Symeon of Trier

ON ST. SYMEON, RECLUSE AT THE GATE OF TRIER.

THE YEAR 1035.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. The Saint's church and cult; a Life written by an eyewitness of many things; and the years of his coming, death, and Canonization.

Symeon, recluse at the gate of Trier (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

There is in the city of Trier the Collegiate Church of S. Symeon, and that one of the seven more eminent there, concerning whose situation and consecration John Eren and John Scheckmann in the Epitome or Marrow of the Deeds of the Trevirans printed in the year 1517 write these things. The Church of S. Symeon the Confessor, The Church of S. Symeon. next to the black gate or that of Mars, is built of great square stones and indeed thick. At first it was a very high tower, as still appears, and a place of fortification, which the renowned Prelate Poppo turned into a house of prayer. Dedicated also to the name of S. Michael, it obtained the name of Symeon, from the frequent miracles by which the holy Symeon had shone forth: by many steps one ascends to it. Most sumptuous roofs over the several dwellings of that place were erected, not of stone, but of lead. This Symeon was sprung from Syracuse, his elogium. at Constantinople learned letters, at Jerusalem for seven years was a guide of pilgrims; a Monk besides on the mountain where Moses received the law on tablets of stone; afterward led to Trier, by the renowned Poppo Archbishop of the Trevirans, and enclosed in that same tower, and at last buried in it, died in the year of the Lord 1035. The renowned Poppo aforesaid procured that this man be canonized by the holy Apostolic See, the continuous miracles demanding it. The Canonization, In the year 1400, on the ninth day of January, the tomb of S. Symeon was opened, and his body was not found, with Wernher Archbishop presiding in the Metropolitan See of Trier. Then, various things concerning the Archbishop Poppo being interposed, under the second title are enumerated the more notable or greater Relics of this Church, the unsealing of the tomb, in these words. Of the holy Cross an excellent particle. The head of S. Symeon, his cap, one of his shoes, his shoulder-blades, the whole spine of the back, and his other members: likewise his hairshirt: of the brain of S. Symeon, of his sweat-cloth. Relics wont to be exposed. And many other Relics, of the instruments of the passion of Christ and of his garments, of the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, which we deemed it useless to follow out here to the nail…. The showing of the Relics is made on the fourth feria in Passion Week. Thus far there. Also at the Abbey of S. Maximin, among the Relics enumerated in the Analecta after the Life of 29 May no. 9, are reckoned some of S. Symeon Confessor of the Trevirans: likewise a joint of his finger: likewise a part of his shoulder-blade: likewise the fillet or linen cap of the same.

[2] The Life and miracles of S. Symeon were written by Eberwin, Abbot of S. Martin in the city of Trier. So the most ancient manuscript codices attest, The Life written by Eberwin Abbot of S. Martin at Trier, one of which is extant in the very monastery of S. Martin; another (as is read toward the end) was copied in the year 1188, in which there is a title of this kind: Preface of Eberwin Abbot of S. Martin to the Life of S. Symeon. The same man wrote the Life of S. Magneric Archbishop of the Trevirans, buried in the Church of S. Martin of this monastery founded by himself, to be illustrated by us on the 25th of July: in which the style appears wholly similar. Besides, in the Acts of S. Richard Abbot of S. Vanne, to be given on the 14th of June, he is said to have been joined as a companion to him on the Jerusalem journey; and the things done with him are related by Hugh of Flavigny in chapters 20 and 26 of the Chronicle of Verdun, volume 1 of the Library of our Labbe's Manuscripts. Furthermore Richard of Wassebourg, in his Antiquities of Belgic Gaul and of the Bishops of Verdun, asserts on folio 220 that S. Richard, about to set out for Jerusalem, first came to Trier, and there took as companion of the journey a holy man, named Eurinus, Abbot of the said place. So variously is the name written: Eberwinus, Everwinus, Everbero, Ebroinus, Eurinus, Ebrewinus. In this pilgrimage S. Symeon, joined to them at Antioch as a companion, (as is said below at no. 13) set forth in order what things had been enjoined on him, or what had befallen. Hence in the Prologue he testifies that he writes the things which he heard from his mouth; and at no. 8, from sure knowledge, that he adds to this work the things which in his own times the Saint related to him to have happened to him in the monastery of Mount Sinai. Besides, at no. 19, the Saint, Eberwin being called to him, sets forth what he desired to be done concerning his burial: and at no. 20, being warned of his agony, he says he ran hurriedly, sick in body and feeble with weakness of the feet, and found him still living, and now drawing his last breath; and that he weighed out the obsequies, or prayers then wont to be recited. Which things can in no way be said of an Abbot of Theux or Tholey far absent, concerning which monastery we shall presently treat at the Life of S. Conrad bishop-designate of Trier. in the years nearest his death This Life therefore was written by Eberwin, Abbot of S. Martin of Trier; and indeed in the years nearest the Saint's death, with the miracles by which he then shone; and, that the Canonization might be obtained, was brought to Rome to the Supreme Pontiff. To those some miracles were afterward added: chiefly the last, which is indicated to have happened in the year 1086.

[3] These Acts entire, with the said miracles, we give from the Utrecht manuscript codex, in which toward the end these things are appended. You have all the miracles of the divine Symeon, and his whole Life: it is given from various Manuscripts. nothing is lacking either of the Life or of the miracles, but you have all things word for word, as it is written, and is held in the original book of the Church of Saint Symeon. But all the same things are contained in the same Acts, transmitted to us from Holland, and perhaps copied from the Utrecht codex. But, those miracles being omitted which are had in chapter IV or the last, the same Acts are read in Laurence Surius; but, as he prefaces, with the style moderately polished here and there: from Surius moreover Octavius Cajetan received it, and inserted it into volume 2 of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints. We have all those things in the original style, not only in the aforepraised Manuscripts, but also in a certain ancient Manuscript given to us by Lord Gaula, while he lived Chancellor of Guelders; and also in a most notable Legendary, once of Vaucelles, now ours, with the Acts of the Canonization, of which we have often made mention in the month of May, often to repeat the same to the end of the work, for it proceeds through the several months divided into many volumes. The same Acts we have also from the Trier Manuscripts of the Carthusians and of the monastery of S. Maximin: but in this last was added a miracle of one fallen from a height onto a heap of stones, and healed of his wounds. We have also collated those very Acts with a certain Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, written out in what is called quarto form. Moreover we have the same Acts up to no. 28 in another notable codex marked with the letters BB, and of the elevation. and likewise transcribed from the Manuscript of the monastery of Beaufont in the diocese of Reims. Finally, without the Prologue and the last chapter of miracles, the same were found in the Imperial Library of Vienna. To these we subjoin the things which happened concerning the Saint's Canonization, copied from the Manuscript codex of his own Church and from the Annals of Trier of Christopher Brower. Lastly the History of the elevation, made in the year 1400, by the author Frederick Provost of S. Paulinus (who was present at that elevation), we give taken from the same codex of the Symeonian Church. Nor would I fail to indicate that various things bearing on this are contained in the Acts of two Saints to be elucidated in this month of June, namely S. Meinwerc, Bishop of Paderborn, on the 5th, S. Richard, Abbot of S. Vanne above mentioned, on the 14th. To these for the 16th day could be added the Acts of Poppo Archbishop of Trier, Mention of him elsewhere. who with S. Symeon performed the long journey all the way to Jerusalem, and returning thence cherished him enclosed by himself in the black Tower, and afterward procured his Canonization, and greatly helped Eberwin in illustrating his deeds and miracles: so that they were deservedly inscribed by the Author to him, who both built the Church for him, and founded in it a College of Canons, and arranged to be buried at the feet of one now declared a Saint; but why we do not dare to give the aforesaid Acts of his as those of a Blessed or Saint, although in the title he is so called, we render the reason among the Omitted.

[4] Furthermore the memory of S. Symeon is found inserted everywhere in Martyrologies thereafter. The name in a Martyrology of nearly his own age, We have one very illustrious, under the name of Usuard, from which Molanus printed and augmented his own, and which we have hitherto esteemed older than the others seen by us; but now we are compelled to change our opinion; because there we find the elogium of S. Symeon; but with only the title of Blessed, whence with a probable conjecture we opine that it was indeed written out before his Canonization, or the year 1042, that is within the seventh year from the Saint's death, but not earlier. That elogium is of this kind. In the city of Trier, the deposition of Blessed Symeon the Monk, who, having set out from the monastery established on Mount Sinai, obeying the commands of his Rector, and coming into the said Metropolis, for not a few years strenuously exercised a more retired life; and there, the Lord calling him, migrated to the heavenly things, where that he happily lives, the most celebrated exhibition of miracles testifies. There are also among us several other Martyrologies, bearing the name of Usuard and Ado, in which it is thus read: and various others. In the city of Trier the deposition of S. Symeon Deacon, Monk, Enclosed, or Recluse in the black Tower. Nay in the published Bede it is expressly read, At Trier S. Simeon the Recluse: whereby our opinion concerning the supposition of that Martyrology, indicated before the 2nd volume of April, is greatly confirmed; since four hundred years before S. Symeon the Venerable Bede departed this life. These older ones the more recent Martyrologists everywhere followed, whose catalogue it would be tedious to weave.

[5] John Trithemius, in the Chronicle of Hirsau, asserts that Symeon shone in the year 1020, enclosed in the city of Trier, The errors of Trithemius and others. and that his Life was described by Evervin Abbot of Doleia, and that he died in the year 1037. Where three errors at once are accumulated, testifying to the scant accuracy of that writer, elsewhere often noted. For in the year 1028 Symeon was enclosed, and in the year 1035 he died: but the Life Eberwin Abbot wrote, not of Theux, as we showed above, but of S. Martin of Trier. Baronius, at the year 1037, both writes that he died and was placed in the number of the Saints; and that his illustrious deeds are extant in Surius, marked with all credit. But if he had had leisure to re-read those very things, he would have known that the Saint died in the year 1035, but was placed in the number of the Saints, after seven years from his death, namely 1042. Brower too in the Annals of Trier, misled by the deceptive inscription, referred the death to the preceding year 1034; and following Trithemius, as also our Cajetan, made the author of the Life the Abbot of Doleia, or of Theux: all which things collapse from the aforesaid and from the Acts themselves. The same Trithemius, in book 3 on the illustrious men of the Order of S. Benedict, Was he a Benedictine? inserts the same Symeon among them; and, either forgetting or correcting what was noted in the Chronicle, makes Eberwin Abbot of Trier the writer of the Life, and says the Saint shone in the year of the Lord 1010. Trithemius is followed by Wion, Dorganius, Menard, Bucelin. But from the Acts it is not sufficiently established that he lived according to the rule of S. Benedict; nor ought it to be presumed, unless from elsewhere it be at least proved that Benedictines then dwelt on Mount Sinai, or at Bethlehem in Palestine.

[6] The Manuscript codex of the Charterhouse of Trier, the Prologue being omitted, prefaces the following Distichs, which in another Manuscript sent to us from Holland were related together with the Prologue, as we here subjoin, although not sufficiently elaborated.

Read through with good mind (I advise) these things, illustrious traveler; For this paper brings to you sweet prayers. []Which will soothe your ears, like a pleasant song, And more than all things fruitful. Here, boy, here may you learn the norm too of living rightly, The metrical Prologue of the Life. Now by the example of this illustrious Symeon. Hither therefore hasten: these meadows abound with various Flowers, of a man born of no humble stock. Against the snares and truly deceitful nooses of the demon Now (believe me) useful, ingenious boy; Who strives without end to prepare ambushes for our salvation, And evil for us night and day; And, like a lion always provoked after his manner, Flees, and stretches little nets for man.

THE LIFE By the Author Eberwin, Abbot of S. Martin at Trier. From VIII Manuscript codices.

Symeon, recluse at the gate of Trier (S.)

BHL Number: 7963, 7964

A. Eberwin. MSS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] To the Lord and Venerable Poppo Archbishop, brother Eberwin, unworthy of the name of Abbot, devoted services of both the man. You advise; nay, you command, most holy Father, that I, unequal in talent, foolish in eloquence, The author writes at the command of the Archbishop should set forth something concerning the life and conversation and death of the man of God Symeon, and concerning the miracles which the Lord worked through him: and make it known to the many who desire to know, to the praise and glory of the Lord. I confess you impose a great burden on me, weak; especially since, feeble in my whole body, I dread the terrible judgment of God, if I should feign any falsehood. Trusting therefore in the help of God, I obey your commands, though trembling; describing in plain, brief, and simple speech the things which either I myself heard from his mouth, or learned from faithful men as heard from him, or as seen concerning the miracles. It is therefore for your examination to judge, the things surely known to him. whether you command this so small work to come forth into public; or to give it to your Scholastics to be corrected, adorned, or enlarged. For whatever in me shall be censured, will necessarily be imputed rather to you commanding, than to me obeying.

CHAPTER I. Pious education. Pilgrimage. Eremitical and monastic life in various places.

[2] born at Syracuse, So the man of God Symeon, of a Greek father, named Antony, and a Calabrian mother, begotten in Sicily in the city of Syracuse, was educated in Christian fashion by his most noble and Christian parents. But when the boy of good disposition was seven years old, by his father, who was about to go to war, he was led to Constantinople; and there he was handed over to most learned men to be imbued with the sacred letters: educated at Constantinople, and was diligently nurtured in the fear of the Lord. So having grown up, he began day by day to be increased with the growth of virtues: and seeing some from our parts running with untiring desire to the sepulcher of the Lord, he too desired to make a pilgrimage for the name of Christ. Despising therefore all the vanities of the world, casting off carnal desires, leaving home, fatherland, and parents, a poor man desiring to follow the poor Christ, grown up he goes to Jerusalem, for the sake of visiting the holy places, he came to Jerusalem; where with the untiring desire with which he had come, by frequenting more often the places of the passion, resurrection, and ascension, he remained for some time.

[3] After this, with a certain Hilarion a most holy man, who for this business a dwelt there, for seven years he was a guide of pilgrims. And now indeed, wholly founded in the love of Christ, he inquired and there he guides pilgrims for 7 years: whether in those parts anyone might be found, solitary for the name of Christ; by whose habits he might be instructed, to whose teachings he might be subjected. He heard that a certain one dwelt upon the bank of the river Jordan, in the reclusion of a certain tower, distinguished for virtues, conspicuous for sanctity. Serving the recluse, Thirsting therefore for him with the whole intention of his mind, desiring to enjoy his conversation and fellowship, he sought him out and found him, and having found him loved him; and clung to him with all affection; and ministered to him as devotedly as he could.

[4] and looking through the window, is rebuked by him: About that servant of Christ the man of God Symeon was wont to relate many things: and that he had the spirit of prophecy, to declare more fully in these words. When on a certain day I was dwelling in the lower parts of the same tower, and was idly and wantonly looking through the window at the little women who had come to the river to water the camels and other animals; by the spirit, the man of God, remaining in the upper parts, and in no way able to see me, knew whatever of vanity I retained in my heart; and having made a sign, called me to a place where I could hear the words of one speaking; and to me astonished, rebuking me, he related what I had done or thought; and with such speech sweetly corrected me: What does it profit you, son, to have left your good fatherland; if you wish to retain the desires of the world and the enticements of the flesh in your heart? If therefore you desire to become a disciple of Christ, you ought not henceforth to be entangled in the vanities of the world. For it befits a servant of God to be hedged about with spiritual virtue, lest the cunning tempter find an entrance for deceiving. And when amid these and other discoursings he saw me suffused with bashful blushing, Do not, he said, do not, son, fear; I have good hope, by the grace of God, concerning you. For it is yours to fight against the enemy; it is God's to furnish help that you may be able to conquer. I believe in my God, that greater struggles are prepared for you: but be confident, for the divine clemency will be present at hand. And among other things: God, he said, recompense you, dearest, the service and as he secretly fled, he is deserted by him. which you have spent on me through these years: but I, because I can no longer endure the frequenting of the people; I must yield elsewhere, where I can live in a more secret place: for amid the crowds of those frequenting I cannot fulfill my purpose. And when with many tears I begged him that wherever he went I might be able to follow, he did not assent; but, while I was occupied with other things, he fled away; and left me, not knowing whither he went, secretly.

[5] So Symeon the servant of God, widowed of so great a Father, began to consider what he should do; to be anxious, a Monk and Deacon, at Bethlehem, lives 2 years, whither he should turn: nor was there one who might console his wavering mind; whence he was more and more disturbed. Already then he had desired the eremitical and solitary life: but how he should begin was not lawful. So reading and re-reading frequently the Lives of the Fathers, he understood that no one could preside in the desert, unless first he had learned to be subject in a monastery: nor that anyone would be perfect in the contemplative life, who had not been exercised in the active life. Consoled therefore, he went to Bethlehem, the city renowned for the nativity of Christ; and asked to become a Monk in the monastery of S. Mary, which he also obtained. Proved therefore in every strictness of the monastery, and having performed the office of the Diaconate; after two years, to another monastery, which is situated at the roots of Mount Sinai, namely in that place where S. Moses saw the burning bush not burning, he withdrew: then on Mount Sinai for some years, where, received by the Abbot, he remained for some years in the service of the Brothers. And indeed, with desire increasing, he humbly begged the Abbot that it might be permitted him to abide in some more secret place, and obtained it. So upon the bank of the Red Sea he found for himself a tiny cave in a certain rock, where for nearly two years he dwelt alone. then a solitary near the Red Sea for 2 years. From the monastery, according to the number of days, a number of loaves was sent to him every Sunday: water dripping from the rock furnished a draught to him thirsting: fed with this nourishment, he remained for some time in the same place.

[6] But when it began to be frequented by sailors, or even by those who, for various uses of healings, gathered the oil he returns to Mount Sinai, which flowed from the firm rock near his cave; and when he had seen the Brother too who brought him bread wearied by the frequenting and length of the journey; and knowing that he could no longer be hidden from men, he returned to the monastery; and near the dwelling of a certain holy man acquired a little cell for himself. Commending himself wholly to his trust, and adopting him as master after such great labors, he lived by his command: who indeed sometimes paternally reproved him when at leisure from prayer, reading, or work; and, as one newly converted, earnestly chided him b. But on the summit of Mount Sinai, namely in that place where Moses saw the glory of the Lord and wrote the law on tablets of stone, there was another monastery, and on its summit he dwells alone: which, on account of the raiding Arabs who always wander through that desert, had remained deserted of every inhabitant: whither, after these exercises, the man of God Symeon is sent, and is bidden to abide there.

[7] the temptations of demons, He fulfills what is commanded: and now endures the contrivances of the ancient enemy. In the nightly hours the demon urged him to celebrate Mass: he himself, not fully asleep, nor perfectly awake, contradicts; that no one ought to fulfill this ministry without the order of Priesthood. On the contrary the enemy insists that he is the legate of God, that Christ wills this; nor is it fitting that the holy place be longer deprived of such ministry. So as he resists and contradicts, with the fellowship of another devil united to himself, they lead him from his bed: they set him before the altar now awake, he drives them off by prayer and the sign of the Cross: they clothe him in an Alb: about the Stole there is dispute on both sides. The enemy, after the manner of a Priest, Symeon, after the manner of a c Deacon, contended that it be imposed on him. At last the servant of God, returning to himself, by the power of prayer and the seal of the holy Cross, repels the enemy, and groans that he was deluded.

[8] After this he returns to the monastery, is again subjected to his master; confessing to him the endured snares of the devil, returned to the monastery, he constrains himself with stricter abstinence; for some weeks, taking food only on the Lord's day. But the rule of the monastery was such that whoever wished to fast was not prohibited. I have therefore deemed it worthy to add to this work, what in his own times in the same monastery he related to me to have happened. eating only on the Lord's day: Throughout all Egypt a strong famine arose, so that in the single city of d Babylon the bodies of the dead were counted up to a hundred thousand: the citizens, stuffed with gold, gems, and other ornaments, dying for want of bread. The Brothers therefore of the monastery, constrained by an equal storm, with all their heart invoke God; that he who had fed the children of Israel in the same desert with heavenly bread, a hundred thousand men having died of famine at Babylon, might deign to have mercy on his servants. And so, counsel being taken, with psalms and prayers, they approach the small heap of grain that remained; and because they had received it in command from the Abbot, that each one should have license to go away wherever he wished, they unanimously console one another, that as long as one grain could be found there none should depart. A wondrous thing! From that very day until the new fruit that grain did not fail, the grain in the monastery does not fail. though daily it was taken: and not only was it prepared for the food of the Brothers, but to the Arabs, who with their women and little ones had besieged the enclosure of the monastery, it was most abundantly distributed. But let us return to our purpose.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER II. The journey appointed into Gaul, exposed to various perils.

[9] And so the man of the Lord Symeon, counting all his labors as nothing, and inwardly burning with love of solitude, cautiously going out from the monastery, He dwells in a solitary place. wanders through the desert: and diligently inquires and watches where he might be able to live alone without human help. Indeed the traces of his journey, impressed in the soft sand, he destroyed by what art he could, lest he could be followed or be found by anyone. The bread which he carried with him, wearied, he frequently threw away: but reconsidering that he could not long live without the sustenance of food, rejoicing he took it up again. At last, looking down from the loftiest rocks, he beholds a very small plain, green, contrary to the manner of the desert, with thin grass: and lowers himself there, not without great peril. He finds a small spring: he gives thanks to God: and there he disposes to remain. The delicacies which he had brought with him were a Psalter, the holy Gospel, a vessel for drinking, bread, seeds of cabbages; besides a few garments he possessed nothing else. The seeds given, after thirty days, furnished a pleasant food without fire. but bidden, he returns to the monastery: With the roe-kids and other little beasts of the desert, lest they should take away his cabbages, when they had come to drink, a frequent battle was held. After many days therefore it is inquired by the Abbot where Brother Symeon might be. It was answered by a certain Brother that he knew that he was in the desert; but in what places, he did not know. Brothers are sent round about to seek him: and it is commanded by obedience that he return to the monastery. Sought for a long time, he is scarcely found after some days: and, according to the Abbot's precept, returns to the monastery.

[10] Meanwhile some Brothers, directed for the needs of the place to the Western parts, die. The money, and thence appointed into Gaul, for which the Brothers had gone, which was owed to the monastery from the land of Richard a Count of Normandy, is diligently kept by him; and by legates it is commanded that some faithful Brother be sent, who might carry it to the monastery. By common counsel the servant of God Symeon is appointed to this obedience. He at first refused, saying that something else was in his mind; that it was far from him henceforth to mingle himself in the vanities of this world: he humbly began to beg, with what words he could, that it might be permitted him to fulfill the purpose which he retained in his heart. But when it was urged that he ought to follow not his own will, but the command of his Superiors, he gave assent; saying that he had recognized through a vision at Babylon he is detained as a spy, that that journey would be useless; that he must suffer many adversities on the way, which also happened. For when, about to prepare the things necessary for sailing, he had come to Babylon, he is held by the gatekeepers; and, as one unknown and a betrayer of his country, with his baggage is led, dragged, slandered to the palace. Cleared therefore of the things of which he was accused, he is bidden to go free. The gatekeeper, and is freed: because he had brought an innocent man to the Imperial seat, is beaten, buffeted, driven off. So the servant of God Symeon, granted liberty, tarries for some days in the city.

[11] Meanwhile a ship from Venice had come thither with merchandise: having boarded the ship and being warned of pirates, this, his affairs being arranged, with a certain Brother Monk he enters. When therefore it is sailed with prosperous winds through the Nile, by chance other ships meet them; they announce pirates in this and that place, gathered for plunder: that their swords cannot be escaped, unless for some time, while they separate, it please them to await the navigation. And when other and other ships frequented the same; and the sailor, trusting in his own strength and arms, paid no heed; the servant of God Symeon, calling him by his own name, said: If, brother, Christ had sent you an Angel from heaven, you, terrified, could not bear the sight of him: but now, because today, yesterday, and the day after, he has sent not one, but several legates like yourself, you ought not negligently to receive the legation of God. Believe my counsels, and wait even through these three days: perhaps from this peril the divine mercy will free us: he urges delay in vain: but if you do not do this, you destroy both yourself and us all. He therefore, by no means acquiescing, on the following day fell among the robbers. From the third hour of the day until near the ninth hour there is fighting on both sides: but when the robbers saw that they prevailed nothing by battle, they turn to wiles: that they may be received into the ship, his companions after the fight treacherously slain, about to fight against other robbers, they humbly demand; with Symeon the servant of God contradicting, that they not be received into the ship. So, arms laid down, and all as it were resting after labor, the brigands, who were nine, unanimously rise up, and impiously draw their swords: stoutly they are struck on every side; a hostile slaughter is exercised: they cut off first the head of the very shipmaster, cruelly butcher the rest, kill and slay all alike: Symeon alone the servant of Christ stands on the stern: him who does not desert those who hope in him he entreats with his whole heart: by all it is cried out that the hostile counselor be destroyed: that he cut off his head, the fierce gladiator is at hand. He, his garment cast off, threw himself into the river. Many javelins are thrown after him: but he cannot perish, whom Christ wills to save. He walks along the bottom, a psalm is ruminated in his heart; swimming naked he escapes: In the sea is your way, and your paths in many waters. So by turns swimming, by turns walking on the bottom, on the shore, very weary, at last naked he is set forth.

[12] After this he heads to the village which was nearest; whether those men were Christians or Pagans, he could not know. For instructed in Egyptian, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, and Latin eloquence, he could not understand the tongue of that people. For two days he remained thus naked: on the third day a certain one of those men, taking pity, threw him a most vile garment: at Antioch he is honorably treated: clothed with which, through many tribulations and straits, he came to Antioch: where, charitably received by faithful men, he is clothed, embraced, and honorably sustained. In a short time he is held most well-known to the Patriarch and the Princes themselves: for all who knew him venerated and loved him as a most sweet Father.

[13] So at that time it happened that b Richard the Abbot, a man imitable by perfect men, setting out in the company of Abbot Richard for the sake of pious devotion wished to visit the holy places of Jerusalem. While therefore we had had our journey c through Antioch, and there, the necessity of the journey compelling, we tarried for some time; the servant of God Symeon was joined to us in friendship, adopting the aforesaid Abbot Richard to himself as a Father: to whom when he had set forth in order what things had been enjoined on him, or what had happened; he added that by no perils or straits could he be held back, but that he would fulfill his Abbot's commands as far as he could. d We go therefore and return; and having suffered many things, and find him ready to come with us. And when in our company he was frequently injured and scourged, like a most meek sheep he patiently bore it. So coming as far as the city of e Belgrade, which is on the border of the Bulgarians and Hungarians, at Belgrade he is detained against his will: he was prohibited by the most unhappy Prince of the city from crossing with us. So weeping, and giving thanks to God, he left us sad and weeping.

[14] thence he comes to Rome, Through many straits at length and ambushes of robbers, he returns as far as the sea; which crossed, and making a prosperous journey, through Rome he came into Frankland. By a certain Count f William known to him he is kindly received; and tarries with him for some time. In those parts therefore a certain Monk named Cosmas g, a most holy man, whom he had brought with him from Antioch, dies: whence much saddened, when he had reconsidered that nothing is done without the disposition of God, after many tears he is consoled. But destitute of all human counsel, placing all his hope in the Lord, alone he comes to Rouen, which is a most noble city of the Normans, and Cosmas his companion having died, he proceeds to Rouen: very renowned for the body and merits of S. Audoenus the Confessor: where, when he had found Count Richard already h dead, and concerning the money and tribute which was owed from his land for alms to his monastery, no one gave him answers; somewhat saddened, not for his own labor, but because the place of Mount Sinai was frustrated of so great a benefit: turned with his whole heart to God, he seeks counsel what he should do. thence to Abbot Richard. But it occurred to his mind to visit his dearest Father, namely Abbot Richard, and us his companions: which he also did. For a long time he tarried with us; and, that I may briefly conclude, as long as he remained with us, he lived irreproachably.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER III. Acquaintance with S. Poppo Archbishop of Trier, the Reclusion, Death, Burial.

[15] [] Meanwhile the Lord Poppo, Archbishop, the strenuous provider of the holy Church of Trier, With S. Poppo the Archbishop he goes to Jerusalem and returns. devoutly hearing the Prophet saying of Christ, And his sepulcher shall be glorious, for the sake of prayer went to Jerusalem: and had this servant of God in going and returning as companion and fellow-traveler: and to him after the return, in his Bishopric, he offered the faculty of remaining wherever he wished, and most gladly granted it. Isaiah 11:10 So by the revelation of God, Symeon the servant of Christ, looking out for himself a place where alone he could be free for prayer; in the tower which before was called the Black-gate, sought a small hut: where the Lord Prelate Poppo, with the Clergy and people present, on the festivity of S. Andrew a; enclosed him; and as one dead, as he truly was to the world, most devoutly buried him. So enclosed, as we truly believe, the most holy man, by silence and many fastings attenuated his body, by him he is enclosed in the black tower; at first sometimes with bread alone, but sometimes refreshing himself with legumes steeped in water. For indeed in our land, on account of weakness of the stomach, he always used a little wine.

[16] At that time too there were not lacking the grievous snares of the tempter. For through the nights he heard the roarings of lions, the howlings of wolves, the gruntings of pigs, and the harsh infestations of other wild beasts: which, as if making an onslaught to devour him, filled that hut, and, that I may speak more truly, sepulcher, he routs the deceptions of the demon by prayer: with immense clamors. For when he heard the voices, and felt the onslaughts, he could discern nothing. At length standing in prayer with hands outspread, when he dared neither to bend nor to turn, nor even could take sleep, with faithful mind turned to the Lord, he prayed; saying: Lord, if my body is delivered to these beasts to be devoured, yet I believe that you will have mercy on my soul, which you redeemed with your precious blood. So you knowing that I trust in you, that by no force will they drag me alive from this reclusion: whatever therefore you have disposed concerning me, let it be done to me according to the multitude of your mercy. So by regard of the divine clemency, freed from this infestation, he felt another to be near at hand. For it seemed to him that vultures, ravens, eagles, kites, at other times by prayer and fasting: and all the birds of heaven gathered, wished to burst in upon him through the windows: but when, an onslaught often being made, they prevailed nothing, with huge clamor they filled the place. So hearing the voices, he saw absolutely nothing. So certain that the devil sent these monsters, to strike terror into him; he prayed more attentively, and fasted beyond his strength. Freed also from this storm, on a certain night, when he remained ever-watchful in prayer, he felt the whole fabric of that tower shaken to the foundation, at other times by the singing of a psalm: and as if, an earthquake being made, sunk into the deep. But recognizing the snares of the devil, he began confidently to sing: If I shall ascend into heaven, you are there; if I shall descend into hell, you are present; if I shall take my wings early, and shall dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 138:9 And so that commotion was stilled.

[17] On another night too, in a light arisen he recognizes the fraud of the demon: when, awakened, he had opened his eyes, he saw the little cell itself shining with immense light: and at first wondering, when he had remembered the Apostle saying that Satan transfigures himself into an Angel of light; Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I do not seek that light on earth; but your light, which is inextinguishable, in the heavens: 2 Cor. 11:14 and so with closed eyes he remained in prayer until day. For with his bodily eyes he frequently beheld that ancient enemy, most foul and multiform, he drives him off by the sign of the Cross: whom raging he repelled with manifold arguments, by prayer and the sign of the Cross.

[18] But when the enemy himself by no infestation through himself could harm, he soon attempts to stir up snares against the servant of God through his members. For at that time, our sins deserving it, an excessive inundation of waters grew up over the centuries. he patiently bears an atrocious persecution. The cause of this peril was imputed by all to Symeon: that he was a sorcerer, that for his crimes this evil threatened the world, that he should be deposed by the b Bishop the people cry out daily. At last a rush is made from the city, they hasten to the cell of the man of God, they throw stones on high; they overwhelm the windows of the hut, they strive to stone Symeon. We saw, I confess, the broken window: but the athlete of Christ Symeon, founded upon the firm rock, persisted immovable; and giving thanks to God, rejoicing he prayed for his persecutors. How many crosses afterward, how many passions he endured there, who could know? who could worthily describe? He alone knows these things, the searcher of hearts: for to him to live was Christ, and to die gain.

[19] Meanwhile, as the years rolled on, the man of God Symeon foresaw the dissolution of his body. At length he asks the Lord Bishop to send expenses and workmen, Foreknowing his death who might prepare for him a bed: he himself in a part of his lodging prepares a place of burial: Saying these things, This is my rest forever and ever: here I will await the day of the Lord; here I will dwell, for I have chosen it. A few days afterward having passed, I humble one approached him being called: and I who was unworthy of the kiss of his feet, he disposes concerning his burial, was admitted by him into the little cell. After prayer, embraces, kisses, and weeping we sat down. There are unrolled first many things from the treasures of holy Scripture, concerning the orthodox faith, concerning the salvation of the soul: lastly, By God's revelation, he said, I have known the dissolution of my body to be at hand. I humbly ask that you strip this poor little body of mine of these garments; and clothe it again, adorned, with those which I have prepared for myself for this purpose, and lay it diligently in this little place. To whom when, astonished, I replied, What, Father, if the Lord Prelate wishes you to be buried at the House of c S. Peter or at another monastery? He answered: Indicate to him on our part, that for the name of Christ he consent that these pilgrim members rot here, and permit me here to await the day of the Lord. So when I again asked, what if I shall not be present; You will be, he said, you will be: and, as I have disposed, you will arrange concerning me. And when, trembling greatly, I gazed more attentively upon him, I felt, I confess, an odor fragrant from his body, sweeter than all aromatics. So wondering much, I heard other secrets from his mouth, which it has not pleased me to write here.

[20] So, a hundred and five days being interposed, on the octave of Pentecost having fallen sick; he enjoins Stephen, who d served him, to give him rest for some days, sick, he is free for contemplation. so that he might be free for contemplation more than usual. He waits one day: on the third feria toward evening he makes a sign: he hangs a basket with bread at the window: morning come, he finds it untouched as he had left it, and much anxious ascends to him. Questioned, this only he answered: What do you wish? go in peace. He, fearing, sets forth in order to Gozelo the Cleric, who was familiar enough with the man of God, that Lord Symeon was very sick; and did not speak to him, as he was wont. The Cleric on the fifth feria visits him: the servant of God gives no answer: but yet receives drink from his hand, and gathers himself back into his bed. On the eighth day, while he revisits him very early at dawn, he finds him at the last extremity, and makes it known to me. Hurriedly I ran: sick in my whole body, and especially feeble from weakness of the feet, as if healthy I ascended without pain: I found him still living, and now drawing his last breath. The obsequies which were due for the absolution of the soul, with only two Brothers, namely Aselm and Robert, who had come with me, as we could we performed: calmly he expires: and so in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand thirty-five, his holy soul, at the third hour of the Lord's day, on the e Kalends of June, he rendered to the most benign Creator whom he had always served.

[21] Suddenly there is a rush of all: Monks, Clerics, to be buried very solemnly, Virgins consecrated to God, the common crowd of both sexes, and whoever could hear, hastened to the funeral of so great a man. So, as he himself had disposed, nay had predicted, we lay out his poor little body after the manner of his country; and with psalms and praises of God place it in the sepulcher: which leaving open, we depute those who might attend to the vigils and obsequies. On the morrow the whole city is gathered as one man: the inner house is adorned with Ecclesiastical ornaments. While therefore the obsequies are celebrated in common, the body of the holy man, begins to sweat. as men are wont in the hottest baths, began to sweat. We all wonder; some wiped off the sweat, believing him to live. But when it had been proved in many ways that that sweat did not flow from a living body, and that this was not done without the providence of God; it seemed to all that the body of so great a man should not be neglected, but should be guarded in turn by Clerics deputed for the next thirty days.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER IV. Various miracles wrought by the merits of S. Symeon, after death and in life.

[22] So, after the ninth hour, the sepulcher is diligently closed: and when the Clerics in their turn in the little cell, where the body of the man of God had been buried, One dozing at the body is seized, were singing psalms; one more negligent began to doze: who, weighed down by heavy sleep, heard as it were a huge sound from heaven come upon the holy place: terrified by which, with the others rousing him, he was awakened. So with his eyes opened he scarcely recovered his senses: but for some hours lost the office of his tongue. Admonished therefore by the others, that he should make in his heart the confession which he could not in speech; before the sepulcher of the man of God he asked pardon, beat his breast, and so by his merits received the absolution of his tongue, and narrated the things that had happened to him. And when the same had happened to him again as he dozed, all being terrified with excessive fear, it was decided to chant thenceforth outside the cell, namely at the feet of the man of God: for we believe that an Angelic visitation had come there, which mortal bodies could not bear.

[23] So on the thirtieth day from the death of the man of God Symeon, much people, with tapers and other gifts, On the 30th day from his death began to flow to the sepulcher. So a certain old woman of the city, who for many years went bent over, and could in no way straighten herself, came with the rest of the multitude; and, with the others ascending to the sepulcher of the man of God, she too began to try if she could ascend. So straightened in her whole body she ascended, gave thanks to the man of God; there are cured, a crippled woman, and so, with the citizens who knew her wondering, sound and whole she returned home. Many sick too, held by various pains and infirmities, on that very day were freed. From then the sepulcher of the man of God is frequented and venerated by the people. and various sick:

[24] So when a convenient ascent was being prepared in the building of the tower, a certain timber was dragged by many; and when now it was being raised to a height, a beam falling from on high harms no one. the rope broken, it began to threaten death to the multitude which had gathered and stood beneath. So all being terrified and crying out that the man of God Symeon might help, wondrous to tell! as if it were sustained by hands, floating little by little it is set down; and the terrified multitude giving place on both sides, it is laid to the ground without peril: but those who escaped the peril give praises to Christ; and to Symeon, the minister of so great a miracle, give thanks.

[25] Here it pleases to insert two miracles, which the very same who were healed testify to have happened in his life. Living he had healed a sick woman in her eyes, and almost dead, When for a long time a certain woman, named Cecilia, was vexed by a strong infirmity of body, and on account of excessive disease of the eyes was in every way deprived of sight; on a certain night in sleep she saw that if she took food from the hand of the man of God Symeon, she would be freed from that disease. Morning come she asks her husband who Symeon was; saying that she had seen him through a vision, and that if she had tasted of his bread, health was promised her. He, rejoicing together at his wife's welfare, began diligently to inquire about the man of God Symeon. It was told him by a certain Gozelo the Cleric, that he was the one who had come with the Lord Bishop from Jerusalem, and remained with him. He gives thanks to God: sets forth his wife's vision, and humbly begs that she may deserve to receive food from his hand. The Cleric in order announces it to the man of God: and much asks that he fulfill what was requested, and scarcely obtains it. So when the now despaired-of and almost dead woman had received the bread and fish, sent with the holy blessing of the man of God; she ate the bread, anointed her eyes with the fish, and so fell asleep. At cockcrow awakened, and with the light of her eyes, full health of body received, she sat down to work; and with her friends wondering, gave thanks to Jesus Christ, who through the merits of his servant Symeon granted her perfect health.

[26] A certain little boy, named Bezelinus, miserably distended with the disease of dropsy, when even by the physicians he was despaired of (for the belly, and a dropsical boy. the genitals, and all the inner parts had so swelled, that he could scarcely walk, stand, or sit) asked to be led to the man of God Symeon; saying that the physicians could not cure him. So brought, and for three days given to drink of his drink, on the fourth day at last he began thence to be better; and so by the prayer of the man of God was restored to his former health.

[27] A certain woman, born of the district of Metz, who had never been able to open her right hand, the fingers cleaving to the palm, At the sepulcher two crippled women are healed, came to the sepulcher of the man of God Symeon: she places her hand under with faith: and soon, the fingers extended, she drew out her right hand sound by the merits of the man of God. On the festivity which is called S. Peter in Chains, another woman, who had her left arm with the hand contracted, came to the sepulcher of the man of God Symeon; who, the nerves extended and the skin broken, with all speed deserved a remedy and departed sound. a

[28] At the same time a certain mute boy was brought to the sepulcher of the man of God: and as many mutes, he was restored to the office of his tongue. Another similarly mute, the little boy of a certain Adelard the Priest, while he is sent to the sepulcher of the man of God, speaks on the way. Returned home he is made mute as before, a girl, with her arm grown to her belly, but again sent back with vows to the sepulcher, is perfectly healed. On a certain Lord's day, while a certain girl, whose arm clung to her belly, had come to the sepulcher of the servant of God Symeon, the arm, which because of growing flesh could now scarcely be seen, in the presence of the people leaped out, and deserved the perfect health which she asked.

[29] On another Lord's day a certain woman, from the Village of the brothers which is called Mandiricium b, with her little daughter, who had been blind from birth, likewise three blind came to the sepulcher of the man of God. While therefore Mass is celebrated, the girl is illuminated. So she looks at her mother, but does not recognize her. She asking what was the matter with her, knew that her daughter could see. Rejoicing, she announces to the people the mercy done to her: the people praises the power of Christ in the merits of the man of God Symeon. But when the Clergy did not believe the magnitude of so great a miracle, suddenly the parents of that woman and the officials of the Village arrive; who testified that she was blind from birth. Soon the whole church praises Christ, who glorifies his servant Symeon with so many miracles. A certain Adalmann the Priest, a citizen of Trier, making a journey, was lodged in the house of a certain man who had a blind son. He advised therefore that if he led him to the sepulcher of the man of God, he would find mercy. He, making a vow, promises a tribute for some years to the man of God; and soon in his house the boy received light. So he leads him seeing to the sepulcher, and gives thanks to the man of God Symeon. A certain woman of the district of Trier, for many years deprived of the sight of her eyes, while she frequented the sepulcher of the man of God for some days, and a demoniac woman, was illuminated by his merits. To the sepulcher of the man of God, a certain demoniac woman was brought, who bit with her teeth and tore with her hands what she could, and through the night remained bound there: and morning come, freed from the demon, sound she returned to her own.

[30] A certain servant of the Count Palatine had a maidservant, one of whose hands was withered, A withered hand is cured feeble, and so small that it availed for no work. So when she was of no profit to him, he handed over that very maidservant to the sepulcher of the man of God Symeon. On that very night in a wondrous manner, that hand grew so much, and was healed, that it was not unlike the other.

[31] A certain Soldier, named Bertran, had in his service a certain maidservant, a paralytic woman is healed who was so loosened by paralysis in her whole body, that she could neither rise from her bed, nor turn herself to the other side. So carried in a basket to the sepulcher of the man of God, for some weeks she was lodged there nearby. So when on a certain solemnity she saw the people hastening to Mass, she too suddenly leaping from her bed, began to walk with them. So coming to the sepulcher of the man of God, and promising her vows in the presence of the people, she who had been carried by the hands of others, sound and whole returned to her own on her own feet. and a cripple: On the Kalends of November, when it had pleased the Lord Bishop to consecrate in the building of the tower, where the body of the man of God was buried, one altar in honor of All Saints; much people from everywhere began to flow. While therefore preparation is made, and the Lord Prelate is awaited, a certain crippled little boy is straightened before the sepulcher of the man of God.

[32] On the same day, when a certain youth wished to ascend to such great joy, a sinner is prohibited from approach, with the rest of the multitude; in no way could he. So he is pushed by the people, dragged, and carried: but the strength of those carrying fails, and he, sound in his whole body, becomes more and more heavy. So being counseled, he makes Confession of his sins; and at last toward evening, made light, ascends; but promises amendment of life to the man of God Symeon, and so glad returns home. At another time when a certain harlot wished to approach the sepulcher of the man of God, as if repelled by someone repelling her she fell from the step: likewise a harlot. and made lifeless, when she was thought by the people about to die at once, she is dragged outside. But when she had been carried out from that building, as if having suffered nothing evil she stood on her feet, and hurriedly fled from that city.

[33] Miserably crippled and tarrying five months at the sepulcher. A certain peasant, named Godfrey, when he miserably dragged his weak and almost dissolved body by crawling on his hands and knees, and for five months frequented the sepulcher of the man of God without ceasing; on a certain day, with tears poured forth, began to call upon the man of God with these words: Alas, servant of God Symeon, how hard and how unmerciful have you become to me? Daily I seek you, daily I invoke you; you are not bent to mercy, denying to me alone the benefit which you bestow on others. Surely henceforth I refuse to come to you: now at last, despairing, I return home. But what shall I say to my neighbors, friends, and kinsmen? Do not, do not, Saint of God, so unmercifully dismiss me wretched, but grant me, needy, however small a little gift of your kindness. Then disturbed in mind he withdraws to his lodging, to arrange on the morrow how he might be carried back to his country. So and despairing of health, from excessive grief weighed down by heavy sleep, after cockcrow as if made in ecstasy, he saw a certain one of comely countenance with a great light standing by him, and delightfully addressing him with these words: Why do you lie, man? Rise quickly, and proceed hurriedly to the sepulcher of the man of God Symeon. after a nocturnal vision there he is healed. And when he answered that he could not go; that he had often come there, and profited nothing. To this he said, I help you, I sustain you: now do not delay: I am ready to furnish you aid. At length aroused, he felt the strength of his limbs returned to him: and so improved, he who was wont, bent and prostrate, to crawl with feeble hands, ascended to the sepulcher of the man of God, with the people wondering greatly, erect in his whole body, on re-strengthened feet.

[34] At that time, when the city of Trier abounded with so many miracles, there was brought to the sepulcher of lord Symeon a boy of eight years, from whom disease had snatched the office of walking, for whom now for three days the devotion of his parents had called upon Symeon. By chance there was with us from Germany a Monk not moderately instructed in the liberal disciplines, but not well believing such great miracles, who also was then present. While there the miracles of God shine forth, and the exorable merit of blessed Symeon breathes upon the vows of the bystanders; the boy clung with both hands to the altar, until, the loosened framework of his limbs, he stood erect with a sound body. And so he enters on his feet, but his tremulous steps stagger, which the use of nature had not yet taught. At last he returned sound: and he, of whom we spoke, believed what he saw, praised God, and recalling these things glad departed. c

ANNOTATIONS.

EMBOLISM D. P. On the Canonization of S. Symeon, and his church.

[1] In the same year 1690, in which I at Antwerp brought to light my Chronico-historical Tract, The beginning of Canonizations to be sought from Rome, on the whole Series of the Roman Pontiffs, under the title of the Propylaeum to the Acts of the Saints of May, with which at the same time then came forth the fourth and fifth Volumes; also at Paris were published the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, pertaining to the fifth century of the Order, begun to be collected by Luc d'Achery, but completed and illustrated by Jean Mabillon, a most learned man, often praised by me and to be praised. But it happened, by a quite wondrous disposition, that, neither of us knowing anything of the other, in composing the Parerga of the principal work, each fell upon the same subject, concerning the Canonization of the Saints, to be treated not in a dogmatic manner, as several others before, but by Historical deduction. it took place in the 10th century So as it happened to me, at the Pontificate of John XV, by whom S. Udalric Bishop of Augsburg was canonized in the year 983, to subjoin Dissertation XX (in the other edition, which is designated, to be the future XXXV) on the beginnings and progress of solemn Canonizations; so he inscribed Paragraph VI of his Preface on the Canonization of Saints, Indulgences, cult, and the Rosary of the B. Virgin, etc. That these two lucubrations, compared with each other, bring great mutual light, and almost exhaust the assumed subject, whoever shall attentively read both will perceive.

[2] together also Jean Mabillon in the Benedictine Acts. That Paragraph the aforepraised Mabillon begins in this manner, in the Preface page 57: Among other things which prove the religion of the 10th century, this is not to be omitted, that, for referring into the class of the Saints new names of the pious, the authority of the Roman Pontiff was demanded. I know that Bellarmine and other learned men were of that persuasion, that the origin of this matter is to be referred back to S. Swibert, that is to the 8th century. But since their foundation rests on false Acts and letters; before this 10th century it is not possible to find undoubted examples of that matter. Of my Dissertation this is the beginning. Since in more than one place already we have declared that the Epistle, which is circulated under the name of S. Liudger, concerning the Canonization of S. Swibert made by Leo III, and I asserted in the Propylaeum of May: is a pure and mere fiction (whoever wishes to see this demonstrated, let him read the Commentary of our Bollandus on that matter on the 1st of March), nor less confidently have we rejected those earlier Canonizations, of S. Kilian and Companions, and of S. Trudpert, attributed by Luca Castellini to Pope Zachary and his successor Stephen II: (confidently, I say, because resting on demonstration and evident authority, as is to be seen at the Pontificate of Zachary) it is not to be passed over in this place, an example of a solemn Canonization, celebrated by a Roman Pontiff, because the first about which there can be no doubt; namely of Saint Udalric Bishop of Augsburg, having performed this mortal life in the year 863, on the 4th day of July.

[3] A similar beginning of each lucubration, but a very different progress followed; but such, that neither contradicts the other in anything, but mutually (as I have already said) both excellently help; and what is omitted by one, the other supplies; although as to this no notice of so similar a study on both sides shone upon either. For such was the evidence and force of the truth ascertained on both sides, but with different success: which can never be contrary to itself. Yet the fortune was not the same for each. He had to do with his Benedictines in Gaul, so intent on the single truth, that for that cause they did not take it ill that the Swibertine Canonization be called fictitious, even though they knew the authors of the fiction had arisen from their Order; I write in lower Germany, where historical disquisitions are not yet so highly esteemed, that it is commonly even persuaded that it is usefully called into controversy those things which, by the inert tolerance of some centuries, seem to have obtained the right of some prescription. Hence it pleases some less, what I said at the Papacy of Zachary concerning Alexander VII, the greatest friend and esteemer of Bollandus, who in the Canonization of S. Thomas of Villanova had used the example of the Swibertine Canonization; yet I proceed to assert, that I doubt not at all, that if the most wise Pontiff could have read the Epistle, whence these things had been taken by others, as it has been examined by Bollandus, he would indeed have wished those things never to have been said by him; yet would not have believed that by that refutation anything was detracted from his Pontifical authority: for he did not think he was using this, when in a purely historical argument he set forth the things which very many others before him had on such an occasion. Let them now experience the judgments of learned men at Rome, if any doubt; and they will cease to wonder that I have so written.

[4] So the next example to the Udalrician Canonization, which at least I have hitherto known, the second, who is known to have been Canonized, S. Symeon. is taken from the Canonization of Symeon: which, as Brower teaches that Archbishop Poppo sought it from Benedict, so his Epistle on that matter, transcribed from old parchments, he exhibits to us to be read in these words: To the most reverend Father of Fathers, by grace and name Benedict, Poppo, though unworthy, yet by the divine bountiful clemency, Minister of the holy Church of Trier, with the love of all affection, due subjection. In former time, when, with John of venerable memory, your predecessor in this holy Apostolic See, assenting, for love of the vision of the sepulcher of God-and-man Jesus Christ, I had set out as a pilgrim for Jerusalem; in our region the iniquity of wicked men grew over, so that not even yet can they withdraw their hands from the wickedness begun, plundering and devastating all things round about. About which, having very often entreated the face of my Lord the King, that he would stretch out to me the hand of his animadversion, with Archbishop Poppo writing for it to Benedict IX, I profited nothing. Often too I supplicated your above-named Predecessor for the same, nor have I until now obtained any consolation. Wherefore I desire that even now your God-loving Paternity may console me; and send a man of your more honored and prudent ones, who may support me in my necessities with counsel and also aid. and that a Legate be sent Let him help, I say, against adversities; let him counsel concerning those things which I do not believe to be hidden from the ears of your Sanctity. But if hitherto they have been hidden from You, now I beseech, that you would be willing to lend a kind hearing to my letters. John XIX, the predecessor and paternal uncle of this Benedict, sat from the year 1024 to 1033, with Conrad ruling, to whom Poppo writes that he too fled in vain; meanwhile, as Frithelo and Bertram, Advocates of Echternach, did many injuries to the Abbey which they ought to have protected; so it is credible that others, who had followed the party of Adalbero Provost of S. Paulinus against Poppo, were long and with impunity grievous to the Church of Trier, of whom the Archbishop here complains. Furthermore his supplication for Symeon was as follows.

[5] A certain man, praiseworthy for sanctity of life, in these days among us migrated from this life: whom, if we ought to believe the signs and virtues which the Lord works through him, we doubt not, without doubt, that he has fellowship with the Saints of eternal beatitude. But not so much the signs, and asking that S. Symeon be canonized. which are common to the faithful and the unfaithful; as the virtue of faith, by which the faithful are separated from the unfaithful, by which it, while he still remained in the body, flourished greatly, makes us certain of his sanctity. Therefore both the Clergy and the people of our Church summoned us, beseeching that by our letters to this Apostolic See, over which you, with God as author, preside, we should ask for him, the Life and Miracles of that holy Man being sent; so that, if it seem to you so to be provided for, with the decree of your Apostolate given us, his name may be allowed to be inscribed with the names of the Saints, and the other things of honor due to the Saints may be bestowed on him; and so, what of consolation, what of counsel, concerning the alleviation of our distresses, arisen here and there, your Prudence shall have decreed must be entered upon by me, without long delay of time may you deign to intimate. May your honor and merit before God and men be increased. Benedict was, when in the year 1033 against right and law he was ordained, a boy of about twelve years, as Rudolf Glaber writes, not easily refutable on this point, as I showed in its place; and that until the year 1045, in which he ceded the Pontificate to Gregory IX, he was always stained with luxuries, S. Peter Damian complains; nor could these things be hidden from Poppo. See however how the holy Archbishop venerates the person of Christ, in his so unworthy Vicar. He, when the Epistle was written, had perhaps not yet attained his twentieth year; for in so great corruption of the Roman Curia the matter was not quickly expedited; but that the cause was conducted by frequent indications of messengers and frequent characters of letters, the Bull signifies, expedited in the year 1042; so that between the aforenoted Epistle and the Response of Benedict a triennium or quadrennium could easily have elapsed. The Response from the Manuscripts of the church of S. Symeon, together with the Bull described to us, sounds thus.

[6] Benedict Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, to Poppo Father, he praises Poppo, for his refuge to the Apostolic See: as much by his own merits as by divine charism Archbishop of the Trevirans, dearest greeting with Apostolic benediction. Your Reverence's letters being taken, and read, and re-read; in the depth of our heart we have stored their force, that to you asking we might grant the things desired. For the rule of that Master it behooves us, as much as we can, to imitate, who to those asking well was not obstinate, to those seeking in truth was not prolonged, nor to those perseveringly knocking at his doors was delayed in opening. But we, although later than we desired, yet at the sound of your page, as we ought, according to our affection respond. For we do not do what we will: but divinely we receive that we may do, and what the heavenly disposition has fitted to its own times. As therefore you remind us, that the Apostolic See, over which by divine condescension we preside, is the refuge of all ecclesiastical Pastorship, that we might assent to your vows fleeing to it, with deserved embraces we have given these very words. For since it is the origin and foundation of the Churches, the Lord thus compensating the confession of Peter, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; it seems plainly worthy that all Christian fidelity should have recourse to it, and it should stretch out to all the hand of consolation. But to you, set in the struggle, he sends to his aid a Prelate, for warring down the iniquities of wicked men, and punishing them with the spiritual sword, the Prelate whom as Helper of the office divinely committed to you in divine matters you demanded from us … we direct; whom indeed both honesty of morals, as the name indicates, and the sagacious beauty of mind adorns. Whom we deemed most apt for this business, because we knew him a faithful servant of the Lord, and prudent; as one who has both the cunning of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove; from whose lips in a manner flow honey, full of heavenly ambrosia for the capacity of the hearers. Wherefore we have separated him from our body like a right arm, praying for him health and joy. We direct him therefore that he may console you in your necessities, namely both in the work of Consecration, and in the unction of Confirmation; and if he shall be able in other necessities, with the Lord favoring, at the pleasure of your Holy Fraternity. But that you do not refuse or dissemble to treat him as is fitting, we believe you need no admonition; since your kindness is the more profuse, the holier it is.

[7] What was the name of this Apostolic Legate, or what his condition, perhaps the Archpriest Gratian; Brower found nowhere expressed; that he was signed by the first letter of his name in that place, where our copy placed En, making no apt sense, I am led by a not improbable conjecture (as it seems to me at least); since the perpetual custom of that age bore that. But of all the letters, none occurs which could more readily have seemed En to the copyists of the church of S. Symeon not understanding it, than the letter G, in the manner of that age drawn down from the bottom lip with a tail downward, as if it were Cn. Furthermore, the honesty of morals, which the Legate is said to indicate by his very name, brings nearer to our conjecture Gratian the Archpriest, a most praiseworthy man; who afterward prudently drew Benedict and Sylvester, contending about the Pontificate, away from its usurpation; and elected Pontiff, was himself called Gregory IX. But that this Election was legitimate, although afterward less approved by the Emperor and the Synod of Sutri, we showed in a proper Dissertation; according to which he could not have been deposed, unless he had ceded of his own accord. But let us pursue the Response of Benedict, coming thus to that which was chiefly asked.

[8] he asserts that Symeon was by him enrolled among the Saints: For the rest, we must come to that man Symeon, whom you show coruscating with numerous miracles, prefulgent with divine virtues. From which it is clear that he bore in a fragile body the treasure of spiritual grace, so that he provided not only for himself unto salvation; but for others and others also unto manifold health. Because therefore he is believed to have attained to that eternal beatitude, and to that perpetuity of supreme felicity, and the heavenly fellowship; as is more frequently disclosed by the work of signs; the sentence of our Apostolic authority, following the judgment of the divine arbiter, and supported by the consent of very many of our Brothers, decrees that the same man of God Symeon, hereafter always and everywhere ought to be named a Saint, and his Birthday, like that of other Saints, to be most reverently celebrated every year: for not he who commends himself is approved, but whom God commends, says the Apostle. 2 Cor. 10:8 Therefore let him be praised, flourish, please, be celebrated, be loved, and be venerated, and let his name be inserted in the Martyrology. May he intercede for our sins and negligences, and those of all things committed to us, before the most clement majesty of the divine Godhead; that the marvels which he visibly exhibits about the bodies of the sick, he may by occult virtue deign to exhibit in our souls. Thus far the Epistle, written by the Pontifical Chancellor or some minister of lower note, in the name of the Pontiff, little Apostolic in morals, yet in Apostolic style composed. In our copy is represented an appended seal, as it was by the Bull of Benedict IX. on which on one face, otherwise empty, was drawn round in a circle the name ✠ BENEDICT; on the other was impressed the head of S. Peter, on which from above a ✠ leans, whence drawn round in a circle three letters, P P E, mean the same as PAPÆ (of the Pope); but with lineaments so rude, that unless from the autograph (if indeed this can still be found), or at least from another of the same Pontiff, a more accurate expression be sent me, I do not think it worth the trouble to have the figure of such a seal engraved on copper, which otherwise I would have wished to do, nowhere yet having obtained the genuine Seal of that Pontiff. But neither could I sufficiently discern, whether the writer of the copy sent us wished to signify that that Seal hung from the Epistle, or rather (which otherwise would be more probable) from the following Bull of Canonization, of which we received this tenor.

[9] Benedict Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, to all Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, and the whole Clergy, and all Peoples, both of the Teutonic kingdom, and also of whatever nations or tongues, dearest greeting with Apostolic benediction. The ineffable authority of the divine majesty, always doing ineffable things, teaching, that as always some in life by virtues, as it is proclaimed marvelous in his Saints, so also is declared by works, giving them virtue and fortitude to cure every languor and every infirmity. Which gift God himself, the distributor and author of spiritual gifts, granted to his soldiers, of whom there is no number, even in this mortal body, while they lived in the world, for this reason; that they themselves too, having besides, in hope of the divine retribution, the faithful pledge of the Holy Spirit; might lean more confidently and more strongly, and the nations, beholding the divine mysteries, every superstition laid aside, might be converted from the inmost of the heart to the way of Christian truth; but others, of whom likewise the multitude is incomprehensible, only after the bonds of the flesh, with these riches of virtues he endowed and magnified; that with the corporeal remains placed in the sepulcher, and the members dissolved into ashes, to those feeling and seeing the marvels, faith might be inculcated and heaped up, that they live happily there, where there is true and eternal life: to which it is permitted no one to approach, unless, abhorring the delights of temporal life, and after death shine with miracles; he sighs to it with the whole ever-intent of mind, if ever he may deserve to be recalled from the pilgrimage to the fatherland, from exile to the right of return. Therefore since by frequent indications of messengers, and frequent characters of letters, a great clamor and resounding rumor flew over from the parts of Trier all the way to Rome, that there was there the admirable body of a certain man Symeon, radiant with signs and prodigies, virtues and miracles, like the sun at midday in serene air; having more closely kissed the earth, we blessed the Lord with all our heart, so Symeon: with all our mind, with all our strength; who in our times deigned, within his holy Church, this chief member with divine light kindled, that it might be a burning lamp, set upon a candlestick, which may shine to all who are in the house of the Lord.

[10] And so being approached and importuned by our most illustrious brother Lord Poppo, Archbishop of the same Trier, that what should seem good to us concerning the celebration of the same most holy man we should establish and decree by the salutary definition of our Apostolic authority; to all whom we have prenoted in the salutation, whom he enrolls among the Saints on 8 September 1042. we make known by these letters what we have judged concerning that matter. For with the splendid Fraternity of our Roman Clergy gathered, when the childbirth of the most sacred Virgin by its annual recurrence radiated through this world, by concordant deliberation we determined, and founded with the deep root of our sentence, that the same man of God Symeon, whom the Lord commends and approves, by the signification of such great virtues, full of sanctity and grace, is without doubt to be named a saint by all peoples, tribes, and tongues, and his birthday recurring every year is everywhere to be solemnly observed, and ferially celebrated and venerated, like a festival day: also his name is to be inserted in the Martyrology with the names of the Saints in its place. To which sentence we have also added this, that whoever shall prove a rash contemner and stiff-necked opposer of this our constitution, let him first know that he grievously offends the Lord, then that he ought in no way to hope for the patronages of that Saint, nay of all Saints, in whose fellowship he rejoices, and our Apostolic benediction henceforth; with these manifoldly given to the preservers, forever and ever. Amen.

[11] I do not doubt at all but that this Bull was expedited under the form usual in the Roman Chancery, and indeed with the accustomed subscriptions in such a matter, such as I find under a Bull, How that Bull was subscribed, in Ughelli Volume 1 column 126, given in the name of this very Pontiff, in the year 1033; where after the clause forever and ever. Amen, is read: Written by the hands of Sergius Scriniarius and Notary of our sacred Palace, in the month of November, in the sixth Indiction (rather the second, computing the Indictions in the manner then still usual among the Romans, beginning them from the Kalends of September. And this error can be imputed to the copyist, transcribing sixth for second) Benevalete (Fare well).

Benedict, Bishop of holy Fallaria and Castellum. I Gregory, of the Holy Roman Church designate in the rule of the holy Church of Todi. it is understood from another similar one. I Leo, Deacon of the holy Roman Church. Benedict, Oblationarius. Benedict, Cardinal of the title of Equitius. Bonizo, Priest, and Vicedominus of holy Rufina, and designate by the grace of God Bishop of Tuscania. I Crescentius, Subdeacon of John de Romano.

Where, either first before all to be written, Benedict Bishop of the holy Roman Church, who has dropped out for the transcriber, on account of another equally Benedict subscribing soon after; or, if to the original itself the subscription of the supreme Pastor was lacking, there is detected the negligence of a dissolute man in so great an office; through which he did not even deign to confirm the diplomas, to be expedited in his own name, with the subscription of his own hand.

[12] Furthermore how the aforesaid Bull was committed to execution, in the third month after the matter was transacted at Rome, at the foot of it, But the Canonization was celebrated on 17 November. in the Codex of the church of S. Symeon, it is thus read subscribed. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1042, Indiction 10 (here beginning the Indictions from the Kalends of January; which can hence be seen to have already then had its origin in Gaul; otherwise than was then done at Rome, as we just noted; by whose usage it would be Indiction 11, begun from the Kalends of September) in the ninth of Pope Benedict, and the fourth of King Henry III, son of King Conrad, Blessed Symeon of Trier was canonized on the 4th feria, the 15th of the Kalends of December, with the most pious Archprelate Poppo, in the 26th year of his Ordination, by the command and letters of the Ninth Pope Benedict, a Congregation of Canons was there begun. That the year is rightly noted, the concurrence of the feria with the Kalends certainly proves, falling aptly according to the order of the Dominical letters: with which also agrees very well the 26th year of the Archiepiscopal Ordination, to be reckoned according to Brower from the Kalends of January of the year 1017. Rightly too stands the year of the King, whose father died on 4 June in the year 1039. The same things too Brower has up to ; except that he reads Indiction 9, in the tenth of Pope Benedict, the numbers being inverted, namely, by I know not what inadvertence, instead of that which originally, 1042 in the 9th of Benedict, the 26th of Poppo. as we saw, is read, and ought to be read, Indiction 10, in the ninth of Pope Benedict. For he was indeed ordained in the year 1033, but at its end, namely on the 9th day of December: and thus in November of the year 1042 there still ran for him the ninth year, not the tenth, wrongly supposed in Brower; perhaps by his interpolator. For not even the things which he himself had composed were printed at his own discretion; but corrected and changed at the judgment of the Electoral Counselors, among whom were then some smatterers; and when not even thus they pleased enough, finally all were suppressed. Yet they could not be so suppressed but that there was whence a second impression might be made; not indeed such as posterity would wish, from Brower's own autograph, which was nowhere found; but such as the interpolators had allowed to be subjected to the press; as it is now had, by the labor of Masen under the auspices of Charles Caspar von der Leyen, Archbishop and Elector of Trier, taken care of in the year 1670.

[13] According to this edition therefore Brower is alleged by us; who, pursuing the deeds of Poppo, says: Thereupon the same Poppo, although, as he complains to Pope Benedict, with the license of the wicked increasing, The church built and Canons founded he took very much damage everywhere from despoilings and hostile devastation; yet for his exceeding love toward B. Symeon, desiring more earnestly to honor the memory of his life, placed a temple for him in those old ruins of the ancient mass which while alive he had inhabited; and the same place, a noble congregation of Canons being there brought in, for the increase of honor, established with a splendid patrimony. And hence flowed the college of B. Symeon, dedicated to the Virgin-mother and B. Michael, which down to our memory has flourished excellently with men, among others distinguished for probity of doctrine and morals. Poppo dies 1047 on 16 June. Furthermore not many years flowed, before the most pious Prelate received the fruit of the liberality exhibited to S. Symeon. For in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1047, the 17th of King Henry II, but the first of his being Emperor, on the 16th of the Kalends of July, died the Archbishop of this See of Trier, beloved of God, Poppo: as Brower relates, from the Epitaph with which was inscribed the sepulcher, which he himself had chosen for himself in the temple built by himself, as the same indicates below, appearing to a certain Bavarian matron.

[14] To the Annals of Trier is prefixed, by way of a preliminary Tract, The description of the church by Brower. the Proparasceve of Trevirine antiquities: of which Chapter 21, on the gate of Mars, now the temple of S. Symeon, worthy to be described here, is thus set forth: Among urban works, in elegance and magnitude of mass excels the collegiate edifice of B. Symeon; which from the north offers itself at the public gate of the city; and the admiration of the fabric holds the eyes of beholders, which not without reason the renowned Geographer of our memory Abraham Ortelius wrote was to be admired for its mass; and to which he thought there remained no equal in all this Gaul. For with incredible magnitude of stones of a grayish color it rises on high; the stones joined, not with cement or interlaid lime, but with iron, with such firmness, that, coalesced in the manner of a rock, it withstands every onslaught….. The form is quadrangular, on one side namely somewhat longer, equipped on both sides with two towers after the Roman model, with four vaultings from the lowest floor placed one above another, and with the work of the walls doubled round about. On the side it turns toward the public of the city, it is seen with a triple order of windows between semi-round little columns: but on the side it looks to the North, it fills a part of the walls, with proportion most exact to its adornment. judging that it was for the ancients a Capitol. But where it presents itself to the gate of the city, by Poppo the most illustrious Archbishop of the Trevirans, it was refined with new works, with platforms and balconies added for the sake of spectacle around the circuit of the music-hall, that the form might agree. Finally, with much mound carried together and heaped up, eminent by its remarkable height from the city forum, by a slope it is approached by stone steps, below and above frequented by Clergy and religion….. The interior appearance of the work, with no spaciousness, restricted on all sides by vaults, and impeded by vaultings, except where for the use of the temple it is seen to have been opened out by later men, argues that the place was scarcely of any use, except for altars, images, idols, of which kind it was the custom to be erected and worshiped in Capitols.

[15] Thus Brower. Masen, who amplified and illustrated his work with Notes and Additions, kept separate from the original text; to the aforecited Chapter added an ample Appendix, on the Gates of the city of Trier, of which the Black one still survives today, converted into a temple. And first he sets forth an elegantly engraved plate of Caspar Merian, by which the side of the church looking toward the city is given to be beheld; which here you see contracted into a smaller plate. Then, the elegance of the old structure being praised, which you will better estimate with the eyes as judges than with the ears, admiring the appearance and firmness of the work, This work, he says, conspicuous as much for old as for new structures, can be to posterity an argument, how much this age in architecture differs from the old. The new and accessory works manifest themselves by their face and habit; small stones, and flat and less solid walls; the arches of the windows longer, but uncultivated; the columns and borders proscribed, sufficiently indicate that the upper tower and the whole nave of the temple came as works of a later century, less laborious; as also the little chapels at the head of the temple, and the chapel at the side, and the twin choir at the end toward the gate of the city, * rather Southern, yet not ungracefully crowned with its cornices between little columns…. On the Northern side toward the new choir of S. Symeon, enclosed there for some years and dead, a narrow little hut, and a hidden bed as if under the recess of the steps, which erected scarcely holds a man, is even now seen: and is marked in the plate by the letter O.

[16] The old structure, once without a roof, lay open to the rain; yet surrounded everywhere with most elegant porticoes through both towers and the middle, explaining also its dimensions. through which one might carry oneself around for easy defense. Those toward the north encompassed four feet, toward the south seven; and to the right and left with large windows, which the equal spaces of the middle columns intersect, are adorned with becoming symmetry. This fabric, on the side it tends from east to west, runs out longer, and is reckoned to be a hundred and thirty feet; from north to south it attains only forty-six feet. Each face, both the western and the eastern, is closed by most strong towers; that space which lies between is joined by vaults drawn across, under which once the open arches of the gates gave free entrance to those passing by; as even now the arches eminent above toward the north demonstrate, which, now closed by the heaped-up earth, are almost buried. Toward the south, besides the heaped slope of earth, in this age by steps broadly spread out, we gradually strive up into the very first vault, which is the pavement of the lower temple, which pavement is extended also through the very towers paved with vaults; which in their lower part offer a safe recess either for wines or also for storing arms and gunpowder. Whence Philip Christopher, the Elector next before Charles Caspar, the Canons being transferred elsewhere, decided to transfer this place again into a military fortification: but an unforeseen captivity intercepted these his counsels.

[17] I believe that the Saint obtained this by his prayers before God, that he might not, dead, be compelled to desert the place which he had so constantly held while alive. The same in our memory I would say he did; when the French, devastating all things around the city without any distinction of sacred and profane, and demolishing the very fortifications of the open gate next to Symeon's temple, did not allow it to come to their mind, by which they might either fear some danger to their affairs from the preservation of such a mass, or hope for advantage from its ruin. Yet because works built by human hands, however firm, and woven of stones, which (as Masen says) sometimes scarcely six and ten men could move from their place, and that with the joining in the walls most firm, bound only by hidden chains of lead and iron, so that the strength of the walls easily eludes all force of warlike engines, we should hope in vain for eternity for that church of S. Symeon.

CHAPTER V. Certain miracles somewhat later.

[35] A certain schoolboy a, named Wigeric, when, as that age is wont, on a certain day having immoderately abused wine, Falling from on high onto a heap of stones. he chose for himself a secret place for resting; he climbed the highest balcony from the side of the church, and there incautiously stretched himself out among the columns to sleep. When suddenly, awakened by I know not what motion, before he could recover himself, he slipped headlong; and upon a heap of stones, which by chance were placed below, he fell so heavily that in his whole body there was nothing remaining which did not seem dissolved or crushed. So at the sound of the fall those who were near run up trembling: they find him scarcely breathing, and his body almost lifeless. Lifted, he is laid in a little trough, offered to the service of S. Symeon, he recovers. and with the despair of all is carried to a little bed. It seemed meanwhile to the Provost of the church, that a request ought to be made to the lord of the boy himself, that he be handed over to the altar of the Blessed Confessor; if perhaps by his service the divine clemency might reserve him. Which as soon as it was obtained, and effected; in a short time the boy so effectively convalesced, that he afterward felt no detriment of his former health.

[36] Wasting and destitute of the use of his limbs, he is healed. A certain Deselinus, servant of Tolmar the Chorbishop, and procurator of the domestic affairs, suddenly seized with pain of the shins b, the disease increasing day by day, so gradually wasted away, at last even destitute of all office of his limbs, that he led a life useless and hateful to himself. Whom, with a vow of recovering health, when his lord had offered, led to the memorial of the holy man, not long after restored to entire health, in the offices of the church, as no one more ready, he continually remained.

[37] A certain blind man, from far-off parts, himself too brought into hope by the fame of so many benefits, came with his parents and friends to the memorial of the already mentioned Saint; The blind man tarrying long in vain at the sepulcher, where, for the space of some days continually persevering in prayer, he awaited the grace of the divine regard. While a tardier outcome followed his vows, with a mind bitter enough; How great a thing is it, he said, servant of God, that you exclude me unhappy from the customary gift of any of your benefits, and dismiss me empty from so great an expectation of my fellow-citizens? And so, despairing, he asked to be led back by his companions to his country. Now they had set out on the journey, after a delay drawn out in prayer, and now they were going out through the gate of the city contiguous to the very church; when, with a faint light gradually restored to his bereaved eyes, he began in a manner as if through obscurity to mark his companions preceding him; and struck by the unaccustomed light, to invoke them that he might be led back as quickly as possible. While they strove to hasten this, before he had ascended to the sepulcher, returning he is illuminated. he received sight entirely: and soon prostrate on the ground, in place of his rebuke, he gave worthy thanks to his intercessor.

[38] With similar devotion too a certain mute man, with his friends accompanying him, set out to the sepulcher of the holy man: and while he descended through the rocks which overhang the valley of Trier; They are given speech, a mute man at the very approach among other churches which he beheld, this one, often heard of from the quality of its work, he recognized: which while he, as one ardent with faithful desire, wondered at with himself, suddenly bursting into words, Is this, he said, the church of B. Symeon? Hence indeed, as from many, it can be estimated, how far apart the divine judgments are: because the grace of health, which scarcely at last recalled the blind man, already descending with despair; anticipated the vow of the hoping mute.

[39] Another too at a different time mute, on a certain celebrated solemnity, and another during the divine office, with the Priest of his own place and a great frequency of his own people, in the church of the same holy Confessor, was listening to the divine Office, which was performed by the Clergy; when meanwhile by divine mercy resolved into voice, by often repeating the praises of God, he mercifully dedicated the first-fruits of the speech granted to Christ the author. But at the voice of him exclaiming, the crowd of bystanders flowing together, and inquiring what had now happened, scarcely was faith afforded to him narrating; until the Priest whom we mentioned, with all the company of citizens with whom he had come, approaching, in the sight of the very Prelate and of all who were then present, proved the matter by his testimony.

[40] A Bavarian matron, very sick, A certain noble matron from Bavaria lay fixed to her bed by a grievous and long-lasting languor, and tried by many efforts of physicians, had cast away almost all hope, as far as concerns man, of recovering health. But on a certain night through a vision the Lord Poppo Archbishop of blessed memory c stood by, admonished by S. Poppo, and as if by manifest address persuaded her, that without delay setting out to the memorial of S. Symeon, she should seek his intercession for the imminent necessity. To whom while she objected both the difficulty of her health, and the ignorance d of the place where he rested; Come, he said, only prepare your setting-out, I will show the way, I will lead you to him, at whose feet I myself rest. After the vision the woman at once awakening, her strength restored in an incredible manner, in that same hour arose, and going round the house, roused the whole household, and that they prepare the necessary provisions for the hasty journey, to go to Trier, she enjoins on her servants. But they, thinking her, as happens, alienated in mind by the vehemence of the languor, drag her seized back violently to the bed; and hold her between their hands lest she should burst from the house, until, attending to her sound speech, they had more certainly recognized the matter, as it was, and at the same time what she was now preparing. So all things being sent for by night, she quickly recalled her husband, who then by chance was absent: with him leading, having set out to Trier, before the sepulcher of the Blessed Confessor she rendered her vows and thanks to him. she finds herself sound and goes to the sepulcher.

[41] A certain one of the household of Haspern, a quite well-known and illustrious man, from the possession of the same which is called Osternia, for any necessity of his own had vowed an oblation to the Saint of God, which by the customary appellation e they call Repensime. And when they carried back eleven baked loaves to Trier, and in the village where on the journey they passed the night, The bread not offered according to the vow flows blood. unwrapping their little bundles, they left part of their provisions; it happened by chance that one loaf of the votive sum remained there among the rest. This in returning, with the others which had been there; taking it likewise, with provisions abounding on the way, they carry home whole. There at last cut, wondrous to tell, it began so to flow blood; as if you saw a wound inflicted on any animal. But all to whom the matter pertained being stupefied, and with trembling confessing the guilt of their negligence, the loaf was brought into the church there; where, wondrous and at the same time terrific to those seeing, for no small time, it offered a spectacle. This to us, whenever among us speech arose concerning the virtues of the Blessed Confessor, is wont to narrate f our Brother and Canon of the Greater Church, namely the son of the lord of the same household, and of the possession where the matter happened; to whom also a quarter of that loaf, for the sake of faith, was transmitted, infected everywhere with the now hardened gore.

[42] A certain tenant of Barna g, situated upon the river Moselle (as you know), despaired of his life from wasting, seized with a grievous languor, gradually wasted away in his whole body; and now, with the disease grown inveterate, for a whole year or more had come to such a loathing of taking food, and especially of bread by which chiefly the body might be sustained, that he abhorred the taste of it in every way, as if it were something deadly. And when now concerning his life he had come into the despair of all, and lay utterly fixed to his bed, in the dead of night, refreshed by a certain salutary vision; he hastily called his wife, summoned by name, to him, asking that a straw be furnished him, h by which (as is the custom) he might make the pledge of his promise, that he would go to Trier. Whom she rebuking, In what way, admonished by a nocturnal vision: she said, will you, wretch, now undertake so great a journey, you who, unless sustained by the hands of others, cannot even go forward the least bit from the bed? And he said, It is certain for me, as I have purposed, to attempt the way, and with God helping, somehow even by creeping with my hands to reach the threshold of Blessed Symeon. For just now a certain one standing by me admonished me with a consoling voice, that I should hasten as quickly as possible to his memorial, and there should trust that I would be restored to health through his merits. And so he made the pledge, and without delay set out on the journey to the city; where, while going, his strength being received by increments, he so convalesced, that standing at the sepulcher of the holy man, he scarcely felt any traces of the infirmity he had endured. Thence turning aside to me, who then by chance was present, to my house, he asked that I first should hold out bread to him for the profit of shaking off the loathing. To whom congratulating, I soon prepared to hasten a thin and delicate ash-baked bread; at the sepulcher he is healed: and with that regard of divine mercy which was fitting, with my hand I offered it to be eaten. So after he had taken some of it, at once both from the loathing of food and from all the weakness of the languor he was refreshed; and his health soon being received to the full, giving thanks to God and his Saint, glad he returned home.

[43] A certain other, a man of our jurisdiction, named Odo, from the Village which is called Roie i, had been from boyhood so afflicted with the wounding of his limbs, that, leaning on little stools, he dragged his dissolved body along the ground. likewise another creeping on little stools. Him when the solicitude of his kinsmen, having brought him to the city, had set before the confession of the man of God; oblations being offered there according to their means, and prayers poured out for the sick man, they awaited the regard of heavenly consolation. Nor did the salutary effect long suspend the vows of the faithful, but soon rising upon his feet he was raised erect in his whole body; and so restored to the office of his limbs, by the help of the holy Confessor he enjoys persevering soundness even to now.

In the year of the Lord's incarnation according to Dionysius k 1086, on the 2nd of the Ides of May, on the Ascension of the Lord, In the year 1086 a mute and deaf man receives speech and hearing. there came to the sepulcher of Saint Symeon the Confessor in the morning a certain young man, named Bertinarius, deaf and mute from birth, who immediately received the office of his tongue and ear: but in that very receiving of divine mercy, while the tongue is unsealed and the ear, he is soundly cleansed from Satan; by whose impediment it could be believed he had been bound. For blood burst forth for him from his ears, mouth, and nostrils: where the manifested visitation of the Holy Spirit is not doubted, and the cleansing of the demon, the like of which we repeat in the Gospel truth.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

HISTORY OF THE ELEVATION of Saint Symeon and the Venerable Poppo; by the Authors and likewise eyewitnesses, Frederick Provost of the church of S. Paulinus, and John Scheckmann Monk of S. Maximin.

Symeon, recluse at the gate of Trier (S.)

BHL Number: 7965

A. SCERMANN.

§. I. The Elevation of S. Symeon from the old manuscript of his own church.

To the truly devout, and thence happy people of the city of Trier, the humble native of the same city Frederick, Provost of the Church of Saint Paulinus, unworthy in merits and in name, to triumph happily in the battle of both the man.

You know, as I think, not so much from the reports of our fathers and ancestors, as from old histories, The Preface of the writer, and our own most ancient codices, with how great virtues and how great proclamations of praises the Creator of all granted by a singular regard this holy city to excel above the rest: which, the time of vanity a being past, and the man worthy of perdition b, whom it repented to have formed the Creator, being lost, was begun with legal c precepts, and laboriously founded, in the seventh year of Abraham d the Patriarch. Furthermore this blessed city in this time of the laws stood so very famous through the world for virtues, that even before e Rome [was] the head of the world, it dreaded its power far and wide. concerning the antiquity of the city of Trier, And so, the time of fullness succeeding, while the same Creator of all, moved by mercy, through the incarnate Word poured the fullness of grace upon the whole world, this blessed city too, in the eighth year of the Apostolate at Rome of the most blessed Peter prince of the Apostles, he illustrated above the rest with faith and grace. For the same Key-bearer himself sent to the same most famous city three most approved men, namely Eucharius f, who was also third in the order of the Seventy-two, by conversion to the faith, Valerius, and Maternus (who effectively instructed the illustrious people of the Trevirans in the faith of Christ). After them too the most blessed Helena Augusta enriched this holy city, from which she also drew her origin g, and whose husband Constantius (of whom she also bore Constantine the most pious Emperor) was honorably buried h in the Campus Martius, now in the Church of S. Paulinus mentioned; through the most blessed Agritius, Patriarch i of Antioch, she enriched it with gifts: the seamless tunic of our Lord k, and the nail of the same, the body of B. l Matthias and many other holy things (for love of her birth, the most blessed Sylvester also cooperating). How many, do you think, afterward most religious men came to the same holy city for the contemplation of the aforesaid, and by the renown of its Saints. and consecrated it with their own blood, and with glorious deaths? of whom indeed, the old volumes of this holy city being re-read, so many are found, that the sacred basilicas do not suffice to contain their most blessed bodies m within themselves: and the devout inquirer into these will doubtless be able to say, Terrible is this place: truly indeed the Lord is in it, and I knew it not before.

[2] Among whom, that I may be free for my purpose, to this holy city most lately came, by divine disposition, with the ardent desire for this of the holy father Poppo Prelate of this city, then tarrying at Jerusalem for the sake of pilgrimage, a certain man born of n Greece, a man of most holy life and religion, a man truly of great miracles both in life and in death; After a life holily performed, by S. Symeon namely Saint Symeon, Patron of the church of the Black gate: who also on Mount Sinai, where the most happy Moses enjoyed the glory of God, possessed most religiously a most strict monastic life, under the Levitical order: and who, coming to this holy city, that as a solitary he might most strenuously be free for divine contemplation, in the mentioned Black-gate (so called of old for this reason, that it had been arranged for warlike encounters, and for the sad tidings rushing in from there o; but now consecrated in honor of that most blessed man to those spiritually warring) by the aforesaid holy Prelate Poppo with great ardor of spirit to be enclosed; and there desired to await the supreme day of the coming Judge. At length in the same place enclosed for seven years, having endured the snares of malign spirits, and manifold infestations, he conquered by living most holily; and him, enrolled among the Saints for the miracles wrought after his death, and having obtained the triumph of this calamity, with many miracles attesting, in the year of the Lord one thousand thirty-five, he rendered to the Most High who gave it the soul, for which also he was worthily numbered in the Catalogue of the Saints. Of whose life, indeed, virtues, and miracles great volumes p are found among us: at whose most blessed man's feet the mentioned holy Father Poppo, by the title of singular love, wished to be buried; and just as in their life they loved one another, so also in death they were not separated.

[3] in the year 1400 So now in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred succeeding, it pleased the Most High that this most happy treasure of the city of Trier, hidden for so long a time, should be found; and that this most blessed lamp, kindled with divine virtue and grace, in this holy Gate too of the city, coruscating with many signs and miracles, should in some way not lie hidden under a bushel; but should be placed above the same Gate as upon a candlestick; that to those entering with devout hearts it might minister the light of its virtue, with the Lord helping, with pious affection. So this word went forth divinely among certain Brothers of the mentioned Church: who, as is firmly believed, by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, were kindled with so great ardor of desire for this matter, that in that same hour, having gladly assumed the faculty of disposing themselves for this, and other things being put aside, they gave only devout effort to this matter as they could. But the holy sixth feria coming, which was the fifth q of the Ides of January; I unworthy, with Michael the Dean, on the 6th feria the 9th day of January. John Official of the city, and James, Canons and dearest Brothers, with the knowledge of John Provost of the Church; entered the Church itself, the night approaching, for the sake of finding this desired treasure, with great ardor and likewise trembling. And when, this holy work being begun, with desire it had been labored at very long; in the middle of the night and the hard solidity of many pavements being pierced through, in that place where his tomb stands eminently erected behind r the altar (lest despair should weary us) with the Lord helping, in the silence of nearly the middle of the night, this most sacred body, the body is found whole, from the day of its deposition, as it appeared, whole we found and untouched. Above its most blessed breast too there sat a leaden tablet, inscribed with letters thus most ancient. Here lies a certain Symeon, born of Babylon s; on Sinai a Monk; but here he died a solitary, on the Kalends of June. with a plate: Greatly indeed rejoicing in the Lord, and the Head of this most blessed man Symeon, with one part of the left Arm, and the rest of his hands' and feet's relics, and the head and other parts taken from there, taken from this most sacred body, the indulgence being obtained of the Most Reverend Father and Lord, Lord t Werner, Archprelate of this holy city, with joy and the highest veneration that we could we received. Furthermore the residue of the body, stored in the leaden tomb, is stored away, with a lead-tablet u, inscribed by my unworthy hand concerning the matter done, was recommended to its former place.

[4] And indeed that this most holy light might be placed above the candlestick; by a holy congregation of Clerics and Citizens on the Lord's day after this, namely the first day of February, The Head with the others shown on 1 February on the Lord's day: with the solemnities of Masses, and much devotion both of Clergy and of People in Christ, just as you yourselves saw, most religiously it was shown to all. Therefore, for perpetual memory, how the omnipotent God in this hour of showing visibly from heaven magnified this most holy man, I will not keep silent to devout hearts. For you know, and you yourselves saw, how on the preceding Saturday, day and night, the dark water in the clouds of the air poured down so great and so continuous a rain, that even on the said Lord's day, after a copious rain, without any interval of hope, it continued through that whole following week; so that, especially on that very Lord's day, among us there was no hope, in the proposed place, prepared behind the tomb through the windows outward, on account of the multitude of people, of being able to show to them this most sacred light. So, devout prayers being poured out to the Lord and this most blessed man, for fitting weather, at least in the showing of this most holy Head and the other relics; behold the Lord magnified his Saint. For, the hour coming in which such most blessed Relics were handled, and the showings of the same, the lamp of heaven, serenity being suddenly restored: namely with a most clear solar aspect, this most turbid air being more quickly penetrated, so visibly smiled from heaven upon that most sacred lamp, that even with us, the heaven being made clear, against the nature of the season, the Sun itself poured forth not wintry, but to all sensibly summer rays; and this holy Gate with the Prophet might worthily cry, glorifying the Lord, How greatly do you light my lamp, O Lord! How many, do you think, and how great in this hour did devout hearts, for joy of so great a heavenly miracle, beat their breasts with flowing tears, from which we likewise could not refrain, and tried to render worthy praises to the omnipotent God: with joy and tears of the well: because also by the prayers of this most blessed man the Lord visited his Trevirine people, the dayspring from on high. Who therefore, an inquirer into the aforesaid, of this Black Gate could not say; Truly there is here now nothing else but the house of God, and henceforth it shall be called the Gate of heaven. Who too with the vessel of election would not dare to narrate; You were once darkness, under this indeed black Gate; but now light in the Lord, under this most blessed man. x

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

p Great Volumes indeed we ourselves saw at S. Symeon's in the year 1668, but in which concerning Symeon there was nothing besides what is already published, but the Passions and Acts of other Saints through the year: if there were any proper concerning his miracles, we grieve that they have perished.

q With the Dominical letter D then running. But this elevation of S. Symeon was assigned to 9 January in the Manuscript Florarium of Saints, in the Martyrology printed at Lübeck and Cologne about the year 1490, and in the Auctarium of Greven to Usuard. Brower; the Clergy, he says, keeps the anniversary memory of this Finding, under the title of the Apparition or (as some write) the Opening.

r In the Life at no. 22 it is said that the body of the man of God was buried in the little cell, namely the same in which he had lived, narrow and thrust under the steps, and which in the plate is marked with the letter O; and at no. 24 it is said that, the people running to venerate the sepulcher, a convenient ascent was prepared in the building of the tower: and finally at no. 31 in the same building of the tower, where the body of the man was buried, one altar was consecrated, in the fifth month after the Saint's death. But comparing these passages with this one, where it is said that there was labored, the hard solidity of many pavements being pierced through, in that place where the Saint's tomb stands eminently raised behind the altar; I can understand nothing else, than that that altar was erected, not in the Saint's very cell, but above it; namely at the head of that pavement, which through the whole lower church extends above the first order of the gates. But behind the altar I think there stood a constructed tomb, empty indeed, but which had the name and veneration of a sepulcher, since the true sepulcher was directly beneath it, in a place then perhaps closed on all sides. This place before lay open outward through a window, and inside probably through a little door in the tower; through which little door the Archbishop and other intimates entered to the Saint, whom it is not credible were wont to ascend through the window. Thus I take it, how a manifold pavement had to be pierced through: which would not have had to be done, if an entrance to the place of burial had lain open.

s Brower, relating the same inscription, omits the word "born," as contrary to the Life, in which it is said, born in the city of Syracuse; while at Babylon he is only said to have been injuriously detained, when he wished to cross into Europe. Perhaps the Saint, to those asking of what country he was, was wont to answer, From Babylon, by the name of Babylon understanding the world which he had abandoned. It remains nonetheless a wonder, how they who knew his homeland more distinctly allowed this to be engraved in lead; unless he himself ordered it to be so written.

t Werner, surnamed Cratepolio from Kunigstein, presided from the year 1388 until 1418.

u Plumbetum, with a French ending, a diminutive from lead, is taken here for a leaden tablet, what words the Author inscribed on which, he being silent, no one could say, unless the casket were unsealed; which seems to have been done at some time; since at no. 1 of the preliminary Commentary, a much greater part of the sacred bones is now said to be preserved in the Cathedral church, than is here indicated to have been taken away.

x It is a wonder that nothing is added concerning the place and adornment in which the coffer was deposited: nothing concerning the translation of the Relics to the Metropolitan church: unless these were taken care of after this writing was finished. But if also taken care of long after, it is a wonder that no other indication of time or author is extant, at least to be detected in the reliquaries, by tessellated shields and numeral marks. To the coffer itself are now read inscribed these verses:

People of Trier rejoice, with Saint Symeon as Patron, Honor here his tomb with suppliant mind.

And since in the same coffer are also stored certain Relics of SS. Nereus and Charles; these (as I believe) of the Emperor, surnamed the Great, brought from Aachen; those of the Roman Martyr, conveyed from the City; two German Rhythms are added, of which the first admonishes those sick and weak in their ears or eyes, and the mute, to have recourse to Symeon; the other indicates that by S. Nereus gout is cured, and by S. Charles plague is driven off.

§. II. The Elevation of the Venerable Poppo from the Maximinian Manuscript.

[5] There followed the aforesaid Relation a prolix exhortation to the impenitent sinner, who said in his heart, There is no God; Does God sleep? Do his Saints too sleep? who now neither by signs nor miracles appear to us? and the Author shows that these things are deservedly withdrawn from such; and exhorts them to do penance for things committed, and that by the example and doctrine of the most blessed Symeon, Scheckmann the Maximinian: we serve our flesh no more than is opportune; but so refresh its infirmity, and nourish it with food and drink, that, without reluctance, it be held for the uses, not of vices, but of exercising virtues: and just as the most blessed Symeon himself, with divine grace concurring, happily triumphed over it; so we too, the concupiscences of the flesh always drawing to death being cut off, may also salutarily conquer the same, with the Lord helping. We, omitting those things which make nothing for the history, will subjoin the Elevation of the venerable Poppo, described by Scheckmann; since neither is his cult sufficiently proved, and therefore he himself seemed to be reported among the Omitted on the 16th of this month; nor are the Acts, which we have double, so ancient and so singular, that they deserve to be placed at least at the end of that day, by way of an Appendix, on account of indications of some begun cult. But we give that Elevation, as we received it from our Alexander Wilthem in the year 1647, from the autograph, to which this Epistolary preface is prefixed: To the most magnificent and excellent Prince, the greatest Lord, He offers to the Emperor Maximilian the Life of the Venerable Poppo, Lord Maximilian Emperor-elect of the Romans, and most invincible Caesar Augustus, and most serene King of Germany and Hungary, most illustrious Archduke of Austria, most renowned Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Lorraine, Luxembourg, etc. most splendid Count of Flanders, Tyrol, etc. Landgrave of Alsace, Palatine of Salzburg, his most gracious Lord, John Scheckmann of Trier, only in name a cenobite of Maximin, wishes health and felicity.

[6] The Preface is followed by the Life, the Life by the narration, how the seamless Tunic of our Lord Jesus Christ was found on 14 April in the year 1512, with Maximilian himself divinely inspired to seek it; and on the 3rd day of May, shown to the Emperor celebrating the obsequies of his wife Blanca, and to the Nobles and the whole people; and again in the fifth year after, that is on the day of Epiphany, exhibited. Then it is added, how, on the day after Epiphany a, which was the fourth of the Sabbath (Wednesday), the Lord Emperor, attended by a band of Heroes, went to the church of S. Symeon, where the body of the renowned Poppo long Prelate of Trier rests, to hear the solemnities of the Masses. The office of the Mass, performed no less strenuously than reverently, the Lord Augustus visited certain hidden and more secret places of the same church; whose body he ordered to be sought in the year 1517, and found, not so much a magnificent and strong structure, as the wondrous and humble dwelling of the Anchorite. His pious mind was thereupon moved, and grew wholly warm in spirit, with matter of wonder supplied on the one hand by the abject and narrow (so to speak) hut of Symeon, on the other by the wondrous building of Poppo. When behold a divine ardor touched the most devout heart of the most pious Lord Maximilian, and a more abundant cult of the Saints: and he gives a mandate, and likewise offers prayers, before the Reverend Lord Richard b the Archbishop, who also himself was then present, that he assent concerning the inquisition of the body of the renowned Poppo, his ancient predecessor. The Prelate assented, and decreed the matter to be discussed and likewise determined in the Chapter of that most fitting College, by the judgment of the Canons. The venerable Canons are convened, they ask thereupon to consult what need be done. At last meeting together, and rejoicing that they had got an opportune opportunity for the sake of inquiring after the body, and concurring with grateful assent to the sublimity of the Imperial Majesty, they decree the venerable body to be inquired after the next day. The Lord Emperor perceives this, and becomes brisk and more cheerful; the whole friendly cohort too rejoices, and the necessary things are arranged.

[7] The morrow comes, and those are ordered who should be present at solemnizing this business. the deputies meeting for which on 8 January. The Imperial power directed thither the notable man Lord John Spronts, Provost of Brixen, as principal Commissary for an act of this kind; also the excellent Lord Balthasar Merklyn, Provost in Waltkirch, Dean of the same church of S. Symeon and Imperial Counselor. But the Lord Archbishop sent the Reverend Lord John, Bishop of Cyrene, his general Vicar in Pontificals; and the noble Lord Robert Montreal, Abbot and Lord of Echternach; and also the excellent Lord John de Ave, Doctor both of Pontifical and Imperial law, Official and Ordinary of the Court of Trier. There appeared also other illustrious and noble men, Lord John de Hoechperch, Provost in Pforzen, of the diocese of Speyer, Orator of the illustrious Prince the Lord Margrave of Baden, likewise Secretary of the same Prince; Emeric, Count in Leiningen; William Montreal noble Squire, brother of the Lord Bishop of Tournai; and several others, Prelates, Doctors, Priests, nobles, commoners, citizens, insiders and outsiders; with the Canons of that church also present, Lord Matthew, Licentiate of Decrees, Provost of that church; and all the other Capitulars of the place, with each member and person.

[8] These being gathered in the name of the Lord, in the afternoon of the said day, there is uncovered the effigy placed on the sepulcher with a diadem, about the first hour, with devotion and reverence, they turn aside to the mausoleum, where that precious pearl, I mean the body of Lord Poppo, lay buried or rather enclosed. And first indeed they find a wooden tablet, on which the image of the renowned Poppo under the form of a Bishop, with a diadem c, was depicted, with two Angels holding the Pontifical miter; in whose circuit, around the gilded plate, at the summit, an image of the Savior cast in metal, of bronze likewise and gilded; at the foot again an image of Poppo (as is easy to conjecture) configured, as he drew the vital airs, with the face of Poppo. For it shows baldness and depressed jaws, but raised cheeks; as they assert Poppo to have been depicted. Furthermore in the four corners the four Evangelists, under the figures of animals, and around the circuit the twelve Apostles, between whom intervened this following Epitaph, partly mutilated and of more imperfect sense; although it might be seen whole, and the epitaph, which document we have here noted: IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S INCARNATION 1045, ON THE 16TH OF THE KALENDS OF JULY, DIED OF THIS SEE OF TRIER THE ARCHBISHOP BELOVED OF GOD POPPO, REMAINING A CLEAR LIGHT OF THE PEOPLE, A MOST GRATEFUL HOPE OF THE CLERGY, ASH. DOC. THAT HE MAY JOIN HIM TO THE ANGELIC FELLOWS, A CEDAR TO BE FLOWERED TOGETHER, THE VENERABLE PRELATE WAS RENDERING, THE SPIRIT COVERED THE BONES, IN THE FIRST OF HENRY EMPEROR AUGUSTUS. d

[9] Then there was poured e something of stone of a liver color, covering the surface of the tomb. That being moved, again (as is the custom of sepulchers) is seen a cover: and the body is found, which lifting up, they rejoiced with very great joy that they had found the desired treasure: and entering (so to speak) the house of the sepulcher, they found the body of the renowned Poppo, reclined upon the rocks, and wrapped in Episcopal insignia. It is announced meanwhile to the greatest Prince Maximilian Caesar Augustus, now just about to depart, and as if awaiting the proof of this matter, that what was so greatly desired was found. Who marvelously cheered, exultantly mounting his horse, and rejoicing that in this he had procured health and joy for the people of Trier, went out of the city.

[10] I think the order of the narration demands that we discuss how the fragrant body was found, and how it still lies, still whole, let us discuss. The monument was cut in a great stone f vault, smoothed or coated within with fine cement: on which the venerable body placed, with the Lord magnifying his Saint, saw no corruption. For it was wholly whole, wholly solid, wholly cohering sinew by sinew, member by member, joint by joint; so that you might see Poppo, now dead for nearly five hundred years; but to have departed life most recently. The pillow, on which the head was inclined, alone decayed. Above that breast there is in lead an anaglyph g, in great and ancient letters, POPPO ARCHBISHOP OF TRIER DIED ON THE SIXTEENTH OF THE KALENDS OF JULY. The arms extended along the sides: in Archiepiscopal habit, the right somewhat more curved. The right hand bears the pastoral Staff: furthermore on the fourth finger of that hand a golden ring, with a precious stone (as it appears) gray. Then, the fifth finger being applied, it holds a golden little paten: with the left hand open, it keeps a small golden chalice, between the palm and thumb. The Sacerdotal chasuble, silken of black color, very excellent and whole, whose lining is seen outwardly: but the silk turned inside: its extremity around the circuit is bordered with a binding most precious. Two oraria or Stoles, bound around the shoulders and shoulder-blades, as is the custom of celebrating Priests, hanging down even to the knees, each of a blood color, which adorned at the edges with most pure and reddish gold, as if you had placed them the day before. A dalmatic silken bluish-gray or saffron, so pure and fresh that you would believe it stored away yesterday. A silken maniple of white color. He is shod with sandals made with wondrous art and elaboration. h

[11] They contemplated all these things, and they were turned and re-turned about without any injury. The lifeless body, and preserving the former lineaments; dry and contracted, indicates still by its length, that Poppo, while he lived, was a man of elegant stature. The head still shows the indications of baldness, prominent outward. Deep eyes, which they say are of a serious man: a tall nose, which of a provident and considerate one; a small mouth, which they assert indicates temperate and moderate speech; a long chin, yet narrow below, to prefigure a modest and pious one; humble jaws, the cheeks somewhat higher, the face, hands, fingers, oblong nails; in fine the whole body modified and fitted; and, that I may finish in few words, it declares Poppo dead to have been notable for industry, and (as is read of the Savior) bland to the good and meek, severe to the perverse and terrible. All these things being thus seen and ascertained, the monument was closed.

[12] and it is again inspected on 27 January. But, although the word of faith is from hearing, yet truth lies chiefly in sight and touch: for things seen and touched are narrated otherwise, things heard otherwise. Wherefore to me most abject, namely Brother John Scheckmann, the lowest Cenobite of S. Maximin, this grace, this benefit was conferred, that I too deserved to see, handle, and touch. For after the aforesaid reclusion, on the sixth of the Kalends of February, the monument of the man of God Poppo was reopened, that at last more firmly and carefully the truth of the matter might be strengthened: and I was summoned and brought, that I might see and commit to writing the things beheld. I came, I saw, I believed, and I rejoiced. I saw, I say, all things to be so as I have prescribed: I believed, that this man is truly a Saint and inserted into heaven among the number and catalogue of the Saints; whom I grieved nonetheless to be unknown to the earth, and (as they say) inscribed neither in Calendars nor in Martyrologies: but I rejoiced, that Poppo dead for so long a time had not rotted.

[13] Hence I raised in my heart a prayer, according to that Isaian saying, and is handled by the Author himself: for the relics, for the garments, for the remains, which had been found uncontaminated. Is. 37:4. I unworthy handled each thing: inflamed with devotion I approached the venerable crown of the head, I shuddered, I was afraid, but with honor, but with love. I found the members fixedly cohering; I handled the chasuble and ornaments of that kind; I drew them this way and that: they were not torn, they were not dissolved, but they gave glory to Poppo clothed with sanctity. The Pontifical Staff I took from his hands, and looked at it carefully, if there were anything memorable in it: I detected at its summit a little plate of ductile silver connected around the circuit, adorned with golden flowers. among which these five capital letters were contained, separately one from another, P, T. P. G. T. I applied my mind to the interpretation: and what the Lord gave I thought useful to insert, saving however to anyone any better exposition, in my judgment the five aforewritten capitals seem to sound, as also the Episcopal staff, POPPO THE TRANQUIL PRELATE OF THE FLOCK OF TRIER; or surely this, POPPO THE SAFE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK OF TRIER; or another, i POPPO THE PROTECTOR OF THE LITTLE FLOCK OF TRIER. The Pastoral rod is believed to be of oak or beech wood, yet of different and more precious wood is the crook.

[14] And why should I delay longer? What I saw, what my hands felt, and finally it is diligently closed concerning the man of God I write, and leave to posterity to be narrated forever and ever, to praise the name of the Saint of the Lord, to magnify and exalt the kindly Poppo: whom may God the best and greatest deign to make known to men, and to lift the lamp from under the bushel, and to place it above the candlestick, that the zealous peoples may see and be confounded, since the hand of the Lord is not shortened, but still stretched out; and prepared to do marvels, mightier than ever he did. Diligently after these things we covered the most illustrious body with linens, and the stone being let down we carefully secured the burial-vault (for before access lay easily open), we blocked the openings and chinks, lest it should be injured by the gnawing of worms or shrews bursting in, or consumed by the touch of penetrating air. until the time of the Canonization. And indeed thus we left the fragrant body in the tomb, without any diminution; until the Most High provide concerning his servant Poppo; and exalt him, not only to his neighbors, but also among more remote nations; and grant that he be sublimated in the church of the people, and praised, celebrated together in the chairs of the elders; that according to the Prophet, that people may deserve to be praiseworthy, whose is the Lord his God, whom the Lord of hosts blessed: to whom be praise, honor, power, and glory forever and ever. Amen. k

[15] There will not perhaps be lacking, there will not be lacking certain ones foolishly muttering, that not in the present age, as in the former, The frequent recourse of pregnant women to it. miracles are done at the sepulchers of the Saints; doubtless ignorant, and holding nothing of weight, that it was then necessary for the virtues to become known, that the insulting voice of those reproaching, Where is their God? might be taken from the midst (for signs are given to the unbelieving): but now, with those confirmed in faith, none of these is needed: a greater gift awaits them and a more profuse reward, with the Saints now offering the vows and prayers of the faithful within the sanctuary of being heard, obtaining pardon of sins, and procuring grace. Here we give to understand by no means, that this our Poppo did not shine with miracles, which it would be frivolous to say: but that we may meet, if perhaps any should fabulate, that he ought not to be reputed a Saint by those, who have by no means perceived in writings that he coruscated with miracles. What, I ask, what does that frequent confluence of pregnant little women to his tomb show forth? what do the vows of those now laboring in childbirth portend? what finally does the concourse of those now going out from childbed mean? except that of old he was at hand in succoring those of this kind, and is, and always will be. Several in peril in childbirth, being invoked, he freed at once, he revived half-dead infants, he often strengthened lifeless ones. But great abundance is wont to generate loathing, and quickly grow cheap those vows which are frequently borne; therefore they are not reputed miracles, because they frequently happen.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

"remaining a clear light …. a most grateful hope of the clergy. that he may join him to the angelic fellows." Where the same Brower notes, what is detected at the very first front, that the structure of the verses was set in reversed order. But this is to be imputed to the transcriber alone, who, having wrongly begun to read, placed the verses before the prose; which can most easily happen to the unskilled in epitaphs of that kind drawn around the border, became clear at Boppard; where, the epitaph found, how badly and contrary to usage and sense those read it who first transcribed it, I showed both in the Propylaeum to the 2nd Volume of April, page 37, and more accurately in the Chronology of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem before the 3rd Volume of May page 67. Would that someone had similarly taken care to express by lineaments the tablet found in the sepulcher of Poppo (for that it now survives, I can scarcely hope from Brower's words) it would perhaps have been possible by a conjecture a not unhappy to supply the gaps, by hemistichs proportioned to them; nor would it be difficult to indicate their order among themselves. But this hope ceasing, I have given what Scheckmann wrote; in whose autograph a space for more than one line is left vacant; and there is added (which lest I disturb the context I omitted)---As I suppose, because the layman erred, ignorant of the capitals to be fabricated, and at the same time omitting them: then again is written IN THE YEAR etc. as above, only two little words being changed, suggesting what may seem, instead of DOCTOR OF THE CITIZENS, to have been written ASH. DOC.