ON ST. CONRAD OR CUNO, DESIGNATE ARCHBISHOP OF TRIER.
THE YEAR 1066.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. Concerning his cult and the coeval Authors of the Acts.
Conrad or Cuno, designate Archbishop of Trier (S.)
G. H.
[1] The monastery of Theux of the Archdiocese of Trier, next to the town of S. Wendelin, who was Abbot there, they report to have been so named, because there frequent commentation about divine matters was made, and a notable school once erected for learning the sacred letters; whereas before it was called Doleia or Thabuletum, In the monastery of Theux, and the little river flowing past is still called Toley. To that monastery, was translated the body of S. Conrad or Cuno the Martyr; which monastery itself, as the Acts below at no. 18 have, was of his jurisdiction; whence also very many of the Abbots of the place, were promoted to the Bishopric of Verdun, to which the monastery itself was once subject, as will appear in the Acts below at no. 18. Of these the first was S. Paul, whose Acts we illustrated on 8 February. Bucelin in Volume 1 of Sacred Germany part 2, adds eight other Abbots. But neither does he in part 1 reckon them all, whose names he had related, among the Bishops of Verdun; nor in Volume 2, among the Abbots of Theux. We, S. Conrad is venerated. solicitous about the Ecclesiastical veneration of S. Conrad, understood from the letters of Nicholas Antony of our Society, residing at Trier, that S. Conrad or Cuno, in the monastery of Theux, on these Kalends of June, is most solemnly venerated with the rite of a Martyr.
[2] The body was translated, on the feast of S. Apollinaris the 23rd day after Conrad's martyrdom, by the 53rd Bishop of Verdun Theoderic, surnamed the Great, son of Count Vizolo; who after this year 1056 is asserted to have still lived, even to the year 1090. To this Bishop dedicated the Life, Martyrdom, and history of the miracles of S. Conrad Theoderic a monk of Theux, constrained by the command of the Brothers or Monks, namely a coeval Author; who at no. 19 testifies, that the miracles, which God worked through him, he partly saw, partly learned by the relation of the elders. Those Acts we give from a very old codex of ours, which in the year 1648, when I was at Roermond, the Most Ample Lord Gaulé Chancellor of Guelders gave me, in which codex we also had the Life of S. Symeon recluse at Trier, likewise on these Kalends of June in the year 1035 deceased, already related by us. The same Life of S. Conrad we copied from a very old Trier codex of the monastery of S. Maximin, and the same we found in the year 1668 at Luxembourg in the antiquarian Treasury of Father Alexander Wilthem of the Society of Jesus, whence we also copied the Prologue, which was lacking in the other codices. An illustrious compendium of these the Manuscript codex of the Charterhouse of Cologne supplied to us.
[3] mention in old Chronicles: Christopher Brower, in book 12 of the Annals of Trier, at the year 1066, sets forth the life and martyrdom of Conrad; and subjoins, what is read of him in Lambert of Hersfeld on the deeds of the Germans, at the same year 1066; and also in the Chronicle of Hermann Contractus, which ends with the martyrdom of this Saint. The passages of these, which can be seen there, are thus had in the Chronicle of Sigebert of Gembloux. Cuno, who is also Conrad, Primicerius of Cologne, sent by the Emperor Henry to undertake the Archbishopric of Trier, captured by Theoderic Count of Trier, and led by his soldiers to a forest, was thrown three times from a rock; and still unharmed, was run through with a sword. His body was covered with the leaves of the forest: which found by a rustic, was carried to a village and buried. Thence transported by Theoderic Bishop of Verdun to the monastery of Toley, it was at once glorified by God with many miracles. Which things are copied from the Acts themselves, and by Wassebourg in the Bishops of Verdun are rendered in French; and are related in fewer words in the Chronicle of Conrad Abbot of Ursperg. Brower adds, from the domestic Annals, that by the indignity of this crime the Emperor blazed with such great anger, that he threatened destruction to the city of Trier, but placated by the admonitions of the Wise laid aside his fury. We subjoin to the Acts themselves the expostulation of Siegfried Archbishop of Mainz, to Alexander II Pope of Rome.
[4] memory in Martyrologies. Furthermore the memory of S. Conrad, on these Kalends of June, is related in the Manuscript Calendar of S. Maximin, and the Manuscript Catalogue of the Saints of Trier, and in the Auctarium of Greven to Usuard, printed at Cologne about the years 1515 and 1521, in these words: Of Cuno, who is also called Conrad, Provost of the greater Church of Agrippina of Cologne and Martyr. Who in the year of the Lord 1066 by the impious thrice cast down headlong from a very high mountain, when he had remained unharmed, killed by the swords of the impious, shone with miracles. Followed Molanus, Canisius, Ferrari, Ghini, Saussay, Gelenius. A greater elogium from the Acts is extant in the Manuscript Florarium of Saints, but at 19 May.
ACTS By the Author Theoderic Monk of Theux, coeval. From various Manuscript codices.
Conrad or Cuno, designate Archbishop of Trier (S.)
BHL Number: 1923
A. BY THEODERIC FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] These Acts Theoderic the Monk dedicates to Theoderic Bishop of Verdun. To be cherished with the highest veneration, to Deoderic of the Lord of hosts of Angels, a stranger of the same name, the least of the cowl-bearing band, the inestimable riches of the supereminent glory of God. Blessed be the name of the Most High Lord, by whose impenitent oath you, O ornament of Prelates, are eternally decorated with the honor of an eternal Priesthood; not unequal indeed to Melchizedek, likened to the Son of God; nay similar to him and coequal, according to the order of the Pontifical office. For because you have always loved the honor of the house of the Lord, not undeservedly you deserved to be made a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit; whose unction teaches you above all, how to equate yourself with the lofty, and how your loftiness knows to condescend to the lowest. Hence it is, most holy Father, that I the reproach of men and the outcast, took the daring to become known to your Highness; and to offer this insipid and rustic dish to be seasoned by the salt of your knowledge comparable to none of the moderns, and if it please to be strengthened by your authority, if it displease to be annulled. Inasmuch as you are one with God, you have been made by him to us wisdom and justice. Wisdom, that you may correct unwisdom; justice, that with an even balance you may weigh just and unjust things; as the Philosopher Plato says, that commonwealths would be blessed, if either the studious of wisdom had happened to rule these, or their rulers to study wisdom: such a one you alone not adulation, which we know not how to serve; but truth itself teaches us to confess, which it is of our order to bring forth with heart and mouth. Among these, who according to their power offer various kinds of gifts in the tabernacle of God, I have tried to appear not with empty hand. Judging too that I render you service, if I no longer suffered to be obliterated, your Martyr worthy to be sung with the style of that Mantuan (Virgil). Yours, I say, yours: because of all the glory which he has on earth, God is your cooperator; and it is ascribed to your charity, that at least he has the seat of his sepulcher in the Bishopric once committed to him. I will not pursue this with any haughtiness; but constrained by the command of the Brothers, whom even beyond my strength I am bound to obey in all things, since me, newly desolate and destitute, for the name of Christ and out of respect for the Rule, they deigned to aggregate into their college.
[2] So, O both our protection and sweet ornament, who both in the catalogue of the holy Church's Pontiffs of Verdun by the observance of the Decalogue; and by an angelic life on earth, in the jubilee of eternal rest and liberty of the sons of God, sigh for the denary of divine remuneration, and on the last day the prize of the eight beatitudes; and submits it to his judgment: graciously receive this little spiritual gift of your namesake stranger: and because in the mystical Rational of your breast doctrine and truth wondrously shine; according to the wisdom given you by God, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, discuss it; and, weighing with how great vigils and sweat this has cost us, if it is not to be obliterated, cut off the superfluous, supply the gaping, clarify the less lucid, comb the unkempt; and, if you judge this more fit to feed moths than minds, cautiously seeking another deign to forge a work worthy of your merits: because we do not greatly grieve over the vain labor expended, if under so just and incorrupt a judge we lose the cause, if we receive precious things for vile ones, if for the gift of a baked brick pure gold.
[3] Deservedly by the sentence of all he is judged reprehensible, by whose desert is not had, lest he bury the talent in the earth: what, possessed, would profit the honor and utility of very many: whence also the wicked servant by that divine speech is deprived of the Lord's grace, who preferred to hide in the earth the talent committed to him; than, it being given to gain, both to profit his fellow-servants, and to serve the Lord's uses. But since we have at hand thence by being torpid likewise wrath, whence again by working we can deserve grace; if he deign to be present, without whom we can do nothing; from whom is all wisdom and every perfect gift; who made the tongues of infants eloquent, and when he willed made a brute animal eloquent. If, I say, he deign to fill our open mouth; and to inspire into our heart his Spirit, who breathes where he wills and when he wills; we desire not to imitate the slothful servant by ill idleness, but rather by somewhat exercising ourselves to emulate him, who returned to his lord the talent doubled in business, and acquired a good degree, and deserved to attain greater things. To this also the most wise Ecclesiastes, consulting the salvation of all, as if speaking to one, exhorts all saying; Whatever your hand is able to do, instantly do it; because there will be neither work, nor reason, nor knowledge among the dead, whither you hasten: Eccl. 9:10 whither that we may never happen to hasten, and he professes that he uses simple speech. may the intercessions of B. Conrad our patron succor; to whose praise and honor we labor to send to posterity, with how great a passion of martyrdom the Lord crowned him with glory and honor. Where the reader desirous of new things, let him not require the trappings of words, because in vulgar and open speech, on purpose, what we write we have studied to render lucid and open: and sometimes, which we are not ashamed to confess, inexperience intervening, to idiots like ourselves the uncultivated and unpolished Latinity condescends.
[4] But concerning the variety of his name first it seems fitting to satisfy the many who disagree, Whence he is called both Conrad and Cono. if we ourselves too were not held by the same doubtfulness of scruple. For some name him Conrad; others, and especially his compatriots and kinsmen, call him Cuno; others suppose he was of both names, as if two-named; but we, yielding to the opinion of the various, and leaving that to the knowledge of God, since of whatever name he be we do not doubt it written in heaven, let us at last in the name of the Lord approach the text of the narration. Thus far the Author, probably more skilled in the French than the Teutonic tongue: whose idioms if he had had known, he would surely have understood how familiar it is to all nations, using the common Teutonic with the Belgians, to usurp the first syllable of each proper name for the whole name: and so (which all know) everywhere Coun is said, the same as Counraet; a composite word, and signifying one strenuous in Counsel.
CHAPTER I. Birth, Priesthood and Provostship, Archbishopric and Captivity.
[5] The blessed Martyr Conrad, who is also Cuno, sprung from a noble stock, was from the town of a Pulinga in Swabia, his father Eylolf, his mother Azecha: who since they were according to worldly dignity not lowly, opulent in goods and riches, Born in Swabia of wealthy parents, and enlarged with most ample estates; in this it was given to be understood, that this their son, would be a vessel of love, because not to those secular things, which though temporally, yet freely, as heir of so great patrimonies, he could have used; but to Ecclesiastical offices by divine predestination he was appointed; as if to his very parents, it were said by the Lord, I am the part of his inheritance. And so he is given by his parents to the holy doctrine of letters; that first age, in which the more he wept under the crackling rods, the more from day to day he went from virtue to virtue, with the progress of age to the increase of probity, about to see the God of Gods in heavenly Sion: and instructed in various knowledge, to which measure even Philosophy the mother sometimes restrained herself: and him dwelling in her halls, with milk and nourishments even to the strength of a manly mind, she longed to nurture: whom the grace of God so rendered wise, that he was by no means of those of whom it is said; Where is the scribe, where the wise, where the disputer of this world? 1 Cor. 1:20 has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? but of those whom the Apostle teaches, saying; I will you indeed to be wise in good, but simple in evil. Rom. 16:19.
[6] Then having entered the fork of Pythagoras, avoiding the left branch, he studied to walk by the right. He migrated to Cologne: Who when of mature age and made his own master, how he left his native soil, and how he sought Cologne Agrippina the metropolis of Germany, as we have learned diverse things from diverse persons, we have decided to relate diverse things. Some report, that for the sake of greater exercise of study (as that younger age is wont) he wished to sojourn at that city: some, that out of love of B. Anno, Prelate of that See, who is thought next to him by affinity and propinquity, he came thither; some, that the same Prelate, at the time of his received honor, brought him here with himself; for he too was a Swabian by nation. Which of these however be truer, he himself better knows, who foreknew and predestined him, to be made conformable to the passion of his son; and whom he predestined, he called; and whom he called, he justified; and, as today is clear to all, magnified. Whence no doubt is in our hearts, but that, whatever was the cause of his departure from his country, it portended the auspice of his blessed passion. And who would distrust that to this man by the Lord, though not openly, yet was said in his heart that command: Go out from your land, and from your kindred; and come into the land which I shall show you, and blessing I will bless you. Gen. 12:2
[7] received by S. Anno the Archbishop, That very land the omnipotent God showed to him, in which also he gave him no little grace, as the praise testifies, which now at the end is sung. For the aforesaid most holy Prelate Anno (whose praiseworthy works although the tongue of certain envious men was silent about, the mute buildings of stones cried out, with which he built, and the monasteries of his Bishopric built he augmented) this Blessed stranger himself a stranger, but exalted by the right hand of God, benignly received, humanely treated, and, when it pleased and he judged worthy, raised to a greater degree and assumed he extolled, he is ordained Priest and Provost of the Cathedral Church, bidding him stand near in the next order, and sublimated with the honor of the Priesthood, set in the second place after himself, the greater Provost of the greater house of his See, that is of S. Peter, he placed. This first care was committed to him, which how strenuously and fitly in the sight of God and men he administered, as many witnesses still exist, as could know him.
[8] At the same time the fourth c Henry, namesake of his father, in his tender years, and by him, as helper of Henry IV in the government, his father the Augustus being newly removed from the midst, strenuously acted in the scepters; whom the often-mentioned Pontiff S. Anno, as a man of all prudence and courtly nurture, asked by d the widowed Augusta his mother, had undertaken to educate; and him handed over to the liberal studies of letters, imbued in divine and human things, and as befitted the royal offspring, e becomingly educated. By the occasion of which mastership, sometimes also the affairs of the kingdom he procured, and where the matter demanded, to his disciple he extended the hand of counsel; and by how much that which is written, To the master is referred, whatever is delinquent by the disciple, he feared; by so much he was cautious lest anything sinister, which would be imputed to him, should befall the commonwealth: and recalling that Solomonic saying, Love justice, you who judge the earth, by the right governance of laws he helped to rule the reins of noble cities, to render civil right to the good, to terrify the guilty, to dispense to each his own rightly. Wis. 1:1 Wherefore he persuaded that all the upright and wise be advanced to the government of Churches, because he knew it written, The multitude of the wise is the health of the world. Wis. 6:16 Hence it is, that when, as it seemed to him; the utility of the matter so demanded, and as the city of Trier f was widowed of its Pastor; the mentioned man Conrad, he is appointed to the Archbishopric of Trier: whom indeed he had known apt for this, and judged fit, he substituted. And although by the inscrutable secret of the Divinity, the promotion of such a man of God was the occasion of his Martyrdom; yet to none is it doubtful, but that if, as is said, he desired this Bishopric, he desired a good work; because he aspired to be in morals, what the name itself indicates he ought to be. 1 Tim. 3 And so by the instinct and counsel of his often-mentioned Prelate, the Martyr of Christ about to be sooner than Bishop, brought into the midst and acclaimed worthy, received from the g Royal hand the insignia of the Pontificate namely the h Pastoral staff. and the spousal ring of the Church, meanwhile until by the unction of the sacred chrism he should be ordained the spouse of the Church.
[9] Nor delay being committed to the Legate of the King himself, namely the venerable Einhard Bishop of the city of Speyer, he is directed to the See committed, i that is, to the city of Trier. and receives the insignia of the Pontificate, Which, although with most holy, and nowhere on earth greater Bishops it had long been distinguished by God, so that not undeservedly it was called a second Rome; yet its sins demanding, we believe it to have been unworthy in these last times of such a Pontiff; which also the outcome of the matter proved. For at the hearing of his coming, whence the unhappy city in this part ought to have profited for the better, thence ill-counseled it rushed for the worse. For soon from the beginning the homicide devil, (by whose envy death entered into the world, whom they imitate who are of his part) those whom in it he knew to be of his part, then, with the devil inciting, inflamed with the fury of his madness, to his imitation, that is, to homicide, he incited. And where after Rome was there a city in the whole world, in which the Devil himself once had more than there worshipers, and satellites of his wickedness? and although, what had been the mistress of error, is now the disciple of truth; yet, alas for grief! still in it he found of his members, which he moved to persecute and destroy the members of Christ. Things similar to the Lord's passion, we see to have happened also in the passion of this holy man too. For as the Priests and Pontiffs of the Jews, learned in the Law and Prophets, incited the unlearned people to the death of the Savior; so also, what is wicked to say, certain of the Clergy, the lay people, whom they ought to have restrained, rather studied to provoke to such a disgraceful deed. For also k Theoderic, the Prefect of the city, approaching, both with many persuasive words, and with various probable assertions, they animated to extinguish the blessed man. and with the people tumultuating, Hence tumultuating, and clamoring after the vulgar manner, that the Bishop, not elected, not rightly appointed, would never enter their city, never rule it, now by sacraments, now by attestations, now by curses they swore: crying out adulatorily that the same Prefect, defender of the city and patron, ought not to suffer such things, they said that this man ought to be destroyed, that this was of his honor, that it would be pleasing to the holy places, not a species of crime, but zeal of justice and of right defense; and besides, that what would be sinned in this should adhere to us, be reputed to us: which seems as if openly said, His blood be upon us and upon our children.
[10] The man supported by temporal glory, by these and such-like evil exhortations, and inept promises enticed; seeks soldiers, snatches arms, and with a crier crying, whoever shall not be present, offends the Prefect; the whole city runs together. A greater bell too, sounded to stir up the crowd, which ought to have been for the completion of the divine Office, served for the incitement of all evil. For it was a later hour, when the servants of God ought to celebrate the daily Offices, according to the Canonical institution. Then those, who had in their heart the night and darkness of sin, at that same hour, with the apparatus of arms run together; and horses being mounted, to the coming Pastor, not as sheep, but as ravening wolves, to devour him go out to meet. Who at the fourth mile from the city, having taken lodging in the town which is called l Bideburch, with the venerable Bishop himself, to whom we said he was committed, suspecting nothing such, in the town of Bideburch passed the night; the next morning as was thought, that by the same Lord, in the King's stead he would be presented to the city; and as is the custom, would be solemnly received by clergy and people. But in vain the piety of omnipotent God procured for the widowed and destitute city a pious Rector: in vain it said to her with paternal voice, Fear not, daughter of Sion, behold your King comes to you meek; when she preferred to be polluted with his blood, than to be ruled by him at least for an hour. Morning come, the fifteenth day before the Kalends of June being given, 18 May the sun now growing bright, the crowd of little clients hastens to rise, to call one another to him, accurately (as that noble college is wont) to adorn themselves, to saddle their horses, he is surrounded. and to prepare becomingly whatever is of this kind. When suddenly, unhoped, and unforeseen they see themselves by enemies, not so much circumvented, as besieged.
[11] What should they do, who had committed nothing worthy of death against them, why were they held guilty by these? At last they too run to arms: to fight for their life, if it could be done, they dispose. But how should one pursue a thousand, and two put to flight ten thousand? Many prevailed, where few stood in the way; and the doors broken, yet not without blood of both parties, having entered the court of the house, they burst into the chamber where both elders rested: who already before awakened by their noise, between the judgment which they saw to be at hand, awaited the mercy of God: which he, permitting now to the damnation of these to be done what he willed not, therefore as we believe deferred, because he reserved a greater glory for his servant Conrad. So all things, which came to their hands, the horses, vessels, garments, and the rest of their furniture plundering, the mentioned Bishop of Speyer, not without injury, as one despoiled of his goods, they allowed to depart; but the Blessed Conrad, captured and bound, he is detained captive, unmercifully and inhumanely, with cackling and reproach, to a town situated upon the river Moselle, whose name is Urzich m, dragging him, they committed to custody; perhaps while they treated among themselves, by what deadly death they should destroy him.
[12] But n meanwhile I think we must here pause, that with those, who with canine tooth chatter, that this man was not elected, because not canonically; and because not elected, therefore not canonically promoted, we may have a conflict about the manner of his promotion. That he ought to be elected not by men only and not by God, but by God equally and by men, we not only affirm, but also to those contradicting, that he ought not, we oppose the front of defense. The bride says in the Canticle of love concerning the bridegroom Christ, that is, the Church concerning the Bishop the Vicar of Christ her spouse, My beloved chosen out of thousands; openly giving to understand, that not any whatever is easily assumed, but from the multitude out of the multitude is elected, who is of good testimony. Cant. 5:10 Meanwhile he is shown to have been rightly elected and promoted, And in the beginning of the nascent Church, Matthias was elected to the Apostolate by divine lot: Stephen too to the Diaconate by the election of the Apostles, nay of the Holy Spirit. And what does it profit to occupy our page with a thousand testimonies? Those therefore who do not believe this man promoted by the holy man Anno divinely inspired to be elected by God; by the same madness of mind let them not believe those elected by God, whom we said constituted by the holy Apostles divinely inspired. But also the holy Fathers, authors of the holy Canons, when they saw, with iniquity abounding and charity growing cold, in the holy Church such men through the simoniacal heresy creep in, to one of whom Blessed Augustine cries, O Bishop, by the example of S. Anno himself. unless you had given a hundred shillings, today you would not have been Bishop; sanctioned in the very sentences of the Canons, that I may use their words, wherever a worthy one can be found, let him be established wherever there is need. This from the Canons themselves, this from the Decrees of the Pontiffs, this from the Register of Blessed Pope Gregory, by many readings we approve. Many such too we will show constituted in the Chronicles by royal power, whose constitution to have pleased God, afterward appeared in their operation. Such was he himself, whose, the hearing of his sanctity already went out into all the earth, by whom we said above our Father Conrad was promoted: whom if Agrippina (Cologne), as one before unknown to her o, knew not how to elect; yet now it glories to have been worthy of so great a Prelate. But perhaps those who are their favorers object, that they elected from their own whom they esteemed worthy. But it is to be guarded lest there meet them that Prophetic saying, Woe to those who call good evil, and evil good. Is. 5:20 For if of God, and with God, and in God, those who elected had been, never would they, inflamed with envy and concupiscence, have condemned innocent blood. Whoever therefore instructed in the morals of wisdom, are held most unlike to the studies of the wicked; there is nothing you should wonder at, if in this world the Saints are agitated by the storms blowing around, whose chief purpose is this, to displease the worst; whose army indeed although it be numerous, yet is to be spurned, since it is ruled by no leader, as concerning the persecutors of this Saint we will say afterward in its place.
ANNOTATIONS G. H.
CHAPTER II. The Martyrdom of S. Conrad and his first burial.
[13] 1 June, Now let us return to our purpose, and hand over to the notice of the faithful the noble triumph of the Martyr. For fourteen a days the athlete of Christ was given to custody at the mentioned castle; not because the day of his death, for piety's sake, was deferred by these, of whose cruelty meanwhile there was no measure; but because the hour had not yet come in which he was to be called, by whom he was also formed in the womb. But on the b fifteenth day, when in the aforesaid Theoderic, the sacrilegious Governor and utterly ignorant of the Christian name, the rage of profane cruelty had aspired, delivered to four executioners, so that now he desired to be sated with the blood of the innocent; led out from custody, to four wicked sons, who might satisfy his rage, he handed him to be mocked; threatening them under this mandate, that if they took his life with a light torment, they should know they would be deprived of his grace. Who rejoicing that the desired occasion of raging against him had fallen to them, and that they could please their Lord by so light an office, agitated by a demonic spirit, led him to the brow of a near mountain; which was of such density and height, that one thrown down from it, was torn limb from limb before he was thought dead. c On the summit of this peak therefore, stripped of his garment, covered only with an undershirt, his face veiled, his hands bound behind his back, they set him. Behold, they say, we have to test, whether God has elected you to the Bishopric: which will then be clear, he is cast down from the summit of the mountain: when he establishes you unharmed from this fall. And when, with such a division they had not feared to cast the reverend man headlong; it pleased the divine piety to manifest, that he indeed had elected him, but that they were unworthy of him. For falling down from on high, not only alive, but also he stood unharmed in his whole body; not without admiration of him who would attend, that the members had been bruised, unless in truth it were established that the Lord had placed his hand beneath. This power being seen, the stony breast of the impious was not moved with piety: but he being taken up again; This same thing, they say, we will try a second time. Having tried a second time, a third time they dared to attempt. Now thrice proved glorified by God, thrice preserved by him unharmed, three times, always unharmed, the blinded mind of the perfidious made light of it, with impenitent heart treasuring up wrath for itself in the day of the Lord's fury. d
[14] [] Whoever you require signs and miracles, by which you may by right confess this man to have been a Saint; weigh, whether it was of divine power, not without an evident miracle. for the mass of a heavy body thrice (so to speak) to fly away, or from on high to fall to the ground, or at least through the steep rugged slopes of the mountain with rocks interposed everywhere to deviate, with its integrity preserved; when he had nothing of garment which could protect him from the points of thorns or briers. But if you have an eye not envious, but rather faithful; not unfittingly will you confess that Davidic saying ought to be sung in his praise; He has commanded his Angels concerning you, that in their hands they bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone. Ps. 90:12 By a similar precipice too we read the Brother-of-the-Lord e James was held in mockery; but what that one once underwent, this one thrice; because perhaps of yet lesser merit, he had to be augmented with a greater punishment. But both so much the happier, by how much they were not unmindful of that Lord's word, The servant is not greater than his Lord, whom indeed while still f young, through the infirmity of the assumed flesh, the Devil taken up higher, exhorted to the precipice; whom also afterward the members of the same Devil led to the brow of the mountain, that they might cast him headlong. John 13:16, Matt. 4:8
[15] Not yet sated with the punishment the executioners of the cruel tyrant, Because, they say, you did not stand well leaping, our sword will dominate your flesh. and at last he is beheaded: Hence to the tomb of his damnation they attacked him with swords, and so beheaded, to the college of Martyrs, a Martyr they associated him. So that thrice blessed one, having experienced mockeries and stripes, and besides bonds and prisons, in the slaying of the sword died. Whose spirit taken up by the Angels, with manifold triumphs was presented to the face of the Omnipotent; and by his odor the heavenly court was renewed, while here lilies white from the Sacerdotal stole, here roses blooming from the blood of his passion give fragrance. His lifeless body they covered with brambles and thickets, and went away to announce such joy to their Lord. By whom asked; Where then was the Bishop; They say, We have imposed on him a Pontifical miter, but he will come no more to Trier, nor will he rule the Pontifical Chair. The Body covered with brambles, Insulting the holy man with such derogation, perhaps they were ignorant, that a day is to come, in which groaning for anguish of spirit, they will say within themselves doing penance; This is he whom we once had in derision and for a likeness of reproach; we insensate, esteemed his life madness, and his end without honor: how therefore is he counted among the sons of God, and is his lot among the Saints? Because therefore for fear of the same tyrant, no one dared to commit to the earth the members of the victim of Christ, for forty g days they lay unburied, on the 40th day unharmed he is buried. like Blessed Stephen the Proto-martyr, exposed to the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field; but by God's providence were touched by none of these. Then the fellow-villagers of the nearest village that is Lonset h, moved by piety, at last secretly raised them; and at that village, on the sixth of the Ides of July, before the doors of the church, with what honor they could buried them. He suffered therefore in the year one thousand sixty-six of the Lord's Incarnation, in the fourth Indiction, on the i first day of the Kalends of June.
[16] A little before he suffered, a comet sent from heaven k, in the Western part for many nights appeared to have been seen, A comet shone before his death: doubtless an index of divine vengeance: for the voice of his innocent blood, demanding vengeance from God, brought such a clamor to the heavens, that still from the hand of the whole world the wrath of the heavenly Judge seems to demand vengeance. Indeed neither was it answered him by deferring, civil wars followed the same. Wait a little time; but at once in the same year, and at the same time, the holy Church and especially the Metropolis of Trier began to be agitated by so great a whirlwind of dissensions and perturbations, that by the long fluctuation of wars through civil war, it seems to be ignorant l now what peace is, unless he grant a time of pitying, whose people and sheep of the pasture we are, whom we confess Lord and praise as God, forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS G. H.
D. P.
CHAPTER III. The Finding and translation of the Body. Various miracles soon wrought.
A. BY THEODERIC FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.
[17] According to what is written, The just man, by whatever death he be overtaken, shall be in refreshment, because grace and mercy is in his Saints, and regard for his Elect; it was well-pleasing to God to decorate the memory of his Martyr and Priest with a more honorable sepulcher, and to augment the monastery of Theux with such a Patron: who namely on one side would stand by Maurice, and on the other would lend a hand to the poor little Congregation. Wis. 4:7 And because, he who receives a just man in the name of a just man, shall receive the reward of a just man; of this eternal reward will not be without part Theoderic the venerable Prelate, by whose pious favoring zeal both presentations of the Martyr came about, namely both the elevation from the viler place, and the translation to a more becoming one. Whence God is wondrous in his Saints, who to his faithful Conrad, by two of one name, but of diverse quality, granted diverse gifts of honor to be exhibited; by Theoderic the cruel Tyrant, the crown of Martyrdom; by his namesake, a most worthy Prelate, Theoderic Bishop of Verdun, the rest of an honorable sepulcher. But because the very rewarder of good and avenger of evil things, will bring diverse wages of merits to both; now after the text of the passion, let us write the Martyr's coming to us. The same most honorable Prelate of the holy Church of Verdun Theoderic, when in the same year at b the castle of Novellis, conducting the cares of his Diocese; c on the feast of S. Apollinaris celebrated the solemnities of Masses, at the time of the sacrifice, suddenly by the spirit of the Blessed one, of whom we spoke, as of a bird flying around through the circuit of the altar, he is troubled by a vision. Who within the Action (Canon), led to the memory of the dead, by the recollection of this Martyr, whose slaying he had heard, was suffused with so great a shower of tears, that no one of the bystanders doubted that he was suddenly rapt in contemplation. And when, the same solemnities being finished, the undergarment d of the compunct Priest, in the place of the breast, was wet with no small drops distilled; the spirit of the Martyr being seen during Mass, all wondering, and not daring to inquire the truth of the matter, the Lord himself, in whom still was a tearful countenance, not so much by the utterance of his tongue, as by the very deed began to cry out; by the vision of the aforesaid spirit, that being divinely brought back before the eyes of his mind, That the just man perishes, and no one perceives it in his heart, since his memory is in peace. Is. 57:1 For soon a multitude of his household and little clients being convened, he bound these by oaths, those by entreating words; that whoever of them should show one recently slain, should designate the place of the cast-away corpse; should not lack his grace, thereafter his benefit. Do you think he was slow, who in this matter could satisfy the wishes of his elder; when to all it was clearer than light, that he had received that mandate, while he offered the sacraments, in that vision of the Spirit from God who had accepted them, from whose presence that gracious inundation of tears had flowed?
[18] Nor delay, those to whom the matter was known approaching nearer, each strove to appear more faithful, who should have anticipated to narrate truer things to the Bishop. Lord, they say, having suffered these and these things, in such a village he is held buried [The village indeed and the way by which it is approached we know: but the place of burial we wholly are ignorant of. But he who, by the admonition of his spirit, in the species of a bird (as you say) intimated his care to you; no doubt, but that he will also reveal the remains of the body by some indication]. Concerning these therefore being somehow certified, the pious man treated within himself, how he might bring the hidden treasure into his Church, where a place of prayer to the Martyr might sometime lie open. But because the difficulty of the far-removed region denied effect to his desires, he turned again in mind, to try at least to translate it somewhere, where it would be under his e jurisdiction, and would rest with fitting honor to himself. At last salutary counsel being found, to the monastery of Theux, because nearer there was none of his jurisdiction, he disposed it to be conveyed; where the memory of the noble Martyrs is honored, namely of Maurice, and his companions. And a legation being sent to Abbo Father of the same monastery, he studied to intimate this same thing, and quickly in the village Lonset, where he had heard the Saint buried, he orders him to be met, with those things which befit obsequies. Who prompt to obey, rejoicing to receive the heavenly gift, having taken with him some of the Brothers, with apparatus of this kind, on the appointed day, hastened to the appointed place. and it to the monastery of Theux: But the venerable Bishop, doubtful what outcomes the finding would have, had come with a band of soldiers. But not easily could he obtain the things sought from the inhabitants, because for fear of the often-mentioned Tyrant, they dared neither to confess they knew him, nor that he was buried among them. But those who among them were of sounder counsel, the sanctity of the same Martyr being discovered, which through the twelve days, in which he was detained among them, they had experienced by many signs and prodigies, to which they had been as ungrateful, as also unlearned in the praise of God; found; he translates it. because they did not acquiesce that it be carried off, by arms that rustic crowd by force brought deterred them. But wherever he went, no one indicated where it was: yet the desired thing, God willing, and someone suffering force betraying it, he obtained: and the lamp raised from the hidden place, he brought above the candlestick of this Church, where now to those entering the house of the Lord it shines with clear light.
[19] and it being deposited with solemn pomp, Then the sacred body was clothed with the Sacerdotal garment (for that he had performed the office of the Priesthood, which we related in the above text, they asserted) and the members being composed in order, and the solemnities of Masses completed, that holy funeral with a melodious procession they led to the place of the sepulcher; and with fitting obsequy placed it in the sarcophagus f. But how the Lord Bishop himself adorned it with the cover of a stone engraved with an epitaph composed by himself, and with the metal of elaborate work, no faculty of our style suffices to recount. Namely there it is to be seen, if anything is lacking to the more unskilled tongue. This memorial of his name the same Pontiff made in his days, which will remain in memory before God forever. On the eighth of the Kalends of August this dwelling was augmented with such a Heavenly one: who of what merit he is in the heavens, he adorns it with an epitaph. his dead flesh testifies on earth. For at his tomb when the sick come, having received health they return possessors of their vow: whence by the hymn-singing choirs of Angels, glory, praise, and honor be to the name of the Omnipotent, who makes this Blessed one shine with assiduous miracles: of which, for the utility of the faithful, we will relate a few; but very many we omit, which by the sloth of our predecessors passed over in silence, remain unknown to us, but are known to God. These therefore are the miracles, which through him the Lord worked, we partly seeing, and partly by the relation of the elders we learned.
[20] When g that vessel, which is commonly called Tonnus (a tun), in which namely the sacred body had been brought, [The hoops of the vessel, in which the body had been, leaping off of their own accord,] by the decree of the Pontiff himself was to be cremated, fire being applied; lest perhaps any gore, which from the still recent matter of the wounds of the carried body could easily cling to the inner parts of the vessel, should go neglected; suddenly the outer ligatures, that is the hoops, plucked off by an invisible impulse, leaped up into the height of the air; as if endowed with sense they fled to be consumed by the flames, which after the obsequy exhibited to the Martyr they had not deserved. Which the more anyone raising himself up longed to seize, the higher they were borne, as if by a certain blast of wind: until, the vain effort being wearied, for a long time they cling aloft in the air; the concourse of the crowd, marveling at the novelty of so great a miracle, and looking up at the thing hanging in the empty air through long spaces, at last burst into a clamor of divine praise, joined to the band of Monks and Clerics. By which prodigy then, or by what operation they fell down under the quiet of the night, is unknown. This one thing by the faithful relation of the Brothers of the same monastery we received, and is proclaimed by those townsmen, that in the twilight of dawn they were found on the ground. then they are hung at the doors of the church: Which when no one dared to touch for any of his uses, by common counsel, for a testimony of so great a miracle, they were hung before the doors of the church: where they hung so long, until piecemeal by the sick, whom the fame of this miracle had summoned, for the remedy of cure carried off, consumed in their various uses, more usefully to the honor and glory of God than burnt by flames they failed.
[21] a candle is lighted of its own accord, On the third day of his burial, the wooden board, which meanwhile had been placed over the grave, by the motion of that coffin, was h shaken: and immediately the candle which before the adjacent altar was burning in a candlestick not burning, appeared no otherwise than lighted from heaven. From then the sacristans were careful there to apply the light of a lamp continually. Three contracted women are healed, On the following solemnity of the bonds of B. Peter the Apostle in Advent i, a contracted woman was restored to health; I believe as if for a certain recompense honoring his day with such an adornment of a miracle, of whom in Agrippina (Cologne) he himself had once been a son; of whom he was also to have been made Vicar in the city of Trier. Afterward the curved fingers of two women, by the invocation of his name were straightened. Those serving him too slowly, with many rebukes of terrors the same Blessed one sometimes corrected, which we, on account of the unbelieving, various sick are cured, pass over. The daughter of a certain known Reginfrid, bereaved of both lights (eyes); but also the maidservant of a certain likewise known Soldier, held by languor; and another woman, whose jaw had been removed from its place; equally obtained at his sepulcher the desired joys of health; she the light of her eyes, these the soundness of their members.
[22] Three benefits in one man the Saint showed: who when he was possessed by a demon, and lacked the office of tongue and hearing, at his tomb obtained both these, a demoniac, and was freed from the malign enemy. Six rustics, whose feet equally, by the fault of insolvency, had been bound in the stocks by the exactor, by the invocation of his holy name, with no one putting his hand, deserved to be loosed. Then a lunatic boy, and another the domestic boy of a certain Soldier Wigeric, whose stomach now for a year loathed bread, came with an equal vow, and 6 captives are freed. and by his recovery equally felt the Saint's power. But also a blind man coming from the household of k B. Willebrord, by his illumination, experienced similar things: to whom although the same Blessed Confessor could easily have conferred this same thing, yet in this he did not envy the Martyr's glory. Finally two lame men, on the anniversary of his burial, at his sepulcher were raised up. A woman too blind and paralytic, was restored to health. A certain boy also was freed from the trouble of the stone.
[23] It is to be said here of what piety he was, when to a certain Soldier Folcard, One of the executioners penitent, is twice heard. who was one of the enemies who laid hands on him, he rendered good things for evil. Who namely when by divine vengeance, he now languished for a long time, at last returning to himself, and crying out and confessing himself to have sinned against the Saint of God, according to the true penitence of his heart, deserved his indulgence. Who when he convalesced, not ungrateful for the conferred benefit, coming paid his vows, gave thanks, and even now every year does not cease to pay the tribute of his liberation. Yet in him a sign of incurable infirmity appears, that as long as he lives, he may expiate the sin committed against the servant of God. Finally the same captured by enemies and bound with fetters, by the invocation of his name it is established was freed.
[24] Let him by all means dash his forehead against the wall who wishes, because we will not keep silent concerning his persecutor Theoderic, what are known to the whole world. Theoderic the persecutor, This man at last, hearing so many proclamations of miracles, by no means lending faith to the words of those asserting, with incredulous heart, whether these things were true, presumed to try by himself. Who while coming, not without the pride of haughtiness, he approached the doors of the basilica, where sprout the sacred pledges of the one martyred by him; not without his own shame he perceived how great divine power was held within. For suddenly by an invisible obstacle the undeserving man was prohibited from entering the sacred edifice, to whom it was granted neither to see the tomb of the Martyr, he cannot enter the church of the Martyr, nor to touch the thresholds of his Oratory. And when with repeated efforts he strove more often to enter, and from the opposite the same power resisted him; at last what he had come to try, with too great confusion he departed having tried. Whom while, that he might consult his own salvation, the faithful and kinsmen exhorted; namely by satisfying the Saint, and by conferring some of his estates for alms to his poor Church; with deaf ear the vain man made light of hearing, and is drowned. over whom impended the regard of heavenly wrath. l Not after much time, by I know not what spirit, heading for Jerusalem, having suffered shipwreck m, he incurred the motions of the sea; and descending to the depths of the deep, by an irrevocable fate, God being judge, he paid the penalty n of his crime. Concerning these four who by his order slew him, rather than to speak, we have preferred to be silent: let this only suffice to say, that by various punishments and evident evils they were withdrawn from this light.
[25] his three accomplices perish badly. Those serving him too slowly, with these rebukes of signs sometimes the Blessed Father Conrad corrected. Once on the day of the Lord's Nativity, when by the negligence of the watchmen the candle placed before him was not burning; suddenly it was divinely lighted. In like manner, as we said above, when on another occasion the same lamp was lacking there by the same fault, suddenly, the fabric of the whole sepulcher being moved, by the same power the taper, which by chance was at hand, shone with clear light. Not unlike was also that, miracles of candles at the sepulcher which a taper not firmly clinging before him, while it fell upon the sarcophagus covered with a veil, lying long burning, and burning lying, preserved that very veil unburnt.
[26] Let no one expect from me to hear as many things, Several others omitted. as divine grace willed to declare for the indication of his sanctity: because, as I remember to have said more often, by the sloth of our predecessors, many things remain obliterated; more also we omit on purpose, partly condescending to the envy of many, partly to the mercy of the incredulous, who give assent neither to writings, nor to words, unless they see eye to eye. Let them believe at least from one of their own, that is Folcard their companion, in whose presence another blind man received his lost lights (eyes). Now let the style impose a measure on these for avid hearers, because (as B. Gregory says) signs are to be shown to the unbelieving, not to the believing; to whom they could suffice for salvation, even if less had been said. If the faith of those asking be not lacking, never is the support lacking: because what he, still surrounded with the infirmity of the flesh, would not have done for himself, indeed for others he does not refuse to do. May his assiduous intervention commend us to the omnipotent God, to whom be praise forever and ever.
ANNOTATIONS G. H.
EXPOSTULATION of Siegfried Archbishop of Mainz, to Alexander II Pope of Rome.
Conrad or Cuno, designate Archbishop of Trier (S.)
Because all the greatest affairs of Ecclesiastical discipline ought to be examined by the very head of Prelates, whose, from the enjoined solicitude of all Churches, it is a special privilege; what through ourselves we cannot correct, we refer to the patronage of Your Kindliness. Which also we know to have reached you long ago, concerning the most cruel and unheard-of (death) of the truly designate Bishop of the Trevirans, who in Christian times having experienced the most wicked and most criminal torments of the Neronian and Decian persecution, by a horrible and execrable kind of punishments was condemned to death. To the vengeance of whose monstrous slaying, mindful of his testament, first let the Lord Jesus Christ rise up, then the most strong and patronal hand of your Authority. For by the sacred decrees of the Canons it is sanctioned, that if anywhere a Bishop be ordained, who in life or morals differs from so great a dignity, or who ascends to so great a summit by subreption, not by election; that audience be not denied him, and that this also ought not to be done apart from the sentence of the Roman Pontiff. In which matter if the Clergy or people of any city see themselves overburdened by secular power, let them have refuge to the sacred defense of your See: to which, the Lord commanding, the Primacy of all Churches has been delegated. But now, far from this man, of whom there is question, being given a canonical audience, far from the sentence of your examination being awaited, as if by the furtive hand of robbers captured and despoiled, then afflicted with a most grievous transportation from place to place; at last, as they assert, by their common counsel, he was punished with a most shameful death. About which matter how grievously the unanimity of the Brothers is shaken, how atrociously the audacity of criminal men to the injury of the sacred Order is raised, it is for your Sanctity prudently to weigh; and by canonically avenging this nefarious crime, lest henceforth any such thing be presumed, to leave an example to posterity. So the social concord of our Brothers prays your Sanctity, and this from the patronage of Your Eminence the whole Church implores, that you most diligently search out the authors of so great a crime, and the found ones most strictly punish. Who if perhaps by dissembling they lie hidden, with the sword of the Holy Spirit, like rotten members from the body of Christ cut them off: and that all our Priests too may strike them with the anathema of perpetual malediction, most firmly command.
These things, from the common sentence of the Bishops, Siegfried the Archbishop in Brower: who adds: Nor is it doubtful, but that at last not only upon the authors of the crime, but upon the Trevirine Clergy too, just vengeance and censure was demanded.