ON ST. ARBOGAST, BISHOP OF STRASBOURG
IN GERMANIA PRIMA.
IN THE YEAR 678.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Arbogast, Bishop of Strasbourg in Germania I (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
§ I. The cult of the Saint.
With how great veneration Strasbourg—or Argentoratum, or, as it is now called, Strasburg—of old worshiped its St. Arbogast, the anonymous author testifies in the Life of St. Deicolus, written about the year of Christ 965, St. Arbogast worshiped at Strasbourg for many ages; which we gave in volume 11 of January at the 18th day of the same month: for thus he has, chapter 1: Nor does it seem to be passed over incuriously, the parts of Alsace on this side of the Vosges, whose head and all glory the city of Strasbourg is known to be, which by a vulgar name is called Strazburch; which, besides its principal relics, rejoices to possess its own patrons, whom it received from the Lord as founders of the true faith and provident sowers of the divine word, that is, Amandus, Justinus, Arbogast, Florentius, and some others, whose names that heavenly kingdom holds inscribed without end in the roll of the blessed order.
[2] We marvel therefore, since we find no mention of him either in Ado, or in Usuard, or in other older and more celebrated Martyrologists. [in the ancient Martyrologies, if you except one German one, he was unknown; not so in the more recent ones.] In Ado, I say, or Usuard; by which name I understand the genuine text of each: for in the appendix indeed to the Martyrology of Ado edited by our Rosweyd I know these things are read at the 12th day before the Kalends of August: On the same day, of holy Arbogast bishop and confessor; which same words are on this day in our manuscript Florarium of the Saints of the 15th century; save that to the title of bishop is added "of Strasbourg": but in the Usuardine supplements how frequent his memory is, may be seen at the same day in our edition. Furthermore the most ancient annunciation of our Saint in the sacred fasti seems to be that which is noted in the Martyrology of the German church, which Beck says lay hidden for seven hundred years, when he published it at Augsburg in the year of Christ 1687; in it these things are read at the 12th day before the Kalends of August: Of Praxedes the virgin, and of Daniel the prophet, and of Arbogast the confessor. Gradually, however, the fame of his sanctity, his miracles disclosing it, if I mistake not, began to spread more widely, and his name to be inserted in the sacred tables everywhere throughout the West, as may be understood from the augmented Adonian and Usuardine Martyrologies, from Wion, Dorganius, Menard, and others; to which at length the Roman Martyrology too was added, assigning him the same day feast as all the rest, July 21, where it thus reports him: At Strasbourg, of holy Arbogast the bishop, renowned for miracles.
[3] An Office too of St. Arbogast I find recited in certain churches long ago: His Office recited in various churches; for instance among the people of Mainz, in whose Breviary, printed at Venice in the year 1495, is noted at July 20 his Office from the common of a confessor bishop with a ferial rite, with a proper collect: the Mainz Breviary of the year 1507 agrees, save that in the rubrics it warns: Of Arbogast, ferially, as of a confessor bishop: but in the church of Mainz there are nine Lessons. But in another Breviary of the same church, printed at Cologne in the year 1570, the collect is changed, and two proper Lessons are added, of which the former contains especially the miracle of the son of king Dagobert raised to life; the other, the waters of the river Bruche often trodden by him with dry feet. Among the people of Constance the feast is celebrated somewhat more solemnly on its day, that is, July 21, as is plain from their Breviary printed at Lyon in the year 1561, in which both the collect is different from the preceding ones, and six proper Lessons of the first and second nocturn are set down, drawn almost from our Acts, the phrase being for the most part preserved; the rest are of the common of a confessor bishop. The Gospel, Let your loins be girt. In another edition of the Breviary of the same diocese, that of Dillingen of the year 1575, the same collect is preserved, but the Lessons of the first nocturn are taken from the occurring Scripture, as they say; those of the second are proper, but far different from the preceding; the rest agree with the former. The Breviary of Worms, printed at Mainz in the year 1576, exhibits again another collect with only three Lessons, and those proper, and taken from our Life.
[4] more solemnly however at Strasbourg, in which most things are proper, But in this part the church of Strasbourg much excels the rest, whose Breviary we have printed in the year of Christ 1489. For in it at July 21 the Antiphons at Matins, Lauds, and Vespers; likewise the Lessons and Responsories are all proper: and the Lessons indeed are nine, distributed through three nocturns, which I therefore pass over, because the first six are translated from the Acts to be given below almost word for word, though not a few things are cut for brevity's sake; but the three
remaining ones, which pertain to the third nocturn, are assigned from the homily on the Gospel, A certain nobleman, etc. The rest, because they are peculiar, I thought should here be presented to the studious reader. I shall begin from the first Vespers, whose Antiphons run thus:
[5] at the first Vespers, 1. Rejoice, noble church, shining with the elegance of spiritual silver, who commemorate the votive solemnities of your father Arbogast. 2. Him our mother Ireland sent us as a special shepherd, imbued with the sweetness of whose milk, we shall one day enjoy the heavenly fullness. 3. And so the holy father Arbogast, inflamed with desire of the everlasting life, renounces his paternal soil; that by his example he may make many perfect. 4. The wisdom of blessed Arbogast is deservedly praised, and his memory perpetually flourished perhaps for "will flourish" in the church, which he adorned with the manifold efficacy of virtues. 5. Let us rejoice therefore in the festivity of so great a father Arbogast, by whose patronage we hope to obtain pardon of sins, and the fellowship of the heavenly citizens. Chapter. Many were made priests, etc. Response. Holy bishop Arbogast, assist those who piously serve you, by defending the flock, by appeasing for it the King of heaven. Verse. Let this people rejoice to have you as a good patron. By defending, etc. Over the Magnificat, the antiphon: O God, fount of all goodness! From you good things flow, to you they return: because from far off among the islands you made the good part of the sea, Arbogast, to flow even to us; through whom you watered our dry land with the impulse of your river. Grant us, good Jesus, by following you, the fountain of living waters, this vein. Prayer. Be present, O Lord, etc., as it is now read in the common of a confessor not a bishop.
[6] At Matins, besides the proper invitatory, in the first nocturn these are the antiphons. 1. Sprung from illustrious birth, at the first nocturn, a native of Ireland, like one of the rivers of paradise, Arbogast was sent forth. 2. The tender years of infancy being passed, he is handed over by his parents to be instructed in sacred letters. 3. But the boy, being of a mind capable of the sacred precepts, drank the streams of doctrine with a thirsting breast. The responsories and versicles after the several lessons of the same nocturn, excerpted from our Acts, as I said, run thus: 1. Response. Blessed Arbogast, born of noble and, what is more excellent, Christian parents, from a boy receiving the rudiments of the heavenly warfare, was ever a venerator and chief worshiper of the Christian religion. Verse. What he would be in his youthful age, he already foreshowed in his tender disposition. A venerator of the Christian religion. Response 2. Arbogast as a boy relaxed not in boyish wantonness; but wholly intent always about the churches and holy places, he strove to cleave more closely to all the most perfect men: that he might drink in through them the documents of the Catholic faith and the examples of good works. Verse. He followed beyond his strength the works of mercy; that, as much as he could, he might succor the needy. To all the most perfect. Response 3. But now, having entered the years of youth, when he had begun to have power over his own affairs, he had so great a care for the poor of Christ that he expended on their food all that he had possessed. Verse. Doubtless with the words of blessed Job this holy Man could use: From infancy compassion grew with me. So great a care for.
[7] In the second nocturn, antiphons. 1. It was also the custom of the blessed Man to go to all the Saints for the zeal of imitation; at the second, and the virtues of each he turned into ornaments of his own life. 2. Of this one he followed the continence, of that one the cheerfulness; of this one the largess, of that one the vigils, of another he emulated the industry. 3. By these and such zeals of holy conversation he had turned all to admiration and love of himself. Response 1. The blessed Man, when he abounded in the wealth of earthly faculties, receiving with no deaf ear that evangelical saying, Unless a man renounce all things, he cannot be my disciple, poor, resolved to follow the poor Christ. Verse. Burning to render to him with ardent soul, who, though he was rich, for us deigned to become poor: poor, the poor. Response 2. And so the holy Servant of God, turned with all desire to the Lord, renouncing his homeland, parents, friends, and finally the world, longed for the wilderness: and came into the parts of the Franks, the Lord leading. Verse. That without the solicitude of this world he might be wholly at leisure for God, he chose a seat secret to the converse of men. And into the parts of the Franks. Response 3. At that time Dagobert governed the kingdom of the Franks, under the name of earthly empire a soldier of the eternal King, rendering the things of Caesar to Caesar, the things of God to God: to whom the holy Man became known, the fame of his virtues disclosing him. Verse. For the lamp could not lie hidden under a bushel, which the Lord had prepared to shine to many in the house. Of virtues.
[8] at the third; In the third nocturn, antiphons. 1. And when the fame of the Saint grew frequent far and wide, to the pontificate of the city of Strasbourg, by the concordant will of king, priests, and citizens and by common acclamation, he was no less seized than elected. 2. Who, although with all effort he resisted, yet overcame the pious desire of the devout people; and, to the inexpressible joy of all, is raised to the pontifical see. 3. For he was a lamp, kindled by the grace of the true light, and therefore most worthily to be set upon a candlestick, that he might infuse into all in the house of God, by word and example, the light of truth. Response 1. But now, the episcopate being taken up, of what sort and how great he showed himself, it is not of human ability to unfold. For he remained the same as he had been before. The same humility in his heart, the same meanness in his dress. And so he filled the dignity of the episcopate; that yet he lost not the purpose of his former religion. Verse. Spending the doctrine of the divine word on all daily, he suffered no time to be void of saving preaching. And so. Response 2. It was also familiar to blessed Arbogast to withdraw the clamor of the world to an oratory which he had removed from the city across the river, and there, after the example of his former anchoresis, to be at leisure for heavenly secrets: under whose feet, in passing, the wave offered itself to be trodden. Verse. With this power the Lord deigned to adorn his Saint, that he might show him to all the faithful a worthy successor of Peter. Whose. Response 3. You, wonderful in your Saints, O Lord, King of kings, we praise together; your works, O Christ, your miracles we proclaim: who deigned so to glorify your holy Arbogast that you made him wonderfully triumph over death. Verse. For you made him equal to the apostolic merit, when through his merits you recalled the king's son from the dead. Who your holy. Glory. You, wonderful.
[9] at Lauds, etc. The antiphons set in Lauds I pass over; because they exhibit nothing but the pious affections of the church of Strasbourg toward its Shepherd, nor contribute anything to the history of his Life, except the antiphon at the Benedictus, which is conceived in these words: When the Lord decreed to reward his Elect one after the courses of this life were run, the Man of God began to be goaded by an emulous infirmity of body; which growing heavier, foreknowing his dissolution to be at hand, he chose a place of burial outside the gate, that not even in death he might leave the traces of the Lord who suffered outside the gate. There follows the Prayer: O God, who hast made for us the solemnity of this day by the commemoration of blessed Arbogast your confessor and bishop; be present to the prayers of your family; and grant that we may be aided by the merits and intercessions with you of him whose birthday we celebrate. Through the Lord. This day therefore, July 21, is said to be worshiped as the birthday of St. Arbogast; which same is repeated in the antiphon over the Magnificat, at second Vespers, which runs thus: Today the venerable solemnity of the most blessed Pontiff, predestined for us before the ages, is commemorated, on which, taken up from the earth after the long contests of this life, he entered the heavenly capitol, as a veteran soldier to be crowned by Christ. Wherefore let us implore the venerable suffrages of this Father: we shall have, to be sure, as intercessor with God him whom we deserved to have as our special shepherd.
[10] We have also a Missal printed at Strasbourg in the year of Christ 1512, The cult of the Saint is shown from ancient Missals. in whose Calendar at the 12th day before the Kalends of August the feast of St. Arbogast is noted with a rubric, no otherwise than others which are celebrated among the people. But in the Mass there is nothing at all singular except the Sequence, which runs thus: Sing with sincere voice, faithful church, who unfold the festal solemnities of your Spouse and Father, Arbogast, commemorating the virtues and merits of the bishop of Christ. Let mother Ireland rejoice in so great a Son: let religious Gaul exult in her Guest. Do you rejoice in the faithful Spouse; do you, devout, ever be glad in the best Father, the most holy Shepherd. He, born to you in place of your fathers, begot you in Christ: betrothing you to Christ to exhibit you a most chaste virgin. By the doctrine of this Bishop, a column silvered with the purest words of God, you shine. By whose best examples you testify with an illustrious name the purest faith which you show in work. In whose very many virtues you are strong, which divine grace conferred on him. For the true successor of the Prince of the Apostles crossed the treadable waves. And brought back a wonderful trophy from death triumphed over. By the power of God raising again to life dead bodies. He gave to the blind light, to the weak a step. He was clothing to the naked, food to the needy. He, turned to the Lord with all his strength and all his desire, renounces all earthly things. From whose mouth ever proceeded justice, faith, charity, and all things pertaining to the true life. Now therefore, glad, let us sing the praises of so great a Father. Asking suffrages with his mouth and mind; that we who did great things on earth may ever feel a pious intercessor in the heavens. There is also a Mass of St. Arbogast in the Mainz Missal, published in the year of Christ 1493; but less celebrated, and containing nothing peculiar; as neither that which is read in the Missal of the Knights of Malta, which came forth at Strasbourg in the year 1505; in whose preliminary Calendar the feast is noted to be celebrated through the whole Order with a semidouble rite.
[11] Of the relics of St. Arbogast there will be a place of speaking below: His memory in Rhaetia. yet the piety of the Rhaetians toward him is not here to be passed over; for they placed a church sacred to his name, not far from Feldkirch at the gorges of Montfort, in that place where the Saint is recorded once to have dwelt, says Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menologium at this day; which church, illustrated by many prodigies, allures pilgrims thither frequently. There too, says the same, is shown a very hard rock, ennobled by the deep and prodigious impression of his knees, and very salutary even today to many afflicted with weakness or weariness of the feet. Of this shrine the same author makes mention in the chronology of Rhaetia page 141, and there professes that the memory of holy Arbogast at his altars was often celebrated by him.
§ II. His Acts, and the writers of them.
[No author of the Life of St. Arbogast is contemporary or nearly contemporary with the Saint;] Since the art of printing was invented, very many authors, not only orthodox, but even heretics, have published the Acts of St. Arbogast; yet in such a way that the younger they are, the more copious a subject they for the most part bring forth. Wherefore, lest in this matter we obtrude anything asserted rashly and without sufficient authority, we have tried, as far indeed as could be done, to detect the first sources; and although it was not permitted to attain authors either contemporary or nearly contemporary with our Saint, we have nevertheless come to him who of all seems first to have committed these Acts to writing; as from
this exordium of his is clear: The origin of the most holy priest of Christ Arbogast, or his manner of life from boyhood up to his advancement to the pontificate, whether antiquity has obliterated it, or the rarity of writers has not declared it, since writing does not teach it, is held uncertain. But truly the tokens of so great a Father, by which in his days, with coruscating miracles, he shone, are not wholly overwhelmed by silence, which, passing through the ears of the faithful, by the narration of posterity, have been infused into our ears. For they hand down, etc.
[13] yet we produce the most ancient; By which words he not obscurely signifies, first, how far he is distant from the times of St. Arbogast; since he calls those things by the name of antiquity: then, why he passed over those things which precede the Saint's pontificate; namely because neither had antiquity preserved them by tradition, nor history by writing: lastly, that he adduces only certain miracles, not such as he had first read written anywhere, but such as, passing through the ears of the faithful, by the narration of posterity, were infused into his ears; so that he adduces as the sole witness of his history that pious tradition of the faithful which had persevered even to his times. In vain therefore let one seek a writer of the Life of holy Arbogast older than this our one (whoever finally this was). Nor indeed does it seem to be admitted without a surety and witness, if other authors, certainly younger than ours, narrate of this holy Bishop either more or the contrary; since the sole foundation of all that is known of him is the tradition of pious men, which in matters of this kind is wont to be the less suspect the more ancient it is than the rest.
[14] and at least of the tenth century. But if anyone ask me who finally, or of what age, I think our author to be; that I confess I can define by no certain indication. If, however, it is true, what William Eisengrein hands down in the Catalogue of the witnesses of truth, printed at Dillingen in the year of Christ 1565, and from him our Possevinus in the Sacred Apparatus, and others in their commentaries of libraries and writers: if it is true, I say, that the Life of St. Arbogast was written by Utho, who under this name the second (according to Wimpheling the third) held the see of Strasbourg from the year of Christ 950 to 965, I would dare to affirm that our author is not younger than the tenth century; and so is either Utho himself, as our Henschen thinks in the Dissertation on the three Dagoberts page 77; or another indeed, but earlier than Utho; as one who knew no writer of the Acts of St. Arbogast before himself.
[15] And of Utho indeed the conjecture is not slight: the time certainly agrees: and perhaps Utho himself, bishop of Strasbourg, for if these Acts were first written by him in the tenth century, he could rightly say that many things pertaining to the Saint's life had been obliterated by antiquity; as one who wrote in the third century after St. Arbogast. The place too agrees: for Utho was bishop of Strasbourg; and that our author wrote among the people of Strasbourg is gathered both from this, that he addresses holy Arbogast by the name of father, and also that he elaborated this work there where the chief memory flourished of his miracles and works done in the pontificate of the church of Strasbourg, which he himself learned from the narration of posterity. Finally, if Utho composed any Life of St. Arbogast, he doubtless left it also to the library of Strasbourg, which with so great zeal, as Wimpheling, Eisengrein, and others attest, he strove to enrich with books sought from everywhere; or certainly communicated it himself to his countrymen and neighbors, especially the religious and lovers of lucubrations of this kind; who transcribed it also into their own codices; but we have found no other Acts of St. Arbogast reported in manuscript codices there than those which we are now about to give: it remains therefore that we judge the work of Utho to be these.
[16] For we have a double copy of the same Life; both conceived in the same words, both drawn from neighboring places of Alsace; from a double manuscript collated with printed exemplars, one indeed from a manuscript of the monastery of St. Maximin at Trier; but the other from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Wiblingen of the Order of St. Benedict near Ulm in Swabia. Nor, besides these two manuscripts, have we obtained anything else, except a small sheet drawn from a codex of the Vatican library number 110, which exhibits a compendium of our Life, divided into three lessons for the use of the choir, and so little departing from our author that it everywhere insists on the same phrases. Whether the same Life is still preserved in manuscript among the people of Strasbourg, I indeed know not; yet it was once in use and esteem there; as I gather from the Breviary, of which I made mention before, printed for the use of the church of Strasbourg in the year of Christ 1489; where, distributed into six lessons of the first and second nocturn, is read altogether the same Life, only a very few things being cut off for the sake of compendium. From which this at least can be inferred, that these our Acts, in preference to others, were long ago received in the very church which St. Arbogast ruled and adorned even to death.
[17] In preference to others, I say: for we have also other Acts of his; another Life printed at Louvain being set aside; not manuscript indeed, but printed even from the year of Christ 1485 at Louvain among other Lives of the Saints, folio 97 verso. Nay, our Rosweyd noted that the same Lives of the Saints, printed two years before at Cologne, are preserved at Corsendonk in Campine among the regular canons. These Acts differ from ours especially: 1. In that they lack that exordium which we gave above at number 11. 2. In that they narrate that St. Arbogast, a native of Scotland, came into Alsace with other companions of his, concerning which matter we shall discuss below. 3. In that they describe most things more compendiously, yet with words here and there drawn from our Life. 4. In that they omit the miracle of St. Arbogast treading the river with dry feet, as it is in our Life number 9. For the rest, these Acts, as I was just now saying, we have found nowhere in manuscript; so that consequently of their antiquity and authority there is no certainty: whereas ours are found in codices written with the pen, and were long ago chanted with a solemn rite in the very church of Strasbourg, and thereafter also more than once committed to the press; first indeed at Cologne in the year of Christ 1485 in the Legends of the Saints, adjoined to the Lombard History, chapter 180; then at Strasbourg, if I mistake not, in the Breviary already mentioned, in the year of Christ 1489, as is noted at the end; and at last again at Strasbourg, where the Lombard History with the adjoined Legends was reprinted in the year of Christ 1496.
[18] to which ours is deservedly preferred. There is added, that our Acts, in those things in which they disagree from the Louvain ones, the Vatican Codex praised above follows; as when it says that St. Arbogast came from Aquitaine, and walked over the river Bruche with dry feet; in both these things James Wimpheling too follows them, in the catalogue of the bishops of Strasbourg, which he first published at Strasbourg in the year of Christ 1508; and several others, as will appear from what follows. And these things seemed to me to suffice, that, the Louvain Acts being set aside, I should here produce only our ancient and manuscript ones, and those from the two copies, as I noted above, namely the Trier and the Wiblingen, which agree plainly both among themselves and with the printed ones cited before, if you except a very few faults of the copyists, which in one I easily emended from the others. Nay, the Trier manuscript differs from the rest also in this, that it adds to the Acts at the end the translation of the relics, as we shall note in the place. It remains now that I run through the whole Life of our holy bishop, and elucidate what is less explained in it; confirm what has seemed doubtful to some, and adapt to their times the things which very many authors have distorted into others. Nor indeed am I about to pass over those things which I shall find, by more recent writers, either plainly invented, or supported by no certain testimony; that everyone may perceive that nothing has here been neglected which seems in any way to make either for establishing the truth of this history, or for removing from it the fables in which some, by I know not what piety, take delight.
§ III. His name, homeland, parents, life led before he undertook the episcopate.
The name of St. Arbogast variously inflected; The name of Arbogast all constantly attribute to our Saint, whosoever before the seventeenth century made even the least mention of him; among the Germans, however, in the vernacular idiom he is called St. Algast, by which name is distinguished also that church of his which we said above is very celebrated in Rhaetia not far from Feldkirch; as Bucelinus in his Menologium, and Merian in the topography of Rhaetia, make faith. Dempster besides, in the History of the Scots book 1, page 25, says he was called both Argobastus and Armegastus; Wolfgang Lazius, On the Migration of the Nations in the preface, and book 3 in the catalogue of the Merovingian Franks, calls him Arbogastes.
[20] Concerning the homeland of the Saint there is an old dispute, whether he was an Irishman, or a Scot, or rather an Aquitanian. whether his homeland was Ireland; And the Irish indeed reckon him among their Saints in the Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland published at Douai in the year of Christ 1615, and in another printed four years after at Liège, and likewise in that which is adjoined to the Vindiciae of Ireland, or of more ancient Scotland, against Dempster, printed at Antwerp in the year of Christ 1621, as also in several others, which we have received in manuscript, among which nevertheless some omit him altogether; but those who recount him, most cite for themselves the one Guilibert the Minorite; whose authority certainly does not press much. But indeed who would easily hope to compose the continual disputes in this matter between the Scots and the Irish; since Ireland itself for several ages had the name of Scotland? Yet the Irish are favored also by the things which I produced above in §1 from the old Breviary and Missal of Strasbourg, where St. Arbogast is said to have been given to the church of Strasbourg by mother Ireland.
[21] For Scotland the arguments are somewhat weightier: for Richer, an author of the thirteenth century, makes Arbogast a native of Scotland, whether Scotland; book 1 of the Chronicle of Sens chapter 5 in the Spicilegium of d'Achery of the new edition volume 2, page 606. The same is held in the Life of St. Florentius, who succeeded St. Arbogast in the episcopate, both in that which Surius sets forth from a manuscript codex at November 7, and in two others likewise manuscript, which we keep at that day; whence a very strong argument could be sought for the Scots, were not errors interspersed in that passage: for everywhere it is said that St. Florentius came with blessed Arbogast, Theodatus, and Hildulph from Scotland into Alsace: whereas this is false both of St. Theodatus or Deodatus, as we showed in volume 3 of June page 872; and of St. Hildulph, as was demonstrated in volume 3 of July page 210; for we proved that this one was born in Bavaria, that one in western Francia; and Hildulph indeed only in the year of Christ 671 first came to St. Deodatus, that is, about forty years later than the time when St. Arbogast undertook the anchoresis
Deodatus is believed to have embraced. Nearly equally suspect seems the Life of St. Arbogast in the Louvain edition of the year 1485, when it thus runs: Blessed Arbogast, a native of Scotland, having set out with other companions of his into this province (Alsace), etc.; for these things seem drawn from the Acts of St. Florentius. This opinion meanwhile is followed by Greven and Molanus in their Martyrologies at this day, Eisengrein and Dempster cited above, and certain more recent writers.
[22] Yet that he was an Aquitanian appears to me indeed more probable: since this our Acts assert clearly enough, or rather Aquitaine? even as they stand in the Breviary of Strasbourg, when they affirm that he set out from Aquitaine. To these add the codex of the Vatican Library commended above, James Wimpheling; the old Breviaries, that of Mainz of the year 1570, that of Constance of the years 1561 and 1575, that of Worms of the year 1575; there are added Sebastian Münster, book 3 of the Universal Cosmography, where of the see of Strasbourg, Gaspar Bruschius in the epitome of the sees of Germany chapter 5, and those who follow him, Demochares On the divine Sacrifice of the Mass chapter 35, and our Jodocus Coccius in his Dagobert chapter 15, who all say St. Arbogast was an Aquitanian; although they do not deny that there are those who would have him an Irishman. An Aquitanian also they roundly pronounce, Cratepolius in the Catalogue of the archbishops and bishops who asserted the Sacrifice of the Mass, page 96; and Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 664, number 4. For indeed our Acts here seem, as being much more ancient than the rest which we have just given, to deserve the chief credit both in this matter and in others.
[23] In the antiphons and responsories, which I therefore described above from number 6 from the old Breviary of Strasbourg, His parents and life passed at home are unknown. because they exhibit some new Life of the Saint, St. Arbogast is said to be sprung from illustrious birth, and so noble, and, what is more excellent, born of Christian parents. Then many things are subjoined about his boyhood, youth, and manly age passed privately. He who reads these, let him remember that the eulogies of our Saint are set before him, devised indeed modestly enough and not foreign to likelihood, but eulogies nonetheless, not history. Nor does the composer himself of that Breviary seem to demand more; since he candidly exhibits the ancient history of his holy Bishop in the lessons of the first and second nocturn, not even the beginning being omitted, which, as I have already noted, runs thus: The origin of the most holy priest of Christ Arbogast, or his manner of life from boyhood up to his advancement to the pontificate, whether antiquity has obliterated it, or the rarity of writers has not declared it, since writing does not teach it, is held uncertain. Whence it follows that neither about the time in which he was born can anything certain be established.
[24] His coming into Alsace, At length, at a grown and mature age, he came from Aquitaine into Alsace, as our author signifies at number 1; but what he first did there, the writer of the tenth century was so ignorant that from his setting out he leaps straightway to the episcopate; as though by a certain divine nod, as soon as he had come, he was raised to the mitre. Otherwise, however, almost all who wrote afterward take these things; for they attribute to him a solitary life in Alsace before he went to the see of Strasbourg. And he is to be said to have inhabited the solitude long before, if he betook himself to it together with St. Deodatus, who exchanged the see of Nevers for the wildernesses of the Vosges; as it is in the Life of St. Florentius in Surius at November 7, and of St. Deodatus, which we illustrated at June 19, where it is thus held, chapter 1, number 4, page 873: Therefore to blessed Deodatus, again and again seeking a hundredfold from Christ and eternal life, these are reported to have adhered above others as companions of so great a reward, Arbogast and Florentius: of whom the former in the Holy Grove (which in the German idiom is called Heiligesforst) discharged the eremitic life, and thence was seized to the episcopate of the city of Strasbourg. But we determined there, in the preliminary Commentary number 7, that this was done about the year of Christ 630. Of the eremitic life makes mention also the Breviary of Strasbourg above at number 7.
[25] and his life in the wilderness of the Vosges, where now Haguenau is, Nearly the same of St. Arbogast narrates Gaspar Bruschius in the place cited above, in these words: He came as a pilgrim and hermit into Alsace, and there in the Holy Grove, in nearly that place where now Haguenau is situated, building for himself an oratory, served God diligently with fasts and prayers: not, however, altogether idle; for he both went forth, and most diligently instructed the neighbors about the true knowledge of God, about the true fear of God … This same doctrine he confirmed also with miracles: for he both cast out unclean spirits, and healed the sick, and raised the dead: but troubled consciences he so raised up by the word of God, that they departed from him cheerful who had come with a sad and troubled mind. By all which Dagobert was so moved, he says, that he promoted him to the see of Strasbourg. Bruschius is followed by Demochares assigned before, Eisengrein, Cratepolius, the author of the Breviary of Constance of the year 1575 on this day, Arnold Wion in his monastic Benedictine Martyrology, and others; among whom our Coccius and Antony de Heredia report something singular.
[26] and thereafter passed elsewhere, For the former, in his King Dagobert chapter 15, asserts that holy Arbogast not only built an oratory and lived some years in the Holy Grove, in nearly that place where now Haguenau, the imperial chamber, stands; but also, the fame of his sanctity and of his miracles being carried to the court, was thence invited by Dagobert to a conference; who tried in vain to detain him at his court, since his own solitude was far preferable to him. But when that very solitude was at last frequented by too great a throng of men running to him from everywhere, the Saint migrated to the innermost wilderness in that place where today Surburg is; and there, a church being raised to the memory of St. Martin of Tours, and huts and cabins set around, he began, almost unknown to all, to cultivate his mind with holier studies; until thence he was called to the episcopate. In the margin he cites the instruments by which he may confirm his narration; and among them the Salic codex of the monastery of Ebersheim, manuscript, and the Chronicle of Strasbourg, manuscript. From these therefore he may have drawn these things: for the rest which are assigned there, I have inspected all; but that history I have nowhere met with.
[27] De Heredia, in the Lives of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict published in the Spanish idiom, not without the utmost harshness; on this day says that St. Arbogast came to the Holy Grove, where now Haguenau is; and there in a leafy valley founded a church, in which he lived with other monks, and kept the rule of St. Benedict to the letter; covering under a most vile garment a most rough hair-shirt; feeding on herbs growing there, or cooked, when he indulged himself a little more; relieving his thirst with the leaves of trees and with the spring; bearing whatever injuries of winter with bare feet and open head; and taking, either on a board spread beneath or on dry herbs, sleeps so brief that with them he seemed by no means able to sustain his strength. Finally (for knowingly I pass over many things) in the conventual life, as that author speaks, now sufficiently proved, he hid himself in the eremitic cell of the same monastery, in which he spent several years, until thence by Dagobert, on account of his son raised from the dead, he was raised to the see of the church of Strasbourg. But indeed that he was already then a bishop, when St. Arbogast recalled by his prayers the son of Dagobert to life, all assert: gather therefore how much credit in the rest this writer deserves, when in a matter so well known he is mistaken. Among the Benedictines indeed this Saint is reckoned by Wion, Menard, Dorganius, Bucelinus; yet in Mabillon, who examined the Acts of the Saints of his Order far more deeply, he is nowhere.
[28] There are also, as we said above from Bucelinus at number 11, Concerning all which, however, more ancient testimonies may be desired. those who would have him dwell, certainly not yet a bishop, for some time in Rhaetia. But all these things, as I warned, the author of our Acts was ignorant of; he too is silent who composed that Life of his which we said was committed to the press at Louvain in the year of Christ 1485; Wimpheling does not touch his anchoretic life. Francis Guillimann, in his Commentary on the bishops of Strasbourg page 92, says that St. Florentius alone withdrew into the wilderness; but the rest, namely Arbogast, Fidelis, Thietboldus, and Childolfus, whom he assigns to him as companions of his journey, set out to Strasbourg; where they served the pious studies of Dagobert under the power of the bishop then sitting, as John Ruer adds in the Sacred Antiquities of the Vosges book 2, chapter 6. And so let what we have given in this paragraph be worth to each as much as the arguments adduced for them shall seem. Furthermore, that I may add this too, since among the companions of St. Arbogast some number Thietboldus, I suspect that he is put in place of Deodatus or Adeodatus; since the college of St. Deodatus too is wont to be called by a corrupt word St. Diedold, as Bruschius observes in the catalogue of the Bishops of Strasbourg, where of Rodtharius: certainly those who here have Thietboldus, omit Deodatus, and contrariwise.
§ IV. The time of his episcopate of Strasbourg, and of his happy death, as also of Sigebert raised to life.
St. Arbogast was made bishop of Strasbourg, Since it must be treated of the see of Strasbourg, which St. Arbogast administered with so great praise, the matter itself seems to demand that here some things be discussed both about the very city of Strasbourg, and about the whole domain and series of its bishops; I shall, however, pass over these in silence; since this has long ago been performed by others, neither few nor sparingly: for of Strasbourg indeed and the bounds of the diocese of Strasbourg, besides very many others, through ten whole chapters writes Guillimann at the beginning of his Commentary on the bishops of Strasbourg: but the series of the bishops, at least as far as, up to his own times, it had been confused by all authors, our Henschen labored not unhappily to restore in the Dissertation on the three Dagoberts book 4, §4; whom the Sainte-Marthes followed in the bishops of Strasbourg, and Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 627, from number 13, and elsewhere. But the cause of the order and times formerly subverted in the catalogues of those bishops was a double error; one, by which the elder St. Amandus bishop of Strasbourg was confused by all for a long time with St. Amandus of Maastricht, three centuries younger; the other, by which the younger Dagobert, son of St. Sigebert king of Austrasia, was confused with his grandfather Dagobert.
[30] not, as most have thought, Hence too, before Henschen, the chronology of Arbogast's episcopate was everywhere ill noted: namely those authors had read in his Acts that he in the times of king Dagobert … by a divine nod … sat on the see of the church of Strasbourg. Since therefore they were ignorant of the second Dagobert, they referred this to the times of the first Dagobert; and indeed not without a new error: for it agrees
now among the learned, that Dagobert I was taken from the living in the year of Christ 638, and this Hadrian Valois in the Frankish affairs volume 3, Cointe in the Annals, Mabillon in part 1 of the fourth century in the preface to the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict §9 from number 199 prove: whereas there is meanwhile none of those chronographers who would have St. Arbogast consecrated bishop of Strasbourg under the elder Dagobert, but places the beginnings of our holy Bishop at least two years later; and Wimpheling indeed in the year of Christ 641, whom nearly follow Guillimann and Ruer, noting the year 640; but Bruschius refers his beginning to the year 646, which Münster, Demochares, Pantaleon, Mersaeus Cratepolius, Coccius imitate, in the places assigned before; Eisengrein chose the year 643. So far therefore is it that our Saint entered the episcopate under Dagobert I, that even those who most wished to establish this, yet in fact denied it.
[31] under the first Dagobert; For indeed the same authority, namely of the Acts of St. Arbogast, which could lead them to bind the beginnings of this episcopate to the reign of a certain Dagobert, ought also with reason to have moved them not to link these things with the times of the first Dagobert: for the chief argument of those Acts is the only son of king Dagobert restored to life by St. Arbogast, who while hunting had been thrown from his horse—which the sight of a boar had too greatly terrified—and miserably crushed. But who does not see that these things can by no means be fitted to Dagobert I? Since he left two sons dying, St. Sigebert from Ragnetrude, and from Nanthechild Chlodoveus; of whom the latter was younger than the former by only three years; so that Sigebert indeed was the only son to his father from the year of Christ 630 to 633, in which Chlodoveus was born according to the chronicle of Fredegar, but at that age by no means fit for riding, much less for hunting beasts: nor consequently could he be, whatever the authors just mentioned so determine, the son of king Dagobert of whom our Acts treat; nor consequently the same Dagobert either.
[32] But of Dagobert III, who is everywhere called both the second and the younger, and much less under Dagobert III; these things can much less be understood; since he either could not by his age have had a son, as after Henschen our Hadrian Jordan thought, History of France volume 3, book 28 at the end; or if you determine his son to have been Theodoric, as most would have it, he certainly could not here be designated by our author; since, as the same assert, his father dying left him wailing in the cradle. Nor is it necessary to say more here; since of this Dagobert or his son there has been hitherto no controversy moved in this matter.
[33] It remains therefore that what is narrated in our Acts but under Dagobert II, be referred to Dagobert II, son of St. Sigebert, and to his only son, whether that son was called Sigebert, by the name of his grandfather, or by any other whatsoever: for the Acts do not express the name: yet Bruschius calls him Sigebert, and nearly after him certain more recent writers: where he himself found this, I indeed know not: yet he must have read it somewhere; since he asserts also that his mother was Mechtild, duchess of the Saxons; who indeed is wholly different from the mother of St. Sigebert his grandfather. To the same conclusion these things have been referred not only by our Henschen in volume 1 of February in the Analecta on the deeds of St. Sigebert §1, page 231, in the Dagobertine Dissertation and elsewhere, but also after him by the Sainte-Marthes in the bishops of Strasbourg, Cointe in the Annals at the year of Christ 675 number 16, Jordan History of France volume 3, book 27.
[34] Nor indeed do our Acts allow St. Arbogast to have been created bishop long after Dagobert was recalled from his Irish exile to the part of the kingdom of Austrasia on this side of the Rhine; reigning in Austrasia, which, after they had pursued with many words that signal miracle of his, of Dagobert's son raised to life, they add of the holy Bishop at number 9: But afterward he lived many years, abounding in holy virtues. Wherefore, since Dagobert II did not survive to the year of Christ 680, but was killed either in that year or toward the end of the preceding one, as Mabillon shows in the cited preface to the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict of the fourth century, one must necessarily thence, as far as the matter allows, go back to the beginnings of Dagobert's reign, that there may be fixed the consecration of St. Arbogast, and, following it at no long interval, the raising of the extinct royal offspring: since the death of the holy Bishop preceded the very slaying of Dagobert; as Wimpheling asserts, when he says that St. Florentius succeeded him in the see of Strasbourg, Dagobert surviving. Which is also gathered from the Chronicle of Sens chapter 5, where St. Deodatus of Nevers is said to have familiarly known St. Arbogast already made bishop, and then his successor St. Florentius: whereas Deodatus died about the same year as Dagobert the second, as was said in the preliminary Commentary of his Life at June 19; and it follows from the Chronicle of Sens, in which it is said, chapter 8, that St. Hildulph, who died in the year of Christ 707, survived St. Deodatus twenty-eight years.
[35] about the year of Christ 670; Since therefore Dagobert does not seem to have returned to the throne of Austrasia much before the year of Christ 670, as Mabillon proves there at number 203; about that time, or certainly not long after, St. Arbogast must be said to have succeeded Rodtharius, and to have raised the king's son; so that thence at least until the year of Christ 678, in which we determined that he died about that time, he can be judged to have lived many years. Thus our Saint administered the church of Strasbourg for about nine years, already, when he had been newly made bishop, shining with miracles; as Richer affirms in the Chronicle of Sens chapter 5, and being an old man, as the Acts have at number 4. I know that these things by no means cohere with the ancient catalogues of the bishops of Strasbourg; but I think those are little to be heeded in this matter; since their first author James Wimpheling at the beginning of his work thus pronounces: Although I have used the most exact diligence in collecting the catalogue of our bishops; I could not find the writers agreeing in all things. It seems to matter little in what year each died, or how many years he presided over this see; provided that we do not deviate from the truth itself, learned about the state of their life and morals, and other things done. Finally nothing is more corrupt than their chronology; as I could show by very many examples, did I not spare the reader's tedium.
[36] when he restored to life Sigebert son of Dagobert II; But lest anyone, following the Dagobertine Dissertation of Henschen, deny that Dagobert II about the year of Christ 670 could have a son who by his age could in any way ride—which our Acts absolutely require—let him consult the preliminary Exegesis prefixed to the third volume of our April, by which the same Henschen renews his former Dissertation, accommodating his system to the epoch of the years of Dagobert I now received by the learned, not from the death of his father Chlotar, but from the kingdom of Austrasia first entered upon. He will confess that nothing was easier than that in the year of Christ 662 Dagobert the second could take a wife, whether he had already returned into Alsace, as Henschen determines; or was only after eight years to return, as in the cited place Mabillon contends. Why then could he not have a son Sigebert about eight years old in the year of Christ 670, who would then be both a boy, as he is more than once called in the Acts, and be already permitted to ride in his parent's company?
[37] concerning which miracle those who doubted, But since we here make mention of Dagobert's son, brought back to life by the prayers of Arbogast, I judge that I shall do not amiss if I confirm the history of this tradition with as much authority as I shall be able; lest anyone rashly attempt further to call it into doubt. Certainly that he had for a little while doubted of the credit of this miracle, Antony de Yepes ingenuously confesses in the general Chronicle of the Holy Father Benedict at the year of Christ 639, because, he says, Sigebert of Gembloux, a grave and ancient author, in the history which he composed of king Sigebert, made no mention of it. Namely the learned man was still involved in the old error, by which these things were thought to be understood of St. Sigebert, son of Dagobert I, and of that very one of whom Sigebert of Gembloux composed a history: which if it were true, he would indeed, according to what we said at number 31, have had ground with reason to doubt of the credit of this miracle, at least as it is narrated in the Acts of St. Arbogast, and elsewhere everywhere. But even so he affirms that he believed it, when he adds: But other writers equally illustrious and diligent have led us to believe it. There must also have moved him the notable monastery founded by Dagobert, whose name is the Monastery of the Boar, commonly Ebersmunster (of which we shall treat below), lest the memory of so great a thing should be abolished. How much more therefore ought these things to have moved the faith of Antony, if the Dagobertine darkness, which involved this whole history, had then been dispelled? He certainly could by no means have been delayed by the silence of Sigebert of Gembloux in the history of St. Sigebert the king, to which the miracle of St. Arbogast in no way pertained.
[38] Here too Henschen may seem to have doubted, in that part where the miracle is more illustrious; or those who narrated it otherwise, since in the preliminary Exegesis to volume 3 of April page 8 he thus has: We return to Dagobert II; whose son is said to have been recalled to life by St. Arbogast, bishop of Strasbourg, whether he had truly died, or at least labored with a deadly disease. This phrase our Jordan seems afterward to have imitated, History of France volume 3, book 27, page 508. But this our manner of speaking is not infrequent in a matter not yet examined, especially if anything anywhere occurs to the contrary; such as in this history Henschen could have read something in Henry Pantaleon in the Prosopographia part 1, page 133; where, besides other errors, he writes these things: But it happened, when the king was at the hunt, that his son Sigebert, accompanying his father, pursued a boar. But the spirited horse, the youth being thrown, caused him to be afflicted with a deadly wound by the boar. Terrified by this disaster, the king straightway called holy Arbogast to himself; that partly by medicines, partly by ardent prayer to God, he might bring it about that the son be restored to health. And so Arbogast, being called, immediately appeared, and by his services brought back the king's son to his former health. Thus Pantaleon, daring here also to cite Münster book 3, and the Ecclesiastical History century 7.
[39] Namely such is the confidence proper to heretics, even when they lie splendidly, rest on no foundation at all. as in this place Pantaleon: for neither Münster book 3 of the Universal Cosmography (which, printed in 1556, we have in French) nor the Magdeburgers, century
the seventh, where they write of this miracle, either make mention of medicines, or of a merely mortally wounded Sigebert; but in both places he is said to have died, and then to have revived by the prayers of Arbogast; as Nauclerus too reports, Generation 21, whom the Centuriators cite, in this part at least more faithful than Pantaleon, although otherwise, when they treat of the place which he had chosen for his burial, wantonly blasphemers against St. Arbogast. Certainly I have read no one who narrated this prodigy otherwise than our Acts report, before Pantaleon, and indeed even after him: since with our Acts in this matter all agree whom I have produced throughout this Commentary, and who touched even the least particle of the Saint's Life; nay, even Francis Irenicus in the Exegesis of Germany book 3, chapter 46, the author of the historical fragment which is prefixed to the Chronicle of Albert of Strasbourg in Urstisius among the Historians of Germany part 2, page 74, Albert himself there page 165, and others, whose testimonies, that one Pantaleon may be confuted, it seems idle here to heap up; since he has as adversaries those very authors whom he names, and as indicators of his imposture: although I do not deny that all the ancients erred in this, that, being ignorant of the second Dagobert, they fitted this miracle neither to his time nor, as I warned before, to his persons, while they took one father for another, one son for another.
§ V. Other miracles of the same; benefits to churches and monasteries; the time of his death; his burial; the elevation and translation of his relics; his writings.
The other miracles of the Saint: Nor was that the last, nor the only miracle of St. Arbogast: for he wrought also very many others after it, as long as he lived; as his Acts have, printed at Louvain, as I said before; but there nevertheless none of them is described. But ours at number 9 express at least this, whereby you may understand that they pertained chiefly to the driving away of diseases and of demons from beset bodies. One besides they explain somewhat more at length; when they narrate that for the sake of prayer he sometimes crossed the river with dry feet: which also assert the Vatican codex, the Breviaries of Mainz of the year 1570 and of Constance of the year 1575, James Wimpheling, and certain others younger than he; among whom our Jodocus Coccius in his King Dagobert chapter 15 affirms that that oratory of St. Arbogast was afterward changed into a notable monastery of regular canons, and that through Hezelo, a bishop of eminent virtue; yet today it retains nothing but the name of Arbogast, religion being wholly abolished. Whom he here designates as Hezelo, I know not: if he understands him who among the bishops of Strasbourg in Wimpheling is numbered the forty-eighth, in Guillimann the fortieth, and is said to have sat from the year of Christ 1047; certainly this must have been done very long after the Saint's death. Otherwise of this monastery of St. Arbogast pronounces Albert of Strasbourg in the Chronicle at the year of the Lord 1374; otherwise again Guillimann chapter 9: the former says it was built by king Dagobert; the latter, that it was begun indeed by St. Arbogast himself, but then finished and endowed by two canons of the cathedral church.
[41] and possessions for the church of Strasbourg, Furthermore, by these so frequent prodigies, of how great merit he proved himself to be with God, so great a favor he had with the most pious king; that whatever he wished from him, he obtained without difficulty. That, however, was the chief thing which he obtained for the church of Strasbourg after the king's son was raised; as the Acts narrate at number 8, and the authors who write of it all agree. Concerning this matter deserves to be seen especially Coccius in his Dagobert chapter 15, where he elegantly sets forth this truly royal donation; and says that a most pleasant region of lands was handed over on this side and beyond Rouffach, then stretched on both fertile banks of the Ill almost to Novientum, and the very town of Rouffach with the royal citadel of Isenburg, defined today by an accurate topography of bounds of about thirty-two towns and villages. Then he adds: These even today it perpetuates among the possessions of the church of Strasbourg, the name of Mundat being given (of which word he discourses at the end of the chapter), from the singular prerogatives of exemptions and immunities, with which, adorned by the benefit of kings and emperors, it is administered by some one of the illustrious college of the greater church. Then Coccius complains that he is pressed by the want of documents, whence he might draw the deed of Dagobert I as witness of so great munificence. For he was still involved in the common error, by which the donation of Dagobert I was believed to be that which was of the second.
[42] Yet he says he found the diploma of the second Dagobert in a distinguished parchment codex of the diocese of Strasbourg; obtained through him from Dagobert II; which he immediately exhibits, but mutilated; as also from it Henschen in the Dissertation on the three Dagoberts book 2, chapter 5, and Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 675 number 17. But that it is interpolated, Jordan judged after Henschen, History of France volume 3, book 27; but Cointe at the year already mentioned from number 18 contends that it is altogether fabricated. I would rather the curious reader consult them, than that he complain of my being here longer. Meanwhile Cointe freely confesses at number 23 that he does not disapprove what Coccius writes of the gifts conferred by king Dagobert on the church of Strasbourg, after bishop Arbogast raised his son Sigebert from death. For the rest, to the donation described in our Acts, this is added in the Life of St. Arbogast printed at Louvain: The king himself too, instructed by the grace of God, delivered himself to the church of Strasbourg to serve the Mother of God, and gave very many estates to the same church in property. Very many also who were free, and had benefices from the same king, kindled by his example, delivered themselves to the church of Strasbourg. But these things I find neither in our Acts, nor in the other ancient heralds of our Saint. And so I think that Ruer or Ruyr borrowed these same things from the Louvain Life, in the Sacred Antiquities of the Vosges part 2, book 2, chapter 5.
[43] The paternal care of St. Arbogast did not stop here; since in his time (why not also by his work? nay, also for other churches) king Dagobert in Germany and Francia, to the honor of God, built many churches, which he endowed and enriched with his own estates and possessions: as the Louvain Acts have. Nay, besides the Monastery of the Boar, says Antony de Heredia cited before, our Saint founded twelve others on the banks of the Rhine. But with what arguments I should confirm these things, I do not find; but to overthrow them, none are needed; since in businesses of this kind the sole authority of a recent writer is quite feeble. What of this, that not even the very Monastery of the Boar (otherwise Ebersmunster, Ebersheimmunster, named either from Eberhard, or from the Boar, as some would have it, which terrified Sigebert's horse, when before it was called Novientum and Novietum) has St. Arbogast as its founder; but either Duke Athicus, father of St. Ottilia; or St. Deodatus bishop of Nevers, Athicus supplying the expenses and the ground? Concerning this matter may be consulted both Eisengrein in the place already often assigned, and Coccius in his Dagobert chapter 15, and especially Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 667 from number 59.
[44] Albert of Strasbourg in the Chronicle in Urstisius at the year of the Lord 1374 thus has: and especially that of Surburg, In whose honor also, of holy Arbogast, Dagobert king of the Franks, whose son is raised from death by holy Arbogast, built two monasteries: one over the river Ill near Strasbourg (of which I spoke at number 40), and another at Sarburg (Guillimann chapter 8 reads Surburg) which he most richly endowed. And of the monastery of Surburg this too Guillimann affirms; putting, however, for Dagobert king Sigebert, who, he says, founded that college, as many other monasteries, by his (St. Arbogast's) admonition and work: in which he is thought to be mistaken, since Sigebert is believed to have died even before his father (namely Dagobert the second), or certainly to have been taken away by the same lot and slaughter as his father; so that he was never king. See the Dissertation of Henschen often cited, book 2, chapter 15, and other more recent writers. Guillimann is followed by Ruer part 2, book 2, chapter 5; but to Albert adheres Jodocus Coccius, in his Dagobert chapter 19, where he also describes the monastery of Surburg, once of the Benedictines, but afterward a college of canons.
[45] and that of Schuttern. Much also this Saint owes the monastery of Schuttern; for Arbogast, says Wimpheling, persuaded Dagobert too, the most glorious king of the German Franks, to give as a gift to the monastery of Schuttern a farm or court or estate in the district of Herlisheim of the diocese of Basel: whence also, among the singular benefactors of that monastery, both among the old and among the more recent monks of Schuttern, he has been depicted in images. Concerning this matter deserves to be read before all Coccius in his Dagobert chapter 8, where he discourses fully of this monastery; but because the second Dagobert was not sufficiently known to him, correct his chronology, and distinguish the persons whom he confounds, with Henschen in the Dissertation book 2, chapter 5; Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 675, number 28, and Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 676, number 64; in which places also of Surburg it is treated.
[46] St. Arbogast died in the year of Christ 678; And so the holy Bishop, having deserved excellently, as is plain from what has been said, of the church, both his own and others, at last ceased to live, not in the year of Christ 658, as Bruschius, Demochares, Münster, Pantaleon, Cratepolius think; nor 668, as Wimpheling, Irenicus, Guillimann, Coccius, Ruer, and others have, all ignorant of the second Dagobert; but in the year of Christ 678; as can be inferred from this, that in the following year, about the spring time, Dagobert II offered the see of Strasbourg (then vacant, to be sure) to St. Wilfrid, setting out for Rome, as Eddius attests in the Life of St. Wilfrid chapter 27, in Mabillon in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints of the fourth century, part 1, page 691. But why I set back his death to the preceding year, the reason is, that into some eighth year, as we just now saw, all the authors conspire, then because St. Arbogast, as may be gathered from §1 above, is believed to have died on July 21; and so after the spring time, in which his see was already vacant in the year of Christ 679.
[47] [since a little after him St. Florentius must have succeeded, St. Wilfrid refusing the episcopate.] It was vacant, I say, then his see; for I cannot be led to believe with some, that Dagobert would ever have granted that, Arbogast surviving—however much perhaps even he might wish it—another bishop be substituted at Strasbourg. There is added besides, that St. Florentius, as we noted above, the successor and bishop of Arbogast, St. Deodatus saw before his death, who is believed to have died on June 19, in the year 679. And so, St. Wilfrid refusing the offered see, I judge that St. Florentius was straightway ordered to succeed to it,
who could, for some time after Arbogast's death and before Wilfrid's coming into Alsace, have deprecated it out of love of solitude. Nor do I stay upon William of Malmesbury On the Deeds of the English Pontiffs book 3, when he seems to signify that Dagobert's offer was not altogether refused by Wilfrid, but deferred to his return from the Roman council; in which way Florentius would not seem to have been substituted for Arbogast before the slaying of Dagobert; these things, I say, I do not stay upon; both because they are repugnant to those which we asserted before; and because of that delay Eddius makes no word, from whom Malmesbury has all his authority in this history, as from one who lived with Wilfrid.
[48] Now how much this death makes for commending the most upright virtues of our Saint, each will easily conjecture, He wished to be buried in a place infamous for the punishments of the guilty. if he attend to the place which so great a Man with God and men chose for his sepulcher: for as the Acts have at number 10, and all agree who wrote even any epitome whatever of his Life; When he felt his last day to be imminent, he commanded a burial to be made for him on a little hill near the city, where the church of St. Michael is set up, and that he be carried and buried there, imitating Christ the Savior, who chose for himself a sepulcher outside the gate. That little hill is indeed now enclosed within the walls of Strasbourg, and not only honorable, but also consecrated to the oratory of St. Michael; but of old, before the city was enlarged, it was infamous for a gallows, as may be seen in Merian in the topography of Alsace after page 36, table 1; which, before Wimpheling and others everywhere following him, Albert of Strasbourg notes in the place already more than once adduced, in these words: There had also then been a gallows and a place of punishment of malefactors, where now is the hill and chapel of St. Michael by the house of the Augustinians; where also blessed Arbogast, the most holy of the bishops of Strasbourg, wishing to follow the footsteps of Christ, chose for himself a burial. Therefore holy Arbogast, buried at the gallows, as he disposed while living, is with many signs and virtues carried away from that place, and, in memory of the holy burial and the devotion of the place, the chapel of St. Michael is built there, in which behind the altar his sepulcher, raised, is still discerned, and the gallows is transferred to the place where now it is. Albert wrote these things in the fourteenth century.
[49] But Bruschius errs (and after him Bucelinus in the Menologium at this day) in Arbogast, The elevation of the body, and the translation. when he says: But afterward, many years passing, above his tomb (Arbogast's) the monastery of St. Arbogast, and in the same neighborhood the cathedral church of Strasbourg, began to be built. For that monastery is even now outside the city, as Guillimann attests, whom I cited above at number 40, and others; but how immensely far is the cathedral church of Strasbourg distant from the chapel of St. Michael? More probable is what the same Bruschius has in St. Florentius, thus writing: He (St. Florentius) elevated from the tomb St. Arbogast, renowned for miracles: for this after him affirm also Demochares cited above, and Cratepolius. Later, however, from that place his relics seem to have been translated into another; as that appendix intimates which we found annexed to the Acts in our copy and published: But indeed after many years, translated thence, and carried to the monastery of Surburg, there he is honorably laid up; where even now, etc. Coccius in his Dagobert chapter 19 testifies that his ashes are there still religiously kept in a gilded little coffer skillfully made; which, when in passing we venerated, he says, we noted uncial letters in a circle, which declare the names of the treasure laid up and of the author in this scheme of words:
Illustrious father of your servants, Arbogast, / regard the gifts of Girold, O servant of God.
Not all the relics of the Saint, however, were carried to that monastery; since part of them, as Wimpheling, Guillimann, Ruer attest, was carried to the collegiate church of St. Arbogast, near the city of Strasbourg.
[50] There are finally (that I may pass over nothing which I have anywhere found noted for the glory of this holy Bishop) those who reckon him among the illustrious writers. What he wrote. This the first of all seems to have done John Bale in the writers of Britain century 14, chapter 81, where of our Saint, He is said, he says, to have published some Homilies in one book. After Bale followed the Magdeburg Centuriators century 7, chapter 10. The same, if I mistake not, but more clearly affirms William Eisengrein, a witness not a little worthier than the former, in the Catalogue of the witnesses of truth at the year of Christ 643, when he says that St. Arbogast was easily the most eloquent of all the bishops of his age, and wrote most learned commentaries on the Epistles of Paul; which after Eisengrein noted also our Antony Possevinus in the Sacred Apparatus, and Dempster in the History of the Scots book 1, page 25. Since nevertheless none of all these indicates in what place, and whether at all that work exists; and since in the more recent catalogues of Writers the name of Arbogast does not appear; it is necessary either that that commentary lie hidden somewhere, or have altogether perished. But this indeed I greatly marvel at, that no mention is made of so illustrious an Author or work among the older collectors of books and writers.
LIFE
From the manuscript of St. Maximin at Trier, collated with the Wiblingen manuscript, and with exemplars once published in print.
Arbogast, Bishop of Strasbourg in Germania I (S.)
BHL Number: 0656
FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS
Holy Arbogast, bishop of Strasbourg, was dear to Dagobert, The origin of the most holy priest of Christ Arbogast, or his manner of life from boyhood up to his advancement to the pontificate, whether antiquity has obliterated it, or the rarity of writers has not declared it, since writing does not teach it, is held uncertain. But truly the tokens of so great a Father, by which in his days, with coruscating miracles, he shone, are not wholly overwhelmed by silence; which, passing through the ears of the faithful, by the narration of posterity, have been infused into our ears. For they hand down that he, in the times of king Dagobert a, when holy Church far and wide was diffusing the sweetly fragrant flowers of Catholic doctrine, and the word of God ran prosperously everywhere, having set out from Aquitaine, by a divine nod (which afterward, signs testifying, appeared b) sat on the see of the church of Strasbourg, and long ruled with happy governance the summit of rule undertaken. Which blessed Priest of Christ was so bound to the aforesaid king by friendly familiarity that, being summoned within the royal court, he delighted in his conversation, as though the sweetness of honey were tasted c, and used his counsel.
[2] whose son crushed by a horse, Which pleasantness while both enjoyed, the king in his kingdom, the bishop in his bishopric, prospering, by the envy of the enemy of the human race the happy state is turned into its contrary. For when on a certain day the king's hunters after the accustomed manner were pursuing a boar in the forest d, the king's son too, who was his only one, hastened equally with them in the same course. But while they wandered through all the byways and various windings with the dogs, he, left alone, incautious, met a wild boar e; at the sight of which the steed on which he sat, terrified, turning back its course, is turned to flight. But the boy, when he wished to restrain it by the bridle, and drew the rein more tightly to the other side, alas! too far forward he slipped from the saddle: and still clinging to the rein which he held in his hand, dragged along the ground, was miserably crushed by the heels of the horse. Whom his attendants, long sought, and finding thus crushed, not without the greatest grief lifting, and raising on their horses, returned home with a mournful funeral. Hence came the report that he was struck by a boar f.
[3] When this resounded in the palace g of the king, how great a concourse of men and women from everywhere, and extinguished to the utmost grief of all, how great a wailing filled the royal buildings, the streets, the fields, wherever it was heard, no one is able to explain h: for not only in the neighboring, but in all provinces everywhere where so great a mishap was heard, grief and the greatest amazement seized all. The magnates, all the dignities of the kingdom, stricken with the same grief, dismayed by the king's despair, themselves despairing, what they should do, or in what they might trust the hope of the kingdom to stand? For the heir of the kingdom and the whole hope had been extinguished. Meanwhile the boy, placed on a bed, on the next day was stripped of the present life. What therefore was to be done in a shock of this kind, and how they might mitigate the king's grief, when they sought among themselves, at length, counsel being found, they suggest to the king that the Bishop be invited: which he most devoutly embracing, presently, without delay, legates being directed, demands that the Bishop deign to weary himself to him with all haste.
[4] And without delay, they do the commands; they go to the bishop; they set forth the cause of the invitation, not without mourning. But he, having heard the mishap of his friend, wholly troubled in spirit, weeping and much groaning, his retinue being called, straightway did not delay to hasten. Nor less meanwhile the king, impatient for the coming of the Pontiff, going out, having descried the old man hastening from afar, with tears poured out, his head veiled, surrounded by many accompanying and weeping, ran to meet him. Who, when they prepared to salute one another after the wonted manner, from the excessive grief of the heart the voice stuck in the throat. How great a flood of tears flowed from both sides, it can be known to none. At length, sated with mourning i, a long space being passed, their eyes wiped, they rush into kisses, saluting as friends. The Bishop proceeds to prayer; the king with his own followed from afar. Nor less the queen, having learned of the holy Man's coming, like Martha or Mary for her brother, with tears poured out, a sob shaking her breast, but with modest shame and countenance cast down, bends to the knees of the Bishop, about to entreat for her son. Whom he, humble, raising with his hand, does not ask what she wishes, understanding very piously what the sob implores.
[5] Finally, fasting, presently entering the church, he passed the night in prayer, about to beseech the Lord for the boy. by the aid of the Virgin Mother he recalled to life, How, or with what words he prayed, does not appear; but what he obtained, is not hidden. For, the prayer being finished k, at the twilight of the coming day, when a most heavy sleep is wont to seize mortals, with slow foot entering to the boy, all who watched for the obsequies being cast out, on bended knees, he commits himself to the patronage of blessed Mary; that she who bore Life might obtain life for the boy from her Son l: for otherwise he did not dare to attempt such a thing, unless she would deign to invoke the Lord for him. For what should he do? Trembling between hope and fear, he awaits the desired aid with instant prayer. Nor did the pious Healer keep his Servant longer in suspense, who to those thus hoping in him is wont to confer a remedy. For amid the praying the boy, as though roused from a heavy sleep, lifted his head; whether he dreamed or waked, astounded. The Saint therefore, when he knew the outcome of his hope fixed in God, glad, approached; raised the boy alive; his officials being called, orders him to be stripped of his funeral garments, and to be clad in the royal garments which he had before used.
[6] to the incredible joy of all: Therefore those who were present at this office, a cry
of joy could not longer restrain; but, freely bursting forth, they filled the court, and the whole hall of the king, with the greatest outcry. At which all, shaken from sleep, ran hither and thither, ignorant of the cause of so great a sound. And the king himself too, who then for the first time was snatching a little sleep, terrified (for, too sad, he lay sleepless the whole night), hastily rushed into the chamber where so great a din had arisen. With how great gladness his heart throbbed, the tears poured out for joy testify; when he saw living again him for whom, if he might recover him, he himself had longed to die. The mother, being called, hastens to the feet of the holy Man; because her son alive soothed her sad heart: and all too, who had flocked together to bewail the funeral, filled with joy, hastened, each before the others, to the admiration of the rising boy.
[7] then deprecating the royal munificence toward himself, The king therefore, lest he should cause delay to the Bishop, who was hastening home lest he be praised by the people, took counsel with the queen how he might reward the Saint, who bestowed on them such great benefits from God. Gold, silver, whatever things desirable and more honorable as a king's gift they could find in the treasuries, he most gladly ordered to be offered, humbly deprecating that he would deign to accept. Which the holy Man, avoiding to accept, said: If it delight you to offer something to God for the giving of thanks; for the increasing of the service of God in the church of the blessed Mother of Christ, by whose merits you have recovered your son alive, to enlarge its bounds, which are narrow, for so great a service, prepare some part of your kingdom, that it may be in usufruct for those serving the Lord there, if so it please the royal majesty, you will be able: because this is firmer and more stable for the earning of your blessedness, and that of your preceding fathers and following posterity, than gold, which delights the eyes when it is seen, and saddens the heart when it is lost.
[8] he obtains for the church of Strasbourg the town of Rouffach. Which proposal of the Pontiff the king, gladly embracing, Where, he says, shall we be able to find such a place as may be fitting for serving the Mother of the heavenly King, whose are all things in the heavens and on earth? And when he revolved these things with himself, and spread his mind through all Alsace, if anywhere perchance such a place might be found which should be held apt for so great a donation; it occurred to his mind that Rubiacha m, a town most opulent in all uses, that is, in pleasant fields, plains, woods, waters, buildings, peoples, was fitting as a dowry for the highest Queen. Nor did the king delay, the wish being at last found, the chancellor being presently summoned n, in the presence of his nobles, giving their assent to so good a counsel, he makes a testament; that Rubiacha, with all its appendages and confines pertaining to it, also with its villas, whole and entire, from now and thenceforth be under the dominion of the holy church of Strasbourg: serving the Mother of God Mary o, supported by a stable and inextricable stipulation. Enriched with this noble gift, bidding farewell to the king, the Bishop returned to his own; and, the clergy being called together, and the assembly of soldiers, and the gathering of the people, all standing by and beholding, he placed the received testament upon the altar consecrated in honor of holy Mary.
[9] But afterward he lived many years [p], abounding in holy virtues, He walks upon the waters; and works other miracles: of which one miracle, very profitable to the faithful, we thought worthy to be inserted in this work. For it is reported that he ordered a small wooden oratory to be made for him on this side of the river which, from the forest of the Vosges, by name Bruche [q], mingled with the river Ill, which flows in its channel through Alsace even to that point, so that, crossing the river in the nocturnal silence, he might come there to sacrifice himself more secretly in prayer, and to extend his mind more widely in divine contemplation. But at times, when he found no boat, he crossed the river with dry feet; and, the prayer being completed, walking again over the wave, he returned. Thus therefore, leading a religious life, he cured those oppressed with various diseases; put demons to flight from beset bodies; made the discordant to agree; and was a fitting moderator to all according to the measure of their necessity.
[10] But when he felt his last day to be imminent, [he dies, and is buried outside the city; thence afterward he is translated to the monastery of Surburg.] on a little hill near the city, outside the city [r], where the church of St. Michael is set up, he commanded a burial to be made for him, and himself to be carried and buried there; imitating Christ the Savior, who chose for himself a sepulcher outside the gate [s]. But indeed after many years, translated thence and carried to the monastery of Surburg, there he is honorably laid up: where even now, as patron, he confers many benefits on those serving God with hymns and praises, the grace of Christ accompanying, to whom be honor and glory through all ages of ages. Amen.