Geran

ON BLESSED GERAN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

OF AUXERRE IN GAUL.

IN THE YEAR 914.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

His cult; his relics; his Acts; the time of his episcopate and death.

Geran, bishop, of Auxerre (Bl.)

BY THE AUTHOR P. B.

We doubted long, after we had not idly examined all the things which were here at hand for asserting the cult of Blessed Geran, whether it were permitted safely to grant him a place among the Saints or the Blessed: for nothing occurred Blessed Geran, bishop, is honored on this day whence it might appear plainly enough that his veneration was anywhere established. The considerations therefore gathered on either side we directed to Auxerre, to the honorable man John le Beuf, canon and succentor of the church of Auxerre, a learned man; but one known to us before only by services—not once, when something concerning neighboring saints had to be examined—rendered to us: we asked him, I say, both to communicate to us his own opinion, and any other notice, if he had any, concerning the cult of Blessed Geran. Both, as is his wont, he abundantly rendered, and the more easily because he had long since laboriously handled that same business, as we now first understood from him, at the request of others. His letter, given to us in the year 1728 on July 14, can be reduced to two chief heads; of which the first pertains to the present cult of the Blessed, the other to investigating its origin and antiquity.

[2] He testifies therefore first, that Blessed Geran is now publicly honored, [in the church of Soissons and at Auxerre at St. Germain's; but here without a feast.] and that not only at Auxerre, where he is believed to be kept, but also at Soissons, where he died and was first buried: and that at Soissons indeed his feast is observed on July 28, on which he has a commemoration in the proper Breviary and Missal: but that at Auxerre no feast has been instituted; yet his name is recited in the Litanies, which are wont to be chanted among the Benedictine monks in the monastery of St. Germain, as often as, on account of occurring necessities, they hold a supplication through the crypts of their church: and moreover that in the same place, on the eighth day after the solemnity of All Saints, which is consecrated to the local saints of the monastery, a credence-table, or little table, with a lighted taper is placed each year before the effigy of this holy one, painted beside the tomb of St. Marianus: and finally, that among the guest-chambers, which are distinguished by the names of the local saints, there is one there inscribed to St. Geran. And these things seemed to us sufficient that he should obtain the same rank also in our work; since it is not for private men to strike anyone from the list of the Blessed, to whom such honors are openly paid, the Church having long looked on.

[3] The same man contends meanwhile, secondly, that that cult, already described, Yet it were to be wished, is recent, and not earlier than about the middle of the seventeenth century: and concerning the cult at Soissons indeed this cannot seem doubtful, which he proves from a rescript which, composed by the grand vicar and archdeacon of Soissons, together with his own letter of June 5, 1727, the most illustrious prelate of that same church deigned to send to him: for in it, he says, after an extract from book 4 of the History of Soissons, chapter 36, where there is nothing which is not taken from our Deeds of the Bishops of Auxerre (that is, from the Acts soon to be shown), that canon thus explains his mind: "It is plain," he says, "from this passage of the History of Soissons, that St. Geran was buried at Soissons, and then translated to Auxerre to the monastery of St. Germain. And this is all that could be found, to satisfy the questions of the lord Le Beuf, canon and succentor of Auxerre. It could not without difficulty be believed with him that the cult of St. Geran is no older than the Breviary which the most illustrious lord de Bourlon, bishop of Soissons, published" (who succeeded the most illustrious lord Simon Le Gras, deceased in the year 1656, and was still among the living in the year 1663, in which the History of Soissons of Claude Dormay appeared):

[4] "For in that Breviary which the most illustrious lord Le Gras published in the year 1630, that the antiquity of the cult received in both places concerning St. Geran on July 28 no mention is made; as neither in another of the most illustrious lord Charles de Roucy, which is much older, and was uniquely in use in the diocese of Soissons, until the most illustrious lord Le Gras brought forth his own. We consulted the Necrology of the cathedral church of Soissons, nor in this ancient manuscript does anything concerning St. Geran occur: the Missals also were inspected, which the church of Soissons formerly used;

there indeed was found on July 28 a commemoration of St. Samson, but none of St. Geran. The commemoration of St. Geran was added only to the commemoration of St. Samson under the most illustrious lord de Bourlon, in a particular Proper to be added to the Roman Missal, which we use in the diocese of Soissons. It would have been desirable for us, had it been permitted to satisfy the lord Le Beuf, by assigning to him both the origin of the cult of St. Geran in the diocese of Soissons, and the motives by which the most illustrious lord de Bourlon was impelled to insert him in his Breviary. If any of these things shall hereafter be uncovered, it will most willingly be communicated to him." Thus much concerning the cult at Soissons.

[5] it could be demonstrated, But at Auxerre, when lately by certain persons the matter of instituting a feast of St. Geran was taken up, the same lord Le Beuf does not deny that he opposed it, and indeed prevailed that it should not be done, and that especially on a twofold ground; of which the one was the absence of a tradition of the cult, the other the novelty of that which had lately been received at Soissons. Nor therefore does he judge that cult to be ancient and confirmed by immemorial tradition, which it now holds among the Benedictines of Auxerre according to what was said above in no. 2: and concerning the Litanies there mentioned he thus writes: Those Litanies, which I saw in print, do not exceed seventy or eighty years; and they are those which lord Noël, canon of Auxerre, composed, to satisfy his own private devotion, which served the Benedictines as an example, that they too should do the same concerning their local saints. Now that lord Louis Noël flourished and wrote to us in the year 1662, then a senior, as he calls himself, canon of Auxerre: whence the conjecture concerning the age of those Litanies is easy.

[6] Concerning the credence-table with the burning taper, which he had said was placed each year before the effigy of the Blessed, whether from immemorial custom, he seems to hint altogether the same, when he adds that the effigy itself was recently painted, namely about seventy years ago. And indeed in the historical collection concerning certain bishops and monasteries of Auxerre, compiled by George Viole the Benedictine (who died in the year 1669, according to Le Long), which we here have in manuscript, at the end of the Life of St. Geran his cult at Auxerre is proved first indeed from epitaphs, and then only by these words: He is invoked in the Litanies at St. Germain's, nor anywhere is an Office held concerning him. You see that concerning that anniversary ceremony nothing is brought forward, where nevertheless the occasion demanded it, if it had then already been introduced: it seems therefore more recent than the use of the Litanies; although we conjecture that neither is this much older, even from the Life of St. Germain, composed by that same George Viole (but no doubt before he wrote those former things), and published at Paris in the year 1656: for in it, in chapter 30, he weaves a catalogue of the saints of Auxerre, a demonstration of the cult being added to each: but when he comes to St. Geran on p. 237, he brings forward nothing else to prove his veneration as a saint than the epitaph in the church of St. Germain.

[7] whether from Martyrologies however ancient, And this catalogue indeed is the first in which we have seen Geran reckoned among the saints; this we think Louis Noël followed in his manuscript Calendar of the church and diocese of Auxerre, which he most kindly offered us as a keepsake in the year, as I mentioned before, 1662. In both, July 28 is assigned to him as his natal day: on which day also he is noted by lord Bargede in a little work, after the manner of a Martyrology, concerning the saints in any way pertaining to the city and diocese of Auxerre, written by hand after the year (as is clear from what is there narrated on July 17) 1676. And I know not why a certain manuscript Martyrology of the saints of Auxerre—as much more recent than the rest as it is more copious, which we received as found among the collectanea of our Peter Francis Chifflet—announces him on August 5; unless perhaps its author did not attend enough to the epitaph of Blessed Geran which he cites, and read in it "on August 5" for "on the fifth of the Kalends of August." Castellanus in his universal Martyrology, from the Breviary of Soissons, as we believe, notes him better on the day on which he died, July 28. Other Martyrologists who mention Blessed Geran we have not seen, nor has the lord Le Beuf, consulted by us; who adds that the name of Geran, which we said above was inscribed with the title of Saint on a certain chamber of the monastery of St. Germain, seems to have been painted only 20 or 25 years ago.

[8] The same man moreover takes care lest anyone should hope thence to overthrow the novelty of the cult asserted by him, whether from places consecrated by the name of a certain Geran, because to certain places from immemorial time the name of St. Geran has been given; while in the letter praised he thus writes: There is a village in Bourbonnais, which took its name from St. Geran, commonly Saint Geran. But it, he says, is certainly St. Julian, the famous martyr among the people of Brioude (in Auvergne), whose name has been thus deformed. I have testimonies of this matter given to me from the place itself. Others too I had brought to me from the diocese of Agen, where also there is a village which they call in the vernacular Saint Gueran: but again it is the same St. Julian of Brioude, who gave this name; and in neither place is St. Geran the bishop known, and the French name Geran is rendered in Latin Julian. Perhaps even the genuine name of our bishop was Julian, and he received the name of Geran from those who had thus corrupted the name of Julian; as already from the ninth century the man who before was called Remigius began to be called corruptly Raymo. Thus far lord Le Beuf; who, having detected among the French the already-mentioned confusion of the names Geran and Julian, forecloses the argument to those who, for the ancient cult of our Geran, should produce old villages or churches enjoying the title, patronage, or even the relics of some holy Geran: for he will contend that that name is a corruption of some Julian (as there are very many among the saints), not of our Geran; unless it be established that it is his from some other source than the name; and accordingly perhaps he will have them to be Julians—both that Geran whom in the hagiological Vocabulary Castellanus says to be patron of Ledalium in the district of Agen (whether it is the same one of whom mention was just made, or another), and also that one, of whose relics the History which we gave of the translation of St. Wandregisilus makes mention, vol. 5 of July, p. 297, no. 32.

[9] For the rest, he says, whatever I have here brought forward ought not to stand in the way, We assign to him the title of Blessed, that in your work he obtain a place on July 28: yet I think it will be enough if you attribute to him either the epithet of Blessed or of Venerable. I submit meanwhile, etc. Certainly no one will deny that these are ancient titles of his: for Geran is called "a man of venerable life" at the beginning of the thirteenth century by Robert, monk of St. Marianus at Auxerre, in his Chronology after the year 900, fol. 70. But our Life demands nothing less—nay, something more—in no. 8, where he is called "an excellent Pastor," and in no. 11, where he is styled "a glorious Pastor, the greatness of whose love toward his sheep, in address, in fellowship, in reception, how great it was, let no mortal tongue deny to explain"; and at last in no. 14, where he is said, dying, to have "migrated to the Lord." What of this, that in his epitaph, which is thought to have been engraved about four hundred years ago—as Le Beuf himself testifies and interprets—he is called Blessed? For it runs thus: HERE RESTS, OF HOLY MEMORY, MARIANUS, CONFESSOR; BESIDE WHOM RESTS GERAN, BISHOP, AS THE VERY ANCIENT EPITAPHS ABOVE HIS BURIAL TESTIFY: HE GOVERNED THE CHURCH OF AUXERRE FOR 3 YEARS, 6 MONTHS, 11 DAYS; HE MIGRATED TO THE LORD ON THE FIFTH OF THE KALENDS OF AUGUST. Verse turn: TURN THE BACK AND YOU WILL SEE THE ANCIENT EPITAPH PLACED TO THE BLESSED.

[10] whom he seems to have had at least for four centuries; And so that B they also interpreted, who to that ancient epitaph, of which mention is made in the one already given, substituted (we know not when) a more recent French one. Take the matter from an authentic instrument, which, after visiting in the years 1634 and 1636 the crypts of the church of St. Germain, the most illustrious lord Dominic Seguier composed—first bishop of Auxerre, afterward of Meaux; where, after other things inspected and described, in our copy it is thus read: Hastening thence to the chapel of St. Maxima, we found, before its doors, a certain tomb or stone sarcophagus buried in the ground, in which was a body or bones mixed with dust and earth, yet in a natural position; and on the left side of the same tomb we read such an inscription engraved on a column: HERE RESTS, etc., as above. Then he adds: But that epitaph, of which here (in the other epitaph already shown) there is question, being consumed by excessive age, could not be read: but in its place we read these more recent epitaphs: "Here lies the body of my lord Saint Marien, monk of this place, who passed away on the 12th of the Kalends of May. Here lies the body of my lord Saint Geran, bishop of this city the 42nd, who passed away the 3rd … of August." That is: Here lies the body of the lord Saint Marianus, monk of this place, who died on the 12th of the Kalends of May. Here lies the body of the lord Saint Geran, bishop of this city the 42nd (in Viole it is wrongly given "the 13th," an I being taken wrongly for an L) who died the 3rd … of August (Viole reads "the 5th of August," August 5; but neither is valid, as is plain from the Latin epitaph and the Acts). Then further in the mentioned instrument it is at once subjoined: But of these saints, namely of St. Geran and St. Marianus, images were painted on the same panel on the wall.

[11] for when he even began to be called a Saint is not clear. But whether these two French epitaphs, or at least the second concerning St. Geran, agree in any way with the most ancient epitaph whose place they took, and were written before it was yet not so corrupted by age that it could by no means be read at all, who could divine? If, however, this were true, as may seem probable enough, then to our Geran not only the title of Blessed, but also that of Saint, would abundantly be vindicated by a most ancient right. Nor does it matter that afterward that French epitaph of Blessed Geran was deleted (as at the end of his manuscript Life Dom Viole testifies, who there mentions nothing concerning the other, of St. Marianus), and in its place were substituted these two distichs:

Wont to divine wars, and wont to triumphs over the demon and the flesh, joyful he goes to his battles. Thence the fierce enemies of the faith he both routs and puts to flight. What wonder? He who departs a victor over the Deity's foes.

Nothing, I say, does this matter: for whatever the cause was of blotting out that epitaph, it certainly could not be that Geran was there called a Saint, since even afterward he called him a Saint—

both Viole himself there, and others cited above in no. 7. But concerning the cult and titles enough now. It remains that a few things be subjoined concerning the translation of the body, and the Acts.

[12] That it was already of old translated from the church of Soissons to that of St. Germain at Auxerre, anyone will understand from the things which have hitherto been produced here. The translation, and the present state of his body. But in what year this was done, most are silent; yet the lord Bargede, cited above in no. 7, affirms that it happened two years after the death of the blessed Prelate; but whence he has this he does not add; as neither does Louis Noël, praised in the same place, when in his Calendar he notes the memory of this translation on December 21: whom lord Le Beuf convicts of error, as having assigned to the translation that day which in reality was that of the election. It also appears doubtful, in what place in the church of St. Germain this pledge was deposited, whether in the same tomb with St. Marianus, or in some neighboring and separate one: for either can be signified by the words "beside whom," placed in the epitaph. But indeed, if the tomb was not one and the same for both, why does one and the same panel contain a common epitaph? Then, if both did not have a common tomb, but separate ones, it would be necessary that these were neighboring and near-joined: for that at least the words "beside whom" require: and yet only one tomb was found there in the visitation already mentioned; and lord Le Beuf, who very recently entered that same crypt, denies that he could detect any trace there of another tomb. One therefore must be judged to have received both bodies. Why then in the year 1636 was not both found in it, but only one, according to no. 10? Had the other already been removed before? But whither? when? whose? All uncertain. Yet I would believe that only the body of Blessed Geran remains there, because from the Acts of the visitation it seems to have been found wholly intact; since both no part of it is said to have been lacking, and the bones were found mixed with dust and earth, but in a natural position: but the body of St. Marianus cannot be said to be intact, since Le Beuf testifies that portions of him are elsewhere; and Saussay in his Martyrology on April 29 asserts that pledges of St. Marianus are kept in the very monastery of St. Marianus; as we said from him on April 20, on which SS. Mamertinus and Marianus were treated.

[13] We give the Acts of Geran from the History of the bishops of Auxerre published by our Philip Labbe in vol. 1 of his Library of Manuscript Books, p. 438. Whence the Acts were received, and how much to be esteemed. These an anonymous author wrote, yet contemporary with the Blessed, as we gather from the Admonition which is read there on p. 445 and in the preface to the Life of William de Gressibus, chapter 65, ibid. p. 507; in which places it is said to have been a constant custom of the church of Auxerre, that it should take care that the notable deeds of each bishop be written and registered at once after the death of any of them, in a book providently and keenly ordered for this. It is added, however, that that custom was first not observed after the death of Robert, the 52nd bishop, since only three years afterward his Life at last began to be written: then that the same was again interrupted, and indeed for a hundred years, from the death of Erard de Lisignies, the 64th bishop. That custom therefore was still in force after the death of Blessed Geran, who was the 42nd bishop, or, as some will have it, the 43rd. But we compared Labbe's printed copy with the manuscript, which we here have transcribed in the manuscript collection of Dom Viole and others: thence, if there be anything worthy of note, it will be added in the margin.

[14] But since in these Acts the day indeed and the month are noted, but not the year, The time of his episcopate and of his happy death. in which the Blessed migrated to the heavenly ones, it will help to determine this briefly from another source: for Geran had as his nearest successor in the episcopate, as is agreed, Betto; and in the very ancient brief Chronicle of St. Columba (says Mabillon at the year 915 in the Benedictine Annals, book 41, no. 92) at this year Betto is said to have been ordained bishop on the 4th of the Ides of March: since therefore the death of Blessed Geran fell on the 5th of the Kalends of August, it must be said to pertain to the preceding year, or 914; not to 915, as most note. But if from this you take away 4 years, 6 months, 11 days, during which, according to our Acts, he governed the chair of the episcopate, you will fix the beginning of his entry upon the see at the year of Christ 910, on the 17th day of January. I said first, "according to our Acts"; because in the Latin epitaph 111 years are read; but more deference seems due to the Acts, as being older. I said secondly, "the beginning of his entry upon the see," not however of his election or ordination: for that he was ordained elsewhere before he came to his own see can be drawn from the same Acts, no. 6; nay, the lord Le Beuf, so often mentioned here, testifies that he saw, among the Colbertine manuscripts, now destined for the library of the most Christian king, an ancient Necrology of the church of Auxerre, in which on December 21 he read these things: The election of Dom Geran, bishop, who gave to the brothers (the canons of Auxerre) the estate of Logny and Solium, whence he ought to give to the lights of the churches of St. Mary and St. Stephen and St. John a measure of oil, and to the brothers one pound of pennies, whoever shall hold that land. It is plain that these things must be referred to the year 909. But on January 14 (of the following year certainly) these things were: The ordination of Geran, bishop, who gave to the brothers, in the county of Latisco, Gaïacum with all its appurtenances, and also a vineyard, which is in the suburb of the city, which is called Cerseredus, which whoever shall hold by charter, let him give to the brothers one measure of wine by the lesser measure. And finally these things on July 28: Died Dom Geran, bishop. And he observes moreover that no one in that Necrology is called a Saint. But let us now bring forward the Acts themselves.

THE LIFE

By an anonymous author, published in Labbe in the Library of Manuscript Books, vol. 1, p. 438, collated with the Auxerre manuscript.

Geran, bishop, of Auxerre (Bl.)

BHL Number: 3420

From the printed sources.

CHAPTER I.

The virtues of the Blessed by which he shone before the episcopate.

Geran, bishop, French by nation, a native of the town of Soissons, The fatherland, parents, studies, clerical state of Blessed Geran; born of his father Otard, brought forth by his mother Wia [*], governed the chair of the episcopate 4 years, 6 months, 11 days. Thus, from the birth of his nativity nurtured with the milk-warm fosterings of infancy, when he began to enter the earliest vestibule of his boyish age, by the provident example of his parents, care soliciting their minds, he is committed to the rude studies of the school, by which the still most tender and dull sense of stammering infancy is wont to be trained, now by soothing, now by frightening with gentle severity. Finally, after he was instructed in the Davidic melodies, by the favoring providence of the highest Author, he attained the rule of the clerical state, and was admitted ^a to the congregation of the glorious martyr Gervasius, where, regularly instructed, and made obedient ^b to the venerable fathers of that place, he learned to run over the historical fields of the books with the witty plectrum of his tongue, and to make resound the tuneful modes of the musical art in the hall of Christ with the bellowing of a honeyed voice.

[2] There grew daily in him a special wisdom, a chaste life, upright morals [*], and with all these a rich abundance of goods. His barns and cellars, overflowing with grain and wine, no tenacious love of money possessed; but the munificent charity dwelling in him made them common to all. The door of his house lay open to travelers, it offered the benefits of consolation, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep; the uncovered backs of the wretched he clothed with garments, and the festering heads of orphans he had cleansed with water and a poultice ^c. Adorned with these and such-like exhibitions of good works, he began so to please all the fathers and brothers of that church, that he was regarded by all not now as a son, but as a father.

[3] What shall I say? Since, ascending step by step from the lowest grades of the ministries, by which he is raised through all the grades of ecclesiastical dignity, he was promoted to the office of provost, and at the same time with it merited the summit of the archdeaconate; in which dignity of honors being exalted, he strove so vigilantly to moderate himself, that neither was he raised above himself by the pride of arrogance ^d, nor was he moved from the state of his conceived religion by the favors of flatterers. Keeping the watches of the flock of Christ, after the wakeful care of a pastor, most instantly, he drove from himself and from others the monsters of vices, and faithfully ministered the fitting food and clothing of bodily need. By such heraldings, as has been said, and by many others of every kind raised even to the stars of the pole, he shone so most renowned to the world, that he was both most pleasing to the royal majesty, dear to the prelates, acceptable to the nobles, venerable to all the clergy, beloved by the soldiers, and most amiable to the highest and lowest persons, and to either sex.

[4] It came to pass therefore, after the passing of the lord and pious pastor Herifrid ^e of Auxerre [*], that the widowed church of Auxerre that the church was harassed by various excesses of troubles, and especially over the pastoral election, to which not a few panted, not from spiritual zeal, but from an anxious ambition of honor. Now there was at that time a certain powerful man, Ragenard ^f by name, viscount of that same city; most rich in possessions of estates and buildings, most wealthy in treasures of gold and silver, and most abounding in the abundance of all things, most illustrious in the nobility of his parents, surrounded by squadrons of soldiers, and, so to speak, in the court of Richard ^g, the great and most flourishing prince, second to none, except Manasses his brother. Who, being such and so great, boiling with the vapors of avarice, preferred himself to all, desiring to appear singular in a singular way, and, that as a powerful man he might become more powerful, as a rich man richer, he plotted with a venomous mind, how he might make such a prelate for the church whom he could subject to his own dominion, and urge to acquiesce in the counsels of his own will, and who, if he should attempt to invade the goods of the house of God that pleased him, would utterly fall silent, his tyrannical power threatening.

[5] given rather than elected bishop, Having therefore seized upon a nefarious machination, he went to duke Richard, and, offering gifts, sought that the election of that church be given to him; and at length, having attained his wish, he summoned the venerable choir of the canons together with the military order, inquiring of them whom they had in mind to elect and ordain bishop: but when all were silent, and answered nothing else except, "Whom God shall have chosen," "I," said he, "burn with the flame of love for you all, and, striving to favor the will and demand of all, I wish especially to venerate you all as fathers, to honor you as faithful friends, before all others everywhere obedient to God, if only I can merit anything from you, which I long to suggest to you for the general honor." And when they too answered to this certain things pleasing to him, he added: There is a certain Frank most familiar to me, acceptable to God, as to men, Geran by name, illustrious for honesty of morals, foremost in faith, vigorous in stability of mind, who, God being propitious, since he is good to his own citizens, will be able to be better to you, if by your affection [*] he shall become your pastor:

[6] But they, perceiving the might of his strength, and wishing to avert the injuries of his craftiness which he could inflict, promise he was received with wondrous rejoicing of all. that they will obey his counsel. He at once, thirsting, hastens the business, and, having obtained the leave of the aforementioned prince, supported by the help of his kinsmen and friends, at length relying on the election of the clergy and people, sustained by the authority of the archbishop lord Gauterius ^h, went to the most serene and most pious King Charles ⁱ, and, the divine aid supporting him, merited that that most strenuous Man should be elected and ordained bishop. He, having attained the most holy and most laborious gift of benediction, is received by all with rejoicing, and, with the immense diligence of the clergy and the innumerable throng of the peoples, choirs of psalm-singers going before and following after, is borne on the shoulders of the religious to the hall of Stephen, the chief of Christ's martyrs ^k, and there, decked with the pontifical stole, honorably placed in the priestly seat, he sat.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

What in his very episcopate, for the flock entrusted to him, he suffered and did, up to his happy death.

Here, as a brief course of time went on, how piously he lived, and how great persecutions he suffered from the aforesaid Ragenard, and from the barbarous nation of the Normans, for the protection of himself and his own, He suffers much, first from Ragenard the viscount; it will be permitted at least succinctly to set forth: since at once after he had obtained the episcopal see, that same Ragenard did not blush to vomit forth, in the sight of all, the venom of malice which lurked in his swift breast: for, an occasion being taken as it were from the vow of his sponsorship, he took away from Geran's dominion the estate of Gaïacum, three miles distant from the city, with all its appurtenances, and shamelessly adapted it to his own use; and, that he might exist the more madly in diminishing the resources of that same church, at his instigation contriving it, Manasses his most powerful brother—then richer than all the wealthy men of Gaul, and the most secret searcher-out of all secular counsels (whence also most famous to kings and to all the nobles up to the farthest hinges of the world)—did not shrink from reducing to his own uses the estate of Narejacum ^b. That most hostile enemy of his too, as was said before, Ragenard, strove so to hem him in with his commands, that he attempted to do nothing beyond his counsel and will; none of his clergy, no soldier, dared to gainsay him; but as to his own, so to all these he gave orders.

[8] Meanwhile, while his mind was made anxious by such misfortunes, other calamities of miseries burst in, then from the Normans, by which he might be greatly troubled, and be compelled to betake himself wholly to the divine aid. For the savagery of the Normans raged everywhere, and with unceasing blows depopulated the whole region by day and by night, openly and secretly, exterminating the whole land by slaughters and plunderings and the burnings of fires: which when the heroic Man and excellent pastor saw, he was shaken with an intolerable grief of heart, prepared to run to meet it for the flock committed to him (not unmindful of the Lord's saying, in which it is said: For the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep); he calls forth his men, exhorts them with words, strengthens them with a blessing, and beseeches that, girded with warlike arms, they set out with him; he commands Ragenard with petitioning words to go out with him to the fight, and by no means obtains it.

[9] whom he thus himself often crushed; But he, having gone out from the city with his own men only, sends scouts ahead, and finds the enemy: battle is joined; he gains the victory ^c; and, the divine grace helping, the adversaries being routed, three of their standards are carried back. Two nobles of the enemy were there taken captive: of whom one, cast headlong from the wall of the city, perished, the other was given to that same Ragenard. Then after this, strengthened by the power of the supreme Deity, as often as hostile phalanxes broke in to carry out plunderings, he of his own accord thrust himself into their encounters, now seizing the incautious, now the well-seen, and prospered with no small slaughter [*]. This victorious right hand, together with Richard ^d and Robert ^e, the two greatest nobles, took part in the battle which was waged at the city of Chartres ^f; where, by the intervention of Mary the Mother of God, a very great slaughter of the pagans was made, to such a degree that, an innumerable multitude straying about, the corpses of the slain were found to be more than six thousand five hundred, besides those whom the gulf of the river Eure ^g swallowed up, and the long tract of flight and the vastness of the forests held the wounded and the lifeless.

[10] so that he at length subjected them both to the Church and to the king, At another storm succeeding, when the fury of the Norman power [] was ravaging the district of Nevers, and was driving even an immensity of plunder with laden wagons, the most invincible Richard meeting them, that same bishop Geran, stationed with a few in the first line, undaunted attacked them; and soon, they being turned to flight, the hostile force was so overcome and vanquished, that if any remained, having lost the confidence of their noble warriors, they dared no longer to join any battles, nor thenceforth to depopulate any lands; but of their own accord gave themselves to the empire of the Franks, and, submitting their necks to the yoke of Christ, and despising the demonic mockeries, willingly sought the laver of baptism, and at length, by the gift of the king and the princes, inhabited the part of the kingdom given them to dwell in, before desolated by the madness of their own devouring [], now allotted to them ^h. But Ragenard, his obstinate slanderer, gazing with envious looks upon his flourishing with such successes, wasted away with the disease of envy, perceiving that he prospered in all he attempted [*] with favorable auspices; and that his own men, whatever endeavors he plotted, failed with daily losses.

[11] the same a strenuous leader, and a solicitous pastor; And so this glorious Pastor, when, for the peace of the holy Church of God and the protection of the fold of Christ, he did not fear to press on, as an unconquerable athlete, to the warlike contest, with the provident eye of solicitude watched over the safety of his sheep, like a most sagacious shepherd, and panted unceasingly to snatch them, through himself and through his own, from the viperous craft of the invisible enemy: the greatness of whose love toward them, in address, in fellowship, in reception, how great it was, let no mortal tongue deny [] to explain; but nevertheless how great it was, the very lavishness of his gifts evidently declares. And so, for celebrating the solemn memorial of his election, he bestowed for the uses of the canons the estate of Logny and Solium, that from them for the lights of the churches of St. Mary and St. John and St. Stephen one measure of oil [] be paid, and that Nancradus and Lupinus yield to the stipends of the brothers.

[12] On the day also of his ordination he assigned to the same brothers, in the county [], Gagiacum ⁱ with all its appurtenances, as one who conferred much on his flock and church, and the vineyard which is in the suburb of the city, and is called Circeredus; which whoever shall hold by charter, for the love of God [] toward him let him give to those same brothers of the canons one measure of wine by the lesser measure; and in the county of Auxerre Tauriacum with its adjacencies, and the "villar" of coopertory ^k, and in the estate of Prisciacum one mansus, and in the county of Sens over the river Ormentio in Germaniacum [*] one mansus, and over the little river Belca, Cervernum, which he himself bought from Bocard, the brother of Gauterius the archbishop, with the serfs and all its appurtenances.

[13] But on the day of his death he was striving to accumulate some things for the stipends of those same brothers; and he was about to confer more, but, set on a journey, cut off by the prevention of death, he breathed out his last breath: for he was setting out into France, that he might appeal to the ears of the royal majesty [] concerning the aforesaid estates taken from him, as was written above, if perchance by the imperious command of the king and the demand of the nobles and the mediation [] of the most clement duke Richard he might be able to recover them: but when he had come to the city of Soissons (for before he reached it, he had already begun to be a little ill), he began to be weighed down by the trouble of a sickness: where, honorably received, when he saw himself drawing near to death, a mournful groan burst from his heart, pouring forth profuse showers of tears, crying that he, although he was in his fatherland, would die as a fugitive and pilgrim, without the presence of his beloved flock, and would be laid in the bosom of the earth without their obsequies, to which he most ardently strove to commit himself.

[14] Thence, the moment of his death coming upon him, and having received the sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, had not a premature death forestalled him. commending himself and the people committed to him to God the Savior of all, he sent forth his spirit. He migrated to the Lord on the 5th of the Kalends of August. And there, beside the tomb of his uncle Rodohinus, formerly prelate of that same place, by Abbo the venerable bishop of that city ^l and two other bishops coming to the office of his burial, the colleges of divers churches being gathered, decently entombed with hymn-singing praises, he obtained his fatherland's urn. The church was without a bishop from the 12th of the Kalends of January ^m up to the 6th of the Kalends of March ⁿ.

ANNOTATIONS.