ON ST. NEOTUS, CONFESSOR,
IN ENGLAND
About the Year 877.
PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.
Neotus, confessor, in England (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
§ I. The cult of the Saint and the writers of the Acts.
This Saint, on account of the translation of his holy body
and the diverse place of his veneration,
is announced in two provinces of England,
as is clear from Edward Maihew, who in his Trophies
of the English Saints on the
31st day of July has thus: The ancient cult of St. Neotus in Cornwall "At Neotstoke in Cornwall, or
rather at the town of Neot, commonly St. Needs,
in the county of Huntingdon, of holy Neotus the abbot,
a most holy and most learned man, etc." Camden
in his Britannia, page 138 and following, thus indicates the first place
of the ancient cult: "Near Liskeard lies
what was once the church of St. Guerir, that is, if you interpret
from the British, of St. Physician, where, as Asser writes,
King Alfred, prostrate in prayer, recovered from disease.
But when Neotus, a man of eminent sanctity
and learning, was afterward buried in the same church,
he so outshone the light of the other, that thence it was called Neotestow,
that is, the place of Neotus, now St. Neots,
and the religious men who there served God
were called the clerics of St. Neotus, and they had reditus
rich enough, as may be seen in the book of William
the Conqueror."
[2] and at Huntingdon The other place of veneration in Huntingdonshire
the same Camden, page 366 of the cited work, thus assigns:
"The southern part the river Ouse, which
I have often mentioned, washes and clothes with flowers: upon which, among
others of more obscure fame, three most well-known towns
sit. Where, having left the men of Bedford, it enters
this district, first it visited the shrine of holy Neotus,
commonly St. Needes, from Neotus, a man both learned
and holy, who in propagating the religion of Christ
consumed all the zeal of his life, whose body
had been translated hither from Neotstoke in Cornwall,
and in his honor Alfric converted the palace of Earl Elfrid
into a monastery; which Roisia, wife of Richard,
lord of Clare, immediately after the coming of the Normans enriched
with very many estates. But before
this place was called, from Ainulph, also a holy man,
Ainulphsbury, which name in its part
even still survives." Concerning the other donations and
privileges granted to this latter monastery, may be seen
the Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1, page
368 and following, since we do not reject heterodox writers,
while they are compelled to confess the ancestral piety of their forefathers toward
the Saints.
[3] John Speed in the Theatre of Britain, book 1,
chapter 29, page 58, of the same monastery of Huntingdon
and its final ruin thus writes: it is proved from the very heterodox writers, "On the prominent
and projecting corner of it, in memory of St. Neotus,
a monk of Glastonbury, the son, as was commonly believed,
of Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons (of which Neotus
the body had been translated from Neotstoke in Cornwall to Ainulphsbury,
then so called from Ainulph, also a holy man,
now Einesbury), Earl Alfric
and Ethelfleda converted the palace of Earl Elfred into a monastery
of black monks, which
was destroyed and overthrown by the Danes: but from its
ruins Roisia, wife of Richard, son of Earl Gilbert
of Clare, in honor of God, of the blessed virgin
Mary of Bec, and of St. Neotus, erected a priory (as
a cell of the abbey of Bec in Normandy)
of black monks, which lately stood, at the shrine
of St. Neotus, in the year of the Lord 1113; which,
when Henry the Eighth had demolished it, was valued
at two hundred and fifty-six pounds, fifteen pence,
and a farthing." Thus indeed the sacred monuments
of piety, which the ancient munificence of Catholics
had erected to the honor of the Saints, the new avarice of the heterodox
destroyed, or converted to profane
uses! Although these very testimonies of the adversaries
abundantly betray the immemorial cult of St. Neotus,
yet we will confirm the same from the more ancient
Catholic writers.
[4] Asser, bishop of Sherborne, who flourished contemporary with our
Saint and died at the beginning of the tenth century, and by other monuments of Catholics,
quite clearly hints that Neotus not long after his death
was commonly held for a Saint, while in
the Life of King Alfred and in his Annals he addresses him with the glorious
name of holy and most blessed. Moreover
Ingulph, abbot of Croyland, William
of Malmesbury, and other ancient writers of England
adorn him with the same title. Add to these the ancient
diplomas of donations and privileges granted to the churches
of St. Neotus, which in the Monasticon Anglicanum
we assigned above. Finally the same cult
is testified by the Usuardine appendices, and other Catholic
Martyrologies, whose texts to heap up
I judge superfluous, since the common consent of the ancients
and the more recent has referred this Man from immemorial
time into the number of the Saints.
[5] Although in the Acts of St. Neotus, older than Capgrave,
it is nowhere read who celebrated his feast on the 31st of July. that he died on the day before the Kalends
of August, yet with the Usuardine appendices,
Harpsfield, Maihew, and other more recent writers, we confidently place him
on this day in our work,
because the Benedictines of Bec in Normandy, according to
Mabillon, anciently kept his feast on the 31st of July.
Moreover Ordericus Vitalis, who flourished in the twelfth century,
in book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History at the year of Christ 1073
testifies, that the annual festivity of St. Neotus was accustomed to be celebrated on the second,
that is, the day before, the Kalends of August,
when concerning the translation of his relics to the monastery
of Croyland he writes thus: "Osketel, a monk of great nobility,
was made abbot of the same church.
Further, Leniova his sister was lady of Enolfesbury,
where at that time the body
of St. Neotus, abbot and confessor, lay: but service
worthy of so great a man was not rendered. Whence the aforesaid
woman went to Whittlesey, and summoned her brother
abbot Osketel with certain Croyland
monks thither, and there the body
of St. Neotus, which she had reverently brought with her, delivered to the monks,
whom she believed worthier than herself. But
they gratefully received the gift bestowed on them by God,
and beside the altar of the holy Mother of God Mary
in the northern part honorably placed it.
There up to this day it is venerated with reverence by the faithful,
and its festivity is celebrated on the 2nd of the Kalends of August." In this
place the body of St. Neotus is to be taken as notable relics of the same Saint,
as we shall afterward show.
Now concerning the various writers of the Acts we shall premise some things.
[6] The contemporary author, whom we lack, The first who wrote the Life of St. Neotus is
an author unknown to us; but coeval with the Saint himself, as
I gather from the Annals of the praised Asser, which Thomas
Gale published in type at Oxford in the year 1691, where Asser,
page 166, narrates that King Alfred, on account of an unforeseen
irruption of the enemies, lay hidden for a long time in the house of a certain
peasant, "as is read in the Life of the holy father Neotus."
These same words are read at the year 878
in the deeds of King Alfred, which Asser, most familiar
to him, committed to writing, and which are found among certain
English writers in Camden.
Since therefore Asser, who lived with St. Neotus,
cites his Life written in his own age, it must have been composed not long
after the Saint's death. Would that it had been
permitted to obtain this lucubration of the contemporary writer,
which perhaps somewhere struggles with moths and worms!
But we scarcely hope that we shall be so fortunate,
since Mabillon could not find it, and
Maihew judges that it has perished.
[7] another anonymous of the 12th century, whom we shall publish in print, After this first biographer, as far as we know,
by a long interval of time there follows next
another anonymous, whom Mabillon thinks was
a monk of the cell of St. Neotus in Huntingdonshire, and
lived at the beginning of the twelfth century. Whatever be the truth of this opinion of Mabillon,
which is probable, but not certain,
we have received the entire little work of this anonymous from
a manuscript codex of blessed Mary of Bec of Herluin, of the Order
of St. Benedict, of the congregation of St. Maur, of the diocese
of Rouen in Normandy, as it was noted in the very apograph.
Mabillon obtained the Life of St. Neotus,
which he published in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict,
century IV, part 2, from page 324, from the same
monastery, as he indicated in his previous observations:
but there he premises, that the greater
part of the prologue, as useless, was cut away
by him. We will give this prologue entire together
with the same Acts, that the curious reader may recognize the genius
of the author so much the more easily. For the rest, this history
sometimes needs correction and explanation,
as will appear in the course of this previous Commentary and in
the Notes.
[8] William of Ramsey, whom we omit, Near to this anonymous is, unless we are mistaken, William
of Ramsey, so surnamed from his native place Ramsey,
who in bound and loose style composed the Life of St.
Neotus, when in the monastery of Croyland
he acted as monk or abbot. These and his other
writings Pits enumerates in his catalogue of the writers of England
at the year of Christ 1180, where he also expresses
the first words of several little works, from which we gather,
that we have all those things which that William
composed in prose concerning the deeds of St. Neotus and the translation of his relics.
Mabillon in the praised previous observations
concerning this lucubration thus notes:
"The beginning of the prose of William of Ramsey, which
our monks of Bec once used on the feast of St.
Neotus, we have also received, but which proceeds in a laudatory rather than
a historical manner, and therefore is omitted by us.
The book of the same William on the translation of St.
Neotus we still desire." That panegyric Life,
which is divided into sixteen sections or perhaps lections,
we too shall pass over; but the brief
narration of the translation, which in the manner of the Middle Ages
is called a "book," and which Mabillon lacked, we shall insert into this
commentary.
[9] A fourth biographer, finally, exists in Capgrave
in the Legend of the Saints of England, from folio 239
verso, and finally Capgrave wrote the Acts of St. Neotus, unless perhaps it be Capgrave himself, who collected
that Life from other authors, and adorned it according to his own
pleasure. Certainly he seems to have had before his eyes our
anonymous writer, whom we are about to publish,
since he not only contracts his longer periods,
but also thereupon uses the same words.
Yet at the end of the Acts he enumerates the holy
relics of St. Neotus, translated to the monastery of Croyland,
which translation he probably reduced into a compendium from William
of Ramsey, and
which we shall afterward relate from William himself on another occasion.
[10] Edward Maihew did not know that the Acts of our anonymous
existed, of which Maihew knew only three. when in the Trophies of the English Saints
at the 31st day of July concerning the three biographers of St. Neotus
he discourses thus: "By three authors we have found the history
of the most holy Life of this Abbot written.
First by a certain anonymous immediately after
his death. Of this Asser his contemporary makes mention
in the book of the deeds of King Alfred,
which he elaborated a few years after the same
holy Neotus had migrated from the world:
for in the year of Christ 878 he cites some things from the Life of the holy
father Neotus, which then existed. Then
by William of Ramsey, a monk of Croyland,
who was famous about the year of Christ 1180.
Lastly by John Capgrave: for he in the Legend
of the Saints of England, which he published, also inserted the Life
of holy Neotus. The history of the first we judge
to have perished; the second we have not yet seen; in the third
we think some things are held less consonant to the truth."
This last judgment of Maihew concerning Capgrave
also squares with our anonymous, as
we shall see in the following paragraph.
§ II. Some circumstances of the Acts are examined.
In these discussions, following the very order of the Acts,
let us begin from the parents of our Saint. St. Neotus, sprung from an illustrious stock
Mabillon in the published Acts of the aforesaid anonymous
thinks that the father of St. Neotus is called Fidulsus, and
concerning that name notes thus: "Hence are to be corrected John
Capgrave, who says the father of Neotus was Ethelwulf
the king, brother of Alfred the Great; and John Pits,
who say he was called Aldulf." But it seems
in this place that Mabillon fights with shadows.
For Capgrave in the London edition of the year 1516
begins the Life of St. Neotus in this manner: "There was a certain
king of the West Angles and of Kent, by name
Edulph, zealous rather for eminent liberality than
serving worldly desire; for he distributed much of his means
to churches and the poor,
and freely opposed the shield of defense against all who assailed the church.
But the Lord, since he is
high, regarding the humble things and knowing the lofty from afar,
regarded his works, and gave him a son by name
Neotus." I do not see that the father of St. Neotus here
is called by Capgrave Ethelwulf, or the brother of Alfred
the Great.
[12] Or did Mabillon himself perhaps think that Ethelwulf
was the brother of Alfred the Great? and kinsman of King Alfred But then
he himself is to be corrected, since Asser in the Life of King
Alfred quite often expressly asserts that Ethelwulf was the father of King
Alfred. If therefore King Ethelwulf
had been the father of St. Neotus, Alfred would have been the brother
of St. Neotus, which we do not think probable, because
so great a nearness of blood Asser would not have passed over in silence,
by whom the other brothers of Alfred are enumerated, and
St. Neotus is called only the kinsman of King Alfred.
Moreover the father of St. Neotus, who by Mabillon
is so confidently named Fidulf, in our apograph
of Bec is clearly called Eldulf, which expression
comes closer to the name Edulf or Aldulf,
which Capgrave and Pits doubtless found in other codices.
Whence I suspect that the amanuensis
of Mabillon here erred through ignorance of the characters,
just as elsewhere in the same Acts he read the word "genere"
for "gratiæ," as we shall observe in the Notes.
Meanwhile we confess that concerning this Eldulf, Edulf, or
Aldulf we have found no memory in English history,
and have nowhere read the mother of our Saint expressed by her proper
name. Now concerning the monastic life of St.
Neotus let us discuss some things.
[13] he embraced the monastic life in the monastery of Glastonbury Pits in his work on the illustrious writers of England
at the year of Christ 883 affirms that St.
Neotus was a monk of the Order of St. Benedict in
the monastery of Harinstoke, others will have it in that of Glastonbury.
Maihew thought that this diverse opinion about the two monasteries
could easily be reconciled, if St.
Neotus be said perhaps to have continued in the one monastery
what he had begun in the other. Whatever
be the truth of this easy composition of both opinions,
up to now we have found none of the ancient writers
who asserts that our Saint led the monastic life in the monastery
of Harinstoke. William
of Malmesbury in our Alford,
in the Annals of the English Church at the year of Christ
878, num. 3, among other things concerning St. Neotus writes thus:
"Having become a youth, all the goods of his parents being left,
he drove away the world with all its pomps,
and devoutly took the holy habit of religion in the monastery
of Glastonbury; which was held in the greatest veneration
and frequenting by all the inhabitants." So too our anonymous
writer of the Acts, William of Ramsey, and John
Capgrave made mention only of the monastery of Glastonbury,
when they narrate the monastic profession of St. Neotus.
But here occurs another difficulty,
which is now to be proposed.
[14] but not under abbot St. Dunstan, as Capgrave falsely asserts, Capgrave in the above-mentioned Legend of the English Saints,
folio 239 verso, after other things concerning St. Neotus
has this: "In the monastery of Glastonbury he was made a monk
under abbot Dunstan." But how could St.
Neotus embrace the monastic life under
abbot Dunstan, when Dunstan died more than a hundred
years after Neotus: for the latter died
in the year of Christ 988, as we said in his Acts at the 19th of
May; but the former departed from the living about the year
of Christ 877, as we shall show afterward. Add,
that according to William of Malmesbury in the catalogue
of the abbots of Glastonbury, which Thomas Gale
published in the year 1691 at Oxford among fifteen English writers,
page 328, Dunstan first in the year
940 began to govern the abbey of Glastonbury,
in whose place Ælward was substituted in the year 962.
Hence therefore it follows, that St. Neotus had already been dead more than sixty
years before Dunstan discharged
the office of abbot.
[15] perhaps following the anonymous writer of the Life, Maihew in the often-praised Trophies of the English
Saints at the 31st day of July saw well enough
this difficulty, and therefore strives to extricate himself from it thus in passing:
"But," he says, "if he led the monastic life under Dunstan
as abbot of Glastonbury, this must have been another
Dunstan, other than the holy Dunstan, archbishop
of Canterbury: for the holy
Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, when
these things were done, was not yet brought into the light." This
evasion our anonymous biographer forecloses, who,
treating of the monastic novitiate of St. Neotus in the monastery
of Glastonbury, thus at num. 10 of the Acts clearly describes that
Dunstan: "There at that time holy Dunstan
presided, a notable father, and adorned with various
signs of miracles, who by the merit of his sanctity
and discretion and the favor of divine grace, having attained the summit
of the honor of Canterbury, afterward happily obtained
both: for never (as is reported)
did he desert the pastoral care of the same church." To this
is added, that in the whole catalogue of the abbots of Glastonbury,
which William of Malmesbury exhibits in the place just
cited, no other abbot there is named Dunstan.
Therefore it only remains, that
we confess, by the anonymous writer of the Acts and
his incautious follower Capgrave here a base error
was committed.
[16] The anonymous, having fallen from this error into another,
wrongly thought [who, the latter, also wrongly makes St. Æthelwold the fellow-pupil of St. Neotus.] that Adelwold or
Æthelwold was in the monastery of Glastonbury the contemporary
and familiar companion of St. Neotus, as at num.
12 of the Acts he indicates in these words: "The precious man of the Lord
chose for himself one most familiar above the rest,
by name Adelwold, who afterward, having obtained there the estate of his father
and the name, was thence raised to be bishop of the church of Winchester,
whose glorious life pleased
God, and whose death is proclaimed glorious in his sight."
In the Life of that Adelwold or Æthelwold
on the first day of August in Surius we read this:
"Ethelwold, moreover, sought Glastonbury and
under abbot Dunstan put on the monastic habit."
From this very novitiate of Ethelwold, which he placed under abbot
Dunstan, appears the gross anachronism of our anonymous,
as is sufficiently gathered from the preceding number.
The same manifestly appears from the death of Ethelwold,
which in the same Acts in Surius is thus expressed:
"The holy bishop died on the Kalends of August,
in the year of salvation nine hundred and eighty-fourth."
Let these things be said in passing from the Life of St. Ethelwold,
which will be more accurately illustrated at the first day of August.
[17] Our Saint, by the example of very many Saints,
passed from the cenobitic manner of living to the solitary
or eremitic, The Saint, having changed the cenobitic life for the solitary, as the anonymous writer of his Life
at num. 20 and following sets forth in these words: "At last
the man of God Neotus, deliberating within himself to shun the frequenting of men
and the honor shown to him by men,
just as he in every way avoided
boasting, forewarned by a divine oracle, within
the confines of Cornwall sought out remote places of solitude…
For to this he went far away, fleeing, and
remained in the solitude, that he might more solidly cleave to God alone,
a solitary; and though nothing was lacking to him in the community
for the perfection of justice, yet with the utmost effort
he strove in the retreat for the perfection of the same: for there
he exercised the strength which he had before collected; there
he displayed the life which he had before learned in writings."
These things I wished to relate more fully from our Acts, that
I might so much the more evidently convince a certain heretical calumniator
of falsehood.
[18] Although these words of the ancient author expressly praise the monastic
discipline of the monastery of Glastonbury,
and expressly ascribe that change of life to the divine will
and an ardent desire of greater perfection, the cause of which change Bale mendaciously assigns, yet the mendacious Bale in his work on the illustrious
writers of England, century 2, chapter 23,
did not blush to obtrude another cause of this change upon his readers,
in this manner: "Neotus Aldulphius,
nobly born either among the East Angles or among the Kentish men,
that he might be free for the studies of letters,
in the monastery of Glastonbury chose the state of the monastic life:
afterward, despising the sloth of certain monastics,
because they had not taught the word of God,
into a certain solitude of Cornwall not far from the shrine of Petroc he withdrew with his teacher and books, that
there he might more closely experience divine things." Inasmuch as
that impostor transformed the servant of St. Neotus, such as in
the Acts, num. 29, he is called, and who at num. 20 is said to have withdrawn
alone with the Saint into the wilderness, into
his teacher, and liberally endowed him with a mastership,
he could with the same liberality have changed the books
carried thither into a copious library.
But to say seriously what I feel, I do not think
that even the sensible heterodox will give credence to those things
which here and elsewhere that impure apostate feigns from his own brain,
and without any witness, out of his hatred against Catholics,
impudently blurts out.
[19] afterward he sets out for Rome before the year 882, When St. Neotus had spent seven years in that
solitude, he sought Rome, and by the memorable
Pope Marinus was received with the reverence of honor,
as our Acts, num. 23, say. But here
again a manifest confusion of times or persons
occurs, and the Roman pilgrimage of St. Neotus in no
way can be reconciled with the pontificate of Marinus
the Pope, whom others call Martin: for according to
the more exact chronologists Marinus in the year of Christ 882
ascended the Roman chair of St. Peter, and after
a brief government of the Church died in the year 884.
If therefore I shall have proved that St. Neotus died before the year
of Christ 882, it will evidently be established that he was
not received at Rome by Pope Marinus,
which the anonymous writer of the Acts wrongly affirms.
Now therefore concerning the time in which St. Neotus migrated from
this life we must discuss.
[20] as from the prediction of his own death Our Acts, chapter 3, set forth how St.
Neotus, having first foretold to King Alfred the incursion of the pagans
into England, also foretold to him his own impending
death in these words: "But I,
the time of my dissolution being at hand, after
a little while shall enter the way of the universe: what I
foretell to you, do not delay to believe. For these things, the Lord
revealing them to me, and his grace leading me to the desired
port of the shore, you shall know to be fulfilled
shortly." Then, after the death of our Saint has been narrated,
in the same Acts, chapter 4, num. 47, this follows:
"At that time, namely in the year from the Incarnation
of the Lord eight hundred and seventy-seven,
on the eighth of the Ides of January, it happened that a certain
tyrant of most monstrous cruelty, Gitro by name,
with a great and warlike apparatus of fleets
invaded the island of the Angles." From these texts compared
with one another and maturely weighed I gather, that St. Neotus
died before this irruption of the pagans,
since the Saint expressly signifies to King Alfred
that the time of his death is at hand, and that he will shortly enter the way of all
flesh, and finally that all will come to pass
which he had foretold to him concerning the calamitous incursion of the enemies and
the disaster at last to be inflicted upon them, which he had before predicted.
[21] and from the apparition of the Saint already dead, Moreover, according to the ancient historians of England, King Alfred
in the year 878, after Easter, with his army
met the pagans, and overcame Gitro in battle.
But before this fight St. Neotus appeared by night to the anxious King Alfred,
as our anonymous narrates from num.
55, and addressed him thus: "Put therefore
an end to your sadness, and for the rest enjoy the desired
pleasantness: for to this the Lord has sent me
from the heavenly rest of the Saints, that your misery may now be ended."
Then, after other words, by which St.
Neotus is said to have promised to King Alfred that he would report a victory over the barbarians,
the writer of the Acts at num. 56 thus concludes: "These things
being said, the Saint vanished, again received into glory." From these and other things which
are related in the same chapter in our Acts, we think it evidently
follows, that St. Neotus after his death
appeared to King Alfred, and before that battle
by a year or two had died. Therefore at the beginning
of this Commentary in the margin I assigned the Saint's death
about the year 877.
[22] But perhaps someone will say that that apparition,
which the anonymous writer of the Acts attributes to St. Neotus,
made to King Alfred is ascribed by other authors to St. Cuthbert,
among whom William of Malmesbury,
book 2 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 4, thus narrates:
"He himself (namely King Alfred, of whom he there
treats), afterward brought back to happier times, was accustomed
to set forth his own fortunes to his familiars with pleasant and cheerful courtesy,
and how through the merit of blessed Cuthbert
he had escaped them; as is mostly the custom with mortals,
that it delights them to remember those things which
they once shuddered to undergo: for when on a certain day he was shut up in an island
alone at home, his companions being dispersed along the shore
of the river to fish, he committed his body, sick with cares,
to sleep, and behold, Cuthbert, once
bishop of Lindisfarne, addresses the sleeping man with these words:
'I am Cuthbert, if you have heard;
the Lord has sent me to announce to you prosperous things:
for since England has for a long time now enormously
paid the penalties of its sins; now at last God, by the merits of the native
Saints, looks upon it with the eye of mercy.
You too, so miserably an exile from your kingdom,
after a little time will be gloriously restored to the throne, and moreover I will give you
an eminent sign. Today your fishermen will come
carrying a great quantity of large fish in their baskets; which
will be the more wonderful, because in these days, the water freezing,
the river, roughened, promises to hope for nothing such: over
this today the air, dripping with icy dew, eludes all the art of those fishing.
But you, being master of second fortune,
will act royally, if your helper
God, and me his messenger, with fitting devotion
you deserve.' Saying these things, the Saint stripped the sleeping king
of his anxieties." The same apparition of St. Cuthbert,
adorned with other circumstances, in our work
at the 20th day of March, in volume III of the same month,
from page 127, is more fully related.
[23] From these things it could be inferred, that the argument rests on a weak foundation
it is shown by other testimonies also. which we drew from the apparition of St. Neotus,
since it perhaps is to be ascribed to St. Cuthbert.
But I do not wish here to dispute more laboriously whether that apparition
can be attributed to either or both, since at least
Asser in the Life of King Alfred at the year of Christ
878, treating of the adversities which befell that king about
this time, thus speaks: "The most blessed
man Neotus, STILL LIVING IN THE FLESH, who
was his kinsman, grieved with his inmost heart, and, full of a prophetic
spirit, HAD FORETOLD that the greatest
adversity would come upon him for this cause." From this phrase
I gather that St. Neotus was already dead when
those adverse things happened to Alfred: for in vain would he add
that the Saint, "still living in the flesh," foretold those calamities,
if he had still been alive at the time
when they occurred. Nay rather, the English Martyrology,
published in the year 1608, places the death of St. Neotus
about the year 871. Another Martyrology,
which was printed in English in the year 1640, sets the death
of the same Saint about the year 890.
But just as the first edition of the English Martyrology perhaps
anticipated the death of that Saint too much, so the second
edition seems to defer it too much. But
whatever be the true year of his death, at least
our biographer manifestly contradicts himself and errs from correct
chronology, when in the Acts he asserts
that St. Neotus was received at Rome by Pope Marinus,
and nevertheless, already dead, appeared to Alfred
in the battle which that king in the year 878 fought with Gitro
the pagan.
§ III. The relics and their various translations.
After the public cult of the Saints was proscribed from England,
The body of St. Neotus, of which few relics are known today, it cannot easily be said by us
where at this time all the venerable relics of St. Neotus
lie hidden. Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints
of the Benedictine Order, century IV, part 2, page 338, only
indicates to us that the jawbone of St. Neotus is kept in the monastery of Bec
in Normandy. Leland
in the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 368, thus testifies concerning the relics of the same
Saint seen by him: "I saw the inner
tunic of holy Neotus of shaggy cloth, in the Irish manner;
the comb of holy Neotus of a little bone two
fingers broad, with the small teeth of fishes inserted like the jaw
of a river-wolf." The other relics of that Saint,
which perhaps were translated to Catholic regions, or
still lie hidden in England, I leave to be investigated by the relic-loving English,
and I describe the ancient veneration of the holy bones,
and their various translations,
from the ancient authors.
[25] from Cornwall, where he had been buried, Our Acts at num. 44 thus indicate the first burial of St. Neotus:
"But in the same church,
which the same Confessor and priest of the Lord had built from
the first foundations, his holy and
venerable little body was reverently buried,
and worthily laid away by worthy men." That that church
was situated in Cornwall is clear from Asser, who in
the Life of Alfred at the year 884 narrates how
that king, by imploring the help of the Saints, found ready relief from a long
disease: "When he came to Cornwall to hunt," he says, "and
had turned aside to a certain church to pray, in which holy
Gueryr rests, and now also holy Neotus
there reposes, he was relieved." See what concerning this
church we said above, num. 1, from Camden.
[26] into Huntingdonshire We do not know for how great a space of years the body
of St. Neotus rested in Cornwall, and whether thence the whole
was afterward translated into Huntingdonshire: for
the anonymous makes no mention of a translation into Huntingdonshire, and in our Acts at num. 46 speaks thus,
as if the relics of that Saint in his time still
rested in the former church. John Bromton,
abbot of Jervaulx, who seems to have flourished about the end of the twelfth century,
among the Ten Writers of English History, column 818, concerning King Alfred also writes thus:
"He went to Cornwall, visited the church of holy Guevor,
where holy Neotus RESTS,
and there prayed God for the allaying or at least the changing of his disease."
Observe, that he does not say "rested";
but "rests," as if the body of St. Neotus
persisted there still up to his own age.
But from what is to be said it will appear that the greater part of the relics
was not left so long in Cornwall.
[27] it was translated at an uncertain time. Our Alford in the Annals of the English Church
at the year 890, num. 18, says it is uncertain
for how long the body of Neotus remained in that West:
"for it is agreed that it was thence translated into the land of the Iceni,
and deposited in the Huntingdon district. There a town
is seen, which even today the common people call from holy Neotus
Saint Needs." Mabillon in the Appendix
to the Life of St. Neotus, after he had adduced the above-mentioned
text of John Bromton,
and explained the words of our anonymous, concerning the time
of the first translation thus judges: "I would think that the holy body
was carried to Ainolbesbiry in the Huntingdon district
in the pontificate of Adelwold, bishop
of Winchester, when in that place the cell of St. Neotus
was restored, as I said in the previous observations."
In those previous observations, num. 3, from the Monasticon
Anglicanum he had related how St. Adelwold,
at the request of Earl Leofric and his wife Leofleda,
who furnished the place, in the declining tenth century summoned monks
from the monastery of Ely and of Thorney,
and established them in the Huntingdon cell of St. Neotus.
The Monasticon Anglicanum itself, volume 1, page 369,
may be consulted. Further, the history and circumstances of this
first translation, although the substance of the matter is sufficiently
established, we have nowhere in the ancient monuments been able
to find.
[28] We shall bring forward more certain things concerning the other translation of the same relics,
Afterward they were carried from Huntingdonshire to the monastery of Croyland which Ingulph, a contemporary
and afterward abbot of Croyland, in his History
described in these words: "In the time therefore of the lord
Osketel, abbot of Croyland, when the Danes were so disquieting the whole
land, the natives, fleeing from villages and hamlets
to cities and castles, and very many to the marshes
and to trackless places by the lake, warded off, for the sake of their lives, the passage
and roving of the Danes. It happened
therefore that a certain great lady of the village which
is called Elnophesbiry, Lefwina by name, sister, namely,
by descent of parents, of the lord Osketel,
abbot of Croyland, came to Whittlesey, then her village,
and brought with her the holy relics, namely
the most sacred clod of holy Neotus the confessor
from Elnophesbiry, because they lay less honorably
and were exposed to the plundering of the Danes, in a shrine
fitted for it. Who, sending a swift messenger
to her brother, the lord abbot Osketel, asked with suppliant supplication,
that with a suitable company of his brethren it might please him
to come to Whittlesey, and to carry away the said relics of St.
Neotus the confessor with him into his monastery with
worthy reverence. He, rejoicing and exulting,
having taken with him certain brethren, went to Whittlesey
and translated the said holy relics with due honor
and the melody of psalms to Croyland;
and beside the altar of the holy Mother of God Mary
they are placed with due devotion." Of
the same translation Ordericus Vitalis makes mention, whose
words above, num. 5, on another occasion I produced.
[29] It might here be asked whether the whole body was translated from the Huntingdon cell of St. Neotus to Croyland.
the notable parts of the same body, To this question full satisfaction will be given by the praised
William of Ramsey, monk of Croyland,
who in a certain little work, which I found in our literary
furniture, and which Mabillon confesses he lacked,
concerning these relics of St. Neotus discourses thus:
"When the relics of blessed Neotus the confessor at
Croyland in the base of the wall behind the high altar
had for many days rested quite honorably, it pleased
the lord abbot Henry, the relics being taken up thence
and placed higher and more honorably, to erect an altar in
the same place. For there was had among us a stone
altar-table, which our elders handed down to have been that of our holy father
Cuthlac: and this,
in honor of our patron, in the above-mentioned place the aforesaid
abbot had proposed to raise; which he did,
the coffin of the aforesaid relics being meanwhile placed
upon another altar, until a fit place should be
prepared for placing them. Now the coffin was of stone,
marked with iron and lead, having rings
on either side, that it might the more easily be transported.
[30] But since from many times past it had come into doubt with many,
which here are enumerated, what and how much of blessed
Neotus was had among us, especially
since the brethren dwelling in the place which is called St. Neotus,
asserted that they had him: and on the contrary,
it was quite pertinaciously contended that he was nowhere but among us,
it pleased both the abbot and the brethren
to consult ocular faith upon the aforesaid matters. When
therefore with the utmost devotion, tapers being kindled, with the chanting
of litanies, coming together to the place, and
breaking open the coffin with the fear of the Lord, they find a wooden
case diligently closed on every side with iron,
and, this being again unlocked, they behold something
whence both what is proclaimed by our people
from the tradition of the elders may be proved true, and not altogether
false what is affirmed by the brethren dwelling at St. Neotus:
for it was found
that both Neotus is here and that Neotus can nevertheless be there,
because when a thing is said to be for the greater part somewhere,
surely it can reasonably be said to be both among us,
and among them, if however they have that
of his relics which is lacking to us: for that wooden case being unlocked,
as was said above,
there were found within the shell of the head, the bones of the shins,
the bones of the hips, some things from the neck, the shoulders, and the chest;
and no one doubts that these are the greater and worthier
parts of the body.
[31] although perhaps some relics remained in the Huntingdon cell of St. Neotus. Nevertheless the greater part of his relics as regards number
can be also among them, if
however it is established that they have the remainder: for when
the venerable woman Levina, in the time of hostility,
for the sake of security, and out of love of Osketel, then
abbot of Croyland, had resolved to translate him, she believed her wishes
satisfied, if, leaving in the sarcophagus, together
with the ashes, the ribs, the vertebrae, and the other
small bones, she translated those bones which were greater,
and therefore could less lie hidden from the rage of the barbarians.
Nor is it credible that the solicitude of the holy
woman was deceived, since she was both lady of that
estate, and a most devout worshiper of the same Confessor;
inasmuch as she built an oratory for him in that place.
But fearing, as was said, the cruelty of the barbarians,
when from the inland parts she fled
to safer places, out of regard for her eminent love,
she wished to have even the relics of the blessed Man as companions of her flight
and consolations of her exile. These therefore, as
was said above, thus seen and reverently kissed,
the above-named abbot washed with his own hands,
wrapped in clean linen, and in a bier,
quite fitting for the time, in honor of Christ
and of his Confessor, honorably laid away. This was done
in the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand
two hundred and thirteenth, from the holy passing of the holy
father Cuthlac the four hundred and ninety-
ninth, which was the sixteenth year of Innocent the third,
the fourteenth of John, king of the Angles,
the twenty-third of the lord abbot Henry."
This translation of the relics and accurate enumeration of the parts
is also related in the Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1,
page 369, in fewer words. And these
are the chief things which we deemed should be noted before
the very edition of the Acts, which we now subjoin.
Notes* perhaps "lacuum" (of pools)
THE LIFE, BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,
From a manuscript codex of the monastery of Bec in Normandy, collated with Mabillon's edition.
Neotus, confessor, in England (St.)
BHL Number: 6052
By an anonymous author.
PROLOGUE.
The author, among created things, Since the essential perpetuity of all things,
the most graceful distinction of the elements from a confused mass,
and the conspicuous and most becoming variety of individual existing things,
praise the supreme Artificer, that he is supreme
and the supreme principle,
by whose authorship, out of nothingness first at once and jointly
the whole and confused matter, and then formally
according to their genera and species, the individual things of the universe
came forth to their proper being, and all "very good"—
yet with a singular and special
prerogative of praise the supreme Artificer of things is to be praised in those and by those,
in which he appears more illustriously
and lucidly glorious and praiseworthy, to which also
for the honor and glory of a privilege
it is given and naturally implanted, so to praise the supreme
principle and by praising to venerate it, that,
what they praise, they may know by the leading of reason to be praiseworthy:
for the angelic spirit and man are so exalted
to a pre-eminent height of nature, that they also
are pre-eminent, marked with the image of their Artificer.
[2] Whence by rational vivacity, by intellectual perspicacity,
and by their dissimilarity to other things, most like to God,
they precede all individual things and are by right preferred
to them in condition: chiefly extols the angels and men, for the more like anyone is to truth,
the more removed he becomes from the vanity of the universe,
and the more like to vanity, the more unlike
he becomes to immutability. Hence it is that the Prophet says:
"Because man through sin has been made like to vanity,
his days pass away like a shadow." Further,
the angels, though good by nature, yet by the grace of the supreme
good, by cleaving to the good of interminable goodness,
are so confirmed, that they neither wish nor are able
to incur a fall; nay rather, most gratefully proclaiming the Lord God
of Sabaoth, they sound in harmony with an untiring
voice.
[3] But since it is theirs to enjoy God perennially,
and to cleave to him with desire, and from these he passes to the Saints, no
fall of failing from the interminable good ever closing to them
the pole, no effort of return opening it again
to the fallen, turning our humble style away from them for a little while by a bypath
elsewhere, we halt the step of speaking,
especially since we have neither perceived their course,
by which at least to direct ours, to the prize, nor fully
known their state, nor is the eloquence of sinners sufficient
for the praise of the heavenly ones:
for those imprisoned and deprived of light cannot discern
the pleasantness of the light and the breezes. Instructed therefore
by the magisterium of the angels, by whose ministry, as
it is read, the law was ordained in the hand of a mediator,
let us most compendiously burst forth into their praise and admiration,
who, though they are sons
of men and came forth from the sinful mass, by grace
as mediating mother, are proclaimed by the name of Saint
both in name and in deed: who, having seized, while they still lived,
the ignominious vileness of their bodies, were held most abject
to the world, and were made as it were the offscouring of all,
that they might shine to all like the morning stars
as an example, and might show to the shipwrecked the port
of salvation.
[4] But our Lord Jesus Christ, God
of God, and by name to St. Neotus, the image of the supreme Father, and the ray of the true sun,
who in the bowels of mercy, the fullness of time
coming, visited us, the dayspring from on high,
he himself, by the power of his divinity and his essential presence,
is always wholly present everywhere: he, without
any restlessness of anxiety, working everywhere
for the adornment and grace of the whole universe,
both individual things specially and all things generally
wisely rules and disposes: for, about to gather his elect from
the four winds, by the varied vicissitude
of the times, when and as he willed,
he illumined the whole world with the splendors of the Saints:
among whom the most pious and most renowned servant of God
Neotus, like a most gleaming star, under the axis of the western a
clime shone forth in his time, who, although
he was begotten by western parents from the northern b region,
and dwelt in parts most remote in opposition from the east (c "anatole") and
the south (d "mesembria"), yet under the icy
cold of the west (f "dysis"), always glowed with the ardor of faith and charity.
"From the rising of the sun even to its setting
the name of the Lord is praiseworthy."
[5] some of whose deeds he prefaces that he has collected, But that man was illustrious indeed for the noble stock of his parents;
but far more illustrious he stood forth in the devout
confession of his faith. Of this Man with our poor style,
at least in part, we have undertaken to pursue his praise;
nor yet with precipitate boldness or impetuous
presumption do we approach the summit of so great a work,
but rather with devotion held toward the Saint
and the intent supplication of many. Many things therefore
being passed over, of which the notice by no means
fully flew to us, the carelessness of very many
ministering fuel to negligence, and the memory of many
languishing, very few things concerning the deeds and miracles
of so great a Man we insert into this work, God favoring g:
for as in all things weariness,
so should prolixity be avoided by all.
NOTES.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's illustrious stock, his parents, studies, monastic life, virtues, priesthood, and small bodily stature.
St. Neotus, of noble stock When England, which by its ancient name was called Britain,
still lay subject to several kings
to be possessed, before, subdued, it was subjugated to the triumphal
dominion of the Normans a; which by royal right one man now
elegantly holds, four then
notably held. For at that time
the whole empire of the Angles, divided into tetrarchies,
conferred upon four kings the insignia
of scepter-bearing power and of the royal diadem. Now
one of these was a most Christian man and an eminent prince,
Edulf b by name, strenuously governing the western parts
of England and all of Kent, who
is said to have presided over the others reigning all around in England c.
His venerable wife, no less sprung
from the stock of kings, breathed forth a more flowering
fullness of virtues, than she put herself forward with the proud
boasting of her parents.
[7] Both therefore, zealous rather for eminent liberality,
which their lineage and manners conferred on them, and born of pious parents than
serving worldly desire, which true nobility abhors;
more the honor of the Creator, than
the rights of their own rule, did they pursue: for much
of their own means they conferred with unanimous
favor upon churches and the poor, and against all who assailed the church
they opposed the shield of free defense.
But the Lord, since he is high,
regarding the humble things and knowing the lofty from afar, regarded
them and their works, and gave them an heir:
in whom, however, he retained the rights of his own inheritance,
about to recompense him with an eternal one, that, made both heir
and son of the King of kings by the grace of adoption,
he might one day confidently smile upon him, saying:
"Thou art, O Lord, who wilt restore my inheritance
to me."
[8] The holy Neotus therefore, born indeed of royal
but carnal lineage, applies himself to letters, is delivered by his parents to the saving
laver to be regenerated, and thus, cleansed
in him of the old leaven of the corruptible mass, he was made
a new lump, receiving the seal of the heavenly
inheritance. Reborn from water and the Holy Spirit,
and the tender years of infancy having happily passed,
he is engaged in the exercises of letters,
to be formed by moral and divine disciplines, that he may know what, to whom
he owes; what he has from himself, what from God; what
his carnal, what his spiritual birth conferred on him;
what from the nobility of his lineage, what from the bounty of divine
grace he contracted.
[9] While he wholly attended to which exercises, being consummated
in a short time by the instructions and teachings of the Holy Spirit, instructed in which he fulfilled many times, and thus
in true philosophy he learned what was fitting,
so that whatever was unbecoming he passed over: for neither
from studies of this kind did the delight of the flesh, nor petulance
or elation of mind, nor the ambition of secular pomp
recall him. Among his coevals he flourished with the fragrance of a double
verdure, since both by the honesty of his manners
he displayed the elegance of a good disposition, and by the sweetness of virtues
manfully in the boy he pursued justice;
for you would discern him both still a boy in the smallness of his body,
and already, in the gravity of his mind, a man of the highest
perfection. For thus daily before
God and men he advanced with salutary
increases, so that, understanding above the elders, he restrained his feet from every
evil way, and the brightness and glory
of precious garments, and all the luxury of the world
he utterly abhorred, as though forgetful of his royal lineage;
which the disposition of things afterward proved *.
[10] For having entered the path of youth,
when he had now reached the years of military service, in the monastery of Glastonbury he was unwilling to be engaged
in secular soldiery, but rather choosing to be temporally
abject in the house of his God, than to glory
in a royal palace, in the monastery of Glastonbury d
he was made a monk. Now that place was both
most famous all around for the fame of its great name,
and most salubrious with the aromatics of virtues for those frequenting it.
There at that time the holy Dunstan presided,
who by the merit of his sanctity and discretion,
and the favor of divine grace, having attained the summit
of the honor of Canterbury, afterward happily
obtained both: for never (as is reported)
did he desert the pastoral care of the same church.
[11] he embraces the monastic life, But the man of the Lord Neotus, having there entered the field of contest,
is diligently formed both by the aforesaid Father
and by the Brethren in monastic instructions.
And though many holy men ran with him
in the stadium, that, joined together in the unity of the body of Christ and
of ecclesiastical peace, all, as one,
might receive the prize; yet this our Patron
For when he considered in different men different gifts
of graces, giving thanks to God for each one,
he profited by the advancements of each. Whence it came about,
that suddenly he ascended to the summit of so great religion,
that nothing of virtue
and grace was believed to be lacking to him.
[12] and there others by word And since each one must provide for himself,
that of many he may have at least one, with whom he may
confer familiar conversations; to whom the added recess of his heart
may also lie open, according to that saying of the Wise Man, "let there be
to you one counselor of a thousand"; the precious Man of the Lord
chose for himself one most familiar above the rest,
by name Adelwold *, who afterward, having obtained there the estate of his father
and the name, was thence raised to be bishop of the church of Winchester:
whose glorious life pleased
God, and whose death is proclaimed glorious in his sight g.
[13] and by example Him, by reason of familiarity, the Saint addresses,
saying: Most beloved brother, let us pass over
very many things, and let us confer with each other the conversations of the heavenly
life, that we may express a fuller sweetness of contemplation.
Let the excess of bodily labor
be tempered, and let us give our effort to speculation. For the spirit
is ready, but the flesh is weak. Let us pass over
the solicitude of Martha about many things,
and let us choose with Mary the one necessary thing. And when
a little pause of a digression of this kind had been made,
the Saint again said to the holy man: Venerable
brother, life is short, labor is useful; idleness is culpable,
since it is the enemy of the soul. Let us return more ardently
to the custom of labor, and let not the flesh domineer over the spirit,
but be subjected to due servitude.
[14] he exhorts to perfection. In this manner the most holy Man instantly
instructed the aforesaid brother and others, thus tempering
one exercise with the other, so that they took up both again
alternately more eagerly: for thus he praised the beauty of Rachel,
so that he did not despise the fruitfulness of Leah:
and while to others he preached the way of life,
he set himself before each one as an exemplar of holy conversation.
For by the observance of fastings and parsimony,
by the assiduous passing of the nights in vigils,
and the ever-watchful frequenting of prayers, and by the constant
meditation of the law, strengthening his spirit, he tamed
the pride of the flesh. Whatever also, beyond the moderate
sustenance of nature, he could reserve,
was expended on the necessary uses of the needy.
[15] Although he desired to lie hidden, He lived in this constancy of devotion
for many years, knowing no one outwardly through the neighboring parts.
And when, his fame growing frequent all around,
his religion now became known to all;
he himself, nevertheless, as to his appearance, was still unknown
to all, except those with whom he dwelt,
and the peculiar household of the house. Nor is it to be passed over,
that while the whole convent, from the merit of his known
sanctity, unanimously venerated him as a father,
and bound him to itself with the bond of charity; yet in no way
could they trace out his paths,
nor his stealthy vigils of prayers. For frequently,
his habit being changed, lest he be recognized, but sometimes,
altered with the garments of pilgrims, in the church
he passed the night, attending more intently to prayer. But
when the coming light dispersed the darkness of the night,
secretly stripping off the pilgrim's habit, he clad himself again
in his own.
[16] Finally, this man's celebrated fame did not lie hidden from the bishop,
yet on account of the fame of his virtues he is ordained deacon, who, messengers being sent to him, solemnly received
him on his coming, the father the son, as the son the father;
whom, gladly retaining with him for some time,
and using his happy conversations,
at last, the purity of his sanctity being known, he promoted
to the grade of the diaconate: in which the man of God Neotus, more
and more advancing, ministered the vessels of the Lord, a chosen vessel,
pure with a pure heart. And just as
to the Levites in the Old Testament all things pertaining to the worship
of the tabernacle were delivered to be kept,
so to the Levite Neotus the same was assigned by
office: which most dutifully fulfilling, that he might pluck the sweet
fruit of obedience, he so pleased God in all things,
that he displeased no one.
[17] But afterward, being caught up by the equal desire of the monks and
clerics to the honor of the priesthood, and then promoted to the priesthood
although resisting and crying out that he was still unworthy,
what he showed himself to all, in voice, form, and
deed, it is not within our power to unfold:
yet, that I may touch on some things in a summary h, he himself,
like an open, watering, and unfailing fountain, poured out to those thirsting
the cups of the divine word; from bodies possessed,
prayers being poured out to God, he shut out demoniacal
rage; to the languid and feeble
he conferred the remedy of health. Whence it came about, that
crowds flowed to him in troops from everywhere,
some demanding a bodily, some a spiritual cure.
But he transformed into himself the affections of each,
rejoicing with those who rejoiced, and weeping
with those who wept, made all things to all, that he might gain
them for Christ, and all venerated him as the father of all
and the champion of their country with unanimous
affection; and, his voice heard, or at least
his appearance known, joyful they returned to their own.
[18] For Neotus was (as was said) illustrious
in ancestry, [with a footstool placed under him he celebrates the sacred rite on account of his small bodily stature,] illustrious in studies, illustrious in manners, illustrious
in virtues; eloquent of tongue, discreet in word,
praiseworthy in knowledge, and admirable in doctrine; useful in counsel,
made lovable to all. He was no less
angelic in aspect, conspicuous for the cheerfulness of his countenance,
modest in gait, and composed in the function of all his members,
but by the shortness of his body
another Zacchaeus i. For with an iron footstool placed under him
he celebrated the Masses, and assisted at the worship of the altar,
which up to this day, for the glory of the same Man
and the most pious memory of his recollection, in place of relics,
is kept in the same church.
[19] Among innumerable signs of miracles and prodigies of signs,
for whose aid a miracle is wrought. which through him were most frequently wrought by God,
there happened one most worthy of a memorial cell,
which we have therefore taken care to record, for the excitation of devotion,
that the relation at least of one may be the sure proof
of many. On a certain day,
while Neotus, as though the rest omitted, attended, by his custom, only
to spiritual things, there was present a certain person,
to whom an assiduous exhibition of reverence was owed,
instantly knocking at the door, that entrance be opened to him.
But Neotus the servant of God, hastening, who
then (as was said) discharged the office of sacristan k,
strove with the utmost effort to open quickly to the one knocking,
nor could he reach the bolt raised on high
on account of the shortness of his stature; and when he who
knocked pressed on by knocking more and more, and
the man of God anxiously turned himself this way and that;
he beholds from afar that same bolt, from the place where the bolt
was held fixed, let down by divine omnipotence,
lowered even to his waist-band, and thus to the one wishing
to enter he reverently opened, glorifying the Lord,
who opens and no one shuts, shuts and
no one opens, who in his works is always to be glorified
by all and everywhere.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
The solitary life, the Roman pilgrimage, the building of a monastery, the fame of his sanctity, and the stupendous miracles wrought in favor of this Saint.
At last the man of God Neotus, deliberating within himself
to shun the frequenting of men, With a single servant and the honor shown
to him by men; just as in every way
he avoided boasting, forewarned by a divine
oracle, within the confines of Cornwall a, sought out remote
places of solitude. Content therefore with the company of one
client, by name Barri b, whom
he had made privy to his secret, and who neither in
life nor in death deserted him; now scaling the heights
of the mountains, now traversing the hollows of the valleys;
now the dense shadows of the woods, now
the pleasantnesses of the glades and rivers, He leading,
by whose forewarning he had changed his place, he reached
the fitness of a woodland dwelling destined for him.
Now that place was hedged about with the woodland
density of trees, clear with the pleasantness of rivers,
and with the collateral nearness of the sea.
[21] he leads a harsh life Choosing therefore this place, the Soldier of Christ,
like a new recruit c, and now first converted
from the world, again slipped away. There, doubtless,
he deserved to be frequently visited by an angelic condescension.
For establishing a new term of living, with new
increases of virtues, as with new
vows, he strove in all things for almighty God,
having entered upon a narrower path of anchoritic conversation.
For to this he went far away, fleeing, and remained
in the solitude, that he might more solidly cleave to God alone,
a solitary: and though nothing was lacking to him in the community
for the perfection of justice, yet with the utmost effort he strove
in the retreat for the perfection of the same. For there
he exercised the strength which he had before collected; there
he displayed the life which he had learned in writings d. He had tasted
and seen how sweet the Lord is: he had read
and understood, that to those fearing God nothing
is lacking.
[22] The thorns of riches did not choke in him the word of life,
nor, laden with worldly burdens, retard him beside
the path. in the solitude, from which after seven years Forgetting, namely, the things that are behind,
he stretched himself to the things that are before. For he had heard
what is written: "No one putting
his hand to the plow and looking back is fit
for the kingdom of God"; and that: "No one warring for God entangles
himself with secular business"; but in the torment of the body
he imitated the Lord, putting forward that sentence of his:
"He who does not carry his cross,
and come after me, is not worthy of me." The holy
Neotus therefore, who was a dove in the flock, now
is a turtledove in the solitude: there he had led a social life,
now here he lives a solitary one: retaining the simplicity of the one,
he preserves the chastity of the other and the groaning of both:
and, as we read concerning blessed John the Baptist,
his oppressed flesh was covered with the roughest garments of haircloth,
and was sustained by the sparingness of the poorest food.
Thus indeed it seemed to him as though he had spent the times gone by
in idleness, and had consumed them in vain. In this vastness of the wilderness,
content with his own abstinence and voluntary poverty, so that,
filled with the sevenfold grace, he happily completed seven years,
never bending back the reins of a rigor of this kind.
[23] The holy Neotus therefore, raised to the height of the virtues,
sets out for Rome, sought the Apostolic See, that thence he might be formed by holier
institutes, where he knew was the head
of all religion. He wished also to know whether
by the supreme Pontiff what he himself did would be held ratified,
and what he intended to do, which was done by divine
disposition, lest the lamp any longer lie hidden under a bushel,
but, shown upon the candlestick, put darkness to flight.
Coming therefore to Rome, according to the pious desire of his purpose,
the devout Neotus was received by the memorable
Pope Marinus e with the reverence of honor,
to be cherished in the embrace of charity.
[24] And when he had conversed with him for some time,
and had opened to him from the depth the purest secrets of his heart, and returning to his country
each being refreshed by the solace of the other,
at last, leave with a blessing being asked, and the obedience of preaching being received,
the Saint resolved to return to the chosen asylum of his beloved
poverty. But who could suffice to narrate the wonders and magnificent things
which God through him wrought
on the journey? For very many
loosed by various languors he made whole by pious prayer,
the depraved dogmas of heretics by living voice
he confuted, and to the symbol of the Catholic faith some
he brought, others he recalled: with the shower of preaching he watered
the land dry all around, the discordant he pacified;
and now by the rigor of doctrine, now by the reason of counsel,
now by prayer interspersed, he conferred many
goods on many.
[25] The glorious servant of God and Confessor, returned from his pilgrimage,
builds a monastery, again subjected himself to continual
labors: and because by the difficulty of the journey he had hardened for the better,
he entered upon a harder, as far as he could, and narrower
path of religion. Whence it came about, that
he was most frequently comforted by angelic
converse, and sustained by their patronage: he who lived by the spirit,
by the spirit also walked. Resolving thereafter,
by the divine will, to profit many; as in those
parts he knew was necessary; he was unwilling any longer to be
a solitary: because to live for many, and to prefer oneself in life
and manners to the rest, is a special conversation.
He began therefore with ardent desire to build a monastery,
to erect houses, to press on with the workshops, and thus,
supported by the supreme Artificer, in a short time he consummated what he intended,
so that the reins of his most fervent rigor
he in no way relaxed.
[26] and on account of the fame of his sanctity Straightway his renown flew over all the western
confines of England, and reaching the whole province far and wide,
suddenly rendered the peoples astonished:
what anyone felt about him, he at once with celebrated praise
reported to the rest, until, becoming known to all,
his name became as ointment poured out. For in
those places very few indeed had yet attained the summit
of perfection f. The peoples run to him,
sprinkled with this fragrant sweetness, about to explore
for themselves whether they had heard true things concerning him; who
all, with the queen of Sheba, who had come from the ends
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, can say
that they had heard few things, and found many.
[27] he gathers many companions of the cenobitic life. Thence many noble and just men, pierced by his most salutary
instructions, among the more powerful, renounced the pride of the world
and its deceitful delights,
offering themselves and their goods to the Lord as a sacrifice; who,
obeying his sacred counsels in all things, burn
to be formed by the regular disciplines. Many also
bring their sons to him, praying with earnest
prayers, that with him as leader, shepherd, and patron,
they may be able to escape the wretched waves of the world, nourished
for eternal life. Further, very many brethren
of every age being regularly gathered there,
the venerable father Neotus, instructing all,
profiting all, by a reciprocal interchange of virtues
conceived in himself the graces from all, he himself
wholly in heaven by angelic conversation, wholly
among them in the fervor of charity.
[28] Fishes divinely assigned for the sustenance of St. Neotus, What shall I relate concerning the sanctity of so great a man? What
shall I be silent about? Namely, that I may speak less hyperbolically,
I write few things, but admirable, which it is a crime to pass over,
or a negligence to be punished. For these things
nearly all, and especially the fellow-provincials, sing
with a devout and most celebrated relation. There was (as
they say), and is up to this day, a certain watering fountain,
which rendered the whole place more apt, conferring on it a pleasing
pleasantness, in which the notable Father, God
being provider, the bestower of all good, had found three
little fishes; which he neither presumed to hurt, nor
dared to touch, until by divine revelation he should know
what he ought to do with them; which was done:
for by an angelic address he received a divinely-given precept
and sentence, that on each day,
or as often as it should be expedient, taking only one,
he should always keep the other two there unharmed. This
sentence therefore, as the gate of death and life,
he long kept inviolate, for this and other benefits
untiringly giving thanks to God. And when,
one being taken away, two always remained untouched,
supplied by the divine goodness, on the morrow the above-written
number of little fishes was found.
[29] of which his servant had imprudently set two as food, But it happened once, that the man of God, detained
by a troublesome infirmity of the body, scarcely ate anything or
but little of food. Therefore his guardian and
most faithful servant, of whom mention was made above,
condoling and compassionating the inconvenience of the pious Father,
hastened as quickly as possible to the fountain,
and bringing thence two little fishes, took care solicitously
to prepare them. And so, one roasted, the other boiled,
he offered to his Lord, whom he loved from the marrow,
on a dish, asking and urging him to eat.
And when the man of God had asked what was on the dish,
and whence the fishes had been brought; Barri
his servant, as he was simple and innocent,
what had simply been done, simply acknowledged.
"Therefore," he said, "Father, I took up two little fishes from the fountain,
and prepared them for you as food in a different way,
so that if perhaps you cannot eat of the one, from
the other, if it can be, you may at least be refreshed."
[30] Then the Servant and athlete of the Lord, with a simple
mind indeed, prodigiously come to life again, but as though moved with anger,
burst forth into words of rebuke, saying: Why did you
do this? Why have you rashly taken away from us the food divinely
assigned? Why have you presumed to act against God's will and
sentence? Saying these things, he ordered
the fishes to be taken thence and put back in the fountain. But he,
turning to the proven remedy of prayer, that
he might both appease the Lord, and console the desolate
servant, obtained it. For lying prone on the ground and groaning,
he is said in no way to have risen from prayer
until it was announced to him, that the little fishes
were swimming alive in the fountain in the accustomed manner. Then
rising with thanksgiving, he ordered one again
to be brought, and set before him prepared for food. And when
he had tasted it, straightway made whole, he recovered. Behold,
this Man, as we find written of Solomon,
obtained not only what he asked, but
also what he did not ask. We have here
what to admire, and what we ought to venerate. O man
worthy of ineffable praise! O pious shrine of the Holy
Spirit!
[31] Let us hear also another thing which both sexes solemnly and
devoutly relate. and stags submit to the yoke in place of the oxen, On a certain night, as
they relate, the oxen of the venerable Father were carried off by theft,
by which the whole house was sustained in agriculture.
But when the Brethren, on account of such want, had gone out with the pious Father
to the fields, that as far as possible they might press more intently upon the labor;
behold, several stags, coming in herds from the thickets
of the woods, most gently hastened to them,
and, as other fawns of stags to their mothers, fawned upon them:
which the pious father and leader of the monks Neotus,
seeing—through whose merits these and other mighty deeds were done,
and at whose gentleness lions and tigers and any wild beasts
untamed would grow gentle—consoled the Brethren,
saying that the Lord had regarded their devotion;
and straightway the stags, at his command submitting their necks to the yoke,
are set to the plows: and thus (wonderful
to say!) they are reported for a long time to have supplied the
place of the oxen.
[32] But the thieves, who had been the authors of this crime,
fearing so admirable a deed, the thieves who had carried them off, who are converted by this miracle.
went as quickly as possible to the Man full of God, to implore
pardon. And when, coming, they had restored to him
their animals, prostrate at his feet, they mercifully received from him full
largess of indulgence,
and promised that they would produce a worthy fruit of penance,
fortifying their life thereafter with his counsel.
Whence it is plain, that the Man of God, by the gentleness of his sanctity,
snatched the oxen from the robbers, and the robbers
from the demons. They assert also, resounding with a notable
proclamation, that the above-said stags, and
those which came forth from their stock, for the notice and proof
of this thing, put forward up to this day a sign of their notice,
a whiteness appearing about the places where
they touched the yokes: this, however, I neither, on account of the unusualness
of the thing, contend to prove by syllogism, nor, distrustful
of God's power, presume to deny g.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
The Saint's miracle, his help, admonitions, predictions, disease, death, and burial.
Now it came to pass on one of the days, that the same Servant
of the Lord stood in the fountain in his accustomed manner, A certain hunter, having seen a miracle, in
which he was wont, for the increase of his rigor, to complete the whole
Psalter through entire. Now a certain hind,
fleeing through the slopes of the mountains, through the byways of the woods,
through the partings of the thickets, hastened toward
him with immoderate leaps. For the dogs, the hunter
inciting them, harried her with the swiftest pursuits and fierce
barkings. But falling upon the fountain
beside the feet of the memorable Father, as though with her
voice demanding of him a remedy for her life, and a respite
from death, she lay there prostrate so long, until he ordered her to depart
free thence.
[34] becomes a monk, But the dogs, seeing this, as though afflicted by the wound
of a grievous bite or blow, all straightway fled back
everywhere. But the hunter himself, falling
to the ground, adored holy Neotus, and
through him, putting off the old man with his deeds,
put on the new, receiving from him the holy habit.
There is also a probable proof of this deed:
the horn of the same hunter is up to the present
kept in the church of holy Petroc a, and
there honorably exalted in place of relics,
out of reverence and memory of Neotus, the most holy confessor,
through whose gift it was translated thither.
[35] and on account of the fame of his prodigies heard A no less memorable deed is not to be kept silent.
It happened once, according to the common
assertion of many, that the men of Neotstoke (for the village
took its name from Neotus) solicitously strove
to render their accustomed service of servitude to their lord.
And when a wagon, laden with the goods pertaining to him
by their service *, proceeding, was now completing the middle
of the journey; a vehement whirlwind came against it,
coming from the north, which by the wondrous power
of its impulse, driving the oxen, the wagon, and the men,
no effort of theirs prevailing, to the place whence they had
set out, thrust them back. But the very powerful man,
to whom the aforesaid service was rendered, conceiving
that this was done by the merits and will of the pious Father,
relaxing this servitude to the men of Neotstoke, thereafter
enlarged them with the favor of liberty.
[36] For these and such deeds the fame of the Man of God grew,
Alfred visits St. Neotus, his kinsman, and the devotion of all toward Neotus was increased.
For it happened that Alfred b, the eminent king of the Angles,
had conceived the famous mighty deeds of Neotus;
and, roused by such proclamations, sought the suffrages of his prayers:
to whom, when he had come, humbled at once in body
and mind, he asked to be blessed by him. But he, the most merciful
Servant of God, receiving the king as a lord with honor,
and as a brother c with love,
blessed, taught, and instructed him
with knowledge, showing him the way of prudence: rebuking also
his depraved acts, he ordered them to be changed for the better,
and so much the more securely, as by carnal descent
he was more nearly joined to him. For holy Neotus was not
a stranger, nor by lineage itself inferior,
but sprung from the same blood. The king therefore, diligently instructed
in spiritual things, the desired blessing being again received,
departed thence cheerful.
[37] From that day the king was accustomed frequently to go to holy
Neotus, to be fortified by his most salutary counsels
and supported by his patronage. who admonishes the king of his office, But although
by his most holy admonitions and precepts the same king had somewhat profited;
yet not yet having fully
attained the rule of ruling rightly, he had deserted the way
of depravity. Finally, on a certain solemn day,
as he came, according to his custom, concerning the wickedness of tyranny
and the proud austerity d of his rule, holy Neotus sharply
rebuked him: and he who before, as by treading e
subtly, had touched the wound, then now, as
a wise physician, penetrated with the sword of his tongue the depth of the same wound
and the hidden things of his pain, and
compelled him to tremble at the sulphurous flames of Gehenna,
and roused him, negligent, to the joys promised to the humble.
[38] He wished him to be instructed, who judged the earth,
because he did not doubt that the mighty would mightily suffer torments.
and he foretells the calamities to come upon him, He set before him holy David, whom the Lord had taken
from following the ewes to rule, the meekest of kings,
and, an exemplar of humility to all, chosen beforehand and approved by humility:
he asserted also that Saul was rejected for pride, who, though
he was little in his own eyes, had been made head
in the tribes of Israel: and also, amid the harsh reproaches of admonitory
rebuke, drawn by a prophetic spirit,
he foretold to him future misfortunes: "Why do you glory,"
he said, "in malice? Why are you mighty in iniquity?
You are exalted for a little, and you will not subsist,
and like the tips of the ears of corn you will be crushed.
Where is your boasting? Even if it is not yet shut out,
yet at some time it will be shut out. For of the very sovereignty
of rule, by whose vain boasting, exceeding yourself,
you are proud, you will shortly be deprived. For, the barbarians
bursting into this region,
and, by God's permission, triumphing, scarcely escaping alone,
you will be a wanderer and fugitive upon the earth:
and thus, poor and needy, you will hide for some time, fearing
lest everyone who finds you should slay you.
[39] But when you have learned the effect of this misfortune,
take comfort and be strong: act manfully,
and let your heart be strengthened. he prescribes their remedies, In all things you will be mindful of the mercy of God, who, when he has been angry,
will remember his mercy. For know that I
have obtained by devout intercessions with God, that,
the importunity of so great adversity being at some time suppressed,
you may again rejoice in the former pleasantness of prosperity and
the full restoration of your rule, if however you cease
to act perversely, and repent with worthy satisfaction.
Then therefore, sending legates to Rome as quickly as possible,
Martin f, the supreme head of the apostolic See,
strive to enlarge with great and necessary gifts,
about to ask him, a suppliant, that the English
school, situated in the same city, he may not deny
to apply to liberty g, that by this benefit
a more grateful help may be granted you amid your inconveniences.
[40] and he foretells his own impending death. But I, the time of my dissolution being at hand,
after a little while, shall enter the way of the universe.
What I foretell to you, do not delay to believe:
for these things, the Lord revealing them to me, and his grace leading me to the desired
port of the shore, you shall know
to be fulfilled shortly." By this prophetic voice
he imitated blessed Peter, crying out and saying:
"I think it just, as long as I am in this
tabernacle, to stir you up by admonition, being certain
that swift is the putting off of my tabernacle."
[41] Alfred, terrified by this prophecy Then the king's mind trembled at what he heard;
and, his eyes being moistened, he began to send forth, not words,
but pitiable sobs of grief, and thus,
now crushed with a double contrition, both for the loss of his friend,
and for the desolation of his kingdom, he uttered deep
and tearful sighs for answers. At last,
on bended knees, as he could, he asked to be blessed;
and, supported by the desired protection of his prayers, he hastened
to fulfill what he had ordered.
[42] strives to appease God, King Alfred therefore, according to the precept
and counsel of the man of God, for his own and his kingdom's salvation
sent messengers to Rome laden with gifts:
and thus from the supreme Pontiff without delay he prosperously
obtained what he sought; but the Pontifical
sublimity itself, by a reciprocal largess of benefits, sent gifts more worthy of the royal
dignity, because according to the sentence of the Wise Man,
"the benefit which comes to meet one is destined to live."
For, in memory of our redemption, sending him a certain portion
of the wood of the saving Cross h, with many other
relics of the Saints, he drove biting cares from his mind,
and in great part attenuated the darkness
of his perturbation. But when by these he had been somewhat,
though not altogether, roused in mind,
yet always with dread he awaited the certainty of the presages
with a tearful solace, until,
after his ruin, the divine clemency should recall him through holy
Neotus's suffrages.
[43] and St. Neotus, fortified with the sacred Viaticum, dies, Finally the most renowned soldier and athlete of God
Neotus, according to the prophecy of his truthful assertion,
began to be wearied by the sharp trouble of fevers. But he who at no
time had been destitute of angelic consolation,
in this frequent strait of sickness
deserved to be visited by a like divine and angelic condescension.
And when he felt himself constrained by the last
agony of this contest, between the confines of life and death,
he more intently instructed his little ewes in salutary
disciplines and invited them to the pastures of the heavenly flock, as an excellent shepherd,
so that of him it may most truly be said,
"That since he had loved his own who were with him, he loved them
unto the end," and, as truly a peacemaker, commending to his heirs
the patrimony of peace, "his peace," in imitation of the Lord, "he gave them,
his peace he left them," and thereafter, in the narrow
article of his end, receiving the sacred Viaticum of the Lord's Body,
he who in himself before God was always
a living host, by the living and life-giving host is quickened into
eternal life. And thus, amid the sweetness of prayers
and psalmody, the Angels applauding on high, dissolved
into the death due to the human race, he was joyfully received into heaven.
[44] whose corpse breathes a sweet odor, The fame, long celebrated and congratulatory,
then made mournful and desolate, roused the devout
peoples all around to be present at such great obsequies.
There were present among them also many who, oppressed by various
difficulties of diseases, rejoiced in their former
health, considering with a devout gaze the holy clod of this funeral.
But in the same church, which
the same Confessor and priest of the Lord had built from
the first foundations, his holy and venerable
little body was reverently buried, and
worthily laid away by worthy men.
[45] Moreover a most fragrant odor of wondrous sweetness,
breathing thence, and he is buried in the church, most fully sprinkled not only the same place,
but also all the confines of the place.
For so great and so delightful a temperature of the air, far and wide,
did that fragrance render everything, that those coming even from afar suddenly
confessed themselves renewed by its sweetness, and any who were sick
healed: he who indeed, still living in the body,
had been a good odor to all in every place, now
dead, gives forth aroma like cinnamon and balsam:
he who, ever flourishing, grew white with the lilies of chastity,
and was fragrant with the odors of all virtues;
behold, like a perfumer's chamber, gives forth a most sweet
odor, and his odor is as that of Lebanon.
[46] Further, the earth of his burial, given with pious veneration
to the languishing, which on account of the great concourse of people was enlarged. is known to have profited many
medicinally. For being tasted for any
infirmity
of any kind, it made both men and
beasts of burden fully recover. For thus
the mercy of God was multiplied, saving men
and beasts, through the admirable merits of holy Neotus.
But because, the peoples flowing thither in throngs,
the temple could not hold them for the multitude;
some time having passed, it pleased the natives
and the Brethren who there paid their vows to God,
that the buildings should be enlarged. Whence it came about,
as the matter required, that the most holy little body of the Confessor,
from the place in which it had been first
laid away, was honorably and devoutly deposited in the northern part
of the altar. Then again nonetheless,
by the odor of health-bringing sweetness, some obtained
the health they most desired. But wonderful and magnificent things
the divine power works through abbot Neotus and eminent confessor
there up to this day, to his glory
and veneration, to whom is interminable praise
through the eternal ages of ages.
Amen.
NOTES.
CHAPTER IV.
The Saint's prophecy fulfilled, his apparition made after death to King Alfred, the victory over the pagans related to his help, and their conversion to the Christian faith.
When the barbarians, bursting into England, These things therefore being happily accomplished, and exactly
set against what the man of God Neotus had prophesied of himself,
now the order of the narration is to be directed to King Alfred,
that the prophetic sentence of the pious Father, as in himself, so in
the king no less may be proved most true.
At that time, namely in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord
eight hundred and seventy-seven, on the eighth
of the Ides of January, it happened that a certain tyrant of most monstrous
cruelty, Gitro * a by name,
with a great and warlike apparatus of fleets invaded
the island of the Angles; who, as he was still
entangled in the errors of the gentiles, and gaped
after the filth of idols, sparing no sex or age, some he slaughtered
with the sword, some he overcame with famine, some he burned up
with fire, as though with an infernal fury he proclaimed
with a terrible voice, saying: "Wars I wage with my hand, and death
I bring." What more? "The love of the sword rages, and the criminal
madness of war."
[48] Depopulating no less lands, cities, and villages,
either, the rampart of any fortifications being demolished,
with wondrous effort he leveled ground with ground; devastated all things,
or, filling it with armed soldiery, victorious he hastened
to others. The temples dedicated to God, as a member of the ancient enemy,
the raging enemy laid level with the ground:
but whatever things seemed desirable to him and his,
were either carried off by plunderers, or
given to miserable destruction: and thus, raging all around,
and in every way exercising his tyranny,
he subjugated both places and men to his execrable
command. Many also, the more remote, struck by so great a dread,
taking counsel for themselves by fleeing, strove to be conveyed
by a naval course into parts beyond the sea.
[49] And when the tyrannic force had for the greater part now
prevailed in England, and Alfred, unequal to their multitude and all things prospered for him,
hastening his march, he attempted to invade the western
English. For in those parts he had learned from fugitives
that the king himself was wintering. He went therefore like another
Saul, borne on by fury, and breathed out a dire
poison with his whole breast, and thirsted without
intermission for the blood of the Christians. But King Alfred, hearing
that the barbaric rage and savagery had rushed on at close
quarters, and considering the disposition of his men,
began to waver in mind this way and that; at last,
relying on a more prudent judgment, he yielded to the enemies,
and, alone and unarmed, was exposed to the mockery of flight.
[50] And when he was utterly ignorant whither to turn,
whither the necessity of flight should impel him; was compelled to flee, as fortune
led, he unexpectedly entered a certain place,
hedged about on all sides with great marshes.
Now that place is in the extreme confines of British England,
which in their tongue was called Ethelingaia,
which among us is expressed "the Royal Island."
There King Alfred, as a fugitive and exiled from his own
shores, cutting himself off, entered the little hut of a poor
swineherd, and committing his hope thereafter to the highest
of Kings, who makes poor and enriches, humbles and raises up;
for some days poor and unknown he lay hidden there.
[51] Now it came to pass on a certain Sabbath, that the swineherd,
in his accustomed manner, led the flock to the accustomed pastures, and all the calamities, according to St. Neotus's counsel,
the king alone with the swineherd's wife remaining at home.
Further, the woman, as necessity demanded, a fire being placed under,
had committed loaves to the pan to be cooked,
which some call "liridae" b, on which her husband,
returning, and she herself might feed. And when, in the common manner,
from a like necessity, she was occupied for some while with other
business; at last, anxiously running back to the fire,
and finding the bread burnt on one side, straightway
she assailed the king with such reproaches:
"What here, man, do you meditate, sitting,
and disdain to turn the loaves? What is your lineage,
what your manners, what your idleness, what your confidence
concerning the future? Of how great nobility do you profess yourself to be?
The loaves, which you neglect to prepare, when prepared you will not
delay to eat."
[52] But the king, thus insolently provoked by these and such
reproaches, returned no
word of impatience against them: received them with a contrite mind, but rather, fortified with the strong
defense of gentleness and patience, like another Job,
in all these things he did not sin with his lips, nor
spoke anything foolish against the judgment of God. Thus
indeed he was humbled under the mighty hand of God,
that, according to the truthful presage of holy Neotus, he might at some time
be permitted to breathe again, and be again exalted in
the time of divine visitation. Thence, roused by the woman's
wranglings, he applied care thereafter to cooking
and preserving the loaves. By the example therefore of this
king, let him who stands see that he fall not by being proud:
let him learn from the philosopher, let him learn that he fell
who was not of a stable step.
[53] But when the aforesaid king had for some while been oppressed by the reproach
of a poor and dejected man, and then to the enemies and, content with a vile hut
instead of a king's palace, on a certain day
he was recognized by some perhaps of his own men, who, the misfortune of flight being seized upon,
were dispersed here and there all around. Whence both to the king
and to the soldiers courage grew a little, who before
had taken counsel of the one remedy of flight. For through a few days
they built, such as they could, a warlike fortification.
And thus King Alfred, some strength of resisting being recovered,
fortified by the protection of a few soldiers,
stirred up war against the enemies from the opposite side;
and although in number they were very few in respect
of the barbaric multitude, nor in the first onset
of the war or on the first day did they prevail; yet by no means
did they turn their backs to the enemies, or, vanquished, succumb.
[54] resisted as best he could, Supported indeed by the hope of victory, as their
number was gradually augmented, so more and
more they were kindled against the adversaries, and from war
were again prepared for war; and thus, now vanquished,
now victors, they learned to endure time for chance, and chance
for time. But the king, between the right
and left side of fortune, always displayed a cheerful
countenance, that he might comfort his own by such an example.
But amid frequent sighs of inmost grief he silently
considered the matter, awaiting and desiring the most efficacious
suffrage of holy Neotus, and the restoration
of his rule promised to him by the same.
[55] St. Neotus, appearing, consoles the afflicted king, Therefore in the depth of night, when the same king,
destitute of all rest, was beset with biting cares;
the most beloved confessor of God Neotus was present, irradiating the place
with the brightness of his countenance and habit. But he, his eyes
raised to the Saint and immovably fixed,
that he might more surely recognize who he was, was roused
by such addresses from him. "Why, King," he said, "are you
depressed by so many straits? Why, having forgotten the one necessary thing,
are you agitated in mind by so many and so great perturbations?
Be secure, that if you have done good things, good things
without doubt you will receive: but if evil, you have already borne
the judgment: for the Lord will not judge twice
for the same thing. Put therefore an end to your sadness, and for
the rest enjoy the desired pleasantness. For to this
the Lord has sent me from the heavenly rest of the Saints,
that your misery may now be ended, if however,
living justly, you acquiesce in my counsels.
[56] and predicts victory to him. If therefore you are a follower of continence, peace, piety, and innocence,
and, by the example of the preceding
fathers, an emulator of all justice, on the royal throne
after a little while you will be restored. And lest you
think this vision illusory, I am that Neotus, of God
the worshiper and friend, who, your faults requiring it, foretold to you these
fortunes of misfortune to come: yet always
mindful of your trouble, I never ceased to entreat the Lord
for you. But the Lord forsook you
for a moment in a little, that in his
mercies he might take you up. For not only will you triumph victoriously
over the tyrannic rage, but you will also
assign the tyrant himself to Christ as a Christian,
taking away all his arms in which he trusted,
and distributing his spoils. In the seventh week
after the triumph of the Lord's resurrection,
the eastern parts you will rejoice in me as forerunner and protector,
until all that I promise be happily accomplished."
Having said these things, the Saint vanished, again received into
glory.
[57] Alfred prepares himself and his men for battle, But when the beginning of day announced itself, the king,
rising in mind and body alike, both gave credence
to what he heard, and did not delay to render thanks
to God and holy Neotus. For he proclaimed a time of carnal
affliction, that at least in a short time, the afflicted being engaged in salutary
commerce, they might redeem former times by the fruit
of penance, about to go forth purer to the battles.
The exercises of good works being continued for some while,
with that little portion of the army the king withdrew into the eastern parts,
as he had learned by the holy documents of holy Neotus.
Coming therefore to the place,
which we know is designated by the celebrated name Elbrichtstan,
which is turned into the Latin tongue as
"the stone of Elbricht"; there they slackened
the loose reins.
[58] And when they leaned upon their warlike instruments,
that it might be signified that the king had come thither; he draws up the battle-line with the high-sounding
clamors of the trumpets, the signal was sounded. The blarings
being recognized, innumerable men flowed to them that same day.
Nor let us believe that only those dispersed by flight
or hiding everywhere came together there in a short time;
but also those who, already despairing of life,
had submitted their necks to the tyrant. These things being thus done,
on account of the pleasing multitude of the armed, beside the willow
wood they betake themselves to a pleasing plain: where,
remaining for two days, and attending to the equipping
of their military armor, certain others signifying the unexpected
return of the king, they received many with them.
But on the third day, the battle-line being drawn up in order,
they occupied beforehand the nearest promontory. And because
the day of the victory desired and assigned from heaven was now at hand,
and now was divinely drawing near,
on this side they explored the meeting of the enemies, on that
they awaited the promised suffrage.
[59] Now it came to pass, that the rumor of this event,
now most widely diffused, advances against the enemy, reached the profane ears of Gitro,
who everywhere with serpentine throat
hissed the edict of death. Then more and more, agitating the spirit
of his unbridled malice, he panted only for the slaughter and destruction
of the Christians, and roused his bloody
hands to bloodshed. So the evil man exhorted
the evil to evils, and promised worthy rewards
to the triumphant: and although with a bestial roar
he strove, raging, to rise up against the king and his army,
yet he despised them, and
asserted that they, feeble, were destined for the destruction of death. Behold,
another Goliath *, coming against David, threatens to expose
his flesh to the beasts and birds, and now, like
a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.
When therefore the deadly idolater with thirsty breast had forewarned
that the vessels of death would pour out death, and
had encouraged those before defeated with frequent exhortations
to the fight; straightway, according to their custom,
they drew up their battle-lines, moving their camp to the place of the contest.
[60] It was night, and behold, Neotus, in angelic appearance,
with snowy gray hair, and by a new apparition of St. Neotus in splendid and fragrant garments,
visibly c appeared to King Alfred, bringing warlike arms
with him. For the king, solicitous and
devout, as he desired the coming and protection
promised to him, to whom the Saint thus begins:
"Rising, put away delays, prepared for the palm of victory.
For when you came hither, as your inseparable
companion I fought at your side, and by my counsel you were always
cherished. For as in your straits I was forewarner,
so on your journey no less I was your guide.
[61] Now therefore, as brave men and most learned in war,
and as befits the athletes of Christ, and, animated by the promise of his help girt
and armed you will go forth tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.
For the Lord is strong and mighty, the Lord
mighty in battle; who gives salvation to kings,
will through me his servant enrich you with the desired trophy
together with safety. I will go before you, and the glorious and
proud I will humble: in my sight your enemies will fall
by the sword, and, threatening to make slaughter,
with great slaughter they will fall by the edge of the sword." Which
being heard, the king, straightway advancing against the opposing
enemies, skillfully moved forward his ordered battle-lines. Then he exhorts
the whole army to act manfully, not to fear the wicked
multitude, to fight bravely for themselves and their country,
and not to despair of the victory now for the third time promised
to them.
[62] he engages with the barbarians, But when morning came, when now by mutual
sight the phalanxes of both beheld one another, a great clamor,
breathed forth from either army, shook the ethereal airs.
But afterward, arrows being sent forth on either side, with the terrific
impulse of lances, both sides charge, until
they come to swords at close quarters. But the glorious servant of Christ Neotus,
as standard-bearer and forerunner of the king, went before the army,
pressed down the hostile battle-lines from the very beginning of the war,
and made the glorious inglorious by crushing them before them:
whom King Alfred, seeing and recognizing,
turning to his men with a brief speech, burst forth into these
consolations: "My fellow-soldiers," he said,
"renowned warriors, do you not see him who
crushes our enemies? If you desire to know, he is without doubt
Neotus, the most invincible soldier of Christ, through
whom today the palm of victory is at hand in our hands."
[63] and compels them to flee into a certain fortification, He spoke, and behold, the strong men, made stronger,
are more keenly animated to the fight. Then indeed, as with strength recovered
by a fresh war, they rush upon the barbarians together:
these, laying them low, they wound; those, slaying, they cut down,
and pour out waves of blood;
others, seizing flight, they pursue with great clamors.
And when the foreign leader had seen the slaughter of his men,
and could not utterly resist, he was turned back:
which the remaining portion of the unbelieving multitude, seeing,
to avoid the destruction of death,
nonetheless with like counsel took to flight.
But the king, to whom now the royal hour of triumph smiled from heaven
according to his wish, pursued them exultingly to that citadel
which they had first fortified, besieging
them all around with a strong entrenchment.
[64] so that their leader, a truce being made, embraced the Christian faith, Finally the pagans, their strength exhausted and their effort suppressed,
gave their right hands to the king and his men,
supplicating that they be spared. Then they promised
under oath, to assign their prince himself to the victorious
hand after a little while, to serve in Christian
soldiery, the filth of idolatry being wholly renounced.
The courses of three weeks having passed in peace,
Gitro the tyrant, his bestial ferocity now
laid aside, approached the king meekly, demanding
that through him he might deserve to be renewed by holy baptism, and
to be made a worshiper of the divine law. Whom King
Alfred, honorably receiving, gladly heard
according to his wish, and raised him from the font a Catholic,
thirty of his chief men obtaining the same gift of grace * d
with him, besides others, whose number
by no means became known to us. Behold, how through another
Ananias a wolf was made a lamb, and from
of the Most High.
[65] whom Alfred received from the holy font. When therefore Gitro, the profane rites being utterly
eliminated, had happily gone out into the liberty
of the glory of the sons of God, making some stay with the most renowned
king his godfather, in those things
which pertain to life he zealously strove to be instructed.
Finally, enriched by the same king with great
gifts, bidding him farewell in return for charity, he withdrew into his own
country with his own, praising the triune
and one God.
[66] Alfred's reign and death, But King Alfred, again exalted on the throne of the kingdom,
by pursuing justice fasted from fault,
and adorned the remaining time of his life with most holy
commerce, piously ruling under the most pious King,
by whom he was piously ruled. But if the time of his rule
by computation is desired to be known, four times seven
years and a half e he ruled England; for he had ruled
six years before the barbarians' invasion;
but after his restoration he notably held the royal scepter for twenty-
two years. If you add the half, you will have the sum
which you seek. And now King Alfred,
happily gathered to his fathers, migrated from the kingdom
of the dying to the kingdom that shall remain without end.
[67] O how pious a recollection! how exalting
a praise! and the author's epilogue. how pious is the proclamation of holy Neotus!
Through him the king is corrected for the better, through him in his kingdom
he is restored, through him the tyrannic rage is turned
into gentleness, the worship of demons is emptied,
and the Catholic flock is augmented, he helping,
who mercifully calls the predestined,
justifies the called, beatifies the justified, and exalts them
in the glory in which God lives and reigns forever
and ever. Amen.