Aldric

ON SAINT ALDRIC,

ARCHBISHOP OF SENS IN GAUL.

IN THE YEAR 841.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the Life, age, and cult of the Saint.

Aldric, from Abbot of Ferrières Archbishop of Sens in Gaul (St.)

G. H.

On account of the mutual friendship and communication of manuscript little works, which existed between Andrew du Chesne the Royal Geographer, most illustrious for very many published books, The Life from Mss. and our John Bolland, predecessor in editing the Acts of the Saints, this one obtained from that one the Life of St. Aldric, Archbishop of Sens, drawn from Mss.: which we here give, collated with another, published by d'Achery and Mabillon, in the fourth Century of the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order. The author seems to have been a Monk of the monastery of Ferrières in the country of Gâtinais, by the author a Monk of Ferrières. on account of these words in the title: The Life of blessed Aldric Archbishop of Sens, and Abbot of this Abbey of Ferrières, where his body is buried. Wherefore his passing is solemnly kept on the tenth day of October.

[2] The Author is not contemporary with the Saint, and the aforepraised Mabillon believes he lived about the beginning of the 11th century. In his writing therefore some things displease, The time of his birth concerning the time at which St. Aldric is said to have either been born or to have died; while he thus begins. In the year seven hundred seventy-five … he was sprung, and in num. 2, under Singulf the Abbot he is called a youth and the flower of adolescence; whereas that man succeeded Alcuin, who died about the year 804, and so he ought already then to have been a mature man of thirty years. Then in num. 3 he is summoned as a youth to Jeremiah Archbishop of Sens, by whose dispensation was supplied whatever his youthful age seemed to begrudge, that he might be ordained Priest. That Jeremiah is said to have been elected in the year 818; granted even somewhat earlier; thus too Aldric, if born in the year 775, would have reached forty years of life, or beyond, when he was to be ordained Priest. These things therefore do not well consist together, but in the said year of birth we deservedly apprehend an error; and, saving a better judgment, we determine that the Saint was born about the year 790; and in his first adolescence, as then often happened, he received the insignia of monastic discipline; and of his Monkhood, and that Singulf expounded Virgil to him, Alcuin taking it ill, as is related in his Life illustrated on the 19th of May num. 19; and so that Aldric was made a Monk before the year of Christ 804, in which Alcuin departed from the living, when this his disciple could have been in his fourteenth year of age, and under the successor Abbot Singulf still be held a youth; then under Jeremiah consecrated Priest, when he was not far from the thirtieth year of age, but, because Monks were wont to be ordained later, that it was dealt with him more indulgently.

[3] Afterward, as is said in num. 4, under Louis the Pious the Emperor he is appointed Palatine Preceptor, that the life of the Imperial court and the greater affairs might be settled at the judgment of his discretion: and then he seems to have been given by the said Emperor as Chancellor to his son Pippin King of Aquitaine. Further Philip Labbe in his Curious Miscellanies, Elogium 22, from the Poitevin Mss. of the monastery of St. Maixent, brings forth this subscription. Sigebert the Deacon, in place of Aldric, The Office of Chancellor under Pippin King of Aquitaine: have signed. Given the third of the Ides of January, in the 14th year of the reign of Louis and the 13th of our reign. Done in the palace of Chasseneuil. Likewise from the Touronian Ms. of St. Martin: Sasibodus the Deacon, in place of Aldric, have signed. Given the sixth of the Ides of March, in the 15th year of the reign of the Lord Louis, and the 14th of our reign. Which are to be referred to the year 827, and the following, when by our reckoning he would have been about the 38th year of age; about which time he was, or was becoming, Abbot of Ferrières. But after a small interval of time, it is said in num. 6 that Jeremiah the Bishop of Sens was stripped of mortal flesh, and that St. Aldric succeeded him, which could have happened in the closing of the year 829 or the following 830.

[4] In the Bishopric various things done by him: Now that we may add some things, of which there is no mention below, done by him already Archbishop; in the year 835 he was present at the Council at Thionville, in which Louis the Pious was again reconciled, and Ebbo Bishop of Reims was condemned and cast down from his rank. By the command also of the same Emperor Louis, that Aldric Archbishop of Sens, with his fellow-Bishops, procured that Heribald, brought up in the Palace, should be chosen Bishop of Auxerre, is read in the History of the Bishops of Auxerre, in the aforepraised Labbe, Tome one of the New Library page 432. By the same Emperor Louis, that discords might be avoided between

the Abbot and Monks of Flavigny, that Aldric Archbishop of Sens, and other Bishops were sent, is held in the Chronicle of Verdun of Hugh Abbot of Flavigny, in the same Labbe page 270. Finally that Aldric, but still as Abbot, was directed by the same Emperor Louis to confirm the monastic Order in the monastery of Elnon or St. Amand, we learn from a diploma of Louis the Emperor, published by Mabillon for the Elevation of St. Amand the Bishop: of Utrecht, in this 4th century page 66.

[5] Other things will be noted on the Life itself: wherefore, these being deferred for a while, we approach the last controversy concerning the death of St. Aldric, who below in num. 11 of the Life is related to have entered the way of all flesh, and in the 61st year of his life, on the sixth of the Ides of October, happily passed to the Lord. But these things do not sufficiently cohere, from whatever point the beginning of his life is taken. For even if the Saint were born in the year 775, the said 61st year of age would fall in the year 835 or the following: The time of his death. and yet it is sufficiently established that he lived up to the year 840. Lupus Abbot of Ferrières, a pupil of Aldric, in his 1st epistle to Einhard, asserts that he was sent by the holy Metropolitan Bishop Aldric to procure a teacher of Grammar, from whom he received the precepts of the art from Grammar to Rhetoric: and, some things being interposed, he says he was directed by the aforesaid Bishop into the province beyond the Rhine to the venerable Rabanus, that from him he might take an introduction to the divine Scriptures. Having departed thence toward the end of the year 841, Returned safe, he says in epistle 41, except for the full of misfortune death of my Lord and nourisher Aldric, so far as concerns me, there is nothing that I remember to have happened to me very sad. And Charles the Bald, at the time when he divided part of the kingdom with his brothers, asserts that the Metropolis of Sens was vacant of a Pastor. But the division was made after the battle of Fontenoy, fought on the seventh of the Kalends of July of the year 841. He further who had died not long before, and was a Monk before the year 804, still very young, could not have been much more than fifty when he died.

[6] But now it must be inquired, whether he died in the same year 841 on the 6th day of June, or in the preceding year on the 10th of October. For the 6th of June is the celebration of the feast in the city and diocese of Sens; and in the Breviary which we have, printed in the year 1625, Sacred cult on June 6 three proper Lessons are assigned, taken from his Acts: nor is any memory of him there had on the day of the 10th of October. Claudius Robertus, in the Archbishops of Sens, writes that St. Aldric died in the year 840 on the 6th day of June, without the eighth of the Ides of June. The same too seems to be read in Joannes Chenu, when, the word Ides omitted, he writes that the feast is celebrated on the 8th of June. Demochares too assigns the feast to the 6th of June: to which day they refer him in their fasti—Galesinius, Ferrarius, Wion, Dorganius; and with a long encomium Saussay, Bucelinus, and Ghinius. Meanwhile he is solemnly venerated in the monastery of Ferrières on the 10th of October, the 10th of October, perhaps deposited on that day in the said monastery, and believed then to have died: to which day he was recently referred by Menard, and then by Mabillon: who also asserts that the Translation is celebrated on the 30th of July. and the 30th of July. We with the Church of Sens refer him to this 6th of June, having rather judged that he migrated from this life on that day in the year 841, in the year of age not 61, but 51, by the reckoning formed above; but that the solemn deposition in the church of Ferrières, on account perhaps of the preparation of the tomb, was deferred until the 10th of October.

[6] Relics honored, Mabillon adds in the Appendix, that Louis de Blancfort, Abbot of Ferrières, enclosed the Relics of St. Aldric in a magnificent shrine, in the year 1487, forty thousand silver coins being spent on this work; but that the Calvinists plundered that shrine in the year 1569, the sacred bones being scattered, scattered by the Calvinists. except four or five recognized by sure tokens, which are today kept in a silver casket.

THE LIFE

By the author a Monk of Ferrières. From the Ms. of Andrew du Chesne and the edition of Mabillon.

Aldric, from Abbot of Ferrières Archbishop of Sens in Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 0263

FROM THE MS.

CHAPTER I.

His birth, studies, and deeds as Monk and Abbot.

[1] In the year seven hundred seventy a fifth, from the Incarnation of the Lord, with Charlemagne reigning, blessed Aldric in the b territory of Gâtinais was sprung of Palatine Princes. He gives presages of his virtues in the womb, Who while he was still enclosed within the narrows of his mother's womb, the Lord willed to show in the one born into the world what would be in the adult. For he was so moved by frequent leapings, that a vehement astonishment seized his very parents: which movement is believed to have been a sign that he would fight against spiritual enemies. He, after he came forth into the light, marked with the character of holy Baptism, was named Aldric. Who, brought up after the manner of nobles in the delights of pleasure, in the first tenderness of boyhood began to anticipate his age with mature works; and to render his illustrious nobility more illustrious by the most illustrious watchings of good deeds; portending by his boyish first attempts what kind and how great an athlete he would be. For an emulator of blessed Nicholas, he macerated his tender body with much fasting, and in his boyhood: and attenuated his slender limbs with untimely abstinence. Not only did he affect his parents with vehement astonishment by such signs of good disposition, but he also wondrously rendered the minds of all who beheld him astonished. Therefore from the first rudiments of boyhood, avoiding boyish amusements, he wondrously extolled the magnificence of his nobility by the honesty of his character; and loving God with all his strength, stretching himself forward to the things before, he emulated the more perfect by the maturity of his works.

[2] Exercised in liberal and pious studies, At length, handed over by his parents to be educated in the liberal arts, he began wondrously to advance, and according to the increase of doctrinal knowledge, to receive the increases of religion; so that he was effectively instructed not only in the liberal, but also in the spiritual disciplines. Recalling, according to that saying of the Wise man, that manners are formed by company, he delighted to continue conversation with the Cenobites, and was very much soothed by the colloquies of the Religious. He rejoiced to share with them in the time of fasts, to be present at the nocturnal vigils, and by zeal of holiness to decline utterly the unlawful desires. With himself also at every moment he treated more secretly, how he might avoid the deceitful enticements of the world, by whose long-lasting company he feared his purpose of holiness might be hindered. he takes the monastic habit: Ardently kindled by the torches of this zeal, blessed Aldric resolved to seize the path of a stricter life; and that he might conform the exterior habit to the interior, he determined to assume the monastic habit. But lest he should too grievously trouble his parents, or do this while they were ignorant; having got an opportunity, he revealed to them the pious secret of his mind. Who although by a certain affection at first did not acquiesce; yet seeing the inestimable ardor of charity shine forth in him, they would not oppose his honorable purpose; but presented him, to serve God perpetually, to a monastery which had been founded in honor of c blessed Mary: where under d Alcuin the Abbot, master of letters, under the Abbots Alcuin, to whom the administration of the said monastery was at that time committed, he received the insignia of monastic discipline. He being e dead, to bear the care of the same place was substituted f Singulf, an Englishman by nation, sprung of noble stock, endowed with honesty of character, and illustrious by the prerogative of a religious manner of life. and Singulf he advances in virtue: This man, weighing the future preeminence of blessed Aldric, which the manifest tokens of religion declared, instructed him assiduously with pious teachings; and, that the flower of adolescence might proceed into rich fruits, studiously formed his tender age with pastoral care. And so on each day in the youth grew up the industry of good working, so that he seemed uniformly to emulate his instructor in devotion, silence, humility, and concord, nay even to be set before all as an example for imitation.

[3] Finally the fame of this blessed youth came to Saint g Jeremiah, who at that time happily presided over the Archbishopric of Sens. Summoned by Archbishop Jeremiah, Burning therefore with pious desire of seeing him, he ordered him to be presented to his sight; that, if fame truly proclaimed concerning his probity, he might prove it by present sight and ocular faith. Which being done, he experienced him of such admirable perfection, that in many things both untold and related, the fame in his commendation seemed to have been malignant. Judging him therefore worthy of a greater promotion, he marked the illustrious youth with the order of Deacon; he is ordained Deacon, then Priest; but afterward, a two-year period having elapsed, he raised him to the Priestly honor. For the discreet dispensation of the Prelate looked to be redeemed in him by maturity of character, whatever his youthful age seemed to begrudge. Having therefore received the sacred Orders, he applied himself more readily to the divine works; that the insignia of virtues might shine forth more luminously in him, and the increases of more intent charity might overflow. For the greater he became in all things, the more he humbled himself, according to the word of the Apostle; Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation. 1 Pet. 5. 6

[4] At length the celebrated fame of the illustrious man, far and wide diffused, came to the hearing of King Louis, son of Charlemagne, By Louis the Pious he is appointed Palatine Preceptor, who then held the monarchy of the kingdom of the Franks. At whose admonition, of certain unbelievers, who then impugned the Christian faith h, as the Holy Spirit gave him to speak, he crushed the subtle craftinesses, and, the ambiguity being driven off, restored the ruin of the imperiled faith entirely. Over which the August Emperor, made joyful, appointed him Palatine Preceptor, that the life of the Imperial court and the greater affairs might be settled at the judgment of his discretion. France therefore congratulated itself on so great a patron, who, though by power he was preeminent over the rest, yet in all things i longed to obey. He was affable to all, serene with sweetness of words, helper of orphans, defender of widows, counselor of the wretched; and so made all things to all, he merited to obtain the grace and favor of all. And when the holy man was diligently praised by all, yet he labored to obscure human praise by pious simplicity, and lest the favorable breeze should strike his serene conscience by elation of glory: he avoids human praises: for the loftiness of merit k is wont to feel a withering, as often as the delight of human praise creeps in. Meanwhile the suggestion of the malignant enemy stirred up the rancor of certain rivals, who by the envy of venomous detraction, began to be malignant against the holy man of the Lord, and to encrust his praiseworthy fame with profane disparagement. But the man of God, casting his thought upon the Lord, he endures the detractions of the envious: for the love of Christ patiently bore the bitterness of the detractors; and relying on the sweetness of a serene conscience, by patience alone he quieted the deceitful engines, leaning on that Davidic l saying, The Lord is the God of knowledge, and thoughts are prepared for him. 1 Kings 2. 3 For by modesty envy is mitigated, where amid base accusations the virtue of taciturnity shines forth: he is by no means crushed even by the arms of the raging, who is fortified by the protection of heavenly grace.

[5] While these things were being done, Adalbert, the excellent Abbot of the monastery of Ferrières, departed from the world; whom Singulf, weakened by old age, had by the common consent of the Brothers substituted for himself; preferring with Mary to sit at the feet of the Lord, than with Martha longer to busy himself about frequent ministry. He, after the fourth year of his administration, was happily released from the prison-house of the flesh. He is made Abbot of Ferrières: He being buried, upon Aldric, a man of approved religion, the unanimous and

canonical election agreed. Who although by pious simplicity he resisted, judging himself unworthy of so great a summit; yet overcome by the importunate insistence of the Brothers, at last he benignly acquiesced to their petition. Which heard, the venerable Augustus cheerfully gave his assent and favor to the aforesaid election; and not only renewed at his petition the privileges of his Abbey, obtained from his predecessors; but also granted new ones, to profit the same monastery thereafter. Therefore, the government being undertaken, the good opinion of so great a Father grew from day to day; and although secretly leading a solitary life, by manifold exasperation he declared war on his wretched flesh; yet the lamp could not be hidden under a bushel; he builds a new monastery. but, against his will, the works of holiness came forth into public, glorifying the Father who is in heaven. He built a new monastery in honor of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and certain workshops very useful for the needs of the Brothers; and in the care of his subjects he showed such diligence, that, because he was faithful over a few things, he deserved to be set over many things. Which the evidence of the matter declared from the subsequent event.

NOTES OF G. H.

g Jeremiah, subrogated to Magnus, who died in the year 816, knowing of Philosophical matters and eloquent: who, although he is here called a Saint, yet we do not find him assigned to any sacred fasti.

CHAPTER II.

Deeds in the Archbishopric. His illness, death, burial.

[6] After a small interval of time a, the celebrated Jeremiah of memory, Bishop of Sens, was stripped of mortal flesh b; and in the monastery of c blessed Columba, the office of humanity being sought, was honorably entombed. The [day] of election therefore being appointed, as is the ecclesiastical custom, lest the ravening wolf should scatter the erring sheep without a Pastor, the whole people came together with the devotion of humanity d to elect a Bishop: by whom, Elected Archbishop of Sens, the grace of the Holy Spirit being first invoked, with unanimous concord, the people acclaiming and lending their favor, blessed Aldric was elected Archbishop in the Canonical order e. Hearing that the quiet of his contemplation was to be interrupted by the administration of Episcopal affairs, the holy man held out manifold excuses; asserting f himself less fit for so great a burden, and unworthy of the honor of so great a sublimity. resisting he is enthroned: Yet, setting his private tranquillity after the public utility, overcome by the importunate insistence of the Clergy and people, he scarcely at last acquiesced; and as if unwilling and resisting, snatched from the monastery to the miters, with the applause of all was happily enthroned. And so another Jacob endured so to sleep with Rachel, that he might at some time be free for the embraces of Leah.

[7] Having therefore discharged the Pastoral office, he began diligently to watch over his flock, lest the fraud of the ancient enemy should harm it, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour: he is vigilant over all. against whom he encouraged his subjects to be fortified with the armor of God by frequent exhortations; he illustrated those informed by the brightness of salutary doctrine, and solicitously exercised all the offices of a pious Pastor with provident discretion. For he was a consoler of the mourning, helper of orphans, defender of widows; compassionate to the miseries of all, anxious at the straits of all the needy; corrector of injuries, reprover of those who do injury; with the always equally balanced moderation of rectitude, so that to the afflicted and the afflicting he was equal in cherishing and repressing, and thus to fatherly piety he mingled the office of a Judge, lest the strictness should be too rigid, nor the piety too remiss. He instructed the Canons of his Church also with fatherly piety, that they should be made simpler in address, more polished in deed, milder in speech, purer in mind; lest they should seem by their example to corrupt the simple, and should be ashamed to exceed the canonical rule: he instructs the Canons: for the vigor of virtue shamefully withers away, when by one who sins the loss of modesty is not felt. Moreover he more readily fled secret little gifts from his presence, lest through the slipperiness of cupidity he should weigh unequally the examination of judgment; according to the word of the Apostle, Blessed is he who shakes his hands from every gift. For he always set before himself his predecessor as an example of imitation, that to whom he was successor at the summit, he might succeed in humility. Isa. 33. 15 In so great a Prelate the peoples congratulated themselves, devoutly rendering thanks to God, who magnified his mercy in them, by setting over their government a man of such religion and honesty.

[8] By chance while, drawn by great affairs, he was making for the city of the Parisians, at the prayer of the Abbot of Fossés g, he dedicated the temple which he himself had built in honor of Blessed Mary; and thence returned to his own, while on a certain day he was sitting before the doors h of the Church of blessed Stephen; he saw a certain man passing by i, Matercalus by name: he corrects a man arrogant with pride, gazing on whose face, he weighed in him evident signs of insolence. For his gait was vain, his gesture pompous, his neck erect, his face grim, his eyes fierce, his speech terrible. Having summoned him, he studiously asked who he was. He, as he was accustomed to speak all things in a certain pride, answered that he was the guardian of the city. To whom the Bishop: If thou art the guardian of others, why dost thou disdain to guard thyself? Thou, since thou art dust and ashes, why dost thou conceive immoderate pride? why dost thou glory in vain boasting? And beginning to preach the word of God, now by rebuking, now by beseeching he mingled words of sweetness, after the manner of the Samaritan pouring wine and oil into the wounds of the half-dead man; nor did he desist before he had effectively repressed his swollen elation, and humbled his haughty contumacy. For in the inmost recesses of his heart were so deeply fixed the sharp arrows of the mighty one, and his heart was so wounded with charity, that, wholly forgetting the things past, he stretched himself forward to the things before k; and, the divine grace inspiring, he incontinently demanded of him to be made a Monk: and so it was done.

[9] There was at that time a monastery consecrated in honor of blessed Remigius, he resolves to transfer the monastery of St. Remigius: distant by a small interval from the gate of the city of Sens, whose nearness was inimical to the quiet of the Monks. For by the popular noise they were often compelled to attend to the divine offices with less devotion, and sometimes to grow lukewarm from the fervor of contemplation, vain meditation creeping in. The narrowness of the place often furnished occasion of quarrels and seditions, between the townsmen and the comrades of the Monks: for the concord of minds is wont to be difficult, where there is a discrepancy of manners and habit. Seeking therefore a remedy for this trouble, the holy Bishop transferred the aforesaid monastery to Vareilles l. But, occupied with secular importunities, he did not finish that undertaking.

[10] For after his glorious works, after the labors endured for the protecting of his Church, desiring to leave the Bishopric, loathing the administration of his dignity, and directing the sharpness of his mind to the last things of his life, he began more secretly to rub up the sentence of blessed Martin, asserting that he had greater virtue before the Bishopric than in the Bishopric. Fearing therefore lest through the perplexities of secular affairs the merit of his religion be diminished; he proposed to put off m the care of Pastoral solicitude, and began more devoutly to pant after the tranquillity of his accustomed contemplation. Yet fearing lest the ancient robber should scatter the flock widowed of its Pastor, he began to implore the mercy of God with sobbing prayers; that he might both grant him to enjoy the delight of secure quiet, and provide for his subjects the protection of a fit Pastor: which prayer to have been heard by the Lord, became evidently known from what followed. For the glorious servant of God, foreknowing the day of his death by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, on which he should pass over to the joys of true quiet; his disciples being called together, by a pious account disclosed that his last day was at hand for him; his death is revealed to be at hand: with his accustomed solicitude of piety admonishing them to possess the vessel of their own body clean and immaculate, and so to run that they might lay hold, so to labor that they might not be defrauded of the quiet of eternal beatitude, so to contend that they might be rewarded with the prize of perpetual joy. And the preaching ended, he chose a fit place of burial, namely the monastery of Ferrières, whither he commanded his body to be carried, the divorce of it and his soul being celebrated, and he orders his burial: and to be entombed in the eaves-drip of the church. As he said these things a vehement astonishment seized all, because they could apprehend no sign of ill-health in him.

[11] After a small space of time, struck by the heaviness of diseases, he began to be sick; he is weighed down by illness: and by frequent pains, the forerunners of approaching death, to be intolerably wearied. Yet the accustomed serenity of his face always remained unmoved, and his devout mind in the faith and charity of Christ was more and more solidified; but yet, the disease growing heavier, having received the viaticum he dies. refreshed with the due viaticum, his eyes fixed on heaven, his hands raised to God; having entered the way of all flesh, in the 61st year n of his life, on the sixth of the Ides of October, he happily migrated to the Lord, about to receive a crown of gladness from the hand of God. But his body was carried to the aforesaid monastery, according to the tenor of his command, buried at Ferrières he is renowned for miracles. with great wailing of the peoples, mourning and groaning that they were left destitute and desolate of the protection of so great and so benign a Pastor: and in the eaves-drip, beside the oratory of blessed Andrew, in a stone tomb, which while living he had built for himself, he was honorably buried. Where, no less after his death than in his life, of how great merit his servant had been, the Lord declared by very many tokens of virtues and miracles.

NOTES OF G. H.

who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Aurelian on the 31st of December: whose monastery, situated in the suburb, had been committed by Louis the August, with Clarius as witness, to Jeremiah, that it might be under the protection of the Archbishop of the city of Sens.

Because I have no confidence in my prudence to carry out so great a work fitly; I beseech that your sacred intention may labor to obtain with God, that I may both sincerely guard myself, and, he having mercy, may at least venerably exercise the care of the things committed to me, where I would rather read, At least pardonably.

transferred the monastery of St. Remigius, to a village proper to the same monastery, which is called Vallilias: which however being unfinished, full of virtues he fell asleep in the Lord. After Aldric, Wenilo presided, who finished the monastery of St. Remigius at Vallilias, begun by his predecessor. Aldric himself received the Privilege of transferring the monastery in the assembly of Worms in the year 833, printed in Tome 7 of the Councils of Labbe with St. Aldric's Epistle, which he first signs, and then there subscribed twenty-five Bishops and several Abbots: and then Louis the Pious ratified this Privilege of Aldric, by a diploma signed in the year 834, on the day of the 16th of the Kalends of December. The place is now called Vareilles.

* rather of the Prophet

CHAPTER III.

The Translation of the body. Miracles performed.

[12] After blessed Aldric the Cathedral of the aforesaid city was obtained by a Geneaulus, whom he himself had set as Abbot b over the oft-mentioned monastery. This man therefore, vigilant in the exercises of good deeds, Under his successor and cleaving in mind to the heavenly things, learned divinely where rested c the bodies of the holy Martyrs, namely Savinian and Potentian, Eodaldus and Serotinus, lest the reverence of whom should grow obsolete by time and neglect, he honorably placed the bodies of the blessed Martyrs with all solemn pomp in the church of St. Peter. the bodies of the Saints translated, The body too of blessed Lupus Bishop of Sens, and of blessed Columba the Virgin, who suffered under the Emperor Aurelian, he both translated, with another, and laid in a place, where to this present day due reverence is shown them. To the building the monastery's fabric completed, which blessed Aldric his predecessor had begun at Vareilles, he put the end of completion with his hand.

[13] Now there were in the aforesaid monastery three young men, d Gaubert who had taken its care, assisting in continual service: who, detracting from the sedulity of their service by the wantonness of their life, serving the belly more devoutly than the Lord, while the Monks slept gorged themselves with the surfeit of food and drink: and prolonged the hours of the untimely night in jests and obscene songs. Now it happened that, weighed down by sleep, they at last sought rest, [three drunken men, sleeping over the body of blessed Aldric, are divinely carried off.] that they might for a little while digest the wine with which they were soaked. But by rash usage, seized by the error or contumacy of drunkenness, they sought the place in which the body of blessed Aldric rested, and there, dissolved in sleep, suddenly fell asleep. But the Lord, not suffering the place, dedicated to the sacred limbs of his servant, to be profaned; wondrously carried off the sleepers, and placed one across the neighboring river on the public road, two far off under a beech-tree. At length, the dawn reddening, they were found by the people, while according to custom it was hastening to the suffrages of the Saints resting in the aforesaid monastery. All being roused from sleep, and confessing the miraculous event, astonishment seized all; and the name of the holy Confessor, magnified to the honor of God, shone forth more gloriously.

[14] Now his body was translated e from the eaves-drip of the church, the tokens of virtues shining forth, The body more honorably placed: and venerably set in a loftier shrine. There was at that time a certain Consular man, Mauritius by name, noble indeed by race, but disennobling his race by his deeds: at whose instigation his retainers began grievously to injure the aforesaid Monks with undue exactions, and violently to plunder their goods and those of their people: which they had so often been wont to do, none resisting, and on account of undue exactions that what was unlawful, custom seemed to make lawful, and the usage of offending to diminish the offense. And so the Monks, constrained by the pressure of so great a calamity, and hoping for the protection of defense from no one, by common counsel resolved to seek a more tranquil place, and by their absence to snatch from the enemy a malignant occasion. Who, their goods being placed on a cart, and the body of blessed Aldric being taken, to be carried on a cart. with the rest of the relics of the Saints, set out on their journey under the silence of the night. But while they were incautiously leading the cart through the byways of the roads; it keeps the herdsman unharmed, a certain herdsman, going ahead, fell rolling to the ground: over whose legs the wheel of the heavily laden cart passing, was believed to have left him half-dead. By which misfortune all disturbed, they raise a tearful clamor; and with one voice demand the help of St. Aldric: at whose devotion the herdsman rose up unharmed, as though he had felt nothing of injury; and setting out on the journey, pursued the office of his accustomed work. Therefore, the grief of all being turned into joy, rendering thanks to God, they happily came to the monastery of Villaris f. Which heard, to the patronage of the holy Confessor a very great throng of men and women devoutly flowed together; among whom, the miracle being heard, went the Consul Mauritius, greatly terrified by a threatening rebuke made to him in a nocturnal vision by blessed Aldric: the exactor being amended it is carried back: who before the Relics, with tears and groaning, begged indulgence for his preceding offense; and promised thereafter to show due reverence to the monastery which he had violated. The vow therefore being approved by all, and strengthened by the safeguard of a writing, with the Relics of the blessed Confessor, they cheerfully returned to their accustomed place.

[15] Now there was a custom, that the Congregation of the monastery of Ferrières, the festivity of Pentecost ended, with solemn pomp every year should seek the Castle of Nanton g, to render the services of devotion and to seek the suffrages of the Saints. a girl blind from birth is enlightened Therefore when to the aforesaid place, at the due time, the pious ashes of the Father Aldric beloved of God were carried with worthy veneration; behold a girl somewhat grown, whom her mother's womb had poured forth into the light without light, having struggled through the throng, with her hand thrust in seized the cloth placed over the Relics on the litter; and clinging firmly, through so great a space of the way could not be torn away thence; but always begged the help of the pious Confessor with the inmost affection of devotion, happily. When at last they reached the aforesaid Castle; in a certain place before the gate, a small delay being made, the eternal counsel of God disposed to glorify his Saint through the works of his power. For there, in the open spectacle of the peoples, drops of blood bursting from the eyes of the aforesaid girl, through the merits of the holy Confessor a new light illumined her native blindness. At once all run together, with wondrous proclamations of praise God is exalted, who in his Saints is always wonderful.

[16] By chance, the year's course revolved, the solemn day of blessed Aldric had come: on his feast a woman spinning has her hand made useless: which while the whole people venerates with due celebration, a certain wicked woman, as if in contempt of the solemnity, span more attentively, by the sin of disobedience setting herself against the Ecclesiastical institutions. While this was being done, the malignant enemy came to her in the form of a black dog, and endeavored to swallow her hand: which striving more strenuously to ward off, she could not; but wounded by the deadly bite she fell down weakened, and her own spindle pierced the hand of the falling woman; so that thereafter, as if maimed, her hand was deprived of its accustomed office h.

[17] At a preceding time it happened that a certain man, Rambaldus i by name, for some while abounded in his own riches; but verging into old age he came to such want, that nothing was at hand for life, except what his wife, a poor man's sick wife is healed. by name Supplicia, acquired by the labor of her hands. He, often recalling his past happiness, more grievously bore the heap of his hardships, since the most unhappy kind of misfortune is to have been happy. Now it happened, to the increase of his sorrow, that his wife, deprived of her accustomed bodily health, fell into a long-lasting languor; nor could she relieve her husband's weakness by her accustomed benefit, having become a sharer in the same misery. Grievously afflicted therefore by adverse things, they humbly begged the divine help; that he who gives food to all flesh would not suffer them to perish by miserable penury. But when, after too great a weariness of grief, it happened that the man fell asleep; it was revealed to him in dreams, that his wife should humbly seek the aid of blessed Aldric, and would effectively find the medicine of her sorrow. Roused from sleep, he disclosed to his wife all that he had seen, counseling and exhorting, that, casting her thought upon the Lord and on his Confessor, she should act confidently. She rising, after a small interval of time, came to the threshold of blessed Aldric with the devotion of humility: and with contrite spirit before the sepulcher, in which the pious ashes rested, imploring the divine clemency, freed wholly from her languor, received her former health, he himself helping, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen k.

NOTES OF G. H.

the commendation of Aldric, and then taken up to the ministry of the Royal Chapel, and at last to the Archbishopric. This seems indeed beneath the dignity of Abbots, since on the contrary Lupus in Epist. 25 complains that the Clerics of the Palace fit and demand for themselves the Lordship of various monasteries. But this objection can be met by saying, that Wenilo was not simply a Chaplain, or Cleric of the Chapel; but Archchaplain; of whom Cange weaves a long series in his Glossary Tom. 1 col. 787 and 788, and among them names not only Abbots, but also Bishops and Archbishops. But the King, complaining of Wenilo as ungrateful, may have contemptuously called him a Cleric. Thus Henry King of England, stirred against St. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, complains that he is mocked with impunity by a certain plebeian Cleric, as is in the Life in Surius chapter 21.

* perhaps the altar?

* perhaps the whole

HYMNS.