Udalric

ON ST. UDALRIC, CONFESSOR, OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT, IN THE MONASTERY OF ZELL IN THE BREISGAU IN GERMANY. ABOUT THE YEAR 1093.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Udalric, monk and Confessor, in the Breisgau of Germany (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. A view of the monastery of Zell; its vicissitude; its beginnings.

In the third volume of April, on the 26th day, from page 424, treatment was made of St. Trudpert the Martyr, a hermit in the Breisgau; and on his occasion a preliminary Commentary

in its very beginning furnishes a brief description of the Trudpertine monastery, which lies in the said Breisgau, [The monastery of Zell, situated not far from the monastery of Trudpert in the Breisgau] among the illustrious regions of great Germany, extended on the right side of the Rhine as far as the Hercynian or Black Forest, under the most ancient possession of the Austrians, bordering on Upper Alsace, and subject to the jurisdiction of the diocese of Constance. Not far from the praised monastery there is a place, in which stands a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict, called the Cell of St. Udalric from St. Udalric, once its founder, inhabitant, and president, whose Acts we here illustrate, and which was raised to a vast renown of name by the splendors of his virtues and miracles while he lived, and, when he had ceased to live, by the odor of his sanctity. But whether, the formation of the name being slightly changed, you call him Vuldaric, Wldaric, or Ulric; you will have expressed one and the same saint.

[2] Franciscus Petrus, a canon regular of the Order of St. Augustine, in a more recent work, a more recent state and vicissitude; whose name is "Suevia ecclesiastica" Ecclesiastical Swabia, collected some things from page 801, which it will not be amiss to have brought forward for the fuller explanation of the aforesaid place. And as regards the situation and state of the place, whether the more recent or the modern, the mentioned author graphically exhibits them from Bucelinus, an eyewitness beholder of it, who in his "Constantia Benedictina," in Ms., as he calls it, vol. 3, part 1, is introduced speaking thus: We still hold in memory the situation of the place, impressed upon us when once, from the monastery of St. Trudpert, we made a pilgrimage thither on the annual commemoration of St. Udalric himself. A monastery truly worthy of a greater frequenting, which today scarcely a single one, at most two, of the fathers of St. Peter of the Hercynia inhabit, still distinguished by the title of Priory and bearing before it the reverence of holiness, and striking even into those more negligent of sacred things (we speak from experience) a certain sacred awe [*]. But, as is wont to happen in other human affairs, this monastery underwent its own vicissitude. For, as the same writer continues, not many years before that in which we had inspected it, laid waste by fire, it had lost the glory of its dignity. Which, he says, we grieved the more, the more traces and ruins of it we beheld.

[3] described by Bucelinus, an eyewitness. The sacred enclosure, shut in a small compass in a square, survived the fires, with pretty little columns of cut stone; and the enclosed area, though small, yet has a huge fountain, or rather a receptacle of a fountain, the water surviving now for many years, and neither drawn off nor tended as it ought to have been. Carved from a single stone of great mass, hard to eternity, with a very broad circumference, but moderately hollowed, it receives the water. Fourteen statues surround its outermost rounding, committed to the stone with ancient craftsmanship and deep labor. Of these, twelve represent the Apostles, and the other two, if we are not mistaken, the effigies of the God-man and of the Virgin Mother. The temple adjoining the portico was ennobled by nothing and no treasure more than by the body of St. Ulric, a Cluniac monk; today it is put forth with a tomb alone and widowed [*]: because the Cluniacs, when they withdrew from the place, are believed to have stolen the sacred remains. However it may be, and though the temple is rich in St. Udalric—in that he was buried in another place than where his tomb stood, lest it should lie open in such great solitude to plundering—yet that it is happy in many bodies of saints, especially of those who lived with Udalric, no one would doubt: whose sacred pledges we too, even now in our absence, yet fixed by affection to a land so blessed, venerate, etc.

[4] But the present state of that place the most eminent George Geisser briefly exhibits, The present state of the place: writing from his monastery of Villingen, in a letter, concerning which at the end of this Commentary, speaking thus: Formerly St. Udalric passed the holier portion of his life in the Priory, now distinguished by his name, and about two leagues distant from Freiburg im Breisgau, on the side where it looks toward the southern quarter of the Hercynia sinking down into the plains. This priory, abandoned by the Cluniacs about the end of the last century, had passed to our monastery: but, voluntarily relinquished by our forefathers on account of the great vexations and exactions imposed in its name upon our monastery, it was united to the monastery of St. Peter of the Hercynian Forest, likewise of our Order. Moreover the tomb of St. Udalric is still visited and honored by the surrounding places: and not a few carry off health from it.

[5] The beginnings of the oft-mentioned place the same Franciscus Petrus, tracing them higher, the beginnings of the aforesaid place, hands down the following from the said page 801, which I do not find verbatim elsewhere: Nowhere was there for St. Ulric a sure station, nowhere a lasting one; which at last he settled in the Breisgau: although not even there at first; until, the place being changed a second time, he had found a more fitting one. That Gerald, when the monastery was founded at Rimsingen, was set over it by St. Hugh, has been said above; but Udalric is appointed to take up the office of him who was negligent or not caring, and with no fruit. He received the charge, and, the place being more carefully inspected, he found it unsuited to divine services and adverse to the conveniences and necessities of the monks. Therefore, with the good leave of Hesso, who had founded it, they withdrew to Gröningen, at that time a noble village. But the restlessness of the court and the frequenting of nobles disturbed the place, otherwise fertile and altogether suitable, so that, Hesso being approached again, Udalric asked leave to change it, and to migrate to wherever should seem more fitting. The most pious lord assented, and pledged that, as far as he was concerned, whatever was permitted was permitted to Udalric. Glad, he promised to go around the neighboring groves, to survey everything with his eyes, and, careful, to discern whatever he might choose for founding the monastery, and to weigh what he should reject. At last, penetrating into the mountains not far from the ascetery of St. Trudpert the Martyr, he came upon a place, opportune according to the wish and judgment of his mind, safe with dense forests on every side, undisturbed by any crowds of adversaries or of those flocking near; yet fruitful with a pleasing flooding of streamlets, and, by its very face and composition and also situation, beautiful and salubrious: whither he at once resolved to migrate with his men, and migrated. What follows is nearly the same in the Life given by Mabillon and in ours.

[6] His colleagues assented at first rather grudgingly, deterred by the tedium and solitude of the place. At last the love of the best Father prevailed, and the building and they followed whithersoever he went before. But about to construct the monastery with the religious brothers, the sign of the holy cross being carried before, surveying the place of the building-work, and paying his vows of prayer suppliantly, he consecrates it with the water of sanctification. He himself too, for the laying of the foundation, first opens the earth with a hoe; then the devotion of the disciples, following the example of the master, eagerly digs out the earth in rivalry. These things we have therefore recalled, that the present and those who follow may always have in memory in how great holiness and religion the beginnings of the aforesaid place arose. When at last, amid a great want of means, the building of the same church was completed, it is established to have been dedicated in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul. From these last words it is clear that what the praised author of "Ecclesiastical Swabia" asserts is true, that this monastery, of which we speak, was first called that of SS. Peter and Paul, which today is called by the name of St. Udalric.

[7] in what year done; But that the aforesaid change of the former seat is to be bound to the year 1077, we learn from the Cluniac cartulary in Mabillon, in the Observations preceding the Life of the Saint, Benedictine saeculum VI, page 780, num. 3, where he reports that it is read in a charter marked num. 716, that Ulric, Prior of Grunningen, acquired from Burchard, Bishop of Basel, a compensation being given, the place which is called Zell, in the Black Forest, in the county of Count Heriman, in the district of the Breisgau; where the snows are wont to slide down through the slopes of the mountains into the valley where it is situated. Given in the year 1087, in the 10th Indiction, on the Nones of June, the witnesses being appended: Duke Berthold, Count Heriman, and others.

[8] how great a scarcity of monks was brought in. The oft-mentioned monastery did not always shine with an equal fame of name, but was made subject to the Hercynian abbey, and was received into the body of the same, the community of monks being diminished to a scanty fewness. Certainly that the place was reduced to obscurity is read handed down to memory in the cited Cluniac Library, fol. 1742, which the above-mentioned author of "Ecclesiastical Swabia" also inserted into his work, in which this place is thus described: The Priory of Zell, otherwise of St. Ulric in the Black Forest, of the diocese of Constance, where there ought to be, the Prior counted, seven monks, and two Masses ought there to be celebrated daily, and alms ought to be given twice in the week, and daily to those passing by. It seemed good to weave in here a fuller notice of that Priory, not so much from the merit of the subject, as that a more obscure place might be illustrated, which perhaps could be illustrated from elsewhere either in no way, or at least not so easily.

[9] Other monasteries Besides this monastery, founded by our Saint, that two others were built, the Life teaches; one indeed on the mountain of Rotger or Lotger, is related there at num. 40; which, after very many difficulties devoured and the calumnies of rivals overcome, being brought to completion, he returned to Cluny. Concerning the other the same Life instructs us from num. 53: whose account can be explained from Franciscus Petrus, who testifies that the earliest foundation of that place is somewhere thus noted: which I transcribe on his authority, since I could not find it elsewhere: At this time (about the year, as he marks, 1072) Hesso, a noble man (not that one of Usinberg, who slew Otto of Habsburg at Uttenheim, nearly forty years later, as someone suspects; nor his son; since we conjecture ours to have been childless from the fact that he assigned his possessions and estates to the Cluniacs) and powerful throughout the Breisgau in his own dominion and ancestral seats, builds a monastery at the place Rimesingen, today Rimsingen (for here we hold, against the enclosed Adelbert, who ought to have designated the first monastery, the place Gröningen—whereas the Anonymous, a contemporary of St. Udalric and more fully instructed in the matter by his familiars, designates the other), the monks who should inhabit it being summoned from Cluny. Nor did St. Hugh, the supreme director of the Cluniacs, refuse, drawn by the religion and piety of the man, and by zeal for propagating the sacred Order and its discipline, with which he especially burned.

[10] A colony of monks being sent, he ordered Gerald (another again than that one who was the aforesaid companion into Gaul for this our St. Ulric, built by St. Udalric and so praised for the singular piety of his life) to preside, who, the place being received into his power, and possession entered upon, yet did not preside long. Henry the Emperor at that time held the donation of Hesso ratified by public letters. A copy of which the said author subjoins, taken from the Cluniac Library, fol. 526, at the end of it the following clause being appended: the sign of Lord Henry IV, most invincible King. The letters given at Worms on the fourth of the Kalends of August, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1072, Indiction 10, but in the seventeenth year of the ordination of Lord Henry IV, King, and the sixteenth of his reign [*]. It is clear from what was said at num. 4 that by the monastery, founded and endowed by the munificence of Hesso, the Cluniac monks being summoned into the Breisgau, nothing else ought to be understood than that place which St. Udalric, with his companions, inhabited before he built the monastery of Grunningen, in conformity with the Life, thus narrating at number 52: But how it befell, by divine providence, that the blessed Man, St. Udalric, came to the parts of the Alemanni—namely of the Breisgau—for the salvation of many, it is pleasing to recall with all joy and exultation of mind. And, mention of Hesso being introduced at num. 53,

he continues thus: A certain place, therefore, situated in the same region, which, showing the etymology of its name from the verdant pleasantness of the adjacent fields and woods, is called Gruningen, a lawful exchange being made with Duke Berthold, to whose dominion it was subject, by the zeal and industry of the most illustrious man Hesso, is made property of the monks' right: which, inasmuch as it seemed somewhat more suited to regular observance, dwellings being constructed, the monks were transferred thither; not destined, as will afterward appear, to remain there stably. Hesso certainly, as the author of the Life had premised at the said num. 53, when the habitation, previously assigned by him to the Cluniac monks, seemed less suitable to the monastic purpose, turned the religious intention of his mind elsewhere, another estate, the Grunningen one, being procured, as we saw, in place of the Rumesingen ground, more fitting for the institution of the monastic life: where the Saint, having tarried for a while, then migrated to the Black Forest, to pass the remainder of the life that he had in the monastery of Zell, built there by himself.

[11] Not far from here the holy Man erected another ascetery, they are reviewed. no less solicitous to open access to religious perfection to the female sex also. Which the author of the Life relates thus from num. 61. He was solicitous to snatch away even the female sex from the jaws of the ancient enemy; whence in the village which is called Boleswiler, distant about one mile from the monastery of Zell, he gathered not only those who would set aside the delights of marriage; but also those who, shining white with virginal comeliness, might be called and be brides of the heavenly King. These, under either condition renouncing the world, with the brightness of chastity and with lighted lamps busied themselves to prepare for the coming of their bridegroom; that with him they might deserve to enter the bridal chamber of the heavenly court. But how excellently and skillfully St. Udalric presided over the monasteries founded by himself can be seen in the context of the Life. By which it is not slightly proved how great was the esteem of St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny, under whom he was, concerning him, and how great his skill in handling ascetic matters, strengthened by the highest ardor of the spirit with which he burned. You may consult num. 63 and 64.

* Read "horrorem" dread.

* Read "videtur" it seems.

* Others read 19, 17.

§ II. The Saint's death; cult; age; consanguinity; illustrious deeds; a miracle.

[12] [The Saint died on one day, is referred to and celebrated by the Martyrologists on another:] By these words, placed at the foot of the Life at num. 92, "But the venerable Father passed away on the second of the Ides of July," I think it indubitable that the author neither wished nor was able to designate any other day than July 14, now customarily called by the usual phrase "the day before the Ides of July." Moreover Mabillon observes that the Saint's celebration is kept by the Cluniacs on the 10th day of this month, on which we too give him, and on which the Benedictine Martyrologists likewise refer to him. Dorganius announces him thus: Of St. Vuldaric, monk, who shone marvelously in hearing confessions and in curing the diseases of the soul. Wion, consonant in words, had premised "in the monastery of Cluny": after the name of the Saint, adding, "disciple of St. Hugh the abbot"; and adding that the Cluniac tables and also a manuscript chronicle mention the holy Man on the same day; on which Menardus too marks him. Add Ferrarius, who in the Catalogue of Saints not found in the Roman Martyrology writes most briefly: At Cluny, of St. Vuldaric, monk. In Mabillon, in the title of the Life, it is written that he bodily rests in the Black Forest of the diocese of Constance: whence we saw him translated at num. 3. We, in the title prefixed to this Commentary, have consigned him to the monastery of Zell, a place owed to him on several counts.

[13] whose cult is established from the blessing of the water of St. Udalric. To establish the cult of the Saint there serves the collect, with psalms and versicles, which Mabillon appended to the Life edited by him, with this title: For blessing the water of blessed Udalric. Then is subjoined the psalm, God be merciful to us: and the psalm, Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury. First. ℣. Our help is in the name of the Lord. Let us pray. O God, by whose power blessed Udalric, thy confessor, blessed water, humbly washed the sick limbs of the ailing, and permitted him to depart unharmed, deign to bless †, to fortify †, and to sanctify † this creature of water, that all who are washed in it, or humbly take it, every contagious disease being driven out, and the ministry of thy blessing being infused, may deserve to receive full health in body and soul. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, etc. May the bless † ing of God the Father † and of the Son † and of the Holy Spirit † descend upon this creature of water. Amen.

[14] Concerning the year of his death and birth The praised Wion, in the Annotations to his Benedictine Martyrology, judges that St. Udalric flourished in the year 1100. Mabillon in his Observations subscribes to Bucelinus, who, with the German writers, marks his death a little after the year 1092: For this, says Mabillon, seems able to be gathered from his life and from the ancient Cluniac charters. For Udalric, in the year 1087, Gruninga being relinquished, where he had settled for some years with his companions, went to Zell, and there, a monastery being built for himself and his monks, raised another for women, and at last, after two years of blindness, departed to heaven. All which indeed he could scarcely have completed within the space of six years. Wherefore we judge that his death is rather to be brought back to about the year 1093. And that you may determine his birth-year: that it can be bound to the eleventh century somewhat begun; the argument for this is that he closed his life in a good old age and full of days, as is clear from the Life, num. 76; where, making a journey, he is said to have grown so stiff with the harshness of the cold that he could scarcely either utter a voice or move his lips, until, an OLD MAN, one attendant accompanying him, he follows after, and, entering a house, is placed by those attending him beside the fires of the place; elsewhere it is said that he was blind for two years before his death; that evil being wont more rarely to seize men flourishing in age and sound in strength.

[15] There is added to this, that he withdrew into the monastery of Cluny and also concerning his old age. after, some years being spent in the court of the Emperor, he had given by his life and admonition to the Empress a pattern of right living; which does not fall except upon a man mature in age and character; especially since he did not undertake the institution of monastic life except after the provostship of the church of Freising was resigned, a journey to Jerusalem undertaken, the building of a monastery attempted in vain on his own estate, and the thresholds of the holy Apostles saluted. And so you have a series of several years and the old age of the holy Man, so that from it you may to some extent determine about the beginning of his life and his boyhood. Nay, in the preface which he prefixed to his little work on the Cluniac Customs, he himself, speaking of himself, confesses that until nearly the thirtieth year of his age he had greatly cared for nothing but the affairs of the world. Nay indeed, by William of Hirsau, his contemporary (of whom on the 5th of this month), in the Prologue on the Customs of Hirsau, in Mabillon among the old Analecta, vol. 4, page 466, it is said; that about the same time a certain Udalric, an elder monk of Cluny, sent by the nod of God on the business of the monastery into Alemannia, remained with him for a while, and shared two little books on the Cluniac customs, written by himself.

[16] Whether any Nilo was Bishop of Freising, In passing, the writer of the Life gives occasion for a discourse to be set up concerning the kinsmen of St. Udalric, speaking thus with these words at the beginning of ch. 2: But after these things the uncle of our most excellent Man, Nilo by name, who ruled the pontificate of the church of Freising, invited this blessed one to the city of his diocese, promoting him to the Diaconate. In volume 1 of the Metropolis of Salzburg in Hund, as I survey the Catalogue of the Bishops of Freising, no Nilo occurs among them. There is placed a Nicerus or Nitger, who is said to have sat 13 years up to the year 1052. Is that one perhaps the same as Nilo? There Nicerus or Nitger is said to have been the brother of Bernulf and Machtun, affixed to the cross by the command of the Emperor Henry III for violated faith, and he himself, bearing it ill, was banished to Ravenna in the year 1044—which, whether they fit the uncle of St. Udalric, I would prefer to be decided by another. Certainly there does not agree with it what is read in the Bavarian Annals of Aventinus, book 5, page 524, where the said Bernulf and Machtun are narrated to have arisen of obscure origins among the Western Bavarians at Regensburg, while the author of the Life at num. 5 says that Udalric was begotten of the illustrious stock of the Bavarians of the city of Regensburg. What if that Nilo supplied the place of the absent Nitger, exercising episcopal functions which do not require the episcopal character, as we see happen today in the vicars of Bishops? Yet the following, a little later there, seem to persuade otherwise: And so the Bishop of Freising received the letters of his fellow-bishop. And another: And so the Bishop of Freising, weighing that his nephew was strong in wisdom and in discernment of spirit, committed to him the care of the provostship. Then at num. 19: The Saint is recorded to have found his uncle, the Bishop of Freising, deceased. Certainly in our Ms., sent to us from Villingen, the name of Nitger is placed, and a little above, to one side, by the same hand, as it seems, Nilo is placed.

[16] The uncle of St. Udalric? To this purpose serves the observation of Mabillon, asserting that in another manuscript codex there is "Notgerus Nilo"; concerning the genuine authenticity of which reading, as proceeding from the original pen of the writer of the ancient Life, if it were established, then only could something be concluded, that Notger and Nilo are the same person, and the same Bishop of Freising. But since it is uncertain which reading is to be preferred to which as more sincere and free from interpolation, whether that which has "Nilo" only, or that which has "Notger Nilo," it also follows that nothing certain can be concluded, whether they are two names of the same Bishop, or not. But suppose that two Bishops are signified by those two names; what forbids that, in that interval of time which flowed from the year 1044, in which we were just now saying that Nitger was sent away to Ravenna, Nilo presided as Bishop over the see of Freising? And indeed with that interval of time can most excellently be reconciled the provostship conferred on St. Udalric, his nephew, since, as it is in Hund, Ellenhard is placed as elected only in the year 1053, to preside as Bishop over the said see. But the mentioned Catalogue does not express the name of Nilo: be it so. That name the author of the Life expresses distinctly, nearest to those times, of the best faith: concerning whose merit you may see what is said at num. 22. For indeed how easily can some name be omitted in Catalogues of this kind? Besides, since those Catalogues are usually put together from ancient Acts; who would count it a fault, if we stand for Nilo, so clearly named there? at least so long, until from elsewhere some light shine forth, which may certainly persuade that he is not to be placed in the number of Bishops there arranged. Thus all things cohere most excellently, the near consanguinity of St. Udalric with Nilo, his uncle, the time and the provostship of the Saint, received from the same uncle; and also the absence of Nitger, who had gone to Ravenna; and the authority of the ancient writer is kept safe and sound.

[17] The illustrious deeds of the Saint With the eulogy of the Saint, expressed in the Life, num. 28,

there agree the things which are given in the preliminary Commentary of the Life of St. Hugh, vol. 3 of April, page 629, num. 2, from the Cluniac Chronicle; and also in Wion from the same Chronicle; so that it would be altogether superfluous to transcribe those things here again at length. The illustrious deeds of St. Udalric Mabillon inserted in various places of the Benedictine Annals: in the year 1052, num. 18, on the beginnings of the monastic life which the Saint laid; in the year 1061, num. 89, on the government of the sisters of Marcigny undertaken after Rencho; 1072, num. 9, on the priory of Grunningen; 1085, num. 103 and 105, on the Cluniac customs written at the request of William, abbot of Hirsau; ibid., num. 107, on the acquisition of Zell, and also on the unjust vexation inflicted upon him; finally in the year 1093, num. 82, on his death and miracles. With a notable and rather long eulogy too Bucelinus attends St. Udalric in the Benedictine menology, from various manuscripts, as he asserts, of Trudpert, of St. Peter, and from a life of the same, which he says is kept by him, in his "Constantia Benedictina," vol. 3 of the Annals, etc. It would be long to relate the aforesaid eulogy here: it will be enough to take from it a miracle, passed over by the author of the Life, and so not without reason to be brought forward here: the credit of which let rest with the writer. And so there the holy Man is recorded to have crossed, with his horse, a valley or chasm of immense depth, as if over a bridge, by means of a tall tree cast down by the violence of the winds and fallen upon the summits of two rocks lying opposite; and not to have noticed it before the peril was overcome, being warned, and to have recognized the miracle. Which I wonder was passed over by the author of the Life, if it truly holds good.

§ III. The writings of St. Udalric; the author of the Life; the time in which it was written; the copy of the Life which is here given.

[18] Not by the integrity of his character and the holiness of his life alone did Udalric shine, but, joining wisdom to virtue, Three books on the ancient Cluniac customs he excelled also in writings. This the notable work on the more ancient Cluniac customs proves, put together by him through questions and answers, in which, as the writer of the Life witnesses at num. 65, you will be able manifestly to recognize the study, the genius, and the wisdom of the man therein. Luc d'Achery published the aforesaid work, distributed into three books, in type, in volume 4 of the Spicilegium from page 21. What the writer aims at, you have from his words in the dedicatory epistle, where he thus divides it: The first part, he says, is on the divine office, and what is chiefly done in the church throughout the whole year. The second, on the instruction of novices. The third, on the offices, to which is subjoined also the last office, by which each of the brothers, about to depart from this world, is called to Christ. Moreover, on what occasion he applied his mind to writing, he himself sets forth in the preface in these words, page 31.

[19] Before these days our elder, the lord Abbot, directed my humble self into Germany: on what occasion for what reason, it does not much matter now to relate: what pertains to the matter, on this occasion I turned aside to the venerable man, the lord William the abbot, whose monastery is situated in the district of Speyer and on an island [*], surnamed the Black. But this same father, as he was known to me from boyhood and most friendly, seeing me, joyfully welcomed me, and, another Cleophas to me, compelled me, though tending elsewhere, yet to remain some days with him. Meanwhile he had assiduous conversation with me, nay, as far as could be, almost continuous, about the customs of our church, concerning which indeed he began to speak thus: Your church, most beloved, by the mercy of God has obtained no small reputation for religion in our parts, nor is anything else thought by us than that, in these places which have been able to reach our knowledge, there is none like it in the regular life and discipline.

[20] Whence you do not a little toward our wish, if, you relating, we deserve to hear any things St. Udalric wrote. about the usages and institutions of your elders, which, even if they are not practiced by us, yet this very thing builds toward humility, if it is not hidden from us that you so live and conduct yourselves, as our weakness either has been unwilling or unable to. To which I: I am about, I said, to eat your bread; it is fitting meanwhile that I be not unprepared to obey your will. But one who is in such a place, on account of the diversity of language as it were a barbarian, and not nourished there from boyhood, it cannot easily come about that he should so know everything as one who is a native, and who from infancy grew up among such things; and therefore it is no wonder, if I too do not know much of this kind, who until nearly the thirtieth year of our age cared greatly for nothing but the affairs of the world. Yet as much as it is that I know, that very thing I will relate not unwillingly. Therefore see about what you would first wish to ask. There may besides be seen the Prologue of William to the Customs of Hirsau, published in vol. 4 of the aforesaid Analecta from page 465; which are by no means to be confounded with the Cluniac Customs elaborated by St. Udalric; from which too are to be distinguished the Cluniac Customs of Bernard, a monk of that monastery: concerning which it seemed good to warn the reader, lest he confound these different little works on account of the similarity of subject and the nearness of the times.

[21] Certain observations As regards the author of the Life which we publish; for a suitable acquaintance with him, I desire the following to be observed. In the prologue at num. 4 he explains thus: Before us indeed a certain one of his disciples published a life of the blessed Father, written according to his own ability. And by what aids he himself rendered this life fuller than the first, he makes plain there with these words: But many and illustrious virtues, which he is known to have performed while living among us, perhaps not known to him, he passed over, which, afterward written by studious brothers, and scattered here and there inserted in the pages, were by no means linked in their proper place. But also in our time we have known very many proclamations of signs to have been wrought at his tomb, which are not yet, by the zeal of a writer, laid away in the bosom of memory. From the same place we learn that he built his own life, which he composed, upon the older life as upon a base. But I, he says, as I was bidden, walking here and there through the field of the older book, and carefully plucking the more beautiful deeds like certain flowers, will try to cut away the less necessary things, to supply the omitted, and to insist on brevity as clearly as I shall be able.

[22] [concerning the anonymous author of the Life: likewise concerning his age, way of life, faith,] The name of the said author is hidden; his age, way of life, and place of habitation are more at hand. That he lived nearly contemporary with the Saint about whom he writes is not obscurely detected from num. 56, concluding thus a miracle narrated there through the work of St. Udalric: This miracle we learned from the aforementioned brother Warinher, relating it there a little before, who still survives, living in the house of God, a monk of holy simplicity and innocence. Again at num. 86, where it is narrated of the walking restored to an infant by the Saint's prayers, it is said that he is now a man of robust age, and stands as the reason and witness of the miracle wrought in him: in which man the beautiful hand of the Omnipotent has fashioned a creation of beautiful and excellent stature. And at last, at num. 90, St. Udalric, after two years of blindness, having fallen into the last infirmity from which he died, a man of venerable life, Wido, was appointed to sing the regular hours, who, still living in the flesh, follows the footsteps of the same Father by holy works. That by his way of life and habitation he was a monk of Zell seems placed beyond doubt, considering even the words of the passage above alone, brought forward at num. 21. But now he commends his good faith at num. 31. This, he says, we wish our reader to know, that we wish to insert nothing into this work except what, resting on the root of truth, is specially to be attributed to the proclamation of his holiness. For since we abound in illustrious deeds to be singularly ascribed to his person, why should we attempt to adorn the holy man with, as it were, borrowed trappings?

[23] One asking in about what year the author of the Life wrote, and the time at which he wrote: let him have this answer, which Mabillon too had given; that the life was written in that interval of time which flowed from the death of St. Hugh to his canonization, that is, from the year 1109 to 1120, the indication of this is, that the writer, speaking honorifically in more than one place about St. Hugh, always abstains from the title of blessed or saint, but calls him "Father Hugh of happy memory," or "reverend father and venerable abbot"; which indeed would not have been done by a monk of the Cluniac institute after the sacred honors granted to St. Hugh.

[24] Lastly, as to the copy of the Life, taken from what was published in Mabillon, finally concerning the copy of the Life which we give; it is to be observed that he had two copies in hand; one indeed written about 150 years ago in the very monastery of Zell, as he says it seems to him: the other he reports was transmitted to him in the year 1680 by the most eminent George Geisser, abbot of St. George of Villingen, praised above. Accordingly, whether we consider the author of the Life, or his age, or his good faith, add also the manner of writing, the expressions and the style, it has very much whereby it may be commended, as one who deserved most excellently of St. Udalric by writing his deeds and the Life which we subjoin, illustrated with modest notes here and there, where occasion brought it.

[25] That this Life came to the hands of the editor Mabillon not altogether pure and untouched by the hand of an interpolator—the substance of the history, however, being safe— and by another apograph with which we collated it. I gather not obscurely from the fact that in several places it is sprinkled with digressions and amplifications, not expressed in the other manuscript life, with which we collated ours, which we give. And this Life, which served for our collation, I judge to be plainly the same as that with which Mabillon likewise collated his own, which he committed to type: both because the same most eminent George the Abbot sent it, together with a most obliging letter, to Papebroch in the year 1687, on the 9th day of July, which and several others he gave, writing from the Monastery of Villingen; and because certain marginal notes plainly indicate it; which we read in our apograph, and Mabillon in his. In other respects the two lives sufficiently agree, if you except certain minutiae, scarcely worthy of observation. But the Prologue, which is in Mabillon, is absent from our apograph. But the interpolations, which are not found in the edition of Mabillon and in ours, we shall for the sake of distinction enclose in brackets []; various readings being added to the margin; as you will see observed throughout.

* Read "Silva" Forest.

VITA

By an Anonymous author, a nearly-contemporary monk of the monastery of Zell in the Black Forest.

Udalric, monk and Confessor, in the Breisgau of Germany (St.)

BHL Number: 8370

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.

From what was published in Mabillon, Acta Benedictorum, saeculum VI, part 2, from page 781, collated with another Ms.

The author, conscious of his slenderness, He who shall have presumed to write the deeds of the Saints in bare and unskilled speech, not only

offends the mind of the eloquent reader by his unpolished manner of speaking, but also in some way diminishes the glory of the elect of God in human estimation. For by how much the more excellent an adornment of words the merits of the Saints are proclaimed through the eloquence of writers; by so much the more eagerly they are believed by the hearing of the hearers, being believed are venerated, being venerated are taken up by their hearers for the practice of pious imitation. Whence I, a sinner, who have resolved, the grace of the Holy Spirit assisting, to commend the glorious life of our most holy father Udalric, marked by the office of the pen for the memory of posterity; I confess, I greatly fear lest unkempt speech render a beautiful subject less delightful. For just as much of his beauty is taken from a man shining with the natural elegance of beauty, if he be clad in sordid and uncultivated garments; so indeed the splendid life of the Saints is overshadowed by a great gloom, if it be set forth with the uncomposed rusticity of words, whereby assuredly it carries less edification in itself, when the lowliness of the style diminishes its dignity.

[2] he prefaces that, for the dignity of the deeds of St. Udalric, When I compare also the smallness of my genius with the greatness of so great a matter, I see myself altogether unequal to describing the acts of so most excellent a man. For that most blessed one is known to have been of such and so great holiness, that even if that most eloquent orator Cicero were now living, if he had known his life, character, and acts, he could, even with all his eloquence, scarcely suffice to explain them according to the truth of the matter. What then shall we do? Shall we be wholly silent about him? Shall we say nothing, for the standard of our instruction, about his imitable manner of life? Certainly, although we cannot express the life of the gracious Confessor of Christ with a fitting dignity of words, yet for our instruction we will attempt, as far as we can, to discourse some things from it. For we could not undeservedly be accused of silence and of excessive sloth by our successors, if we should allow things that would profit the edification of many to be withdrawn from memory by the torpor of silence. And so, if not as I wish, yet I will speak of the most holy Man, according as I am able and feel. For to undertake this work I leap forward by no rashness of my own, but I am called to it by the holy and authoritative petition of venerable men, of whom indeed this is what their request chiefly aims at, that the manner of life of so great a Father, inserted in writing, may edify the humble reader.

[3] Wherefore I warn the curious inspectors of this work, in writing the things that pertain to him that they should not wish, by disdaining, to reject from the palate of their heart the sweet feasts of simple minds, though set before them on the cheap earthenware of the description, as though seasoned with no flavor. For it is clear that both from a small table delightful foods are taken, and from a rustic little vessel the sweetness of a nectar-cup is often drawn. But this too we add, that the prudent reader is by no means wont to seek out the leaves of words in the described deeds of the holy Fathers; but much rather attends to the fruit of saving instruction. For the profit therefore of all monks, nay of all the faithful, describing the life of this most faithful monk from his earliest age, according to my measure, I will also partly make known the miracles which the heavenly power worked through him. Since indeed he is proved to have furnished so many healings to the need of those asking, both while remaining in this life, and living after death with Christ; that I should fill a great volume, if all were written down.

[4] Before us indeed a certain one of his disciples published a life of the blessed Father, written according to his own ability, that he is unequal. but he passed over many and illustrious virtues, which he is known to have performed while living among us, perhaps not known to him, which, afterward written by studious brothers, and scattered here and there inserted in the pages, were by no means linked in their proper place. But also in our time we have known very many proclamations of signs to have been wrought at his tomb, which are not yet, by the zeal of a writer, laid away in the bosom of memory. But I, as I was bidden, walking here and there through the field of the older book, and carefully plucking the more beautiful deeds like certain flowers, will try to cut away the less necessary things, to supply the omitted, and to insist on brevity, as clearly as I shall be able.

CAPUT I.

The most upright upbringing joined to the birth of the Saint, and, even in the court itself, uncorrupted.

[5] The venerable man Udalric, begotten of the illustrious stock of the Bavarians of the city of Regensburg, The Saint's birth and upbringing shone forth amid the noble lineage of his whole kindred, as the morning star among the other stars of the sky. For his father, Bernold by name, was not of the lowest among the citizens of Regensburg in birth. For he had been very dear and acceptable to Henry the Third, august Emperor of the Romans; among the mighty of whose reign he powerfully stood out in riches, fame, and glory. This man therefore commended his son, adorned with the flower of an excellent character, to skilled teachers, to be imbued with the studies of letters; and because the Holy Spirit does not cease to breathe where He wills, the boy of good hope, His grace inspiring, began, like a most prudent bee, studiously and by memory to gather the honey-flowing flowers of the Scriptures into the hive of his breast. But now, although he was small in age, yet he strove to transcend his childish years by the old age of his mind, prudently avoiding the vanities of his age-mates and the follies of games, and often occupied his mind with the study of reading or of composing, as the truth of the following testimony plainly shows.

[6] adorned with all the gifts of knowledge and virtue For on a certain day the boy dedicated to God, his companions giving their effort to play, sat alone in a chamber, and intently exercised his genius in the art of composing. A certain elder, wise and religious, coming upon him, having seen him, stopped on the threshold, and said to those standing by him with a prophetic spirit: Know that the providence of the divine mercy will fulfill certain great works of its will in this boy, whom it does not disdain to engage, in his boyish age, in such mature exercises. From this it came about that he became so much readier for learning, as, on account of the ardor of his study, he had now begun to be dearer to all. For he was eloquent in genius; he was becomingly composed in the quality of his character, and he was honorably restrained in tongue from vain and idle words. He embraced no carnal wantonness, as such an age is wont, vowing and preserving to the Son of the Virgin perpetual chastity of his mind and body. The precepts of the divine law, the Holy Spirit teaching him inwardly, he read most intensely, by reading understood, by understanding kept, and by keeping busied himself to fulfill in works with the utmost alacrity of mind, as much as was in him.

[7] excellently adorned In the temple of the Lord he was frequently present, and, devoutly celebrating praises to the heavenly Majesty according to his measure, he ministered in the sight of the Lord of hosts, like another Samuel, with a simple mind. The ineffable goodness of Christ worked these things in him, who both makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and of whose grace no age is destitute. With such a disposition of character the young recruit of Christ nobly adorned the flower of his most sweet boyhood, and already in his tender years evidently foreshadowed the fruit of his future probity. Who then would not venerate the grace of the heavenly teaching in him? Who, I say, would not embrace with the arms of dearest love a boy so docile and of so good a mind? And so Udalric grew, the joy, honor, and ornament of both his parents, and a certain notable pearl of his lineage.

[8] The course of philosophy being run through, His boyish years therefore being passed through simply and innocently, after he seemed abundantly enough drunk from the divine fountain of philosophy, that soldier of the supreme King is bidden to remain in the earthly palace of an earthly Emperor. But he himself, although according to the decision of the royal will he was associated with the palace [*] men, was nonetheless by no means, even there, forsaken by that inhabitant of his heart, namely the Holy Spirit; who mercifully guarded the home-born servant of His discipline, though dwelling with the inhabitants of Cedar, from all the dregs of pollution, with which that kind of men is wont to be contaminated; because He resolved to dwell eternally in him. For the deeds of His foster-son, both preventing by inspiring and following by helping, He directed his steps into the way of salvation; and thoroughly taught him to walk within the path of the right way.

[9] For that he was truly guarded from illicit acts by spiritual governance is easily weighed from the good morals living in the court, but untouched by the enticements of the court which, placed in the palace, he showed. For the plague of avarice, and the ambition of honor, which is wont grievously to corrupt the minds of courtiers with the wasting of its pestilence, in no way availed to infuse into his soul the venom of its own perdition. The care of amassing riches, which very many possess in great want, did not solicit him. What wonder, if he did not labor to acquire the means of earthly things, who by the bounty of them was trying to ascend to the summit of no dignity? For he trod the glory of the world underfoot with the foot of virtue: but also, spurning the breeze of human favor, he in every way shrank from being puffed up by its delights. He never preferred himself to anyone; he despised no one; he envied no one's prosperity: on account of which he was not undeservedly pleasing to all the good.

[10] The royal highness too did not deny its friendships to the venerable Man; he is appointed to the service of the Empress; and since it saw him live more honorably than the rest, it judged him to be worthier of its love. It honored in him the composure of a religious bearing, and the praiseworthy purity of an innocent life. But what shall I say of the devotion of the glorious Queen, who loved the servant of Christ with a special affection? For, drawn by the composed sweetness of his delightful character, she wished him to attach himself to her service: believing that she became happy, if she deserved to enjoy the sight, hearing, and service of such a person. Nor is there doubt that the most noble consort of the empire, namely Agnes ^b [*], profited much from his assiduous familiarity, in whose life and admonition she could find a pattern of right living. For the Man dear to God, devoutly attending to the service of the Queen, kept the accustomed constancy of his mind, wholly fleeing and execrating the wantonness of courtly incontinence. He was zealous rather for religious gravity than for vain curiosity; wishing rather to be humbled than to be puffed up by any wind of pride.

[11] And he took care rather to adorn his mind with the ornaments of holy virtues, remitting nothing of solid piety. than to whiten outwardly the withering flower of his body with the immoderate luxury of precious garments. But when, as he was wont, he made a journey in the royal retinue, he frequently gave himself to psalms and prayer, as often as the opportunity of the place in any way offered itself. Day and night he indefatigably frequented the thresholds of the church; nor did he wish ever to spare the weariness of his body, provided that he should not be slow to render to his heavenly Emperor the due measure of servitude by watching, singing psalms, and praying. Besides, while abiding in the palace, he showed many examples of pure innocence and holy simplicity, by which he provoked all both to the love of venerating him, and to the institutions of a better life.

ANNOTATA.

* Otherwise: "auliels."

* Otherwise: "Agnetem."

CAPUT II.

He frees a woman from calumny, visits holy places; escapes the fury of the heathen; sets out for Rome; embraces the monastic institute.

[12] Promoted to the diaconate, But after these things the uncle of the most excellent Man, Nilo by name, who ruled the pontificate of the church of Freising, invited this Blessed one to the city of his diocese, and, solemnly promoting him to the grade of the diaconate, appointed him a faithful minister to Christ. Placed in which position, what indications of his wisdom or of his pious compassion he showed, the following page will disclose. A certain woman, born in the parts of Regensburg, was accused of a certain detestable crime, though falsely, who, while she ought to clear herself of the guilt of the imputed misdeed, her own sins hindering, is found as it were guilty in the proof of the judgment. Not bearing therefore so great confusion, she secretly deserted her native borders, and chose the parts of Freising as the hiding-places of her flight. But not even there could she long hide, since her own bishop, namely the Bishop of Regensburg, had learned, fame divulging it, that she was concealed there. And so the Bishop of Freising received the letters of his fellow-bishop, directed to him for the examining of the defamed and still-denying woman; who, since it was presumptuous to pronounce a definite sentence about causes unknown to him, determined that her guilt or innocence should be manifested by judgment.

[13] He frees a falsely accused woman. Again therefore the wretched woman is subjected to examination, being subjected she falters, having faltered she grows pale, trembles, and is distressed. But because her own conscience excused her, she again insists on her denials with a persevering spirit. For what she should do, or what counsel she should take, she was utterly ignorant. At whose examination when our Udalric was present, and saw that unhappy woman wavering in the grievous fear of anxiety, he most tenderly had compassion on her miseries, and was moved over her, as the Savior once over the woman to be stoned for the guilt of adultery, or as Daniel over Susanna. Wherefore, calling her apart from the rest, he exhorts her to make a pure confession to the Lord of her sins, lest any unexamined fault lie hidden in her, which might stand in the way of proving her innocence. To her, confessing certain things committed, which she had not yet disclosed to anyone, the minister of Christ, although as yet by no means having exercised the office of the priesthood, enjoined the remedy of penance, and so sent her back to the judgment. But she, approaching secure and undaunted, freely purged herself; and so by the counsel and help of the Man of God, joyful she saw again her fatherland, home, and husband. In this deed the piety of that blessed counselor is praised, his merit extolled, his fame more and more increased.

[14] Advanced to the provostship, he rightly discharges that office. And so the Bishop, weighing that his nephew was strong in wisdom and in discernment of spirit, committed to him the care of the provostship, that he who seemed to govern himself wisely and honorably might now be able and know how worthily to preside over others. But that Blessed one, whose honor was Christ, the government of a prelacy of this kind being undertaken, was humbled in himself as much as he was exalted above others. For he knew it was written: The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things. And that he might more certainly show that he sought carefully in all things not his own honor, but the profit of the flock committed to him, he began to strengthen the canonical discipline, as best he could, and to arrange it wisely. For his brothers he provided the necessaries of life, and, as carnal food to the frailty of the body, so spiritual food to the languor of their souls, he administered, by living well and teaching rightly. At a certain time too, when, the peril of a most severe famine pressing on, the inhabitants of many regions were most grievously oppressed, the Emperor setting out for Lombardy and thence for Italy, this man accompanying him, his brothers, their common goods being sold off to relieve the want, were troubled not a little. Which being known, leave being scarcely obtained from the Emperor after many prayers, he returns in haste; and his estates being placed in pledge, he relieved with a ready mind the necessities not only of his own flock, but of others too. O most kindly man, O most liberal householder! who therefore cheerfully and without hesitation paid out earthly riches to the members of Christ, because he thirstily sought the abundance of eternal treasures.

[15] At last, at some time, the inclemency of the famine being driven off, the servant of God, He sets out for Jerusalem; who daily hastened by the steps of good works to enter the court of the heavenly Jerusalem, no small sum of money being collected, was disposing to go to the earthly Jerusalem, distinguished by the triumph of the Lord's Passion. The anxieties and labors which he endured on that way, namely in the roughnesses of the roads, in the perils of men, in the storms of the rivers, I pass over summarily, lest the length of the narration become a weariness to the reader. But this I ought by no means to keep silent, that every day, before he sat on the back of his horse, he recited in order the sweetness of the Davidic song. The journey therefore being finished, when he reached the gate of the holy City, as though he heard the Lord saying to him, as to another Moses: Loose thy shoe; the place in which thou standest is holy; he approached the tomb of the Lord's repose, humbly unshod. What floods of tears there, what prayers, what sighs that soul most beloved of God poured forth from its inmost heart, whose eloquence could tell? Could he restrain himself from the outpouring of weeping, when he beheld with his eyes, trod with his feet, and delightfully considered in his mind the places consecrated by the footsteps of Christ, illustrated by signs and miracles, glorified by the Passion?

[16] For there with a most sincere fountain of tears he busied himself to wash away the stains of his mind; he reverently visits the holy places; asking pardon for past and present offenses, and a safeguard for future ones; there, I say, with the spices of his prayers he tearfully anointed the wounds of our Savior, with a devotion not unlike that of the holy Women, whose faith, ointments being procured, sought the body of the Lord Jesus in the sepulcher. Thence our true Israelite, deserting the glorious city in body indeed but not in soul, sought Bethlehem, dedicated by the nativity of Christ. There at the manger of the Lord, the treasures of his most rich breast being opened, he offered the three mystical gifts of the Magi—if not in reality, yet typically—confessing the Son of God, King of kings, true priest, mortal from the assumed flesh, coeternal with the supreme Father through the ineffable majesty of the Deity.

[17] He is washed in the Jordan, Then to the streams of the Jordan, in which the Savior of the world washed the guilt of our offenses, having put off his garment, he descended pure into the river. And when, washed according to his desire, he held the solidity of the shore, scarcely yet clothed, he sees from afar a certain profane troop of heathen, flying toward him and his men, threatening truculently with arms, countenance, and clamor. As these rushed upon him, the servant of Christ, although in his mind he desired the palm of martyrdom, yet committed himself with his companions to flight, the frailty of the flesh impelling him. But one of the enemies, more violently pressing on the fugitives, [*] hurled the mass of a great stone onto the back of our Udalric, and cast him headlong, together with his horse, into the depth of a certain pit which happened to be there. What then should the Athlete of God do? He had remained alone; none of his companions was with him; for the hostile fury had driven them farther off. But he, committing all his hope to the divine protection, they now approaching, cast off the fear of the suffering which he did not doubt was imminent for him, [and manfully girded himself to endure the torments of death.

[18] escaping the fury of the heathen, Placed in such a crisis, thou, most mighty God, seasonably came to the aid of thy servant: thou who madest the Jews, coming to seize thee, fall backward by the terror of a single voice, hast now by the power of thy strength prohibited these from the destruction of thy friend.] For suddenly, terrified, they turned back, and by thy command ceased from persecuting him. [Thou didst preserve, O Lord, thy soldier, yet to ascend a higher grade of life; thou didst preserve him, yet more perfectly to fulfill the law of thy commandments; thou didst preserve, I say, him for the salvation of many, who afterward by his doctrine, his example, his character were to be converted to thy service. The heathen therefore returning,] the fellow-travelers of the reverend Man, hastening back more quickly, drew him out of the pit, and continued the journey they had begun. But because the chaste love of the Saints for God knows not to be sated, that Blessed one, thinking the desire of his religious mind not yet satisfied, went to the mount of Christ's Ascension, and there ascending in the valley of weeping, commended himself wholly to the Judge who is to come.

[19] Thence returning to Germany, And so, very many places being traversed which the bodily presence of our Redeemer had consecrated, he returns to the soil of his habitation: arriving where, he found his uncle, the Bishop of Freising, deceased, and learned that another presided not only over the episcopal charge, but also over his own provostship. About the death of the Bishop, although according to the spirit he would not be saddened, yet according to the flesh he could not command himself not to grieve. But about the gift of dignity, of which, being absent, he was deprived, he was not disturbed, because what, when possessed, he had not greatly loved, he bore with equanimity that it had been taken from him. For he stood on a great summit of mind, who, as we said before, by dispensing the estates of his own right in the necessities of those brothers, is known to have brought want upon himself; nor did he strive to reclaim the profit of the provostship taken from him, even especially on that account. Which patience of his the heavenly mercy regarding, with the accustomed grace of its kindness wished more quickly to console its faithful one, whom it found just in adversity. For a certain kinsman of the blessed man, discharging the office of provost in the church of Regensburg, kindly received him into his own house, and kept him with him until he should redeem his estates.

[20] Meanwhile a plan settled in his mind, to build a monastery on his own possession, he distributes his goods to the poor, where, a community of monks being gathered, the celebration of divine praise might resound daily. But when he could not bring so pious a desire to effect so fitly [*] as he wished, the state of the time hindering, and also the irreligiosity of the Bishops who then presided over the church, he resolved to vow and render himself with his own to the Lord. For considering that amid the wavering storms of the world scarcely anyone can direct the course of his life to the bosom of a safe station; and that amid its various clamors the state of however quiet a mind is often shaken, he desired to receive from the Lord the wings of a dove, desiring by flying to rest in solitude. Wherefore he began to pay out his goods to the poor of Christ, wishing to fulfill the evangelical precept, in which it is said: If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me.

[21] But in the same parts of Regensburg certain women consecrated to God dwelt together under monastic discipline, and relieves nuns in want of goods. whom a great want of goods had oppressed. For, as is reported, each received, poverty compelling, half a measure of each kind of bread, namely white and black. The kindness of so generous a dispenser, pitying their want, bestowed on them so much arable land, that they might take a full pound of white bread, and moreover from it might yearly feed seven poor persons for the salvation of the giver himself, as he had appointed. And so his means being liberally distributed, partly to the needy, partly to his kinsmen, and partly also reserved for more conveniently accomplishing his desire; when he had cast from himself the impediments of worldly things, he escaped free from the shipwreck of this world. But because he had been wholly kindled within with the love of God and of his neighbor, he sought to snatch others with himself from the waves of the world; since he did not wish to come to God alone.

[22] Wherefore he approached the scholastic of the same city, named Gerald ^b, A companion being joined to him, he burns with desire of the monastic state, and to him his

will he unfolds, and admonished, persuaded, and obtained that he should leave the uncertain things of the world together with him. The venerable men therefore, the grace of the Holy Spirit cooperating, united in one and the same will, chose above all to be associated with the life of the cenobites; but in what place they might more safely lay the sweet yoke of Christ and His light burden upon their shoulders, they anxiously conferred among themselves. A wholesome counsel being at last found, they resolved to take up the habit of holy manner of life in the monastery of Cluny, whose religion they had heard preached far and wide. About to go forth therefore from the labyrinth of this world by the guidance of Sacred Scripture, they first approach the thresholds of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul; to whom, since the clemency of our Redeemer handed over the power of binding and loosing, by their merits and intercession they begged that the absolution of their sins be granted them by the Lord.

[23] To them also they most intently commended their vow, [which, after they had commended it to the holy Apostles at Rome, they fulfill at Cluny.] praying that the arduous path of the regular life, by which they desired to reach the heavenly fatherland, they might, by their patronage, deserve to consummate with a blessed end. The votive prayer being completed, they return from the Apostolic See, and come straightway to the longed-for place of the church of Cluny; where, opening the secret of their will to the most reverend Abbot of the same monastery, namely the lord Hugh ^c, they are most devoutly received by him; and, their stability being confirmed, as is the custom, they are inserted into the body of the congregation like most beautiful members. O how delightful it was to behold the sheep of Christ, stripped of the fleece of their former manner of life, last indeed in rank, but superior to not a few in the ordered quality of their character! O how imitable an example of virtue, that men imbued with all skill should humbly learn the humble philosophy of Christ, most obediently submit themselves to another's will, faithfully deny themselves to themselves in all things! For truly, forgetting the things that were behind, and stretching themselves forward with the whole effort of the mind, they grew on high like good trees, and brought forth the sweet fruits of virtues.

[24] [A little digression concerning the said companion, named Gerald, afterward Bishop of Ostia.] But we by no means proposed to treat of the most prudent man Gerald, but undertook to narrate the life of blessed Udalric. Yet that we may say something briefly about him; excelling notably in wisdom, counsel, and gravity of character, not after many years he is made major Prior, and afterward, at the command of the Bishop of the Apostolic See, Gregory VII ^d, is raised to the pontificate of the church of Ostia. The care of which see he ruled with the utmost solicitude, and, bringing back to his Lord the talent of the business entrusted to him with doubled interest, he deserved to hear: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord. These things about him being thus summarily set forth, let us, with the Lord's help, say according to our ability what the manner of life of our patron was.

ANNOTATA.

* Supply "in."

* Otherwise: "aperte."

CAPUT III.

The monastic life; the priesthood; patience, proved by the goads of the flesh and by calumnies.

[25] Therefore the beloved and chosen servant of God Udalric, prevented by the grace of the divine mercy, was mortified in the flesh, Having entered upon the monastic life, that he might be quickened in the spirit. He rose again also with Christ; seeking with the whole avidity of his mind the things that are above, utterly despising the things that are in the world. He walked with lowered countenance among the assemblies of the monks, like a most gentle lamb; that even by his bearing he might show that he had died to this world. He was now truly a monk in name and in deed, he was most ready in obeying, and most zealous in the service of God. His character and life furnished to all examples of virtue. For Christ dwelt in him, as in His temple, and it was fitting that the fragrance of a holy reputation should be redolent from him. You would perceive none to be superior to him in good acts, scarcely anyone could equal his labor. He frequently persisted in prayers, carefully observed the watches of vigils, macerated his body with strict fasts. Observing vigilantly also the lessons of the prophetic admonition, he most diligently guarded all his ways, and reined in his tongue from talkativeness. He altogether avoided uttering idle words, nor did he care to hear them from others.

[26] He most firmly hedged his ears from hearing detractions, by the exercise of very many virtues which he most gladly opened to sound doctrine and to discourses of edification: for because on the wing of continual contemplation he flew to the heights, he had also been a dove at his windows, when a prudent and discreet simplicity shone forth in him. [But behold, while we desire to express in words the gifts of heavenly mercy abundantly conferred on the holy Man, we are by no means able worthily to explain them according to the truth of the matter:] for what tongue could fittingly discourse how meek, how pious and quiet he was, and how composed he was in all his action? Whose eloquence, I say, could tell how he burned in the observance of the holy Order, how studious, how benevolent in all things he showed himself? For with such solicitude, and with such fervor, he strove to walk in the footsteps of the holy Fathers, that one could truly equal his life to the pursuits of the ancient monks, or Fathers.

[27] Through these and such merits of an admirable life, he adorns it. he shone like a heavenly star among the colleges of the monks. And although he was enriched above all with these and other graces of the divine mercy, yet he attributed nothing to his own merits for these, but glorified in himself the giver of all good things, saying with the Apostle: By the grace of God I am what I am. For there shone in him the exceptional beauty of humility, which is the highest virtue of the monastic life; this always clung to him as an inseparable companion, and seasoned all his pursuits most sweetly, as with a certain savor of salt. Nothing counterfeit would you perceive in him, nothing contrary to religion, such as, in most cases, is wont to happen—the outward form of holiness overshadowing it—you could with a simple eye detect hidden beneath it. For whatever shone outwardly in his work proceeded from the inmost humility of his heart. For that he was truly little in his own eyes, we can understand from this especially, that he did not disdain to prefer even his inferiors to himself.

[28] [Initiated into the priesthood, he discharges the office of physician and spiritual father;] The man, magnificent with such exercises, the holy Abbot caused to be promoted to the priestly office, and appointed him his chaplain and counselor. And because he knew that he was wholly composed of virtue and wisdom, he prepared for his flock also an access of confession with him. Whence there came to him both old and young, laboring under various passions, opening their consciences to him the more sincerely, the more securely. But he received all with the utmost charity, and, after the manner of a most wise physician, cured each with fitting remedies of penance. He loved all, and was loved by all. But especially toward the new soldiers of Christ the affection of his mind was fervent. These indeed, as untrained and in need of greater consolation, frequently summoned to himself, he taught, admonished, and instructed with wonderful kindness: and he so cherished them in the bosom of fatherly charity, that from this he deserved to be specially called the father and leader of the novices.

[29] with a proof given toward a sacrilegious brother Of how great compassion and mercy toward the fallen the holy man was, will appear more clearly from the following example. There was a certain brother in the same congregation, who, at the persuasion of the old enemy, was trying to cast off the yoke of discipline by flight: who added sin to sin, and secretly carried off, to be borne with him, the golden vessel in which the most sacred mysteries of the body and blood of Christ were wont to be consecrated. An inquiry therefore was made about the chalice; it not being found, prayers being first poured out to the Lord, that, by His revealing, a vessel of such value might not be lost; the cloister-entrances too are ordered to be diligently guarded, lest the author of the theft slip away by the protection of flight. But that wretched one, whom the guilt of his own conscience grievously tormented, seeing that he could not escape as he had desired, is shaken with immense fear, and is confounded within himself by various waves of thoughts.

[30] by an example of piously shrewd gentleness. And so, fleeing to the most merciful man Udalric, as to the solace of a most safe harbor, he unfolds his fault with a groan, receives the healing of penance, and, being bidden, gave him the chalice: which, having received, the man of mercy hid, dug under the earth, and on the morrow, pardon being humbly asked in chapter concerning the lost thing, made known that it had been revealed to him. For truly, his piety deserving it, the clemency of our God willed both that the loss to the church be restored, and that the crime of the brother, to be purged by secret penance, be concealed. And so, certain brothers being taken, he went to the place, and first, by industry digging all around, at last, the pit being opened out, caused the sacred vessel to be drawn out and restored to the ecclesiastical treasury. Thus the man of God, piously shrewd, while he considers that the frailty of human nature can easily slip, dissembles his neighbor's fall with a clement compassion.

[31] But this we wish our reader to know, that we wish to insert nothing into this work The author of this life testifies his good faith, except what, resting on the root of truth, is specially to be attributed to the proclamation of his holiness. [For since we abound in illustrious deeds to be singularly ascribed to his person, why should we attempt to adorn the holy Man with, as it were, borrowed trappings? For, to confess the truth, our Udalric has no need to be extolled with either false, or externally borrowed, favors of praise, who is known so to excel with his own, that, for their number and excellence, they can scarcely even be comprehended by the eloquent eloquence of a writer. But before we proceed to describe the notable marks of his miracles,] let us bring forward the constancy of his spirit, and the contests of his temptations, [for a wholesome example of imitation. For because the manifestation of no virtue takes place without temptation, there will assuredly be a great profit to the reader to have known the battles and victories of the blessed Man: for the strong members of Christ too are tempted, lest the weaker despair in their own temptations.

[32] This excellent member of Christ therefore,] although he subdued his body with vigils and fasts; [then he narrates that the Saint was wretchedly harassed by the goads of the flesh,] yet began to be sharply goaded by the incentives of lusts; in his thin and exhausted body the pleasure of a contrary delight sprouted up; [because, as the Apostle says, the flesh against the spirit

lusted. Who should wonder, if it is granted to the ancient enemy, by the judgment of God, to dash against this most beautiful cedar with a wind of assault of this kind, since Paul too, the summit of the highest mountains, is read to have been buffeted by an angel of Satan, lest he be exalted by the greatness of the revelations. See also Antony, see Hilarion, and Jerome the praiser of Hilarion, fathers and forerunners of the monastic Order, to have been vexed by the goad of their flesh. Who, since they did not yield to temptations, but manfully, God favoring, overcame them, are therefore set forth as an example to the weaker, that they may not despair nor yield when they are tempted. This man of God could have been somewhat elevated by the sublimity of the heavenly grace conferred on him, if he did not feel himself humbled by so weak a passion.

[33] Laboring therefore under such trouble,] when he could not mitigate the ardor of the flesh by the most strict affliction and abstinence of the body; and that he applied a remedy to them, not to be imitated. angry with himself that he should be wearied longer by so weak a temptation, his genital parts being pierced with a glowing iron, and a cord being passed through, he healed a wound with a wound, and drew pleasure into pain. [Do you not see here a perfect monk, truly a follower and disciple of the blessed father Benedict? He, the enemy assailing, reined in the conceived goad of the flesh by crawling among the prickles of brambles and thorns; this one, inflicting a huge wound on his body, extinguished the noxious heat.] What pain, what misery he endured, this wound swelling up, the tongue of the flesh dreads to tell. Yet, wishing no one to know this, with a strong spirit he raised himself against himself, laboring in his accustomed way, and unceasingly attending to the service of his Abbot.

[34] In this encounter the envious tempter, seeing that his cunning would be overcome, turned to other devices of his craft, and did not cease to stir up fraternal hatreds against the friend of charity. The patience of the holy man For certain brothers, clinging to the service of the Abbot, enviously carped at the simplicity and purity of an innocent life, which they did not have in themselves, in the blessed Man; whereas rather, if they were wise, they ought delightfully to use the good odor of his virtues for the seasoning of their own morals: [nor is it a wonder that envy can fall upon monks too, since not even the stars are clean in the sight of God.] But especially there blazed up, and inflamed others against him, a certain monk, Hunald [*] by name, as we can clearly perceive from the following narration.

[35] tested by adversities The venerable Father Hugh, making a journey, when he had come to a certain basilica, and had bidden this man—whom, on account of his holiness and gravity of character, he frequently had in his company—to celebrate the solemnities of the Masses, received a certain visiting Abbot, who turned aside to him for the sake of conversation; and when they were engaged rather long in mutual conversation, and the spaces of the hours flowed away, the reverend Father sent the aforesaid Hunald to his priest, that he should defer the celebration of the mystery, until, the conversation being finished, he himself could be present. Who, coming to the holy man, showed outwardly the harshness of his bitter heart, with which inwardly he swelled against him; making to him a hard and turbulent sign, which could not be understood, with excessive indignation. But the Man of God, as he was of a simple nature, because he did not understand the sign, clad in the priestly vestment, began to celebrate the Mass, thinking namely that the Abbot, occupied with other business, could not be present. Which being seen, the messenger, having returned, accuses him before the visitors, as a contemner of the fatherly command, multiplies words, exaggerates the case too much, and labors, if he can, to move the spiritual father to grave indignation. But the prudent master, considering with himself the innocence of the disciple, gentle in mind, appeared as though angry in countenance: and began skillfully to consider within himself how both to edify the strangers who were present in him, and to set before his own an example of his patience.

[36] severely enough, And so, coming to his subject, now attending to the divine services, he drove him from the altar, and pulled off his chasuble; and so compelled him to finish the Mass, which he had brought as far as the consecration of the oblation. But he—since the sign of a monk appears in temptations—showed openly, the temptation being imminent, what kind he always was in tranquility: for he stripped himself of the remaining vestments with such gentleness of meekness, that he did not even change his countenance for the insult inflicted on him, The horses being mounted therefore, they hasten the journey begun. Then the prudent Father, to show that so severe a rebuke of the disciple was not the fury of one angry, but the proof of one loving, again bade him celebrate the mysteries: which he too fulfilled with all devotion of mind. O indication of great humility! O salutary lesson of unconquered patience! Such and so great endurance of the disciple is the glory of the master, the edification of others, the confusion of the informer, and no small augmentation of his own merits.

[37] Let another example of his patience be added, which may afford to the hearer an incitement of virtue [but not overcome.] The Man dear to God was wont privately to direct sweet and wholesome admonitions of his letters to his acquaintances, both Abbots and monks; strengthening the religious and honorable, but recalling the erring to the way of truth: which pious and charitable presumption of the holy Man his aforesaid rivals bore too grievously, grieving that more was either granted or permitted to him than to themselves. The monks striking the ears of the spiritual Father and of the other elders on this account with the frequent importunity of outcries, for these things he is consigned to the discipline of a graver fault, and according to the law of such rebuke he is presented in the sight of the community. Nor there, O Lord, didst thou desert thy servant, to whom, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, thou didst supply so great a constancy of equanimity, that he was to all an example and a wonder. But the most discreet Abbot too, who had been led to these things more by the wickedness of others than by his own will, easily pardoned the fault, which he assigned not to pride, but to charity.

* Otherwise: "Hunoldus."

CAPUT IV.

Patience in the infirmity of the eye; withdrawal into a solitary place; a woman with dropsy and a demoniac restored to health; a calumniator brought back to good.

[38] And when, by these and by other stings of tribulations, the heavenly Maker so ordaining, he had been diligently examined, The Saint's eye flowing drop by drop, and found faithful, the heavenly husbandman, who prunes His branches with a fatherly scourge, that they may bring forth more fruit, was disposing to prune more skillfully this His chosen branch, now flourishing, and now fruiting.] For, sent to the place which is called Marcigny ^a, that he might preside there over the sacred virgins of Christ, whom Father Hugh of happy memory had gathered together in the same monastery under the yoke of the Lord, through the long vigils of the nights, through the continual labor of writing, he incurred a most grievous pain of the head. But he himself, thinking that this had happened to him not divinely for his testing, but by chance, several times washed his head with wormwood, that he might be freed from such an inconvenience. And so it happened, as they say, that a stalk of wormwood fixed itself in his eye, which, because thereafter by no means could it be drawn out, the eye of the holy Man flowed away drop by drop for the space of six months.

[39] But the monk of God, strengthened both by the example of brave men, he himself displays wondrous patience. and also by the consolations of the divine Scriptures, like Job or Tobias, attained the virtue of patience. And because he knew it was written: Blessed is the man who is rebuked by the Lord, he was not saddened for the loss of the outer light: [because by how much the carnal sight was dimmer, by so much the keenness of his mind was more perspicacious for contemplating the brightness of the heavenly light.] The infirmity therefore compelling, he returns to Cluny, and, asking mercy, is released from the government of the nuns committed to him. To whom how kindly the most clement father Hugh showed himself, with what charity he cherished him, how piously, how prudently he consoled his infirmity, whose speech could explain? For a chief member of that congregation being ill, the father himself, who was known to be as it were the head of all, deservedly had compassion.

[40] He departs with a companion into a solitary place; At the same time a certain very powerful man, named Lutold, of the castle which is called Rumelingen [*], enriched indeed with a broad possession of estates and other riches, but lacking the sweet succession of children, with the consent of his wife went to the monastery of Cluny, and, his estates being liberally handed over to the altar of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, appointed the Son of the Virgin his heir, for the obtaining of an eternal inheritance. He asking that monks be sent with him, blessed Udalric, his health being now recovered, and a venerable man, named Cuno, are sent with him by the Father of the monastery, that by their industry fitting dwellings for monks might be constructed. After they arrived, the situation of the places being considered, they chose Mount-Rotger, in which they saw that buildings suitable for the dwelling of cenobites could more fitly be made. But because the winter inclemency hindered the building, the reverend elders, avoiding the cohabitation of secular men, withdrew into a certain cave, distant two miles from the aforesaid mountain; and there they passed the days of the approaching Lent, content with bread and water only, with spiritual joy.

[41] but unable to hide, he is frequented by many and instructs the untaught. There therefore, while they wished to lie hidden more secretly, that they might more closely cling to divine contemplation, they suffer a crowd in their hidden solitude, being frequented by many. For at first to a few, coming to him rather from the wonder of seeing new men than for the sake of their own salvation, blessed Udalric preached the word of life; and thereafter innumerable crowds of men flowed together to them in rivalry: but the most prudent Man skillfully provided for himself, chanting the solemnities of the Masses, the psalms, and the hymns appointed by monastic tradition, and also the psalter in order. After these things, as though he heard the Bridegroom of his soul saying to him: Arise, let thy voice sound in my ears; he went forth from the most sweet bridal chamber of his rest, and showed the way of salvation to the erring people, still rude, still carnal, and confessing Christ by name only. Thus, cleaving the hearts of the country-folk with the sharp plowshare of his preaching, and, their confession being heard, plucking out the thorns of sins, he enjoined on them the remedies of penance: and so through his instruction the light of truth began to rise for the people, hitherto dwelling in the shadow of death.

[44] A woman with dropsy And when from various parts a copious multitude of both sex and age, both for the recovery of the health of bodies and of souls, flocked in bands to them. There came among the rest a certain wretched woman, swollen from the region of the girdle to the soles of the feet with the disease of dropsy, and stained with the contagions of leprosy, who, opening the misery of her infirmity to the servant of God, tearfully sought both his counsel and his help, saying thus: O venerable servant of God, O faithful physician of the sick, quickly succor me, unhappy, since you can. All that I could have, I have paid out to physicians; I have lost the substance of my goods, nor have I yet escaped the trouble of my infirmity. Do you therefore, pitying my calamity, bring the help which I await: for I do not doubt that the wish of my desire can be fulfilled through the merit of your holiness. These and things like these, which the bitterness of pain suggested, she proclaiming with a groan, the man of God, moved with mercy, tears bedewing his face, blessed water, humbly washed the sick limbs of the ailing woman, and, suppliantly imploring the Lord's clemency for her, dismissed her from himself in peace. That she, through his prayer, after a few days received the most perfect health, the aforesaid venerable man Cuno related, a truthful witness namely, who saw her after the attainment of the wished-for health.

[43] The fame of this miracle therefore far and wide

spreading itself through the ears of the people, and a demoniac the man of God began to be frequented so much the more [], the more the words of his preaching seemed to be illustrated by the splendor of signs: when meanwhile a certain man possessed by an unclean spirit was brought; that he might knock at the door of divine mercy for his deliverance, the servant of Jesus Christ is entreated. And so, overcome both by the prayer of the suppliants and by the affliction of the wretched man, he approached the altar, about to immolate to our Savior the life-giving victim of His passion for him; and the most holy communion being received, he ordered the possessed man to be brought, that he too might take the saving sacrifice. But the most savage enemy, grieving that he would speedily be left [] the seat of his habitation, did not cease to thunder with voices so various and so horrible, that you would believe the herds of many beasts to be gathered together; and he began to resist with such strength, lest he be brought, that you would plainly understand that he shuddered both at the presence of the man of God and at the sacred victim.

[44] And now the hand of those leading him failing, the aforesaid Cuno, approaching, they are restored to health. brought help to the weary, set the rebellious one before the altar, and, his mouth being opened by force, gave place for administering the Eucharist. Which being given, all his strength being collected, like a fierce lion with conceived fury, and its chains broken, leaping from the cage, so the unhappy man burst from the hands of those holding him with terrible madness, who, unless he had been held back by the aforementioned monk, swiftly running after him, would have fallen from the precipice of the steep mountain itself, to be dashed to pieces by the impulse of the demon, inasmuch as he was borne wholly headlong. In the same place, while, compelled, he halted, the heavenly grace bestowing it, and the prayer of blessed Udalric assisting, the enemy is put to flight, and the man, made master of his senses, is restored to himself. Of this miracle the aforesaid Cuno was the relater, a man of sound understanding, a lover of justice and truth. For the Saint of the Lord indeed spoke simply of the other institutions of his life, which we have thus far set forth according to our ability, certain of his intimates asking, nay compelling him. But the miracles which the Lord worked through him were learned not by his own relation, but by the credible assertion of his disciples: for while he fled the praises of men, he was unwilling to be the herald of his own deeds.

[45] That we may therefore bring back our hand to that from which we digressed a little, A priest, when now, the sad harshness of the cold departing, the glad pleasantness of the spring season began blandly to smile, the venerable fathers returned to the proposed work, and took care to construct the workshops suitable for monastic quiet, according to the place and the means of things. For the accomplishing of whose work, while the devotion of the surrounding peoples with ready mind furnished help, and cherished them with great love of veneration; two priests, placed in the neighborhood, fearing that a loss of their own gain would occur, were kindled against the servants of God with the most grievous torches of envy. One of whom, while on the solemnity of a certain day he was making a sermon to the people committed to him, speaking as it were in a riddle, said among other things, that a certain pestiferous herb was sprouting in those regions, which would infuse all that land with the poison of its own destruction, if it should happen to bring forth fruit.

[46] most wickedly detracting from the fame of St. Udalric and his companions, All the people who were present, hearing these things, are shaken with fear and vehement wonder, and anxiously inquire whether the herb of so dangerous a growth could be pointed out or rooted up. Again the perverse preacher, infusing the virulent seed-beds of his malice into their hearts. These monks, he says, coming into these parts from the monastery of Cluny, full of simulation, avarice, and envy, are altogether contrary to your salvation; who, if they take root among you, and make the harmful seeds of their preaching grow in your hearts, whatever good work my solicitude has planted in you, you will quickly lose, nor will you be able to bring forth the fruit of any virtues. Prayers therefore being poured out to God, that the divine goodness may deign to remove them from you, supplicate more attentively, lest their crafty doctrine and feigned holiness deceive your sense, and—which God forbid—pervert the state of your salvation.

[47] turned aside to him for the sake of hospitality, When he had said these and things like these, some less skilled pouring out abominable prayers for their removal; but the more prudent silently considering the matter with themselves, fame running ahead taught the servants of God what and how great things the malignant priest had uttered against them with rabid mouth. It happened thereafter that the same priest made a journey through the aforesaid mountain, and, the circuit of the day ending, the supervening gloom of night prohibited his return home; whence, exceedingly anxious about what he could do, because the blindness of the dark night and the length of the way hinder his return, his mind being set between hope and fear, he was compelled to turn aside to the monks of God, from whom he had enviously detracted. But blessed Udalric, when he had learned of the arrival of his rival, lest he should return evil for evil, went forth to meet him, received him with a cheerful countenance, and, once received, as the custom of monastic religion demands, led him first to prayer. When, after the aids of prayer being bestowed, as a son of peace he offered peace in an embrace and a kiss of charity, soothing him with sweet address, and refreshing him with every service of kindness. But on the morrow, being charitably dismissed, the priest, compunctious with divine inspiration, began to consider with himself how kindly and how obligingly he had been received by those whom he himself had not feared to assail with the most grievous darts of words.

[48] by kindly hospitality he binds him to himself and brings him back to good. Doing penance within himself therefore for so great a guilt, he exchanged hatred for love, detractions for praise, enmities for peace. For, returned home, when on the next Sunday feast he celebrated the solemnities of the Masses in the assembly of the people, he extolled with great proclamations of praise the monks of Christ, whom before he had defamed with public voice; declaring himself guilty in detracting from them, and humbly imploring that the bond of his fault be loosed for him by the Lord through the prayer of the people. And so thenceforth, joined by a firm and sincere love to his most kindly host and to his brothers, he commended to all his own people the constancy of their patience and charity; and he himself with his parishioners strove to furnish them help with ready mind for completing the work of Zell. Thus the piety of the man of God, thus his patience and humility deserved to be rewarded, who, loving his enemy for the Lord's sake, overcame him better by loving than by opposing: to whom also, when opportunity offered, he did not delay to do good.

ANNOTATA.

* Otherwise: "Limlingen."

* Supply "more."

* Otherwise: "relicturum."

CAPUT V.

Reproaches, because he busied himself to correct Bishop Burchard; a monastery of both sexes constructed; the healing of a girl from cancer.

[49] The monastery therefore being built, and all things duly arranged, the holy Father, leaving with the brothers, The monastery being built, he goes to Payerne; who had now been gathered together there, the often-named Cuno, returns to Cluny, and there, resting for a while in the pleasing solitude of his mind, abode with himself. But because that great river, which had now watered the dry hearts of very many, and had made them bring forth the fruits of virtues, was not to be long confined within the bank of its channel, it was again sent forth to water other spaces of lands. For he undertook the care of the monks of Payerne ^a, at the command of his Abbot, whom, drenched with the fountain of his instruction, and formed by the example of a perfect life, he made to flourish in good works. And because he desired that not only they, but all men, as far as was in him, should be saved, he labored to win for his Savior Burchard ^b, Bishop of Lausanne, in whose diocese the aforesaid place is situated, whom he knew, having entered upon every way of the flesh, to aim with prone mind not at the gains of Jesus Christ, but at his own. Approaching whose works often with the sweet and wholesome admonition of his letters, he exhorted him to show by the institution of a religious life what befitted his salvation, what his office, and what his dignity: upon whose correction he pressed the more instantly, the less he judged in the acceptance of persons.

[50] where, while he busies himself to bring Bishop Burchard back to better fruit, But the Bishop, an enemy to his own salvation, did not attend to the admonitions of the pious Father, turning his hearing away from the truth, and walking the spacious ways of the world. Meanwhile blessed Udalric met a certain Cleric, known to the Bishop, received in the same monastery, and, having inquired of him whether his Bishop wished to come to his senses, complained much about his aversion. But the Cleric heard him speaking piously and simply, patiently indeed, but not simply, and, having returned to the Bishop, perverting the sweet words of the man of God, and adding harsh things of his own inventions, gravely accused him. And while he was zealous to please a man by depraved flattery, he did not fear to offend God in His servant. For, to the greater heap of his iniquity, he moved the mind of the Bishop to so monstrous a fury, that by the promise of rewards he kindled his soldiers to the persecution of the servant of God: who, preferring the desire of money to innocence, long contrive snares for the lover of innocence and justice, seized the lord Cuno, whom we have often mentioned, as he was going to Cluny, thinking him the reprover of their Bishop, on whom, to satisfy the cruel will of their Lord, they exercised the excessive savagery of their impiety, and left him stripped of all his goods.

[51] he accomplishes nothing. But he, as a man fearing God, patiently endured the judgment of the scourging Lord, and, seeking [*] the defender of that province, made known who he was, what he had suffered, and whither he wished to go. By whose aid he recovered his goods, and to his persecutors, asking pardon for the error of their crime, ready indulgence was at hand. And so the memorable father, seeing that the Bishop had broken out into such open and such cruel enmities, gave way, and gave place to wrath, lest the injuries—if any were to come to him for the glory of his merits—should become for his persecutor the reproach of perpetual confusion. For, returned to the citadel of the monastery of Cluny, fortified with various virtues, God protecting him, he escaped the hands of his plotters. [What was divinely granted to him at that time as an indication of his holiness, and for the protection of his Abbot, I think should be briefly made known.]

[52] St. Hugh has a vision concerning St. Udalric. For in those days blessed Hugh, for the profit of his monastery, by the common decree of the brothers, had resolved to seek foreign nations, which, that it might not be done, that Blessed one, taught by the Holy Spirit, humbly persuaded the blessed master; nor did he find him difficult to consent to him, although it was contrary to the wishes of others. That night, when he had gone to sleep [*], the holy Abbot saw in his dreams that, his garments being thrown off, he was wholly stripped, and, this one coming up, that his nakedness was decently covered. And so, morning being come, he ordered his counselor to be summoned, and narrated to him the vision in order, rejoicing that, by the counsel of his prudence, he had escaped a peril which he did not doubt he would have incurred, if he had been willing to acquiesce in the persuasions of others. But how it befell, by divine providence, that the blessed man came to the parts of the Alemanni—namely of the Breisgau—for the salvation of many, it is pleasing to recall with all joy and exultation of mind.

[53] There lived in the province of Breisach a certain glorious soldier, A monastery is built in the Breisgau, Hesso [*] by name, noble by birth,

but nobler in faith, in character, and in devotion of mind. He, the divine grace inspiring, having become a lover of true religion, assigned his estates to the holy church of Cluny, and requested that on them a school of divine servitude be built, for gathering there the followers of the contemplative life. And so, monks being received on his possession, since the habitation seemed less suitable to the monastic purpose, he turned the religious intention of his mind elsewhere. A certain place therefore, situated in the same region, which, showing the etymology of its name from the verdant pleasantness of the adjacent fields and woods, is called Gruningen ^c, a lawful exchange being made with Duke Berthold, to whose dominion it was subject, by the zeal and industry of the most illustrious man Hesso, is made property of the monks' right. [which, inasmuch as it seemed somewhat more suited to regular observance, dwellings being constructed, the monks were transferred thither; not destined, as will afterward appear, to remain there stably.

[54] But it often happens that the stability and religion of sacred places, over which St. Udalric is set. which in their beginning seem to be delayed a little, in the process of time, by the grace of God and the industry of prudent men, are made more stably and more perfectly firm in their state. Which we shall prove more manifestly, when we have described the outcome of the following events.] For at last, after the courses of some years, the venerable father Udalric, thoroughly taught to a nicety in every rule of the cenobitic life, is directed by St. Hugh to the aforesaid place, that by his zeal and labor the vineyard of the heavenly Husbandman might be planted there. Who began carefully to take the care of the flock committed to him, instructing the sheep of Christ by admonitions and examples, how they might defend themselves from the rage of the invisible wolf.

[55] And so, not many days after his most happy arrival, A woman possessed by a demon offered to him, the good odor of his virtues now spreading itself through the region, there is offered to him, among the hands of his sons, a certain noble matron vexed by the fury of a most savage demon, who, under the very bonds of chains with which, on account of the enormity of her fury, she was bound, roaring in the sight of the man of God with a dreadful raging and various efforts, so that you would plainly understand that the enemy dreaded his presence; a certain brother, Warinher by name, piously presuming on the merits of the holy Father, simply joined his prayers to the wishes of the bystanders, saying thus: O holy Father, who to all placed in affliction bestow the help of your prayer with clement compassion, why are you not moved with your accustomed piety over the most grievous vexation of this most wretched woman? Bestow on her at least the gift of your blessing, that she may be able to be freed from the invasion of the infesting enemy.

[56] Which being heard, the most humble man was vehemently astonished, [saying, out of modesty of mind, that it was not to be cared for by him, having prayed to God, he freed her.] and rebuked the brother, as having spoken as it were simply, because he presumed such things of him, with grave indignation, saying that he was a sinful man, worthy of no merit, through whom the divine compassion should deign to confer health on her. Yet, having wished health for her from the true physician Jesus Christ, but to be obtained not in his presence, he withdrew: and secretly entering the church, with contrite heart, humbled spirit, and most abundant tears, he supplicated the Lord for her. Nor did the heavenly clemency long delay the wishes of the supplicating friend, whom, for the keeping of his humility, it saw shun the praise of human favor. For, the companions of the pitiable woman leading her back with grief, she suddenly fell from their hands to the ground, and for about the space of one hour, the use of speech being withdrawn, lay as though dying. And so there, the proud enemy being cast out—through the humility of the servant of God still bent on prayers—from the vessel which he had possessed, the matron rose up unharmed, and, returned with her people, gave thanks to God, and to His faithful servant, through whose merit she had received the joys of the wished-for health. This miracle we learned from the aforesaid brother Warinher relating it, who still survives, living in the house of God, a monk of holy simplicity and innocence.

[57] The holy Man judging When therefore the servant of God had remained in the aforesaid place for some time, he began to be anxious, because he saw the folds of his sheep established by no means in a safe dwelling, but as it were in the midst of the jaws of wolves. For that same place, although by its pleasantness it smiled gratefully on the eyes of beholders, although by the abundance of its fruits it answered the labor of the cultivator, yet lies open on every side to the approaches of roads, is surrounded by the frequenting of secular men, and is straitened by the want of many things necessary for monastic quiet. All which the Man of loftier genius, carefully weighing that they much opposed the spiritual profession; busied himself to segregate also by place, from the sight and hearing of them, the sons of adoption, whom he wished to be estranged from the life and morals of carnal men. The care of which thing urging him, traversing the various windings of the wilderness adjacent to the district of Breisach, he found at last a place called, from the tradition of the ancients, Cella, far removed from the whirl of seculars, thick with the woody density of trees, watered by the flowing of waters, pleasant with flower-bearing meadows, and in all things opportune for the safeguard of the monastic life.

[58] the former place not sufficiently removed from seculars, he goes to another: This therefore he embraces with all desire, and with noble men met Burchard ^d, Bishop of Basel, to whose right it belonged, and, under the testimony of many, a fitting compensation being made, acquired it for his brothers and their successors, to be inhabited by perpetual right. The athlete of Christ therefore, transferring the vineyard from Egypt, and like another Moses furnishing leadership to the people of God, led it into that same solitude, that, patiently exercised by hard and harsh labors, it might at last enter the land flowing with milk and honey. But about to construct the monastery, with the religious brothers, the sign of the holy Cross being carried before, he surveys the place of the future building, and, paying his vows of prayer suppliantly, consecrates it with the water of sanctification. He himself too, for the laying of the foundation, first opens the earth with a hoe; then the devotion of the disciples, following the example of the master, eagerly digs out the earth in rivalry. [These things we have therefore recalled, that the present and those who follow may always have in memory from how great holiness and religion the beginnings of the aforesaid place arose.] When at last, amid a great want of means, the building of the same church was completed, it is established to have been dedicated in honor of the chief Apostles Peter and Paul.

[59] To the zeal and merits of this most holy Father, therefore, after God, it is chiefly to be ascribed, where he founds a monastery, that first in that wilderness a certain training-school of the warfare of the heavenly King is known to have been constructed, and that there the faithful people serving God was increased in merit and in number. For this most splendid lamp being kindled, and eminently placed upon the candlestick by the exercises of good works, many set in the gloom of darkness rejoiced to be illumined by its brightness. For some, desiring to emerge from this great and spacious sea, did not hesitate to seek the counsel of his holiness.

[60] But the blessed man, although for the sustenance of his brothers he greatly needed a supply of earthly things, great men being received into it. yet drew no one to himself by contrived speech. For to great men too, supported by the glory of riches, coming to him for the sake of conversion, he set forth the poverty of the place, the strictness of the Rule, the labor of the purpose; persuading them to seek other monasteries, where they would not be constrained by so great a want of things. Because they sought God not feignedly but truly, voluntarily promising that they would patiently undergo all hard and harsh things for the hope of eternal life, they took up the yoke of Christ under such a master. These not only supplied much of the indigence of the place with the goods which they had left, but also, leaving themselves, adorned the profession of their name by the manner of a religious life. For, instructed by the admonitions of the venerable Father, edified by his morals, helped by his merits; from sinners they were made just, from carnal spiritual, from earthly heavenly.

[61] And so, when the lover of all religion watched more attentively for the winning of souls, In a monastery of women founded by him he was solicitous to snatch away even the female sex from the jaws of the ancient enemy. Whence in the village which is called Boleswiler [*], distant about one mile from the monastery, he gathered not only those who would set aside the delights of marriage; but also those who, shining white with virginal comeliness, might be called and be brides of the heavenly King. These, under either condition renouncing the world, with the brightness of chastity and with lighted lamps, busied themselves to prepare for the coming of their Bridegroom, that with him they might deserve to enter the bridal chamber of the heavenly court. [To whom, since we have come according to the series of the narration, we ought not to be silent about a certain miracle which the Man of God wrought among them while they abode in the same village.]

[62] For on a certain occasion the spiritual Father was visiting those same daughters of his, restores to health a certain daughter laboring with cancer. whom he had begotten for Christ, after his manner, for the sake of exhortation: to whom one of the handmaids of God, Vinnecha [] by name, offered to be blessed her daughter, a sacred virgin, whom she had brought with her from the shipwreck of the world to the harbor of monastic quiet. For a cancer, a deadly disease, had invaded her face, and had now, in a pitiable manner, gnawed her nostrils up to the border of the upper lip, over whose wound, when on that occasion, and coming a second time, he had suppliantly invoked the medicinal mercy of the Omnipotent; when on his third coming he saw that the evil of the disease had grown more widely, moved with his accustomed piety, tears bursting forth, he said to the girl: What is it, daughter, that I see the envy of the ancient enemy so prevail against you, that by the prayers of the servants of God you cannot be freed from the trouble of this affliction: for I trusted, in the power of Jesus Christ, that you were now restored to health. Saying these things, encompassing the place of the wound on every side with his holy hands, and the antidote of prayer being at the same time applied, he handles it, and so dismissing her, in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity commands that she suffer no more any trouble from that infirmity. Which command of the Man of God a swift effect follows. For at the same hour the girl, with the cleansing of her nostril, cast forth a worm like a very tiny tortoise, and, all who were present rejoicing, being healed [] she did not keep silent about the great works of God and the merits of the blessed Man. That this deed was brought to us by the testimony of the same venerable woman, namely the mother of the healed virgin, and of others, is established, whose faith and devotion afford an incitement to virtue.

ANNOTATA.

* Otherwise: "accedens."

* Otherwise: "iisset."

* Otherwise: "Hasso."

* Otherwise: it seems to be written "Bolpsweiler."

* Otherwise: "Wancha."

* Otherwise: "sancta."

CAPUT VI.

The illustrious virtues of the holy Man.

[63] With how great an ornament of various virtues he shone forth; I judge it worth while, the proclamations of his signs being for a while intermitted, to weave together the praiseworthy manner of his life, [that, the foundation being laid, we may afterward seem more fitly to carry out the building of the miracles. In the beginning of his manner of life indeed we touched briefly on a few things about the quality of his character; but here how, the government of this place being undertaken

he lived, how he taught, we think should be briefly unfolded, for the profit of many, according to our strength. For in this time of our frail age, now inclining to its setting, the Saint being now, so to speak, wanting, it is more wonderful to live holily and innocently than to perform outward miracles, which are common to the elect and the reprobate.] That Blessed one, therefore, was firm in faith, sure in hope, filled with the twofold charity, clean in heart, pious in will, discreet in simplicity. He was also circumspect in counsel, eloquent in speech, composed in all his action; constant in adversities, humble in prosperities, neither too rigid in severity, nor lax in cheerfulness: but tempered with honorable gravity, he loved justice, held iniquity in hatred, and strove in all things to follow the will of the heavenly Judge. Full of the bowels of mercy and piety, endowed with wonderful meekness and unconquered patience, [he flourished also in excellent pursuits, as the series of the following narration will declare.]

[64] For about the salvation of the brothers committed to his providence, he had been very solicitous, with how great zeal he promoted monastic discipline, watching in every way for this, that under his teaching no defect either of religion or of the profit of souls should creep in. Whence he himself first established the order of regular discipline to be kept in the same monastery, which, growing by his authorship and teaching to the increase of religion, today too, by the grace of God, and his merits assisting, stands safe. For while the brothers who served the Lord under his government were still few in number, both by his example and admonition, and by their own will and desire of a more perfect life, they busied themselves to observe the traditions of the Cluniac Fathers and the strictness of the Order: for, considering themselves in so great a master as in a most lucid mirror, and having before their eyes the form to which they might be impressed, they strove to advance from virtue to virtue, that at last they might deserve to see the God of gods in Zion. He too, according to the rule of the Apostolic instruction, as it befitted each, in all patience and doctrine reproved and besought, not slothful in solicitude, lest relaxation should be able to generate any torpor of negligence in the fervor of their purpose.

[65] He first, at the request of William ^a, most reverend abbot of the monastery of Hirsau, the Cluniac Customs being first brought by him into Alemannia. brought into the monasteries of Alemannia the customs of the Cluniac church: which most lovers of monastic religion observe and embrace with such zeal and such veneration, as if they rejoiced to have royal wealth. About which he composed two little books in a clear style; the writing of which flew far, both through the monasteries of Alemannia, and of other regions: which, if perchance you read, and find written in them certain laws of divine servitude and of other offices, and also of obedience, humility, and fraternal charity, you will be able manifestly to recognize therein the study, the genius also, and the wisdom of the man. For this man was a learned householder in the kingdom of heaven, bringing forth from his treasure things new and old, whence he instructed many to knowledge: and therefore, like a star, he will shine into perpetual eternities.

[66] As often as he came to the monasteries of the surrounding Abbots or monks for the sake of visitation, His fame propagated to the surrounding monks; the austerity of his life in food the devotion of all received him with all reverence and alacrity, not as a man, but as truly an Angel of great counsel. Whose love so settled in their hearts, that they called him the Father and teacher of their Order, and today too commemorate his name and the merits of his holiness in blessing. But with what austerity the Athlete of Christ chastised his body, lest, preaching to others, he himself should become reprobate, our frailty is scarcely able to tell. In the first year in which, by divine disposition, he undertook to rule the people of God, he passed the Lenten days of that year with a very sparing consumption of bread and of drink, which, made from a mixture of water with barley or oats, is commonly called beer: and thus he commended his devotion, and the salvation of the family of Christ, over which he had been set as watchman, to the supreme Watchman of all things. And at another time, when natural necessity demanded it, food was taken by him so sparingly, that he seemed rather to be compelled than to wish [*] it. Often, sitting at the principal table, a ring of brothers surrounding him, the foods being for a little while tasted, restraining the appetite of eating, he delightfully fed his soul with spiritual feasts; giving himself to psalms and prayers, he was wholly intent on heaven.

[67] averse to more sumptuous feasts; his vigils; Sometimes too, seized by sleep coming upon him from excessive weariness, the common refreshment being finished, he was admonished by some brother, a sign being made, to rise. What shall I say? That he never sought more sumptuous feasts, except when the utmost infirmity compelled. What? That he did not even attend to the flavor, even in simple food. What was set before him he took not in concupiscence, but for the necessity of the body, simply and with thanksgiving; neither tasting sweet things more greedily, nor less savory things more disdainfully. His vigils, vigils long and laborious, and which seemed almost to defraud nature itself of its due services. For when he had laid his weary limbs on the couch for the sake of rest, when he had tasted a little sleep, his limbs being shaken from sleep, he entered the church, and, singing psalms and praying with frequent sighs, sacrificed himself a marrow-rich holocaust to the Lord on the altar of his heart. Sometimes too, lying or sitting on his bed [*], he poured out his soul in the sight of the Lord, and, according to the sentence of the Psalmist, laboring in his groaning, and washing his bed every night, watered his couch with his tears.

[68] the gift of tears; And when he had approached that great table of the heavenly Lamb, to celebrate the most sacred mysteries of His passion, soon he flowed wholly with waves of tears, wholly thirsted for God, the living fountain. For he had so great a grace of compunction, that sometimes, when he neither uttered a voice nor moved his lips; as if attending the divine examination, he watered his whole face with a copious outpouring of weeping. For his soul, and all his inward parts, blessed the holy name of the Lord. Whom, when a certain one of his disciples perceived to be fed with the bread of tears day and night, wondering at his continual affliction, he presumed to inquire why he wore himself out with so inconsolable a grief. To whom the servant of God, humbly responding: First, he says, I desire to wash away the stains of my offenses. Second, I bewail the troubles and labors of my exile. Third, I grieve deeply, weeping, that we who are counted monks are many in number, few in merit. O blessed man! O blessed tears! which both a reasonable cause produced, and the commendation of humility admitted into the hearing of the heavenly Judge. Truly, I say, happy! who, with the blessed languishing [*] in this world, awaited the promise of divine consolation.

[69] strict silence; He had also been so diligent a guardian of silence, that from morning until the signal of the first hour he most often applied himself to prayers and contemplation, and so at last opened the bars of his mouth for words of doctrine and edification. But at all times too he was zealous either to be silent usefully, or to speak fruitfully; and so with the Psalmist he prayed: Set, O Lord, a watch before my mouth: and a door of circumstance about my lips. For, that he might set for his brothers too certain bounds of keeping silence or of speaking, in the mystical and sacred time of the fast, he appointed the praise of the third hour to be signified by the clock, that, observing a determined rule of silence or of necessary speech, they might on sacred days render due reverence. But now, that I may comprehend his special pursuits in a brief girdle [*] of speech, to prayer succeeded reading, to reading the admonition of saving doctrine, to admonition the frequent exercise of writing or composing.

[70] But if anything had to be treated for the profit of the monastery or of the brothers, the joining of the contemplative life with the active; hospitality; it was done with moderate gravity. Yet he often groaned more deeply that, from the care of the office undertaken, he was entangled even a little in the temporal affairs of life: desiring rather with Mary incessantly to kiss the feet of the Lord, than with Martha to be occupied with the solicitude of the outward ministry. Yet he expressed in deeds the type of both lives, because, sweetly embracing spiritual quiet, he did not desert the administration of the active life either. For, applying himself to the works of mercy with all zeal and cheerfulness, he took care to receive all arriving guests as Christ, and to render to them the offices of kindness [*] with the utmost devotion: whom he not only cherished with carnal benefits, but also equally refreshed their souls with the most sweet discourse of exhortation, as with certain most wholesome dishes.

[71] To the members also of Him who for our sake was made needy, wonderful mercy toward the poor; though He was rich—namely to the poor of Christ—this poor man of Christ served with the greatest care and holy intention, as truly to their head: whom also he called his patrons and his lords. These he himself, fasting, fed; into their bosom he hid his alms; their feet he washed, wiped with his hair, did not disdain to kiss with his holy mouth; and, that he might cover their nakedness, he often did not blush to strip himself, lest he should seem to despise the flesh of his neighbor. Sometimes, being on a journey, if he met a naked poor man, turning aside more secretly from the road, the loin-garment with which the lower parts of the body were covered, secretly drawn off, he handed to the naked man to put on; reckoning with himself that the woolen garment which he used, on account of its roughness, would be less acceptable to the poor man.

[72] There came once to him a certain poor little woman, clad in the garb of religion, from which the shoes of the Saint himself are given to a woman asking for them. desiring both to enjoy his bounty, and to be refreshed by a word of consolation. She, when she saw on the feet of the holy man hairy shoes, very convenient against the violence of the cold, asked with a suppliant voice that they be given to her. Without delay, the holy Father, the shoes being taken off, gladly gave them to her who asked, because he both regarded and honored Christ in the poor. These things indeed would seem small and unworthy of relation, if the quantity of the gift, rather than the charity and affection of the giver, were weighed by the heavenly inspector of the heart. Nor is this to be passed over, that he often sent the offerings of the faithful to relieve the necessities of others, loving in this his neighbor more than himself, whose indigence he wished to be provided for more than his own: these exercises of good works going before, he was made beloved of God and of men.

[73] Princes honored him, many nobles and rich men loved him, Made all things to all, he wins many for Christ. and the poor revered him as a father. How many, weighed down by the mass of their sins, sought the counsel of his prudence, and the help of his holy intercession! How many, compunctious at his saving exhortation, taking up the institutions of a more corrected life, passed from darkness to light, from vices to virtues! For this Man was conformed [*] to all, affable to all, despising the person of no one; according to the Apostle, making himself all things to all. Let it suffice to have run through these things briefly concerning his imitable manner of life.

ANNOTATA.

* Elsewhere: "velle refici" to wish to be refreshed.

* Otherwise: "strato."

* Otherwise: "lugentibus" mourning.

* Otherwise: "summatim" summarily.

* Otherwise: "humilitatis" of humility.

* Otherwise: "accommodatus" accommodated.

CAPUT VII.

Miracles wrought by the Saint.

[74] A certain man, suffering in his throat from a very large bone, Now let the discourse return to describing the notable marks of his miracles. In the village which is called Amparingen, a certain commoner, using a food of flesh, a very large bone being fixed in his throat, was consigned to intolerable torment.

And when the pain was so vehement that he thought the breath of this life was being cut off from him; not doubting that the remedy which he could not obtain by the medical art could be conferred on him by the Lord through the prayers of blessed Udalric, he sought both his counsel and his help. To whom, when he had lamentably disclosed the misery of his calamity, the man of mercy, having compassion on his affliction from his inmost bowels, consoling him with sweet words; admonishes him to have patience, and to attribute the scourge of the chastising Lord to his own sins. Then he marks the place of the pain with the relics of the Saints, and gives him to drink the water of sanctification. He also gave counsel to the sick man to go, as soon as opportunity should occur, to the walls of the city of Rome, distinguished by the most glorious triumph of the chief Apostles, and devoutly to seek their patronage for the health of body and soul.

[75] by the effort of St. Udalric he is freed. Voluntarily acquiescing in his counsel, he returns home, desiring to carry out the business enjoined on him with ready obedience. That night, when the wretched man had given himself to sleep, the blood bursting forth, that most savage sting of the throat is plucked out by a certain force; because the pain could not long have place there, over which the man of God had stretched [*] the pledges of the Saints, the medicament of his prayer being likewise added. Snatched therefore from the jaws of death, by his unexpected health he gladdens his friends and kinsmen; and, returning to blessed Udalric, the patron of his salvation, he does not cease to render thanksgivings for the health obtained. But the Man of the Lord, for the keeping of his humility, teaching that his health was to be ascribed not to his own merits, but to the power of the holy Apostles, to whose shrines he was purposing to direct him, admonishes him carefully not to neglect to undertake the labor of the enjoined journey.

[76] The blessed father once went out for the profit of the monastery, Chilled by the wintry cold, a certain brother, a noble man, whose name was Egeno [*], who under his leadership had conquered the world, and who related these things which are to be written down, accompanying him. There was then an excessive harshness of cold, and the winter inclemency had grown more grievously rough than usual. But the Saint of the Lord always attended to psalms and spiritual songs whenever he was on a journey, nor did he ever break the gravity of silence, except when great necessity pressed. While therefore he gave himself to psalms and prayer after his manner, and within was wholly aflame in the love of God, the cold prevailing outwardly against him, he grew so stiff in body that he could scarcely either utter a voice or move his lips. Seeing which, those who were present in his company, immediately dismayed in mind—who, that it might not happen, had been sluggish and incautious to foresee—in hasty course entered a certain village, and prepared a copious fire for his need: whom, going before, the elder, one attendant accompanying him, follows after, and, entering the house, is placed by those attending him beside the fires of the hearth.

[77] And while, sitting silent, he ruminated the psalms with himself, a fire breaking out while he warms himself, and warmed his aged limbs at the fiery heat; the flame, flying upward, rapidly seized the little bundles of wood placed above the fire to dry, and, rising higher, laid hold of the height of the roof. Hence the outcry of the household is raised, the neighbors run together from every side to extinguish the fire; the substance of the house is cast out in rivalry; and, the flame now raging more fiercely, the venerable father, asked to leave the house lest he be hurt by the violence of the fire; remained immovable, and, his hands spread to heaven, poured out to the Lord a prayer of this kind: O Lord, he says, Jesus, O Lord Jesus, help us. Which said, he set the sign of the holy cross against the flames, drew his hands within his garment, and spread it over the hearth by which he stood. While therefore he prays, while he suppliantly invokes the Saints of God, not only is the fire, which he had covered with his garment, reduced to coals, but even the flame, now devastating the whole house, is suddenly extinguished, as if drenched by a mighty abundance of rains.

[78] He himself is freed from the fire, hurt neither in body nor in garment. by placing his garment over it he extinguishes it. [Who, eternal God, is able to extol with worthy proclamations of praise the great works of thy omnipotence? Behold, again thou dost not disdain to renew the ancient miracles of thy greatness: as once thou didst snatch unharmed the three Hebrew youths, consigned to the Chaldean fires for the confession of thy name; so now thou hast preserved thy servant, standing as it were in a burning furnace, and invoking thee, so untouched in the midst of the flames, that not even the fringe of his garment lay open to any hurt. As then thou madest the midst of the furnace as it were breathing dew [*], an Angel descending into it; so now, through the merits of thy faithful one, thou hast by heavenly power pressed down the voracious flame, destroying all that building.] These things being thus done, the holy Father refreshes with sweet and holy preaching the people who had gathered to extinguish the fire; admonishing them that, placing all their hope in the supreme Ordainer of things, they should study so to live that they might be able, God being propitious, to be freed from the eternal fires of Gehenna. Who all, glad and eager, and glorifying God in the wonders which they had seen, returned home.

[79] Amid these things it must not be kept silent how great a temptation God sent upon His servant On account of an incestuous and his disciples, and with what wonderful clemency He freed him with his own from the impending distress. For indeed, when a certain man in the borders of the Breisgau had unlawfully committed fornication with his stepmother, and, the crime being defamed, could not bear the eyes of his fellow-citizens for shame; he went to the venerable bishop of the church of Constance, Gebehald [*], to receive from him the remedy of penance for the committed crime. Who sent him to the holiness of the blessed Father, known to him, asking that he be received into the number of the brothers who are commonly called the Bearded ^b: that under his government, through hard labors of obedience, he might deserve to obtain pardon for his offense. The Bishop's message being received, the Man of God brought the matter to the brothers; but because the place was near where the same man had committed so nefarious a thing, they thought his wish should be less assented to: fearing lest either he should repeat the fault from the nearness of the place, or should be unable to endure the reproaches of men. Wherefore that wretched one, uncertain whither he could turn, a counsel being at last found, his own people not knowing, sought the monastery of Hirsau, renounced the world, and took up the discipline of a more corrected life.

[80] St. Udalric's men admitted into the monastery of Hirsau, Hence therefore the crafty adversary of all good things, rejoicing that he had found matter for raging against the servant of God and his disciples—he who had long exercised his own efforts against them in vain—stirred up new enemies to their persecution. For at his instigation, as is thought, and by a wonderful permission of God, a rumor of this kind suddenly flies through the whole region, all saying that that man, withdrawn from their eyes, had come to the monks of that place for the sake of conversion, and, a reed being placed in his mouth, had been buried in an underground cave, as it were for penance, but, the reed being by chance removed, had been found after three days to have undergone the punishments of death. Hence the fury of the whole people is kindled against them, hence the servants of God are held a spectacle and a reproach to all. It was then the time of the wheat harvest, when these misfortunes met the Man of God and his companions. Suspicions are added to suspicions, blasphemies to blasphemies, curses to curses. For at that season, from the hidden bounds of the earth, a rain-bearing cloud rising around the monastery, and gradually spreading itself through the whole region, brought floods of rains upon the people of the province; whence neither could the harvest be reaped nor the hay gathered.

[81] disturbances arising from the slanderers; Then indeed the sons of darkness, pursuing the sons of light much more sharply with curses and blasphemies, said: Behold how great evils, how great calamities we suffer from those pestiferous men! For behold, behold, the density of clouds and the tempest of rains rises up from that execrable place, where the buried corruption of a dead corpse lies. These men, not monks, but dissembling homicides and perverters [*], why do we allow to live among us, whose wickedness not even the heavenly indignation suffers to be unavenged? Let us be zealous to expel these from our borders, that we with our own may be able to stand safe. Amid these whirlwinds the spiritual Father, upon whom especially the whole weight of the tribulation pressed, admonished his sheep, whom he saw torn by the teeth of wolves, to take up the strongest arms of patience, saying: All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus must endure persecution from the wicked.

[82] Each one too, now publicly, now privately, he admonished to persist more earnestly in prayer; but wonderfully calmed. that through the consolation of the supreme Father they might more quickly deserve to be freed from the impending waves of anxieties. Here therefore they multiply prayers, chant psalms with the groaning of the heart, refresh the poor, and strive to awaken the Lord, as it were sleeping in the ship, that He may command the winds, and make a calm. But when amid these things the roaring of the rioting people could in no way be calmed, nor was a free egress from the cell granted to any of the monks, the blessed Father sent his legate to Duke Bertulf [*], proposing that, if it should please his judgment, he should order his monk to pass through a pyre of built-up fire, to prove their innocence. And so a day is appointed, and the sentence of the examination still in suspense. He, for whom the whole storm of the tempest raged, by the nod of God unexpectedly came up, and by the living presence of his coming freed the monks from the reproach of the imputed crime. Thus almighty God, who is a helper in opportunities, in tribulation, mercifully freed His servants, whom He had usefully proved for a time, once proved, and magnificently glorified them before all, before whom they had been defamed. [Some things about the miracles of the blessed Man are still to be inserted in these pages, which are certain illustrious indications of his holiness.]

ANNOTATA.

* Otherwise: "collocavit."

* Otherwise: "Egino."

* Add "ventum" wind.

* Otherwise: "Gebhardum."

* Otherwise: "seductores."

* Otherwise: "Bertholdum," with the addition, as it seems, "of Zähringen."

CAPUT VIII.

He obtains walking for an infant; is afflicted with blindness; his death; the apparition and miracles that followed thereupon.

[83] At a certain time it happened that blessed Udalric came to a village which is called Waltchiretha [*], His sick companion, one of the monks accompanying him. Where, when for the reverence of his holy reputation he had been honorably received into lodging by the devotion of certain persons, his monk was suddenly weighed down with a strong infirmity. And so, about to depart in the morning, when the sick man could by no strength be joined to his company, withdrawn from the others, with groaning and tears he prayed to the Lord for the brother's health; and addresses the venerable virgin Margaret, whose memory is in the same village, among others thus:

[84] Does it please you, he says, Margaret, that my monk, imploring the help of St. Margaret, he restores to health; whom I brought sound to the place of your dominion, should be detained by so great an infirmity? Restore him, restore to health him whom you received sound in your place. These things said, he hastily returns to the sick brother, and, knowing that all things are possible to him who believes: Arise, he says, in the name of the Lord, that

just as we came hither together, so let us likewise depart hence together. Without delay, at the voice of him commanding, the monk, as if divinely commanded, showing in himself no traces of weakness, rose up sound, accompanies the journey of the old man, and God is glorified in these things.

[85] as likewise to an infant [When the fame of the holy Father had grown widespread everywhere; Basel too, a populous city, was by no means a stranger to the glory of his miracles:] which, having entered on a certain occasion, he was most devoutly received by a certain very rich man, whose name was Anno. To whom, after the same householder had rendered the rights of hospitality with every service of charity, he offered his son, adorned with the flower of an excellent character, to be blessed and healed by him. Who, although he was now of that age that he ought to use the natural function of his feet with firm steps, yet had remained without walking, and had taken away from his parents all hope of walking. Which when his Father had related to the servant of God with a sorrowful speech, distrusting nothing of the dignity of his merits, placing the sweet pledge in the lap of the reverend old man, together with the mother of the infant he addresses him with a suppliant voice:

[86] he obtains walking; We ask your piety, venerable Father, that for this infant you may deign to implore the divine mercy, that almighty God, who deigned to grant him to us, may Himself, by bestowing on him the natural gift of walking, gladden our hearts. By whose prayers the man of God, moved, as he was full of the bowels of mercy, directing his most gentle gaze to the infant still sitting in his lap: May the Son, he says, of the gracious Virgin Mary deign clemently to grant, that in your progress [*] the mind of your parents may be gladdened. These things said, he set the little one on the ground, and immediately he, walking about somewhat far, after a few days, relying on firm steps, going wherever his will carried him, needed no one's support. He is now a man of robust age, and stands as the reason and witness of the miracle wrought in him, in which man the beautiful hand of the Omnipotent has fashioned a creation of beautiful and excellent stature.

[87] he bears blindness most patiently; These things concerning the life of the blessed Man, or his many deeds, others which could be written being omitted from zeal for brevity, we have handed down to the memory of the faithful. Now let us recall how he entered the palace of the eternal King, like a veteran soldier to be crowned with the diadem of unfading glory. When therefore the Lord decreed to reward His Elect one, after the courses of this life were run, with the prize of eternal blessedness, to his labors and temptations He added labors and temptations, both that He might more copiously increase the glory of his merits, and that He might set the example of his patience before posterity. For He took from him the use of his other eye, which alone he had used for a long space of time. But he, acting manfully, and patiently bearing the Lord, said with the Apostle: We are made a spectacle to the world, and to Angels, and to men. Then therefore he clung to prayer, and to the chanting of psalms, and also to the hearing of sacred readings, so much the more studiously and freely, as he could be occupied by the care of no other administration, easily consoling with such pursuits the losses of his taken-away sight.

[88] It ought not here to be kept silent what love and what compassion the blessed abbot Hugh showed to his blessed disciple, St. Hugh, out of an affection of commiseration when he learned that he had been visited by the Lord with such a scourge. [For him whom he saw indissolubly joined to himself by the same consciousness of holiness, by the same love of spirit, ought he not to love him, ought he not to have compassion on him?] For, the pious wish of his brothers seconding it, he sent the venerable man Cuno to recall him: that he might bestow on him both the mercy and the charity which he had merited with him by living holily, and might adorn his church with a man of such great merit, and with the treasure of his body after death.

[89] But because the clemency of our God, piously disposing all things, summoning him to Cluny; which the Saint refuses. was unwilling to deprive that same monastery of such a patronage, the holy Man humbly refused to desert the place which he had undertaken to govern, which while living he loved, and which he was to illustrate with the glory of miracles after his death. The messenger having returned to him, when the venerable Abbot had learned that his wish concerning the holy Man could not be fulfilled, indulging him, if he had offended against him at all, as human frailty does, prostrate before the aforesaid Cuno he humbly received pardon, to be received on his behalf from blessed Udalric, if he himself had in any way offended him, which was indeed so done.

[90] And so blessed Udalric, asking that he be succeeded in the government of the place, The holy life of Udalric when he had been proved by the scourge of blindness for two courses of years and more, was touched by a strong infirmity, with which he also concluded the end of this life. To whom a man of venerable life, Wido, was appointed to sing the regular hours, who, still living in the flesh, follows the footsteps of the same Father by holy works, set as a useful vessel in the house of the Lord, and a monk of consummate religion. This man the Man of God had once asked, that when, coming to the end, he should labor in his agony, he would cause the Apostolic lesson: "The Saints by faith conquered kingdoms," to be read at his departure. And so, the holy Father laboring in his agony, a man adorned with the gift of prudence and of all religion, Eberhard, who then carefully watched over the guards of the same Congregation, approached him, and, asking whether he knew or heard him, received from him this answer: "Hearer [*], thou art heard."

[91] Which words, uttered by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, and rendering testimony to the holiness of both, crowned by a holy death the understanding of wise men noted [*]; and while he rejoiced that he was soon to be heard by the Lord for the loosing of the flesh, for the perceiving of eternal joys, as he had always desired, and contemplated in spirit that his works were acceptable to the supreme Judge. The aforesaid venerable monk Wido, therefore, most diligently attending as guardian the holy Father, laid in infirmity for three days, on the fourth day after the celebration of the hour of Prime entered to him after his manner, and found him drawing his last breath. And so the aforesaid lesson of the Apostle is recited over him, amid whose words the Saint of God, who by faith had conquered the kingdom of the world, who, while he lived, had worked justice, the brothers standing by with tears and prayer, rendering his spirit to heaven, obtained the promise of eternal blessedness.

[92] the apparition and miracles attest. But the venerable Father passed away on the second of the Ides of July, full of old age, full of holiness, leaving to his sons grief at his death, an example from his manner of life, hope from his intercession. And so, celebrating his obsequies, these things being performed which are wont to be duly done for the repose of the dead, they buried the clod of his most holy body within the enclosures of the cloister, deeming it unfitting to place the limbs of so great a Father [*] among the corpses of the other brothers. But within the thirtieth day of his death the Man of God appeared to the lord Cuno, whom we mentioned before, a monk of proved manner of life, and, he asking whether he enjoyed the joy of rest, he answered: I have most fully possessed the joys of the highest and inestimable life, the clemency of God granting it. But whatever be judged of this vision, that he was clothed by Christ with the stole of eternal brightness, both the manner of his past life and the miracles which are very frequently wrought at his tomb by no means suffer us to doubt. [We therefore earnestly ask your piety, most blessed Father, that, your merits assisting, after the earth we may possess heaven, after the labors and troubles of our exile, we may deserve to possess the rest of the heavenly fatherland.]

ANNOTATA.

* Otherwise: "Swaldiers."

* Otherwise: "processu."

* So also elsewhere. Perhaps "Audio" I hear.

* Otherwise: "enodavit."

* Otherwise: "pretii" of value.