Leo IV

ON ST. LEO IV, POPE, CONFESSOR,

AT ROME.

IN THE YEAR 855.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Leo IV, Pope, Confessor, at Rome (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. The ancient cult of the Saint, elogia, and translation.

Of the holy Roman Pontiffs under the name of Leo, it has already been said more than once in this work and in the observations on the Martyrology of Usuard; and of the first, or Leo the Great, some things had to be disputed, Among the Popes Leo, the Saint fourth in order, to remove the confusion which had crept into the Martyrologies, as was explained on the XI of April and the XXVIII of June, those things too being abundantly set forth which pertained to St. Leo II. The deeds of the next Pontiff under the same name, St. Leo III, were illustrated on the XII of June; nor were the merits of St. Leo IX passed over on the XIX of April; so that among the synonymous holy Pontiffs there remains only St. Leo IV, celebrated in the Usuardine supplements on the preceding day, when among the Passed-Over ones I noted that his Acts should be illustrated on this day, on which he flew to the heavenly ones, with the Roman Martyrology and others. And this I now undertake to do, being about first to relate those things which pertain to establishing his cult, then to discuss others about his election and consecration, and finally what is gathered of his deeds from various writers. But since most of his deeds Anastasius the Librarian, contemporary of the most holy Pontiff, digested, or at least left noted, they do not seem to have been able to be handed down with greater credit, so that only observations seem to be wanting, by which some obscure things, as far as can be done, may be elucidated. Here first about his cult from the Martyrologies and other monuments, then about the finding and translation, a few things must be discoursed.

[2] The most ancient memory of this holy Leo IV which is found in the Usuardine ones is certainly that which we gave from the Florentine codices, not only in the Usuardine supplements, in which on the preceding day we noted it is badly read, "At Rome, of St. Leo Pope V," where it cannot seem doubtful but that Leo IV is indicated, since of the other Leo V, Pontiff of a few days, in the obscure tenth century, no indications of sanctity or cult anywhere appear. More express is the announcement of the Lübeck-Cologne edition in these words: "At Rome, the birthday of blessed Leo IV Pope and confessor; who sat eight years, three months, six days. He, continually intent on prayers and vigils, was buried in the church of St. Peter." Little differ from these the things which Greven has: "Of Leo Pope IV and confessor, who sat eight years: a man very holy, much intent on vigils and prayers, inasmuch as he was reared from infancy among holy monks." Canisius treads in the same footprints, but with a somewhat longer elogium, taken from the history of the already praised Librarian, which here to translate whole from the German there is no need, since from the very source all these can be more purely derived, and moreover below in its place are to be derived much more copiously.

[3] To what age those Cologne editions of the augmented Usuard belong, as also the Canisian, but he was celebrated several centuries before. is well enough known to me, likewise the noted Florentine edition of the year 1486, than which how many years older the said Florentine codices are, I have candidly confessed is not clear to me, nor do they seem older than the same fifteenth century, as you have in the Usuardine Preface, no. 354. But thence I would by no means wish to derive the first or most ancient testimony of the sanctity of Pope Leo IV, since altogether three centuries older is that Peter Mallius, writing of the Vatican basilica, whom we edited in tome VII of June, inasmuch as he most certainly lived in the twelfth century. Thus indeed there he expressly records, no. 107: "Before the altar of St. Maurice, near the entrance which goes to St. Martin behind St. Peter, is the oratory of St. Leo Pope IV, in which (as we have often received from our elders, namely from the Lord presbyter Cencio the Prior, and the Lord Peter Christianus) the Lord Pope Paschal II of holy remembrance laid up the body of blessed Leo Pope I and II and III and IV, as also many of ours have seen." Let him go to the place who desires to see more things observed there by our Janning; for me it is here enough that both in that and in earlier centuries ecclesiastical honors were paid to Leo IV as to a blessed and holy one, although he has no cult with a peculiar Office.

[4] The fifteenth century is also surpassed by the Catalogue of the Saints of Peter de Natalibus, Peter praises him in the Catalogue, in which he himself adorns St. Leo IV with a fairly long elogium, yet so that he mixes and confounds some things wrongly, which here to discuss I judge not worth while, so that therefore it may suffice to have tasted a few things from him. Thus he begins: "Leo Pope, fourth of this name, a Roman by nation, of a father Rodulph, succeeded the Pontiff Sergius in the Roman episcopate, and sat eight years, three months, six days … Which Sergius being dead and not yet buried, all the Romans, both clergy and people, with one voice elected Leo as supreme Pontiff. Who soon, made Pontiff, honorably restored the basilicas of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and other churches, which a little before the Saracens had devastated." Thus far rightly: but what he says, that Charles the son of Louis was crowned emperor by St. Leo; that, accused of crimes in a Synod, he purged himself; these are not aptly enough transferred hither. Thus a little below he truly says: "This Catholic Pontiff of much patience and much humility was a most fervent searcher of the divine Scriptures, always intent on vigils and prayers": but to him the following do not suit: "Who, while he busies himself to drive the Normans from the borders of the Romans, taken with many, etc.," are to be understood of St. Leo IX, as I judge sufficiently manifest to those skilled in history.

[5] Among the more recent Martyrologists the first occurs Galesinius on the day XVI of July, and with a more prolix oration, thus adorning the Saint with a prolix narration: "At Rome likewise, of St. Leo the fourth Pontiff, a Roman citizen, born of [*] a father Rudolph, a man in all his life flourishing with the praise of religion, piety, chastity of morals, liberality of alms, and ecclesiastical doctrine, cardinal-presbyter of the Holy Roman Church, Sergius II being dead, is proclaimed Pontiff in his place. Whose sanctity being spread abroad in all quarters, Adelolph king of England, moved, together with his son, came to Rome; and made his kingdom tributary to the Roman Church, each family being obligated by a gold coin every year. The pontificate he undertook unwilling; but bore it with the highest testification of his heavenly virtues. Ecclesiastical discipline, almost fallen, he restored; he held a council in the Lateran, in which he renewed the ancient decrees of the Pontiffs about conforming the state of the Christian thing; the poor, orphans, and widows with every office of charity he wondrously sustained; to the clergy he gave a largess; the basilicas of blessed Peter and Paul he honored with new ornaments; the Vatican he heaped with many most excellent gifts; to the Lateran he restored the noble cross of Charlemagne, of purest gold and precious gems, refashioned."

[6] He restored the cemeteries of the holy Martyrs, repaired the hospitals and monasteries, adorned the churches, Galesinius in the Martyrology. and augmented them with revenue; he found sacred relics, and piously and honorably laid them up; the Vatican he fortified against the assaults of the Saracens with stone walls, and afflicted the same with an incredible slaughter by soldiers whom he had instructed for battle by divine prayers; a fire kindled at Rome he wondrously extinguished by prayer, he freed the City divinely from the foul plague of the basilisk serpent; he piously composed prayers about the blessed Apostles, which the Church uses; he decreed that the octave of the feast of the Assumption of the most holy Virgin Mary should be celebrated. These and many other things being religiously done, in which his sanctity wondrously shines, and the pontificate being distinguishedly borne for eight years, heaped with merits he went to heaven." And with these Galesinius contracted the whole life of St. Leo IV not inelegantly into an epitome, as below from the Anastasian Acts it will more clearly appear: Baronius, led I think by the aforesaid Galesinius, marked the Saint indeed, but most briefly, in the present Roman: "At Rome, the deposition of St. Leo Pope the fourth."

[7] There can be added to these the Benedictine writers, who, Wion leading, It is not proved that he was a monk, eagerly claim St. Leo IV for their Order; as if all were monks who among monks were instructed in the liberal disciplines, as of St. Leo the praised Anastasius handed down, thus writing of him: "He first, by his parents, for the studies of letters, betook himself of his own accord to the monastery of blessed Martin the confessor of Christ, which is situated outside the walls of this Roman city, near the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, until he should more fully learn the sacred Letters: where he not only learned letters, but also in the study of holy conversation, not as a boy, as he then was, but as a perfect monk, remained. By whose example too of pious conversation, those living under the same monastic rite served almighty God more devoutly, and he was with them as one of them; namely no less assiduous in the exercise of the Christian virtues than in thoroughly learning good letters, so that even under another habit he was scarcely distinguished from the monks"; yet so that Anastasius nowhere asserts that he put on the monastic habit: whence Mabillon, more prudent than his fellow-initiates, seems not even to have thought of placing our Saint among the Benedictines. Nevertheless let us hear Wion and the rest.

[8] although the monastic writers claim him for themselves: Thus speaks the standard-bearer: "At Rome, the deposition of St. Leo Pope the fourth, of much patience and great humility, and a most diligent searcher of the divine Scriptures, and always intent on vigils and prayers." Moreover in the observations he notes that he treated of the same more fully in the Roman Pontiffs who were monks, and in the explanation of the first branch, which it is vain here to relate, since to it the Saint does not greatly pertain. Dorganius, more copious than usual, has thus: "Of St. Leo Pope IV, a man of great humility and patience, distinguished for sanctity, doctrine, counsel, prudence, and charity; who extinguished by prayers a fire kindled in the City, afflicted the Saracens with wondrous slaughters, and gradually amended the ecclesiastical morals slipping." Menard contracted the announcement of both into fewer words; but Bucelin in his longer oration found some things which I do not remember to have been handed down by others; as also in Ferrari some things are read; but neither is it needful to describe this one, nor Constantine

Ghini or others more recent, since from what has been said I judge the cult of the most holy Pontiff sufficiently proved. Not so clearly did Saussay speak, when in the Supplement of his Gallican Martyrology, page 1147, he thrust in an anecdote long but in vain sought by me elsewhere; which I here subjoin to be examined:

[9] He writes there in these words: nor does it seem to subsist any more: "On the same day, the deposition of St. Leo Pope IV, whose body, translated from Rome into Gaul together with the bodies of Sts. Arrestus and Theodorus and other martyrs to the church of the monastery of St. Peter of Condom, is there kept, Pope Julius III hands down in his letters written to the aforesaid monastery." A wholly vague and ambiguous relation, in which neither the time at which the pretended translation of the body of St. Leo IV was made, nor other Saints sufficiently anywhere known, are expressed, who nevertheless were carried from Rome to Condom. For my part I have not hitherto read of Arrestus, not even Arestus, except in the larger classes of the Hieronymian ones, on the III of April in Scythia, on the III of September perhaps at Apamea with Antoninus, where he is also called bishop Aristaeus; finally on the XVIII of December with many others in Africa, so that in what manner the aforesaid Arrestus or Arestus came to Rome cannot at all be divined. Twelve Theodori I confess are reckoned in the same Hieronymian ones, but of them none who is ascribed to Rome, so that therefore, if he is a Roman, he must be one of those who are commemorated among the seven and twenty synonymous ones in the Roman Martyrology.

[10] But concerning the name of Theodorus one need not labor so greatly; his translation into Gaul asserted by Saussay. I ask whence Saussay summoned to us the translation of the body of St. Leo Pope IV? "This," he says, "Pope Julius III hands down in his letters written to the aforesaid monastery." I would wish that at least from afar he had insinuated in what writer letters of this kind are found. But Saussay was forgetful of his apodictic proofs, and I in vain consulted all the sources whence I thought it could be drawn. It came to my mind to think that those letters could have been given, on the occasion of the secularization (I use the word received in ecclesiastical style) of the monks of Condom, to whom the Pontiff related those things which had been represented by the monks in a supplicatory booklet, as commonly happens. But these too do not cohere; for the aforesaid secularization is asserted to have been made in the year 1549, when Julius had not yet been taken to the pontificate, so that therefore in his time there were no monks at Condom to whom letters of that kind should be directed. Many things therefore here, after his manner, without witness and surety, Saussay confounded, which we desire to be explained by the people of Condom themselves, and to be reconciled with those things which about the sacred bodies of the four synonymous Saints found under Gregory XIII, Papebroch long ago handed down in St. Leo III on the XII of June, in his Commentary §1, no. 2; and before him Henschenius, in the history of the elevation and translation of St. Leo I on the XI of April, tome 2, pages 21 and 22, where you will find refuted the things which the praised Saussay cited for the translation of St. Leo I into Gaul to Périgueux; which how obscure they are, you easily observe. Nor indeed are the things wholly plain or passable which about the election and consecration of St. Leo remain to be explained in the following paragraph.

* Read "who" (qui).

§ II. Election and consecration.

Anastasius seems to have given a handle for smoothing out the difficulties here, thus describing the deeds of various Pontiffs, and especially of this one, The death of Pope Sergius II not sufficiently expressed by Anastasius, so that they are subject to not a few entanglements; whether he himself, or the copyists introduced them, so that that work has not yet come forth immune from its blemishes: but this Anastasius especially suffered to be wanting, that he neglected to note the times more distinctly, even in those Pontiffs to whom it is altogether established that he was contemporary and coeval. Let the present St. Leo be an example, whose neither beginnings nor end he cared to express, content to have indicated that he sat eight years, three months, five days, and that he fell asleep in the Lord on the XVI Kal. of August; which, if rightly computed, the beginning of his pontificate must be fixed on the XII of April of the year, as among all chronologers it is admitted as undoubted, 847. And of the year indeed I suppose all things certain; the difficulty is caused by the day of the death of his predecessor Sergius II, which Anastasius omitted to mark distinctly, as the Mainz edition of the year 1602 and the Paris one of the year 1649 plainly show, in which it is not found expressed, whatever Baronius in the Annals at the aforesaid year 847, no. 6, recites these words under the name of Anastasius: "He (Sergius II) was buried in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle on the twelfth day of the month of April." We must needs confess that the codices of Anastasius are in many things so interpolated and dislocated that from them opposite things are sometimes drawn.

[12] Baronius almost all writers commonly followed, made the day of the election and consecration of St. Leo IV doubtful, as also Severinus Binius, thus observing on the Life of St. Leo IV: "On the day before the Ides of April in the year of the Lord 847 Leo Pope, fourth of his name, succeeded in the place of Sergius II, and indeed on the same day on which Sergius had died." Labbé in the Historical Chronology adheres to the same opinion, except that he himself saw some other codex of Anastasius, for thus he has: "Sergius Pope died on the day before the Ides of April (the Bertinian Annals have the VI Kal. of February). To him on the same day was substituted Leo IV for eight years, three months, six days: and, the Emperor's consent being awaited, he is consecrated only in the month of June." This last part, of the deferred consecration, and it made in the month of June, Labbé testifies, in the Cenotaph of the Popess Joan overthrown, that he found in Anastasius, but, unless I am much mistaken, in that place at least corrupted. The words of Labbé are: "from Anastasius, who adds, that he was consecrated in the month of June." The more recent think otherwise; but let them turn, with Pagi and others, let them bend and twist Anastasius however they will, these things, which are read most expressly in him, they will not easily overthrow; that Leo was elected by common counsel then, when the Pontiff who had died had not yet been carried to due burial: and then that the same prelate was consecrated without the permission of the Prince, so that therefore from Anastasius it does not seem able to be drawn out that the Emperor's consent was awaited, nor the consecration deferred to the month of June.

[13] which the Bertinian Annalist implicated even more. The right composition of all these things has exercised the learned chronologers, especially since Anastasian codices are adduced in which it is read that after Sergius II the pontificate was vacant two months and fifteen days, which Papebroch and after him both Pagi reckon from the day of the death of Sergius noted in the Bertinian Annals, namely from the VI Kal. of February, or the XXVII of January, to the XI of April, in which manner they think they have rightly reconciled all things. I will indeed candidly confess that they must altogether be subscribed to, if the already said place of the Bertinian Annals at the year 847 be admitted as true and genuine: "Sergius the Roman Pontiff dies on the VI Kal. of February, and Leo is elected in his place"; and it is added, from the variants of Anastasius, from Platina, and from some Pagian Catalogues, a vacation of two months and 15 days after Sergius. Nevertheless he who has more closely adhered to the words of Anastasius will altogether deny that any vacation intervened between Sergius II and Leo IV. Hear him: "The Romans too, as we said, rejoicing at the election of a new Pontiff, began again to be not moderately saddened, because without imperial authority they did not dare to consecrate the future Pontiff, and greatly feared the peril of the Roman city, lest again, as of old, it should be besieged by enemies from elsewhere. Terrified by this fear and by the future chance, they consecrated him prelate without the permission of the Prince."

[14] But the words of Anastasius rightly weighed, But Anastasius had premised that the churches of the most blessed Princes Peter and Paul, toward the end of the life of Sergius II, had been utterly plundered by the Saracens; and that by that calamity or misery all the vigor of the Romans had languished and been crushed by this deed: whence the whole assembly of the Romans, from two chances or perils, namely from the sudden death of the Pontiff, and the devastation which had been made in the holy churches and in all the borders of the Romans, confessed that it could in no way escape the peril of death. And when with equal devotion and common counsel all the Roman nobles thought about the future Pontiff, who he should be, who could rule or govern so holy and inviolable a place with the fear of almighty God; forthwith the fame and merit of the most blessed Prelate was at the same time made known by all, and diffused through the whole city: for the Pontiff who had died had not yet been carried to due burial; and behold all, from the last even to the first, with one voice, one accord at the same time, demanded Leo the venerable presbyter as their future Pontiff; and that they would have no other Prelate over them but this one, of whom it has been often said, they confessed with many conspirings and voices.

[15] So great a consternation of the Romans, and impulses so headlong to the sudden election of a new Pontiff, indicate nothing less is gathered clearly enough, than a vacation of two months and fifteen days, wherever at last it be said to have been marked. Anastasius proceeds: "Whose hearts, we believe, nothing else but divine love inflamed and united, and the clemency of the divine power, to seek this man unhesitatingly. Then all, as was noted above, going with joy, and with the gladness of much eagerness to the church in which he was staying, of the four Crowned Ones, drawing him thence compelled and unwilling, with hymns and distinguished praises, led him to the Lateran patriarchate; who, keeping the ancient custom, all kissed his feet. But how great concord or unanimity there was in his pontifical election, no man can briefly narrate." Certainly Anastasius most graphically describes the wondrous haste both of the clergy and of the people in executing the whole matter most promptly, so that it is plain that the Romans, struck with great terror, so urged the election that they did not wish to be without a Pontiff even for a single day, by whose auspices the Saracens even then threatening might be kept from the borders of the Romans.

[16] If we rightly combine all things, they do not seem to have altogether yet withdrawn from Italy who with a land army had despoiled Rome, that Leo was ordained on the same day on which Sergius died; even then surviving in the Neapolitan kingdom, inasmuch as at the same time, on the testimony of the Bertinian Annalist, they had invaded Benevento, and were devastating even to the Roman confines, so that it is not at all probable that the Romans, pressed by so many straits, would have suffered an interpontificate, a new peril of pillage impending; to which again those most clear words of Anastasius look: "Terrified by this fear and future chance, they not only elected him prelate without the permission of the Prince, but, lest anything should be wanting to the integrity of the dignity, also consecrated him," and so on the very day the XII of April, on which Sergius had died: which I would not wish to be so rigidly taken that I should not allow him to have been consecrated perhaps the day after the election. Whoever with me shall have weighed a little more accurately the words of Anastasius, will either confess that he said nothing, or that he most expressly excluded

all vacation; which being excluded, those things which Papebroch and both Pagi disputed about that pretended vacation cannot at all subsist, led by this argument alone, that the praised Bertinian Annalist, as we already said, marked the death of Sergius II on the VI Kal. of February.

[17] I will not indeed dissemble that the opinion of that Annalist is expressed enough, and the more urgent because Anastasius neglected to note that chronological characterization of the death of Sergius II: [and that on the XII of April, as is established from the time of the pontificate,] but indeed the Roman Librarian so circumscribed the whole matter, that on whatever day you establish Sergius to have died, from the very death must be reckoned the times of St. Leo IV elected and consecrated, which, if they begin to flow from the XXVII of January, he will now have sat not eight years, three months, and five days, but eight years and almost six whole months: which seems evidently to be deduced from his own narration, and which I confess especially moved me to recede in that part from the opinions of my Master. Let it be permitted to add that the authority of the already often mentioned Annalist is nothing less than peremptory, on which alone rest the defenders of the opinion opposed to us. For if the entrance of St. Leo defined by him is to be adhered to, all the rest down to the death must consequently be arranged, and reconciled with Anastasius and others: in which matter that Annalist will be convicted of manifest hallucination, whether it be to be attributed to the author himself or to the copyist transcribers.

[18] contrary to what the Bertinian Annals bear. Of the day of the death of the most holy Pontiff I do not see that one can doubt, Anastasius most expressly expressing the XVI Kal. of August, or this day the XVII of July: but if the Annalist erred in marking the day of death, why not also in the determination of the election and consecration? Hear him in the younger Pagi: "In the month of August Leo, prelate of the Apostolic See, died, and to him Benedict succeeds." And so St. Leo would have prolonged his life to the month of August, which he alone pronounces; adducing a vacation after the death of Leo, which too must be altogether excluded by our adversaries, if they will speak consistently. Here indeed, if anywhere, comes into use the oft-repeated argument of Baronius, that in the concurrence of foreign writers with the Romans treating of their own affairs, the fellow-countrymen and natives themselves seem stronger, and that especially when they treat matters of which they themselves were a part and most eyewitnesses, as that Anastasius was at that time is ascertained by all. Yet I do not wish to contend, if to anyone it seem rather that Papebroch and the Pagi are to be adhered to, I shall not much resist; it was enough for me to set forth the arguments of each side with what clarity I could, being about to resolve the rest too in a few words, if any shall seem more urgent.

[19] The words of Chacón are not easily understood here. What Chacón hands down of this most holy Pontiff at the very beginning of his elogium, I wonder if anyone sufficiently understands. His words I will faithfully relate, thus he records: "Leo IV, son of Rodulph, a Roman, from a regular canon a monk of the monastery of the holy Silvester and Martin in the mountains, of the first Benedictine Congregation, cardinal-presbyter of the Holy Roman Church of the title of the Four Crowned Ones, made by Pope Sergius II, Lothair and Louis the younger being Augusti, sat eight years, VI months, VI days, created on the very day of the death of Pope Sergius on the day before the Ides of April, consecrated on the VI Kal. of June, on a Sunday." These to agree with right chronology I will not indeed attempt, since not even he himself could do it, when toward the end he thus wrote, "died in the VIII year of his pontificate, months III, days VI." But of these things far more rightly the writers already cited, however much in the day of consecration they do not agree with us, at least in the vacation interposed by them; by which they will have legates sent into France, to obtain from Lothair the confirmation of the election, lest they fall into the same inconveniences which they remembered by present memory to have happened after the inauguration of Sergius. I would not believe that Anastasius would have kept silence about these things, who did not think the due honor, whatever it was, to Lothair to be violated, because in a case so doubtful the Romans promptly provided for themselves.

§ III. Some deeds of St. Leo, of which Anastasius scarcely makes mention in passing.

Although Anastasius passed over many things, That the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs, as they come under the name of Anastasius, are not sufficiently historical, that is, not ordered series of deeds, but rather comprise the gifts and presents offered to various churches by the Supreme Pontiffs, I judge to be admitted, and that so much indeed that concerning the author very many things have long been sharply disputed on both sides: nor are there lacking those who contend that the whole work is supposititious to Anastasius; of which matter in the following paragraph we shall taste the things necessary to our purpose. Here our discourse is not of the true author, but of the work itself, in which it must be confessed that very many things are wanting, both for the Lives of the other Pontiffs, and for this of St. Leo himself, which Anastasius could and ought to have digested otherwise indeed and much more orderly, being the most eyewitness of all the things done by the Saint, and the most learned man of his age, if he be judged truly to have written the aforesaid Life. But whoever was its author or collector, although I would not excuse him in all things, he did not sin so much as several critics reproach him; and that the things which they complain were omitted by him were passed over for just causes, as not pertaining to his purpose, is understood from those things which, commemorated by others, we here undertake to discuss briefly in this paragraph.

[21] Those things especially were not sufficiently explained by Anastasius not so greatly to be blamed because he is silent about the vacation of the See: which pertain to the pretended rights of the Emperors about the election of the supreme Pontiff; whence they gathered the reckoning of an interpontificate, who contended above for the deferred consecration of our St. Leo after the death of Sergius II. That controversy Francesco Pagi touches in the Breviary at Sergius, no. 3, and again of Leo, nos. 1 and 2; but many things more fully Antonio Pagi likewise at the year 847, disputing some things against Baronius, which would be more easily resolved if the whole question were contracted to its just limits; namely what favor in this part was granted to Charlemagne or Louis the Pious, and how far it extended itself. We well know what the Emperors, both Greek and Latin, from time to time arrogated to themselves, but what the Roman Pontiffs, compelled, rather tolerated, than that they should admit these things as legitimate. It is not of this place to weigh or settle that controversy; let Baronius be seen at the said year 847, no. 9 and following, and in other places recited by Antonio Pagi himself; I am indeed mistaken, if either by the arguments of the most Eminent Annalist and others, or by the oppositions of Pagi and his fellow-countrymen, one ought to acquiesce. Certainly, I confess I have not yet found these things which could deservedly wound, much less overthrow, the most just prerogatives of the Roman Church. Let these be said in passing, perhaps to be discussed anew elsewhere.

[22] It ought to seem no less a wonder that which is handed down by the Bertinian Annalist, more a wonder that he does not mention the coronation of Louis II, that Louis II, son of Lothair, was not only crowned king of the Lombards by Sergius II, which Anastasius accurately recorded, but also received the crown of the empire from Leo IV, of which matter Anastasius does not speak even by a shadow. Of this matter the praised Baronius treats at the year 844, adducing the silence of Anastasius and of others against this second coronation; but at last inclining to this, that the aforesaid coronation was made in the year 848, the second of Leo IV; adducing charters, from which he draws that the year 855 was the seventh of the empire of Louis. The same matter Pagi handles more fully, from other charters marking the years of that Louis, contending that the said second coronation was made in the year 850, to which the already cited Bertinian Annals in Du Chesne plainly make at that very year 850 in these words: "Lothair sends his son Louis to Rome: who, honorably received by Pope Leo, was anointed Emperor." Thus it is now commonly related, and it is the most received opinion, adopted also by Labbé in his Historical Chronology, tome two, where nevertheless in the compendium he expressly marked the year 849.

[23] From these it would be plain that Anastasius must be charged with supine negligence, if it was made at Rome so certainly. who omitted to narrate a matter so notable, done in the very theater of the City with him looking on, where nevertheless he described so solicitously the first coming of Louis under Sergius II, and another under St. Leo, in his last year, for a cause of slight moment. Charged, I say, Anastasius would be, if the whole matter were sufficiently clear, and moreover the testimonies were sufficiently agreeing in noting the year of that coronation, and in distributing the whole series of the empire; which to me certainly appear somewhat involved, perhaps in the very Bertinian Annals, in which it is manifest that a year different from others is marked, as also in the preceding paragraph we showed the beginnings of St. Leo not rightly enough placed. But here I do not please to struggle more laboriously against the more common opinion, since Anastasius silently passed over other deeds of St. Leo, so it is nothing so unusual, if we confess this coronation too wrapped in silence, by him who seems to have studiously undertaken to relate the magnificence of the holy Pontiff, and his munificent largess in innumerable gifts, rather than his several deeds more accurately.

[24] He could not but omit the daily Pallium of Hincmar. Nor indeed would I so greatly wonder at this, if the matter were not one done in the City itself; for most other things omitted by Anastasius are neither Roman nor done at Rome, but either in France, or in Germany, or in other parts of the Catholic world, of which the writer of the Lives had no account. Certainly he neither saw nor wrote what has long been handed down and believed of Hincmar; namely that that Archbishop of Reims, as Flodoard recorded, for the reverence of his sanctity and wisdom, through the intervention of the emperor Lothair, received the Pallium for daily use from the fourth Pope Leo, from whom he had already received another, to be duly used in the solemnities designated to him. Which daily use of the Pallium the same Pope testifies in a letter then directed to him that he had never granted to any archbishop, nor would grant thereafter. These things, as speciously as falsely handed down, on the authority of Flodoard, were admitted for many centuries, until Cardinal Bona demonstrated that grant to be fictitious, as Francesco Pagi draws out at length in the Breviary, no. 10; so that here certainly Anastasius is not to be carped at, because he did not insert the fictitious history into the Life of St. Leo. Moreover that something of equivocation could easily lie hidden in the words of Flodoard, I am mistaken if it be not gathered from the posthumous historical Dissertation of Lord Thierry Ruinart: see him disputing more fully about the archiepiscopal Pallium.

[25] He could have mentioned Alfred. The praised Pagi also noted, after others, page 68, that Alfred or Ælfred, of the western

king, son of Ethelwulf, came to Rome in the time of Leo IV in the year 853, bringing forth the words of Asser, by which he confirms that he was both anointed king and received as a son of adoption by the holy Pontiff. Which although they be true, are not aptly enough described, when Alfred is depicted almost as a man, who then was still quite a boy or infant, first born in the year 849, as at that year our Alford more fully and more clearly explains in the Annals of the English Church, having diligently pursued all the other things pertaining to it at the year first cited, 853, no. 4. But that after the return of Alfred his parent Ethelwulf undertook the same pilgrimage, and came to Rome with that same son, Leo still living, Alford begins to demonstrate at greater length at the next following year 854; describing the tithe granted by the king, and the gifts offered by him to Leo himself, which he draws from Anastasius at the year 855, where he rightly says that Ethelwulf lies hidden under the name of King Lazarus, which Baronius read in a corrupt exemplar of Anastasius, whom far better each edition of Anastasius calls king of the Saxons in Benedict III toward the end. Moreover the other distinguished merits of Ethelwulf and of the other kings of the English toward the Church you will find proclaimed by Alford, and the comments of the Magdeburg Centuriators confuted: it is enough for us here to assign that source, which it will not irk one to have consulted.

[26] To France again pertain the things which about the celebrated synod of Soissons, Other external Gallic or German matters he did not touch. in the cause of Ebbo and of the clerics ordained by him, in Baronius, both Pagi, and others are most common, and which one may wonder in vain were not commemorated by Anastasius, as one who scarcely extended his history outside the enclosures of the Roman city, certainly beyond the bounds of the ecclesiastical state. Again, what difficulties intervened to the same holy Pontiff with Nomenoë the Breton, by the same reasoning were omitted by Anastasius, not to be set forth by me here at length, as neither various other deeds most well known in the Annals of Baronius. Yet it will not irk to add in a few words what from Mabillon the younger Pagi adduces, namely that, besides the Pallium sent to St. Anschar of Hamburg, whose Acts on the III of February Henschenius most diligently illustrated, sent by Gregory IV, St. Leo granted that his head should be adorned with a mitre and a cross carried before him, which they will have to be an argument that it was not permitted to any bishop, without a privilege, to adorn his head with a mitre, which some call cidaris, others a plate; which, examples being adduced, the author of the Breviary more illustrates, subjoining other things about the received use of the mitre in the Church and its antiquity, which may be seen in him and in others: we now will pursue the rest which pertain to the Life of St. Leo and its writer.

§ IV. Whether the Life of St. Leo was truly written by Anastasius; the fable of the Popess; and the innumerable gifts conferred on the churches.

That the Life of St. Leo was written neither concisely, nor elegantly, nor sufficiently orderly or honorably, has long been observed by many and just now by us, nor can it not be observed by one who has read it and some like it in Anastasius a little more attentively. Anastasius is not to be rejected for the sake of style alone, Besides that he describes largesses and gifts rather, as we were saying, than the series of deeds in order, and affects an I know not what adulatory manner of never naming the Pontiff without adorning him with new encomia or epithets, so that in a few numbers he adorns him with almost thirty different titles; "of the most blessed, distinguished, and illustrious Prelate," "of the pious, most skillful, and most blessed Pontiff," "of the most prudent and nourishing Prelate," "protected by God," "venerable," "magnificent," "chief," "amiable to God," "most illustrious," "most holy and coangelic," "magnanimous," "most gentle and acute in all things," "most adorned with pious morals and sacred," etc. Formulas of this kind, again and again re-sung and repeated at the several numbers, savor of a style, to say it most mildly, somewhat hyperbolic and studiously contorted, and abhorrent from the right kind of writing; although for the rest those phrases ought not to be so greatly blamed, whenever one must speak of the supreme head of the Church, so that, if nothing else besides stand in the way, the history of the Pontiffs of that time is not to be taken away from Anastasius.

[28] But that I may set forth the matter sincerely and candidly, it must not be dissembled that other things too displease me which do not sufficiently savor of Anastasius, yet not so far that I should think the author supposititious, feigned, or none, nor is the foolish fable of Pope Joan rightly drawn from him, which with I know not what face our erring brothers forge, reforge, and inculcate, almost with this sole view, that upon the ruins of his work they may restore the most foolish little fable of the woman Popess, six hundred times exploded, and not cease to yelp it into ears long since wearied; in which matter the recent apostate bibliographer sweated even to battology, through nine whole chapters of tome 2 from column 250 to 306, which I am mistaken whether anyone can run through with less weariness than that which they brought me. The cabbage recooked by Spanheim I shall indeed easily leave to be digested by those who are delighted with dry husks of this kind, and rejoice to read over the witless deliriums of a disturbed brain; namely, among other things, that the men of our Society not only can, but by a vow of religion ought to lie, they would almost say to perjure themselves in favor of the Roman Church and to the greater glory of God. A distinguished epiphonema indeed! which that good man had not yet known, when nearly forty years ago he edited his first specimen of skill in books, and sang to his primate Le Tellier a paean about the Calvinist temples overthrown: whence with his garment and faith he seems to have put off also that humanity which in the penultimate little page of his preface he seemed so accurately to commend. So true is it that those full of good precepts are often the first to deflect from them themselves.

[29] As regards Anastasius or rather the very work on the Lives of the Pontiffs, six hundred times already shaken and worn. in vain they have hitherto plucked at it, or will further proceed to batter it, the lovers of the most insipid Anglo-German Popess, more rightly let us say with others παπισσομανοῦντες (mad about a Popess), whom it behooves to be blinded by a preconceived opinion, if, after their childish trifles have been so often shaken and worn out, they do not cease to burn incense to a most vain idol; after Labbé so overthrew the cenotaph of the scurrile phantasm, so our Elders and very many other most learned men dispersed even its very ashes, that the more moderate non-Catholics today cannot deny that all the jibes and quips have gone up in smoke, to say nothing here of the analysis of Blondel the Calvinist, by which even the shadow of that monster was utterly dispelled. But let Anastasius be the author of the aforesaid work, let it be another, let there be several, the great babblers will have proved just as much, if they proceed to obtrude none but his corrupt exemplars, and those of Marianus and Martin of Poland. And indeed that there were several writers of the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs, Ciampini sufficiently declared in the various sections of his Examination, to which and to all the rest of his little work we remit those who please to know more about the famous controversy concerning the oft-mentioned book, here only touched by us in passing, not about to omit those things which in the Life of Leo IV do not seem able to be attributed to Anastasius.

[30] Whether he wrote the Life of St. Leo as it now exists, The parallels of the praised Ciampini, sections 4 and 5, are at hand, nor do I deny that he most rightly conjectured very many things in reference to a like style and disposition in narrating rather those things which pertain to an almost incredible munificence, than any history of the deeds of the most holy Pontiff, of which that a not moderate part was passed over, has already been sufficiently shown. I shall therefore easily grant that Anastasius noted most things, which as an eyewitness he could cast on paper, inasmuch as he was librarian and perhaps secretary of St. Leo himself; but not with equal facility am I led to believe that no other hand was added which culled the commentaries of Anastasius and digested them in its own manner. This indeed persuades me the manner of writing not sufficiently worthy of Anastasius a most learned man, likewise the manners of speaking persuade it, which plainly insinuate that that later one was only a collector of those things which he had found written by Anastasius, as is plain from the Life here reprinted by us, no. 61; where thus it is read: "But lest after these things, which above by truthful testimony and other schemes have been elucidated and written, we pass over the rest in silence, which is by no means fitting, it pleases to indicate more clearly than light the other works of the most blessed Pope, done by the powerful clemency of Jesus Christ aiding, though very many." Anastasius does not seem about to write thus, who was present at all the deeds of St. Leo.

[31] This same persuades even more the manner of speaking by which he insinuates a matter done long before, no. 79, in these words: there are things which seem to render it doubtful: "But the same distinguished and nourishing Prelate, protected by the supernal right hand, always persevering with sincere mind in the service of God, after many good actions, decorated and painted with many and beautiful colors the church of blessed Silvester and Martin, which the Lord Sergius his predecessor had newly built from the depths, whose beauty too to this day affords great admiration to human eyes." I am vehemently mistaken if these things Anastasius himself could write thus, contemporary of St. Leo, and most eyewitness of all the deeds. I know what can be replied, namely that toward the end of his life, which perhaps he prolonged even to the eightieth year of that century, Anastasius could write thus, as where he mentions a matter done twenty and more whole years before. But even so you must confess that those colors were not such that after so little time the beauty of that church should afford so great admiration to human eyes. So indeed I judge, not about to take it ill if the given solution please others, and the authority of Anastasius can in that manner be saved, to whom this place too may be vindicated. To him I have freed my mind, by candidly observing and adducing those things which I have confessed displease me in the Life of St. Leo.

[32] However these things be, this is certain, that no other Acts of St. Leo survive, besides the oft-mentioned Life by Anastasius, yet we believe it composed from his own writings. or left to us under his name, certainly to be esteemed on this title, that at Rome then present he himself with his own eyes perceived the several things, a witness of all the deeds, which if he did not altogether order or digest, at least he must be judged certainly to have noted. But whoever added in a manner the last hand, suffered this to be wanting, that he transposed many things without order, running to and fro often and to the same temples; about to do a more pleasing thing to the reader, if, once going round the churches, he had commemorated in order what was done and given to each. Which I think moved Papebroch to relate his long narration about St. Leo III, cut into various parts, as he himself at the XII of June cited above not obscurely insinuates, §9, no. 74. "He filled his most prolix treatise," he says, "with reckoning up … distinguished works, and also enumerating the gifts, from time to time distributed through the churches, all of which it would be long and tedious to transcribe." But he subjoins that he selects only some of the more excellent, whence a conjecture may be made

about the rest. Not without reason, I confess; so that it almost impelled me to follow the same reasoning. But since many other things of less moment than these occupy a place in our Acts, I did not think even these more tedious narrations of Anastasius should be passed over by us, although it is not my mind to illustrate the several minutiae or to explain them more laboriously; let the note subjoined to the second chapter suffice, that the more curious readers may be abundantly prepared for the understanding of the rest.

[33] The prodigious liberality of St. Leo, Let it be permitted at last to cast the eyes more attentively upon that prodigious liberality of St. Leo, expressed by Anastasius, toward so diverse churches, and even remote from the City, where nevertheless he seems to have passed over some things which Maffeo Vegio reckons in the treatise on the Vatican basilica of St. Peter, in our tome VII of June, page 71, whence only no. 61 I here describe: "Now let us return to the liberality of Leo IV, from which we have necessarily digressed; he, not content with such distinguished ornaments of sacred things, studied that it should be as much as possible provided and looked to for the common utility and convenience of the canons, that they might attend to the divine Offices better and more fervently. For the castle of Bucenia, which was of his own patrimony, he gave them, and in like manner the church of the Savior, which is situated in Terrione, which he had also erected for the burial of all pilgrims from beyond the mountains, and also the church of St. Justin, situated on the mount of the Sacci, which he had built for burying all Latin pilgrims; the church too of St. Peregrinus, which is not far distant from the Viridarian gate, and the church of Blessed Mary in Palazzolo, and of St. George the martyr, which was placed behind St. Peter: and all these with their fruits and all the rest which pertain to it; whereas he conferred many, yet all on them: but only these of all, which appeared more certain, I judged more worthy to be related."

[34] He plucks out the scruples of critics about the rarity of gold at that time. More things may be seen in that treatise, of which nevertheless most Anastasius related. Moreover, of the churches built, founded, restored, and enriched with innumerable tens, those things I confess I read in Anastasius which extort assent only with difficulty, so that among other things it can be said a true miracle of St. Leo, that so immense a weight of gold and silver could be collected by him at Rome, in the space of only eight years, even just after that huge slaughter and devastation inflicted on the City by the most rapacious Saracens, which the same Anastasius commemorated in more than one place. I have indeed been unwilling to reckon up the calculations of such immense expenses, lest I should seem to have asserted incredible things. The sum of the gifts of St. Leo III Papebroch reckoned up, than which not less munificently lavished by our St. Leo, would not obscurely be plain, if the pounds of gold and silver were more clearly expressed. Here they have what to wonder at, as we said also elsewhere, and whereby to correct their ideas for a while, who introduce so great a rarity of gold and silver, compared with these our centuries, through those times, while they observe that one St. Leo, both at that time, and in the brief time of his pontificate, conferred those things which in this our century one would scarcely dare to bring himself to procure. Now let us hear Anastasius speaking.

LIFE

From Anastasius the Librarian.

OF THE EDITION OF FABROT.

Leo IV, Pope, Confessor, at Rome (S.)

FROM THE EDITION OF FABROT.

CHAPTER I.

The exaltation of St. Leo, distinguished in doctrine and virtue, to the priesthood and thence to the supreme pontificate.

Leo IV, a Roman by nation, of a father Rodoald [*], sat eight years, three months, five days. Adorned with distinguished virtues, This so Catholic and Apostolic man was of much patience and much humility, generous, pious, innocent or benign, a lover of justice, and a most fervent governor of the people, an indefatigable searcher too of the divine scriptures, always intent on vigils and prayers: in whose most blessed breast too, according to that which is read in the holy Gospel, both the astuteness of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove dwelt. For he was filled with the adornment of all sanctity: a lover of religious men, and of those assiduously serving God in all things, a nourisher of the poor, and a despiser of himself.

[2] He first, by his parents, for the studies of letters, betook himself of his own accord to the monastery of blessed Martin the confessor of Christ, and well instructed in the monastery, which is situated outside the walls of this Roman city near the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, until he should fully learn the sacred letters: where he not only learned letters, but also in the study of holy conversation, not as a boy, as he then was, but as a perfect monk remained; by whose example too of pious conversation others living under the same monastic rite served the almighty Lord more devoutly, and he was with them as one of them ^a.

[3] And since a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden, he is enrolled in the clergy by Gregory IV, so neither could the rumor of this most holy man long remain hidden. His fame, or the opinion of his sanctity, was divulged hither and thither more clearly than light, and by the report of many faithful soon came with hasty relation to the ears of the once most blessed pontifical Father and Pope Gregory ^b, to whom, when the mastery of so great chastity and worthy conversation had been narrated, at once ordering him to go out from the monastery in which he piously dwelt, he led him to the bosom of holy mother Church: and that he might always remain familiarly in his service, he commanded him to be in the Lateran patriarchate.

[4] He made him also subdeacon on account of the fame of his praiseworthy life: who nevertheless, although he changed place or order, yet bound his life and morals more than before regularly in the service of our supreme Creator, and multiplied them with good works. and is initiated in the priesthood by Sergius II; But the Pope Gregory of this most sacred see being dead, then Sergius, archpresbyter, being made Prelate of the holy Church, consecrated this one of whom we have related some things above, namely Leo the most blessed Pope, presbyter, and bestowed on him the title of the holy Four Crowned Ones.

[5] and to him, the Roman affairs being most afflicted, While he was strong in good morals in it, and there ministered necessaries to the needy, refreshing pilgrims and the poor and those having less not only by word, but also by bodily nourishment, he who then presided, Sergius Prelate of the Roman See, was withdrawn from the present life, under whose time too the churches of the most blessed princes Peter and Paul were utterly plundered by the Saracens. Since therefore by that calamity or misery all the vigor of the Romans languished, and was crushed by this deed, the whole assembly of the Romans, from two chances or perils, namely from the sudden death of the Pontiff, and the devastation which had been made in the holy churches and in all the borders of the Romans, confessed that it could in no way escape the peril of death.

[6] And when with equal devotion and common counsel all the Roman nobles thought about the future Pontiff, who he should be, who could rule or govern so holy and inviolable a place with the fear of almighty God, or on the very day of the death is compelled to succeed, forthwith the fame of the most blessed Prelate, and at the same time his merit, was made known by all, and diffused through the whole City: for the Pontiff who had died had not yet been carried to due burial, and behold all, from the last even to the first, with one voice, one accord at the same time, demanded Leo the venerable presbyter as their future Pontiff; and that they would have no other Prelate over them but this one, of whom it has been often said, they confessed with many conspirings and voices. Whose hearts, we believe, nothing else but divine love inflamed and united, and the clemency of the divine power, unhesitatingly to seek this man.

[7] Then all, as was noted above, going with joy and the gladness of much eagerness to the church in which he was staying, of the blessed four Crowned Ones, and without delay snatched from his church, drawing him thence compelled and unwilling, with hymns and distinguished praises led him to the Lateran patriarchate: who, keeping the ancient custom, all kissed his feet. But how great concord or unanimity there was in his pontifical election, no man can briefly narrate. But what at the time of his election, the suffrages of the Apostles and his holy prayers intervening, the divine power wrought concerning those Saracens who committed so nefarious a crime, this it is not unfitting or reprehensible, whether for the sake of the future, or for fear, or for memory, to note in the present letters.

[8] the Saracens being first worn away by a tempest, he is consecrated. For all, when they wished, the crime of iniquity and pillage being perpetrated, to return to the African region whence they had come, in the vast deep of the sea by the force of the winds and storms, as by certain relation we have learned, God permitting, were sunk, and that ancient miracle of the Egyptians, behold, the prayer of the Apostles deserved anew to obtain. The Romans too, as we said, rejoicing at the election of a new Pontiff, began again to be not moderately saddened, because without imperial authority they did not dare to consecrate the future Pontiff, and greatly feared the peril of the Roman city, lest again as of old it should be besieged by enemies from elsewhere. Terrified by this fear and future chance, they consecrated him prelate without the permission of the Prince ^c, keeping too his faith or honor after God through all things and in all things.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Otherwise Radulph.

CHAPTER II.

His highest liberality toward the churches; an earthquake; a sanction to be observed concerning the Presbyterium; and the restoration of many things.

Now since a human arbiter is not sufficient to estimate, nor prevails to relate, of how great goodness and piety this most blessed Pontiff was, The gifts offered to the churches, and first to St. Peter's; let us return to those things which, relying on the love of God, he offered to the churches of the Saints, and let us narrate them from the very beginning of his pontificate. This distinguished and illustrious Prelate, burning with supernal love, offered in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle one crown of purest silver weighing twenty-four pounds. Two chased bowls ^a weighing two pounds. Seven veils, two indeed of fundatum, and other two of stauracium, and three of spaniscum. He offered too there, for the splendor and glory of that venerable basilica, one Alexandrian curtain of wondrous beauty, having a figure of peacocks bearing men above, and another figure of Eagles, and of wheels and birds with trees. And this distinguished and most prudent Pope offered in the basilica of the holy four Crowned Ones, in which he most skillfully discharged the office of his priesthood, three baskets of purest silver weighing … pounds.

[10] One pair likewise of ewer of most pure silver, cups with a censer, likewise to the four Crowned Ones; that is weighing … pounds, veils of fundatum,

which for the brightness of the same seem to hang on the arch of the church, twelve. Likewise thirty-four white silken veils. He made too in the same basilica, for the splendor of the sacred altar, an all-silk vestment having a border of chrysoclavum, and another white vestment with roses having seven wheels, and in the middle a panel of chrysoclavum with the effigy of a man bearing on his head five prasine gems: likewise a white vestment of chrysoclavum with six wheels. He made moreover in the already said basilica, for the honor and glory of the sacred altar, veils having crosses, and gammadia of chrysoclavum, and with gems and golden bosses, thirty-three: an embroidered veil having the effigy of a man sitting upon one peacock. Likewise veils having the figure of the holy Mother of God. Likewise three other veils, fourteen of fundatum, and two others with a vestment of blattin.

[11] then to the church of St. Mary, The distinguished and most blessed Pope himself made in the basilica of the holy Mother of God, which is set in the street which is called that of the Sardi, a vestment of fundatum having the figure of the holy Mother of God of chrysoclavum with the prophets. And that Pope amiable to God and most prudent constructed at the entrance of the patriarchate seats of marble, which no one of the Pontiffs had thought to complete. For also the balcony, which Leo the third Pope of blessed memory had constructed, when because of excessive age with broken beams it was seen in ruins, overthrown, he newly restored it more beautifully into a better form.

[12] After the earthquake he provides for the dignity of the presbytery, This distinguished and pious Prelate, relying on supernal love, in the basilica of blessed Paul the Apostle appointed evening praises to be sung publicly by all the clergy and the schola on the day of his birth. In the time of this blessed Prelate an earthquake was made in the Roman city through the tenth indiction [*], so that all the elements seemed to be shaken by all. He, already oft mentioned, and most skillful Pontiff, according to ancient custom, by canonical authority decreed and established that, while the sacred solemnities of the Masses are celebrated in the church, none of the laity should presume to stand or sit or enter in the presbytery ^b, but only the sacred people who are seen to be appointed in the administration of the sacred office. He indeed, the most blessed Pontiff, after the slaughter and pillage of the savage nation of the Agarenes, which they wrought in the churches of the holy Apostles, daily set his mind to the restoration of them, so that he might repair all things which had been carried off by impious hands, hoping for the reward of the eternal future retribution.

[13] conferring many things again on the basilica of St. Peter, Wherefore he offered in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle a knob ^c of purest silver with silver bowls hanging on seven little chains. He made moreover for the illumination of that basilica a bronze net with seventeen silver baskets. For also he repaired a beacon [*] of wondrous size for the splendor and glory of the oft-mentioned church; in which too he offered a crown of most pure silver weighing … pounds. Veils of fundatum, which hang more beautiful in the circuit of the sacred altar, twenty-five. Likewise veils having the figures of Lions which are seen to hang before the vestibule of the sacred confession, ten: and other veils of fundatum, which flash right and left between the columns of that venerable basilica, forty-six. Likewise veils of fundatum, which hang on the arch for the ornament and decoration of the presbytery, thirty-three. Nevertheless also other veils of fundatum, which in various places of the same basilica that nourishing Pope appointed to hang, eighteen, and other veils likewise, which hang before the doors of the sacred basilica, four.

[14] This distinguished and most prudent Prelate, relying on supernal love, of the Four Crowned Ones, made in the basilica of the holy four martyrs Crowned a vestment of chrysoclavum having the figure of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the effigies of the aforesaid martyrs, and of the nourishing prelate himself. For the mind of this aforesaid nourishing Prelate shone so much with divine love, that those innumerable goods which formerly had been carried off by impious hands from the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, he wished in his own distinguished time with willing heart to restore all anew. Therefore for the honor and glory of that aforesaid church he made two crowns of purest silver composed with wondrous work, hanging on silver little chains with gems and gilded bosses, weighing one one hundred and thirty-two pounds, and the other one hundred and thirty-seven: and another in like manner having forty. And because he was always adorned with a divine gift, and studied happily to have worthy care and solicitude for all things, he made in the oratory of St. Andrew the Apostle at St. Peter's two larger veils of fundatum, and five other smaller ones ornamented in the circuit with blattin.

[15] But he, the venerable and distinguished Pontiff protected by God, made in the monastery of St. Anastasius, and of St. Anastasius; then restoring the uses of the sacred palace, for the eternal redemption of his soul, one silken vestment of fundatum having the figure of Eagles: likewise two veils of fundatum adorned in the circuit with blattin: in like manner he made in the monastery of St. Praxedis one vestment of fundatum. This aforesaid Prelate too, from the day on which, relying on divine power, he ascended the sacred See of the Apostle Peter with all benignity, soon eagerly endeavored, concerning the old or ancient uses and orders of the sacred palace, which under the times of his predecessor Pontiffs had broken out and by diverse custom had been abolished, therefore for the memory of his sanctity to bring back all, or to order all with willing mind into a better state than they had lately been.

[16] For also the reclining-hall ^d, which the lord Leo the third Pope of good memory had constructed from the foundations, and restoring other things, and all the ornaments which he had prepared there, because of excessive age and the oblivion of the preceding Pontiffs were abolished, and on the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh both the Lord Gregory and the Lord Sergius of holy remembrance by no means feasted there; but he, the most blessed and supreme Prelate Leo the fourth, with joy and exceeding delight newly repaired all the ornaments, or provisions, which had been carried off thence, and magnificently recalled them to their pristine use.

[17] And also the cross of purest gold adorned with gems, which Charles ^e the emperor of the Franks and Romans of pious memory also the most precious cross of Charlemagne. had offered in the basilica of the Savior our Lord Jesus Christ, which is called the Constantinian, in the times of the Lord Leo the third Pope of holy remembrance, which it was the custom that in the litanies it should itself go before the most sacred Pontiff, and so it remained until the time of the Lord Paschal Pope of holy remembrance, whence by diabolical suggestion and instigation it was wrested away by wicked men, and by robbers stolen away by night furtively, and none thereafter of the preceding Pontiffs, neither the Lord Paschal, nor the Lord Eugenius, nor the Lord Valentinus, nor the Lord Gregory, nor also the Lord Sergius remembered to restore it, and to repair it for the use of the holy Roman Church of God: but this same aforesaid and magnificent Prelate made it of purest gold, and profitably adorned it with pearls of wondrous size, and with hyacinthine and green gems, and wondrously decorated it for the pristine use of the holy Roman Church of the Mother of God.

ANNOTATIONS.

* 847

* otherwise beacon

CHAPTER III.

The basilisk put to flight; the fire checked; other gifts offered to various churches; and monasteries restored; the octave of the Assumption.

This distinguished and eminent Prelate was a most approved preacher in the science and erudition of the divine Scriptures, The basilisk hostile to the people, who shone with the fame of so great blessedness and sanctity, that in the sight of all that

Church of the people founded in Christ he wrought miracles. In the first indeed year of his pontificate near the basilica of the blessed martyr Lucy, which is situated in Orfea [*], in certain foul and hidden caverns a serpent of dire kind arose, which in Greek is called basilisk ^a, in Latin regulus, which by its breath and sight swiftly killed all who hastened to those caverns, and delivered them to the peril of death: so that stupor and fear invaded all, wondering at the powers of the serpent, and the destruction. But he, the most blessed and distinguished Pontiff, hearing this slaughter and destruction of the people, turned himself to prayers, not ceasing with fastings to entreat the Lord, that he might free all from destruction of this kind. While these things were being done, the distinguished and most celebrated day came, on which the Assumption of the blessed Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated.

[19] Then the aforesaid and universal Pope, from the patriarchate with hymns by his prayers puts it to flight; and spiritual canticles, the holy icon preceding, went with all the clergy on his own feet to the basilica of St. Hadrian the martyr, as is the custom. Returning from which with the whole assembly of the faithful he hastened to the basilica of the blessed Mother of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is called at the Manger, with the praises of God, a great throng of the people accompanying. Who, when he had come to the place in which that most savage basilisk lay in foul caverns, as we said above, commanded all the clergy and people to stand, and hastening near those caverns, over the hole of that pestiferous serpent from which the pestiferous breath went out, he stood intrepid and stretched his eyes to heaven together with his palms, and with poured-out tears besought Christ, who is God over all things, that by his power he would put to flight the kind of the dire serpent from that place, and, prayer being given over the people, he set out to render the praises of God to the basilica which we mentioned above. But from that same day that pestiferous basilisk was so put to flight and cast out of those caves, that no more in those places did any stain of its harm appear.

[20] And another miracle that nourishing Pope wrought, and thus he also extinguishes a fire. which let us begin briefly to narrate. In that same beginning of his pontificate, which we mentioned above, a strong fire invaded the vicus of the Saxons, which by the power of the flames began more strongly to burn all things, where many bands of the peoples were gathered, who wished to extinguish the flames of this fire: but by the blasts of the winds the fire was extended higher into the air, burning all things, and crushing them, so that it came nearer to the basilica of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, burning up and tearing down the houses of the Saxons and Lombards, and the portico. Which being heard, the most blessed Pontiff himself, anxious, set out thither at a swift course, and prepared himself facing before the onset of the fire, and began to entreat the Lord that he would extinguish the flames of that fire, and making the little sign of the cross with his own fingers, the fire could extend its flames no further, but not able to bear the power of the blessed Pontiff, being extinguished it reduced its flames to ashes.

[21] The gifts of the same in the church of St. Peter, But that Pope amiable to God and most prudent made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle veils of fundatum adorned in the circuit with blattin, forty-five in number. That distinguished Pontiff moreover made in the monastery of St. Martin, which adjoins the basilica of blessed Peter, to the praise and glory of that blessed Martin, a vestment of the oratory of wondrous beauty, having the figure of the above-mentioned Saint lying in his little bed, with the effigy of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord. Together the effigy of the holy martyr Agatha having at her feet the effigy of that nourishing Pontiff, having seventeen hyacinthine gems. Likewise in the same oratory he made four veils; and one indeed having three wheels of chrysoclavum. Of the holy Crowned Ones, The same made in the basilica of the holy four Brothers one vestment of fundatum having the figure of those holy Martyrs, and the effigy of that nourishing Prelate having twelve gems, likewise also four veils of fundatum.

[22] Of St. Peter, This venerable and distinguished Pontiff made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle, his nourisher, a chased basket of purest silver weighing … pounds. Where above he offered crowns of most pure silver weighing … pounds. This most distinguished Pope, relying on supernal love, offered to blessed Peter the Apostle, for the splendor and glory of that most holy basilica, a double lamp of purest silver weighing forty-five pounds. Of St. Silvester: This same most blessed Prelate made in the church of blessed Silvester confessor and pontiff, which is set on mount Soracte, one vestment of fundatum having four corners, two indeed Tyrian, and two of fundatum. The most holy and most blessed Prelate made too in the church of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles veils which hang on the arch of the presbytery woven of gold, having the figure of blessed Peter the Apostle, eighteen in number. And also in the oratory of blessed Leo confessor and Pontiff, which is situated below the aforesaid church, one vestment of fundatum having the figure of Eagles.

[23] again of St. Peter, He offered too, where above, one crown of silver weighing … pounds. Then too he made there veils of fundatum ornamented on each side with blattin, twenty in number. He offered too to blessed Peter the Apostle chalices of silver, which rest upon the circuit of the altar, sixteen in number weighing … pounds. And also a hanging chalice with little chains and dolphins ^b weighing … pounds. The same most holy and coangelic aforesaid Prelate, after the pillage of the Saracens of that church, made upon the body of blessed Peter the Apostle silver images, three in whole number; and one indeed in the middle having the effigy of the Savior our Lord Jesus Christ with gems on the head adorned in a cross with hyacinthine and green ones. Likewise another placed at the right part of the Savior and having the countenance of blessed Peter the Apostle and of blessed Petronilla.

[24] Another placed at the left part painted, where he confers and restores many monasteries. having the countenance of blessed Andrew the Apostle, together with the countenance of the aforesaid supreme Prelate, weighing one hundred and four pounds. He made, where above, bronze beacons, which rest upon the vestibule of the sacred altar, twelve in number. Often indeed this most blessed Pope greatly desired to rebuild all the places of the Saints which had been destroyed. For the monastery of the Corsi, which is situated near the basilica of blessed Sixtus martyr and Pontiff, which by the works of certain wicked men had been made desolate, and brought to secular habitation, for the salvation and future retribution of his soul, he restored more perfectly. In which too he fortified a congregation of the handmaids of God, to render daily praises to almighty God, augmented them with gifts, adorned them with riches, and restoring all the sacred precepts which had been carried off thence, with his holy fingers more fully confirmed them.

[25] This oft-mentioned and most blessed Pope by the address of his preaching led many to the knowledge of the truth, [He preaches to the people, and orders the octave of the Assumption to be celebrated.] and daily showed salutary operations to all. For the day of the octave of the Assumption of the blessed Mother of God, which was by no means before celebrated at Rome, he commanded to be celebrated with sacred vigils, and matins, passing the night with all the clergy in praises, in the basilica of the same ever-Virgin our Lady, which is situated outside the walls near the basilica of blessed Laurence the martyr: to which too a great multitude of the people had come, desiring to celebrate the solemnity of the new festivity. When this the magnanimous Prelate saw, he distributed to all who were present at this celebrity many silver coins ^c.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise Orphea: Platina's Orthea.

CHAPTER IV.

New ornaments of the churches; the construction of a monastery; and the repair of the walls, gates, and towers of the City.

The same Most Blessed made in the church of the same Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary one vestment of fundatum, Gifts to the church of St. Mary, and also made there forty-five veils. And below in the oratory of that church, which is called that of blessed Barbara, he offered one vestment of fundatum. He, the distinguished Prelate to God, made too in the oratory of St. Eugenia one vestment of fundatum. And this most skillful, God helping, and most holy and in all things distinguished and eminent Pontiff with great mind and pure will gave in the church of blessed Stephen the Protomartyr, which is set outside the walls near the church of blessed Laurence the martyr, one vestment of fundatum. Of St. Stephen, And within the walls of this church in the oratory of blessed Leo the martyr he made one vestment of fundatum. And that most gentle Pontiff, and acute in all good things, offered in the church of the blessed Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary our Lady, which is set below the aforesaid monastery, which is called that of the Corsi, made one vestment of fundatum. Where above he offered in the oratory of St. Caesarius one vestment of fundatum. The same most benign made a golden cross anew, and that cross, as is the ancient custom, was borne by the hands of the subdeacon before the horse of the preceding Pontiffs, which, God helping, he renewed better in gold and silver and gems.

[27] Of St. Nympha, He offered in the church of the blessed martyr Nympha, which is seen to be in the Portuensian city, one vestment of fundatum. In like manner he made in the church of the blessed martyrs Cosmas and Damian, of Sts. Cosmas and Damian. which is seen to be in Silva Candida, one vestment of fundatum: and also, where above, he offered three veils of fundatum ornamented in the circuit with blattin. This most blessed Pope with devout mind and burning heart assiduously visited the sepulchres of the most sacred Martyrs. Whom with vigils and sacred prayers he entreated for all the people of the orthodox faith. But on a certain day, when he had come to the sepulchre of blessed Laurence the martyr, and after the wonted manner was completing his prayer, he began more diligently to inquire and to say: How many daily praises do the monks here render to almighty God? Then all who were present to the blessed Pontiff declared that by certain Pontiffs two monasteries had there been constructed, but on account of the great want of poverty had been brought to desolation. But soon that nourishing Pontiff himself, moved by supernal impulse, restoring the monastery which is now called that of St. Stephen He constructed a monastery. and of Cassian, most fully adorned the place with gifts and riches. In which too he established several monks of holy conversation, Greeks by race, who day and night should render praises to almighty God, and to the same martyr.

[28] He magnificently adorns the basilica of St. Peter; He indeed, the venerable Prelate protected by God, within the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle constructed an oratory of wondrous beauty and highest adornment, which surrounding with beautiful marbles he splendidly adorned, and the apse

of it, of mosaic, with a golden color laid over, he gloriously decorated; in which too, laying up the venerable body of blessed Leo confessor and Pontiff ^a, he constructed a sacred altar above, and a ciborium with a gilded cross, to the praise and glory of the name of Christ, relying on this love he accomplished it, that he might obtain for himself a worthy place in the heavens. All the works therefore being wrought and perfected, whose names have already been written or numbered above one by one, forthwith that same Shepherd and distinguished Father, although he bore the profitable care and worthy solicitude of all the churches of God, and was intent above all upon every good work, drawing long sighs from the inmost of his heart, when daily he beheld the most sacred altar of the most blessed Prince of the Apostles Peter violated, and brought to such dishonor and vileness by the perfidious Saracens contrary to God, and also—what we say grieving and mourning—when he beheld the Christian people from every quarter directed to the most sacred thresholds of the already-mentioned Prince, for the sake or grace of prayer, and on this account was not fully able to accomplish his vows, as of old, therefore relying on the help and counsel of the almighty Lord, and fortified with power, with golden and silver tablets he adorned not only the sacred confession, but also the front of the oft-mentioned altar, fittingly enough and honorably, as the present work there dedicated through all things manifests more clearly than light.

[29] Wherefore he newly dedicated the chief front of the venerable altar with tablets of the best gold, together with very many gems most excellent and precious he surrounded the whole, and especially its altar, and brought it into a better state and adornment than before: on which golden tablets, namely, as has been said, not only the form of our Redeemer shines painted forth, but also his venerable Resurrection, and the sign of the sacred and salutary Cross. The countenances too of Peter and Paul alike, and of Andrew, likewise shine and flash on the aforenamed tablets, among whom the persons of the most holy fourth Prelate Leo, and also of his special son the Lord Emperor Lothair, for the sake of future memory, or reward, persons dear to God, to be venerated through all ages, are painted. He made finally a tablet of enamel ^b, a work weighing two hundred and sixteen pounds of refined gold. But the confession of the oft-mentioned altar in like manner, with tablets prepared of purest silver, with all the devotion of his mind, he brought to its ancient adornment and state. In which we behold the Savior sitting on his throne, having precious gems on his head, and at his right hand Cherubim, at his left too the countenances of the Apostles and of the rest painted: nay even the folds of the sacred confession constructed of silver having the countenances of the most blessed Peter and Paul, all weighing two hundred and eight pounds.

[30] But that Pope amiable to God and most prudent made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle veils woven of gold hanging on the arches adorned in the circuit with blattin, eleven in number. and the oratory of St. Leo. And also in the oratory of St. Leo the Pontiff, within the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, he made one white silken figured vestment with gammadia and a border of blattin, and likewise white veils, two larger, eight smaller, likewise of St. Caesarius, and in the monastery of St. Caesarius, which is set in the palace, he made one vestment of fundatum, and eight veils. But that Pontiff protected by God and venerable, for the retribution and reward of his soul, made in the cemetery of the blessed martyr Agatha, of St. Agatha, which is set outside the gate of the blessed martyr Pancratius, one vestment of fundatum and eight veils. Who then would be able to say, or could suffice to narrate, how great gifts that Pope protected by God and most skillful offered with devout mind to the holy places? For in the oratory which is called that of Pope Paul, of St. Paul, of wondrous beauty he offered one vestment having the figure of eagles with a cross of chrysoclavum and gammadia.

[31] of Processus and Martinianus, He made moreover in the oratory of Sts. Processus and Martinianus one vestment of no small splendor with wheels and men, and a figure with a cross, likewise of chrysoclavum and a gammadium. But another vestment of shining aspect he accomplished in the basilica of St. Petronilla having a wheel, of St. Petronilla, and an eagle with a cross of chrysoclavum and gammadia, one. But he offered in the oratory of the holy Mother of God ever-Virgin our Lady Mary, of St. Mary, which stands in Mediana, one vestment likewise with wheels and eagles and a cross of chrysoclavum with gammadia. He made indeed in the oratory of St. Hadrian one vestment with wheels, of St. Hadrian, and effigies of men with a cross likewise of chrysoclavum and gammadia. But he, the oft-mentioned and most blessed Pope, offered in the basilica of St. Sebastian the martyr, of St. Sebastian, which stands in Frascati ^c, one vestment of most precious brightness with a cross of chrysoclavum and gammadia. This supreme and eminent Prelate made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle one all-silk curtain with many figures of immense brightness, for the adornment and glory of that most sacred basilica. of St. Peter.

[32] The walls and gates of the City, But when Leo the most blessed man and fourth Prelate, the Lord consoling, had for the grace of his love and desire more perfectly conferred these things and what have been written through the various pious places of the Saints, then he began to treat, with the counsel of the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the state of the Roman city and the restoration of the walls, which now by long age and excessive antiquity seemed broken and utterly ruined, lest, if they long remained under this negligence or oblivion, they might, the Lord permitting, be more easily either taken or perhaps stormed by enemies; therefore, lest this evil should happen in the future, he took care to renew all the aforenamed walls of the Roman city, the twelfth Indiction ^d pressing on, and to bring them back to their former cultivation and adornment with all alacrity of mind. And not only the walls, which we have mentioned, did he command to be made with swift agility, but also the gates, by which every city is often shut, he commanded to be rebuilt more hastily with new cultivation and most strong timbers, for fear or terror of enemies. All which finally, that they might be done quickly, and be brought to effect and adornment, the aforesaid apostolic Man ran about, not only sitting on a horse, but indeed on his own feet, through the walls and gates with his faithful, so that in their restoration there should be no delay or postponement.

[33] and restored the ruined towers. Wherefore, as has already been said before, the venerable Pontiff bearing among his cares the greatest care and solicitude for the Roman city, from every quarter newly brought all things to a better and new cultivation, and commanded fifteen towers, which he found utterly ruined from the very ground round the circuit of the city, to be restored with new fabrics. Of which finally two near the Portuensian gate the venerable Prelate so prudently and wisely disposed to be built at the very shore of the Tiber, that is, near the bank of the river, that no man before was able either to think or to consider it. And because through this place not only ships, but also men, before easily entered, but now scarcely ever will small little boats be able to enter through it, and this was done for future testimony, the peril of the Saracens, and the safety of the Roman city. Those towers therefore he took care to fortify not only with stones, but also with iron chains, so that, if there be need, no ship may be able to pass through the same place. Which work newly constructed both affords the defense of the Roman city, and to those seeing it is no small, but a great miracle, because it was wrought with great wisdom, subtle prudence, and honor.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The bringing of sacred bodies into the City; the restoration of the church of the Holy Crowned Ones; gifts to monasteries; the coming of the Neapolitans, and the dispersion of the Saracen fleet.

He too, protected by God, and most blessed Pope, wondrously gathered many bodies of the Saints, which long lay unadorned, He brought the bodies of the Saints into the City; with the highest zeal and the highest affection of heart, for the honor of almighty God, within the walls of this nourishing city. For also the bodies of the holy martyrs the four Crowned Ones, seeking with skillful care, he found: for the desirable love of whom the basilica which had been consecrated to the name of the Saints, which he himself, when he was led to the summit of the Pontificate, ruled with most prudent governance, which through the past courses of times, shaken by the defect of antiquity, and almost broken with ruins, long of old seemed shattered and torn, the clemency of the supernal power assenting, he constructed from the foundations into a more splendid and more beautiful state, and to the praise of almighty God, laying up their most sacred bodies with Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorianus, and Castorius, and Simplicius, and also Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus, four brothers ^a. Likewise Marius, Audifax, and Abacum, with Felicissimus, and Agapitus, Hippolytus with his families to the number of eighteen. With Aquilinus, Aquila and Prisca, Narcissus and Marcellinus, Felix and Simetrius, Candidus, and Paulina, Anastasius, and Felix, Apollion, and Benedict, Venantius, and Felix, Diogenes, and Siberalis, Festus, and Marcellus, and Superantius, Pudentiana, and Benedict, Felix and Venantius, and also with the head of St. Protus, and of St. Cecilia, of St. Alexander, and of St. Sixtus, and of St. Sebastian, and of the most sacred Virgin Praxedis, likewise laying up under the sacred altar he placed them, and many others, whose names are known to God.

[35] and placed them in the church of the Holy Four Crowned Ones, built by himself. Above which too, to the glory of the Creator, with wondrous work and of wondrous beauty a ciborium of purest silver, with a golden color laid over, with green and hyacinthine gems, weighing three hundred and thirteen and a half pounds. Where above he offered in the same church red veils, which hang in the circuit of the altar, four in number. The same most holy Prelate too made in the oratory of the aforesaid blessed Barbara, which is constructed below the church of the holy four Crowned Ones, a crown of silver weighing twelve pounds. And also in the same oratory he offered ten silver bowls weighing … pounds. And also in the above-written oratory he made three vestments of fundatum, having in the middle crosses with gammadia, and twelve veils. The aforesaid venerable Pontiff too made in the basilica of blessed Stephen the Pontiff, on the Latin way at the third milestone, one vestment of fundatum with

a cross in the middle and six veils. Where he offered a paten, and a small holy chalice of silver weighing one and a half pounds. The most blessed Prelate offered too in the church of the blessed Prince of the Apostles a thurible of gilded silver, the name of the Lord Leo the fourth Pope reading the Apostolate, weighing four pounds.

[36] Very many gifts, Where too in the oratory of blessed Gregory confessor and Pontiff he made a vestment of fundatum with gammadia, and one cross woven of silver. Likewise there he himself in the oratory of blessed Pastor the martyr made one vestment in like manner. And also in the oratory of the blessed Mother of God, which is set at the ambo, in the same manner he made one vestment. And in the oratory of the holy and super-exalted cross he made one vestment in like manner. And also in the oratory which is set at the font, he made likewise one vestment, and veils of quadrapulum ^b. But that venerable and distinguished Pontiff made in the church of the holy four Crowned Ones upon the major altar a vestment of fundatum with a cross in the middle, and gammadia, and around it one border of fundatum. Where above in the oratory of St. Barbara likewise he made one vestment of fundatum. And in the oratory of St. Sixtus he made in the same one vestment, and in the oratory of St. Nicholas likewise he made a vestment with one eagle. And also in the same church he made a linen curtain with a cross in the middle, and around it a border of fundatum of wondrous size. With pious morals, and adorned with these sacred works, the Pope offered in the oft-mentioned hall, which relying on love he had founded, a paten of purest silver with a golden color laid over, decorated with the trophy of the cross, and the effigy of the Savior, and of the holy Mother of God, and of the holy Apostles with a beautiful scheme, weighing seven pounds.

[37] He distributed to various churches and monasteries. Likewise a holy chalice suffused with gold having the icon of the Evangelists, and a cross, weighing four pounds. And also of purest silver a gilded cup, in which is seen a little sign of the cross depressed in the circuit with the effigies of the Prophets, and the icon of the most blessed Stephen the first Martyr. Nevertheless also one Apostolic thurible of most pure silver, four gilded bowls for the brightness of that venerable basilica, weighing the weight of two and a half pounds. All these things being thus wrought, he decorated the confession with the sacred altar with silver tablets weighing ninety-three pounds, and adorned it with the effigies of the Saints. Above which too he offered a diadem of purest silver with most precious gems having in the middle a cross, which even now ^c is seen to hang above the same altar. Where too he offered forty-three veils of fundatum. But he, the oft-mentioned and distinguished Prelate, inflamed with supernal love, offered in the monastery of St. Silvester, and St. Benedict, and St. Scholastica, which is called Sub Lacu ^d, three vestments of fundatum, and likewise seven veils of fundatum. The same most blessed president too made, after the pillage of the Saracens, in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle a Crucifix of wondrous size constructed with hyacinthine gems of purest silver gilded weighing seventy pounds and seven other white gems; one larger.

[38] Likewise those things which among the rest, through the assiduous prayers and tears of the most holy Prelate, heard by the Lord, The Saracens again threatening, the twelfth Indiction ^e pressing on, were wondrously done or wrought, we shall not unprofitably treat, if for eternal memory we study to insert them more clearly into this work: that of how great sanctity in this wretched life that Man was, present and future generations may more easily recognize. Finally, after the nefarious and mournful pillage of the Saracens, full of all misery, which upon the first head of all the churches, namely the holy Roman Church, at the diabolical urging they wrought, those sons of Satan themselves wished again to inflict similar damages upon the Roman borders, and the church of the most blessed Apostle Peter, as of old, and then as victors to make for the places from which they had come out; but by the care and zeal of the supreme Shepherd shining forth and watching, they could by no means accomplish these things. Yet that the faithful in the Lord may rightly stand yet more faithful, and may not doubt that his signs and venerable miracles have newly flowed forth from the old ones; from the beginning it must be held what at that time the divine mercy wondrously wrought concerning them, and with how great miseries and calamities that pestiferous nation, deservedly worn down, fell to pieces.

[39] Wherefore, remembering their former gain, by the help of the Neapolitans, or booty, which they had made, the hand of perverse men being again multiplied and with many ships to storm the Roman city, the twelfth Indiction being in force, they cruelly resolved to come. And for many days too they tarried in the place which is called Tozara, near the island of Sardinia. Departing from which they attempted, God not aiding them, to enter the Roman port. Whose iniquitous and nefarious coming terrified the Romans not moderately. But because almighty God has always kept his Church inviolate, and does not cease thereafter to keep it, he then stirred up among the rest the hearts of all the Neapolitans, Amalfitans, and Gaetans, that they should rise up together with the Romans against them, and fight bravely. For soon, going out from their own places before the useless Saracens, they joined with their ships [*], and made their sudden coming known to the most blessed Leo the Fourth Pontiff. And they professed that they had come for no other thing, but that they might, the Lord aiding, be victors over the pagans. Then at length the venerable Pope commanded some of them to come first to him at Rome, wishing especially to know from them whether their coming was peaceful or not, as also it was done.

[40] bringing aid, Among whom then came the son of Sergius the master of the soldiers, who was appointed over the army, by name Caesarius, whom benignly receiving in the Lateran palace, he inquired the cause for which they came. But they testified that they had come for no other thing, but for this which above is read set down. Whose words the pious Apostolic believing, with a great array of armed men, soon hastened to the city of Ostia, and received all the Neapolitans with great and distinguished devotion. Who, when they beheld the supreme Prelate, prostrate on the ground kissed his venerable feet, and gave thanks to the almighty high-throned One, who resolved to send such a Prelate to comfort them. Who, that they might be better victors over the sons of Belial, earnestly besought that they might deserve to receive the Lord's body from his sacred hands. To whom with his own mouth he chanted Mass in the church of St. Aurea, and all took communion from his hands, as has been said.

[41] and by the fervent prayers of the holy Pontiff, And before these things were done, even to the aforesaid church with hymns, and litanies, and distinguished canticles, together with those Neapolitans, Christ aiding, he set out: in which too with bent knees he besought the Most High, that by his prayers he would deign to deliver the enemies of the Christians into the hands of those resisting. Over whom too with many tears he offered this prayer, saying: "O God, whose right hand raised up the blessed Apostle Peter walking on the waves, lest he be drowned, and freed his co-apostle Paul thrice shipwrecked from the deep of the sea, hear us propitiously, and grant that by the merits of both, the arms of these thy faithful fighting against the enemies of thy holy Church may be strengthened and grow strong by thy almighty right hand, that from the triumph received thy holy name may appear glorious among all nations. Through the Lord," etc.

[42] they are dispersed, But on the next day, after the venerable Prelate had returned from the already-said city, those companions or partakers of the wicked appeared near the shore of the Ostian sea with many ships. Against whom the Neapolitans making an assault, wished to fight bravely, and also wounded some of them, and then would have received the triumph, if one hindrance had not more quickly happened. For while they fought more intently with one another, suddenly so strong and lofty a wind was raised, such as one in these times cannot remember, which forthwith divided both fleets. Then the ships of the Saracens first came, even to the shore of the sea, then, the wind blowing, and the sea raised with storms, they were dispersed, and again after a little, their forces broken, they returned. For almighty God, we believe for certain, had brought forth this wind from his treasury, which by no means permitted them to go out abroad to do harm.

[43] Concerning these new and mystical miracles, which, though not by our merits, the ever-to-be-glorified and to-be-praised clemency of our true God deigned to show and demonstrate in our times, they perish or are captured. who permitted them to look upon the place which they desired, and yet, lest they should be able to take it, by the power of his might drove them far off, and afterward not only through the intercessions and merits of the most blessed Princes Peter and Paul, the depth of the sea, but also famine and the sword unceasingly extinguished many. Of whom, through certain of our islands, laboring with the want of famine, very many were slain by our men. But the rest, for the sake of truth and testimony, capturing alive, they led to Rome. Whom the Roman nobles, lest their number should seem multiplied, commanded many to be hanged on wood near our Roman port. Some too we ordered to live bound with iron, for this cause only, that they might know more clearly than light both our hope, which we have in God, and his ineffable piety, and also their own tyranny. And after these things, lest they should live idly, or without hardship among us, sometimes at the wall which we had begun round the Church of the most blessed Apostle Peter, sometimes through various works of craftsmen, whatever seemed necessary, we ordered all things to be carried through them.

ANNOTATIONS.

* that is, they arrived.

CHAPTER VI.

The perpetual distribution of gifts by the munificent Pontiff to various churches.

For these benefits therefore, as has already been narrated, the blessed Pontiff offered in the basilica of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, Gifts offered in the church of St. Peter, St. Andrew, and St. Mary; after the pillage of the nation of the Agarenes, arches of most pure silver, thirteen in number. Of which two, which he placed on the right or left part in the presbytery, of wondrous size weighing

… The same most blessed Prelate too made in the church of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles one vestment woven of gold having the figure of how blessed Peter preached to the holy Roman Church, with white gems, that is seven pearls, and with eleven prasine gems, and also twenty-seven hyacinthine gems. He made too in the church of blessed Andrew the Apostle a ciborium above the altar of marble, and also a silver chalice with crowns hanging in the same ciborium, twelve in number weighing … pounds. He made too there the bell-tower itself, and set a bell with a bronze hammer, and a gilded cross. And also in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle he offered a thurible of purest gold adorned with various gems. And in the church of the blessed Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary our Lady, which is set at St. Laurence outside the wall, he made one vestment having the figure of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the image of the aforesaid nourishing Prelate. He made too in the church of the holy four Crowned Ones eleven silver baskets weighing twenty-four pounds. He offered too in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle a cross of purest gold adorned with various hyacinthine, white gems and emeralds of wondrous size, which stands on the right part near the major altar. On which too he newly renewed the rod, and silvered it, on which the aforesaid cross is held, weighing eleven and a half pounds of silver, reading of the name of the Lord Leo the fourth Pope.

[45] likewise of St. Stephen and the holy Crowned Ones, He offered too in the church of blessed Stephen the Protomartyr a vestment woven of gold with four hyacinthine gems. The same aforesaid nourishing and supreme Prelate, led by exceeding love, and affected with good morals, made in the church of blessed Laurence the martyr of Christ, situated outside the wall of the Roman city, a vestment of pure silk with eagles having three tablets woven of gold on each part, having the martyrdom of the aforesaid Martyr depicted, and the image of the aforesaid Prelate. And also he made in the church of the holy four martyrs Crowned three gilded silver images, one indeed having the countenance of the Savior, and two others having the countenances of Sts. Claudius and Nicostratus weighing fifty-two and a half pounds. And in the same church he offered one crown of silver weighing twenty-five pounds. And on the beam of the same church, which is before the major altar, he hung a lily of silver having apples of crystal, and a little frog. He made too, where above, seven silver baskets weighing twelve pounds. That most gentle one made in his own house, which he himself disposed to be made from the foundations, and which was seen to have come to him by right of his parents, a monastery of the handmaids of God in honor of Sts. Simitrus ^a, and Caesarius, where too he bestowed gifts, a paten, and a holy chalice of gilded silver having various gems weighing … pounds. Where above he offered censers with one cup hanging, … pounds.

[46] and to the monastery of the handmaids of God; And also that nourishing Pontiff himself offered in the above-written monastery three baskets of most pure silver, and saxiscan bowls weighing together twelve and a half pounds. There he made, for the retribution and reward of his soul, three vestments of fundatum having one embroidered tablet enclosed. He made moreover there a diadem of most pure gold with prasine and hyacinthine gems, which hangs above the altar weighing … pounds. But he, protected by God, of Blessed Mary and St. Sebastian. and venerable Pontiff, burning with supernal love, offered in the basilica of the holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary our Lady, which is set outside the walls of this Roman city, near blessed Laurence, one vestment of fundatum having in the middle a gilded tablet with the effigy of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of that nourishing Pontiff. And in the church of blessed Laurence the martyr, which is set outside the walls, he offered a silver thurible with its cover gilded, having little chains and bosses round it weighing six pounds. But in the church of the holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary our Lady across the Tiber, the aforenamed Prelate restored the apse, which because of excessive antiquity stood out about to fall. And in the church of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, for the honor and vigor of that church, he made a knob of purest silver, which hangs in the presbytery before the major altar weighing one hundred and forty-nine pounds. At the same time too he made in the church of blessed Sebastian the martyr, which is set in Frascati, a basket of most pure silver weighing two pounds, reading the name of the nourishing Prelate, and of blessed Sebastian.

[47] These things finally being fittingly consummated and wrought, Again to St. Peter's, after the lamentable and iniquitous pillage of the Saracens, the Catholic and in all things praiseworthy Prelate, for the adornment and praise of the church of the Prince of the Apostles the Apostle Peter, made of wondrous size and beauty above his venerable altar a ciborium and columns, and gilded lilies of purest silver weighing one thousand six hundred and six pounds. For also above the ciborium he offered four crowns and sixteen chalices of most pure gold weighing … pounds. And of silver, as above, for his honor and glory, he made a ciborium, and chalices and crowns forty-six in number weighing twenty-two pounds, and seven ounces. And also upon the columns of that ciborium, for its ample beauty, of purest silver he made four baskets weighing forty-two pounds. He made too there before the circuit of the altar white all-silk figured veils, fourteen in number, having borders of fundatum. He offered there too fourteen other linen veils having a border round the circuit of white figured silk. Where above he made two arches of purest silver weighing fifty pounds.

[48] He made in the oratory of St. Silvester below the Lateran palace one vestment of fundatum, of St. Silvester. having in the middle a small tablet of chrysoclavum, and four veils of fundatum. He made too in the church of Jerusalem one vestment of fundatum, and likewise four veils of fundatum. He made too in the deaconry of St. Mary the Virgin, which is set in cyrum ^b, a diadem of silver within, surrounded with golden bosses. Nevertheless too in the church of the holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary our Lady, of St. Mary in Frascati, which is set in Frascati, one vestment of fundatum having in the middle a small gilded tablet enclosed, and four veils of fundatum. And also in the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, which is set in Morenicum Narranum, he made one vestment of fundatum and likewise four veils of fundatum. In like manner he offered in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, which is set in Maruli, he made one vestment of fundatum having in the middle a small gilded tablet enclosed, and four veils of fundatum. of St. Mary at St. Laurence, But he, protected by God, and venerable Pontiff, offered in the basilica of the holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary our Lady, which is set at St. Laurence outside the walls, he made one linen curtain having round it a border of fundatum, and in the middle likewise a cross of fundatum. And in the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, which is seen to be in Silva Candida, he offered one red vestment having round it a border of silver, and a cross in the middle, and four veils with eagles.

[49] of St. Peter. He offered too in the church of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles a crown of silver with figures surrounded from without, and gilded weighing seven pounds. He too, protected by God, and most blessed Pope, relying on supernal love, offered in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle before the Confession of the sacred altar on the right or on the left, for the adornment of that basilica, six angels of most pure silver weighing sixty-four pounds. And upon that ciborium he made olives which hang in the circuit of the altar having four gilded tablets, and also four gammadia. Where above he made four arches, which stand in the presbytery, of most pure silver weighing one hundred pounds. But he, the most blessed Pontiff, offered in the monastery of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, which is set in the place which is called Sublacus, at the fortieth milestone more or less from the city of Rome, one vestment of fundatum, and likewise three veils of fundatum. The same aforesaid Prelate made too in the church of the blessed martyrs of Christ Gervasius and Protasius, of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius. which is set within the city which is called Fundana, a vestment of fundatum having in the middle one cross of woven gold, and one veil of fundatum.

[50] of St. Caesarius in Terracina, The same aforesaid Prelate offered too in the church of the blessed martyr of Christ Caesarius, which is set within the city which is called Terracina, one vestment of fundatum having in the middle a cross with gammadia, and a border of blattin reading of the name of the Lord Leo the fourth Pope, and likewise five veils of fundatum. And also he offered in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle arches of most pure silver, of St. Peter, four in number weighing eighty-four pounds. He made moreover in the basilica of the blessed martyr Rufina in Silva Candida a vestment of fundatum having in the middle a cross of border-work, of St. Rufina, and in the circuit of blattin, reading of the name of the Lord Leo the fourth Pope. He made too, the same most blessed Prelate, in the church of blessed Clement the martyr and Pontiff six bowls of purest silver, of St. Clement, three indeed equal in thread with the sign of Christ, and two also likenesses of palms, and one chased, which is saxiscan, weighing together four pounds. The same most blessed and distinguished Pontiff made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle his nourisher three arches with columns, and lilies of purest silver weighing together one hundred and two pounds.

[51] The venerable Pontiff himself made in the basilica of St. Caesarius, of St. Caesarius, which is set in Terracina, a vestment of quadrapulum ornamented in the circuit with blattin, having in the middle a cross of chrysoclavum, reading of the name of the Lord Leo the fourth Pope. And also in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle he made arches of purest silver with columns, of St. Peter. and lilies, three in number weighing sixty pounds. He made too in the church of the Mother of God Mary, which is set in the Portuensian city, one vestment of spaniscum ornamented in the circuit with fundatum, and in the middle a cross of silver. Likewise veils of

spaniscum ornamented in the circuit with fundatum, three in number. But also gilded silver tablets, on the step before the Confession of blessed Peter the Apostle, four in number, and two lambs, which weigh together forty-four pounds. He offered, where above, porphyry crowns of wondrous size ornamented of purest gold with twelve dolphins, reading of the name of that nourishing Prelate, weighing three and a half pounds of gold. And also arches of purest silver, ten in number, which weigh together in one one hundred and eighty-one pounds. And linen veils, which hang on the arches where above ornamented in the circuit with fundatum, forty-eight in number.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.

The construction of the Leonine City, with the help of the Emperor Lothair, and various gifts again conferred on the Romans.

It pleases now, after all the things which have been written before, to unfold in the present letters for eternal memory, He sets about to found the City called by him the Leonine, what and how great things the very great and venerable Prelate, with skillful and pious zeal, for the defense of the whole mother Church, moved indeed by divine zeal, within the spaces of a few times, most honorably and nobly dedicated. Wherefore, while all the nobility of the Romans, on account of that pillage which the nefarious and malevolent Saracens had lately inflicted, stood in excessive lamentation, lest thereafter (unless the church of blessed Peter the Apostle were more quickly fortified on all sides with walls) they should be able to commit worse things, that same amiable Pontiff began to have great anguish for all the Romans: and anxiously to think in what way or order he could take away so great rancor or fear from their hearts. And when he sweated in these long and frequent labors, God revealing, he forthwith took counsel of this kind, that he should indicate this same thing more clearly than light to his beloved and special son the Lord Lothair Augustus, so that through his help and counsel, the Lord assenting, that city which his predecessor Leo the third Pope had begun to build toward the church of the aforenamed Apostle, and of which he had already laid the foundations in many places (although after his death they had been taken away by certain men, so that not even the entrance appeared where before the aforesaid wall had had its beginning), if life were his companion, he might be able to bring the desired work to effect, Christ consoling ^a. This finally the most pious and most serene Caesar recognizing, was at once filled with great joy and exultation, and earnestly asking the already-mentioned Prelate, and spiritual father through all things, that as quickly as possible he should complete the fabric of so great a work with diligent labor. To which he himself with his brothers directed not a few pounds of silver, that, as has been said, so profitable a work might by no means remain unaccomplished ^b.

[53] which with incredible diligence From which longed-for message, the eminent Prelate was made cheerful beyond measure. He began moreover from then to be very solicitous about the aforesaid business, and calling together all the faithful of the holy Church of God, asking counsel from them with his own mouth, how the fabric of such great walls could quickly be consummated. Then it seemed to all thus, that from the several cities ^c, and all the public estates, and monasteries by their turns, he should make them generally come, as also it was done. Wherefore in the second year of his prelacy the aforesaid city took the beginning of building. And in the sixth of his consecration the city was consummated on all sides with great and wonderful fabrics. And when through many labors and struggles of the most blessed Prelate the whole work of the walls, as he desired, was completed and accomplished, he began to give manifold, or innumerable thanks to almighty God, who deigned to hear and fulfill his daily prayers for the new building of the walls.

[54] he completes, and goes around barefoot with the clergy, For how great and what care, or zeal, and at the same time solicitude the pious and praiseworthy Shepherd, until it should be constructed, had on the several days and nights, no man's tongue can briefly narrate, and because he did nothing else after the due offices of the sacred mandates, except that which is written above, truly neither cold, nor the blast of the winds, or the rain, or a great or small disturbance of the air could in any way make him slothful in going from day to day. But now here, now there through the various fabrics of the walls he ran about watchful and solicitous, so that our almighty Redeemer, through the pious suffrages of the Apostles Peter and Paul, had resolved to fulfill his good purpose and desire very speedily, and now we all behold it. Then at length, all the works of the new city being consummated and perfected, as we have often related, the most blessed Pope and in all things and in all ways ever praiseworthy, that the aforesaid city, which from the proper name of its founder was called Leonine ^d, might stand perpetually firm and strengthened, commanded with great devotion of mind and gladness of heart, that all the bishops together with him and the priests inhabitants of the City, and all the orders of the clergy of the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, after litanies, and the psalter chanted, with hymns and spiritual canticles through the whole circuit of the walls should go round with bare feet, carrying ashes on their heads: and among other things he commanded holy water to be made by the Cardinal Bishops, that among the offices of prayers, passing along the wall they should study in every way to cast that water for the sake of sanctification, which, as had been commanded by him, they humbly performed.

[55] But he, the venerable Pontiff, with his own mouth gave three prayers over the same wall, various prayers, with many tears and sighs, asking and petitioning, that the oft-mentioned city might both be preserved forever by the help of Christ, and by the protection of all the Saints and angels endure secure and undaunted from every incursion of the enemies. The first prayer finally he made over the gate which looks toward St. Peregrinus, whose end and beginning is such. ✠✠✠. O God, who to thy Apostle Peter, the keys of the heavenly kingdom being conferred, didst hand over the pontificate of binding and loosing, grant that by the help of his intercession we may be freed from the bonds of our sins, and make this city, which newly, with thy help, we have founded, to remain secure from thy wrath forever, and to have new and manifold triumphs over the enemies, for whose cause it was constructed.

[56] The second prayer too the same pious Pope gave over the postern, composed by himself for that purpose, where in a wondrous manner the castle stands out, which is called that of the Holy Angel: of which prayer such is the text. O God, who from the very beginning of this world hast deigned to keep and preserve this holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church from enemies, cleanse propitiated the handwriting of our iniquity, and permit this city, which to thy holy name through the suffrages of thy Apostles Peter and Paul we have newly dedicated, to remain ever secure and undaunted from all the snares of the enemies. Through the Lord.

[57] But the third prayer he chanted over another postern ^e, reciting most devoutly. which looks toward the school of the Saxons, which from their word is called the Saxon postern, and that third prayer specially contains this manner. Grant, we beseech, almighty and merciful God, that we, crying to thee with our whole heart, blessed Peter thy Apostle interceding, may obtain the indulgence of thy piety, and for this city, which I thy servant Leo the fourth bishop, with thy help, have dedicated with a new work, and from my name is called Leonine, command that it may ever remain through unharmed and secure, we continually beseech before the clemency of thy majesty. Through the Lord. In which city namely, according to the promise of his desire, which he had vowed to God, he distributed a great largess ^f both to the Romans, and to the various nations, on the day of highest solemnity.

[58] Then with the rest of the priests, as has been said before, The Pope heaps the Romans with many gifts, and all the nobles of the Romans, going to the church of blessed Peter the Apostle with prayers and divine praises, he honorably chanted Mass for the salvation of the people, and the safety and perpetual stability of the city. He therefore, the sacred offices being wrought, honored and enriched all the nobles of Rome with manifold gifts, not only in gold or silver, but also with silken palls. And there was on that day great joy to all, namely on the twenty-seventh day of the month of June, the day before the vigils of the most blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and through the whole Roman city infinite joys and innumerable exultations were celebrated. Hence it is the more worthy and fitting that for so great a Prelate, and so great a Shepherd, we should continually implore the all-powerful Lord with our whole heart and pure mind, through whom so admirable and most honorable a work, by the consoling power of Christ, completed with swift exercise, for the salvation of all Christians we recognize consummated, in our prayers, that both here it may flourish very long, and there with all the Saints, for its innumerable struggles and labors, may deserve perpetually to possess the eternal rewards.

[59] and enriches the churches, But he, the most blessed Pope, made in the church of St. Sinzigius ^g, which is set in the city of Blera, one vestment of fundatum having in the middle tablets of chrysoclavum with the effigy of the Savior, having on his head three prasine gems, and of St. Sinzigius, and of the most blessed Prelate, and four veils of fundatum, and in the church of the holy four Crowned Ones he made two candlesticks of purest silver weighing five pounds and six ounces, and four silver bowls weighing … pounds. He made in the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, of St. Mary, which is set at blessed Laurence outside the walls, twenty-seven veils of fundatum. Likewise the aforesaid Prelate made in the church of blessed Clement the martyr and Pontiff a diadem, which hangs above the major altar of purest gold sculptured without gems, having in the middle a cross of gold with gems fixed in the same cross, five of glass, and which hang likewise four of glass weighing fifty pounds.

[60] and of St. Hippolytus. He offered too in the church of blessed Hippolytus the martyr, which is set in the Portuensian island, which is called Arsis, a vestment of fundatum having gammadia woven of silver, one, and four veils of fundatum. And also in the church of the blessed Mother of God Mary our Lady, which is set within the city which is called Anagni, he offered a vestment of fundatum with gammadia woven of gold, one, and four veils of fundatum. But lest after these things, which above by truthful testimony and certain schemes have been elucidated and written, we pass over the rest in silence, which is by no means fitting, it pleases to indicate the other works of the most blessed Pope done by the powerful clemency of Jesus Christ aiding, though very many, yet

to indicate more clearly than light. For when the mind and spirit of the supreme Prelate sweated unfailingly in good works worthy of God, he began to have a very great struggle about the Portuensian city, how in what way or order both in his own times and also in future times it could remain secure and free from enemies and the sons of Satan.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

The fortification of the Portuensian city; the reception of the Corsi there; other gifts to churches and their restoration.

And when he long held this counsel silently in his Pontifical heart, then the almighty and exalted Father, Thinking to fortify the Portuensian city, who never ceases to help his faithful in just and pious thoughts, stirred up the minds of the Corsi, who, terrified by fear of the Saracens, were exiles from their own borders, and went wandering hither and thither without their own soil, that they should come as quickly as possible to the Roman See for the sake of refuge and safety, as also it was done. But those coming to the most sacred thresholds of the Prince of the Apostles were at once presented to our thrice most blessed Lord Leo the fourth Pope. Who, when he had prudently enough inquired from them and their nobles what necessity then hung over them, for which they had come, but they had set forth their necessities, calamities, and straits in order as with one mouth before the aforesaid, declared that they would dwell all their days in the obedience and service of him and of the successor Pontiffs. This indeed the benevolent Prelate recognizing, was at once raised into great exultation and joy, giving thanks to God, who sent him such men, who could dwell forever in the aforenamed city.

[62] Their many promises therefore being heard, the eminent Pope together with his nobles answered them with a clear voice: He receives the Corsi fleeing to him, If what you have said to us in words, you shall take care to accomplish in deed, we have good places enough, in which you will be able to dwell, if only you be good and faithful to us and to our successor Pontiffs. For the city which we are about to give you is very much strengthened and fortified, which we, by the protecting help of our Redeemer, with new gates and fabrics in most necessary places have recalled to its pristine cultivation, in which if, as we have said, you desire to remain, we will grant you vineyards, and lands, and meadows, that you may be able to have no want. We give you also, until you have from your own labor, whence you and your women and children may be fully able to live. Oxen too, and horses, and the other animals, as we have said before, if you do all things with a good mind.

[63] Then the peoples of the Corsi, hearing such promises, and in the same city, were made more joyful, and forthwith sought messengers from the pious Pontiff, who should specially show them the city and the places, and so it was done. All things indeed pleased them, and all promised with even mind, that if our Pope and Lord should deign to confer all the things which we have gone around, we will hasten with all our family and household goods into the service of St. Peter, that is his and his successors', with all eagerness. The city finally being surveyed, and all the possessions, they returned to the venerable Pontiff with the same messengers. Coming therefore, as was premised, and announcing to him joyful and prosperous things, and that the nation of the Corsi had altogether professed themselves to live and die in the same places, all being called, that they likewise according to the assertions of the messengers might testify unanimous, he issued to them the Pontifical decree which he had secondly promised (for the sake of the most serene Lothair and Louis the elder Emperors, and at the same time his own reward and perpetual memory), namely with this tenor and condition set before, that it should remain firm and stable so long as they should be obedient and faithful in all things to the Prelates of the holy See, and to the Roman people.

[64] but he settles them on certain conditions. But if, which God forbid, they should not irrefragably keep the whole series of the decree, it was sanctioned in it, that it should stand void and empty. But the places which were given them, and consigned by the Pontifical messengers, both from the proper ecclesiastical right, and of the venerable monasteries, nay even of the several men who were neighbors, are read specially ascribed in the pontifical privilege granted to them. Behold indeed how great was and shone forth the mercy of the oft-mentioned Prelate, who not only loved his Roman nobles for the defense of the City, but invited men from wherever he could gather them to their help and solace, loving more the defense of the country and the security of the people committed to him, than temporal and perishable gains, for which we now recall that many lost together their life and the possessions in which they delighted continually. After all these things finally, which above are woven in a brief style, the holy and venerable Prelate, rejoicing enough, performed other not dissimilar little works.

[65] He repairs other cities. For of Horta and Ameria, very ancient cities, whose walls and gates because of the excessive antiquity of the times had fallen even to the ground, and remained utterly destitute, which now thieves, now robbers entered more easily through the open approaches with no guard resisting, that most skillful Prelate, recognizing so great neglect of the aforesaid cities, brought back those cities which we have entitled, by his exhortation and zeal, with new walls and gates, by no means dissimilar to the former, to their pristine place and state, being strengthened by divine grace: in which cities now recorded the citizens dwell better secure from the snares of the enemies, and thieves and robbers, as has been said, the walls and gates being shut, will be able to inflict no damage or theft henceforth, both by night and by day.

[66] Gifts in the church of the holy Crowned Ones, These things, as has been said, being diligently completed, he made in the church of the holy four Crowned Ones one diadem of purest gold hanging above the major altar with little chains likewise of gold sculptured having in the middle a golden cross, having fourteen gems, of which five fixed in the same cross, and others which hang there nine. Six indeed white, and three hyacinthine, weighing together one and a half pounds and ounces. And also in the basilica of the holy Mother of God Mary our Lady, of St. Mary, which is set in the street of the Sardi, he offered one pair of chalice and paten of gilded silver reading of the name of the Lord Leo the fourth Pope weighing together in one four pounds and five ounces. He, the distinguished and eminent Prelate, when he had accomplished innumerable works of highest adornment in the basilica of blessed Peter the key-bearer of heaven, of St. Peter, erected the doors which the Saracen race had destroyed, and stripped of silver, and decorated them with many light-flowing silver tablets ^b, and salutary figures sculptured, and repaired them into a better form than they had been before, that all who wish to enter into the same basilica may render praises to almighty God, and to his holy prelacy, and demand that many courses of years of his life be extended, who with a work of so great splendor, and so great weight of beauty adorned the hall of God with silver weighing seventy pounds.

[67] That supreme Pope amiable to God, at the beginning of his pontificate ^c, when the portico of the left part of the basilica of blessed Peter had fallen because of excessive antiquity, He built many churches. with swift zeal renovated it more splendidly. For also he chiefly renovated the roofings of that church with great beams and bold craftsmanship, light-flowing. Who also the portico which adjoins the church of St. Andrew, when it was seen about to fall, newly restored for the better. But also the chamber, which is beheld to be before the silver doors of the already-said hall, relying on infinite love, renovating he decorated. And he made many churches of pious operation in the same form, which if we should wish to hand to writing, the tongue will not suffice to narrate, nor will the fingers of the writers be able to sustain it. When therefore through the various churches of God he was accomplishing many distinguished works, he, the most blessed Pontiff, more splendidly and firmly renovated the portico which stands before the basilica of the holy Mother of God, which is situated near the basilica of St. Laurence outside the walls.

[68] But in the church of the holy Mother of God, which is set in the street of the Sardi at the thirtieth milestone from the city of Rome, Other gifts he offered four Catholic books, one of the Gospels, another of the Kingdoms, of the Psalms, and of the Sermons. In the church of blessed Martin confessor and Pontiff, in the church of St. Martin, outside the gate of blessed Peter the Apostle, he made one silver chalice with little chains weighing four pounds, and two ounces. And in the church of the holy four Crowned Ones he made two censers of most pure silver weighing two pounds, of the holy Crowned Ones, and one ounce. In like manner too in the church of blessed Petronilla he made three vestments of fundatum and twelve veils, four indeed of fundatum, and three of spaniscum and five linen. For also in the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, of St. Mary, which he the most blessed Pontiff newly constructed from the foundations above the school of the Saxons, he offered three vestments of fundatum, and likewise four veils of fundatum.

[69] The same most blessed Pontiff made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle silvered wax-tapers, of St. Peter, which stand in the presbytery twenty-seven in number weighing together forty pounds. For also the beams in the entrance and in the middle of the presbytery he clothed with purest silver weighing sixty-seven pounds, and three ounces. And when, kindled with supernal zeal for the country, he adorned the churches in order with the beautiful metals and ornaments of Christ, afterward he made many other things in the hall of blessed Peter the Apostle the Prince, one crown of purest silver with four silver little chains having forty-two dolphins weighing together twenty-three pounds. This Pontiff too, ever relying on the help of Christ, and divinely inspired, made in the circuit of the altar of blessed Peter the Apostle four silken veils of prasine, having tablets of chrysoclavum with the effigy of the Savior and of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and of himself the nourishing Prelate, and in the middle crosses, and gammadia of chrysoclavum with little orbs, in which are images of the Apostles of wondrous beauty decorated, which on feast days for adornment are hung there.

[70] which are enumerated. In like manner he made, where above, other white all-silk rosy veils decorated wondrously with lattice-work, overshadowing the sacred things of Easter. And also he offered there another smaller crown

with four little chains; and ten dolphins, having a lily, and a hook, weighing two pounds. For the mind of this most blessed Prelate, ever being devoted to God, studied with immense love to decorate the churches of Jesus Christ with precious ornaments, for the sake of the salvation of eternal life, and what none of his predecessor Pontiffs thought to do, he, doubtless fervent and compelled by the Holy Spirit, resolved to make crowns of most pure gold, namely refulgent with the illustrious countenances of Christ and of the Saints, to be made in the church of Peter the Prince of the Apostles near the altar, under which his most sacred body rests, two hanging on the right and left with little chains, golden bosses, and prasine gems decorated, having together sixty dolphins weighing twenty pounds.

[71] At St. Andrew's and the holy Crowned Ones. He made too a silver Crucifix painted with wondrous work in the same church, which placed on the left part of the entrance between the great columns, shines with immense adornment, having sixty-two and a half pounds. He too, the most blessed Pontiff, made in the oratory of blessed Andrew the Apostle, which adjoins the church of St. Peter, one silken vestment having the figure of eagles, and in the middle a tablet with chrysoclavum, in which are painted the images of Christ and of his Disciples on the right and left shining, and of that nourishing Prelate; and a like one after the perfection of the whole work, and with the ornaments of adornment, in the church of the holy four Crowned Ones he made a vestment of the same silk with a tablet of chrysoclavum having the figure, or miracle, which the Lord Christ wrought, abundantly satisfying five thousand men from five loaves and the nourishment of two fishes.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IX.

The Roman Synod in which the Cardinal Anastasius was deposed; gifts again manifold to various churches.

But amid these things which above are written, the oft-named most holy Prelate began to have chief care and solicitude for the several rectors of the churches, He convokes a Synod of 67 bishops. namely bishops, presbyters, deacons, and all the militia of the Christians. Wishing therefore, as also it was done, to set forth from the ancient authorities a new norm, Christ helping, how each of them should lead a chaste and sober life, and please God in all things, to whom we ought always to render service irreproachably, then at length, the grace of the Holy Spirit revealing it to him, together with the counsel of the most serene Lothair and Louis the Emperors, in the thirty-fifth year of their empire, and the seventh of the Pontificate of the already-said Prelate, in the month of December on the eighth day, in the second Indiction, he gathered a holy and venerable synod in the Church of blessed Peter the Apostle. In which both he, the Catholic and Apostolic man, and also others with him sixty-seven bishops sat: of whom four bishops were sent by the emperors, Joseph of Ivrea, Notting of Brescia, Peter of Spoleto, and another Peter of Arezzo. Among whom too Paul deacon of the holy Ravennate church sitting, holding the place of John his archbishop, without the presbyters and deacons and clergy of the holy mother Church.

[73] And then before all he commanded forty-two chapters, in which the Cardinal Anastasius is deposed. which are known assuredly to pertain to the salvation and gain of all Christian men, to be read by the deacons of the holy and universal See of the Church. Which chapters too, that in the future they might be kept inviolate by all, he ordered to be ascribed after the other decrees of the Pontiffs in the holy canons. So that all bishops might have the example of this authority before their eyes, and might be able better to instruct and educate their subjects. In this synod finally, after the rest, Anastasius presbyter Cardinal of the title of blessed Marcellus was canonically deposed by all, because he deserted his parish for five years contrary to the institutes of the canons, and even to this day lingers in another's. Who, when he would neither come to the two councils gathered for him, nor was moved by the Apostolic letters, nor by three bishops sent, namely Nicholas, Petronacius, and John, therefore deservedly, with one consent, according to what is contained in the sacred canons about such men, the holy synod deposed him, and deprived him of the priestly honor in the year, month, day, and Indiction noted above.

[74] But after the chief definition of this council, the most blessed mind of the same Prelate, Gifts in the church of St. Peter. ever kindled with the fire of heavenly love, began again to have immense zeal for restoring the ornaments of the vessels of all the churches of God. For also in the church of blessed Peter the key-bearer of the kingdom of the heavens, he made one double lamp of purest silver weighing sixteen pounds. And also in the monastery of St. Martin, which adjoins the church of the Prince of the Apostles, he made another lamp of cast silver, and double, weighing twenty-seven and a half pounds. Likewise too in the monastery of Sts. John and Paul he made another silver lamp likewise to those said above weighing twenty-two pounds, of Sts. John and Paul. and a half: which on Sundays or feast days may shine with great splendor of light for those standing near the lectern to read the sacred lessons. But the same most holy Pope made little folds of cast silver with lattice-work in the entrance of the presbytery, and before the Confession of blessed Peter the Apostle his lover, which shining with beautiful adornment afford admiration to the minds of men: of which two weigh six hundred and forty-two pounds.

[75] of St. Vincent, But two others five hundred and eighty pounds, and in the church of St. Vincent, which is set in Frascati, he offered one vestment of fundatum. But because, as we have often said, the mind of this most serene Prelate, filled with the love chiefly of the most blessed Prelate the Apostle Peter the Prince of the Apostles, ever desired to accomplish many ornaments of that supreme church, whose throne, the divine power dispensing, he ruled; he made upon his holy altar a vestment of chrysoclavum having in the middle the figure of the Savior shining among the angelic countenances, and handing to the Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, of St. Peter. and on the right and left the glorious passion of Peter and Paul shining: among whom the Prelate himself offers the city, which he had commanded to be made, depicted, Peter interceding, and a cross bright with gold and gems, and in the circuit of the altar and above having above silken cloths woven with a precious figure of eagles, of which two are seen gilded. He offered moreover, where above, four veils with chrysoclavum, in which the Prelate himself painted offers to the image of the Savior shining among the angelic countenances the city which he had utterly prepared.

[76] of St. Paul; Since therefore we have now fully, though briefly, described those ornaments which the aforesaid Pontiff offered to the church of blessed Peter; now those things which he wrought in the church of the most blessed Paul the Apostle Doctor of the Gentiles, after the impious devastation of the Agarenes, for the sake of eternal memory summarily we study to make known. He made moreover upon his most sacred body a ciborium of wondrous beauty with an immense weight of silver, adorned with silver columns weighing nine hundred and forty-six pounds. But when the benign mind of that Pontiff, before and after the various general ornaments of all the churches, which with immense desire he afforded, ever took care to offer something best and more precious to blessed Peter: he offered him three masoric olives ^a of admirable beauty woven of silk, and painted in color, which namely on feast days should hang in the circuit of the major altar. He made moreover in the church of St. Marcianus, of St. Marcianus, which is situated in Domucella, which is called Balnearola ^b, one vestment of fundatum, and two spaniscan veils. of St. Laurence In like manner too in the church of blessed Laurence the martyr of Christ and Levite he offered veils of fundatum, which hang on the arches below the major little columns twenty-four in number. He made too in the church of blessed Clement the martyr and Pontiff one pair of ewer of silver having in itself carved the likeness of the head of a man with a vine, of St. Clement, and another figure, weighing three pounds. Likewise he offered, he the most blessed and nourishing Prelate, in the church of the holy Mother of God Mary in Aemilia, which is called on the Aurelian way, one vestment of fundatum. of St. Stephen, Likewise too in the church of St. Stephen, where above, he offered another vestment of fundatum. But the same distinguished and nourishing Prelate, protected by the supernal right hand, ever persevering with sincere mind in the service of God, of St. Silvester. after many good actions, decorated and painted with many and beautiful colors the church of blessed Silvester and Martin, which the Lord Sergius his predecessor had newly built from the depths. Whose beauty too to this day affords great admiration to human eyes. For also its venerable and sacred altar he clothed and decorated with purest silver weighing one hundred and sixteen pounds.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER X.

The overthrown Centumcellae restored elsewhere, and heaped with gifts, where also other churches: the composition of a false accusation before the Emperor; and the pious death of St. Leo.

Wherefore after the beautiful and praiseworthy little works of the various churches of God, which the magnificent Prelate performed with all devotion of mind, Meditating to restore the castle of Centumcellae, lest the Christian people should any longer perish in the castle of Centumcellae from the enemies, as often used to happen: for through forty years it remained ruined in its walls, and destitute of its own inhabitant, and after the manner of beasts, their own seats being left, for fear of the Saracens, as until now had been done, through the shady places of the woods and unknown mountains the people who had been left by them dedicated their dwellings, in which too for fear of the enemies, by days and nights they could have neither sleep for their eyes, nor any rest, even a little, according to human custom. And when so pious and praiseworthy a Prelate daily grieved over their burden, and intolerable, excessive strait, beyond measure and more than can be believed, with many tears and infinite prayers, he assiduously besought the Lord the founder of all things, that he would deign to show him by the gift of his grace, into what place, for the safety and liberation of the oft-mentioned Christian people, the Centumcellensian city could be changed.

[78] by prayers he seeks from God a suitable place; To which he himself setting out, surveyed and beheld with diligent care and zeal the places which were joined to it by proximity. But where the place seemed suitable for building a city, they bore a want of water, which is always necessary enough for men. All the places therefore being traversed, as we said before, he came at length, the divine mercy favoring, to a place most excellent and very much fortified, upon which his mind chiefly was expanded, because both an abundance of waters for comforting the people, and the other

human uses, and the water-mills grinding it fully supplied. Yet in what way or order the divine clemency showed this, it is worthy that, for the memory and praise of the venerable Pontiff, all the people should truly believe and recognize that by divine counsel and consultation the work long sought was brought to effect.

[79] which is revealed to him by a vision, On a certain night finally, while the distinguished Prelate lay according to custom on his own little bed, and thought, as he was wont, of the divine little works, he was led in his sleep to the place foreseen and already ordained, which is distant twelve miles from the Centumcellensian city, and showed the several places to a certain Peter master of the soldiers, as if by bodily presence in that revelation in order, where he should found and construct the churches, and where the gates, by pontifical help. And because, on account of the narrowness of the place, only two gates were to be constructed there, in that secret revelation he noted it with his own fingers. But morning being come, on account of the dream which he had seen, he began to have great struggles, and commanded the aforenamed Peter at once to come to his presence, to whom he related whatever he had seen in his sleep, and furnished him many mancuses ^a in silver, that, the people of the Centumcellensian city being led, he should more hastily complete the city with them. And, God being auspice, so now all things built shine, as in the dream the praiseworthy Pope with his own hand designated, on which from his own name he imposed the name Leopolis. To which, after it had begun to be built, for seeing and considering the fabric, with a multitude of his faithful he lovingly went.

[80] where he founds and consecrates Leopolis. The gates and churches finally being seen, in the places specially as he had shown, and his desire, Christ protecting, being fulfilled, he gave infinite thanks to the almighty Lord, who deigned to show him such a place, in which both the people should be safe, and to abundance there should minister even stones and sand, so that without the labor of workmen the fabric newly constructed could receive augmentation. Rejoicing from all these things, the oft-mentioned Pontiff went round the city Leopolis with litanies and prayers on his own feet, and perpetually consecrated it with three prayers after the manner of the Trinity. Duly performing the office of the Masses, as he was solicitous, and commanding blessed water to be cast along the walls. And with his own hands, on account of the greatness of his love, he distributed no small largess to all the people. And commending to the almighty Lord the people and the city divinely shown, that it might never be taken or invaded by enemies. All these things being wrought, to his See with immense joy and alacrity, Christ helping, and a fifteenth day being added, the whole circuit of the walls was completed and perfected, in the eighth year of his prelacy, in the second Indiction.

[80] But also in the churches which he made there, he offered many gifts. Gifts given there to the church of St. Peter, Namely in the church of St. Peter cast silver bowls larger and smaller, seven, weighing together sixteen pounds, and one ounce. One gilded cup, three gilded flasks ^b. Clasps ^c larger and smaller, five. One gilt silver cross with one gem. Likewise another cross of gold having in the middle a Monocossis ^d. And another cross of silver having in number forty gems. One gilded golden thurible; one saxiscan right-hand, twelve golden crowns. One bowl, and two ostrich eggs. And he made in the same church of the already-said city two silken vestments; of which one has in the middle a tablet of chrysoclavum and the other has in the middle a cross, and four little orbs with gammadia, and eighteen veils of fundatum. A Crucifix of purest silver weighing seven pounds.

[81] And also in the church of St. Leo, where above, and of St. Leo. he offered one gilded paten, one silver chalice, two vestments, one indeed of fundatum, ornamented in the circuit with oloverum ^e having in the middle a wheel of chrysoclavum, and gammadia, and others of spaniscum. Likewise seven Catholic codices in number. Of Histories, Solomon, an Antiphonary, a Psalter, and of the Sacraments, of the Acts and Sermons, but also a Gospel with silver tablets, and the most sacred altar of God, which stands above the most holy body of blessed Peter the Apostle; with gilded silver ones, which on the right and left of that Prince of the Apostles have miracles, he adorned it with plates [*], which now with immense splendor flash like the stars of heaven, weighing together eighty-four pounds, and five ounces.

[82] And after the distinguished marks of so immense a work, Other ornaments offered to the church of St. Peter. and divine things done, the clemency of the eternal God inspiring, which through various places for the salvation of the Christians that most holy Pope wrought, the Church, which by the Lord's voice stands founded upon the firm Rock, and from the holy name of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles glorious flashes with the most precious adornment of all metals, taking care, on account of the exceeding love of the heavenly Father, to adorn it daily, there too he accomplished a silver lectern chased with illustrious workmanship, and standing upon four feet. On whose summit namely the head of a lion shines forth weighing thirty-one pounds and eleven ounces. And also four candlesticks, which for a long time of the supreme Pontiffs were erected in the middle of the presbytery on feast days. And these with sagacious judgment he clothed with purest silver, and established that they should be erected there forever, which none of his predecessors thought to do, having together fifty-five pounds. Where above, he made too larger silver candlesticks, one pair weighing forty-eight pounds and ten ounces, in which sit double lamps of purest silver shining near the major altar, weighing together forty-nine pounds. And also seven other silvered candlesticks weighing twenty-five pounds, and three ounces.

[83] He restores the monastery of St. Martin; In like manner, he made also seven other black iron candlesticks silvered above weighing twenty-one pounds, and three ounces. And upon that altar he made a vestment woven of gold; shining throughout with white pearls, and on the right and left having gemmed tablets with golden little orbs round about, in which is described the distinguished name of that Prelate. Now too the monastery of St. Martin, which by long age was about to fall, he restored with wondrous buildings of houses, and utterly decorated to a better honor than it had been before. In which too he offered a white rosy vestment with roses, and the Savior with the Apostles, and a virgin reading the name of the Lord Leo the fourth. Likewise five white rosy veils, and one indeed having thirteen gammadia, and three gilded silver almonds. In the church of the holy four Crowned Ones he made one vestment of fundatum.

[84] never ceasing to do good to the churches. Moreover the same supreme and orthodox Pontiff, struck by divine inspiration, made in the basilica of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles chalices of purest silver, which hang above the principal arch, and also below the major columns on the right and left, eighty-three in number, having together four hundred and forty-one pounds. That very same thing indeed before the vestibule of the sacred altar of wondrous beauty he made a beam, which, after the nefarious pillage of the dire nation, he decorated with purest silver, in which sit the sacred and venerable images of God, which weigh sixty pounds. He offered too in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, which is set in the city Leopolis, one thurible of gilded silver. In like manner in the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, which is situated in the street of the Sardi, gilded silver bowls with a basket weighing … pounds. Likewise too in the venerable monastery of Jerusalem, which is set near the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, he made a vestment of fundatum with little orbs, ornamented in the circuit, with a border of chrysoclavum with veils of imizinum ^f two, and of fundatum three. But he, protected by God, venerable and distinguished Pontiff, made the propitiatory of the sacred altar of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, where his most sacred body rests, a spanoclistum ^g having indeed seventy-two pounds of silver, but eighty of gold.

[85] A false accusation before the Emperor, But in the times of this one a certain Daniel, Master of the soldiers, blinded by a mass of iniquity and folly, hastened to the most serene footsteps of the Lord Louis the Emperor, and did not hesitate to say to him many false and useless words, which can in no way be believed, against Gratian the most eminent master of the soldiers, and distinguished superista and counselor of the Roman palace. For he insistently accused him out of the envy of falsehood, saying to the Emperor: Gratian the superista ^h of the Roman city, whom you believe to be faithful toward you, said to me alone secretly in his house, murmuring exceedingly against the Franks: Because the Franks do us no good, nor afford help, but rather violently take away what is ours. Why do we not summon the Greeks, and, composing a treaty of peace with them, expel the king and nation of the Franks from our kingdom and dominion?

[86] Which being heard, soon the aforesaid Emperor, kindled with immense fury, procured, even without letters directed to the Pontiff and senate of the Romans, that they should quickly come to Rome. he is manifestly exposed, Whom nevertheless coming the Lord Leo the Pope honorably, as is the custom, sitting upon the major steps of blessed Peter the Apostle, received, and began to placate with the mellifluous words of preaching. But on a certain day the Emperor himself with the most holy Leo the Pontiff, all the Roman nobles, and likewise the best of the Franks sitting in the house which Leo the third Pope of blessed memory had made near the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, held a plea about the aforesaid accusation ⁱ. Then Daniel, armed with an iniquitous brow, and imbued with false thought, said before all: This Gratian had counsel with me, to take away this Roman land from your power, and to hand it over to the Greeks.

[87] To whom at once, not only Gratian, but also all the Romans said before the Emperor: and the whole matter being composed, You lie, it is in no way true what you say. But the Emperor recognizing, and all the nobility of the Romans and Franks, that the aforesaid Daniel had said such a crime through falsehood and envy against Gratian, at once the most clement Emperor, unwilling to act against the institutes of the ancient Roman Augusti, established that they should be judged according to Roman law. By which judgment Daniel himself, reproached by the words of many, manifested with his own mouth that he had said false things against him. Therefore he was handed over before all to the already-said Gratian, that whatever he wished to do with him, he might have the power. But when the Emperor asked Daniel, now handed over, from Gratian with much and humble supplication, Gratian assented, whom he at once, full grace being rendered to him, willingly received, and so was freed from the peril of death.

[88] the most holy Pontiff dies. But these things being wrought the Emperor departed, and the most holy Lord Leo the fourth Pope not after many days fell asleep in the Lord on the XVI

Kalends of August, and was buried in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle. He made moreover two ordinations, one in the month of December, and another through the month of March, of nineteen presbyters, eight deacons, and bishops through various places sixty-three in number.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps, "with luminaries."