upon his shield the rib of the blessed Martyr, which still is seen enclosed in glass, advances into the battle line with the well-encouraged citizens, and, the conflict begun, turns the Brabantines to flight, the same Martyr aiding his inhabitants. There was therefore at that time a portable bier, made of cypress, etc. But at what time it was first wrought, in what precise year the body was elevated, since I find it nowhere certainly noted, so long shall I adhere to the probable conjecture set down above, that it must have happened about the end of the twelfth century: in which the sacred pledges of SS. Trudo, Eucherius, and Libertus, Gurnezius relates on page 215 to have been found, raised, and decently placed in shrines, which from the age of the Northmen had lain hidden buried in the earth even to the year 1169.

[139] and this could have been done about the end of the twelfth century. What if the body of St. Rumold was elevated somewhat later; and that toward the beginning of the following century, to which point tend those things which were thereupon suggested to me by the Reverend and most Erudite D. Canon Crucius praised above, from the manuscript vernacular annals (which for that time make some faith), expressly asserting that the old dwelling of the Canons of Mechlin, or the monastery of St. Rumold, where they had been accustomed to live in cloister, was in that place where now stands the convent of the Franciscan Fathers, for whom, brought from Italy in the fifth year after the death of St. Francis, the Bertholds built the Mechlin convent, as Gonzaga testifies on page 998 about the year 1231; after which the Canons had migrated thence to the new basilica, transferring the body of St. Rumold thither with them, so that it is altogether necessary to admit that that sacred deposit was elevated before the aforesaid year 1231, and not without pomp carried to the new basilica, such as it then was, if the praised most Erudite Canon Crucius has rightly adduced the Tongeren chronicle. All which agree exceedingly well with those things which we had hitherto set forth, and which seem able to receive some light from thence, whence it occurred to no one to seek it.

[140] I had read long ago in the Brussels Usuard codex, for the use of the Collegiate Church of St. Gudula, The first translation of them which in my recent Preface to Usuard, page 60, I judged to have been written toward the end of the fourteenth century, or toward the beginning of the fifteenth; I had read, I say, in that Martyrology at July 4 these words: At Mechlin, the Translation of St. Rumold, Bishop and Martyr. I thereupon shook out whatever of written commentaries in the Mechlin archives, whatever survived received by popular tradition, with no trace of any such translation occurring anywhere, at least sufficiently distinct, since besides the Steynockerzeel one none is today noted or admitted among the people of Mechlin, none at least is annually celebrated. There came therefore the desire of investigating another matter, if perhaps by some means I might conveniently adapt the aforesaid announcement of the Brussels Martyrology to a thing actually done at Mechlin. For it seemed nothing less than probable that some fiction, for the sake of neighbors, was entered at Brussels into the sacred Calendar; further, that it cannot be thought that there was indicated there the deposition of the sacred body into the old silver shrine of the year 1369, as I have often observed some to wish; for that whole matter was accomplished at Paschal time, on April 3, not the last of December 1370, as some chronicles dream, which will be evidently demonstrated from the very authentic instrument in §14.

[141] To this it ought to be most certain, that from the first burial; it is somewhere noted on July 4. and from the first chapel in which the sacred body of St. Rumold had been laid, it was at some time translated into today's basilica before the end of the thirteenth century, as we have already shown; and that in such manner and splendor, with such solemnity and pomp, as so great a celebrity merited; and which, as is everywhere the case, was wont to be numbered among the feasts of the Saint. These things attentively weighed with me, I thought it scarcely to be doubted that the aforesaid Martyrology pointed out to us that very translation which we have sought throughout this whole §, namely that first one from the old cloister of St. Rumold to the new basilica, which most aptly, from a certain exigency of the matters, was made within the octave of his natal day long since established, on July 4 about the year 1230, let us say by conjecture, in the year 1227, in which, the Dominical letter being C, July 1 fell on a Thursday, and so the 4th, most fitting for such a translation, was a Sunday, at this time also most celebrated among the people of Mechlin under the name of dedication, another would say of consecration-anniversary. But that in the course of time the solemnity of that translation could seem to have been neglected, let it seem strange to no one, since it concurred with the feast itself, but another translation was celebrated in the month of October, of which we must now treat.

§ XIII. On the translation to Steynockerzeel.

Another translation noted in the Martyrology, This Steynockerzeel translation of St. Rumold is today widely current at Mechlin, indeed uniquely known and celebrated with a twin double Office, one of which answers to the translation, the other to the relation. That one perhaps among the Usuardine supplements, from a notice once taken from the proper Mechlin Martyrology or Calendar, or from elsewhere, John Molanus marked at October 18: At Mechlin, the Translation of St. Rumold Martyr and Pontiff; who, if he had known the Steynockerzeel one, doubtless would not have omitted to hint it in a word. Hence Dempster in the Scottish Menology is to be reckoned to have taken the same, who at October 17, of his own had set forth: At Mechlin, the Coming of Rumold the Archbishop. The same translation also occurs in our Florarium of the Saints, a Ms. of, if I am not mistaken, the sixteenth century, on the aforesaid day October 18: At Mechlin, the Translation of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr. And here we suppose to be plainly indicated that translation to Steynockerzeel of which we treat, which in today's Mechlin Office is celebrated on October 19, doubtless on account of the occurring festivity of St. Luke the Evangelist, transposed to the following day. We suppose, I say; since no other true translation survives, to which the described texts of the Martyrologies can be referred.

[143] as also the Relation, There follows in the cited Mechlin Office, in that very month of October, on the 27th day, or on the vigil of the Apostles Simon and Jude, first noted in Greven, the Relation of Rumold Bishop and Martyr. Then in Molanus in the additions to Usuard, on the same day, At Mechlin, the Relation of B. Rumold Bishop and Martyr. Likewise in the Scottish Menology of Dempster: At Mechlin, the Relation of the relics of Rumold. Greven wrote, or whoever is the author of that edition, as we said in the Preface to Usuard, either toward the end of the fifteenth century, or certainly toward the beginning of the sixteenth, and so he must then have found the aforesaid Relation in some Belgic table of the Saints; although he neglected the Translation, which ought to be presupposed. Moreover, since the one is connected to the other, it is not improbably gathered that both were celebrated at Mechlin from the fifteenth century itself, although, with a peculiar Office, at least a proper one, in the church of St. Rumold, to celebrate it every year does not seem to have been set in custom. Nevertheless some festivity is hinted by the foundation of Dean John Robyns, found at the end of the Mechlin necrology, often elsewhere to be cited, where for the year 1524 is noted a distribution to be made on the feast of the Translation of D. Rumold: not, I think, on that which we said concurs with the very natal day of the Saint, but on that of which I have already spoken, of the Translation and perhaps the Relation of Steynockerzeel, long since celebrated in that very village on October 27.

[144] Behold the Translation and Relation of the sacred body of St. Rumold proved in some fashion, to be fitted to the Steynockerzeel narration, but without expression of the term to or from which they were made; which nevertheless, from the tradition now received, we are compelled to fit to the Steynockerzeel history, whose true circumstances are so obscure and unknown, that no one has hitherto been found who openly sets forth the certain time at which the aforesaid translation and relation took place. I shall make you perceive that all is entangled and involved. There are those who, with Vardæus, who calls it a picture, ascend to the Norman times; there are others who, following the author of the Wachtendonck life, chapters 43 and 46, while they find all things wrapped in the darkness of earlier centuries, take refuge in the Grimbergen war of the not-yet-mature twelfth century. And these indeed so as to define the translation of which we treat as more ancient: but Gramaye, treading, if I am not mistaken, in the footsteps of Domynsius, proceeding by a plainly different path, places that same translation between the more solemn elevations or showings of the years 1369 and 1479. Lest therefore we pass over anything that may conduce to illustrating the matter, the words of each author must be exhibited. I begin from Vardæus, who in a note on chapter 2 of the Domynsian supplement, on the village of Steynockerzeel, against the mind of the Writer, thus speaks on page 87: But in what determinate year his sacred remains were brought thither, or carried back thence, I nowhere find: yet I suppose it certain that they were translated thither on occasion of the imminent Norman fury and war, whether of that which from the year 881 lasted almost to the end of the ninth century, or of some of the earlier ones, which fell in the years 830, 835, 850, and the intermediate ones. Whence among the epigraphs of the images of the Mechlin chapel of St. Rumold …. the seventeenth is this: At a certain time, while the gentiles were ravaging, the body of St. Rumold is carried into a certain fortress called Steynockerzeel. And this is the whole basis of Vardæus, which we overthrew above from Theodoric in such a way that we reckon the defenders of this opinion sufficiently disarmed.

[145] As therefore I desire it to be admitted as unshaken and undoubted, from the most open testimony of the praised Theodoric, sufficiently weighed in the preceding paragraph, obscure, doubtful, and entangled: that no elevation of the sacred body, nor so much as any translation, was made before his times. And although he did not affirm this so expressly, yet even from the silence alone about the celebrated Steynockerzeel miracle and so splendid a donation anyone would conclude it; for he who so carefully toward the end of number 16 commemorates a modest annual income, and that for life, rendered from a vow, can he, I pray, be reckoned to have neglected the donation of a whole village? It is likewise certain that no Acts or other manuscript monuments exist, older than the Domynsian Anonymous, which mention such a determinate translation and the so celebrated cure thereafter, in Steynockerzeel, of the lord of that place, and finally the donation of the village. The whole history of that translation is therefore to be referred back to the Belgic Legend, which was written in the fifteenth century, or perhaps the sixteenth, and whether it was expressed among the ancient pictures must be conjectured from what was said above in § XI. However you may decide, the writings are to be preferred to the pictures; whence here is first to be set forth the whole text of Domynsius, which constitutes the second chapter of his supplement, under this title: The body of the holy Martyr, on account of the tumult of wars, carried to the village of Steynockerzeel. From the diversity of this title and of the epigraph of the picture it sufficiently appears how uncertain were once at Mechlin both the epoch and the cause of the said translation: but let us hear Domynsius, or rather the Belgic Legend, confusing many things unskillfully in its manner from page 190. Thus Domynsius renders:

[146] It happened that a fierce war was stirred up, and very many citizens of Mechlin, what of dear and precious furnishings they had, having carried it from the city, committed and entrusted to the protection of friends. which neither Domynsius, But there were certain of the Canons, fearing the greatest loss of the thing, who also took counsel that the body of the Martyr should be carried to the village of Steynockerzeel. Report has it that the silver shrine, in which the sacred body of the Bishop had been laid, was buried in the ground there in the country, the body coruscating there with many prodigies of signs. But the dissension of the wars being now lulled, the body itself was dug out of the earth, that they might at length bring it back to its former place, sacred banners borne before it, and with solemn pomp. There was at the same time a certain prince of the equestrian order of Steynockerzeel, and he laboring with the falling sickness. But since God had wrought many signs there through his Saint, he was unwilling to allow them to carry off the relics of the holy Bishop Rumold from his domain, unless first he were rendered safe and sound by the help of the Saint. Wherefore the whole flock of Canons burst into these words: Above all, gracious hero, far be it that thou shouldst tempt the Most High, but thou shalt earnestly and religiously pray to the same, that he render thee a partaker of the divine gift, his holy Martyr aiding to that end. Hearing these things, he says: In what manner shall I pray to the Lord? They say: Purge the bilge of thy crimes, and from thy soul bewail the sins committed, and be led by repentance of these, that at length thou mayst be helped by the favor of the deity. Which being performed, the lord Canons fell upon their knees, beseeching God himself more ardently for the prince, so that he was restored to his former safety. This sign being given for his sake, the dominion which he had he straightway gave over to the college of Canons: of which village of Steynockerzeel the perpetual dominion the college of Canons of St. Rumold holds at present, so that it enjoys there the right of investing and reinvesting. In memory of this thing the Canons of St. Rumold light a hanging lamp day and night in the midst of the high choir.

[147] nor the Wachtendonck Legend, The mere reading of this whole farrago, badly enough pieced together, will convince any sensible person that Domynsius did not altogether understand what he meant or what he wrote. I wonder at that fierce war, which, the Catholic faith flourishing, compelled the Canons to bury in the country the silver shrine, valued at 66 thousand florins, as if it would lie hidden there more safely than in the city. If report had it so, while Domynsius lived, with not yet two centuries elapsed from the making of the aforesaid silver shrine, why does he so grope, as if it were a most remote matter, of which no notice of time, nor of persons, nor of its distinct circumstance, had survived? I would note more things, if I had a mind to render the matter itself suspect. By no means; however obscure all things are, this at least I seem to perceive, that in the time of Domynsius there prevailed either the memory or the popular tradition of some translation, at some time made, of the sacred body of St. Rumold to the aforesaid village of Steynockerzeel, of the cure of the lord of the place, and on that occasion of the direct right transferred to the chapter, which it holds at present in perpetuity. But how all these things were immersed in the dense darkness of ignorance, the Wachtendonck Legend will teach, whose author, dreading on that side the Scylla of Vardæus, on this the Charybdis of Domynsius and Gramaye, fearing other rocks, was compelled to enter a new way devised by himself; gliding, as I said, to the Grimbergen war, which he believed most opportune for saving the translation in some fashion, citing in the margin some manuscript codex I know not which, a picture, Molanus, and the registers of the chapter: he had better have cited Domynsius alone, but who in determining the time is plainly opposed to him. Of the picture we have already said enough; Molanus, or rather Lowius in the Natales, has not a word about the Grimbergen war; nor do I believe the registers of the chapter hint it any more, unless they are most recent. Moreover here there is nothing new or unusual to that Legend, since it was accustomed to add many authors in the margins, whom when you consult in the source, you will find them to hand down scarcely any of those things which it recites, indeed often to contradict. Behold its chapter 43.

[148] nor have others fitted it to the right time. Things being so set in a wretched state (namely the Grimbergen people having been slain in the decisive battle three times at Langenhaegen, and Walter captured, as it is said, in the year 1144), the clergy of Mechlin, justly disturbed, had deliberated among themselves about transferring the relics of the holy Martyr, and placing them in a secure place. But no place being considered more apt than the castle of Ham, in the village of Steynockerzeel, they had pressed the Lord of that place for obtaining the place. Who, benevolently granting their wishes, the said relics were translated thither, and buried in the earth near the said castle, where, until the tumults should cease, they lay hidden, and shone with many miracles: in view of which the altar of the said village (which had been given to the Chapter by Nicholas Bishop of Cambrai) was afterward dedicated to the holy Martyr, and then a feast day was appointed for his translation on the 14th of the Kalends of November, namely perhaps from the year 1634, in which the most Illustrious Archbishop Boonen ordered the Offices proper to the Mechlin church to be published on August 25 or a little earlier; that day, the 14th of the Kalends, chosen at discretion, since in the Martyrologies the translation is noted on the 15th of the Kalends of November, the other day having long since been consecrated to the relation, the 6th of the Kalends of November or October 27, on which among the people of Liège the natal day of St. Rumold had been wont to be celebrated for so many centuries, as we set forth more at length above in §9. Lesson IV of the Mechlin Breviary agrees nicely with the related chapter, except that in it a new war is hinted, less suited also to history: A tumult having arisen between the people of Mechlin and the neighboring peoples. The other lesson, likewise IV, is most like chapter 46 to be described: nor has the greater antiquity of those proper Offices hitherto come to my knowledge. Indeed the various editions of the Mechlin Breviary show it far more recent; since they are not found except in the impression of the year 1673, although they could perhaps have been celebrated from the year 1629, but under the common rite: indeed even from the year 1524, in which Dean John Robyns, as I said above, founded some distribution on the feast of the translation of D. Rumold, without the day being expressed. Let us see now whether all these things are aptly enough divided among the times, indeed whether they can conveniently be sorted out by anyone.

[149] In the first place I do not see, nor will the erudite reader see, yet the substance of the matter to be saved; that the affairs of Mechlin were so set in a wretched state by any Grimbergen disaster, that the clergy of Mechlin, disturbed, ought justly to have deliberated about transferring the relics of the holy Martyr and placing them in a secure place. For what could at that time be feared from the victorious Duke of Brabant, still a little infant, or from the thoroughly Catholic nobles? Was it for the sacred deposit of the body? Away with it; no one would dare assert that without the greatest injury to the Brabantines. Was it for the silver shrine? But that only began first to be made two centuries later. Whatever other reason be feigned, it will be equally vain, empty, and frivolous. What then? I shall say; there is supposed, or is presupposed or to be presupposed, some translation made at some time to Steynockerzeel; a pledge of that matter is adduced, the direct right granted to the Chapter, on account of the grace of health obtained from the Lord of the place: in a word, the Martyrologies cited above seem to evince it, and other monuments however obscured, so that the substance of that matter is to be kept whole and entire; but as for who may clothe it with tolerable or probable circumstances, so far is it that anyone has hitherto been found, that whoever have even tasted with their first lips the aforesaid history have rather gone off into divergent views. The picture names the gentiles in general; Vardæus goes back to the Normans; Domynsius and Gramaye come too near to nearly contemporary times; the Wachtendonck author and the author of the Lessons, midway between all, have designated the times no more happily: gliding to that Brabantine Iliad, which, though I have seemed for a while to suppose it for argument's sake, I have long held no otherwise than as a fiction, which the common people call a Romance, being altogether about to reject that very thing with Batkenius and other wiser Belgians elsewhere, although I do not deny that some dissensions intervened about the year 1159, which did damage to the Grimbergen people, but to which those writers do not seem to have looked. Moreover, to speak candidly, I have spent more time on that inquiry than I would dare confess, and yet it has been no more granted me to reach Corinth than to the rest, being at last reduced to this, that I am compelled openly to pronounce that the knot is to be cut rather than untied. To call into doubt the translation of whatever kind, the miracle, and the donation, is somewhat harsh; to find apt times in which they were done has hitherto been unknown and impassable.

[150] not through the Grimbergen war, For the rest, he who opened the middle way for the often-mentioned translation, the author of the Wachtendonck Legend, could not but bring back the sacred body by the same way to its former seat, chapter 46, in these words: On those conditions, things being so settled (after the Grimbergen people were received into favor), the clergy of Mechlin began to think about bringing back the relics of the holy Martyr. A day is appointed, and with a great accompanying multitude they go to Steynockerzeel, and behold, no small miracle there at that time. When the clergy had come to Steynockerzeel, the Lord of the village asks them to intercede for him with the divine goodness, that by the prayers of the blessed Martyr he might deserve to be freed from the leprosy with which he labored. The clergy falling upon their knees, and beseeching God through the merits of the holy Martyr for his health, straightway he recovered from the disease with which he was afflicted, and restored the holy relics dug out of the earth, and gave the dominion of his place, as a sign of the benefit received, to the Clergy to possess: but the Clergy, which still today possesses the direct dominion, the relics received with exultation and thanksgiving, brought back to Mechlin with great celebrity, and in memory of it instituted the solemnity of the relation, on the very vigil of SS. Simon and Jude. Late indeed and with not sufficiently mindful gratitude, if indeed it is true that the solemnity of the relation was first instituted not in the year 1634, with the Proper of St. Rumold, but in the year 1673: against the very opinion of Domynsius on page 44, asserting: The translation of this so eminent man Rumold was accomplished on the very feast of the divine Evangelist Luke, although the church celebrates it on the day before the Apostles Simon and Jude. But neither could Domynsius assert this except by divining, for in Greven, older than himself, there is not set on the day before the Apostles Simon and Jude a translation, but a relation: indeed many centuries before, in the Usuard of Rosweyde, there was marked on that day the natal, which the people of Liège have been wont to celebrate even to this day.

[151] but through a free translation In so great and so perplexed an uncertainty of matters, and a diversity, shall I say a tempest, of conflicting opinions, there remains one plank for struggling out of the shipwreck, if, the determination of a certain time being set aside and dismissed, which we can by no effort attain, the substance at least of the matters be saved in such wise that we admit that some Lord of the village of Steynockerzeel then labored with a dangerous disease, when the fame of the miracles of St. Rumold, had from Theodoric, was brought to him, and that perhaps in the twelfth or thirteenth century, by which he, moved, when he knew that no hope remained in human remedies, fleeing to the things above, besought the Canons of Mechlin to carry the sacred pledges of his holy Patron, then recently raised from the first sepulchre, to him at Steynockerzeel, and there, which it is allowable to suppose, to leave them exposed for some days in the church of Steynockerzeel, which would be enough, from October 18 to the 27th; on which both the translation and the relation are celebrated in the Martyrologies. In a word, until through the merits of the Saint and their prayers he obtained the desired health: which at length having been obtained, unwilling to dismiss the heavenly guest empty, that he might testify eternal gratitude, he drew up tablets of donation; from which time (let him seek the beginning who can) the direct right and whatever prerogatives have remained with the Chapter of Mechlin in perpetuity. Those who know the ancient custom of transferring the bodies of the Saints, to take possession of donated goods, as you have concerning St. Theodoric above from number 29, page 78; will perhaps conjecture that the sick Lord was first miraculously cured, but the sacred body brought thither, that he might in a manner be invested with the given estate. By this or another reason Theodoric's faith and authority stands firm; the fabrications of Domynsius and Gramaye, about the most precious silver shrine buried in the country, vanish; nor are wars to be sought which, waged between Catholic Princes, or against the neighbors round about, impelled the Clergy of Mechlin to hide the relics of the holy Martyr so far off. If anyone shall substitute more certain things for my conjectures, since I am uniquely intent on searching out the truth, he will earn from me an altogether immortal gratitude.

[152] I shall not be burdened to subjoin another conjecture of the most Noble and Illustrious man Cuyper, opportune for saving the substance of the matter in some fashion. or perhaps compelled by civil commotions. Those skilled in the Annals of Mechlin know, he says, what great tumults at the end of the fourteenth century were stirred up in that city by those very ones who were compelled to contribute a huge weight of silver to the making of that most elegant shrine, the weavers of cloth, the wool-workers, the fullers, advanced to such audacity and rashness that they had to be slain to the last man by the magistrate and the rest of the citizens on the Beffer bridge (it is that which is crossed by those going from the market to the college of the Society of Jesus), and some years later to be punished with perpetual exile. What if, those civil commotions burning, the Canons of Mechlin thought provision must be made both for the sacred body of St. Rumold and for the most precious shrine, lest they be profaned by the raging populace, on which occasion both the miracle and the Steynockerzeel donation happened, about which we have already inquired so much? Let the people of Mechlin choose what they shall judge more pleasing; I, with a view solely to saving the historical truth, have gathered all those things which I reckoned apt to that end. The controversy would perhaps be settled by the most distinguished Chapter, if, what was conceived almost a hundred years ago, it were carried out at this time. The most Ample D. Dean de Mol once noted in his adversaria, for the year 1628, on November 17: The Reverend D. Vander Laen took upon himself the commission of seeking a copy of the dominion received of Steynockerzeel. The Reverend D. Wachtendonck took the commission of seeking from the heir of D. Clericus (of pious memory) the register of the feudal holdings of Steynockerzeel and Humbeek. If these documents be found, there is hope that one may be able to come to others.

§ XIV. On the translations and showings of the relics of St. Rumold in the years 1369 and 1480.

The translation or deposition into the silver shrine in the year 1369, Emerging for a while from the darkness of more remote centuries, we enter calmer times, where not from mere little popular traditions, pictures, or most uncertain writings, but from authentic monuments we shall draw forth those things which may so securely teach us about the two principal more notable translations or showings of the sacred body of St. Rumold, that there remains no place for doubt. The same we have already more than once noted above, namely the first of the year 1369, the other of 1480, otherwise 1479, which from the faith of the diplomas communicated to me by the most Noble and Illustrious Cuyper, already often praised, I shall here describe word for word, tacitly about to refute the author of the Wachtendonck Legend, speaking thus in chapter 50: The shrine being completed, the most Reverend Gerard of Cambrai and Adelbert of Utrecht, Bishops, were summoned to Mechlin, that they might bless it, and transfer the relics of the holy Martyr enclosed in it, from the chapel of D. Stephen, to the basilica sacred to the same Martyr. Nor is there a crumb of truth in that whole passage: Gerard of Cambrai or Adelbert of Utrecht were not in the nature of things in the year 1369, at least not the Bishops who are named. I would now have the readers forewarned of this, that the years of that time were wont to be reckoned a little otherwise than is now the case, the Belgians following not today's custom, of beginning them from the Kalends of January, but the Gallican one, of beginning them from March 25 or from the following Easter, which here plainly is the case, since both festivities were accomplished about the Paschal time. The diversity consisted in this, that whereas the year, e.g. 1369, with us took its beginning at the very feast of Easter, elsewhere it had already begun to run from the Kalends of January; which things, not observed, often beget great confusion, or give occasion to disputes, which can be settled with no trouble.

[154] and the showing in the year 1480 are most certain: This indeed has no place in the first exaltation, since it fell on the third feast of Easter, but in the second, of the year 1479, to me 1480, it is plainly to be attended to: for the first rescript given by John of Burgundy Bishop of Cambrai was issued at Brussels in the year of the Lord 1479, writing in the Gallican manner, on the third day of the month of March; but the showing itself, made in the following testimony, is narrated to have been on three occasions and days, namely, on the day of the Annunciation of the glorious Virgin, March 25, for the first; on Thursday in Eastertide, April 6, for the second; and on Sunday, the octave of Easter, the ninth of the same month, of the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1480, for the third occasion. And thus again at the end of the said instrument it is expressly appended: Given and done at Mechlin… in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1480, Indiction 13, on the 10th day of the month of April. Finally in the confirmatory definition, which is the third instrument, John himself Bishop of Cambrai thus testifies: Given and done at Mechlin, of our said diocese, in the year of the Lord 1480, on the 16th day of the month of April. From which appears the diversity of style, to be hinted here in a word, although it pertains to the heart of the matter not at all, for whether in the year 1479 or 1480 the relics were exhibited to the whole people, it contributes nothing greatly to the present matter, provided that it is sufficiently established that the showing was made, as will be demonstrated to be established more clearly than the midday sun. Whether Domynsius saw those diplomas, I much doubt; the last showing he could learn from a somewhat more recent memory of men, which, neglecting the former, he sets forth in a few words in chapter 4, which are had in the vernacular little work from page 201. We here subjoin the undoubted ones. The very brief instrument of the first translation thus testifies the matter done in the Cuyperian collection.

[155] In the year of the Lord 1369, and the first is demonstrated from the authentic instrument, on the third day of the month of April, which was the third feria after the Pasch of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the seventh year of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and our Lord, Lord Urban by divine providence Pope the Fifth, the Relics of St. Rumold Archbishop and Martyr were translated from the old shrine to the present shrine, built by the town of Mechlin from a pious vow; there being present at the said translation the Prelates undersigned, together with the Lords Canons and Chaplains of the Church of St. Rumold, and the Masters of the Community, the Aldermen and Sworn men, and also many other prudent and honest townsmen of the said town of Mechlin. There follow the names of the Prelates: John of Egmond, of the Order of St. Benedict; Theodoric of Vlierbeke; Bernard of Boudelo; Nicholas of Villers; John of St. Bernard near Schelle, of the Cistercian Order; Martin of St. Michael of Antwerp; Radulph of Grimbergen, of the Premonstratensian Order; humble Abbots: Siger of Neufmoustier, of St. Servatius of Maastricht, of the diocese of Liège; Cornelius of the Church of St. Rumold of Mechlin, Deans of the churches, and because we the aforesaid Abbots and Deans were present at the said translation, we have thought our seals should be appended to the present: and also John Abbot of Jette of the Premonstratensian Order lacked a seal, and also William Cantor of B. Rumold of Mechlin, Henry Prior of Blessed Mary in Hanswijk. The seals hung below, says the apograph.

[156] From this diploma it evidently appears, what I said above, likewise the other that that whole Wachtendonck passage is as far as possible from the truth, for besides that it names Bishops, one of whom, Gerard, had not yet been raised to the see of Cambrai, the other is nowhere known among the people of Utrecht, and who therefore could not then be summoned to Mechlin, nor so much as be present at the translation, which was made by the undersigned Abbots alone, etc. (But who was then Bishop of Cambrai, present at Mechlin even then, will be explained shortly: these things only are said in relation to the instrument already related.) In this also it slips, that it imagines the relics of the holy Martyr to have been translated from the chapel of D. Stephen to the basilica sacred to the same Martyr, where the instrument in express terms asserts that they were translated from the old shrine to the present shrine, built by the town of Mechlin from a pious vow; namely that which we related above to have been conceived for the most famous victory obtained, whose anniversary memory is celebrated every year by a procession. That chapel of St. Stephen long ago vexed Baert and other erudite men of Mechlin much and long, and had created not a few troubles for me, from which it was not easy for me to extricate myself; but the whole matter being more accurately examined, I seem to have laid down above, in paragraph 12, from Theodoric, those principles which not obscurely show that that imaginary chapel existed only in the brain of an unskilled man, as will be demonstrated in its proper place. Let there now follow the rescript, the testimony, and the decree, which describe fully enough the other showing more famously made in the year 1480.

The rescript of John of Burgundy Bishop of Cambrai, by which he orders the relics of St. Rumold to be visited and exhibited to the people.

John of Burgundy, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic see Bishop of Cambrai, from several rescripts. to the Reverend in Christ Father, Lord Godfrey, by the same grace Bishop of Dagnum, our suffragan, and vicar in pontificals, and also to the venerable in Christ fathers of St. Bernard above the Scheldt; of Villers, and of Bauwel, Cistercian; of St. Peter of Affligem, of St. Benedict; of St. Michael of Antwerp; of St. Peter of Grimbergen; of Blessed Mary of Tongerlo; of the same Blessed Mary of Jette, of Averbode and of Parc, Premonstratensian; and of St. Gertrude of Louvain, of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, Abbots of the monasteries of our dioceses of Cambrai, Liège, and Tournai, and to the Provost of Coudenberg, of this town of Brussels, of the same our diocese, or to three or four of them together with our said suffragan, everlasting salvation in the Lord. We believe that we render a service pleasing and acceptable alike to the Lord God most high, when we stir up the faithful of Christ the more studiously to those works through which the veneration and honor of God and of the Saints and of their Churches is exalted, the devotion of the people grows, doubts are removed from the midst, and the salvation of souls is increased.

[158] Of these the Bishop first commands, Now, it having been set forth to us on the part of the Vicedean and Chapter and of the Rectors of the fabric of the Church of St. Rumold of the town of Mechlin, of our said diocese, the lawgivers of the same town assisting: how in the said Church and in a bier, very sumptuous and comely, is laid up the body of the most blessed Martyr and Pontiff Rumold, which, since within the memory of men it has not been opened and visited, and shown to the people, by very many it is doubted, by others it is unknown, whether the body of the same most blessed Martyr and Pontiff, or at least the bones of the body, are laid up there: which relics indeed, on account of doubt or ignorance of this kind, fail to be held in due veneration: it is feared also that the little cloths in which they are wrapped, placed there to be shortly closed up, on account of the lapse of times, are feared to be consumed with age: wherefore on their part it was humbly besought of us, that, for the praises of God and the veneration of the said most holy Martyr and Pontiff, and to stir up more amply the devotion of the faithful of Christ, we would be willing and deign to command the aforesaid bier, with the solemnities and ceremonies required for this, to be opened and visited by our authority, and shown to the people for increasing devotion to him, and then, the aforesaid documents, little briefs, and little cloths or linens being renewed, to be closed up again.

[159] We therefore, in no way doubting that the faithful of Christ attain the renowned glory of the heavens by the merits of the Saints, through his Suffragan who earn their patronage by the services of worthy devotion. For they are venerated in those whose glory is himself, and the retribution of rewards. Piously inclined to your devout supplications, to all of you, or at least to three or four of you, if the rest cannot or will not be present, yet our aforesaid vicar in Pontificals and suffragan being present; of whose circumspection and industry we fully trust, we commit the company, that on some solemn day, to be ordained by you for this, approaching the aforesaid church, opening the said bier with the solemnity and reverence with which it is fitting, you may discreetly and with maturity visit the relics laid up therein, and their documents, if any be annexed to them, the little casket or caskets enclosed in the same bier, and the garments, little briefs, little cloths or linens, in which the relics of this kind shall perhaps be found wrapped, if they be consumed with age, drawing them out, and laying them in other sacred places and shrines, you may set and apply others, to be consecrated by our said suffragan, for the reverence and honor of those relics.

[160] These relics, on the said solemn day and on two other days, the visitation to be instituted. to be appointed by you or the said Chapter, that doubt of this kind may be removed from the midst, and they themselves may be the more held in reverence, showing them to the people with such reverence and honor as is fitting: and also from thence faithfully remitting to us the designations of the same relics, with a good specification of their documents, which shall happen to be found there, to the end that, each thing seen and maturely scrutinized, we may be able to interpose our decree thereon, by which the aforesaid faithful of Christ themselves may know what they ought to venerate there, and from thence the devotion of the people may grow and increase, and doubt may be able and avail to be removed. We also, trusting in the mercy of almighty God, and in the merits and intercession of the most blessed Virgin Mary mother of God, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of the aforesaid St. Rumold, and of all the Saints, to all and singular truly penitent and confessed and contrite, who shall be present at the opening of the said bier, and at the visitation and showing of the aforesaid relics, and at the office of the Mass which shall then happen to be celebrated there, mercifully relax in the Lord forty days of indulgences from the penalties enjoined on them. Given and done at Brussels, of our said diocese; under our seal in the year of the Lord 1479, writing in the Gallican manner, on the third day of the month of March. And a little below in the apograph was written: by the Lord Bishop. And signed Tswinnen. Below hung the seal of the Bishop of Cambrai.

The testimony of Godfrey, suffragan Bishop of Cambrai, and of the Abbots, concerning the solemn visitation and showing of the relics of St. Rumold made.

Here the Suffragan and Abbots testify To the Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, Lord John of Burgundy, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic see Bishop of Cambrai, or to his vicars in spirituals, your humble and devoted, Godfrey by the same grace Bishop of Dagnum, suffragan of your paternity, and vicar in pontificals, and also Francis of Villers, Livinus of Boudelo, Martin of St. Bernard above the Scheldt, of the Cistercian Order, Bartholomew of Averbode, Werner of Tongerlo; John of St. Michael of Antwerp, Mark of Grimbergen, Roland of Jette, of the Premonstratensian Order, Abbots of the monasteries of the dioceses of Cambrai, Tournai, and Liège, salutation with all honor and reverence and truth of the undersigned.

[161] the visitation and showing made We have made known to your reverend paternity, that, your paternity's letters having been seen by us and received with the reverence which was fitting, and obtained and granted at the request of the venerable lords Vicedean and Chapter of St. Rumold, and of the lawgivers of the town of Mechlin, of the said diocese of Cambrai, we caused the bier and casket of the blessed Rumold Martyr, in his church, in which the body or bones and relics of the same were believed to be laid up, honorably and sumptuously constructed, according to the tenor of your letters annexed to the present, to be opened. And in it indeed, with great reverence, we found the bones and relics of the body of the blessed Rumold Martyr, sound, safe, whole, and incorrupt, and well-smelling; with the sign of a lethal wound found in the left part of the head: and therefore, to increase the devotion of the people, we decreed and caused the said bones and relics of the body of the same glorious Martyr, by the due solemnities and ceremonies required as means thereto, to be shown and exhibited to the people and to all the faithful of Christ coming to the church of the Martyr himself, and flowing together in a great and copious multitude, by the same your authority on three occasions and days, namely on the day of the Annunciation of the glorious Virgin, March 25, for the first; on Thursday in Eastertide, April 6, for the second; and on Sunday the octave of Easter, the ninth of the same month, of the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1480, for the third occasion, we ourselves being present and standing by.

[163] in the presence of Margaret Duchess of Burgundy This showing and publication and exhibition being made, set forth, and passed, the relics and bones of the body of the same glorious Martyr, diminishing or taking away nothing, but sound, whole, and unharmed, as we found them, with new little cloths, linens, and other things, solemnly consecrated for this, we caused to be again enclosed, where together with us were present, the most Illustrious Lady, Lady Margaret, sister of Edward King of England, and dowager-relict of this town, of the once most dread prince Lord Charles Duke of Burgundy, of Brabant, etc., and Mary daughter of the same Charles, and consort of the most illustrious and most unconquered Lord Maximilian Duke of Austria and Burgundy, and Lady of Mechlin, and the noble Lords, Philip de Croy, Count of Chimay; Louis of Bruges, Count of Winchester; Prince of Steenhuyse and Lord of Gruuthuse, Baldwin de Lannoy, and John de Boeveryes, Lord of Wierres, Knights: and also the venerable men Lords and masters, John de Platea Vicedean; Robert Hendrick Cantor, Giles de Musenis, Baldwin Hidde, John de Kerckhove, Antony Capitis, Judocus Nachtegale, Henry Ghiselberti, Canon and Plebanus; Peter Laurentii, John Pycoti, Matthew Godefridi, Canons; Herman de Busco, Antony Ysendyn, Lambert de Thenis, Louis Walteri, Bartholomew Imbrechs, beneficed of the Cellaer; John de Quercu the younger and the elder, Augustine Albi, Martin Lancum, Henry de Ghele, Cornelius Ducis, and very many others. John Dorspoel, John Huberti, John Verneyen, Simon Robosch, Chaplains of the church of St. Rumold; and also William prior in Hanswijk, John Cattendyck, etc., Leonard de Merica, professors of the sacred page; Cornelius Vicegardian of the Minors, John Boer of the Augustinians, and Godfrey of the Carmelites, Priors; Lord Antony vander Aa knight, Schout; Squire Henry de Oeyenbrugge, otherwise de Colem, legitimate son of Lord Henry de Colem knight; Giles Vranx, masters of the Community; Giles de Ghestele, Rumold de Baerdeghem, John de Hamme, John de Duffel, Peter de Cennen, George de Dorpe, Jacob Beckeve, Henry Langhe, Arnold de Damme, otherwise de Beneden, Peter Caluwaert, John de Baesrode and Jacob Robbyns, Aldermen; William de Winckele, Andrew Hoots, deans of the Wool-trade; John Mol, Louis de Heyst, Antony Boem, William de Beret, receivers or rent-collectors; master Hubert Wellemans pensionary; Theodoric Adriani, John Barbier, secretaries; Reyner de Beelt, Bartholomew de Busco, Henry de Erpe, John de Beret, John de Beckere, Godfrey Vriese, Rumold Quayvoer, sworn men; John de Platea registrar; Peter de Boene of Yetegem, Rumold Vleminc, rectors of the fabric; John de Brande, otherwise Cronaert, mace-bearer; William Oubeerts, otherwise Trabekier, keeper and governor of the bier, and very many others of either sex, inhabitants of this town of Mechlin and strangers: we ordered and commanded to be enclosed and re-enclosed, with great reverence, honor, and diligence as means, and personally, two undersigned notaries having been called and required for this, we enclosed them, and put them back into the former bier, whence they had been drawn out by us.

[164] All which and singular things, thus as is premised, done by us, There is added we faithfully and lawfully write, testify, notify, and intimate to your paternity, under the appending of our seals and the subscription of the notaries. Given and done at Mechlin, of the diocese of Cambrai, in the Church of St. Rumold, the aforesaid being present, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1480, in the thirteenth indiction, on the tenth day of the month of April, in the ninth year of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and Lord, Lord Sixtus by divine providence Pope the Fourth. Thus subscribed. And I, George Monachi priest, of the diocese of Cambrai, public notary by sacred Imperial authority, and sworn notary and scribe of the venerable Chapter of this Church of St. Rumold, and Viceplebanus of the same, because I was present at the aforesaid opening, showing of the body and relics of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, finding, and re-enclosing in its former place, and the other premises, together with the said reverend fathers, and saw and knew all these things so to be done: therefore these letters patent, sealed with the seals of the said lords, and written by the hand of my co-notary undersigned in this cause, I have subscribed with my own hand, and signed with my accustomed sign and name, in faith and testimony of the premises, being asked and required. Then there was had that which follows: The faith of the notaries; And I, Hubert de Wesemale, priest, of the diocese of Cambrai, perpetual beneficed of the Cellaer, in the Church of St. Rumold, public Notary by Apostolic authority, because I was present at the aforesaid, also at the opening of the body and relics of St. Rumold, finding, showing, and re-enclosing in its former place, and the other premises, together with the said reverend fathers and with the aforesaid co-notary, and saw and knew them so to be done; therefore these letters patent written with my own hand, and sealed with the seals of the said lords, I have subscribed with the same hand, and signed with my accustomed sign and name in faith of the premises, being asked and required. There hung the seals of the Abbots of Dagnum, Villers, Boudelo, St. Bernard, St. Michael, Averbode, Tongerlo, Grimbergen, Jette.

The Decree of John Bishop of Cambrai.

and the authority of the Bishop, To all and singular the faithful of Christ of holy mother Church, who shall inspect the present letters, John of Burgundy, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic see Bishop of Cambrai, everlasting salvation in the Lord. We believe that we render to God a service pleasing and acceptable alike, when, driving the cloud of doubts from the minds of the faithful of Christ, we lead into the light of truth, for the praise, honor, and glory of almighty God, and the veneration of his Saints, those things which on account of the length of time were unseen by the same faithful of Christ, and on that account, with some asserting thus and others thus, were quite unknown. Now lately, it having been seriously set forth to us on the part of those beloved to us in Christ, the Vicedean and Chapter, and the rectors of the fabric of the Collegiate church of St. Rumold, and also of the lawgivers and inhabitants of the town of Mechlin, of our diocese; that, since within the memory of men the bier of the most holy and most glorious Martyr and Pontiff Rumold, Patron of that Collegiate church, which is built in the same in most sumptuous work, and kept under great veneration and honor, has neither been opened nor shown to the said faithful, by many it is doubted, by others it is unknown, whether the body of the same Martyr and Pontiff, or the bones of the body, are laid up in the same bier: whence it comes about that the Martyr and Pontiff himself, and his relics, fail to be held in so great veneration, as they deservedly ought, especially by some.

[167] Wherefore on the part of the aforesaid petitioners, it was humbly besought of us, all the things done that this bier should be opened by the reverend in Christ Father Lord Godfrey Bishop of Dagnum, our suffragan and Vicar in pontificals, and some other Prelates of the church, and that its relics, and the ancient documents set with them, as was probably thought, should, with due diligence, reverence, and honor, be visited and examined by our authority, and shown to the said faithful of Christ, for increasing their devotion, and for driving doubts far away, we would deign to command. We therefore, inclined to their devout supplications, imparted our office in the premises to the aforesaid Lord Bishop of Dagnum, and to the other Abbots of the monasteries of our said and of the Liège and Tournai dioceses, committing to them, that they should open this bier, and visit with the utmost diligence the relics laid up in it, with the documents set with them: and show them to the people on three solemn days, for ampler magnificence and glory, and the veneration of the Saint himself, and write back to us what they had done and found in and about the premises, to the end that, each thing seen and maturely scrutinized, we might be able to interpose our decree thereon:

[168] By the force and pretext of which commission, of the one reporting the aforesaid Reverend in Christ Father Lord Godfrey Bishop of Dagnum, and also Francis of Villers, Livinus of Boudelo, Martin of St. Bernard above the Scheldt, Cistercian, John of St. Michael of Antwerp, Bartholomew of Averbode, Werner of Tongerlo, Mark of Grimbergen, and Roland of Jette of the Premonstratensian Order, Abbots of the monasteries of our said and of the Liège and Tournai dioceses, causing this bier to be opened, diligently and maturely visited and examined the relics existing in it, and their documents, and showed them to the people on three solemn days, by our authority and consent: by which visitation, examination, and showing it has clearly been established and is established, how in this bier they found, laid up with great reverence, the bones and relics of the body of the aforesaid most holy Martyr and Pontiff Rumold, sound, safe, whole, incorrupt, and well-smelling, with the sign of a lethal wound found in the left part of the head: which, with like reverence, after the lapse of the said three solemn days, adding or subtracting nothing, but sound, whole, and unharmed, as they found them, with new little cloths, linens, and other things, solemnly consecrated for this by our said suffragan, they enclosed again.

[169] We therefore, applying undoubted faith to the trustworthy reports of the aforesaid lords Bishop and Abbots, and of the one confirming. by the tenor of the present decree and declare, that the bones and relics of the body of the aforesaid most holy Martyr and Pontiff were and are undoubtedly laid up in the said bier, and that they, as such and for such, are to be venerated and ought to be venerated by all and singular the faithful of Christ: in faith and testimony of all and singular of which premises, we have ordered and caused the present letters patent thereupon to be made, and to be signed by our secretary, and to be fortified with the appending of our seal. Given and done at Mechlin, of our said diocese, in the year of the Lord 1480, on the sixteenth day of the month of April. In the fold was written: By the Lord Bishop, and signed Tswinnen. There hung the seal of the Bishop.

§ XV. On the first most precious gilded reliquary-shrine, completed in the year 1369.

That shrine truly magnificent, We heard Gramaye above in paragraph 12, number 133, narrating that the bones of the sacred pledge were elevated, or transposed, with solemn rite, by Robert Bishop of Cambrai, and carried back into a silver shrine, whose price, excepting the pearls, it is established to have exceeded sixty-six thousand florins: done in the year 1369. Gramaye found the Bishop of Cambrai of that time better than the author of the Wachtendonck Legend; for at that time it was Robert of Geneva, afterward under the name of Clement VII the Avignon pseudo-pontiff, whom the Tongeren-Mechlin Chronicle expressly writes to have come to Mechlin for that solemnity, although it does not mention the translation or transposition of the relics made by himself. Domynsius from the Belgic Legend had written before Gramaye, in chapter 3 of his supplement; but the mixed common people and citizens of Mechlin, out of gratitude, accumulated so great a heap of offerings, that from them they cast a golden shrine for the Martyr. He ought to have read, as it is in the Belgic, gilded, Vergulde; but Domynsius is not wont to tread the well-worn paths; for the rest a silver shrine suffices, which the cited Mechlin Chronicle describes in this manner, for the said year 1369: A new shrine of St. Rumold, to behold which a huge multitude of men had flowed together, was then first completed, weighing of silver, as they call them, three thousand six hundred MARKS, for each of which eight Rhenish florins had to be paid to the craftsman, so that the whole thing cost sixty-six thousand Rhenish florins, not counting the precious jewels and other added ornaments.

[171] in a time when silver was rarer, There could be noted here the difference of our florins and the Rhenish ones, of which the latter, being about as many half-patacons, would exceed ours by a sixth part, did I not hold it perceived that our Belgic florins were once also sometimes called Rhenish. But in whatever manner they be reckoned or estimated, it is certain that so great a weight of silver, expended in that age in veneration of the Saint, was next to a prodigy, not to say a paradox. And those skilled in the history of those times ought to feel this with me, to whom the rarity of silver cannot be unknown, not in Belgium alone but also in other regions, before America poured its mines into Europe. That I may not here dwell on digressions, the Belgians are not ignorant how straitened were the treasury affairs of our Princes, how rare the silver monuments in the churches, how slender the foundations for the stipends of sacred things, how cheap the wages of labor, to which, as is widely known, a very small coin went for a day's work, exceeding our as by a fifth part, which they will have to be thence called Braspenning, because it would suffice for a fairly lavish recreation, indeed sustenance, of one day. But let us return to the chronicle.

[172] The author of this had premised that on Thursday of Holy Week, in the Mechlin chronicle it is said to have cost 66,000 florins or on Holy Thursday, Robert Bishop of Cambrai came, and on Easter Wednesday, in the procession (namely that anniversary one, begun toward the beginning of that century) carried the Venerable Sacrament even to the house of D. Zeger Vleminc; that is, he says, even to Couwenbergen: and on the return there again took it up, and bore it to the church, where he solemnly performed the sacred rites, the Abbots of Vlierbeke and Boudelo assisting him; so that it must plainly seem strange that no mention is made of Bishop Robert in the diploma of that translation; even more strange, that the author of the Wachtendonck Legend could err in his name, but summon another and that an imaginary one from Utrecht. Moreover, that the aforesaid reliquary-shrine was gilded, although the Chronicle does not here express it, is easily drawn from another place of it, when about the year 1452 it relates that it was taken apart and again entirely gilded anew. From the praised Chronicle, as the most Noble Cuyper has transcribed it, whence I received the foregoing words, although in the extract with us Papebroch read far otherwise; from the praised, I say, chronicle there begins to resound the exorbitant weight of the whole first silver gilded shrine, of which Gramaye deservedly pronounced that it was to be held among the more precious of all Belgium, which was profaned and torn apart by the sacrilegious hands of the heretics.

[173] Things conformable to these the Wachtendonck author hands down in chapter 49. to whom the rest also subscribe, even in the weight of 3600 marks. By these (the weavers, fullers, etc.) a most sumptuous shrine of gilded silver was procured for the blessed Martyr, which then, being completed in the year 1369, of three thousand six hundred MARKS, without the gems and precious stones with which it appeared distinguished, was valued at sixty-six thousand florins. This shrine, in these turbulent times, alas, sold, brought much grief to the Catholic citizens, and sufficiently taught how scant safety there is in war. So almost also Miræus, On the colleges of Canons, chapter 74: By the same (the Gueux), when they unexpectedly seized the city, the body of St. Rumold was found in the midst of the church and most foully trampled and scattered; yet by God's kindness the head, known from the scar of the cranium, was preserved by the help of a maiden. His bier also perished; since, when he shone with many miracles and victory against the enemies, the fullers and weavers and their associates, in the year 1369, on account of the victory recently obtained through his merits, built for him by vow a bier, valued in the register of the city in silver and workmanship at sixty-six thousand florins, besides the gems and other things which afterward were added. Most lately Margaret, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian I, governess of Belgium, added a celebrated offering, so that the value of the bier was more than a vessel of gold, when it was profaned by the enemies of religion.

[174] You hear the register of the city so often named, but from it the most diligent investigator of these matters, the most Noble Cuyper, could draw nothing. There is one chronicle which reckons the accounts rightly, Meanwhile the writers of the Mechlin and Lier chronicles, Gramaye, Miræus, and the Wachtendonck author, agree in expressing those sixty-six thousand florins: other chronicles differ in the number of marks, two of which report three thousand seven hundred, another, three thousand two hundred, yet in such wise that nonetheless the same sum of price is everywhere most expressly taxed. Indeed in that computation I have shown so manifest an error, that, the erudite men of Mechlin confessing it, it cannot at all be conceived how so many marks of gilded silver, the craftsman's stipend included, did not cost a greater price; as occurs of itself to the eyes of anyone weighing the matter a little. To solve this doubt, the often-to-be-praised Reverend and Illustrious Canon Crucius lent his effort, producing the chronicle of Henry vanden Coelput, whose words I render from the Belgic into Latin: In the year, says the author, 1369, the shrine was completed, weighing of silver three thousand seven hundred marks. The single marks cost sixteen florins (we well know that there was not one nor a stable price of marks at that time, as Du Cange teaches fully in his Glossary), for the workmanship, another eight florins: further, the gilding of each mark consumed two ducats, reckoning the ducat at two florins (what gold that was I know not), so that for the whole bier, that is for the silver, gold, and the goldsmith's stipend, there had to be paid six hundred florins above one hundred and three thousand, besides the pearls and precious stones encrusted, of plainly inestimable value. The work was completed in eight years, namely from the year 1361 to the year 1369.

[175] which it is strange was observed by no other: No one hitherto, that I know, has reckoned the calculation more accurately, and, supposing the truth of the whole narration, represented it more justly; multiply the numbers safely, if you refuse to give me faith: but remember that that writer was a better arithmetician than historian; inasmuch as he did not notice that he mingles many things, which, if exacted to right criticism, could easily be pulled apart. Meanwhile that praise is due to him, that he consequently fitted the sum of the price to the heaviness of the material, in which all the rest, no reckoning at all being made, were as if of set purpose deluded, just as that most received tradition of the people of Mechlin seems to deceive, no single person today doubting that the price of the whole bier was sixty-six thousand florins, after so many Chronicles, Gramaye, Miræus, and the Wachtendonck author, which it scarcely appears credible that not one single one of those writers had previously noticed, since nothing is more obvious than to multiply 16 florins, the price of the marks, the goldsmith's stipend, 8 florins, and the four florins of gilding, which with the others make twenty-eight, into the very number of marks, and from thence to gather the just sum, suited to the weight. But if in a matter so manifest, and to be observed even by tyros in arithmetic, they strayed so long, and that in a matter not so ancient. there is no reason why the people of Mechlin should be angry with me, if I thereupon uncover and restore other historical slips, wrapped by their antiquity in a denser fog, for the sake solely of the truth and of more solidly illustrating and establishing the glory of St. Rumold and of themselves.

[176] The incredible and vast weight in a portable bier Moreover the author of the cited Chronicle, however good an arithmetician, no more than the rest noticed that he obtrudes a paradox upon us, when he depicts a portable shrine of so vast a weight, that, all things duly computed, it amounts to six hundred ounces of silver above twenty-nine thousand; to which are to be added seven thousand four hundred golden ducats, of which at least nine certainly make an ounce, so that there were therefore consumed more than eight hundred and twenty-two ounces of gold, and so the whole weight reached thirty thousand four hundred and twenty-two ounces; whence there arises a burden to be carried of one thousand eight hundred ninety-five pounds and twelve ounces, besides the wood, ironwork, and other encumbrances of the heavy material. But who, I pray, would persuade himself that so great a mass could be carried about on human shoulders in processions, which nevertheless must altogether be supposed, from the vow conceived, which perseveres even today, with the sacred remains carried around the city every year at least on Easter Wednesday. The impossibility of the matter will appear, I think, most manifestly, if that old shrine, here engraved in copper, be compared with the more recent one, which is exhibited in the following §: I am deceived, if the very evidence does not strike the eyes, besides that it is plain by the witnesses themselves that the new one is greater than the old, and so most probably heavier. Come then, as will be demonstrated there, the new one weighs of silver, no more than four thousand ounces, or five hundred marks, but to carry it scarcely eighteen men suffice; how many shall we think were necessary, that a weight almost eight times greater might be moved forward? And will there be one who would reckon that not plainly impossible?

[177] Let something be granted to a most well-founded conjecture, and it will shortly appear, about which truer things are here handed down, that in the chronicle's reckoning a great error lies hidden; namely that there were taken by him and the other writers, blindly copying one another, marks for mere ounces; in which manner Papebroch almost read, in that which he had before his eyes, the Tongeren-Mechlin Chronicle, in which he found better expressed three hundred and six marks, where doubtless for six is to be read sixteen, which calculation I plainly reckon to come nearest to the truth. This was suggested to me by the very Reverend and Counselor D. Ambrose de Smet, graduated Metropolitan Canon, secretary to the most Excellent Archbishop, from the authentic and sworn deposition of the Reverend D. John de Froymont, Cantor and Metropolitan Canon, made on August 31, 1620, to the interrogatory of the most Illustrious Apostolic Nuncio concerning the state of the diocese, the see being vacant by the death of the most Illustrious Hovius. In that instrument, to the seventh interrogation, concerning the relics kept in the church of St. Rumold, Froymont answers that the old silver shrine was gilded, of the weight at any rate of three hundred and sixteen marks of pure silver: which I reckon to be asserted by the deposing Lord as rightly as he badly expressed the much-vaunted sum of the price. You will say, that by this reckoning the price of sixty-six thousand florins will never be reached: I confess indeed, but that there was error in both the weight and the price, I am most easily induced to believe; although I reckon the price can be saved more conveniently than the weight, if the gilding and the precious decorations of gems be computed. But with how many and how rare jewels and pearls the most sumptuous bier was distinguished and adorned, I have found handed down nowhere: it seemed enough to the writers of those Annals to attest with one voice its incredible elegance and inestimable value. Such was once that most superb monument of the people of Mechlin of piety and veneration toward the holy Apostle, Patron, Tutelar, which after two centuries did not escape the sacrilegious and rapacious hands of the brigand heretics. That I may satisfy not only the wit but also the eyes of the curious reader, I have caused its idea, such as I obtained from the so-often-praised Cuyper, delineated and engraved in copper, to be here represented.

The silver gilded shrine, the Reliquary of St. Rumold.

[178] The delineation is taken from an old larger picture, and the delineation of the old shrine is explained. which I have contemplated more than once, set forth in the chamber, at the southern entrance of the church, to which the curators of the church are wont to withdraw. The craftsmanship everyone perceives and admires, but it deceives those gazing, the body of the Saint being so expressed as if it had lain open to the eyes of all; contrary to what the authentic instruments related just now testify, from which it is established that those sacred pledges were so placed in the silver shrine that they were certainly perceptible to no man: for otherwise it could neither have been doubted, much less been unknown, whether the body of the same most blessed Martyr, or at least the bones of the body, were laid up there. Nor do we think it doubtful that within the aforesaid silver shrine another wooden chest, containing the sacred body, was enclosed, that very one namely which the raging heretics, as we shall soon say, broke and tore apart, the sacred relics scattered through the church. Domynsius testifies this most expressly from his Belgic Anonymous, in these words: There was found in the very shrine a wooden coffer ….. in which all the sacred bones lay wrapped: so that it is altogether undoubted that of the sacred remains nothing was visible to the eyes of men. To save therefore the truth of the picture, one must conceive not crystal glasses, through which the supine body appeared, but that in the very silver shrine the sacred deposit was shadowed forth with a brush, or carved by the goldsmith's art, and that nothing else could be beheld; if indeed all things were once so, and not rather afterward formed to the genius of a more recent painter. Thus the erudite men of Mechlin feel with me, to whom I have more than once proposed the difficulty.

§ XVI. On the destruction of the august reliquary-shrine, the dispersion of the sacred remains, and their recollection.

[179] The most magnificent mausoleum of St. Rumold now described by us, which for two centuries and more had been the admiration of all Belgium, Mechlin was occupied by the heretics in the year 1580, in that most mournful century of the Catholic cause, snatched from its most pious clients, fell as prey to those rebellious to the faith and to the King. The furious devastation of the most renowned city our Famianus Strada has depicted in few words, but in his manner elegantly, On the Belgian War, Decade 1, book 3, for the year 1580, on my page 175 and 176: But the town of Ninove next to Aalst, and not long after Mechlin, were lost. The former Francis Lanua…. the latter John Norris, tribune of the English, by the deceit of some, and a part of the garrison taken into treason, entered unexpectedly: nor did he obtain it except, the battle renewed several times, with about two hundred of his men lost, at length, the plundering continued a whole month, with so profound an avarice of the victors, that after the churches as well as the houses were scraped and pillaged: after the citizens were more than once compelled to redeem their life and liberty; there was raging even against the monuments of the dead, the sepulchral stones torn from the ground and carried off thence, and conveyed to England, and openly, heresy itself blushing, sold off. By which spoils indeed Norris procured both no light disgrace to himself, even among the writers of his own nation; and the hatred of the Belgians against all the English, who today execrate that devastation under a new name, the English Furies: marked with a blacker reckoning among the people of Mechlin, because by the same onset most all reckon their treasure, that incomparable reliquary-shrine, was plundered.

[180] at which time they hand down that the reliquary-shrine was profaned; Let the true clients of St. Rumold notice, I beseech, how not easily one may assent to popular rumors, but on the contrary, how great care and diligence one must employ in discussing even minutiae pertaining to their sacred matters; since I had to investigate for a very long time, by whom, when, and how, the so-often-mentioned gilded reliquary-shrine was plundered, profaned, or sold. Doubt arose from this, that in the devastation of the English iconoclasts I read nowhere that anything else was found, except a wooden chest, and the bones of the holy Martyr scattered through the church, with no mention made anywhere of the gilded bier, although Gramaye seemed openly to indicate this, by these words: which was profaned and torn apart by the sacrilegious hands of the heretics. So too Miræus: so that the value of the bier was more than a vessel of gold, when it was profaned by the enemies of religion. Likewise the Wachtendonck author: This shrine, in these turbulent times, alas! sold, brought much grief to the Catholic citizens. And who from such terms could sufficiently perceive anything other than that by the English themselves, the invaders and plunderers of the city in April 1580, the silver shrine itself was profaned, plundered, and sold? And indeed in that opinion I found the people of Mechlin, when I questioned them more studiously about that matter. To the argument by which I pressed, that it was established from elsewhere that only the wooden coffer was found in the church and broken; it was answered; that not a few believe the silver shrine was first hidden in a safe place, but, by the treachery of someone I know not, found by the sacrilegious, plundered, and sold. I marveled indeed that in a matter so near to our age there were such various opinions, and nothing certain could be ascertained.

[181] but it had been carried off by Orange in the year 1578. I did not meanwhile acquiesce, until from somewhere something solid should be suggested, by which I might reduce so notable a fact to sincere truth. Deprived therefore of other aids, I had recourse to the popular chronicles cited above, which, as in handing down ancient matters they are of no moment, so in those in which the writers themselves, however plebeian, were present or near, they merit some faith. And in these I found that my doubt was not vain, nor did Gramaye, Miræus, and the Wachtendonck author speak clearly and distinctly enough in the testimonies related above. It is false that at the time of the plundering the silver shrine was hidden somewhere; it is false that by the invaders and pillagers of the city it was profaned, plundered, or sold; since in the year 1580, in the English Furies narrated by Famianus, there no longer existed at Mechlin any silver bier of St. Rumold, having from the year 1578, by order of the Prince of Orange, at that time pretended Ruward of Brabant, or Advocate or Protector, with the other sacred furniture of the churches, and some bronze bells, if not from the city, at least from the surrounding villages violently carried off, and conveyed to Antwerp, at that time the citadel of the rebel heretics, as the chronicle under the name of Cornelius Vermolen most expressly testifies, folio 29. Whose words I render into Latin: In the same year 1578 (he had noted immediately above July 3) from all the villages round about the bronze bells are carried off, with all the silver reliquary-shrines from the churches of Mechlin by order of the Prince of Orange: when also to the spoilers fell the holy shrine of St. Rumold, that most precious gem, weighing of silver 3200 marks, besides gold and stones of great price. Thus speaks the witness, if I am not mistaken, an eyewitness, whose assertion another most trustworthy writer plainly confirms, who himself also was present at the deed, to be cited elsewhere. Let Dionysius Mutzaert be looked at in his ecclesiastical history published in Belgic, for the said year 1578. To what use further all these things were reduced is so clearly perceived, that all explanation is superfluous. Gather the vast barbarity of that time, from this, that in that very year all the suburbs of Mechlin, the very ancient Beguinage, Bethany, Blyenberg, the churches of St. Nicholas, Neckerspoel, and Hanswijk, were burned and leveled to the ground.

[182] The history of the plundering of the church and of the sacred relics, The invaders of the city scattered only the relics, no one, that I know, has hitherto described entirely, or perhaps could describe sufficiently; inasmuch as no one either would or dared to be a witness of its chief circumstances, all fleeing in fear, or shut up within their own houses, so that it seems like a miracle that the parts of the sacred body scattered by the impious through the church could be gathered; and again afterward joined together, as is certain from the long verbal process held concerning that matter. Thus briefly the Wachtendonck author touches on the matter, when, having related in chapter 51 the showing of the year 1480, which lasted eight continuous days, he thus subjoins: These having elapsed, the said relics, after thanks given, again enclosed and confirmed with seals, remained whole until the year 1580, when, Mechlin being occupied by the heretics, they were scattered by them through the church. But God, who is wonderful in his Saints, not suffering the members of his servant to be left to their fury, moved some pious and honorable persons, who gathered the scattered relics in the best way they could. Those, the city being freed, Archbishop Hauchin, after due information had been taken concerning their truth, approved, and ordered to be honored by all as true: and at length in the year 1586 (he meant to say 1585) solemnly translated them to the Metropolitan church, the Clergy, Magistrate, and people accompanying, and praising God in his Saint. The memory of which solemnity is celebrated, on St. Hubert's very day, the third of the Nones of November.

[183] The process itself from the Archiepiscopal archive of Mechlin, which afterward, gathered, with the autograph or original approbation of the most Illustrious Hauchin, to be described below, out of his singular benevolence toward me, the most Excellent present Archbishop Thomas Philip of Alsace de Boussu lately deigned to grant for a time, from which I have learned the most open truth of the whole Recollection, with the greatest pleasure to myself. There is premised there a brief commemoration of the lamentable tragedy, then of the reduction of the city to the obedience of the legitimate Prince of the Belgians Philip II, King of the Spains, as also of the Archiepiscopal mandate, issued on October 27 of the year 1585, by which, under grave penalties, it is enjoined, that whoever had either taken away from the church any parts of the relics, or received them from another, should forthwith bring them to the very Reverend D. Matthias vanden Hove, then Canon and Archdeacon, afterward Archbishop under the name of Hovius, and to the very Reverend D. Melchior Huys, likewise Canon, deputed in this cause, setting forth under oath the occasion, time, place, and manner by which they had obtained them. The sworn witnesses heard are enumerated through eighteen large pages in folio, from whom the scattered relics were received, then gathered in a shrine and reverently deposited, approved and confirmed by a solemn Decree; the substance of which, although we have already abundantly given it, it is yet worth the trouble to transcribe here from the original itself.

[184] by a solemn decree The most Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, D. John de Hauchin, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic See Archbishop of Mechlin, etc. This city of Mechlin having been reduced (which in the year 1580, on the ninth day of April, by the heretics, enemies of God and of his Catholic Church, was unexpectedly and wretchedly invaded and despoiled, the churches of God destroyed and profaned, and the relics of the Saints cast about and scattered) to the former obedience of our most powerful Catholic King, its Lord and natural Prince; by his pontifical authority he forthwith ordered to be gathered and recollected, with all diligence that could be, the relics of St. Rumold pontiff and Martyr, Patron of his metropolitan church and of this city: and thereupon a diligent information and attestation concerning their verification to be taken by the Reverend and excellent lords and masters, Matthias vanden Hove Archdeacon, and Melchior Huys Canon, priests, Licentiates of sacred Theology, deputed for this capitularly by his most Reverend lordship and his confreres and Canons of the aforesaid church, and to be faithfully written down by me the public notary, the undersigned Secretary of the same most Reverend his paternity.

[185] Which being done, and the showing of the same recollected relics having been publicly made to the people, Hauchin approved them in 1585 in the presence of the whole Clergy, of the magnificent and most distinguished Lords Counselors of the supreme parliament Council, of the Governor, the Schout, the Burgomaster and Consuls, and also of the more notable citizens of this city, convoked for this on the present day, namely the third of the month of November, which was a Sunday, after Vespers, and gathered together in the chapel sacred to St. Martin, and the said information, thus as is premised, taken concerning the recollection and verification of the same relics, together with the attestations of trustworthy persons, concerning the same facts and noted, having been read aloud in a high and intelligible voice, by me the aforesaid notary and secretary, by the command of the same Lords, the most Reverend and the Canons, the same most Reverend our Lord, vested in pontificals, reverently put and placed the same recollected, recognized, and approved relics of St. Rumold into this little chest or casket, and ordered its lock to be closed and fortified with his counter-seal, for a time, and until, in the course of a happier time, they could be placed in a more decent and more adorned bier; liberally bestowing on all and singular the faithful of Christ, who had been present at this solemnity of the Recollection of the relics of St. Rumold, and who every year on the festivity of that Recollection (which he willed to be celebrated and observed in perpetuity on the third day of November in this city of Mechlin) shall have devoutly been present at the divine offices in the said church, forty days of indulgences in the customary form of the Church.

[186] Which being done, the same little chest or casket (on which the present letters, subscribed with the proper hand of the same most Reverend Lord, and fortified with his said counter-seal impressed beneath them, were also placed in perpetual memory of the thing so done) and restored them to their former honor: with a procession, the whole Clergy of this city preceding, and the people devoutly following the same, was reverently carried thence to the aforesaid metropolitan church, in a befitting place, as it was once wont, to the honor of almighty God and of St. Rumold its Patron, with the solemnities, processions, and ceremonies anciently wont and accustomed to be observed, which his most Reverend lordship, following the footsteps of his predecessors, by his said authority approves and confirms, to be conserved in perpetuity. Done as above successively, in the year of the Lord 1585, in the thirteenth Indiction, on the said third day of November, in the first year of the pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father and our Lord, D. Sixtus, by divine providence Pope the fifth of his name. It was signed John Hauchin, Archbishop of Mechlin. And the seal in red Spanish wax formed here below. On the other side a little lower, in the same hand as the decree itself, By the proper mandate of the aforesaid most Reverend Lord Archbishop, J. Goossens.

[187] That not from this diploma, but from the Wachtendonck Legend the lesson was taken, concerning which matter the office is made on November 3. which is read in the fourth place on November 3, you will gather from the ill-noted year 1586, for the immediately preceding one, so expressly expressed above, and from the added chronological notes undoubtedly. So runs the aforesaid lesson, inserted in the edition of the Mechlin Proper of the year 1673: In the year of the Lord 1580, Mechlin being occupied by the heretics, some pious and honorable persons gathered the sacred relics of the Martyr Rumold, scattered by them through the church. Which, the city being freed, the Archbishop, after due information had been taken concerning their truth, approved, and ordered to be honored by all as true relics of the holy Martyr; and at length in the year 1586, to the Metropolitan church, a procession being appointed, solemnly translated them, the Clergy, Magistrate, and people accompanying, and praising God in his Saint. But the memory of this solemnity is celebrated on the present day. The most Illustrious Hovius on June 14, 1598, consecrated the chapel and altar of the archiepiscopal Palace of Mechlin, and on the aforesaid altar placed relics of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr and of other holy Martyrs. The other relics, moreover, which in the examination of the Recollection related above he had not judged to be authentic, on account of the circumstances of the persons who had gathered them, he preferred to place in a wooden casket, rather than to leave them with the approved ones: and that same casket has been kept to this day at the side of the said altar.

§ XVII. On the new silver shrine, the deposition of the sacred body in it, and on the last visitation and showing of the year 1680.

Concerning the new holy shrine, treated from the year 1617, That last deposition of the gathered relics by Archbishop Hauchin being accomplished, it was deliberated among the people of Mechlin about procuring another reliquary-shrine, which might, if not surpass the former, at least equal it in price and art, concerning which matter the Wachtendonck life speaks rather meagerly in its last chapter in these words: For this sacred thing, I suppose, deposit or body a new and sumptuous shrine of silver was procured under Archbishop Jacob Boonen, Philip IV the Catholic King reigning, Isabella Clara Eugenia Infanta of the Spains governing Belgium, which twice every year is carried in solemn procession, and on all the greater feasts is exposed to be seen by anyone, whether for the increase of the people's devotion, or for the obtaining of the Saint's help, which is said even now to be felt by him who invokes him, and to be experienced by him who implores him in affliction. Many even today, fevered, visiting his chapel, are said to be freed from fever; many who drink of the water into which the sacred body was cast (where now there is a well near the Spanish hospital) to be relieved of diseases. Blessed be God in his Saint, let us confess to him, who has done his mercy with us, to him glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. These last clauses smack of the style of the ancient Acts, but why he touched so perfunctorily, with almost no circumstances noted, on a matter of such moment done before his eyes, I do not indeed understand:

[189] the Archbishop Hovius liberally leading the way. It is certain enough that the sum of silver for setting in motion so illustrious a work, whether by public or private liberality, could not be collected so quickly. The Register of the Metropolitan Chapter at folio 345 makes faith that the Archbishop Matthias Hovius contributed three thousand florins of his own on January 19, 1618. Of the pious emulation of the rest nothing is known to me in particular: this I know, that the matter was then seriously set in motion, an indult having been obtained from the most Serene Princes of Belgium Albert and Isabella, a little before, namely on December 4, 1617, which, in view of the huge expenses to be made for the fabric of the new shrine, grants to the people of Mechlin the faculty of reducing silver, ounce by ounce, to the price of forty-eight of our asses, which is to diminish each ounce by about a ninth part of its intrinsic value, and that in view of the pious work, and under caution, lest the goldsmiths abuse the granted privilege in other things. So the diploma itself teaches me, extracted from the Cuyperian collection, which I did not reckon it worth the trouble to render from the Belgic, since besides what has already been said, it contains nothing worth knowing. Hence further it is clear that the hand began to be set to the work in the said year 1618, the generous hand of the most worthy Archbishop leading the way before the rest.

[190] The matter was described in a diary by I left no stone unmoved through my friends of Mechlin, that I might be authentically taught both about the price of that new reliquary-shrine, and about the time at which it was completed, and finally about the translation and deposition of the sacred body into it, from the public Acts whether of the metropolitan Chapter or of the archives of the city; but hitherto it was labored in vain. Opportunely there came to aid the tireless helper, the often-praised Canon Scholastic Slaets, who, having found the manual codex of the very Reverend and most Ample once Lord Dean of the Metropolitan church, Antony de Mol, in which, with his own hand, he had daily noted down those things which were done in the time of his deanship; from it he excerpted those things which, about the fabric, weight, price, first exposition, and other things pertaining thereto of the aforesaid shrine, accurately and with certain faith consigned to writing, I reckon will not be unpleasant to the reader. The narration of the most Ample man, as is our custom, we have transcribed entire and unchanged, although here and there, being composed for his own use, it is not so very neatly written; in these matters we follow truth, not elegance. Have therefore the extract of Slaets, afterward collated by us with the autograph, so far as it pertains to our matter.

[191] For the year 1617, May 19, is had: Resolved, the most Ample D. Dean de Mol, all present except the Lord Cantor, that it be treated with various of the Magistrate, on occasion of the silver shrine which is to be made, that they consent that in its own time it be carried by the Clergy alone, according to the mind of the most Illustrious Lord…. and as to the making of the keys, that at least one be kept by one to be deputed by the Clergy. In the same year, December 20: I visited with the Reverend D. Penitentiary vanden Eynden the design of the shrine of St. Rumold. It is drawn out of a length of five feet and a half, a height of three and a half; of a weight of five hundred pounds (he meant to say marks) of silver; and the wooden shrine a hundred pounds or thereabouts; so that the chief goldsmith affirms it can conveniently be carried by six…. priests…. For the year 1618, February 5: The most Illustrious Lord in a full session of the Magistrate, myself and the Lord Archdeacon accompanying, proposed, and affectionately suggested by inducing the Magistrate, that the shrine of St. Rumold, now begun of German silver of the value of 48 stivers, they would have made of pure and best silver. Secondly, that it be not of such weight and size, that it could the less conveniently be carried by the Clergy, but it did not succeed ….. To the goldsmith for each ounce were allotted, by reason of the form, three florins and fifteen asses.

[192] For the year 1624, July 3: Mature deliberation being had between the most Illustrious Lord and the deputies on the part of the Magistrate, who narrates it first exposed in the year 1624, and likewise of the Chapter, it pleased both sides, that the silver shrine of St. Rumold, although still imperfect, should henceforth be carried by the Clergy. On that account it was treated with the Superiors of all the Orders, who all together assented, and the schedules of the stations were distributed…. To which end, the doors of the church being closed, a trial was made, the bier being loaded with stones of equal weight, as was thought; and it was resolved from the trial made, that eighteen persons were required. In the same year, July 6: By the workmen of the city the shrine was carried from the house of the goldsmith, all the finished parts being placed together, to the church into the choir, between the bronze pulpit and the Cantors, at the time of Vespers, as before Vespers the wooden shrine together with the relics, between the altar and the bronze pulpit. Vespers finished, the Dean and Archdeacon appeared, vested in red copes, together with the most Illustrious Lord at the high altar.

[193] And the most Illustrious Lord standing before the altar in pontificals, the Dean together with the Archdeacon opened the wooden shrine, completed in the year 1631. raising the shrine of the relics sealed and adorned with red silk, there the day before by the most Illustrious Lord, the Dean, Archdeacon, and Breamont assisting, enclosed, the relics being taken from the small wooden chest, in which from the year 1585, on the very day of St. Luke, they had been enclosed by the most Illustrious Lord Hauchin of pious memory, carrying them to the high altar: the wooden one re-closed, together with the uncertain relics enclosed there; carried to the ancient place. The most Illustrious Lord having advanced with the assistants to bless the new silver shrine, which being blessed, returned to the high altar, the relics were carried, the most Illustrious Lord accompanying, by the Archdeacon and Dean, to the silver shrine, and there placed in the presence of the whole Clergy and Magistrate. The shrine being closed, it was carried by the Canons, Chaplains, and ecclesiastical assistants to the nave of the church, and there exposed in the accustomed manner, and by the same brought back from second Vespers. There follows the order of the procession, and after various things: For eight days in the Choir it lay open to veneration day and night ….. The eight days elapsed, the Dean appeared with the Reverend D. Archdeacon, vested in surplice and stole, in the presence of the receiver of the city with the workmen of the city, they carried the relics to the ancient wooden shrine in the chapel of the relics. They locked the said wooden shrine, in four distinct places, with the greater seal of the most Illustrious Lord, handing over the silver shrine to the receiver, until, completed, it should be placed in the church.

[194] Its weight Thus far the description of the showing of the new shrine and therefore of the first solemnity, in the words of Dean de Mol, in whose manual, for the whole following six years, Slaets found nothing that pertained hither. The first mention of the Rumoldian shrine recurs on June 23 of the year 1631, on which day is set: The silver shrine, in the presence of the deputies of the Magistrate, as weighed before D. Snoy, was found to amount to four thousand ounces of silver, which is to say marks no more than five hundred, as I observed a little above. Hence it is given to understand that to the most magnificent work in that year, after various changes and renewals, the final crown was put, and so that from that time the sacred body of the most holy Martyr remained in the silver shrine, except for some weeks, when, the confederated Franco-Batavians threatening Louvain in the year 1635, it had to be taken apart and hidden, as is made manifest from other notes of de Mol: for thus he writes on June 31 [sic] of 1632, prayers of the Forty Hours were instituted, the army being gathered to free the city of Maastricht from the siege. At the fifth hour the relics of St. Rumold or the silver shrine were carried and put back. At length in the year 1635 he laboriously describes the various efforts and movements employed by him in the month of June to take apart the silver bier, and to hide it, with the shrine of the relics covered with silk, in a safe place; which, the siege of Louvain being lifted, was again fitted together, and after the due recognition of all things made on July 18, he has thus on the 29th of the same month: The silver shrine being set in order, a solemn general procession was held, and it was carried by the Clergy and Religious, the most Illustrious Lord being present and celebrating the office, together with the vesper praises celebrated, the shrine being carried to the choir, the Te Deum laudamus being finished, in thanksgiving for the liberation of the city of Louvain and of the fatherland. And these things, hitherto hidden, were revealed by the cares and diligence of Slaets.

[195] Further from these it is gathered that the accounts written in Belgic and communicated to me from the archive of the Archbishopric by the very Reverend and most Counseled D. Cornelius Paul Hoynck, the price, Metropolitan Canon and Secretary of the most Excellent Archbishop, are just and exact enough, of which this is the sum rendered into Latin: For the making and remaking of the silver shrine of St. Rumold up to the day January 24, 1631, in material and form were expended florins 24497-18-3. From gifts and alms collected in whatever manner were received florins 11868-6-1; whence more was expended than received 12629-12-2. But this remaining debt will be inserted into six different accounts of the city, to be paid by it in that manner. All these from the private notice and manual book written to this end by the junior treasurer Sebastian Huens.

[197] Let us weigh the words of Dean de Mol related above, the delineation. by which he asserts that the finished shrine, in the year 1631 on June 23, in the presence of the deputies of the Magistrate, weighed four thousand ounces, whence comes the just price of silver of as many of our patacons or florins, nine thousand six hundred. But now on February 5, 1618, he says, to the goldsmith for each ounce were allotted, by reason of the form, three florins, fifteen asses, whence arises a sum of fifteen thousand florins; let this be added to the former, there will grow twenty-four thousand florins above six hundred, which differ a little from the accounts of the treasurer Huens. But since in these by the Belgic word hermaken it is indicated that the shrine was more than once remade or renewed, restored or changed, it is easy to conjecture that other expenses had to be made, even from the beginning of the aforesaid year 1631 to the month of June, before it was brought to that form; which you have here expressed in copper, from an accurate delineation, of a length a little more than six feet; of a height of four feet and seven fingers, besides the upper ornament, finally of a breadth of more than two feet and a half. I subjoin no further explanation, since the matter is in the open; and it is plain that the virtues and miracles of the Saint are described with remarkable craftsmanship, which curious readers will be able to recover from the Acts, while meanwhile they feast their eyes on the august spectacle, whose material, as the poet sang of the palace of the Sun alone, they will confess the work surpasses.

The silver reliquary-shrine of St. Rumold, which today on appointed days is exposed to the veneration of the people.

This is that most celebrated shrine, of which, as well as of the older one, it can safely be said, that a more precious or more elegant one is not found in all Belgium. A place, or, as they call it, a repository worthy of so great a treasure, the by far most illustrious Archbishop Andreas Creusen prepared almost sixty years ago, building a magnificent altar, in which it might be perpetually conserved. This the appended inscription teaches, which I here render word for word:

To St. Rumold Bishop, Apostle and Martyr of the people of Mechlin, Patron of this city and church, and to his sacred body here laid up, Andreas Creusen the Fifth Archbishop of Mechlin placed and dedicated this votive altar, 1665.

The inscribed year could never be more happily rendered chronographically by numeral letters than it is expressed on the front of the altar, under the elegant statue,

Sanctvs Rvmoldvs.

[198] Before I withdraw from the sacred remains, I would again have attentive the defenders of the enormous weight of the former gilded shrine, Comparison of weight to which, with their popular chronicles and the Wachtendonck author, they roundly attribute three thousand six hundred marks of silver, indeed three thousand seven hundred, which is to say, twenty-nine thousand ounces above six hundred, besides the ounces twenty times beyond eight hundred and twenty-two consumed in the gilding, whence arises a weight almost eight times surpassing the heaviness of today's reliquary-shrine: attentive, I say, I would have them, and to acknowledge a supposition all but impossible, the eyes plainly refuting it, since the more recent shrine appears by far greater than the old, and so probably heavier too. But now Dean de Mol most expressly notes, and daily experience teaches, that to carry today's bier eighteen persons are required; but that ancient one, as well as the modern, at appointed times was carried about through the city; I ask whether there were in all Mechlin at that time enough clerics, who could so vast a mass, I do not say carry on their shoulders, but even move from its place.

[199] It pleases therefore, as I said above, our fragment, of this and of the older one taken from some apograph of the Tongeren or Mechlin chronicle, where only six marks, or rather sixteen, above three hundred are reckoned, which recedes somewhat from today's weight, or rather for the three thousand seven hundred marks, as many ounces are to be taken, in which computation there will not be so great a discrepancy. The whole matter we have discussed more laboriously in paragraph 15; about these things let it now be more than enough disputed: let us only subjoin the instrument also taken from the museum of Cuyper, by which the last showing of the year 1680 is so fully and clearly described that it needs no commentary.

Alphonse de Berghes, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Archbishop of Mechlin, Primate of Belgium, Apostolic delegate to the royal armies, of the council of state to his Majesty, etc. To all who shall see these, salutation in the Lord.

Since now is being completed the nine hundred and fifth year since St. Rumold Apostle of the people of Mechlin, after he had brought hither the light of the Gospel, obtained the palm of martyrdom in this place: and there has been brought to us the ardent zeal with which the whole Clergy, Magistrate, and people of this city of Mechlin are carried, that for the benefit of their conversion, which they obtained from the Lord of mercies through the ministry of the said holy Martyr, they may give thanks in joy and jubilation, and may announce the deeds of their Apostle and Patron, extol his merits, proclaim his martyrdom, and magnify his triumph, to the honor of him who gave the victory of martyrdom, and helped him to conquer, and since to the aforesaid ends our metropolitan church, sacred to the aforesaid holy Martyr, had begun to be more augustly adorned, triumphal arches erected, the vestments of the sacrifice and altar, notable in art and price, prepared, and finally all were in vow, that the holy shrine containing the relics of the same holy Martyr, skillfully constructed of silver, should be restored to its former splendor and brightness, somewhat obscured by long dust; and that there should be drawn from it some notable part of the sacred body laid up therein, which should be exposed to the public veneration and sight of all in the time of the jubilee (which on account of the troubles of war was deferred for a few years) to be begun from the first Vespers of the fourth Sunday after Pentecost of the present year, and to be ended on the sixth Sunday following after Pentecost inclusive, according to the Apostolic bull dispatched thereon at Rome at St. Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman on the twenty-sixth day of April of the present year, which is the fourth of our most holy Lord Pope Innocent the Eleventh.

[201] We, desiring to cooperate with so religious zeal and vows, and consenting to the purgation of the holy shrine, and the opening of the same, and the extraction of some notable relic for the effect as above, and its public exposition, being then detained by a notable infirmity, were compelled to commit the said opening and extraction, as we committed them, to the very Reverend Lord Amatus Coriache, Canon Archdeacon in our said Metropolitan church, our Vicar General, who in the presence of chosen witnesses, namely the very Reverend and most Ample Lord Francis Vanden Venne, Provost of the aforesaid church and ecclesiastical senator of the great royal Council, and the noble man Lord Nicholas vander Laen, Burgomaster of the city of Mechlin, and Lord John Baptist vanden Venne Pensionary, the aforesaid silver holy shrine, the cover being removed, opened, found another shrine of wood covered with red silk, well closed and girt round with a cord woven of byssus and gold, and in various places fortified with the lesser seal of the most illustrious and most Reverend Lord Jacob Boonen, fourth Archbishop of the people of Mechlin, the same our Vicar General, in the presence of the aforesaid witnesses, the said wooden holy shrine, the aforesaid byssine cord cut away, opened, and the cotton removed with which the enclosed things were covered, and the red byssine veil opened, discovered in this the treasure of the Relics, more amply specified below, which, with more earnest cult and veneration, those who were present (as for so many centuries our predecessors did) receiving, praised God lavishly in his Patron, and congratulated the Province and city of Mechlin on a treasure so precious, as all the premises, and those which will soon follow, we learned from the trustworthy report of the aforementioned witnesses, and signally from that which the aforementioned Lord our Vicar general made to us.

[202] Who, when a similar report had been made of the premises, both to the said Metropolitan Chapter and to the civic Magistrate, and there had grown both in this and in that a huge desire of seeing, and reverently honoring before them the aforesaid Relics, not able to stay the impulse of fervent devotion, opened anew that holy shrine, whose key, suitably closed and kept, he retained with himself, in the choir before the high altar, in the presence of the Lords Canons of the Metropolitan Chapter and many others of the Clergy, the Lords Consuls, the churchwardens of this city, and divers others of the government of the same city, and a great number of citizens, on the day after the feast of the Precursor of the Lord before noon, and exposed to the sight and veneration of all the same the aforesaid sacred Relics, and especially the cranium, in whose left part is seen the place of martyrdom, that is the opening or perforation, with the injury of the neighboring parts, which the impious mason, admonished of adultery by the holy Martyr, indulging his grief, striking with a hooked iron, cruelly inflicted on the head, and took from him the temporal life, who was striving to procure for him eternal life. Besides, the same our Vicar general exhibited to the gathered multitude to be seen the tubes of the arms and shins, parts of the shoulder-blades, divers little ribs, and various other fragments of bones, which the religious solicitude of our predecessors reverently enclosed in the aforesaid holy shrine and holily preserved even to the present day. Which being done and the multitude dismissed, the holy shrine was again closed, and suitably sealed, the aforementioned cranium remaining outside it, by the deliberation of the Chapter with our said Vicar general, which during the jubilee, aptly placed upon the holy shrine, was exposed to the sight and veneration of all the people of Mechlin and of the multitude coming from elsewhere, in our said Metropolitan church, to the honor and glory of God: as also was done.

[203] But since, the time of the jubilee being finished, the same Relic ought to be put back in the oft-mentioned holy shrine, and placed with the rest of the skeleton of the aforesaid holy Martyr, on that account we, somewhat relieved of our aforesaid infirmity by the grace of God, in the presence of the very Reverend and Venerable Lord Provost aforesaid, Michael vanden Perre Dean, and the other Lords of the Chapter of the same our Metropolitan church (the aforesaid Vicar general assisting us) and also in the presence of the noble Lords Martin Ignatius de Hornes, lord of Nil, Schout of the city and province of Mechlin, the aforesaid Consul, and many other Lords of the Magistrate and divers persons of every kind of age and condition, ordered the holy shrine to be opened, and in it aptly with the rest of the sacred bones, put back the aforesaid cranium itself, for greater faith and security in future, sealed it with our lesser seal impressed in Spanish wax, as also we fortified with the same our lesser seal the other at least more notable parts of the Relics, where it could conveniently be done: declaring that all of them have hitherto been carefully conserved and exposed to public veneration for so many centuries, and are by all to be ever held for true and undoubted Relics of St. Rumold Martyr, and retained in veneration. And that this may be done suitably and according to ancient custom, we faithfully closed the same holy shrine, and sealed it with our seal in divers places, and ordered it to be put back on the high altar. In faith and strength of all which we have ordered these to be dispatched, and one copy of them to be enclosed in the holy shrine, another to be consigned to the Metropolitan Chapter, the third to the Magistrate, the fourth to the aforesaid churchwardens, and to be inscribed also in our Archiepiscopal registers. Given at Mechlin, under our signature and seal, on the twenty-eighth day of June in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty. A little below was written, Alphonse Archbishop of Mechlin. And still lower By the mandate of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Archbishop aforesaid, Signed J. De Maeyere Secretary.

Below hung the seal of the Archbishop of Mechlin.

§ XVIII. On the ancient chapel of St. Rumold.

The first sacred edifice of Mechlin Already above, in the twelfth paragraph, I began to lay those foundations on which can be built a church or chapel, dedicated not to St. Stephen, which indeed is established; but that which from the martyrdom of the Saint himself obtained among the people of Mechlin no other than the name of Rumold. Theodoric, as in the other things pertaining to the deeds of the holy Martyr, so in this part I thought by far to be preferred to Domynsius and his followers: and this is so fixed with me, that if in any way his faith and authority waver, I plainly do not see in what manner finally the acts, passion, miracles of St. Rumold, and whatever else pertaining to his cult and veneration, can subsist. Let Theodoric therefore be preferred to Domynsius and his Anonymous, and it will be plain that from their store the so-often-mentioned church of St. Stephen first came forth: namely from chapter 23 of the Legend, as it was published by Vardæus, in our edition number 34, where it thus has: In which place also the holy man dedicated a little chapel to God, in honor of St. Stephen the protomartyr, where also for several years the divine Rumold dwelt, together with Libertus. But since he asserts elsewhere that the sacred body was carried into the little chapel which the Saint, while he was alive, had himself built, hence among the more recent ones you will find it everywhere written that St. Rumold received his first burial in the church of St. Stephen. How much this displeases us, we said in the paragraph already cited, holding with Theodoric, that no other church in those first times existed at Mechlin on this side of the Dijle, except that one alone, which had its denomination from St. Rumold himself.

[205] And indeed that it is far more illustrious for the glory of St. Rumold, that from the first centuries it had a church named to his name, not from St. Stephen. no one, I think, will deny. A church, I say, but not such as is now beheld, but such as could suffice for that time for the first beginnings of the city of Mechlin, which to have taken its increase from the countenance of St. Rumold the inhabitants of that city, most pious worshippers of their Apostle and Patron, will not unwillingly bear. Nor indeed can they deny this, since it is confessed that some of the chief cities of our Belgium then grew together or increased from monasteries and the cult of the Saints. I call to witness Liège, Arras, Saint-Omer, Ghent, Mons in Hainaut, Bergues-Saint-Winoc, Lier, Nivelles, Roermond, to pass over so many other towns which took their names from their holy Patrons themselves. And about Mechlin, to say it again, it cannot indeed be doubted that before the times of St. Rumold it scarcely merited the appellation of a town or municipality, so destroyed by the devastations of the Normans, that I reckon it most probable that only through the frequent miracles then wrought by St. Rumold it emerged from small beginnings, with the munificence of Notger of Liège acceding toward the end of the tenth century, formed under the auspices of the Bishops of Liège and the Bertholds. But these things pertain to another inquiry; here only I seem able safely to assert that the first church which ever existed on this side of the Dijle was built by St. Rumold at the Elm, which, whether it escaped the rage of the Normans (as Theodoric hints, but Theobald the writer of the life of St. Gummarus denies) or, destroyed by them, was afterward restored; this, I say, I seem able safely to assert, that that very church, in the memory of all men living in the time of Theodoric, was called and named the church of St. Rumold.

[206] Yet to these things the cited more recent writers object, who are pleased to place at Mechlin a church dedicated to St. Stephen, and so ancient and permanent, that the writer of the Wachtendonck life, so often confuted by us, in chapter 50, from more recent manuscript chronicles, did not hesitate to hand down that the Relics of the holy Martyr were translated from the chapel of D. Stephen to the basilica sacred to the same Martyr, and that in the year 1369. I do not enumerate others who embraced of their own accord the same opinion, not sufficiently examined, entangling matters most difficult and obscure with new difficulties, so that more than once it had to be discussed with the erudite men of Mechlin, whether and in what place they reckoned the aforesaid chapel of St. Stephen had existed, and whether they considered it different from the first church built of Mechlin on this side of the Dijle, at the monastery of the monks or clerics of St. Rumold. Meanwhile, all things being more attentively considered, lest, in vainly inquiring into those more abstruse matters resting on the sole authority of Domynsius or the Belgic Anonymous, I should lose oil and labor, I fled to Theodoric alone, whose encomium, as alone and uniquely genuine, I proposed for myself to follow. But that he was ignorant of the church of St. Stephen is as certain as it is evident that no church is named by him at Mechlin, except the one of St. Rumold. His words cited in the said §12, related, must here again be set before the eyes. At number 10 it is expressly stated, the church of our Martyr, which in the time of the Norman incursions remained unharmed. At the following number 11, it is said, a woman, a registrar, the same also a nun, Gerlendis by name, had with pious devotion attached herself to his church (St. Rumold's). Likewise at number 14: A certain man, Langerus by name, who had grown up in the church of St. Rumold. Finally at number 17, that mercenary soldier, broken and as it were destitute of all strength, was carried by others' hands to the church of B. Rumold.

[207] as from Theodoric, the Chronicle, etc. With Theodoric agrees the author of the Mechlin Chronicle, although in those times he is not quite accurate. He, for the year 885, speaking of the church, ascribes it to no other than St. Rumold himself; likewise that woman, whom Theodoric calls Gerlendis, captured and carried off by the Normans, calling her the Sacristan of St. Rumold, not of St. Stephen. Where he speaks of Notger of Liège, as the first founder or restorer of the Chapter of Mechlin, he clearly sets forth that he instituted twelve Canons of St. Rumold, whose Provost was at the same time Canon of Liège at St. Lambert's. Further, for the year 1250 he narrates that the Scholastic Arnold van Zellaer founded a chapel with twelve prebends, In the new precinct of St. Rumold. Here I everywhere recognize the church of St. Rumold, nor does Walter Berthout recognize any other in the diploma cited more than once, when he makes arrangements concerning the fabric of the church of B. Rumold Bishop and Martyr patron of the said church, in the year 1265. Let us now gather the series of the adduced authorities. While the ancient monastery of St. Rumold was being destroyed by the Normans in the ninth century, the church was called by his name: toward the end of the tenth century, it was so named by Notger: in the middle of the eleventh century, the precious Martyr of God Rumold rested at his monastery, as Baldric testifies: toward the end of the same century and the beginning of the next, Theodoric found no other church at Mechlin, except the church of St. Rumold: for the thirteenth century the testimonies most recently cited evidently fight: for the following centuries the matter speaks for itself: I ask, what place remains for Domynsius's church of St. Stephen?

[208] and it is confirmed from the Belgic life Among those Domynsian chapters which I had long ago vehemently desired to exact to the faith of the Belgic Anonymous, one also was the appellation of that ancient, or first chapel of Mechlin, which is feigned to have persevered in the Wachtendonck Legend even to the year 1369. When therefore I got the vernacular copy, I soon sought the very place from which Domynsius had drawn it, which exists in the autograph on page 116; where again I noticed, what I have often already attested, that the Latin interpreter did not administer the matter faithfully enough, when he basely truncated the Belgic sense, and so the chapel has three names: St. Stephen's chapel, St. Rumold's cloister, St. Rumold's chapel, rendering it thus: He dedicated a little chapel to God in honor of the Protomartyr Stephen; where he ought to have added: And that little chapel is called by three names; the chapel of St. Stephen, the monastery of St. Rumold, the chapel of St. Rumold. That triple and ill-joined designation indeed seems inept, devised seven and more centuries after the death of the Saint; but Domynsius ought to have rendered the whole text, from which it would have been easy to gather that the Belgic Anonymous probably divined, when he thrust in the name of St. Stephen: which, although we should grant that it once obtained, that certainly could have place only for that short time which preceded the martyrdom of the Saint, since from his death hitherto no other, at least true appellation was noted at Mechlin, except the church and ancient monastery of St. Rumold.

[209] The praised Chronicle could create some trouble, by another little chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, On the church of St. Mary Magdalene. unless it were most conveniently explained. Behold its words rendered from the Belgic into Latin: After the departure of the gentiles, cities and towns began gradually to be restored, just as also Mechlin, where the ancient dwellings in the domain of Grimbergen were filled, round about the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which at that time was a chapel subject to the parish of Zemst, then very extensive. Besides, houses were built across the river around the monastery of St. Rumold, in such amplitude that a church was founded to the honor of God and St. Mary Magdalene: for the memory of St. Rumold was then more obscure, but soon it began to grow bright with singular miracles, so that his cult took new increases. Trouble, I say, the church founded to the honor of God and St. Mary Magdalene could create, which Gramaye amplified somewhat in book 3, section 5: And the old memorials report, that after the departure of the Normans, in the place where now the church is, a little chapel of B. Mary Magdalene was built by the settlers, which by the munificence of the pilgrims visiting the body of the divine Rumold grew into a great church, whose precinct toward the east I read to have been built about the year 1250, the choir and other parts of the church to have begun to be completed in the year 1454; but the tower begun two years before by the aid of the offerings and gifts which, on occasion of the Jubilee granted by Nicholas V and Calixtus III, augmented by Pius II, flowing together from all sides, supplied.

[210] Gramaye does as is his wont, when he mingles false things with true, as he more liberally invents in section 2 of the same book, (to which Gramaye wrongly attributes some things) which I describe entire: These, with the old atheism, relegated into barbarism, let us go to the foundations of our faith, probably laid by St. Willibrord, certainly confirmed by Lambert and Hubert bishops of Liège. Of whom the former (although commonly the name of St. Rumold became more known) is wont to be held the ancient Tutelar of the town, and to be invoked in solemn oaths; whom on that account they are wont to depict in the likeness of an armed horseman, girt with a sword, yet mitred; because they believed that by his intervention the city was once preserved from the barbarians. I teach these things from the formula of the Aldermen's oath renewed in the year 1304. But why, together with Lambert, the people of Mechlin venerate D. Magdalene with a peculiar title, the cause is given by my old Liège Chronicle in these words: When the barbarians had loaded their ships with booty and captives, the whole city spoiled, except the church, they led away among others a woman, the sacristan of the crypt, who, invoking B. Mary Magdalene with all her heart, was heard. For when the barbarians wished to give their sails to the deep, the ship which carried the woman could not be moved. Whence, compelled, they let her go, and hence the townsmen venerate B. Mary Magdalene in memory of the thing. In the class of Tutelars some reckon that B. Stephen is also to be placed, on that account, I believe, that B. Rumold is read to have inscribed his church to him in the year 785. Namely a whole decade after he is supposed to have departed from life.

[211] In many other things Gramaye here errs, as also in the following section, when he brings the Saint out of Ireland, in the very year in which he underwent martyrdom, 775, separated from the cloister of the Canons. The miracle of St. Mary Magdalene, on the faith of some chronicle I know not which, is attributed, which Theodoric in most express words claims for St. Rumold. I omit the rest, since hither properly pertains only the aforesaid little chapel of B. Magdalene, which by the munificence of the pilgrims visiting the body of the divine Rumold grew into a great church, whose precinct, built toward the east, was about the year 1250. But this very church of St. Rumold is today the metropolitan one, therefore whatever the little chapel of B. M. Magdalene once was, it soon lost that title. The whole matter I dispatch thus in a few words from a most probable conjecture. That first chapel of St. Rumold may have been too narrow to hold the multitude of arriving pilgrims, nor could it conveniently be extended or enlarged; wherefore the people of Mechlin took counsel about building another church, then, I think, when, by the life and miracles published by Theodoric, the fame and glory of the Saint was rendered more illustrious, and stirred up the neighboring peoples to implore his patronage, bringing those gifts by which the little chapel begun in the twelfth century (for in the time of Theodoric it does not seem to have existed), so gradually augmented and completed, that after three centuries it grew into today's magnificence, those traces of the memory of B. Magdalene being left, so that even today she is honored by the people of Mechlin as a secondary patron. Meanwhile the body of St. Rumold remained in its former chapel, until, elevated, it was translated to the greater church about the beginning, as we think, of the thirteenth century.

[212] I hand down here nothing from which anyone could deservedly shrink, St. M. Magdalene the other patron of Mechlin. or which is alien to the opinion of Molanus and Miræus. The latter, on the colleges of Canons, chapter 74, places the monastery of St. Rumold, according to the mind of Molanus, in the meadows among the Elms; but gradually, he says, Mechlin grew from a small city across the Dijle, so that now the college of St. Rumold is situated in the middle of the city, and was erected by Pope Paul IV into the first Archcathedral church of Belgium. It is supposed, as is plain, that the Archcathedral church exists almost in that place where once was built by St. Rumold the aforesaid monastery; or, if you will, very near to the monastery itself. It must further be established that the little chapel of St. Mary Magdalene either occupied some part of today's church or at least was also very near to it: There remains some chapel of St. Rumold, of which Miræus thus continues from Molanus: In the cemetery of this church was situated an oratory or chapel built by D. Rumold, in which he was wont frequently to meditate. Which, since it was in the highest veneration among the common people of Mechlin, the enemies of the faith, who had taken to themselves the name of the Gueux, utterly overthrew with many other sacred places. The praised writers did not scrutinize all things, since they omit to indicate where and in what chapel the sacred body of St. Rumold rested, and since they seem to be ignorant of the little chapel of St. Mary Magdalene. But these things I reckon sufficiently cleared by us.

§ XIX. On the more magnificent church of St. Rumold which still stands today.

The consecration of today's church: Among the doubtful passages of the Wachtendonck Legend, we have deservedly reckoned that which in chapter 40 it took from some chronicle I know not which, about the nave of the Metropolitan church begun in the year 960. Nearer to the truth are those things which it has in chapter 49: Theobald having then been received into the see of Liège (who on May 13 of the year 1312 was pierced by an arrow in the Roman tumult), the supreme Pontiff giving sentence, half of the said city was adjudged away from Duke John, and restored to the church, afterward again to return to the successors of John by various sales intervening. This Theobald, as he conferred many privileges on the city, so under him the city was most flourishing. Under him the church, which is now the Metropolitan of Mechlin, was consecrated by Guido Bishop of Elen, his suffragan. The diploma of consecration I shall subjoin at the end of this paragraph, with other things pertaining hereto, where I shall have related another most probable opinion of the most erudite Crucius, easily to be reconciled with mine, in relation to the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, which he thinks to be that very one which still stands today, contiguous to the convent of the Minorite Fathers, but diminished in some part of itself, and marked with the new name of the Holy Spirit from the adjacent house which pertains to the table of the poor.

[214] The most erudite man confirms his conjecture in this, the place of the former parochial church that before the migration of the Canons from the old Rumoldian cloister, of which we treated cursorily toward the end of §12, number 139, Mechlin did not lack a parochial church, which in those centuries it was the custom to separate entirely from the cloistered collegiate ones, that the Canons might attend more freely to the divine offices, removed from the concourse and noise of the people; since cloister churches of this kind were by no means ample, such as I should believe that first one built by St. Rumold to have been, of which we have already spoken. This being laid down, it is not incongruously understood why, on account of the influx of the surrounding multitude, the people of Mechlin built another little chapel or church from collected alms, to which they gave the name from St. Mary Magdalene, at that time very celebrated (inasmuch as Albero had appointed her feast in the diocese of Liège in the year 1125), and which was endowed with the parochial title, the altar de Musenis consecrated by St. Lambert being translated thither, if we believe the annals; until, the Canons passing to the ampler church of today with the sacred body of St. Rumold and the whole parochial right (following the example of the Canons of Liège, who from the year 1204 had begun to lead a private life), the aforesaid little chapel of St. Mary Magdalene ceased to be frequented, losing also its former name; if indeed it be that very one which now remains at the entrance of the Minorite Fathers; concerning which I would not dare to establish anything certain, after so many fires and other ruins, by which it could have perished, as well as the old church of St. Rumold, of which whether any trace survives today I do not hold sufficiently explored.

[215] But, you will say, at least it was restored in the corner of the cemetery: it is not easy to define. so indeed the tradition of the common people has it; but if the conjecture of the most Illustrious Crucius be admitted as true, it will not be so very convenient to extend the ancient cloister of the Canons even to the chapel, so that they may be said to have performed the divine offices there. I admit also that it was once more spacious; but whatever it was, it seems too far removed from the Rumoldian monastery, if that truly existed in that very place where at this time is beheld the convent of the Franciscan Fathers. We revolve obscure things; for who, I pray, could now exactly define the limits of destroyed buildings, so often restored and changed? St. Rumold's little chapel and his burial could certainly have existed in another place, and the aforesaid monastery of St. Rumold could have comprised part of today's Spanish hospital. Let us grant something to the ancient ruins, not so easily to be dug out and discerned. Meanwhile let enough be said of those older chapels or little churches, let us turn our eyes again to the most splendid modern basilica, not about to determine which parts were first begun and when, to what height they were raised, by what means carried up or enlarged, and finally in what order they were completed, which we leave to be examined by those skilled in architecture, but about to say by such conjecture as is possible that which is drawn to some extent from the annals.

[216] The Metropolitan church could have been begun in the twelfth century, Let my most erudite friends and diligent cooperators pardon, that they cannot persuade me that the beginnings of today's church are to be referred to the year 960, on the most uncertain faith of a certain chronicle mixed with fables. I am compelled to feel thus, because before the times of Notger that face of Mechlin was not such as would undertake so great a work. Add the silence of Theodoric, who otherwise neglects nothing in the praise of St. Rumold. Finally, lest we be bound to admit anything of a paradox; namely that the fabric of one church held for five whole centuries. I would prefer to place the beginnings of the basilica itself at the end of the twelfth century, that is to say, when the Bertholds of Grimbergen, after the Grimbergen destruction, received into favor by the Duke of Brabant, obtaining peaceful possession of their goods, could think more conveniently about enlarging and adorning Mechlin, in which on account of their opulence they almost held dominion. Let us therefore establish that the greater nave and the choir, far lower than today's, were so advanced that toward the beginning of the thirteenth century (some note the year 1203, others 1209, others 1219) Walter Berthout the third of that name chose for himself a burial in the precinct of the choir. The structure gradually increasing, the Canons, before cloistered, joined themselves to the church, about the year 1227, leaving their former dwelling to the Franciscan Fathers, doubtless verging toward ruin. That a precinct of the choir, such as it was for the time, was completed not long after, appears from this, that there Arnold van Zellaer the Scholastic founded his chapel with twelve benefices in the year 1250.

[217] augmented and enlarged in the thirteenth century. But that the whole edifice of the august church was hitherto far from completion, the diploma of the other Walter Berthout, drawn up in the year 1265, teaches all too openly, by which, for advancing the fabric, he designates one of the Lords Canons, another of the aldermen, a third of the citizens, who should attend to its completion. Further, throughout the whole thirteenth century notable progress was made in augmenting and enlarging the work, for about the year 1312 the matter had been brought so far, that a solemn consecration and dedication was made by the Bishop of Elen, whose instrument I shall subjoin with others. But what was then the form and amplitude of the basilica, I would not dare to decide by my own judgment; perhaps nothing greatly was lacking to the completeness of the church, but it was a little lower than it is now. Whatever you establish, it is certain that not more than thirty years after the consecration, a great part of it, namely the roof and whatever was of wood, was consumed by flames. The year of the terrible fire the often-cited Mechlin chronicle designates not badly, 1342, yet basely erring in the day, when it joins the vigil of the Ascension, in that year in which Easter fell on March 31, with May 29.

[218] Most rightly Hocsem noted the matter in Chapeauville, volume 2 page 464, burned, afterward rendered more august: a contemporary witness, in these words: In the same year (1342), on the antepenultimate day of the month of May, the vigil of the Sacrament Corpus Christi, about the ninth hour, by an accidental fire Mechlin was burned, whence the verses: In eleven years, and as many cubes i.e. cubed, by guilt, O Mechlin, thou art made subject to the punishments of the Sodomites: on the night of the Sacrament a fierce fire laid thee waste, leaping upon the beams, driven by the whirlwind of the wind. In the year 1342

Further, among the annotations the praised Chapeauville adduces the words of Cornelius Zantfliet, describing the tragedy thus: On the preceding day, on the eve of the Sacrament Corpus Christi, a violent fire by chance leaping from a certain house, devastated the collegiate church of St. Rumold, and some other churches, and almost the greater part of the houses of the town of Mechlin. In which this marvelous thing appeared to all beholding, that that fire leaping from street to street, leaving the intermediate houses untouched, seized and destroyed others, of usurers and other notorious criminals, doing them no harm, it passed by. From which it is given to understand that the fire was made by a diabolical breath, the Lord permitting this on account of the sins of the inhabitants. Whether this be a true reason, or one feigned by the author, it is not ours to inquire; it is plain, what I was saying, that the church of St. Rumold burned in that year, restored doubtless before the solemn translation of the sacred body into the gilded shrine in the year 1369; but even then, unless I am mistaken, with a lighter work, which by more elevated vaults, in the course of time, was most elegantly raised to today's height, the final hand being added to the vault of the choir in the year 1451, as the metrical Belgic inscription testifies, which is still seen in the topmost apex. In the year 1451, was the year of common jubilee here; then was this stone closed; which thus sounds in Latin: In the year 1451 there was here a common jubilee, when this last stone is closed.

[219] Wrongly therefore by Gramaye, who is usually stumbling, the choir completed in 1451, then the tower begun, was marked the year 1454, in which the choir and other parts of the church began to be completed: in this he is not mistaken, that the tower began to be built from the year 1452, by the aid of the offerings and gifts which, on occasion of the jubilee granted by Pope Nicholas V, extended by Calixtus III and Pius II, flowing together from all sides, supplied. In this, I say, he is not mistaken, but in his manner he hurries so much that he seems to point out the matter from afar rather than to narrate it; and since he is everywhere wont to stumble, even in true things he scarcely finds faith. Worthy indeed was so unusual a grace to be confirmed by historical monuments, in investigating which I do not think the hurrying Gramaye had leisure. I myself found most certain things in the great Belgic Chronicle, whose author, an eyewitness, having related the jubilee of the year 1450 on page 380 of the Frankfurt edition of 1607, thus continues: In the following year the Lord Pope Nicholas, at the instance of the illustrious Philip Duke of Burgundy, granted to the town of Mechlin one year, under the form of the indulgences of the Jubilee year of the city of Rome: so that those coming to Mechlin or dwelling there, if during that year they visited certain churches decreed for this with their offerings, could obtain the indulgences of all sins.

[220] various Jubilees being granted, which are enumerated, These things about the first concession of Pope Nicholas V. Then on page 383 the same Chronicle has thus: In the year of the Lord 1456, on the fifth day of May, Pope Calixtus canonized St. Vincent of Valencia, of the Order of Preachers. In the same year the same Pope Calixtus ordained and granted in the town of Mechlin, in aid of the Crusade against the Turk, the indulgences of the Jubilee year, to last continuously for ten years: of which the first year began on the vigil of Pentecost of the same year, lasting even to the feast of All Saints, then next to come, inclusive. Hence will be given to understand, what otherwise could seem doubtful in the Brief of the same Calixtus, of which we must soon speak. But then on page 404 of the aforesaid Chronicle, for the year 1458, I read thus: This Pope Pius confirmed and ratified the indulgences which his predecessor Pope Calixtus III granted to the town of Mechlin. And there the Anonymous writer, a Canon Regular of the Windesheim Congregation, almost stops, scarcely mentioning other Belgic things, otherwise he doubtless would have added Paul II also, the successor of Pius, whom the Mechlin chronicle testifies to have also contributed something to the consummation of the Rumoldian church, and to have confirmed the Jubilee in 1464; and this his insignia not obscurely prove, joined to the family arms of the three predecessors that followed, in the first window of the nave of the church facing the south. Each thing the praised D. Canon Scholastic Slaets sent to me, worthy to be exhibited here in a plainly singular memory of the indulged and continued Jubilee, collated with things published elsewhere.

[221] The Bulls of the individual Pontiffs, however carefully sought, and the epochs of the other parts. it was not permitted to find; from the Calixtine one, which Cuyper suggested, about the others it can be established, and gathered, that not for the building of the tower alone, but also for the completion of the other parts of the church, indeed also for the adornment of other churches, the aforesaid graces were successively granted. That the vault of the greater nave was closed an inscription testifies in the year 1487. Take the Belgic meter (which says that that work in that year was publicly concluded): This work was concluded in the year 1487 openly. But the most elegant vaulting of the tower, no trace of it appearing in the church, is indicated by another little verse to have been completed or closed: I was closed for all to behold, when one wrote 1463. (the sense is the same as that just rendered.) Which whether it is to be understood of the vault alone, or also of the magnificent tower raised to today's elevation, I do not define. Cuyper bade me observe the little lion sitting on the stone pedestal, near the tower on the outside, on whose base is inscribed a chronological note, one side expressing this word: In the year, another M, the third 463, perhaps because then that huge mass was raised to that height, or, as he himself thought, the last hand was put to it, to which the inner vault, fifty years after, was added; let others dispute about this: it will be more pleasing and delightful to the reader to behold with his eyes the completed part of the most celebrated tower, as also the deficient part, whose delineations I refer as received from the illustrious collaborator Cuyper. The height of the completed part is said to ascend to three hundred forty-eight feet, to which if a third part were added, I should believe scarcely any would be found in all Belgium to which it could be compared, except the Antwerp one alone. The gnomons or indicators of the hours, wrought not so long ago, each embrace with their circumference one hundred forty-four feet; the rest need no explanation.

* 11 multiplied by itself makes the square 121, this is increased as a cube by 11 to 1331, add 11, there arises the year 1342.

§ XX. The second part, in which are reported the instruments serving for the proof of the former.

These, as far as can be done, will be arranged in that series in which they were named in the foregoing, the order of antiquity being preserved. On the Zellaer foundation. I shall begin therefore from the celebrated Zellaer foundation for the year 1250, of which more things exist in the Register of the Chapter; the following will suffice.

The foundation of the benefices of Zellaer.

In the name of the holy and individual Trinity, Amen. I Arnold de Zellaer, Scholastic of Mechlin, sound and uninjured and in possession of my mind, having firm hope and trust in Jesus Christ, terrified by no fear of present danger, but by the sole hope of eternal retribution, have decreed to institute certain benefices to the praise and honor of the Blessed and glorious Virgin Mary from my possessions and revenues. I therefore bequeath and in the first place assign thirty Louvain pounds, which the venerable men the Abbot and convent of Vlierbeke are bound to pay by my will and ordination…. Moreover all the goods which I have in Havera, with all their appurtenances, to twelve Chaplains, that they may serve in honor of the holy Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, for the benefices of B. Rumold at Mechlin, to receive from the aforesaid revenues, each and all alike as a portion among themselves. But the Chaplain of Blessed Mary in the new work shall have more than the other Chaplains, from the aforesaid revenues, 30 Louvain shillings; for the lamp before the altar of B. Mary in the new work, which shall continually furnish there the benefit of light, both day and night; but the Chaplain of the said new work shall procure the expenses of this lamp with such diligence that it never lack light, and if anything happen to remain over and above these expenses, this the said Chaplain shall convert to the uses of improving the ornament of his altar…. But the Chaplains who shall serve the said benefices, whether they be priests or clerics, shall serve them in such manner that they shall be bound to attend the Canonical hours as Canons, and unless, residing at Mechlin, they shall have personally served these benefices, they shall receive and have nothing at all of the revenues assigned to them; but the Chaplain of Blessed Mary of the new work, who is numbered with the aforesaid twelve, shall be bound to celebrate Mass every day. But that all these things and singular aforesaid may have perpetual strength, and that they may not be able to be voided or infringed by anyone in future, I have thought the present page should be strengthened with my own seal together with the seal of the venerable Father Lord, D. Bishop of Longuion and Abbot of the place of St. Bernard, the executor of my testament. Done in the year of the Lord 1250.

Let there follow the often-cited ordination of the fabric of the church of St. Rumold in the year 1265.

The ordination of the fabric.

Delineation of the Tower of the church of St. Rumold at Mechlin. The Tower of the church of St. Rumold at Mechlin as far as it is today completed. The ordination for the fabric, 1265. To all who shall inspect the present letters, the Dean and Chapter of the church of Mechlin, Walter Berthout Lord of Mechlin, the justiciars, Aldermen, and all the Burghers of the same place, salutation in the Savior of all. May your community know that we, attending to the honesty and beauty of the church of Mechlin, whose fabric had stood for some ancient time too much despised, from negligent provision, and the defect of counsel and help of the Canons, Aldermen, and other Burghers of Mechlin, for which cause, purely for the honor of almighty God, of the glorious Virgin Mary, of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr, Patron of the said church, we wish henceforth to assist the same fabric, with all benevolence and honor, establishing among us, that until the completion of the fabric of the said church, from year to year, anew three provisors, a resident Canon, an Alderman, and a Burgher, the subsequent ones always to be elected by the outgoing provisors to the said church, who in the year of their provision shall, from the alms of the faithful and other revenues pertaining hereto, provide for the utility of the church itself and of the said fabric, according as they shall see expedient, in books, ornaments, and all other things pertaining to the beauty of the house of God, as is fitting: of which provisors we first principally elect Lord John, Cantor of Mechlin, on the part of the said Chapter; Walter de Standeken, on the part of the Aldermen; and John Mulart, on the part of the townsmen of Mechlin, as its provisors, to govern the office of provision of the said church, as has been said, from the feast of the nativity of B. John the Baptist next to come, for the year immediately following after the said nativity: willing and in this unanimously consenting, that the said John Cantor, Walter, and John, the year of their provision having elapsed, the debts and alms of the church being diligently computed, as far as in them shall be, by the common counsel of the three of them, shall elect for themselves three other provisors, a resident Canon, an Alderman, and a Burgher of Mechlin, fit and competent for this, so that if any of the said Provisors elected, or to be elected in future, happen to die in the year of his provision, the other two surviving provisors may elect for themselves a third provisor, and take him in place of the deceased; and whatever Canon, Alderman, or Burgher, elected to the said Provision by the preceding provisors, shall contradict the election, and be unwilling to undertake the office of his provision in the year assigned to him, shall be bound to the fabric of B. Rumold of Mechlin, to pay 40 Louvain pence of new and lawful money. And so we will that henceforth every year the election of provisors be made, until the completion of the aforesaid fabric; establishing that whoever has been Provisor of the said church for a year, cannot be elected Provisor of the same church, from the year of his provision, within the term of five years immediately following, unless for God and of his own will he should wish to accept the office of provision. In testimony of all which, and that the premises may obtain strength and firmness, the seals of these said Walter Berthout and of the Chapter of the town of Mechlin are appended to the present letters. Done on the octave of Pentecost, in the year 1265.

[224] I subjoin those things which pertain to the consecration of the aforesaid church. The title of the former instrument in the records of the Chapter is:

A copy of the consent, or authority by the Bishop of Cambrai, to the Catholic Archbishops and Bishops, to consecrate the church of B. Rumold and two altars.

To the Reverend in Christ Fathers, and to all and singular Lords by the grace of God Catholic Archbishops, Power given to consecrate the church, etc. and Bishops, and devoted to the Roman Church, to whom the present letters shall come. Peter by Divine mercy Bishop of Cambrai, everlasting salutation in the Lord. Not being able at present to go to the parochial church of B. Rumold of Mechlin, of our diocese, hindered by many arduous affairs of our church of Cambrai, we attentively ask and require your Paternities, that the aforesaid church of B. Rumold, if it be completed, with the two altars existing in it, the first of you who shall be required hereupon may deign to consecrate, for to you and to each of you, we commit by the tenor of the present the power of bestowing the gift of consecration with the plenitude of indulgences, which are wont to be given to the honor of almighty God in the consecrations of churches, to the truly penitent and confessed, upon the same church and the aforesaid two altars, the solemnities being employed which are accustomed to be employed in such cases. Given under our seal, which we use in such cases, in our castle of Malmaison, on the first day of the month of September, in the year of the Lord 1311.

A copy of the letters of the Suffragan of Liège, who consecrates the church of B. Rumold, with two altars.

Brother Guido of the Cistercians, by the grace of God Bishop of Elen, holding the place of the Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Theobald, by Divine providence Bishop of Liège, to all the faithful of Christ to whom the present letters shall come, salutation in the Lord and to know the truth of the undersigned. To your community, by the tenor of the present little charter, which is affixed to the letters of the Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Peter, by the grace of God Bishop of Cambrai, we make manifest, that by the concession and good pleasure of the said Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Peter Bishop of Cambrai, on the sixth feria after the feast of B. Mark the Evangelist, we dedicated the Parochial church of B. Rumold, with two altars, of the diocese of Cambrai, in honor of the holy Trinity, of B. Mary the Virgin, and of B. Rumold Martyr and Pontiff, setting the anniversary days of the aforesaid Dedication, each year, on the octave of the feast of the holy Trinity. Moreover to all truly penitent and confessed, by the authority of the aforesaid Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Peter Bishop of Cambrai, one year on each day, and forty days, from the day of the aforesaid consecration even to one year, on each day, and from then onward, by the aforesaid authority perpetually every year, on the day of the aforesaid Dedication and through the octave, one year of indulgences to the truly penitent and confessed devoutly visiting the said church, we bestow: on the day of the Dedication also, and through the aforesaid octave, forty days of indulgences, provided that the Reverend Father and Lord Bishop of Cambrai deign to give his assent to the aforesaid, by our authority we confer on the truly penitent and confessed devoutly visiting the said church. Given in the year of the Lord 1312, on the sixth feria, after the aforesaid feast of Mark the Evangelist.

[226] On the Jubilees. As to the Jubilee, I have a mandate of Philip the Good, then Prince of the Belgians, written in French and given at Brussels on April 14, 1450 before Easter, or in the Gallic manner, which is to say in the Roman year 1451, beginning from the Kalends of January, as I explained above: by which decree he advises that the aforesaid Jubilee, celebrated at Rome in the immediately preceding year, by the singular concession of Pope Nicholas V, be begun at Mechlin in that same month of April on the 23rd day, which was that year Good Friday, Easter falling on April 25. These things are described more fully in the Mechlin Chronicle, narrating among other things that seven churches of Mechlin represented the seven Roman churches, etc. But that Philip might provide for the security of the faithful coming from everywhere, he strictly enjoins his chief prætor, holding his place, and all the other administers of justice, to render the approaches free, safe, and easy, and carefully to keep watch, lest any inconvenience or detriment be brought to anyone. I have already said that the Apostolic Bull of Nicholas V has not been found, the defect will be supplied by the Calixtine one, as it was furnished by Cuyper, explaining the use of the alms, the grace of indulgences being supposed, which the Pontiff testifies he had granted by the same Brief. It runs thus:

[227] Calixtus Bishop servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons master Antony Ferrari precentor of the church of Barcelona, The Pontiff prescribes acolyte and chaplain, and also our familiar, and to the Dean and Chapter of St. Rumold of the town of Mechlin, of the diocese of Cambrai, and also to the Rectors of the care of the parishioners of the same church, which is also parochial, and of the other parochial churches of the same town, and to the Masters of the community, the Aldermen and Consuls of the same town, and also to Nicholas Driele and Obert Trabukier, of the work of the church of St. Rumold of the same, salutation and Apostolic benediction.

[228] Today indeed, led by pious consideration, of the alms to be received to all the faithful of Christ truly penitent and confessed, visiting certain churches of the town of Mechlin, of the diocese of Cambrai, in certain months, days, and years, then expressed, and bestowing pious alms, oblations, largesses, or gifts to the uses then likewise expressed, and also to those who, in the causes then expressed, not being able to visit the aforesaid churches, should destine alms of this kind, to be converted to the same uses, to the aforesaid churches, we granted and indulged, under certain modes and forms, that their confessors, whom they should choose, might bestow and grant to them the benefit of absolution from the crimes, sins, faults, and excesses committed by them, and also from any sentences of excommunication, suspension, and interdict, and also a most full remission of all their sins, as is more fully contained in our letters thereupon made.

[229] Wishing therefore that the aforesaid alms, oblations, largesses, and gifts be faithfully dispensed to the uses to which we have disposed them to be converted according to the purpose of our mind, to provide opportunely; under the threat of the divine judgment and of the eternal malediction, which the Lord sent upon Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up alive, we more strictly inhibit, that no one of whatever state, grade, order, or condition or pre-eminence he be, even if he shine with archiepiscopal, royal, ducal, or any other ecclesiastical or worldly dignity, withdraw, carry off, detain, or in any way appropriate or usurp to himself anything of the aforesaid alms, oblations, largesses, or gifts, by himself or another or others, directly or indirectly, under any sought pretext: but two parts of all the alms, oblations, largesses, and gifts of this kind, which in the seven aforesaid churches, whether in their boxes or trunks or upon their altars or elsewhere, during the aforesaid time and on occasion of indulgences of this kind, shall happen to be bestowed or offered, to be converted by us in aid of repressing the oppressions of which mention is made in our said letters, shall be really assigned by the aforesaid Nicholas de Driele our depositary, specially deputed by us for this by the tenor of the present, but the remaining third part of those left over we grant and assign by the present alike for the work of the fabric of the individual churches in which they shall have been bestowed, and for the increase of the divine cult to be made there, to be dispensed faithfully and integrally at the ordination and dispensation of the Masters of the community and of the aforesaid Aldermen, according to the necessity of the individual churches; this being added, that the aforesaid Nicholas, or another or others, perhaps to be deputed by him, may receive all and singular the aforesaid alms, oblations, and gifts, arising in this first year and term, and to be really assigned to us or to the Apostolic Chamber, as is premised, yet so that on the third part the expenses of the aforesaid churches may be taken and deducted.

[230] the manner, under the customary censures. But if anyone presume to attempt anything to the contrary, he cannot obtain the benefit of absolution from this guilt by anyone, except by the Roman Pontiff existing for the time, and due satisfaction by him being first really made for those things which he shall have withdrawn, carried off, detained, appropriated, or usurped, except when set in the article of death. You therefore, to whom we have committed the keys and custody of the boxes and the alms and oblations of this kind to be borne, and to whom it shall happen to be committed, be faithful in what is committed; and you also, Dean, Rectors, Masters of the community, Aldermen, and aforesaid Consuls, diligently apply help and effort, that all the aforesaid alms, oblations, largesses, and gifts be converted to the aforesaid uses, to which we will them, as is premised, to be dispensed, as far as in you shall be, integrally and without any fraud: receiving therefore the reward of eternal retribution, and from us and the Apostolic See favors of benevolence and special graces. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1456, on the Ides of April, in the first year of our pontificate. Below was written, N. Ferrari, and above the fold, Adrian.

[231] On other graces by Leo X To all these add the Apostolic bull of Leo X, given on March 27 in the year 1516; by which several indulgences are granted, what if we say, at the request of William de Enckenvoirt, afterward Provost of the church of St. Rumold of Mechlin, then Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of whom in the Rumoldian Corollary, subjoined to the Acts of the Saint, we treat more fully. From the Apostolic letters themselves expressed on a large parchment and found in the Archiepiscopal archive, you will understand that all the graces and favors there indulged regard the structure, repair, conservation, and due adornment of the basilica of St. Rumold for decently performing the divine mysteries; whence it is gathered that even to that year 1516 some things were still lacking to the perfection of the whole work: to which thereupon we see those decorations to have been added, which rendered the august church easily the most elegant of all Belgium. Those things which pertained more closely to the indulgences could be excerpted separately, but I preferred to set the whole Bull before the eyes, which will by no means displease the curious readers and the pious foster-children of St. Rumold. Thus the Pontiff speaks there:

[232] granted by a singular indult. Leo Bishop servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect the present letters, salutation and Apostolic benediction. To the everlasting King, who committed his flock to us, though unworthy, by his piety, to render an account of the same flock in the last judgment, we strive with the highest zeal, as we are bound, to render acceptable to our Savior, who desires not the death but the penance of sinners, and followers of good works, those whom the rival of the human race often turns away from the bounds of equity and justice, that in rendering that very account we may be able to escape the vengeance of the divine justice, and that those who have been made deviant from the same bounds may, through the works pleasing and acceptable to God of him who is the Father of mercies, be able to find grace.

[233] Some time ago indeed, desiring that the church of St. Rumold of Mechlin, of the diocese of Cambrai, be frequented with fitting honors, and be held by the faithful of Christ in due veneration, and in its structures, lights, and edifices be duly conserved, repaired, and maintained, and that the faithful of Christ might the more gladly, for the cause of devotion, flow together to the said church, and to the conservation, repair, and maintenance of this kind more promptly extend helping hands, that thereby they might perceive themselves the more abundantly refreshed by the gift of celestial grace, to all and singular the aforesaid faithful of either sex, truly penitent and confessed, who should yearly devoutly visit the same church of St. Rumold on the Kalends of July, and on the festivities of B. Mary Magdalene and of St. Luke, and also on the first of Advent, and on which is sung in the Church of God Lætare Jerusalem, on the Sundays from first Vespers; even to sunset of the following day of the Kalends and festivities, and the same days inclusive, and to the conservation, repair, and maintenance of this kind should more promptly extend helping hands, for the Kalends and singular festivities and days of this kind, on which they should do this, we mercifully relaxed in the Lord twenty-five years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined upon them, as is more fully contained in our letters thereupon made, which we willed to be valid for perpetual future times.

[234] We therefore, desiring that the said church, toward which, as we have learned, the beloved son Master William de Enckenvoirt, Canon and Provost of St. Rumold himself, and Archdeacon of the churches of Campine of Liège, Notary, scribe, chamberlain, and familiar, as he bears a singular affection of devotion; be held in greater veneration, and the salvation of souls be more amply propagated, and the aforesaid faithful be rendered the more devout and prompt to the aforesaid conservation, repair, and maintenance, the more they shall have known that they can thereby obtain greater spiritual gifts for the salvation of their souls; trusting in the authority of almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all and singular the faithful of Christ of either sex existing anywhere, who in the Lenten and other seasons of any year, and on the days of the stations of the basilicas and churches of the kindly City and outside its walls, shall devoutly visit the aforesaid church of St. Rumold, and shall extend helping hands to the premises, that they may obtain all and like indulgences and remissions of sins and other graces, both for the living, and by way of suffrage for the dead, for whom they shall have done this, which they would obtain and could obtain, if on the individual days of the stations and other times they should personally visit even each of the seven principal basilicas and that of B. Mary of the People, situated within and outside the walls of the City of this kind, and should do the other things which are required for the obtaining of indulgences of this kind, by Apostolic authority by the tenor of the present we grant and bestow.

[235] And that the faithful themselves may be rendered the more apt to obtain indulgences and remissions of this kind, to the Dean existing for the time, and to the beloved sons the Chapter of the said church of St. Rumold, we grant by the tenor of the present full and free faculty of deputing some secular priests, or Regulars of any even mendicant Orders, in that number which shall seem good to them, on the individual days and times of the stations of this kind, who may hear the confessions of the said faithful of Christ flowing together to the same church of St. Rumold to obtain indulgences of this kind and wishing to confess, and absolve them and each of them from all and singular their sins, crimes, excesses, and faults, however grave and enormous, even if they were such for which the Apostolic See would deservedly be to be consulted, except the offense of ecclesiastical liberty, the crimes of heresy and rebellion or conspiracy against the person or state of the Roman Pontiff, or the same See, falsification of Apostolic letters, supplications, and commissions, invasion, depredation, occupation, and devastation of the lands and sea subject mediately or immediately to the Roman church, personal offense against a Bishop or other Prelate, prohibition of the devolution of causes to the said curia, the bearing of arms and other prohibited things to the parts of the infidels; and enjoin on them a salutary penance, and also commute any vows whatsoever emitted by them for the time, the overseas vow, that of visiting the Thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and of St. James at Compostela, and the vows of chastity and religion alone excepted, into other works of piety to be converted to the aid of the fabric of the said church, and relax freely and lawfully any oaths whatsoever, without prejudice to the right of another, we grant by Apostolic authority by the tenor of the present, declaring that the present letters, under any suspensions, revocations, restrictions, and modifications of similar or dissimilar indulgences and faculties by any other indulgences and faculties whatsoever, even for the fabric of the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles of the City, or of the expedition against the infidels, and any other even more pious uses, with any even derogatory clauses of derogatories and stronger and more efficacious and invalidating clauses, and other decrees, by us and the aforesaid See, even of our own motion or at the instance of any, granted and to be granted, in any way made and to be made, are in no way to be comprehended, and are by no means to be subject to those suspensions, revocations, restrictions, and modifications, even as often as they shall in future emanate, and those notwithstanding, the same letters, as always and altogether excepted from them, shall obtain their effect and full strength of firmness, and ought to be inviolably observed by all, even to last for perpetual future times. Given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1516, on the 6th of the Kalends of April, in the fourth year of our pontificate. It was subscribed Phi. de Roma: in the extreme margin, seen P. Harciaci: above the fold, Joan. de Madrigal: on the reverse part of the whole Bull: Given in the Apostolic Secretariat, and Blondus subscribes.

* The dignity seems to have been disputed, since the people of Mechlin number another Provost, as will appear from the Corollary.

§ XXI. Prayers and other things pertaining to the honor of St. Rumold, as also a Confraternity under his name.

At the end of the Domynsian Legend, also in Vardæus, is subjoined: A prayer to the same Martyr, Prayer I. in these words: O precious, holy, and distinguished friend of almighty God, Rumold, who, while yet leading thy life in this world, didst spurn all fleeting honors, faculties, and delights: wherefore, by the merit of thy excellent merits, all thy prayers are pleasing and acceptable to the supreme Deity. Which God himself demonstrated even in that matter, for thou didst obtain from him, by thy holy intervention, the fruitfulness of offspring for a barren mother; whom also, now brought forth into the world, thou didst bring to baptism with thy most sacred hands; and finally the infant slain and submerged in the rivers, thou didst render alive again to its parents, like the prophet Elisha. Verse. Pray for us, blessed Father Rumold. Response. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. O God, who by the intercession of blessed Rumold, etc.

[237] These things are had also in the Vardæan edition on page 40. Prayer 2, There follows on page 44 that which I rather cite thus, since in the small booklet no numbers are appended. A peroration to the divine Martyr Rumold: We beseech thee, O holy Bishop and unconquered Martyr, that as many as lean upon thee, thou mayst nourish and preserve. Render also the judge of this world, angered by our crimes, appeased. For if thou turn thy eyes to our misery, nothing will be viler and more abject; if thou look upon the divine mercy, nothing is more magnificent than Jesus Christ, who acts as mediator between God the Father and man himself. Him, we beseech, hold thou entreated, and may he constitute thee the most holy Bishop intercessor between himself and us mortals; that he may render us, who are pressed by the weight of sins, free and pure from them, that at length by the gift of God we may ascend the heavenly seats, and so together with thee, holy Father Rumold, may rejoice in the eternal fatherland: which may befall us by the grace of God the Father almighty, who lives and reigns forever. Amen.

[238] Domynsius subjoins an exhortation to any clients of St. Rumold, likewise an exhortation, conceived in this manner: O you distinguished ones, both men and women, who burn with the desire of obtaining offspring by which you may occupy the ethereal seats, whom shall you deservedly have for honor other than this divine Bishop, and Martyr of Christ Rumold? for whose sake the divine power rendered the unfruitful and barren fruitful? Call upon this glorious tutelar, that by his help you may bring forth happy births. For that is the blessed tree which bears the best fruits. Then sailors, fishermen, and others crossing the sea full often, will not undeservedly observe how God most good and great, with the divine Rumold cooperating, restrained the very waves, and will gird themselves to render the ministry of so great a Martyr. Similarly also merchants, farmers, and all the rest who exercise manual labors; since whatever sowing the holy man ever made, produced most abundant fruit. The place also where he rests is happy and fortunate in safety, exercises, and prosperity: and that for the benefit of all those who there are about to implore God himself through the divine Rumold. Let there be therefore praise and glory to God the Father and the Son, and the holy Spirit, everlasting forever, Amen.

[239] On the hymn. Finally on page 52 in Vardæus is written a Sapphic ode, to the numbers, says the author, or at least the title, of the hymn: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, etc. The poet is anonymous; I learned only, the words are Vardæus's, that he is a religious of the order of St. Benedict. I forbear to seek more, reckoning it enough that the ode itself be exhibited to the clients of St. Rumold, as it lies. Vardæus rendered the title thus: To the great Martyr, the holy Bishop Rumold, Archbishop of Dublin, patron of the Metropolitan church and city of Mechlin. Have the poem itself:

[240] Sweet song let my tongue compose to the consecrated Bishop, let me sing with celebrating voice the lofty triumph of the laurelled Martyr Rumold. Thee do praises befit, O holy Rumold, thee, to whom, the lands left far behind, it befell to go to the supernal seats, thy blood poured out. Lest bright virtue lie hidden under a bushel, thou despisest scepters, and thy fatherland, and the very sacred glory of the island, and stretchest toward remote shores. Therefore now poor thou didst seek the Lord, through so many windings, a pilgrim to the City, where thou venerest at sacred altars the sacred bones laid up. Thence departing, the Lord admonishing, thou fixest here thy seat, where the winding Dijle, with varied bend, passes by renowned Mechlin. Soon with dear offspring thou didst bless the barren hosts; and Libertus, sunk beneath the rapid waves, and now dead, thou recallest into the airs of light. Why should I tell how often thou teachest the laws of the blessed life? how often the people intent hears thee teaching, and hangs upon thy mouth. But what does the sacred hunger for gold not persuade? Thee two greedy for money (oh unspeakable crime!) slay with the sword, and hide the corpse in the waves. But the body by night with radiating light, betrayed, venerating Mechlin preserves. O city four times holy, four times blessed by these bones. Prostrate thyself whole, generous as great a City as thou art, at the tomb of so great a Patron, adorn and embellish with gems the better bones of the Martyr. Holy one, now the glory of the city, O Rumold, give thy blessing to the citizens, and hold the whole governance of the city by the right of thy sepulchre. Heresy, plague, fierce wars, diseases, O drive far from our borders; aid thy clients with holy prayers, holy Rumold. Grant that, emulating thee as far as is allowed, we may accompany thee triumphing thither, where now thou enjoyest eternal salvation, holy Rumold.

[241] Further, the piety of the people of Mechlin toward their patron and tutelary Saint, Of the Confraternity of Rumold shines also by this argument, that besides so many other monuments of public and private veneration, four and more centuries ago, on occasion of the most celebrated victory related by us elsewhere, a religious league, so to speak, being entered into among themselves, they instituted a singular congregation or confraternity in honor of St. Rumold, laws being conceived to that end, which I found in an old parchment set forth in the vernacular in the Archiepiscopal archive, in Belgic characters, with rude orthography, the letters here and there eaten away, written perhaps two hundred years ago, and doubtless copied from an older program of this kind; where the name of the Saint is rendered, not as today Rombout, but Rommout, in an obsolete dialect. The year of the victory won is marked 1301, when also the most devout clients of St. Rumold bound themselves by a solemn vow of carrying around every year, on Easter Wednesday, his sacred body, the most precious silver shrine being designated, of which enough has already been said. About the certain year of the victory it will be treated below. About the institution of this confraternity, Gramaye thus speaks in book 3, section 5: Finally in the year 1334 the sacred sodality of citizens of the title of the divine Rumold was instituted, the Bishop approving. Let the faith rest with him: the aforesaid instrument seems to speak otherwise, which I subjoin rendered from the Belgic into Latin.

[242] This is the institution of the Confraternity of Lord St. Rumold, the first laws rendered from the Belgic. our patron, which was made and ordained in the year of the Lord 1301, when the city of Mechlin was in great peril: for the Duke of Brabant had besieged Mechlin with a hostile army, so that the citizens emitted a vow of carrying around every year the sacred body of St. Rumold on the Wednesday after Easter, which hitherto had not been set in custom. In these straits of the city therefore all the inhabitants professed themselves clients of St. Rumold by a solemn oath, and then the Rumoldian Confraternity was instituted, by the common votes of the townsmen and the Chapter, so that the brothers and sisters founded a chaplaincy in the church of St. Rumold, a stipend of 27 pounds being bestowed for the celebration of a daily Mass for all the brothers and sisters of St. Rumold living and dead. Now let all understand that whoever wishes to be aggregated to that confraternity is bound to pay 20 shillings and a pound of wax; but the individual brothers and sisters pay yearly 8 shillings. And if any brother or sister die, the outermost garment falls to the confraternity, and therefore the pall is granted free. But when a brother or sister lie sick from disease, eight shillings are given to him weekly. It is to be known besides that the confraternity every year on the feast of St. Rumold, eight days after St. John's, offers two waxen torches of sixteen pounds in honor of the most sacred body of the Lord, for all the brothers and sisters living and dead. Likewise that two anniversaries are celebrated yearly in the chapel of St. Rumold for all the brothers and sisters living and dead, namely eight days after the feast of St. John, and as many days after Epiphany, the vigils being sung the day before with the Venite and nine Lessons, but on the day itself the commendations are made, and a Mass of Requiem is sung for all the brothers and sisters of St. Rumold living and dead, and the brothers and sisters are bound to be present at the vigils and Mass with the oblation, as they must also offer with the torches on the feast of St. Rumold. Again, it is to be known that all the confraternity gather every year, at least those who wish to be present, and elect two provisors, two others being deposed who had previously discharged that office, on the day after that day on which the senate of the city is renewed; which is to indicate the Tuesday after mid-August.

[243] Graces bestowed on the same Behold the first constitutions of the distinguished Rumoldian sodality, approved, I think, by the consent of all, and observed from the very beginning. But with how great fervor, with what zeal, with what religion the confraternity adhered to the aforesaid laws, I have no means of certainly conjecturing: for the most constant observance of so pious rules, there stands a just presumption, well supported by so many other arguments of most devout cult and perpetual veneration toward the holy Patron; although institutions of that kind sometimes easily lapse, or grow slack by the negligence of the curators. But of the people of Mechlin, such sedulous worshippers of their most holy Patron, I would not bring myself to think that. Let us grant the exercises perhaps intermitted, the citizens groaning under the tyranny of the heretics, but I reckon all soon repaired and restored, the affairs reflourishing, and the relics of the Saint collected, as was explained above. To this especially makes the bull of Paul V, full of spiritual graces and Apostolic largesses, to excite in the Rumoldian sodalists the ancient religion, and to resume the ministries of distinguished charity, conceived and established at the exordium of the confraternity. I exhibit the bull itself transcribed from the autograph.

PAUL POPE V,

[244] by Paul V. To the perpetual memory of the matter. Since, as we have learned, in the Cathedral Church of Mechlin there exists canonically instituted a pious and devout Confraternity of the faithful of Christ of either sex under the invocation of St. Rumold, not however for men of one special art, whose Brothers and Sisters are wont to exercise very many works of piety and Christian charity. We, that the aforesaid Confraternity may daily receive greater increases, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and the authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all and singular the faithful of Christ of either sex, who shall henceforth enter the said Confraternity, on the day of their first entrance, if truly penitent and confessed they shall have received the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, a plenary indulgence, and also to the same and to those to be enrolled for the time, as well as to those already enrolled in the said Confraternity, Brothers and Sisters, in the article of death of any of them, if truly penitent and confessed and refreshed with holy Communion, or, in so far as they could not do this, at least contrite, if they shall have devoutly invoked the name of Jesus with the mouth, if they could, but if not, with the heart, also a plenary one, and to the same Brothers and Sisters now and existing for the time, also truly penitent and confessed, and refreshed with holy Communion, who shall yearly devoutly visit the church or chapel or oratory of the aforesaid Confraternity, on the feast of the same St. Rumold from first Vespers until sunset of the feast of this kind, and there shall pour forth pious prayers to God for the concord of Christian Princes, the extirpation of heresies, and the exaltation of holy Mother Church, we mercifully grant in the Lord likewise a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins.

[245] Moreover to the said Brothers and Sisters truly penitent and confessed, by a singular brief, and refreshed with holy communion, who shall yearly devoutly visit the aforesaid church, or chapel or oratory, on the feasts of the most holy Body of Christ, and of the Conception and Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also on the days of the Octave of the feast of the same St. Rumold, likewise from first Vespers until sunset of the days of this kind, and there, as is asked, shall have prayed, on whatever of the aforesaid days they shall have done this, seven years and as many quarantines: but as often as they shall have been present at the masses and other divine offices to be celebrated and recited for the time in the said church or chapel or oratory, or at the public or private congregations of the same confraternity, to be made anywhere, or shall have received the poor in lodging, or composed peace between enemies, or caused it to be composed, or procured it, and also those who shall have accompanied the bodies of the dead, both of the brothers and sisters of the said confraternity and of others, to ecclesiastical burial, or shall have accompanied any processions to be made by license of the ordinary and the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, both in processions and when it shall be carried for the time to the sick, or elsewhere wherever and whenever, or, if hindered, the sign of the bell being given for it, shall have once said the Lord's Prayer and the angelic salutation, or shall have recited the aforesaid prayer and salutation five times for the souls of the deceased brothers and sisters aforesaid, or shall have brought back some sinner to the way of salvation, and taught those ignorant of the precepts of God, and those things which are for salvation, or shall have exercised any other work of piety or charity, as often, for each of the aforesaid works, we relax sixty days of the penances enjoined upon them or otherwise in any way owed, in the customary form of the church. The present to be valid for perpetual future times.

[246] But we will, that if otherwise some other indulgence to last in perpetuity, which is here reported. or for a time not yet elapsed, shall have been granted by us to the said brothers and sisters performing the premises, the present shall be null, and also that even if the said confraternity be already aggregated to some Archconfraternity, or shall in future be aggregated, or by any other reason be united, or even in any way instituted, the present and any other Apostolic letters shall in no way be of avail to them, but from then by that very fact shall be utterly null. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the ring of the Fisherman on the tenth day of July 1618, in the fourteenth year of our Pontificate, and below was written: Let it be published. Signed Matthias. And a little below on the right was written: J. Cardinal of St. Susanna.

[247] Here I would have the most pious clients of St. Rumold observe, Under Archbishop Andreas it is restored. that at one and the same time the whole city in a manner was kindled to the glory of the holy Patron; the most Illustrious Hovius with the Magistrate and the chief men being intent on the new silver shrine, as was demonstrated above, and others further conspiring as one to resume and establish the offices of ancient piety. In this way to the celebrated confraternity the former fervor was restored, on which thereupon he conferred new splendor, and inflamed all the sodalists with new sparks of piety, the distinguished worshipper of St. Rumold and inflamed with a zeal worthy of an Archbishop toward all the exercises of religious observance, the most illustrious Andreas Creusen, when, a book being prepared for this most neatly bound and adorned with various elegant pictures, he first inscribed his name with his own hand, the Provost and Canons of the metropolitan Chapter following the example with pious emulation, from which time the number of sodalists of every order increased more from day to day, reviewed by me in that codex with the greatest pleasure. From the chronographic inscriptions the curious reader will gather the year; I have been pleased to take from thence three Latin ones, which sound thus: The Confraternity of Rumold, the mitre of the prelate Andreas recent, What things by the Sodalists began with new name and splendor.

[248] There is no need to pursue each thing separately; let it be said in general, that two chief solemnities are wont to be observed every year by the sodalists of St. Rumold, the one on that very Easter Wednesday, on which with the highest celebrity the silver reliquary described above is carried around the walls of the city by vow, on account of that memorable victory obtained in the year 1303, of which it has already been said more than once and just now in the constitutions of the Confraternity. The other is more festive on the very day of the consecration-anniversary, or that which is wont to be begun on the first Sunday of July, within the octave of the Saint, and to be protracted to the three following days, the silver shrine itself being exposed in the church, and a panegyric oration about the Saint being held on the Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays by select preachers; not only the confraternity, but each of the chief men, both of the Magistrate and of the other citizens, eagerly and copiously flowing together to the basilica of St. Rumold. The shrine itself is on the Saturday deposited before the Magistrate, and again brought back with the same standing by, after on the Thursday solemn exequies have been performed for the deceased confraternity, just as on Easter Thursday even today obsequies are made for all those who in the famous battle of the year 1303 poured out their blood for the liberty of the fatherland. So great and so constant is the recollection among the people of Mechlin of the benefit once received.

[249] are observed today. Nor would I omit that which conduces wonderfully to the solemnity of both exequies, namely that those must be present, and indeed clad in their gowns, who compose the five colleges or companies of the city, commonly called by the Belgians ghildæ, otherwise gildoniæ: all with tireless zeal concurring, I had almost said contending, to honor their most holy Protector. The praised confraternity has also this singular thing, that on the first Wednesday of every month it has a solemn Mass sung in honor of the Saint, the confraternity assembling there, and by institutions of this kind, mutually stimulating one another to the Christian virtues, to following the footsteps of their Apostle, by example more than by words, so that it ought truly to seem no wonder, if, while to the chief cities of our Brabant singular properties were once attributed, as to Louvain learning, to Brussels nobility, to Antwerp riches; the prerogative of holiness, by some merit of its own, adhered to Mechlin. In this let the people of Mechlin continue to glory in the Lord, fortunate under the auspices of St. Rumold, but more happy, if to the purity of the faith preached by him, with equal obedience; if, the examples of all the Christian virtues being chosen, they shall have persevered to insist with equal constancy. Thus far concerning those things which we have beheld in the city itself, arguments of the highest veneration toward St. Rumold: it remains that we contemplate also the cult diffused into other parts of Belgium, through his relics obtained.

§ XXII. On the sacred Relics of St. Rumold translated elsewhere, and there exposed to the veneration of the people.

That the people of Mechlin were solicitous and vigilant guardians of their sacred treasure, you may conjecture even from this, that in the whole Belgic Hierogazophylacium of Rayssius I find only the sacristy of Lessines, Before the year 1580 there were no relics of St. Rumold outside Mechlin, in which relics of St. Rumold Bishop and Martyr are deposited, doubtless small enough, since the aforesaid Rayssius explains nothing further; but Brasseur in the Cimeliarchium of the church of Lessines, page 137, only indicates that it is a round bone. Nor indeed is it added at what time they were brought thither, whence one might not improbably suspect that the particle was preserved from the dispersion of the raging Iconoclasts in the year 1580 and given by some pious Catholic, a religious of that monastery, who wished it to have a place in that sacred treasure. It is a suspicion, but founded on this, that before that sacrilegious pillaging, the old gilded shrine, in which in the year 1369 the sacred body was deposited, is not known ever to have been opened, except in its solemn inspection and visitation of the year 1480, of which we treated above, where there exist most express testimonies of the inspectors and visitors, that with the greatest reverence, after the lapse of the said three solemn days, adding or subtracting nothing, but the bones sound and unharmed as they found them, with new little cloths, linens, and other things ….. they enclosed them again.

[251] Rightly therefore it seems to be supposed, that all the relics of the most holy Martyr, unless perhaps in Steynockerzeel, or the whole sacred body, remained at Mechlin in the most precious reliquary-shrine even until the English Furies of the aforesaid year 1580. Which yet I would not have taken so scrupulously, that you should believe no particle to have been anywhere slipped out or extracted, such as could have been that, whether a rib, or another part, which they will to have been fixed to the shield of the leader of the people of Mechlin, fighting and conquering under the auspices of St. Rumold, as is said elsewhere, and which the Wachtendonck Legend in chapter 48 testifies, even now enclosed in glass, to be exposed to veneration. The rib of the blessed Martyr, long sought by me, was at length found in de Mol, who testifies thus on April 10 in the year 1635: There was exposed the silver head of St. Rumold, adorned with the rib of St. Rumold, which the rectors of the church have hitherto had. I find that that head, I should better say almost a half-body, cost more than five hundred florins. There is also another particle of a rib, at least of a bone, which perhaps is hinted by the Wachtendonck author, enclosed in a reliquary, and placed in the hand of an angel, with the epigraph: Relics from the bones of St. Rumold Archbishop of Dublin, which sufficiently indicate their age, so that they certainly do not seem to smack of great antiquity. Yet I scarcely doubt that before the said dispersion, some of the precious deposit was given to the church named from the Saint himself in the village of Steynockerzeel, about three leagues distant from Mechlin to the south; namely that one whose perpetual dominion at present, from the time of the most celebrated miracle, we said the College of Canons of the divine Rumold holds, so that it enjoys there the right of investing and reinvesting. They are the words of Domynsius, adding, that in memory of the matter the Canons of the divine Rumold light a hanging lamp day and night in the midst of the high choir, the cult persevering even today and the Chapter supplying the oil, as the most Ample Dean de Mol accurately noted. To that church, I say, I should not doubt that some sacred pledge of St. Rumold, as of its patron, was granted, and there for several centuries exposed to the veneration of the people, where also the same things were wont solemnly to be celebrated which obtained at Mechlin.

[252] where formerly placed on a silver statue. This is gathered from a Belgic instrument of the year 1607, whose apograph the Illustrious Canon Crucius, often praised, officiously procured for me, by which the Reverend D. parson, his vicar, and each of the chief inhabitants of the village testify that two feasts of St. Rumold were from time immemorial celebrated by ecclesiastical rite, even by the people there, one of the martyrdom on July 1, the other of the translation on October 27. But concerning the relics, a more express testimony was given on June 15, 1717, by the present pastor, the Reverend D. Grondoni, in these words: I the undersigned pastor of the church of St. Rumold of the place of Steynockerzeel, make faith that in the said church was preserved an ancient statue of St. Rumold after the norm of the seal here annexed, from which, by permission of the superiors, a monstrance has now been cast; on whose breast was placed a shrine, in which was preserved a notable part of the relics of St. Rumold, of a length of a finger and a half, and a breadth of one finger, and that these relics, as I understood from the elders of the village, were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, especially on the Sunday within the octave of Corpus Christi, when in procession they were wont to be carried around, which Sunday is by the inhabitants still wont to be called the dedication of St. Rumold.

[253] The impression of the seal I set before the eyes, as an ancient

and equally conspicuous monument of the cult of St. Rumold in Steynockerzeel, A twofold more solemn festivity there. and the more illustrious for this, that it represents the silver statue long held there in veneration; which it is strange was permitted so easily to be transformed. But as the related testimony of Grondoni indicates, that the more celebrated festivity of the natal day of St. Rumold has now been translated, or rather drawn back, to the Sunday within the octave of Corpus Christi, so from another vernacular instrument it is given to understand that the people of Steynockerzeel obtained what they had requested, that the other solemnity of the translation should be moved back to August 20, the feast of St. Bernard, the secondary patron chosen by the people, on which day also both the aforesaid statue and the relics were wont to be carried around, as the Illustrious Crucius noted. The reason of the request in the aforesaid Flemish instrument, for transferring or composing the feast, is given as this, lest the people be burdened with more feasts, besides those which are commanded by the Church, the obligation meanwhile remaining for the Clergy to discharge the office and Mass by the accustomed rite on the former days. And these things concerning the first relics, which I have hitherto found to have been set forth for public veneration outside Mechlin.

[254] Given to the people of Saint-Trond in the year 1631 Next to these are those given as a gift in the year 1631 to the people of Saint-Trond by the most Illustrious Jacob Boonen, doubtless in some pious exchange with the relics of St. Libertus, which in the same year received thence Gurnezius reports in his Syntagma on the deeds of St. Libertus, page 39, in these words: Finally in the year of recovered salvation 1631, the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Jacob Boonen Archbishop of Mechlin, while for his Episcopal office he was surveying the parishes of his diocese not so very far from Saint-Trond, asked of the Abbot of this place, the Reverend Hubert Germeys, some portion of the remains of B. Libertus, with which he might enrich the sole natal place of the Martyr and his own Metropolitan basilica, in place of a great gift, and obtained a notable part of the head or cranium. Which relics afterward, on the last day of August of the same year, under the auspices of the most Illustrious Bishop, with very solemn pomp and incredible joy of all Mechlin, were brought and, composed in the equestrian effigy, as we said it is wont to be painted, down to the navel, most precious in gold and silver, carried into the metropolitan church of D. Rumold. That equestrian or military effigy is wont to be exposed, with the other Episcopal one of St. Rumold, on appointed days through the year, that as a disciple with his master, as a son with his father, he may be honored by the people of Mechlin with equal piety. But lest wonder seize anyone, why the people of Mechlin everywhere exhibit on the altars a cleric, priest, and provost in military guise, Gurnezius briefly answers; omitting the allegorical reasons, and those which pertain to forming morals, this reason is pleasing, that it was in use among the ancients, to propose to be honored or imitated the Saints distinguished by birth or by Magistracies borne, although sometimes, the allurements of the world being spurned, they had put on the cleric or monk, yet in that former dress, and in the robe, the cloak, the equestrian mantle, and the other insignia of the dignity laid aside, which we afterward confirm by the examples of SS. Bavo, Maurontus, Vincent, and others. Thus Gurnezius; others perhaps will feel otherwise, among whom I profess my name.

[255] Moreover those relics of St. Rumold of which we treat were a return-gift, as a return-gift for the received relics of St. Libertus. received by the people of Saint-Trond with no less pomp and solemnity in the same year, and brought into the abbatial church, where on the very festivity of the Saint, from first Vespers, they are more solemnly exposed. The testimonial letters of the most Illustrious Jacob will teach the rest: Jacob by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Archbishop of Mechlin, to all who shall see these, salutation in the Lord. We make known, that on July 5 in the year of salvation 1631, from the sacred shrine of the relics of the most blessed Martyr and Pontiff Rumold, patron of our Metropolitan church of Mechlin, in the presence of the very Reverend Lord, Lord Antony de Mol, Dean of the same church, and Peter vanden Wiele Archdeacon, and our vicar general, we took a part of a rib from the aforesaid relics, which we give to the very Reverend and Illustrious Lord Abbot and Religious of the most celebrated monastery of St. Trudo of the diocese of Liège, and we affirm that they are true and certain relics of the aforesaid Martyr, which from every age were held for such in the church, and venerated with public veneration. In faith of which we have given these fortified with our hand and seal, and with the subscription of our secretary, at Mechlin on the day above declared. The Archbishop signs, the Secretary Coriache, and he who transcribed the apograph on June 20, 1717, Beda Benedict of Saint-Trond. From the archiepiscopal registers it is established that the same Archbishop on October 1, 1640, at Tienen in the church of the Minorite Fathers, consecrated four altars, in two of which, among others, are enclosed Relics of St. Rumold.

[256] Others were translated to Humbeek in the year 1650; Whether the most Illustrious Boonen thereupon bestowed other relics on foreign churches, after sedulous inquiry it was not permitted to explore; this is certain, that in the fiftieth year of the same century, Humbeek, much nearer to Mechlin, obtained somewhat of the sacred pledges of St. Rumold by the favor of the same most Illustrious one, of which matter our laurelled poet Jacob Wallius left a notable argument, as may be seen in book 2 of the Heroics, of the Plantinian edition of the year 1669 from page 104, where in a little prose oration he addresses the most noble man Baldwin le Cocq, then celebrating the praises of St. Rumold in a most sweet Idyll, while those sacred relics were carried into the said village on July 24, 1650. The whole matter had first been printed under the name of Cosmas le Cocq, son of Baldwin, in that very year 1650, and distributed separately in peculiar booklets, at the very solemnity of the Translation, and so by us under the same titles, to the glory of St. Rumold, it is reproduced. The few little changes in the Idyll, made by Wallius with second thoughts, the curious reader will easily observe by comparing both editions. Behold the first entire and untouched.

THE PUBLIC PIETY exhibited to D. RUMOLD Martyr and Bishop, Apostle of the people of Mechlin, and Tutelary Patron, when from his sacred bones, by the favor and beneficence of the Illustrious and Reverend Archbishop of Mechlin JACOB BOONEN, and of the College of Canons, A PART was TRANSFERRED TO HUMBEEK. To the most noble Lord D. BALDWIN LE COCQ LORD OF HUMBEEK, the Happiness which King David brought into his palace together with that great Mystery of the Hebrew nation, COSMAS LE COCQ, a Son to his Parent, PRAYS.

It is not, Father, alien to this celebrity of our pomp such as it is, on which occasion nor fetched from afar, this my vow, by which I desire thee to be blessed and fortunate at home and abroad. For if that renowned monument of the Hebrew religion, in which were preserved the tablets inscribed with the divine laws, had this, that wheresoever it was religiously brought, it brought also happiness flowing round with all goods, should I reckon my hopes either vain or untimely, when I saw thee most religiously bringing the sacred bones of D. Rumold into the church of Humbeek? It was, I confess, it was that monument, than which none among the Mosaic sacred things stood more august, the oracle of wisdom, the seat of holiness, the prodigy of magnificence, the throne of divinity, from which responses were poured forth, benefits flowed, to whose honors all the rest were referred, whatever were divinely commanded for the most holy ceremonies of religion. But these sacred remains also have this, that from him whose they are, I can deservedly promise thee very much both of help and of advantage. For if he, while he lived, was a guardian of the divine laws, if a messenger of the truth, if an exemplar of holiness, if not only for the praise and memory of his own times, but also of ours, he everywhere left impressed the traces of most benevolent charity; now from the full place of beatitude, should he not think of defending and adorning him, whom he has not only as a suppliant to himself, but also as a guardian of his ashes, and a propagator of his glory?

[258] What? Should that lively love be extinguished, that inexhaustible love, he composed a little oration that love most like its source, which was ever lacking to none, sufficed for all? Should that liberality which opened for him the way to glory and to the Martyr's laurel have utterly dried up in that abundance of all goods which he enjoys? It cannot, Father, it cannot be explained by me in a brief address, how great a protection is placed for thee in him to whom thou hast decreed solemn honors and supplications. Nor indeed did his Zadok fail this thy pomp, noble in birth, and authority, and priesthood, when those sacred pledges, in the rite of one supplicating and with divine praises resounding on every side, were carried around by John Wachtendonch, a man both of the most ample honors, which he now bears, and far most worthy of greater ones, which he will discharge: in which I now, since they have long been owed to so great virtue and prudence, rejoice and take joy as if present. That perhaps might seem to someone a point in which our pomp cannot be compared with the pomp of the King the son of Jesse, that that sacred pledge of the Jewish religion and empire, detained under the custody of one private man, honored with no cult, no sacrifices, no ceremonies, was carried into a much more celebrated place, the citadel of Zion, the seat of the kingdom, the Capitol of the Hebrews, with royal and very great apparatus and expense: but our pomp descended from a most august into a narrow and humble church.

[259] But here I excuse nothing. Let that have been once the oration of Evander the shepherd king and plainly a shepherd, the celebrated Jacob Wallius by which he exhorted the Hero, a stranger received in humble hospitality, to despise riches, of which namely in that simplicity of the exiled Arcadian he would behold no splendor. To us certainly the modest and slender cult is not laboriously to be excused before him who never set any price on riches. Wherefore I bid again and again that these so well-omened beginnings of piety, and the slender indeed but religious apparatus of the most auspicious pomp, turn out well and happily for thee, best Parent. Although why do I circumscribe the beneficence of D. Rumold within such narrow bounds? For thee, most Illustrious Archbishop of Mechlin, thee together with the most Ample assembly of Canons decreeing new and public honors to him, we are augmented by new and public benefits from him. And may immortal God grant, that in these most mournful times, while on every side, as in a common conflagration, we seek aids, we may congratulate ourselves that the patronage of our divine Tutelar, implored also by this procuring of the sacred things, has contributed something to extinguishing the most deadly wars, by which we vainly pity Belgium burning now for so many years. Certainly, what may deservedly bid us presume something great in hope, it is now permitted to mark the first year of his sacred bones translated hither with most noble victories and most certain auguries of peace, which the most Serene Prince Leopold gave, his victorious standards being fixed at Aire and the Aisne.

[260] alluding to the ark And that D. Rumold comes also into a part of that glory, only he will be able to doubt who reckons that he sees not the wounds of our fatherland, of which he is Patron and guardian, nor knows its calamities, nor hears its suppliant complaints, and so neither presides over the counsels of war and peace, nor provides for the most just cause, nor for the public felicity. To thee therefore, most Illustrious Lord, and to you, very Reverend Lords Canons, I give thanks not only the greatest for the dignity of the bestowed gift, but, since joy lifts and diffuses itself in my mind, and it leaps even now to act as interpreter of all those who shall feel D. Rumold propitious to themselves in the church of Humbeek, and beneficent publicly and privately, manifold and immortal thanks. But thinking of the feeling of my Parent, it is difficult for me to find words by which to express his grateful mind toward you. Believe me, who from his daily sight and converse can attain at least something beyond the rest, he cannot rejoice in your beneficence without some grief, because, since he understands that this pledge with which you have dignified him is much dearer than gold and gems, he sees that the equal faculty of returning the favor has also been snatched away from him. But those things demand no remuneration, which by their majesty have removed the condition and expectation of remunerating.

[261] brought by David into the temple of Jerusalem; Let this therefore be granted to the greatness of your merits, let it be granted to the holiness of D. Rumold, let it be granted to the veneration of his sacred ashes, that, since a grateful mind has omitted nothing that it can devise; yet it confesses that it owes all to your beneficence. And here while I speak of thee, that I may address thee again, Father, since to honor the joy and celebrity I had invited the Muses hither, the reasons which I have for dedicating this poem to D. Rumold are nearly the same as those I have for inscribing it to thee: the one of religion, the other of observance, both of piety. For since piety is one of the choir of virtues, which unless it be bestowed on parents, sons fail in the reasons of their duty, I do not go off into different things, since that which is dedicated to the altars is also inscribed by me to thee. And the more so, because Plato most gravely admonishes sons, that in the paternal house, as in a domestic temple, they should labor at the honors of their parents, as at certain sacred rites, since indeed nature herself, queen and mistress of sacred things, has consecrated them to this. D. Rumold will therefore grant me this pardon, if I have joined a private testification of my love for thee with the public religion toward him.

RUMOLD, AN IDYLL.

If thou canst rest with me, Father, under this shade, where a new stream glides past thy fields, with an elegant pastoral poem. and lo, the bank invites us to come beneath the neighboring willow-grove, come hither: and, if anything of ours is sweet and pious to thee, receive the songs which I have played for thee among the woods, rising above the slender reeds and the pastures. Rumold himself, beholding his honors more closely, had given me thee for material, and had given genius to me singing alike, and had breathed glad fires upon me. Him the banks too, him too the springs and lakes, and the groves, and Echo with whole valleys resounded. The lofty air too, struck with continual songs, gave him back, deigning to tarry in the country. And while this ardor holds all, thus we ourselves began.

[263] Shall it be then that here thou beholdest, Rumold, poor things and humble tamarisks? shall our sacred rites then please thee, nor wilt thou, Father, spurn the rustic cult? Not, as is worthy of thee, here on high columns rests the mass, rough only with tufa and rough pumice. Not on the rude altars which we have raised for thee does ivory gleam, nor do Babylonian weavings shine on the walls, no statues, no tablets: all is bare stone. And to thy remains will these temples be able to seem fair enough? Spurn not the slender thing, spurn not the gifts which we bring. They are indeed, they are rustic, nor such as befit thee. Poverty, however simple in other things, is not so ignorant of itself. But if our lot shall give thee material of praise, I pray use the manner of the great God, who spurns neither the ears of corn, and flowers chosen from the open meadow, nor the honor of scant incense. For thee, instead of the spike of breathing nard, instead of the tears of myrrh, we scatter mint, cassia, and thyme, and whatever is green and fragrant in our tamarisks. I myself from our country a crown, the firstfruits of the crops, from our sheepfolds a lamb, the offspring of the breeding, the yearly tokens of a powerful vow, will pay thee. Let the neighboring walls surpass us in expense, and display an Urn solid with silver and stiff with figures, the monuments of thy ashes; not, if in riches, will we yield also in love.

[264] Alas! what did rustic simplicity wish, or by what name does it boast itself? would it dare to compare the roofs of a little farmhouse with august towers, which the towns set at a long distance behold, or the rare huts with great cities, and the stubble with gems? Spare, lofty towers, spare the shepherd. Often I admire you, the willows our witnesses and the pastures, drawn up to heaven and proud with vast roofs. Often turning my eyes hence to the walls, and venerating the long-beheld mass, and him who gave a name to this: preserve, best Father, I said, me and the flocks of my fathers: and, if only we pray for just things, let the breeze not envious bear our prayers to thee. Often also present, and sent from the country into the city, I looked up at the altars opulent with august gifts, and the bowls heavy with gold, and the images of the Saints carved in gold, crosses, and palls, and urns, vast silver, and the labor of works and craftsmen. But this is not the sum of beauty. You, the pledges of the Saints, you, Ashes enclosed in gold, and remains received on the altars, give fame to the temple. If we too now preserve these in our temples, however rustic they be, spare, lofty towers, spare the shepherd, not, if in riches, will we yield also in love.

[265] What then, if we preserve the sacred ashes and bones in a willow coffer? what then, if only a leaf of gold is laid over the boards? Did, in the years of ancient time, while the people were poor, while the Saint stood of wood in a small church, and the boughs taken from the tree, and the flowers which some Lycidas or Thestylis had brought from the garden, prepared for the temples and altars, not to be spurned—did the people less, and the simple altar, please the heavenly ones? They care not for golden gifts, but for the love which betrays itself by gifts. Let love be absent, an Urn finished and carved with gold is worth as much as a basket woven of mallow. Spare, lofty towers, spare the shepherd, not, if in riches, will we yield also in love. If once we believe that great Kings, summoned from the farthest Nabataeans, pleased the divine Child with Sabaean gifts under the cave of a poor hut: yet the simple throng too which brought, whether a fold of milk, or honey stored in cork, or a lamb from the stalls, or wood-pigeons snatched from the yard, the Child did not despise, and the sweetest Mother of the Child. There are riches also in the mind: nor, if the woodland gifts are mean, is the mind also mean; and a rich will is preferable to gifts. Certainly it was first lawful for shepherds to behold him propped on chance stubble and a marsh reed. And it was lawful for them, before the Kings themselves, to fix kisses on the divine feet, and to hang the doors of the cave with myrtle, and twining ivy. Nor if, Rumold, it shall be permitted to the poor husbandmen to hope anything of thee, will our affairs not capture thee, and the rustic gifts, and whatever solemnities we humble shepherds shall render at thy sacred rites. The Saints have loved the country too.

[266] O Father, o thou whom thou now bringest into our borders! Who, ho, of you, boys, will congratulate with me the birthdays, the fields, and praise with me on shrill reeds and song the harvests that will conquer the barns, and greater flocks, and better fleeces of wool? Be happy, Humbeek. The plowman not sad will cleave the furrows in thy fields, nor believe the seeds frustrated. Glad crops, and kindly suns, pure dews shall not be lacking. He will advance the hope of the year, who now surveys the fields. If the Sun, if Sirius scorch them, he will command the Zephyrs, will command the South winds, to console the earth with rains and mild breezes. Sometimes he will also shut the South winds in the Aeolian caves, and whatever blasts bring on black storms. Thou too, great Pales, wilt often marvel at the heifers and the flocks of the bleating, whether they stand at the stalls now full, and fill the milk-pails with snowy milk, or feed far on the green glades and the arbutus. Them shall no foul scab, no pestilence coming from the pastures, and corrupted pools, or colds harm, white with soft fleeces, and apt for bearing.

[267] These things I ask for the flocks; those, husbandman, ask thou for the crops. Pitying those who ask, from the high heaven Rumold will hear and come to our altars, who now with a part of himself is added to our altars. Perhaps too soon (what are we not bidden to hope, while the Aisne quakes and yields far off to our War, and to peoples weary with war Leopold shows the olive, burning to meet the coming Peace?) arms will gather rough rust, and the use of iron will be fitter, when it will shine with heavy hoes and the curved plow, and the warlike javelins will be turned into hard mattocks. Then thy honor will grow, then I should wish thee too, Rumold, guardian of the rich field, to await new altars made of marble for such merits. Now the coffer of the ashes is for the time of wood: but when golden Peace shall look back on the lands, be thou golden. Such things I was singing: to me singing the conscious air assented, and seemed to give signs in the serene sky.

On the Relics of St. Rumold in Ragecourt of the domain of Luxembourg.

There was need of greater care, solicitude, and diligence, that from the more remote parts notices of the sacred relics of St. Rumold might be had. [In the year 1680 the pastor of Ragecourt in the domain of Luxembourg obtained others.] The most noble, and equally most praised collaborator Cuyper had suggested to me, that he remembered, that in the last visitation or recognition of the shrine of the year 1680 some pastor in the duchy of Luxembourg, of the diocese of Trier, and Dean of the Christianity of Arlon, had obtained some part of the relics, to be exposed to veneration in his church, in which he said St. Rumold, Apostle and Martyr of Mechlin, was honored with special cult, whatever, with the name somewhat corrupted, he was called Romual, or by a nearly similar inflection. That I might be more accurately instructed about all things, I made use of the officious labor of the Reverend Father Lambert de Beeckman, Rector of our Society at Liège, who, after various letters written to Arlon, at length obtained those things which I had long desired. Thence on July 12, 1717, the Reverend Father Antony the Capuchin sent the desired documents, adding that the present pastor testified to him that the church is frequented there with great concourse the whole year; the surrounding peoples flowing together in rivalry to implore the help of St. Rumold, especially for healing in the diseases of animals, not without manifest and daily benefits. Further, that on the first day of July the natal of the Saint is celebrated with a more solemn festivity, and with greater piety of the clients, so that we understand our St. Rumold to shine with singular glory even there. I subjoin the instruments of the donation of the relics, and of their approbation by the Ordinary.

[269] Amatus Coriache, Priest, graduated Canon and Archdeacon in the metropolitan church of St. Rumold of Mechlin, as is plain from the authentic instrument and also Vicar general of the most Illustrious Lord Archbishop of Mechlin, to all who shall see these, salutation in the Lord. The Reverend Lord John Marson, priest rector of the parochial church of the place of Ragecourt, commonly Ragecourt, and rural Dean of Arlon, of the diocese of Trier in the duchy of Luxembourg, set forth to us, that from time immemorial in the aforesaid parochial church, every year, on the first of July, the festivity of St. Rumold Pontiff Martyr is celebrated, and there on a certain side altar was seen a wooden statue of the same Saint five feet high, and to it were wont to run, both the inhabitants of the aforesaid place, and others dwelling elsewhere even more remotely thence, that by the intercession of the aforesaid Martyr they might obtain help from God in their necessities. In whose statue's place, namely as it was disfigured by age, eaten with rot, exposing another new one, he procured it to be placed on the same altar, and that altar, not consecrated before, to be consecrated in honor and under the invocation of St. Joseph, of St. Rumold Martyr aforementioned, and of St. Antony Abbot.

[270] the most Ample D. Coriache Archdeacon and Vicar general, But since by the aforesaid aids the devotion of the faithful people has increased, and it is to be hoped that it will moreover receive a great increase, if he can obtain that grace, that to his aforesaid parochial church may be given some particle of the relics of the oft-mentioned holy Pontiff Martyr Rumold; therefore with instance and fervor he besought, that that grace be not denied to him, especially at this time, in which is celebrated the solemn jubilee of the nine hundredth year from the martyrdom of the same saint, and his holy shrine is opened, both that it may be purged and adorned, and that relics may be drawn from it, which during the aforesaid jubilee may be exposed to the sight and veneration of the faithful people.

[271] We, all the premises attended to, and a report having been made to the most Illustrious Lord Archbishop aforesaid, and also to the very Reverend Lords Provost, Dean, and Chapter of the Metropolitan church of Mechlin aforesaid, explaining the occasion and causes of the donation; of so pious a desire of the venerable man setting it forth; by their benevolent consent and inclination, to the greater glorification of God and of his Mother, and the increase of the cult of the holy Martyr Rumold, have graciously dismissed, and to the aforesaid parochial church of Ragecourt have given, a part of a relic of the same Martyr, from the spine of the back, of the figure and size as is here represented in the margin, that in the same, by the consent of the Ordinary, it may be exposed to the public veneration of the faithful of Christ, as for so many centuries in this city it was publicly exposed and held in veneration. In faith of which we have ordered the present letters to be dispatched, under the lesser seal of the aforementioned most Illustrious Lord Archbishop and our signature. At Mechlin on the sixteenth day of July in the year from the birth of the Virgin 1680. And in the margin was painted the figure of the relics of the said Martyr from the spine of the back of the size represented, and the undersigned or signed A. Coriache aforesaid vicar general. And there was a ribbon drawn through the parchment, on which were written the aforesaid letters of a reddish color, hanging for the appending to it of the seal of the aforesaid reverend Lord graduated Canon Archdeacon the grantor.

[272] with the approbation of the Suffragan of Trier. And on the back stands: Having seen this authentic donation of a part of the relics from the spine of the back of the holy Martyr Rumold, under the lesser seal of the most Illustrious Lord Archbishop of Mechlin and the signature of his Vicar general D. Amatus Coriache, and likewise the same relics having been duly recognized by us, by the authority of our office we grant that the aforesaid relics may in the parochial church in Ragecourt of our diocese of Trier, and of the Duchy of Luxembourg, be exposed to the veneration of the faithful of Christ. Given at Trier July 28, 1680. It was undersigned J. Hanethan Bishop of Hier., suffragan, Vicar general of Trier. Below is set the authentication of this instrument: It agrees with its original. So it is, Brother John the Evangelist of Enpe, Guardian of the Capuchins though unworthy.

On the sacred relics of St. Rumold in Sondereygen, a village of Brabant Campine.

A little more liberally the relics of St. Rumold began to be distributed in the last opening and visitation of the great silver shrine of the year 1680, Others the D. Vicar obtained in Sondereygen in the year 1698, when the most Illustrious Alphonse de Berghes is said to have benignly offered some particles to several of the college of Metropolitan Canons, some accepting them, others preferring that they be left in the shrine itself. On that occasion more than one part was obtained by the most Ample and very Reverend D. de Coriache graduated Canon, archpriest, today councillor in the supreme court of Belgium, not so long ago, the see being vacant, Vicar general, from whom in the year 1698 the same were obtained by the Reverend D. Edward Heylens vicar in Sondereygen, under the parish of Baerle, of the diocese of Antwerp, and, duly approved by the Ordinary, he exposed them to public veneration, as will soon be plain from the instruments thence received by the labor of the very Reverend D. Canon and Scholastic Slaets, more than once elsewhere praised. He himself reports that the relics seen and honored by him equal the length of a finger, and seem to be part of a rib, to venerate which from the surrounding villages thousands flow together, not without prompt aid of the sought patronage, those especially who labor either by defect of sight, or with scrofula, as the present pastor, the Reverend D. John le Roy, is prepared to testify of the healing of very many. Indulgences of 40 days had first been granted for the octave of St. Rumold alone, but these have now been more liberally indulged, to those devoutly visiting the aforesaid relics on any day. In a brief narration the whole matter was comprised, written and undersigned by his own hand, by the aforesaid Reverend D. Edward Heylens, which I here render from the Belgic into Latin:

[274] The relics of St. Rumold Archbishop and Martyr, patron and protector of the chapel and community of Sondereygen, a solemn translation being instituted, with great labor, zeal, and care the Reverend D. Edward Heylens vicar there obtained, by the singular benevolence of the most Ample and very Reverend D. Coriache Archpriest and Official of the church of St. Rumold of Mechlin, who had received them as a gift from the most Illustrious Alphonse de Berghes Archbishop of the people of Mechlin. But the aforesaid relics are immediately taken from the silver shrine kept at Mechlin on the chief altar, in the year 1680, given as a gift likewise and liberally granted by the aforesaid D. Coriache to the same D. Vicar on June 28, 1698, thereupon approved by the most Illustrious Ferdinand van Beughem Bishop of Antwerp on June 30 of the same year, with Indulgences of 40 days through the whole octave of St. Rumold. There followed further a translation and exaltation with such solemnity as a greater in the place and circumstances could not be devised, a procession being instituted, the neighboring companies accompanying, the most Ample and very Reverend D. Schuermans Dean of the collegiate church of Hoogstraten receiving the relics at Ginhoven and carrying them to the designated place, about three thousand men concurring for the celebrity, on July 6 of the said year 1698. And it was signed, to the perpetual memory of the matter. Edward Heylens Vicar in Sondereygen.

[275] These are the express words of the testimony left by the Reverend D. Heylens to posterity; as the authentic report teaches, in which I miss this one thing, that the diploma of the most Illustrious John Ferdinand Bishop of Antwerp, to which is annexed the donation of the relics, written by the proper hand of the most Ample de Coriache, confirmed by his signature, and fortified with a seal in Spanish wax, that the Ferdinandean diploma, I say, different from that signed above, expresses the day of approbation, namely October 20, 1698. To save this apparent contradiction there remains this way, that the most Illustrious van Beughem on June 30 gave power of exposing the aforesaid relics to the veneration of the people, but the diploma soon to be reported, he then first issued, when, the recognition being made, he reverently enclosed the said relics in a silver shrine covered with crystal glass. It is obvious to anyone to perceive that for fabricating that silver shrine, however small, the time did not suffice, from June 28, on which day they were received, to the 30th of the same month on which the instrument just related narrates them approved. However these things be, this is certain, that whether on June 30, or October 20, or on both those days of the year 1698 the relics of St. Rumold were lawfully approved, and that they are held in the highest veneration in Sondereygen. The diploma itself is of this kind.

[276] with the diplomas of approbation reconciled. John Ferdinand by the grace of God and of the Apostolic see, Bishop of Antwerp, to all who shall see these, salutation in the Lord. Since the honors paid to the Saints redound to the glory of almighty God and to the utility of the whole church, we deservedly reckon that those things which conduce to amplifying their cult are to be promoted by us with singular zeal. Since therefore the Reverend D. Edward Heylens, priest of our diocese and vicar of the chapel in Sondereygen under the parish of Baerle of our diocese, has exhibited to us a part of the relics of St. Rumold, extracted from the great silver shrine in which the relics of the same saint are kept in the greater altar of the Metropolitan church of Mechlin, as was established to us by the legitimate testimony, written and signed by the proper hand of the very Reverend D. Coriache Official of Mechlin, and fortified with his seal; according to which recognizing and approving the aforementioned part of the relics as true and lawful, we have marked it with our lesser seal, and reverently enclosed it in a silver shrine covered with crystal glass, with power of exposing the same in the aforesaid chapel of Sondereygen to the public veneration and devotion of the faithful. In faith of which we have ordered the aforesaid shrine, sealed with a silken cord of red color, to be fortified with our lesser seal impressed in Spanish wax, and the present, signed by our own hand, under our ordinary seal, and with the signature of our secretary, to be dispatched. Given at Antwerp in our episcopal palace on the 20th day of October 1698. It was signed Ferdinand Bishop of Antwerp. And at the side was set: By the mandate of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Bishop aforesaid; it was signed Louis de Grez Secretary.

[277] All the premises can be confirmed and illustrated from the autograph letter, which exists with us, given to Father Goswin van Geffen, What besides the same D. Vicar set in motion. formerly Professor of Sacred Theology to Lord Heylens; from which it is also understood that he obtained not one part of the relics of St. Rumold. I reckon them joined and united, since he testifies that all the parts were approved, but in the diploma there is mention only of a single one. Thus he wrote on February 20, 1700. Very Reverend Father professor. Greeting first. A year ago the Reverend Father Papebroch was present to examine the life of St. Rumold Martyr and Pontiff, and our patron, whose Saint's relics, approved, to three notable parts, I obtained mediately from the Archbishop of Mechlin: but Father Papebroch then had shown me various books both printed and written, to eight or nine, on the life of St. Rumold; and since I am of the intention, by the favor of divine grace, to publish a book on the life of St. Rumold, to excite greater devotion in the people toward the sacred relics of the same Saint: thus I should desire from your Reverence this favor and grace, that your goodness would procure for me the aforesaid books, for one or another month at most, that it may be allowed to excerpt something from them, that God may be glorified in his Saint. I do not doubt that the Reverend Father Papebroch and your Reverence, as zealots of souls, zealous for the honor of God, will not deny us this. Undoubtedly you will be partakers of this future greater devotion. I know that the desired books were lent by Papebroch, and afterward sent back; whether and what he published about the Saint, is unknown. So far concerning these things.

* The other edition is a little clearer.

§ XXIII. On the year in which Mechlin, besieged, obtained an illustrious victory by the patronage of St. Rumold, on account of which an annual procession was instituted by vow, and the fabric of the former reliquary-shrine was conceived.

Hither was to be deferred the most celebrated victory, lest we should seem to disturb the series of the other matters. Further, as in many things the vernacular writers of the Mechlin chronicles vary and everywhere confuse many things, On the certain victory obtained by the merits of St. Rumold, so they neither narrate the aforesaid victory distinctly enough, nor designate the year in which it happened conformably, with a manifest difference between two classes. I have before my eyes altogether five chronicles, among which I plainly reckon the chief that Mechlin one, often cited by us, which others call the Tongeren one, from the place where its older apograph is said to be kept among the Canons Regular. The age of this chronicle you will understand from the last article of the history, which notes the year 1507, in which there were held at Mechlin the most solemn exequies of King Philip surnamed the Fair, who died in Spain on September 16, 1506; and this is the chief history which I could find at Mechlin, officiously granted to me by the often-praised most Noble Cuyper, a constant helper in this work, augmented by him and carried down to the Pacification of Arras with Parma, on May 26, 1579, and confirmed by various diplomas, at least for those centuries in which, as they are nearer, so the more probable things are handed down. Other chronicles, also written by plebeian men, are nearly equal to that one or more recent, inasmuch as they reach to the years 1498, 1546, 1595, and even to the seventeenth century just elapsed. From age the erudite gather authority and faith.

[279] the narrations of the writers are not certain and uniform enough. Among them the Chronicle which has Nicholas Staelarts as author, a spectator of the terrible slaughter of the year 1546, marks the siege of which we now treat in the year 1301: two others, of Rumold vanden Riele and Henry vanden Coelput, stand for the year 1303; yet so narrating the matter, that of the miracle or relics of St. Rumold, or of the help and protection of their Saint, they make not a word, mingling marvels which are kept silent by others. With the former agree the ordinations of the Rumoldian sodality related above at number 242, Gramaye follows the latter epoch in book 1, section 9; but in book 3, section 5, he says the victory was won in 1301. To the second epoch adheres the Wachtendonck author; others Papebroch reports in the manuscript Annals of Antwerp contending for the year 1302, among whom is to be numbered Butkens in the Trophies of Brabant from page 353. So that even today the circumstances of the whole matter done are neither plain and clear enough, nor is there full agreement about the year among the erudite men of Mechlin. The matter is also disturbed by the Belgic chronicle, published by Antony Matthaeus in volume 1 of the Analects, in which is read: In the year 1301 the Duke besieged Mechlin, on Holy Thursday. This indeed is today the constant and concordant opinion of the people of Mechlin, that under the auspices and patronage of St. Rumold there was fighting, and a notable victory obtained, of which to this day, from the vow then emitted, a solemn memory is made, on the often-mentioned Easter Wednesday; but in the cause of the war, in the name of the leader, in the manner of fighting, in the number of the slain, in the very day and year of the victory, it is wonderful how great a discrepancy there is among the very native Annalists: to say nothing of the divergent narrations of the Brabantines, which Butkens nearly collected, from the famous Rhymed chronicle, not to be approved in all things. But lest I undertake a dispute about a matter not sufficiently known, from the praised Tongeren or Mechlin chronicle, rather than from Domynsius or the Wachtendonck author, I shall set forth its series, however ambiguous: for neither, the chronicle confessing it, could it hitherto be found, what the true outcome of that battle, begun on Holy Thursday, was, the Brabantine chronicles narrating the matter otherwise, as see in Divaeus book 13, page 134, and others of his nation. The narration bears this title: This is the ancient saying, or the old report of the matter done.

[280] [The series of the matter done from the Mechlin chronicle of the sixteenth century] While the people of Mechlin in the time of Lent labored with want of food, much talk of peace was carried about. Meanwhile the townsmen, meditating vengeance at an opportune time, place their hope in God and in St. Rumold. The reliquary-shrine (made of cypress and covered with a cloth variegated with golden lines, says the Wachtendonck author) two Canons carried processionally from the church to the marketplace, from the place where it was laid up under the music-loft, and there poured forth their prayers together. The fighters being ready, the procession was led, until it reached the gate called from the cemetery (Kerckhof poort), there halting and invoking God and St. Rumold, that they might obtain victory for themselves. Then the horsemen, and whoever could follow, rushing from the town, attacked first the people of Lier with those of Campine, then the people of Antwerp, with a great noise of trumpets, horns, etc., and assaulted them most fiercely; who all escaped by flight toward Walem. Some narrate that a wooden bridge was broken by the fleeing, lest the people of Mechlin pursue, inflicting a great slaughter at the approach to the bridge. Others say that the people of Mechlin themselves dismantled the bridge, and that hence the enemy suffered a far greater disaster. Then the people of Mechlin returned to the city exulting in victory, received with vast joy.

[281] They report that tables were spread in the marketplace, laden with food and drink, where they were refreshed a little with a breakfast, by which the besiegers of Mechlin are said to have been slain and put to flight. giving thanks to God and St. Rumold. Further, the stronger maidens and matrons were armed, to fill the places of those who had either been killed or, wounded, had failed, and soon an irruption was made on the people of Brussels. These had pitched their camp at the Valley of Lilies, on a very wide plain, but most escaped, just as the people of Louvain too, made aware of the disaster of the rest of the besiegers. And so the people of Mechlin return to their city, hastily carrying together what they had been able to seize, etc. A cart was brought laden with dried herrings, distributed among the comrades, and whoever of them ate of them were given the freedom of the city. Thanks were renewed to God and St. Rumold, a vow being conceived of an annual procession to be perpetually renewed, by carrying the body of the Saint that day around the walls with torches of virgin wax, and then also a silver shrine was ordered to be made. The said procession, lest it disturb the sacred time of the passion, was a little after deferred to Easter Wednesday, an indulgence of a whole year being granted to all accompanying by Pope John XXII, in the year 1316, as the Bull declares of many Cardinals, who augmented the aforesaid indulgence in the year 1333, and Nicholas V added another year at the time of the Jubilee 1350. The Bulls of indulgences cited here have not been found; about others we have said enough above.

[282] This description of the in some way miraculous victory explained by that chronographer, Various circumstances ill explained by many. which would that it had not been more entangled by others. The author adds and ingenuously confesses that he does not know the end of the discord, but that it is certain that the city afterward suffered much, on account of the power of the Duke, who again surrounded it with so close a siege that no food could be brought in, the cargo ships also being burned at Rupelmonde, which had previously collected provisions thence. Who thereupon, pressed by want, deserted the town, were captured, and among the rest the chief leader of the people of Mechlin, Arnold van Eekhoven, etc. Nothing here about the English knight Peter Dondelaer, whom Domynsius and others mentioned, from whom the Wachtendonck author wished to take his material, although it is established from elsewhere that that Dondelaer is fifty years and more younger than this war, most well known for other expeditions beyond the middle of the fourteenth century: nothing likewise about the rib of St. Rumold affixed to the shield of Dondelaer, which is still seen at Mechlin enclosed in glass, to be sought there in vain, since no other is known, except that particle of a rib which is placed on the reliquary or the breast of the half-statue of the Saint; unless one have recourse to that other particle of a bone, which we said above is borne by a genius: so in a matter done at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the compilers of those annals are so doubtful, that you ought to wonder at nothing, if in the older matters no faith, or certainly very little, is given to them. Indeed I shall not deny the suspicion often pressed upon me, that the benefit received from St. Rumold is perhaps to be referred to other times, which those chronologers, writing two centuries after the matter done, confused: when Miræus says that the bier was built in the year 1369 on account of the victory recently obtained through the merits of St. Rumold, he does not seem to extend the word RECENTLY to 66 years. But neither can he be called a witness sufficiently fit in this matter. The long-lived and continuous tradition of the miracle I admit at any rate, but in whose narration you might desire something more distinct. Now I return to the history.

[283] The author of our chronicle had premised the day of the battle, and here repeats it, It is proved that it could not have been done in the year 1301, Thursday of Holy Week or of the Lord's Supper, for which somewhere I read the immediately preceding Wednesday; Butkens from his poetical chronicle named the vigil of Easter, unknown to all the others. Moreover I reckon that this chronicle is to be adhered to, and others everywhere; here uniquely seeking in what year the matter itself happened. That we may follow closely the writers in this part sufficiently historical, from it must be noted, that Hugo de Chalon Bishop of Liège either sold to John II Duke of Brabant in the year 1300 Mechlin, or at least pledged it, so that in the year immediately following he, with the Advocate John Berthout, ordained many things in the city, bestowing various privileges, immunities, and liberties, just as is certainly established from the long diploma, inserted by the most Noble Cuyper into the aforesaid chronicle for evident proof of the matter, which was given in the year 1301 on the eve of St. Lucy, or December 13. There all things are peaceably arranged, most in favor of the people of Mechlin, even those famous staples or markets of fish, salt, and oats being granted, a long cause of discord with the people of Antwerp. The rest pertaining to the election of Aldermen and the rights of citizens are equally favorable to the people of Mechlin, so that therefore no reason of dissensions or war for that year between the people of Mechlin and the Duke of Brabant and the Advocate Berthout can be devised by anyone: unless it be said that, about the very beginning of the year, or around Easter, something of discords preceded, and that from then the siege was begun, which by repeated turns was raised and renewed, by which means may be saved the words of some Anonymous in a chronicle in the praised Matthaeus page 74, after three years of the calamity of Mechlin. To me indeed it is more probable that in that year 1301 the cause of the war had not yet kindled.

[284] Not long after, the people of Mechlin must have given a cause of offense, but in the year 1303 from the Mechlin diplomas. from the injury of some man, as the great Brabantine Chronicle obscurely mentions; others will have the prætor or schout declared by the Duke killed for a slight cause. However it was, all confess that some cause of offense was given by the people of Mechlin, which roused Duke John, before so benevolent, and nearly all Brabant against them, and compelled him to surround the city with a close, long, and repeated siege. The words are of the cited Anonymous in Matthaeus: After these things the people of Mechlin gravely offended the Duke, while he and John Berthout, coming with an army, walled it round with a siege and at length forced it to surrender: which siege, begun in Lent, miraculously raised before Easter, was afterward again more fiercely resumed, the people of Mechlin being forced to surrender, as the praised Mechlin Chronicle most expressly notes for the year 1303, and Cuyper confirms, adducing from the city archives three Belgic diplomas, the first of which, given in the said year 1303 on the Friday after the feast of St. John the Baptist, comprises the chapters of the surrender, and names the arbiters or peacemakers: the other, confirmatory of the former, on the Sunday next following, after the feast of St. John the Baptist: the third finally by the aforesaid arbiters appointed in the same cause, on the Saturday before the feast of St. Lambert, again in the same year 1303, which can be seen in the Proofs of Butkens page 137. And this is what the author of the Chronicle wished to hint, that after a siege of seventeen weeks, the trouble was redeemed with money from the Duke, a burden being added, by which the people of Mechlin were bound to serve him for six weeks, etc., and so the people of Mechlin were received into his protection, and Duke John showed himself friendly and benevolent to them.

[285] All these things done and transacted in that very year 1303 sufficiently show, that both the famous siege, and the prodigy of the victory related before Easter through the intercession of St. Rumold, Those who mark the year 1302, can by no means be referred to the first year of that century, at which time, as has already been plain, the Duke of Brabant was heaping benefits, favors, and privileges upon the city of Mechlin, that he might win and bind it to himself in perpetuity. From elsewhere we know that the aforesaid Duke in the following year 1302 could not move a war against the people of Mechlin, then when his chief forces, joined to the King of France Philip, were fighting against the Flemish, at Courtrai on July 11 of the aforesaid year 1302 slain to the last man, as our chronicle also mentions, enumerating distinctly the names of the chief nobles and soldiers of Brabant slain in that disaster, which do not pertain to our purpose. This one thing we draw from it, that the often-mentioned Mechlin war happened neither in the year 1302, by today's manner of reckoning, nor in the year 1301, in which one had to think rather of a glad entrance than of war, as I reckon manifest from what has been said, so that it ought safely to be concluded that Mechlin was besieged and pressed by the Duke at the very time at which the agreements were concluded, of which we mentioned just now.

[286] There remains a knot more curious than necessary, whether the celebrated miracle, by what reason they could speak truth. wrought before Easter, ought to be referred to the year 1303, or rather to the year 1302, as above from Butkens and Papebroch I said? The explanation of the doubt is to be sought from the manner in which our Ancestors numbered the years in that century, whom I think followed the Gallic custom, explained above by us at number 154, among whom namely the beginning of the year, at least in public acts or diplomas, was wont to be taken from Easter, which we there demonstrated to have happened in the showing of the sacred body of St. Rumold and in the instruments related there about it, of which some mark the year 1479, others 1480, although all were done a little before, and a little after Easter of the same Roman year. If therefore the people of Mechlin at that time followed that Gallic custom, as I nearly persuade myself, it can be said that the celebrated victory over the Brabantines was reported while the year 1302 was still running in the Gallic manner, by which means the truth of that epoch can be saved; but if they had in use the today's or Roman manner, there is no doubt that both the victory and the subsequent pacification with the Duke of Brabant can be marked in no other year than 1303. The proposed question changes nothing in the matter, for in whatever way the Belgians once computed the years, it will always be true, by the modern reckoning, that all things were done in 1303, and that those chronologers preached more clearly, in whom the said year is marked.

§ XXIV. On the annual procession, on Easter Wednesday, with the relics of St. Rumold, wont to be instituted in memory of the victory.

Of the annual procession conceived by vow, This is that of which it has now so often had to be spoken, the annual commemoration of the victory described, or the solemn argument of perpetual gratitude among the people of Mechlin toward their holy Patron and Tutelar; namely a procession decreed and instituted by vow, persevering through so many centuries even to this day, wont to be festively celebrated on Easter Wednesday, the sacred pledge being carried around the walls of the city, first laid in the gilded, now in the silver reliquary-shrine, of which we have treated abundantly above. We have narrated the cause or origin, as also the deposition of the shrine from the magnificent mausoleum; it remains to declare in particular the manner in which the procession itself is performed every year by the most devout clients, whether clerics or laymen. That it was begun before the former gilded shrine was completed in the year 1369 (if indeed its beginnings are truly to be referred to the year 1303) it will seem doubtful to no one, I think; for a wooden chest could and ought to have been carried around, in the same manner in which we showed it was carried in the victory itself. This of doubt could occur, whether the procession was ever held on the very day of the commemoration of the victory or on Thursday of the Lord's Supper; but it is far more probable that the impediment of Holy Week was continually observed by the people of Mechlin, so that from the first beginning that celebrity was transferred, the chronicles everywhere insinuating it, I altogether reckon.

[288] He would be a scrupulous investigator who should set himself to ask and constantly observed by what rite or adornment the aforesaid procession was first decreed and so ordained, since it is commonly most well known how easily in matters of this kind something can be changed, removed, or added. Butkens hands down on page 355, others more obscurely insinuate, that it was wont to be instituted in such wise, that all the citizens proceeded clad in a white linen garment, bareheaded, with bare feet, from the obligation of the first vow, from which thereupon, on account of the inclemency of the air, they obtained a dispensation from the Apostolic See. But that we may not dispute about four whole centuries; from the diary or adversaria of the so-often-praised most Ample Dean de Mol, in the course of scarcely eighteen years, namely from the year 1617 to 1635, I have observed various and, according to the circumstances of the matters thereupon occurring, notable changes, which it is not worth the trouble to enumerate here; let it suffice, to demonstrate the stupendous veneration and faith of the people of Mechlin toward their most holy Patron, that the procession was never freely interrupted, never of set purpose omitted; which the most constant religion of four and more centuries sufficiently proves. Passing over therefore the variations of no moment, we shall note one thing, that the citizens always most studiously claimed this right for themselves, that they might carry the sacred bier, the stations being distributed among themselves, at least around the walls of the city, on their own shoulders with great alacrity, leaving to the clergy the province of doing this through the streets of the city.

[289] Not to be passed over are those things which the most Ample de Mol sedulously noted for April 13, 1621, in these very words: Ordained by the Chapter, that with reverence and devotion the greater procession through the walls of the city be instituted to be celebrated in the accustomed manner tomorrow. The prayers will be begun from the going out, beginning from the Responsory, which finished, the Litanies will be subjoined, continuing even to the gate. In the ascent to the walls the Minorites will sing for devotion, continuing even to the Adegem gate (d'Adegem poorte), when our choir will resume, singing the gradual psalms, even to the wooden bridge (de Hauten brugge). Coming to the parish of St. Rumold, they will intone hymns of the Martyr and Martyrs, continuing even to the tower of the butchers (Bleeschauwers toren), where the Augustinians, for their devotion, will begin and continue even to the gate of the cows (Roeppoorte). They ceasing there, the Carmelites will begin and persevere even to the gate of Neckerspoel. There the Minors will resume even to the Hanswijk gate, when they ceasing there, the Augustinians will repeat their turn even to the Brussels gate; where the Carmelites, their turns doubled, will continue even to the Overste poorte, where our choir, the sequences and hymns of the Venerable Sacrament being begun, will protract it, concluding in the church. Likewise that order be observed in carrying the Venerable Sacrament: the Celebrant this year, on account of the lack of a Bishop, the Dean will carry it from the church even to the Bleeschauwers toren; thence the deacon even to the gate of Neckerspoel, and successively the subdeacon, even to the Brussels gate, where the pastor of St. Rumold has his ordinary station, even to the chapel of St. James, where the celebrant resumes. This was the course of that year, the sacred relics not accompanying, I think, because then the silver reliquary-shrine had not yet been brought to completion.

[290] Let us hear de Mol speaking thus on March 21 of the year 1625: varied in some things. It pleased that in carrying the relics on Easter Wednesday the manner be observed which is observed in the dedication the first Sunday of July, namely by the Canons and Pastors from the choir to the nave the day before and on the other day by our Chaplains, the seminarists being taken on, from the nave to the old palace, thence even to the street called Nieuwstraet, by the chaplains of the secondary churches with some seminarists: thence even to the corn-market by the Minorite Brothers: thence by the Augustinian Brothers even to the Gansendries, and afterward by the Carmelites even to the gate: which order all will observe in turn on the return to the church, from the gate called d'Overste poorte: the citizens will continue through the walls even to the descent at d'Overste poorte. Thus far the votive celebrity authentically set forth in de Mol's words almost a hundred years ago, which why it has not persevered in the same manner even to this day, I shall not indeed inquire. For the year 1629, on April 6, he had noted that a breakfast was to be kept in the civic house. That custom ceased, nor is the most august Sacrament now wont to be carried around. You have heard the task committed to the religious Orders, of honoring the sacred pledges with song through the walls of the city; the secular clergy today supplies their place: but to the former sacred families, of which de Mol mentioned, were added the Dominican Fathers, fugitives from 's-Hertogenbosch, captured in the year 1629; and on that account compelled to betake themselves thither about twenty years after. These things premised, there follows the order, described for me by the Metropolitan Canon and secretary of the most Excellent Archbishop praised elsewhere, the very Reverend D. Hoynck.

[291] On Easter Tuesday at the twelfth hour, at the ringing of the greater bell, The order of today the workmen of the city being deputed for this matter, the reliquary-shrine is secretly taken down from the high altar and decently placed in the midst of the choir. On the second hour after noon of the same day solemn Vespers are sung, the Archbishop performing the office, in the concourse of the Metropolitan Chapter, of the whole civic Senate, and of the subordinate Clergy. Compline finished, at which also the Archbishop is present residing on his throne, he incenses the reliquary-shrine, which is carried processionally to the nave of the church by the capitular Canons, the whole said venerable assembly accompanying in order. But it being deposited in the midst of the greater nave of the church, in a place duly adorned for the solemnity, and the wax candles being lit, and a musical song sung, the Archbishop sings the collect of St. Rumold, and incensation being again made, the drums and other instruments sounding, the assembly of that day is dissolved, the sacred reliquary-shrine remaining in the aforesaid place, exposed to the veneration of the people flowing together from everywhere.

[292] in the going out, On the very Wednesday, festive among the people of Mechlin, the Archbishop solemnly performs the sacred rite about the eighth hour, with yesterday's assembly, I would dare say nearly the whole city, gathered for the celebrity. The ringing of the greater bell reminds all of their office, and so it is to be seen that, besides the clergy of the whole city, the very many crafts, and the five companies (the Belgians call them Guilds), each distinguished by garments or signs, institute a most adorned series, in which they themselves, the signal given, begin the procession. That line is followed by the mendicant Orders of the regular clergy, the Dominican Fathers first, then the Capuchins, then the Calced Carmelites, after the Augustinians and Minorites; finally the whole secular clergy with the convent of Hanswijk, constituted in their classes according to dignity, so that the clerics and Metropolitan Canons hold the chief place. Behind is carried the reliquary-shrine, next to which is the Archbishop, the cross borne before him, the most pious procession being closed by the Lords of the Magistrate, who that day proceed clad in their gowns, even today bearing white staffs, a promiscuous huge multitude of the people following. We said above that eighteen men are required, who put their shoulders to the bier, the weight so pressing that at not long intervals the turns of bearing it must be alternated. Behold now the series of the bearers succeeding one another.

[293] in the course, The Metropolitan Clergy, mixed with the subordinate clergy, carries the reliquary-shrine from the nave of the church even to the old palace. Hence the Minorite Fathers take the pleasant burden even to the great bridge (de Groot-brugge), where the Augustinian Fathers succeed even to the corn-market, from which the turns are of the Calced Carmelite Fathers even to the Brussels gate, at which the walls are mounted toward the west, and the circuit of the whole city is made, through an almost round compass, of 3200 geometric paces. And here in the ascent the craftsmen concur in rivalry, distributed in order into their bands, that it may be permitted to them to carry the most precious remains, compelled to change turns at a determined space. The chief crafts I have arranged in this manner. First admitted to carry are the Iron-smiths, then the Carpenters, then the Masons, Shopkeepers, Cap-makers, the Three crafts, Millers, Shipwrights, Sailors, Butchers, Fishmongers, Porters or Burden-bearers, Brewers, Wagoners, Bakers, Gardeners, Wool-weavers, Coverlet-makers, Cloth-shearers, Tailors, Hosiers, Tanners, Cobblers, Lard-dealers, Coopers or Cask-makers, Cabinet-makers, the Four crafts, Linen-sellers, Linen-weavers, Old-clothes Tailors, Surgeons, Painters, Locksmiths, Leather-dressers, Straw-dealers, Tapestry-makers, a space being left for each there for carrying the shrine, that nothing be wanting to fulfill their piety. The most ample circle of the whole city being thus traversed, and the return, at the eastern side of the Brussels gate the procession descends, and by the way by which it had come returns to the Metropolitan church, the burden of the sacred relics being transferred by the craftsmen first to the Capuchin Fathers, and their bearers even to the corn-market. From that market the Dominican Fathers carry it back to the great bridge, on which the Minorite Fathers succeed, and carry it to the old palace, there resigning the treasure to the secular Clergy, where they had first received it. And so by the Metropolitan and subordinate Clergy, thence to the nave of the church, it is brought back to the accustomed place. Thus the procession being finished, protracted usually to three hours, after an antiphon the prayer of St. Rumold is again sung by the Archbishop, and signs of joy and exultation being given by the sound of drums and trumpets, each returns to his own, to refresh his wearied limbs.

[295] And thus you have in particular described the going out of the votive and most solemn procession, Another procession on the first Sunday of July. the course, the return, so that nothing now remains except the no less pious conclusion of the festivity, which I here subjoin in a few words. About the fifth hour the Archbishop resumes the office of Vespers, the rite of the preceding day being observed, which being plainly finished, the sacred reliquary-shrine is carried back from the nave of the church to the choir; and all things being again solemnly administered in the same manner, the bier is left in the choir, that on the next day a mass may be celebrated for the deceased confraternity brothers of the sodality of St. Rumold, of which we mentioned in §21, number 248. The exequies further being performed, the shrine is restored to its proper place on the chief altar, whence we said it was taken down on the third Easter feast. There is another most festive procession among the people of Mechlin on the first Sunday of July, on the very consecration-anniversary or dedication of the city, as they commonly speak, in which also through the crossroads of the city the sacred reliquary-shrine is wont to be carried, sometimes accompanied by spectacles of every kind, to which the neighboring cities concur in rivalry. But concerning all these things, for our purpose, to the glory of St. Rumold, I reckon enough has been said.

§ XXV. An appendix to the whole commentary; On those begotten from Ursus.

I here keep the title in the Domynsian additions to the Legend of St. Rumold; which that it may be explained beforehand, The fable about the slayers of St. Thomas of Canterbury, understand the question proposed by way of appendix thus: whether it is in any way probable, that of the four executioners or slayers of St. Thomas Archbishop and Martyr of Canterbury, three of whom Domynsius from his Belgic Anonymous imagines to be full brothers, one recovered his senses at Mechlin, in memory of which miracle a little chapel was erected outside the gate of the city; and further survived there for some years, and consummated what was left of his life-time after the year 1174, on whose sarcophagus the most widely-known epitaph is inscribed, Richard Brito, etc., which Domynsius and after him Vardæus praised elsewhere subjoined for ornament to the Acts of St. Rumold; I think, because they reckoned that the recovery of the lost smell was perhaps to be ascribed to the Saint. We have elsewhere sufficiently revealed the too-credulous genius of Domynsius: this we wonder at, that so improbable a fiction could in any way be referred to the merits of St. Rumold. Gramaye calls it a fable in book 3, section 12, when he speaks thus: There was in its neighborhood (he means in the neighborhood of Hanswijk) a chapel of St. Nicholas built in the year 1174 by the four satellites of B. Thomas of Canterbury stained with slaughter, and deprived by divine vengeance of taste and smell. Who, when they had sought Rome for the sake of obtaining pardon, to expiate the crime, after a long pilgrimage, recovering taste at Cologne, smell at Mechlin, by this sign recognized the supplement of divine mercy. Their names were, Richard Brito, and Hugh of Morville, William Tracy, Reginald son of Ursus; from which last the fable calls them the sons of Ursus. These things are taken from an old Ms. codex.

[297] who is said to have recovered his smell at Mechlin, I should believe them taken from some vernacular chronicle, such as I have seen many at Mechlin, compiled by unlearned and idle men, where the swan of Heist and other prodigies of that kind are treated, which merit neither faith nor memory. Thence further, or from others cited above by me, the Domynsian anonymous scraped together his most inept little history, so wretchedly woven and arranged, that even if you unroll it six hundred times, you scarcely beat out a shadow of truth. These things had to be examined at the end of this our commentary, lest anything from that ancient Domynsian Legend be said to have been neglected or passed over by us. Let us report the genuine text of Domynsius word for word. On those begotten from Ursus. In the year of human salvation 1174 there were three brothers in England, which they are wont to call Britain the Greater, begotten, having taken their names from Ursus: by whom was slain the divine Thomas Bishop of Canterbury. For which nefarious crime these three full brothers together with some other one were divinely deprived of the senses of smell and taste. From which it was easy for them to gather how enormously they had sinned and provoked the divine wrath. These three, a fourth being joined to them, having gone out of England, sought Rome, to obtain the expiation of their crimes, Alexander III then presiding over the supreme pontificate. This one thing can be fitted to right Chronology, namely that those slayers went on to Rome to expiate the parricide, and arrived there in the time of the said Pontiff. Let us go on with Domynsius.

[298] When the Pontiff had received their confession, and had observed their penitence, and they are said to be buried. he enjoined them to traverse the world for a while (not lying the next night where they had first given themselves to rest). Which they executed not unwillingly, that with zeal for amending their life they might do the work, and came to Cologne on the Rhine; where, drinking wine, they began to taste; for it seemed to them most savory and sweeter than honey. Coming afterward to Mechlin, outside the gate of the city (in which place a little chapel was erected in memory of the matter) they were endowed with the sense of smell, by smelling bread; bursting, for the munificence of God shown to them, into these words: O sacred Cologne! O happy Mechlin! Made more certain of all these things, the Roman Bishop himself (for they returned to Rome, that they might announce the same) bestowed the greatest graces and pardons on these two cities. Those three brothers having their denomination from Ursus sought Mechlin again, and consummated there what was left of their life-time. They were generous men and illustrious by lineage, who built some splendid houses behind the church of St. Rumold, which at present they call in our tongue Onder hootbergen. Finally completing the course of their life, they were buried at Mechlin, and on their sarcophagus these verses were inscribed: Richard Brito, and Hugh of Morville, William Tracy, Reginald son of Ursus, made the blessed Thomas undergo martyrdom.

[299] That the names somehow agree I do not deny, but in the rest nothing is narrated which can be exempted from a fable, it is easily overthrown: which, to say it again, it is wonderful that it fell into the brain of any sane man, and passed into so many chronicles, if not as to the words, at least as to the sense, except that in these an error is added, that St. Thomas was put to martyrdom in the cited year 1174, whom it is established to have obtained that palm three years earlier. Lest I be compelled to refute or overthrow the individual passages of Domynsius, I receive the whole matter, or the mournful tragedy of those parricides, as it was done, from an uncorrupted source, namely from those contemporary writers and eyewitnesses of the Life of St. Thomas, whom in his quadripartite history from a codex of the Vatican library published the distinguished and throughout the literary world celebrated Christian Lupus, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, Doctor of Sacred Theology, in the year 1682, from whose pages 119 and 120 I describe the true names of the assassins. Reginald drawing a beast-like ferocity from his father Ursus; Hugh of Morville, marked there with his own characters likewise, as also William of Tracy, and Richard of Brito. Here you have one son of Ursus or Ursio, Reginald, otherwise Raynald; what then do those three brothers having their denomination from Ursus mean? So also are they expressed, as names of different families, in other Acts manuscript with us and composed by a domestic or familiar of St. Thomas, so in the English history of Matthew Paris, so in others everywhere. Hear now the certain and genuine narration of the praised writers from page 154, on the death of the sacrilegious soldiers.

[300] But in the visible palm of the victorious death of our glorious Martyr, among his visible virtues, the true Acts of St. Thomas testifying, great indeed and worthy of admiration, one is to be discerned more studiously, beheld more attentively, embraced more devoutly. One is there, I say, before the rest, eminently full of marvelous and almost unheard-of piety. For although this Martyr by his victorious blood led out many bound by the devil, yet what is full of superabundant piety beyond what can be said or grasped, the virtue of the shed blood touched and washed his very shedders, the perpetrators of so unheard-of a sacrilege. It washed them, I say, the virtue of the blood, as it seems from the blood, washed by the very blood, by which they had first been stained by God, the Martyr himself, who shed his blood, in his own slayers despoiling the principalities and powers of darkness, who held them; even confidently leading them across, and drawing them far from the region of unlikeness, whither they had now gone far off, to that solitude of fullness, of which the King utterly desired the dwelling, saying: Behold I have gone far off fleeing and abode in the solitude. So openly, that although in the world those sacrilegious slayers had been great and generous, and lords of many possessions, strenuous soldiers and trained in the art of war, and in their more robust age, yet quickly after the crime perpetrated, all things being left, having set out for Jerusalem, they did public penance. Who however all within three years from the sacrilege perpetrated were taken from human affairs, in true and fruitful penance, as is believed, and as those who were present attest, for the error of the deed and the enormity of the crime, which always both in life and in the article of their death they pondered, as if seeing it hanging before their eyes: their whole body always as if thunderstruck, stupefied, torn apart, and convulsed, ever specially and incessantly imploring pardon of that patron of sinners, both in life and in the article of death, and invoking the patronage of him against whom they had committed so great a sacrilege.

[301] one of them at Cosenza in Calabria, Of these however one, by the counsels of certain wicked men, weaving delays from day to day, nor as quickly as the others taking up the journey to Jerusalem, hoping to do penance even in the parts on this side of the sea, when in the kingdom of the King, namely at the famous city which is called Cosenza, he had fallen into a most extreme infirmity, the members of his body, the sick man even before death, began to rot, so that with the corruption the very flesh, which covered the nerves and bones, torn piece by piece and convulsed by the sick man himself, was cast into the midst of the courtyard, the nerves thus uncovered and the bones. And especially the flesh of the arms and hands, scarcely adhering to the bones and nerves, and as if desiring separation, easily, as it seemed, and without difficulty, was cast off by that deadly executioner soldier, would that however truly penitent, as if of its own accord thus dissolving itself. It itself, as could be seen, as if groaning, as if indignant and ashamed, that after so great a crime, perpetrated by the hand of man and the ministry of his arms, it should henceforth be in the composition of a human body. The wretch however, while thus living he plucked, convulsed, tore apart, and cast off himself, incessantly implored the indulgence, suffrage, and patronage of the pious and glorious New-martyr, with the highest contrition, and groans and sighs unutterable. He was the William of Tracy already named in this history, the Lord God of vengeances most justly avenging the blood of his soldier crying to him, especially in this one thus, as one who had provoked the others, hearing first and before the others, as is thought, brandishing his sword for the blow upon the head of Christ the Lord, who feared not so profanely, so impiously to strike. Whence also by the most just judgment of the Almighty it came about, that even while he was still alive, against the law of nature there rotted those things which had brandished the sword, the hand together and the arm. And indeed the Bishop of the aforesaid city most certainly reported that it thus happened, being the confessor of that William in this infirmity.

[302] And that we may return to the other aforesaid accomplices of the sacrilege, whence we began; the three others perished at Jerusalem in the space of three years: of them, as many and such as we said, the marvelous, because certainly miraculous, and undoubted, death of their bodies, through so small an interval of time, three years, as we said, namely, was such that in so short a time not even one of them survived, the clemency of the Most High pitying them, as is believed, and perhaps as he himself might will, yet for a terror and a miraculous vengeance of his soldier, justice thus laying all low in a short time, so that those men of blood, although penitent, as we have described, yet, according to the word of the Lord, did not halve their days. Thus far the true and sincere relation concerning the executioners of St. Thomas, in which I would dare to desire only the diligence of the editor, whose part it was to restore the ambiguous passages of the manuscript here and there, and to explain the more obscure things with notes. Let it now be enough that the narration of the most approved writers differs so much from the Domynsian and Vardæan one, that light cannot seem more to differ from darkness.

[303] For who in that whole history could find even a syllable, if it is allowed so to speak, so that not even an occasion of such a fiction can be devised. which can be aptly enough fitted to the Domynsian invention? You see that in the year of human salvation 1174 neither in Belgium were those who had set out for Jerusalem, nor perhaps then any longer in the nature of things; who then, coming afterward to Mechlin, outside the gate of the city (in which place a little chapel was erected in memory of the matter), were endowed with the sense of smell? What is that other pilgrimage to Rome? What those graces and pardons granted by the Pontiff? What was left of life-time to those executioners, after the year 1174, which they consummated at Mechlin? What houses indeed could be built by them behind the church of St. Rumold? Finally completing the course of life, they were buried at Mechlin, and on their sarcophagus these verses were inscribed, etc. A lid worthy of the dish; thus the whole fable had to be concluded, which however maturely and sedulously I have weighed, I plainly do not see what gave occasion to such fabrications. That exiles and men agitated by the stings of conscience could pass through Mechlin, I do not indeed deny, and lodge there for some days, but what is this to that whole little narration? Let him untie the knot who can; I forbear conjectures, content to have substituted true history for fictions. He who desires more, let him go to Roger Hoveden, among the writers of England, page 522 at the end, where he will learn that those three, of whom above it was treated, were buried at Jerusalem before the door of the temple, whose superscription is this: Here lie the wretches who martyred the blessed Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury. Now the Lives themselves, of which we have said so many things before, must be set forth.

* I think it should be of the Neapolitan one.

THE LIFE, by the Author Theodoric Abbot at Saint-Trond, from the edition of Hugo Vardæus, corrected according to the Mss. of Aulne and Saint-Trond, to which was prefixed this title: Here begins the passion of Rumold and Libertus Martyrs, by the author Theodoric Abbot of Saint-Trond, about the year of the Lord 1100, who died in the year 1107, on the 7th of the Kalends of May.

Rumold Bishop and Martyr, at Mechlin in Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 7381

BY THEODORIC.

CHAPTER I. The departure of the Saint from Ireland, the pilgrimage to Rome, the coming to Mechlin, the miracles of him living, and the martyrdom.

The triumph and glory of Christians are the miracles and virtues of the Saints, which the more widely they are propagated, the glory of the Cross spread through the Irish Apostles; the more both the good glory in the Lord, and the evil blush and are tormented. This distinction was born from that tree of the Cross, on which, when life had triumphed over death, as if watered by a most fruitful shower of water and blood, it straightway extended its branches from sea to sea; and put forth those flowers, whose fruit and most sweet savor filled the bosom of the earth. This Egypt and India knew from the east; from the west the almost other world, Britain, with the adjacent Scotia ^a, who, as soon as they were touched by the sun of that eternity, the former rested under the shadow of him whom they desired; the latter hastened to grow warm even to the ardor of martyrdom, and learned to break their harsh and panting words into the sweet melody of the Cross. Whence this so widely diffused seed-plot, except because in their hearts had grown warm the love and desire of Jesus Christ? In this Würzburg ^b assents, glorious by the merits and body of the Martyr Kilian; and no less Péronne ^c, glorious by the veneration of such and so great Scottish Fathers: Columban ^d illustrated Italy, Bertuin ^e western Gaul, and innumerable others, each in their own places, who by the sincerity of life and the integrity of faith instructed many unto justice, and shine like stars unto perpetual eternities. Dan. 12:1

[2] Of the number of these, from this most remote corner of the earth, of whose number St. Rumold the blessed Rumold ^f shone forth, of whom, being about to say some things, while we aim at the zeal of piety, we less dread the mark of saying too little. For with what mouth, with what eloquence could anyone set forth him whom one scarcely suffices to equal in thought? But his parents ^g and ancestors we have kept silent, either because we have learned nothing certain about them, or because we reckon it superfluous to seek in the trunk the savor of the fruit, which it is established springs up abundantly and more than enough in the branch. But imbued with every good of virtue from his very infancy, he advanced even to this point, that he left none of those things by which God is acquired unattempted. To religion was added the knowledge of letters, so that whatever was done might be sprinkled with the intellectual salt of the scriptures. The whole island marveled, as it was more fruitful than every clod of the lands, so the more blessed by the glorious simplicity of the Saints. This is that Scotia ^h, by the testimony of Solinus, once inhuman by the harsh rite of its inhabitants, otherwise so abounding in pasture that the cattle sometimes, unless they are kept from the pastures, would by fullness be driven into danger. There is no snake, the bird is rare, the people hospitable but warlike; so that the victors, having first drunk the blood of the slain, would afterward smear their faces. There is no bee, so much so that if anyone scatter within the hives the dust or pebbles brought from there, the swarms desert the honeycombs.

[3] When he grew into a man, finding nothing in his own land to which he might aspire, forsaking his fatherland he seeks Rome; he thinks of going abroad; in this he wholly equips and prepares himself. Rome he had learned of by hearing: he resolves to seek it, either by zeal for visiting the places, or by veneration of the Apostles. Disengaged from all things, and not now about to bear the Cross of Jesus in forced service, he crosses into Britain after the custom of his nation. For they sail in wicker boats, which they surround with a covering of buffalo-hides. Thence, the strait of the Morini being crossed, where the shortest passage of the sea is, he is carried into Gaul, wherever he comes always speaking forth Jesus, instructing men about eternal life and what God is: often also, when reason required, shining with the grace of miracles. So at length, by a laborious enough journey, he crosses over the snows of the Alps, where once the Carthaginian Hannibal, doing violence to nature with vinegar and fire ⁱ, the Apennine being cleft, had flown over to provoke the forces of the Roman name.

[4] Then entering the City, he continues some days, whence directed by providence to Mechlin; daily soliciting the Apostolic fisherman with studious prayer, and inviting the key ^k of heaven to open. He marveled that the City, in which once the demons of the whole world had flowed together as into a bilge, now embraced the cult of the one God; happier in all things by the sacred passion of the Apostles, than that by which once its first walls were wet, with fraternal blood; and embracing himself the triumphal name of the Martyrs, where they had gone, where they had stood, where they had shed their blood for the name of the Savior, he satisfied himself with a thousand kisses and genuflections: and with sweet mingled weeping, he represented to himself in his heart certain spectacles of the warriors of Christ. He was wholly led by the ardor of martyrdom, so that if a torment and a torturer were at hand, he would of his own accord thrust himself upon the death of vital exchange. But because the way of man is not in his own power: by the providence of almighty God, he is admonished about returning home. Committing himself therefore to the counsel of the Divinity, by a compendious pilgrimage having returned to Italy, where it rises on the ridge of the Apennine mountain, he passes over; and entering Gaul, he sets himself down in those western parts, where the river Scheldt sends back the tide of the sea even to the Rupel ^l. The inhabitants call the place Mechlin, on account of the Malina ^m of the sea, and the Ledo, which at certain times, with the harmony of the horned moon, now make a coming, now a going, nor beyond the strait of this place do they change their losses or gains.

[5] he promises Ado a son from his barren wife; A certain one of the nobles, Ado ⁿ by name, bore the office of count, with a wife equally noble in morals and birth. Both religious, both flourishing before God in conjugal chastity, so that you would think them those ancient Abraham and Sara: except that the third, Isaac, was absent. These with their wonted religion soon, the man of God having been seen, invite him, bring him into hospitality, share their banquet, ask and obtain that he stay, both happy in such a guest, at whose entrance they were gladdened by a divine blessing. For on one of the days, while alone and without witnesses they were doing something divine, Rumold, conceiving in his whole mind the spirit of prophecy, with hand laid on offers prayer, blessing them both, promises fruitfulness; promises himself as godfather: foretells by name. The astonished parents ^o lend faith, more readily certain that nature could be overcome than that Rumold could lie. Efficacy accompanies the faith; according to the time and day foretold, from her who was before barren a son is born, received, he is presented to the man of God: he washes the one taken up in baptism, and imposes the name Libertus. His age meanwhile had advanced even to youth, and from the teaching of the pious Doctor the sweet little boy had grown together into the form of every good. The parents with their courtiers exulted, and daily pondered upon the future heir.

[6] The night of greatest grief darkened the day of such gladness, whom afterward, submerged, he recalls to life; and wrapped the whole house in a murky cloud and blinded it. For on a certain one of the days the boy, while he ponders games with his coevals on the shore of a riverbed, and while he trusts too well to the bank, entered into danger; slipping he is submerged. With a sad roar the whole shore is at once shaken, and one being cast in to draw out the sinking boy, in vain every effort of the swimmers fails. The captive prey is led away before their eyes and, swallowed up, is enclosed within the vaulting waves. Rumold meanwhile was absent; rumor thunders even to the parents; and, suspecting nothing the less, pierces them with an irremediable wound: the present grief, weighed against the former gladness, outweighs it; and the more glad they once were over the newly-born son, the more sorrowful now over the drowning of the dead one; for nothing is lost without grief, except what is possessed without joy. What they should do, whither they should turn, what counsel they should take, they had not. This alone the hope, that as by his prophesying they had received what they did not have, so by his prayer they might recover the one lost. The man of God being called, is himself wholly shaken with sad lamentation, and no less than the parents themselves is he pierced over his spiritual son: and having consoled the others, who could scarcely console himself; he goes to the shore, notes the place, and with celebrated prayer three and four times calls upon Jesus. The sad assembly stands around, and awaits the faith [p] outcome of the event. Wonderful to say! Scarcely had he risen from prayer, his eyes cast back, he beholds the boy standing near, not however discordant from the miracle of the three Babylonian boys. For as they triumphed over the furnace without the smell of fire; so this one too, in the contrary element, walked over the waters without the moisture of the waters. Good Jesus! what was that of miracle? what was that of joy? where now, O death, is thy victory! where now, O death, is thy sting! Behold, not only is our Christ, but also those who are Christ's, command thee in the name of Christ: thou obeyest, they despoil: thanks to him, by whose gratuitous adoption men are made gods. 1 Cor. 15

[7] and a monastery being built at the Elm The boy is restored to life, restored to his parents, indeed by his parents to Rumold: gifts of gold and silver, and of all furniture are added. Let yours, he answers, be yours: for we spurn the fleeting things, lest with the falling ones we slip headlong. Or what agreement have we with these things, whose whole act and intention is already in the heavens? Yet that you may satisfy your guest, I ask that the wastes of this marsh be given to us; not that we may delight in another's estate, but that by our labor a dwelling of the servants of God may there increase: nor ought it to be a great thing, if we reap your carnal things, who have sown spiritual things. The Count at once favors it, offers according to the wish what was asked; a testamentary page is written, supported by ratification. The name of the place is Elm [q], on account of the abundance of elms luxuriating there. There are gathered the troops [r] of those warring for God, all things grow which pertain to the uses of the Church, even to the sum of the completed work.

[8] he sets him over it. That very posthumous Libertus grows up and is educated there. Finally under so great a Father, he is set over the Lord's flock, afterward to be persecuted and crowned with the laurel of his own blood. For in that storm in which the fury of the Scythians blazed, and from the scabbard of Dacia the sword of the Getae crept out; all things being slain and burned from the very seacoast even to the Colony of Agrippina, this man of God, on occasion of escaping the danger, transferred himself into Hesbaye; whom, persecuted and captured, the savage nation made a victim of God before the very altar of St. Trudo. The body, as they say (for I do not take upon myself the risk of the truth [s]), was buried there. But about the place of the sepulchre the opinion is not ambiguous.

[9] Meanwhile the envy of the devil grows fierce again, beholding new assemblies daily united to Christ, himself energetically assailed, The martyrdom of the Saint, the revelation of the body, and the burial. sometimes even overcome; he infects with a known pestilence two former companions of the holy Man, who, as he was once walking alone, and after his custom ruminating the Psalms, from the opposite side receive him with a lethal wound, in hope of obtaining money, which he was wont to carry about. Wretches indeed and most worthy of the noose of the traitor Judas! who, while they pursue most vain gain and base lucre, incur the master-slaying of so great and so religious a Priest. Moreover, wishing to cloak the deed, they add crime to crime; and the most sacred body, snatched up, they cast into the passing [t] waters. Returning, they cover the matter done with the leaves of lies: yet in vain. For while the fishermen were occupied by night about their business, the labor divided, a celestial light glowed white; and in what place that most sacred body lay hidden, it opened with lights poured over it. The terrified men, presuming nothing of themselves, go to the Count: lay open the novelty of the matter: persuade and promise that it seems to them some prodigy. Ado offers himself as the place pilot of the boat, and gladdened by the wonted miracle of the lights, the nets being cast, draws up a noble catch, and that most sacred corpse with jubilation drags to land; placed on a vehicle, conveys it to the place where it now rests, and procures its burial with notable expense; nor was the finger of God lacking, working straightway wondrously at the clod tomb of his soldier.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

p. Vardæus would prefer that it be read outcome, and I too.

q. If the traces of that Elm-grove, as the Wachtendonck author asserts, are still visible outside the gate of St. Catherine, near Mechlin, it must have extended over a fairly large space.

r. The praised Vardæus disputes at length, from Miræus and Molanus, whether St. Rumold gathered into his monastery Religious Monks, On the monastery of St. Rumold. or Benedictines, or strictly regular Canons, or secular ones, and all things considered, he reckons it more probable that they were Religious, and I with him; since he seems to have professed the religious life before he came into Belgium. But whether he handed down to them the Benedictine rule, which at that time he could have found in Belgium, or that of SS. Colman, Columban, or Columba, or another which he himself had observed in Ireland, cannot be defined. For since after his martyrdom St. Libertus fell by the sword of the Northmen, about the thirty-second year of the ninth century according to the Wachtendonck author; but the tenth or twentieth according to others in Vardæus, and the monks thought to provide for themselves by flight; the monastery remained until the tenth century, for a hundred years and more, amid the repeated incursions of the barbarians, destitute both of monks and of other ecclesiastical men; so that it is deservedly unknown what kind they were who first held it. For some intermediate years also nuns, or at least devout women, are said to have inhabited the place, for the custody of the chapel and the sacred body, who again toward the end of the ninth century, the barbarians devastating Mechlin, so withdrew themselves, that only the nun and sacristan Gerlindis was found to be carried off captive; afterward miraculously freed by the Saint. Then in the tenth century, the city reflourishing, the memory of St. Rumold was more obscure; which it would not have been, if then monks, at least in moderate number, had inhabited the monastery. At the same time, the nuns betaking themselves elsewhere, the monastery seems, for the building of the church or other houses, to have been destroyed, only the chapel of the Saint being left: which after the body of the Saint was also translated, even to the times of our Gueux, remained venerable. For secular Canons instituted by St. Rumold, the Cambrai chronicle is altogether vainly adduced, written in the eleventh century, twelve Canons with a Provost having already been founded by Bishop Notger.

What I reckon about the first monastery of St. Rumold, I have indicated elsewhere: but I do not doubt that it was such as Baldric joins to that of Mechlin: Nor far from Mechlin is a monastery of Canons, which from his own estates the man of God Guntmar, an illustrious layman, built, by common counsel, I think, with St. Rumold: so that Bucelinus is plainly not to be heard in Germania sacra volume 1 part 2, page 90, feigning the Elm convent under the Benedictine rule, and others with him. Whether among the companions of St. Rumold was St. Himelin, of whom it was treated on March 10 page 46, there is nothing from which one could certainly determine.

s. Take these things thus with Vardæus, that Theodoric only doubts whether the sacred body of St. Libertus, at the time when he himself wrote these things, existed there, perhaps because he knew it had been sought in his age and not found: but this was afterward, under Abbot Wiric, found and elevated, as will be more fully narrated, when St. Libertus is to be treated on the fourteenth of July, where also it will have to be inquired, by what incursion of the Normans and in what year he was slain.

t. To the place, says the Wachtendonck author, where now is a well, near the royal hospital.

CHAPTER II. The Norman devastation, the miracles of the Saint after death, and his feast day.

[The church of St. Rumold, untouched by the Normans, is preserved by the punishment of one.] Moreover, Charles having been consecrated Emperor at Rome by Pope John, God thus answering the sins of his people, the Normans ^b, the Danes being joined to them, range through France and Lorraine, especially the borders of the Morini ^c, the Menapii ^d, and the Brabanters ^e, and devastate all the land around the river Scheldt with iron and fire; thence entering the river Waal, they burn all Betuwe ^f, even the palace of Nijmegen ^g. In the same year Godfrey and Sigfrid Kings of the Normans, with an inestimable multitude, sitting down by the Meuse in the place Haslon ^h, burn Liège, Maastricht, Tongeren, Saint-Trond, Cologne, and Bonn, with the adjacent provinces and castles. Stabling their horses in the palace at Aachen, they burn the town and the royal house. To these evils, Hugh ⁱ, son of King Lothar by Waldrada the concubine, in Lorraine, and Boso ^k played the tyrant in Burgundy. And, lest I seem to weave a chronicle rather than to pursue the work begun; while the whole world burned with such a conflagration of wars for eighteen years ^l, and, according to the prophet, the Lord in the multitude of his wrath did not remember even the footstool of his feet, yet the church ^m of this our Martyr remained unharmed, nor could or presumed ⁿ the savage nation anything of the kind against it. Lam. 2 When one of them had approached it for the sake of booty, and presumed to take down the thing set on top of the bell-tower (which the common people call a cock on account of the likeness of form, but we call a weather-vane on account of its watching of the wind), he makes a fall, and pays the worthy penalties of his rapacity by a due death: and because, according to Solomon, the pestilent man being scourged, the wise man will be wiser; this misfortune of one was a warning of discipline to all the rest. Prov. 19

[11] That we may pursue the rest, this also is marvelous in the holy Martyr, and no less delightful, the cock of Gerlendis, seized by a fox, is restored, that toward his suppliants he exhibits this as it were maternal care, that, being asked even about the smallest things, he prepares himself as it were to meet them. A woman, a registrar ^o, the same also a nun, Gerlendis by name, had with pious devotion attached herself to his church: she had the office of ringing the bells. For pursuing the hours, by day she had nourished the sun, by night a cock as her monitor. A little fox [p], accustomed to creep along the household walls, while it carries off one or another prey with impunity, presumes greater things; it directs its whole business at the cock; but neither by leaping was it right to aspire to the flying bird's wing, nor by creeping to the height of the beams. Using therefore its known cunning, it prepares ambushes, slips into the hiding-places, and meanwhile the little beast attacks from behind the door the cock, secure and treading the threshold with proud step, invades it, and, pressed with threatening tooth, carries it off as if triumphing, then betakes itself to the wood. The woman runs up, but hindered by a slower step, one and another effort being spent in vain, turns the complaint of the whole loss back upon the Saint, and fails in pleading her cause: What, she says, have I to do with thee? either let the cock be restored to me, or let Rumold lack his matins. No delay, the little beast returns, and the captive prey, as if suffused with a certain shame, lays it down alive before the eyes of those wondering; the frustrated presumptuous one, pardon of the offense being given, about to dare nothing similar henceforth, gathers itself back to its hiding-places. Let others marvel at the rugged sky, the troubled sea, the shaken earth: it suffices me, in these things which are reckoned least, to glory over this Martyr. For I almost do not know whether the Egyptians were more pestilently slain in the Cinyps gnats, or in the slaying of all the firstborn.

[12] and she afterward escapes unharmed from the barbarians. There remains another miracle of this same his registrar [q], to be embraced with no less piety. For in that incursion in which we recalled above that the Danes disturbed all things divine and human, they had made this woman also captive, and about to transport her across the sea had led her away. They had not yet reached the mouth of the Scheldt, and, about to repair the cross-benches, oars, and the other things which are the tackle of ships, they fix their anchors. The night, more horrid than usual, since winter was now near, calls to sleep. The rest consoling the nocturnal cold with a double cloak, the captive, in the prow, her limbs drawn together at once, pays the penalties of cold and snows. At length, extreme necessity urging, a prayer added with tears, Ho, she says, St. Rumold, if rightly, if faithfully, if for grace I have served thee, cover thy naked and freezing one. Wondrous faith: straightway, her eyes lowered as she fell asleep, she feels herself covered with all the garments which she had left at home. Awakened, she marvels and is amazed: with what praises she could, she magnifies and extols the dutiful Martyr to her. The sun in the day, the morning poured out, grew young again, and the ship, the cable cut, prepared to be loosed. But here their strength fails, and the more they sweat, the less they accomplish. The fixed images stood, with all wrestling and effort failing, like rocks they cling in the midst of the waves, by turns hinting to one another what each should do, when meanwhile one admonishes that the captive of old Rumold be let go; this seemed to him the cause of the long delays. By consultation the rest favor it: she being let go, soon, as if the ship were unburdened, all set sail with no difficult speed. Which lest you marvel at only in this captive, who even to this day is wont with readier hearing to have compassion on the imprisoned and shackled bojatis.

[13] Besides, concerning the planting of trees, and the grafting of them, St. Rumold a fruitful planter of trees. we recall that not ignoble miracle of his. For whatever of such seeds his most holy hand had scattered, the gift of efficacy accompanied it with the increase of celestial grace. For mindful of the Apostle 2 Thess. 3 and 1 Thess. 2: He who does not labor, let him not eat: and again, We have labored with our hands, lest we should be burdensome to any of you; he was usually engaged in this honest business, so much so that, the time being divided by himself, no hour at all passed by, but either his lip was occupied in prayer, or his hand in work. By this business he had nourished a little beech-wood, under whose covering usually lying, he meditated the harmony of the Davidic melody. Even to our times [r] one of these trees endures; worthy of sweet devotion and growing by the grateful recollection of its planter into material of praise.

[14] A certain man, Langer [s] by name, who had grown up in the Church of B. Rumold and had advanced to the priesthood, The stupendous and sudden healing of Langer, but, as is usual, since from abundance luxury, and from luxury pride is born, touched in heart, swelled up even to this, that he neither deemed his equals worthy, nor remembered what man is. No longer does he speak private things, presuming higher things, as if walking on frost, swelling with empty spirit, he holds in contempt the stipends which were given from his daily prebend; he stretches himself out as if about to migrate to other and greater things. But that stone of offense and rock of scandal, which will crush whomever it falls upon; and he who strikes against it will be broken, at once opposes certain salutary scandals to his fugitive, and, wearied with hidden importunities, shuts him out from all the successes of affairs by which he formerly wrestled. For, as it is written, the world will fight for him against the senseless; first he is scourged with want of things, then he is stoned with a certain sloth of mind; the day itself and the night sadder than usual, often even death more pleasant than life. Wisd.; Eccl. 5 Thus scattered, yet not compunct, with stubborn heart he withdraws, and entering his way, as if about to seek greater things, again is salutarily checked, and struck with blindness of the eyes. Why should I delay with many words? Instructed by the blow, for an hour he repents, and for an hour is enlightened; and again presuming the former things, again is blinded. Taught at length what it is to strive against the torrent, or what man is compared to God; about to dare nothing similar further, he is humbled before those hands which no one escapes; and by the mediation of our Martyr, he is enlightened not only in the eyes, but also in the heart. [t]

[15] whence the clergy are admonished. Let this be clear either as an example or as a penalty to those who, not content with the golden mean, boil over with empty avidity; born in a poor nest and a rustic hut, they aspire to high ceilings and palatial roofs; once accustomed to common bread, they foretaste fine flour and honey with disdain: of whom the prophet: Woe to you who join house to house, who couple field to field, even to the boundary of the place, will you alone dwell upon the earth? The son of the Patriarchs, Esau, his birthright sold for a pottage, is accused of gluttony; David, strong of hand and a friend of God, on account of the water which he had drawn from the cistern of Bethlehem in the blood of strong men, is reproved, which unless he had at once poured out as a libation to the Lord, he would have paid the penalties of blood. Isa. 5:8; Gen. 25; 2 Sam. 23 The Son of man himself is accused by the sons of the world of being a wine-drinker; and he who was without all sin is calumniated of drunkenness; and the Apostle says: The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8 If the sufferings are not worthy, how much less drunkenness and revelries? or to whom does the Prophet especially speak; Be still and see, for I am God. Ps. 45 Is it not to the Clerics? For them Pope Sylvester instituted the vacations, for them the feast-days, which the gentiles formerly called from the names of their gods: for us indeed to be at leisure, for us to keep festival is instituted, that, the more remote we are from secular business, the more nearly we may contemplate the majesty of the Almighty. Whence the Apostle: No one warring for God entangles himself in secular business. 2 Tim. 2 Or does not the same grace still endure for his Martyr with God, that he can crown or punish despisers and venerators equally, or certainly more amply?

[16] Patronizing all, he restores the half-dead man to health; But these things, as someone says, let us leave to be described more bitingly by B. Jerome. But let us return to narrating the rest which remain, that what is left of the day we may run through in praise of the blessed man. This is ascertained by evident signs, that no one is ever frustrated, prayers being poured out toward this father, by whatever inconveniences he is burdened. A certain Helinard [t], while he indulges too much in hunting, and seizes the fleeing prey too eagerly, by a fall, or in some other way I know not, is inclemently endangered. The languor was violent, more inclined to death, so that, the funeral preparations being made, nothing more than the last cry was awaited. When meanwhile, his spirit recovered, his tongue still bound, by a certain nod of the eyes, with a groan as interpreter, he asks to be carried to the sepulchre of B. Rumold. They satisfy the wretch, and received between hands, before that altar, more a corpse than a man, they cast him down: the sad crowd follows, and by the price of faith, a dropping of divine mercy is provoked. The divinity, won over, is present, and by the prayer of all, to this one is restored the former and ampler safety. The revived man marvels at himself, and a little before carried by the support of others, more than himself he suffices to carry; and recalling the Scripture, Thou shalt not appear in the sight of thy God empty, he makes a vow of an annual income, and as long as he lived, paid it. Exod. 23

[17] Let us add also another thing no less worthy of example than of miracle. he frees another from demons, A certain one of those whom they call mercenary soldiers, had business from Antwerp at Mechlin. It was the feria of that Supper, on which Jesus, betrayed by a disciple, wrought the salvation of lost man. The universal Church was celebrating the fast from the ancient institution of the Fathers, since the solemn Lent had not yet been traversed. That soldier, after the manner of those to whom whatever they please is lawful, and who do not disdain that what they would not should be lawful, without the hearing of Mass and the reverence of the fast, having finished a morning meal, goes forth alone. Scarcely had he reached the middle of the journey, and behold before his eyes the armor and forces of a dissimilar warfare, for a legion of demons, in female guise, with manes curling behind, with spear in hand, with shield covering the shoulders, unexpectedly advances, the hoof of the foaming horse shakes the dusty field: spurs urging from the side, all that fury and onset is directed against that one. He, on the contrary, his sword drawn, while he prepares to engage, one and another blow being spent in vain, while he beats the air with empty effort, wearies his strength: now about to be the unhappy victim, he slips from his horse, and that whole mass of the wicked, as if obtaining its wish, cries out and rushes in. When he, scarcely returning to his mind, and with all effort crying out the celebrated name of Jesus, with the sign of the Cross also added, disturbs the whole battle-line of the wicked, and renders it empty like smoke. Yet contracted and as if destitute of all strength, he is carried to the church of B. Rumold by others' hands. There he continues some days, and at length is cured. This is thy grace, O Lord, this is thy glory in thy Saints, that there is no inconvenience at all which does not feel a remedy at their prayers.

[18] A certain woman, burdened with a long languor of the hand, a woman with a pitiable disease, had in vain spent much on physicians: she labored not only with gout of the hand, but also with her fingers bent back into the palm, sick, she dragged a trunk that would be of use to no office. Want also had crept in, the ever-following servant of all inconveniences. Pressed by this double misfortune, she had nothing now to do: she could not work, she blushed to beg. Reminded of the largesse of the Martyr, she approaches the table of his altar; stretching out her sick hand with suppliant prayer, not crumbs of bread, but most full health she received from the hand of her propitiator.

[19] It is worth the trouble, while we study brevity, to pass over many things, and several possessed persons. lest, while we aim at official zeal, we incur the tedium of the hearers: for not even if we wished could we equal the material, by whose superabundant grace the river of Tullian eloquence would be dried up. But let no one think that the holy man needs our official eloquence, whose praise and glory is wholly weighed from the gift and benefit of eternity. Nevertheless what we speak, what we write, it is necessary that we spend in his praise and glory, without whom to speak and write we neither ought nor are able. Let us add yet at the end, with how great power he is wont to repel the hostile blows of demons: which, since it is similarly done concerning one and a similar matter, it was not necessary to vary. Three men vexed by demons were presented at his medicinal tomb and cured. But with how great and how efficacious charity, think you, can and will he have compassion on his suppliants, who patronizes all inconveniences with so great authority.

[20] Why the feast was translated to July 1. Let us now at length return to the solemn day of the Martyr, which on the eighth of the Kalends of July is celebrated by his deposition: and not undeservedly, that on the day on which the nativity of the precursor, according to the angelic proclamation, is celebrated with joy on earth, the same, on account of the merit of the Martyr, should be a dance for heaven and earth. But lest anything be taken away from the celebrity and office of the Baptist, the office of the Martyr is celebrated on the eighth day from this. Come then, holy Father, unconquered Martyr, refresh thy suppliants; with the judge of the world compose our causes, if thou regardest our misery, nothing is fouler, if the mercy of the Almighty, nothing is more beautiful. Mediator of God and men, may he hear thee as mediator between us and himself, that, by thy praying and his being propitious, the weight of sin being lightened, we may deserve to reach the ladder of eternity: which may he himself deign to grant, who lives and reigns God, throughout all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

p. Hence it is plain that the monastery of St. Rumold, the houses on this side of the Dijle not yet built, was even then still in the wilderness; for a fox, unless somewhat tamed by long use, does not enter a town or village.

q. It is credible that the other nuns, if any can be imagined at that time, in the year 880, in which the Normans again burst into Belgium with greater cruelty, betook themselves to safer places, only the sacristan Gerlindis being left, who alone here was made captive and freed by the Saint. The Mechlin chronicle narrates the miracle in this manner: At the mouth of the Scheldt, not far from Mechlin, stood the ships of the infidels, into which they were forcing many Christians to be led off into captivity. Among these was the sacristan of St. Rumold, who on a cold winter night remained under the open sky on the upper deck of the ship, and, St. Rumold being invoked, falling asleep, seemed to herself covered with her accustomed coverings. In the morning the ships about to depart could be loosed by no force, to the great wonder of the infidels, until one crying out that this happened on account of the sacristan, and that she should be dismissed, she was freed, and the ships loosed. Vardæus thinks that this Gerlindis was a Saint, but confesses that he found her nowhere numbered among the Saints. That she was pious and religious we do not doubt. Gramaye, attributing the aforesaid miracle to St. Mary Magdalene, we have refuted elsewhere.

r. After the times of Theodoric, no memory of that tree is found; it stood long enough, since it persevered more than three centuries.

s. The Wachtendonck author, by what authority I know not, names Langer a Frank, and will have him educated from his early age in the family of Count Ado and taken into his college by B. Rumold. But these and similar things I ascribe to pious imaginings, for if the order of the miracles be attended to, this happened after the times of the Normans, and so Langer never saw St. Rumold, unless a new miracle of long-lived age be feigned, such as some are compelled to admit in St. Libertus.

t. This and the other miracles must have happened after the disaster of the Normans, Mechlin reflourishing in a calmer age, when St. Rumold began to grow bright with new miracles, as the Mechlin Chronicle narrates.

* bound with fetters.

A FOREWORD to the following Legend of St. Rumold.

Rumold Bishop and Martyr, at Mechlin in Belgium (S.)

BY John DOMYNS.

The most rare work of Domynsius is described, I said in the preliminary Commentary §3, that the edition of the Domynsian Legend, lent by Rosweyde to Vardæus, did not return by postliminy to our Museum, or at least, by some chance I know not, was lost, and that on that account I was long and much compelled to inquire, that I might from somewhere bring forth another copy, whether Latin or an older Belgic one, from the darkness, but for a long time with vain effort. The praised Illustrious Canon Crucius had to some extent repaired the loss, an apograph of the same Domynsian version being supplied to me in manuscript, which had been transcribed from the printed one at Louvain in the year 1596, and torn from the adversaria of some curious man, as the beginning of the Life of St. Rumold manifestly shows, since it begins from folio 38. But our most choice Louvain library at length satisfied my wishes, where the desired copy of Domynsius being found was transmitted to me, by the benevolence of the Reverend Father Rector Antony Bettonville, which, since I have learned by experience that it is so rare, I wish nothing whatever to be omitted or neglected, which can conduce to the full knowledge of it. The booklet is printed in neat type in the format of 12, containing 60 little pages, not marked with numbers, distinguished by those titles which I have described elsewhere. The expanded title of the first face I shall subjoin below, with the engraved plate, representing the family insignia of Cardinal Granvelle, the first Archbishop of the people of Mechlin, mixed with today's Scottish ones, just as we have insinuated from Miræus above toward the end of §8 was usual for the Archbishops of that church, but more clearly in the printed one of Hauchin, the successor of Granvelle §16, number 186, which it is established was also in use by the Archbishops who followed afterward, even to the most Illustrious Alphonse, and is wont to be employed even today in the judicial seal of the tribunal of Affligem, the Scottish symbols and those of the abbey being joined, and the device of the living Archbishop set upon the whole shield.

with the insignia of Cardinal Granvelle and other minutiae. The beginning of this institution you have in Granvelle, the cause you would seek in vain from elsewhere, than from this, that the Chapter of Mechlin had not so long before then claimed for itself the Scottish shield, as truly Rumoldian, such as Domynsius nearly expresses after the second dedicatory, where upon the Scottish family arms are placed three little clods, distinguished by three wheat-ears, with all today's decorations of the archiepiscopal shield, lest anyone could doubt about the novelty, whatever bears this epigraph the insignia of D. Rumold. I render the genuine title, as I found it sketched on the first face, then the dedication to the Metropolitan Chapter of Mechlin, distinguished by the glory of serenity, which had been passed over by Vardæus. The rest from this edition Baert described, I myself compared it with the Domynsian booklet, nearly only this diversity being observed, that two or three sections are divided otherwise by Vardæus, otherwise in the old printed one, yet the same substance of matters remaining in both. By the fault of Domynsius it came about that the Belgic autograph was not rendered entire, some things which I have noted elsewhere being suppressed and the series of miracles omitted, which, since we have given it just now from Theodoric himself, nothing remains, except that we inspect Domynsius himself. Behold therefore the aforesaid title:

The Life of the divine Archbishop and Martyr of Christ Rumold, President or distinguished tutelar of the people of Mechlin.

Given Latinity by John Domyns of Mechlin, parson of Gaasbeek.

Heb. 13: Remember your prelates, who have spoken to you the word of God, whose end of conversation beholding, imitate their faith.

With privilege.

The subjoined effigies of the holy ones Rumold and Libertus, expressed at the painter's pleasure, or by the thought of Domynsius, I have taken from the other face of the Legend. An objection to the subjoined plate. But hither can be referred the observations related above at number 254 about the gilded statues, and the equestrian dress of St. Libertus, claimed by Gurnezius. There a similar face and a hoary beard represent the long-lived age of the holy prince; but here on the contrary printed in a youthful form, he is composed as a disciple with his master; from the Mechlin shield, on which he in a manner leans, showing dominion, but by a monstrous prolepsis of seven and more centuries; since Mechlin was first endowed with those insignia by the Emperor Frederick, father of the Archduke Maximilian Prince of Belgium, in the year 1490, as is established from the diploma itself, to be recited elsewhere. The other ornaments I do not reckon it worth the trouble to observe: they are in the open, to be explained from the genius or more propense will and piety of each.

To the most Serene college of Canons of the Metropolitan church of Mechlin. Hail.

That I may not use many roundabout words, most distinguished Men, receive in few words what I wish. It is now the third or fourth year since I translated the Acts or life of the distinguished Bishop Rumold into the Latin language; which I lately gave to certain candid friends most fond of me, to be read and looked into. Not indeed with the intention of giving this version to the light; for I did not reckon that safe, especially in this most exulcerated time, in which innumerable (alas!) heresies everywhere flourish. On which account I have hitherto held it in the place of the highest audacity, to publish anything of this kind, which pertains to the histories of the Saints; which now have plainly gone into contempt and are hissed off by the followers of the heretics. Which being well observed, I had induced myself to contain myself within walls, and that this my version would be safer in chests, than if it were sent into the public. But the frequent exhortation of friends was the cause that I afterward changed my opinion: for it was sung to me daily, that it was the more equitable for me, to publish what I had dictated, the more the obstinacy of the heretics grew fierce and raged. And so I complied with the demands of friends, though unwillingly; and the pen being resumed, I corrected my work such as it was, that it might come forth more amended. But I was led to this audacity chiefly, that I might in some way openly testify that I would gladly, if I could, gratify the Metropolitan church of Mechlin, not so long ago instituted. For I am bound (I confess) by many things to the city of Mechlin; since it not only brought me into this light, but nourished me from the tender nails, as they say, and if any little spark of erudition is left to me, this Mechlin, while I lived there as a foster-child of the Standonck college, supplied. Moreover, since the sacred bones of this most eminent Martyr have hitherto been kept in your custody and are still kept, it seemed good to me, most distinguished men and most generous Lords, to dedicate this rude and least elaborated little work to you, and under the auspices of your most excellent name to publish it among the common people: that namely the so distinguished deeds of the Saint may be commended to the hands of the pious. Receive therefore, best Maecenases, the life of your tutelar Rumold, translated from a most ancient German archetype, and take my work in good part, enjoying the same for a while, until someone more lettered (such as Mechlin has very many) recasts this history in a more polished style of speaking; for this alone, not for the sake of catching popular favor, was this labor undertaken by me. Finally I pray God most good and great to preserve your Worship safe to his Church as long as possible, to whom again and again I commend myself. From Gaasbeek of the Divine Virgin Mother of God, on the very eve-days of the Lord's Ascension, in the year 1569 from the cradle of Christ. Your Reverend Worship's Most Observant little Client John Domyns Priest.

To the Senate and people of Mechlin, John Domyns of Mechlin. Hearty greeting.

Behold for you, most prudent Men, the history of St. Rumold your tutelar Saint, painted by me in Latin in such style as I could. Hitherto indeed you have worn it in your hands printed in German, but because very few copies now exist, I reckon that I have done a not unfruitful thing, in rendering the life of the same Saint in Latin, and that chiefly for the sake of those who, besides their mother tongue, also know Latin: nor do I doubt that what I have endeavored to perform will be pleasing to you for your wonted benignity, although I have not treated the matter with so favorable an Apollo and the Muses favoring. All the Martyrs (to use the words of D. Ambrose) are to be most devoutly venerated, but especially those are to be venerated by us whose relics we possess. For indeed with what greater honor ought you of Mechlin to attend any of the Saints, than this Bishop Rumold; by whose authority once your ancestors were imbued with the rudiments of the Christian faith, and Heathenism was banished far from your borders: so that not undeservedly you hold the same Martyr in the place of an Apostle: since he is numbered among the first who announced the Gospel of Christ to the people of Mechlin.

To these add, that aided by the help of that holy Man your ancestors not rarely obtained victory over their enemies: so that even to this day the most flourishing city of Mechlin has been conquered or stormed by no one however powerful, although more than once struck by various movements of wars, as is clear from the annals. For which most great benefit it befits you to be ever bound to your Patron and tutelar; as has been declared with great zeal by your ancestors, especially in this, that they fabricated that silver shrine, adorned with gold and gems, now, if ever otherwise, restored to its former brightness and integrity, in which the relics of the Martyr are religiously kept. A most sumptuous work certainly, and to which you would find none equal in these regions. You too, not degenerate sons, following the footsteps of your forefathers, are wont every year to survey the city, carrying around your Tutelar. Nor is there any reason why you should ever deviate from this religious institution, on account of the ravings of the heretics of this age, trifling that by the venerations of the Saints the glory of God is derogated. And doubtless this is a Satanic doctrine; and to be hissed off by the flock of Catholics, and that to be retained with the teeth, which the Roman and Apostolic Church has for many centuries observed. But what else, to say it in passing, do we honor and venerate in the Saints, except the gifts of God, except Christ himself living and working in them? He who honors the Lord, says Epiphanius, honors also the Saint: but he who afflicts the Saint with ignominy, afflicts the Lord himself with ignominy. Farewell therefore to the portents of the heretics, although they cry out even to hoarseness against the religious institutions of our ancestors. Although I am not ignorant of these things, that even if I were silent, it would be strenuously done by you the senate and people of Mechlin, yet I have thought you ought to be addressed by this little letter. Farewell and, God prospering, govern your Commonwealth, as hitherto, well and blessedly.

THE INSIGNIA OF D. RUMOLD.

Thus far the dedicatory letters of Domynsius, on which I would have this observed, that the most ancient German archetype On the dedications and the Rumoldian shield, which he mentions in the former, is no other than the Belgic Legend itself, written toward the end of the fifteenth century, of which we have already spoken so often: but what he asserts in the other, that it was printed in German, by impression I understand a thing written with the pen, just as is our apograph, unless one will have it printed in type, but that no copy of it has come to us, which would be next to a miracle. Moreover, lest even a tittle from the work of Domynsius could be said to be passed over by us, in this place again, with him and from him, we insert the aforesaid above, and expressed toward the end of §8, the family insignia of St. Rumold, as it pleased to call them, conceived by I know not whom, at what time, by what reason or occasion, which if they be attentively considered, altogether persuade that there was no other opinion, as I said there, in the age of Domynsius among the people of Mechlin, than that St. Rumold was the son of the King of today's Scotland, and so not Irish, but truly a Scot of Albany by birth, whom nevertheless that writer, as we have shown in its place, first pronounced Archbishop of Dublin in Ireland. But whence those little clods with the ears (as it seems) of wheat, added or superimposed on the Scottish shield, came in, no one has hitherto attained even by divining: unless one should wish to devise something symbolic, ascribing to St. Rumold the fruitfulness of harvests, which grew up in the formerly desert Elm-grove, now the city and field of Mechlin; and at the same time the abundant spiritual fruits, which were produced with wondrous fertility in the soil formerly gentile, converted to Christian piety by the preachings of St. Rumold. Let it be permitted to explain all these things as piously as it was permitted to think at that time. He who in the year 1673 published a geographical map of the whole archdiocese, Florentius Langren, preferred to attribute the pure Scottish insignia to St. Rumold, as the map itself exhibits to the eyes of all; from which some wrongly doubt whether Hovius assumed the Rumoldian ears, since he here openly has three green leaves for insignia.

Certainly I reckon that no single person is so foolish formed at mere caprice. as to dare to imagine to himself that St. Rumold ever assumed such a device, in that century in which insignia of that kind had not yet been dreamed of. In a word I shall say, all these things are new, and probably enough either invented by Domynsius himself, or at least in his age; so that here too the old proverb has altogether place: To painters as well as poets there was always equal power of daring whatever they please, just as we represented just now from the same Domynsius St. Libertus as a youth, in military dress, wholly mailed, a double-axe in his right hand, in his left bearing today's Mechlin shield, whom history cries out, from his first years, under the leadership of St. Rumold his godfather and reviver from death, to have led a clerical and monastic life, to have discharged the office of Provost after the martyrdom of his holy preceptor, and as an aged man to have been slain by the Normans at the altar of St. Trudo, of whom it will have to be spoken on July 14. Pardon must be granted to men, who measure things from their genius rather and pious devotion, than from the truth, the order of matters, times, and places being disturbed. Thus also Domynsius prefixes that Scottish shield to the Life written or given Latinity by him, plainly opposed, since in this all things are referred to Irish Scotia, as you will now perceive from itself. Compare, I pray, the following prologue of Domynsius with the exordium of Theodoric, I am deceived unless you at once understand that this was taken from that, but remarkably interpolated by some unskilled person, and rendered metaphrastically by Domynsius.

PROLOGUE.

The most ample and greatest honor of Christians are the signs and right works of the Saints. The more widely these are propagated, the more amply the pious are gladdened, but the perverse are suffused with shame and abashed. This magnificence was born from the very tree of the most holy Cross; through which life overcame death, as if watered by a most fruitful shower, namely of water and blood, flowing from the breast of Christ Jesus. Soon it raised its little branches far and wide; producing indeed fruits and little flowers of such a kind, that their most sweet taste filled the whole world. This same thing Egypt and India regarded in the East, and in the West, the other part of the world, Britain with its neighbor Scotia. Wherefore those who were illuminated from eternity by the sun, as soon as they received the prodigious and longed-for words, hastened in the name of Christ to the honor of the most holy Cross, into the ardor of martyrdom. But of the number of these, from the most remote clime of the earth, shone forth the divine Rumold, the only son of the King of the Scots. He, a man of approved innocence and celebrated for constancy of faith, in discharging the offices of the archbishopric, drew many to justice and equity: and who, having at length bidden farewell to his kingdom, and the dignity of his prelacy handed over to the supreme Bishop, by divine prescription and command, came to Mechlin; where rightly, with candor and the attestation of the miracles of Christ, acting as a churchman, he yielded to fatal necessity, resplendent with sacred martyrdom. Besides these things, since by the royal Prophet we are exhorted to praise the supreme Deity himself in his Saints, it will be just, salutary, and consonant with reason to praise this also in his divine Bishop and Martyr Rumold in this place especially, in which his sacred body rests, designated to him indeed by an angel, and heaped by the supreme Pontiff with the greatest gifts of graces, which place (I say) the Martyr himself adorned by the brightness of his life, and finally so magnificently consecrated by his blood poured out there. To the veneration therefore of so great a Bishop, by which all may be enkindled, his life and death will here be painted as clearly as possible to the honor of God most great.

THE LIFE, From the edition of Vardæus, collated with the older one.

Rumold Bishop and Martyr, at Mechlin in Belgium (S.)

CHAPTER I. The nativity of St. Rumold and his life before the Episcopate.

BY John DOMYNS.

[1] The helm of the kingdom, once among the Scots, in the metropolitan city of Gaerwich ^a, King David ^b held, a man indeed of distinguished and singular prudence, King David of Scotia with a chosen wife and no less abounding in plenty of things and riches. He was held by the greatest desire of obtaining children, by whose nod and command his Scottish domain might be most peaceably governed. On which account not for the sake of fulfilling lust, but rather that he might obtain legitimate offspring, he turned much and long in his mind what wife he might join to himself, equal in morals and nobility; since, by the testimony of the Wise man, he who obtains a virtuous woman has gotten a thing not to be regretted. While the King turned these things in his mind, a certain woman, sprung of illustrious birth, namely the daughter of the most illustrious King of Sicily ^c, to whom also was the name Cecilia, was extolled before him with marvelous praises: for the name of her honesty was spread far and wide. Exulting therefore with joy, the King joined this so noble heroine to himself in matrimony, her parent assenting, with celebrated pomp, and that with the incredible joy not only of himself, but also of all ^d his Scottish people.

[2] This King and his wife dwelt together a long time, he is admonished from heaven about offspring to be received, no offspring being brought forth, frequenting prone the temples of God, exercising many works of piety, never not beseeching God, that he would give them offspring for his benignity; which namely, after they themselves had ended this life, might undertake the governance and protection of the kingdom. Which that they might more easily obtain, they asked the holy Guallafer ^e, at that time Archbishop of Dublin (the fame of whose piety and holiness was spread through all Scotia), that he would pray to the most holy Triad ^f, that he would bestow offspring on them; by whose work the afflicted affairs of the kingdom after the tombs of both might be averted. The Bishop himself most religiously prostrated himself on the ground together with the king and queen, and as they suppliantly besought God, behold there appeared the messenger of God bursting into ^g these words: Lay aside grief: for behold the queen shall bear offspring to her husband, and that most comely in body, well-pleasing to God; which shall lead many from the error of gentilism to Christ, which the event afterward taught.

[3] According to the saying of the Angel the Queen conceived, and bore offspring remarkably comely. which, the angel saying it, is called Rumold. For this reason the King with his wife rejoiced beyond measure: contending this one thing from Guallafer the Archbishop, that he would dip it in the sacred font, which he not unwillingly granted. But when the infant was brought to baptism, the Bishop asked what name he should impose on it. But what answer those receiving the offspring should give, they were utterly ignorant ^h, disputing among themselves by what name they should call him. These things being observed, the holy Bishop says: This boy was divinely bestowed and begotten, I therefore ask you all, that together with me you religiously fall to the ground, knocking at God most ardently with prayers; that as he by his gift bestowed this infant, so he may not be unwilling to signify his name to us. And as they earnestly implored the divine help, before St. Guallafer stood the angel of God, commanding him to give the name of Rumold ⁱ to the boy. Hence he exulted not vulgarly, with the whole assembly, and thanks being given thereupon to God most abundantly, he washed the offspring itself in the wave of baptism, calling it by the name of Rumold.

[4] He most holy from infancy, Afterward Rumold, as a uniquely dear little son, was most honorably and tenderly educated, imbued indeed with the divine spirit. For pious before he learned to speak, he bore before him a good disposition, and demonstrated of how great merit he would afterward be. For from his early age, studying very much parsimony, he attenuated his little body. Since it is reported of him, that he fasted three times each week, namely on the second, fourth, and sixth days; and only once on those days sucked his mother's breasts, no more corporal nourishment being then taken, and that he observed this manner of abstaining through all his age. Which the boy had received not from himself, but from divine inspiration. For God willed it to be indicated to him, that in three days there are three persons distinct in the divine and superblessed Trinity, and in the single eating the unity of the Deity.

[5] instructed in letters by Guallafer, And so the boy Rumold grew up in all piety, and being five years old, was handed over by his parents to be instructed in pious morals and letters by Guallafer the Archbishop: whom he paternally received and imbued with divine letters: that at length the little son by the divine gift might grow bright in virtue and piety, to whom he adhered for this cause even to the fifteenth year of his age. For then he was called by his father to the royal palace, to be instructed in morals worthy of a Prince, and then to be honored, as the royal heir. And so Rumold, complying according to the Lord's prescription with his parents, went to the palace. But he plainly turned away from and spurned the royal pomps and honors, as adverse to his soul: and studied to be the most abject of all, day and night giving attention in the royal chapel to pious prayers: for whatever of temporary things he could procure for himself, he liberally bestowed on the poor. He bore the care of the infirm, and visited those bound in prisons, and the other works of mercy, by the Lord's precept, he bestowed. Finally among all the most dismissed, and more submissively than the rest dwelling in the King's palace, he bore himself.

[6] by a celestial exhortation he is wholly carried away to God. But at a certain time, while at dead of night Rumold was attending to prayer, the messenger of God appears, saying: Son of best disposition, Rumold, the Most High has chosen thee beforehand and loved thee; for in his name thou hast renounced worldly honors and all joys. He is about to bestow on thee, in place of a temporal diadem, which is due to thee by right, a celestial crown. Wherefore in that which thou hast begun thou shalt persevere, and shalt not delay to follow the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spurning pomps and worldly applauses, keep thy virginal flower unspotted even to the end. In all things show thyself submissive: bestow alms, from thy substance, on the poor and needy in the name of Christ. Likewise instruct kindly the people entrusted, or also to be entrusted, to thee; attend the Church of God with such ministers of honor and love. Finally keep thyself free from criminal acts and impure thoughts. For the Most High will doubtless prosper thy deeds, illuminating thy mind and directing thy steps. Having spoken these things the messenger of God disappeared. To which Rumold suppliantly: Thanks, he says, I render to thee, O God almighty, who hast deigned to instruct me. I pray thee therefore, for thy immense benevolence and love, with which thou hast loved the human race itself, when from the highest heaven and the right hand of the Father thou didst send thyself down into this valley of tears: in which, most loving Jesus, thou didst will to undergo want, hunger, thirst, and heat, as a true man, and likewise insults, injuries, mockeries, and finally the most ignominious death, according to the predictions of the prophets; that thy most bitter death may by no means be ineffective in me thy little servant. But, as thou hast promised, mayest thou ever have care of me, I pray; and lead me into the way of thy commandments, that at length after this life I may deserve to receive the celestial crown, for the sake of which I have abandoned the earthly kingdom. And in this manner Rumold grew up conspicuous for much holiness, so that he was loved by all.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

CHAPTER II. The Archbishopric in Ireland.

After these things the parents entered into council, together with all the nobility of the Scottish kingdom, that namely they might choose for the youth Rumold a wife equally noble. Solicited to marriage by his mother, After long consultations therefore had among themselves on this matter, the mother commands her servants to bring her son. But he was not then found, sporting in a village or street ^a, as youth usually are wont, but attending to prayer in a sacred edifice. Hence he was led out to his parents, all the nobles of the kingdom standing by. We, they say to him, have conferred today for this reason, and it seems advisable to us, that thou shouldst take to thyself as wife a heroine illustrious in lineage, with whom after the fatal day of thy father thou mayst govern the kingdom, about to receive children from her, lest the Scottish kingdom should at length be bereft of legitimate offspring: which heard he answered; You, most observant parents and all you magnates, do not, I pray, make any mention to me on this matter. For to the vain honors of this world, and the embraces of women, I have said a long farewell: indeed, I have devoted my whole self to God my creator, and have determined to preserve perpetually the chastity of this body. Likewise the Lord Jesus, who spurned a worldly kingdom, gave me in command, that I should follow him in nakedness, and dejection of mind, and asperity of life. Alas, consider you, what would worldly empire and the embraces of women profit me, when shortly hence I must depart, and then shall have nothing which I may render to him in place of gratitude for so many munificences received from him. Therefore this word, I pray, suppress: for I have determined in mind, while the spirit shall rule these limbs, to pass here a holy, chaste, and pious life.

[8] But these things being perceived, the mother reproves her son most sharply. he constantly spurns all worldly things. I should not, she says, have thought thee so imprudent, as to esteem royal magnificence so little, even for this most of all, that no less in it thou canst give attention to divine things. To which the youth Rumold; it is so, sweet mother, as thou assertest: but that indeed is doubtful, nor altogether safe. He must be of unbroken mind, who, involved in these earthly affairs, would nevertheless lead an uncontaminated life. Wherefore nothing is more certain than to avoid the pomp of this world. Which being observed, the father remembered the words which Guallafer had pronounced not long before about this boy, divinely taught before his conception. On that account he listened to the words of his son more diligently than the mother herself. Whatever therefore had been determined by himself and others about the youth, he left to the judgment of his son.

[9] After this it happened that Guallafer the Archbishop departed from the living: Designated by the angel successor to Guallafer, and so the Canons of the chief church, as was fitting, gathered into one, for the sake of conferring about a new Bishop to be elected in the place of the deceased. But in this election they little agreed, but the greatest disputes arose among them; at length the matter came to this, that by the admonition of a certain man, of not-to-be-regretted holiness and wisdom, the Canons turned to religious prayers. Whereby they earnestly implored the favor of the divine power, that they might be rendered more certain who especially was to be taken to the episcopal office. Nor were their prayers vain; for soon an angel appearing to them from heaven, thundered with a clear voice: God almighty, he says, has heard the little prayers of you all, who also has commanded it to be indicated to you, that you designate by common votes the only son of the King of the Scots, Rumold by name, as Archbishop, for the eternal power has chosen him for this, since he is of dejected mind, celebrated for parsimony of life, and no less a lover of chastity and munificence, and one who grows up in piety from day to day.

[10] elected Archbishop, Which heard, the Canons were filled with the greatest joy, and unanimous elected D. Rumold as Bishop. That this designation might be ratified and confirmed, they summoned also the Bishop of Canterbury ^b and two neighboring Bishops, asking with the highest wishes, that they would not be unwilling to be present at the declaration of the new Bishop, and approve the same and inaugurate the designated Bishop. The Bishops assenting to their requests, soon flew thither alike, and were taught the whole matter done there by the flock of Canons, who also received the most worthy Bishops with a fairly decent and humble apparatus.

[11] by the Bishop of Canterbury and two others, All things being heard and perceived, which had happened before, the Bishop of Canterbury and the other two Bishops confirmed the election made before. And for this cause, the Canons and all the Clergy being joined to them, they went to the royal palace, together with sacred banners. And as they were now near the palace, the King beheld the clergy approaching, and ignorant ^c of the matter, marveled not a little. Nevertheless most kindly and religiously receiving them, he inquired the cause of their coming, and at the same time on what matter they had approached him with such apparatus, since he was a profane prince. Then the Bishop of Canterbury, beginning to speak, laid open to the King the matter done, namely that his only son had been declared by common votes by the Canons as president of the archbishopric of Dublin, and that this one, as their colleague, had been confirmed. They therefore demanded of the King that he would allow his only son and heir of the kingdom to be promoted to the episcopate, as this had been revealed by the messenger of God.

[12] But the King, perceiving that this very thing was done by God's nod, with the consent of his parents he is inaugurated: assented to the wishes of the Bishops and Canons; giving thanks also to those who had deemed himself and his son worthy of such honor: and that he might satisfy them, he asserted that his son Rumold was attending to prayer in the chapel in the palace. To which the Bishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops having at once gone, together with the Clergy and people, he was found bent over prayers. Then the Bishop of Canterbury said: Rumold, burning with the love of God, before thou wast conceived in thy mother's womb, the eternal Power chose thee as Archbishop of Dublin, and shepherd of his flock, that namely thou mayst feed the little sheep of Christ himself with the most sweet pasture of the divine word, and instruct them to worship and revere God himself, indeed, that thou mayst consecrate the Church of God with thy blood. Wherefore come, gird thyself now glad, whither the Lord Jesus calls thee, whom thou attendest with love and reverence, nor resist him in any way. Behold, it has seemed good to us to designate thee Archbishop of Dublin, for the whole flock of Canons by the admonition of an angel chose thee as their Bishop. Which heard, the divine Rumold was consternated in mind, repeatedly saying that he was unworthy of such an office, and who tried in every way to excuse himself from the arduous province offered to him. At length, lest he should seem altogether to oppose the divine good pleasure, he suppliantly assented to their wishes. Then the Archbishop of Canterbury at once gave in command to the Canons that they should lead him to the chief church: for there they had determined to inaugurate him to the archbishopric of Dublin in the Roman manner, not without celebrated ceremony and joy.

[13] These things being done, the Bishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops asked leave of departing from the new Bishop, bidding them farewell further, from the King and Queen, and so departed to their dioceses. The King and Queen gave thanks to God for so great a gift bestowed on themselves and their son, exhorting the same to persevere in divine things, as he had begun, nor ever to deviate therefrom; beseeching their son to beseech God most good and great day and night for their and the Scottish kingdom's prosperous success. Finally bidding farewell to his parents, he commended these to the most holy and divine Triad.

[14] His parents being bidden farewell in this manner, the holy man Rumold, he preaches about the Holy Trinity. and conscious to himself that the license of preaching had been handed to him, held his first sermon about the superblessed Trinity, and began with this kind of proem: In the beginning was the Word, namely about the power of the Father in the divinity, descending to the nativity of the son Jesus Christ, until he had announced to the people the whole Gospel of the divine John. He spoke several other sermons from day to day, so that he drew very many from the error of unbelief ^d to true Christianity, and not a few also, professing the name of Christ but living impiously, by his sound doctrine and the working of miracles, he led to repentance of their crimes.

[15] This Bishop Rumold, resplendent with so great holiness and benignity, and he shines with every kind of virtue. that to others he was an exemplar of virtue, himself gave attention to sincerity; he lived in abstinence, exceedingly bitter; likewise assiduous in hard labors and vigils; indeed submissive in mind, he lived in extreme want of things. For whatever he had possessed, and could scrape together for himself, all that he bestowed on the needy in the name of Christ.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

CHAPTER III. The pilgrimage to Rome undertaken.

At a certain time afterward, while about midnight the divine Rumold gave himself to prayer, Forsaking the kingdom on account of a divine oracle, the messenger of God appeared to him, saying thus: Bid farewell to thy paternal kingdom and thy archbishopric, about to seek foreign regions. For his father having ended this life, all the nobility of Scotia, with the promiscuous people, had determined to inaugurate this one to the kingdom, as the only heir ^a. But the holy man Rumold weighed in mind most diligently all the things which had lately been announced to him by the angel, and wished to comply with the divine oracle in all things. On that account he turned over in his mind how our Lord Jesus Christ left his Celestial kingdom for the sake of man, and descended into this valley of miseries: in which he also suffered many inconveniences for the salvation of the human race. According to the admonition of the angel therefore he firmly determined to abdicate his own Scottish kingdom and undergo the burden of penance; not indeed like Simon of Cyrene compelled to this, that he might bring help to the Lord in carrying the cross, but of his own accord he undertook it. And that he might satisfy this now holy purpose, secretly and his people unaware, he departed from his native soil; lest namely they should detain him by a violent hand.

[17] And so the holy man went out of his fatherland and first came into England, in Gaul he enlightens a blind man carried over in a little boat, which was twisted of branches, and covered with a leather or buffalo hide ^b, and that pitched. Afterward he crossed into France, where he found a certain man blind from birth, demanding alms from him. To him he says: Gold and silver or anything else, with which to succor thee, I have not: but Jesus Christ, who also, by his divine command, opened the eyes of one born blind, I beseech, that to thee also, deprived of eyes from thy early age, he may impart sight. In his name also I say to thee, arise and be enlightened, about to procure for thyself by thy labors the things necessary for sustenance. And straightway his eyes were opened, and he saw clearly. Then the beggar gave thanks as great as he could to God and the divine Rumold, making a vow to the Most High and his beloved mother, the most pure Virgin Mary, that he would henceforth with all his strength render pleasing service. This sign being given, and by his sound preaching, which the divine Rumold held in France, many gentiles were drawn to Christ, seeking sacred Baptism. Not a few also he advanced to the detestation of their crimes and to repentance.

[18] Some other days thence interposed, the man of God Rumold came to Alemannia or Upper Germany: and in Germany a man with elephantiasis. in which province he often held words about our religion. And so a certain gentile with elephantiasis approached him, speaking in this manner; If, he says, thou art a holy man, such as men proclaim thee, give me some alms. To which the divine Rumold: Temporary alms, whence to give thee, I have not; but spiritual alms I impart to thee. In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who cured ten lepers, raise thyself from the place in which thou standest, and trusting in God, believe in him and soon thou shalt be healed of thy leprosy. He without delay rose, and was cleansed in his whole body like a newborn boy. For which reason this leper at once believed in Christ, and was dipped in sacred baptism by the holy man: whom he exhorted and commanded that henceforth he should beware of vices and sins. By this so celebrated sign many were drawn to Christ: which then being performed, and the people taught, D. Rumold made his journey through the mountains and valleys between Germany and Italy. And wherever he came, he most religiously announced Christ Jesus to the people, arriving at the place where Hannibal ^c appears to have done violence to nature, who traversed the Alps even to Rome. So the holy man Rumold came to Rome, not without the highest desire of soul and excessive labor.

[19] Having arrived at Rome, he resigns his dignity to the Pope, In the year seven hundred and fifty-two after Christ born on earth, the supreme Pontiff Zacharias departed ^d from human affairs, whom in the Pontificate succeeded the pious man Stephen, the second of that name. In his time D. Rumold visited Rome, and approaching the Pontiff himself, a suppliant cast himself before his most sacred feet, which he also kissed. Saluting him honorably, he asked of him exceedingly, that he would not be unwilling to receive the ring of consecration, according to what he requested, by which he had been initiated and declared Archbishop of Dublin. These things heard, the Pontiff marveling beyond measure, addressed him thus; Who art thou, he says, son ^e, and what is thy name, and what is that archbishopric of which thou makest mention? Then he; Rumold is my name, I am sprung from Scotia, the archbishopric of which I speak is of Dublin. Moreover the Pontiff, on account of the celebrated fame which he had long ago heard of the holy man, said in this manner: O Son, thou art the legitimate heir of the Scottish kingdom; about thee long ago I received no sinister rumor of holiness. Indeed I have understood that thou wast divinely chosen for that archbishopric. On which account, most beloved son; seek again thy kingdom, and subdue the most savage people of that region to the most sweet yoke of Christ, lest, straying from the path of justice, it deviate into error: but as a tireless guardian of the sacred things, lead this people to the flock of Christ, that is eternal life.

[20] who admits it unwillingly and confers it on another, To which the holy man: By no means, he says, most holy Father, is it just that it be done so; since Christ himself the supreme shepherd of souls pronounced in the Gospel writings: Unless one renounce his parents and all things which are of this world, he will not be fit for the kingdom of God. Therefore, Father, since I have been taught by an angel to compose my life to the norm of the Gospel, I have determined in mind to say a long farewell to these things which are of the world. Wherefore I commit to thy Holiness that which is spiritual; and that which is profane, I hand over to profane princes; and so I have determined to imitate naked Christ Jesus, who for our sake bore want, as long as I shall live. Hence not undeservedly holy mother Church, in praise of this celebrated man in the second matins chant, which they commonly call responsory, sings thus about him: This prudent and faithful man like Jacob, forsaking his parents and fatherland for the form of Rachel, strives for the heaven-dwellers, spurning ignominy through contempt; the consecrated man tramples birth and delights, the height of the Prelacy, royal riches. Further, his sincere mind being thoroughly perceived, the supreme Pontiff, unwilling to oppose him in any way, received the archbishopric from the divine Rumold by the ring, but the Dublin prelacy was in its time provided with another shepherd ^f by the Pontiff.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

CHAPTER IV. He sets out from Rome to Mechlin and is kindly received by Count Ado.

All these things being thus done, the holy man, suffused with joy, Taught at Rome by an angel about the place of martyrdom, visited the sacred places, in which Peter was affixed to the cross and Paul beheaded, and the other holy Martyrs fell for piety. From the inmost recesses of his soul and with profuse tears he also besought God, that he might deserve to be numbered in the company of the holy Martyrs. Then, all the sacred places being most religiously surveyed, a second time there appeared to him from heaven an Angel as he was attending to prayers, and said: By no means in this place shalt thou undergo martyrdom; but return by the same [way] by which thou camest hither, until thou arrive there where the river Scheldt empties itself into the sea ^a, and by nature, according to the course of the moon, glides and flows: for thou art about to illustrate that region by thy most sacred examples and, finally distinguished by the laurel of martyrdom, thou shalt reach the celestial kingdom. And having spoken these things the messenger of God soon vanished from his eyes. Then St. Rumold most religiously gave thanks to God, who had deigned to show him a place fit for expiating his crimes ^b, and had chosen him to be inscribed in the catalogue of the divine Martyrs.

[22] Rising at first light the religious man went to the supreme Pontiff, him, heaped by the Pope with blessings, he seeks; the faculty of departing to the place of penance being asked of him, and likewise with the highest wishes he asked that the place designated to him by the Angel be heaped with spiritual gifts by the Pontiff. Therefore the supreme Pontiff; since, he says, thou demandest not anything fleeting, but that which is eternal, I will not delay thee longer. But go and proceed whither the Lord Jesus has called thee through his Angel, advancing there in every kind of virtue. To the weak, by thy holy doctrine and piety, give courage; lead back also those alien to our religion to Christ, by thy assiduous preaching. Indeed by the authority of God almighty, whose place I hold on earth, and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, I bless ^c that place of thy dwelling, that whoever shall seek divine favor in it may obtain the same by thy merits. Let there be in that place prosperity, holiness, blessing, and every good, that as many as shall implore God himself there, by thy merit, as to worldly and fleeting things, which thou hast spurned, may prosper well, rejoice and take joy in divine and perpetual things, to which thou hast aspired. After these things, the Pontiff being bidden farewell, the man of God went out of Rome, doubtless desirous of arriving at the solitude shown to him by the celestial messenger.

[23] and a possessed man being healed in Lombardy, When then the holy man Rumold passed through Lombardy, he perceived there many wretchedly wailing, who also implored his help. And straightway he learned that the people were on that account afflicted with grief and anxious, on account of a certain one possessed by an evil demon, from whom he could by no means be freed. These things observed, the divine Bishop grieved beyond measure for the lot of the wretched man, saying, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who expelled a dumb demon, for his benign mercy and supreme command, now restore thee to entire health. Then to the impure spirit, in the name of God, holy Rumold commanded that it should desert the wretch. And without delay, it soon departed from the man, according to the commands of the holy man. But so hostile was the demon to the sick man, before it departed, that he seemed more like a dead man than a living one. For this reason they earnestly prayed him to deign to obtain also for the infirm man from God bodily soundness, as he had rendered him free from the dumb demon. Then the holy Bishop raised the sick man by the hand from the ground; go, he says, healthy, and stain thyself no more with crimes; but take care that henceforth thou come to thy senses, and commend me, a poor little sinner, also to the divine power. By these words indeed the possessed man was restored to his former health, so that very many by this sign were drawn to Christ.

[24] At Mechlin, on Good Friday, he seizes upon those dancing: The holy man setting out thence traversed Germany, even to the Scheldt, seeking for a while the place of his dwelling designated to him by the celestial messenger, until he was near to the soil of Mechlin. That place was then very waste and uncultivated, luxuriating with brambles, thorns, and trees, and nothing but the abode of wild beasts. And in this place the divine Rumold found a great force of men, leading dances to the symphony of the harp, flute, and music; and that about the sacred day on which our Lord wrought human salvation on the wood of the Cross. But this being beheld, he interrupted their dancings, and beginning to make words about our religion, began to announce to the rude people what and how great evils the Lord Jesus had suffered for the salvation of us all; with such energy indeed, that the people were in a wonderful manner enkindled with divine love, and partly imbued with the knowledge of the most holy Triad. When then the religious man had made an end of his sermon, he sought the wastes of the wood, to attend to the contemplation of celestial things.

[25] At the same time there dwelt there a certain Arch-count begotten of the distinguished lineage of King Pepin ^d, Further, kindly received by Ado, Ado by name, governor of that province from his early years. He had a generous wife, called Elysa ^e, with whom in matrimony, yet barren (for he had never had any children from her), he had lived sixty years. It was signified to them that the divine Rumold had announced to the people the most holy mystery of the Lord's passion, so that he had drawn the people back from the dances to which they were giving attention, and had enkindled and illuminated very many into the love of Christ. Made more certain of these things, the Count and likewise his wife, soon, the man of God being summoned by an intermediary, asked that he would not disdain to turn aside to their house; for there was something which they wished indicated to him. Not unwillingly assenting to their petition, the holy man entered their dwelling, received by them indeed most honorably: for they rejoiced not a little at the coming of so celebrated a guest, supplying him what he needed for food and clothing. The divine Rumold on the other hand, not unmindful of the benefit, in place of bodily nourishment, fed the minds of his hosts with the Gospel word. He exhorted them among other things to bestow works of mercy on the needy, because they were exceedingly pleasing and acceptable to God. Moreover, since he gave attention to instructing them piously, the Count ordered a fairly suitable seat to be prepared for him in his palace, in which namely he might pray to God for the salvation of both.

[26] But on a certain day, while the holy man was dwelling there, he obtains fruitfulness for the barren wife. it was lamented to him by the Count and his wife, how for a long time bound by the conjugal bond they had lived together, but with no offspring brought forth: and on that account, after their fatal day, their dominions must be divided in many ways. Most religiously therefore they asked the divine Rumold to hold both his hosts commended to the Most High in his prayers. His eyes at once raised to heaven, he prayed thus: Thanks, he says, I render to thee, almighty Father, for all the munificences bestowed on me, the greatest, who hast never not propitiously heard me thy servant. Alas now, most merciful Father and most clement Lord, trusting in thy immense mercy, suppliantly I ask and beseech thee, that thou by no means spurn these my little prayers, but hear them I pray, as thou didst hear Abraham, that from Sara his wife, barren even still and old, he might receive a son, whom he should call Isaac. Who likewise didst hear the prayer of Manoah, when his wife long barren, and relieved by the solace of an angel, bore Samson a most robust man. As also thou didst will to be bent by the prayer of thy handmaid Anna, long barren, who bore to her husband Elkanah Samuel the prophet. And who didst nevertheless give conception to barren Elizabeth, namely the divine John the Baptist. Thou finally, Lord Jesus, beyond the order of nature, didst will to be born of thy most pure mother the Virgin. So also for these servants exert, I pray, thy power, to thy praise and honor, that these too may rejoice for thy immense mercy in legitimate offspring. Deign also to give them the grace of fruitfulness, to the glory of the holy Trinity.

[27] When the holy man Rumold had said these things, soon imbued with the gift of prophecy, he prayed well for his hosts, imprecating on them the gift of fruitfulness: and he prophesied that the wife of the Count would shortly conceive, Hence was born St. Libertus, and would bear a son, very comely in body, industrious, and celebrated for holiness. He foretold also that the infant would afterward be baptized by him and received as by a baptismal parent, and that he should be called Libertus. To the words and promises of this man therefore the Count and his wife gave so great faith, that they believed nature itself would sooner fail than that the words of the divine Rumold would be vain or void, which he had foretold about the little son to be born. Wherefore also God, as they had conceived hope, permitted to come to pass: for as the holy man had divined, the Countess conceived, and brought forth a child: and that with the incredible joy of her husband, and of all the people of that province.

[28] he at once gives forth great indications of holiness. Then Count Ado and his wife religiously offered their little boy to the Most High, giving him immense thanks, who had deigned to give them an heir, who namely, themselves having ended this life, might most peaceably govern the prefecture. And so the man of God Rumold himself dipped the infant in the sacred wave of baptism, the name of Libertus being given him. But when Count Ado now perceived and weighed that all those things had been fulfilled which had been pronounced by the divine Bishop Rumold about the boy to be born, soon turning himself to him he says; Thy admirable power, most sacred Bishop, and distinguished virtue thou hast more than sufficiently declared in thy son Libertus, and by many titles I confess myself bound to thee, on that account choose thee here a seat, where thou mayst perpetually remain, and let it be permitted me to enjoy thee, in place of a father and most faithful friend. The religious man therefore dwelling there, the boy Libertus grew up, advancing in age, to the highest joy of his parents and of all the people of that region. For he, always progressing to better things, studied to impart bread to beggars and the needy and to pray health to all he met. And to turn away from those things which were odious to God, and other seeds of piety of that kind he imbibed. But since this boy was divinely begotten, and likewise endowed with a good disposition, he so clung to the hearts of his parents, and was so loved by them, that they wished him never not present, but more rarely absent. Who, although sometimes he sported here and there after the manner of boys, yet was before the eyes and minds of his parents. Moreover, by the testimony of the Wise man, who said: In the day of good things, be not unmindful of evil things (since glad days shall be turned into grief), so also it befell Count Ado and his wife in the death of their son, as this very thing may be observed, from those things which will afterward be reported about him.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

CHAPTER V. The resuscitation and martyrdom of St. Libertus. The colloquy of Saints Rumold and Gummarus.

This little son, nourished with so great care, sporting with his coevals beside the water, while he tirelessly pursued the flitting little birds, The boy being submerged in the waters; and trusted too much to the bank, going headlong into the river itself, is immersed. The father, made more certain of this matter, weeping and most bitterly crying, folded his hands, and his eyes raised to the sky, said: O almighty Father, what so great thing could I commit against thee, that thou shouldst now afflict me with this grief! For when there comes into my mind that day on which thou gladdenedst me for thy benignity, by giving me namely a child, whom so bitter a death has wretchedly snatched away, I am tortured by sudden grief. Alas! what advantage will there now be to me from the generous offspring which my wife brought forth, so suddenly snatched from the midst? You, as many as burn with love of me, why did you call me fortunate, you ought rather to have called me unhappy. For now I am afflicted with far greater sorrow than I was first anointed with joy. O you aged ones, now weep with me, and you, younger in birth, for the sake of the dead infant, cease, I pray, from joys. For it will profit me nothing to have begotten Libertus, nay it will now be given me for disgrace, and I shall never not pine away with grief. My joy and gladness have vanished together, like a dream. O my generous son, flower, mirror, and ornament of all boys, henceforth it will not be permitted me to enjoy thee as a son, nor wilt thou succeed to the paternal riches and dominion. If some honest kind of death had taken my son from life, that would be some solace, whatever it were, to the parents.

[30] While the Count was thus lamenting at length, all things are filled with laments and complaints, the mother of the son, that noble Heroine, now running up nearer, inquired the cause of so great grief and lamentation. Then, made more certain, and taught of the adverse fortune of her son, the mother could not, for excessive grief, utter even a little word: but suffered a fainting of mind, so that it was necessary to lead her away thence. Moreover it may be gathered from the greatest grief of the parents, which they bore for the dead infant, with how great love they attended him. For so great were the complaints and lamentations of the parents, that they moved the whole people of that region to compassion. Hence old and young ran up from everywhere, for the sake of searching out the son of the Count immersed in the river. Some sought him by boat and by swimming, but others standing on the bank of the river deliberated among themselves in what manner they could search out and find the boy. Some sought him with the instruments of nets: others again attempted this with hooks or grapnels. There were finally those who sought by swimming. But all labored in vain, since they by no means found the submerged boy. But what counsel they should take, or what further they should set about, they were utterly ignorant. This alone remained, that they should see to summoning the divine Bishop Rumold, to ask of him, that as they had obtained him from the heavenly ones by his intervention, so now he should knock at the same with prayers, that they might receive the infant drowned in the waters alive again. Messengers therefore are sent to the man of God, but he was absent three days ^a before he was made more certain of this matter.

[31] St. Rumold being absent, There was at that time in the province of the Rhine Renensi, born and educated in the village of Emblehem, a certain illustrious man Gummarus by name, and he sprung of distinguished birth and one of the equestrian order in the court of King Pepin, so warlike indeed that he sometimes contended against the infidel Huns and Danes. Who, having embraced the best beginning of life, persevered in much piety. But since the man of God Rumold, kindled by the divine gift, and conspicuous in every kind of virtue, burned with love of all who grew bright in piety. And wherever he could find any such person, he longed greatly for his presence. And that for no other reason than that with the same he might hold words about perennial felicity, and be refreshed with the pasture of the divine word. Allured therefore by the celebrated name of the divine Gummarus, St. Rumold was held by the greatest desire of seeing and meeting him. The divine Gummarus likewise, having perceived the holiness and wonderful religious life of the holy Bishop Rumold, from his soul also exulted to see and address him. So seriously indeed treating these things, that they mutually informed each other about a suitable time at which they should meet. But these distinguished lights of holy Church meeting, words were held by them back and forth, not about the shadow of an ass, as they say, but about those things which have the chief moment for promoting the felicity of human life. Now they busily sought to taste the sweetness of eternal life, they recalled also by how many snares of Satan we are entangled, and by what engines, fortified by divine protection, against the same. Now before their eyes were the troubles and torments of the damned; now they reported the rewards of the just. How fleeting also the time of the present life was, they discoursed, and to how many passions and tergiversations we mortals are subject; finally they commemorated the manifold trophies of the Martyrs of Christ; how one, cast to the beasts, was devoured; another stoned with stones, a third slain with the sword; and several others extinguished by flames. These and similar things they reported indeed in a short time, namely how, by the testimony of the Wise man, afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well disposed. For God tried them, and found them worthy of himself. From whose eyes God shall wipe away every tear: nor shall there be to these any more grief, cry, or mourning, for all these things have passed away. They conversed also about the various writings of the Gospels, and the apostolic men, and the prophets, unfolding the very fountain of the sacred letters, with which they imbued the minds of the peoples.

[32] And that these holy men might have occasion of meeting more often, in conference with St. Gummarus: a day was appointed by them, on which they should again come together ^b. But the appointed time approaching, each was wont to carry a staff or stick, to sustain his limbs, and so they came together to the place which at present they call At the Oak ^c. That place, since it was midway between the dwelling of both, they judged suitable, in which they might mutually feed each other with the Gospel word. And by the inspiration of the divine Spirit, it seemed good to them to come together every year at that place and frequent the same, together with the clergy and people, sacred banners also being borne before, and the most holy relics. They most religiously performed the divine service there, sending forth suppliant prayers for the people; which being thus performed and established, each of them fixed his staff in the ground beside the oak, and behold, those which had been dry suddenly began to grow green, afterward putting forth leaves, very many beholding this, who attested this very thing. Since it pleased God, by this so notable a prodigy, openly to declare for his benevolence that a council or assembly of this kind pleased him exceedingly; since he himself said: Where two or three shall come together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Since therefore, brethren, all the foregoing things were ordained for our instruction, that namely we, coming to our senses by the examples of the pious, might make a divorce with vices and crimes, it was established that every year the clergy with the promiscuous people should come together there, and that for the sake of performing the sacred rites: which was thus observed for many years.

[33] On the third day from the submersion of Libertus, the man of God Rumold understood his adverse fortune, on that account affected with great grief, which he openly testified: for coming to that place, he wept profusely, like all the rest. Nevertheless, he who could scarcely relieve himself with solace, who recalls to life the one submerged after three days, supplied courage to all, and led them into good hope: and the divine Bishop sought toward the river, together with the people, in which the boy Libertus had been drowned, and there, his eyes raised to heaven, he prayed to God almighty most ardently, hesitating nothing at all (although he conducted the matter with profuse tears), that the parents might deserve to receive their son alive again and restored to his former life. But when the holy Rumold had thus prayed at length, all the people standing by and awaiting the outcome of the matter; nay, what is wonderful to say, before he ceased from praying, he beheld Libertus standing on his feet before him, certainly with no other countenance than if he had been roused from sleep: for neither did his hair, nor his garments, appear soiled or wet. But he came out of the waters of the river, just as once the three boys came out unharmed from the Babylonian furnace of fire, by contrary elements namely. Then for joy the parents of the boy exulted, with all who were joined to them by blood and all the people, because they beheld Libertus, that noble boy, now raised from death.

[34] receiving from Ado a woodland place, For which reason magnificent gifts of gold and silver were offered to the divine Bishop Rumold, all which, esteeming as a trifle as fleeting and temporary, he gave this answer: O illustrious hero, I am not able to perform these things by my own strength, unless aided by divine protection. On which account thou oughtest to refer it as received to God almighty, by whose protection alone these things were done through me his little servant. These temporary things also, which thou offerest me, because they are worldly and momentary, I have long since spurned, lest they in any way supply me a handle for sinning. But there is a certain marshy place near here, and that uncultivated, and beyond measure full of trees; a place, I say, abundantly producing alders, thorns, and yews, and brambles. This I ask to be given me by thee, in the name of God, not indeed for any other use, than that it may be permitted me to give attention there to divine praises, together with the ministers of God. These things heard, the Count rejoiced beyond measure, both because he had asked something of this kind from him, and because he had chosen, not far from his dwelling, to build himself a seat, and says; Whatever thou hast asked and sought, I gladly grant thee. When the Count had uttered these words, the man of God Rumold gladly sought the wastes of the wood, by no means delayed by the wolves, or wild animals of that kind, of which there was then no small abundance there. In which place he also built himself a cell, or dwelling, surrounding it with ditches and waters; to which thing he applied himself with hands and feet. Which work, that he might more quickly accomplish, and there increase the divine service, he took to himself some men, celebrated for holiness, and the Count himself confirmed and established this donation, by his solemn testament, so that those things which were of the Church of God might be exceedingly propagated, and claimed into liberty. In which place also the holy man dedicated a little chapel to God in honor of the protomartyr ^d Stephen: where also for several years the divine Rumold dwelt together with Libertus.

[35] For after the youth observed that he was bound to the man of God by very many titles, where he instructs St. Libertus. he studied, after his example, to give strenuous attention to piety, and to detest all vices and crimes; striving indeed with such religion and true submission of mind, that at length he afterward obtained the prize of eternal felicity, as will be established from what follows. For when the savage gentiles, whom they called Huns and Danes, tumultuously burst into these regions, devastating all the cities, villages, and temples of the Saints, and the little convents of the monks, with their inhabitants, with iron and fire; yet by the gift of God, that place remained immune from this disaster, which the divine Rumold inhabited with his companions, and that doubtless by the pious merits of the holy Bishop: for the barbarians, prohibited by the heavenly ones, dared to bring no evil to his little convent. But at the same time Libertus had gone to Hesbaye, for the sake of visiting his friends ^e and those joined to him by blood. In which province the Huns were depopulating all the cities and villages, and the inhabiting people, with such cruelty indeed, that everyone gave himself to flight; likewise also Libertus. But there was no place of refuge, the barbarians overturning all things, both sacred edifices and the dwellings of the religious. Fleeing at last, Libertus went to the church sacred to the divine Trudo. But this too the impious gentiles entered ravaging: whom beholding, he fled to the altar of Christ, which he also embraced. Alas! the atheists, not revering God, slew Libertus there before the high altar. Of how great merit this Saint was, the signs and portents which were given both before and after his death sufficiently and more than sufficiently declare. These so nefarious things being perpetrated, the Huns, returning whence they had come, demolished whatever they had in their way, as they had done on coming.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

CHAPTER VI. The rest of the Acts of St. Rumold, his martyrdom and cult.

St. Rumold living piously, Holy Rumold, mindful of the Apostolic word: He who does not labor, let him not eat; likewise: We have worked with our hands, lest we should be burdensome to any of you; so he never not did some work, exercising himself and his genius, partly by working with his hands, partly also by attending to pious prayers. No time, I say, did he suffer to slip away from him, which he did not give to prayer, or to some more honest work. Which that he might perform in deed and fact, it was his custom to sow, and to plant trees of various kinds. And whatever was sown or planted by his sacred hands, sprung up and grew most excellently; doubtless to that matter the divine munificence cooperating with him. There was among the other works of the holy man Rumold a shrubbery planted, whose fruits were much suited to the uses of men. After his custom also he delighted in this shrubbery, under the shadow of the tree to pay to God the Davidic Psalms and other divine songs. And that the memory of so great a man might at no time perish, he is held the Tutelar of all the fruits of the earth, and of the mechanical arts. On that account in the mouth of very many, of those who venerate this Bishop and undertake any matter, that proverb is for the most part current: May God and the divine Rumold attend our undertakings. To him also mortals are wont every year to pay the tithes of their crops and cattle and other fruits.

[37] while he is occupied in building a church, Finally our Lord, who by his blessed blood purged the whole world, willed also to consecrate by his death that place which the man of God Rumold inhabited, and to render it blessed, and to distinguish the Saint himself with the little crown of martyrdom. It is established therefore that the same, that he might attend to God and divine things, committed to his workmen the care of bringing exactly to completion the building which he had begun, namely the little chapel mentioned before, of distinguished structure indeed, and elegance, as is even now to be seen. ^a And that he might perform in fact what scripture admonishes us: It shall not delay, saying, the work of thy hireling with thee until morning; about evening he came thither daily, to investigate what and how much work his workmen had done, that he might pay them a worthy wage. And he always exhorted them to better things, diligently reproving among other things the crime of adultery; which one of the workmen perceiving, who labored with this same vice, was agitated with hatred and envy against the holy man. He, observing that the wage of each was always prompt and ready, with feigned mind addressed his companion in this manner. Believe me, this man must abound in riches, and have his purses stuffed with coins and a hidden treasure. For he is deterred by no expenses or burdens, indeed he pays us our wage daily without any delay. But since with difficulty by hard labor and many sweats we make little gain, it will be worth our trouble to attempt some work of this kind, that we be not numbered among plebeian and unhappy men; that, I say, we take this foreign man out of the way, and that secretly, lest at length both of us perish badly, and let us put him stealthily to death, and submerge him lifeless, that the deed itself may be concealed, lest for the crime perpetrated we pay the deserved penalties. The one indeed, led by the desire of gold, assented to this, impelled by his fornicating companion, who pursued the man of God Rumold with hatred, because against his vices he was always ready to speak. And so the wicked men, going out together, awaited a suitable time at which they could find the holy man without witnesses. Moreover, although their perverse mind was perceived by God, yet they esteemed that a trifle. That finally they might perpetrate that crime, so nefarious, secretly, they entered upon the road by which they suspected D. Rumold would come, and that armed with axes and mattocks, just as if they had gone out to extirpate some tree.

[38] Toward evening the holy man Rumold came after his custom, he is impiously killed by two workmen: for the sake of investigating the work of the workmen, that he might pay them a fair wage. Which being beheld, those two traitors rejoiced not a little, and one of them inflicted a dire wound on the head of the Bishop, so that from it he soon breathed out his soul. Nor was there found more money in his purse by them than three silver coins, which report holds the Saint perpetually kept and retained for himself, however much he also spent. For this reason, he who was marked with the vice of avarice, and had been allured to perpetrate the deed by the fornicator, then assailed his companion pining with envy with the greatest reproaches, and devoted him with curses, not indeed without grave complaint, that namely he had perpetrated that assassin's work by the impulse of so great a traitor. That finally the wicked deed might be concealed, the criminals gave the sacred and lifeless body to the waters, covering it with the leaves of the trees, lest the matter be disseminated among the common people. But they labored in vain, for God would not allow so distinguished a light of this age to be clouded over, nay rather it pleased him to render it illustrious in holy Church. Wherefore, what they wished concealed, a celestial light sent from heaven betrayed, as if pointing with a finger to the place where the body of the most religious man was laid. The divine Bishop Rumold therefore underwent martyrdom because he had reproved adultery, like John the Baptist, on the very feria of the same Martyr the Baptist, and that in the year of our Savior Jesus born seven hundred seventy-five, Charles ruling the Franks (to whom from the greatness of his deeds was the surname of the Great), in the seventh year of his rule ^b. But the year of so great a Martyr slain is contained in this little verse: hIC CaesVs CeCIDIt fLVVIo IaCtVs, neCe Capta Here slain he fell, cast into the river, his death taken.

[39] The fishermen going out to fish about the middle of the night, the submerged body, by the indication of a celestial light, beheld a very great light, in the place where the sacred body of the man had been cast by the criminals, ignorant however of what that matter portended. And wherever they turned themselves, they always had this unusual light before them. Hence the fishermen were not a little terrified, nor yet dared of their own genius to go thither. But approaching Count Ado, they uttered such words: O generous hero, to us fishing by night there offers itself a certain prodigious light, and that in one and the same place. And if we should conceal anything of this kind, we fear lest we be accused of crime. Therefore we now make thee more certain of this matter. Which heard, the Count marveled beyond measure, and turned in his mind what this light denoted. And he would not give faith to the words of the fishermen before he had beheld this very thing with his own eyes.

[40] To investigate therefore the truth of the matter the Count, the fishermen being joined to him, found by Ado and honorably buried went out at dead of night and, coming to the same place, found all things as he had been taught before. For this reason he was greatly amazed, thinking nothing less than about the divine Rumold. Therefore the Count ordered them to bring the fishing instruments, to make trial of what had been put into the rivers. And without delay, the grapnels being cast, the noble and sacred body of the divine Martyr Rumold was seized. But when they had snatched this very thing from the waters, and had wiped his pleasant face, Count Ado could easily perceive that it was the lifeless body of the most religious man Rumold. Indeed he beheld a grave wound in his head, and consternated in mind on that account, exclaimed in this manner: Who, I pray, divine Bishop and most ample priest, so monstrously slew thee; and he deplored the death of that holy one with many tears and sighs. These things being thus done, the Count gave in command to those standing by that they should carry the sacred body to the place of burial, namely into the little chapel which the Saint, while he was alive, had himself built, as this very thing is even now recognized to be true. But Ado built him a tomb not to be despised, adorning that little chapel with many honors and gifts. He ordered also the body of the divine Bishop to be adorned and clothed according to his magnificence. The clergy then were filled with the greatest joy, and all the rest, both sick and sound, ran up for the cause of religion, desirous of seeing the holy body itself and attending it with tears. he shone with many miracles. Likewise those seized with diseases implored the help of the holy man, and were made partakers of their wish. For the Most High, wishing to declare the holiness and merit of so great a Martyr, cured very many sick, and gave many signs in his honor, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS by F. B.

ADDITION From the edition of Domynsius, collated with the Belgic Ms.

Rumold Bishop and Martyr, at Mechlin in Belgium (S.)

BY John DOMYNS.

The Life of St. Rumold, given Latinity by Domynsius, as far as it has been given here, Baert had described from the edition of Vardæus, That the whole of Domynsius may be plain, inasmuch as he had not seen Domynsius, much less the Belgic anonymous: but from Vardæus he reckoned that only the Acts were to be taken, those things being omitted which do not closely refer to them. It seemed otherwise to me, chiefly for this cause, that in the preliminary commentary I have cited some things from those additions, and undertaken to refute others, so that I have need to discharge my faith, the very words of Domynsius being exhibited entirely and faithfully, but also at the same time collated with that Belgic Ms., that what is common to both, what is particular to each, may be more clearly known. We noted in the aforesaid commentary that Domynsius did not conduct himself rightly enough, when he passed over the whole series of miracles, so clearly and expressly related in the Belgic autograph from page 150 to 188, on that pretext, which I know not whether anyone will sufficiently approve. His oration I shall soon report, when I have first observed that there was inserted here by him a prayer and a received collect, which with others I gave in §21, from number 236, of which the Belgic anonymous reported few and sparsely. Have now the excuse of Domynsius.

[42] The series of miracles, friendly reader, which in the German (understand Belgic) copy is already annexed to the foregoing (add, there is given also its appendix and had always been annexed) I have here of set purpose and willingly omitted: not indeed for this reason, that I spurn it as fabulous and less probable; or even reckon it unworthy of this Latin version. I, to speak the truth, in this rude little work of mine, wished only this, that to the more erudite, with whom I a poor little man am by no means to be compared, I might only point out the way, in which namely these things, described by me with rude wit, they may at length more neatly and in better Latin, and according to the magnificence of the matter, treat. This pardon of the benevolent reader being premised, I now gird myself to narrate those things which pertain to the elevation and translation of the holy Martyr, and other things of that kind. A vain subterfuge never pleased me; it is the part of a sincere interpreter to render all things. As to what he adds, that he wished only this, that to the more erudite he might only point out the way, in which namely these things they might more neatly and in better Latin, and according to the magnificence of the matter, treat, this indeed was by no means to be heeded; it ought to be far more pleasing and acceptable to pious and devout worshippers of the Saints to re-read their deeds, true, genuine, and sincere, and as many as survive, than adorned and decked with bedizened elegances.

[43] There follows in Domynsius this title: The elevation of the body of the divine Rumold from the earth, on the elevation of the body of St. Rumold, and its deposition in a silver shrine, which is the same in the Belgic on page 188. Then: After the courses of many years, and the prodigies of several signs given (which God wrought through his Saint, both before his migration from this world, and afterward), the most sacred body of this Martyr was raised from the earth most magnificently: and the same was found embalmed with various kinds of aromatics. And thus in a wooden chest, the sacred bones were laid up, wrapped in a silken garment, which was woven with many golden lineaments, and enclosed in a silver shrine; which is wont to be placed under the entrance of the high choir; namely above the altar of the Annunciation of the divine Mother of God Mary. This place, or repository of the silver bier, Domynsius could know as well as the Belgic writer, in the rest neither the matters nor the times are distinguished nor combined, as was abundantly demonstrated above in the commentary.

[44] on the translation to Steynockerzeel, The title of the other article was added by Domynsius: The body of the holy Martyr, on account of the tumult of wars, carried to the village of Steynockerzeel. The history is taken from the Belgic autograph, from page 190: It happened that a fierce war was stirred up, and very many citizens of Mechlin, what of dear and precious furnishings they had, having carried it from the city, committed and entrusted to the protection of friends. But there were certain of the Canons, fearing the greatest loss of the thing; who also took counsel that the body of the Martyr should be carried to the village of Steynockerzeel. Report has it that the silver shrine, in which the sacred body of the Bishop had been laid, was buried there in the country, the body coruscating there with very many prodigies of signs. But the dissension of the wars being now lulled, the body itself was dug out of the earth; whereby they at length brought it back to its former place, sacred banners borne before and with solemn pomp. There was at the same time a certain prince of the equestrian order of Steynockerzeel, and he laboring with the falling sickness. But since God had wrought many signs there through his Saint, he was unwilling to allow them to carry off the relics of the holy Bishop Rumold from his domain, unless first he were rendered safe and sound by the help of the Saint. Wherefore the whole flock of Canons burst into these words: Above all, gracious hero, far be it that thou shouldst tempt the Most High, but thou shalt earnestly and religiously pray to the same, that he render thee a partaker of the divine gift, his holy Martyr aiding to that end. Hearing these things, he says: In what manner shall I pray to the Lord? They say: Purge the bilge of thy crimes, and from thy soul bewail the sins committed, and be led by repentance of these, that at length thou mayst be helped by the favor of the deity. Which being performed, the lord Canons fell upon their knees, beseeching God himself more ardently for the Prince; so that he was restored to his former safety. This sign being given for his sake, the dominion which he had he straightway gave over to the college of Canons. Of which village of Steynockerzeel the perpetual dominion the college of Canons of the divine Rumold holds at present, so that it enjoys there the right of investing and reinvesting. In memory of this thing the Canons of the divine Rumold light a hanging lamp day and night, in the midst of the high choir. About that translation, with what probability I could I disputed above in its place: moreover that the hanging lamp perseveres even to this day, by the expenses of the Chapter, my erudite friends of Mechlin have testified to me more than once.

[45] on the prodigy in the siege of the year 1303, He sets forth the history of the siege and of the miraculous victory under this most simple title: A prodigy. In the Belgic it is narrated from page 194, which Domynsius closely followed, noting at the end, in a phrase also used elsewhere, the eve-day of the feria sacred to Thursday, the Anonymous writing scorssel Woensdag the Wednesday before, when most probably it happened the next day, as is in the Commentary §23. Behold the text of Domynsius: Not long after, Mechlin, according to the Chronicle, was besieged on every side by a strong band of warriors. (A vague oration again.) Wherefore the people of Mechlin too, an army being collected, took to themselves as leader a man of the equestrian order, and the same English and called Peter Dondelier. For the citizens reckoned that the enemy must be resisted. This military leader asked for some sacred thing; to whom was offered the rib of the divine Martyr; which he affixed to his shield, placing his hope in God and the divine Rumold. But by all the townsmen, that they might obtain the grace of God most great, most religious supplications were held, together with the little chest of their Tutelar, with which they surveyed the whole city. And halting their step at the gates of the city, they put back the shrine itself within the walls. Afterward all going out in order, and bravely warring, by the help of God and the divine Rumold, they obtained victory, so that the soil of Mechlin received no inconvenience from the enemy then: but as it has never been subject to the plundering or occupation of anyone, so then too it stood firm. The leader therefore, trusting wholly in God almighty and the holy Bishop Rumold, saw to it at his own expense that the rib of the Saint was sumptuously covered with gold and silver, in the likeness of an angel carrying it in its hands. But the mixed common people and citizens of Mechlin, out of gratitude, accumulated so great a heap of gifts, that from them they cast a golden shrine for the Martyr. The same also bound themselves by oath and made a vow, that they would carry around the sacred body of the divine Rumold every year, with new and waxed torches and those lit, just as this is even now duly observed, on the third day from the feast of Easter. Moreover this miracle was given on the very eve-day of the feria sacred to Thursday, which is commonly called the Lord's Supper. Let there be therefore to God praise and all honor forever.

[46] Those things which here are recited briefly, obscurely, confusedly, and negligently, which are here again discussed. in the paragraph cited just now were called back to a more exact criticism, and it was shown that that Peter Dondelier, the English knight, is not probably enough adduced, who perhaps then was not yet in the nature of things. Add that it is made plain to everyone that Domynsius prematurely mentioned above the silver shrine, which he so expressly asserted was buried in the country; where are to be noted these words, not long after; namely that after the Steynockerzeel translation Mechlin was besieged: all which things are arranged neither historically, nor chronologically, nay nor sensibly, since in the year 1303, in which the prodigy happened, there was only a little chest, and that merely of wood, which the people of Mechlin then carried around; that silver gilded one, which Domynsius preferred to call a golden shrine, first cast in the year 1369, as the Anonymous rightly narrates on page 199, whose words it is wonderful that Domynsius here again passed over, unless perhaps he noticed that his archetype had not spoken coherently, besides that he could not reconcile the weight. Let us give the whole text rendered in Latin: Now it is to be known that in the year 1369 the reliquary-shrine of St. Rumold was completed, on which were consumed six hundred marks of silver above three thousand. But the price of the marks being omitted, he only says that for each eight Rhenish florins had to be paid to the craftsman; and finally that for the gilding of each mark two ducats were expended: whence, he says, there arises the sum of the price at which the chest cost, of sixty-six thousand Rhenish florins, besides the precious stones and other things thereupon annexed, as the registers of the city declare. Thanks be to God.

[47] With these the Anonymous not badly connects the showing of the Relics of the divine Rumold, about which Domynsius thus, erring by a whole thousand years: On the showing of the year 1480, In the year of the salvific birth seventy-nine above four hundred, on the very holy day of the Annunciation of the divine Virgin Mother of God, John of Burgundy, brother of Philip Duke of Brabant, presiding over the prelacy of Cambrai, the body or relics of the holy Bishop and Martyr Rumold were shown to the people, by him who was then suffragan to the Bishop of Cambrai, Godfrey by name, and he a monk of the Carmelite institute. There was found in the very shrine a wooden coffer, and a silken garment, woven with various golden lineaments, in which all the sacred bones lay wrapped, namely the head, arms, shoulders, together with the shoulder-blades; the ribs, legs, and joints of the hands, even to the toes of the feet. There was also plainly seen in the skull of the Martyr a certain scar: and, John de Poertere, and Lambert his full brother, and some others skilled in the art of medicine and surgery, citizens of the town of Mechlin, standing by, by whose work and industry these sacred bones were joined together by the Suffragan, it was ascertained that none of them was then lacking. At this showing of the relics seven Abbots were present, Francis of Villers, Livinus of Boudelo, Martin of St. Bernard, John of St. Michael, Bartholomew of Averbode, Werner of Tongerlo, Mark of Grimbergen. But they were visible to all the whole eight days; and that before the Easter feria, both morning and evening. Moreover by seals and the monuments of letters they were then made more certain that the bones of so celebrated a Martyr, together with the covering, had been laid up in the coffer for more or less seven hundred and four years. Finally that sacred garment was removed, and changed into another, and that a green one, in which at the present time the holy relics are wrapped. But the former garment is daily exhibited to the people for the cause of religion. That veil has now perished; but what of the things said are true, what false, you will manifestly perceive from the authentic instruments related word for word in §14.

[48] and on the feast days of the Saint, Domynsius subjoins two articles, on the feria of the Bishop Rumold, and on his translation, beginning badly thus: Let this be the end of the signs given through the holy Martyr, which words are lacking in the Belgic, where yet they would deservedly have place, after so many miracles, wrongly neglected by Domynsius. In the rest they agree: But lest the memory of this Saint be obliterated, everyone ought to know that the holy Archbishop and Martyr Rumold poured out his blood on the holy day of John the Baptist. He was therefore reckoned in the number of the holy Martyrs, and obtained from God the perennial laurel. But lest the festivity of the divine John be neglected through the feast of this Bishop, it seemed good to holy Church to appoint the feria of the divine Rumold on the eighth day from the feast of John, namely on the very Kalends of July. I am deceived, unless this be a paraphrase of those things which Theodoric said above, in his panegyric in the last chapter. About the translation it had to be treated more than once in the preliminary commentary; whence the Belgic anonymous could draw the determinate feast day of St. Luke hitherto escapes me, nor is there leisure to inquire further. His words are in Domynsius: The translation of this so eminent man Rumold was accomplished on the very feria of the divine Evangelist Luke, although the Mechlin church celebrates it on the day before the Apostles Simon and Jude. Indeed on that day his natal is celebrated at Liège, but at Mechlin, not a translation, but a relation.

[49] The peroration to the divine Martyr Rumold, the exhortation to any persons, Whence the title of Archbishop of Dublin. to seafarers, and the rest to mechanics, are had in the cited §21: the Belgic sense was gathered and adorned by Domynsius. The history of those begotten from Ursus is found whole in the Belgic; it was discussed by us in §25. There remains therefore only the admonition of Domynsius; Hail to the candid and pious reader, by which he ingenuously confesses that, against the faith of the autograph, in which St. Rumold is most openly pronounced Archbishop of Dublin Duvelensis, he wrote, Archbishop of Dublin Dublinensis. Let him be heard himself: Thou wilt not wonder, candid reader, that the place in which the divine Rumold once exercised the episcopal office is called by me Dublin, although the author of the German booklet (whoever he was) seems to name the same place from a demon, or demonic. In which matter he was deluded, unless I am mistaken, on account of the length of time. And to this my opinion the codex commonly inscribed gives support; The Provincial of all the cathedral churches of the whole world. For it comprises among the Irish Bishops only four archbishoprics in number, namely of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. Of this therefore I wished thee admonished, candid reader, lest thou think this my metathesis is to be ascribed to rashness. Fare well, and imitate the pious and brave deeds of this Saint. This rightly: but with me all excuse is vain in so manifest a corruption of the text, from which has so greatly prevailed the most received today, but false, opinion of the people of Mechlin, about the title of Archbishop of Dublin, to be ascribed to St. Rumold. See §7.

[50] Thus far the additions of Domynsius, by whom were again neglected More recent miracles also passed over by Domynsius. those things which as an eyewitness the Anonymous narrates on pages 217 and 218, in these words: And I, he says, knew a Reverend priest, who through the merits of St. Rumold obtained great benefits in his body; and he asserted that a certain foreign or alien man came, who asked where St. Rumold rested? To whom, when the church of the Saint himself had been shown, betaking himself thither at once, into the treasury, or trunk, if it is allowed so to speak, of offerings, he poured out so much money that he had to ram it in with a knife. After his departure, that little chest being opened, there were found more than twenty notable golden coins: whence it is gathered that the fame of the virtues and miracles of St. Rumold is greater elsewhere than here (at Mechlin). Wherefore God is to be praised, who rendered his Saint so glorious. Besides, I use here also the words of the Anonymous, all who dwell within the enclosure of the city of Mechlin are bound every year to offer a silver coin to St. Rumold. I scarcely doubt that in two whole centuries, or from the time at which this life was written, very many other benefits were obtained through St. Rumold, as the Wachtendonck author confusedly testifies; but whose memory, as well as the pious custom of the citizens paying an annual tribute, has perished. I vehemently desire that the not slender labor bestowed by us in illustrating the deeds of the Saint, and other things pertaining to him, may kindle the zeal of those to whom the care of collecting miracles belongs; and that the citizens, most pious clients of the Saint, may not be unmindful of due recognition. May the most glorious Martyr himself grant that I obtain these wishes, with which I put the crown both on our Acts and Observations.