ON ST. AMALBERGA THE WIDOW, AT LOBBES AND BINCHE IN BELGIUM. In the VII Century. PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Amelberga, widow, at Binche in Belgium (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
§ I. The name of the Saint variously inflected; her most illustrious birth.
The situation, antiquity, and the fame from the holiness of the monks, of the monastery of Lobbes, have had to be described more than once in the Acts, as also the translation of the sacred bodies from it to the town of Binche, which not so long ago we mentioned in the Passed-Over of the second of July, A name common to three holy women where you will find the days noted on which, concerning the individual Saints pertaining thither, it has been treated in its time and will further be treated. Among them, eighth in order, is she of whom we here speak, St. Amalberga the widow, illustrious no less by her virtues than by her origin, to be accurately distinguished from another synonymous noble virgin, who, on the occasion of the other (as some wrongly will have it), is also venerated on this very day, a whole century later than the widow. From the most celebrated holiness of life of both, and perhaps also of another of the same name, the abbess of Susteren on the Meuse (who is venerated on the XXI of November), the venerable and sacrosanct name of Amalberga, Amalaberga, or Amelberga has been transmitted to posterity, widely spread among the Belgians and Germans, from whose language it is manifest to have flowed, whether from Amal, a Saxon word, which some interpret as "heaven," and berg, which indicates a mountain; as if one should say "heavenly mountain": or from another nomenclature of Aventinus, who by Amalperg or Amelperg understands "the mountain of nourishment." Which etymology you prefer or follow, is a matter of indifference to me.
[2] But I judge that one utterly to be rejected which you will find below in the last number of the Acts of St. Amalberga the virgin of Temse, it flows not from two languages, but from the Saxon: where an unskilled writer fashions for us this stammering of the venerable name from a twofold language: But now, about to say a few things concerning her most noble name, imposed on her by a certain divine prophecy, we shall thus make an end of our discourse. For that the name of that most holy virgin is composed of two languages, namely Latin and Teutonic, the two words declare: for the former part, A MALO ("from evil"), the latter, BERGA, proclaim by alternate word that her merit was most happy. For Amalberga is expressed as "a guard from evil," or "a caution from evil"; which both, no one doubts, agree with her holy purpose. For that she dedicated her body and soul to Christ by perpetual chastity, it is not doubtful that she guarded herself from evil. But since she always held the snares of demons suspect, and drew back her feet from the snares of iniquity, that she continually guarded against evils, and always did good things, is proved by clear reasoning. Otherwise, if anyone shall interpret her name otherwise, by I know not what kind of teaching, will he lie that she did otherwise than has been said above? By no means: the middle term is now given, as the Schools speak. But such notices are of little concern to our matter.
[3] It would matter a little more to discern clearly whether that name Amalberga is the same as that which now, by a softer inflection, is called Amala or Amalia or even Amelia, more frequently used in Germany, by a softer inflection today Amalia. and rendered more august by the most august Empress of that name, the widow of the Emperor Joseph I of best memory, and by the most serene Archduchess her daughter; which to me indeed becomes plainly probable. For thus I think it happens, that while in holy Baptism the name of Amalberga is imposed, in the native manner it is expressed either by Amalberg and Amelberg, or perhaps more frequently by Amel, Amal, Amale, and diminutively Amaltie; which same thing one may observe in six hundred proper names of the Belgians, which, the ending being removed, are most frequently shortened by apocope: whence, by a new inflection, the common folk today even of those knowing Latin, and foreigners, perhaps ignorant of such apocope, when they wish thence to express a Latin word, just as the ancients, a Latin ending being added, formed from Amalberg "Amalberga," so these now everywhere form from Amale, Amal, and Amel "Amalia" or "Amelia," so that for all women marked with that name the patroness is St. Amalberga, whether the widow or the virgin, according to each one's fitting zeal and veneration toward the one or the other. So much for the name.
[4] A marvelous genealogy of our Saint in Divaeus, Furthermore, some modern scribblers derive the birth of the Saint by a marvelous genesis from Pharamond, mixing in very many things which are supported by no authority at all of the ancients. Perhaps I shall not say rashly that Peter Divaeus paved the way for them, when in book 1 of the Brabantine Affairs, chapter 3, with a rather liberal pen he expressed some things which I could wish rested on a somewhat more solid foundation. Thus he has it, page 7: In his time (of St. Arnulf, Bishop of Metz), Pepin, son of Carloman, most noble of the Austrasians, was powerfully ruling in Hesbaye and Brabant. Of Carloman the ancients have handed down nothing worthy of credence, save that he had as children Pepin and Amalaberga: of whom they say that Amalaberga bore Walbert; that from Walbert and Bertilia were born Amalaberga, Aldegundis, and Waldetrudis. That of these, Amalaberga, married to the noble man Vitegerius, lord of Condé and Verginiacum, brought forth Emebert, Bishop of Cambrai, Pharaildis, Ermelinda, Gudula, and Reinildis. So Divaeus, asserting many things in few words, which it would be most difficult to bring to the file of truth.
[5] Whence he received such marvels, he himself neither notes, nor have I leisure to inquire, which by many others he most rightly took care to note in the margin, that others think otherwise; he could have added, that they ought to think altogether otherwise, if they have any brains. That Amalaberga, sister of Pepin, mother of Walbert, is not known to me, no more than the other Amalaberga; daughter of Saints Walbert and Bertilia, and sister of Saints Aldegundis and Waldetrudis, who is said to be the same as the mother of St. Emebert, Bishop of Cambrai, and of those four holy Virgins, all of whom are attributed to our present Saint. And from what source he drew the latter, I easily understand, although these too are to be refuted below. But who makes St. Amalberga, wife of Witger, whom Divaeus calls Vitigerius, the sister of Saints Aldegundis and Waldetrudis, hitherto, so far as I know, no one has been found, at least who deserves any credence. That I may not dwell longer on refuting these, let the Acts of St. Aldegundis on the XXX of January be seen, of St. Waldetrudis on the IX of April, of the parent of both on the XI of May, in which not a jot appears whence one might gather that St. Amalberga touched them by so great a nearness, although that she was a kinswoman in some degree, I would not dare to deny.
[6] Moreover, Giles Waulde, Canon and Pastor of the church of Binche, in his work on St. Ursmar and seven other Saints of Lobbes published in French in 1628, dared to follow the illustrious footsteps of Divaeus in other progenitors, it has been immensely augmented. nay, to extend them higher, where in chapter 2 he exhibits a long genealogy of St. Amalberga, so composed that he recites from memory her grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers extended even to Pharamond, whereas I, after no sluggishly bestowed effort, am compelled candidly to confess that I have not yet been able certainly to discover the true name of the parent of St. Amalberga. The discourse gradually grew, and the genealogical series of St. Amalberga was immensely augmented, so that other writers of little books on the life of St. Reineldis reckon among her kinsmen Dukes and Archdukes plainly innumerable, Kings, but anonymous, more than seventy, Emperors of the West altogether twenty, of whom eight were Franks, but twelve of the most august Austrian blood. You see in how short a time they have added to the eulogy of Divaeus a title almost immense.
[7] But those men seem to summon smoke, by which they rather taint than illustrate the glory of St. Amalberga; It is established that she was illustrious in birth, for she ought not to have begged those things from the series of her ancestors or descendants, who shone far more splendidly by the fame of her virtues and miracles. Whether she was the german sister of blessed Pepin of Landen, or a niece by a sister, since the ancient monuments either explain this ambiguously or involve it, who would dare to define for certain? That she was a near kinswoman of Pepin and committed to his care, I would not so scrupulously deny. For the rest, amid various and dense shadows, there is scarcely a place where you may set your foot. Other things are obscure, both those pertaining to one or a double marriage, and those pertaining to her children. Nor could anyone sufficiently explain by what reasoning this our St. Amalberga
could be said to be the mother of St. Pharaildis, who, born of a father Theodoric, as is said in her Acts, does not seem to have had as sisters the holy virgins Reineldis and Gudila, much less St. Ermelendis, whatever the collector of the Acts, confusing diverse things, may most expressly assert, and after him Baldric, Divaeus, Le Cointe, and others. But of this matter a little more fully in the following paragraph.
[8] As for the true origin of the Saint, the genealogies of Divaeus, but whose parents are not yet certainly known: of Waulde, and of various little books being here set aside, this may safely be admitted, that she sprang from most illustrious birth, as the Legend testifies, however little accurate in many things. The same Legend says that she was the sister of Pepin, father of St. Gertrude, by whom, namely, she was given in marriage to Witger. But some, says Molanus in the Nativities, assert her to be the daughter of a sister, and call both Amalberga. But since, Molanus continues, the most grievous persecution of the Northmen destroyed, by the just judgment of God, many written histories of the Saints; it is no wonder if those who tried to collect them from every quarter after the said persecution disagree in smaller matters. But to pursue these things more at length is not for the present place: let it therefore suffice to have admonished the reader to read such things kindly, and to judge them with equal humanity, as best he can. So he, prudently indeed and wisely, fashioning nothing by which obscure matters might be more entangled. Miraeus speaks equally ambiguously in the Fasti, and we experience the same daily in the Acts of the Saints of Belgium and in very many others. But, as we have already said, credence can be given to the writer of the Life of St. Amalberga, that she was born of illustrious blood and was near in kin to blessed Pepin: if not his sister, at least a niece by a sister.
[9] nor less ambiguous are the things pertaining to her children. I am much mistaken if all the Belgians do not subscribe to what has hitherto been argued: perhaps I shall not so extort consent in the other difficulties which remain, concerning whether St. Amalberga had one or a double marriage, and therefore concerning the children begotten by one or by two husbands. The praised Molanus proposes the matter thus: There are those who assert that she was twice married; that from her later husband Witger she bore the three already-named holy offspring (Emebert, Reineldis, and Gudila), but from her former husband likewise three, Gengulf the martyr, Venantius the martyr, and St. Pharaildis. But no trace of this marriage appears in the histories of Gengulf, Venantius, and Amalberga: nay, the history of the church of Binche, whose compendium I have set down, has plainly the contrary; namely, that she, bereft of the solace of her parents, still tender in age, cared neither for girlish games nor for any wanton things. Hence the devil, the enemy of chastity, admiring the girl's continence, instigated her parents, that is, her kinsmen, to her marriage; and to her, resisting, they named as husband Witger. Others acknowledge one marriage with Witger, and from it five holy offspring, Ablebert, Reineldis, Pharaildis, Ermelendis, and Gudila. But as all agree about three, so about Saints Pharaildis and Ermelendis it is contradicted by many, and namely by those churches in which these Virgins rest. To the discussion of these will serve
§ II. The marriage, age, and children of St. Amalberga.
The double marriage of St. Amalberga That some had written concerning the double marriage of St. Amalberga, Molanus already said; the same he himself had asserted in the Indiculus, where he plainly reads that St. Amalberga the widow was the mother of St. Pharaildis, and from her second marriage, of St. Emebert the bishop, and of the virgins Reineldis and Gudila; the same he had handed down in the account of Pharaildis and elsewhere, and others after him in the French little books on St. Reineldis, as we shall say on the XVI of July. Perhaps the recent French Legend-writer consulted these alone, insofar as our Acts shone before him, not wandering so far outside the olives; but when he advanced to these and other difficulties, boldly defining many things. Elsewhere he swallowed other things, but here he roundly admitted a double marriage of St. Amalberga; the one indeed with Theodoric, whom he gratuitously makes a widower, from whom she bore Pharaildis alone, Gengulf and Venantius being passed over, of the former of whom enough has already been said on the XI of May, and of the latter no fewer impossibilities will be shown in their time. The other marriage, with Witger, from which were born Emebert or Ablebert, who in advanced age was Bishop of Arras and Cambrai; and further Reineldis and Gudila
[11] are contended by many in rivalry, To these he rashly mixes other things which he could draw from no Belgian or Cleves Fasti: namely, that the festival of St. Reineldis is celebrated in Cleves; perhaps because he somewhere read that Saintes is a town situated in that region: but he was ignorant that Saintes, where Reineldis the virgin and martyr is venerated, is to be sought in our Hainaut, near Halle of the Mother of God, which is handed down to memory to have drawn its name from St. Reineldis and her holy companions in martyrdom: to pass over the rest, no less crudely digested, into which, being destitute of a guide, he was bound to slip. There were some guides to him in maintaining the double marriage of St. Amalberga, but whom he could have known to have been long ago refuted by Giles Waulde, praised above, in chapter 8 of his work, page 292. To enumerate them here one by one is neither leisure nor worth the effort; nor ought a longer addition of some modern writer to the life of St. Reineldis, to be repudiated on the XVI of July, be regarded at all; in which also Saints Gengulf and Venantius are wrongly called sons of St. Amalberga. You would say that they contributed their studies in rivalry to this, that what they could not reconcile in its perplexity, they might more involve by mists summoned from elsewhere. But we must now more closely apply ourselves to illustrating these things, as far as we can.
[12] With the good leave therefore of all those writers, I shall not fear to assert, but only one is to be admitted. that those good men, who after the Norman ravages compiled the Legends of the Belgian Saints from the surviving tradition of the rude common folk, being for the most part ignorant of the right ordering of times, rashly handled and confused very many things, which for us after so many centuries it is far most difficult to elucidate, as Molanus, Miraeus, and we ourselves elsewhere with our Predecessors have so often confessed. To say the matter once for all, I judge, with the author of the Life of St. Reineldis and the others cited above by Molanus, that St. Amalberga was married only once, and bore no other children by her one husband Witger except St. Ablebert or Erembert, Bishop of Cambrai, of whose age we shall treat presently, and the two holy virgins Reineldis and Gudila, of whom the former was crowned with martyrdom at Saintes. The Legend of St. Amalberga speaks otherwise, here to be given and discussed by us; but after a more laborious inquiry I seem to have detected that the writer of that Life erred in more than one matter, whose summary, the stone of every offense, I first subjoin: But God gave them a most holy offspring, Aldebert the most blessed pastor of the holy church of Cambrai … and four sisters dedicated to God, of whom one was Reyneldis, the second Pharaildis, the third Ermelendis, the fourth Gudila.
[13] For untangling all the difficulties in some way (since nearly all things are ambiguous), the age of St. Amalberga must be explored to some extent, it is shown from the age of the Saint, which seems able to be gathered from this, that her youngest-born and last offspring was St. Gudila, concerning whom an angel foretold to her that she would bear a daughter beloved of God and adorned with the flower of the highest continence and chastity, and that after her she would conceive no other daughter: and finally that she should hand over the daughter, when born, to St. Gertrude, to be received at the saving laver, and to be nourished in Christ with the milk of the divine word (as the Apostle admonishes ought to be done). These things most certainly mark the time when the fame of St. Gertrude was already spread through Belgium, and so while she lived as a nun at Nivelles. But St. Gertrude, born in the year 632, was veiled by St. Aubert in 650; it follows that St. Gudila was not born before that year, since the holy foster-mother must have reached at least that age before she was fit to undertake the care of a little girl. Most probably therefore one may conjecture that St. Gudila was born about that year 650 or a little later. But since she was the last offspring of St. Amalberga, it will be deduced by nearly the same probability that the mother had reached about those years in which women cease to conceive, that is to say, that she was not far from the fiftieth year of her age, so that accordingly she was born at the beginning of the seventh century, or about the year of the Lord six hundred. Now let us return to the text of the anonymous biographer.
[14] that she bore only three children I admit first, with our Predecessors on the XV of January, that St. Amalberga had a son, likewise a Saint and Bishop of Cambrai, Aldebert, or Ablebert, or Hildebert, or by whatever other similar name you may call him; but who succeeded not Bertoald, but SS. Aubert and Vindician, as I judge proved against Baldric and others in the Commentary on his deeds, paragraph 4, page 1078, and in the Commentary on St. Gudila on the VIII of January, page 513. And who, I beseech, could sufficiently understand that St. Ablebert was a bishop from the year 630 or earlier, and so was born at least in the year 600, and yet that his mother St. Amalberga bore a daughter, St. Gudila, about the year 650, whom St. Gertrude received at the saving laver and nourished in Christ with the milk of the divine word? For which task St. Gertrude, brought into the light not before the year 632, would scarcely have been fit at that time. It is therefore much more probable that he is Hildebert, son of St. Amalberga, who is also called Ablebert and Aldebert and Emebert, and who must have succeeded not only St. Aubert but also St. Vindician about the year 695, inasmuch as he outlived his sister St. Gudila, who died about the year 712, on the testimony of Baldric himself.
[15] SS. Emebert, Reineldis, and Gudila, A more grievous error of the author of the Life, of Baldric, and of others, is that, against the constant opinion (as Molanus almost said) of their own churches, they make four virgin sisters, whose ages can no more be reconciled than the episcopate of St. Emebert or Ablebert of Cambrai can be placed before the times of St. Aubert; in which matter this too is worthy of observation, that the author of the Life of St. Amalberga relates that she received the sacred veil from the same St. Aubert. Manifest, unless I am mistaken, is the contradiction in St. Ermelendis, who is inconsequently rejected by Le Cointe and others, and who certainly could in no way have been begotten from the same mother as St. Gudila, unless we feign a miracle, which only the divine authority of the sacred Scriptures compels us to admit in Sara, the wife of Abraham. Of St. Ermelendis, Molanus makes mention in nearly the same words in the Indiculus and in the Nativities of the Saints of Belgium on the XXIX of October, thus writing of her: But after her death for forty-eight years she lay hidden from the cult of the world, until, the glory of miracles magnifying her, Duke Pepin, father of St. Gertrude, being moved, raised her sacred body from the tomb.
[16] St. Ermelendis being excluded, More concerning this matter are related, from the Life of St. Ermelendis itself, in the Commentary on the Acts of blessed Pepin
in paragraph 4, especially number 45, page 258, where it is said that the aforesaid Prince … enriched the place with a very great multitude of estates, laying the foundations of a monastery where the people of God might venerate Christ. See there other things pertaining to that matter, explained a little more fully. But now that blessed Pepin, father of blessed Gertrude, most clearly distinguished by that addition from every other of the same name, died his last day in the year of the Lord 646, in which very year for a moment — but gratuitously — I will grant that all the things already related could have been accomplished by him: if St. Ermelendis had already been buried for forty-eight whole years, even on that hypothesis it must plainly be admitted that she died at least in the year 598. Let there be given her only twenty years of life, she must again have been born at least in the year 578. And will there be one to persuade us that our St. Amalberga, who bore St. Gudila about the year 650, was the mother of that same virgin Ermelendis, seventy-two whole years before? Whoever shall aptly reconcile these things, will be able at the same time to bring concord between flames and water, the winds and the sea.
[17] But neither do I see that St. Pharaildis was the daughter of St. Amalberga, and St. Pharaildis. nor could that opinion arise from anywhere else than from the Acts of SS. Emebert, Gudila, and of this Amalberga, whose errors we are trying to correct. The certain age of St. Pharaildis no one has hitherto determined, nor could Bollandus, the founder of our work, explore it on the IV of January; noting on St. Gudila that St. Amalberga was twice married, if she was the mother of St. Pharaildis; which is in no way proved to us. But neither do the Acts of St. Pharaildis express this, since, the mother's name being passed over, they only intimate that her father was Theodoric, ruling within the borders of Lorraine and Gaul, to whom there was also a twin offspring of sons, but unnamed, to whom a third of the female lot was added, by name Pharaildis, where the other sisters are roundly excluded. Add to these the Life of blessed Reineldis, to be illustrated on the XVI of July, in which, as it exists purer in our Manuscript codex, marked ✠ Ms. 50, you will read thus: From her therefore (St. Amalberga) the Lord gave to him (Witger) a most holy offspring, Emebert, afterward the most blessed pastor of the holy church of Cambrai … and two daughters, of whom one was called Gudila, the other Reineldis. Nothing here of Ermelendis or Pharaildis, who are also excluded in the Life of St. Berlendis on the III of February, but from whose sanctity we do not wish a jot to be withdrawn, although we cannot at all judge that they were sisters of the others. But let enough have been said concerning her children; let us proceed to the cult and Acts of St. Amalberga.
§ III. The cult, profession, and Acts of St. Amalberga.
Among the various errors of the French Legend-writer, of which we spoke above from the beginning of the preceding paragraph, The cult of this one more recent than that of the Virgin this too is to be reckoned, that he quite confidently declares that St. Amalberga the Virgin is venerated on this day, on the occasion of the synonymous holy widow, whose deeds we here illustrate; whereas both Acts equally mark the same day of passing, but on other grounds plainly the opposite must be said; for it will be plain below that the aforesaid St. Amalberga the virgin was known in the Martyrologies many centuries before, as in the Rosweyde or Utrecht codex of the twelfth century and several others; many centuries before, I say, than Molanus inserted the present holy Widow into his additions to Usuard, in the Indiculus, perhaps by a typographical error marking the X day of June, whence it happened that Baronius, in his notes on the Martyrology, on the occasion of the Virgin, who alone has a place in the more ancient Fasti and in the present Roman Martyrology, wrote that there was moreover another Amelberga of the same name, a widow, also celebrated for sanctity, whose Acts Surius describes in Volume 4 on this day: furthermore her feast day is kept not on the VI day before the Ides of July, but of June, as Molanus testifies, treating of her in the Indiculus of the Saints of Belgium. But these things Lowius, the editor of the Nativities, best restored, bringing back to this day all that had to be said or revised concerning our holy Widow.
[19] In the aforesaid additions to Usuard, the praised Molanus had thus placed on this day in the first edition: At Binche, in the more recent Fasti she is celebrated enough. of Amalberga, the chosen widow, who, when she had rested in peace, was laid up at Lobbes, in the basilica of blessed Ursmar: and, illustrious for signs, is venerated with the wondrous veneration of the faithful. In the later editions a little differently and more briefly: On the same day, at the monastery of Lobbes, the deposition of St. Amalberga the chosen, who, illustrious for signs, etc. The Saint was added by a more recent hand to the Lobbes manuscript of Ado. Of the same the Calendar of Liège makes mention, the German Martyrology and likewise the Belgian, Galesinius, Ghinius, Ferrarius, and other more recent authors. I am mistaken if Saussay did not wish to reconcile the sayings of Molanus, when he wrongly distinguished the elevation from the birthday: On the same day, the elevation of St. Amalberga, widow and nun, whose passing is celebrated yearly at Lobbes and Binche on the IV day before the Ides of June. But at Binche she is strong in especial cult, where, brought long ago from the church of Lobbes with seven other Blessed ones, her sacred remains rest in a silver case. Saussay consulted registers not sufficiently genuine, if he found another festival of the passing of St. Amalberga, besides that which all the Belgian monuments mark on this day.
[20] Her eulogies, Among the various eulogies let it be permitted to subjoin one, conceived quite rightly by Constantine Ghinius, if you except only the epoch, as I shall say below: At the monastery of Lobbes, the deposition of St. Amalberga the widow, who, born of most illustrious lineage, bereft of her father, though reluctant, given in marriage to Witger, Prince of Lorraine, from him brought forth a holy offspring into the light, namely Ablebert, Bishop of Cambrai, and the virgins dedicated to God, Rayneldis the martyr and Gudila. Afterward, forsaking the world with her husband, she received the veil from blessed Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai, and dedicated herself wholly to God at Maubeuge. And when day by day more and more she tamed the flesh and strengthened the spirit with fastings and prayers, seized by a fever, feeling the day of her calling to be at hand, often repeating those words, O Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the habitation of thy glory, called to that same glory, she rested in the Lord. Her body, carried to Lobbes, thence translated to Binche, is made illustrious by miracles. She flourished in the time of Pepin, about the year of the Lord 790. The error in the figures 790 is to be excused, by the fault of the typographer, I think, as we said concerning the Indiculus of Molanus; and the first character 7 is to be changed into 6: for who was that Pepin in Brabant, when Charlemagne was already long since reigning?
[21] likewise among the Benedictines, All the published monastic Benedictine Martyrologists claim St. Amalberga for themselves in rivalry: Wion, Dorganius, Menard, Bucelinus, whom nevertheless Mabillon by no means followed, making no mention of her either in his Acts, not even among the Passed-Over, nor in the Annals. The encomium of Bucelinus, not much unlike the one already given, is a synopsis of the Acts, such as Molanus gave in the Indiculus and in the Nativities. Wion explained some things wrongly, which have been sufficiently refuted in the preceding paragraphs: in this he had companions in error, or rather he himself led into error Dorganius and Menard, inasmuch as they all call St. Amalberga an ABBESS. The words of Wion are: On the same day, at the monastery of Lobbes, the deposition of St. Amalberga, widow, and abbess of Maubeuge, who, illustrious for signs, is venerated with the wondrous veneration of the faithful. Dorganius a little more briefly: On the same day, of St. Amelberga, widow and abbess, who, illustrious for signs, is venerated with great veneration. Menard follows his fellows, who has it thus: On the same day, at the monastery of Lobbes, the deposition of St. Amalberga, widow and abbess of Maubeuge. So they, adopting and copying one another's opinions.
[22] But that whole abbatial dignity of St. Amalberga, who wrongly make her an abbess; so speciously obtruded, rests on no probability at all, nor does any memory of her exist at Maubeuge. Certainly the first abbess, St. Aldegundis, as was said enough on the XXX of January, seems to have died in the year 675, whom St. Aldetrudis succeeded in the government of the monastery, of whom we treated on the XXV of February, who is said to have presided for twelve years. Her the third abbess, St. Madalberta, followed, as will be plain on the VII of September: and she survived until the year 696. But it is not probable that St. Amalberga, who about the year 650 bore St. Gudila as her last offspring, either lived so long, or at least was then fit to govern a monastery. Wion himself (who, perhaps deceived by the similarity of name, makes Amalberga abbess in place of Madalberta) writes that she died about the year 690; by a probable enough conjecture: for what our Andreas Boyus writes in the Lives of the married saints, doubtless following Surius, that she died about the year 650, cannot be said, since it is manifest from her Life, which we shall presently give, that she died after St. Aldegundis. The error of Constantine Ghinius, or of his typographer, we have already excused above.
[23] But we are almost deviating from our purpose. That St. Amalberga was never an abbess, we judge to be placed beyond controversy, it is enough to call her a nun. yet that she put on the habit of a nun, clothed with the sacred veil by St. Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai, and lived a most holy life under the sweet governance of St. Aldegundis and the other aforesaid abbesses, seems by no means doubtful; for the angel had also plainly foretold it to her at number 3: with your husband, your garments being changed and the monastic habit received, you will offer yourselves to God as acceptable victims, and will persevere in holy conduct even to the end. That the Saint thus persevered, the Acts indeed prove from number 5. Concerning her habit I find these things noted at the end of the same Acts, in the same hand by which they themselves were once written, and transmitted to Rosweyde by the most zealous promoters of our work, then not yet begun, the monks of Liessies. Here (at Binche, I think) St. Amalberga is depicted in a nun's garment or cassock of snowy color, with a black mantle; with a white veil over her head, as a Canoness: and bearing in her left hand a razor (in her right a book), which is said to have been used in the difficulty of the birth of holy Gudila. Enough concerning the cult.
[24] The Acts were first published, so far as I know, by Surius, with this title prefixed: Of the Acts, quite unskillfully compiled The Life of St. Amalberga the widow, mother of St. Gudila the virgin, as it is had in the Manuscript codices. Brother Laurence Surius changed the style. This was the custom of Surius in almost all the Legends, of which we have often complained elsewhere: we thought that its genuine and original phrasing should be restored, with full fidelity, being about to note here and there the more serious variations which will seem to make for the matter. One might suspect that the author was a monk of Lobbes, but he himself disclosed no trace of that, so that it is better to define nothing on that account. Nor is the conjecture easy, at what time they were first written, although it seems undoubted that they were compiled several centuries after the death of the Saint (certainly after the tenth century, when the duchy of Lorraine was very well known in Belgium) by a man of history
not sufficiently skilled in Belgian history and chronology, who badly confused things and times, recording very few things which pertain to the right series of events; and embracing the signs even meagerly and most briefly, in this formula: Of how great merit the most blessed handmaid of Christ was, the miracles wrought by the grace of God at her tomb, by her prayers, in the manifold cures of various signs, testify — not even one or another out of so great an abundance being narrated individually.
[25] a compendious analysis, From such specimens a judge not unskilled in these matters will easily decide concerning the worth and estimation of the Acts. Behold now a brief analysis of them. The first number is suited to the instructing of virgins, where the Saint is said in her tender age to have been bereft of the solace of her parents; and yet at number 2 the same parents are introduced, as instigated by the devil to her marriage. When the writer says that she was given in marriage by Pepin her brother, he contradicts the Lives of SS. Reineldis and Gudila, in which their holy mother Amalberga is asserted to have been born of the sister of the renowned Mayor of the Palace Pepin, as others also relate. But what he records concerning Witger, that he held the office of the duchy of all Lorraine, calling him at number 4 a most prudent king, has been refuted in the preliminary Commentary on the Life of blessed Pepin, as we shall say in the following paragraph; in which matter at least the alteration of Surius is not so much to be blamed, when for the name of Duke of Lorraine he substitutes that St. Amalberga was given as wife to Witger, a very powerful man. Concerning the number of her children we have argued abundantly above. The rest, although not sufficiently historical, can be tolerated. It remains that we discharge the pledge of our Predecessors, by also appending those things which deserve to be said concerning Witger, the husband of St. Amalberga, and afterward a monk.
§ IV. Who Witger, the husband of St. Amalberga, was, and whether he is to be numbered among the Saints?
What Bollandus promised concerning Witger, John Bollandus long ago promised, in the more than once cited Commentary on the Acts of blessed Pepin and elsewhere, that we would treat also on this day of the blessed (as he himself called him) Witger, husband of the most holy St. Amalberga; of whom no separate Acts exist; nor indeed can other things be produced concerning him besides those which are read in the Lives already given of St. Emebert or Ablebert on the XV of January, of St. Gudila on the VIII of January, of St. Amalberga which is given on this day, and of St. Reineldis, of whom we said we would treat on the XVI of this month, when it will be plainer either that there was one and the same writer of several Acts, or at least that some shone before others, so that their genesis can nearly be detected. But lest I seem to have contradicted Bollandus here in some things, this must be carefully noted, that in the already cited Commentary on blessed Pepin on the XXI of February, concerning the aforesaid Legend of St. Reineldis, he himself followed a somewhat more recent manuscript, in which he found inserted the name of a third sister, St. Pharaildis, which is plainly absent from the more ancient codex, praised by us above, as is clear from the words there related: but this will be discussed at greater length and expressly on the said day, the XVI of July. These things I wished observed in passing, lest anyone be perplexed, when he understands that different Lives of St. Reineldis are adduced by us.
[27] Furthermore, concerning the origin, titles, and possessions in Brabant, or the Bracbantum of that time, of Witger, whether Duke or Count, certainly a very powerful man (of which word's etymology and meaning I discoursed more fully in the Acts of St. Rumold, here they are subjoined to the affairs of the holy Wife. published separately in the year 1718), the praised Bollandus argued many things curiously and learnedly in the aforesaid Commentary on blessed Pepin, paragraph 1, numbers 4 and 5, which it seemed good here to exhibit again for the greater part, for the sake of those who, since February of our Acts has become a very rare month, would lack those things by which this whole matter is to be illustrated a little more clearly, and at the same time for the sake of refuting more than one assertion of Le Cointe in his Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 653, number 22, where, speaking of Witger and his possessions, he seemed to think the opposite of Bollandus, especially concerning the castle variously expressed as Condacum, or Condatum, which the one took for Condé of Hainaut, the other for Condaco of Brabant, situated midway between Antwerp and Mechelen, commonly Contick, which certainly belonged more nearly to the people of Lobbes, is undoubted. But let us hear Bollandus himself.
[28] And in Bracbantum indeed (these are the words of Bollandus) Witger, the husband of the sister of that Pepin, or his son-in-law, had rich fortunes, His origin and power, concerning which the Life of St. Reineldis, virgin and martyr, to be published by us on the XVI of July, speaks thus: Therefore the most blessed virgin Rayneldis was of most noble birth, sprung from the castle of Condé, which is situated on the river Scheldt. For while Pepin the Duke, father of the most holy virgin Gertrude, was reigning … her father, a Count, Wigerus by name, held the office of the duchy of all Lorraine, and held the primacy among the palatine Princes … But his possession was the aforesaid castle, by name Condacum, and Amniacum, and Uginiacum, with many other estates, whose names it is not expedient to recite here. He therefore joined to himself in marriage a royal girl, the daughter of the sister of the aforesaid Duke, by name Amelberga … From her therefore God gave him a most holy offspring, Emebert, etc. Then Bollandus notes that the life of St. Reineldis is more recent, whence it is no wonder if it is sprinkled with errors; such as that Witger the Count is said to have held the office of the duchy of all Lorraine, which same thing you also have below in the life of St. Amalberga, so that it easily appears that the writers of those Lives were connected by some affinity.
[29] Then Bollandus proves that the name of Lorraine or the Lotharingian kingdom, as also the titles being examined; was not known until two hundred years and more after the death of blessed Pepin and Witger, when, Lothair, son of the Emperor Lothair, grandson of Louis the Pious, having died without children in the year 869, his uncles Louis the German and Charles the Bald, and then this same Charles the Bald and Louis, son of the German, divided his dominion among themselves, not without wars. Nor in that alone does the writer of that Life seem to Bollandus to have erred, but also wrongly to place the castle of Condacum on the river Scheldt, thinking Condatum to be a town of Hainaut, at the confluence of the Haine and the Scheldt: whereas it seems to be Contacum, a notable village, midway between Mechelen and Antwerp, some miles from the Scheldt. For since St. Reineldis, daughter of Count Witger, handed over her patrimony to the monastery of Lobbes, the people of Lobbes confess that they possessed most ample goods at Contacum (which is now commonly called Contick), and still retain certain rights, the rest having been sold to Cardinal Granvelle: but of Condé they deny that they possess anything, or remember it possessed by their ancestors. And this is the chief point in which we judge that Le Cointe wrongly departed from Bollandus.
[30] where also concerning her possessions. The same people of Lobbes still hold Saintes, a village of old Bracbantum, where the body of St. Reineldis is preserved, from her donation, although part of the jurisdiction has been alienated. And that Witger's possessions, whether ancestral or dotal from his wife, were in Bracbantum, is to be conjectured from the Life of St. Gudila, in which, chapter 1, number 3, these things are read: The blessed virgin Gudila therefore had a most worthy origin in the district of Brabant … her parents being marked, according to the dignity of the world, with an excellent stock, and having attained in the administration of the commonwealth the summits of honors. For her father was Witger, whom we have received to have acted in the fasces of a county. In another Life of the same Gudila, chapter 1, number 1, these things are had: Therefore in the times of King Sigebert, who was the son of King Dagobert, there was a certain Count, Witger by name, in the district of Brabant, approvable in his morals, etc. Baldric, praised above, in his Chronicle of Cambrai writes thus of St. Emebert: He, sprung from the district of Bracbantum, was brought forth from parents most illustrious in the dignity both of life and of lineage, namely from his father Witger the Count, a holy man, and his mother Amulberga. Thus far mostly from Bollandus.
[31] Of his monastic life there is no doubt, And these indeed are the things which can be argued with some probability concerning the most illustrious birth and possessions of Witger. Of his marriage with St. Amalberga there is treatment again in the Life to be subjoined presently, where you have at number 4 that the pious spouses, by mutual consent, withdrew from one another and professed the monastic life for all the rest of their life: It pleased at last both the father and the mother to forsake the world, that they might serve Christ more freely. For Witger, a most prudent king, as had been foretold by the angel, subjected himself to the discipline of the monastic rule; but his wife Amalberga, the sacred veil being received from Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai, dedicated herself to the Lord. It is not here asserted in express words that Witger betook himself to the people of Lobbes, but that is the most received opinion of almost all writers, the more readily and easily to be admitted from this, that both the holy heiresses of the holy parents, Reineldis and Gudila, from time to time offered the chief part of their goods to the monks of Lobbes, as is established from the Life of St. Reineldis, and has already been sufficiently said by Bollandus.
[32] although the time cannot be defined: In what year Witger first embraced the monastic life, how long he lived in the monastery, at what time he departed from life, the Legends of his holy wife and children being silent, no one could tell, unless he divined rashly: nor does it please me in matters so obscure to establish anything at my own discretion, which Le Cointe did, when he assigned the year 666, in which he renounced the world with his wife. I would indeed not doubt that he crowned a matching life with a most happy end, whence Baldric rightly called him a holy man. For the rest, there exists with us the reply of some monk of Lobbes to the queries of Bollandus, sent hither by the patron of our work, the Lord Thomas Luytens, afterward abbot of Liessies, in which, in the last article, I find thus written: Baldric in his Chronicle of Cambrai, book 1, chapter 16, says that St. Ablebert was brought forth from parents most illustrious in the dignity both of life and of lineage, namely from his father Witger the Count, a holy man, and his mother Amalberga. In certain registers he is called a Saint, but no memory of him is had with us. Gazaeus in his history, page 73, places him as having died on the last of December, but in what year is unknown. It is a sufficiently frank confession, that Witger was never held for a Saint among the people of Lobbes.
[33] I could wish he had added in what registers the appellation of Saint is ascribed to him, which I have hitherto not found. nor is he known to have had a cult anywhere. Bollandus cites the Calendar of the Saints of the dominion of Liège, whose authority must not be great, since our Fisen among his Flores did not dare to attribute even the name "venerable" to Witger; in the eulogy of St. Amalberga relating only this, that, like his most blessed wife, he too led a most holy life, with no less praise, and died first; but this last thing, I know not whence he drew it. By Molanus too he is plainly passed over, nor does Miraeus, although in the title he calls him Blessed, assert anything else of him than what we have already said;
namely, that he is called by Baldric a holy man and a Count, who, the cares of the world being bidden farewell, at last became a monk at Lobbes on the river Sambre. But these things do not yet demonstrate that even any inchoate cult was ever paid to Witger. And this seems a peremptory argument, by which we are forbidden to number him among the Saints or Blessed, that he is known to have had no veneration at all in his own monastery of Lobbes, wherefore we thought it best to abstain from every title, content to have collected these things concerning him for the sake of his holy wife. It now remains that we subjoin the Legend of St. Amalberga, such as it is.
THE LIFE.
Which is read by the people of Lobbes and Binche. Taken from a Manuscript of Binche.
Amelberga, widow, at Binche in Belgium (S.)
BHL Number: 0321
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Blessed Amalberga, sprung from most illustrious birth, but adorned with more elegant morals, Born of illustrious lineage cultivated the town of Saintes a: of which she was, by hereditary right, the leader and Lady, until she assumed the blessedness of religion. Who, bereft of the solace of her parents, though of tender age, handled with vigilant care and sweetly the household which by hereditary succession had adhered to her, not because she was delighted by a numerous crowd of male and female servants, which is reckoned first among mortals, but because she thought it unjust, if, greedily retaining her father's estate, she should suffer any of them to perish by hunger and want. She herself cared not to hear or see girlish games, nor amatory songs, nor any sports and frivolous things, but, like Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord, she foreshadowed by act and bearing what she was to do.
[2] But the devil, the enemy of chastity, admiring the girl's continence, yet cheated of his vain hope, she is given in marriage to Witger. instigates her parents to the marriage of that same girl; a husband is named to her as she resists: and at last she is given by her brother Pepin, father of St. Gertrude, as wife to Witger, who held the office of the Duchy of all Lorraine b, of equal lineage, and not unequal in merits. But God gave them a most holy offspring, Aldebert, the most blessed pastor of the holy church of Cambrai, whose deeds, full of miracles and virtues, flourish in that same church even to this day; and four sisters dedicated to God, of whom one was Reyneldis, the second Pharaildis, the third Ermelindis, the fourth Gudila.
[3] The angel's prophecy concerning her last offspring, And when, by the pressure of the younger, namely of holy Gudila, a few days before the birth from the womb she was in distress after the manner of mothers, this kind of consolation was announced to her by an angel: You will bear a daughter beloved of God, and adorned with the flower of the highest continence and chastity; she all the days of her life will render an acceptable service to God, but you after her will conceive no other daughter, but from that day, remaining in chastity, with your husband, your garments being changed and the monastic habit received, you will offer yourselves to God as acceptable victims, and will persevere in holy conduct even to the end: and you will hand over the daughter, when born, to St. Gertrude, to be received at the saving laver, and to be nourished in Christ with the milk of the divine word (as the Apostle admonishes ought to be done).
[4] and of the voluntary separation of the spouses. Then she said: I give thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to send thy angel from heaven for my consolation. Beating heaven with these and other such words, she commended herself to the Lord by her prayers. But her other daughters, since from their infancy they had proposed to lead a most chaste life, and since many of the chief men of the kingdom desired (on account of their nobility and riches) to be joined to them in marriage, it pleased them, remaining in virginity, rather to cleave to their heavenly spouse with the whole desire of their soul, than to be joined in the marriages of mortals; it pleased at last both the father and the mother to forsake the world, that they might serve Christ more freely. For Witger, a most prudent king, as had been foretold by the angel, subjected himself to the discipline of the monastic rule; but his wife Amalberga, the sacred veil being received from Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai, dedicated herself to the Lord.
[5] She, made a nun, dies holily, Therefore the most holy Amalberga, as from the very beginning of her tender age, in the first flower, composed with good morals, resolved in the rest of her life to labor more attentively at divine works, and soon, turned to these with all her strength, it is incredible to say to how great abstinence she gave herself, how assiduously she afflicted her body with fastings and prayers. And when day by day more and more, by taming the flesh, she strengthened the spirit, God disposing to put an end to so great a labor of hers, she was seized by a fever, and falling into a most grievous illness, she attained what she desired, namely that she might be more copiously united to the Lord. And so, the most prudent of women, feeling the day of her calling to be at hand, as one who despised human things and was now invited to her own, until the expiration of her soul she whispered these little verses: O Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the habitation of thy glory. At last the holy spirits of the blessed are present, bearing her soul even to heaven.
[6] The whole crowd of Maubeuge c assembled at her funeral; and her body from Maubeuge the whole multitude of the poor cried out that they had lost a mother and a nurse d. But so great a dignity had filled her face, that it clearly shone to all that she had exchanged her toils for blessedness, her labors for rest. But because at that time none of the notable persons had been given burial at Maubeuge, nor even blessed Aldegundis e, who had built that place from the foundation, the elders of the church take counsel what needs to be done, and in what place the holy body ought to be given to burial, conversing by turns, they establish nothing certain. At last, a salutary counsel being found, the monastery of Lobbes is appointed for the burial of the body of the handmaid of God, which, because it was done by the ordering of divine consideration, is unanimously believed by all.
[7] But in the same monastery at that time was contained no small congregation of monks, serving God under the yoke of the rule of blessed Benedict, it is carried to Lobbes to be buried. and religion flourished in the advances of divine worship of sanctity, and very many bodies of the blessed Confessors of Christ resting there conferred no small veneration on that monastery: counsel therefore being taken by all, the most blessed body, with veneration worthy of it, the nuns accompanying it with canticles and hymns, is carried out, and brought with praises, is fittingly received with as much devotion as was due by the Abbot of the place and the brothers, and in the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, and of the blessed Confessors of Christ Ursmar and Erminus, is given to burial with the other pledges of very many Saints. But in the sight of the highest goodness, of how great merit the most blessed handmaid of Christ was, the miracles wrought by the grace of God at her tomb, by her prayers, in the manifold cures of various infirmities, testify. But the handmaid of Christ, blessed Amalberga, rested in peace on the sixth day before the Ides of July, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honor, etc.