Grimbald

ON ST. GRIMBALD, ABBOT,

AT WINCHESTER IN ENGLAND.

In the Year 903 or 904.

HISTORICAL COLLECTION.

Grimbald, Abbot, at Winchester in England (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. The cult of St. Grimbald; eulogies; fatherland; manner of life.

The sacred cult of St. Grimbald the Abbot is most known and most attested, both from the Martyrologies and from other monuments of the old writers, although passed over in the Roman Martyrology. Such was handed down by William of Malmesbury, The sacred cult of St. Grimbald from various sources. who: buried, he says, with great glory, he is proclaimed and believed a saint. Following him, Matthew of Westminster proclaims him a man of great sanctity. There agree Florence of Worcester, and Iperius in the Chronicle of the monastery of St. Bertin, which we have in manuscript, chapter 12, writing that St. Grimbald was there made a monk. He is reported on this day in the Usuardine codices, the Antwerp Major, the Brussels, the Anchin, the Altemps, and the Lübeck-Cologne; concerning which consult Usuard, illustrated a few years ago. With the same title of sanctity he is honored in the Legend of the Saints of England, attributed to Capgrave, in Baronius at the year 904, in Wion, in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, in Miraeus in the Fasti, in Dorganius, Ferrarius, Maihew, Menard, and Bucelin. More things pertaining here the Saint's eulogies will give.

and is believed. Following him, Matthew of Westminster proclaims him a man of great sanctity.

[2] The sacred cult is much established from the Benedictional of Robert in Mabillon, Benedictine Acts, fifth century, from page 6, as also from an ancient Benedictional. from a Gemeticensian monk, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 1050, in which book is read a Benediction on the birthday of St. Grimbald the Confessor, such as follows: Bless, O Lord, all this people, gathered for the solemnity of the most blessed Grimbald the Confessor, and strengthened by his shining examples, make it deign to be inscribed on the roll of heavenly blessedness. Amen. And you who on this day raised him with rejoicing to the heavenly host, look upon this people, appeased, subject to you, and by the intervention of so great a patron mercifully grant that it be absolved from the squalors of all sins. Amen. And so grant them to pass the felicity of this fleeting age, that, when in the world's end you shall come as judge of all, you may not condemn them to the company of the guilty, but grant them to be fellow-citizens of all the Saints. Amen. Which may he himself deign to grant, whose kingdom and dominion remain without end.

[3] The Legend of the Saints of England already mentioned pursues the holy Abbot with the following proclamation: St. Grimbald the monk, Eulogies taken from the Legend of the Saints of England, skilled in literature and chant, King Alfred of the West Saxons summoned from the parts of Gaul, and, a new monastery being built at Winchester, constituted him Abbot: who, a company of monks being gathered, made their venerable Abbot and Doctor, instructed his disciples in letters and morals. Given to alms, devoted to prayers, assiduous in vigils, and full of all good examples, in a good old age, on the 8th before the Ides of July, he left the lands, and for his works pleasing to God received rewards in heaven. At Winchester, in the monastery called from the event Hyde, his body is held in great veneration. He flourished about the year of the Lord 888.

[4] by Saussay Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology thus adorns his praises: On the same day (the 8th of July), of St. Grimbald, Abbot and Confessor, who, sprung from Thérouanne of the Morini, scarcely yet gone forth from boyhood, joined himself to the Bertinian monks at Saint-Omer, where, when he had produced great fruits of piety and doctrine, at last crossed into England, summoned by Alfred, King of the West Saxons, on account of the bright fame of his sanctity; by whom, constituted Abbot of the new monastery at Winchester, having begun his office with great increase of virtues, he carried it through with that praise by which, the path of true felicity being disclosed to the flock committed to him with every example of sanctity, he himself, found worthy before God of the supernal reward, a faithful cooperator of grace, merited to obtain the laurel.

[5] the epistle of Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, A not inelegant eulogy of the Man I find in our Alford in the Annals of England, at the year 885, taken from the epistle of Fulk, Archbishop of Reims as it is reported, which he testifies he copied from a manuscript codex of the Annals of Winchester, which book is called of Hyde. I exhibit a fragment of the said epistle, other things not pertaining here being cut off, for brevity's sake. One thing you especially demand of us, King Alfred, namely Grimbald, priest and monk, to be set over this office of warding off the wolves from the flock of the Lord, and of the pastoral rule of governance; to whom indeed the whole church bears witness, which nourished him from his early age in the true faith and holy religion, and which promoted him through the several grades in the ecclesiastical manner even to the dignity of the priesthood; proclaiming him most worthy of the pontifical honor and fit, who could also teach others. But since we desired this rather to be done in our kingdom, and once, Christ granting, were disposing to fulfill it in the opportunity of time, namely, that whom we had as a faithful son, we might have also as a consort of our ministry, and a most faithful helper in all ecclesiastical usefulness; not without great, so to speak, grief do we suffer him to be torn from us, and through so great spaces of lands and sea to be separated from our sight. But charity knows no loss, nor faith detriment, and no intervals of lands shut off those whom the bond of true love couples; most gladly we assent to your petition, to whom we can deny nothing … It is ours therefore to grant him to you canonically; but yours to receive him honorably.

[6] By that reasoning and tenor, both to the glory of your kingdom which is reported given to Alfred, King of England, and to the honor of our church and prelacy, he is to be sent to you with his electors, and with some of the nobles or magnates of your kingdom, both bishops namely, presbyters, deacons, and also religious, laymen, who may to you with living voice, in the presence of your whole church, profess and promise that they will hold him in befitting honor all the time of his life; and also that they will inviolably wish to keep on all days the canonical decrees and ecclesiastical functions handed down to the churches by the Apostles and Apostolic men; which they shall then be able to hear from us, and afterward to learn from the same their pastor and doctor, according to the form handed by us to him. Which when they shall have done, by the divine blessing and the authority of blessed Remigius, through our ministry and the imposition of hands, in the ecclesiastical manner becomingly ordained, and in all things most fully instructed, receiving him to themselves, with due honor they will lead him to their own see, themselves cheerful and joyful, about to enjoy his patronage all the time, and to be continually instructed by his doctrine and example.

[7] And a few things being interposed, he thus proceeds: It will be his, with pastoral skill, always to consult for the salvation of those committed to him, but perhaps it is not authentic; and to draw all who follow him rather by love than to compel by terror. Thus far the fragment of the epistle, which Alford, although Flodoard does not mention it, judges must be adjudged to Fulk, at the aforesaid year, number 13. It happens as a wonder, that in the same there is made mention, if one attend to the whole context, that St. Grimbald was sent by Fulk, to be set over, as is there said, the pastoral rule of governance, most worthy of the pontifical honor; that, ordained by the imposition of hands in the ecclesiastical manner becomingly, with due honor he is to be led to his own see, is reported. But does that epistle seem to be so authentic that it lacks all suspicion? Which makes St. Grimbald a bishop; such as elsewhere is acknowledged by none; of which epistle Flodoard does not mention even to a shadow, who nevertheless reports very many written by Fulk to the Roman Pontiffs Marinus, Hadrian, Formosus, and others; also to the Emperors and Kings; nay even to Alfred himself, of whom it is here treated, whom he corruptly calls Albradus; also to the Bishops, and even to Plegmund of Canterbury himself, wrongly called by the name of Pleonicus. It would be wonderful, in so great a number of Fulk's written letters, reported so accurately and distinctly by an Author who lived nearest to those times, that these alone had been passed over, if they had ever existed in the nature of things. What if someone composed them for private affection, and inserted them into the Annals of Winchester? Nor does it hinder that Harpsfeld mentions these letters, and reports a compendium of them, ninth century, chapter 10; for that author is too recent to be able to reconcile an inviolable authority to the pretended epistle.

[8] Plainly illustrious are the things which the same Alford, in the same year, from the named Annals, published in praise of the holy Confessor in these words: the Annals of Winchester, In the year therefore from the Incarnation of the Lord 885, by the command of Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, and likewise at the request of his own Abbot, the most holy Confessor of the Lord, Grimbald, by the example of the most blessed patriarch Abraham, going forth from his land and his kindred, enters the English land, where he grew into a great nation, where he merited to fructify with the manifold sowing of a fruitful doctrine, and to rejoice in the propagation of many spiritual sons. Moreover a rumor of the longed-for coming of so great a Father, coming to the ears of the most serene Prince Alfred and of the supreme Pontiff of the English and Patriarch of Canterbury, Archbishop Ethelred; both, the King and the supreme priest, and the nobles of the kingdom, gathered into one, proceed hastily to meet the Man of God, and receive him, not as a man, but as an Angel of God.

[9] by Camden, and by Asser, an eyewitness In Camden, in his description of Oxford, citing the words of the old Annals of the New monastery of Winchester, St. Grimbald is called a most excellent professor of the most sweet sweetness of the sacred Page … a man of most acute genius and most learned in every respect. Asser, an eyewitness, in his book on the deeds of King Alfred in Mabillon, briefly indeed but honorably praises him, saying that King Alfred summoned from Gaul into England Grimbald, priest and monk, namely a venerable man, an excellent cantor, and in every way most learned in ecclesiastical disciplines and in divine scripture, and adorned with all good honors. Lest I be too long, I conclude from what has been said that the holy Abbot shone with rare gifts of genius, erudition, and integrity of life and morals, no otherwise than a star among the men excelling in his age in the praise of wisdom and probity.

[10] The fatherland of St. Grimbald. Happy indeed the fatherland which bore so great a man! But what was his fatherland? Miraeus in the Fasti writes that he was born at Tournai of the Nervii, or, as others will, at Thérouanne of the Morini. Saussay, as we have already related above, makes him of Thérouanne. Such also he is called in the eulogy in Molanus in the Natales, Ferrarius on this day, Meyer, book 2 of the Annals of Flanders at the year 903, Wion and Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology assert him of Tournai, with Molanus in the little Index of the Saints of Belgium, page 34. William of Malmesbury, book 2 on the Deeds of the Pontiffs of England, page 246, names him a Fleming, and from him Cognatus, book 3 of the Annals of Tournai, page 3; finally with both agrees Malbrancq, book 5 on the Morini, page 230; where, after he had proved St. Grimbald sprung among the Morini, and that Tournai is wrongly taken by some for Tournehem of the Morini, as also Thérouanne, the archcity of the Morini, for Tarvanna or Paulopolis, he afterward concludes that St. Grimbald may be said to have been of Thérouanne, but also to have been of Tournehem, and that he, whom they will have illustrious by race, drew the brightness of his origin from the children of Atto, Count of Boulogne, whom, he says, we related to have been instituted by Charlemagne Barons of the tower of Ordant, since they seem destined for the guard of the naval stations and ports. But since his parent perhaps held an honorable prefecture at Thérouanne, it happened that Grimbald there entered upon his birth.

[11] The ancient Life being wanting, But such was the continued series of the deeds of the most blessed Man, that he deserved an eloquent herald, who, commending them from ancient times in writing,

should transmit them to posterity, and rescue them from the shadows of oblivion. Iperius hands down that there existed a Legend of him; I will presently give the words of Iperius. Molanus testifies, not in the Little Index, as Mabillon will have it, but in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, that his life was written by Gotselin, a Bertinian monk, with this opening: The city of the Morini. That whole work it was no more permitted us to see than it was to Maihew and Mabillon after Molanus. Wherefore this loss must be supplied by us from elsewhere, by weaving together an epitome of the chief things done by him. And first, indeed, of his infancy I read thus in the eulogy which is said to have been compiled from Gotzelin, the Chronicles of St. Bertin, and the Legend of the Saints of England, in Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium; with which agree the things which Malbrancq has, book 5, page 230, in these words: The city of the Morini, once ample and illustrious by its ancient titles of wealth and wars, is now more illustrious by the birth of Grimbald, Confessor of Christ. Since from his seventh year of infancy, stronger and more prudent than his years, he preferred the monastery.

[12] The monastic education of the Saint is handed down in Molanus in the aforesaid eulogy, there is woven a historical sylloge; in which of his monastic education, where he is said to have been received and consecrated by the sacrifice of holy Samuel in the cœnobial bosom of St. Bertin, under the patronage of the key-bearer Peter. More distinctly Iperius describes the matter, clothed with certain adjuncts; who, in the Chronicle which, as I said, we have in manuscript, at the year 834, having reported the death of Fridogisus, the eleventh Abbot of Bertin, narrates that Hugh succeeded him, the twelfth Abbot of this place, son of the Emperor and King of the Franks Charlemagne … This Abbot, in the first year of his rule, received the most elegant youth, blessed Grimbald, and made him a monk of this monastery, who, how and how greatly he profited, his Legend testifies; (Therefore, as we just now suggested, a Legend was written of him) which we sing of him in the church of God. And hence establish concerning the birth-year of St. Grimbald, that it was about 815; that he entered the monastery about the 19th year of his age, and was admitted by Hugh in the year 834.

[13] But how distinguished a monk he proved himself, how he grew in virtue, by probity and virtue; and at length increased into the perfect man, is handed down in the same eulogy in Molanus; for by most sacred institutions he coalesced into the hope of heavenly things, into the perfect man, into the joy of the Angels. But who could run through the whole series of his virtues? How mellifluous, kind, and lovable he was; how, ardent with heavenly desires, he transcended all earthly things; how he watched by sacred readings and assiduous prayers, chastised the body, declared war on the aerial powers, put on the arms of all innocence, shone as a pattern of monastic obedience: from single men receiving single benefits of good works by emulation. The dignity of his priesthood he adorned by authority, moderated by humility.

[14] What? That he conciliated to himself so great veneration and esteem among his own, [by the prepositure, by a mission to the King of Gaul for the Bertinian monastery,] that, chosen to the prepositure and rightly administering that office, he was sent to the King of Gaul, to treat with him of a matter of the highest moment, pertaining to the monastery of St. Bertin; as we learn from Iperius, chapter 20, where he thus narrates: St. Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, formerly our Abbot, that is, of the monastery of St. Bertin, was now again taken up as Abbot of this same place in the twentieth place, in this manner. Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders, son of Baldwin Iron-arm, desiring to have this vacant abbey, approached the young King Charles, that, if he could, he might obtain it. Which the monks perceiving, they direct blessed Grimbald, then a monk of this place and Provost, to the King, to make this void by all means, if they could. Whom the Count found on the way, and asked whither he was tending. Who, when he answered that he wished to seek the King, the Count said that he could well obtain this abbey, if the monks did not oppose him; and so they parted. Blessed Grimbald, coming to the King, found there the blessed Archbishop Fulk; to whom he proposed the words of the monks, namely that all unanimously wished to desert the place, because a religious and sacred place would be reduced under lay power, asking that he would seek the King, and not permit this to be done in the time of his reign. The Archbishop, condoling and mindful of the ancient affection, went with Grimbald to the King, and set forth the supplication and the words of the monks. The King, assenting, by firm election committed this abbey to be ruled by the same Archbishop Fulk, in the year of the Lord 893. Moreover, with what dexterity Grimbald the Provost discharged this legation for the men of Sithiu; how strongly he pleaded for the removal of Baldwin; how, Fulk being appointed Abbot of Bertin by the King, his return was welcome to those monks, Malbrancq sets forth, book 7, chapter 2.

[15] adorned with other endowments, To these add the eulogy from Molanus; whence it may be plain that the office of Provost was discharged and adorned by St. Grimbald with the highest praise. And so, after he had there been named, by the votive prayer of all, Provost of the affairs of the monastery, it is added that he was most illustrious in prudence and eloquence, most solid in equity and piety: treasuring up nothing for himself on earth, but administering to the brethren, to the church, to the needy and to guests, like an animal full of eyes on every side, foreseeing all things. So kindly indeed were the bowels of charity in him, that he preferred to bear with the manners of certain of the household, rather than to cast them out, commending to the Lord the time of dispensation, in which He would correct His church; which is established to have been done through the instance of the blessed Prelate Adelwold. It becomes plain therefore from what has been said, that the holy Man shone with rare endowments of genius, erudition, and probity. And these things indeed concerning the manner of his life; about which two other points offer themselves, which we will discuss in the next paragraph.

§ II. Whether St. Grimbald was Chancellor; whether there was one Grimbald, or two contemporaries?

Whether St. Grimbald was Chancellor is proved from Mabillon? That St. Grimbald discharged the office of Chancellor, Mabillon reports that he found in a certain charter of one Rodinus, who handed over some estates of the district of Amiens in Sana-terra to the men of Sithiu, in these words: Done in the monastery of Sithiu, in the church of St. Peter, in the first year of Charles the Great the Emperor, surnamed the Fat, on the 6th before the Ides of September. Grimbald, priest and monk, wrote it. And so it is held, asserts the aforesaid Author, in Folquin in the History of Sithiu under Abbot Rodulf; and he judges this to have happened about the year 881; observing that to this reckoning the context of Rodinus is opposed, on which, if anyone insist, he must consequently say that the donation of Rodinus was made in the year 885. But because, according to his own opinion, Grimbald betook himself into England in the year 883, he judges that one of two things must be asserted, either that the Grimbald who wrote the aforesaid instrument is another from the Grimbald of whom we now treat; or certainly that the characters of the instrument written by him must be referred to the year 881, which was the first of Charles in Italy. But besides that from this place the office of Chancellor of which we speak seems to be elicited rather obscurely (if indeed it can in any way be hammered out from it. For what forbids that similar instruments be subscribed by those who are not Chancellors?), the number of the Grimbalds seems moreover to be multiplied too much; to which two, if you add another, contemporary with ours, established by Mabillon, as will be said a little later; you will now have two out of three Grimbalds, too much alike among themselves, for it to become credible that both together lived in adjuncts of times of this kind; as will presently be disputed concerning them.

[17] The aforesaid office of Chancellor is more expressly asserted by an Anonymous in Ussher in the Chronological Index, page 1176, Or from the Anonymous in Ussher? from a little note which he says he found appended to the margin of book 6 of the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, in a rather ancient hand, in the parchments of Thomas Allen of Oxford, which runs thus: Grimbald, in the presence of the most victorious Alfred and the other Magnates of the kingdom, read in the University of Oxford the first scholastic lecture, who a little before had been Chancellor of Paris. The Anonymous's note to the words of Ranulf, where mention is made of Grimbald, sounds a little otherwise in Alford, at the year 886, and reports that he administered that office not once only, but twice, namely once in the University of Oxford, once at Paris, since it is recorded that a little before he was Chancellor of Paris. But this opinion the same Alford refutes, especially from this, that that title of honor and prerogative had not yet been born in the Latin world, as neither the name of University, in that sense which today we take for an Academy.

[18] For that the name of University prevailed for a public school about the times of Henry III, Camden noted, This office is denied to him. treating of Oxford, and from him Ussher in the Primordia, page 342. However it be: the office of Chancellor which is pretended to have been discharged by St. Grimbald in the said note seems to be sufficiently overthrown, partly from what was said before concerning his praises and the institution of his life, where there is deep silence about this matter; partly from the weakness and infirmity of a single note, added to the words of Ranulf by an uncertain author, while other writers are silent who of set purpose treat of the deeds done by St. Grimbald. Nothing therefore sufficiently firm occurs here, that we should judge this dignity to be attributed to him.

[19] Never would the suspicion have fallen upon me, whether two Grimbalds at the same time, Of the disquisition concerning one or two contemporary Grimbalds in the same Bertinian monastery, with the same celebrity of fame, the same sanctity of morals, lived together, both dead in the same England. For who would believe that so many individual marks, as the Philosophers say, could belong to more than one and the same individual person? And so, thinking nothing of a double Grimbald, on both sides beyond belief equal, I fall upon a place of Mabillon, tome 3 of the Benedictine Annals, from page 240, where he retracts and corrects his former opinion concerning only a single Grimbald the monk. Whether rightly or otherwise; and whether the second thoughts were more exact than the first, let us discuss. Thus therefore he has in the cited place: I once thought this to be Grimbald the monk (the speech here is of that Grimbald who subscribed the charter of donation, of whom at the beginning of this paragraph) whom Alfred the king invited from the Sithian monastery into Britain to restore in that island the study of letters. But the matter being more maturely considered, it seemed good to distinguish two Sithian monks of the same name, contemporaries, one of whom was summoned by Alfred into England; the other discharged the office of Provost among the men of Sithiu even to the murder of Fulk, Archbishop of Reims; who being slain, he himself fled into the same island, to avoid the fury of those who had laid hands on Fulk, being asked by him to take up again the government of the Bertinian abbey.

[20] Mabillon gave the occasion, asserting two; Then, some things being interposed concerning our St. Grimbald, whom, for distinction from the other, he calls the Elder; he denies that that belongs to him which Molanus says, namely that he did not discharge the office of Provost in the Bertinian monastery, that he did not refuse the office of abbot after the death of Rodulf, and that he was not the author to the King of Gaul that Fulk, Archbishop of Reims,

should again resume this prefecture. For, he says, it is established that these things belong to the other Grimbald: since at that time Grimbald the Elder ruled the abbey of Winchester in England. And after a few things concerning his mission into England at the summons of King Alfred, he thus proceeds: It is established that Grimbald was summoned from the Sithian monastery, and indeed sent by Abbot Fulk, or by Rodulf, his successor. If by Abbot Fulk, that must have been done no later than the preceding year 882 after the eight hundredth, in which Fulk was substituted as Abbot in the place of Archbishop Hincmar. Nor further can it be deferred to the second prefecture of Fulk, now Archbishop, after the death of Abbot Rodulf, which happened in the year 888. At which time Grimbald was without doubt residing in Britain. Since in the year 886, Asser being witness, arose the ill-starred discord of Oxford, presently to be reported word for word, which arose after at least three years since Grimbald had come thither. For, from Asser himself, through three years there had been no great dissension among the discordant parties, yet the hatred was hidden, which afterward broke out with the utmost atrocity. Whence he concludes that either in the preceding or certainly in the present year, that is 882 or 883, this mission was made.

[21] whose reasons are set forth Thus reasons Mabillon. But the whole force of the reasoning comes back to this, that he may prove that, at the time when Grimbald the Provost acted as orator in Gaul, lest the election of an abbot should devolve to the secular power, at that time Grimbald the Elder existed in England, and indeed was Abbot of Winchester. The Achilles of this argument is sought from a place of Asser, where it is treated of the discord between the men of Oxford and Grimbald the Elder (let us too so call him meanwhile, for distinction's sake). I understand. But what if that place is of shaky credit, what if it is inept and ill-coherent; what if it is a fragment wrongly sewn from elsewhere onto the genuine text of Asser? The place, though a little longer, must be produced here almost entire, that its value may be judged fairly, the whole controversy of the matter depending hence. Alford, at the year 886, number 17, citing in the margin Asser folio 16, says: they who lately printed him make him speak thus at this year. The words are the following: In the same year arose the worst and foulest discord of Oxford between Grimbald and those most learned men whom he brought thither with him, and those old scholars whom he had found there, who at his coming refused wholly to embrace the laws, methods, and formulas of lecturing instituted by the same Grimbald. Through three years there had been no great dissension among them, yet the hatred was hidden, which afterward broke out with the utmost atrocity, was clearer than the light itself.

[22] Which, that he might settle it, that most invincible King Alfred, they are weighed, being informed of that dispute by the message and complaint of Grimbald, betook himself to Oxford, that he might impose an end and measure on this controversy … Those old scholars contended that, before Grimbald had come to Oxford, letters had flourished there far and wide, even though the scholars were then fewer in number than in former times; very many indeed having been expelled by the savagery and tyranny of the pagans, and that by the undoubted testimony of the old Annals the orders and institutions of that place had been sanctioned by certain pious and learned men; as by St. Gildas, Melkin, Nennius, Kentigern, and others, who all grew old there in letters … and that St. German also had come to Oxford, and stayed there half a year, at which time he made a journey through Britain, about to preach against the heresies of the Pelagians; and he approved the orders and institutions in a wonderful degree. Then it is reported that the King exhorted both parties to preserve mutual conjunction and concord among themselves … But Grimbald … straightway set out to the monastery of Winchester, recently founded by Alfred. Then he caused the tomb to be transferred to Winchester, in which he had proposed, after the course of this life, to lay up his bones, in the vault which had been made beneath the chancel of the church of St. Peter at Oxford, which church the same Grimbald had built from the very foundation, of stone polished with the utmost care.

[23] This place the said Alford deservedly impugns on many grounds: and he says it is wonderful that Asser spoke so abruptly of that discord, and they are dissolved; when elsewhere he made no mention either of the school of Oxford, or of an academy founded there. Then, how could that quarrel, born in the year 886, have been secretly conceived three years before; when, he says, not only what was said above by himself, but Camden himself, citing the Winchester Annals, prove that Grimbald came into England only in the preceding year, namely 885? He adds, how could it have been, in so great a devastation and ravaging of the Danes in the provinces of the Mercians, the churches, the monks, that those old scholars were spared, and permitted to devote themselves to the muses? He asks besides, who taught them? Under the discipline of what masters did they study? The Authors themselves confessing that Alfred cashiered them all, and substituted new ones. He moreover enervates the authority of the oft-mentioned place from the proper names of four men, there fabulously inserted. As for the pious, he says, and learned men, Gildas, Nennius, Kentigern, and Melkin, who by the undoubted testimony of the old Annals grew old in studies at Oxford … the trick will appear openly enough even at first sight. For of both the Gildases, Albanius, I say, and the elder; also of Badonicus and the Younger, the beginnings, the journeys, the studies, finally the old age and the last period of life we have inspected above (the years 508, 509, 512 being assigned in the margin for Gildas Albanius; but for Badonicus the years 540, 562, and 583) from the faith of all the Annals which we could find; and we never saw them either studying at Oxford, or living in that province of the Dobuni.

[24] With equal diligence we have read the journeys of Kentigern, we have explored his cradle, his boyhood, his youth, resting on a place wrongly attributed to Asser, his studies also and the place of his studies; and no trace of him at Oxford appeared. Nennius and Melkin are more obscure, nor can we follow them so accurately. Yet those who either said or wrote anything of them (for they are numbered among the writers of Britain) never mentioned Oxford, much less that they grew old there. Nay rather, because one of them is surnamed of Bangor, the other of Avalon; they rather seem, he says, to have lived, studied, taught, and finally grown old in those monasteries, the congruity being produced which persuades this. Finally, that which is added concerning Grimbald, led to the monastery of Winchester by King Alfred, which he had recently founded, he says, does not agree with the Annals of the same monastery, which thus declare: In the twenty-ninth and last year of his reign (alas!) the most clement King first opened his counsel to the holy man Grimbald, and first expressed his will concerning the construction of a monastery in the city of Winchester: but, prevented by death, the most pious King could not fulfill the vow long desired. Whose death the most holy Father Grimbald bewailed with incomparable affliction. But the aforesaid noble and glorious Prince Alfred, before his imminent death, bought land for a chapel and dormitory, and bequeathed it by testament to his son Edward, that he should not grow lukewarm in completing and founding the monastery, for so many years' courses premeditated by his father. Compare these things with the pseudo-Asserian fragment, and you will see that Grimbald was led by Alfred to a monastery which at that time did not yet exist in the nature of things.

[25] that is, to a fragment, as it appears, inept and supposititious, If anyone therefore should wish to weigh these ineptitudes of the fragment, he will not disapprove the conclusion of Alford, thus speaking: On account of these ἀσύστατα καὶ ἄτοπα (incoherent and absurd things) which are contained in the aforesaid narration, some deservedly doubted whether it were the genuine offspring of Asser, or rather supposititious and adulterine. James Ussher, when he had recited these things from Asser, calls it an erratic fragment, and inserted into his work; and he grieves that Camden gave so much credit to a single manuscript copy, which he had never seen, as to cause it to be inserted in the Frankfurt impression. Add, by way of corollary, from the same Ussher, page 342, that a most ancient exemplar, if not of Asser himself (which altogether seems the case), certainly of the times nearest to him, written in Saxon characters, is still preserved in the Cottonian library; in which he affirms that of all these things there exists neither palm nor footprint.

[26] But now, to return to Grimbald, from whom we have for a while digressed, Probably only one Grimbald must be admitted, not another contemporary with him. whether one or two contemporaries; since the fragment wavers, on which as on a foundation Mabillon built these two Grimbalds, their very duplication also must necessarily waver; unless it be propped from elsewhere, and indeed by reasons so certain and irrefragable that they do not so much elicit assent as extort it; too many adjuncts plainly similar here concurring, such as the same name, the same age, the same institution of life, the same monastery of institution, the same dexterity in managing affairs, the same sanctity of life, the same place of death; than that all these could have concurred in different persons, it is made probable or credible; or indeed must be admitted without the most urgent necessity. I therefore incline more to believe that one single Grimbald existed at the same time in the same monastery, the other, so equal to him, not being admitted.

[27] For what fault is it, to defer the coming of Grimbald into England, Objections are met otherwise than Mabillon judges, to the year 888, in which for the second time Fulk, at once Archbishop of Reims, and at once again Abbot, admitted the prefecture of the Bertinian monastery? For that Grimbald was sent into England at the time when Fulk had been raised to the see of Reims, is made out from the epistle, such as it is, given to King Alfred, whose fragment we gave at number 5, in the opening of which epistle he prefaces that he writes while he was Archbishop. Hear his words: To the most glorious and most Christian King of the English, Alfred, Fulk, by the grace of God Archbishop of Reims, etc. Nor does it seem improbable that he was then at once Abbot; and so that he wrote that epistle (if indeed he ever wrote it) when for the second time he was administering the prefecture of the Bertinian monastery. For to what do these words look? Not without immense, so to speak, grief do we suffer that Grimbald to be torn from us and separated from our sight … most gladly we assent to your petition … It is ours to grant him to you canonically. I know it can be answered with Alford, at the year 885, number 7, that recourse was had to Fulk, the Prelate of Reims, who had succeeded Hincmar, in whose power was the supreme authority over the Sithian monks; and that by royal letters, messengers, and gifts the same was asked of him.

[28] If the opinion pleases which, in the year 885, as the Winchester Annals have it, and after them Alford, fixes the coming of St. Grimbald into England, in this matter I do not resist; provided you do not intrude two Grimbalds, far beyond all verisimilitude alike on every side, nor distinguish Grimbald the Provost at St. Bertin from our Grimbald. For one single St. Grimbald, and him the Provost, Iperius acknowledged; such Molanus acknowledged in the eulogy above, such Malbrancq on the Morini

book 7, page 401; such Alford from the Winchester Annals, writing at the year 885, number 4; such without doubt the other writers, none of whom, as I think, came into mind to distinguish two so alike between themselves, except Mabillon alone, resting on the authority of an ill-coherent, inept, and apocryphal fragment, which ought to be reckoned of no moment.

[29] Nay rather, grant me to admit that fragment as genuine, I cannot yet be brought to admit two Grimbalds, to those who might raise the difficulty, so incredible by reason of their likeness. For grant that in the year 883 he set out into England, according to this fragment, at which time Fulk had been made from Abbot of Bertin Archbishop of Reims; grant in the year 885, according to the Winchester Annals; grant about the year 888 or 889, at the time of the second prefecture of Fulk, of which above; add moreover, that, as the same Iperius is author, chapter 20, after the impious murder of Fulk, blessed Grimbald, of whom above in the chapter of Hugh the first, part 1; and above from the first part, whom he makes one and the same, mindful of the evangelical counsel, if they persecute you in this city, flee into another; induced by fear of Count Baldwin the Bald; and because he knew that the affairs of the church could not by his presence be brought to better, but rather and more probably fearing that on his account they would go to worse, crossed over into England, and there remained even to the end of his life; add, I say, to what has been said all these things as true; what hinders that Grimbald made an excursion out of England, whither he had before set out, into Gaul, or the tracts near it? This excursion is rendered probable enough by the very easy crossing, the acquaintance and esteem in which he was very strong with Fulk, and his dexterity in managing affairs, his prudence, and his other endowments of erudition and virtue. What if he was called out of England by the same Fulk, to confer counsels in the difficulties stirred up between himself and Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders, concerning certain ecclesiastical goods, on occasion of which Fulk was afterward slain by Winemar, a satellite of Baldwin?

[30] However the matter stands, one of the two must here be admitted; yet not by probable ones. either the said excursion out of England into Gaul, or the duplication of two Grimbalds, utterly incredible, on account of the identity of name, age, dwelling, institution of life, authority, sanctity; place of death. Choose which you please; or if you have anything better, produce it. Note in passing that another Grimwald, one of the Priors, who is placed in Mabillon, Benedictine Acts, fifth century, page 3, lived about the middle of the tenth century; likewise another Grimbald, Prelate of Thérouanne, whose death is marked in Malbrancq at the year 816, does not pertain here, as being of a time far different from ours.

§ III. Why Grimbald set out into England? His deeds there; his death; burial.

From what has been said it can sufficiently be gathered about what year the departure of St. Grimbald into England happened. But for what cause he set out thither, besides those things which are had among the eulogies, For what cause St. Grimbald the Winchester Annals in Alford, at the year 885, from number 4, hand down to memory. In the year, they say, of the Lord's Incarnation 885, but in the 8th year of his reign (it should be read, Alford admonishes, the 15th), the glorious King Alfred, the Danes being miraculously put to flight or reduced to their right, when he ruled alone over the English, made monarch, considering that through the devastation of the holy church, the killing of the priests of Christ, the putting to flight of monks, the violation of nuns, and the suspension of such ministers from the churches, Christianity had little by little fallen, and there existed neither those who might teach, nor those who might partake of the sacred mysteries; there came into the memory of the most Christian Prince the thought of holy Grimbald, coupled to himself long before by a bond of spiritual friendship, who dwelt in the monastery of St. Bertin; from whom, when as a boy he was sent by his father to the most holy Pope Leo, to be anointed King of the English, he had received counsels of perpetual salvation.

[32] For the most gentle Provost of St. Bertin, St. Grimbald, in the same monastery, into England to which, for the sake of lodging, with his companions, the son of the King, Alfred, ever devoted to God, had turned aside, kindly received the boy with his companions, and, bestowing on them the service of charity, earnestly begged them to rest until morning; and, solicitous for their hospitality, most kindly exhorted them concerning the salvation of their soul: and taught them to love incorporeally the joys on high, and to tend firmly to the kingdom of God not only in words, but with the whole marrow of the heart. Whence when the distinguished boy tarried some days in the monastery of St. Bertin, he daily hastened to sit at the feet of so great a Doctor, that after the manner of Mary he might hear the secrets of heavenly doctrine, and not as if in play. Thus with pious mind he began to vow to God in his heart; that if he could return safe to Rome, and if the possibility of means should bring it, he would sometime exalt that Saint, and honorably retain him in his kingdom. Whence it came to pass that, on account of so great dangers above mentioned, the most kind King Alfred, vehemently agitated with grief of heart, and having spoken with Ethelred, Archbishop of Canterbury, made known to the Prelate the name of St. Grimbald and the merit of his venerable sanctity, saying: That by his exhortations he could inflame many to heavenly desires, and inebriate them with the cups of heavenly wisdom.

[33] Treating therefore together, the King and the Pontiff, they decreed, God helping, to send more speedily across the sea, that St. Grimbald, by the works for which he was fit, might furnish the remedy of salvation, if the slowness of faith did not resist, to the nation of the English. At length legates are sent across the sea, most serene and most illustrious men of the nation of the English, to the monastery of St. Bertin, announcing to the Abbot of the aforesaid monastery, that the most illustrious King Alfred and the most holy Pontiff Ethelred had asked, with many petitions and most frequent prayers, that he would direct to them the most perfect Grimbald; that according to the manner of ecclesiastical observance he might construct a monastery in the city of Winchester. These things Alford from the Winchester Annals, to which are subjoined the following from the same Annals: And that they might more easily obtain their most holy desired one (King Alfred and Bishop Ethelred), they sent most illustrious messengers to Fulk, Archbishop of the church of Reims and of all France; to whose most pious wish Archbishop Fulk, giving satisfaction, sent back for St. Grimbald a letter to the most Christian King Alfred and to Ethelred, Archbishop of Canterbury, containing the words which follow; the opening of the epistle, with the fragment pertaining to Grimbald, we produced above. Besides, Harpsfeld may be seen, ninth century, chapter 10.

[34] Alfred, most praised by many titles, that he might make known the merits of the holy Man, how greatly he was esteemed by King Alfred; is said to have gathered at London a council or assembly, of the nobles of the kingdom, the Bishops and Abbots; concerning which, although Spelman, otherwise an accurate collector of Councils, is silent, yet Alford testifies that he read it in the Winchester Annals, which he thinks most true. The words we gave above at number 8. Of that synod also Harpsfeld makes mention, ninth century, chapter 7: A famous synod, he says, met at London, at which King Alfred was present with the nobles, and Grimbald the Abbot, whom the king had recently summoned from Gaul. And that we may now subjoin certain chief points of the things which St. Grimbald did in England, let us proceed with Harpsfeld: Which Grimbald, at the request of the King and the Archbishop, made an address to that assembly, in which he gravely and wisely discoursed much on the dignity of human nature, to which God from the beginning out of His supreme goodness raised it, as created to the image of God, and how by the ingratitude and sin of the first parents it was weakened and overthrown: and he subjoined many things very fitting, by which he might recall his hearers from a base, vicious, voluptuous, soft, and delicate life, to a holy, grave, continent, and severe life.

[35] how strongly he deterred men from vices, and led them to virtue; Many things besides, by which he exhorted them to greatness of soul and to a lofty contempt of all earthly things. The supreme benefits conferred by God on them and on all human kind, he suggested to their memory. Who, although they could not return so great a grace as was due, yet should hold it gratefully in memory, and at least render thanks carefully. Finally he recalled to their memory those everlasting rewards laid up for the good and dutiful, and again the immortal punishments laid up with the just Judge for the wicked, that he might the more deter them from vices, and sharpen them to the study of virtue. Which, and other things of this kind, as they were received with great applause of all, so were they spoken with no mean fruit to all. This is the compendium of the oration: but the whole oration itself Alford wove into his Annals at the year 886. How great a movement of minds, how great a conversion of souls thence was made, the same Author narrates from the aforesaid Annals, whence he had drawn the oration; to which, lest this narration grow longer than is fitting, I send the reader. Which things being preached by St. Grimbald, a shout was made in the council of the English people; and they alike blessed the glorious name of the Lord, who had directed to that very province so glorious a doctor.

[36] how greatly letters flourished under him. But how strenuously Alfred endeavored to promote the studies of letters, how strongly he pleaded for this cause, Harpsfeld reports from the Winchester Annals, the royal exhortation being followed by great desire of learning, and the desire of knowledge by no small fruit. Moreover whether the academy of Oxford was first begun under King Alfred, or only, being restored and enlarged, put on new splendor (that it was begun by him Alford hands down, number 10, at the year 886, citing Malmesbury), we have, if we believe the Winchester Annals, that St. Grimbald taught at Oxford; who also refer the beginnings of the academy to the same time in these words: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 886, in the second year of the coming of St. Grimbald into England, the University of Oxford was begun. Among the masters is numbered St. Grimbald, most excellent professor of the most sweet sweetness of the sacred Page, as was said among the eulogies.

[37] He seeks leisure for himself and for God, Amid these things a care came upon the holy Man of returning into his fatherland, and where he had spent his youth, there of passing his old age, empty of the din of the world, and intent on himself and on God; since he was not far from the end of life. That he asked this of King Edward, son of Alfred and successor in the kingdom in the year 901; but did not obtain it, Alford records after Harpsfeld; adding that, since the chief care of Grimbald was to grow old holily and quietly, he took care that a new monastery in the city of Winchester (which Alfred had lately commanded) should be built without delay and endowed. But the whole series of the matter done, the prayers offered to Edward by Grimbald for his return to his monastery, the royal donation for the new Winchester monastery, learn there in Alford from the oft-produced Annals. That of Malmesbury is brief, referring the building of the monastery to Alfred, book 2 on the Deeds of the Kings of England, chapter 4: Alfred, he says, at Winchester constructed what is called the New monastery, where he constituted Grimbald Abbot. Lest these things clash with what was just now

said of King Edward, understand Malmesbury either to speak by prolepsis, or that the monastery, with its Abbot, was designated by Alfred, and afterward begun by Edward. Concerning the new monastery Mabillon adds some things in the Benedictine Acts, fifth century, page 5, which may be seen there. More nearly to our matter looks that which Harpsfeld writes, ninth century, chapter 10; there, that St. Grimbald honorably laid up the relics of blessed Judoc, brought from the territory of the Ponthieu. Which God afterward honored with many miracles. Nor do I think it beside the purpose to add, from the same author, that this monastery is ascribed by almost all to Alfred; not that he himself built it, but proposed to build it, and took care that it should be built.

[38] Those things which pertain to the blessed death of St. Grimbald I will give in few words, he prepares himself for death; when I have premised how sedulously and piously he prepared himself for it. Molanus, in the place assigned above: He is said, he says, to have besought of God that he might be purged in the furnace of languor before his death. Yet amid the pains, on account of the virtue of patience, he was stronger than the healthy, according to that of the Apostle: When I am weak, then am I powerful. But when, about to depart hence, he could not, by reason of his sickness, move himself to the saving viaticum of the Lord's body, yet with a strong effort, stronger than himself, he raised himself, and prostrated himself on his face before Christ coming. But from the Brethren he asked to be left alone for three days, that he might prepare his journey. Through which continuous three days he immolated himself to God in contrition of heart and a deluge of tears. Then he subjoins his death: On the fourth day at last, the brethren being recalled to him and commended in peace, he migrated to the ethereal citizens in the year of the Lord 903, of his age the 83rd. So he, citing the Bertinian Office, taken from Gotselin.

[39] Harpsfeld hands down these things a little otherwise: But Grimbald, he says, his age now growing heavy, daily more and more withdrew himself from all the businesses and cares of the world, of which he could neither bear to speak nor to hear, and poured himself wholly into prayers and fastings; pious death; rarely did he go forth, except to kindle some to piety by saving admonitions; to raise and console men afflicted and stricken in mind. Which holy exercises, a grave and lethal disease coming on at so prolonged an age, he so far from remitting, that he fixed and intended his mind the more vehemently to heavenly things, so fixed in continual prayers that they would have wearied even a strong man. Then the pious Man died on the 8th before the Ides of July, and is believed enrolled among the heavenly choirs, buried in the said new monastery, which is called Hyde. I forbear to report those things which the Winchester Annals in Alford have for the present purpose. This is singular, that, as they report, Four weeks being completed in the government of the clerics, after the monastery was dedicated, the holy Father Grimbald deliberated, as is said written above, to set the monks upon the works of that elegant fabric. But he foresaw in the Spirit that the day of his passing was drawing near, on which he should receive from Christ Jesus the reward of good works for the labor of the contest, and therefore he could not fulfill his will in gathering the brethren.

[40] the year of death; As for the year of death; the various writers do not disagree among themselves, except by a single year. Molanus places the year 903. The same is noted by Florence of Worcester, Meyer agreeing with him, book 2 of the Annals of Flanders, and Mabillon, who cites the year and day from the Saxon Chronology after Bede; in which I read thus: In this year 903 died Athulf the Duke, brother of Ealhswith, mother of King Edward; and Virgil the abbot of Scotland; likewise Grimbold the presbyter, on the 8th before the Ides of July. But Matthew of Westminster fixes his death in the year 904, thus saying: In the year of grace 904 the holy presbyter Grimbald, a man of great sanctity and one of the masters of King Alfred, ascended to the joys of the heavenly kingdom. Him follow Baronius and Alford, who last founds himself on the following words, prefixed to the diploma of the royal donation, which sound thus: There follows the donation of King Edward the Elder, of a certain little portion of land … in the fourth year of his reign, granted to St. Grimbald, who lived after the coronation of the aforesaid Edward only three complete years, and moreover some time into the fourth year of the coronation of the aforesaid King Edward. Who, since he is recorded to have received the royal crown at Pentecost of the year 901, three complete years being counted thence, there will now come the year of Christ 904 with one or another month. Concerning which matter Malbrancq at that year: Grimbald died in the 83rd year of his age, on the 8th of July, a Sunday, in the year 904, and obtained a tomb in his Winchester monastery. But now it remains to speak of the tomb.

[41] of the burial Those things which Maihew and Mabillon refer here, namely, that the holy Abbot caused a tomb to be transferred to Winchester, in which he had proposed, after the course of this life, to lay up his bones, in the vault which had been made beneath the chancel of St. Peter at Oxford (the rest we gave at number 22), seem to be of infirm credit, since they rest on a fragment, published indeed under the name of Asser, but suspect on many titles, as we said above. That he was buried at Winchester in the new monastery, which is named Hyde, we reported from Harpsfeld, number 39, and Malbrancq, in the preceding number. But certain things pertaining to the veneration of the body after the Saint's death, since they have already been narrated in advance among his eulogies, we here wish to be held as inserted, and we conclude our historical sylloge.