Kilian

ON ST. KILIAN, BISHOP AND MARTYR, COLOMAN OR COLONATUS AND TOTNAN HIS COMPANIONS.

AT WÜRZBURG IN FRANCONIA.

In the Year 689.

PRECEDING COMMENTARY.

Kilian, Bishop and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

Coloman, Presbyter and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

Totnan, Deacon and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. The Patron of Würzburg, St. Kilian, his name, fatherland, profession, and the companions of his martyrdom.

Concerning St. Kilian and the things pertaining to his life, deeds, and martyrdom, our Nicolaus Serarius has excellently deserved, a most learned man, says Canisius, who illustrated St. Kilian with excellent notes, namely those historical and dogmatic ones The city of Würzburg called by various names, which he prolixly subjoined to the Surian Life, reprinted by him in the year 1598. There in article 7 he disputes at large concerning the city of Würzburg, most diligently inquiring into its beginnings, name, and the cause of the name; yet so that

he passes over the other derivations, noted in Mabillon, third Benedictine century, part 1, page 719, where Praxipolis, etc., is preferred to Mustopolis; which to discuss at length is neither our task nor that of this place; for whatever the scrutinizers of etymologies may determine concerning these, Wirtziburgum, or Wirziburgum, or Wirceburgum, in which manner and various others it is anciently found written, in the vernacular Würzburg, is today Herbipolis, the chief city of Eastern France, or Franconia, on the river Main, situated in a very wide valley, or rather plain, at the roots of the mountains, under the metropolitan of Mainz: a truly elegant city, as it seemed at least to me, which seems to grow more splendidly day by day, and on whose left side a citadel, namely a magnificent palace, overhangs, the seat of the Bishops, Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and Dukes of Eastern France. All which prove the truth of the prophecy of St. Boniface in Mabillon, at the cited century, page 702, thus foretelling: Happy shalt thou be, Würzburg, and among the not ignoble cities of Germany; and although in these times thou art held the last of certain cities, yet, adorned with the bodies of the Martyrs, thou art not held inferior—doubtless for "shalt be held."

[2] The Patron and founder St. Kilian, Hence two things seem to appear clearly enough. The one, that not only in the time of St. Kilian, but even in the time of Burchard, Würzburg was still an ignoble town, but afterward, adorned with the bodies of the Martyrs, it grew in a wonderful manner; so that not without cause could one assert that St. Kilian is to be venerated there on more than one title; namely both as the apostle of Würzburg, and as patron, nay and in a manner also as the founder of the city itself; as we have said elsewhere of so many cities of Germany and Belgium, growing up at the tombs of the Saints, and most recently of St. Willibald of Eichstätt on the preceding day. Würzburg therefore glories in its holy apostle, founder, patron, and tutelary protector St. Kilian, with the same grace with which Eichstätt glories in St. Willibald, as both, announcing to those cities the most holy faith of Jesus Christ, from the densest darkness of idolatry, those gentiles being led to the salutary light of truth, took care that at the burials of their sacred bodies eternal monuments should be raised by their signs and miracles. And St. Kilian laid at Würzburg those foundations of the Christian religion, and, sealed with his blood, established them, which afterward spread themselves through all Franconia, and which to this very day, the heretics vainly clamoring round about, most happily grow up, as Serarius rightly demonstrates. These few things had to be tasted by us here on the occasion of the Saint; more the Topography of Merian will set before the eyes of the curious.

[3] The name of St. Kilian we have formed in a softer and more received manner, though we are not ignorant of the various expressions of the same: Kyllena, Killena, Killinus, Killenus, of whose name the various formation and etymology. Quillianus, Chillianus, Chilianus, Cilianus, Cælianus, and others in Serarius and elsewhere. But the etymon of all these is derived from Calix (chalice), as the interpolated Acts have in Surius and Serarius, here edited by us entire from Canisius; where Geilana is said to have said: from the chalice you are called Kilian, but you pour in very bitter cups: and other things of that kind, which must be altogether remitted to the imagination of the interpolator Egilward (of whom more below): nor will the things which Serarius learnedly adduces, concerning Greek words translated into the German tongue, ever sufficiently persuade that the woman understood or uttered those things which are fabricated in that larger Legend. I judge plainly true the opinion of St. Jerome, in the praised Serarius, that no one, calling anyone in one language, takes the etymology of the word from another. The English "Kyl" and "lex" (law) Serarius fetched in vain from England: the matter is more readily dispatched by the curious observation of our Henry Fitzsimon in his expanded Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland at the name of St. Kilian. "Kil," he says, a prename of places in Ireland, signifying a cell, as often as it occurs, so often has a Saint's name joined to it. Now it is easy for each in his fatherland to give his patrons to places, and to this catalogue very many Saints. Whether this is the true root of the name, I know not: there is another Chilianus or Kilian of Aubigny in Artois on the thirteenth of November: there is Kellenus on the twenty-sixth of March: there are Kellum, Kellac, and other names of this kind, perhaps looking to the same root. In weighing such things we lose oil and labor.

[4] Nor did the other question seem to me of greater moment, Whether by nation he was a Scot or an Irishman, more laboriously discussed by the praised Serarius in note 3; namely, whether St. Kilian was an Irishman or a Scot; since concerning that oft-recurring controversy I have declared my mind openly enough at the Acts of St. Rumold and St. Guthagon on the first and third of July, in the preceding tome and elsewhere. The more ancient and more genuine Life, which we here illustrate, expressly declares of St. Kilian, whom the Scottish soil produced, making no word whence you might safely enough gather that he looked to the island rather than to the continent of England; nor certainly will the "Kil" of the Irish move me to add the Saint to their catalogue, so long as more certain monuments are not produced which claim him a little more clearly for the island. I know that Egilward the Surian, and the very one which we reprint entire from Canisius, so sew Ireland to the text of the old Anonymous author, that St. Kilian is understood to have been sprung thence. Hear the beginning of the interpolations: Scotia, which is also called Ireland, is an island of the Ocean sea, fruitful indeed in glebes, but more illustrious for most holy men; of whom Italy rejoices in Columban, Alemannia is enriched by Gallus, Teutonic France is ennobled by Kilian. You would say that Theodoric, abbot of Saint-Trond, author of the purer Legend of St. Rumold, had a not dissimilar oration before his eyes, when in his prologue he spoke to nearly the same effect.

[5] But it is difficult for interpolators to be consistent with themselves: weigh, pray, it is not easy to define: what Egilward, the adorner of these Acts, subjoins at our number 4; I am deceived if you do not observe a contradiction, at least an inconsequence. These are his words: He came into Britain, neighboring to Scotia, he says, which, passing by with no long navigation, he reached the Gauls. If by Scotia there be understood Ireland, he ought altogether to have written: he crossed over, or sailed over, into neighboring Britain, just as immediately after, with no long navigation he reached the Gauls. Why therefore does he not mention the navigation? Why does he simply write, he came into Britain neighboring to Scotia? Truly Scotia is said to be neighboring to Britain, not so properly Ireland, but to come does not refer to navigation. But I dwell too long on these things; let the writers cited to and fro in Serarius be seen; let the Irish and Scottish Fasti be seen: among the former the Kalendars are not exact enough; Coloman is written in capitals, Kilian is sometimes omitted: among the latter, in the Aberdeen Breviary he is most expressly placed among the Scots, as also in Dempster, Camerarius, and in the Acts of Blessed Marianus on the ninth of February, number 21, page 370: these bring forward a cloud of witnesses for themselves, nor do those lack their own. I have said, and I repeat again, that I by no means wish to sit as arbiter between the Scots and the Irish; let them settle their own disputes; whether St. Kilian be Trojan or Rutulian, I shall hold it no difference. Behold now another disputation.

[6] nor do we believe it likely that he was a monk. To their Benedictine Order the monastic writers, after Trithemius, eagerly ascribed St. Kilian; Mabillon ascribed him too, though in his prefatory Observations he candidly confesses that it is left doubtful whether he followed the institutes of St. Father Benedict. To me it is no less doubtful whether he was ever a monk, Mabillon again confessing that all the things which are brought forward concerning his monastic profession are mere additions of the interpolator, where the author of the first and genuine Life does not open a chink whence you might gather that St. Kilian either entered a monastery or was set over one. Hear Mabillon again: That Kilian was a monk and abbot (which our author does not expressly say) the interpolator affirms, and indeed of Hy, if we believe Trithemius. I believe neither Trithemius nor the interpolator in either; nor is it anywhere elicited from the words of the genuine author. His companions and disciples being gathered into one, he says … seven others being joined, he began to persuade them to despise their own, to leave their fatherland and parents … and to follow Christ naked … But they, obeying, firmly united, all things being left, went forth from their own fatherland. I here smell neither monks nor an abbot, nor do those words anywhere insinuate that either St. Kilian or his companions then began the monastic life, because, all things left, they followed Christ naked, while they girded themselves for apostolic missions; so that it appears more likely that they were all clerics, some of whom stuck in Gaul or in Belgium, others accompanied the Saint into Franconia, especially Coloman and Totnan, others perhaps into other parts, destined by St. Kilian himself for sowing the Gospel.

[7] How many companions he had, Moreover concerning the companions of St. Kilian the opinion of our Legend is clear, expressing four by name, but variously according to the different copies, with seven anonymous ones. The somewhat cleaner Acts from our Valcellensian or Moretian codex mark Colman, Gallo (not Gallus, as thence perhaps the interpolator Egilward feigned), Arnuual, and Totnan, in others Donan. Sigebert, Regino, and others cited by Serarius add more, or contract to fewer, and inflect the names in various ways: but none of them could assert with sufficient certainty that all those accompanied St. Kilian into Eastern France, which had to be dug out of the Acts themselves, in which certainly Adananus, Adelinus, and Wilfrid are not known, who perhaps could have been disciples of St. Kilian, but discharged and completed their ministry elsewhere. The Acts are restricted to only two companions both of the pilgrimage and of the martyrdom, not to three, as Wion, Dempster, and others wrongly read. To Wandelbert and Usuard Cilianus alone is known. Rabanus, as I shall say below at more length, mentions two of his companions, but anonymous; Notker, two of his disciples, namely Colonatus the presbyter and Totnan the deacon, which is nearly the phrase of the augmented Usuards, which our edition enumerates one by one, so that at last this conclusion is to be elicited by us, that the true companions of St. Kilian, both in the Franconian apostolate and in the martyrdom itself, were SS. Coloman and Totnan alone: of the others nothing is certainly known, except that in some Martyrologies on this day Arnuual, Arnwal, Erwaldus, or Anualis is reported; doubtless because he is added as a companion of St. Kilian in the Acts, for that cause remitted to this day from the nineteenth of January and the fifteenth of February, though yet in the Catalogues and Kalendars both of the Irish and of the Scottish Saints he is reported on the second of October, as see above in the index of the Passed-over of this day.

[8] The names of those two companions, as also of St. Kilian himself, the Usuardine codices and the more recent Martyrologists variously form and twist. and with whom he suffered martyrdom. Perhaps the Rosweydian, augmented in England, does not stray far from the truth, when it reads Colmann and Totmann; others have Calanus and Totmann, others

Colonatus and Tothnan, Colonanus and Tornananus, etc. In some edition of Sigebert Serarius found Dolomann and Tholmann; in our Miraeus it is Coloman and Tholmann. But in whatever manner you turn those names, even into Colonat and Tothnat, they will be the same two and only companions of St. Kilian, whom we have joined to him in the title, as truly with him, having made pilgrimage first into Franconia and then to Rome, returning thence to Würzburg, the inseparable companions of St. Kilian in preaching the Gospel, at last crowned with martyrdom together with him, all other companions whatsoever being excluded. And these things are plainly conformable to the Acts, this the firm and constant tradition of the people of Würzburg; so that in the elevation of the sacred bodies, in the translations and perpetual cult exhibited to the Saints at Würzburg, always only three, and no more, are to this day commemorated. Perhaps Sigebert observed not badly at the year 694: The disciple of Kilian, bishop of Würzburg, Arnual in Gaul, Adamanus (I think Adamnanus) the abbot, Adhelm and Wilfrid the bishops, are illustrious in England. That those Saints were contemporary with St. Kilian is established, at least when Wilfrid the elder is taken; whether they were disciples, I do not dispute. Concerning his episcopate, and indeed of Würzburg, and concerning some order of the times, must now be inquired.

§ II. The episcopal dignity of St. Kilian; the reckoning of the times in the Franconian apostolate and martyrdom.

Our more genuine Legend is of that kind, that you can only with the greatest difficulty draw chronological marks from it; Not the first of the people of Würzburg, nor indeed does it even indicate sufficiently where and how St. Kilian obtained the episcopal dignity. For the rest, I suppose it certain that he was a Prelate, not of Würzburg, as after Sigebert and others many have wrongly asserted; since from the mutual epistles of Boniface, Prelate of Mainz, and Zacharias, the Roman Pontiff, it is established that Burchard was the first bishop of the city of Würzburg. For Boniface, says Mabillon, having received the power of erecting episcopal sees in Germany, instituted one in the castle of Würzburg, which he signifies to Zacharias in epistle 132 in these words: We have need also to indicate to your Paternity, that by the grace of God, the peoples of Germany being somewhat traversed and corrected, we have ordained three Bishops, and divided the province into three parishes: and those three towns or cities, in which they are constituted and ordained, we desire, praying that they be confirmed and established by the writings of your authority. We have decreed one see of the episcopate to be in the castle which is called Würzburg. This Zacharias confirms in his epistle reported in Othlo, book 2, chapter 2, and more briefly in our Acts, tome V of June, number 46, page 469, where it is clear that Burchard was set over the same church by Boniface. Of which thing you have Zacharias himself as witness in his epistle, which among the Bonifacian ones is the 133rd: To Burchard, most beloved by us, of the holy Church of Würzburg (supply "elect"), Pope Zacharias, in which he confirms and sanctions that the episcopal sees remain firm. More Mabillon adduces there, which render this matter indubitable, and if you rightly weigh what Serarius seems to adduce to the contrary in note 22, it proves the same, and nothing more; the first apostle of Würzburg is St. Kilian, the first proper bishop of that city St. Burchard.

[10] but he was truly an apostolic Bishop. Meanwhile the truth asserted by us stands firm, established from the more genuine Acts and the perpetual Würzburg tradition; that St. Kilian was raised to the pontifical dignity, that St. Coloman was a presbyter, but the other companion, Totnan, a deacon; with this difference only, that Egilward would have St. Kilian ordained at Rome, while we think that he attained all the grades before they set out from their fatherland. In vain will you seek in what place, at what time he was ordained, and of what place he was Bishop; the Acts themselves somehow explain that which can here chiefly be controverted. Thus there, at the very beginning, we read: In these (namely letters) he so perfectly advanced, that thence he had learned to rule the pontifical summit. Either I am greatly deceived, or here the author insinuates that the Saint showed in very deed, when he was Bishop, that he knew how rightly to discharge such an office, so that the words seem unable to be understood otherwise than of the pontifical office already then attained. I pass over the inventions of Egilward, where he asserts St. Kilian's monkhood and his prefecture of monks: I nowhere find in the Acts a trace whence you might gather that he was consecrated Bishop outside his fatherland; and indeed at number 3, having first landed at Rome, he is most expressly called Pontiff, before he had met the Roman Pope Conon. The interpolator thought he considered aptly, if, making him from a monk an abbot in Ireland, he should promote him by degrees in the monastery; then, having set out for Rome, he says at number 6 that, by the consent of the whole City, the most blessed Man was constituted in the office of prelacy, whereby he might irreproachably both make Chrism, and dedicate churches, and confer sacred Orders.

[11] Indeed I do not doubt that Egilward, thus adorning these things, looked to those things which had been done before, ordained in his own fatherland, not at Rome. or at least he himself thought had been done, erroneously handing down that Burchard himself was ordained at Rome. I have long confessed, and shown in the Commentary on St. Rumold, that it was received enough among the English, Scots, and Irish to set out to the Thresholds (of the Apostles), that, if not with episcopal dignity, at least endowed with the Apostolic blessing, they might be destined into various parts of the world, to preach the Gospel; which of Winfrid Boniface, Willibrord Clement, and others in Egilward's age was so well known, that it is not so greatly to be wondered at if he supposed the same in good faith of St. Kilian. But if, as we ought, we press closely upon the more ancient and more genuine Acts, quite another way must be entered upon, such as we paved in the said Commentary on the Acts of St. Rumold, paragraph 7, number 80, where it is clearly enough demonstrated that it was once the custom in the British parts to ordain many Bishops, both those who should labor in Evangelical toils in their fatherland, and those who, leaving their paternal soil, should proceed into Gaul, Belgium, and Germany to dispense the word of God, as you have at the cited § number 79, for Belgium alone several Bishops, of whom perhaps none was consecrated at Rome. Among their number let it be permitted to reckon St. Kilian, truly a Bishop, but regionary and attached to no see, or an apostolic Bishop, and the first teacher of the faith and apostle of all Franconia, at least of the people of Würzburg. So indeed I think the matter is to be settled, those things being rejected and expunged which were sewn to the first and more genuine Acts according to the interpolator's fancy and arbitrament.

[12] The epoch of St. Kilian's birthday, the course of the rest of his age, and the series of the things done by him, The Saint's age is gathered from the times of Pope Conon, can be ordered only conjecturally. Gozbert, Duke, or, as others, Judge of Franconia, known from these Acts alone, contributes nothing at all to illustrating the chronology; the sole and only mark appears in the times of the Roman Pontiffs John and Conon; for of Benedict, the predecessor of both, the Acts, neither genuine nor interpolated, have made mention, so that Serarius in note 8 deservedly refutes the error of those who so wrote, showing that it was wrongly ascribed to Sigebert. The words of our Acts are at number 2: Let us go to Rome and visit the thresholds of the Prince of the holy Apostles, and present ourselves to the sight of the blessed Pope John. This was John V, who held the pontificate from the twenty-second of July of the year 685 to the second day of August 686, in which interval of time it must altogether be established that St. Kilian and his companions set out from Franconia to Rome toward the end of the summer of the aforesaid year 686; where they arrived, when Conon, the successor of the now-dead John, was consecrated, by whom the aforesaid pontiff Kilian was lovingly and honorably received: but, license and power of preaching and teaching being received, thence to his mission, in the same year 686, he returned prompt and eager, and, having discharged apostolic labors for about three years, was crowned with martyrdom on this day the eighth of July in the year 689, as Serarius, Mabillon, Castellanus, and others note, yet with no certain proof of their reckoning adduced, which rests almost solely on the opinion of the people of Würzburg and on the epitaph, to be alleged below.

[13] And truly to bring forward other arguments of this thing is not so easy: the year of martyrdom from the brevity of the apostolate; from the Acts it is gathered that St. Kilian's preaching among the people of Würzburg was not long, so that the epoch of Werner in Serarius, cited in note 8, marking the year 694, is deservedly rejected, and much more that of Sigebert, connecting the martyrdom of our Saints with the year 697, whereby it would come about that they had labored nearly eleven years in converting the Franconians, whereas the Acts relate in very few words that, Gozbert being converted and baptized, all the people who were under his power were presently confirmed in the same faith: but, a divorce being sent by Gozbert to his wife Geilana, she thought day and night how she might be able to destroy the Saints. Nor indeed does a long delay seem interposed; the fierce woman found an impious administrator of her counsel, who fulfilled her precepts, and cut the throats of the Saints, standing unanimously in the praises of God … with a sharp sword, so that all were together beheaded. Moreover all these things in the oft-mentioned Acts are so narrated, that they could most easily be done and perpetrated in the space of two years; so that I gladly accede to the aforesaid opinion of the learned men, that St. Kilian in that year 689 was crowned with martyrdom with his two companions. And this is, as I was saying, the constant tradition of the people of Würzburg, consigned in the epitaph in Serarius, page 61:

In six hundred and eighty and nine years / Here we know that Kilian, near the vein of the fountain, / And Colonatus and blessed Totnan too, / For their Savior poured out their own blood. / Hence there was, is, and will be salvation to him who piously seeks; / The blind, the mute, the lame, and the deaf are loosed.

[14] But indeed, be it said with the good leave of the people of Würzburg, neither the trust nor the authority of this epitaph is great: not likewise from the Würzburg epitaph. for since in the two following epochs, received from Egilward's opinion, it plainly errs, as Mabillon demonstrated, it would be no wonder if this too were deceptive. Thus have the following verses of the whole epitaph:

In the year seven hundred and fifty-two, / By Boniface, with Burchard as associate, / These were raised, and duly also canonized: / Seek them devoutly, that they may be in prayer for you. / In seven hundred and ninety-one also / Burchard dies, and his body is buried, / Near the tomb, as it is written, of these Saints, / By Megengaudus his reverend successor.

There the elevation of the sacred bodies deferred to the year 752, and consequently the ordination of St. Burchard to the year 751, but his death protracted to 791, are errors deduced from Egilward's store; for Burchard, just as Willibald, as we showed on the preceding day, were Bishops before the German synod, held in the year 742. And this indeed Serarius saw in this place, calling it a scruple, which he did not dare openly enough to solve. He saw also another scruple in the years of Burchard's episcopate, who ought to have held the see for at least 50 years, if to the year

791 he survived: all which Mabillon rightly refutes, and we will pursue at more length in its place on the fourteenth of October. Since these things proceeded from Egilward's faulty reckonings, the year of St. Kilian's martyrdom also could have been ill consigned; but since we have shown that that epoch of the year 689 rightly and aptly agrees with the genuine Acts, I think it can most fittingly be held with the cited authors.

[15] The series of his life probably ordered, These things thus set, by going backward the rest of St. Kilian's age must be probably ordered, which was not long, as is not improbably gathered from the brevity of his apostolate. It must already be supposed that he was mature in years when he went forth from his fatherland, as one who was both a Bishop and had disciples, followers of the apostolic life. Not badly therefore might one conjecture that he had either reached or perhaps passed the fortieth year, when by a short navigation he crossed from Britain into Gaul in the year 684 or 685. It is not established that he proceeded straightway by a direct route into Franconia, for he could have stuck for some months, why not a year, in Gaul or in the neighboring parts, before he reached the desired mission, at which he arrived at the end of the year 685 or about the beginning of the following year: and when he beheld an abundant harvest there, an elegant place and pleasant men, but deceived by error, before he seriously undertook their conversion, he wished to be fortified with Apostolic authority and blessing, license and power, as we have often shown was always most received for Apostolic missionaries, and most recently in St. Otto of Bamberg, before he girded himself to convert Pomerania; with Apostolic, I say, authority, license, and power. From all the aforesaid you will most probably gather that the Saint lived about forty-five years, and was born about the year 644. Those who shall wish to say he was greater in age, let them order for themselves another series at their pleasure; they shall not have me as a gainsayer.

[16] In passing let me note that the interpolator Egilward trifled, Egilward's invention being rejected. when he here inopportunely rubs up the memory of the Pelagian error, and feigns that St. Kilian went to Rome, that at the Roman See he might receive both the entire dogma of the Christian religion and the license of preaching. For Ireland was once defiled by the Pelagian heresy, and condemned by Apostolic censure, which could not be loosed except by Roman judgment. Therefore the most holy Man, etc., as see at number 4. That this was the cause of the journey to Rome, Serarius in good faith admitted, spending a long article in explaining it. Indeed I do not think that St. Kilian was besprinkled with greater Pelagian soot than so many others of his time, popular Apostolic Bishops, who through Gaul and Belgium fruitfully announced the word of God, so little solicitous of such censure that, to receive its absolution from the Pope, they did not go to Rome. To say it in a word, these and many other things were rather ineptly intruded into the genuine Acts, in which not even their shadow appears. But here only the Saint's dignity and some reckoning of the times had to be treated.

§ III. The elevation and translations of St. Kilian and his companions.

Concerning the first elevation of St. Kilian and his companions our Acts thus speak in the last lines: The Lord illustrating their merits, by the counsel and precept of Pope Zacharias, through the mediation of Archbishop Boniface, The circumstances of the first elevation they were honorably raised from the tomb by Burchard, first bishop of the people of Würzburg, Pepin, first King of the Eastern Franks, reigning happily. But the occasion of this elevation the oft-mentioned Canisian interpolator describes at our number 19. He says, as Mabillon contracted the matter, that Gertrude, daughter of Pepin King of the Franks, refusing marriage, came into the parts of Eastern France, to the place which is now corruptly called Karlburg, and there of her means, in honor of the most blessed Virgin Mary, built a monastery, where she ordained Atalongus the presbyter and Bernard the deacon, whom she had brought with her. When she herself had returned thence into France, Atalongus remained there, instructing the boys in the study of letters. But these, who were the younger, impelled by the divine spirit, began to cry out: Kilian works signs; he ought to be taken up from the place in which he unworthily lies. When Atalongus forbade this with threats, that it might not be frequented by the boys, he is said to have been struck with blindness, but afterward healed at the tomb of the Saints, so that he was the occasion of the raising of the bodies for St. Burchard, who first obtained the episcopal see of Würzburg.

[18] things so different are brought forward, The history, such as it is, of that Gertrude has long been most laboriously discussed by our Elders in more than one place, especially on the second day of February in the Commentary preceding St. Hadaloga, page 306, and then on the seventeenth of March in the dissertation subjoined to the Acts of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, from page 601. The same matter more recently Mabillon handled and tried to explain, third Benedictine century, part 1, page 718. For the rest, whoever that Gertrude was, does not pertain here, except in the part in which she is said to have brought Atalongus into Eastern France, as being the occasion of raising from the earth the sacred bodies of St. Kilian and his companions, as also Sigebert hands down at the year 746, in these plain words: Athalongus the presbyter, by the blindness inflicted on him, being admonished to seek the bodies of the holy Chilianus and his companions, the bodies of the Saints being found, received his sight; and this matter being reported by Athalongus to St. Boniface, bishop of Mainz, he decreed that the castle of Würzburg, in honor of Chilianus the martyr, who had been ordained Bishop there for preaching by Pope Conon, and had received there from God a place of death and rest, should be distinguished with the privilege of an episcopal see, and ordained St. Burchard the first Bishop there.

[19] so that it is difficult to reconcile them. It is clear enough that Sigebert had the Acts interpolated by Egilward before his eyes, from which he plucked some things, perhaps no better fixed to the year 746 than he above referred St. Kilian's martyrdom to the year 697. Nor does the alleged cause of the erection of the episcopate or of the ordination of St. Burchard please, who occupied the see of Würzburg before the elevation of the sacred bodies was thought of. Meanwhile I here observe that in the Acts of St. Burchard in Surius on the fourteenth of October, book 1, chapter 9, another priest is named who wished to make known to St. Boniface the things that had been done. Thus there speaks St. Boniface himself: The first founder of your faith, Kilian, transmitted to you by the Apostolic pastorate, fulfilled the faith which he taught by words, in this very place, by the testimony of martyrdom. Behold, the confession of the present tomb speaks the same, where at his body and those of his companions, through cures and miracles, the confirmation of your belief is exercised day and night. This the grace of Christ first willed to make known to me through a certain brother of ours, namely Adelhelm the presbyter, who received here, near the glebes of the martyrdom, the light of his eyes, taken from him by the judgment of God, by the merits of the same. Then so great a sanctity, manifested by numerous signs in our diocese, seemed both to me and to all our brethren round about not to be neglected.

[20] The briefer Acts of St. Burchard You would say that Egilward was forgetful of himself, when in different Lives he produced different names of the discovering priest; but however these things are or were done, it seems indubitable that the sacred bodies of St. Kilian and his companions were elevated by St. Burchard, and more than once translated, honorably laid up, and exposed to the public veneration of the people, without any previous canonization of Pope Zacharias, prematurely devised for that age by Luca Castellini, as Papebroch long ago taught. Now we must have recourse to the Legends of St. Burchard, that the narration of the first elevation and the following translations, taken thence, may as far as possible be recalled to a right chronological reckoning. From the more ancient Acts I first describe the matter; about to receive from Egilward those things which pertain to the later translations. Thus the Anonymous writes in Canisius and Mabillon at number 7: Thereupon he began to meditate that the bodies of the blessed martyrs Kilian and his companions be raised from the place in which they had been rashly placed by the infidels. For he knew for certain that those whom he had secretly heard were slain had not been diligently laid up. At length, the clergy and people being gathered, he proclaimed a fast, that worthy men might be found by whom the holy Martyrs would permit their bodies to be moved.

[21] But the day of the elevation of the Martyrs being appointed, a very great multitude of country-folk flocked to Würzburg; they describe the matter not badly some had come from zeal of religion, some allured by the indication of miracles, some from desire of recovering health. Then the venerable pontiff Burchard came to the place of burial, and, a hoe being taken, first began to dig, the ministers whom he had chosen for this work helping him. But after the earth was cast out, the bodies of the Martyrs were found in a not deep pit, so fragrant that the nostrils of all the bystanders were filled with the sweetness of so great an odor. The bodies at length being elevated, a huge concourse of peoples was made, and a crowded throng of the multitude. For that popular assembly labored, if anyone could touch the bier, or fall down in its passage; others, with lifted hands, to give thanks to God; and the voice of all was one: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. And the Lord wrought such notable miracles through his Saints, that if perchance any were present who wavered in faith, seeing so many signs, they were strengthened with solid firmness of belief. Miracles therefore accompanying, they came with hymns to the place where the bodies of the Saints were to be laid; which, diligently laid up, are to the present day frequented with hymns and prayers.

[22] These things Egilward in the greater Life of St. Burchard, book 2, but which Egilward wrote, chapter 2, in Surius and Mabillon, not a little augmented and amplified with his various interpolations, yet adding nothing which was not said by the Anonymous, or further to be said in our Acts in its place. The same author in the next chapter mentions the estates which the glorious Prelate Burchard gave as a gift to the Martyrs of Christ, nay conferred as a dowry on the spouse church of Würzburg, both of his own already acquired lands, and of those which he could afterward obtain, now from King Pepin, now from the abbess Immina, now from elsewhere. In chapter 6, reflecting on the foregoing, Egilward begins to narrate how Burchard, both clergy and people being called together on a fixed day, caused the bodies of the Martyrs, recently raised from the dust of the earth, to be transported with the greatest veneration onto the mountain, handed over to him by the aforesaid Immina, the crowds of the peoples accompanying: which may be called the first translation of the sacred bodies, easily to be confounded with the elevation itself. Moreover on the said mountain for a continuous three years, in the basilica of the holy Mother of God, he kept those most sacred relics, watching over them reverently with the unceasing office of all religion, both by himself and by the whole clergy adhering to him … proposing to institute there the principal monastery of his see, or cathedral church.

[23] with many additions they are interpolated. Afterward the harshness of the mountain, the steep ascent, the want of water, and other difficulties occurring there, deterred him, on account of which, fleeing to prayers, by the heavenly indication of three burning candles carried from the mountain to the burial of the Martyrs, the Man of God understood through the Holy Spirit that the monastery which he was disposing to build on the mountain was to be built around the burial of the Martyrs: which, first begun of wooden material, was afterward, with a more careful structure of stone, by the holy Pontiff of God brought to perfection, where again the bodies of the Saints, brought back, and in a wrought sarcophagus were gloriously laid up. In which place, both by their merits and by those of blessed Burchard, the new Bishop of the new see, the benefits of our Savior never fail those who, with believing heart, do not cease to seek them. Finally, the Truth, which promises to those who love him: Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world; which elsewhere he fulfilled both by deeds and by words, here the same at the tombs or confessions of the Martyrs, both corporally and spiritually, ceases not to work. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, etc. And this last, if I am not greatly mistaken, this, I say, ought to be reckoned the most celebrated and most renowned translation and deposition of the sacred bodies.

[24] What Oedipus will now be at hand for us, who may recall both the first elevation and the following translations to right reckonings of the times? If the reckoning of the times be rightly demanded, Egilward seems clearly enough to refer the first and solemn exaltation to the second year of St. Burchard's episcopate, when he says that in the second year of his ordination he began to treat with the bishops of the province … but especially with his glorious master the metropolitan Bishop Boniface … that the bodies of the blessed Martyrs Kilian, etc. The solution of the difficulty would depend on the true beginning of St. Burchard's ordination, whom Mabillon shows to have been consecrated, just as St. Willibald, before the year 742, as one who, being already a Bishop, was present at the Synod of Germany held in that year. Hence, I say, the solution would depend, if Egilward could be trusted safely enough that the matter truly happened in the second year of St. Burchard's ordination, which to me at least is still doubtful, since the Anonymous writer of the first Life, edited by Canisius, seems to refer that translation rather to the end of St. Burchard's life than to the beginning. Egilward's reckonings are plainly suspect, since he stumbled foully both in the year of St. Burchard's ordination and in the duration of his episcopate, as Mabillon proves in more than one place. The matter would somehow be settled, if, supposing the true epoch of the translation to be for the year 752, it were said that Egilward consequently erred, namely who reduces the ordination to 751; and so the epitaph would have its truth, and it would likewise be true which Bollandus noted, that he had read in a manuscript of the Queen of Sweden in folio, which contains a Chronicle, chiefly of the affairs of Cologne and other German matters, at that year 752: The translation of St. Kilian was made.

[25] The same epoch is marked by Serarius and others everywhere, the opinion of the people of Würzburg must be overthrown, and is the most received and almost indubitable opinion among the people of Würzburg. But against it is the opinion of Mabillon, established by monuments certain enough, that St. Burchard most probably did not survive to that year 752, as see in his note to Egilward's book 2, chapter 11, page 713. Let this be here one testimony for all, of Blessed Liudger in the life of St. Gregory the abbot, in the prefatory Observations, number 6, page 700, in our tome I of June, page 486: But two of those disciples of Boniface, Wigbert and Burghard, departed from the world before their master. But not without the palm of their election, since they merited to precede their master to the heavenly kingdoms. If before the master, put to martyrdom in Frisia on the fifth of June in the year 753, Burchard departed from the world—venerated on the second of February (although he is honored on the fourteenth of October)—he probably did not reach that year. Now since not forty years of episcopate can be ascribed to him, as Egilward falsely does, but nine only, as is shown from Marianus and Trithemius, fixing their beginning in the year 741, it will follow that St. Burchard departed from life before the year 752, namely 751, the third year before Boniface's death, says Mabillon; and it will thus be false that in such a year the bodies of the holy Kilian and his companions could be raised by him from the earth and translated: whence it is necessary that the epoch of the epitaph, and the received tradition of the people of Würzburg thence, fall, as they not obscurely acknowledge in their new lessons concerning St. Burchard, when they confess that he was elected Bishop of Würzburg, and specially confirmed by St. Pope Zacharias in the year 741.

[26] That opinion will perhaps seem to them harder, and such it first seemed to me; which can somehow be explained, but in vain would one strive to overturn the truth. I decree nothing prematurely, since the whole matter must be discussed afresh on the said day on which St. Burchard is venerated, the fourteenth of October. Here for a while I was meditating to suppose that the authority of Marianus and Trithemius, concerning the nine years of St. Burchard's episcopate, is not yet so certain that it could not be contradicted, and the duration of his rule prolonged to ten years and beyond: which once admitted, St. Burchard could have survived to the second of February of the year 753, and it would remain true, as Blessed Liudger asserted, that he departed from life before his master. In that hypothesis, at least one way would have been open, that with the more common opinion Egilward's opinion might somewhat be reconciled, in that manner in which I began to say above; namely if we remembered that he placed the beginnings of St. Burchard in the year 751; but this first error being supposed, he easily slipped into another, so that, having elsewhere persuaded himself that the controverted translation was made in the year 752, he consequently said that in the second year of his ordination St. Burchard began to treat of the aforesaid elevation, etc. But that very hypothesis is disturbed by the concatenation, adduced by Egilward, of the first elevation and the following translations, for which several years are required. For some time the relics remained in the place of the first elevation; thence carried to the mountain, they were kept there for a continuous three years; from the mountain again carried back to the burial, where at last a monastery, or new church, was built. Who therefore can well conceive that the first elevation was made a few months before St. Burchard's death?

[27] Behold Rhodes, behold the leap, for the overcoming of which I demanded an Oedipus. Let those whose concern it is take this our attempt in good part: if the various translations be distinguished. all things being duly weighed, those things which appear irreconcilable seem thus somewhat able to be reconciled. Let us grant to Egilward that the first elevation was made by St. Burchard in the second year of his ordination; since this certainly preceded the year 742, we will connect it either with that very 742, or certainly with the following year. Again, with Egilward we will establish that for a continuous three years the sacred bodies were kept on the mountain, and thus in the year 746 carried back thence to the place of the first burial; by which reasoning will be saved, however ill set forth, the epoch of Sigebert, marking the aforesaid year. Thus the bodies, replaced at the old sepulcher, were kept at first in a wooden edifice, until, with a more careful structure of stone, the new monastery (even today Neumünster) was brought to perfection, for the building of which doubtless some years had to be spent, so that that huge undertaking could easily have taken a whole six years, first in the year 752 brought to perfection, when at last the bodies of the Saints, long before carried thither, were gloriously laid up in a wrought sarcophagus. Which last more illustrious translation, or so magnificent a deposition of the relics, so clung to the memory of men, that, the earlier ones being in a manner obsolete, this alone persevered in the tables of Würzburg, expressly consigned by the epitaph so often mentioned. You may call it an evasion, for all I care: let the defenders of those tables now find another more apt, by which to defend the same more happily.

[28] Of another epitaph and its author. Hither finally look the things which Serarius accurately noted in article 23, concerning the more elegant epitaph of our Saints, diligently discussed by him. There is extant, he says, a certain pretty and useful hexastich concerning our Saints:

These are the masters, Würzburg, who taught you / By what religion you should worship the true God. / Whom at last impious Geilana commanded to be slain, / And hid the slaughtered bodies beneath this place. / Lest the bodies, buried in a base and unpraised spot, should lie, / Burchard places them beneath the monuments.

But a triple error wanders concerning them. The first, which Caspar Bruschius obtruded on the most diligent and most learned Demochares, and Demochares on certain others; that these verses were inscribed in the sepulchral crypt itself, and hitherto read there. But indeed they are not there, but in the vestibule of the chapter-house, which coheres indeed with the temple of the New monastery, yet in the upper part of the buildings, on the northern side of the crypt. The second, of Henry Pantaleon, and of Arnold Wion, who imprudently followed him; that the author of those verses was St. Burchard. St. Boniface was indeed a not bad poet, as appears from several of his verses: but though I do not deny that Burchard was most learned, yet I know nothing poetic in him. And truly those verses do not reflect that old ecclesiastical style, usual in those times, but rather the elegance and gracefulness of our age. But the author is handed down, in his Antiquities of the New monastery, by the Reverend Dean of the same New monastery, D. John Gantzhorn: D. Engelhard Funck, doctor of Decrees. The third error is born of that second one; that the verses are very old, whereas their author Engelhard was Dean of the same college only in the year of the Lord 1513.

§ IV. By whom the Acts were interpolated, which are genuine, contracted by others; and which are here given.

The first, so far as I know, to edit the Acts of the glorious Martyr and his companions was the diligent collector of such monuments, Laurence Surius, The Acts edited by Surius and Serarius are incomplete, but after his manner changing and often contracting the style. These same Serarius, praised above, caused to be reprinted in the year 1598, adding his various notes, both dogmatic and historical, as we have already abundantly indicated above: and that was the only Legend which saw the light before the seventeenth century, at least which has come to us. The same, five years after Serarius, namely in the year 1603, but entire, and the original phrase being kept, Henry Canisius reprinted from the manuscript membranes of the monasteries of Windberg and Rebdorf, in tome 4 of the Ancient Reading, from page 625: which life in this also differs from the Surian, as Canisius calls it, fragment, that toward the end it has adjoined the history of Gertrude and Atalongus, which altogether pertains to the same writer, no doubt, since on its occasion is narrated the finding and elevation of the sacred bodies, made by St. Burchard, at the exhortation of St. Boniface, concerning which he promises to treat at more length, in these words: How he raised the bodies of the Martyrs from the place where they had been unbecomingly placed, we will take care to make manifest in his life (of St. Burchard), as we shall be able. How accurately, and exactly according to the historical norm, he performed this, we have not perfunctorily weighed in the preceding §.

[30] This same Legend is also extant, fuller, in other manuscript codices, entire published by Canisius, one of Trier, of St. Matthias, the other of St. Maximin, as I find noted by Henschenius: this Canisius chiefly labored, to dig out the writer of that life from any indications whatever. Hear him in the preface to the Reader:

Who the author was, is hitherto undiscovered. But if it is permitted to divine, the conjecture is that it was Egilward, a monk of the monastery of St. Burchard near Würzburg, who, Trithemius being witness, wrote the life of St. Burchard, which is extant in Surius, tome 5, on the fourteenth of October. For our author of the life of St. Kilian, at the end promises the life of St. Burchard, in these words: In the life of Burchard himself, as we shall be able, we will take care to make manifest. And this conjecture concerning the author's name would be certain to me, if no other had written the life of St. Burchard. But because we have found also another, and indeed more ancient, as it seems (which we also here edit), life of St. Burchard in manuscript membranes, it could have happened that the same author wrote both, namely this one which we give, of St. Burchard, and that of Kilian. We here assert nothing, except that this author is most worthy of trust, who says: Let us assert nothing of this kind which we hold undiscovered. Thus Canisius.

[31] But if from these last words of the author he gathered his trustworthiness, who, inquiring into the author, praises his trustworthiness too much. his inference is altogether null, for, by the leave of the most learned man, whoever that author was, whether Egilward or another, in the whole life he nowhere brings forward the sentence so speciously adduced, which is the conclusion of Surius alone, either changing the style, or copying another corrupt copy, in which he found these or suchlike words: Let us assert nothing of this kind which we hold undiscovered; for in place of these words, the very edition of Canisius has thus, in our text at the end of number 18: provided the ignorance of such things does not shame us. And truly that writer asserts very many things, in the fourth century at least after St. Kilian's death, which it is clear enough were not discovered by him, both from the things which Mabillon observed, and from the perpetual interpolations and digressions, often wrongly arranged, which we have not omitted to indicate cursorily in the notes. Nor does Canisius's scruple, concerning the double written Life of St. Burchard, greatly terrify me from making that same Egilward, a monk at St. Burchard's near Würzburg, the author both of the longer Lives of SS. Kilian and Burchard, and the free interpolator of both the shorter and more genuine one, edited by Canisius himself in the cited tome 4 of the Ancient Reading.

[32] This I seem to have gathered clearly enough from the comparison of both the lesser Legends Mabillon did not doubt that this was Egilward with those longer orations of the interpolator. Nay, the oft-praised Mabillon, who in the prefatory Observations to the more genuine Life of St. Kilian, edited by him, had cursorily related Canisius's conjecture, bringing forward as yet no judgment concerning it, in his following century, at the Life of St. Burchard, explaining his mind a little more expressly, after he had also weighed the two Legends of St. Burchard, thus declares at number 1: Moreover Egilward, a monk of the monastery of St. Burchard near Würzburg, is said in Trithemius to have written the Life of St. Burchard. Nor is there doubt that he himself is the author of the more prolix Life of St. Kilian, edited by Henry Canisius in tome 4; which author promises that in the Life of St. Burchard, to be described by him, he will say how Burchard obtained the episcopal see of Würzburg, and how he raised the bodies of the Martyrs from the place where they had been placed. Which both Egilward here fully pursues. He in book 2 of this Life, chapter 10, mentions the more ancient writing which he used. Let these few things, he says, arranged suffice, which, plucked indeed from some relations of the ancients, written simply enough, had come into our hands. Such was always the itch of interpolators, that what they found simple and true, they adorned with many borrowed dyes, and often with little fables.

[33] also the interpolator of the shorter Acts of St. Burchard. Let Egilward the monk therefore be the author of that more prolix Kilian Life, and not a whit of authority will thence accrue to it, for as Mabillon shows, besides gross chronological errors, he often stumbled in amplifying the shorter Life of St. Burchard; therefore of the three books composed by Egilward, he omits the first, because he amplified the Anonymous's lucubration with superfluous words, and added new faults. The very same he most plainly did in staining and amplifying with superfluous words the Life of St. Kilian, written more simply, more genuinely, and more faithfully by the more ancient Anonymous. You will observe the man's skill from these last words of number 6: For going to Rome, he left Gallus in Alemannia sick with fever, namely him who had departed from life a whole forty years before St. Kilian reached Franconia. This concerning the name and trustworthiness of the interpolator, whose age some in Mabillon reject to nearly the fourteenth century, at least to the year 1300; but he himself conjectures that he lived in the eleventh century, concerning which, what I might more distinctly establish, I have not. Let him have lived in the eleventh century; he was remote enough from the times of St. Kilian, that he truly could not say: Let us assert nothing of this kind which we hold undiscovered; since most probably he had nothing certain and discovered which he might write concerning St. Kilian's deeds and martyrdom, besides those things which he found in the narration of the elder Anonymous, which, first edited by Canisius, Mabillon preferred to the rest, and which we without hesitation judge far to be preferred.

[34] It is that simpler and more genuine narration, as we freely confess, We give the original Acts of St. Kilian from a manuscript, of an Anonymous and unknown writer, whose neither name, nor profession, nor certain age, one could attain even by guessing; a writing a little lighter and rougher, especially as it is in Canisius, taken from incorrect codices: in Mabillon, a little more polished here and there. From our very large Valcellensian or Moretian codex the graver solecisms are absent, and most of the barbarous locutions and twisted constructions; in a word, all things more exact and more intelligible; and therefore we have judged it to be preferred both to the aforesaid editions and to several of our manuscripts, the long and gloomy collation of variant readings being neglected, which would have bred nothing but the utmost weariness to readers. The more curious investigators of these matters will be able to compare our edition with the Canisian and Mabillonian for themselves; I am greatly mistaken if they do not also go over to our opinion with their feet. You will suspect our copy to have been emended and polished by someone; let anyone say so who will, for all I care; I have found no trace of that thing in our codex: for if anyone more skilled in Latin speech had taken this upon himself, no doubt he would also have softened many things, still expressed too grossly, with a more polished style, after the norm of Surius. However it be, I am persuaded that this third edition of the same Passion will not be ungrateful, which incomparably surpasses that more verbose work of Egilward, or of whatever other.

[35] We have the same purer Acts from the papers of the most illustrious Bishop Lindanus, from which the death of Gozbert is absent. but imperfect, which have been completed from elsewhere and by another hand, in which I confess that this is had, which perhaps is better absent from our Valcellensian, concerning Gozbert the Duke slain by his own servants. Indeed I do not sufficiently perceive by what reason the death of that Gozbert coheres aptly enough with the whole history. That Hetan, perhaps the son of Gozbert's brother by Geilana, with the whole progeny of the impious woman could have been slain; that indeed seems consonant: but what could Gozbert, the patron, defender, and avenger of the holy Martyrs, deserve from his Christian subjects? Again I say, our copy pleases me more, faithfully taken from the cited codex, though I would not dare altogether to condemn the other copies and the aforesaid editions. The six manuscript Lessons from the parchment Passional of the church of Fritzlar are themselves also a compendium of the more genuine Acts. For the rest, where the purer fountain itself is at hand, we do not think we ought to slip down to the streamlets. We will give therefore those Acts from our praised codex, illustrated with brief annotations where there is need; to which we will subjoin also the larger Egilwardian ones, likewise abundantly explained; as being much more known and common than the others, and the origin of many traditions, which can be refuted from the purer Acts. But here we will try to explore the times of the Anonymous writer, as far as it can somewhat be done through the darkness.

[36] In the preface to the recent edition of the Usuardine Martyrology, article 3, They do not seem to have existed in the time of Rabanus, paragraph 2, page 19, we showed that Rabanus or Hrabanus wrote his Martyrology about the year 845, when, having laid down the prefecture of the monastery of Fulda, not far distant from Würzburg, he called himself more freely to himself and to his own affairs, before in the year 847 he was raised to the episcopal chair of Mainz. This epoch I here premise, that the reader may understand that at that time most probably that more genuine Legend of which we treat was not yet written, which Rabanus, a monk in the vicinity of Fulda, doubtless would not have been ignorant of. Moreover the text of his Martyrology, to be weighed below, plainly demonstrates that there was in his time another history, or memory, or tradition, concerning St. Kilian's martyrdom, namely since he openly declares that the Saint with his companions was slain by a certain iniquitous judge, named Gozbert. But since this is repugnant to our Acts, I think it follows thence that Rabanus never saw our Acts, and therefore in his age they had not yet been reduced into that form; whence would also follow that at the beginning of the ninth century they did not yet exist: so that easily he who composed those better and more genuine Acts diligently enough, namely from the Würzburg monuments, then perhaps written, and from the memory of the faithful then still cleaving, lived and wrote only about that time.

[37] but composed toward the end of the ninth century. Certainly they are not to be removed to later or subsequent times, since the same or very similar things were read by Notker, nearest in age to Rabanus, who flourished chiefly in the ninth century, dead in the year 912; as will be clear from his eulogy of St. Kilian, presently to be produced. That Egilward also, whom Mabillon judges to have written in the eleventh century, had those very Acts before his eyes, is indubitable. Both will be set forth in their place, where we shall have treated of the Saint's cult, from the sacred Fasti and ecclesiastical Offices. For the rest, we do not judge our conjecture unfounded, that about the middle of the ninth century the Acts of St. Kilian were first collected and written. Concerning the author's name I do not labor: whether he was besides a monk or a cleric of Würzburg, matters little; certainly he arranged them in good faith, nowhere going beyond the bounds of probability, which in Egilward the interpolator was often to be blamed. Concerning the same history of St. Kilian and his companions, bound into verses in the fourteenth century by a certain John of Erfurt, a monk in the monastery of St. Stephen, and seen by himself, Serarius mentions in note 1, but was content to exhibit a modest specimen, which will suffice both for us and for the reader:

The merits of the Saints know how to prick the minds / Of those who recall them with anxious care or pious zeal.

He also cites a certain vast lectionary volume, manuscript, in the college of our Society at Mainz; but I think all these were compiled from the work of Egilward. Let us proceed to the posthumous glory of the Saint.

§ V. The cult of St. Kilian and his companions from the sacred Fasti and ancient ecclesiastical Offices.

Known in the ancient Martyrologies, especially in Rabanus, Which Martyrologists first entered St. Kilian in our Fasti, I have long ago explained sufficiently in the Observation on Usuard on this day. In the Hieronymian Lucca codex there is a manifest addition: In Austria, the passion of St. Kilian; the Little Roman, Bede, Florus, or Ado are wrongly cited, since they do not mention him, unless the sewn-on interpolations be ascribed to them. Concerning Wandelbert there is no doubt; for he bound only two Saints into his verses: On the eighth before the Ides, Kilian and Procopius. I said above that it ought not to seem wonderful if Kilian was known to Rabanus, a monk of Fulda, in that vicinity of places; hence, received by Notker, he was adorned with a fuller eulogy. Whence Usuard took him is not so clear; but it is established that by him, under the name of Cilianus also, but without his companions, he was reported, from whom he constantly passed into the whole augmented progeny, with various eulogies, which in his last edition are expressed sufficiently. In the old Martyrology of St. Martin at Trier it is thus read: At Würzburg, which is also called Ermipolis, of Kilian the bishop and martyr. Here again the words of Rabanus are to be weighed, thus writing: In the district of Austria, and the castle named Würzburg, near the river Main, the birthday of the holy Chilianus the martyr and of his two companions, who, coming from Ireland the island of the Scots, preached the name of Christ in the aforesaid places, and there, for the confession of the truth, were slain by a certain iniquitous judge named Gozbert, and afterward by many signs shone forth as true Martyrs of Christ.

[39] by Notker The district of Austria, for Eastern France, he himself freely explains, and a little more clearly Notker below. The companions of St. Kilian he does not name expressly: whether because he was ignorant of them, or because he judged them to be passed over, I do not divine. Concerning Ireland the island of the Scots, we have already said enough. The rest plainly confirm the martyrdom of our Saints and the glory of their miracles, although we judge that Rabanus erred in Gozbert as the author of the martyrdom, whom from the Acts we prefer to have favored St. Kilian; but that he and his companions were slain at the instigation of Geilana, his wife. Nearest to the sense of the Acts comes Notker, who doubtless saw and consulted them, or at least had things altogether similar, as I said in the preceding paragraph, and here it will be more clear from his very words. Thus he speaks: In the district of Austria, that is of new France, in the castle, nay city, as it appears from its Teutonic name, Würzburg, situated near the river Main, the passion of St. Chilianus, first bishop of the same city, and of his two disciples, namely Colonatus the presbyter and Totnan the deacon. Who, coming from Ireland the island of the Scots, and having received from the Pontiff the authority of the Apostolic See, preached the name of Christ in that place and in the region round about.

[40] And when the same Apostolic man was gaining much people for the Lord by signs and by the word, he is praised with a longer eulogy; by the Duke of those same places, named Cozpert, because he strove to separate him from the marriage of his brother's wife, by the faction of the same most incestuous Geila, he was slain with his companions, fervent with the same zeal. At whose memorials, although very many miracles are always done, yet by these indications their precious death was first commended to mortals. For he who slew them, set in prayer, in the silence of the night, running mad hither and thither, and crying out that he was guilty of the slaying of the Saints, and tearing himself with his own teeth, because he seemed to be burned by an invisible fire from St. Chilianus, himself published his crime. Geila too, wanton even by her very name, a malignant spirit invaded, and ended her unworthy life with a most worthy death. But Cozbert his own servants killed with the sword, and his son the people drove from the kingdom. To declare also the increase of the Martyrs' sanctity, when after very many years they were uncovered for the sake of translation, against the nature of that same region, which is exceedingly humid, their books and all their garments, buried together with them, were found so unharmed, as though they had been enclosed in a chest set above the earth.

[41] so that the more recent need not be consulted. Other eulogies of the more recent Martyrologies I do not judge it worthwhile to heap up here, the opinion of all is nearly one; for nearly all are taken from the second Acts interpolated by Egilward, as you will easily understand from Ghini, Bucelin, or others. Wion among the Bishops of Würzburg gives him with Notker the first place, and calls him also a monk of Hy, elsewhere ascribing as companion of the martyrdom St. Erunaldus or Ernuualdus from Trithemius, whose words, recited by Canisius, I judge far to be postponed to the ancient Acts themselves. The names of those three Saints the more recent Martyrologists deformed very much, especially the Italians Maurolyco, Felici, and Galesinius; but to fill paper with new labor in polishing and restoring their errors is superfluous, since concerning them it has already been said above almost to nausea. Briefer are the announcements of Dorganius and Menard; let it suffice to have here reported the words of the modern Roman: At Würzburg in Germany, of St. Chilianus the bishop, who, sent by the Roman Pontiff to preach the Gospel, when he had led many to Christ, was slain together with his companions, Coloman the presbyter and Totnan the deacon. All these things I judge true, and by them is abundantly proved the constant and perpetual religious cult of SS. Kilian and his companions, not only particular at Würzburg or in Franconia, but in the universal Church.

[42] The Vigil and feast of the Saint By what solemnity especially, by what ecclesiastical rite or Office the people of Würzburg celebrated the Saints in the earlier centuries, after the elevations and translations related above, even to the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century, neither do they themselves know today, nor is it easy for us to explain. Among our papers I found a leaf, extracted from some old Missal, which by the form of the Teutonic, or Gothic, as the common people say, letters, savors of no small antiquity, affording, as I think, an irrefragable testimony of the ancient cult, where a place is assigned even to the Vigil of the Saint himself. Thus it has: On the Vigil of St. Chilianus. The Introit is from the common of many Martyrs: Let there enter into your sight, O Lord, etc. The Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion seem especially to be noted. The first is: Grant us, we beseech you, almighty God, to prevent with fitting honor the coming solemnity of your blessed martyrs Chilianus, Colonatus, and Totnan, and to celebrate its coming with worthy devotion. Through the Lord. The second: May the oblation of our devotion be accepted by you, O Lord, and make us come more pure to the festivity of your holy martyrs Chilianus and his companions. Through the Lord. The third at last: Grant us, eternal bestower, to be everywhere protected by the pious prayer of those whose birthdays, through these holy things which we have taken, we prevent with votive service. Through the Lord. A commemoration is made of the Octave of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. Willibald.

[43] once celebrated with a proper Office. On the day of St. Chilianus, the Mass is: Many are the tribulations of the just. In the prayers nothing peculiar; the first, Grant, we beseech, almighty God, that the birthday of your blessed martyrs, etc. The Sequence is to be noted, which I here describe: The essence of the Trinity is to be adored and venerated. Under the figure of the Trinity many Sacraments lie hidden: which he long ago prefigured, who, seeing three, adored the Monad. In the furnace the three unharmed obtained the same Sacraments. O how wondrous the power of God, which renders us sure of hope, through the three men at the oak, whom (Abraham) is said to have sent on: These bore three gifts, through which a crown is given hence, to him who is proved to have trodden the triple way with right foot. The tree called blessed by the Savior's passion gave our shadows too a flight far from the region; by sending us three men, who by teaching the Trinity might restore the true faith; that, the blindness of error being conquered by the brightness of light, they might prove the truth. Servants of Christ are these three, Colonatus and Totnan, and blessed Chilianus. Hail, true sincere hope, under the figure of the Trinity, so expressed by our care. The care indeed of goodness, and of divine piety, shown in sending three men to us: whose odor, with their doctrine, both remote and near, fills places, and divine help being applied. Worthy of praise they are venerated, and their deeds are celebrated, feasts of the East in Franconia; whose favor being augmented, the city of Würzburg is now most excellent and eminent with honor. For by the shedding of blood, and by this place of their burial, it is famous and adorned. These triumphant men therefore, wondrous in sanctity these three, let this and the whole church recall. For these in the combat, in hope of reward and crown, served the Trinity: whom, by serving, pouring forth praises and prayers to his wondrous goodness, let us entreat by his gifts, that we may be blessed with these so good patrons, and joined in eternal rest.

[44] There is besides extant an Office diffused through the whole Octave, From the modern Lambach Office printed under this title: The 8th of July. On the feast of SS. Kilian and his companion martyrs, patrons of the church of Lambach, in Upper Austria, extended to nearly three whole leaves in quarto, or to 24 pages, from which to excerpt some proper things will not be altogether beside our purpose. The solemn Office on the first day is divided into twelve lessons, of which those which are read in the second Nocturn, the 5th, 6th, 7th, and eighth, report a compendium of the Acts genuine enough and neat, save that their composer superfluously adopted some of Egilward's interpolations. They seemed to me worthy to be here described. The Antiphons, versicles, chapters, and responsories are proper, but fragments of the Life itself, so that there is no need to repeat the same twice. The Hymn at Vespers thus sounds:

Sea, fountain, mouth, water of the lands: God, you are the head of all goods. From you goods flow, and to you they run. Far from the islands, the good part of the sea; to the fountain it returned, and seeks you, Jesus, fountain of the living waters. God is the fountain of the sea, Kilian a part: how far from his native shores he thirsted; like a hart he directs himself to his draught. Happy nursling of the Scots' island, make us by your assiduous prayer worthy of the water, which whoever shall drink, thereafter knows no thirst. The deceits of iniquity always infect those cleansed by baptism, evilly drown them, through the pool of crime, into the punishment of death. But by your prayers we all pray to be snatched from the fierce Charybdis of guilt, touching with tears the harbor of salvation. Praise to you, Trinity, praise and power; let the rivers, heaven, and earth praise you: from sea to sea let there be praise on this day. Amen.

[45] I pass over many things, that I may come to the already-mentioned lessons of the second Nocturn. those which are ancient are approved; The fifth is: Blessed Kilian, born of noble stock in Scotia, ordained Bishop of that land, and well lettered, was beloved by God and by the people. On a certain day he was admonished by the Lord's voice, saying: Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Considering therefore the aforesaid word within himself, his disciples being called together, he persuaded them to despise their own flesh, their fatherland

and parents to leave for Christ; whom he found easily obeying. But making pilgrimage into the Southern part, they came to the castle which is commonly called Würzburg, and there they stayed a little while. Lesson VI. But seeing that the inhabitants of that place worshiped idols and knew not the God of heaven, they gathered many to a most pleasant place, and corrected their blindness; and counsel being taken, with his companions he went to the supreme Pontiff, and obtained the authority of preaching to them, and returned. Then Duke Gosbert, lord of the same place, he being called, and a conference held with him, was converted by him to the Christian faith, and baptized with the whole populace. Which Duke indeed had a wife in marriage with his brother, according to the rite of the pagans. But Kilian did not dare to rebuke him for this, before he was confirmed in the faith: but he being confirmed, he counseled him to dismiss her. Whom when the most noble Duke, at the holy Man's admonition, wished to dismiss, she, kindled with the fury of indignation, plotting day and night the death of the holy Man, began to prepare snares.

[46] less pleasing Thus far the writer of the lessons rightly, truly, and according to the trust of the ancient Acts arranged his matter, and I could wish he had used the same norm in the two following, somewhat besprinkled with Egilwardian soot. In Lesson VII it displeases that Gozbert is said to have set out to war against enemies; it displeases that a lictor is asserted with a companion; the stables of horses set over the sepulcher of the Saints displease. In the eighth it ought consequently to have been said that two executioners were seized by demons: but "Kilian from calix" is another invention of the interpolator. But let us give the lessons themselves. The seventh is: Whence the Duke, awaking from this as from a heavy sleep, said: You preach graver things now than before, but yet for the love of God I will dismiss her. But deferring this business, he set out to war against enemies. And when he was gone, holy Kilian, perceiving the snares of the woman, with his companions gave himself day and night to prayers and fastings, cheerfully awaiting the crown of martyrdom long desired. But on a certain night, the holy Man with his companions celebrating the divine praises, there is present a lictor with a companion, appointed by the nefarious woman, who impiously slay the Saints of God with drawn swords. Whose bodies the same night were secretly buried in the same place, with their sacred garments and books, and all the rest which they had, so that not even any sign of them appeared. Nay, lest they should ever be revealed, stables of horses were set over their sepulcher.

[47] those which are added from Egilward. Lesson VIII. But a certain woman, named Burgunda, devoted to God, having an oratory near the cell of the holy Man, knowing how the matter had been done, yet fearing to betray it, at last, before the end of her life, disclosed all things. The Duke therefore returning, and inquiring for the Saints whom he had seen, his wife lied that they had long since departed for the sake of their wonted pilgrimage. But in a short time afterward the executioners who had slain the holy Men, seized by demons, cried out with a horrible voice before all, repeating again and again: Alas Kilian, Kilian, how you burn us! And thus, their most wicked deed being disclosed, they miserably expired. Nor long afterward, that bloody woman the Duchess too, seized by a demon, uttered nearly the same cry incessantly, saying: O Kilian, Kilian, how grievously you burn, how sharply you press! From "calix" indeed, Kilian, you are called, but alas how bitter a cup you pour into me! These things being often said, at last with great torment she passed to the torments prepared for her by the devil. But after much time, the Holy Spirit favoring, and St. Kilian working miracles, their bodies were revealed to the Christians, and placed in a more fitting place with the greatest veneration. Whether here by design or by chance the violent death inflicted on Duke Gozbert by his servants was passed over; rightly, in my judgment at least, it seems omitted, whatever Notker may relate of it. Why I so think, I explained above. Now it remains that we subjoin a single paragraph concerning the new lessons and the modern cult of the Saints.

§ VI. On the new lessons in the ecclesiastical Office, and the solemn modern cult of the Saints.

Not so long ago new lessons concerning St. Kilian and his companions were composed, transmitted hither fifteen years ago by our Father Leonard Piertz, The Most Reverend Suffragan, answering my questions, concerning which I had also prepared to treat here, but since at first sight I noticed that they were taken from the Egilwardian Legend, worn in all hands and here reprinted anew, and not probably printed or admitted in use; I did not think it worthwhile to transcribe them: it was enough for me, through the Reverend Father Wilderich Zinck, Rector of our College of Würzburg, to indicate those things which did not so please me in them, which also I think appear clearly enough from what has been disputed above. My greater care was, that through the same Father I might obtain those documents from which the modern solemnity of the Saints might be set before the eyes of readers, which part of the cult, neglected by all writers, I could not sufficiently wonder at. And so I proposed various questions, from the solutions of which the whole matter, which chiefly pertains here, might be brought to light. To whom they first came, I have not clear: this is certain, that the answers were so long delayed that they were all but excluded hence, the press urging. At last a few days ago the desired notices were sent by the Most Reverend and most illustrious, and no less learned, Lord John Bernard, Bishop of Chrysopolis, Suffragan of Würzburg, to whose most obliging benevolence must be referred as received the things which will be subjoined in this whole paragraph.

[49] I had asked in the first place: Whether, besides the monuments discussed by me chiefly from Surius and Serarius, he admonishes that no other ancient monuments are found: any others concerning St. Kilian and his companions had been found at Würzburg or in the neighboring monasteries, from which the sacred history could be more illustrated. Some hope had been given by those things which I had heard were circulated concerning a treasure of antiquities, under the roof of the Cathedral church, found not long ago by the noble man George Conrad Sigler. But to these the Most Reverend replied that all the monasteries and, if there be any, archives, our Father John Gamans, a most diligent investigator of treasures of this kind, had once surveyed at the requisition of the venerable Father Bollandus, and besides that his continuators had unrolled all the manuscript codices: so that it must deservedly be supposed that, besides what is published, nothing remains which greatly conduces to the sacred matter. Nor indeed did Trithemius, who ended his life in the monastery of the Scots at Würzburg in the year 1519, hand down other things: nor Laurence Fries, who, born in the year 1491, was counselor, secretary, and archivist of three Bishops and Princes, Conrad III, Conrad IV, and Melchior; although these two seem to have described the affairs of the people of Würzburg most minutely: yet using no other notice, says the Most Reverend, than that which Surius and Serarius had, so that it is superfluous to institute a more laborious inquiry concerning the old monuments. More happily could he teach me those things which I had proposed in the other questions.

[50] the modern solemnity The second was: What veneration is wont to be exhibited today to the holy Kilian and his companions? I will here use the very words of the Most Reverend, which are thus: A great one, he says, and perhaps greater will not be exhibited to another Saint whom another province of Germany venerates as founder of the faith. On the day before, after the sound of the bell for the Ave Maria at noon, by an almost continuous ringing of distinct bells the clergy and people are called to the first Vespers, which the Bishop-Prince himself sings, all the canons of the Cathedral church being present, who on this and the other days through the whole Octave must be present, unless they wish to lose a notable portion of their revenues. There appear at them the rest of the secular Clergy of the Collegiate churches in the city, the Abbot with his convent from the monastery of St. Stephen, of the Order of St. Benedict, all the nearer parish priests both in the city and outside it: who in a solemn procession bring in the relics of the Saints which they possess. The first Vespers and Compline being finished, after the space of one hour, in the Cathedral and in the near-adjacent Collegiate of the New monastery, where is the place of the first burial of the holy Patrons, Matins with Lauds for the following day begin, in which the greater Dean of the Cathedral church acts as celebrant or officiator.

[51] distinctly These on the eve of the festivity, with plainly solemn celebration. The Most Reverend continues: On the other day, at earliest morning, on the feast itself, in the Cathedral, Prime and Terce of the lesser Hours are performed. Afterward, by the ministering capitular Canons of the Cathedral church, the first solemn Mass is celebrated. This finished, from the seventh hour to the eighth there is a sermon in the Cathedral by the Suffragan Bishop himself. At the eighth hour the Most Holy is borne in procession by the Bishop-Prince himself, the whole Clergy in copes accompanying, to the Collegiate in the New monastery, to the tomb or place of the first burial of the holy Martyrs, as said above; where it is believed that the palace of Duke Gosbert once was, and thence by some circuit again to the Cathedral, in which, at the high altar, before the three exposed heads of the Saints in silver statues, the said Bishop-Prince celebrates the high Mass. The second Vespers are sung either by the Suffragan Bishop himself, or by the Dean of the greater church, and those finished, the relics of the Saints are led back in procession again to their proper churches.

[52] Through the whole Octave on each day, before the exposed relics of the Saints, a pontifical Mass is celebrated by the mitred Abbots and Provosts of this diocese, and accurately explaining: and on the Octave itself a solemn procession is led around this city, all the canons of the Cathedral church being present. With a more solemn cult also through the whole Octave in the place of the first burial, now a secular Collegiate, at St. John the Evangelist in the New monastery, a memory is made of the Saints. Outside the choir, it pertains to the solemnity of the day, that about the first Vespers, for three days, the right of asylum or immunity is promulgated by the public voice of a herald, for all who, whether proscribed, or from fear of punishment, being ill conscious to themselves of a committed offense, have departed from the city. Also that a notable portion of the citizens and the stipendiary soldiery, sometimes rising to six thousand, present in the city, presenting arms here and there in the procession, augment the honor to the holy Patrons. It seems that the things which I had asked concerning the modern festivity and the most solemn veneration wont to be exhibited to the Saints could not be more distinctly set forth. With equal elegance and diligence the Most Reverend dissolved the other questions, as will be clear from what follows.

[53] In the third article I had asked, in what form or habit the Saints are represented, likewise in what habit they are wont to be depicted; and in what temple they are chiefly honored? To each member is fitted its answer: And first indeed, that St. Kilian is sculpted and painted with the episcopal, St. Colonatus in the sacerdotal, and St. Totnan in the diaconal habit. The figure of St. Kilian I here adjoin from the seal which the said Collegiate of St. John in the New monastery used in the year 1119, since I have found no more ancient monument. It savors altogether of the not great skill of sculpting of its century, and seemed worthy to be here exhibited engraved in bronze,

with the other, not dissimilar, of Bishop Embrico, of whom we made mention in the Acts of St. Otto on the second of July, which he himself used in the year, as the Most Reverend noted, 1135. From the form of both you will perceive the whole matter, and gather what has been observed more than once elsewhere in our Acts, that in those centuries there was another figure both of the crozier, and of the mitre, and of the other vestments; concerning which there is no need to discourse here at length. It readily appears that the characters were expressed by the sculptor according to the norm of the moderns; which I could wish had been rendered plainly genuine. To the other member it is replied: That they are chiefly honored in the Cathedral church and the just-mentioned Collegiate, namely in the place of the first burial. Likewise in the seminary at St. Kilian's, and in the celebrated church of the Julian hospital.

[54] The fourth head inquired by what ecclesiastical rite the Saints were venerated, and by what ecclesiastical rite whether with an Octave, or on another day than the eighth of July? The answer: That they are celebrated with the rite double of the first class, and indeed with an Octave, only on the eighth day of July, and thus I read them celebrated in a most ancient manuscript diurnal, in which the year is lacking. The antiquity of the aforesaid Diurnal the Most Reverend proves from this, that in the prefixed Kalendar, in the month of January there is not had the feast of the Chair of St. Peter; nothing of the feast of Corpus Christi, not the feast of the Visitation; nothing of the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed on the second of November: whence he gathers, not badly, that it was written toward the end of the twelfth century. From it he plucked a few things which deserve to be here inserted, since they cannot now conveniently be reported in another place. The prayer on the vigil concerning St. Kilian and his companions Colonatus and Totnan: God, who strengthened the minds of your holy Martyrs Kilian and his companions with the virtue of constancy in their passion, grant propitiously, that as they, the persecutor being overcome, merited to be crowned by you, so we may merit by their intervention to be defended, and to attain the joys of eternal blessedness.

[55] that they were venerated even anciently. There follows on the feast day itself the Chapter: The just bore off the spoils of the impious, and sang, O Lord, your holy name, and praised together your victorious hand, O Lord our God. The prayer, contracted with many abbreviations, is common enough: Grant, we beseech, almighty God, that we who venerate the solemnities of your blessed martyrs Kilian, Colonatus, and Totnan, may be protected by their merits and prayers. More proper is that prayer which is marked for the Octave, but of which you might miss the other, more perfect, part. It is conceived in this manner: Almighty everlasting God, who granted to your saints Kilian and his companions not only to believe in your Son, but also to be able to suffer for the same, extend also to our frailty divine aid, the eternal life for which they, happy, rejoice, that we at least by a sincere confession may merit to attain. This last part seems able to be thus restored: that the eternal life, in which they, after the combat, rejoice happy, we at least, etc., that some opposition of the members may be preserved. We return to the questions.

[56] The fifth asked: To what other cities, within or outside the diocese of Würzburg, does that cult extend? How far it extends today, The solution: Formerly, before Luther's heresy, which the imperial cities in Germany, a few excepted, now chiefly profess, it extended to the imperial cities situated in this diocese, and notably to that called Windsheim, whose first and principal church began to be built in honor and title of St. Kilian in the year 1190, in whose high altar the history of the same Saint is still to this day seen. 2. At Schweinfurt, where a bridge has its name from St. Kilian, and was skillfully constructed in the year 1383. 3. At Heilbronn of the Swabians. 4. At Hall; in which two imperial cities, situated in the diocese of Würzburg, churches were once dedicated in honor of St. Kilian, and to this day monuments of no contemptible antiquity are there beheld. Outside this diocese, in Westphalia near the monastery of Corvey, there is a town called Höxter, in which, before the thousandth year from Christ's birth, a temple built in honor and name of St. Kilian, Christian Francis Paulinus testifies in the Höxter Chronicle, published at Frankfurt in 1698, where at folios 6 and 7 he mentions offerings made to the altar there in the year 1088 by pious founders. At Vienna in Austria, by the Franconian countrymen, the feast is kept most solemnly every year. Let Gelenius be seen on this day; likewise the Offices of Osnabrück, Minden, and others.

[57] I had read in Bruschius that Adalbero, Count of Lambach and Schärding, sprung from Bavarian parents Arnold and Regilla, and whence it came to Lambach. founders of the monastery of Lambach, and that he ruled the church of Würzburg for forty years laudably and most usefully, not without many snares and vexations prepared for him by the schismatic Emperor Henry, so that more than once he was cast out from his see, compelled to betake himself to the monastery of Lambach, where at last he preferred to live quietly, and to use the things present, than elsewhere, with the utmost perils of life, to receive again those things which he had already lost by the arts of his schismatic enemies. These things sufficiently showed me beforehand that the cult of the holy Kilian and his companions, of which we treated above, was translated from Adalbero to Lambach, but I suspected that something else must have intervened, e.g., a grant of relics, whence so great a celebrity had there persevered hitherto. And so I asked, sixth: Whence so great a solemnity in the church of Lambach in Upper Austria, that St. Kilian and his companions should be venerated there with an Octave? But the Most Reverend found nothing besides, referring the whole cause of the cult to Adalbero himself, or to the monks of that monastery, who, for love of him as founder, began to venerate the holy Patrons of Würzburg, and moreover to this day most constantly persevere in the same veneration.

[58] The remaining questions I will run through in few words. I had asked: On the exposition of the relics and the concourse of people to them. In what place and on what altar the bodies of the Saints are exposed, or what monument is erected for them, what reliquary? It is answered: On the more solemn feasts the three heads of the holy Martyrs in silver statues are exposed on the high altar of the Cathedral church, together with a codex of the Gospels, which tradition shows sprinkled with their blood. In the Collegiate of the New monastery, in the temple of the seminary of St. Kilian, and in the celebrated church of the Julian hospital their relics are exposed. It remains doubtful in what place or in what tomb the remaining remains of the Saints are deposited, unless we understand that they were left in the old burial of the New monastery, or perhaps perished by the injuries of wars, the incursions of heretics, as we deplore was done in our Belgium and in nearly all Gaul, or by another calamity. The last doubts were concerning the concourse of the people to the sacred relics, and the more recent miracles. A huge confluence of the faithful is asserted on the feast itself and through the Octave, both from Franconia and from the adjacent provinces; but miracles recently described are not found. We accuse the carelessness of our elders, we ourselves often more negligent in the things which are done before our feet.

[59] Other things are remitted to St. Burchard. To my questions I had woven the request that any other things whatever, pertaining in any way to the posthumous glory of the Saints, be added. And so the Most Reverend admonished that John Frederick Pfeffinger, a noble man, and inspector of the equestrian academy of Lüneburg, had recently published a book, under the title The Vitriarius illustrated, in which he describes the Lives of the Emperors, and the episcopates and principalities of Germany; and in book 1, title 15, concerning the Princes of the empire, mentions many benefits conferred by the Emperors on the church of Würzburg, out of veneration toward St. Kilian: whence the praised Most Reverend took care that some leaves should be copied and transmitted to me, which could not incongruously be fitted to our request, had not the straits of time obstructed, necessary for weighing such things a little more accurately: and besides there would be need to consult the very fountain from which these were extracted, which cannot at all be done, is manifest. Add, that a more opportune place seems to remain: for since all those benefits are referred rather to the episcopate of Würzburg than to the deeds or cult of St. Kilian, they will be able more opportunely to be weighed and illustrated on the fourteenth of October, on which St. Burchard is venerated, without controversy the true first Bishop of that city, as we think is perceived from what has been said above. St. Kilian too will then have his glory; here nothing remains, except that the Acts themselves, discussed expressly in paragraph 4, be represented.

ACTS

From our very large manuscript codex, the Valcellensian or Moretian,

Collated with other manuscripts and with the editions of Canisius and Mabillon.

Kilian, Bishop and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

Coloman, Presbyter and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

Totnan, Deacon and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

BHL Number: 4660

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

There was a man of venerable life, named Killinus ^a, Promoted to the episcopate, he sets out with his companions into Franconia, whom the Scottish soil produced of great stock, who also from his boyish age had a great zeal to learn the sacred letters, and in them so perfectly advanced, that thence he had learned to rule the pontifical summit ^b, and then he was called by another name, Kilian, having favor with the clergy and with all the people, who also was so far filled with love of the Christian religion, that whatever he knew to pertain to the gain of souls, whatever to the propagation of the faith, he ceased not to work with devout mind and pious zeal. But it happened that on a certain day he was admonished both by the Evangelical and by the Lord's voice, where it is said: Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. These things the most blessed Man considering with himself with all the affection of heart and mind, his companions and disciples being gathered into one, that is Lonatus ^c, and Gallo ^d, and Arnuual the presbyters, and Totnan the deacon, seven others being joined to them, he began to persuade them to despise their own, and, according to the Lord's Gospel, to leave their fatherland and parents, and to follow Christ naked. They, straightway obeying the sacred admonition of the blessed Man, firmly united, all things being left, went forth from their own fatherland, and came into the part of the Southern people, to the castle which is called Würzburg.

[2] Staying there for some time, a certain Duke reigning there at the same time, where, before he announces the faith to the pagans, named Gozbert, son of Hetan ^e the elder, who was the son of Hruodis; which same Gozbert also, and all the people subject to him, still lived after the pagan manner, worshiping the idols of demons, but by no means acknowledging the God of heaven and earth. But the most holy Man, seeing a place of wondrous pleasantness, and a most beautiful multitude of noble men there, beset by the ancient enemy, grieved beyond what can be told for their blindness, and took counsel with his own, saying: Brothers, you see an elegant place and pleasant men, though deceived by error; if it seems good to you, let us do as we agreed, while we were in our fatherland: let us go to Rome, and visit the thresholds of the Prince of the holy Apostles,

and present ourselves to the sight of the Blessed Pope John, and if it be the Lord's will, license being received from the Apostolic See, with his counsel let us return again, and preach to them confidently the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without delay, they fulfilled their words by deeds, coming to the thresholds of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles.

[3] But coming thither, and not finding the Apostolic man John, since he was already dead, Having arrived at Rome, he is fortified with pontifical authority. the aforesaid Pontiff of God, Kilian, was lovingly and honorably received by the holy Pope Conon [*]. And when the Blessed Pope Conon heard whence he had come and for what he had come, and to what place he was afterward to go with prompt will; his faith and doctrine alike being heard, he gave him, from God and St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles, license and power of preaching and teaching, and of converting by his doctrine whomsoever he could, with free and most firm power to do this ^f.

[4] For they, going thence on their journey, were separated, yet corporally, not spiritually, Thence, returning, he converts the Duke of Franconia with his people; and there adhered to their Bishop Kilian Colonatus the presbyter and Totnan the deacon, and they came into the part of the Southern Franks, to the castle which is called Würzburg ^g, there preaching first the word of the Lord. Which being heard, Duke Gozbert caused them to be summoned to him. And when, presented, they were present, a conference was held with one another by Kilian the Bishop and the illustrious Duke Gozbert. Not long after, the devout Pontiff of the Lord, Kilian, persuaded him to become a Christian. Who also, the Lord willing, yielding to his sacred admonitions, was baptized by him, and all the people who were under his power were confirmed.

[5] and calls him away from unlawful marriage; But Gozbert the Duke himself had in marriage ^h the wife of his brother, as anciently was the custom. But the holy Pontiff of God, as a wise man always acts wisely, would not forbid her to him before he was well and firmly strengthened in the faith of Christianity. Then he spoke to him with these words: Beloved son Gozbert, now made a Christian, and in all things pleasing to God, if you do one thing, which it especially behooves you to do, namely that you dismiss your wife, whom you unjustly have joined to you; since it does not behoove you to have your brother's wife. To these words Duke Gozbert, as though awaking from a heavy sleep, answered and said: You counsel and preach graver and more difficult things now than before. But for the love of almighty God, which you have preached and preach, I have forsaken all things which were dear and lovable to me to have: for the same love, I will dismiss also my most beloved wife, if it is not lawful to have her; since nothing is dearer to me than the love of God, and nothing more lovable.

[6] These things heard, the wife of Gozbert, the most noble Duke, kindled with the tinder of anger and envy, and therefore, by his wife's guile, is slain with his companions. thought day and night how she might destroy the Saints. But when the time of their passion and reward had drawn near, the aforesaid Martyrs of Christ, their merits going before, gave themselves day and night to prayers and fastings, joyful without sadness, and devout without dread, cheerfully awaiting the day now desired, that they might be crowned with martyrdom. But it happened that on a certain night, while the almighty Lord willed to end the temporal contest of his soldiers, in the nighttime, when they stood unanimously in the praises of God, a lictor ⁱ came to them, with a sharp sword, as it were prepared to cut the throats of God's friends, fulfilling the precepts of Geilana, the wife of Duke Gozbert: which seeing, Killena the Pontiff of Christ said to his own: O my spiritual sons, now is the day long desired at hand; enter with me the spiritual contest, without fear, without trembling, according to the Lord's voice: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. These things being said, all together were beheaded, and crowned with martyrdom. For that same night with all speed they were secretly buried in the same place, but also their reliquary-cases, cross, and Gospel, and other Pontifical garments were placed together with them in the sepulcher.

[7] Seeing this, a certain matron, named Burgunda, narrated the deeds by words. Buried in humid soil, the books and sacred garments are not corrupted. For it is the custom of that place, in autumn or winter, and also in spring and summertime, when it rains, that no more than the space of two feet can be dug, but water bursts out against it. But by the divine merciful grace, when almighty God willed their bodies to be raised from the place of burial to greater honor, the flesh, as is the manner, being consumed, the rest were found sound and well preserved, so much that not one leaf of the books nor fringe of their garments was consumed by rottenness. And Duke Gozbert coming, and inquiring where the aforesaid servants of God were, his unfaithful wife answered that she knew not whither they went, or where they were. But that wretched man, who was held guilty of their slaying, could not hide the punishment which came to him from the vengeance of the Martyrs, but running here and there, wandering and a fugitive, and as it were frantic, always asserted that he was guilty of their death, and moreover said, trembling and lamenting: Killena, the saint of God, burns me with a most fierce fire.

[8] Hearing this therefore, Duke Gozbert, all the people being gathered, He who had slain the Saints is punished divinely. who together with him had been washed at the sacred font of baptism by the holy Pontiff, asked them what he ought to do with the wretch. But there was there a certain eloquent man ^k, and ready to answer, according to the suggestion of Geilana, the unhappy wife of Gozbert, who thus said: My lord, Duke Gozbert, think of yourself, and of all of us who together with you received baptism from them, and prove whether their God is so strong, so mighty, and knowing all things, and rendering good things to the good, and in the last things repaying evil to the evil, unless they first correct themselves by penance: and order this wretch to be loosed from his bonds, and, before all the people, to be left to his own arbitrament. For if their God is such as they too said, his vengeance will descend upon him, and he will mightily avenge his servants. But if otherwise—let not my lord be angry, who say such things—then let us serve great Diana ^l, as our former fathers also did, and were prospered in it even to the present. And it was done according to the word of the tyrannical man, and that wretch was let go in the midst of the people. But when he was let go, he began suddenly to be mad, and to tear himself with his own teeth, until he ended his present life. Which when they saw who had been washed at the sacred font of baptism, all together, glorying, rejoiced that they obeyed their doctrine, since they saw their God avenge them so wonderfully.

[9] Therefore, all these things thus accomplished, the vengeance of God's wrath followed the executioners of the holy Martyrs. Vengeance taken on Geilana and her son. The Saints' miracles and elevation. For a malignant spirit invaded Geilana, and so agitated her, until she ended her life. But her son Hetan ^m the people of the Eastern Franks cast out from the kingdom. For they so persecuted his progeny, that not one of his stock remained. But after much time, in the place where their bodies were buried, by divine nod the blind received sight, the lame also their step, the deaf their hearing. As many as were wearied with various infirmities, and came thither, straightway received health. The Lord illustrating their merits, by the counsel and precept of Pope Zacharias, through the mediation of Archbishop Boniface, they were honorably raised from the tomb by Burchard, first Bishop of the people of Würzburg, Pepin, first King of the Eastern Franks, reigning happily.

ANNOTATED.

Thus far concerning the Acts, which, if they are not altogether genuine and written by a contemporary or near-contemporary, I judge far more genuine than are those larger ones, which we said were edited by Canisius, or the somewhat briefer ones of Surius and Serarius. For the rest, lest the people of Würzburg complain that anything has been omitted by us, we have judged that longer Passion also to be subjoined; concerning which, besides what has already been said in the Commentary and in the Notes below, nothing remains here to be observed.

* read Conon.

ANOTHER PASSION

Dug out from manuscript codices by Henry Canisius in tome 4 of the Ancient Readings.

Kilian, Bishop and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

Coloman, Presbyter and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

Totnan, Deacon and Martyr, at Würzburg in Franconia (S.)

BHL Number: 4661

From the Edition of H. Canisius.

The author's prologue. As often as the combats of the holy Martyrs return to memory, so often do they touch the mind with the ardor of compunction, whence it comes that he seems to spend much on fraternal charity who studies to commend the histories of the Martyrs to memory by his pen. And although, faults retarding him, he cannot himself attain the way of rectitude, yet to those walking toward the fatherland he shows the path of truth. Otherwise it is most wretched, if he begrudge the harbor of salvation to those sailing happily, who himself suffers the losses of a perilous navigation. Therefore the deeds of the most blessed Kilian and his companions, as far as we can, we take care to assign to the marks of letters, that we may incite fraternal zeal ^a to the love of a good work. For since we cannot give the fraternal brethren a bowl, let us at least offer a cup.

HERE BEGINS THE PASSION.

CHAPTER I.

St. Kilian's boyhood, monkhood, prefecture, pilgrimage into Franconia and to Rome: where, ordained Bishop, returning to his mission, he converts the Duke with his people.

Blessed Kilian, sprung of the race of the Scots from noble parents, was made most illustrious by the nobility of divine grace. Well instructed in letters, Scotia, which is also called Ireland ^b, is an island of the Ocean sea, fruitful indeed in glebes, but more illustrious for most holy men; of whom Italy rejoices in Columban, Alemannia is enriched by Gallus, Teutonic France is ennobled by Kilian. Who, as we have said, born of noble lineage, from boyhood given to liberal studies, together with the increases of letters began diligently to search out the way of truth. At last, the grace of God preventing him, human studies of letters being spurned, and all the allurements of this world, he sought a monastery, denied himself to himself, and took up his cross, and followed Christ.

[3] Set therefore in the monastery, of how great obedience, he becomes a monk and abbot: and of how great frugality, and of how great instancy in vigils and prayers he was, the term of the present life declared. For although the palm of martyrdom stands more by grace than by merit, yet it is fulfilled with good works. And so the brethren of the monastery, seeing the perseverance of the blessed Man in the advances of the virtues, first compelled him by prayers to ascend through the ecclesiastical grades to the office of the presbyterate, then to take upon himself the care of ruling the same monastery. But he, knowing that the perfection of charity cannot perfectly stand without the love of one's neighbor, suffered himself to be somewhat lessened in his own affairs, that he might be able to profit the utility of the brethren, imitating the Apostle, desiring to become anathema from Christ for his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh.

[4] But when the fame of the blessed Man grew far and wide, but fleeing glory, he sets out into Franconia with his companions: fearing lest popular favor should fix a wrinkle of stain upon him, he began to meditate how he might leave his acquaintances and kinsmen, and seek far-removed lands, where he might be held obscure in fame and mean in stock, that he might more freely give himself to the divine worship. And so, the deliberation of withdrawing being made, his companions being gathered ^c, in whom the same fervor of love burned, he came to Britain, neighboring to Scotia; which, passing by with no long navigation, he reached Gaul. Having traversed it, he came into a province of Germany, which by the inhabitants of that land is called Eastern France; and there, in the town which in their tongue is called Würzburg, but in the Latin tongue can be interpreted the castle of men ^d, he disposed to make a stay, not fearing the fierceness of the unbelieving nation, because, intrepid, he desired the crown of martyrdom. But yet he abstained meanwhile from preaching, until he should present himself to the Roman Pontiff, that at the Roman See he might receive both the entire dogma of the Christian religion and the license of preaching. For Ireland ^e had once been defiled by the Pelagian heresy, and condemned by Apostolic censure, which could not be loosed except by Roman judgment. Therefore the most holy man, before the Primate of the Apostolic See and his ministers, that it might be permitted him to dispense the seeds of the divine word to the gentiles, sought it with zeal of divine love.

[5] whence, having set out for Rome, But at that time there presided over the Roman Church Conon the Pontiff, excelling in human and divine letters, fit for the pontifical office, a suitable discerner in ordering ecclesiastical matters. Who, having heard the faith of the aforesaid Man, bound with the bonds of charity, gave thanks to God, and imparted himself to him with love of charity, exulting that the seeds of the divine word were augmented by islanders and by Teachers set far off.

[6] there he is ordained Bishop; There was therefore in the excellent Pontiff no small exultation, because he saw the deceit of the ancient enemy little by little emptied, the ministers of the divine working increasing. Then, by the consent of the whole City, he constituted the most blessed Man in the office of prelacy, whereby he might irreproachably both make chrism, and dedicate churches, and consecrate sacred orders. These things thus accomplished, he dismissed him, admonishing that he should press on with the begun work, the reward of eternal retribution being prepared for him by the Lord. And so blessed Kilian, having gone forth from the city, the journey being accomplished with Coloman the presbyter and Totman the levite, came to the place destined for him, Columban being left in Italy. For going to Rome, he left Gallus ^f in Alemannia, burdened with fever.

[7] and thence, returning, he preaches to the people of Würzburg. Coming therefore to the aforesaid town of Eastern France, Würzburg, he found not the one whom he had left as Duke in that province, but another ^g, named Gozbert. Moreover the venerable Man little by little began to minister the pastures of the divine word to the unbelieving peoples. For the Lord had conferred on him such grace, that in a short time he thoroughly learned the speech of the nation, and dispensed to them in their own tongue the seeds of truth. And all wondered, not only at the novelty of the doctrine, but also at the exuberance of eloquence; the fluency of speech was accompanied also by the efficacy of power. There was fulfilled in him what Truth promised to the Apostles: I, he says, will give you a mouth and wisdom. And again: The works that I do, you also shall do. But when now the seeds of the divine word were growing up, and the common people were gradually lessened in the error of gentilism, the fame of the holy Man reached even to the princes of the people, so that it was not hidden from the Duke of the province. Who ordered the same holy Man to be presented to him, desiring to try what this doctrine was which he preached, hitherto unknown to him.

[8] After various labors But that Prince was endowed with a natural genius, though defiled by the error of gentilism. To whom, when the blessed Man had come, he began constantly to insinuate the dogma of the true religion, teaching that there is one God, the author of the visible and invisible creature, consisting in a Trinity of persons and a unity of divinity: that Jesus Christ, crucified by the Jews, is in one person true God and true man, in the nature of divinity equal to the Father, in the nature of humanity made mortal; yet the third person in the Trinity, through whom the rational and mortal creature, deceived by the fraud of the envious enemy, was mercifully repaired. But the aforesaid Prince, weighing the constancy of so great a man, and the insuperable truth of his discourses, because, as we said, he excelled in natural genius, seeing himself overcome by the true sentences, deferred for a time the hearing of him, wishing to treat with frequent scrutiny within himself, whether the worship which Kilian taught, or that of Diana ^h, were to be preferred. For Diana was held by him in the highest veneration. But yet the excellent Man labored with continual instancy, that he might render to God the souls which the devil tried to destroy. The lamp therefore, set above the candlestick, shone to all, and the city set on a mountain was seen by all.

[9] Moreover the aforenamed Duke, seeing the perseverance of the preaching of the excellent Man, he converts the Duke with all his people. came secretly to him, desiring to be instructed by his doctrines, that, the path of truth being known, he might be able to drive away the windings of error. But, diligently instructed by the most blessed Man in the documents of the Catholic faith, on the next day of the Lord's Resurrection ⁱ, with many others, having given his name, washed with the water of baptism, he merited absolution of his former error. And so it came about that nearly the whole province of Eastern France, the worship of demons being left, gave heed to the divine religion. O most blessed man, to be compared to the Apostolic dignity! For when the Lord comes to judgment, Peter will draw Judea, Andrew Achaia, and the rest their various kingdoms with them, among whom blessed Kilian will lead Teutonic France. How great then will be the exultation of the father in the offspring, and of the offspring in the father, when, all the perils of the world being consumed, not even the memory of tribulation will remain. But now it is time that we proceed briefly to the martyrdom of the blessed Man and his companions, yet so that a moderate brevity may both satisfy the studious reader and take away the loathing of the slothful.

[10] The aforesaid Duke Gozbert, by the assiduous admonition of the most blessed Prelate, and from an unlawful marriage advanced from day to day to better things. He had, however, a wife according to the rite of gentilism, who had once been joined in wedlock to his brother. She was called by the name Geilana. But the illustrious Man of God, at the beginning of the faith, would not therefore forbid such a marriage, lest the aforesaid Prince, admonished with severity, be led into repentance of his belief. And this is what the Apostle said to those not yet perfect in the faith: As to little ones in Christ, I have given you milk to drink, not meat. For solid food is of the perfect. And therefore the excellent Martyr deferred to the future what he knew to be graver, and at the same time, the divine Spirit revealing, knowing that in this matter the cause of martyrdom stood firm for himself and his companions, that meanwhile he might profit many, for the time omitted to condemn such a marriage; although he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ, imitating the Apostle, who was let down through the wall by the brethren in a basket, not that he feared death, but that he might profit many before death.

[11] But yet when on a certain day the venerable Prelate addressed the Duke familiarly, he gradually draws him back. he is said to have said among other things: My son, whom I have begotten through the Gospel, I rejoice greatly in the advance of your faith, but it much moves me that you are held by an unlawful marriage ^k, and I fear exceedingly lest by such wedlock you be retarded from the right way. For it is read, a most wise man saying: He who offends in one thing loses many goods; the Apostle James testifying: That he who shall keep the whole law, but offend in one, is made guilty of all. Therefore in baptism man is renewed, and not in part, but wholly. But that he may be wholly renewed, he ought to retain nothing of his former error. Hearing these things, the Prince first stuck fast in amazement, then drawing deep sighs (for he greatly loved her whom he had as wife), at last is said to have given this answer: I have heard, Father, from your teaching, that the Lord Jesus admonishes that nothing be preferred to his love, not father, not mother, not children, not wife, and therefore, although I uniquely love my wife joined to me, yet I prefer the divine love ^l. But now I have not leisure to inquire how I may dismiss her, because I hasten against the enemies of our commonwealth; but when I shall have returned, an opportunity of dismissing being found, I will separate from her. But when these things had come to the ears of Geilana (for who could deceive one who loves?), she glowed with grievous anger, like a lioness whose cubs are snatched, and long raging within herself, from this began to seek how she might destroy the holy Men: for neither, her husband being absent, would she cease from so great a turning-point of affairs.

ANNOTATED.

before our Saint set foot out of Britain, as will be clear on the sixteenth of October and the twenty-first of November: Several anachronisms of the same Egilward Mabillon shows at the Life of St. Burchard.

* traversed.

CHAPTER II.

The martyrdom of the Saints by the guile of Gozbert's wife; the divine vengeance upon her and the executioners; the death of Gozbert and his son. The finding and elevation of the sacred bodies through Atalongus.

Happy Kilian ^a, who are worthy to be compared to Elias and John. For Elias endured the snares of Jezebel, Hence the wife driven to madness, John received martyrdom by the guile of Herodias, you are beheaded by the zeal of Geilana; yet for the three there is one cause of their labor, namely the testimony of truth. Elias did not forbid nuptials, but condemned the woman's wickedness; and therefore yet he escaped, because the Lord hid him. John and Kilian, because they forbade unlawful nuptials, endured death by feminine poison. For no fierceness of beasts in this world is like an evil woman. For an example of this thing suffice two men incomparable to all others. Samson, of invincible strength, leader of the people of Israel, and Solomon, praiseworthy for inexhaustible wisdom, both of whom yielded to feminine guiles; the one by worshiping idols, the other by showing by what he could be deprived of his strength. No beast therefore in this world is like an evil woman. Let us therefore return to our purpose.

[13] The nefarious woman, of whom we speak, suborns executioners, sought by cunning meditation how, without popular tumult and the knowledge of the crowd, she might destroy the holy Men. For she was armed with impatience of anger and the fury of lust. And because the devil supplies to those desiring iniquity the fomentations of malice, there were found two ^b ministers of cruelty, who promised that they would satisfy Geilana's desires, gifts being given them for the most wretched execution: and so it came about that, the reward of the nefarious work being received, they came to the wish of the feminine cruelty. For the most blessed Martyr Kilian was wont, after a little sleep of necessity, to watch for the study of earnest prayer. But on a certain night, when St. Kilian was taking light sleep, so that he neither slept entirely nor waked openly, there appeared to him a man most fair in habit ^c and form, who said: Friend Kilian, arise, I will not have you labor longer, you are touched by one combat only, and so you shall be forever a victor with me. These things said, he departed. But the excellent Man, awaking, understanding that a divine visitation was present with him, the brethren being called together, said: Brothers, let us wake; the Lord will soon be here, and will knock at the door; we must beware therefore lest he find us torpid with sleep. Let us add oil to our lamps while it is time, lest, if it fail, we then begin to seek when we shall not be able to find.

[14] And so, while they gave themselves to prayers about the middle of the night, that they may slay the Saint with his companions. the executioners with drawn swords penetrated the place in which they prayed. Whom when the holy Man beheld, he said: Friends, for what have you come? you will fulfill the command, you will consummate the course. These things said, they were slain, and there committed to the earth, that no one might be able to know what had been done. Their garments also, with which they performed the divine Offices, and the sacred books ^d were buried together with them, lest any indication of their slaying could be discovered, but they might be thought to have secretly departed for the sake of their wonted pilgrimage. Yet there was a certain noble woman, named Burgunda, who from the beginning of their preaching had adhered to the holy Men, having a little cell near the oratory of the Saints, that she might more easily be present at the divine praises. She, intent on vigils, investigated with diligent care what had been done, and, the executioners withdrawing, gathered the shed blood of the Saints with a linen cloth ^e, and diligently buried it in the earth, giving herself to vigils and prayers where she knew the bodies of the Saints were covered, and honored the place with the veneration she could, though silently, lest, as afterward was done, she should be removed by order of Geilana.

[15] The miracle, and the woman Burgunda's care for the Saints. The same most wicked woman, planks [*] being laid, ordered a stable of horses to be made in the place where the holy Martyrs were buried, lest by any indication the sacred bodies should be betrayed. Yet they say that it was reported by those who then were, to posterity, that the animals stabled there over the sepulchers of the Martyrs laid neither dung nor urine ^f, exhibiting honor to the Martyrs, so that what the Prophet prophesied of the Head might be found in these members. The ox, he says, knew his owner, and the ass his master's crib; Israel did not know. And in such manner, as was said, the bodies of the Saints would have been almost unknown to men, had not the aforesaid Burgunda, set at the end of her life, revealed to certain faithful ones where they were placed ^g. But it happened that the Duke, his campaign accomplished, returned to the place where he had left the holy Men. Whom when he had not found, he began studiously to inquire when and for what cause they had withdrawn, and whither they had gone; for his wife, defiled with the poison of malice, now suffused with blushing, now depressed with pallor, now strengthened with confidence, put forth the various windings of her wickedness with guiles, saying that she had not kept them, nor set keepers over them; that they had come when they willed, and withdrawn when it pleased them, to keep the purpose of their pilgrimage. Whom do feminine words not soften, whom do they not draw back from the state of rectitude? And so the Prince, credulous of his wife's words, rested somewhat from the begun inquiry. But indeed, according to the Lord's voice, nothing is covered which shall not be revealed, and hidden which shall not be known.

[16] The executioners' When the things that had been done were gradually given to oblivion, one of those who had assailed the holy Men with the sword, suddenly seized by a demon, began to cry out with a huge voice: Kilian, sharply you persecute me, for I am consumed with fire: what I did, I cannot hide: I see the sword hanging over me, sprinkled with your blood ^h. Long crying out such things, and tearing himself with his own teeth, he passed from the present into eternal punishment. For of such it is written: With a double contrition break them, O Lord. But the other, conscious of the Saints' death, turned to madness, attacked himself with the sword, and, his bowels being poured out, through the torments of the present time came to the eternal ones. What sense had you then, Geilana, beholding such things? Unhappy, driven by torments, you raged.

[17] Not long after, that beast too, of whom we speak, and the stupendous punishment of Geilana herself. seized by demons, cried out with the greatest voice she could: Justly am I tortured, who applied torturers to the holy Men; rightly am I crucified, who prepared tortures. Sharply you press, Kilian, you kindle the fire, Coloman, you supply fomentations, Totman. Let it suffice you to have conquered, too much do you avenge your injuries. From "calix" you are called, Kilian ⁱ, but you pour very bitter cups into me. These things said, she was miserably vexed, so that she could scarcely be held by many. At last with great torment she came to the torment prepared by the devil. We see fulfilled what Truth says in the Gospel: Will not the Lord take vengeance of his elect who cry to him day and night, and will he have patience in them? Amen I say to you, that he will speedily take vengeance of them.

[18] These things thus done, they say that Gozbert was slain by his own servants,

[19] But truly, since we are tending to the end of the work, we judge it worthwhile The history of Gertrude and Atalongus: to confess at least one miracle of the blessed Martyr's virtues. The venerable virgin Gertrude, daughter of Pepin King of the Franks, when she would not take a husband to whom her father wished to join her, by the help of her mother, as long as she could, hid herself in the paternal residences. But when she could not hide longer, she came into the parts of the aforesaid Eastern France, to the place which is now corruptly called Karlburg, and there of her means, in honor of the most blessed Virgin Mary, built a monastery, which remains to the present day, where she ordained Atalongus the presbyter and Bernard the deacon, whom she had brought with her. She thereupon returned to her own land, because she knew that the suitor of her marriage had died: who, remaining in virginity even to the end of her life, pleased God both by her virginity and by the probity of her morals. But the aforesaid Atalongus was ignorant of Kilian, perhaps so that he had scarcely heard his fame, which little by little had grown obsolete through ignorance.

[20] Yet he was a priest learned in the divine letters, and given to the divine commands; but, as we said, he was ignorant of the merit of the blessed Martyr. this man, pressed by the boys, But yet when on a certain day he ordered the classes of boys, whom he was instructing in the study of letters, to stand before him, that he might seek from them the material of speaking; those who were of younger age, impelled by the divine spirit, began to cry out, saying: Kilian works signs; he ought to be taken up from the place in which he unworthily lies. Which when the venerable presbyter had heard, he was filled with amazement; especially because the boyish timidity in no way feared the magisterial austerity. Yet he threatened them, that if they ever dared to say such a thing, which lacked usefulness, they should be grievously pressed with blows. But it came about among these things that the course of the sun was interrupted by the darkness of night, and the aforesaid Presbyter, after the necessity of food and drink, was resolved into sleep. Who was pressed with so heavy a sleep that he seemed pressed by a phantasmal weight.

[21] and admonished in sleep, The dawn being at hand, when that heaviness of sleep failed, he saw in his dreams a venerable man standing before him, terrible with light, who said: Unless you shall believe, you shall not see. Which also the Lord threatened to the Jews with prophetic speech, saying: Unless you shall believe, you shall not understand. But the day being risen, when now the sun touched the second line, he asked his servant whether Phoebus had yet emerged from the sea-waves: but when he had learned that it already brought forth the hours of day, fixing the gaze of his light on the Phoeban rays, with open eyes he saw nothing. Understanding, however, that the dream had foretold to him a prophecy of blindness, and recalling his temerity to the eyes of his mind, he understood the proclamations of the boys to be a presage of the divine working. Then, weeping and wailing, he began to grieve, not so much for the blindness of body, as for the presumption of mind. Hence he began to inquire of the inhabitants of that place in which he dwelt, who Kilian had been, whose praises even the boyish tongue confessed.

[22] he finds the body of St. Kilian and his companions, Meanwhile there was present a certain countryman, who, though he could not pursue the dignity of the history, yet laid open the matter of the deed in the words he could, saying: That Kilian had come from far parts, and had shown the faith of the Christian religion to the inhabitants of that province, and, extinguished by feminine guile, was somewhat besmeared with oblivion, both by the ignorance of the crowd and by the interval of time. Which when the venerable priest had heard, the burial of the Martyrs being inquired out, he asked to be led thither, and there with prayers and vigils earnestly asked that, by the intercession of the venerable Martyr and his companions, the Lord would restore to him his lost light; condemning in himself the ignorance of discretion, and the temerity of his speech. At last, his light being received by the benefits of the Saints, he ceased not publicly to disclose, to whom he could, the miracles of the divine working done in him; so that, going to the venerable Archbishop Boniface, who then presided over the church of Mainz, he pursued with diligent narration how great things God had done for him, by the merits of Blessed Kilian and his companions.

[23] and takes care that they be elevated. But the same Atalongus [m] was not ignoble in fame and morals, and therefore he seemed to confess the truth not only to the holy man Boniface, but also to all. From that time therefore the most venerable Archbishop investigated how he might exalt with episcopal dignity the town where the bodies of the Saints were placed. And because we are tending to the end of this work, let us here set the term of the narration. But how the venerable Pontiff first publicly obtained the episcopal see of Würzburg, and how he raised the bodies of the Martyrs from the place where they had been unbecomingly placed; in his life, as we shall be able, we will take care to make manifest, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATED.

* planks.