Marcellinus and Peter and Companions

ON SS. MARCELLINUS AND PETER AND COMPANIONS.

UNDER DIOCLETIAN.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. Their cult, Churches, Acts.

Marcellinus, Priest, Martyr at Rome (St.) Peter the Exorcist, Martyr at Rome (St.) Thomatus, Martyr at Rome (St.) Rogatus, Martyr at Rome (St.) The forty-two, Martyrs at Rome (SS.)

BHL Number: 5231

G. H. & D. P.

This second day of June is illustrious for Roman and Lyonese Martyrs. Of the latter we have treated above: of the Roman, in the very ancient Manuscript Martyrology of Trier of the Church of St. Martin, these things are read: "At Rome, of Marcellus the Martyr, with four hundred others." Very many Martyrs are venerated on this day: This chief of so many athletes is by others called Marcellinus. We give the Martyrs expressed by their names, one hundred sixty-four, and marked by a certain number, one hundred sixty-six, in all three hundred and thirty, whom we distribute into four universal classes, that the reader may bear his own judgment on each. Notker, when he had treated of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, adds these things: "Likewise at Rome, of one hundred eighty Martyrs, and of many more, whose names God alone knows." Moreover all the Martyrologies begin this day with these same SS. Marcellinus and Peter, concerning whom and some Companions, in the very ancient Epternach copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, these things are read: "On the fourth of the Nones of June, at Rome, the birthday of Peter the Exorcist, and of Marcellinus the Priest, of Thomatus, of Rogatus, with forty-two others." In the other three copies of the same the name of Marcellinus is placed first: in the rest those agree with the Epternach, except that in the Lucca copy no mention is made of Thomatus: who is also in one written Tomajus.

[2] But the most solemn veneration of SS. Marcellinus and Peter remained, who were even inserted into the Canon of the most holy Mass: whose memory is celebrated in all the Latin sacred calendars, among whom the most celebrated, Marcellinus and Peter, both written by hand and printed by the press. Usuard has these things: "At Rome, of the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist, who, instructing many in prison to the faith, after dire chains and very many torments, were beheaded under the Judge Serenus." To which in the Roman Martyrology is added: "under Diocletian, in a place which was called Black-Wood (Silva-nigra), which afterward, in honor of the Saints, with its name changed, was called White-Wood (Silva-candida)." More things are related from the Acts themselves in Rabanus, Ado, Notker, and other later writers.

[3] Their bodies, as is read in the same Acts, Lucilla gathered, and placed in a vehicle by night, and brought by the Via Labicana at the third milestone from the city, and buried them on the day of the fourth of the Nones of June in peace. buried on the Via Lavicana, But Ado, with other Manuscript Acts, reads thus: "Whose bodies, the blessed Martyrs revealing themselves, Lucilla and Firmina, most Christian women, afterward took; and near St. Tiburtius, in the lower part of the crypt, they buried them, on the fifth of the Kalends of September." Whatever is to be judged of that deposition, certainly that their birthday was accustomed to be celebrated on this 2 June, all the Martyrologies confirm; and with these agree the book of Sacraments of St. Gregory the Pope, and a Codex older than it, almost from the ordering of SS. Leo and Gelasius, written nine hundred years ago, and published at Rome not so long ago by Giuseppe Maria Tomasi; likewise an old Roman Calendar, illustrated by Jean Fronteau. Concerning their titular Church these things are read in the Life of St. Sylvester the Pope in Anastasius the Librarian: and there honored with a church by Constantine the Great; "At those same times the Augustus Constantine made a Basilica for the most blessed Martyrs Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist, between the two Laurels and the Mausoleum, where his most blessed mother Helena was buried. The Augusta, in a porphyry sarcophagus on the Via Lavicana, at the third milestone from the City." So there, to which similar things are had in the Life of St. Helena, to be examined on 18 August, on account of some Greeks who assert that she was buried at Constantinople. But the most ancient Acts of St. Sylvester, published by us in the Catalogue of the Older Pontiffs before the first Volume of April, have these things about Constantine the Great: "At the same time he made a basilica of the holy Martyrs Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist"; which, as we have said, Anastasius explains with others, in the Acts of the same Sylvester. The same Anastasius asserts, in the Acts of Pope Honorius, who presided over the Church from 626 to 638, that he renovated the cemetery of the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, on the Via Lavicana. And that there are still retained there venerable images of Marcellinus and Peter, noble in mosaic work, Baronius asserts in Volume 9 of the Annals at the year 826, number 16. The ground-plan of the church, whose ruined walls still survive. built in a round form, and of the most ample atrium enclosed in a square, and the depiction of the ruined walls still remaining, see in Volume 2 of Subterranean Rome, page 51. The most illustrious John Ciampini, Master of the Briefs of grace, and Major Abbreviator of the Apostolic letters, as well as Referendary in each Signatura, known to the City and the World by one or another Volume of ancient Monuments, especially Mosaic, being asked to share with us the images themselves, that most curious excavator of such things, answered that he had indeed at once directed a painter thither; but that the latter, since he found nothing, learned from an aged neighbor that they had wholly perished through the injury of time, though once seen by him there.

[4] There was another church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, in the city of Rome, which is situated near the Lateran basilica, and itself most ancient, Another erected for them near the Lateran, which some think was also built by Constantine the Great; but we are unwilling to assert this. Of it mention is made in the Roman Synod held under St. Gregory the Great and related in the book of the Register, chapter 88; where among the Presbyters subscribes, "Albinus of SS. Marcellinus and Peter": which Onuphrius judges was then a Cardinalitial title, in On the Seven Churches of the City, chapter 2: and there remained the eighteenth Station, on the Saturday after the second Sunday of Lent. In the same, in one or the other St. Gregory delivered a homily. or perhaps in the former basilica, the sixth Homily on Matthew was delivered by the same Gregory the Great, which is prefaced with the title of the same Church in this manner: "Homily delivered to the people, in the basilica of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, on the day of their birthday." Of this Church Anastasius writes that Gregory III made anew the church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter near the Lateran. This Pope presided from the year 731 to the year 741, in which he died and is venerated on 28 November. But in the ninth century Pope Benedict III and Nicholas I restored a certain church of the same Saints; but which one, Aringhi disputes much in book 4 of Subterranean Rome, chapter 9, whom consult. That their Relics are still there, Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza writes, in the Roman Sanctuary of the year 1675.

[5] The Acts of the martyrdom themselves Lorenzo Surius published, but in a polished style. The Acts of the martyrdom from manuscripts. We give the same in their original phrasing, from the most ancient Manuscript codices, namely the Saint-Omer one, of the Cathedral Church; the Windberg one, of the Premonstratensian Order in Bavaria; two Trier ones, the one of St. Maximinus, the other of St. Martin; and two of our own, marked AA and α, and a third containing the Acts of the month of June. We had the same in four Manuscript codices of the Queen of Sweden, marked with the numbers 13, 81, 482, and 863. And that the same are extant at Capua in the monastery of St. John and on Caesar's Island, and in a Manuscript Passional of the year 1148 kept among the Premonstratensians in the Park Abbey near Louvain, we learned from the letters of Silvestro Ayossa, a Capuan Priest, of Johann Grothausen of the Society of Jesus, and of Adrian de Vadder, Subprior of Park. Nor did it please us to examine more codices, or even to note the Acts found in others, especially because there was great consensus in most of the manuscripts. In the Trier Manuscript of St. Martin some things were omitted here and there: the abridgments in the Martyrologies. in the Utrecht Manuscript very many things were contracted. An abridgment similar to this was published by Ado in his Martyrology, which was written in the ninth century. Much briefer is the elogium which is had in the genuine Martyrology of Bede, published by us from eight manuscripts before the second Volume of April, of this kind: "On the fourth of the Nones of June, at Rome, of Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist; who, instructing many in prison to the faith, after dire chains and very many torments were beheaded, under the Judge Serenus: and he who beheaded them saw their souls splendidly adorned, carried by Angels into heaven; and doing penance, he was baptized under Pope Julius in his old age, by the name of Dorotheus." So there. We subjoin the Acts of the martyrdom of these Saints written in trochaic verses, not altogether perfect, whose Author Surius, The same Acts written in Verse. and with him generally others, judge to be Eginhart, of whom we shall treat below; indeed in a Fleury Manuscript Mabillon says he found this title: "Here begins the rhythm of Einhard, a most learned man, on the Passion of the Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter." With Eginhard lived, but somewhat younger, Blessed Rabanus, Abbot of Fulda, then Archbishop of Mainz, famous for erudition and sanctity; who among his poems published hymn 23, on SS. Marcellinus and Peter the Martyrs, and excellently confirms the Acts of the martyrdom themselves; which Hymn, because it is short, we shall also give here. Moreover, this history is not only about those two; a part of it is occupied by the Saints Arthemius, the keeper of the prison; Candida, his wife; and Paulina the Virgin, freed from a demon; all converted to the faith of Christ through the said Saints and crowned with martyrdom: concerning whom below, on the sixth day of June, with Usuard, the Roman Martyrology, and others, there will be separate treatment.

[6] At Cremona in Italy, with a quite celebrated cult, the aforesaid holy Martyrs are honored, At Cremona the feast where by the diocesan Synod of the year 1599, a table was set forth concerning the festival days to be observed by precept or old custom; and it is prescribed for this second of June, the feast of SS. Peter and Marcellinus, "in the city of the Patrons." Giuseppe Bresciano, in the Cremonese Diary of the year 1638, also writes that these Martyrs are venerated as Protectors of this city: on account of the Relics preserved there, and adds that in the Cathedral church, under the Confession, their most holy bodies are preserved. That it is dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God assumed into heaven, Ughelli indicates in Volume 4 of Sacred Italy, in his preface concerning the Bishops of Cremona: and in Arnulph, the 43rd Bishop, he writes these things about these Relics: "In the times of this Bishop, from the year 1078, through the efforts of William, Abbot of St. Benedict of Cremona, and Abdo, Abbot of St. Lawrence, they translated the holy bones of SS. Peter and Marcellinus into the church of St. Thomas, consecrated by Benizo, Bishop of Sutri and Apostolic Legate, in the year 1078, on the 12th day of the month of May."

[7] Carlo Sigonio, in book 16 of On the Kingdom of Italy at the year 1213, indicates that a war broke out between the Cremonese and the Milanese, and that the latter were cut down by the former in battle with such great success that not only were many Milanese killed, but also up to six thousand captured. "This victory so unexpected," he says, "when the wondering city beheld it, that religious and pious opinion at once arose, that it had been won not by human aid, but by the present help of the holy Martyrs Peter and Marcellinus. and on account of the victory obtained in the year 1212. For when, with the battle imminent, the unwarlike multitude as suppliants in the city, at their tombs, made vows in the temple of St. Thomas for victory, it beheld two doves go out from there, and presently betake themselves back to the same place. But those who were in the camp saw two young men, sitting on white horses and clothed in white garments, rousing themselves with fierce onset into the line of the Milanese, and by their force and valor breaking through their wedges as by a kind of heavenly thunderbolt, and at last compelling them to turn their backs. Which thing being observed, and compared with the urban omen of the two doves, the Cremonese held for certain that they had obtained so great a victory by the heavenly protection of the two Martyrs. And so by common decree they ordained that their feast, which was held on the fourth of the Ides of June, should henceforth be celebrated on the fourth of the Nones." So there: which from the cited Sigonio Bzovius referred to the year 1212. Nor have we found out more about these Relics, whence, when, and on what occasion they were received. Of the same bodies translated into Germany (as is believed) in the year 826 we shall treat below; and likewise of the Relics of St. Marcellinus, translated this very century from Rome to Piedmont, a noble town of fortunate Campania.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM. From several very ancient Manuscript Codices.

BHL Number: 5231

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

[1] The kindness of our Savior, proved by the perseverance of the Martyrs, proceeded so far that he both crowned the friends of the faith and rescued their enemies from the very bars of hell. Finally, while Rome was held by the Pagans; Peter, holding the office of Exorcist, when he had been beaten many times, St. Peter beaten and shut up in prison, and sent into the most dark dwelling of the prison, and remained there immovable in iron chains; the keeper of the prison, named Arthemius, having an only daughter, named Paulina the Virgin, whom he loved with singular affection, when she was vexed by a demon, and wept daily; the man of God Peter the Exorcist said to him: "Hear my counsel, Arthemius; and believe in the only-begotten Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the liberator of all who believe in him: if you truly believe, your daughter shall soon be saved. he urges the faith upon Arthemius," To whom Arthemius answered: "I marvel at the prudence of your counsel: your God cannot free you, although you believe in him, and daily for his name endure blows and chains: how will he be able to free my daughter, if I believe in him?" And Peter said: "My Lord is able to free me from these chains, and from all penalties, but he does not wish to hinder my crown: that his daughter may be freed from the demon: for he wishes that I should complete my course through temporal suffering, that I may be able to attain eternal glory."

[2] Arthemius said: "If you wish me to believe in your God, behold I today will multiply chains upon you, and fortify all the bars of the prison; and you yourself I will shut up alone in dark custody: and bound more tightly, he promises that he will come to his house. and if your God frees you from all these things, I will believe in him: and yet I will do this then, when I shall have seen my daughter freed." Then blessed Peter, smiling, said: "The weakness of your faith can be cured, if you do this very thing which you assert." Arthemius said: "I will believe in him, if he rescues you from these chains." Peter said: "Go into your house, and prepare for me a lodging: because, with you not opening to me, nor releasing me from these chains, nor providing me a guide, I will come there to you, in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ. But when I shall have come there, your hands will feel me, and your eyes will prove me, and I will speak the same words with you: and if you so believe, your daughter shall be saved. But this will happen, not according to the pleasure of your testing, but for the declaration of the deity of my Lord Jesus Christ." Then, shaking his head, Arthemius said: "This man, wearied by excessive sufferings, speaks foreign things."

[3] And saying these things he departed: and coming into his house, while he relates this to his wife, he began to relate it to his wife named Candida. To whom Candida said: "I marvel that you think mad one who promises you health; or not sincere one who asserts that he will bestow health on our daughter. Has he appointed for you long times?" Arthemius said: "He asserts that he will come today." Candida said: "If he does this, who would doubt that Christ, whom he believes, is the true God?" Arthemius said: "I shudder at your foolishness. For if the gods themselves descend from heaven, they do not release him from his chains: even if Jupiter himself goes to him, he will not be able to open to him." Candida answered: "Surely therefore his God will be magnified, and he must be believed in, if he does this which (as you assert) not even Jupiter himself can do." And while they both were speaking these things, and, with the light of day closed, the night was showing its beginning by the splendor of the stars; Peter arrives, the man of God Peter appears to Arthemius and Candida, clothed in white garments, having in his hand the triumph of the Cross. At whose footsteps Arthemius fell down with his wife Candida, and they cried out, saying: "Truly God is one, and the true Lord is Jesus Christ." And immediately their daughter, and frees the girl: by name and body the Virgin Paulina, vexed by an unclean spirit, and she herself confessing God, falling down before his feet, was cleansed; so that the demon himself cried out in the air, saying: "The power of Christ, which is in you, Peter, has itself banished me, and separated me from the virginity of Paulina."

[4] And while these things were being done, all who were in the house of Arthemius were converted to the faith, more than 300, and many women, were baptized and believed. But a messenger ran to those who dwelt in the neighboring place, so that there came to be a multitude of more than three hundred men; but a more abundant number of women, all crying out and saying, "Besides Christ there is no other almighty God": for in their sight both those possessed by demons were freed, and all the sick were healed. And when all unanimously, who had gathered in the house of Arthemius, desired to become Christians; the man of God Peter went, and brought St. Marcellinus the Priest, St. Marcellinus baptizes, by whom all were unanimously baptized in the house of Arthemius. This Arthemius, since he was the keeper of the prison, entered to those who were in chains; and said to them: "If anyone wishes to believe in Christ, let him go out free, and come to my house to make himself a Christian." And they all, promising that they would believe in Christ, went out; and coming to the house of Arthemius, as well as the captives brought by Arthemius. were baptized by St. Marcellinus the Priest, illumined by the consecration. Meanwhile, while these things were being done, the most pestilent judge, Serenus by name, fell into sickness; and during the whole span of his illness, time was given to all the baptized, so that by the daily discourse of Marcellinus the Priest and Peter they might be strengthened in the faith of Christ, and they all strengthen them for 40 days. for forty days and more.

[5] After this the Commentarienses sent to Arthemius the Jailer, that he should be present by night with the persons who were in prison. Arthemius indicates to the Judge what was done, But all those who had been baptized kissed their hands and said: that if anyone wished to come to martyrdom, he should go undaunted; but if anyone wished to depart, he should go away unharmed. When therefore at the first cockcrow Serenus the Vicar was sitting, and ordered the persons to be brought in to be heard; Arthemius, entering, said: "Peter, the Exorcist of the Christians, whom you ordered to be punished and to be half-alive in prison, here in the name of his God has loosed the chains of all, and opened wide the doors of all; and making all Christians, he made them go away wherever they wished. He himself, however, with Marcellinus the Priest, has nowhere departed of his own will: for as often as I wished to guard him, he nowhere appeared."

[6] Then the Vicar Serenus, inflamed with excessive fury, ordered Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist to be brought in under the voice of the questioning. When they had been brought in, Serenus said: he orders the Saints to be set before him; "The executioners would deal more gently with you, if you would give up the sacrilege of your Christianity: but now you have made even the guilty and the criminal go out of prison." Marcellinus the Priest said: "A criminal is in his crime so long as he does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ: but when he shall have believed, immediately washed of all guilt, and that Marcellinus, beaten with fists, be shut up in prison, he is called a son of the most high God." When Marcellinus the Priest said these and similar things, Serenus ordered him to be beaten with fists on both arteries. And when those beating him grew faint, he commanded him to be separated from Peter, and to be sent naked, where he had had broken glass strewn; and there to be shut up bound, and light and water to be denied him.

[7] Peter the Exorcist, turning to Serenus, said: "Though you are Serene by your name, and then also Peter, you show yourself wholly cloudy and dark by your deeds: and though you are a mortal man, you promise punishments: thinking by threats and terrors to disturb the immortal faith, which reigns in Christian minds: moreover, the Priest of the most high God, Marcellinus the Priest, whom you ought to have entreated to pray for you, that you might rather have been absolved from the crimes of your unbelief, you have caused to be beaten with fists, and have consigned to the harshest custody: of which deed he indeed glories and rejoices, but you will be in eternal grief and everlasting tears." Then Serenus ordered Peter too to be received in chains, and his feet to be bound in the tightest stocks.

[8] And it happened, while they were separated in custody, and Marcellinus the Priest was sent naked among the sharp glass, both are led out by an Angel to those recently baptized. but Peter the Exorcist in iron and stocks; an Angel of the Lord appeared to Marcellinus the Priest, while praying, and clothed him with his garments, and said to him: "Follow me." And while Marcellinus the Priest was following the Angel of the Lord, he entered with him where Peter the Exorcist was in stocks and iron: and he released him, and said to them: "Follow me." And while they were following him, they came to the house in which were all who had been baptized, unanimously praying. To whom the Angel said, that for seven days they should strengthen the people who had believed through them, and after seven days they should show themselves to the Vicar Serenus.

[9] On the next day a man is sent to the prison, and neither Peter nor Marcellinus is found by the inquisitors: SS. Arthemius, Candida, and Paulina are led out to death, and while they were not found, it was announced to the Judge. Then the Judge ordered a man to be sent for Arthemius, and his wife Candida, and their daughter named Paulina the virgin: whom, when he had seen them, he had constrained that they should sacrifice to the gods. Arthemius and his wife Candida, together with their daughter, said thus: "We confess the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, and therefore we can by no means be polluted by the rite of sacrifices." When these things were heard, the Vicar Serenus ordered them all together to be overwhelmed with an immense weight of rubble on the Via Aurelia. But it happened that at the hour in which they were proceeding to their passion, in that same place all the Christians met St. Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist; they hear the Mass of St. Marcellinus; and the Officials, seeing so great a people, fled. But the younger of the people of God, following after them, held them, and with gentle words began to exhort them to the faith. But they, while they would not believe, were guarded by the people so long as until St. Marcellinus the Priest should say the Masses in the crypt, in which the Saints had come to be punished. But when the things that are of God were completed, all the people departed from the Priest.

[10] And when silence had been made; Marcellinus with Peter stood, Arthemius by the sword, saying to those who would not believe: "Behold, it was in our power to harm you, but we did not do it: it was in our power to take from you Arthemius and Candida and their Virgin, SS. Candida and Paulina are killed with stones: but neither did we do this: but now it was in our power, by the grace of God working it, to depart, and we did not do this. What say you to these things?" But they, raging against the men of God, struck Arthemius with the sword, but holy Candida and the Virgin, throwing them over the precipice, that is, over the threshold of the crypt, overwhelmed them with stones: but Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist they bound, with their hands tied behind their backs, to a tree, and left those who should guard them, until it should be announced to the Vicar.

[11] Marcellinus and Peter beheaded, And when the Vicar had learned all the things that had been done; he ordered them to be led to the Black-Wood, which today, in honor of the Saints, is called the White-Wood, and both alike to be beheaded in the same place. And when they had come into the middle of the Wood, they themselves cleared the place of thorns with their own hands: in which, praying and giving themselves the kiss of peace, with knee placed they were beheaded. But those who beheaded them testified that they had seen their souls, going out of the body, like virgins, adorned with gems and gold, clothed in the most splendid garments, and lifted up by the hands of Angels, rejoicing to be carried to the heavens through the air.

[12] But there were Lucilla and Firmina, most Christian women, parents of St. Tiburtius the Martyr, whose nobility was great even on earth among the Senators, they are buried by Lucilla and Firmina: and is proved more magnificent among the Martyrs in heaven. These, while out of love of the Martyr their kinsman they would not withdraw from the tomb, and had built themselves a chamber, and persevered there long and by night; St. Tiburtius appeared to them in a vision, with these two Martyrs; and instructed them how they should walk, and should carry off their bodies from the Black-Wood, and bury them there near himself in the lower part in the crypt: to whom two Acolytes of the Roman Church were a help.

[13] The epitaph written by St. Damasus. All these things Damasus, when he was a Lector, as a little boy learned from him who had beheaded them, and afterward, made Bishop, declared at their tomb in these little verses:

Marcellinus, your triumphs, and likewise Peter, yours, The executioner related to me, Damasus, when I was a boy. He told that he had given these commands to the rabid butcher, That then in the midst of the briars he should cut your necks, Lest anyone might be able to recognize your tomb, [And] that you eager ones cleansed your graves with your own hands, After you lay hidden in the little white cave. That afterward Lucilla, admonished by your piety, Was here the more pleased to bury your most holy members.

[14] The lictor converted. But he himself who beheaded them, named Dorotheus, performed public penance as a pagan, indicating to St. Julius the Bishop and to all the people what he had seen; and he was baptized in his old age, and through a good confession came to the mercy of the Savior, to whom be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen. Whose bodies, namely of the most blessed Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist, Martyrs, Lucilla gathered, and placed in a vehicle by night, and brought by the Via Lavicana at the third milestone from the city, and buried on the day of the fourth of the Nones of June in peace.

NOTES BY G. H. AND D. P.

p That epitaphs are inscribed "in peace" indiscriminately, both of martyrs and of others, you understand from this: as therefore from this formula anyone's Martyrdom will not rightly be denied; so this ought not to be presumed, where it is present; unless surer arguments of the passion, for bodies thus found, are likewise present.

METRICAL ACTS, by the Author (as is thought) Eginhart, from the Surian Edition.

BHL Number: 5232

BY EGINHART.

[1] There was a certain Exorcist, holy Peter by name, St. Peter arrested, is dreadfully beaten: who, following the doctrine of the great Apostle Peter, preached the true faith of Jesus Christ to the nations. He was an adjurer of the malign demons, and powerful by his word put to flight the black spirits, and through the sign of the holy Cross had made the sick whole. Whom the Pagans, having seized, bind with harsh chains, and, having torn him through many kinds of torments, at last consigned him to a dark prison: imprudently thinking that punishment inflicted through the limbs of the body would prevail to take away the faith of Christ: but the heart, remaining fixed on heaven, knows not how to yield to the scourges. Over him the keeper appointed was Arthemius, who bound the throng of the accused with dire chains, and guarded the bars of the murky prison-house: to whom was a daughter very dear, a Virgin by name, who, invaded by a most ferocious demon, was vexed, and a savage punishment tormented her father's heart.

[2] When Peter had learned this, he addresses Arthemius, admonishing at once and exhorting, that famous soldier of Christ, that he should purchase his daughter's health by the holy faith. [he urges upon Arthemius the faith of Christ, that he may free his daughter from the demon:] "Believe," he said, "that Christ is God, who created all things, who holds heaven and earth in his right hand, and who with gentle power protects what he possesses." When the blessed Peter, the servant of Christ, set forth these things, that keeper of the dark prison, Arthemius, brings back many words in reply, but the same frivolous ones: "It is not," he said, "true, Peter, nor likely, that your Christ can save my daughter, who shows no comfort to his worshippers: he would bring, I think, if he were able, help to his servants. But that he is not able is betrayed by those blows, which you have lately, by enduring them for his sake, been failing under." To this Peter, with a glad countenance bringing back a few words, said: "We confess Christ, and in him we believe; who alone is the Savior and Lord of the ages. He is able to do whatever shall please him, as powerful in heaven and on earth, as in the waves of the sea, to whom the whole heaven with its stars serves. He is able, whenever it pleases him, to loose the hard bonds of the chains, by which I am held bound, and to render me safe from all the penalties of torments. But I believe that he is unwilling to hinder my prize, but rather makes me, purged of sins, arrive, through the torments of the passion, at perennial glory. Yet I should wish, O Arthemius, that you would make the trial, whether it be true or false, what we believe about Christ, and that we all say him to be so powerful."

[3] To this the keeper of the prison-cave, not yet a believer, said: "Let it be done, what you exhort, and today let it be made clear what your Christ can do, whom you ask me to believe. bound more harshly and shut up, Behold, I now will add chains upon your chains, and you yourself I will leave shut up in the dark prison, and bind the doorposts of the cave with stronger bolts. If your Christ frees you, entangled with such great bonds, and renders you safe and sound when loosed; I will believe in him, and worship him as God without doubt: yet on this condition, if I shall see my dear daughter redeemed, by Christ himself working it, from the dominion of that demon by which she is vexed." Then, smiling, that strong man Peter, the servant of Christ, said: "Weak faith will be able to be strengthened, if you fulfill in deeds what you have promised in words; and if you see me, without human help and support, freed from this foul prison in which I am shut, having passed the threshold of your house with my foot: and not only by looking, but by the touches of your palms, he promises that he will come to his house, by examining you will prove that he himself stands by you, whom you dismissed shut up in the dark prison." At these words, frequently shaking his head, Arthemius, and not believing that God could do such great good things, replies to such a Peter, the servant of Christ, with this address: "Man," he said, "captured in mind, you speak foreign things, which I reckon has happened from your many sufferings, which you have long endured for the sake of the Christian sect."

[4] Thus he spoke, and departed, and betook himself home, and to his wife, by surname Candida, while Arthemius relates this to his wife, greatly astonished and marveling, related the words of Peter. To whom his wife speaks with a believing heart to his doubting one, that she marveled that he should wish to call mad one whom he had heard promise his daughter's health; nor that this ought to be long deferred which he had promised, but he should confess that he would do it at the present time, and that what he said and pledged would today become clear. But he, striving against it, chides his wife, why she should give faith to these words: and he calls her foolish, because she believed Christ, the God of Peter, to be so powerful. "There is," he said, "no deity, nor even Jupiter himself, which could so loose from chains the same man shut up, or dismiss him free from the foul pit of the cave." She, believing the words of Peter, by which he had promised himself, that through the power of Jesus Christ he could do wondrous things, repelled her resisting husband with this saying: "This is," she said, "what will increase the glory of his God, when through him shall be done what those great deities, which are now worshipped by us, are unable to accomplish."

[5] While together and by turns, alternating, they confer these things, he arrives with the Cross in hand: and, with the orb of the sun sunk, the stars bring forth the night: Behold Peter, as he promised, is present to those marveling, bearing the sign of the Cross in his hand, shining in a white garment; and shows himself to be the true servant of Christ, and not anything false, while he is handled by the hands of many. Great astonishment seizes Arthemius beholding these things; and without delay he is rolled at the feet of Peter, crying with loud voices that Christ alone is the true God. This too his wife, this too the whole household, agrees in unison, that there is none but Christ, most powerful of things, whom blessed Peter had preached and worshipped. At whose coming the very demon, which and he frees his daughter: long, by evilly possessing, was vexing their daughter, flees at once, and unwilling proclaims the man of God, so that in the high air the dread evil one was heard, saying: "The power of Christ, Peter, remaining in you, has driven me from that Virgin whom I held until now."

[6] When then Peter did these things through the power of the Spirit, swift Fame, flying at once through the neighboring places, gathered very many men and women. For no fewer than three hundred males came together, more of both sexes hastening up, a greater number of women also had flowed together, all at once marveling at the holy glory of Christ. For all beheld that in the name of Christ all diseases were healed by supernal grace, and through the sacred commands of Peter the demons were driven out. And seeing this, with pure heart they desire to take up the saving faith of Christ: and at the same time they entreat that they might deserve to be washed in the wave of the sacred font. Hither at once, Peter calling, came the servant of Christ, the great Martyr and Confessor Marcellinus the Priest, that he might strengthen the new people by baptism. St. Marcellinus baptizes When these things had been fulfilled in fitting order, by the will of God forty days rolled by, through which the Saints strengthen the nation of the new people; that, remaining in Christ, they should be unwilling to worship created things, nor embrace this life as something great; nay, that they should wish to lose it for his sake.

[7] When these things were done, there comes a lictor sent by the savage Judge, ordering all who had been shut in the foul prison to stand at the first hour of night before the sight of the Arbiter. When the keeper of the dark prison had at once heard this, Arthemius frees the bound: he addresses with gentle words the bound who were present, that they should all go, wherever each wished to proceed: "He who," he said, "thinks to reach the palm of the kingdom, let him not hesitate to proceed with me to the presence of the Judge Serenus, there to undergo penalties. But if anyone is not yet able to despise the worldly life, and is terrified by fear of torments, let him go free, wherever his own will carries him." But behold the Judge, at the first cockcrow of night, rises watchful, and with raging voice orders all the accused, bound, to be displayed to his sight. To him the keeper of the dark prison, standing ready, said: "Peter the Exorcist, whom you had ordered to be punished, through the power of his Christ had loosed all the bound; and absolved from the chains, ordered them to go free. He himself, however, retaining with him a certain Marcellinus, remains in the custody in which he was once placed." To him saying these things the furious Vicar commands that Arthemius, beaten with lead and bound, and is beaten with leaded scourges, be received into dark and narrow custody.

[8] But the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, the Saints are led to the judge: about to hold a questioning concerning their deeds, the savage Judge orders to stand before his tribunal. Whom, as he beholds them standing before him with grim faces, he thinks should first be addressed with gentle words, that he might change the resolve of their minds. "I should say," he said, "that you could be punished with a lesser penalty, did I not see all the criminals, who with you were held shut in the prison-cave, to have escaped, and did I not know this deed was done by your Christian doctrine, through which you wickedly delude the minds of the wretched, bewitching and deceiving with magical tricks." Marcellinus answers; to him reproaching To whom the great martyr of Christ, Marcellinus the Priest, bearing a breast full of piety with a strong spirit, gave back in reply few words indeed, but not small ones; "He is not," he said, "a criminal, nor to be called guilty, who, having forsaken paganism, begins to believe in Christ, and judges that he must be served with a sound mind. He who does this will be called a son of the most high God, and, absolved from all the filth of sins, is seen, by God's giving, truly to be what he is called." To Marcellinus saying these things the savage Judge threateningly commands him to be subdued, beaten with the fists of two men; and beaten with fists, and to be cast into a place which lacked all light; in which he had broken glass strewn over the ground, and the asserter of the truth laid naked thereon, and bound to roll among those fragments, ordering the servant of Christ to be kept from all food: that, killed by these penalties, he might perish quickly, from whom he had seen he could not extort his faith.

[9] Then next, seeing Peter, he addresses him with such words: "I do not wish," he said, "you to think you must again be tortured on the rack, he is laid on the fragments of glass. or to be burned with fiery torches. Nay, you shall know that, to be bound with stronger knots, and fastened to a stake, you will stand tomorrow in the daylight, and by the mangling of beasts will shortly end your life." Then blessed Peter, answering with a strong breast, wishing to rouse the wrath of the contumacious Judge, with such a voice provokes the raging madness: "Since you are called Serenus (Serene), I marvel exceedingly, why you bear your countenance darkened with so foul a cloud, that you cannot see through your own measure. Peter too reproaches the judge, For we all know you to be mortal; and you, as though something great vigorous in you lay hidden, threaten great penalties to the Christian people; trusting too much in foolish and ferocious audacity, that the immortal faith of Christ could ever be driven out from the hearts of believers by temporal penalties. The Priest of Christ indeed, whom you could have asked to entreat for your very many excesses, you have, beaten with fists and bound, consigned to prison: yet of this sad deed, glad with true joy, that great Martyr of Christ now complains of nothing; nay, he renders worthy thanks to the Founder of things." When these things were heard, the savage arbiter of torments, raging, orders Peter, seized and burdened with the weight of chains, and bound he is thrust into prison. to be received into dark custody: and furious he commands that, in the tightest stocks, the soles and likewise the legs of the precious Martyr be enclosed and pressed, lest he should be able to depart.

[10] But when the Martyrs were in this way separated, a visitor sent from the lofty height of heaven came, an Angel, to console the blessed witness of Christ. Who, when he had found the holy Marcellinus placed upon the glass, Whence the Angel leads both out, bound with body naked, without garment, supplicating Christ God, as he was wont; loosed him at once, and, covered with his own garments, commands him to follow him going before, wherever he should go, saying that he must be led there where Peter was. And when they had come thither, the true messenger of God, Peter being at once absolved, commands Marcellinus, that they both should follow him going before, together. Following whom, they suddenly entered a certain house, in which the Christian people was gathered, who through them had come to the divine doctrine. Then that Angel commanded the great Martyrs, that they should strive to strengthen the gathered company, through seven turns of the coming days: that they may confirm the baptized: and then at last present themselves to the raging tyrant, and show how little his power could do, against the providence of God who contains all things.

[11] Then on the following day the most cruel Judge ordered Condemned to death, Arthemius, Candida, and their daughter, that his ministers should visit the places in which he had ordered the Martyrs, shut up and likewise bound, to be guarded. And when, reporting, they said that they were not found there; he ordered to be gone and brought, together with Arthemius, also his woman by surname Candida, and the daughter of the same, called the Virgin; from whom Peter the Exorcist had cast out a demon; and, cleansed, had rendered her a believer in Christ the King. These, brought before him, he, looking on them with a grim eye, ordered to sacrifice to the gods, nay, to foul little spectres, and, by denying it, to forsake the holy faith of Christ. And when he saw that they were unwilling to do what was commanded, the savage one ordered that, in a huge heap of rubble, in the manner of crushed criminals, they be killed together. Who, when, bound, they were led along the Via Aurelia, see at the same time the Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter; and with them a very great throng of people. At the sight of whom, they assert that those fled in terror, they are present at the Mass celebrated by St. Marcellinus, who had dragged the blessed Confessors, weighed down and pressed by the weight of chains, to be punished. Whom, as the throng of the pious people saw fleeing, by running ahead it hastened to forestall the timid: and began to soothe the heart of the raging ones with gentle words. But unable to accomplish what it wished, the pious people detained them fixed in place, until the servant of Christ Marcellinus should offer the saving Victim. For in the cave, in which the future passion was hoped, the Martyr of Christ celebrated the solemnities of the Masses. When these were completed, those whom he had ordered to depart departed.

[12] Then the Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, turning, both together address the people of the faithless, and addressed the furious ones with such speech: "Behold, you have seen, that it was in our power, that we could now harm you as we wished, and take by force the bound whom you held, rescued. But Christian patience made us unwilling to do this, which Christ, by instilling it into the senses of his servants, makes them gentle and modest by his gift. And now indeed we, with supernal grace supporting, could have departed hence, if our mind so bore us. You, on the contrary, say openly at last what you can do." Then gnashing and raging, the satellites of Satan first slay that very Arthemius whom they dragged, the father is beheaded, striking with a hard sword they made him a Martyr: to whose death they joined his wife and daughter. Whom, given headlong over the threshold of the crypt, they overwhelm his wife and daughter are overwhelmed with stones, with stones and at the same time great masses of sand.

[13] Then they bind the blessed asserters of the truth, Marcellinus and Peter, eager for martyrdom; and fasten them, chained, to the trunks of trees, until they should announce to the foul arbiter of torments, SS. Marcellinus and Peter led away into the Black Wood and learn from the Judge himself deciding, by what death the great Martyrs should be consumed. Who, when he had learned all the deeds, and what he had ordered, commands the holy Martyrs to be led into the Black Wood, and there to receive the capital sentence. Whither when the satellites of demons had led them, they, glad and eager and praising the Lord, make the place more spacious for their passion: for they tore out the thorns and brambles with their own hands, that by clearing they might render the earth pure, they are beheaded. which was to receive their sacred blood. Then praying, and giving themselves the kiss of peace, with bent knee they patiently endure the executioner, and, the heavy burden of the flesh cast off, seek heaven. Of whom he himself, who, ordered, slew these same great Martyrs of Christ with the sword, confessed that he had seen their spirits, absolved from the bonds of the flesh, fly forth in a form as it were virginal, covered with a shining garment, led to heaven by Angels: gleaming also with gold and the light of gems, surrounded by the band of glittering Angels, joyful with an immense affluence of light, penetrating above all the lofty stars of the world, lifted up to ascend to the eternal kingdoms of heaven.

[14] Two certain women, born at Rome, are spoken of, one was called Lucilla, and the other Firmina, they are buried by Lucilla and Firmina: keeping the true faith of Christ in pure hearts; who, kinswomen of the thrice-blessed Martyr Tiburtius, sitting by his sacrosanct tomb, kept watches pleasing to God by their vigils. To whom he himself, with the blessed Marcellinus and Peter accompanying him, plainly related through sleep, where the sacred bodies of those same elect had lain: and at the same time admonishes, that going without delay, they should at once carry them off, and take care to lay their body near his own in the crypt. They, obeying the commands, go to the Black Wood, and carry thence the ashes of the Blessed taken up; and laying them in the cave, bury them in the appointed place. Whom in performing these things they say two certain Clerics of the sacred Apostolic See, whom the sacred order names Acolytes, assisted.

[15] These things, as they are related to have been done, they assert that he himself related, who slew these same Martyrs, and that from him Damasus the Pontiff learned, The martyrdom described by St. Damasus the Pope. when in his boyhood, in those same times, he ministered under a master, and was growing to the great summit of affairs, then a Lector in the Roman Church; after all these things to have recorded them, and committed them to writing, when he held the apex of that gracious See, and prevailed in the Principate over the whole Church. But he, who had struck the blessed Martyrs, Dorotheus by surname, through divine grace is said to have come to the sacrament of baptism: while Julius the Pontiff then ruled the sacred See, he performed at once public and pure penance: and by the probity of his morals deserved to obtain the saving grace of the everlasting Savior, through the wondrous patience, now and ever to be remembered, of those blessed Martyrs whom he struck. Who, triumphing over the devil, prince of the world, placed in the heavenly seats always rejoice, before Christ, through the eternal ages of ages.

* Rather Paula, otherwise Paulina.

HYMN by the Author Blessed Rabanus, Abbot of Fulda, then Archbishop of Mainz.

Bright and salutary praises, I ask, Brothers, speak, which the glory of the Saints now aptly compels us to set forth. O glorious victors, rejoice with these praises. How many strong Martyrs by the virtue of the gracious King I have seen, Marcellinus and Peter have now conquered the world. O glorious victors etc. Whom the citadel of the world and queen Rome once brought forth, she herself sent to the supernal throne of Christ the King. O victors etc. Peter stands forth as Exorcist, Marcellinus as Priest, calling together the sacred people, both prepare them for Christ. By their word they heal, and offer healing to sick limbs, from the insane they drive out the horrendous power of the demon. Those who are tortured, beaten with scourges, are scored with claws: these, bound behind with chains, are shut in prison: for Peter in the narrow stocks, Marcellinus on the crusts of broken glass lying down, naked in his whole body. The dark Judge Serenus strives to conquer them with penalties, they sound forth praises very worthy to Christ the King. Who from the heavens soon sent them the comfort of an Angel, that, freed from the chains, they might proceed wherever they wished. But they, strengthened and comforted Martyrs, hasten afterward, now ready, to be presented to Serenus. Then Serenus, turbulent, very angry, commands, that dragged out into the White Wood they be beheaded. Whither having set out, rejoicing, they ascend the lofty stars, there they speak everlasting praises to Christ the Prince. This song the Hymnist offers, poor as he is, to you, Martyrs; whatever it be, accept it; your servant has offered it. O glorious victors, rejoice with these praises.

ON THE TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS INTO GERMANY. PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

BY THE AUTHOR G. H. & D. P.

§ I. The written History of the Translation. The places to which the Relics were translated, granted by Louis the Pious the Emperor to Eginhart.

[1] Among the eminent writers, excellent in the highest brightness of name, Eginhart, an illustrious Writer, who flourished under the reign of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, Eginhart, or Einhart, is deservedly to be reckoned; from whose elegant pen we illustrated the Life of Charlemagne, written (and he is said to have been the latter's secretary or Notary), on 28 January. André du Chesne also published, in the second volume of the Writers of the History of the Franks, the Annals of the Frankish Kings Pippin, Charlemagne, and Louis, which he says were written by the same author, and carried from the year 741 down to the year 818, and in the Appendix of the same second volume he added the letters of the same Eginhart, not before printed. But what most pertains here, worthy of so illustrious an author, he published the history of the Translations of SS. Marcellinus and Peter. is the history of the Finding and Translation of the sacred Relics of the holy Martyrs Marcellinus the Priest and Peter the Exorcist, and of the illustrious miracles wrought at their merits and intercession. "An excellent monument," says Baronius at the year 826, number 10, "by which, since the most sincere truth of the history is asserted, all who read may understand God plainly wonderful in his Saints, by new signs and prodigies." The same Baronius, when he had inserted very many miracles into his Annals, at number 35 near the end subjoins these things by way of question: "But what is this divinely foretold finding of the holy Martyrs, the translation, and leading-around, and the working of miracles? Save that, to the peoples then existing, and to posterity to come, the cult of the holy Martyrs, as if carved in flint, might remain perpetually marked with the amplest tokens; since God willed these things to be written by the same man who had committed to writing the deeds of Charlemagne, than whom none more faithful, nor (in the opinion of Lupus of Ferrières, a learned man) more brilliant, existed at this time." So Baronius. We found the said History in the Manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden marked number 863, It is here given from a Manuscript and from Surius. and we compared it with the edition of Lorenzo Surius, and illustrate it in our manner. Mabillon, because it is rather long, was unwilling to insert it into part I of the fourth century of his work; but in a compendium he relates the chief points, to which he prefixes a notable Epitome on the life of the Author; who, since among several other Abbeys he also possessed Fontanelle in Gaul, he says is venerated there as a Saint on 20 February; although he thinks him to be the same, whose Commemoration is noted there in an old Breviary on the 18th; nor yet does he treat of him among the Benedictine Saints, nor does he even mention him among those Passed Over: nor has he himself become known to us from any source on the said days as a Saint.

[2] The places to which the translation was made, Concerning the burial of these Martyrs among the Romans we have treated above. Now, because we must treat of the places to which they were destined and brought by Eginhart; we judge it will be pleasing to the Reader, if we set forth the diploma of Louis the Pious, by which he granted them to the said Eginhart; which is of this kind. In the name of the Lord, our God and Savior Jesus Christ. granted by Louis the Pious, Louis, by the ordaining of Divine providence Emperor Augustus. It is the custom of Imperial Highness to honor and exalt those who faithfully serve it with manifold gifts and great honors. Therefore We, following the custom of our parents, namely of our predecessor Kings, it has pleased our Highness, to honor a certain faithful one of ours, named Einhart, with certain things of our own property, and to confer them into the power of his own right by the grace of our liberality. Nor undeservedly: since indeed both by the homage of fidelity and by the devotion of obedience he worthily deserves to obtain this from our Serenity, who with all his efforts everywhere strives faithfully to obey our service and our commands. Hence let the experience and the benefit of all our faithful, both present and future, know, that we have granted to this same our faithful Einhart, and also to his wife Imma, in the parts of Germany, these are Michlinstat, a place which is called Michlinstat, in the forest which is called Odonawalda: in the middle of which there is a small wooden basilica built, from which in every direction round about there belong to the same place, between field and forest, two leagues, that is, one rasta. Within the compass of which measure there now remain, at the present time, our own slaves, fourteen, with their wives and sons. Besides these there are in the same place, between males and females, forty bondservants. This place with its boundaries, in its integrity, and with its bondservants, and also the village which is called Mulinheim, and Mulinheim, which is in the district of Moynegowe, situated on the bank of the river Main, which was once the possession of Count Drogo, and has a small basilica made of stone; in which village there are nineteen manses, and slaves now remaining with their wives and children to the number of thirteen: just as in another village of the same name, on the same river, which is called lower Mulinheim, in which there are four manses, and as many slaves remaining, with their wives and little ones, who belong to the village mentioned above. This village, that is, upper Mulinheim, with its appendages and its own bondservants belonging to it, and all these things written above, with the churches, hamlets, houses, bondservants, forests, lands, meadows, pastures, waters, or watercourses, cultivated and uncultivated, with all the adjacencies and appendages, the whole, and entirely, to our aforesaid faithful Einhart, and his wife Imma, as their own through this authority of our donation we have granted; so namely, as appears from the diploma, that whatever from this day forward, of the aforesaid things and places, and of those which belong to them, by hereditary right they shall wish to do, in all things they may enjoy the discretion of doing; and let no one of the faithful of the Holy Church of God and of ours, of the aforesaid things, granted by us to our said faithful one and his wife, attempt to withdraw or diminish anything: but let it be permitted to them to have and possess these very things quietly, and to leave them to whomever they wish by hereditary right. And that this authority of our largess, through the courses of the years, may obtain inviolable and unshaken firmness forever, and may be believed by our faithful both present and future, and even by our successors, to have been made by us more truly and more certainly, we have subscribed it with our own hand, and ordered it to be sealed with the impression of our ring.

The Sign of HLouis, Most Serene Emperor.

I, Helisachar, have recognized it. Given on the third of the Ides of January, in the year, Christ being propitious, the first of the reign of the Lord HLouis, most pious Emperor Augustus, in the 7th Indiction. Done at the royal palace of Aachen. In the name of God, happily. Amen. That year was 815.

[3] Thus far the Diploma of Louis the Pious, transmitted to us from Helingenstadt, of which we shall presently treat, whose sincerity is proved, and printed in Justus Reuber among the old writers of Germany: which we judge to be altogether genuine and sincere. Of the formula with which the diploma is begun, we treated before the second Volume of April, in part I of the Antiquarian Propylaeum, on Discerning Diplomas, number 29, and we said that Louis the Pious was followed by his father and grandfather, namely the Emperor Lothair and Lothair the Younger. The sign or monogram is also that of Louis the Pious himself. In the same way Helisachar recognized the diplomas sealed for the monastery of St. Denis and for the monastery of St. Maximinus, and in this one these things are had: "The Sign of Louis, Most Serene Emperor. I, Helisachar, recognized and noted it. Given on the fourth of the Nones of June, Christ being propitious, in the second year of the reign of the Lord Louis, most pious Emperor Augustus, in the 8th Indiction. Done at the royal Palace of Aachen, I.D.N.F.A." That is, as is explained above, "In the name of God, happily. Amen." We judge, moreover, that the 8th Indiction is to be restored above, changed by an easy error of the copyist into the 7th. But now let us weigh the diploma itself. In this first donations are made to Einhart and his wife Imma, so that if he should first depart from this life, she might enjoy these donations.

[4] Who that Imma was is not clear. Lupus of Ferrières, in his second letter to Eginhart, treating of his death, calls her Imma the wife of Eginhart. "venerable wife." She died, moreover, around the arrival of the Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, as is clear from the third letter of Eginhart to Lupus, and the fourth of Lupus to Eginhart. That some have written that she was the daughter of Charlemagne, in the silence of the cited diploma and of Eginhart himself in the Life of Charlemagne, and of other ancients, most refuse to admit.

[5] They certainly savor of a fable, the things which the writer of the Lorsch Chronicle narrates concerning the loves of the two, detected by her very father, and the marriage of honorableness granted to cover the disgrace. was she the daughter of Charlemagne? But what can you do, if Eginhart himself, that which he concealed in the Life of Charles, seems to betray in Letter 34, to the Emperor Lothair, by calling him his nephew? Surely not otherwise than through his wife, who would have been the latter's aunt. So Mabillon, where he treats of St. Angilbert, who from Bertha, likewise a daughter of the same Charlemagne, and likewise passed over by Eginhart, cannot be denied to have begotten Nithard and his brother Harnid; unless anyone should dare to derogate credit from Nithard himself asserting this. The nephewship, or Nepotism, of Lothair toward Eginhart, could indeed be saved, even if he was not the son-in-law of Charles; if Imma be conceived to have been the daughter of Enguerrand Count of Habasnia, sister of the Empress Ermengard, from whom was born Lothair, firstborn of the sons of Louis the Pious. But the mother of Nithard certainly not lawfully taken either from a Queen or a Concubine. could not be a daughter of Charles, except illegitimate or spurious; and since such were also Pippin the Hunchback, born of Hilmitrude; Euphrasia, the first Abbess of St. Lawrence at Bourges; Rotildis, mother of Hetti Bishop of Trier; and an Anonymous woman, mother of Richbod the Abbot, in Labbe in the Genealogical Tables; it is clear that Charles, eight or nine times a widower, at least in the time of his widowhood begot some children outside marriage; among whom I do not see why it should be deemed so very absurd to number the wives of Angilbert and Eginhart; but well why Louis the Pious, in the aforementioned diploma, should conceal acknowledging her as a sister: likewise why Eginhart omitted to name all such in the Life, number 23, having indeed enough to have named the children either gloriously begotten of three Queens, or at least without disgrace procreated of five Concubines; the first of whom Charles took after the death of his second wife Fastrada; the other four, successively, after the death of his third, Luidgardis. For these, although they enjoyed neither the honor and privileges of Wives nor of Queens, were nevertheless true spouses, joined in the Christian manner, and so those born thus were honorable and upright. That marriages of this kind (which some today call marriages of conscience, or of the left hand), well enough known to the ancient Roman Law, obtained also in ecclesiastical law that they should be without baseness, just as they were without sin, appears from canon 17 of the First Council of Toledo, where it is prescribed that "anyone be content with the union of one woman, whether Wife or Concubine (as it shall please him)." And these things had to be said by me once, lest the last age of Charlemagne, conducted with so great a reputation for virtue that he dead deserved the title of Saint, be thought polluted by fornicating cohabitation, from the error of the common people, who attribute the appellation of Concubine only to those who lend the use of their body to one man, being meanwhile bound by no lawful tie. Imma, moreover, and her husband are known to have been separated from the marriage-bed by mutual consent, from his letter to Lupus of Ferrières, third in the order of the others, of which the opening is such: "All studies and all cares grief has taken from me and shaken off, which from the death of my once most faithful wife, now my dearest sister and companion, most grievous I have conceived." That separation, moreover, seems to have been made before the year 826; if Eginhart was already then Abbot and Priest, as he seems to have been.

[6] The donations made in the aforementioned diploma are of two places, concerning which presently in the very history of the Translation of SS. Marcellinus and Peter there is ample treatment. The first of these places is named Michlinstat in the Forest Odonawalt: Eginhart loves the place Michlinstat, which place, he says below near the beginning, Eginhart, secluded and very remote from popular frequentation, obtained by the liberality of the Prince Louis, lying midway between the rivers Neckar and Main: and he adds at number 14, distant about six leagues from the river Main. That town is still in the County of Erbach of Franconia, on the river Mimmilingus. But the Forest Odonawalt is called today Ottenwalt, where there is a very wide space of land, capable of holding several old districts. Consult Marquard Freher, part 2 and there takes care to deposit the Relics. of the Palatine Origins, chapter 6, and Matthäus Merian in the description of Franconia, page 34. This place therefore Eginhart greatly loved; and in it, not only houses and dwellings for staying, but also a basilica, suitable for performing the divine offices, of not undecorous work, he testifies that he built, into which he took care that the Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, brought from Rome, should be carried, and deposited as if to remain forever. Hence, moreover, warned by various visions, he translated the sacred Relics to Mulinheim, when (as Priest and Abbot), as he says at number 20, "in a higher place we erected an altar under the open sky, and the bier being deposited near the altar, we celebrated the solemnities of the Masses."

§ II. The Relics preserved at Seligenstadt, when they were translated thither: various others in various churches.

[7] Mulinheim is the other place, granted to Eginhart by the liberality of Louis the Pious the Emperor, in the district of Moynegowe, on the bank of the river Main, or Moenus, and it had a small basilica made of stone, as is read above in the diploma, to which the village lower Mulinheim was joined. Of this Translation Rudolf, The Relics are translated to Mulinheim, Priest and monk of Fulda and disciple of Blessed Rabanus, in the preface of the Life of the latter, not yet Archbishop, published by us on 4 February, has these things: "The bones also of the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, of Protus and Hyacinth, with the Relics of St. Hermes, shine daily with no less glory of miracles, in diverse healings of the sick: which, themselves also translated from Rome, and brought to Einhart the Abbot, near the river Main of Germany, in the village which was formerly called Mulinheim, but now is called Saligunstat, are venerated with worthy celebration by the faithful. Of whose translation and at the same time of the virtues which God worked through them, because it has been diligently handed down to memory, I here omit to speak." You see how, after the history of the Translation written by Eginhart, which that Rudolf praises, Mulinheim itself, on account of the virtue of the miracles wrought, by the merits and intercession of these Martyrs, began to be called Saligunstat or Seligenstadt, that is, the city of the Blessed. Of the Relics of SS. Protus and Hyacinth, and of St. Hermes, there is treatment near the end of chapter 10 of the history already mentioned. Seligenstadt is distant, moreover, soon called Seligenstadt. three leagues from Frankfurt, two from Aschaffenburg, situated in the diocese of Mainz. We, in the year 1660, holding our journey through Germany into Italy, came to Seligenstadt on 25 August; and, kindly received by the Abbot, on the following day we performed the sacred rites in the Abbatial church, which has its name chiefly from SS. Marcellinus and Peter: but in the choir we saw the tomb of Eginhart the founder and first Abbot, without any other more religious cult, which it is rather strange enough should be paid to him at Fontanelle, rather than there.

[8] Of the new church, begun to be built by him, Eginhart writes these things in Letter 46 to another Abbot: Eginhart builds a new church there, "When, placed together in the Palace, we spoke of the roof of the basilica of the blessed Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter, which I now, though with great difficulty, strive to build; it was agreed between us about buying lead, for the price of fifty pounds. But although the work of the basilica is not yet brought to this point, that the necessity of roofing compels me to admonish; nevertheless on account of the uncertain end of mortal life, it always seems that one must hasten, that the good which we have begun may, with the Lord helping, be completed." So there. Mention of the same construction is had in the fiftieth letter: but of the work completed by Eginhart's successor Rathlaicus, Blessed Rabanus makes mention, who lived at the same time as Eginhart, but somewhat younger, with these published verses:

Savior of the world, who governest the scepters of heaven, And ruling by thine own command rulest all things, Be present propitious, and grant the vows of thy servants, Do thou, having mercy, bestow whatever thy servants ask: And to thy Martyrs add this for an honor, being just, That they may be able to render abundant gifts to their own, These witnesses of Christ from the Roman city The upright man Einhart summoned, and established the place. He adds Ratlaicus. Whose successor, the Priest Ratlaicus, the hall being completed, Gave this title to the Saints. Whom do thou, Christ, God, preserve unto eternal ages, And with thy Saints render the rewards of heaven.

Christoph Brower, in his scholia on these verses, says, "Einhart he mentions as the founder of the basilica; and his successor Ratlaicus, Priest and Abbot (by whose industry and skill those bodies were drawn out in the City and translated to the Main), to have added a new fabric or hall to the basilica, in which the Martyrs might more becomingly rest; and to have requested the genius of his friend the poet for the adornment of the title." These things are explained more fully. Some things also are touched upon in the Epitaph of Einhart, written by the same Rabanus, which can be seen among his Poems.

[9] From those Relics That that translation, moreover, was made on the sixteenth of the Kalends of February, Eginhart testifies below at number 20: which day remained most celebrated at Seligenstadt, the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot being translated to another, and it is inscribed in the Florary of the Saints, and is mentioned by the praised Rudolf in the said Life of Blessed Rabanus at number 13. That the year was then 827 is clear from the following. For the Clerics being ordained, Eginhart asserts at number 21 that he returned with great exultation to the Imperial Palace of Aachen; the year 827 and then in chapter 3 he describes the meeting with Hilduin the Abbot, and deposits in the oratory the Relics, formerly taken away, and restored to him by him at Aachen; and then (as is said at numbers 68 and 69) in the fourteenth year of the reign of Louis the Pious (that is, of Christ 827), some Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter received at Aachen by Einhart the Abbot, and thence to the monastery of St. Salvius toward Valenciennes were brought; some are translated to Valenciennes: near whom in the district of Hesbaye on the thirteenth of the Kalends of July a miracle was done, as is there narrated. Then with the aforementioned Relics Eginhart departed for Mulinheim: who thence in the month of November (as is said at number 44), about to winter in the palace, disposed to go to the Comitatus, and was present at the assembly of the Nobles in the month of February. Thence returning to Mulinheim, at the request of the monks of the monastery of St. Bavo of Ghent, he sent thither the Relics of the said Martyrs: which came thither (as is said at number 76) in the year 828, others to Ghent and to Utrecht in the year 828: on the fifth of the Nones of July. In which year also the same Eginhart sent some part of his Relics to Utrecht, where a miracle done on the 18th of the Kalends of July on the Lord's Day is narrated at number 85, namely in the same year 828.

[10] And these are the marks of time, indicated by Eginhart concerning the translation of these Saints, and cohering excellently among themselves. From which the Annals of Eginhart himself are to be corrected, or rather those published under his name, or augmented near the end by others, especially when at the end of the year 827 these things are read added: "The bodies of the most blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, taken from Rome, and in the month of October translated into Francia, there by many signs and virtues were glorified." Where Eastern Francia is understood, of which a part is present-day Franconia, and the Metropolis is Mainz.

[11] But, as is clear from what is said above, already from the 17th day of January of the year 827 these sacred pledges had been brought to Mulinheim, that is, 2 years after their carrying-away from the city. when they had rested for some little time at Miglinheim, whither in the month of October of the preceding year they must be said to have been brought; and so the author of the aforesaid Annals, whoever he is, in the place already alleged must be said to have confounded the two translations. But how, you will say, were the Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter already in Franconia from the month of October of the year 826, the first occasion of seeking which at Rome was taken from the conversation of Eginhart with Hilduin about the translation of St. Sebastian? but the Relics of the latter, as is plain from the Acts published on 20 January, were first brought into the church of St. Medard, on the 9th day of December of the said year. I answer, that that conversation was about a translation, not made yet then, but to be made, and that a Legate was sent to the Pontiff for that purpose. For that matter was of more laborious negotiation, and so it could very easily happen that Eginhart's Notary, who carried out his business secretly, perhaps accomplished it before the legate of Hilduin reached Rome. For he had accomplished it before the month of June: since indeed he, already set on his return, was at Pavia terrified by the report of those arriving Legates, who were heard at Ingelheim by the Emperor in that same year, about the Kalends of June, as is written in the deeds of Louis the Pious.

[11] Rayssius in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium not only mentions the Relics Other Relics in various places of Belgium. shared with the Abbey of Hasnon; but also asserts that particles of the bones of SS. Marcellinus and Peter are preserved at Tournai in the Collegiate Church of St. Amatus, and at Cambrai in the convent of the Canons Regular of St. Aubert. Likewise that there are two little bones in the monastery of Crespin of the Benedictine Order, two leagues from Valenciennes. And so much for their Relics, honored in Belgium. Eginhart, in Letter 10, writes these things to Hetti Archbishop of Trier concerning these Relics: "As from the letter of your Sanctity we learned that you wished, so without delay we took care to do, by sending you, namely, the Relics which you wrote that you wished to have for the dedication of your new basilica. And indeed we do this gladly, who have such confidence in you, that whatever part of the sacred ashes of the blessed Martyrs shall come to you, such honor will be shown it Some granted to the Archbishop of Trier, as we ought to have shown to their whole bodies." So there, which that they are to be understood of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, his singular affection toward these Martyrs shows, shining everywhere in the letters of Eginhart, and especially in Letters 40, 43, 45, 46, 50, and others. There is in the diocese of Trier below Koblenz a district Valendar, like a town, ample and adorned with a beautiful church, in which are said to be preserved notable Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, and their memory is inscribed on the 17th day of January in the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lübeck about the year 1490, they are honored in the district of Valendar. in these words: "In the village of Valendar, below Koblenz, in the territory of Trier, of SS. Marcellinus and Peter the Martyrs." Almost the same things are read in Greven in the Auctary of Usuard, and in the German Martyrology of Canisius: and I think they are to be understood of the Relics granted to the aforesaid Archbishop of Trier.

[12] Charles du Fresne, Lord du Cange, who died at Paris in the year 1688 with great loss to the literary commonwealth, The church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter of Bonneval. out of his humanity and affection toward our studies, sent us at Amiens in the year 1668 a certain extract from the Cartulary of the Abbey of Bonneval in the diocese of Chartres, of which this is the opening: "In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord eight hundred forty-two, in the reign of Charles, brother of Lothair and Louis, in the third year of the reign of that Charles, the convent of Bonneval was established, by the Emperor himself and a certain knight, named Fulco, in honor of the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, whom Eynard translated from the parts of Germany into Gaul. The aforesaid knight of good memory, namely Fulco, seeing a place fit for the dwelling of Monks … handed over to the aforesaid Saints and Monks the whole of Bonneval, with all things which seemed to belong to it." Whether also any Relics of these Martyrs were preserved there is not indicated. Gabriel Bucelin in the Benedictine Sacrarium, on this 11 June, asserts that the bodies of SS. Marcellinus and Peter rest in the convent of Hasnon, yet several bones in St. Victor of Marseilles. Which things are thrown onto paper by exaggeration. For at Hasnon are only those Relics which Eginhart had sent as a gift to Ghent to the monastery of St. Bavo: and Honoré Bouche, in book 4 of the Chorography of Provence, chapter 4, §2, enumerates the sacred Relics of the monastery of St. Victor, and others at Bologna in Italy, without any mention of these Martyrs. More accurate is Masini in Bologna Surveyed, who indicates that there is there an ancient church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, and that in the year 1312 it was a hospital under the rule of St. Mary, called of Umiareto, and that in the year 1373 it was still a parish, but in the year 1624 was relieved and at Prague in Bohemia. and given to St. Barbatianus, and into it in the year 1636 was translated the confraternity of St. George. Moreover he writes that some Relics of these Martyrs are in the basilica of St. Stephen. Finally in the Metropolitan church of St. Vitus of Prague there are particles of those Saints, of which Pessina the Dean in the Phosphorus, page 513, says that "they are bound together in a band of silk of red color": but whence brought, is not clear.

§ III. The inspection of the Relics at Seligenstadt, made in the year 1607.

[12] The Writer being Johann Conrad Baur, Johann Schweikard, Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, on account of the contagion raging round about, staying in the convent of Seligenstadt in the year 1607, moved by devotion toward the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, instituted a solemn inspection of the Relics: which Johann Conrad Baur, Prior of the said monastery, an eyewitness inspector and witness, described in the following words. "In the year above one thousand six hundred and six, with the epidemic disease spreading here and there in Germany, especially at the Metropolitan Mainz, and at Aschaffenburg the notable Archiepiscopal residence, while everyone seeks a refuge in safer places, Archbishop Schweikard staying at Seligenstadt, the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Archprelate and Prince Elector of Mainz, Johann Schweikard, having held deliberation with himself and with his court retinue (leaving however his ordinary Chancery in the citadel of the town of Hostein), to our monastery dedicated to the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter in the town of Seligenstadt, as to a place outstanding for the temperateness of its air, on the counsel of the physicians, on the fifth of October of the said year, betook himself; and there remained until the seventh of May of the following year 1607. But so great was the humidity of that winter season and the inundation of rains, that it was a wonder to anyone; and the warmth of the air such, that scarcely could ice be found which would resist the weight of a single goose. Meanwhile the Most Illustrious Prince Elector, according to the greatness of his soul, occupying himself with diverse duties and exercises, assiduously assisted at the divine Offices; so that a day never passed on which either he himself offered the unbloody Sacrifice to God on the altar, or assisted one offering it, and on festal and Lord's days, he indulges in piety: clothed in a surplice or rochet, wearing the pectoral cross, was most devoutly present at the high Mass and Vespers. Sometimes also he gladly and generously discharged Episcopal duties, although aged. For he consecrated a cemetery near Osteine; and on the festivity of St. Thomas the Apostle, a solemn Mass having first been sung, in Pontificals and the Archiepiscopal Pallium, he conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation on several persons of both sexes of diverse age. It was also customary for him, sometimes, for the relaxation of mind and body, to give attention to hunting.

[13] about to inspect the reliquary case of the Relics. At certain times also he gave himself to sacred reading, and was delighted by the discourses or conversations of learned men; among which there fell a certain historical account concerning the glorious Relics of the holy Martyrs our Patrons Marcellinus and Peter, and the miracles of the same, which in his Ecclesiastical Annals the Most Illustrious Cardinal Baronius had woven in at the year of Christ 826. It gave occasion of perplexity, that they were asserted to have been translated into Gaul, and some Belgian writers related the same. Hence minds were incited to the inquiry of the truth; especially because from ancient tradition and historical account they saw and beheld that sacred tomb present, in which it was firmly held that those sacred Relics were laid away; which the Gauls, perhaps by a sinister rumor, presume to assert as their own. And so the Illustrious Archbishop, according to the duty of his office, to remove every handle of doubt, he proclaims a three-day fast: and for the greater glory and honor of God and the Saints, resolved solemnly to inspect and elevate that sacred case, containing the most precious treasure of Relics. And so, that it might be done with a more august rite, on the penultimate of January 1607, which fell on a Thursday, he proclaimed a three-day fast with vigils and prayers. Whence, during those three days, which preceded the feast of the Purification of Blessed Mary, with great devotion the sacred tomb was, by Religious clothed in sacred vestments, the Archprelate himself also devoutly applying his hands, deposited from the high altar on a table fittingly prepared for this, before the high altar, and prayers were continued through day and night. And because the high altar was not found fortified with a sepulcher in the manner of the rest, except that the sacred tomb with the Relics had been fixed in it; the question was briefly ventilated by eminent men and Doctors of sacred Theology, whether, the sacred ark being removed, it would be permitted to hold or celebrate Masses upon that altar. Having therefore had inspection of the place and the constitution of the altar, and the signs of consecration being seen in the stone, it was resolved that it was permitted: but for the greater assurance of scruples, there were placed upon it particles of the Relics of the aforesaid Saints enclosed in smaller gilded cases, and at the same time the head of St. Marcellinus, inspected, which was kept outside the sarcophagus. But when the prayers of the first day were finished, the Archprelate, rather curious, approached the sacred tomb, about to open it somewhat and examine it: for he feared lest perhaps by fraud the Relics had at some time been taken away, especially because there existed no memory of men about the same having been examined, and thus he might be doing a thing already done. But scarcely had he looked in, when, suddenly struck by a certain divine fear, perceiving a certain supernatural virtue in the things which he had seen, he at once closed it again; and deferred the accurate examination and inspection to the day of the Purification of the Virgin Mother. But that that festivity might be rendered more celebrated, there were brought from Aschaffenburg and other places Ecclesiastical ornaments, such as copes, dalmatics, fabricated of gold or silver, with which the Prelates and the chief persons might be clothed.

[14] When therefore the sacred day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary came, on the feast of the Purification, the Most Illustrious Archbishop, about to perform the divine rites, entering the Basilica, and clothed in the sacred vestments, before all things, by the received and laudable rite of Catholics, and according to the ancient institution of the Holy Roman Church, blessing the candles set out, distributed them to each of the bystanders. Then, about to sing the sacred office of the Mass, girded and adorned with the Pontifical Tiara and the Pallium, he approached the altar; the Singers meanwhile, with every kind of Musical instruments, and the sweet-sounding modulation of voices, soothing the ears of the bystanders, and exciting their devotion. The office of Deacon was discharged by the Reverend and Most Noble Lord Frederick a Sickingen; that of Subdeacon by the likewise Reverend and Most Noble Lord Daniel Adam a Vechenbach; the office of Chaplains being discharged by the Reverend and Excellent Men, Father Johann Nelling, Preacher of the Order of Preachers; and Friedrich Hamerman, Doctor of Sacred Theology.

[14] The sacrifice of the Mass being performed, a quite solemn procession was instituted, from the church of the Monastery to the Parish church, four Religious Priests, clothed in white chasubles, carrying the sacred bier. he solemnly carries it around, The Conventual Religious went before, praising God in his Saints with spiritual songs. The Most Reverend Archpriest followed, bearing the Venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, before whom went Noble Youths, carrying lighted torches or brands. The Ministers of the altar closed the sides of the Archbishop; the censing being done by the Reverend and Excellent Lords Stephan Weber the Younger, Doctor of Sacred Theology; and Johann Bertz, respectively Canons and Scholastics of the Collegiate Churches of Blessed Mary ad gradus of Mainz, and of SS. Peter and Alexander of Aschaffenburg. Behind came the Most Reverend Lord Stephan Weber the Elder, Bishop of Misena, suffragan, and in Pontificals Vicar of Mainz; And the Reverend Lord Abbot of our Monastery, Martin Kreys; both adorned with cope, miter, and pastoral staff. After whom the Procession was adorned, and there followed, the Reverend Lord Christoph Weber, Dean of Aschaffenburg, and in spiritual matters Commissary; in a great retinue of both orders the Reverend Lord Cornelius Cobel, Sealkeeper, and Canon of St. Peter of Mainz; both Doctors of Sacred Theology, and in the course of time succeeding one another as Suffragans of Erfurt; the Reverend Lord Judocus Dreyser, Canon of Aschaffenburg; Two Fathers of the Society of Jesus, Father Johann Buseus, famous for his writings, and Father Johann Michaelis; with some other Ecclesiastics, not now occurring to memory.

[17] But these are the names of the Nobles who followed: William a Exonexberg, Grand Bailiff, Commander of Mainz of the Equestrian Order of St. John; Caspar a Eltz, Supreme Prefect of the Court; Hartmut a Cronenberg the Elder, Vicedominus of Aschaffenburg; Johann Philipp a Hoheneck, Marshal; Hartmut a Cronenberg, younger brother of the Most Illustrious Prince, Governor in Hoest; Johann Adam a Hoheneck, Governor in Beensseim; Marsilius Christoph a Ingelheim, Master of the Hunt; Johann Florentius Blumingen, Prefect of the Stable; Johann Conrad a Vorburg in Delsburg, Court Councilor; Wolfgang Friedrich a Ulm, Erhard a Muckentall, Caspar a Eltz, Walter a Cronberg, Philipp Julius a Weiler, Anton Loefch a Hilckershausen, Johann Wolfgang von der Leyen, Friedrich a Disonborn, Johann Nikolaus a Stockheim, Conrad Nikolaus a Sponheim, Johann Ulrich a Hedersdorff; the Noble Youths, Quirinus Wolffskeel a Wolckenburg, Johann a Weichsell, Rudolf a Wildenstein, Hermann a Belnitz, Reinhard a Schutz of Holtzhausen, Otto a Kerflingeroda, Philipp Florentius a Blumingen. These were followed by the Most Distinguished Councilors of the Laws: Caspar Fleiserbein, Johann Peter Ebersheim, Johann Fabricius Doctor of Medicine, Johann Ludiger Master of the Chamber, Jakob Henfel, Wendelin Faber, Conrad Scherer, Secretaries; Wendelin Rodt Treasurer, Adam Hoffman scribe of the Chamber, Wolfgang Erlenbach Chancery-clerk, and the rest of the followers of the Court, according to their station, who had for the most part come to Seligenstadt with his Highness, and had remained there. of the Senate and people: The Senate and people of Seligenstadt closed the procession, with the neighboring inhabitants and parishioners, who had assembled in great numbers.

[18] This solemn procession therefore being finished, and the sacred tomb being placed in the middle of the Choir, the people were dismissed with a blessing. And because the hour had drawn out rather late, the Most Reverend Archprelate, having first taken refreshment, betook himself again to the Basilica, accompanied by the chief of the aforementioned persons, and at the same time by our Prelate, and two Conventual Fathers; and the doors being closed on every side, prayers being premised, the Most Illustrious Prince uncovered it, and, just as Eginhart the Founder of the monastery the Relics are inspected. writes in his following history concerning the translation of the Sacred Relics of the most blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, he found the sacred Remains wrapped in great silk sacks, with the inscriptions of each, with great astonishment. Nor content with this, the tomb being decently opened again and a precious silk tapestry offered, marked with a golden cross, with which it might be covered, he immediately proceeded also to inspect those Relics which were kept in the sacristy, and ordered a catalogue of each to be made: and the visitation being completed, the Head of St. Marcellinus the Priest and Martyr, which was separate from the rest, he replaced in the tomb for greater safekeeping, and sealed the ark with various seals. All which things being performed, with due devotion the sacred bier was replaced in its former place, and the index of all being completed, each betook himself to his own affairs.

[19] Thus far the Prior of Seligenstadt, who would have provided not a little better for the instruction of posterity, if he had been willing to exhibit the index of the sacred bones found within the tomb, with their inscriptions of each; These were afterward confounded with others. whence it could be understood, what and how much of each one's body was there laid away or remained. Certainly at the irruption of the heretics, when the Monks were precipitating themselves into flight in the year 1631, it could have happened with less inconvenience that the Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter be confounded in the sacks, with the Relics of SS. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abacuc, likewise of Protus and Hyacinth; as we learned they had been confounded, when we were there in the year 1660; whence there was no opportunity given of seeing them. Concerning the translation of those same Relics to Soissons, there is a Letter, under the name of Odilo the Monk to Ingrannus, part of which André du Chesne long ago published, in Volume 2 of the Frankish writers, page 650; but the whole Mabillon inserted in Century 4, part 1, page 411: but it is so contrary to the account of Eginhart, and teems wholly with fictions, that it seems altogether unworthy of this work, written perhaps in the twelfth century.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION, by the Author Eginhart, then Abbot of Seligenstadt, from the Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden and from Surius.

BHL Number: 5233

BY EGINHART.

PROLOGUE.

[1] To the true worshippers of the true God, and the unfeigned lovers of Jesus Christ our Lord and of his Saints, Einhart, a sinner. The aim of the sacred histories, Those who have committed to writing and to memory the lives and deeds of the just, and of men living according to the divine commandments, seem to me to have wished to effect nothing else, than to incite the minds of any to amend depraved morals, and to praise the omnipotence of God, through examples of this kind. They did this, not only because they were free from envy; but because they abounded greatly in that charity which desires good for all. Whose laudable purpose, because it is so manifest that, besides what I have said, it appears most clearly that they wished to undertake nothing else; why it ought not to be imitated by many, I do not at all see. And therefore, because I am conscious to myself and of this writing. that the books which I wrote, with what ability I could, about the translation of the bodies of the blessed Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter, and the signs and virtues which through them the Lord willed to be done for the salvation of believers, are composed with the same will and intention; I have resolved to publish the same, and to offer them to the lovers of God for reading. For I judge that this work ought not to seem to any of the faithful only empty and superfluous: but also I presume that I have labored fruitfully and usefully, if I shall have been able to bring it about that the mind of the one reading them rises up in praise of its Founder.

CHAPTER I. Men sent by Eginhart to Rome to procure Relics. The Relics of the Saints Marcellinus and Peter obtained.

[2] When, while still placed in the Palace, and occupied with secular affairs, Eginhart anxious to what Saint he should dedicate his Church, I was meditating with manifold thought on the leisure which I sometimes desired to enjoy; I obtained a certain place secluded and very remote from popular frequentation, and acquired it by the liberality of the Prince Louis, to whom I had then been a soldier. That place is in a forest of Germany, which lies midway between the rivers Neckar and Main; and in modern times by the inhabitants and those dwelling round about is called Odenwald. In which, when, according to the measure of my means and expenses, I had built not only houses and dwellings for staying, but also a basilica, suitable for performing the divine Offices, of not undecorous work; I began to doubt, in the name and honor of which Saint or Martyr above all it ought to be dedicated. And when in this fluctuation of mind much time had rolled by, it happened that a certain Deacon of the Roman Church, named Deusdona, in order to implore the King's help for his own necessities, came to the Palace: Eginhart deals with Deusdona about obtaining Relics; and there having stayed for some time, when, the business for which he had come being accomplished, he prepared to return to Rome; on a certain day, for the sake of humanity, like a pilgrim, he was invited by us to the dinner of our littleness: and there, having spoken many things during dinner, we came so far in our conversation that mention was made of the translation of the body of Blessed Sebastian and of the neglected tombs of the Martyrs, of which there is an immense abundance at Rome. Thence the conversation being turned to the dedication of our new basilica, I began to inquire in what way I could come to this, that I might happen to obtain for myself something of the true Relics of the Saints who rest at Rome. Here he indeed at first hesitated, and answered that he did not know how that could be done. Then, when he perceived me to be at once anxious and curious about this matter, he promised that on another day he would answer my inquiry.

[3] and to him giving hope, he grants provisions, and as a companion Ratleicus: After these things, when he had again been invited by me, he straightway drew out a little book from his bosom and held it out to me, asking that I should read it through alone; and that I would not disdain to indicate to him what pleased me of the things which were written in it. I received the little book, and, as he asked, read it through alone and secretly. It was contained in it, that he had at home very many Relics of the Saints, and that he wished to give them to me, if, supported by my aid, he could return to Rome. It would be ascertained by him, that I had two mules, of which if I should give one to him, and send with him a faithful man of mine, who should receive those Relics from him, and bring them to me, he would at once send them to me. The advice of the persuader pleased me, and I resolved quickly to test the credit of the uncertain pledge: and therefore, the beast which he asked being given, money for the journey being added, my notary, named Ratleicus, because he too had a vow of going to Rome for the sake of prayer, I ordered to proceed with him. So, having set out from the Palace of Aachen (for there at that time the Emperor with his retinue was), they came to Soissons: and there they spoke with Hilduin the Abbot in the monastery of St. Medard, because the said Deacon had promised him that he could bring it about Hilduin the Abbot joins to them the Priest Hunus that the body of Blessed Tiburtius the Martyr should come into his power. Allured by which promises, he sent with them a certain Priest, a crafty man, named Hunus, ordering that, the body of the said Martyr being received from him, he should bring it to him. Thence, having begun their journey, they proceeded to Rome with as much speed as they could.

[4] But it happened, after they entered Italy, that the boy of my notary, named Reginbald, [To one of the companions, suffering from fevers, there appears a Saint in the habit of a Deacon] seized with a tertian fever, made by his sufferings no small impediment to their journey: since in those hours in which he was held by the heats of the fevers, they could not make their way. For they were few, and on this account were unwilling to be separated from one another. And when their journey had been not a little retarded by this inconvenience, while they nevertheless strove to hasten it as they could; three days before they came to the City, there appeared in a vision to that feverish man a certain man in the habit of a Deacon, asking of him, for what reason his master was hastening to go to Rome? To whom, when he set forth both the Deacon's promises about Relics of the Saints to be sent to me, and those things which he had promised to Hilduin the Abbot, as they were known to him; "It will not be so," he said; "but far otherwise than you think, the outcome of the matters for which you have come will be fulfilled. For that Deacon, who asked you to come to Rome, will do either little or nothing of those things which he promised you; and therefore I wish you to follow me, and the things which I am about to show and tell you, take care to attend with anxious mind."

[5] Then, having taken him by the hand, as it seemed to him, he made him ascend with him the summit of a very high mountain: on which, when, placed together, they stood; "Turn," he said, he shows Rome, and a church, "to the East, and behold the plains lying beneath your eyes." When he had done this, and had beheld the plains of which he had told him; he sees in them buildings of immense bulk, built in the manner of a certain great city: and being asked by him if he knew what this was; he answered that he did not know. Then he said, "It is Rome which you see"; and immediately added, "Direct your eyes into the interior of the city, and consider whether any church appears to you in these places." And when he said that a certain church appeared to him: "Go," he said, "and announce to Ratleicus, that in the church which you just now saw, that thing is laid away which he ought to bring to his master: and therefore let him take care that he receive it as quickly as can be done, and return to his master." And when he said that none of those who had come with him would give credit to his words in a matter of this kind; he answered and said: "You know that all who make this journey with you are conscious to you, that for several days you labored in a tertian fever, in which the Relics are to be found, and that you have not yet had any remission from it." And he said, "It is so as you say." "Wherefore," he said, "I wish that it may be a sign to you, and to those to whom you will relate the words which I have said, that from this hour, the fever by which until now you were held, you will so by God's mercy be free of it, that it will not touch you further on this journey." These things being said, awakened, he took care to relate to Ratleicus all the things which he seemed to himself to have seen or heard. Which, when Ratleicus had set forth to the Priest proceeding with him, and he heals the sick man. it seemed good to both, that they should prove the experiment of the dream by the truth of the promised health: for on that same day, according to the quality of the fevers with which he was wont to labor, he who had seen the dream ought to have been feverish. And that it might be shown to have been not a vain illusion, but rather a true revelation, neither on that day, nor on the others which followed it, did he feel any indication of the accustomed fevers in his body. And so it came about that they both believed the vision, and gave no credit to the promises of the Deacon.

[6] So, coming to Rome, near the basilica of Blessed Peter the Apostle, which is called In Chains, in the house of that same Deacon with whom they came, they received lodging; and remained with him for some days, awaiting the fulfillment of his promises. But he, who was not able to perform his promises, the very thing which he could not, thus carried to Rome, cloaked with certain procrastinations. At last, having spoken with him, they asked why he wished to delude them in that way; asking at the same time that he would not detain them longer by deceiving, and impede their return with vain hopes. When he heard these things, when he perceived that he could no longer impose upon them with cunning of this kind; first he made my notary certain about the Relics promised to me, that he could not have them; because his brother, to whom, going away thence, he had commended both his house and all that he had, had set out for Benevento for the sake of trading, while they complain of being deceived by Deusdona, and that he was wholly ignorant when he would return. And because he had committed to him those Relics, as well as the rest of the furniture, to be kept; nor could he at all know what he had done with them, since he had nowhere found them in the same house: therefore let him see what he should do, because of his part nothing remained that he could hope for. After he said these things to my notary, and he complained that he had been deluded by him and badly imposed upon; with I know not what vain and frivolous things he also addressed the Priest of Hilduin, and, animated with a like hope, made him depart from him. But on the next day, when he saw them very sad, he exhorted them to proceed together with him to the cemeteries of the Saints, saying that it seemed to him that in them something of the kind could be found, by which their desires might be satisfied; and that there would not be that necessity, that they should return empty to their fatherland. And when this counsel pleased them, and they wished that as quickly as possible they should begin that which he exhorted them to do; in his accustomed manner he dissembled the business, and cast those, whose minds were then a little raised, by this delay into such despair, that, abandoning him, they resolved to return to their fatherland, though with the business unaccomplished.

[7] But my notary, recalling the dream which his boy had seen, Ratleicus explores the Basilica of St. Tiburtius, began to exhort his companion, that without their host they should go to the cemeteries, to view which he had promised that he wished to lead them. And so, a guide and shower of the places being found and hired, first they come to the basilica of Blessed Tiburtius the Martyr, on the Via Lavicana, distant three miles from the city; and contemplate the tomb of the Martyr with as much diligence as they can; and consider with cautious circumspection whether it could be opened so that others might not perceive it. Then they descend into the crypt adjoining the same basilica, in which the bodies of the blessed Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter were entombed; and the Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter being found there; and the quality of that monument also being explored, they depart, estimating that this deed could be hidden from their host. But it turned out otherwise than they had thought. For although they themselves did not know by what indications, yet the knowledge of this deed quickly reached him: and fearing lest without him they should satisfy their will, he resolved by his counsel to forestall them by hastening. And because he had a full and complete knowledge of those same places, he addresses them blandly, and exhorts them to come thither together; and if God should deign to favor their wishes, that by common counsel they should do whatever should seem to them to be done.

[8] he compels his host to accompany him thither, They assented to his will, and by equal consent appoint the time of undertaking it. Then a three-day fast being performed, by night they arrive at the place with none of the Roman citizens perceiving: and having entered the basilica of St. Tiburtius, first they tried to open that altar, under which his sacred body was believed to be placed. But the laborious work begun succeeded little according to their will: for the monument, built of the hardest marble, easily repelled the unarmed hands of those trying to open it. Therefore, the tomb of that Martyr being abandoned, they descend to the tomb of the Blessed Marcellinus and Peter; and there, our Lord Jesus Christ being invoked, and the holy Martyrs being adored, they strive to lift from its place the stone with which the top of the sepulcher was covered. Which being lifted, they see the most sacred body of St. Marcellinus, placed in the upper parts of the same sepulcher, and a marble tablet placed at the head; which, by the inscription which it contained, gave an evident indication of which Martyr's members had lain in that place. Which, as was fitting, receiving it with the highest veneration, they lift, and carries off the body of St. Marcellinus: and, wrapped in a clean linen cloth, they hand it to the Deacon to be carried and kept. And lest any indications of the body removed should remain, replacing the stone in its place, they return into the city to their lodgings. But the Deacon, affirming that he wished and was able to keep the body of the most blessed Martyr which he had received, near the basilica of Blessed Peter the Apostle, which is called In Chains, where he himself also had a house, committed it to his brother named Luniso to be guarded: and judging that this was enough done for my notary, he began to exhort him, that, the body of Blessed Marcellinus being received, he should return to his fatherland.

[9] But he was meditating and turning over in his mind something far different. For (as he afterward related to me) it seemed to him by no means lawful to return to the fatherland with the body of Blessed Marcellinus alone; as if it were a wickedness, that the body of Blessed Peter the Martyr, who had been his companion in the passion, and for five hundred and more years had rested in the same sepulcher together with him, should, when the latter departed thence, desiring also to obtain the Relics of St. Peter, remain there. And having conceived this thought in his mind, he labored with such great travail and at the same time perturbation of his spirit, that it seemed to him neither sweet nor pleasant to take food, nor to rest in sleep, unless the bodies of the Martyrs, just as they had been joined in passion and in the monument, should so also, when about to go abroad, be joined. But as to how this could be done, he was vehemently in doubt: for he knew that no Roman could be found by him who would bring him any aid for this; nor even such a one to whom he might dare to show these secrets of his mind. Placed in this anxiety of heart, he found a certain pilgrim Monk, named Basil, who two years before had come from Constantinople to Rome; and there on the Palatine hill, among other Greeks who were of the same profession, had lodging with his four disciples. This man he approached, and opened to him the solicitude which he was suffering. Then, animated by his counsels, and relying on his prayers, He consults a Greek monk; he received in his heart such great constancy, that he resolved to attempt the thing most quickly, though with peril of his own head. And his companion the Priest of Hilduin being called to him, he began to treat with him, that again they should proceed secretly to the basilica of Blessed Tiburtius, as they had done before; and should strive once more to open the tomb in which the body of the Martyr was believed to be laid away.

[10] The counsel pleased; and, the boys whom they had brought with them being taken, and with him helping he takes them away, their host wholly ignorant where they were going, they set out secretly by night. And when they had come to the place, vows being made for the prospering of the affair before the door of the church, they enter: and the companions being divided among themselves, the Priest with some remained in the basilica itself to seek the body of Blessed Tiburtius; Ratleicus with the rest went to the body of Blessed Peter in the crypt adhering to the same church: and the sepulcher being opened without any difficulty, he took up the sacred members of the holy Martyr with none forbidding; and, received, enclosed them carefully in a silk cushion, which he had prepared for this. Meanwhile the Priest, who was seeking the body of Blessed Tiburtius, great labor being spent in vain, after he saw that he could accomplish nothing, the work being abandoned, descended into the crypt to Ratleicus; and began to ask of him what he ought to do. To whom, when he said that he thought that the body of St. Tiburtius had been found, and showed him that of which he spoke (For a little before the same Priest had come to him in the crypt, he found in that same sepulcher, in which the sacred bodies of SS. Marcellinus and Peter had lain, a certain hole of round shape, excavated inward to the length of about three feet, as well as the ashes believed to be of St. Tiburtius; opening to the breadth of a foot, and in it a not small portion of fine dust laid up) it seemed to both, that this dust could have remained of the body of Blessed Tiburtius, his bones being thence taken away: and on this account, that it might be more difficultly found, it had been placed in a middle position between Blessed Marcellinus and Peter in the same tomb: and it was agreed between them, that the Priest should take it, and carry it with him for the Relics of Blessed Tiburtius.

[11] These things being thus transacted and disposed, with the things which they found they returned to their lodgings. After these things Ratleicus, having spoken with his host, asks that he restore to him the sacred ashes of Blessed Marcellinus, which he had commended to him to be kept, and not detain him, wishing to return to the fatherland, by any unnecessary delay. To whom he not only without delay restored what he sought back, and receives certain others from his host. but also offered, of the Relics of the saints collected in one binding, a not small portion to be brought to me: and being asked about their names, he answered that he would tell me them, when he should have come to me. He admonished, however, that they should be venerated with the same veneration with which the other Relics of the holy Martyrs were venerated, because they were of no less merit before God than Blessed Marcellinus and Peter: and that I would believe this, as soon as the knowledge of their names should reach me. He took up the gift offered, and joined it, as he was persuaded, to the bodies of the holy Martyrs.

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER II. The sacred Relics carried through diverse places to Michilmstat, and after various visions to Mullinheim, afterward called Seligenstadt.

[12] Counsel being taken with his host, that sacred and desirable treasure, Ratleicus follows the companions sent ahead to Pavia. laid away and sealed in chests, he caused to be carried as far as Pavia, by Luniso the brother of the latter, of whom we made mention above, as well as by the Priest of Hilduin, who had come with him: he himself with that same host remained at Rome, waiting and listening for seven continuous days, whether of the bodies of the Saints taken away anything had come to the knowledge of the citizens. And when he had seen that no mention of this deed was made by any stranger, judging it to be hidden, after those whom he had sent ahead, his host being taken with him, he set out. Whom, when at Pavia, near the basilica of Blessed John the Baptist, which is commonly called "of Domnana," and which then by the gift of Kings belonged to my power, they had found awaiting their arrival; they resolved also that they too should stay there for some days; both for the refreshment of the beasts on which they had come, and to prepare themselves for the longer journey.

[13] At this point of their delay a rumor went out, that Legates of the Holy Roman Church, sent by the Pontiff to the Emperor, would come there shortly. And so, fearing that from their arrival some inconvenience, or even impediment, could happen to them, and Deusdona with his companion being dismissed to Soissons, if they should detect them there; they decreed that some of them, by going away, should by hastening forestall their arrival; others should remain in the place, and, the matter about which they were anxious being diligently investigated, after the departure of the same Legates should hasten to follow their companions whom they had sent ahead. Their journey being thus determined about this matter, Deusdona with the Priest of Hilduin went before the Legates coming from Rome: and to Soissons, where he thought Hilduin was, he hastened with what speed he could: but Ratleicus with the treasure which he had with him remained at Pavia, waiting until the Legates of the Apostolic See should pass by: so that, they having crossed the Alps, he might be able more securely to take his way. Fearing therefore lest the Priest of Hilduin, who had gone ahead with Deusdona, and who had a full and entire knowledge of all things which had been done or treated among them, because he seemed of a crafty and slippery faith, should have contrived some impediment for him on the way by which he had disposed to go, he judged that he must go by another way: and the boy of our procurator Ascolf being sent to me with letters, by which he might make me certain both of his return and of the bringing of the treasure which, divinely aided, he had found; he himself, after he thought, from a conjecture of the lodgings which were being prepared for them, that the Romans had crossed the Alps, Pavia being left, on the sixth day came to St. Maurice. And there, the things which seemed necessary for this being provided, those sacred bodies, enclosed in a little coffer, he placed on a bier; and proceeding thence, openly and plainly, with the help of the people meeting him, he began to carry them.

[14] But when, having passed by the place which is called Caput-laci (Head of the Lake), he reached the fork where the roads leading into Francia divide; entering the right-hand road, he comes to Solothurn: through the borders of the Alamanni he came as far as Solothurn, a town of the Burgundians. There he had to meet him those whom I, after the indication of his arrival was made to me, had ordered to meet him from Utrecht. For I at that time was near the river Scheldt in the monastery of St. Bavo, when the letters of my notary were delivered to me by the boy of our procurator, of whom we made mention above. From the reading of which, being made more certain of the arrival of the Saints; and thence, after the Clerics sent had been received, at once I ordered one of our household to go to Utrecht, and there to take with him Priests and other Clerics, as well as laymen, and to hasten to meet the coming Saints wherever he first could. And he, without delay, with those whom he had led with him, in the said place, after a few days met those who were bringing the Saints: and being joined together, with the hymn-singing troops of peoples now accompanying and running together from this side and that, with the immense joy of all they quickly come to the city of Strasbourg, which is now called Strasburg. Thence sailing down the Rhine with the current, when they had come to the place which is called Portus (the Harbor), going out on the eastern bank of the river, at the fifth lodging they come to the place named Michilunstat; with an immense multitude of men exulting in the praises of God, Strasbourg, and Michelstadt: they arrive. That place is in that forest of Germany which in modern time is called Odenwald, and is distant from the river Main about six leagues. In which, when they had found the basilica newly built by me, but not yet dedicated, they brought those sacred ashes into it, and deposited them as if to remain there perpetually.

[15] And when this had been brought to me, immediately I hastened to come thither with what speed I could. Where, three days after our arrival being spent, when a certain boy of Ratleicus, by his order, the office of Vespers being completed, the rest going out, had remained alone in the church; and, the doors being closed, near those sacred bodies had sat down on a little chair as if about to keep watch; where the Saints indicate that they wish to be translated elsewhere. oppressed by a sudden sleep, he saw as it were two doves enter, flying, through the right-hand window of the apse, and settle on the top of the bed over the very bodies of the Saints: of which one seemed wholly white, the other of a varied mixture of grey and white color. And when they walked about for a long time on that same top, and uttered by turns the accustomed cooing of doves, as if conversing, again going out through the same window, they did not appear: and a voice followed which sounded above the head of the boy: "Go," it said, "and tell Ratleicus, that he indicate to his master, that these holy Martyrs do not wish that their bodies should rest in this place: for they have chosen another, to which they have disposed quickly to migrate." The author of this voice could not be seen by him: which, however, being ended, he awoke, and, roused from sleep, Ratleicus having returned to the basilica, indicated to him what he had seen. And he on the morrow, where he first could meet me, took care to announce to me what his boy had related to him. But I, although I did not dare to spurn the secret of this vision, yet resolved that I must await the indication of some surer sign: and meanwhile those sacred ashes, taken from the linens in which they had come bound, I had sewn into silk and new cushions. And when in the inspection of them I perceived the Relics of Blessed Marcellinus to be of less quantity than those of St. Peter; I judged that he too had been of less measure in the stature of his body than St. Peter. But that this was otherwise, the theft afterward made manifest proved: which, where, or when, or by whom, or in what manner it was committed and betrayed, I shall tell in its place: now the order of the narrative begun must be woven and held.

[16] Therefore, after I had inspected that great and wonderful treasure, more precious than all gold; the little coffer in which it was contained, on account of the cheapness of the material of which it was put together, began greatly to displease me. Desiring to amend it, on a certain day, after the evening Office was completed, I commanded one of the sacristans to bring me the measure of the coffer gathered by a rod. When he, about to do this, lit a candle, and lifted up the hangings with which the same coffer was covered; Blood flows from their Relics for seven days; he noticed the coffer dripping in a wonderful manner with a bloody moisture on every side, and terrified by the novelty of the thing, took care to announce to me quickly what he had seen. Then I, with the Priests who were present, approached, and beheld that astonishing miracle worthy of all admiration. For as columns and tablets or marble statues, when rain is imminent, are wont to sweat and to flow round about; so that coffer, which contained the most sacred bodies, was found wet with true gore, and on every part suffused. The unusual and never before heard form of the miracle terrified us. Wherefore, counsel being taken, we resolved to make a three-day fast with supplications, that by divine revelation we might deserve to know what that great and ineffable prodigy meant, or what it admonished to be done. And so, that three-day fast being performed, when it was now growing toward evening, that moisture of the horrendous gore suddenly began to dry up; and in a wonderful manner, which after the three-day fast is indeed stopped, that which for seven continuous days dripped without intermission in the manner of perennial water, was so within a very few hours dried up, that at that time of night (for it was the Lord's Day) at which, the signal being given, we entered the church to celebrate the office before dawn, no vestige of it could now be found in the coffer. But the linens which hung around the coffer, as they had been sprinkled with that same moisture, so, as they were stained with bloody marks, I ordered to be kept: in which still a great indication of that unheard-of portent appears. For it is established that that moisture was of a slightly salty taste, namely of the quality of tears: and that it had indeed the thinness of water, but the color of true blood.

[17] On the same night, to a certain one of our boys, named Ruodland, yet the Saints continue to urge the translation, in his rest two young men seemed to have stood by, who, as he himself testified, charged him with many things to be told to me about translating the bodies of the Saints; and showed to what place, and in what manner, it ought to be done: and that this should be announced to me without delay, they commanded, threatening terribly. Who, as soon as he could approach me, took care to intimate to me all the things which he had been ordered. When these were heard, I began to be agitated with immense cares, and to consider in my mind what I ought to do: whether fasts and supplications were again to be celebrated, and God again to be solicited for our curiosity; or some one, serving God devoutly and perfectly, was to be sought, to whom we might indicate the anxiety of our heart and the complaints of our cares, and whom we might ask, appearing to various ones. that he might by his prayers obtain for us from God the manifestation of this matter. But where or when such a servant of Christ could be found by us, especially in that region in which, although certain monasteries, placed not far from the place in which we were, were known to exist; yet, on account of the rude institution of his manner of life in those places, there was either rare or none of whose sanctity even a slight rumor spoke any such thing. Meanwhile, while, anxious with these cares, I had implored the help of the holy Martyrs, and had assiduously admonished all who were with us to do the same, it came about that for continuous days no night passed, on which it had not been revealed in sleep to either one or two, or even three, of our companions, that those bodies of the Saints were to be translated from that place to another. But at last to a certain Priest of those who were there with us, named Hildfrid, there appeared in a vision, as he himself confessed, a certain man in Priestly habit, conspicuous with venerable grey hair, clothed in a white garment, who addressed him with such words: "Why," he said, "is Einhart of so hard a heart and so great obstinacy, that he does not believe so many revelations, and thinks that so many admonitions divinely sent to him are to be despised? Go and tell him, that this, which the blessed Martyrs desire to be done concerning their bodies, cannot remain undone, although he has hitherto delayed to do their will in this matter. Even now, if he does not wish that the merit of this deed should pass to another, let him hasten to fulfill their command; and let him not neglect to carry their bodies to the place which they themselves have chosen."

[18] After these and many other manifold admonitions brought to me, Moved by these the Author it seemed to me that that translation of the sacred ashes was no longer to be deferred: and therefore, counsel being taken, we decreed that we should strive to accomplish it as quickly as could be done. Therefore all things which seemed necessary for this carrying being hastily and with the utmost zeal prepared; at first light, after the morning Office was completed, that sacred and inestimable treasure, with the immense grief and sorrow of those who were to remain in the place, we took up, and having begun the journey, began to carry it; the throng of the poor accompanying us, which had flowed together thither during those days from everywhere for the sake of receiving alms: for the peoples dwelling around were wholly ignorant of what was being done among us. The sky was heavy with foul clouds, and such as could quickly be dissolved into immense rain, unless divine virtue prohibited it from happening: he begins it, the sky suddenly clearing. for all that night it rained so without intermission, that it seemed to us that that journey could by no means be begun on that day. But that doubt of ours, coming from weakness of faith, the supernal grace, through the merits of its Saints, caused to be far otherwise than we thought; when we saw that the road by which we went had been changed into another quality than was hoped: for we found little mud; and the streams which, in so great and continual rain as there was that night, were wont to grow, we found to have grown almost nothing. But when, having gone out of the forest, we approached the nearest villages, we are received by frequent throngs of those meeting us and saying praises to God: who, having accompanied us for a space of almost eight leagues, were to us and ours devoted helpers in carrying the sacred burden, and untiring fellow-singers in saying the divine praises.

[19] But when we saw that on that day we could not arrive at the destined place, Them deposited at Ostheim, we turned aside to a village called Ostheim, which was seen contiguous to our road: and, evening now inclining, into the basilica of Blessed Martin, which is in the same village, we brought those holy bodies: and our companions being left there to keep the watches, I with a few went ahead by hastening to the place to which we were tending; and prepared during the night the things which use demanded for the reception of the holy bodies. But to the basilica in which we left their sacrosanct treasure, a certain paralytic nun, named Ruodlang, of the monastery of Machesbach, which was separated from the same church by a space of one league, brought by her friends and kinsmen in a cart, a paralytic is healed: when, among the rest, watching and praying near the bier of the Saints, she passed the night, having received the health of all her members, on her own feet, with none supporting her, nor in any way helping, returned to the place from which she had come on the morrow.

[20] But we, rising as the sky was whitening, proceeded to go to meet our companions coming; the same are carried to Mullinheim. having with us an immense multitude of our neighbors; who, roused by the report of the arrival of the Saints, for this, at the first dawn, stood before our doors, that together with us they might go forward to meet the Saints. And we met them in that place where the little river Gaspentia mingles with the Main. Thence proceeding together, and praising the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, those sacred remains of the most blessed Martyrs to upper Mulinheim (for so in modern time that place is called) with great joy and exultation of all who could be present there, in their presence Mass is celebrated under the open sky, we carried: but on account of the excessive multitude of the people, which going before had filled all things, we could neither approach the church, nor carry the bier into it: therefore in the adjacent field, and in a higher place, we erected an altar under the open sky; and the bier being deposited behind the altar, we celebrated the solemnities of the Masses. Which being completed, and the multitude departing to their own affairs, we carried their most sacred bodies into the church commanded by the blessed Martyrs: and the bier being placed near the altar, we again took care to celebrate Mass: and there, during the celebration, a certain boy, of about fifteen years, named Daniel, from the district of Portia, who had come there among the other poor by begging; and was so bent, that unless lying on his back he could not look at the sky, approached the bier; and suddenly, as if impelled by someone, fell down: and when he had lain for a long time like one sleeping, all his members being corrected, and the firmness of his sinews recovered, before our eyes he rose up unharmed. and the boy wretchedly contracted recovers. These things were done on the sixteenth of the Kalends of February, and there was such great and clear serenity of that day, that it equaled the splendor of the summer sun; and such mild and pleasant tranquility of the air itself, that with gentle warmth it surpassed the temperateness of spring.

[21] But on the next day the sacred bodies of the blessed Martyrs, laid away in a new coffer, The same being laid away, a college of Clerics is joined. we placed in the apse of the basilica; and (as is the custom in Francia) a wooden top being placed over it, we covered it for the sake of adorning it with linens and silk hangings, placing an altar; and two banners of the Lord's passion, which on the way were wont to precede the bier, raising them on this side and that; that place we took care to make, according to the measure of our poverty, suitable and apt for celebrating the divine Offices: And Clerics being appointed, who should there assiduously keep the watches, and skillfully bestow care on saying the divine praises, we ourselves, not only of our own accord, but also summoned by a royal diploma, which had come to meet us on the way, the Lord prospering our journey, returned to the palace with great exultation.

NOTES BY D. P.

m Today Ottenwald.

p Surely between Seligenstadt and Aschaffenburg; although the topographical maps express no rivulet there, much less the name of Gaspentia.

q Mullinheim is Seligenstadt, as said above.

r Namely on the feast of St. Anthony, falling that year 827 on a Thursday.

s Mabillon thinks that Eginhart, in this work, understands by the name of Clerics the Monks; "Or certainly it must be said," he says, "that Clerics were first, afterward Monks instituted in that place." The latter conjecture seems to me more genuine: for it was not so easy at once to found a monastery, as to ordain some Clerics, to serve there in the meantime; that the monastery was made while Eginhart was still living, Mabillon gathers from his Letter 4, where a certain Werdric, a Monk of Fulda, by the license of his Abbot, is said to have stayed at Seligenstadt: which license would not so easily have been given, if the place had as yet had no Monks.

t The palace of Aachen is understood, where then Louis the Pious the Emperor resided.

CHAPTER III. Some Relics of St. Marcellinus, formerly taken away, are obtained, and translated to other places. The miracles done.

BOOK II.

[22] Very few days being passed, after I had come to the Comitatus; I, according to the custom of courtiers rising rather early, at first morning sought the palace. There when, having entered, the Author at Aachen conversing with Hilduin about the Relics, I had found Hilduin, of whom I made mention in the preceding book, sitting before the doors of the royal chamber, and awaiting the going-out of the Prince; having saluted him in the customary manner, I asked him to rise, and to come with me to a certain window, from which there was a view into the lower parts of the palace. Leaning upon which together, standing, of the translation of the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, as well as of the miracle which was shown in the flow of gore, with which I have related their coffer sweated for seven days, we, marveling, spoke many things. And when in conversation we had come to that point, that even of the garments which were found with their bodies mention was made; and I said that the garment of Blessed Marcellinus had been of wondrous fineness; he, like one who had the matter known as well as I, answered that I had said true things about the garments. Here I, astonished and marveling, began to inquire whence that knowledge of the garments, which he had never seen, could have come to him. But he, looking at me, was silent for a little; and then said, "I think it better that you learn from me, what, with me silent, you will nevertheless quickly learn through others: and let me be the simple revealer of that matter, which perhaps another, if he reveals it, will not simply set forth: for it cannot be, because nature has so arranged it, that anyone can truly tell that of which he has obtained the knowledge not through himself, but by the relation of others: I commit it only to your good faith, how you will act with me thereafter, after you have learned by my relation all the truth of the matter done."

[23] To whom, when I had answered in a brief speech that I would do nothing other than what should be agreed between us; "That Priest," he said, "who set out for Rome by my command to bring back the Relics of Blessed Tiburtius, when, on account of which he had come thither, he could not accomplish as he wished, and now your notary, having received the Relics of the holy Martyrs of which we speak, had resolved to return home; entered into counsel with him, that, while the latter made a little delay at Rome, he himself, with Luniso the brother of Deusdona and with his men, who were to carry those sacred ashes, should go ahead as far as Pavia, he hears a part of them was taken away at Pavia, and there await the arrival of him and of Deusdona. This agreement pleased both, and while they stayed at Rome, the Priest with Luniso and the boys carrying the Relics set out for Pavia. When they had arrived there, the chests containing the sacred ashes were placed in your church behind the altar, and guarded with diligent care by the Clerics and laymen keeping watch in the same basilica. But on a certain night, when he himself among the rest was watching at those same watches in the church; it happened, as he himself asserts, about the middle of the night, that, sleep gradually creeping on, all who had assembled within the same basilica for the sake of watching, except himself alone, fell asleep. Then it came into his mind, and it seemed to him to have happened not without some great cause, that so sudden a drowsiness crept upon so many men: and reckoning that he must use the offered occasion, he rose, and a light being kindled, silently approached the chests. Then, the threads of the seals being brought to the flame of the candle and burned, he quickly opened the chests without a key; and taking from each body the portion which seemed good to him, he attached the seals, as they were whole, to the tops of the burned threads; and with none perceiving that it was done, he sat back down in his place. After this, the Relics of the Saints taken away by such a theft, and brought to Hilduin himself: when he had returned to me, he brought: and at first asserted that they were not of St. Marcellinus or Peter, but of St. Tiburtius. Then, when he feared I know not what, having spoken secretly with me, he plainly opened of which Saints the Relics were, and in what manner he had obtained them. We have them at St. Medard placed honorably in a celebrated place, where by all the people they are venerated with great veneration; but whether it is permitted us to have them, remains in your judgment."

[24] When these things were heard, I recalled what, on the journey by which I was lately setting out for the Palace, which, because rumor had already begun to spread it; I had heard from a certain host of mine. Who among the other things which he spoke with me, said, "Do you not know what sort of rumor about the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter has been spread through this region?" And when I answered that I did not know it; then he said, "Those who come from St. Sebastian's say, that a certain Priest of Hilduin the Abbot, who set out for Rome together with your notary, when they were returning thence, and were using a certain common inn in a certain place, all your men being overcome with drunkenness and sleep, and wholly ignorant of what was being done, opened the chests in which the bodies of the Saints were contained, and took them thence, and going away brought them to Hilduin, and they are now at St. Medard: but in your chests only a little of the sacred dust remained, which was brought to you by your notary." Recalling these things, and comparing them with those which were said by Hilduin, I was moved with no small perturbation of mind; on this account especially, because I had not yet found a counsel by which I could extinguish that execrable rumor, spread everywhere by the cunning of the devil, and drive it from the hearts of the deceived multitude. he seeks restitution: Yet I judged it best, that I should ask Hilduin to render back to me the very thing which, taken away from my chests, and brought to him and received by him, after that spontaneous confession, he could not deny. Which also I took care to do with what instance I could: and although he was a little harder and more difficult in assenting than I had wished; yet he was overcome by the assiduity of my prayers, and yielded to my importunity, who a little before had pronounced that he would yield to no one's command, especially in this case.

[25] Meanwhile, letters being sent to Ratleicus and Luniso (for they were in that place where I had placed the bodies of the Martyrs), others asserting that the theft was done at Rome with their knowledge, I took care to indicate to them what sort of rumor about the same holy Martyrs there was through almost all Gaul: admonishing them, that they should consider whether they could observe or recall anything of the kind, or similar to those things which Hilduin asserted about the deed of his Priest, having happened on their journey. They at once, coming to me at the palace, brought a story very different from those which Hilduin said. For first they testified that all things which that Priest had related to Hilduin were false; and that no occasion had been given, after they went out of Rome, either to that Priest or to anyone else, by which he could have access to perpetrating a deed of this kind. But this very thing, that it was established that something concerning the sacred ashes of the Martyrs had happened otherwise than it ought, came to pass at Rome in the house of Deusdona, through the avarice of Luniso and the craftiness of the said Priest: namely at that time when the body of Blessed Marcellinus, taken from its tomb, was kept in the house of Deusdona: and they said the manner of the deed was such. That said Priest of Hilduin, frustrated of the hope which he had conceived of obtaining the body of St. Tiburtius, lest he should return wholly empty to his master, that which he could not obtain by good faith, he strove to obtain by fraud. For having approached Luniso, because he knew him to be poor and therefore covetous, by offering him four gold coins, and five silver solidi, and that of the body of St. Marcellinus alone: he enticed him to commit the betrayal. For receiving the offered money, he opened the ark in which the body of Blessed Marcellinus was deposited and enclosed by Deusdona, and gave to that most wicked scoundrel the power of taking from it what he wished, such as he himself had desired. Nor was he sparing in that plundering: for he took as much of the sacred ashes of the Blessed Martyr as a vessel, having the measure of a sextarius, seemed able to hold. That it was done in that way, Luniso himself, who contrived it with the said Priest, prostrate at my feet, weeping, testified.

[26] Then I, the truth of the matter being ascertained, ordered Ratleicus and Luniso to return whence they had come. And then, having spoken with Hilduin, Yet he sends to Soissons men to bring the things taken away to Aachen: an agreement being made between us, when the sacred Relics should be rendered to me, I ordered two Clerics of our household, namely Hiltfrid and Filimar (the one was a Priest, the other a Subdeacon), to proceed to Soissons to receive them: sending by the same to the place from which those Relics were to be taken away, for the sake of a blessing, gold coins to the number of a hundred. Who, when they had come to the monastery of St. Medard on Palm Sunday, stayed there three days: and the incomparable treasure for which they had been sent being received; with two Brothers of the same monastery accompanying them, with what speed they could, they returned to the palace: yet they brought the Relics not to me, but to Hilduin. Which he receiving, had kept in the oratory of his house, where he receives them from Hilduin, placed on the altar; until, the occupations of the Paschal feast being passed, he should have leisure time, in which he could show me that which was to be rendered, before he rendered it. And eight or more days after holy Easter being completed, when the King had gone out from the palace for the sake of hunting; Hilduin, according to what had been agreed between us, the said Relics being taken from his oratory, where they were kept, and brought into the basilica of the holy Mother of God, and placed upon the altar, had me summoned that I might receive them. Then opening the case in which the Relics were contained, he showed me that I might see what it was that both he was rendering, and I was receiving.

[27] Then, the same case being taken from the altar, he placed it in my hands, and a fitting prayer being given, and carries them to his oratory, discharging also the office of precentor, he set the antiphon suitable to the praise of the Martyrs to the Clerics prepared to chant; and us, departing with that inestimable treasure, he followed singing as far as the door of the basilica. We proceeded thence gradually with crosses and candles, praising the Lord's mercy, as far as the oratory, which was built in our house of cheap work; and into it, because there was no other there, we brought those sacred Relics. But in that procession of ours, which I said we made from the basilica to our oratory, what miracle happened, I judge ought not to be passed over in silence. For as we were going out of the church, and singing the praise of the Lord our God with lofty voice, so great a force of most sweet odor filled that whole part of the village of Aachen which looks from the church to the West; that by that fragrance almost all the inhabitants of the same part, and likewise all who, for whatever causes and businesses, had been set in that same part, were so divinely moved; the most sweet odor filling the way: that, the works which they had in their hands being abandoned, all with most rapid course first to the church, then as if by his track to our oratory, into which they had heard those Relics had been brought, exceedingly hastened. There is made within our enclosures an immense concourse of the people at once exulting and marveling: and although a great part of those who had flowed together were ignorant of what the thing being done was; yet, filled with joy and exultation, they praised the mercy of almighty God.

[28] frequent miracles are wrought there: But after, with the rumor increasing, it was spread abroad that the Relics of St. Marcellinus the Martyr had been brought to that place; not only from the same village of Aachen, and the neighboring and adjacent villages, but also from more distant places and districts, so frequent and immense a multitude was gathered; that for us, for celebrating the Office in the same oratory, except in the evening and night hours, there was not easy access. There were brought from everywhere the weak, and those afflicted with various languors, and placed around the walls of the oratory by their kinsmen and friends. You might see there almost all kinds of infirmities, by the virtue of Christ the Lord, and by the merit of the most blessed Martyr, healed in every sex and age. To the blind sight, to the lame walking, to the deaf hearing, to the mute speech is restored: paralytics also, and those who, destitute of the strength of their whole body, were brought by the hands of others, health being received, returned to their own homes on their own feet.

[29] When these things were brought to the royal ears by the relation of Hilduin, he first resolved that, having returned to the palace, he would, full of veneration, approach our oratory in which these things were done, to the Martyr: but being prohibited from doing this, the same Hilduin suggesting it, The Emperor offers a little estate, the Empress a girdle. he ordered the Relics to be brought to the larger basilica: and there, brought, he venerated them with humble supplication: and the solemnities of the Masses being celebrated, he offered to the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter a certain little estate, situated near the river Ahr, by the name of Ludovesdorf, having fifteen manses, and nine arpents of vineyards. The Queen also offered her girdle, made of gold and gems, weighing three pounds. These being completed, the Relics were brought back to their place, namely to our oratory, and were there for forty days or more, until the Emperor, going out of the palace, in his solemn manner sought the forests for the sake of hunting. This being done, we too, the things which seemed necessary for our journey being provided, set out with those same Relics from the village of Aachen. A woman contracted for 50 years is healed. But at the very point of our going-out, when the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, a certain old woman very well known in the palace, of about eighty years, laboring with a contraction of the sinews, was healed in our sight. Who, as we learned from her own account, held by this disease for fifty years, in the manner of quadrupeds, supporting herself on knees and hands, had fulfilled the office of walking by crawling.

[30] Thence, having begun the journey, the merits of the Saints helping, At the meeting of the Relics, on the sixteenth day, by the Lord's help, we came to the village of Mulinheim, in which we left the sacred ashes of the blessed Martyrs when about to set out for the Comitatus. On which journey, how much joy and how much gladness, from the arrival of those Relics, accrued to the peoples standing on that same road, neither must I be silent, nor yet, as it was, can it fully be said and set forth. Yet it must be said, lest a matter pertaining especially to the praise of God should seem, as if through sloth, suppressed in silence. And first indeed the mind longs to relate that which, having gone out of the palace, in the presence of many, we remember to have seen. There is a little river called Wurm, having a bridge distant about two miles from the palace of Aachen. Coming to which, on account of the multitude which accompanied us thus far from the palace, and now wished to return, that we might have a place for praying, we halted for a little while. There a certain one of those praying, approaching with another to the Relics, and looking at his companion, said: "For the love and honor of this Saint, I absolve you of the debt for which you are not unaware that you are bound to me": for he owed him, as he himself confessed, half a pound of silver. And likewise another, taking his companion by the hand and drawing him to the Relics, said: "You killed my father, and therefore we were enemies to one another: and a son forgives his father's death to the enemy: but now, for the love and honor of God, and of this Saint, hatred being laid aside, I wish to join and enter a covenant with you, that henceforth in the future perpetual friendship may remain between us; and let this Saint be the witness of the charity agreed between us, and the avenger upon him who shall first attempt to break this peace."

[31] Here that throng, which had gone out with us from the palace, the sacred Relics being adored and kissed, they are carried with great devotion to Mulinheim with many tears, which from excessive joy it could not contain, returns home: another multitude, which met us there, accompanying us, and singing Kyrie eleison without intermission, as far as that place in which in like manner we were received by others meeting us: which then likewise, as the former, supplication being made, returned to its own home. In this way through each day, from first light until evening, with troops of peoples accompanying and saying praise to Christ the Lord, from the palace of Aachen to the said village of Mulinheim, the Lord prospering our journey, we came. And there those Relics, laid away in a jeweled case, we placed upon the altar, behind which the coffer containing the sacred ashes of the Martyrs had been placed: and they were there so placed, until we, in the month of November preparing to go to the palace, were admonished by a revelation, and are laid away in a jeweled case: that we should not set out from that place before we joined them to the body from which they had been taken. But in what manner it was revealed that this ought to be done, must not be passed over in silence: because not only by a dream, as is wont to happen, but also by certain signs and terrors, pertaining to the care of the waking, it was shown that the blessed Martyrs had in every way willed that in this matter their command should be fulfilled.

[32] There was one of the Clerics who had been appointed to the watches of the basilica, named Landolph, St. Marcellinus indicates that he wishes to be joined to his companion: to whom then the care of striking the signal had been committed, having his bed near the southern door of the basilica. Who, when, according to the custom of the nocturnal and matutinal Office, he rose in his solemn manner, and struck the signal; and the same Office being completed before light, he wished again to sleep; the doors of the church being closed, before the sacred ashes of the Martyrs he prostrated himself for the sake of supplicating. There, when he began to say the fiftieth Psalm, as he himself asserts, he heard near him on the pavement as it were the sound of the feet of a man, walking hither and thither in that place. And dismayed with no small fear, he raised himself a little on his knees, and began to look round about in every direction, thinking that some one of the poor, the doors of the church being closed, had hidden in some corner. And when he perceived that there was no other than himself alone within the walls of the basilica; again he inclined himself to prayer, and repeated the Psalm which he had before begun: but before he could complete one verse of it, the case which placed on the side contained the sacred Relics of Blessed Marcellinus, with a sudden crash sounded so vehemently, that it was thought to have burst as if struck with a hammer. The two doors also of the basilica, which were already closed, namely the western and the southern, as if someone were knocking and pushing, sounded in like manner.

[33] By which terrified and astonished, when he was wholly ignorant of what he should do; he rises from the altar, and threw himself trembling onto his bed: and suddenly oppressed by drowsiness, he saw a certain man of unknown countenance stand by him, who addressed him with such words: "Is it certain," he said, "that Einhart wishes so to hasten to the palace, that he should not first replace the Relics of St. Marcellinus, which he brought here, in the place from which they had been taken? and then also by plain words commands it:" When he answered that he was ignorant of this matter; "Rise," he said, "at first dawn, and by the authority of the Martyrs command him, that he presume not to go hence or to proceed anywhere, before he restore those Relics to their place." Awakened, he rose, and where he first could meet me, took care to intimate to me this which had been commanded him. But neither did I think that anything should be done sluggishly in a business of this kind, nay, judging that what was commanded ought to be fulfilled without any interposition of delays; on that very day indeed I ordered the things which seemed necessary for this to be prepared; but on the following I took care with the utmost diligence to associate those sacred Relics to the body from which they had been taken. Which deed, how pleasing it was to the most blessed Martyrs, is clearly proved by the attestation of the following miracle. For on the next night, when at the matutinal Office we were sitting solemnly in the basilica; which being done, a deaf and lame old man is healed. a certain old man, destitute of the office of walking, and supporting himself on knees and hands, entered crawling to prayer. He, in the presence of us all, by the virtue of God and the merits of the most blessed Martyrs, in the same hour in which he entered, was so perfectly healed, that for walking he no longer needed even the support of a staff. He also affirmed that he had been deaf for five continuous years, and that together with the office of his feet his hearing had been restored to him. These things being thus performed, to the Comitatus, as I have related above that I wished to do, to winter there, considering many things with myself, I set out.

NOTES BY D. P.

d In some, Deacon.

CHAPTER IV. Miracles wrought at Mullenheim on the deaf and mute, the contracted and other sick. Beer changed into wine. A candle kindled of itself.

BOOK III.

[34] About to write the virtues and miracles which the most blessed Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter, after their most sacred bodies were brought from Rome into Francia, did through diverse places; nay, those which, Prologue on the Order in the narration of the miracles. through their blessed merits and pious prayers, the very King of Martyrs God and our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to work for the salvation of men; I judged it necessary to touch briefly in a short preface, that of those things which I have disposed to write, the greater part was brought to my knowledge by the relation of others: yet that I should give credit to these, from those things which I myself saw and being present recognized, it has been so firmly persuaded to me, that without any scruple of doubt I believed those things to be true which were said by those who testified that they had seen them; although of the persons from whom I had heard these things, I had hitherto either small or no knowledge. Moreover, of all these, those first seem to be written which, done in that place, were seen by myself, to which the same most blessed Martyrs commanded their most sacred ashes to be translated. Then those which are recorded to have been done in the palace of Aachen under the very eyes of the courtiers. Then those which are related to have been done through diverse places, to which, religious men asking and I granting, their sacred Relics were brought, I judged should be placed: so that, this order being preserved in the relation, nothing may remain of all the signs and miracles which could come to the knowledge of our littleness. But now the preface being completed, let us set forth the very miracles which are to be told.

[35] After the sacred bodies of the most blessed Martyrs, as has already been shown above, There are healed a contracted young man, at their command and us complying, were carried to the place in which they now rest, with the immense exultation of the faithful peoples; and the solemnities of the Masses being celebrated in the field, by the hands of the Priests, of whom there was then no small number gathered, they were carried into the basilica; and the bier on which they were borne was placed near the altar, and again another Office was begun to be celebrated there; suddenly a certain young man, affected with a dissolution of the loins, and therefore bent and leaning on staves, burst forth from the midst of the surrounding multitude of the people, and desiring to incline himself to adore, fell upon his knees; but in a wonderful manner, as if someone were pulling him back or rather drawing him back, he fell on his back, and lay for a very long time like one sleeping. Then as if awakening, he raised himself into a sitting position: and then after a little, with none helping, he rose; and standing in the midst of the surrounding multitude, together with the rest, by giving thanks for the health received, praised the mercy of God. He indicated to us asking that he had come thither from the district of Portia with other poor and pilgrims, and was called Daniel. In nearly the same hour, and in the same (so to speak) moment, in which he of whom we have now spoken, within the church and before the very altar, by the virtue of Christ and the intercession of the Martyrs, obtained health; a paralytic woman, a certain paralytic woman, and destitute of the office of nearly all her members, lying before the doors of the church, invoked the holy Martyrs to her aid; and soon, all who stood around seeing it, she began, her bowels being moved, to be shaken as if nauseous, and then to cast out by vomiting a great force of phlegm and bile. Which being done, taking a little cold water, she asked to be raised from the place in which she lay, and leaning on a staff entered the basilica; and the Martyrs being adored and the vigor of her members received, she returned to her own home.

[36] Meanwhile a certain man, named Wuillibert, having a house not far from the basilica in which the bodies of the blessed Martyrs now rest; among the rest, who had assembled to show veneration to the Saints, approached the bier, and as if for a gift offered forty denarii. Who, when he was asked by us who he was, and what this offering of a gift meant; related that a few days before, seized with a most grievous languor, he had been brought to extremity, seized with a deadly languor, so that, despaired of by all who had seen him, he was admonished to disburse all his goods quickly for the remedy of his soul: and that he had done so. And now, all that he had being disposed for the pious places to which it should be given, one of his servants had complained with great groaning, that it had been done wrongly and very negligently by them in this, that nothing of his goods had been given to the Saints lately coming from Rome. Then he had asked those standing around, if they knew anything of his property to remain, which could be sent to the Martyrs. For they were still in Michilunstat, and it had not yet by any signs become clear that they ought to migrate thence. Then someone had answered, that of all his property only one pig remained, and that it had not been assigned to whom it should be given; then it had pleased him, and he had commanded that it be sold; and after his death that price be sent to the lights of the Martyrs. These words being completed, he asserts that he felt so sudden a healing, that immediately, all pain being put to flight, he had even a desire of eating; and food being taken, he was in a short time so strengthened, that on the morrow he could go very conveniently to procure or do every work which the necessity of his household demanded. After this, that pig was sold, and this was the price of it, which by vow he offered to the blessed Martyrs.

[37] The remaining virtues and miracles which through them the Lord worked for the salvation of men, since I see it matters nothing in what order they are told, I have judged should be described as they occurred to memory: because in their relation it is more to be considered what and why, than when, anything was done. The Relics of the blessed Martyrs therefore being placed in the same basilica in the solemn manner, when according to the custom of ecclesiastical institution the sacred solemnities of the Masses were celebrated daily; it happened that on a certain day, when the divine rite was being performed, and we, set in the upper places of the same church, were attending to the people lying beneath and set in the lower parts; a certain half-naked Cleric, who among the rest had come to the same Office, and stood in the midst of the multitude, suddenly collapsed with so grievous a fall, that like a dead man he lay for a very long time on the pavement. Whom, snoring, when some of the bystanders tried to lift and raise; so great a force of blood burst from his mouth and nostrils, that the whole front part of his body, that is, the breast and belly, and as far as the garment with which his loins were covered, was suffused with this overflow. Who, when, water being brought, he had been refreshed, his strength being resumed, spoke clearly. For afterward, being asked by us, he testified that from his infancy until the present he had been able neither to hear anything nor to speak. That his fatherland was Britain, that he was an Englishman by nation; that for the sake of visiting his mother, who was on pilgrimage at Rome, he had undertaken the journey, and thus among the other pilgrims, who wished to go to Rome together, had come to that place: but, his companions departing, he had remained; and that the very day on which he was made whole was the seventh from when he had come to that place. And when we asked his name of him, he answered that he was wholly ignorant of his own name, because from that time at which he became deaf, he had never heard his own name.

[38] Then after some days, when in the solemn manner at the evening Office we had been gathered in the church, Likewise a woman, a certain deaf and mute girl, whom her father and brother, dragging her through many places of the Saints for the sake of seeking health, from the district of Bourges, having at last brought her thither, made stand among the rest in the same church, suddenly as if roused by a certain madness, the tablets with whose clatter she was wont to use for asking alms, with what force she could she shook, and furious threw them into the people set before her. Then running to the left wall of the church, as if about to climb it, with a leap of three or more feet given on high, she fell on her back: and when she had there lain for a little, more like a dead than a sleeping person; and was nearly all sprinkled with an eruption of blood, which flowed too abundantly from her mouth and nostrils; she was lifted by the bystanders, and carried into the middle of the basilica. And when she had there too lain for a while, she sat up as if awakened from a deep sleep: and then stretching out her hands to those who stood by, that she might be raised onto her feet, with such nods as she could she begged. Raised, she is led to the altar: where when she perceived Ratleicus standing among the other Clerics who stood near the altar, and looking at her, she at once burst into these words: "You are," she said, "Ratleicus: you," she said, "are called by this name: you are the servant of these Saints." When he asked her whence she knew this, or who had indicated his name to her: "These Saints," she said, "who rest here, when I lay as if sleeping, approached me, and put their fingers into my little ears, and said to me: 'When you rise, and approach the altar, that young Cleric, whom you see standing before you and looking at you, know that he is called Ratleicus, and he is our servant: for he is the one who brought our bodies to this place.'" And in truth it was so. For he was the one whom, for the sake of receiving the Relics of the Saints from a certain Deacon, and bringing them to us, we have related in the first book that we sent to Rome. And she indeed in this way before us, by the virtue of the most blessed Martyrs, the spirit of infirmity being driven out, obtained the most complete health of her body: whom her father and brother who brought her thither testified to have been always deaf and mute from the time of her nativity.

[39] But the miracle which I am now about to narrate, I myself did not see, but by the words of those Likewise a man tremulous in his whole body, a merchant by whose relation it was made known to me, I can believe no less than my own eyes: and therefore not as heard, but rather as seen by myself, I have resolved to set forth without hesitation and without any doubt. Certain merchants of the city of Mainz, who were wont to buy grain in the upper parts of Germany, and to carry it down by the river Main to the city, a certain blind man, an Aquitanian by nation, named Albric, for the sake of earning a reward from God, placed on their ship, as he himself had asked, brought to the basilica of the blessed Martyrs. Who, when, having disembarked there, and received into hospitality in the house of the keeper of the church; he stayed there seven or more days. For he had, besides his blindness (which, because he lacked eyes, now seemed to him natural), a horrible and foul infirmity of his whole body. For there was an immense trembling of all his members, which shook him with so grievous an inconvenience, that he was wholly unable to bring food to his mouth with his own hands. He, when on a certain day, lying in his lodging in the forenoon hours, had fallen asleep; he saw through sleep someone standing by him, and admonishing him that he should quickly rise, and hasten to the church; saying that the time had come at which he should be freed from that miserable affliction by the virtue of the Saints. Awakened, and led to the church, he sat down on a certain stone before the doors. There was being performed then in the church in the solemn manner the divine Office, and the prayers being completed which are wont to precede the sacred reading of the Gospel, it began to be read. Of which when scarcely two verses had been completed in reading, behold suddenly, as if suffering violence, that tremulous man cried out, saying: "Help me, St. Marcellinus." At which cry, although all who were in the church were moved with no small perturbation, yet the greater part remaining in their place on account of reverence for the Gospel reading, several ran to see what the cause of this cry might be: and, as they afterward testified, they found him, in the place in which he had sat down, lying with his body stretched out and on his back, his chin and breast flooded with gore flowing from his nostrils. Who, when by them he had been raised, and, taking a little cold water, had been revived; related that it had seemed to him, then when he had uttered that cry, that someone had struck him on the neck with his fist, and therefore he had implored the help of the blessed Martyr. But it is established that this blow was so salutary to him, that from that moment of time no vestige of that foul agitation appeared any longer in his body. He afterward remained in that place for nearly two years, and as he himself testified, there was no night in this biennium in which he did not through a dream see the same Martyrs who had made him whole; and he also heard many things from them, which he was bidden to tell others: of which we now see most being fulfilled, which he then foretold would be.

[40] After a few days we saw also another, involved in a similar disease, in the same basilica, through the merits of the same Saints, and a Cleric: healed in a not dissimilar manner. For on a certain night, when for celebrating the matutinal Office, and hearing the readings of the divine law, we were sitting in the church, there entered one in Clerical habit, with trembling members; and leaning on a staff, he with difficulty governed his faltering steps. And when he inclined himself near the wall to pray; an immense voice being uttered, with a sudden fall he fell face downward; and a small space of time being interposed, he rose healed from the inconvenience by which he was held. He, when we asked of him, whether anything else, besides what we all could see, had appeared to him at that hour at which he obtained health: said, that a little before he had entered the basilica, he had come to the old church (which toward the West was distant a small space from the new basilica, in which the Martyrs then rested) for the sake of praying, and when he had found it closed, he had prayed before the doors. Then when he had raised himself, and had begun to go to the church, he had seen a certain Cleric, of venerable grey hair, clothed in a white stole, going before him in the same direction in which he too wished to go. Whom, as he himself asserts, he followed as far as the door of the basilica: where when both had come, he who went before stopped, applying himself to the left doorpost, as if he wished that the other should enter first, whom he himself a little before had preceded: and to him hesitating, by nodding he commanded him to enter before him. Who, when he had entered, and had inclined himself to pray, he stood behind his back; and with his fist struck him on the neck and prostrated him, and immediately vanished. Whom however no other, except only he who was healed, could see.

[41] About the same time, when on a certain night, rising, we went to the church; we found before the doors of the church a certain boy, lying in the porch, so wretchedly contracted, The contracted: a boy of fifteen, that his chin was joined to his knees. Who asked one of those who followed us, to carry him into the church; and he, moved with mercy, lifted him, and made him lie in the church near the railings. Who immediately, drowsiness rushing on, where he lay fell asleep; nor did he wake fully before he was so perfectly healed of that miserable contraction, through the help of the Saints, that, waking by himself, from the place into which he was brought by another carrying him, he rose, and approached the altar to give thanks to God. He however, when the day dawned, and we could speak with him; related that three times, before the signal of the church had sounded, he had been roused by a certain Cleric unknown to him, and admonished that he should by no means omit to come into the church at the time of the matutinal Office. And that he had done so, and afterward, as we saw, sleeping in the church had received the entire health of his body. And he indeed seemed to be about fifteen years old.

[42] Likewise we saw another, not a boy, as this one was, but very old and decrepit, affected with the same disease, in the same place, in a similar manner, at a similar time healed: whom we found, on a certain night, when on account of the matutinal Office to be celebrated we had come to the door of the church, on the very threshold: who, supporting himself on his knees, sustained himself with two staves, and thus by that very slow motion delayed us from entering. and an old man, also deaf: And when, set behind his back, we awaited that sluggish advance; so great a fragrance of most sweet odor, proceeding from the basilica, filled our nostrils, that it surpassed by its excellence the artificial composition of all spices and incenses. He entered at last, and before us near the railings lay down as if to sleep: we too, having entered the basilica, stood in our places, and together with the others sang in the solemn manner the Psalms which were said. But when the first Lesson began to be recited, we heard the same old man groan, and, as one suffering violence, implore help; and then, a small space of time being interposed, we saw him raise himself into a sitting position; and immediately, the staves with which he was wont to govern his walking being taken, he even stood on his feet. And we indeed saw these things: but he himself confessed that it had seemed to him, that as he lay two men as it were had seized him, one by the shoulders to the arms, the other by the legs and feet, and as if by drawing, had stretched out his sinews which were contracted. And because, besides this inconvenience of contraction, he asserted also that he had been deaf, he said that, when he had been raised into a sitting position, there came as it were a blow of a fist striking most strongly upon his head; and at the same time he heard the voice of one commanding that in future he should hear. This old man healed in this manner, testified that he had come from the district of the Helvetians which is now called Aargau, and that he was an Alaman by nation.

[43] But another, in a similar manner debilitated by a contraction of the sinews, who said that he had come from the village of Liège, where St. Lambert rests in body, on a certain Sunday night, after the matutinal Office was performed, we having now returned from the church; when, on account of those who had come from afar, and a certain man of Liège. and were hastening to return to their own homes, the Priest in his customary manner celebrated the sacraments of the saving Host; before all who were present, he fell on the pavement, and there for a small space of time lay as if asleep; then, as if awakened from sleep, with none raising him, he rose. And when one of the bystanders took the staves which he had been wont to use before, and which, when he fell, having slipped from his hands lay far off, and held them out to him; he refused, saying: "Far be it from me, that I should touch them any further." But he too, healed in this manner, returned to his fatherland, from which, by crawling rather than walking, he had come to the thresholds of the Martyrs.

[44] Not long after, when I in the month of November, according to custom about to winter in the palace, was disposing to go to the Comitatus; and now having begun the journey, the river Rhine being crossed, I came to a royal village, whose name is Sinzig, to stay; and after supper, which had occupied some part of the night, it is announced to the Author about to spend the night at Sinzig I had withdrawn into the privacy of the chamber, where I was to rest, with my household; the servant who was wont to offer us drink, as if to announce something new, hastily entered. Whom I, looking at; "What," I said, "do you wish to tell? For as I see, you have I know not what, which you wish to bring to our knowledge." Then he said, "Two signs have just now been done before us, which I have come to indicate to you." And when I bade him say whatever he wished; "Just now," he said, "when, rising from supper, you entered this chamber, I with my companions went down into the cellar, which is beneath this dining-room. Where when we had begun to distribute beer to the servants asking for it, there came a boy sent by a certain fellow-servant of ours bearing a flask, which he demanded to be filled for himself. Which when it was filled, he asked that also some little of the same beer be given to him to drink. It was given in a vessel, which by chance empty had been placed upon the cask in which the beer was. But when, about to drink this, he brought it to his mouth, with great astonishment he cried out that this was wine, not beer. beer changed into wine: And when he who had both filled the flask, and had drawn that very thing which was given to him from the same opening, began to accuse him of lying: 'Take,' he said, 'and taste; and then you will prove that I said not falsely, but rather truly.' He took and tasted, and likewise testified that this tasted of wine, not beer. Then a third and fourth, and the rest who were present, by tasting one by one and marveling, drank up all that was in the vessel. But as many as tasted thereof, testified that it had the taste of wine, not of beer."

[45] Meanwhile, while astonished they were amazed in admiration of this sign, it happened that the candle, by whose light they used there, and which then, fixed to the wall near the cask, was burning, with no one touching it, fell onto the pavement wet with moisture; and was so extinguished, that not even the smallest spark remained in it. Which one of them snatching, ran to the door; but moved by the horror of the darkness, before he went out, standing on the very threshold, "May the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter," he said, "help us." At which invocation that candle, which he held in his hand, was kindled. and the candle kindled divinely. When I heard these things, immediately to almighty God, as was fitting, I said praise and gave thanks, who always and everywhere glorifies his Saints, and deigned to gladden us his servants, who then had their sacred Relics with us, with such great virtues. But him who announced these things to me, the narration being completed, I ordered to withdraw to his lodging. Moreover, when I had placed myself to rest on my little bed, I began, turning over many things with myself, to consider and to marvel what that beer-into-wine, that is, that change made of an inferior drink into a better, meant, or could portend; or why in that place, that is, in a royal house, and not rather in that where the most sacred bodies of the blessed Martyrs, who did these prodigies through the virtue of Christ, are laid away, a miracle of this kind had happened. But although I could not, by long and anxious thought, come to a certain investigation of this question, yet I held for certain and shall always hold for certain, that that divine and supernal virtue, through which these and other miracles of this kind are believed to be done, never either does anything without cause, or allows it to be done, in the creatures which I do not doubt pertain to its providence and governance.

NOTES BY G. H.

CHAPTER V. Other miracles done at Mulinheim, the deaf and mute, paralytics and the insane being healed. Light granted to those traveling by night. A little book offered to the Emperor.

[46] Therefore, having departed thence, as I said above, I proceeded to the Comitatus. Eginhart having set out for the Assembly of the Nobles at Aachen, For the Emperor Louis, at that time staying in the palace of Aachen, had commanded an assembly of the Nobles to be held there from about mid-winter: where I too, ordered to be present among the rest, because I was compelled to be absent from the neighborhood of the blessed Martyrs, made little pleasant delays in the palace. And therefore after one month being completed from when I had come thither, I sent a certain one of ours, named Ellenhard; commanding him that he should hasten to the thresholds of the blessed Martyrs with what speed he could; and the Brothers of ours being visited, whom, departing thence, I had left there to perform the divine service, and all things which were being done there being diligently explored, he should quickly return to us. Who, when he had come thither, stayed there three days. But on the fourth, when he was now disposing to return to us, that blind man, named Albric, of whom we made mention above, detained him preparing to go; affirming that he would not set out on his journey before he had seen such a sign done, it is announced that a hunchback and a bent man were healed, by the relation of which he would make me glad and exceedingly rejoicing. He added also, that the most blessed Martyrs had appeared to him in his sleep the past night, and had given this in command, that he should seek out a certain poor man, named Gisalbert, depressed by a monstrous hump, and therefore bent and leaning on short staves; and, found, should place him in the dining-room, which is above the porch of the basilica, at the time of the matutinal Office, near the Relics which were there: because there, by the merits and virtue of the Saints, whose those Relics were, he should be freed from that deformity of the hump and the inconvenience of his crookedness. He obeyed the persuader, and deferred to the morrow the journey which he had prepared to undertake. near the Relics of SS. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Habacuc. And that blind man, seeking the commanded poor man, found him; and as had been commanded him, placed him in the upper parts of the church near the aforesaid Relics, at the time of the matutinal Office. Now those Relics were, what we did not yet know, of Blessed Marius the Martyr, and his wife and children, namely Martha, Audifax, and Habacuc. Which indeed together with the bodies of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, and in the same coffer, were brought to us: but he who brought them did not know whose the Relics were: for he who had sent them to me promised that he would come to me, and would indicate to me by himself the names of the Saints whose these Relics were, which afterward was done. But the poor man, who had been placed near them by the said blind man, when the second Lesson at the nocturnal Office was being read in the customary manner, an immense cry being uttered, struck no small fear into those hearing. To whom when some of the Clerics, together with him who had been bidden to await this there, had run; they found him, lying face down and stretched out near the altar; and the pavement, which was beneath his mouth, wet with much blood. Whom raising, and water being brought refreshing him; healed and straight, and retaining no signs of that camel-like crookedness, they led down rejoicing into the lower parts of the church. By which miracle performed in this manner, he whom I had sent thither, returning to me with the utmost haste, when he had related the things which he had seen, filled us with great joy and exultation.

[47] Not long after, Ratleicus, who brought the sacred ashes of the Martyrs, as we have shown above, from Rome; as he himself asserted, having been ordered, came, bringing a little book containing several chapters: of which he related that the account was such, saying that that blind man, of whom we just now made mention, had commanded him, by the authority of the Martyrs, a certain little book, to be offered to the Emperor Louis, that he should write down those chapters, and bring them to me, and tell me that I should receive them, and offer them to the Emperor to be read. I received from him the little book and read it through, and amended and newly written I offered it to the Emperor, as he had bidden. And he indeed received it and read it through: but of those things which through this book he had been ordered or admonished to do, he took care to fulfill very few. But what those chapters contained, or what was done by him, or what was omitted, must be mentioned rather in another place than in this. Yet that not only must not be passed over, but rather I judge must be written openly and clearly, in what manner it was revealed and commanded, that that book ought to be made and given to the King: which Ratleicus related happened in this manner. "A few days ago," he said, "when into the church for performing the nocturnal Office we had assembled in the customary manner, that blind man whom you know approached me, asking that I should withdraw with him into some more secret part. I did as he wished, and with him entered the little cell in which I was wont to rest. Then he first said, 'This night, a little before, roused by the sound of the signals, we rose, there appeared to me through a vision a certain man, venerable with grey hair, clothed in a white garment, holding a golden rod in his hand, and addressed me with such words: "See," he said, "Albric, that you understand well all things which I shall tell you, and retain them in so tenacious a memory, that you may be able to expound them also to others who shall write them. For I wish them to be written, and shown to Louis the Emperor to be read through your Senior: for they are very necessary, not only to be known, but also to be done by the Prince, into whose kingdom these Martyrs came by divine command."

[48] The Angel Gabriel commands them to be written Then beginning, he set forth in order twelve or more chapters; and commanded me that I should enumerate and expound them to you and four others, whom I shall tell you: and after these you shall make a little book, and bring it to your Senior, who now stays in the palace; and command him by the authority of the Martyrs, that he offer the same, as quickly as he can, to the Emperor. Then adding, "Do you know," he said, "who I am, who command you these things?" Then, hesitating nothing, I answered that he was St. Marcellinus. And he said, "It is not so as you think: but I am Gabriel the Archangel, and I assumed the person and form of Marcellinus for this reason, because the Lord God committed to me the care of all things and matters pertaining to these Martyrs: and now I have come, and that the truth of the vision that I might indicate to you these things, which I have commanded to be written: since it is of the divine will, that they should come, by their authority, to the knowledge of the King without interposition of delays. But you, as I have commanded you, at first dawn after the matutinal Office is completed, announce what you have heard to those to whom I have bidden you announce them." Then I said, "There is no one who would believe that an Angel spoke with me, or commanded me to announce these things." "It will not be," he said, "so; but I will give a sign, which you may do before them: which seen, they will have no further doubt about those things which from my command you shall bring to them. Therefore I wish you to tell Ratleicus, that he furnish you two new candles, which had not yet been kindled: and holding one of them in your right hand, the other in your left, stand before the altar: and when you have completed in narrating all things which I have commanded you, tell those who hear these things, be proved by the spontaneous kindling of the 2 candles. that in this they believe that the things which you have said are true and commanded by the Angel of God, if these candles in your hands, without the application of visible fire, shall be illuminated while they look on." Which being done, the book was written, and brought to me, and offered by me to the King; and by him also received and read through. Therefore it seemed good to me, among the other miracles, to make mention of this book: because on the occasion on which it was ordered to be written, there happened that wonderful and unusual kindling of the candles, which the Angel himself, who illuminated them, foretold ought to be done through the merits of the blessed Martyrs.

[49] About the same time, when Ratleicus returned from us to the basilica of the Martyrs, another little book was brought to us from there, containing the words and reasoning of a certain demon, who named himself Wiggo: which was made by him before many witnesses before the altar, near which the sacred ashes of the Martyrs are laid away, at the interrogation of the Priest, who had read the exorcism over the possessed person: which is narrated to have happened in this manner. There is an estate in the district of Nithagonne, by the name of Hecgstat, belonging to the Monastery of St. Nazarius, from which a certain girl, of about sixteen years, possessed by that erratic spirit, was brought by her parents to the basilica of the Martyrs. Who, when she had come before the tomb containing the sacred bodies, and the Priest had read over her head the exorcism, according to custom; The devil speaks much in Latin through the possessed girl; and then had begun to inquire of the demon how and when he had entered into her; not in the Barbarian tongue, which alone the girl knew, but in the Roman speech he answered the Priest. And when the Priest marveled and asked, whence to her was the knowledge of that Latin tongue, since her parents, who there stood present, were wholly ignorant of speech of this kind? "My parents," he said, "you have never seen." Then the Priest said, "Whence then are you, if these are not your parents?"

[50] [asserting that he was appointed to punish the sins of the people and the magistrates,] And the demon through the girl said, "I am a satellite and disciple of Satan, and for a long time now I have been a doorkeeper among the dwellers below: but now for some years, with my eleven companions, I have laid waste the kingdom of the Franks; the grain and the wine, and all other fruits which are born from the earth for the use of men, according to what we were commanded, by destroying we have wiped out; we have killed the cattle with diseases, we have sent plague and pestilence upon the men themselves; all adversities also and all evils, which they have now for a long time suffered for their deserts, with us doing them and bringing them upon them, befell them." Here when the Priest asked of him, for what cause this power had been granted him; "On account of the malice," he said, "of this people, and the manifold iniquities of those who are set over it: who love gifts and not justice, who fear man more than God, who oppress the poor, who refuse to hear the widows and orphans crying out to them, who do justice to no one but the buyer. Besides these there are also many other and almost innumerable things, which both by the people itself, and by its rulers, are daily committed; such as are perjuries, drunkenness, adulteries, murders, thefts, robberies; which no one forbids to be done; and when they have been done, there is none who avenges. The more powerful all serve base gains; and the higher place, which they received for ruling the lower, they abuse to pride and vain glory: hatred and envy, not so much among strangers, as among neighbors and those joined by affinity, they exercise: friend does not believe friend, brother hates brother, father does not love son: rare are those who faithfully and devoutly give tithes, rarer those who give alms: and this because, whatever they are bidden to give to God or to the poor, they think it perishes for themselves. Unjust Measures and unjust weights, against God's precept, they do not fear to have; by fraud they circumvent one another; they do not blush to speak false testimonies; the Lord's days and feast days they do not keep, but on these, as on others, they work according as their will carries them. On account of these and many other things, which God either commanded men to do, or forbade them to do, because this people through contumacy has become disobedient to his commands; we have been permitted, nay commanded, to do those things in human affairs which I have enumerated above, that they may pay the penalties of their perfidy. For they are perfidious and lying, since they do not take care to keep what they promised in baptism." All these things the demon through the mouth of the barbarian girl spoke in Latin.

[51] And when the Priest by commanding had begun to urge that he go out, but that he is compelled to depart by the power of the Saints. "I will go out," he said, "not on account of your command, but on account of the power of the Saints, who do not permit me to remain in her longer." These things being said, he threw the girl onto the pavement; and there for a little while, like one sleeping, made her lie with body face down. But after a little, with him departing, as if waking from sleep, by the virtue of Christ and the merits of the blessed Martyrs, the girl, all who were present seeing and marveling, rose healed, nor after the demon was driven out from her could she speak Latin: so that it could plainly be understood, that not she by herself, but the demon through her mouth had spoken. Alas! O grief! to what great miseries our times have sunk, in which not good men, but evil demons are teachers; and the inciters of vices, and persuaders of crimes, admonish us about our correction.

[52] About the same time a certain Nun, named Marethrudis, from the district of Wetterau, who was so monstrously held by the dire affliction of paralysis for ten years, A paralytic for 10 years recovers once and again, that for so great a space of time she scarcely fulfilled any office of her body for human uses: and was now despaired of by her parents, since they had brought her to all the places of the Saints to which they themselves could come. But at last by them then brought to the basilica of the Martyrs, and at the time of the nocturnal Office placed near the railings, by the merits and intercession of the same Saints, she was without delay given the long-desired health, so entirely and perfectly, that, the firmness of all her members being received, she who had come thither on a litter returned to her own home on foot. But when she began to return home, on the very journey she is seized with the same infirmity from which she rejoiced to be freed. And so, repenting of her return, she asked to be brought back again to the threshold of the Martyrs. And as soon as she was brought back, the health which by departing she had lost, she received without any delay. A vow therefore being made, that of her own accord she ought no longer to depart from the service of the Saints, she built for herself a little cell not far from the church to dwell in: and thenceforth living religiously, she remained in the service of the blessed Martyrs with great devotion.

[53] It is established also that another woman, not long after, through the same most blessed Martyrs, was freed from a great inconvenience: which matter is known to have happened in this way. In the district of Nithagonne there is an estate, called Ursella, which is separated from the basilica of the Martyrs by an interval of about six leagues. In which a certain woman, when, morning being come, waking from sleep she sat in her bed; and, according to the custom of those waking, by stretching her arms and continual yawning, to shake off her sluggishness, stretched herself; opened her mouth a little wider than she ought; and the joints of the jaws near the ears being disjoined, the gaping opening stood immovable: and now unable to close her mouth, made more like a mask than a human being, she paid the most grievous penalties of her incautious yawning. When this became known to the little women dwelling in the same estate; they run up, and with herbs and frivolous incantations strive to succor the ailing woman: but the vain and superstitious presumption had no effect, and rather vexed and injured the suffering woman, whatever the unskilled hands, as if from zeal of healing, applied to her. Meanwhile the brother of that woman's husband came up, and with salutary counsel asked that she be led to the basilica of the Martyrs without delay, affirming that she was to be healed there, if she should ever recover health. the tower of the basilica being seen, she is set right. And immediately, placed on a beast, they begin to lead her: but approaching the basilica, they make her, taken down from the beast, walk on foot. And when they had come to that place, from which now the little tower which contained the signals of the basilica could be seen by them; and those who were leading her commanded her to lift her eyes to see it; she looked, saw, and without any interposed delay received health. There all alike fall to the ground, extol the divine mercy with what praises they can, and rising hasten quickly to the basilica; and the most holy Martyrs being adored, and vows being paid according to the measure of their means, they return to their own homes with much exultation. We ourselves saw the same woman, and spoke with her; and the things which were done concerning her, we learned from her own account.

[54] Now I wish to relate that which I myself saw happen on the birthday of the blessed Martyrs. A certain boy, deaf and mute, A deaf and mute boy, who had stayed there for three years. who three years before had come thither, and had been appointed by him as doorkeeper in the house of the keeper of the church; the feast day now finished and the evening Office completed, when he was sitting near the door, suddenly rising he entered the basilica, and on the right of the altar fell face down. And when the sacristan, who placed the candlestick with the candle before the altar, had found him lying there, immediately he took care to indicate this to me. But we, who were then together, having quickly entered the church, found him lying, as he had been found by the sacristan. Whom when we ordered to be raised, as if oppressed by the deepest drowsiness, he could not be roused. At last therefore, as if waking, he raised himself, and perceiving us standing around he rose, and to those who stood near him, he is healed and speaks Latin; spoke in Latin. There are some of ours who say that the same boy, about six months before, when he had slept by night in the house of a certain man of ours, had spoken two words in his sleep; and that he had received hearing, which until then he likewise lacked along with speech, in that hour: which was conjectured to have so happened, because, after he was awakened from that sleep, whatever was commanded him by anyone, as if he understood, he took care to do. But this seems chief in this virtue, that he understood one speaking to him not in Latin, but in the Barbarian tongue; but, healed, he spoke not in the Barbarian, but in the Latin speech. He also related that he had seen the blessed Martyrs, and had heard from them many things which he ought to tell others: but when he had deferred to relate them at present, as if about to tell them on the morrow; they were so deleted from him through forgetfulness, that he recalled nothing at all of having heard them. This boy I, because he did not know his own name, on account of the prosperous effect of the virtue, ordered to be called Prosper. Who still survives, and remains with the keeper of the church, in the same office in which he had been before.

[55] likewise another, but in German: But on the day before this Prosper received speech, that is, on the vigil of the same festivity, there came a certain young man, similarly deaf and mute, into the basilica: and when with suppliant gesture he implored the help of the Saints, the Lord aiding, he too deserved to receive full health of both ailments. Him likewise, as the former, because he had never heard his own name, I called Godescalc. He however, not as Prosper, but as was his by birth, spoke in the Barbarian speech, after to him through the merits of the Saints the faculty of speaking was granted.

[56] When a certain necessity, according to custom, compelled me to go to the Comitatus of the King in the month of December, a most difficult journey undertaken by night, on the very (if I recall well) Kalends, setting out from the place of the Martyrs, on the following day I came to the Castle which in modern time is called Wiesbaden, to have my lodging there. There when, in order to cross more conveniently the forest which is contiguous to that place, we rose earlier than usual; the boys set out, who were to go before us with the baggage. But after, having gone out from the village in which we stayed, they began to take their way, so great a darkness of the foul night surrounded them, that whither they ought to turn, they could by no means know. There was besides a great cold; and the earth covered with frost denied them the means of seeing the way. The very ridges of the mountains, through which they had to go, beset with clouds, could not be seen how far or near they were. There was added to these also a mist sitting in the valleys, they pray at the Cross set up for St. Marcellinus, which, hindering sight by its thickness, delayed those wishing to make their way. Who, when they perceived themselves hindered by so many obstacles, nor had it ready what they should do; they leap down from their horses, and try, by groping, to seek the way which they could not see. But when this succeeded little, the horses being mounted again, they resolve rather to commit themselves to the wandering which they abhorred, than to make delays. So, proceeding a little through the darkness, they come to the Cross which, in the way through which they were to go, in memory of Blessed Marcellinus had been placed. But the cause of placing that Cross there was, that in that place the inhabitants of the village in which we stayed that same night, met me two years before returning from the palace, and bringing the Relics of Blessed Marcellinus the Martyr, which were then rendered to me; and on account of the remembrance of this deed, for the veneration of the blessed Martyr, they took care to place it, as a kind of marker or monument. To which when the said boys, by wandering rather than by making their way, had come; they took counsel, that there they should await their companions who followed; and gather them to themselves, lest they should stray, by the sound of a trumpet; and then, when they should be together, invoke the blessed Martyrs to bring them help, and with voices raised on high sing Kyrie eleison three times.

[57] Which being done, so great a brightness of light sent from heaven as many times flashed over them, that it equaled the whiteness of daylight clarity. Which flashing brought them so much benefit for making their journey, that the mist being consumed and the darkness dispelled, the way also by which they ought to go being clearly perceived, they accomplished their journey, although through forests and mountains shaded with groves, and they are helped by a light sent from heaven. without the hindrance of wandering, until the rising of dawn. For in the first flashing so great a heat came together with that light, that they confessed they felt it as the vapor of a kindled furnace: by whose breath not only the mist, but also that frost, which then had covered both the mountains and the whole forest, was so consumed, that, the third flashing being performed, no vestige of that cold at all appeared. These things to us in the evening of the same day, after we came to our lodging, those who saw and experienced them narrated. Giving credit to whose words, we praised the mercy of almighty God with thanksgiving, because he deigned to help and console us through the merits of his Saints in all our necessities.

[58] Although all things be great, and ought to be referred to the divine power, A furious Priest, which we have learned were done for the salvation of mortals from the merits of the blessed Martyrs; yet in that miracle which I have now resolved to commit to memory, so plainly is the virtue of almighty God clearly known, that it is left to no one in doubt, that in all his creation he can most easily effect whatever he shall will. Suntiligua is the name of a village in the district of Nithagonne, in which a certain Priest, named Walthbert, held a church. He, captured in mind, with great grief of his own, was brought to the basilica of the Martyrs. Of whom three were his brothers, one a Priest and two laymen, the fourth was a Monk, a kinsman of his, from the monastery of Hornbach, in which the Priest himself too from a small age had been brought up. From whom when I inquired, whether any remedy had as yet been bestowed on him by any physician; "Immediately," they said, after the vain attempt of the physicians being led to the Martyrs, "when we learned that he had been seized with this affliction, he was brought by us to the monastery in which he was reared. Where when the physicians, according to the skill of their art, had done many things for him, and could not drive away the disease from him; our friends advised us to lead him to the mercy of these Saints: for we trust that they can save him, just as we have heard that many others were here saved." After these things, received into hospitality, they were with us four days, leading him daily to the church, and making him lie before the sacred ashes of the Martyrs. But on the fifth day, his brother the Priest, and the Monk who had come with him, asked that I should receive him with his two lay brothers, until they themselves should return: for after three days they said they would return. I did as they wished, and committed him to our Priest Hilfrid. He, when received by the Priest, and led into the little cell in which he himself stayed; about the evening of the same day, the madness by which he was held being more vehemently moved, wished to kill one of his brothers, who guarded him, a knife being snatched, which chance had offered to the raging man: but he, by fleeing, avoided death, and indicated to our men, who were near, about his madness. Then the Priest, to whom the care of guarding him had been enjoined by us, suggested to me and at the same time persuaded me, that I should permit him to be bound. Bound therefore with iron chains, he is placed on a bed; and the doors being barred, he is left alone in the chamber. His brothers keep watch before the door, and guard him with vigilant care as one able to break out. Moreover the chains, by which he was held bound, were of such a kind, that while he was in them, he could not turn himself to the right or left side, nor lie otherwise than with body on his back.

[59] He slept therefore, as he himself testifies, nor did he wake before midnight. But when the cocks began to crow, awakened, he saw himself not only loosed from the bonds of the chains; he is restored to his mind, the chains being removed of themselves, but also freed from the disease of madness with which he had labored: and immediately turned with his whole mind to saying praises to God, by Psalms and Hymns, which from excessive gratitude, although he was alone, he sang quite clearly, he roused all sleeping in the vicinity of that chamber. Then rising, he approached the door; and asked his brothers, who kept watch there, that they would permit him to go outside for the necessities of nature. But they, thinking this a trick of the madman, by no means dared to assent to him; but, their host being summoned, who had shut him in there, they beg that he speak with him. Who, after he had spoken with him, and from the reasonableness of his answers understood him to be of sound mind; the door being opened, permitted him to go where he wished; and receiving him returned, inquired what had become of the chains with which he had shut him in burdened. And he said, "The chain with which you bound me is safe: and if you wish to know where it is, seek it and you will find it." A light therefore being kindled, they found it before the bed, in which they had made him rest, lying composed in that manner, and bound with the same knots, with which it then had been, when they placed him with it in the same bed, and left him alone in the same chamber. Who is to be believed to have done this, except he who from nothing created all things; and who in the things which he made can do such things, without the loosing of the knots. as can neither be comprehended by understanding, nor explained by human speech? For who could either conjecture by thought, or be able to relate by words, in what manner that Priest was absolved from those chains; since it is most certain to us that there is no one who could by himself strip himself from bonds of this kind, if he had been bound in a similar manner, as the same Priest was, when he was shut up alone in that chamber? But those who left him there, after, returning, they found him healed and in possession of his mind and memory, glad and praising God together with him returned to their own homes. That this was so done, we learned not by the relation of any witnesses, but we ourselves, because we were then there, by God's will knew: and therefore we write confidently what it happened to us to know by eyewitness, as they say, faith. But because all the things which we have undertaken to write of the virtues of the Martyrs can by no means be completed in the present discourse; let this book here receive its end, that the things which remain may more conveniently be begun from another beginning.

NOTES BY D. P.

* number 39

CHAPTER VI. Miracles done in the palace of the Emperor at the Relics of these Saints. Blindness, contraction, paralysis, fever taken away.

BOOK IV.

[60] In the relation of the signs and virtues which I have proposed that I wish to write in this book, those seem to be placed at the head which, done in the palace, Preface on the order of the following miracles. came to the knowledge not only of the common people, but also of the Prince himself and his Nobles, and of all (so to speak) the courtiers: and not only on this account, but also on that, that in our little oratory, where the same miracles were done, no other Relics, at that time, than those of the blessed Marcellinus and Peter, were: so that whatever of healings and signs is known to have been done there, ought singularly and properly to pertain and be referred to those, whose alone it is established that the Relics were there. The most blessed Martyrs did in the same place, as we shall show in what follows, in the places of other Saints many virtues and miracles, which to some can not undeservedly seem as if common to them with those Saints in whose basilicas they were done; on this account especially, since those who are believed to be of equal merit before God, are not absurdly thought to work in common in the working of miracles. But that this is otherwise is proved by that reason, by which it is clearly shown that no virtues were done in these places, before the said Relics of the blessed Martyrs had been brought into them. But now, as we promised, let us set forth those miracles which were done in the aforesaid palace.

[61] There was a certain young man among the chamberlains of the King, a Greek by nation, named Drogo: who, seized with a fever, either by the negligence of his own people, or the ignorance of the physicians, now for some months labored in long and adverse health. He, There is healed a fever; after Hilduin the Abbot rendered to us the Relics of Blessed Marcellinus, as has been shown in the second book; admonished in his sleep, that he should come to our oratory, and there kindle a candle bought for four denarii, and invoke St. Marcellinus the Martyr, whose head he asserted was there, to his aid; and should know that if he did this, he would quickly be free of the infirmity with which he had long labored; he believed the admonisher, and that which had been commanded he fulfilled with what speed he could. And immediately made healthy, and the strength of his members being received, he returned to his own home on his own feet.

[62] There was in the same place another likewise a young man, named Gerlac, a contraction of the sinews in a man, from the city of Rheims, among those who, for building the edifices of the palace, were ordered to come from that city. He, about half a year before, in the same village, was seized with so strong and monstrous a contraction of the sinews, that his feet clung to his buttocks and his knees to his chin. Him his companions and kinsmen, carrying in their arms, brought to the said oratory; and because otherwise he could not, made him lie face down; and asked the holy Martyr with great devotion that health be restored to him. It was a Sunday, and the third hour of the day, when he was brought thither: and he lay there until the ninth hour. And when the Office of the same hour had been solemnly completed by the Clerics; behold from the case which contained the sacred Relics of the blessed Martyr, so great a fragrance of most sweet and unaccustomed odor going forth so filled the whole cell of the oratory, that all who were present rose up without hesitation in admiration of it; and inquired of one another by curious questioning, whether they all equally perceived the same. When suddenly they see him, who lay near, as if drawn by certain ones holding him; and the members, which were contracted by the disease, stretched out: and understanding that divine virtue was present, they took the man, and placed him before the altar. Who, when, placed there, with many tears he implored divine help; all seeing it, was so corrected, that he who had come into the oratory borne by the hands of others, walked out of the oratory on his own feet. Yet he is known still to carry about in his body a testimony of the passion which he endured: for he afterward limped so with his left leg and foot, that for governing his walking he always needed a staff. Why this was not wholly cured, let those who wish say: I see that I can conjecture it no otherwise, than to think that it suited his inner health, that some vestiges of outer weakness should remain in him.

[63] Jülich is the name of an ancient municipality, separated from the village of Aachen by a space of eight leagues, from whose territory a certain girl, affected with a similar disease and in a similar manner, and in a girl. brought by her mother and other kinsfolk to the said oratory; when, on account of the multitude of men, who then by chance for the sake of hearing the solemnities of the Masses had gathered there, she could not be brought in; they placed her outside at the eastern window of the oratory, awaiting an opportunity, that, the throng of the people receding, she might more easily be brought into the oratory. But when it had come to about the middle of the Office, and, the Gospel being completed, the offering of the saving Host was performed; they perceive her afflicted with anguish; and, sweat breaking out through her whole body, as if slipping into sleep. By which signs not vainly conjecturing that divine virtue was present, raising her from that place, they place her, like one asleep, upon a square stone, which lay near. There before all, who for the sake of beholding this miracle ran together, she received the most complete health of all her members, in the moment of one hour, the Lord helping. There were there among the other spectators also Jews, of whom one named David, after the completion of this sign, running quickly to the window of the chamber in which I then was, and addressing me; indicated the miracle which he had seen, giving thanks to God, who through his Martyrs deigned to work such great miracles for the salvation of mortals.

[64] There was in the same village a certain blind man of advanced age, who, as he himself asserted, three years before struck with sudden blindness, among other poor was wont to beg alms from door to door. He, when he slept in his little hut, saw through sleep someone standing by him and saying, that if he wished to see, he should go to our oratory; that there was a physician there, There are illuminated a blind man unwillingly, who could restore light to him asking it. He refused, and, abhorring the light which was offered, said, "What have I now to do with sight, which I lost long ago? It is better for me, if I lack it, than if I have it. As I now beg, all hear me, and provide the things which are necessary: for a seeing man it is not fitting to beg: but an old man and weak I cannot work." Then he who spoke with him said, "Go, and do not delay: for whether you will or not, you shall receive sight." He obeyed the commander, and proceeded to the oratory, and passed the night in it; and when on that night nothing was done, he returned to his hut. To whom again he who first appeared through sleep, and likewise as before had commanded, commanded him to proceed to the oratory. He did, as he had been bidden, but not even then was anything done. But admonished a third time he came, and where he prostrated himself to pray before the altar, he received sight. Him we, while he was still blind, among other poor and weak many times begging in our house saw: and therefore we sought no other witness of his illumination, because we believed the testimony of our not-deceiving conscience sufficed for us.

[65] When from these and several other workings of virtues, through the surrounding villages and districts, the salutary report increased; a certain woman from the Ripuarian district, now for a long time blind, having at once the desire and the confidence of recovering sight, asked to be brought to the said oratory. And when she had come thither, she continued three whole days, and as many nights, there praying and fasting. But when at present she had felt no indication in herself of the desired health, she was brought back home: and a few days being interposed, the hope of recovering light not vainly conceived, again she asked to be led to the sacred Relics. To which when she was led by one boy (for those who first led her thither, judging her hope as if vain and superfluous, were unwilling to go further with her), when she came to the cemetery of the palace of Aachen, which is situated on the mountain which overhangs that village on the eastern side, that same boy accompanying and leading; there, as if divine grace meeting her, she received the long-desired light. Then marveling and astonished she stood, and commanded the boy leading her to follow: saying, "Hitherto I followed where you, going before, led: but now I do not need your leading: because the way by which we ought to go, I see: and this village in which the sacred Relics are, to which I have disposed to come, the Lord helping, I behold. Do you only see and take care, that you lead me by the straight way to the oratory of the Martyrs in the village itself." These things being said, she proceeded to the oratory, gave thanks, made to us an indication of the miracle done in her, and seeing and rejoicing returned to her own home.

[66] Ascvilare they call a Royal estate, distant from the palace of Aachen by a space of four leagues, in which a certain man was held and laboring with a long infirmity of the vitals; a long infirmity of the vitals is relieved, and now despaired of by his own in such a way, that he seemed able to be cured no otherwise than by cautery. A physician is sought for this, and a day is appointed for the burning which would not profit. Meanwhile to a certain woman, dwelling in the same estate, it was revealed in a dream, that he ought not to admit to his cure a remedy of this kind, which both, on account of its painfulness, could scarcely be tolerated, and, because it was superfluous, would not bring health to the sufferer. Moreover if he wished to become healthy, he should go to the palace of Aachen, seek out our oratory, and have himself placed in it, and not depart thence before three days were completed: in this way he would obtain full health. Which when it was announced to him, his friends and kinsfolk being called together, he asked that they would fulfill toward him the commands of that revelation. Who soon, placing him on a beast, bring him to the oratory; and placing him in it, as had been commanded, they go away, to return after three days. But he, left there, for three days and nights, not vainly supplicating the Lord for the recovery of his health, was so perfectly healed; that he asserted no vestige remained in his vitals of the disease by which he was long held. His own people therefore as they had promised returning to him, and finding him healthy as they had wished; not on the back of a beast, as he had come, but by the office of his own feet to his own home, with the immense gratitude and joy both of himself and of them, he returned.

[67] There is likewise a royal estate in the district of the Meuse, separated from the village of Aachen by about eight leagues, which the inhabitants call Gangluden: in which a certain woman, who had a daughter of about eight years so consumed by the dire affliction of paralysis, The healing of a paralytic girl, that now for a long time she could move scarcely any member to its office: the report of the virtues being heard, conceived in her pious heart hope of recovering her daughter's health; and immediately, taking her up in her own arms, took care to carry her to the said oratory. Who, when she had arrived there in the forenoon time, namely at the hour of dinner, and had found none of the Clerics there (for a little before they had departed for the sake of refreshment); yet having entered, she placed her daughter near her on the pavement. But she herself, kindling a very small candle, which she had brought as a gift; placed it before her on the same pavement, and prostrated herself to pray before the sacred ashes with the utmost devotion. Which being done, without any interposed delay, the girl, through supernal grace the health and firmness of all her members being received, her mother not perceiving it, rose; and took up the candle which lay before her, and stood behind the back of the one lying. Who, when, the prayer being completed, she had lifted her head from the pavement; and had seen neither the candle nor her daughter in the place where she had put them, rose; and turning, beheld her daughter standing behind her with the candle, praising God and joyful. Therefore when she saw none there, to whom she could relate the virtue which had been done (for besides the poor, it became known to the Author from the account of the royal librarian. who kept watch there for the sake of begging, no one was within the walls of the oratory, except herself and her daughter, then, when that miracle was done), vows with thanksgiving being paid, she returned home with her daughter healthy and unharmed. The indication of which virtue, in what manner it was brought to us, I will explain in a few words. Gerward, the Librarian of the Palace, to whom at that time also the care of the palatial works and structures was committed by the King, coming from Nijmegen, sought the palace of Aachen. He, when on a certain night he had stayed in the said estate, asked of his host, whether he had lately heard anything new of the palace. To whom he said, "Nothing now among the courtiers is so celebrated, as the signs and virtues which are done in the house of Einhart, by certain Saints, whose Relics he is said to have in the oratory of his house: to whose veneration all our neighbors daily hasten, and whoever sick is brought thither, is at once healed." And he began to relate to him about the daughter of that woman, how a few days before she had been made whole. Then Gerward said, "Go, and bring that woman to me, that she herself may tell me what I desire to hear." The woman came, and plainly set forth all things as they were done. But Gerward, when on the morrow he came to the King, indicated to him those things which about this sign he had learned by the revelation of that woman. But the King, when I, having entered according to custom, stood before him, conveyed both to me and to the others standing by him, marveling and at the same time praising the divine mercy and power, what Gerward had related to him about this miracle. Thus it happened to us to learn, by a relation of this kind, the sign which, with us not knowing, was done in our house.

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER VII. Miracles wrought at Valenciennes in Hainaut at the Relics of these Saints. Ten blind men illuminated, other sick healed.

[68] Let it suffice to have commemorated these things in the present work about the miracles of the blessed Martyrs which were done in the Palace. Now we must come to those virtues which were done in the places to which, religious men asking and I granting, the venerable Relics of the same Martyrs came, and in which they are still venerated with great reverence. Which first of all Georgius, Priest and Rector of the monastery of St. Salvius the Martyr, which in the district of Fanomartis, in the village called Valenciennes, is situated on the bank of the river Scheldt, by my giving received, and through a certain Deacon sent to the said monastery from the palace of Aachen. He, having only one companion with him, when in the district of Hesbaye he had come to the royal village which they call Wasidium; and in a meadow, which was next to the village, for the sake of refreshing the beasts had dismounted; behold, one of the inhabitants of the place, depressed by a hump; his jaws also, from excessive pain of the teeth, There are healed a tumor of the face, pain of the teeth, and a hump: which, as he himself said, he suffered for a long time, distended with great swelling, carrying an iron-shod fork on his neck, furious entered that meadow; and asks, in vexation, why they were grazing his meadow. To whom the Deacon, who was carrying the Relics of the Martyrs, and was then preparing to suspend them on the top of a rod, which for this he had fixed in that place; said, "It is better for you, that before these Relics of the Saints, which I have here in my hands, you prostrate yourself; and ask God, that he deign, through the merits of the same Saints, to free you from the pain which you suffer: for the tumor which is seen in your face testifies that there is some great pain in your mouth." At this the man, the fork which he carried in his hand being thrown down, fell face down before the Relics; and, as the Deacon advised him, supplicated the Lord for his health. Nor a long delay being interposed, he rose so healed from prayer, that neither the tumor in his face, nor the pain in his teeth, nor the hump, by which he was pressed, remained in his back. And therefore with quick step entering the village, he invited all his kinsmen and neighbors, set in the same place, to say praise to God, and render thanks to Christ the Lord. There flowed into the meadow an immense multitude of people, and to give thanks for him who had been healed a throng of the surrounding region gathered. All ask the Deacon, that he should stay there that night: nor could he deny them this, because they were ready, unless he assented, to detain him even unwilling. They then pass a wakeful night, and the whole region resounded in the praises of God: but on the morrow, when the Deacon had begun to take his way, all that throng of the gathered people accompanied him departing with immense devotion; nor would it stop or depart before he had been received by others, whom the report of this miracle had moved, coming to meet him. In this manner the sacred Relics of the Martyrs, on the occasion of this miracle, received by the peoples of those regions, and to the basilica of St. Salvius, whither the said Georgius had sent them, the Lord leading, were brought. This sign it is established was made known to me by the account of Georgius himself: but of the rest, which are now to be told, I received from him a little book, whose order or series is known to have this form.

[69] "In the fourteenth year, Christ being propitious, of the reign of Louis Augustus, when, to strengthen the faith of the Christian people, which is also confirmed by a little book written about the miracles: as in the beginning of the nascent Church, the Lord deigned to show signs and prodigies in the very palace of the King, through the merits of his Saints; Georgius the Priest sought and obtained at the palace of Aachen, from Einhart the Abbot, the Relics of the blessed Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter, whose bodies he himself had lately received brought from Rome by his men: and these, laid away in a case which he had decently adorned with gold and gems, by his Deacon, named Theothard, to the basilica of St. Salvius the Martyr, which he himself at that time held by the gift of the King, he took care to direct. Which Deacon, when he had come to the royal village which is called Wasidium, from which there are related also healings, there met him a hunchbacked man, and so vexed and consumed by pain of the teeth, that now for fifteen days he could take no other food than water alone. Who, when, the Deacon exhorting, before the Relics which he carried, he had prostrated himself to pray; and had devoutly and suppliantly invoked Christ the Lord to have mercy on him; through the intercession of the Saints Marcellinus and Peter, all the inconvenience of his body being driven away, he rose healed from prayer. This miracle was done on the thirteenth of the Kalends of July, [which has been more fully narrated by me above: because I took care to write it according to the account of the said Georgius.]"

[70] But the Deacon coming with the Relics on the third day to Valenciennes, when he was bringing them reverently and honorably into the basilica of St. Salvius, as had been commanded him; a certain young man from the village of the king, which is called Listina, spasms tolerated for a whole year, named Dominic, who by that disease which the Greeks call spasm, now for a whole year was so vexed, that his right hand could by no means be held still; but by continual agitation, like one who turns a mill, was moved in a circle; at once at the very entrance, through the merits of the blessed Martyrs, before all the people was so healed, that after this he suffered no inconvenience of that horrendous agitation. and of blindness, Then on the fourth day, namely on the festivity of Blessed John the Baptist, a certain old woman named Gerrada, who testified that she had been blind for one year, while the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, the blessed Martyrs being invoked, received the light which she had asked from faith, all who were present seeing it, through their merits. likewise the deaf and mute, Similarly on the festivity of St. Salvius, which falls on the sixth of the Kalends of July, a certain deaf and mute man, amid the solemnities of the Masses, through the help of the Martyrs, a blind woman of 33 years deserved to receive both hearing and speech. On the same day a certain old woman from the district of Laon, named Rodeltrudis, who for three years had not seen the light of heaven, in the same celebration of the Masses, received sight. On the fifth of the Kalends of July, a certain boy of about seven years, named Donitianus, who was blind from birth, of one blind man, while the divine Office was being celebrated, through the merits of the blessed Martyrs was illuminated.

[71] But on the vigil of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, that is, on the fourth of the Kalends of July, and of three blind women and a contracted man, a certain little girl, named Theobalda, having, as was thought, nine years of age, who for three years had seen nothing, at the time of the saving Office set in the midst of the multitude of the people, the merits of the Martyrs helping, received the lost light from divine mercy. On the same day a certain man, named Dado, from the village called Ponticulus, who was bent for six years, and could not raise himself to heaven; and therefore with short little crutches, placed under his armpits for the sake of supporting himself, walked face down: he at the same hour, and in the same place, through the mercy of God and through the merits of the blessed Martyrs, was raised up and made healthy.

[72] On the fourth day of the Nones of July, a certain widow named Adalrada, who, deprived of the light of her eyes for four years, saw nothing, the report of the virtues being heard, conceived hope of recovering sight by no vain faith; and a staff being seized, alone without a guide she strove to go to Valenciennes. And when she had begun to approach the village, it seemed to her, that she perceived as it were one ray of the sun with her right eye: and therefore she entreated the divine clemency with pure heart, that through the intercession of his Saints he would permit her to see the church of Blessed Salvius. And immediately she was heard, and what she had wished, the Lord having mercy, she obtained without delay. On the same day too, another certain woman from the district of Noyon, named Ruoitla, blind for five years, amid the solemnities of the Masses received the light which she had lost, Christ the Lord granting it through the merits of his Saints.

[73] On the octave of the Apostles, that is, on the day before the Nones of July, a certain man, named Gunthard, as well as paralytics, from the same district, as if struck with paralysis, was brought to the basilica of St. Salvius by his own people: who (as they said) now had one year in the same infirmity; and was so vehemently debilitated in the left part of his body, that he could neither bring his hand to his mouth, nor wash himself or put on his shoes. He, through the mercy of God and the merits of the Saints, at the time of the matutinal Office, on that very solemnity, was made healthy.

[74] Similarly also another man, named Hildebonus, coming from the monastery which is called At the Two Twins, since he had been blind from infancy, and had not seen the light of heaven in his whole life, likewise two blind men and as many blind women, in the celebration of the Masses, on the same day, in the same basilica, through the same Saints, the same Lord having mercy and aiding, received sight, and deserved to see clearly all things which before he had not seen. But on the day of the Nones of July, a certain little girl, named Reginlindis, who seemed to be no more than seven years old, since for three years she had lacked the light of her eyes, and among the rest had stood in the basilica to hear the divine Office; the merits of the Saints intervening, before all the multitude was illuminated. On the fourth of the Ides of July a certain blind woman, named Alagia, who for about two years lacked sight, within the sacred solemnities of the Masses, the prayers of the Saints helping her, was illuminated by the Lord Jesus Christ. On the same day a certain blind man, very old, from the village of Gauliacas, by name Ermenward, who for fourteen years could see nothing, having entered the church at the evening Office, invoked the blessed Martyrs; and at once, his blindness being driven away, received the long-desired light, the Lord aiding.

[75] and a possessed woman. On the seventh of the Kalends of August, a certain girl, who was vexed by an unclean spirit, brought into the basilica, while the Office of the sacred oblation was being celebrated; through the virtue of Christ and the merits of the blessed Martyrs, the demon being put to flight, deserved to receive the most complete health of mind and body. These are the miracles and virtues which our Lord Jesus Christ, through the merits of his holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, in the village of Valenciennes, for the salvation of the human race, deigned to work: which the said Georgius the Priest took care to send to us collected in a short little book, and we have judged should be inserted in this work of ours. This is Georgius the Venetian, who came from his fatherland to the Emperor, and in the palace of Aachen composed with wonderful art an organ, which in Greek is called hydraulic.

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER VIII. Miracles at Ghent, in the monastery of St. Bavo, at the Relics of these Saints. Eight blind men illuminated: other sick helped.

[76] Another little book was offered to me from the monastery of St. Bavo, Among the miracles done at Ghent, which is situated near the Scheldt in the place called Ganda, where the same river is joined to the river Lys, by the Brothers there serving God: at whose request I sent the Relics of the said Martyrs of Christ to the same monastery, in which these things done in order were found. "In the year from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ eight hundred twenty-eight, the Relics of the holy Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter came to the monastery of St. Bavo, on the fifth day of the Nones of July, a Friday, in the 6th Indiction. But on the third day, that is, the nearest Sunday, which was the third of the Nones of July, a certain blind girl, named Hartlinda, from the village which is called Fursenum (whom her father and mother testified to have lacked the office of her eyes for eight years), when she had been brought before the altar, upon which the sacred Relics of the Martyrs had been placed; there are healed before all who were present, received sight, the Lord having mercy. Then after eight days, that is, on the fourth of the Ides of July, another girl similarly blind was brought, named Helmrada, from the village called Magle: whose parents related of her, that on the eighth day after she was baptized, she was struck with sudden blindness. a girl blind from infancy, Who she too at once before the sacred ashes of the Martyrs received the light which she had long ago lost, the Lord restoring it to her. Then on the third day, which was the day before the Ides of July, there came thither a certain bent girl, named Bildrada, a bent girl, from the village of Boderetium, which belongs to the monastery of St. Vedast. Who, when before the said Relics of the Saints, for the restoration of her health, she had suppliantly invoked Christ the Lord; before all who were present was raised up, and deserved to receive the entire condition of her body in a moment of time.

[77] But afterward, on the twelfth day of the Kalends of August, a certain woman, named Eddela, 4 blind people, a maidservant of St. Amand, from the village called Baceroda, who was said to have lacked the light of her eyes for very many years, there faithfully praying received sight. On the same day a certain servant of St. Bavo, by name Eberald, from the village of Millinium, who himself too for several years had not seen the light of heaven, all who were present seeing it, in the same place was given the long-desired light. On that same day too two widows, who for very many years had been blind, were there illuminated: of whom one is said to have been named Blidwaa, from the village of Accinium; the other named Ricberta, from the village of Werminium."

[78] Then after twenty-five days, that is, on the festivity of the Assumption of St. Mary, a certain woman by name Angarihilda, from the village of Goiacum, before the sacred Relics of the Martyrs, all the people seeing it, another bent woman, and marveling at that which had happened, was so bent, that she could by no means raise herself to see the sky. And she on the following day, that is, on the seventeenth of the Kalends of September, in the same church, when the Gospel was being read, the same people being witness, was so raised up and restored to her former state, as if she had never through any injury of her body been bent to the ground. But afterward, a lame man, on the twenty-second day of the month of September, that is, on the tenth of the Kalends of October, a certain man from the district of Texandria, from the village which is named Apennia, by name Liodold, who on account of the weakness of his left leg and foot supported himself on two staves for walking; was there in the sight of the people so perfectly healed, that he no longer needed the support of staves in walking.

[79] But on the fourth day after the working of this miracle, that is, on the seventh of the Kalends of October, a deaf and mute man, a certain young man, deaf and mute, also contracted in his left hand, named Hunwald, from the village called Corvium; when he had come before the sacred Relics of the Martyrs, and there had prayed suppliantly; immediately through the virtue of Christ, all the inconveniences with which he was afflicted being driven away, he was so made healthy, as if he had never been either deaf, or mute, or in any way debilitated by a contraction of the sinews in his hand. And on the following day, that is, on the sixth of the Kalends of October, a certain woman, two paralytic women, named Engilgarda, who for many years was held by the dire affliction of paralysis, in the same basilica, through the merits of the blessed Martyrs, before all the people, was healed. She was a maidservant belonging to the Bishopric of Tournai, from the village which is named Werecundia: but on the morrow, that is, on the fifth of the Kalends of October, another certain woman, named Ramburga, from the village of Bertingaheim, greatly debilitated by a similar affliction in the lower part of her body, all who were present seeing it, before the same Relics of the Saints, received the perfect firmness of her members; and from the disease, with which she was said to have labored for ten years, God willing, in a moment of time was freed.

[80] On the same day a certain blind man, named Germar, from the village of Schaltheim, which is placed near the mouth of the river Scheldt in the maritime region of the Frisians; 2 blind people. when there, for the calamity which he suffered, he had invoked the Lord's mercy and the blessed Martyrs, deserved to receive with joy the light long denied. But on the fourth day, after this sign, the Lord willing, happened, that is, on the day before the Kalends of October, a certain maidservant of St. Bavo, by name Gundrada, from the village of Aldingaheim, who for about three years had not seen the sun, where she had prostrated herself to pray before the altar, received the light which she had lost, Christ the Lord bestowing it through the merits of his Saints.

NOTES BY G. H. & D. P.

p Schaltheim, the estuaries of the Scheldt having vehemently shifted through so many centuries, probably now lies hidden, swallowed up and destroyed by the waters.

q Aldingaheim, perhaps Maldingaheim, so that it is the present-day Maldegem, distant from Bruges by three leagues, from Ghent by five.

CHAPTER IX. At the Relics deposited at Utrecht there are healed the blind, deaf, mute, contracted, paralytics.

[81] A third little book also the Brothers brought me from the monastery of St. Servatius the Confessor, which is situated on the bank of the river Meuse, in the village which still today is called Trajectum (Maastricht), At Maastricht and is distant from the palace of Aachen about eight leagues, and is most frequented by a multitude of inhabitants and especially of merchants. Of which the text, if I recall well, seems to be composed in this manner. "The coming of the holy Martyrs of Christ Marcellinus and Peter, to the village of Trajectum, happened on the day before the Nones of June. For on that very day there came to meet them from the same village an immense multitude of people, gathered for their reception, praising and blessing God over his immense and unspeakable mercy, by which through such great Patrons he deigned to visit the people believing and trusting in him. And when with these praises, and spiritual gladness, it had come to the basilica of Blessed Servatius, and the solemnities of the Masses being celebrated with great gratitude of all, and all having returned to their own homes, after the Relics were devoutly received, the bier, on which the sacred ashes were carried, was placed on the right of the altar near the railings: and that whole day, with immense exultation and joy of the people staying in the same village, was completed.

[82] And when, to celebrate the evening Office according to custom, we had entered the same basilica; there was present among the rest a certain boy, named Berngis, whom his kinsmen from the district of Cundensium, coming there a few days before, brought blind from birth. Who suddenly fell on the pavement before all, there are healed the blind, mute, deaf, and there lay for a while as if oppressed by sleep: and soon, his eyes being opened, he beheld the light, which he had never before seen, Christ the Lord bestowing it through the merits of his Saints. Then on the fifth day, that is, on the sixth of the Ides of June, a certain man, by surname Hildimar, who was deaf and mute, before the same sacred Relics of the Saints, received both hearing and speech together through the virtue of Christ.

[83] On the same day also a certain girl, of the household of St. Lambert, named Adallinda, who was not only deaf and mute, but also blind, and in her whole body so wretchedly folded from a contraction of the sinews, that her knees were joined to her breast: placed near the sacred Relics of the Martyrs by her own people, both sight and hearing, speech also and the straightness and health of all her members, before all who were present, by divine gift with wonderful speed obtained. But on the next day, that is, on the fifth of the Ides of June, the contracted: a certain royal servant, named Berohad, from the village of Cresciacum, debilitated throughout in the right part of his body from a contraction of the sinews and made useless, when he had come before the said Relics of the Saints, was at once raised up, and restored without delay to the health which he desired. Similarly also a certain girl from the village of Trajectum itself, by name Theothildis, whose right hand was by a similar contraction so folded and distorted, that it was useless for every use: she, on the same day, before the same Relics of the Saints, was healed in like manner."

[84] When these things were seen, the people gathered in the basilica began, and the Relics being raised higher, from excessive exultation and gladness, in hymns and litanies, with voices raised on high, to sing praises to the Lord. When suddenly there entered a certain deaf boy, and in the midst of the multitude of the people stood astonished and like one stupefied. And then, when he had come before the altar of the holy Savior, which is placed in the middle of the church; blood immediately bursting from his nostrils, of which he had long been deprived, he was given the office of hearing. But on the morrow, that is, on the fourth of the Ides of June, it seemed good to us, that the bier, which contained the sacred ashes of the Martyrs, ought to be raised higher; namely for this, that it might be somewhat more eminent than the altar to which it was set, and could more easily be seen by those approaching. And as we were doing this, and during the doing singing Litanies with the praise of God, a paralytic and mute girl, a certain girl of the household of St. Servatius, from her birth with her feet distorted by contraction, her hands also loosened by a distension of the sinews, and besides mute, whom a little before her own people had brought into the basilica, and placed before the bier, was suddenly restored to health; so that in the same hour she could both speak, and walk, and use her hands perfectly for all necessary things.

[85] A certain woman from the village of Trajectum itself, when she had a blind maidservant, named Adalgarda, having entered the basilica handed her over to the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, a blind woman. that through their help she might deserve to receive sight, and there left her. Who, when, after the evening Office was performed, she had stayed in the same church; suddenly, as if impelled by someone, fell on the pavement; and there long having rolled, at last, with the immense astonishment and admiration of the surrounding people, rose seeing clearly. This happened on the Ides of June at evening, the very twilight of night beginning. A certain man from the Province of Burgundy, from the territory of Geneva, named Theotgar, laboring with that affliction which the physicians call by the Greek word Spasmus, but in Latin, from the continual agitation of the members, suffering a spasm, can not unfittingly be called Tremulosa (Trembling); came into the basilica: and stood in the midst of the throng of the people, which had been gathered to hear the solemnities of the Masses, as is the custom on the Lord's day. And when, after the reading of the Gospel had been recited, the symbol of Christian belief was being recited; that trembling man suddenly fell to the ground; and while the divine Office is being performed, he lay almost immovable and more like a dead than a living man: and much blood flowing from his nostrils, after the sacred Office was completed, with great admiration of the watching people, he rose healed and without any trembling. This miracle was done on the eighteenth of the Kalends of July on the Lord's day, as was comprehended above.

[86] But on Wednesday, that is, on the fifteenth of the Kalends of July, a certain boy, named Folchard, a contracted boy, from the monastery which is called Meldradium, who was distorted in his legs and feet by a wretched contraction, in the same place, before all the people, was healed. On the eleventh of the Kalends of July a certain man came to the church, and among the rest entered, a trembling man, whose right hand together with the arm was moved in a wonderful manner in a circle, as if it ought to turn a mill, and this he did incessantly. He said, that this restlessness had happened to him for this reason, because on a Sunday, against the prohibition, he ground at the mill; and that now a whole year had rolled by since he was punished with a penalty of this kind. Who, when he had approached the sacred Relics of the Martyrs, and there had faithfully invoked them, that mill-like agitation was put to rest by a sudden quiet. This man said that he had come from the monastery of the Scots, which is called Fosses, and that he was called Dothius.

[87] a deaf and mute man. On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, which is on the ninth day of the Kalends of July, a certain man came to Maastricht to the basilica of St. Servatius, who confessed that he was from the city of Tournai. He, as he himself said, was deaf and mute from infancy: and led by his own people to St. Sebastian, began there both to hear and to speak, but ineffectively, since his words were scarcely understood: he too, when others spoke to him, could not conceal the weakness of his hearing. Who, when he came to the matutinal Office, prostrating himself before the sacred Relics, fell asleep. Nor long after, as if waking with someone rousing him, he asked of the bystanders who had struck his mouth with a fist. To whom, when all answered that no one had done this, he rose: and in the same hour, made healthy, perfectly, without any impediment, both heard and spoke.

[88] A candle is kindled of itself. On the same day, while the sacred solemnities of the Masses are being celebrated, a certain woman named Adallinda brought two candles to make a light in the church: of which one she held out with her right hand to one of the keepers, that it might be kindled; but the other meanwhile, as if afterward to be lit from that one, she retained with her left hand. But in a wonderful manner, while the keeper kindled the one given him, that which remained in the woman's hand, all seeing it, was kindled divinely.

[89] The monastery of Nuns, by the name of Eike, is situated on the river Meuse; in which a certain woman consecrated to God, A paralytic, thrice admonished in a vision to go to Maastricht, named Saliga, lay loosened in her whole body, except her right arm, by the dire disease of paralysis. To her in her rest one of her neighbors seemed to stand by, and to address her with such speech, that he said: "What are you doing?" To whom, when she answered nothing else, than that she was resting in her bed, "Have you heard," he said, "anything of the Saints who have come to Maastricht to St. Servatius?" To whom, when she answered that she had heard nothing of these, "Rise," he said, "quickly, and strive to come there speedily: for there you shall receive the health of all your members." But when, awakened, she had taken no care to do any of these things, again on the following night she was admonished by the same in a similar manner, that she should proceed to Maastricht: she however, as before, the voice of the admonisher being spurned, deferred to set out whither she was bidden. But on the third night she saw the same one stand by her, and with a certain severity ask why she had despised his admonitions; and with a staff, which he then seemed to hold in his hand, strike her side, and command that she proceed quickly to Maastricht. Nor did she now dare to resist the authority of the triple vision, she is there healed. and her kinsfolk and friends being summoned to her, she is led to Maastricht as had been commanded her, and placed in the basilica of Blessed Servatius near the sacred ashes of the Martyrs. And when there she awaited the outcome of the promised health, at last on the fifth day after she had come there, with great admiration of all, she deserved to receive the perfect health of her whole body.

NOTES BY G. H.

Concerning these Relics found there, these things D. Alardus Laurentius van Eyll, Canon of the Church of Maastricht, transmitted to us out of his humanity: "In the year of the Lord 1623, on the 25th day of the month of April, when the stone of the altar of St. Peter the Apostle, in the crypt of the Collegiate Church of St. Servatius, was somewhat raised, and was somewhat inclined on one side; the body of the altar, on which the stone rests, was found to be hollow within and made of a single stone, hollowed within, in the manner of a vessel, to the capacity of two feet in length, and a foot and a half in breadth and depth; and in that concavity was placed a little leaden case, of nearly one foot in length, on whose lid was sculptured and engraved, Relics of Marcellinus and Peter Mart. And there were the ashes of the said Martyrs, wrapped in a shroud still whole, but which at the least touch dissolved into ashes. And those ashes were in that quantity which the shroud could hold. These Relics were seen in the said altar by the Reverend Lord Dean Winand a Gelria, William Tophius the Cantor, and John Stevart, Canons of the aforesaid Church of St. Servatius." A Poem concerning the said altar of St. Peter.

In this altar the ashes of Marcellinus are enclosed, And also the bones of Peter, renowned for signs wrought: This treasure Einhart the noble Abbot gave, When they were counting from the birth of the gracious Virgin Twice four hundred years, and also twice ten and eight.

Thus far the things submitted by the said Canon van Eyll. The acts and miracles of St. Servatius we illustrated on 13 May.

CHAPTER X. Two miracles, by the intercession of SS. Protus and Hyacinth and St. Hermes, wrought in the church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter.

[90] Two other miracles seen by the writer. There still remain two very illustrious miracles, which I think not only should not be covered in silence, but rather by the writing of them I trust that I shall make a most fitting end to the fourth volume, which is in hand. And although the same signs can seem common to the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter with other Saints, from the fact that one of these was done at the coming of the Relics of the Saints Protus and Hyacinth, and near those very Relics; and the other it is certain happened on the birthday of St. Hermes, to his own Relics; yet for this reason they seem chiefly to be ascribed to them, since they were done in that basilica in which their most sacred bodies rest. But the credit of the deeds pertains to us, who were present, and to whom divine piety granted to see them. And therefore, the preface being omitted, let us come to the very miracles which are to be told.

[91] Gregory, Bishop of the city of Rome, who succeeded Eugene and at the same time Valentine in the honor of the Pontificate, when he wished to enlarge the Title of St. Mark the Evangelist, in which he had been Priest, under Gregory IV, and to build in it a monastery; sought through the cemeteries and churches set farther from the City, wherever he could find the bodies of the holy Martyrs: and, found, he took care to bring them into the Title, which he had built with magnificent work. By chance therefore it happened, that at that time, in which he was about to open the sepulcher of the most blessed Hermes, and was about to take his sacred body thence; one of our people, who that same year for the sake of supplicating, as is the custom for penitents, had come to Rome, was present with the other pilgrims among the multitude gathered at the basilica of the Martyr. He, the business which was being done being diligently inspected, conceived hope of obtaining the Relics of the said Martyr, though with simple heart, yet not without cause: and going to Deusdona the Deacon, of whom in the first book we have made frequent mention, earnestly asked, that of these he should receive however little from the keepers of the place, after he had received the Relics of SS. Protus and Hyacinth. and procure it to be brought to me by him. Who immediately assenting to his prayers, promises that he will do this without delay: and a price being given to the keepers, he received the Relics not only of St. Hermes, but also of the Saints Protus and Hyacinth, whose bodies had been placed in the same basilica. And those indeed he took care to send by a certain familiar of his, whose surname was Sabbatinus, and at the same time by our man, who persuaded him to do this: but what he could obtain of the body of Blessed Hermes, he himself coming to us brought as an immense gift. But when the coming of the Relics of the Saints Protus and Hyacinth had been indicated to us, we went out to meet them; and receiving them honorably, as was fitting, and bringing them into the basilica with hymns and prayers, we placed them near the bodies of the blessed Marcellinus and Peter, with the bier on which they had come. Where when on the morrow a certain woman from a nearby little estate, which is called Baldradestat, possessed by a demon, had entered with the rest of the people; the wicked spirit began to rage, and to dash her prostrate on the pavement, and to publish his malice by confessing it before all. And when by the Priest exorcizing him he had been asked, The demon through the possessed person speaks many things, who he was, whence he had come, when and why he had entered into her; to each he answered, and testified that he was not only a demon, but even the worst of all living things. And when the Priest asked of him the cause of so great wickedness, he confessed that an evil will had brought this on him. Again when he asked of him, whether he had ever been in heaven; he confessed that he had been in heaven, and thence cast down on account of pride. To the same asking, whether he had seen Christ the Lord or not; he said that he had been seen by him in hell, at the time when for the salvation of the human race he deigned to die, and to descend thither.

[92] But when it came to this, that he asked him, whether he knew the names of the Martyrs, and confesses that he is tormented by the Martyrs, whose Relics had been brought the day before into the same church; "Their names," he said, "are most well known to me: because when they suffered, I stood present, and was tormented with immense envy of their everlasting glory: whom also here now I suffer most hostile: for they torment me with incredible torture, and compel me unwilling to go out from this vessel, in which I long lay hidden." To whom the Priest said, "When you have gone out, whither will you proceed?" "I," he said, "am about to proceed into the worst way, and to seek far-off and deserted regions." After these things, when he had set forth both the occasion and the manner of his entering at the Priest's command, turning to the woman, he said: "I, unhappy woman, before I go out, will dash and break your bones, and leave you weak and mindful of our society." And when she, as if conscious of her own weakness, had begun with a suppliant and humble voice to implore the help of the Saints; who, having argued for a while, he at once, raging and rebuking through her mouth with great harshness, commanded silence to her wishing to speak. For it was to us, who were present, very wonderful to see, that that unclean spirit spoke through the mouth of the same little woman in so diverse a manner; and now expressed so purely the quality of a masculine, now of a feminine voice, that not one but two persons sharply arguing in her, and provoking one another with insults, seemed to be. And in truth there were two, disagreeing with a will diverse from one another: one of the demon, desiring to dash the body possessed by him: the other of the woman, desiring to be freed from the enemy by whom she was held: which diversity of wills, from the disparity of voices and dissimilarity of words, which they cast at one another, could clearly and openly enough be understood. The Office of the heavenly Mystery therefore being completed according to custom, and us going out from the basilica to take care of our bodies; we ordered the woman with the keepers to wait there, at last departs. until we returned; having confidence, that through the virtue of Christ and the merits of his Martyrs, her perfidious possessor would quickly go out. Nor did our hope deceive us. For after refreshment, returning to the church, the demon being driven out, we found her healthy and unharmed, and in all things in possession of her mind, and exulting in the praises of God. And this sign indeed at the coming of the Relics of the blessed Martyrs of Christ Protus and Hyacinth, in the manner comprehended by us, it is established was completed: but that which is ascribed to St. Hermes, in what order it was done, will be clear from the present narration.

[93] Cologne is a metropolis on the borders of the Ribuarii, placed on the Rhine: from which there was a certain woman, from the loins downward so debilitated by a long distension of the sinews, that, the office of her legs and feet being denied her, she could fulfill the function of walking no otherwise than sitting, with her feet stretched forward, and supporting herself with her hands placed on the ground, and propelling herself in this way. She, the miracles and virtues being heard, which the Lord through his holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, in the healing of the sick and weak, worked; A contracted woman, longed to come to their basilica: and since otherwise she could not conveniently, she was carried in the ship of merchants, who were going thither to the festivity of the same Saints: and she came there on the birthday, and there in hope of recovering health stayed for a while. But when she saw that her healing was deferred (and in truth it was deferred, not denied: because not elsewhere, but there; not then, but at another time it was to be done), she resolved to set out for Mainz. For close at hand was the festivity of St. Alban the Martyr, of whom near that city there is both a basilica and a very celebrated monastery. To which when she had come, and at the memorial of the Martyr, for the restoration of her health, she had supplicated the Lord; and having set out to St. Alban, she saw through sleep a certain young Cleric standing by her, and carrying new shoes in his hand, and commanding her to receive them and put them on her feet: and that she did so. That he then commanded, that, shod with these, she should return to the place from which she had come there, and there await the coming of the Physician, who would without doubt heal her. Who, when she awoke, giving credit to the vision, with what speed she could returned to the salvation-bringing thresholds of the holy Martyrs: and for two months dwelling in the same place among the other poor, awaited the promise of the vision. admonished by a vision to return, When meanwhile about the middle of the month of August Deusdona the Deacon, of whom in the first book of this work we have made frequent mention, coming from Rome, brought to us one joint of the finger of Blessed Hermes the Martyr as a great gift. Which receiving, laid away in a little case, in the upper part of the basilica, above the very western entrance of the church, we placed. But the woman, who, as I said, admonished divinely by a vision had come there, and now two months being spent, saw that nothing of the promised help had come to her, thinking herself deluded by a vain dream, began to meditate her return to her fatherland. And she resolved with the merchants, who should bring her back, that on the next Sunday, which was to be on the fifth of the Kalends of September together with the anniversary solemnity of St. Hermes, she would board their ship, about to return to her own region. And now, the night being at hand, on the feast of St. Hermes she is healed. which without doubt was to precede the day agreed for departure, when we according to custom, the nocturnal Office being completed, had gone out to rest; the rest going out, that woman, wishing to enter, sat down on the very threshold: and there before all, oppressed by a certain stupor, was silent for a little: and then, some blood breaking out from all the nails of her feet, returned to herself, held out her hand to the bystanders; and raised onto her feet, began to walk to the sepulcher of the Martyrs. To which when she had come, she is prostrated in prayer before the altar, and there lay so long, until the Hymn, which the multitude of those exulting and at the same time marveling, praising God, most devoutly sang, was completed. Which finished, she rose healed, but was unwilling to return further to her fatherland. Deservedly therefore is that miracle ascribed to Blessed Hermes, on whose birthday, and under whose Relics it is established to have been done. But by no means can the most holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter be without share of the same work, in whose basilica it was wrought; and whom the very woman, who was healed, throughout the whole time of her pilgrimage, that they would help her, always invoked.

[94] These are the things which, of the innumerable virtues of the Saints, either seen by us, or learned by the truthful relation of the faithful, Epilogue on the truth of the writings. we have resolved to commit to writing and to memory; which I do not doubt will be pleasing to the lovers of Christ and the venerators of his Martyrs for reading: since nothing seems impossible to them, which, to be done, it has pleased almighty God. But to the unbelieving and those who derogate from the glory of the Saints, because I do not doubt these things are tiresome, I think it should be advised that they should not wish to read them at all: lest perhaps, offended by the cheapness of our discourse, they be unable to avoid blasphemy and envy; and thus declare that they hate God and their neighbor, whom they are bidden to love.

NOTES BY G. H.

APPENDIX I. D. P. On the alleged existence of the same Relics in the church of St. Medard of Soissons, from a Letter published under the name of Odilo to Ingrannus.

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[95] This was Eginhart, the author of the preceding History, so that nothing written by him in it can be believed, to the highest authority of Eginhart in the preceding matters, unless he judged it true by the best faith; and nothing of the kind was estimated by him, except by prudent judgment; which the very style of the writer can persuade by itself. He relates, ingenuously and without disguise, at number 15, in what manner in the inspection of the sacred ashes he found the Relics of Blessed Marcellinus of less quantity than those of St. Peter; not knowing that the greater part of them had been secretly taken away. He relates then at number 23, what Abbot Hilduin related to him about the place and manner of the theft committed, and at number 25, how both elsewhere and otherwise it was sworn to have been done by him who had been the chief helper of the deed. Both agree, that the plundering pertained to St. Marcellinus alone; although meanwhile it had been spread abroad through Gaul, that of SS. Marcellinus and Peter nothing had come to Eginhart, and to his sincerity, except a little of the sacred dust; wherefore he insisted with Hilduin, and easily obtained, that the part of the sacred treasure taken from him should be restored, with the success which is set forth in the rest of chapter 3. Eginhart does not, moreover, conceal that he shared something of the same treasure with the monasteries of St. Salvius of Valenciennes and St. Bavo of Ghent; whence it would not have been wonderful, if to the convent of St. Medard of Soissons too, after faithfully rendering what had been wrongly taken away, he had done a similar favor. But that this was done in the year 830, and before the writing was already completed, ought not to be presumed from his silence on the matter. For if it had been done earlier, it would not have seemed to be omitted by so accurate a writer.

[96] These things notwithstanding, the prior opinion, once impressed on the Monks of St. Medard, or rather on the common people of Soissons, from the lying account of the very plunderers, could not be so wholly abolished, but that a certain depraved emulation, deceiving under the pretext of religion, revived it, even ampler than it had been born. For whereas the Priest of Hilduin boasted that he had taken away St. Marcellinus alone, and the common people believed this also of Peter; the fable revived afterward added to them also the other Saints, whose dust Deusdona had handed over to be brought to Eginhart at number 11, and present afterward indicated the names, the contrary Letter, as is said at number 46; although the prior report at Soissons had been silent about them; and also the names of others, who when or how they came thither perhaps was unknown, but the Relics were shown. There was lacking to the little history so augmented a suitable writer: but lest this be sought far, the Book on the Translation of the Relics of St. Sebastian the Martyr and St. Gregory the Pope, into the monastery of St. Medard of Soissons, written by Odilo the Monk in the 10th century, as the title has it in Mabillon, supplied one. Of which the title in the Joly Manuscript is such: "The Letter of Oydolo to Ingrannus." But the opening of this is read thus: "To the reverend Ingrannus, of magnificent faith deservedly, and to be extolled by the proclamation of all praises, the refuse of all living under the rule of cenobitic discipline." Therefore in a similar manner, but with a style and faith very dissimilar, was composed, I know not when, certainly not before the 11th or 12th century, the Letter of Odilo to Ingrannus, on the coming and reception of the bodies of the holy Martyrs Tiburtius, Marcellinus and Peter, Marcellianus and Marcus, Probus and Hyacinth, Marius and Martha, Audifax and Abacuc, Abdon and Sennes, which is on the day before the Ides of July. So Mabillon published that Letter, the place from which it was taken not being indicated: so we have the same transcribed, from a very ancient Manuscript Codex of the church of St. Stephen of Besançon, by the hand of our Pierre François Chifflet.

[97] it convicts the author from bitter zeal The Author confesses that he was led by zeal, because "many speak many things about the translation of the Blessed Marcellinus and Peter … Martyrs, from the city of Rome into Gaul; and the place of their reposing either conceal that they do not know, or by negligently dissembling enviously deny": by which words he doubtless touches the Germans. Then he adds; "Nevertheless both the coming of Blessed Tiburtius the Martyr, and the reception of his body, is described by reasoning, and the glorious deposition of the holy Relics, of Hermes, and Julian … is undertaken to be described." SS. Abdon and Sennen suffered on 30 July, and their bodies are believed to have been brought into the Basilica of St. Mark by Gregory IV. But here when he wished to bring into the same the body of St. Hermes, of whom there will be treatment on 28 August, in the year 830, one of Eginhart's Monks there present by chance, coveted something of it; and, as is narrated at number 91, with Deusdona helping, received it; and also of the bodies of SS. Protus and Hyacinth, whose birthday falls on 11 September. St. Julian, having invented many incongruous things, who suffered at Rome with St. Peter and 18 others, is commemorated on 7 August: but neither of this one, nor of St. Hermes, is there any word afterward in the Letter. SS. Marcus and Marcellianus are celebrated on 18 June; and their bodies, brought long ago into the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian in the Campo Vaccino, were there also found in the year 1522, as we shall say in its place.

[98] Because Eginhart does not mention these, as neither SS. Hermes and Julian, we can presume that some particles, as if taken from their bodies, were brought from Rome to Soissons; although the author and time of the translation lie hidden. both about the body of St. Tiburtius and about the others, Of St. Tiburtius Eginhart relates, how his body was sought in vain; yet his ashes were had, found in a little sack joined to the bodies of SS. Marcellinus and Peter: which, because it was a not very well-founded presumption, it pleased the Priest of Hilduin to take away from the Relics of St. Marcellinus: and of these perhaps it will be verified, that on the day before the Ides of July, as is said at the end of the inflated Letter, "the venerable Hilduin received the bodies of the holy Martyrs Tiburtius and Marcellinus": not likewise, who are named together, of Peter, Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abacuc. Nor was this done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 828, as is premised there: for it has already been shown, that it was done two years earlier; and that before the same received the Relics of St. Sebastian, near the end of the year 826. Therefore the author of the Letter is deceived or deceives, when he says that the bodies of those seven Saints were together at St. Medard, "placed honorably in a celebrated place, near the venerable body of the renowned Martyr Sebastian, of whose coming and the reception of whose body that was then the third year." and to have foully confounded the times: For (to say nothing that from the 9th day of December of the year 826, until the 14th of July 828, only one year, 7 months, 4 days intervened) it is in no way probable, that, the Relics of St. Marcellinus being faithfully restored, of those then brought from Rome anything remained with Hilduin, except the ashes received under the name of St. Tiburtius: but if anything of the others brought to Eginhart the same Hilduin afterward received, he received it after the History of the translation was written by Eginhart; and this was not written before the 30th year of that century.

[99] From these things is understood how indiscreet was the zeal of the writer of St. Medard, confounding the matters and the times. But that he proceeded with no better faith, can be demonstrated from this; that having before his eyes the History described by Eginhart (for this whole lines taken thence in his very words prove) he yet conceals whatever the latter relates about himself and his Notary sent to Rome; and to have dissembled, that, having used Eginhart's history, nay, he names Eginhart only for this, that Deusdona used his hospitality at Aachen, and came with him to Soissons to Hilduin. Then the body of St. Tiburtius, which at number 10 Eginhart denies could be found; the first attempt being applied in vain, he asserts was found by the help of Basil the Monk coming there; whom indeed studiously sought, and applied as guide and chief minister of the aforesaid action, but in vain, Eginhart testifies. Third, he feigns that, while fitting little coffers to the bodies of the three Saints already found, he corrupted the same by truncating it; it happened, that while they went around the cemeteries of the holy Martyrs Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Habacuc, by night for the sake of prayer, with the aforesaid Archdeacon (he means Deusdona, whom it would have been enough to call Deacon); they perceived the oracles of divine admonition, by whose consolations and indications evidently instructed, the bodies of those four likewise were taken, and were more quickly mingled with the coffers of the aforesaid Saints; while Eginhart meanwhile testifies, that Deusdona offered their ashes to him of his own accord, to be carried into Gaul. Finally the Author of the Letter invents, that the legates of Hilduin came into Gaul with the Apostolic legates found at Pavia; and that those whom, the theft being understood, they first had as complaining detractors, they afterward found through the whole way most faithful supporters; instructed namely how much weight could accrue to their Legation, through the greatest favor of Hilduin with the Emperor Louis: while however from Eginhart we know, that Deusdona, with the Priest of Hilduin, went before the Legates coming from Rome (surely fearing ill for himself from them) to convey to safety the relics of St. Marcellinus which he had stolen from Eginhart's Notary; with the ashes, believed to be of St. Tiburtius, striving toward Soissons with what haste he could.

[100] One thing therefore from this whole Letter I seem able to excerpt, to the honor of St. Marcellinus, that the men sent from Soissons, equally as the Notary of Eginhart, the Alps being crossed now set in safety; and professing that they were bringing the bodies of SS. Tiburtius, Marcellinus, and Peter, [yet truthful in this, that he says the Relics were honorably received at Soissons.] carried the desirable Treasure openly and plainly, with the help of the people running up, as far as the borders of the long-desired estate. Already at that time a not small report of the coming of the Saints had spread itself far and wide; and therefore, as if from the navel of the earth, an innumerable people burst forth round about. Finally Soissons itself, from about two miles, almost the whole city rushed to meet them; and those sacred remains of the blessed Martyrs, as far as the crossing of the river Aisne, praising God in the jubilation of voice, with praises they led. From the other side of the river a religious assembly of Monks, adorned with ecclesiastical vestments, was present with several troops of the faithful; which with doubled joys, rejoices to enjoy such great patronages, and to be present at the spectacles of the present Martyrs. Thence proceeding together, and augmenting the day with various lights, they advance with censers and Crosses, precious with gold and gems skillfully wrought, solemnly exulting in distinct orders; and amid hymns and spiritual songs they bring them into the secret inner recesses of the basilica of St. Medard.

[101] And these things will serve also for this, that, comparing the book on the translation of SS. Sebastian and Gregory, wholly serious and grave, The false Odilo could have lived in the 12th century. and written with a style sufficiently polished for the age of the 10th century, with this Letter, of more turgid and less pure Latinity, one may be able to distinguish the Authors as diverse: of whom the first being called Oydilo, how easily we believe the Joly Manuscript, others suppressing the name; so much the more difficultly do we accept Odilo, the Author of the second writing, and on this account the more suspect, that he too directs his writing to Ingrannus, as also the former. For although the Sammarthani name to us an Ingrannus, from Prior of Corbie made first Abbot of Marchiennes, then of St. Medard in the year 1148, in whose time the deceitful letter could have been written; the Translation of SS. Sebastian and Gregory, however, seems altogether to be directed to a much older Ingrannus, Dean of the Monastery of St. Medard, the true one wrote to Ingrannus the Dean before the year 932 afterward ordained Bishop of Laon, as is established from the Chronicle of Flodoard at the year 932: where Mabillon observes, that at that time most monasteries, over which secular Abbots presided, were administered by Monk-Deans, whom they also called Pro-Abbots and Provosts. Hence writing to him as to his superior, Oydilo, "Having received," he says, "the by no means contemptible command of your fatherhood, I stand amazed: for although I have professed the Monastic girdle in the agony of spiritual warfare; and that I ought to be prepared for all things, even if difficult things are imposed, the rule sanctions by decree; yet I ingenuously testify, that for executing what you enjoin, I shall by no means be suitable."

[102] So he, humbly about himself and reverently toward Ingrannus, both however in clear phrase: on the contrary the supposititious Odilo, having premised nothing such, begins from faith, his fallacious account thus to be exacted rather superciliously; "All things which are said are by no means discussed with the authority of certain reasoning: but the things which are said to be seen, are reported as heard, are demonstrated as had, are confirmed approved by truthful attestations." So he.

What worthy thing will this promiser give with so great a gaping?

The text of Eginhart truncated in bad faith, interpolated with worse; so that even by this title the Authors had to be distinguished, lest the accusation of one writing detract credit from the narration of the other, suspect on no other ground. but not by one century earlier, For this one, although he was not coeval with the matter done, as our Bollandus in January suspected, some phrases of the Anonymous author being drawn thence, on account of the defect of the Title and Prologue; yet lived and wrote in the next century, than which I should altogether believe the Letter of which we treat to be far later; so that the length of the time elapsed could have given confidence of inventing an account so contrary to the indubitable writing of Eginhart.

[103] But that Oydilo, writing to Ingrannus on the translation of St. Sebastian, lived at the time at which it was done; as it seemed to Bollandus, before his name was known. the words alleged in the Preliminary Commentary at number 37 so far do not prove, that from number 83 of the History the contrary rather can be argued. For when the Author congratulates himself and his own, that by the bounty of their Fathers they deserved to be participants of so great a pledge; does he not allow several (so to speak) generations to be interposed between their Translation and his writing? He says indeed at number 84 that the overthrow of Soissons was foretold, and repelled by the Relics of St. Sebastian; "which thing," he says, "from many who survived to our times, without suspicion of falsehood, I heard by consonant account": but he does not say that he heard this immediately; and only premises that he heard from those who protest that they received that announcement from those who heard it. This passage therefore in January will have to be corrected.

APPENDIX II. D. P. On the Relics of St. Marcellinus, translated this century from Rome to Piedimonte in Campania.

[104] Two bones brought from Rome, That some Relics of these Saints are kept in their church at Rome, at the roots of the Caelian hill, of which Henschenius in the preliminary Commentary at number 4, Ottavio Panciroli asserts, in the book whose Title is, Hidden Treasures of the city of Rome, published under the date of the year 1625. The same Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza wrote in his Roman Sanctuary of the year 1675, page 184: where I fear, lest he simply transcribed Panciroli, without any prior examination, whether the same are still there. But whether in truth they are still there, is made doubtful, not only by the Translation into Germany mentioned above, but also by the recent record of certain bones of St. Marcellinus, translated to Piedimonte, a town of the diocese of Alife in Fortunate Campania. Of this, and of the very Relics brought there this century, Fr. Bartolommeo a S. Giovanni Battista, Guardian there of the Friars Minor of stricter Observance, introduced by St. Peter of Alcantara, wrote in this manner, to Father Giuseppe de Lucii: who, being asked, gave us the first notice of the said translation, and afterward sent the monuments pertaining to it in the year 1692, thus in Latin sounding from the Italian.

[105] to the church of St. Mary Major of Piedimonte, Piedimonte, situated at the roots of Mount Matese, which is a certain spur of the Apennine, acknowledges the Lords Gaetani of Aragon, now for several centuries, as toparchs; a town still today inhabited by twelve thousand souls, after that famous epidemic of the year 1656 took away as many. In it, on account of the salubrity of the air, the Bishop of Alife ordinarily resides; and three Collegiate churches are counted, besides several others of various religious of both sexes; under the Titles of St. Mary Major, St. Mary of the Annunciation, and the Holy Cross. The first excels the other two also in this, that it is endowed with the Relics of St. Marcellinus, Roman Priest and Martyr, whose skull nearly half Pietro Paolo de' Medici, Bishop of Alife, brought there in the year 1642; in the years 1642 and 1685: and lately, namely in the year 1685, Bishop Lazzara added a whole arm-bone.

[106] Both are honored within a chapel, built under Bishop de' Medici, enclosed in a silver statue: which, as soon as the first Relic was brought, the Most Illustrious Lady Diana de Capua, enclosed in a silver statue: Duchess of Laurenzana, grandmother of the Duke now ruling, took care to have fabricated; who, treading in the footsteps of his ancestors, does not cease to take care that every year on the 2nd day of June a most solemn and most orderly procession of supplicants be instituted, to the new Patron of this his Domain. For such the Community of Piedimonte desired by public decree, and the Congregation of sacred Rites granted them to have, by a Decree of the year 1645; with the addition also, by a new Decree of the next year following, of a precept, by which also the other two Collegiate churches, refusing by I know not what spirit of emulation, should understand themselves to be obliged to celebrate the Office of St. Marcellinus with a Double rite.

[107] Hence the citizens of Piedimonte ascribe almost innumerable favors received to their new Patron: which being carried around in procession, but the care of consigning them in authentic writings no one has hitherto taken. Of these some are of such public note, that it is impossible for them to be deleted by oblivion. For instance, that, common necessity pressing, the aforesaid statue was never carried out in procession, but there always followed the desired either rain or fair weather. Nay, it has been often noted, rains are elicited or restrained, that when, rain falling, the procession was brought out, it was never hindered from proceeding, as if the showers were suspended for a while, until it had returned into the church. Also in the year 1676 there came on so abundant a locust, that all thought the harvest of the whole year was done for: but when the Bishop led the sacred statue to the place the locusts are driven away, where that plague had settled that night; it was seen all in a moment to scatter, and left our fields inviolate. In the year 1687 on the 5th of June, when Campania, shaken by a grievous earthquake, the earthquake is stopped, mourned the ruin of so many towns; Piedimonte professes that it was preserved, by means of a tribute of wax to be offered every year by vow, which is still kept.

[108] Finally this year 1692, when on account of the revived contradictions of the two Canonical Colleges against the first, the extinguished lamp is kindled from heaven, new letters obtained from the sacred Congregation were read before them by the Bishop, by which it was declared that to St. Marcellinus belonged all the prerogatives which by Apostolic constitution the chief Patrons of cities enjoy; when by chance through the carelessness of the sacristans the lamp wont to burn in the chapel of that Saint was extinguished; the same, all looking on, kindled from heaven shone again; as was soon declared by sworn witnesses, and consigned in public writings. To the confirmation of his cult contributes, that some years ago a blacksmith, stimulated by the railings of the aforesaid rivals, one violating the feast is chastised. when, the command of celebrating the feast being despised, he presumed to spend that day on his usual work; the tongs with which he had grasped the iron to be formed from the furnace was broken in his hands: and the same happened also to a second one applied to the same use: by which experiments he recognized his fault, and what had happened, he wished to be known also publicly, to the honor of the Saint.

[109] Thus far the letters of the aforesaid Guardian: who did not omit to send notarially transcribed the aforesaid Decrees of the sacred Congregation: Letters are desired by which it may be established, yet he has not yet sent, what I had requested and judge to be of greater importance, the testimonial letters of the aforesaid Bishops of Alife, not only about the Relics of St. Marcellinus given to that church; but also about these themselves, taken from the Roman church of the Saints Marcellinus and Peter; yet he sent, of these things heard by him carefully when they were read, a certain attestation, the successor Guardian Fr. Giovanni Giuseppe a Cruce, confirmed by his and four Discreets' signatures, asserting that all things are kept in the Archive of the Episcopal table. Without these, meanwhile, there will never cease a reasonable fear, common to all the Relics brought from Rome, lest those in which the people of Piedimonte glory, be of some Anonymous one or even of one really found under such a name, lately raised from some cemetery, with marks of Martyrdom endured for Christ, and permitted to be exposed to public cult; who without foundation and wholly gratuitously is believed to be the holy Priest, the companion of Peter the Exorcist, whose feast is now kept. Although not even in such a case is the piety of the people of Piedimonte to be disapproved, who venerate a true Martyr, under another person perhaps; and on this account are worthy, by his intercession, to enjoy the favors which he, whose Relics are thought to be had by them, can divinely obtain; since in such matters it often happens, according to the faith of those praying, what the diffidence of those scrutinizing curiously would not obtain.