Gerasimus

ON SAINT GERASIMUS,

OF THE ORDER OF S. BASIL IN FARTHER CALABRIA.

From Romaeus and Ferrarius.

Gerasimus, of the Order of S. Basil, in farther Calabria (S.)

G. H.

Leucopetra, the farthest promontory

of farther Calabria, or of the Rhegine territory,

was most well-known to the ancients: not

far from it is the town of S. Lawrence,

commonly noted on the maps as S. Lotero:

where there existed a monastery

of the Order of S. Basil, and in it flourished S. Gerasimus

or Gerasmus the Monk, concerning whom David Romaeus, in

the Index of the Saints of the kingdom of Naples, printed at Naples in the year 1577,

page 405, writes thus: At the town of

S. Lawrence, near Leucopetra, Gerasmus, of the

Society of Divine Basil, was buried in the temple of Divine

Angelus, on the XVIII Kalends of Quintilis. That is the XIV of June.

To which day Ferrarius referred this same man, citing Romaeus,

in his General Catalogue, and that from the Tables and

Chronicles of Calabria: but which ones, he does not state: and he adds:

Concerning him Paulus Regius, in book 2 On the Saints of the kingdom

of Naples, on this day. Which things Ferrarius has in almost the same words,

on the XIV day of May, as we then said among the Omitted ones,

and we wished to obtain some Acts of his:

but in vain. For the Fathers of our Reggio

College, being asked, consulted the Archpriest of S.

Lawrence, to whom the very name of the Saint came as something new

to hear, so far was it that he should suggest anything of further notice;

so by little and little the memories of the Saints sink into ruin,

even of those most well-known a century ago.

ON THE VENERABLE RICHARD, ABBOT OF THE ORDER OF S. BENEDICT,

AT VERDUN IN LORRAINE.

IN THE YEAR 1046.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the Life written by Hugh, Abbot of Flavigny, his disciple; and on some inchoate cult of him as a Blessed.

Venerable Richard, Abbot of S. Vitonus of Verdun, in Lorraine

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Verodunum or Virodunum, an Imperial city

of Belgic Gaul, under the

Archbishopric of Trier, commonly attributed

to present-day Lorraine,

but withdrawn from the Imperial jurisdiction by the French about the year

1552,

and left to them by the conditions of the Peace of Münster,

had as its eighth Bishop, at the beginning of the VI century, The Clerical Church of S. Vitonus, S.

Victonus or Vitonus, to be commemorated on the IX of November.

He, since he was buried in the suburban church of the holy Apostles,

with miracles increasing at his invocation,

both it and the monastery added to it,

which now is as it were the center of the citadel surrounding it

and overlooking the city, received the name commonly

of S. Venne of Verdun. That church was formerly of Clerics:

Made Monastic in the year 951, but Berengarius, numbered XXXV in the order of the Bishops of Verdun,

in the XII year of his Episcopate,

from the Incarnation 951, grieving that some

of his sons, with desire of a more perfect life and

most fervent love of a higher purpose, were migrating to neighboring

dioceses, and seeking the monastic Order

(because in the city of Verdun it was not found)

elsewhere; with the counsel of the Clergy and Nobles being shared,

in the church consecrated to the honor of the holy Apostles Peter

and Paul, where the precious Confessor of the Lord

Vitonus rests and is venerated with his

predecessors and successors, chose to gather

he introduced Monks; for whom, both

from his own property and from the goods of the mother Church,

he provided beforehand the annual proceeds of revenues, and the necessities

of food and clothing, and prepared suitable

dwellings of workshops … He also appointed an Abbot

for them, Humbert, from the monastery of S. Aper

of Toul, under the rule of S. Benedict.

[2] Thus Hugh, from a Verdun Monk Abbot of Flavigny,

Author of the Chronicle of Verdun, begun

to be written about the year 1100, and published from a Ms. Codex of our College

of Clermont at Paris in tome 1 of the New Library

of Manuscripts of Labbe, page 132: To this man, after 6 intermediates, succeeded Richard, where afterward,

page 136, it is said that in the year 972

the same Humbert died on the day before the Nones of December, and

Adelmar was substituted in his place: and finally,

page 159: Adelmar also having died on the V Kalends of January,

Adelard was substituted: and this one having died

on the XIII Kalends of January, Ermenric succeeded, who, as

far as he was able, enlarged the place. This one too having been

carried over to the heavenly things on the VI Kalends of September, Rohaldus

succeeded, and to Rohaldus Lambert. After whom

was carried off from the monastery of S. Felix of Metz the Lord

Fingenius, sprung from the Scottish race: who,

because that same place had been somewhat neglected through a layman's hand,

was ordained Abbot there to restore it … And this one also having died …

the Lord Richard undertook to govern that place.

[3] Richard Wasseburgius, Archdeacon of the church of Verdun,

weaving the antiquities of Belgic Gaul through the series

and history of the Bishops of Verdun up

to the year 1549 in the French tongue,

although on fol. 216, after the life of Bishop Haymo XXXVIII,

about to append the Life of that Richard made Abbot under him,

he calls Saint Richard in the title; yet at

the end he says only: Here ends the Life of the Good Richard

the Abbot. Hugh Menard and Gabriel Bucelinus, the former

in his Menology, Commonly a Saint, and by some called Blessed; the latter in his Benedictine Martyrology,

placed him with the title of Blessed; which title also Arnold

Rayzzius used in his Supplement to the Natalia of the Belgic Saints

of Molanus. I await what title he will give him,

in the VI century of his Acts soon to be published,

Jean Mabillon. Meanwhile I am content to have

called Venerable him whom no one of the older writers has taught us to call

by an ampler title. Certainly his Disciple,

the above-praised Hugh, weaving the lengthy Life of his Master

into his Chronicle, of which it forms a good part,

nowhere calls him absolutely Blessed; yet he invokes

the grace of the Holy Spirit, that it may make him declare

his blessedness, and so that he himself may appear praiseworthy

in His Saints: through the course of the History afterward, that same

man he repeatedly calls "the Grace of God"; saying that this

was commonly his surname, num. 42. In num. 82

he treats of the concourse at the holy man's tomb, and of the frequent

cure of the fever-stricken at it, and presently he subjoins

by which it is declared that, in the same crypt where S. Madalveus is venerated,

he is prescribed to be celebrated by the Monks as equal in glory,

and with equal cult; and it is sufficiently provided, he says, from that

day, that his memory should be recalled with most worthy devotion.

The Ms. series of the Bishops of Verdun, carried a little

beyond the age of Richard, only entitles the Venerable

Abbot. In the Chronicle of S. Benignus of Dijon,

which is appended to the Chronicle of Verdun at page 294, by the older writers only Venerable;

and is extended to the year 1223; only

this is held, that in the year 1044 died Richard, a most pious

Abbot: whom Waleran succeeded, brother of Hugh

Bishop of Langres; and B. Richard, Bishop of Verdun,

the spiritual son from the sacred font of the aforesaid

Abbot; to whom therefore, rather than to his sponsor,

the title of Blessed seems in that XIII century

to have been commonly attributed; which can be discussed at the VIII

Ides of November, on which he died, in the fifth month after the Abbot.

Everelmus, Abbot of Hautmont, also calls him no more than Venerandus or Venerable,

in the Life of S. Poppo, made a Monk under

Richard himself, and afterward Abbot of Stavelot, and dying in the fourth year after

him, a writer contemporary with both, although

in num. 6 he says that he was already in almost all ages celebrated for justice and

probity: as may be seen in Surius

and in our January at the XXV day: but half a century

younger Sigebert of Gembloux, in his Chronicle at the year

1027, enumerating the Abbots through whom in that century

Religion flourished, praises Richard of Verdun,

as distinguished by pious gravity and grave piety.

[4] Yet, that we may here give his Life among the Saints,

I am moved not only by the title of Saint, commonly attributed

to him among the people of Verdun, for two or three or more centuries; yet his Life is given here,

but also by some special cult; conferred from the very time of

his death upon his tomb, and confirmed by various public acts

(as we shall presently see). For when in the year

1099 the third Abbot after Richard, Rodulf, had died;

upon his tomb, carefully closed and sealed with pitch,

entrance of the choir, before the altar of S. Benedict, that there the

Brothers returning from the daily Mandatum may prostrate themselves,

and, the prayer finished, make memory of the Father resting there,

it was established: and lest it should seem burdensome to anyone, for the daily memory of him, begun immediately after his death,

the memory which was wont to be said for the Lord

Abbot Richard after Matins, which as it were

on account of the burden to the Brothers had been interrupted by Rudolf;

because that seemed burdensome to some Brothers, among whom, as is fitting,

the memory of Father Richard is held in renown, it was

resumed; lest they should as it were complain that the memory

of the one was interrupted, and that of the other begun. But

even to this day, says Hugh, the good successor of both

Fathers, namely Lambert, formerly Prior, blessed in the year 1099,

on the IV Nones of April, the V day of the

deposition of Father Rudolf of good memory (whence

it is understood that Rudolf himself was deposed on the XXIX of March at

Verdun, and restored in the year 1099 it being uncertain on what day he died at Flavigny),

passing before the tomb, re-commits to him the

Sheep entrusted to him by him; and that by him both Pastor and Sheep

may be governed and protected, he prays, for the most part

with his mouth, but always with his mind and devotion. In about these things

the Chronicle ends; where I would doubt whether it should be read "by them,"

rather than "by him"; except that I see this can uniquely be referred

to Rodulf, by whose command, while dying,

declared to the Monks, Lambert had been elected.

[5] That this veneration, such as it was, of Abbot

Rodulf was continued among posterity, I can prove by no

argument: that the memory of Richard was never

thereafter omitted can reasonably be inferred,

from the fact that his Body in the year 1238, and on account of the translations of the body in the years 1238 and 1600.

as Menard writes after the Life, in book 1 of his Observations,

set down on page 260, was translated into the chapel

of S. Nicholas, which is now commonly called by his name

S. Richard's; and at last about the year 1600 into the church,

not far from the Sacristy, opposite that of S. Sanctinus,

Bishop of Meaux and Apostle of the people of Verdun, who is venerated

on the XXII of September and the X of October; and a marble

stone was placed over him, supported by four columns.

In which translation his chasuble, girdle,

and other Priestly insignia were found without

corruption. And above, after the narration of a miracle,

worked for the commendation of fasting, even to be kept

in sickness; There is still preserved a bowl or plate,

into which such water, poured twice for a sick man, was

turned into wine, in the sacristy of the church of S. Vitonus

of Verdun; and his relics reverently preserved. into which the Monks are wont to pour water;

which, when drunk, those laboring from fever are cured

… But although B. Richard is of such great merit,

nevertheless his feast is not celebrated in the monastery,

because he is not yet enrolled in the number of the Saints.

But neither was the feast of S. Poppo celebrated, before

Baronius had seen the aforesaid Life of his inserted into the work of Surius,

and from there, taking occasion, had referred it

into the Roman Martyrology; he would likely have done the same,

if he had seen Wasseburgius, and had known that in the monastery

of Verdun he was commonly called a Saint.

[6] Since these things are so, I cannot sufficiently wonder,

says Menard, at the things which were written about Richard by

S. Peter Damian, Epist. 2 to Illustrious Men: A certain

man, [He was seen by someone, in purgatory, on account of his excessive zeal for building;] caught up in spirit, was led through sleep

into hell, and beheld various kinds of punishments,

among which he saw Richard, Abbot of Verdun,

as it were erecting lofty machines, and anxious

and solicitous, as though constructing fortified

bulwarks of camps. For with this disease that Abbot

had labored while he lived, that on building

useless edifices he expended nearly all the care of his

diligence, and squandered very many resources of the Church

on such frivolous trifles. What therefore he did in

life, this he was bearing in punishment.

The Epistle was written, as well as the first, to Cinthius,

Prefect of the City, as a supreme cultivator of justice and equity,

and one instructing the people committed to him

no less by word than by example; and

so a good while before Cinthius, having gone over to the Henrician party,

in the year 1075 laid sacrilegious hands upon Pope Gregory

VII. But Menard rightly judges that

these things are to be understood of purgatorial punishments; since

it is not so grave a crime, and worthy of hell itself,

to meditate insane masses of substructures. He also rightly

notes that it is nothing new for holy men

to have paid penalties in purgatory, on account of certain slighter

faults; as we read of S. Severinus of Cologne, S. Paschasius,

and S. Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg.

See other examples at the Life of S. Mary Magdalen

de Pazzi, as also certain others on account of light faults. the XXV of May, in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 9.

What of the fact that the same man, who beheld these things about Richard in his sleep;

while here and there, in the same place, he curiously attends

to very many things, seemed to himself to see Godfrey

the elder, Duke of Tuscany, who had been too intent

upon doing justice; presiding on a golden seat;

to whom two Angels seemed to stand by,

and, fanning fans with their hands, were striving to

temper the heats in his face (which namely he suffered for purgation)

in the manner of ministering attendants; whence

it appears what kind of hell is to be understood, beheld by that pious

man.

[7] Furthermore, it makes no small contribution to the commendation

of the Vitonian monastery, that, by the testimony of the aforesaid Menard,

after about the year 1600 regular discipline,

according to the Rule of S. Benedict, was restored

in it by the venerable Father Lord Desiderius of Coria, Provost of the same

monastery (for already, from the time of

Nicolaus Psalmi about the middle of the previous century, the title

of the Vitonian Abbot had been united to the Episcopal one) from

that reformation flowed two Congregations, [From that monastery, about the year 1600, a reformation went forth, through Lorraine and Gaul:]

those of SS. Vitonus and Hildulf in Lorraine, and of S. Maur

in Gaul; which last ascended to such brightness of virtue

that the first times of the Cluniac reformation

seem through it to have been restored to the Benedictine Order in Gaul;

with notable increase of every kind of erudition, especially

sacred, as so many illustrious works, daily coming forth into

light through the alumni of that Congregation,

declare to the whole World.

[8] The Life is given from the Chronicle of Verdun. Now as for the Life of the Venerable Richard,

we give it from the Chronicle of the above-praised Hugh, divided after our

manner into Chapters, and illustrated with Notes;

omitting here and there a few things which, pertaining to the history of the same time,

as the style of Chronicles brings, are interwoven;

and otherwise pertain not to the Saints, and so to our work,

not at all. Wasseburgius did not have Hugh's Chronicle;

but in the course of the Life woven by himself in French he cites

Richard: which Life, if indeed it still exists, which meanwhile is gleaned from him and from Menard. we altogether

wish to obtain. For besides that he relates some things

not a little otherwise than Hugh, he also reports

certain miracles and visions passed over by him. Meanwhile

it pleases us, from book 1 of Menard's Observations on the Benedictine

Martyrology, to give the Life which he himself sets forth in Latin,

composed, as he says, from the old monuments of the monastery

of S. Vitonus: because, comparing it with the French one

of Wasseburgius, I find those Monuments almost word for word

taken from the same Life which the latter cites,

though perhaps in a more concise style.

[9] the other, which Wasseburgius used, is wanting, Rayzzius, besides Wasseburgius, professes to have used

Ms. Monuments of the monastery of S. Vedastus: for

Richard was also Abbot of this place, and substituted for himself

in his stead as Prior Frederic, his faithful companion from

the beginning of his monastic conversion, but who would die

twenty-seven years before; whose principal Acts

are interwoven into that Life; so that there is no need

to treat of him separately, although he obtained some true cult. and compendia are indicated.

But that he has either obtained any once, or now obtains it,

is not proved; since neither is his tomb shown, nor is the day

of his death found consigned to letters; even if perhaps he is called Blessed

among the people of Vedastus; and therefore Rayzzius, honoring him

with such a title after Richard, subjoins to the latter's encomium also

his own encomium. Bucelinus, citing

those cited by Menard, has followed only this one. But all

agree with Hugh in assigning the year and

day of death, namely the XIV of June 1046: but I would add

that in the same year (which had the Dominical letter

E, and celebrated Easter on the XXX of March, Pentecost

on the XVIII of May) the fourth Sunday after Pentecost

concurred with the aforenoted XIV of June.

LIFE

From the Chronicle of Verdun of Hugh, Abbot of Flavigny.

Published in the New Library of Mss. of Philippe Labbe.

Venerable Richard, Abbot of S. Vitonus of Verdun, in Lorraine

BHL Number: 7219

FROM THE CHRONICLE OF H. FLAVIGNY.

PROLOGUE.

Fingenius, Abbot of the monastery of S.

Vitonus, having died—whose coming, pilgrimage, and conversion, he being

sprung of the Scottish race, The Author, about to write the Life of his Abbot,

whoever desires to know more fully may

learn in the Life of Theodoric b, the excellent Bishop of Metz;

for when, after Adalbert, Heimo had obtained the

Episcopate c of Verdun; the Lord Richard

undertook to govern that place. Whose

life, character, and acts, the nobility of his lineage, the beginning

of his conversion, the zeal of his religion, and the perseverance

of his perfection, he asks for the grace of the Holy Spirit. our humility yearns to write, though with slender

sense and rustic speech: because if we are anything,

since we are nothing, the whole, after God and

His Saints, is to be ascribed to his merits d: whence

the Holy Spirit, distributor of spiritual graces,

is to be invoked by us, that he may declare his blessedness, with His own

sense indeed, through our mouth, that he may be praised in

His works, and may appear wonderful in His Saints e.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

Adalbero, Bishop of the Metenses, having died, Deodericus, cousin of Otto

the Emperor, is substituted as Bishop. He, as is read, inspecting the first

letters of the names of all the Bishops of Metz, which an Angel of the Lord

is said to have given to S. Clement, first Bishop of the Metenses; and noting

that some were marked in gold, some in silver, some in baser metal, according to the

quality of merits; when he saw that the letter of his own name was marked in silver, Praise of Theodoric, Bishop of Metz

he is said to have said that he would do such great good things in the Episcopate, that the very

letter of his name ought by merit to be marked in gold: of which good

intention the beginning is shown in the monastery of the holy Martyr Vincent,

founded on the island of that same city. He died an old man in the year 983 on the 7th day of September, which Meurisse also has from the Obituary of the Cathedral. Saussay, however, refers to him as a Saint

on the 18th of July; and says that his name appeared after his death marked in gold.

Let the credibility of both matters rest with him: meanwhile we have from Meurisse (who

abstains from every more religious title, equally as the Sammarthani and others) that after

300 years the bones, dug up again, were found wrapped in a chasuble still whole,

of a color from violet tending to blackish, with which the Celebrant is clothed yearly on his

anniversary, the 7th of September, when those same bones, enclosed in a wooden chest, are

carried by the monks and placed above the pit of the first tomb. But the Life

here indicated is likely that one which Meurisse ascribes to a certain good Sigebert (different, I think, from the one of Gembloux), and exhibits its beginning in Latin rhythm. I should like to obtain it whole; both for his sake, and for the sake of Abbot Fingenius, if perchance some cult of either of them should meanwhile be proved to us, on account of which they might deserve a place in this work.

the year 1085, when I was counting about 19 years: since in the year 1097 he says he had spent the 32nd

year of his age, on page 242: whence it is clear that he was born 20 years after the death of Richard. To this man's

merits, therefore, now blessed in heaven, he here ascribes what he is; because to those same merits

was ascribed the whole religion of the Vitonian monastery, which Hugh himself under

Rodulf, the most excellent disciple of the Venerable Richard himself, confesses that he

drank in.

e The division

of Chapters in the Labbean edition, being less convenient for our purpose,

I, about to disregard it, undertake to make my own and one more conformable to this work:

but I note beforehand that that division does not extend beyond chapter XXX,

through the negligence of the copyists; whose defect I proceed to supply

up to the end of the Life; and that the same is to be done in the rest of the Chronicle, noting

there a new Chapter numeral cipher, where the writing returning to a new line indicates that this was to be done.

CHAPTER I.

The education, the Archdeaconate of Rheims, and Richard's entry into the monastery of S. Vitonus with Frederic the Count.

[1] He arose, therefore, sprung from a most noble stock of the Franks,

with a father … Walter, and a mother

… Theorada, and from the very rudiments of infancy

instructed in the liberal letters in the Church of holy Mary

of Rheims: Piously educated in the church of Rheims, which Church then so flourished

with the splendor of religion, of so many noble persons

and religious persons, whom she herself had educated within her,

that she applauded herself with honorable numerousness and seemly

worthiness; so that in religion itself she stood preeminent above all

the Churches of Belgium, and was a model to all of living honorably

and conversing rightly, in chastity, in

knowledge, in discipline, in correction of morals, in

the exhibition of good works. This is proven by the pious,

steadfast, and faithful constancy of the Lord and truly holy Constantius, Canon of the same Church;

and likewise by the praiseworthy, imitable and memorable

profusion of his goods toward the poor of the other

patrimony: of whom the one his own religion commends,

and his works of mercy; the other the compassion of the poor

so proclaims, that they alone were found, who, while they mourn

the death of so great a man, proclaim his merit;

and while they dutifully procure his funeral with grateful diligence,

while at the solemnities of the Mass

they offer what little gifts they can for his repose,

while all gathered together around the body

mourn their own desolation, and, redoubling their groans, complain of their own

destitution in so great an almsgiver, shone famous in almsgiving);

they extol, namely, his life with wondrous praises;

and if anything in him was corrupted by the vice of human

nature, this they cover and conceal with their tears. And for this reason

we have here inserted their constancy as an example to the faithful,

that whoever reads may recognize that so many and

such men toiled in the palestra of the holy Church of Rheims

neither without masters, nor escaped thus alone

the prison of the carnal mass, that they did not leave behind some

witnesses and co-workers of their purpose, who, having imitated both

their footsteps, and embraced the virtue of their faith.

[2] In this Church, therefore, the boy Richard, of religious disposition,

handed over to be imbued with letters, in a short time ran through

each thing which the skill of the masters had marked out as to be run through.

He began also to meditate on higher things, and the things

which he had not learned from the masters, with the liveliness and perspicacity

of his docile mind attentively to investigate; so that it was recognized by

all that he would be of great renown, whom

the sharpness of his intellect so commended, after a remarkable progress in letters and virtue, capable of secret

and mystical things, with the grace of God cooperating and going before.

He passed therefore in the same city, advancing

up to the perfect age of growth; and

he who was keen in genius set for himself a norm

of living, cutting away in himself the harmful things which in others he reproved with skillful vigilance.

This is proven by the religious

conversation of his life, and the continual reproof of evils,

with which the directed simplicity of his mind so abounded, let him there be Precentor and Archdeacon.

that for zeal of God and emulation of justice,

the office of Precentor and Archdeacon was committed to him,

and to his mastery the arrangement of the Church of Rheims

was handed over. With what vigor, with what

prudence, with what skill he watched over that office, lest

perhaps we be found too much in praising, we have decided to be silent:

especially since the silence itself is his praise; because

if we should stretch out our whole substance in his praises,

it would be less than what we should say toward

that which ought to be said. The Church of Rheims rejoices in his

praises, because his very devotion, with which

he faithfully labored in it, is his praise.

[3] He used the power handed to him for edification,

not for destruction; Tenacious of Justice, having the liberty

of voice by his own judgment to refute the guilty and convict them,

and to accept the person of no one in judgment. By which

things he was so known to all that even when absent,

for his reverence and unbending constancy, he was feared by all:

and equally all the elders together with the younger

revered the unflattering censure of Richard's gravity.

For he was truly religious, devoting himself to continual

prayers: whose custom it also was to say the Psalter

in order each day; and the first

fifty he would say prostrating, with hands bent down to the ground,

fifty erect, fifty

not prostrate with the whole body, but suspended, supported

on the joints of his feet or hands, he would recite. He was wont

also to say daily prayers before the Cross,

of which these were the beginnings of all the verses, and given to prayers,

I adore Thee, O Christ, ascending the cross, and I bless

Thee. When one day he had recited these with great

insistence; rising from prayer, and looking with tears

upon the Crucifix, he heard a voice saying to him: Thou

hast blessed me on earth, and I bless thee: and the right hand

being raised, He who was in the form of a cross, blessed

him. Pricked with which sweetness, he gave thanks

to the supreme Priest, and began now so much the more closely to meditate on more perfect things, he is blessed by Christ,

the more gracious sweetness of the merciful God

he recognized around himself. This we, being placed at Rouen c,

heard from religious men, who

themselves also confessed that they had heard it from Hugh, surnamed

Grammaticus, a vigorous and religious man, Archdeacon of the Church of Rouen;

who was present at Rheims in the

church of S. Mary; when these things were done.

[4] But, when day by day with the fervor of his religious purpose

he was raised up to higher things on the wing of devotion, and

he marveled at the despisers of the world, all things being distributed to the poor, the deniers of their very selves,

and venerated God placed in the figure of the cross,

inviting his followers to himself and saying,

If anyone ministers to me, let him follow me; remembering

that it was little to minister to the Lord, in which

there was no perfection, unless one also followed Him; he chose

to cling more firmly to God, because He is good,

and blessed are they who hope in Him. John 12:26 He began therefore with a generous hand

to dispense to the poor the things that were around him: and although

from his first years the works of compassion shone in him,

yet the more the misery of the world and its deceptive

grace was despised, as he deliberates whether he should remain among his own, the more he pressed on with the works

of mercy; that he might be able naked to follow Christ, and

poor to imitate the poor One; who for our sake

made a little lower than the Angels, willed to be born of the poor,

and to be laid in a manger, that He might be

the food of the pious beasts of burden. But when all things had been disposed of,

and his desires not lulled to sleep by delay, because

they were holy, but rather increased; the violent

assault of the flooding thoughts, which the faithful soul

striving for perfection suffers, being calmed, having reached

the harbor of quiet, he fixed the anchor of hope; and because

he had now deliberated that he should go, he began again to be anxious

whither he should go, what place of station he should choose for himself; where

planted, he might grow green in the inner pleasantness of the heart.

[5] For he wished to fulfill to the letter that which was said to the father

of our belief, Abraham: Go forth from thy land and from

thy kindred; but he considered

that it would not be without fruit, if, placed among his own,

and made for them a model of an honorable life, he should offer them

an example of following Christ, by attaining the purpose

of Religion. Gen. 12:1 He considered again, that it was most difficult,

among acquaintances and relatives, to take up the intention

of a graver purpose; where sometimes

the way of danger is certain, of salvation uncertain; or whether he should leave these too; when the love

of relatives draws back a man already approaching God;

and the love of the flesh, and the manifold

prickings of the world, beat back the keenness of the gaze, with which God

is to be beheld, which he does not feel so grave

who avoids and flees the opportunity of feeling them. Among

these and other manifold deliberations of the flesh and spirit warring against each other in turn,

the help of the Almighty was present; and to His servant toiling in the glorious palestra

of combat, He offered the solace of a certain

faithful one of His, who under the cloak of worldly dignity

bore hidden a most approved soldier of Christ.

Frederic was the man's name; noble enough was

his lineage, and lofty. He flourished in the honor of a County,

and—what is greatest—he adorned the County with the disposition of his mind.

His father was Godfrey d, a man most renowned among the Magnates

of the Kingdom for probity, grace, and riches, a most noble companion is offered, Count Frederic;

and honors. He had also other

sons: Adalbero, Bishop of Verdun, whom we mentioned;

Herimann also, a most noble

Count; Godfrey also and Gozelo,

Dukes. Herimann e, who is also Hezelo,

took Mathildis to wife, from whom he begot two sons,

trees of good hope, Gregory and Godfrey,

and a daughter Odilia, who was Abbess of the handmaids

of God in the Monastery f of holy Odilia: he had also another

son from a concubine, by name Godfrey. But Godfrey

children. But Gozelo the Duke left as heir his son

Godfrey, who, having taken to wife the wife of Boniface, was afterward made

a Marquis.

[6] Created therefore of this noble stock, the Lord

Frederic i, placed in the height of honors, attended to

the limits of his measures, who, led by the zeal of Christian humility. lest he set foot

upon a precipice: therefore he attained the good end of his

intention, who did not wander beyond his own bounds.

Terrible to enemies, admirable for love of justice,

generous to the poor, lavish in gifts; pious in sparing,

severe in avenging: who, although he frequented the Palace,

nevertheless sat upon the dunghill with blessed Job:

because if he did anything unlawfully, this he brought back

to the eyes of his mind by repenting. He sat upon the dunghill,

because when he beheld before himself the dung of sins,

if any elation arose in his mind, he bowed down:

and the more he esteemed himself dust and ashes while speaking

with God, the more loftily he ascended unto the honor

of divine colloquy. Hence it is,

that he was so truly humbled, that he could truly rise

to the heights of virtues. For the pious mercy of God works

this toward His elect, that the more they

despise themselves below themselves, the more sublimely they are raised up

to the love of God, and so much the more they see the brightness of God,

the more the virtue of true humility represses them,

lest they think great things of themselves.

[7] When therefore he wholly grew warm toward the desire of his Creator

with long meditation, and now openly

despised the allurements of the world, he opens the counsel of a holier life to Richard: and desired

to cling to God with his whole intention;

and a man placed in the world saw that it would be most necessary

for him, that he should reveal this his desire

to some one of the Religious, by whose counsel

he might be relieved and strengthened by prayers; it seemed

to him, the divine clemency surely bringing it about, that

he should seek out the man most renowned in religion, namely Richard,

of whom at present we are treating;

and that he should entrust himself to him as to another self; that with him

he might share the secrets of his heart;

that he was a counselor who had nothing false, nothing feigned, nothing

the will of one is opened, or a good desire

revealed, and with him he resolves to become a monk at S. Vitonus, and is strengthened by mutual confirmation that it may be accomplished;

it was decreed by common vow, and from

the judgment of both it was deliberated, that some poor

place should be chosen, in which the honor of God and the rigor

of the Rule might be preserved, where new

lovers of Christian poverty might be exercised, and so at last

instruct others in the exercise of spiritual training. The

place chosen, therefore, was the city of Verdun, and in

it the monastery of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and

of the holy Confessor of Christ Vitonus, which both, founded

of old, and glorious by the patronage of the Saints,

and distinguished by the order of religion. For there

were in it good and religious men, though very few,

under the discipline of Abbot Fingenius, from the parts of the Scots

sprung, who had come together there for the sake of religion.

When indeed they had determined to betake themselves hither, they nevertheless

came together to explore this, that, being less

credulous of report, they might attend with their eyes, whether they should

enclose themselves in that convent.

[8] There was in the same city also another monastery, built

by Bishop Wigfrid k, into which it

seemed to them

that they ought better to enter, on account of the convenience of the place:

because the spot's narrowness l and the harshness of the situation

commended that former convent less, then both, doubting, go to Odilo, Abbot of Cluny; although the rigor

of the Order was better observed in it. But, giving less faith

to their own estimation, they resolved to seek with equal vow the convent

of Cluny, which both in religion was

preeminent, and seemed to be most opulent in riches:

that they might seek counsel from the Lord Abbot Odilo,

and acquiesce in what they obtained; or, certainly, if

it should seem more sound to the holy man, that they should remain there under him.

They went therefore: but the holy man, full of the spirit

of prophecy, and replete with the virtue of charity, having gratefully

received the excellent men, fervent in the love of Christ,

sent them back to their own soil; impressing upon

them and enjoining them, who urges them to cling to their first counsel. that in the monastery which

they had first chosen, and where they had devoted themselves, they should render

their vows to God, especially since there the fervor

of the Order flourished; adding that it could come about through them in the course

of time, that the dwellings of God's servants, now modest,

would afterward grow; and that by their industry

that place would become notable, which now seemed narrow

and despicable.

[9] It is altogether pleasing to behold the flame of charity in Odilo's heart,

which through blessed Job is called the manifold law

of God, because whosesoever mind it has fully seized, In this shines the charity of S. Odilo, this

it kindles in manifold ways to innumerable works. Job 11:6 For by this

it was brought about, that the blessed man thought the same things were to be done

for another which he would expect to be done for himself by another.

By this also it was brought about, that he loved his neighbor as himself,

that he expended on his neighbors the good things he was able,

and in fulfilling did not swell with pride. By this likewise

it comes about, that the more the holy man enlarged himself in the love of God

and of neighbor alone, the more he was ignorant of whatever departs

from rectitude. By this also it was brought about, that, loving others

as himself, by this—that he beheld what was right in others—

he rejoiced as if from the increase of his own advancement.

For which of the Prelates would now do this, which it is clear that the most holy man

then did? Who would advise so many and such men, everywhere celebrated by fame,

if it should happen that they turned toward him, not seeking his own advantage, to migrate to other

places; and would not rather try to retain them for himself,

by favor, by grace, or by prayers, or by any art?

which even if he could not do, yet

he would dismiss them unwilling, and not of his own accord, grieving

as if he were dismissing those whom he had never had. How many

Prelates do we now behold in the Church of God, who,

seeing another's advancement not to be their own, disdain it?

To all of whom we judge that Odilo is deservedly to be

preferred, to whose glory it pertains,

if anything bears fruit through those whom the church to which we are attributed

has attributed to us, in Order and Religion.

[10] The new recruits of monastic Religion therefore returned

to Verdun, and prostrate at the knees of the Father

of the monastery, they begged for admission. Whom when the elder

beheld, and thought men of virtue less suited and

delicate for enduring reproaches, tramplings;

and blows; and measured the poverty of the place with their

riches, he gave assent with difficulty;

because he did not know their minds, strengthened in divine love;

which if he had known, he would not for a moment have deferred their entry.

He yielded at last, They are admitted by Fingenius. and giving assent to those asking;

he consented to their entry; because it was the will

of God; that what they wished should quickly meet them.

Associated thus to the congregation of the monastery, they became

to all a model of patience and humility; so that it was clearly

recognized by all, that they had been prevented

by the grace of God the Creator: for, illumined by the grace of divine

protection, they began to love the heavenly fatherland with much greater

ardor than they had previously burned with in earthly

love. For God, whose true

inheritance is light, and of whose light there is no

failing; had so illumined them with His love, had so refreshed and filled them

with His vision; that, their minds breathed upon by the spirit of new hope,

they forgot their very selves, such as they had been in their old

thought; so that nothing

now pleased them, except the things that are eternal; and, the transitory things being despised,

they sought only the things that endure.

[11] And they will demand back Richard to no purpose But because the venerable Richard, without

the permission and license of the Archbishop of Rheims, had taken up the monastic

habit, from his Archbishop demanding him back he also complained

that a Canon of his Church had departed from it irregularly:

wherefore he was trying to reclaim him. When

this came to the ears of Abbot Fingenius; having summoned

him, he lays the matter open in order. He, the Father being consoled, sent

to the Archbishop of Rheims a little letter, containing this:

If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Which he, receiving, and considering more diligently the force of the word;

Rightly, he says, he has departed, who is led by the Spirit of God,

and therefore is not to be reclaimed by us. Thus the calumny

of those reclaiming him was confuted, nay rather the devotion of many

was kindled to imitate him.

Then Arnulf, son of King Lothair,

who was the fifth from Charles the Bald, ruled the Church; who was surnamed

the Betrayer, on this account, because he restored the city

to his uncle Charles m, when he grieved that the Kingdom

had been given to a foreign stock, and snatched away from his own.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

Anselm relates in the Itinerary of Leo, that he not only repaired the old basilica, built over the crypts

of the Martyrs, but also elegantly built the front, and gathered God's servants there in His service: the same or another is mentioned in the Necrologies with an encomium, and died on the X Kalends of April, on which the Chapter of Rheims

proceeds to the aforesaid S. Mary's church, where a solemn Mass is celebrated for the dead.

mother of Count Arnulf.

of Lorraine, died in the year 1019; he is said to have had as wife Geltrudis, whom

some say to be the daughter of Berengar III, King of Italy, others of the Duke of Bavaria; and from

her to have begotten a daughter Itta, married to Rapeto of Habsburg. His brother Gozelo succeeded him

in the Dukedom.

to the Bishop; after that donation having set out for Jerusalem.

IV, brother of Lothair, uncle of Louis V, last of the Carolingian Kings, having tried in vain to claim the administration of the kingdom, not only fell short of his hope;

but also, on account of his flight to Otto II, being judged a rebel, was excluded by the Franks from the succession due to him after the death of his nephew, in favor of Hugh Capet, with whom royal power had long resided,

and at last even the scepter—shall I say "the Franks granting it"? or "permitting it"? But Charles was indeed created Duke of Lorraine by the Emperor; yet under the title of Count alone

he is found buried at Maastricht, as if brought from his fatherland and from France.

See our Paralipomena to the Pontifical Chronology, pages 66

and 67. Arnulf, however, was called the Betrayer, because

he had sworn an oath of fidelity to Kings Hugh and Robert, and

was convicted of betraying the City, which was wretchedly plundered through his fault.

CHAPTER II.

Richard, ordained Abbot, becomes known to S. Henry the Emperor:

he builds a new church, with Frederic helping, and giving examples of much humility:

several monasteries are undertaken.

[12] As time therefore proceeded, the Lord Fingenius

the Abbot being carried up to the heavenly things on the VIII Ides of

October, and entombed in the monastery a of S. Felix,

when the election of substituting an Abbot was being treated

in the presence of Bishop Heimo; Richard made Abbot in the year 1004, and, as is wont in such matters,

different men felt differently, and the election of some

was held various; at the questioning

of the Pontiff suddenly, elected by the voice of the boys b,

the Lord Richard, is praised by the harmonious voice of all;

the Bishop breaking forth into the praises of God, and saying:

Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected

praise, O Lord God. And surely just was the Pontiff's

declaration, because the election made by the mouth of infants and sucklings

was the praise and glorification of God, with which He was

to be praised and glorified in His faithful one. The election

surely confirmed and strengthened by writing, the new Jacob is led forth

by the Bishop in gladness of heart; and

of the Lord's flock. The time was now at hand that the prophecy

of the blessed man Odilo should be fulfilled, that through

him and the Lord Frederic, the place before very modest

should be made notable, so that B. Odilo himself might rejoice in their advancement,

as in his own. The burden

of Prelacy thus undertaken, he strove to avoid elation and

boasting: for he knew that it behooved him to profit

the Brothers rather than to preside over them. To whom God

conferred such great grace, that by Kings and Princes,

by rich and middling, he was loved with wondrous

affection: because it was also fitting, that he whom

God had filled with grace, should be loved by all. But he was ordained

by the hand of the Lord Heimo,

Bishop of Verdun, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord

1004, when, after Otto III, now in the second

year, Henry his kinsman c was ruling,

who in the IX d year of his reign was created Emperor.

[13] The Court of this Prince, therefore, for certain

affairs, the Lord and Father Richard being compelled to approach,

led with him the venerable Frederic; who,

both begotten of Imperial blood, with Frederic he approaches S. Henry: and most well-known to the Princes

of the Kingdom: so that what by himself he distrusted being able to do,

he might obtain by the grace of him, to whom once, while he was

in the world, the whole Court obeyed. But, the seats being arranged,

and the Abbots sitting, with the Primates of the kingdom also

standing by, when the most gentle Father sat far

lower; and his memorable

Monk, as a kinsman of the King and Princes,

was present among the first at the Palatine councils, and sat in a more eminent

place; thinking that it would not be useful to himself, if

he should sit preeminent over the Father to whom he was subject in the order of seating, he did

from the side of the Prince, and himself carrying his own footstool,

he sought out his Abbot; and the footstool placed at

his feet, he himself sat upon it; he, refusing to sit before his Abbot, giving to all

the Monks, to all who should be in the future ages of ages,

he is truly exalted, who voluntarily humbles himself for God.

[14] This his deed, therefore, was a marvel to all,

and was given to praise, because it was performed not for the praise of men,

but for divine service and paternal reverence.

For royal magnificence, embracing

the humility of that nobility, and devoutly venerating Christ

in His servant, when it had invited him to itself,

and he would not be torn from the Father's feet, the King,

admiring the man's prudence with loftier discernment, the Abbot

being summoned to him, made him sit at his side, and

ordered the seat of the Lord Frederic to be set after him. Thus

having obtained the familiarity of the King and Princes, the Lord

Abbot Richard, in a short time, in wisdom, counsel, he brings it about that Frederic is exalted before the Emperor,

cleverness, prudence, and honorable conversation was made manifest to all;

so that in disposing of curial affairs

none was judged more useful than he, none more prudent, none

more able or more acceptable. This is proven by

the Prince's liberality toward him, with which, for love

of him, he loved the convent of Verdun, over which he presided;

so that he conferred upon it huge gifts in gold and silver, in cloaks

and consecrated vestments; and so wholly poured himself

into love of him, that whoever saw it would marvel.

[15] Having obtained, therefore, the things for which he had departed, the religious Abbot

returned to his monastery; and he began to wish to become

so much the nearer to God, the more,

through His grace, he was the more acceptable to the King and Princes, Richard's fame being spread far to Pontiffs,

and to all the very powerful. For he began

to devote himself more anxiously to the divine cults,

to keep vigil day and night in the praises of the Lord, to accustom those committed

to him to religious morals: so that through

all Neustria and Austrasia, France and

Burgundy, the sound of his sanctity was spread abroad,

and his holiness became manifest to all.

There had been a great concourse to him from everywhere: some

submitted themselves to his mastery, having set aside the allurement

of the deceiving world; others offered him their sons to be instructed;

so that now his monastery seemed comparable to the monasteries

of Nitria or Egypt, for the great number

of the faithful flowing thither: who, like bees to their hives,

flew from everywhere, their minds laden with diverse kinds of virtues, as those

carry on their legs and feet the indiscriminate qualities of honey and wax.

O what kind and how great men shone by his mastery!

how precious and devout to God the congregation committed to him,

irradiated by his teachings, and trained to a hair's breadth

in the exercise of a stricter purpose! This is proven

by the Pontiffs of Gaul and Germany, Dukes and Counts,

fervent in the love of Christ, many flow together to him, who, from the monasteries

which they had, either set Fathers over them, under his guardianship

nevertheless and discipline; or, if they could not have Fathers

thence, those whom they chose to make Fathers from their own,

they directed to Verdun first to be proved, instructed,

and trained. Of whom we, although

younger and modern, have seen many men Religious and in every

contemplation most approved, of Angelic face

and reverend habit: so that from the training of the disciples

it was clear of how great religion, gravity,

and perfection their Master had been; whose

ornament of erudition shone in the morals of the disciples.

The number of disciples surely increasing, the wealth

of honors increased. The name of Richard shone everywhere,

his sanctity was everywhere proclaimed, and the name

of God was glorified through him.

[16] But seeing the most ancient and

now nearly ruined roofing of his church; he chose, these being thrown down,

to lay ampler foundations, with which, while he builds a new church, and into a better and

nobler state to construct a new Basilica, which

was also done in a short time. For the Lord Frederic made the towers e

of that church from his own, and the Cellar, and

the Brothers' Refectory. But the Dormitory, when,

being thrown down, it was rebuilt, and the necessary house was prepared;

and the new could not be prepared, unless the old were cleared away;

those whose work and zeal it was being summoned to accomplish

it, when some of them, as is wont, blushed,

and shrank from putting their hands to carrying off what

was commanded; the man of humility and grace,

Frederic, truly a Monk, came forward as a digger of earth,

and what was dug up he carried out, having made a burden of it. Frederic supplies the role of a mason,

Who now would blush to do the like, when he saw

Frederic, son of a Count, brother of two Dukes,

kinsman of the Emperor, both do it, and

not blush? He did also a like work in the building of the towers.

For when now the structure was extended on high,

and that instrument, which is called the Bird f,

fitted for the carrying up of cement, very few

there were who carried it; those who were appointed to this office

being otherwise, as we believe, occupied; the man

of blessed memory, seeing a certain one of the more noble standing by,

admonished him to take that wooden instrument, and

to carry up the cement on his neck, as is the custom. to the example of others:

Who, when he blushed, and asserted that it was

unsuited to his birth; the most gentle man, with his neck

put under it, first fulfilled what he was asking: and then

the same instrument being held out to the young man, by his own example

he taught him to learn to do what the Count, son of a Count, had done:

and not to blush, if the deed should be reproached to him,

which it was clear had once first been attempted by the Count himself.

[17] But on a certain day the same memorable man was sitting

in the Brothers' kitchen, and performing some piece of work, found in the kitchen's service by his brother the Duke,

washing the dishes, and cleaning other vessels;

when behold, at the door of the kitchen, Godfrey the Duke his brother,

arriving, begged for entrance. To whom when

one of the servants who happened to be present had opened, the Duke,

seeing his brother bent over the work begun

with head inclined, and alluding to the name of Count,

It would not befit, he says, a Count to do such things: for

names and acts, the nobility of lineage

and the exhibition of work, do not agree with each other. And when he was going out, the other,

following him as he went out, having found an opportunity of speaking,

thus said to his brother: Excellently, he says, hast thou pursued, O Duke,

because so great is the dignity of this office, and so great is He

to whom it is rendered, namely blessed Peter the Apostle

and the holy Confessor Vitonus, that it does not even befit my

littleness, that I should presume to render this to them

as if for the nobility of my lineage: nor is my humility so great,

that I should deserve by them to be reckoned in the company of those who

are held worthy of this office. So great

was then the abjection and self-contempt in the soul of that

faithful man, that his humility was proclaimed, and was a marvel

to all, who knew the nobility of his lineage.

For when he was sitting on a certain occasion in private, he himself reputing it unworthy, rather deems himself unworthy of it,

and it was necessary for him to take off his shoes; a certain one

of the Brothers, whom I myself once saw, and from whom as a little boy

I heard these things, John by name, kneeling down,

when he wished to serve him out of charity; being astonished, and

unwilling with a certain religious obstinacy to receive his service,

forbade him, saying: What does it

profit me, Brother, to have left the honors of the world, if from

the Brothers I receive the service which I would have had in the world,

when it is not necessary? nor does he suffer his shoes to be taken off by another. I who came for this, that I might

serve, how shall I receive service which is not expedient?

So saying, he repressed the Brother's mind,

giving to all the greatest lesson of patience, and humility,

and of seeking lowliness. These things in passing, for the sake of making known to all the abjection

of his blessed mind, let be said: now let us turn the joint

of the matter back to its order.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

man being found there about the year 1090, began to change its name. Of it we treated at the Acts of S.

Cadroe, the first Abbot there, on 6 March; and we said that the Abbot there

second after Fingenius does not seem to have entirely abdicated his rule, who wished to be entombed there.

* nay, XIII

was crowned at Rome in the year 1014, on 14 February; but he had been elected

and consecrated King in 1002, on 7 June. The same error also recurs below in num. 41.

rather thus would be called that larger machine, by which, placed on high,

vast loads of stones and vessels full of cement are lifted up on high by

and for that reason it too is called Crane, "Krane" by the Belgians, Geranos by the Greeks.

CHAPTER III.

Precious ornaments procured for the new church, and lands conferred by several persons, out of regard for Abbot Richard.

[18] The new church therefore being built, with a greater compass

and more elegant work; it was necessary,

that the bodies of certain holy Pontiffs

should have to be moved. Then the body of S. Madelveus a

was found incorrupt, and in the crypt of S. Mary

under the altar, fittingly placed in a marble vessel. The body of S. Madelveus is translated,

Then also was made the translation of two Bishops,

Hildin b and Hatto c, on the Nones * of May, and to the right

of the cross of the monastery, namely to the right of the altar

of S. John the Baptist, their Relics were placed.

But the body of the Lord Berengar d, Bishop and

Monk, found at the entrance of the cloister, yet within the monastery,

was found incorrupt,

except the foot which withered in his life; and the chasuble with

the sandals was drawn off from his body, and of some Bishops of Verdun. and placed

in the treasures of the church with the Relics: but his most holy body

was moved higher up toward the chancels of the choir,

honorably furnished with a new chasuble and sandals, and opposite

the tomb the altar of S. Firminus

e, which in his time was found by him, was placed.

But the body of the Lord Dado the Bishop,

opposite the two aforesaid Pontiffs, namely to

the left of the cross of the monastery, on the left side

of the altar of S. Martin, was honorably laid up.

But the bodies of the remaining Bishops are contained below

the choir, and over them a flooring of stones cut and squared was made.

Nevertheless

we have heard from many that the bodies of five Bishops are contained beneath the pulpit,

from which the Gospel is recited,

whose names however we do not hold

f.

[19] The pulpit, of gilded bronze But the pulpit is established to have been made of bronze,

drawn out by frequent hammerings into plates and tablets and gilded,

with sufficient accuracy and elegance; and through

XII tablets, the images of the XII Prophets, supporting

the forms of the XII Apostles, were wrought in sculptural and

inlaid work. And these indeed toward the

Western part, namely toward the back of those standing

and singing, were placed: but toward the North,

the appearances of the IV rivers flowing forth from paradise

stand out in IV parts. But round about, where

the reciter of the Gospel, standing, is overshadowed, the images of Abraham offering

his son, of Abel offering the lamb, of Isaac blessing,

and of Jacob supplanting, and of Tobias burying, and

of David mighty in hand, are recognized, fashioned in similar

work. But on the front, the Lord Jesus,

residing on the throne of majesty, and variously, raised up with chased work. and the Virgin Mother, and

John the Baptist, appears with the IV Evangelists.

Furthermore, on the right and left of the Lord, Angels and Archangels,

with Cherubim and Seraphim, render

service to the Redeemer. But that instrument,

which is prepared for the holding of the text of the Gospel, John

the Evangelist adorns in the likeness of a flying eagle.

But on the edge and summit of the work; with hexameter

verses set out in gold, the supreme devotion of Father Richard

is marked.

[20] The propitiatory the bodies of the Saints adorn,

by whose merits the Church flourishes. And in the middle indeed,

in a ciborium quite high and prominent, the holy

Vitonus rests, his forehead crowned with purest gold

and most precious gems, by which is enclosed

the majesty of God, uncircumscribed and incomprehensible; having on the right the images of B. Peter, and on the

left of the same B. Vitonus, prominent in gold,

made with chased work; which columns surround, likewise the Sanctuary decorated with silver and gold,

drawn out of purest amber-alloy, with silver bases,

by cast and embossed art. The ciborium itself also

is adorned with the insignia of the Lord's Resurrection, Apparition,

and admirable Ascension, set forth in chased

work, having before it an altar,

consecrated in honor of S. Vitonus and all the Confessors.

But on the left an altar consecrated in honor

of S. Pulcronius g and all the Martyrs: having

its own ciborium too, in which is contained the body

of the same B. Pulcronius, decorated with gold and silver.

Furthermore on the right an altar is held in honor of S. Possessor,

and of all the Virgins, with a ciborium,

in which his body is contained, adorned with similar work.

[21] likewise the great altar of S. Peter. But the great altar is consecrated in honor of S. Peter,

Prince of the Apostles, on account of the privilege

of that church, which in ancient times was both made and consecrated

in honor of that Apostle. Before

this there is a golden tablet, very densely set with pure and purest

gold and most precious gems,

made with wondrous work and chased art, bearing

an image of the Lord, holding the sign of the cross, and walking over

the asp and basilisk; and on the right

and left images of the Apostles Peter and Paul,

of the same work and metal: at whose feet you might discern

prostrate the images of the Lord Father Richard,

and of Mathildis h, worthily memorable, stretching out

suppliant hands, and as it were, that this their offering,

made by another's zeal, might be held grateful, supplicating.

There was also made a portable altar of purest

gold, marvelously fashioned within with similar work,

by the zeal and largess of the Lord Count Herimann,

set together and compacted in the manner of tablets:

which when it is opened, both is an altar, and the tablets

are opened; on which if you bestow attention, that which

is glorious with the images of Moses and Aaron, an instrument,

expresses the figure of the Lord's Cross. It has

at its IV corners, the appearances of the IV Evangelists—of a man,

in cast work, bearing the aforesaid altar, and

looking back at one another with faces turned.

[22] But upon that altar, the arm of S. Pantaleon

in wood, decorated with silver and gold: which the Bishop of Cologne

brought, with the body of the same, from Nicomedia,

obtained by the gift of the Emperor of Constantinople,

when, on behalf of his daughter, to be joined in marriage to Otto II,

he was sent as legate, by the command of the same Otto, to

that same Emperor, with two

Bishops, Dukes, and Counts. And, when,

having obtained the things for which he had gone, he had received license to return;

and the Emperor had offered to him and his companions

many gifts, and they had refused to receive them; the Archbishop asked

of him the body of Pantaleon, and obtained it,

and returning carried it to Cologne. But there had been

with him in that very expedition a certain kinsman of his,

Lord of the castle of Commercy

k, and by much prayer obtained from him the arm

of the body of S. Pantaleon, which he placed

in the church of the aforesaid castle. After some years

had passed, that castle was besieged, from Cologne to Commercy, and hence brought to Verdun. and

overthrown, and set on fire: and when the flame glided into the roofs

of the church, and licked the interior parts

of the church with conquering globes; the Priest, grieving over the burning

of the holy Relics, signified to a certain one of the armed men

that he should enter the church, and from upon the altar

take the Relics. Who, having soon entered,

took the Relics and laid them aside; and since the Abbot was present there,

he sold the Saint's arm to him for a mark,

in the presence of a Presbyter; which the Lord himself, since he knew for certain

that they were the Relics of the Martyr, joyfully brought to Verdun;

and, furnished with silver and gold, on feast days

it is placed upon the altar.

[23] He made also many other ornaments; books of the Gospels,

furnished with gold and silver; The church is enriched with ornaments, crosses, of

purest gold, III; silver fans, II;

I; a Collectary, I, likewise furnished with silver. The

Emperor Henry also gave a very great golden chalice I,

with most precious gems, and a paten

of the same metal, and a dish I of beryl, and

body might be kept, hanging over the altar:

besides innumerable gifts of gold and silver, and

of lands, and of sacred vestments; and phylacteries

of gold and silver, and of crystal with the relics

of the Saints; a golden casket, marked with the relics

of the XII Apostles; and horns m, II, of ivory, likewise

stuffed with relics. The memorable

Father Richard also made crowns II, of silver and gold;

and a third little one, where the ropes of the bells n

might hang. The Countess Adverada also gave to Peter

which it is very long to enumerate. Whence also

in a short time that place was made notable.

[24] For, provoked by his example, the offspring

to the discipleship of the aforesaid Father, and with various lands, through Frederic's kinsmen, gave their lands and patrimonies

to the church. Godfrey the Count, the father,

gave Borrach: thereupon, his son being brought back from Italy,

Adalbero the Bishop, when his parents had ordered him to be buried in the

church of Vitonus, and contrary

to their will he had been buried in the church of Mary,

for the repose of his soul they gave to Vitonus

Forbach. But Herimann, who is also Hezelo,

offered to God his son Gregory q in his boyish years,

and turned all his devotion to the same

place: for he gave to S. Peter and S. Vitonus

Haslud with a church, in Fesseca one church,

in Rotgericort XII manses, in Ermefredegehem

one church. After his death an exchange was made of these,

and Count Baldwin of Flanders gave for these Bonvillare with half a church,

Hevenges likewise with half, at Vitereium

vineyards with a certain part of a church, at Harvia XXX

manses with a great household. Without that exchange, however,

he handed over besides to the aforesaid church Monnau,

and a church with a spacious wood, Fontagia also

with a household and an excellent vineyard. and his brother Hermann: He gave also for

the soul of his son Godfrey, born of a concubine, entombed in the cloister,

though not beside the brothers and the father,

two churches, of which one is called Ham, the other

Gengeavia. He made also in the church most precious

consecrated vestments: and when he had enriched that church above all

mortals with his goods and possessions,

at last he offered himself to God, and became a Monk,

that he might reign forever with Christ.

[25] But Mathildis his wife, worthily memorable,

abounding in good virtues, and devoted to works of mercy,

whose daughter Mathildis, quite well, rests in the cloister of that monastery, having died,

venerably buried r: at whose head

their daughter Odilia, a most sacred Virgin, has the place

of her tomb. Of this one there has been discourse, and we have heard

from the elders, that s, having gone forth from the borders

of Bavaria, she came to Verdun on the IV weekday before the holy

day of Easter, wishing with her father and mother and brothers

to celebrate the day of Easter. Whom when the man of the Lord

Richard had beheld, among the soothing addresses of consolation

he asked whether she was suffering any infirmity.

To whom she answered that she was well,

and that she felt the trouble of no sickness; he,

full of the spirit of prophecy, foreseeing the time of her calling

to be imminent, Farewell, he says, daughter, truly

daughter of eternal salvation: Richard foretold her death on the morrow, for tomorrow at this hour thou wilt be taken up

into glory; and wilt receive from God for thy good deeds rewards

everlasting: for God has chosen thee to be a companion

of the holy Virgins, because thou hast prepared for Him in thy heart

at this word of the pious Father: and because she believed that the man

of God could not lie, credulous of his words

she began to treat of her end, to go over her transgressions;

and to seek from him the suffrage of consolation and prayer.

But he, reclining his holy head upon his breast,

and as if she were already altered through the incorruption

of body and spirit, soothing her,

comforted her spirit in the Lord,

setting forth that she would be blessed, who, it was certain, was hastening to

the nuptials of the Lamb. After these things he ordered her

to be refreshed, all marveling how he had foretold that she, well

and vigorous, would die on the morrow. On

the morrow, however, anointed by him with the liquid of holy Oil,

since she suffered no heaviness, she was present at the Mandatum t of the poor

with him, and in that same place, where he had washed

the feet of the poor, beholding the blessed man;

This, she says, is my rest forever and ever, and she, after the washing of the poor's feet, piously dies. here will I await

the day of the Lord. She went therefore to the solemnities

of the Masses; and when she had communicated in the life-giving mysteries,

struck a little by pain, she returned to her cell;

and the man of God arriving with the Brothers, she asked

that her departure might be fortified with prayers; and so among

his hands, reclining herself in ashes and haircloth, amid

the words of prayer she breathed forth her spirit joyful. And as the blessed

soul departed, so great a fragrance of odor flowed forth there,

that it was doubtful to none, that the author of sweetness had come thither.

Her body was surely cared for by the pious insistence of the Religious,

and kept until the third day in the church

with pious solicitude and industry; and so on Holy

Saturday committed to the earth with glory.

[26] In this monastery the Lord Liethardus u

Count of Marcelo, coming to conversion, Many Nobles, here either monks or buried, enrich the place, conferred Ballodium

x; and living for many years in his holy

purpose, at last at Châlons, whither obedience

had sent him, he died y and was buried; and finally

brought back to Verdun, he was entombed in the cloister.

Godfrey the Duke, brother of Gozelo, buried there,

gave XX manses in Beurunes, and with his furniture

very much enlarged the place. Dodo also

of Comte-château, beside Theodericus the Count,

rests there at the entrance of the monastery: Ludovicus

too, a Count and Monk; Hildradus the Count,

offering his son Richard z, afterward a Bishop, to be baptized

by the blessed Father, and from everywhere men come to Richard's discipline. gave Baron's-court

to S. Vitonus, and having died deserved to be entombed in the galilee.

But it is not easy to relate how many, from diverse

parts, of France, Neustria, and Austrasia,

the allurements of worldly vanity being spurned, submitted themselves

to monastic Religion under the discipline

and mastery of Father Richard. For so

into love of him had Kings, Pontiffs, and the Powerful poured themselves,

that they venerated him with supreme

affection, and called him Father

of the fatherland, on account of his paternal affection toward all,

with which he cherished and relieved all. For

he was pious in countenance, reverend in gait, severe

toward the reprobate, sweet toward the well-disposed, honorable in form,

composed in action, always preferring the honorable

to the useful; who by no terror, by no flattery,

could be bent from the truth; most fervent in the observance of the Rule,

most prudent in correcting vices, most

renowned in chastity, most perfect in the exhibition of good

works.

[27] Baldric therefore, Bishop of Liège aa,

[28] Touched by a similar desire of good devotion,

the Lord Rotgerius ee, and from his own he sets Stephen over it: Bishop of the city of Châlons,

by the industry and labor of the same Father Richard,

in the suburb of Châlons, in honor of S. Peter built a monastery

from the foundations; and from the monastery

often mentioned he led Brothers, with the books and ornaments

necessary, who should serve there, and

in his life he himself by himself ruled both monasteries. likewise the Châlons monastery of S. Peter: Of

whom this marvel is reported, because when the towers of the church

of S. Lawrence, now extended on high, and elevated

up to the summit, afterward seemed to lean,

and in their ruin the overthrow of the church was certain; the man

of God, arriving, gently consoled the grief of the Brothers, which they had

from the tedium of throwing down and again repairing the tower.

And in the night-time having entered the church,

when he had passed the night rather long in prayer,

he went out with the doors thrown open; and again

bending to prayer, when he had risen, he gave the sign of the Cross;

and immediately the towers, which seemed to lean,

with a very great crash recoiling back into themselves,

subsided: and that it might be clear to the beholders, they so recoiled

into themselves, that it was openly given to all to understand, that this had been done

by Angelic ministry. So great was the crack

of the structure recoiling into itself, that the Brothers

of the monastery, ignorant of such great mysteries,

rose from their beds with the greatest fear, [The towers of S. Lawrence, leaning toward collapse, he raises by the sign of the Cross:] thinking

that in the ruin of the towers which they feared a part of the church

had been thrown down. Whom the man of the Lord, inviting

to the customary office of Matins, himself was present

with them; and morning being come, he showed the benefits of the Lord

to be seen with their eyes, and wonderfully animated them to love of so great

the whole city of Liège is witness, and the fathers

who saw it narrated it to their sons, and the sons of sons

to their sons, that another generation might know.

[29] In those times Robert ruled the Franks

ff, who took Constance to wife. He

then handed over to our blessed Father the Abbacy of S. Peter of Corbie

to be governed, He undertakes likewise to govern or reform several others, that by his instruction

and vigor the Rule of Father Benedict might be preserved in it,

and the vigor of monastic institution be reformed.

But Baldwin gg of Flanders handed over to him

of Ghent, the Abbacy of S. Bertin, the Abbacy of S.

Richarius, and the Abbacy of S. Judocus hh. He ruled also

very many other convents, that of Bretueil, of Homblières,

of S. Quentin of the Mount, of S. Wandregisilus, of S. Hubert, of S. Remaclus, of Malmedy,

of Waulsort, of Beaulieu, of S. Urbanus, of S. Vincent

of Metz Island, and very many others which

do not occur to memory; all of which he repaired into a better

state, and over the improved ones set Abbots from

his own whom he chose. But the convent of Beaulieu,

of S. Peter of Châlons, of S. Urbanus, he himself in

his life ruled. The venerable Bishop Gerard ii

then presided over the Church of Cambrai

and Arras: he assigned the church of S. Vedastus, situated

in the suburb of Arras, first of all the Arras church of S. Vedastus. reduced from the greatest riches to the greatest

penury, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1008

to this our Father, whom he uniquely loved:

in which the man of the Lord did and suffered so much, that

if each thing were written, it would generate (as I fear) tedium for the reader,

and disgust for the hearers: but

of many things a few are to be said, and perhaps they will profit

more usefully. Let us say therefore what circumstances came between,

that the place of such great riches should be reduced to want.

But we will report things not seen, but heard from the elders.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

a S. Madalveus, Bishop

of Verdun, is venerated on 4 October, when you have some Life of his in Surius;

but a fuller one may be woven from the first part of this Chronicle, from page

104, where he is said to have been ordained in the year 753, up to page 116, where he is reported

to have died in the year 777; but to have been born in the year 721, page 103.

* or? IV Nones.

d Berengar, page

128, enthroned in the year 940, and on page 131 much praised, established Monks

at S. Vitonus, and is narrated to have become a Monk on page 134 in the year

961; and finally, on page 136 he is said to have lived up to the times of Otto III,

and to have died on the day before the Ides of August.

whether here too it should not be read thus, but from page 85 it seems to be gathered

that that translation is older, of the bodies brought into the crypt of S. Vitonus,

from the places where they first rested. Nor is there reason that the Grammar should raise a scruple: for also below in num. 39 it is said "Kalendas" for "Kalendis."

Pantaleon, Martyr of Nicomedia, is venerated on 27 July, when there will be treatment of the translations here to be mentioned;

the left bank of the Meuse, situated five leagues distant from Toul above the Moselle;

whence by following the river down one descends to Verdun, at an interval of about 10

leagues.

in this form those hanging hierothecae (reliquaries) were for the most part made. Magri

refers the beginning of this usage to S. Basil; and says that in some churches of Gaul

it is still preserved, especially at Paris; which if it be true,

I think Du Cange would not have been silent.

Frederic himself always seems to have lived celibate, nor anywhere are a wife or

sons named; but his kinsmen are here reckoned in order, who conferred their goods.

p Hence you may correct Wasseburgius, who makes Borrach and Forbach the gifts of Frederic himself; which,

and several places here to be named, I forbear to require, until either an accurate topography of the diocese of Verdun or of the Meuse district through Lorraine

shall have appeared, which I have not until now found.

q Wasseburgius says that this Gregory was afterward made Archdeacon of Liège; and finally, his uncle being dead, a Monk of S. Vitonus.

r Wasseburgius rightly

corrects Meyer here, who says that Mathildis was buried with her husband in the convent of Blandinium,

and shows the tomb at S. Vitonus, inscribed with the Epitaph to be recited below.

s Perhaps "having returned," for her monastery was not in Bavaria, but in Alsace: she could however, for the affairs of her church, have made an excursion thither.

t Mandatum, that is, the washing of feet, which you understand to be bestowed on twelve poor men on such a day in the monastery, when it is called the Mandatum of the Poor.

u Luthardus, nearest kinsman to Otto III, says Wasseburgius.

x Labbe had read Baclodium: but the correction is proven by the Epitaph to be referred below; Wasseburgius renders it Balleu.

y Wasseburgius,

in the prosecution of the same lawsuit, says he died and was buried at Trier at S. Maximinus',

yet acknowledges that he was brought back by the help of Gislebert, Count of Luxembourg, by

Richard.

z Of this little son of the holy Abbot Richard, more is treated below, as one who was present at the death of his spiritual Father and cared for the funeral.

aa Baldric II, Bishop of Liège from the year 1007 to 1017.

bb Of the wretched state of the Abbacy of Lobbes,

from when it was occupied by Bishops, from the year 865 until 956, when Baldric I

began to think of restoring an Abbot there, see tome 7 of May,

page 846, where concerning Erluin, Abbot of Gembloux, made Provost there, and by

the rebellious people of Lobbes foully blinded. Thereupon in the Mss. I find that Abbots presided: Theodwin, Alteran, Fulcuin, Wivin, Ingobrand; who,

on account of his uselessness, being cast out about the 12th year of his rule, Richard

was substituted, who held the Abbacy for 13 years; and then resigned it to Bishop Reginard,

to be handed over to a new Abbot Hugo: as is confirmed from the Life of S.

Theodoric, Abbot of Andage, below at num. 77 to be more fully cited, letter c.

cc Concerning the convent of S. James, built by Baldric,

all agree; of the one of S. Lawrence no one speaks; nay, Fisen

says it was begun in the year 969 by Bishop Eraclius; but he confesses that the work progressed slowly,

whence he ascribes the praise of its advancement to Wolbodo, the successor of Baldric;

but of its completion to Reginard, who finally dedicated the church in the year

1034. See the Deeds of the Bishops of Liège, supplemented by Aegidius. Nothing hinders

however, that Richard began to manage the matter even under Baldric.

dd The same Fisen says that this Stephen

was first a Canon at Liège at S. Dionysius', but was summoned from Verdun with

Monk companions under Bishop Reginard in the year 1026, when Poppo,

Abbot of Stavelot, had abdicated the rule of the place; and was ordained Abbot. But

he was ordained Abbot not there, but at Lobbes; concerning which matter below in num. 64.

ee Roger, Bishop of Châlons from

the year 1009, until 1035, as the Obituary of the Cathedral church; or

1042, as the Necrology of S. Peter, where he lies buried under the pulpit.

ff Robert, son of Hugh

Capet, already reigning the tenth year with his father, alone began to be called King

in the year 997: and in the following year, having dismissed Bertha, his kinswoman, whom four years before

he had wrongly married, being released from excommunication, he married Constance, surnamed Blanca, daughter of William, Count of Arles.

gg Of the Baldwins, Counts of Flanders, six in all are reckoned, from the year 863 until 1070, interspersed with two Arnulfs; I would think that here the Fourth is understood, surnamed of the Fair-Beard, who ruled from the year 988 until 1036, having gained as successor his son, surnamed of Lille, whose life lasted until 1067.

hh These

and the following Abbacies are so well known to Belgians and French, that concerning them

it is not worth while to treat one by one here: Wasseburgius only in

general mentions 21 Abbacies.

ii Gerard, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras from the year 1012 to 1049.

CHAPTER IV.

The notable virtues of Abbot Richard.

[30] The steward of S. Vedastus, burdensome to the Monks and the church, A certain one of the servants of S. Vedastus had broken out into such great

insolence, had grown into such great

arrogance, because he was somewhat necessary to the church,

that within the court of the monastery he set up for himself a house

of great height and strength, as if

for the protection of the place. But, having found an opportunity for exercising his contumacy,

provoked by the sloth of secularity superabounding in the monastery,

he erected bulwarks

no weaker than walls; and now not for the place, but

against the place and God he strove to rebel, plundering the goods of the Church,

gathering to himself male servants and little maidservants,

leading in a throng of dogs, an inept heap of actors and buffoons,

nor keeping them from the entrance

of the cloister: when rather he himself, surrounded in it by wedges of attendants,

constantly sat, and profaned the dwellings

of God's servants with unlawful acts. But when

the man of God undertook to govern that very convent, and

was received by the Brothers, whose mind was more sound;

he did not endure to see so great a desolation of the house of God,

but rather in every way exerted himself for its

deliverance. He thought, however, whether he might soften the hardness

of that freedman's a mind, and by the sweetness of words

soothe his insolence, that he might cease from the oppression

and trampling of the Church, unable to bend him by sweetness, to which by the debt and

law of nature he ought rather to be subject than to preside over.

But words do not break an evil servant, but blows;

as Wisdom says, for he who is

of hard mind shall receive wounds. And although the words of the wise

are as nails fixed deep, yet the fool did not hear

the words of prudence, because he did not speak the things

which were turning in his heart. Prov. 28:14 For there was fulfilled

that truthful proverb of Solomon, He who nourishes

[31] What should the anxious mind of the man of God do, whither

should it turn? after pouring forth prayers to God, Richard sends him to prison, He is wrapped therefore in haircloth, sprinkled with ashes,

and, leading wakeful nights in the watches of the flock committed to him,

he prayed to God more attentively, that from

the oppression of the enemy and his members, He would protect

His Church, have mercy on the little ones, and protect them

from scandal, and himself too, whom He had set over them,

would make such, that to his subjects piety should show him a mother,

and discipline a father; that

there might be in him both mercy justly counseling, and discipline

piously raging. Having found therefore an opportunity of time,

assembling the people, when he had discoursed a few things, suited to the matter and

time, against pride, and had likewise expounded certain things about following

the purpose of Religion; when he saw the minds of the people turned toward him,

he approached the fortification which he suffered as hostile; and

it being destroyed to the foundations, that man, who against justice

swollen took pride, being captured, he established to sit

in the alms of S. Vedastus, and to live from the alms;

and thus he snatched the place from his and his attendants' importunity.

and discipline restored He began therefore so much the more fervent to press on with

religious studies, and Brothers being led from Verdun,

proven in the training of spiritual exercise, he committed the care

of the place (among whom was Rothard of

Liège, most renowned in wisdom and religion)

according as he knew it expedient both for himself who presided, and for those who were subject.

[32] hence the conspiracy of the discordant, But, because his chaste and holy life was opposed to the morals

of the inhabitants, and it seemed hard to them,

that in their old mind they were forced to meditate new things;

audacity being taken from rebellion, some

of them tried to plot concerning his death. With the Lenten

time therefore imminent, because this

was the rule of the monastery, that in those days each should mortify himself

with stricter continence; when to this with more inclined

care and more fervent they were compelled, the envy hidden in

the heart began to creep more deeply, and to disturb the tortured

mind to accomplish what they had panted after day by day.

Why do we delay over many things? Came

the most sacred day of the Lord's Supper, and that which

was the day of peace and concord, of reconciliation and mercy,

this for the factious became the day of treachery and

malice to be perpetrated. For it was deliberated among

them, that on that day fully completed, when after the completion of the saving

ministry the blessed man should relax the weary limbs of his body

to rest, when all slept, by

them with swords he should be slain. O rash presumption!

O shameless audacity! What madness, after that victim of

the Paschal Lamb had been immolated, on that day or night,

to adjudge anyone, however most harmful, to

death? Nor was that deadly deliberation of the wicked hidden from the blessed man.

For he heard that on that night

he was to be slain by the impious, concerning his being killed on the night of the Lord's Supper: nor did he fear: for the

chaste fear of the Lord, which abides forever and ever,

excluded from his mind the fear of death, because

he knew that to no one was power given over him,

except as far as it was permitted by the Lord. Wholly

therefore committing himself to the Lord, he went to lie down, having

his head uncovered; ready, if God willed, to receive

the sword with his throat.

[33] he, nonetheless, composes himself to sleep: When behold, before the time of matins, all

resting after labor, those two, whose

work and will it was to slay the Father, rising

secretly, go out of the dormitory; and girt

with swords, when, devoting themselves mutually, they bound themselves

with oaths concerning the perpetrating of the crime, they came

to this last point, that one of them step by step

should go around the several beds of the dormitory, lest any remain

who might keep watch, by whom they feared to be caught. When

this was done, and he had returned to his companion, an opportunity

for perpetrating the malice having been seized, together they approach Father

Richard's bed, and see the man asleep with head

uncovered. And when one, bolder in

the crime, had brandished against him his armed right hand, the arm

growing stiff, he felt the divine clemency toward himself,

lest it should lose the Father, who was to send many to the eternal

inheritance. but he who had drawn the sword unable to strike, The bared right hand stood,

powerless to strike, nor powerless to put back the sword.

O admirable proclamation of God!

wondrous patience! piety to be proclaimed! Our Jesus

could have turned away those His wrestlers from the will of sin;

He could, as soon as they tried to bring the thoughts to effect,

have punished them with death: but He endured

with much patience the sons of wrath, that He might make them sons

of mercy. Therefore fear with fever invaded that wretched man,

and he withdrew from the Father's bed, whom the grace

of the Almighty protected. And not long after,

the signal being given, they came to the church, and he whom

conscience gnawed, and salubriously pricked, among the others was present at the nocturnal synaxis,

although trembling, although

infirm, although weighed down by the goads of biting conscience.

But when they came to the b Tenebrae,

that wretch, while Kyrie eleison was being sung with the c Versicles;

pricked in heart he fell at the Father's knees,

crying, he too, to the Father, Lord,

have mercy; namely that he would have mercy on him, as he prayed God

to have mercy on himself.

[34] The holy man was astonished at the touch of the Brother,

falling at his feet, and he was wholly

ignorant what it was. Having received him, however, and turned aside,

he completed the prayer: and a light being given,

the others returning to their beds, he retained some of the Brothers

with him: and withdrawing into a suitable

place, an opportunity of speaking being given, he asked the trembling

and weeping Brother, with his whole body prostrate on the ground,

his head striking the earth, as a suppliant he confesses the attempted crime: what he was suffering.

He, with groaning interrupting, I have sinned,

he says, against heaven, Father, and before thee; I who would not

be called and be thy son, am become thy

persecutor. And bringing forth a sword from under his cowl, Behold,

he says, the one which I stretched out this night to strike

thee, but thy Jesus protected thee. I wished indeed

to destroy thee, but thy protector the Lord defended

thee. I drew the sword against thee, but He whose is the power and

dominion, restrained the sword, and saved thee from death, me

from the destruction of the soul and from homicide. Spare

me therefore, because I am ready to be converted, and to acquiesce

in thy admonitions, and to be subjected to the regular institutes:

only grant me what I have offended against thee, and pray

God for me. This was not grievous to the blessed man,

to grant to those sinning against him, who toward his own injuries

was most patient. With his whole body therefore prostrate,

he gave thanks to his protector God; then to the Brother kindly

he indulged whatever he had offended against him, much

consoling him, urging that he confess his

sins to the Lord; saying that sin is sometimes

both sin and the punishment of sin, all of which he might be able to avoid,

who should give attention to confession. A few things therefore

speaking for the time, he dismissed the consoled Brother;

giving in commands, that morning being come he should return to him,

and should do what was commanded him, and so

they parted. Father Richard sought the Oratory,

and spent what remained of the night in the praises of the Creator.

[35] Richard absolves the penitent, Day being come, Prime said, the customary

Office completed, when a suitable time was given,

the son sought the Father: and confession being given,

and penance accepted, eager and safe he departed from him,

saying that it much profited him, that on this

occasion the Lord had taken him to Himself. From then on this man

was Father Richard's most sweet son, and undivided

companion: this one a sharer of counsels, because he was sprung

of noble birth, and most thoroughly learned in letters,

and he saw in him penitence with modesty.

When it came to the Chapter, he did public penance

with his companion, with heart contrite and humbled;

and the Brothers glorified God, who turned away

this sin from them; and now in greater veneration

they began to hold the Saint of God, whom they knew to be most dear

to God, fearless of death, a despiser of himself,

and protector. And now if

there was anyone, who at some time had been hostile to the man of God,

he rose in the midst, and through him others too are stirred, and confessed whatever it

was, fearing greatly lest the divine indignation should rage against himself too.

They prayed therefore all alike

that they might be forgiven, because they had not treated him as befitted a Father

and Lord; and there was made, from the fall of two,

Therefore the man of God, a general indulgence being given to all,

was thereafter loved by all with such great charity,

that it might deservedly be said, This is the change of the right hand of the Most High.

[36] but him thereafter he holds as a most dear friend, The Church being thus thereafter ordered with persons and

necessary expenses, he returned to Verdun, leading the aforesaid

Brother with him, because he understood

him to be a future useful vessel in the house of the Lord. Nor did

hope deceive him. For wholly altered he began to meditate

more perfect things, to love honesty, to esteem order,

to set all before himself, to put himself after all, and

if there is anything that befits an honest man, to form himself to it in all

ways: wherefore he was loved

by the man of God, and by daily admonition was enticed to pursue better things.

Leduin was the man's name. This

is that Leduin, who d afterward, by the command and obedience

of the aforesaid Father, under him ruled the Church of S. Vedastus

for many years. But this in our Father

seems memorable, that he loved with such great affection

him whom he had known to have plotted concerning his death. and sets him over the monastery: In

which is to be considered his piety and invincible patience,

which knows not to repay like for like to those harming him,

with which the directed simplicity of his mind so abounded,

that him whom he had suffered as an enemy, he believed

to be for himself a faithful friend. O mind truly full of God,

simplicity without simulation, charity without rivalry!

But let these things suffice meanwhile, we must hasten

to the rest. For we cannot describe all the virtues of his

mind. Something must be passed over,

that we may suffice for the later things.

[37] And now indeed let us say of his beneficence

what we can, because we cannot say all, by which

he had so bound the sons' minds to himself, that he would be called forgetful

of injury, mindful of favor. For he considered

the affections, needs, opportunities of individuals,

and so he met each with a wondrous grace of words and

countenance, wondrous beneficence toward his subjects adding good words to good

deeds, and commending himself by kindly and humane

preaching, so that his mind was esteemed more highly

than that, whatever it was, which was sought.

For just as in the sick the opportunity of food

is salutary, and water given timely holds the place of a remedy;

so his benefits, although light,

because they were at hand, because they met the will,

surpassed the grace of a precious, but slow and long-considered gift:

for they were most pleasing because ready, because

easy, because meeting one halfway, he anticipates those about to ask. where there was no delay except

in the modesty of the receiver. For he knew it to be best,

to anticipate each one's desire, and to follow the next thing closely;

but that better, to forestall before he should be asked.

For when to an honest man, as Seneca says

in the book On Benefits, the mouth comes to ask,

and a blush suffuses; he who remits this torment,

multiplies the gift: for no thing costs more dearly,

than that which is bought with prayers. Hence S. Benedict,

treating of giving necessities; Let the

Abbot consider, he says, the needs of the indigent, not the evil

will of the envious. Rule 5 He who commanded the infirmities to be considered,

teaches that prayers must be anticipated,

that each one's need must be divined, that the necessity of asking

may be taken away.

[38] He grieves over the sins of those confessing as over his own. Moreover this too in our Father aided the parts

of beneficence, that if anyone confessed to him about the secrets of the soul,

about the internal motions of the mind; so great

was the benignity of mind in him, so great the sweetness, so great

the compassion, that he who had come alone e to betray himself,

would believe him to be another self to whom he confessed, to whom

not undeservedly as to another self he applied his mind,

and would entrust his very self. For he met

his will, and so conformed himself to it, with the

griever grieving, with the troubled himself too applying a troubled spirit,

so that one soul to be in two

bodies, while he who had come is amazed that he is another self, he might marvel:

which thing is most pleasing to the middling,

most useful to the small, who use that affection,

with which they see those inclined toward them, to whom they speak or

confess. But now in the Chapter if anyone had heard his sermon,

he wholly trembled, wholly burned, but in Chapter he would first follow up.

wholly applied to reprehend himself the sharpest goad

of compunction; and as if before his eyes he saw

the fires of gehenna prepared, the manifold

kinds of tortures distributed; until consolation should proceed

from the mouth of the speaker, his tongue should become the sweetness of honey,

his lips a dripping honeycomb. For he did not

dissimulate the sins of offenders, nay when there was

discourse about vices, he so expressed their filthiness, uncleanness,

and stench in proper words, that he who

heard would marvel, and abhorring to be implicated in such things

would utterly detest them.

[38] There was in him mercy justly counseling, and

discipline piously raging. afterward he would soothe those pricked. For as the most gentle Doctor Gregory

says in the Morals, mercy or

discipline is much deprived, if one without the other

be held. Affection showed a father, piety a mother, the reverence

of fear a lord, discipline a master,

all of which proceeded from the fountain of beneficence.

For he did not wish his gift to be consumed, who was

always ready for a gift: therefore in giving a benefit

corporal or spiritual, with common and

rational sense, he observed the time, place, persons:

because some things are also pleasing and unpleasing according to their moments.

Unpleasing is a benefit, which has stuck long between the hands of the giver,

which one has dismissed with difficulty, which has so seemed to be given,

as if one were snatching it from oneself. Therefore the blessed man, when

something corporal or spiritual was sought from him by the sons

of necessity, did not hesitate; lest he be next

to one denying, and bring back no thanks; knowing

nothing to be so bitter as to hang long, since

it is borne with a more even mind by some that their hope be cut off,

than be drawn out. Discreet and prompt in giving counsel and solace, But what gift is so sweet

to a man, as to help with counsel, to share in labors,

to communicate in sorrows, to relieve the burning

mind, to rejoice with the rejoicing, to weep with

the weeping? By these gifts, by these benefits, he had turned toward himself

the favor of the sons, so that they reckoned his injury their own,

and believed his joy their own. So great was

his benignity, that when he came, if it had been permitted to delay

in any Congregation, when he went out,

there was none who did not rejoicing glory that he had been helped and relieved, sustained

and comforted.

But now it is not necessary that liberality be praised

in him, of which no small portion is, in every affair

to consider how each thing is either said, or done.

For all benignity proceeding from liberality

hastens, and it is proper to one acting willingly to act quickly:

for he who, slowly, and dragging out day from day,

has profited, has not done it from the heart; thus he has lost two greatest

things, time, and the proof of friendly will;

because to will slowly belongs to one unwilling: sometimes indeed

the mind brought into weariness, begins to hate

the benefit while it waits.

[40] grateful toward deceased benefactors, But what greater benefit than to repay thanks to the dead;

and to provide and consult for the rest of those,

whose alms you have received? This is the highest

liberality, to be mindful of those who committed themselves to you

while they were alive; by whose living labors,

by whose blood you are fed; who, placing their trust

after God in you, through your hands

lent to God on interest, while they bestowed their own on you for love of Him.

This grace was not wanting to our Father,

nay in all the monasteries which he ruled, as soon

as he could, he established by perpetual right, that in the Calendar

who had departed from the world, on separate pages, each day's

anniversaries, should be recited in the Chapter; with it more diligently

noted, he prescribes their anniversary memory: what each had conferred on the Church:

so that while the Brothers presently recalled their benefits

by most diligent annotation, their memory might grow warm again

in them, and they might be remembered so much more gratefully,

the more acceptable the representation of those

benefactors should become. Which, that it might be more acceptably

done, he had a sermon thereon before the Brothers,

which, written down, he established to be prefixed to the same Calendar, in which these things

were inscribed: in which his sweetness

and piety, charity and mercy,

whoever diligently attends, can weigh. But with how great

affection and zeal he established the memory of those same departed,

that is the Office which we call Vigils, and he takes care that the due offices be accurately performed: and

the celebration of Mass, to be performed, those know who

were accustomed to do this. In all things concerning the memory

of the departed he was most benign: for he knew

that nothing comes to fruit, which an equal cultivation does not pursue from

the first up to the stranger.

Therefore with solicitude both in life and in death of those committed

to him, with pious sedulity he worked.

[41] he joins fortitude to temperance, But what shall we say of the fortitude and temperance,

by which his mind was so governed, that

they seemed innate to him? For since fortitude without

temperance is the material of iniquity; so in him

the one was seasoned by the other, so that to see the one without the other,

and to wish to distinguish, would be altogether impossible.

But justice with prudence had placed for itself a private

dwelling in his breast, the prudence of justice. to which

piety, useful for all things, was not wanting, fortified with the discretion

of knowledge. But there is no knowledge, if it lack the usefulness

of piety: because he who neglects to carry out the good things known,

binds himself more strictly to judgment.

These things because the man of God knew, he had acquired for himself the properties

of the individual virtues,

fortified with which he overcame

the allurements of the deceiving world. But let us return to the order

of the narration.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

of the monastery, by which title he came to that insolence,

that he disposed of the goods of the monastery as his own; in the way

many of those did formerly, whom they called Advocates.

on the 5th, 6th, and 7th weekdays of Holy Week, because it was sung in darkness and

without lights, for the mourning of the Lord's passion: these things therefore were done

on the night between the 5th and 6th weekday: that is, on the second night of Tenebrae.

Wasseburgius and Rayzzius write happened in the year 1022; affirming

that he was constituted Prior by Richard, and discharged that office until

he died there. But that Richard, having set out from Arras on hearing of his death,

dug up again the body of his friend, and besides the entrails left in the place,

translated it to Verdun: but perhaps this was first done in the year 1024, when in his stead

he constituted Leduin there, as is said below in num. 45. Namely, Richard having set out for Jerusalem, Frederic had died, nor does Richard seem to have returned until toward the end of the year 1023.

the reading of the Martyrology toward the end of Prime:

Necrologies of which kind, either written separately, or appended to the Martyrology at

each day, we often see in the old Mss. books both of Monks

and of Canons.

CHAPTER V.

Acts with the Pontiffs, Emperors, and Bishops, from the year 1011 to 1027.

[42] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1011, to Rome

the venerable Father Richard went, to Pope Benedict, where

joined in friendship to Pope Benedict a, he became most familiar

to him. Also in the year from the incarnation

of the Lord 1013, but the VII year of his rule,

Henry, in the IX * year of his reign, by Pope Benedict

was promoted to Emperor. And when now the instability

of the Lombards had set up for themselves a certain Arduin b

as King, at last not without great

slaughter of their own they submitted themselves to him; and thus Henry coming to Pavia,

had built for himself by them a Palace of marvelous work.

He also made the city of Bamberg,

and obtained that its church be dedicated c by Pope Benedict,

and by his authority appointed a Bishop there. and to the Emperor Henry.

For he was truly Catholic, and an especial

lover of religion: he clung to the moral [counsels of his Bishops

and Abbots], by whose

purity and brightness Lorraine flourished, Saxony

was illumined, Swabia and Alemannia were directed.

(Wherefore under his Empire there was salvation to the world

and glory) among whom he held as most pleasing, Odilo,

the most pious Father of the Church of Cluny, and

William d, the vigorous Rector of the Church of Dijon,

most excellent in religion; who although

they were not of his kingdom e, yet were joined to him in friendships,

among his especial Prelates, and by their prayers the affairs of the Kingdom

were treated in peace. Nor was wanting to his familiarity

Pandulf f of Agaune, a man most celebrated in life, morals, religion,

and sanctity, since the fame of his virtue made him

commendable to the King and Nobles.

[43] Richard, dear, is surnamed Grace-of-God, But of his Kingdom almost as many as there were

Pontiffs, and chiefs of the Churches, so many were to him incitements

of virtues; since he was fortified by them,

and they in turn by his authority from unlawful things

were restrained, and provoked to more perfect things.

Among whom he held this our Father most dear,

distinguished among the chief, praiseworthy in piety,

commendable in religion: whom God had endowed

with such great grace of all, that by very many, on account of the pious

benignity ingrown in him, and the acceptableness of his life and speech,

and not affected elegance, but bestowed

grace, he was called by this surname, namely Richard

Grace-of-God, just as also holy Odilo from his innate

piety was called Pius, and William from the rigor of his more fervent

purpose was called Above-the-Rule. He had in

the treating and disposing of Royal affairs

as his comrade the Lord Ermenfrid g, Canon

of the Church of Verdun, whose life by the light of its acts

sufficiently commends itself. Happy then were the times

of the Church of Verdun, distinguished under Bishop Heimo by such great

persons: so that even to the present

day it shines resplendent with the brightness of their acts, which

is also so great, that it can be obliterated by no antiquity.

For under him the Provost Amicus built the church

of the holy Cross h, the Provost Dudo the church

the church of S. Mary Magdalen, and in it gathered a troop

of Canons l, for whom he sufficiently

provided sustenance from the Royal largess and the grant of the Nobles;

and with others he greatly adorns the Church of Verdun; and the venerable Richard the monastery

of the holy Peter and Paul and blessed Vitonus

the Confessor, erected from the foundations, with so great a dowry

of possessions and religion thereafter enriched, with so great a brightness

endowed the remaining churches, that he ought deservedly to be named father

of the city, light of the fatherland, ornament of the Church.

For his wonderful life rendered the life of many

wonderful, his admirable conversation

instituted very many others admirable in good works.

[44] and Bishop Heimo, But neither did the Lord Heimo himself offer a mind vacant

from good works, but rather he restored the church

of S. John, situated in the prospect of the city, in

which the holy Confessors, Maurus, m Salvinus,

Arator, rest, made better; and

in it instituted a Congregation of Nuns, living regularly

under the disposition of Father Richard;

founder of the convent of S. John and by his counsel provided for them a Mother,

Adelberga, a faithful handmaid of Christ, who was surnamed

Ava; whose memory is eternal.

For she, like a most prudent bee, having imitated the model

of her Father, when, on account of the devotion of good zeal

and the magnanimity of faith, she traversed the convents

of God's servants, that in imitation of them she might emulate

their better graces, went to Cluny, and to the man of God

B. Odilo, her arrival being announced, whose mind piety

itself possessed, she was received with great affection.

Where, although it was the usage of the church, and was held as law,

that a woman's foot should not tread the cloisters of the monastery;

she herself, for her religion, and the undivided duality

of Father Richard with S. Odilo, not only

entered the cloister; but even, having obtained the society of the Chapter,

and on the Lord's day at the procession

was received with the Brothers, which to this day remains

the more inclined affection of B. Odilo toward his most dear son and most devoted

confrère, his more profuse love,

charity flowing from that fountain, from which a channel of such great

perfection has been derived to us; namely the same

our Father, who was given to us by the Blessed one himself.

But neither toward the place over which he presided was the Lord

Heimo's liberality wanting, but he conferred Masmespont

upon it; and established that the market in the suburb,

which lies adjacent to that convent, should be held by it,

and had a wall built around the monastery at his own expense:

and XXXVI years n having been spent in the Episcopate, but he died in 1024

he died on the II Kalends of May, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation

1024; and was buried in the Church which he himself

had built.

[45] to S. Henry the Emperor (under whom S. Stephen, King of Hungary, flourished) Rambert succeeded in the Episcopate, who cherished the often-

mentioned Father with no less affection, nay,

the devotion initiated by his predecessors, and derived

down to himself, by the pious affection of good will

he increased, advanced, and raised up. But it does not seem amiss,

if, when we admire his familiars, and the glory of the kingdom,

which was under him, we also consider what

was the end of the Emperor's life. In his time

therefore the King of the Hungarians with his nation

was made Christian o: to whom also, named Stephen in

baptism, he gave his own sister as wife;

and he himself, in the following year, his infirmity growing heavier,

because he was without sons, seeing that to the summit of the Kingdom

several Dukes and Counts aspired, chose

Conrad p, once suspect to him, but vigorous,

who was called Cono, and so with glory died

the Monarch Caesar Augustus on the III Ides of July, in that

year, namely, in which it is noted above that Bishop

Heimo died. But Stephen, King of the Hungarians,

the time of his calling being imminent,

called to the heavenly things, now in the church where he rests

q buried, shines with notable miracles. But Henry reigned

for XXIV years r, six months,

and Conrad … succeeded: Conrad succeeds to the Kingdom, who took to wife

Gisela, sister of Rodulf, King of Burgundy,

daughter of Conrad and Mathildis, of whom he begot the third

Henry, who held the venerable Richard

the Abbot among the first of the Palace.

[46] Therefore after Pope Benedict, in the year

1023 s, his brother John, by the largess of money,

from the lay order a neophyte was ordained. By

whom when the Bishop of Constantinople t had requested,

that his Church, like the Roman, but to Pope Benedict, John. should be called

Universal; and by innumerable gifts had bent him

and the Romans who presided over the Curia, so that secretly

they tried to concede what was being asked; all

Italy was on this account most vehemently moved. But

the Bishops and Abbots of the Gauls strove to oppose these things,

some in their own person, some by letters

sent, visiting the Apostolic See, and so great

against which it was not lawful to contradict, repelling from the Roman

Church. Nor was wanting in these the authentic presence

of Father Richard: nay he wholly

took pains, that the Constantinopolitan presumption being confuted

might be quiet, showing himself a son of the Roman Church, while

he provided for the honor of the mother u. Thus was confuted

the presumption x of the Greeks. In the same year, which

was from the incarnation of the Lord 1024, by the command and

obedience of Father Richard, Leduin, of whom above

we have related, was set over the Abbacy of S. Vedastus…

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

* nay, XIII

b Arduin, Marquis

of Ivrea, first driven out by Henry in the year 1005, and again in the year

1013, finally conquered a third time by the Archbishop of Milan in the year 1015,

shut himself up in a monastery.

fol. 213, says he was born of humble place indeed, but on account of his eloquence and

skill in very many languages, was rather often employed for Imperial legations.

He is said, in the Synod of Aachen (such a one of which seems to be noted by the Chronicle

of Cambrai at the year 1022, but which several similar ones

must have preceded, nowhere as yet noted), is said, I say, in some

synod of Aachen, that Ermenfrid clung to Heimo and Richard in such a way, that with them he chose to live at Verdun; being made Archdeacon of that Church by the Bishop. Ermenfrid lacked patrimonies, says the aforesaid Catalogue; but by obeying Kings, clinging to Princes, submitting himself to all, especially invoking the Lord

with wondrous solicitude, life conferred more on this man than money, more did pious

devotion before God and men than any possession, and merit

profited more than any patrimony could have profited.

placed XII Canons, for whom he provided necessities from his lands and others

acquired; and at last, at the Bishop's request, he did not refuse to subject that place

to S. Maur.

ordained Canons, disposed necessities for the ordained, and with the greatest

works with the highest labor and with wondrous beauty brought it to effect

up to completion.

they are still preserved; but that S. Madalveus first founded the place, for penitent

women, called therefore the Old monastery.

m Some months

less, however: for he was ordained in the autumn of the year 988, and died

in 1024 at the end of April, and for the full number still required five or six

months.

as soon as he obtained the Dukedom of his nation after his father's death in the year 998, for it to be

led to Christ labored seriously and with effect; but in the year 1000,

Otto III still living, he obtained the Royal title from the Apostolic See:

but whether he had Gisela, Henry's sister, as wife, before this man

was elected King, I have not yet found determined: he certainly had her in the very

beginnings of Henry, elected in the year 1002, and on 7 June anointed by Willegis of Mainz.

p King Stephen

died in the year 1034, on 15 August, buried in the church of S. Mary, which at Buda

he had built; where after 45 years his body was elevated on 20 August, and a feast

instituted; which feast, when Buda itself was recovered from the Caesar Leopold in the year 1686 on 2 September, was translated to this day.

q Nay, XXXIII years, V months, XVI days, inasmuch as he died in the year 1024 on 13 July:

r Nay, in the year 1024, as I think I have shown in my Attempt at a series of the Pontiffs; where I taught that Benedict VIII died on 10 July; and that John XIX was ordained, his father, Gregory, Count of Tusculum, then prevailing for both, on 19 July.

s This was Sergius, relying on the authority of the Emperors Basil and Constantine.

t An Epistle written to that same end by William, Abbot of S. Benignus, above praised, Hugh had here

transcribed: but I judged it should be omitted, all the more because

Baronius recites it word for word from Glaber at the year 1024 num. 6, save that

the passage is there noted as faulty, which here has a sound sense, where it is read, that the Greeks obtained no otherwise than by vainglory this, which we have heard them require of you.

u After that epistle Baronius adds: But as for what pertains to the said Legation of the Greeks, that they could obtain absolutely nothing from the Apostolic See,

the Epistles of Pope Leo IX teach, written after XX years to Michael,

Patriarch of Constantinople, in which he expostulates concerning such a title of Ecumenical,

which the Bishops of his See, against right and divine law, the Apostolic See always

protesting, had usurped with excessive arrogance.

x There followed the Death of Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, who with how great love, says Hugh, he loved this our Father, is clear from very many proofs. But an evident error has crept into the numbers, when the year 1027 is compared with the Indiction VII, which ought to have been written X: nor yet even thus is the true year of this death had, which is noted in the Epitaph as 1028, and by the Sammarthani even 1029. Meanwhile, beware lest you think the following Chapters should be regulated by this: for since Hugh above had treated of the merits of Bishop Heimo, before he leads Richard away to Jerusalem and back, he pursues in chronological order certain external matters up to

the year 1027 or 8, while meanwhile that pilgrimage seems to have been undertaken

while Frederic was still living at Arras, and that Richard returned from it in the year 1023, as will be more clear from things to be noted consequently.

CHAPTER VI.

Richard's journey to Jerusalem.

[47] Richard, about to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But now to that same Father Grace-of-God the burden

of prelacy seemed heavy; now to advance to the things before,

and more freely to cling to divine contemplation,

was pleasing: because now in his heart the world had withered.

And because it was established that certain men, who had gone to Jerusalem,

had blessedly died in Christ (among whom

also a certain one from the territory of Autun,

sound and vigorous, having no signs of death,

in the place where the feet of the Lord last stood,

when he had prayed, and asked to be received by the Lord in peace,

soon touched by slight pain, brought home,

in the same place where he had prayed, rendered

his spirit to God a, sure report had spread abroad) touched

himself too by a holy similar desire of good devotion, longing

to visit the sepulchre of the Lord, from Cluny he summons Odilo, and commends his own to him, license being sought from

the Prince and the Pontiffs, and the chiefs of the Kingdom, and

the neighboring faithful, and scarcely obtained; he determined

first to provide for his sons, and to take care of them in all things,

that he might be able with the good affection of all to undertake the holy offices of pilgrimage. So

he went to Cluny, and, as to this day in that same

convent there remains a memorial, the most pious Father

S. Odilo he led with him to Verdun. Whom,

retaining with him for very many days, he showed him all the disposition

of the monastery, the morals, and the life of the inhabitants;

handing over each thing to his judgment and protection,

and at his discretion correcting and

confirming all things. But S. Odilo rejoiced in the Lord,

because through those whom he had made Sons for himself, and had sent back

to the place, he plucked the fruit of good odor. But when

he believed himself to have satisfied their will, bidding farewell

to all, commending the Sons to God, to Cluny

he returned, and showed to the Sons and Brothers of Cluny joy

over the advancement of that Church.

The moderns who heard from the Fathers still report,

that as often as he returned from those parts,

he showed himself so gracious concerning the good things, which in our Father

and the Sons he rejoiced over, so commendable

he rendered them, that he who saw it held it pleasing.

[48] he bids farewell to his own, Therefore the necessary expenses being prepared, the companions

of the way disposed, the care of the Sons committed to God,

the blessing of the Pontiff and the neighboring Prelates,

of the Nobles too and absolutely of all having been asked

and received, the venerable Father Richard Grace-of-God,

went forth with Madelveus a new pilgrim,

in gladness of heart. The whole people followed him,

with tears and roaring of heart, grieving

that they would be deprived of his presence, whom they believed

the prelate of their salvation, and the guardian of their life. Whom

the man of God kindly consoling, admonished that they return,

giving in commands, to love God with all strength,

to venerate the neighbor, to love enemies,

to love charity, to pursue hospitality,

to attend to alms, and for himself and those accompanying him

to pray to God more earnestly. Thus all being saluted,

re-saluted by all, he was dismissed to the desired way with

grace, all praying, and with voice raised on high

crying, that his way might be prospered by God.

But the expenses of the way Richard, Count b of the Normans,

all assigned to him; for he was generous in alms,

and furnished with provision by Richard, Count of Normandy, diffuse in charity, illustrious in honesty.

There still survive in the British island and Normandy

noble and approved men, who saw this

our Father Grace-of-God, and knew with how great affection

he was loved by that same Count: from whom

we also heard these things; who were wont also to report,

that they so clung to one another with undivided love, that you would think

one soul to be in two bodies.

[49] The desirable pilgrimage therefore undertaken, the man

of the Lord Richard led with him seven hundred pilgrims,

to whom from his own he sufficiently administered the supports

of sustenance. There were also in his company

very many others, among whom were two from the city of Bayeux,

father and son, Humbert and Gaufred;

who thus clung to his company. The same

Humbert was depressed by a long-lasting weakness, so that for

side without the support of one assisting.

To him on one of the days in the chamber, where he lay,

an Angel appearing in the appearance of a dove, Go,

he said, prepare necessities, and proceed to Jerusalem, because

the Lord commands. To whom when he had answered, What

shall I do, since I cannot rise? He again, Prepare,

he said, necessities, and go; because the Lord wills.

The man acquiesced; and morning being come, calling brothers and kinsmen,

he opened the will of the Lord, and also made known

his own will to be to obey it.

They marveling, among whom Humbert of Bayeux with his son; and on account of the infirmity which they saw,

trying to go against his will, when they strove to turn

the man from his right intention; impossible

they pronounced what was being said. When he, seeing

his son Gaufred standing by, Go, he said,

prepare expenses, and the things that are necessary for so great a journey,

because both I will go, and you with me, with the cooperating

clemency of God. The son acquiesced, and the things necessary for so great a journey

being prepared as quickly as he could, divinely commanded to rise, and healed. admonished his father of the departure.

He, rising by the support of his kinsmen and neighbors,

crossed the bridge, situated before the monastery

of S. Mary Magdalen in that same city of Bayeux,

which was near his house,

supported by four on this side and that: and as soon

as he was set on a horse, made sound and unharmed,

he entrusted himself to the way; and the divine grace accompanying, coming to Verdun,

when he heard and saw the departure

of the man of God being hastened by the whole city, he waited; and clinging to his

company, committed himself with his son to his prayers,

whom the man of God held most familiar.

[50] Having set out therefore through Illyricum, they came to

the deserts. Which when they had now nearly crossed, on a certain day

espying from afar a most clear and translucent fountain,

Father Richard descended with his companions,

that they might take a breakfast. The crowds also reclining around

the fountain, the venerable Father sat down in a fitting place

for the time; and summoning a servant

that he should bring to him from the fountain, with whose translucent brightness

he was delighted, he admonished him. He going, As he takes food in the desert with his companions, water is turned into wine, a vessel

being filled from the water of the fountain, gave the man of God to drink. But as

he moved the vessel to his mouth, the Lord turned the water into wine by wondrous

power; and so he who had desired water,

received wine. Astonished, from the servant

he asked, where he had got the wine: and the vessel

being emptied, he sent him back again for the water of the fountain.

He marveling, all beholding, drew

water from the fountain, and gave the man of God to drink: but again,

the Godhead favoring, the water of the fountain into wine

was turned. Which the man of God recognizing, gave thanks

to God, and drank: and to all also from the same vessel

gave to drink. Why more? All drank, and blessed

the Lord of power, who alone does wonders,

whose kingdom is eternal, and His power

I say, all of that wine, and the wine was not

diminished: because when all had drunk, that single

cup abundantly sufficed for all, and afterward

was not wanting to Father Richard. And he who saw, bore

testimony, namely the aforesaid Humbert,

and his son Gaufred, and we know that their testimony

is true: because they themselves drank of it, when

they sat at that hour near the side of the man of God; as all who drank of it, or heard of it from these, testified, and besides,

of this miracle there are as many witnesses, as there were companions

of the way; because no one was found in that company,

to whom the man of God had not given of this wine of power to drink.

This miracle is still as it were new in the city of Bayeux,

and the fathers who saw it, narrated it to

their sons, and the sons to the sons of sons, that another

generation might know.

[51] We too heard this from Gaufred's son, Gozelin

by name, an upright and honest man, now a Monk of the Church

of Dijon, and they received from Richard a form of praying, who, already at that time

born and grown up, heard this from his father and grandfather;

and learned from them the form of praying, which Father Richard

established that the simpler folk and laymen

fleeing to him from the world should say at the entrance

of the Churches, in this form: Let us adore God: let us

beseech the holy Trinity: His Saints who

are invoked for God's sake; that they themselves may beseech God,

that He give us peace and health, to sinners true

penitence, to those in discord true concord,

to the living peace, to the dead rest. This form

of praying, in all his monasteries, was handed to the laymen.

But it was familiar to the man of God, to rise

in the morning, to say praises to God, to hasten the journey, and

to render to the Lord on the way the accustomed measure: and thus

with the hour of the breaking of bread imminent, to perform the solemnities

of the Masses, wherever he was; and the mysteries completed,

to recline to break bread, lest the Brothers be burdened

by the labor of the journey and the continuation of the fast.

[52] He came therefore to Antioch, where, when the necessity of the journey

had compelled him to delay for some days, here, when he had urged B. Symeon to cross into France,

the man of God Symeon, who now adorns the Church of Trier

with his body c and virtues, was joined to him in friendship,

and to the Brothers who were with him, adopting

him for himself as a Father. In which deed of B. Symeon it is pleasing

to behold this, that that same man of God would not have entrusted himself

to his mastery, nor committed himself to his patronage, unless

the divine piety, which, when it had rendered him alien from the acts of the world,

had revealed to his heart, that he was worthy

to be able to preside over and profit his subjects. But

that same B. Symeon was being sent by the Brothers of the monastery

of Mount Sion for the alms, which was owed to that monastery

from the land of Richard, Count of Normandy;

and although he knew, the spirit revealing to him, that he would suffer

many adverse things; yet Father Richard, fortified with the eyes

of discretion on this side and that, gave counsel,

that he should press on with what he had begun, fulfill obedience,

until the outcome should prove the matter. Weeping therefore

and sad he dismissed him from himself, the feet, hands,

and knees being kissed on both sides, because there was in them

the grace of the Holy Spirit. For this is the delight of the Saints,

to love one another: because both God is charity,

and he who abides in charity, abides in God:

but many waters cannot extinguish charity,

nor shall the floods overwhelm it.

[53] The proven servant of the Lord therefore, taking the way,

and praising together Christ the leader of the way, entered the land

of the Saracens. And when he approached

their cities, he preached Christ Jesus to all,

trusting in the Lord his God, because

there was no guile in his spirit. But when he came to a city,

he continues his journey through the lands of the Saracens, before the wall of the city he sang psalms to his Savior,

and celebrated there the solemnities of the Masses,

the Pagans casting stones from above, that they might dash them

against his head; he who had so approached the city, that the tablet of the altar

clung to the wall. And when many stones from above were cast by

those same beholders and mockers,

he was so protected by Christ, that neither the altar, nor

the tablet of the altar, nor lastly that whatever it is

which is placed upon the altar, nor finally he himself who at the altar

intrepidly offered, was touched by the stones: although

there was so great, very often, around the altar a heap of stones

rushing down from above, and about to sacrifice daily, he applies the altar to the walls of the enemy, that, the Mass said, he could not

be drawn out thence except by a path being made. But of the Monks

and Clerics accompanying him none could be with him

or dwell with him: but as far as a stone is cast

they stood and sang, and responded to him singing;

he alone attended to the things he had begun, until

the Mass fully completed he went out, or rather was drawn out.

But drawn out thence, before the prospect of the city

he pitched tents, and the necessary expenses being procured

he lodged there, never vacant

from the praises of God, because his praise was always unfailing

in his mouth. But the Pagans, terrified by the miracle,

and invited by the grace of his reverend countenance, came

to him: to whom he himself through an interpreter gladly announced

the things which were of Jesus, and preached that they should restrain their hands

from the injury of God's servants. secure from the stones that were cast:

And it came about in a wondrous way, that those whom on his arrival he had

suffered as hostile, themselves on the contrary served him with honor,

and morning being come escorted him as he departed.

For the Lord magnified His servant with signs and

prodigies, so much, that to all his sanctity

became known; and the power of the Lord was everywhere preached

through him, because the fame of his sanctity was everywhere carried.

[54] Coming to Constantinople, with how great

honor he was received by the Emperor, arrived in the Holy Land, and honored with worthy gifts

and services, we forbear to say,

because we hasten to other things. Dismissed therefore to the desired way

with grace, through manifold perils he reached

the desired places of Jerusalem. And entering

the gate of the city, that Responsory of the Sunday

of palm branches d, "As the Lord entered

into the holy city," with his companions in most sweet modulation

he sang, adoring Christ crucified, who is

over all God blessed forever, and

reverently embracing with the eyes of faith the place of His Sepulchre.

Going therefore around in faith all the places of the Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection,

while he was not sated by beholding with his

eyes, he was fed in mind: because at the vision

most sweet and long desired, and now to his longing

soul prepared, of the wonders of the Lord,

he was filled with joy and ineffable gladness. But

the Patriarch e of Jerusalem met him as he came:

for he had heard his fame celebrated by the mouth of all, he reverently visits the holy places.

and being saluted mutually, a kiss of peace being given,

they rejoiced in the Lord. But seeing in him the aspect

of Angels, the modest speech, the gentle gait,

the venerable gray hair, the bearing of old age

reverend to all, he rejoiced in spirit; As, he said,

we have heard, so also have we seen.

Introduced therefore into holy Sion he celebrated the solemnities of the Masses,

the Pontiff and Clergy standing by: and thus

revisiting the place of the Lord's Sepulchre with affection of heart, and traversing

every holy place with pious devotion;

when he believed himself to have satisfied his desire, again

he sated with devout solicitude his burning soul;

never desisting from the celebration of the Masses, never

ceasing from the dispensing of the word of God, nay everywhere

announcing the things that are of God; neither by fear of death, nor

by barbarian harassment, desisting from the showing of the true and right,

and the prohibition of evil. O what his affection

toward God! how great the exultation of his contrite and humbled

spirit! how great the jubilation of his heart! when he saw

himself to be present where Christ was born, where

He suffered, where His feet last stood when

He ascended into heaven. Wherever he bent to prayer,

the earth was wet with tears, the cry of his heart ascended

to the Lord, the body was worn down, the spirit

was lifted up. He continued the nights in vigils, attenuated

the body with fasts, never without tears, never

without prayers, when, wholly exulting in the Lord,

he proffered the gladness of mind by the serenity of his countenance.

[55] Palm Sunday; On the Sunday on which is celebrated the coming of the Lord

into Jerusalem, and His reception by the boys with

hymns, and with branches of palms and fronds, he entered the city.

The whole week he passed the night in the praises

of God; while the whole church was traversed by the Pagans

girt with the sword, he himself nothing doubting, nothing

hesitating, rendered to God the things that are of God, wakeful in

prayers, continuous in fasts: so much that the Gentiles

themselves marveled at the insistence of his devotion,

and revered his constancy. The most sacred day of the Supper,

in the exhibition of the Lord's Mandatum, and in the recreation of the poor,

he passed: washing the feet of the poor,

bestowing garments and all necessities, and

wholly conforming and applying himself to the Lord's services.

But now who could relate, how on the day of Parasceve

he mortified himself, fixed himself to Christ's cross? Wholly in

compunction of heart, in contemplation, in self-

denial; especially when he saw the sepulchre of Jesus

before his eyes, and it was to him a matter of grief and compassion.

Assiduous in prayers, all night in vigils, and the day of the Supper and of Parasceve piously passed,

he compelled his limbs, exhausted by fasts, to serve the spirit.

On that day with the following night he did not

withdraw from the place of the sepulchre, all marveling at his insistence,

that while others withdrew, he himself did not withdraw.

[56] Why much? Came the day of the holy Sabbath, on which

fire was awaited from the Lord, he awaits the heavenly fire on the Sabbath and the armed Gentiles,

the Christians shut within, and awaiting

the well-pleasing will of the Lord concerning the fire to be received,

had barred the whole church; that, if the fire did not come,

all might be slain by the sword. When behold,

at about the ninth hour, all praying, in one lamp

fire was kindled by the Lord, with no mortal's

assisting help; and astonishment seized all the Gentiles

and dread, but the Christians joy

and exultation; so that by all the whole church was sung

in rivalry, Great is our Lord, and

great is His power, and of His wisdom there is no number.

At once the blessed man, clothed in sacred vestments,

the Mass begun, the solemn Kyrie eleison, with voice raised

on high, and receives it: pronounced. For now he had finished the Lessons

and Canticles, or whatever it is of the customary

Office, up to the kindling of the light, in expectation

of the new lamp: and thus, Glory to God in

the highest, intoning with tears and jubilation of heart,

he struck joy into the Christians, fear and admiration

into the Pagans. They stood around the altar everywhere

raging and gnashing: but so great was the reverence

of the man, so great the protection of Christ the Lord toward the man,

that all, marveling at his sanctity and religion,

revered him, and deemed him worthy of every honor,

and devoutly celebrates Easter, even they themselves who were hostile. That night

our Father Grace-of-God passed sleepless,

adoring the rising Lord, and with

Mary Magdalen in the garden of the mind, where there grew green

through him the plants of virtues, desiring to see Jesus

the gardener: that He might call him by his own name,

and teach him to recognize Him as Master and Lord;

that, made a witness of His true resurrection, in

the voice of faith he might announce to the Brothers, The Lord is risen.

Morning being come, the customary Canticles completed,

he celebrated Mass festively about the third hour;

and the faithful peoples having communicated with

joy, returning home, he satisfied the celebrity of the day:

and all day speaking more familiarly with the Patriarch,

he passed the day in jubilation of heart and voice of exultation,

always longing to revisit the place of the Lord's Sepulchre;

recalling and marveling at the napkin of the Lord's head, not

placed with the linen cloths, but separately wrapped together

in one place.

[57] The remaining feast days being celebrated in joy and

exultation of mind, and from the Lord's sepulchre he brings back a stone cast by the Saracens. the most gentle man determined to think

of his return. Nor did he return empty of a gift, because the ark

of his heart was filled with good devotion. But what

was that gift? The Pagans, running about through

the more fortified parts of the temple in that very week before Easter,

cast stones at the people celebrating the Sacred things. By chance

took to himself as a great gift, and during all

those days, on which the passion or resurrection

of Jesus is celebrated, lying within the sepulchre, he dedicated it

to the Lord with vigils and prayers. This, about to withdraw,

he took up with great devotion; and the holy place

being kissed, as if he carried the whole with him, among the sacred things

he laid it up; and bidding farewell to the Patriarch, having wished him

prosperity, he resolved to depart. The other groaned at the voice

of the beloved bidding farewell, and bringing forth most precious Relics

of the wood of the Lord, and likewise one purse

woven with gold, very large, stuffed with Relics

of the Saints, offered it to the venerable old man, with thanksgiving,

saying, Receive, O beloved of the Lord;

may be a pledge of mutual love; After the feasts, when he had bidden farewell to the Patriarch, a gift which may never

be consumed, always exist, cling, live with the friend,

which may awaken the fading memory;

pleasant, which may come to meet the mind, and never

slip from memory. May the Lord grant, these

and all the Saints interceding, that again

we may see each other in the heavenly things, where is the end of labors, and

the remuneration of eternal rewards; where never

shall we be separated from one another, rejoicing, and tasting

how sweet and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell

together in one. They were therefore separated from one another weeping,

to whom, if it had been permitted, it would have pleased to live together and die together.

[58] Father Richard Grace-of-God walks on the public

highway, laden with a noble and most sweet burden,

committing himself and those accompanying him to the God of all,

with heart humble and contrite. he returns with the Relics given to him by him, There hung from

his neck the relics of the Saints, that he might have before

his eyes a ready specimen of sanctity, lest the memory

of those be wanting to his heart, of whom in the delightful burden

he carried the Relics. But how much in returning

he suffered, he himself knows who endured it: He who judges

all things, who promised Himself to be the rewarder of labors.

You might see the man venerable for ages, while he went,

rather often, his neck turned back toward holy Jerusalem,

humbling himself, sighing, groaning, betraying the affection of his heart

by his eyes, rejoicing that he had seen the holy place

of the Sepulchre, grieving that he did not always see it.

Hence from affection to give a sermon to the peoples, to show the benefits

of Jesus to the eyes, all suddenly out of devotion

to groan, to bless God, full of the memory of the Lord's Passion. to be mindful

of the divine sweetness, and to be utterly

kindled to pursue good things. The passion of the Lord did not fall from his memory,

which was almost his whole memory. For what

was the whole course of his life, but to wish to suffer for

Christ, to die with Him and be buried together, that it might be given

to him through Christ to rise again in glory with Him? Therefore

he suffered so much, who, that he might suffer, became an exile for the Lord.

And indeed justly. For to the wise man

the whole world is exile, and to the just man the whole world

he was a just man, because wisdom knows not to inhabit a body

subject to sins.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

a Something

similar, about the year 1216, Cantipratanus relates befell a certain citizen of Dinant on the Meuse,

book 1, chap. 25, n. 5, who in the place of Calvary, out of compassion, the veins of his heart's vital parts being burst, breathed forth his spirit.

with a narration conformable enough to those things which in num. 56 are said of the sacred Fire.

CHAPTER VII.

Richard's return to Verdun: the devout humiliation of Stephen, Abbot of Lobbes, before him. The acts of S. Simeon at Rouen.

[56] Returning, as before he says Masses amid the casting of stones; Returning at last to those his wrestlers,

namely the Saracens, by the same way by which he had come

he also returned. Before the walls of the cities celebrating

the solemnities of the Masses, nor fearing the accustomed showers

of inundating stones. An altogether wondrous

and stupendous power, a great mystery, a spectacle

to be proclaimed. There stood over the head of the man of God

enemies, and directed at him stones so very large,

that not only the head, but absolutely the whole man

they would have shattered, if they had struck. He remained

intrepid, because he was protected by the stone,

cut from the mountain without hands. The stones were directed

elsewhere; because to the living stone, abiding in

the stone which was rejected, which was sent as the corner-stone,

they feared to be dashed: against which if they were dashed, they would be broken.

The Gentiles were astonished at the miracle, nor were they terrified

by the novelty of the miracle, by whose admiration they were made worse,

since that very admiration was to them a renewal

of sin. in no way harmed by them: There stood far off the Monks and Clerics,

as far as a stone is cast, and the pilgrims; he alone

entered the propitiatory, who had received the right

shoulder in the sacrifice as set apart: because

not only was his operation useful, but also singular;

who among the wicked, not only did the things that are right,

but also surpassed the well-working subjects, as

in the honor of his order, so in the virtue of his morals:

who with the shoulder had also received the little breast in the eating;

because not only with the breast did he think right things, but

also invited his beholders to lofty things by the shoulder of work.

But why do we delay him as he returns?

[60] Let us render the Father to the sons, that they may rejoice in

one another; he receives Simeon at Antioch: and for the weariness of absence, which they endured,

let they themselves be a consolation to themselves. But let us not pass over

Antioch, made famous by Simeon's presence;

for there the father found a most loving son,

there the son received a most dear father: there companions a companion,

brother a brother, comrades recognized a comrade.

For neither could he, many perils opposing,

accomplish what he had decreed; especially since

he knew by divine revelation, that on that journey he would suffer

many adverse things. Both therefore being delighted with the presence of the equal companion,

and again separated from him at Belgrade, they chose together to return to Verdun,

that what remained of time they might fulfill together in

the exercise of spiritual philosophy. But coming

to the city of Belgrade, which is on the borders

of the Bulgarians and Hungarians, by the most unhappy

Prince of the city he was forbidden to cross with them; and

so mourning and grieving the lord Simeon was separated from the father and brothers,

mourning and grieving, [who]

through many perils went to Rouen, to fulfill

obedience; but Father Richard Grace-of-God,

by long and varied labor of the journey, was restored to the borders

of Belgic Gaul.

[61] At once a swarm of sons met the father from afar,

rejoicing and gladdening at his desirable arrival.

he arrives at Verdun: But when the more celebrated report spread abroad

that he was coming; there was made a concourse to him of noble

and ignoble, rich, middling, poor;

and wherever he came, the meeting of those rejoicing

and running together was not wanting. With so great

Nobles, and also of the Clergy and people,

with long delay, the space of time being protracted, he is led

up to Verdun. Where, when it was announced that he was present, with all

their gates they rush to meet him, the whole city goes forth to meet him.

The old with the young, mothers with infants,

the weaker age itself rushes forth to meet

so great a man, none remains at home. there is a meeting of all:

Of the Clerics, the Monks, and also of the Nuns,

the holy Order dedicated to the Lord, goes forth to meet

the Father, with crosses and candles, and

with various apparatus of ecclesiastical dignity, awaiting

the one coming, and scarcely bearing his delaying, because

to the longing mind nothing was hastened enough. But when

he came, and it was permitted to see him coming, the cry of the people

is raised, tears flow full of joy. It was not

enough for anyone to have seen him once, unless it were given again

and again to see him. He descended therefore, and being received

he was led to the monastery with a song

in jubilation, all applauding and saying,

Blessed be the Lord, who alone does wonders.

[62] and by the Brothers, especially rejoicing, That day full of joys the devotion of the Brothers held solemn,

because it is also a just cause of gladness

to see a friend glad; and if a friend, what a father?

It must be done by the good, that the good will be not

hidden, but opened that it may shine. Let words cease, if

one is affected as he ought, the conscience

will stand out in the countenance. But nothing is more pleasing than public

friendship, no punishment heavier than public hatred.

For he has lost the understanding of the best and sweetest thing,

who is marked by the eyes of all, and judges himself

to be marked; who lacks the keenness of eyes, who has lost the sense

of benefits, whose ears disease has stopped up.

But the multitude of those sinning takes away shame, and the common

curse ceases to be in the place of reproach. the Abbot led back into the monastery. But

on the contrary, he who is loved by all, enjoys an equal and perpetual

pleasure. The arrival therefore of our Father

was a common benefit, because a common

joy, because even when he was absent, he was loved

by all. For placed in the first part of the mind among all,

he always came to memory, never

so set aside or cast off, that he should turn into oblivion:

but whatever frequent thought exercises

and renews, is never withdrawn from memory,

which loses nothing, except that to which it has not often looked back.

The Jerusalem Relics therefore, or those sought from anywhere,

with which laden he had arrived, in the Sanctuary

Father Richard deposited: and thus a reading

being premised, the Brothers received and kissed, he repaid

their benefits in turn; rejoicing with those rejoicing, and

giving thanks that, fortified by their prayers, he had run through the labors

of the ways secure, willingly endured them,

which is most pleasing for anyone to enumerate when

he has escaped.

[63] After therefore satisfaction was made to love,

and the prosperous things repeated on both sides; to all he repays new and greater solaces. because in the relating of such

adverse things, if there are any, the morrow is reserved;

they came to the refreshment of the wearied body:

which was procured both abundantly, yet so that it sufficed for honesty.

Thence the venerable Father

is girded for repaying the benefits in turn, paying the first

installment of them, indicating with outpoured affections

that they had gratefully come to him, and everywhere

testifying this. For he began, as if nothing had been done, to add

benefits to benefits, to search out the needs of individuals,

and to relieve them with help: so that all might recognize

that a father had come to them, and that to the fullness of their joy

nothing was wanting. O man worthy of every proclamation of praise!

who even went around the beds of the boys himself, that he might see

if anything were to be added, if anything to be renewed,

if anything to be improved; that even through this his paternal

mind might be recognized, and due piety bestowed on all.

He strove in all things to cut away vices,

to correct morals, that he might be able to insert the plants of virtues.

[64] Nor should it be passed over in silence, what was done concerning Stephen, whom

we said was set over the convent of S. Lawrence. Meanwhile Stephen, who in his stead, whom he believed dead, For when

that same common Father of ours was

on the Jerusalem expedition, and had delayed for almost

that he was dead; Durannus, Bishop of Liège

a, who had succeeded Wolbodo, Stephen

being summoned to him, that he should preside over the office in the Abbot's place,

admonished, and admonishing requested.

To whom when the man of simple genius pretended the obedience

of his spiritual Father, without whose permission

and will it was lawful for no one to presume anything;

he answered, that he had recognized the will of Father Richard at his departure,

that he had chosen to set him over the place:

whose death, because he had now heard by report

spreading abroad, had suffered himself to be ordained Abbot at Lobbes, he had decided as was fitting to fulfill the will.

Why should I delay over many things? The man was persuaded,

and less cautious for himself, he undertook the prelacy of the place,

consecrated to the office of Abbot. Not long after

the man of God returned, and hearing what had been done, over

the Brother's error he grieved. He too, when he heard that the Father

was present, did not dare to meet him as he came; but

he thought to forestall his face in confession, and

taking companions came to the festival of S. Vitonus.

But when he came, alone without companions he entered the cloister,

made prayers, sat in the cloister: and as

one who had never been ordained, he abdicated the prelacy.

Presented to the Father's sight he made satisfaction,

he made known how he had been induced to consent:

yet always he confessed that he had erred, as a suppliant comes to Verdun, and abdicates himself: that he had offended.

There were also present the companions, among whom was an Archdeacon

sent by the Bishop, asking the most pious Father

that he would give the error a place of pardon, and that what

had been done he would, for love of him, allow to be ratified and stable. But

the most gentle man, having spoken a few things with counsel; To acquiesce, he says,

in the petition of the Lord Bishop, is honorable;

and to correct with public satisfaction a Brother who has publicly sinned,

is good. Having said these things, he ordered the Brother

to sit meanwhile last in the college of the Brothers,

until he should treat in the Chapter of

those things which the Bishop commanded, and by general counsel

should dispose what was to be done. The Brother withdrew

from the sight of the Father, and with so great virtue of patience

obeyed the command of the one commanding, and showed himself such

in obeying, that he who saw it would marvel.

[65] It was the Vigil of the festival of S. Vitonus, to which

from everywhere there had flowed together in rivalry noble and notable

men, and the promiscuous crowd; and in the presence of Bishops,

Abbots, then, recognized as Abbot, Monks, Clerics,

noble and ignoble, last of all sat

Stephen, with good patience, and his countenance

was not changed into diverse things: wherefore, to beseech

Father Richard for his restitution,

his humility rendered all who were present unanimous.

On the morrow before all professing the fault

of his error, he obtained remission, brought back grace;

and from the last was promoted to a higher state,

with the grace of his Father set over the custody of the Lord's flock,

and now at the Masses, as befits an Abbot,

was honored, but not received by the Bishop of Liège, he who was not injured by that correction.

But the Archdeacon of Liège, because the will of his Lord,

as he wished, was not executed in all things,

returning to him, not however with Abbot

Stephen, became a false witness; who is proven to have related

the matter done, not as it was done, nor with the mind with which it was done.

Who, restraining or bridling by no force of mind the appetites

of his mind bursting forth, took away

the Abbacy of Lobbes from the blessed Father for these things, which otherwise

than he commanded he had done; and an Abbot

But the Lord Stephen, having stayed some days at Verdun,

both was improved by the correction,

and as long as he lived loved the Father and the Brothers with inmost

love, gave an example of humble patience. and taught his sons to serve God in the fear

of God, and was to all an exemplar of religion and discipline.

[66] Therefore turning back the joint to B. Simeon,

what he did with Richard, Prince of Normandy,

as is contained in the archive of Rouen, S. Simeon, kindly received at Rouen,

although the little book of his life is silent on this, let us explain in few words.

Coming therefore to this man with his companions, he was commended

to a certain most noble man, Gozelin by name, who

gladly received them in hospitality, and kindly after

their labor refreshed them. But the most clement Prince

Richard, overflowing in charity, copious in mercy,

moved by the labor of the servant of God's so long journey,

having compassion on the need of the servants of God from Mount Sinai,

bestowed on them very many riches, which the venerable

Simeon, through the Brothers who had come with him, to the Brothers

sent; and he himself with the aforesaid Gozelin, content

with only one servant Stephen by name, a man

equally holy, stayed for two years; at whose exhortation that same

most noble man built a monastery of the holy Trinity, on

place the most gentle man the Lord Simeon deposited the relics

of S. Catharine, which he carried with him; there he founds a church of S. Catharine; rejoicing

that it was preordained by divine disposition, namely that

the Western people should rejoice in so great a suffrage, while

it should deserve to be frequently relieved by her antidote. This

moreover is the S. Catharine, who, by Maxentius Caesar

at Alexandria crowned with martyrdom, by Angels

borne to Mount Sinai, and placed in a dwelling prepared

by Angelic hands, which indeed in the manner

of a little tower extended on high, with only one opening

flows forth from her body, heals all the infirm.

[67] Furthermore at the roots of that same mountain, there stands an oratory of that holy

Virgin herself, in which a great throng

of Monks, day and night singing praises to God,

renders devout service to the blessed Martyr. and in it places her Relics brought from Sinai:

These have a custom on the Lord's day to ascend the brow

of the mountain, and Masses being there celebrated, always to leave two or three

Brothers there for the watch of the sacred

body, to whom other Brothers in turn through the weeks

succeed; and the sacred oil, which from him

does not cease to flow, a glass vessel being placed beneath, to be reserved for the uses

of the weak, with the highest veneration they receive;

with which not only Christians, but even

Pagans, which is wondrous to say, anointed, bring back

to themselves the help of medicine. Among whom when B. Simeon

was discharging the office of his week, with that saving

liquor of oil, he deserved to receive three very minute

bones, dripping from the sarcophagus: which diligently

collected, and in a glass shell with the oil itself

hidden away, he preserved with him, to profit many; and

them afterward, as we said, he conferred on the aforesaid church of the holy

Trinity at Rouen, more precious than gold and silver.

There is still contained in that same convent

that glass vessel with the relics, that is three smaller

joints of the joints; which vessel, on account of the inundation

of the holy oil d, each week is emptied,

and given to those asking for relics of the holy body.

But the blessed Simeon, staying with the aforesaid Gozelin

for two years, thence he came to Verdun. thought at last to visit his

most dear Father Richard the Abbot and his companions;

and so bidding farewell to all he came to Verdun,

and with that same Father for very many days

stayed: and frequently injured, like a most meek

lamb he endured all things, and showed himself to all a mirror of all

sanctity.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

resigned his right into the hands of his successor Reginard. Hence it will follow

that the rule of that monastery was first undertaken by Richard in the year

1011, which year falls in the time of Bishop Baldric, of whom in num. 26.

glass, and always floating in oil. But it was said; that, when

that Relic was kept in its own little chapel, the oil also was wont

to overflow, as if of its own accord provoking the negligent to its distribution:

but now the little vessel is never found full, but also never empty,

even if it be liberally distributed.

CHAPTER VIII.

A remedy brought to famine and plague, a five-year anchoresis, peace preached not without prodigies.

[68] In the dreadful famine of the year 1033 Therefore a in the year from the incarnation of our Lord

Jesus Christ 1030 there followed in the whole world

no one had seen such a one before: for the elements began among

themselves to fight, so that in three years

on account of the excessive rain no furrows useful for the seeds were found.

Then in very many places the price of a modius was

60 solidi, elsewhere a sextarius 15. Then also human

flesh was devoured by men, so that

it was brought into the market b of Tournus, as if to be sold:

which he who brought it being caught, was burned with fire:

but the flesh given to the ground, and by another by night

dug up and eaten: who being caught, was

himself also burned. Then near the church of S. John,

situated in Chastenay near the city c of Mâcon, (where also certain ones were caught eating human flesh)

when on a certain night he had received a wanderer in hospitality,

being caught by him feeding on food of this kind, when the one received,

fearing for himself, had entrusted himself to the help of flight, the matter

being made known in the city, scouts being sent he was found

with 48 heads of the slaughtered, whose

flesh he had devoured: and this man being caught, was given to the fire.

So great was the anxiety of famine in those parts, that

certain ones ate white earth, similar to clay dug up,

mixed with flour or d bran, bread being made from it.

It was wretched and to be grieved, to see faces

withering with fasting, these falling to the ground with no

solace of food assisting them: to behold these dying, others

while they performed their funeral, alike dying together, and

falling down upon them; and from there a pestilence born, many in number lying unburied,

because there was none to bury. There followed also

another plague, because from the corpses of the dead, on account of

the excessive multitude lacking burial, the wolves being fed,

began to take prey from men. Then charnel-pits

were made by those fearing God, into which the son a father,

brother a brother, and the mother a son, while she beheld

them failing, dragged; and sometimes

he himself, while he despaired of life, was added on top, so

that it was a most pleasing office of funeral, if one still breathing

were cast there by anyone. Wherefore in

the expenses of the needy, the ornaments of the churches were sold,

and the treasures distributed. For gold,

as the moral Doctor Ambrose says, the Church has,

not that it may keep it, but that it may pay it out. But who at that time

would store up, when of things stored, if the famine at least

had lasted five years, there would be none who would enjoy them?

But neither were all relieved, because to the will

the ability did not give support.

[69] Labor is spent that at least the farmers be preserved for the future, In this tempest therefore the Prelates of the Gallican

cities, taking counsel by which so great a mass of evil

might be relieved, at last devised this,

that since, all alimentary things now wholly failing, it could not

help all, lest the land, deprived of an inhabitant,

be reduced to solitude, some who were established to be

more vigorous, a number being given according to ability, with daily

food of whatever kind they should sustain: not that from others

the solaces which they could be withdrawn, but that these

sustained they might reserve as cultivators of the land, and to others the bowels

of mercy be not denied. May God grant them

to find mercy, who in so great straits bestowed mercy

on those suffering need;

and may He spare them, who, when they could, did not consult

the will of the indigent as they ought and could have.

Amid these straits the venerable Abbot Richard,

pricked in mind, when he had conferred all that he had

on the poor; did not spare the treasures of the Church,

nay, the things that were more precious in them, in ornaments

and cloaks, he sold to the Church of Rheims, and

distributed their price to the poor; and Richard for that end pawns the Abbacy of S. Amantius. retaining also

for himself a certain number of those to whom he imparted daily

sustenance that they might be able to live; sending

besides these letters and messengers, and by himself also

admonishing Kings and Princes, and the Pontiffs too

to whom he was joined in familiarity, that the treasures

which moth and rust destroy, through the hands of the poor

they should put into the heavenly palaces, and the bellies of the needy

should constitute for themselves treasuries of eternity. He received

also no small money from the Count of Rouergue,

the Abbacy of S. Amantius e being granted in place of a pledge,

which was of the right of the Church of S. Peter, which he wholly

distributed to the poor. But the Count, the money being given,

both usurped the Abbacy for himself with the revenues

and lands, and (as the inhabitants of the city of Rodez assert)

before the money had been received from the lands of that same

Abbacy, he himself was prevented by death, and so

the Abbacy was retained by his successors; although

by the inhabitants not the whole Abbacy of S. Amantius,

which is very wide and of enormous possession, is said to be of the right of the Church

of Verdun; but a certain part,

namely the Abbacy of S. Marius of Utra…bra, as the moderns

testify even now.

[70] Nor should the memorable deed of William Above-the-Rule

be passed over in silence. When from the convent of Fruttuaria f, So once William, Abbot of Dijon, finding much stored up,

which was of the right of the Church of Dijon, he had returned,

and at Dijon, as was fitting, received in the Chapter,

inquired how the Brothers fared, whether necessaries

were not wanting; when he heard that all were

full, and that there was no place of want, which could not be

blocked with a slight barrier; he asks about the alms;

and learned that, although the customary was given,

yet the poor were not supported according as they could and had.

Kindled therefore with that zeal which

ate up the flesh of the Saints, their hardness being rebuked,

stirred from his seat with a good indignation of an angered mind

he rose; and the Antiphon of the Mandatum

g, Where is charity? being intoned, not proceeding further, but

always repeating this its beginning, the vessels being broken open with indignation, he gave out all, he came to the cellar;

and seizing whatever missile, which to the hands of Phinees

came, since in his mouth and mind there always

turned, Where is charity? the vessels, in which

grain, barley, and wine were kept, he burst open;

and the poor being summoned, filled their little vessels,

always bringing forth that with heart and mouth, Where

is charity? and attesting it by the exhibition of work. Whose

indignation of mind they could scarcely at some point mitigate, that what had been gathered

might be expended:

when, Where is charity? was always repeated, and they themselves

made thick, fattened, enlarged, were reproached.

Nor was there a ceasing before, until all that stored-up

was given to the poor; and he himself returning to Italy,

when for two years he had awaited his departure from the world,

and holily dies in 1031 at Fécamp, at last compelled to return, passing before Dijon,

went around the places committed to him. Thence

he betook himself to Fécamp, where, with the year

of the Lord's incarnation h 1031 imminent, Indiction XIV,

he died, on the Kalends of January, at whose sepulchre a little boy

In this year Chono, who is also Conrad, came

into France.

[71] Therefore in the year from the Passion of the Lord the thousandth,

but from the Incarnation 1033, the placid serenity

began to show the sweetness of the Creator to the land, and

to portend an abundance of crops. which he had recently begun to govern, Then through Aquitaine,

and the Arelate, and Lyonnese provinces,

and through all Burgundy Councils

were instituted and peace established. It was also decreed,

to abstain on the VI weekday from wine, and on the VII from flesh, unless

grave infirmity intervened, and then III k poor

should be refreshed. In that year too there was so great a plenty

of grain, wine, and the other crops, as much as

in the following five years one could not

hope for. by Richard II, But the human stock, unmindful of the benefits

of God, like a dog returned to its vomit, kicked back,

and was turned to malice. There presided at that time

over the County of Normandy Richard the younger, son of the first

Richard, who in the convent of Fécamp, in

which his father had instituted Clerics, the Clerics being cast off

introduced Monks, under the rule of William

the Abbot, on whom also for daily use, in

ornaments and lands, estates and revenues, he bestowed so much,

that he seemed to have satisfied their cupidity.

For he was generous in alms, overflowing in charity,

an especial venerator of God's servants, in whose hand

the alms sweated, until one was found to whom it might be divided.

In his time Normandy flourished with religious men,

who flowed together to him from everywhere, like bees

to their hives. Among whom this blessed man he cultivated with more inclined

reverence; so much that he loved him with special

love, and rejoiced to obey his precepts,

and acquiesce in his counsels.

[72] There died also Richard II, Duke of the Normans,

in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1036; and there succeeded

Richard III, and in the same l year he died.

After whom Robert, having obtained the County of Normandy,

held this thrice-blessed Richard, of whom is our

discourse, among the first, and by his counsel

the affairs of the kingdom of Normandy were treated. Then there arose

of perverse mind, detestable repute, who had dedicated his whole

life to the devil, [to whom too, Richard III being dead, Robert succeeding, much uses Richard the Abbot:] as afterward by most approved

experiences it was found out. This man at all hours and

moments spoke with the devil, and

whatever he was to do, was disposed by his foggy address.

This man, through the undertaken counsels of iniquity

nourished to full iniquity, and truly

made a member of him who is the kindling of malice and

of discord and of all wickedness, before the aforesaid Prince

accused all the Nobles of the whole kingdom,

as though they had meditated his overthrow and slaying;

and so disturbed the state of the whole land, that truly

it was recognized that this was the work of the devil, his artifice,

his contrivance. The Prince is inflamed

against the Nobles, dissensions arise, quarrels are stirred up,

and in one intestine war all Normandy rages.

[73] This discord increasing, father

Richard is compelled to approach the County, and the Lord

Ermenfrid m being joined to him he came to Rouen; and

peace being restored between the Princes, and at his urging he abdicates the disturber of the public peace: the aforesaid Ermenold

somewhat gentler, because before the sight

of the servants of God all diabolical cunning was made void,

convicted and corrected he led with him to Verdun,

clothed him in monastic vestments, and the man

entangled in the snares of the devil he taught to spurn the things

that are the demon's. But in a body subject to sins

wisdom refuses to dwell. He simulated for a time

himself a philosopher, that they might believe him who did not

know him a theosophist. But wisdom knows nothing as a friend

of feigned peace: wherefore all his cunning and

wickedness was soon known, nor could that deadly madness,

enemy of peace, lie hidden among the Saints. The enemy

man goes forth from a place not his own, returns to his own,

uses a most shameless art, and again by the perversity

of his malignity Normandy is corrupted. who, feignedly made a Monk at Verdun, He is cast forth

from the hiding-places, where he believed himself stronger

and more able: and because by the cunning of the devil he was to be led into death,

it is foretold to him by the blessed man, nor is he frustrated

of his promises. For after he had overcome in single combat

several of the Nobles of Normandy, a conspiracy being feigned

and imposed, whom convicted the princely severity

had deprived of eyes and lands, by a certain forester

convicted, overcome, and killed, he made an end of his life

and of his crimes. In which deed it is pleasing to behold

the sweetness and piety of the just man, he returns to the vomit, and dies as Richard had foretold who, when he saw the man

truly a workshop of the devil convicted, the devil hurling him down,

taught him to flee to the bosom of mercy;

and the incorrigible deed, lest he should longer rage

in vices, to the example of all the lost

he announced that he would perish more quickly, that the punishment after the death

of the body might be so much lighter for him, the swifter

the vengeance after the death of the soul should come upon the sinner

… n.

[74] But the man of God dwelt, first o in a place,

5 miles distant from Remiremont p, which

is called … content with only one companion, He himself, withdrawing into the Vosges,

to whom however on the contrary the lord with Martin

served. Where with how great maceration of the body he wore himself down,

with how great contrition of mind he relieved his soul,

the sole arbiter of the inner things knows; because

he so performed the work of the right hand, that the left did not know it;

especially since he daily wept that his sojourn was prolonged,

he who wished to be torn from the fellowship of those dwelling in dark Cedar.

After these things, to a place which is called Rombach

q, withdrawing, there he established a dwelling for himself:

and when there he wished longer to lie hidden, he could not.

They began to flow thither too, because a like

ardor of the anchoretic life had grown, and to give themselves

to his discipleship; for whom he himself also instituted a norm of living,

according to the custom instituted by the holy Fathers.

And when now the five years of dedicated

penance were fulfilled, the devotion of holy desire

was not diminished, he exercises himself in a five-year anchoresis, but daily was increased with more inclined

zeal, because in that very exercise of his

he was delighted, who was fed by love.

For he had inclined the neck of his mind to the testimonies

of the Lord, in gait humble, in advance lofty,

in his course most illustrious; and because he embraced true philosophy,

he was stirred up, kindled,

and burned; for "Thy word is exceedingly fiery,

O Lord, and Thy servant has loved it."

He was recalled by the Bishop and the Brothers, bearing his absence

with difficulty, and that was very often urged upon him;

Return, return, O Shunamite; return,

return, that we may behold thee: but by him by words,

by letters, by the very act of return it was denied. I myself saw

certain letters sent to one another, and read them

as a little boy: in which his constancy in the responses,

when the word of response was opposed to him, scarcely to be recalled from it: as we said,

thus at the end of one letter, the intention of the Brothers

repressed: If, they say, you wish to oppose word with words,

words will not be wanting to those laboring for the word.

[75] With William the Norman he has authority and weight. In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1035, Robert,

Count of the Normans, went to Jerusalem,

carrying infinite money with him, which he wholly

distributed to the poor, and in returning at Nicaea

r died. To whom succeeded s William in his boyish

age. This man too with so great love cultivated this venerable man,

of whom is the discourse, that by his counsels in that

tempest he disposed the Palatine governance; and

although him, summoned to himself with difficulty, he honored with every kind

of devotion and sweetness of insistence; so much that the Church

of Rouen, with the Prelate of that See

and the Clergy, Rambert, Bishop of Verdun, being dead, rejoiced to be adorned by his doctrine, as from

the faces of many things even now it can be conjectured,

even from the common Book ordered according to the modes of his institutions,

fastened behind the great altar with a chain.

Rambert, Bishop of Verdun,

going to Jerusalem, died at the town of Belgrade, in the year

of the Lord's incarnation 1038, in the year XIV of his

Pontificate; he takes care that Richard be substituted. and afterward, in the time

of Richard his successor, brought back by the Clerics Berner and Bernard,

was buried at Verdun in the monastery.

But Henry the third after the death of Rambert,

in the first year of his reign granted to the man of God Richard the Episcopate

of Verdun: but the most gentle man refused this;

and caused Richard, his godson in baptism,

son of Count Hildrad, to be enthroned.

[76] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1041, the Truce-of-God

t was first established and confirmed, and that peace itself

called the Truce-of-God: which not only by human

aids, [he heals many from the sacred fire, and from plague, sent on account of the rejected peace,] but also by divine terrors was confirmed.

Which when the nation of Neustria had been unwilling to receive, the man

of God Richard preaching; and admonishing that they should receive it,

because it was the will of the Lord, and from God not from man

this decree had proceeded; by divine

judgment fire began to rage against them, which

tormented them: and in that year almost the whole world suffered want,

for the scarcity of wine and wheat. There followed

immediately a very great mortality of men, in the year

from the incarnation of the Lord 1042: but many of those

who were tormented by the fire, coming to the man

of God, were cured by his merits and prayers by the healing

power of God. There still survives the Lord Bishop

of Autun u, a man advanced in length of life,

who is also wont to relate; that when by S. Odilo and

the others that peace itself, instituted by divine revelations,

called the Truce-of-God, and received by the Austrasians

had been, and the will of all in this was one, that

everywhere it should be kept; this business was imposed by all on the vigor of this

our father Grace-of-God,

that by his zeal and industry that same peace

should be kept in Neustria: because they were certain of him,

that so great was his grace toward all, and of all toward

him, that whatever he taught to be kept,

would be kept by all; whatever he showed to be avoided,

all would avoid that. which he preached, and at last persuaded. Wherefore the venerable Father

took pains, that so great a good might be gratefully received by all;

but the perverse will of certain ones,

and untamed mind, spurned this as unheard-of,

as though they were unwilling to violate the paternal institutes,

and to receive new and unheard-of things. Whence there also followed

the divine vengeance, namely fire raging from the Lord against the rebellious and

contumacious, by which they were tormented,

who feared not to resist the man of God and to despise his commands.

You might see the monastery of the excellent Father

filled with throngs of the burning, whom he himself

with the Relics of the Saints, sprinkled with blessed water

and washed with wine; and with dust, which from the rock of the Lord's Sepulchre

was scraped, sprinkled with that same wine, and given to the wretched

to drink, peace being confirmed and sworn, restored to their former

health. But for the innumerable throngs of the infirm flowing together a vessel for drinking was prepared for him;

so that if the sick should arrive, the drink of health

might not be wanting, lest they be disappointed if they came at an unsuitable hour;

nor then should there be need of recurring to

the washing of the Relics, which after the completion

of the Mass it was the custom to fulfill.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

a This famine

is described by Rudolf Glaber, book 4, chap. 4, which Chapter Hugh here

transcribes summarily. But it must be imputed to a copyist's error, that

it is printed 1028, for 1030; and the correction is proven by the year of fertility begun after three years, in num. 70 noted as 1033, surely from chap. 5 of Glaber, which bears this title "Of the peace and abundance of the thousandth year from the Lord's passion," and

beginning that Chapter itself from the same number. But Glaber ends his writing

in the year 1045, so that the highest faith should be here for one narrating

matters altogether of his own time. And here I would note that the beginning of the aforecited Chapter is held truncated

in the Frankfurt edition of the year 1596, where it is read thus:

With the year therefore of the incarnate Christ one thousand thirty-three imminent, which

is from the passion of the same Savior *, the standard-bearers of Religion, namely Benedict

the universal one, Robert King of the Franks, Fulbert also Prelate of Chartres,

and the Father of the Monks William: concerning whom moreover a longer digression is made: after which, returning as it were to the proposed argument, Glaber says, In the following time, therefore, famine began to grow strong in the whole world. The Paris edition of André du Chesne from the Codex Thuanus, supplying the gap marked *, reads thus:

With the year therefore of the incarnate Christ one thousand thirty-three imminent, which

is from the passion of the same Savior [the thousandth, there died men in the Roman

world most famous, and of sacred] religion the standard-bearers, Benedict etc. But this supplement does not satisfy. For although in that year Benedict IX died, the ruin rather than the pillar of religion; yet in dying there preceded him Fulbert the Bishop in 1028, Robert the King in 1032, William the Abbot in 1031. Nor will it suffice if for "there died" you read "they had died": for there follows a miracle, by which the sanctity of the deceased William was declared, a dead boy being resuscitated, and then is subjoined: In the following time, therefore, famine began to grow strong in the whole world; but it did not then begin, according to Glaber himself, but ceased, when it had lasted a whole three years, in the thousandth year from the Lord's Passion. Wherefore

it seems to be said, that all that beginning of Chapter 4 is from the hand of a careless Interpolator,

or most foully corrupted: for Glaber himself could not have

so erred, and contradicted himself so basely.

the diocese of Angoulême, owes its name to a certain holy Hermit, who flourished

in the 6th century, and died there; but I still seek the day of his death and cult.

The Abbots, from the year 988 until now, the Sammarthani enumerate: but what below

is named the Abbacy of S. Marius of Vira…bra, the name corrupted, perhaps ought to be named "of Virabacum," from the town of Virbac, 4 leagues

below the city on the same river Charente; which Abbacy through that

usurpation seems to have failed; certainly I find no notice of it:

but from the other Life it is understood that the matter happened a little before the battle of Bar

in the year 1037.

I know not however whether, pertaining to the famine above mentioned: because although that William

first died in the year 1031, while it still lasted; yet at the beginning of the same century

there is also noted a certain other famine in Sigebert in his Chronicle at the year

1006, in these words: famine and mortality so grievously prevailed through the whole

world, that out of weariness of those burying, the living still drawing breath

were buried with the dead. Certainly the convent of Fruttuaria had long since been founded by William;

from which once returning into Gaul, S.

Odilo he converted, who was afterward made in the year 994 Abbot of Cluny: and

on another later occasion, likewise returning from Italy, he could have done these things, unless something else stand in the way not yet observed by me, concerning

the reckoning of time, or unless Sigebert has confused the times, which is not rare for him.

i More fully

does Rudolf Glaber relate this, not indeed in the Life, to which no miracles (which you may wonder at) are added after death; but in the History, book 4, chap. 4.

Duke Richard, the army dismissed, returned to Rouen; and with some

of his own, as very many have related, died by poison, in the year 1028 from

the Incarnation of the Lord.

n I omit

the whole relation about the cause and outcome of the battle of Bar, between Odo

of Chartres, born of Bertha sister of the Empress Gisela; and Gozelo,

Duke of the Emperor Conrad; by reason of the Burgundian kingdom, which the brother of Gisela and

Bertha, Rudolf, dying without children, had left to Conrad: in which

battle Odo himself miserably fell, whose mangled body

the venerable Father Richard and Roger, Bishop of Châlons, having received from

the slaughter, handed over to his wife … Count Waleran too, in

the battle itself by Godfrey, son of Duke Gozelo, gravely wounded, when

he was now failing as he fought, begged for life

and limbs, that it might be permitted to him at Verdun, under the rule of Father

Richard, to be clothed in monastic vestments, as he had vowed to God: which also

he obtained. And the war finished he returned with the aforesaid Father, and was made a Monk.

and pertains to far earlier years, as will be said below.

p Romarici-mons, commonly Remiremont, in the Vosges on the Moselle, is distant from Verdun about 23 leagues.

q If he understands S. Martin of Tours, who himself served his servant; I have not yet been able to find that in the Acts of that Saint.

r On the VI Nones of July, says William of Jumièges.

s William, surnamed the Bastard, inasmuch as

he was born of Herleva (some call her Arlotta), a girl of plebeian blood:

for Robert otherwise died celibate, having repudiated the daughter of Canute the Dane

whom he had had. The same is also called the Conqueror, on account of the kingdom of England acquired, and left to his posterity.

t Concerning the Truce-of-God, see

Du Cange treating most copiously and most learnedly in his Glossary, through

five whole columns; and how then a universal peace

was published, to be kept under excommunication, afterward beginning to be restricted to certain

days of the week and certain feasts, when it was enjoined by the Bishops.

He also rightly judges that the word is Germanic: for to the Germans "Trewe," to the Belgians "Trauwe," is faith, or a sworn pact concerning that which is here said to be published; see Glaber book 4, chap. 5, whence Hugh here borrows his material.

u Hagano, Bishop of Autun

or Augustodunum, from the year 1055 to 1098, beyond which only to

four years this Author extends the labor of writing.

CHAPTER IX.

His death foreknown and piously met, his funeral cared for, honor bestowed

on his tomb; his sanctity manifested by an Angel; a great opinion of the same

among all.

[77] In the year therefore from the incarnation of the Lord 1045,

Henry took a wife, by name Agnes, He refuses to come to the nuptials of the Emperor,

daughter of William of Poitiers, at Besançon,

where there were present XXVIII Bishops: for although

he was otherwise good, and all thirsted for his dominion,

yet the incontinence of the flesh he

could not bridle. Father Richard at that time the monastery

was unwilling to leave, from which for no pressing

causes did he suffer himself to be torn, because he knew and

had foretold to his sons that the dissolution of his body was imminent.

For indeed in the previous years, when that plague, of

which at present we have made mention, devastated the people,

when the people was wasting away, [because on account of the body of S. Vitonus carried out of the monastery, the cause of the plague being placated,] and the city of Verdun

was nearly being reduced to a desert, the common danger

it was decided to be removed by common prayer. The misery of which necessity

urging, by common vow it was deliberated

that the patronage of B. Vitonus was to be implored, by whose

merits they trusted they would without doubt obtain a remedy of life.

It also seemed to Bishop Richard, that the most holy body

of that Confessor ought to be exposed from the bier, that, carried in a solemn

procession, it might be presented to the sight of all, that the people, supported by his

patronage, while it saw the Saint's coffin,

might more earnestly seek his help, which it knew

would not be wanting to it. he had learned that he himself and the Bishop would die in that year; Our most reverend Father contradicting,

the Prelate determined that what he had deliberated should be fulfilled

on the morrow: he opposing and saying that the misery

of the people was indeed to be relieved, but that it would not turn out

prosperously for the Bishop, who had dared to disturb the honorable body of the Saint.

That night the Father passed sleepless, before

the altar devoting himself to holy prayers with tears. On

the morrow the Bishop came, the whole Clergy and

the people; and with much fear and reverence the Relics

of the holy Pontiff, precious upon refined gold, he exposes. When

this was done, the Father approached the Pontiff: Thou hast fulfilled, he said, what thou wishedst,

but know that thou wilt not see the fifth year from now

in the world. To me too who consented, before the fifth

year likewise will be the term of life, thou after

proved the saying. For the fourth year not yet completed,

the Father began to be deprived of bodily strength, and

the Brothers being called together he indicated that the day of his

dissolution was imminent.

[78] Soon therefore over the Abbacy of S. Peter of Châlons

he chose Father Richard, over the Convent of S. Hubert c

Theoderic, over S. Urbanus d Stephen, men in

every contemplation most approved, in keeping the purpose of Religion

most illustrious: for these Abbacies he himself

ruled by himself. Unburdened therefore of all, he judged

to retain for himself only that one, he sets up Abbots in his stead, to which he had been given as Pastor,

in which also he had determined to be buried. And

now in the commands of the Lord assiduous rather than frequent,

on a certain day, when he had seen one of the Brothers

of the monastery, whose name was Moissac, gravely burning

with fevers, so that his spirit seemed as it were to be cut off,

he held his hand, and that he should give the signal for announcing the hour

of the work of God, he frees a Monk from fever by a touch, made sound and unharmed,

he commanded. He at the voice of the one commanding made sound,

obeyed the Father's command, and so was free from all

trouble of sickness. And so, he who abounded in such great

virtues, the day of his calling imminent, lay down

with fevers, and was exercised by that last sickness.

When this sounded through the city, the Bishop came,

and a company of Monks, Clerics, and Nuns;

and by a solemn visitation they showed toward the Father

the devotion of pious affection.

Nor did the Bishop return to his house, he himself sick at the last is visited by the Bishop and others everywhere. but rather, adhering

to him with daily watches, neither by day nor by night

did he suffer himself to be torn from him. There came also the Bishops of the neighboring

cities, Abbots, and all the

Magnates, to visit him, and to commend

themselves to him; to whom it seemed, that at his death

the whole earth would be moved and disturbed.

There watched day and night before his house a throng

of the Sons, and of the other faithful: some to the Father hastening to

better things wished to bid farewell, and to commend

themselves, others sought health of body, that

at least they might deserve the water of the washing of his hands,

with which anointed they might be refreshed.

[79] When therefore he felt the hour of his calling imminent,

and fortified with the Sacraments, he ordered the Sons whom he had acquired for Christ to assemble;

and anointed by the Bishop with holy Oil, Confession

given, fed with the heavenly Viaticum, he was laid

on a little bed, and lay in ashes and haircloth, so that the altar

of S. Nicholas always appeared to his sight. Then

speaking with the Brothers, repeating the accustomed lessons of salvation,

he admonished them to serve and cling to God, and asked with most pious

devotion that they should be mindful of him;

all in common weeping, and

redoubling their desolation; when he himself wholly

restrained his tears, the Jerusalem Relics, placed before him, consoled their grief, and

promised the protection of Christ the Lord would be at hand.

After these things the Relics, which the Jerusalem

Patriarch had given him, he ordered to be brought to him: and

these being saluted and kissed with much reverence,

those which he had been accustomed to carry on his neck he laid out,

and ordered to be set reverently before him. Then imploring the common

patronage of the Saints, with hand raised

he blessed the Brothers and all who were present, and asked to be

blessed for himself. And thus license being given to the Sons to go out,

he himself, with eyes and hands stretched forth to heaven, attended to Him.

There were read before him the Passions of the Lord,

and also lessons from the fourth Book of the Dialogues f:

and his happy soul clung to Him alone, little by little he draws them to his breast; to whom he

had committed his whole self. But when the body began now from the lower

part to die, seizing the Relics of the Saints

he sat up in the little bed; and placing them at his feet,

and as the vital warmth failed, little by little

drawing them up, at last he set them at his breast; and the Relics

there having reclined, he laid down. O the admirable

devotion of the man! O his sanctity in all things,

to be proclaimed! When therefore he had reclined his head,

he set his hands upon the Relics, and thus until he should render his spirit

to the Creator, with his eyes lifted to God

he remained.

[80] and he dies on 14 June, There were present there the Bishop, and Religious men,

whom the love and benefits of the pious Father had bound, who

fortified his departure with continual prayers

and psalmody: who scarcely and rarely, even for an hour, were separated

from his presence; lest it should happen that they be

absent, when the happy soul should migrate from the body. As therefore

the day of the month of June, the 14th, was dawning, which

is the XVIII Kalends of July, the third hour imminent, his Sons being present,

whom the narrowness of the place could hold, His Body cared for by the Bishop and Abbots,

the others standing and singing in the greater church,

that holy soul, loosed from the bodily bonds,

reached that Eternal, which is One and inseparable

Three. The Bishop closed the Father's eyes, and

the embalmers of the funeral were Richard, Odilard, Stephen,

and Waleran the Abbots. They cared for the most holy

body: in sacred vestments after the custom the Bishop clothed him;

not in those which he himself wished

and commanded (because he had chosen all things cheap) but those which

paternal love dictated, and most holy and due devotion. The Relics,

which upon his breast he himself

had committed, he being clothed in sacred vestments, above his breast

were placed.

[81] The most blessed funeral therefore being carried out by the hands

of the bearers, when on account of the rush of the people running in and

lamenting the church had been barred, before the altar of S. Peter

it was placed: where, the Mass being celebrated by the Pontiff, he is exposed in his church,

at last the gates of the monastery were opened. And behold an innumerable

people of both sexes and order rushed in,

with tears and wailing of heart. The church was full

of tears, all in common bewailed the pious Father's

death, as if they saw the destruction

of the fatherland imminent. O how great the mourning of all! how great

was the sorrow to the whole city! how pious

was the compassion over his death! how great the desolation of all! That whole day

was of groans, all of laments. As it grew toward evening,

the most blessed body, carried by the Brothers to the principal

church of holy Mary, with the due offices of vigils and psalmody that very night

by the watchers was honored. On the morrow the Mass

solemnly celebrated by the Canons, through the remaining monasteries of the city

celebrated with due dutifulness, the next day in the Cathedral

at last it was brought back to its own monastery, and to the Sons,

grieving and mourning over his death, restored.

Came therefore the next day, and behold about

the third hour the whole city was gathered to bury

him. The Bishop celebrated Mass,

and had a sermon to the people about the mutability

of this life, whence brought back it is entombed, and how into this valley of weeping

we have come; what is the end of the good, and what

of the evil; what was the Father's life, how precious his death.

Then the Office being celebrated, the solemn Prayers said,

to the place of burial they went. And although only to the ministers of the obsequies and bearers

of the funeral, with those who performed the offices, it was permitted

to enter, the others being retained within the greater church;

yet so great was the multitude of attendants,

that the windows, by which light was poured into the crypt,

for the catching of air, necessity compelled to be removed.

The multitude of lights overcame the day, and the smoke of incense

and of frankincense had filled the whole church:

so great was the devotion of all toward the Father's burial.

[82] The most gentle man's body therefore being buried, the sepulchre

was closed, and with the usual cement smeared through the joints.

in the same crypt where he had laid S. Madalveus: But he rests in the subterranean crypt,

before the altar of the holy Mother of God Mary and of S. John

the Evangelist; and over him the great altar of S.

Peter was established. In the same crypt, beneath the aforesaid altar

of S. Mary, the holy Madalveus rests,

by that same our Father transposed thither,

and reverently entombed. But the office of burial

being performed, when the others had departed, to arranging

the bed of the man of God the unanimous devotion of the Sons kindled itself.

Four marble columns, by a covering

of the sepulchre, with cement made of the same marble, are connected:

upon these a very large marble tablet

is joined by that same cement; and thus over

the covering a little of masonry is built, and

solidified with a firm glue of bitumen. in the year 1046; But over the tablet

extended on high a linen cloth is placed, and to it a cloak

is added on top: so that to all beholding it may plainly

be given to understand, that he is of great merit, whose body

is thus honored on earth. And deservedly. For what

was his zeal on earth, but to love God, and

to venerate His Saints, and to adorn the Church of God

with fitting beauty? there dies not long after also Bishop Richard Nor is it a wonder if by the sons he is more eagerly

honored, whom he knew how to govern according to our

discipline, which descends from the Christian law,

and leads to God. But this our Father rested

in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1046, in the year XLII of his

rule, with Henry son of Conrad reigning over the lands.

But Bishop Richard survived

until the month of November, and died on the VIII

Ides of November, just as he himself had asked of his Father, when

he closed his eyes for him. If, he said, Father, thou goest to God,

and the service with which thou hast served Him pleases Him; obtain

that I survive thee not one year in this

world, because I prefer to die with thee rather than to live.

He had said, and was heard, and was added to his fathers.

Whose body when his parents had ordered to be buried beside the body of the man

of God, by the Canons by force retained,

and in the church of holy Mary Major buried

of the Church of Lyons. and Abbot Waleran is ordained, In the same

year too the rule of the convent of Verdun Waleran

undertook, a man most noble in the world,

son of Count Gelduin: who in the war at the castle of Bar

wounded in the knee, was lame: but the Episcopate

of Verdun Theoderic undertook,

son of Count Wezelo.

[83] But of how great honor among the men of that age this

our Father Grace-of-God was, Theoderic

and grace, showed in his deed. Who,

when in leading the new Bishop to Verdun, sent

by the Emperor, he had come, Theoderic, Bishop of Basel, adorns the tomb with a cloak: and it was his devotion

to visit the holy man's sepulchre; when before the tomb

he had mortified himself with great contrition of tears, recalling

the deceased's piety, sobriety, and meekness,

with a most precious cloak of saffron color

he adorned that very tomb; that by that very affection he might testify

that the love which he had shown to the living, to the dead

he too did not deny; nay that he was most worthy of more eager cult,

whom now the Lord cherished in His own

bosom. That place had already then begun to shine with many

miracles, those with fevers are cured at it: and into the fever-stricken so great a grace of cures

was poured back, that whoever had come

laboring with this trouble, when he had slept a little,

obtained the suffrage of health, and returned with every

burning of illness lulled to sleep. But why do we delay,

and do not relate of what merit he was declared to be even by Angelic

testimony? For indeed he who saw bore

testimony, and of whose life there is no doubt,

by his merit testimony is believed.

[84] The Father of blessed memory Rodulf, the third k

successor after him in the rule of the Church, Abbot Rodulf anxious about Richard's true sanctity, and as

we believe a possessor of hereditary sanctity, now blessed

in a happy departure; when he undertook to govern that very place,

and heard from those relating many things about him worthy of relation,

and saw also the unanimous devotion of all toward his

memorial cult; he embraced indeed what he saw

and heard generally from all. But he was anxious

within himself, whether that man had been of so great sanctity, as

was reported; and as it were he sought with solicitous and disposed

watches of his thoughts, of what merit before God he was. He too

was wont, at the place of his sepulchre, because he had felt there easy

results of prayers, very often to pray, and

many times to pass the night: when behold one night, after

the celebration of the nocturnal synaxis, when there

he was rendering to God his accustomed watches, this thought

often wearing him and rolling itself upon him, sleep

perfectly dissolved into slumber, when the intellectual eyes

were opened, and he saw an Angel standing by him, addressing him

with a soothing voice and saying: Long has thy thought

with morose curiosity detained thee, that thou mightest know of what

merit this man, at whose sepulchre thou standest, was; and lest

it should longer protract thee to be wearied, I am sent to expedite these things to thee.

There are two resting in this crypt, and

awaiting the day of the Lord, on which they may be rewarded with a double stole, he learns from the Angel that he is held equal to S. Madalveus in glory.

this Abbot Richard, and the Confessor

of Christ especial Madalveus; whose festivity you,

in its time and day, with devout, as is fitting,

offices honor: as one whom God into the number

of His Saints, and the lot of the just, took. And

this one indeed worthily is turned into the memory of men,

who passed to the joy of the just. But this one, at whose

sepulchre I stand, is to be venerated on earth with devotion equal to you and not less,

whom with an equal lot, and not inferior

glory, God decorated and exalted in the heavens.

Much is the fame of his sanctity on earth, which yet

you know not to the half; because the man illumined by the grace of God

studied humility and lowliness; nor did he prefer

to reveal his acts, but to conceal them. But know, that

and the things which are said of him are true, although

greater things could be said. May the devotion of his Sons

toward his memory please thee: and the things which I, sent

by God, report to thee, this very day to all in common

proclaim; that they may rejoice over the happy outcome of the Father, whom

they have as suffrager and devout intercessor

in the heavens. Thou therefore, these things being recognized about the blessed man, and that he is rightly to be cultivated by the Monks as a Patron, the way

which thou hast begun do not desert; to the mortification of the flesh, humility,

lowliness, and chastity be watchful, on the gaining

of souls bestow labor, that with this and other things thou mayest be endowed

with the beatitude of eternal joyfulness.

[85] The man of graces had been astonished at the vision and Angelic

address; and when he saw him, for these and

other benefits of his piety, conferred on human fragility,

saying praises to God, these things he joyfully announces. and prepared himself for the same;

with his whole body, as he slept, he rose up;

and waking, the thanks which he had tried to give in mind,

now with mind and body he intently rendered. Nor did he appear

[86] For these and other benefits of his, blessed be

the name of the Lord forever. How great his fame everywhere, the universal grief over his death attests. The blessed man's merit still lives and will live

forever, and as long as the age shall roll on,

his merit shall always receive increase.

Normandy attests this, Britain also confesses it, all Gaul

applauds, bringing forth the great deeds of the Father; which

as much as it rejoiced and exulted over his most holy conversation,

while he was in the world; so much now it grieves

at his death that so happy a companionship has been taken from it;

whose life was a mirror of sanctity, the solace

of penitents, the consolation of mourners, the defense

of the wretched. The Emperor and the Nobles mourned his death,

Kings and Pontiffs bewailed him, the flute

and organ failed, the harp and psaltery, hoarsely

sounded the trumpet and the drum. There ascended to God the cry

of the poor, the desire of the needy redoubling their

desolation, and, that you may wonder the more, the world bewailed

the death of one, in whom while he lived the whole

rested. And although they felt that there was rather cause

for rejoicing, if the force of grief admitted reason; yet

they wept especially the Monks, Virgins, and Widows,

the Ecclesiastical Order too, supported by his peculiar

patronage, strengthened by his counsel, refreshed by his address. O

merit of piety m, memorable for ages, venerable to posterity,

imitable by all! No oblivion shall ever

efface his praise, no interpolation of time shall diminish it,

nor take it from our mouth (even if a heavier tribulation

than now is should blaze against us)

so as to keep us from confessing thee venerable, thee to be proclaimed, thee,

Father, to be cultivated with every kind of praise. For to dwell

upon thy praises is to be relieved from tribulation;

because thy praise is an admirable comprehension of joy

and peace, a repelling of sorrow and anxiety.

[87] There related to our humility five years ago,

when n we had not yet tasted of how great labor

and weariness it is to manage others' affairs, William, King of England the venerable Abbot of the holy

Trinity of the mount of Rouen, o Hugh by name,

who still survives; that when he was in

the service of the aforesaid Count of Normandy William,

already then King p of the English, when there was treated in

the court of honest men and worthy of memory, of whom

the King himself had had knowledge, or had heard the fame;

among the chief, this admirable man was mentioned,

with the highest praise extolling his renown, his humility,

wisdom, discretion, the cheerfulness of mind and countenance

devout to God, the eloquence of his speech, the elegance of his morals,

the reverence of his subjects. He also marveled,

that in these modern times, from a place

so celebrated, no person migrated to him, no

sedulity of the successors of so great a Father or of the Monks

of the place, as it was wont, sought his Royal magnificence: he sends one to inquire about his cult and the state of the monastery:

so much so that when for a certain legation

that same man, from whom we heard these things, was on one occasion sent

to Verdun; among other things it was given him in commands by that same King and

his honorable q wife, that he should seek out

the most renowned convent of S. Vitonus to lodge there,

and the Father and Brothers of the place

on his part devoutly to salute, and solicitously to note,

whether the same cult of honesty and religion

shone as of old; who was the Father of the monastery; whether in him

the specimen of ancestral paternity and sweetness shone forth;

whether in the Sons the ancient ornament of gravity and reverence

stood out; whether the abundance of temporal things overflowing,

whether the grace of spiritual delights from the richness

of the house of God was inebriating the inhabitants; he should look at all things,

examine each with lively wit, and to him

report.

[88] But what circumstances came between, why the aforesaid

man turned aside to lodge elsewhere, and to the King and Queen hoping the best

reported the unhoped-for, it is not

ours to declare; especially since at that

time, in which this was done, and how greatly he esteemed him dead he declares. the boyish r ferule

still forbade us to attend to these or similar things. Let it suffice to have noted

only this, that the King, having heard the things which

he had not hoped, recalling to mind the excellent conversation

of the notable man worthy of memory,

with so many redoublings bewailed his death, with so much reciprocal

return extolled his merit, repeating

with wondrous praises his renown, and again and again

repeating the undue and ungrateful services, repaid in turn,

of the negligent Sons to the paternal sedulity of those forgiven, in

this very thing too the whole court redoubling; so that

it was plainly given to all to understand, that if fame had granted his wishes,

the church was to be donated with many gifts,

and to be honored with much affection by the Royal munificence.

We saw a demoniac, brought to the monastery

of B. Vitonus, within very few days bring back the joys of plenary

health: whom when on his first

arrival, bound with thongs and constrained with ropes, A demoniac cannot be led to the sepulchre.

within the crypt, to the memorial of the Saints resting

there, his parents wished to lead, they were in no way

able: I believe the demon fearing the presence

of those Saints, by whose merits that same church

is illustrated, and by whose presence it is decorated.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

a In

the very brief Chronicle of this monastery, printed after the Chronicle of Hugh,

in the Labbean Library page 296, from the year 1009 to 1223, it is read thus:

1034 The Dedication of this church, in honor of B. Peter and all

the Apostles. 1047, The Ordination of the Lord Odilard, Abbot of good memory of this

place. 1070 Odilard, first Abbot of this place, on the holy day of Easter … the IV of April, gave his body to the earth.

the Sammarthani enumerate some Abbots from the year 1403 to 1624,

who all seem to have been Commendatory. Of the earlier Abbots, I find no

catalogue collected by anyone.

Acts we shall give on 24 August; but another of the same name: for that one was Richard's disciple not

at Verdun, but at Lobbes; nor until after his

death was brought to Verdun by Waleran, then by Theodwin Bishop

of Liège constituted Abbot of S. Hubert, in the year 1055. The place

is worthy that its history should be had described from its origin, from its own (if any

survive) ancient monuments. We shall therefore await this labor from the Cenobites of Andage,

for the constructing of a Commentary on S. Hubert at 3

November.

the diocese of Châlons, concerning which we treated in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of S.

Urbanus Pope I on 25 May, on account of the body of some S. Urbanus brought thither,

and believed to be of the Roman Pontiff. The Catalogue of Abbots no one has hitherto

woven: the Sammarthani only report the name of the Abbacy.

the diocese of Cahors, by Clovis, first Christian King of the Franks, by

vow for the success of the Gothic war founded, as they say. Peter

of Vaux-de-Cernay treating of it, chap. 63 of the History of the Albigensians, does not please me, when he says, it is called

"Mosaicum," as if its origin

he had dedicated, says Wasseburgius, until his successor Theoderic had it transferred into the middle of the church, with great reverence and devotion: which

Theoderic brought many damages on the monastery of S. Vitonus; and adhering to the Henrician Antipope

Guibert, expelled Rodulf from his place; toward the end however

of his life, before two Monks sent by him, penitent and absolved,

he obtained grace in the year 1090.

Arthur too attributes to him the laying in the year 1107 of the foundations of a new church: but both make Helias the 4th Abbot, of whom however before the year 1130 they find no mention. But hence it appears, that Hugh is to be interposed, from at least the year 1192 (sic): and to him rather should be attributed the laying of the said foundations, but his life prolonged beyond the year 1102.

p In the year 1065, Edward King of England died: who because he was without sons,

appointed his kinsman William, Count of the Normans, to reign after him;

and on the day of the Lord's Nativity, at London, he was elevated and crowned

King: not however, until Harold his rival was conquered; and he died in 1087 on the V Ides of September.

q This was Mathildis, daughter of Baldwin of Flanders.

r Since he himself in the aforecited place says he was ordained Abbot in the year of his age XXXII, he must have been born in the year 1066; and these things done, before under Abbot Rudolf, about the year 1085, he put on the Monk's habit; wherefore those unhoped-for things, which he hints were reported to the King about the state of the monastery; it will be necessary to begin from the time of Abbot Grimold, who in the year 1075 (when Hugh was not yet ten years old etc.) gave up the Abbacy: whom on page 215, at the year 1077 in which he died, he says was excused from the Prelacy of the Abbacy: because he was of a simple nature … These

points, thus printed in Labbe, sufficiently show some gap in the Ms.:

some lines being erased, in which Hugh had indicated that Abbot's ineptitude, and

the discipline relaxed under him.

EPITOME OF THE OTHER LIFE

From Menard and Wasseburgius.

Venerable Richard, Abbot of S. Vitonus of Verdun, in Lorraine

FROM HUGH MENARD.

[1] From the church of Rheims B. Richard was born of a noble place, with a father

Walter, a mother Theodrada, in the district of Bantonium

Rheims. As a boy he was sent to Rheims by his parents, that

in the cathedral church he might give himself to the study of letters and piety;

of which church afterward, on account of his singular

piety and doctrine, he was made Cantor, and afterward

life. Meanwhile to Rheims came Frederic Count of Verdun,

kindled with the same desire c: where he was very

kindly received by the Dean: who, since their vows were the same, much amid the feasts

about the contempt of the world, he passes over to the monastery of S. Vitonus; and the good of the monastic life

they conversed together, and concerning embracing it

they entered into counsel. Then the monastery of S. Vitonus at

Verdun, on account of the incursions of the Normans, was small,

and was inhabited by seven Monks, and those Scots.

Over them presided a man of great simplicity, Fingenius

the Abbot, who, since he ruled another monastery,

namely of S. Felix, now S. Clement, outside

the pomerium of the city of Metz, rarely approached the monastery

of S. Vitonus; from which no slight detriment to regular discipline

followed. in it, by the counsel of S. Odilo, Yet God

the best and greatest, who wished to restore this place to its pristine

splendor, brought it about that they put on the monastic

cowl in the very monastery of S. Vitonus.

But when the unbridled Monks did not respond to their vows,

they betook themselves to the convent of Cluny;

where to S. Odilo the Abbot they laid open their zealous endeavors

mind being perceived, persuaded them, to return to their own

monastery; subjoining, that for that reason they had been called to that

monastery by God, that in it the regular

discipline they might repair. The holy man therefore

obeying, to the convent of S. Vitonus they returned.

But when they could no longer bear the disdain of the Monks,

again they resolved to desert the place,

that to the monastery of S. Paul, then situated outside

the walls of Verdun; in which the regular discipline,

they might betake themselves; and by divine command, he perseveres and this counsel they would have

brought to an end, had not God opposed. There was then at Verdun,

beside the church of the holy Mother of God Mary,

she was bending to prayer all night, there appeared a certain one grave and comely

with venerable majesty, commanding her,

that at the morrow's light early she should meet Fingenius the Abbot,

who was then in the monastery of S. Vitonus; and

should say to him in his name, that he should take care that those two novices be bound

by monastic vows; lest that church, to

which by divine providence and counsel they had been sent,

should lose them not without its very great detriment.

The Recluse obeyed the vision; and on the next day, which was

sacred to the translation of our Holy Father Benedict, she approached the Abbot,

and narrated to him the vision f. And Fingenius the Abbot opening

to them the will of God, took care that they be bound by the sacrament

of religion; and returning to the monastery of S.

Felix, weighed down with years, a little after died.

[2] The Brothers came together therefore, to elect an Abbot.

[3] But these Bishops under the name l of Senators,

in the time of the persecutions, for two hundred and forty

and all had been buried in the same place. Their

burial is still seen in the ancient cemetery, which to be

like a garden behind the greater church of that same monastery, I myself

saw when I dwelt in that monastery. There is a huge

stone, ten feet in length, and seven

in breadth, supported by nine columns, on which

round about these verses are inscribed n:

Recognize, all ye faithful standing near;

This house here embraces eight Senators, he erects a common tomb for them.

Whom the See of Verdun deserved as its presidents.

O how great a place art thou, who keepest so many Fathers for thyself:

Through whom thou art safe, through whom most pleasingly thou shinest:

Therefore may they save their peoples gathering here,

May they preserve, O Brothers, here and everywhere, insisting on praises.

Under those nine columns the ground is paved with stones,

on which round about these verses are inscribed.

Abbot Richard, enlarging this Temple,

By digging found here beneath the joined sepulchres

Of eight Pontiffs; of whom that one, more fittingly than these,

Had decreed the seat to be changed. Hence night fell upon him;

This voice was then rendered to the Sacristan Brother.

Say that the Abbot permit us in our seats

To await the day of the Lord: signs shall follow for him.

No right hands of ours corrupted with rottenness,

Placed upon our breasts, but the very hands p

Adorned with white gloves shall he find in the morning.

Joyful, the Abbot then added a lectern to the tomb,

Lest any tread this ground with unreverent foot.

This place is cultivated with great veneration by the Monks.

[4] Among others he receives Count Lietardus. The blessed Abbot Richard therefore, among the other men

of his age notable for piety, as the sun among other

stars, sparkled; and by his brilliance he scattered the darkness of vices

from many other convents in France, Lorraine,

Germany, and Flanders: for he bore the care

of one and twenty monasteries, from which

he had wiped off the filth and rust. Lietardus

the Count, kinsman of the Emperor Otto, having left

the world and its pomps, allured by his fame, in the convent

of S. Vitonus put on the cowl; and gave to S. Vitonus

the fief of Ballodium, his son Menegaud protesting,

and in all ways forbidding

the transfer. So that the father Lietardus was compelled,

having left the cloister, to plead the cause before the Emperor.

Who, when he was returning, the fief being adjudged to the Monks of S. Vitonus;

at Trier in the monastery of S. Maximinus, intercepted by disease,

died. When B. Richard had learned this,

at once he betook himself to Trier; and by the interposed

authority of Gilbert, Count of Luxembourg, and he buries him:

he translated his body to his own monastery,

where he honorably buried it in the cloister, in which

this epitaph is still read: Lietardus, COUNT

AND MONK, WHO GAVE US BALLODIUM

WITH THE BAN. After the father's death Menegaud

the Count usurped the fief: but Richard

impugning him sharply before the Emperor, who was then at Thionville,

he was compelled to yield from his unjust

possession. Mathildis, Countess of Saxony, mother

of Frederic and Hermann, the Counts, Monks

of S. Vitonus, and of Adalbero, Bishop of Verdun,

much regarded B. Richard, and bequeathed many lands

and revenues to the monastery of S. Vitonus; to omit

the many gifts which she offered to the church of that same convent,

and in it she also wished to be buried; likewise the brothers Hermann and Frederic, the Counts. whose Epitaph

still exists: Mathildis, COUNTESS

OF SAXONY, MOTHER OF THE LORD ADALBERO, BISHOP

OF VERDUN, OF GODFREY, AND OF GOZELO

THE DUKES, OF HERMANN AND FREDERIC THE COUNTS.

But Hermann and Frederic while they lived

had asked the Abbot that in the same monastery they might be buried.

It happened therefore that Frederic was sent

by that same holy man to the monastery of S. Vedastus

of Arras, that he might discharge the office of Provost, where also

after his death he was buried. Hearing this, Richard betook himself thither,

and ordered the corpse to be dug up, disemboweled it, and,

the entrails being buried, translated it to his own monastery,

and there honorably buried it; for this last

office to his friend, and companion of religion, he wished

to bestow. Nor long after Gregory, Archdeacon

of Liège, son of Count Hermann, the world repudiated,

was made a Monk in the convent of S. Vitonus.

[5] he takes care that the monastery be not enclosed within the walls: At that time r this monastery was outside the city's

pomerium, and more suited to the solitary

life: but Haymo, Bishop of Verdun, of

the stock of the Dukes of Bavaria, to extend the city's pomerium

[6] Not long after the Emperor Henry came to Verdun,

he orders S. Henry the Emperor to remain in his kingdom, that he might enjoy the holy conversations of B. Richard. Having entered

into the cloister he burst forth into these words: This is my rest

forever and ever: here will I dwell, since I have chosen it;

sufficiently signifying that he, the purple laid aside, wished to put on the cowl. The Bishop

exhorted the Abbot, lest with so great a detriment of the Empire,

he should clothe with the cowl the Emperor, who lacked male

offspring. But the Emperor pressed, and with more contentious

mind asked to be enrolled in the register of the Monks:

but the Abbot circumvented him with a certain pious fraud.

For the Brothers being called together, he asked of the Emperor,

whether he desired to be a Monk. The Emperor dissolved in

tears, answered that he greatly sought this.

The Abbot subjoined, that, since he longed

to be a Monk, he should promise him obedience. The Emperor

promised. The Abbot answered, that he indeed received him

as a Monk, but enjoined upon him in the name of God,

that he return to govern the Empire. The Emperor

therefore, circumvented by this pious fraud, commending himself

to the prayers of the Abbot and Monks,

returned to govern the Empire. A few days after

Haymo, Bishop of Verdun, died, the same a little after dead who had conferred very many

goods on the monastery of S. Vitonus, and had built the Abbacy

of S. Maurus of the same city, in which he had placed

Nuns of the Order of S. Benedict. Not long

after also followed the death of the Emperor Henry.

Then a certain Hermit of Bonneval, as is held

in two Mss. codices x of the abbey of S. Vitonus, when

he was passing the night in prayer, about midnight, saw

advanced; and he interrupted one of them, whither so

quickly they hastened. He answered, that to the death of the Emperor

they hastened. The Hermit asked God, that

He would reveal to him, what would be the Emperor's end. And

at the ninth hour of morning he saw those same demons, passing

before his cell, who were leading a bear bound with a chain.

The Hermit asked one of them,

who this bear was. The demon answered,

that it was the soul of the Emperor, which they were leading to God's

tribunal to be judged. The Hermit prayed God, that He would

reveal to him, by the help of S. Benedict he understands him saved. what would be the outcome of this judgment. Toward evening

he saw those same demons, returning, very sad;

and he asked of them, what at last had been done

with the soul of the Emperor. They answered, that it had been by a certain little old

Abbot defended, in judgment, and as

his own reclaimed. The Hermit gave thanks to God,

and to blessed Father Benedict, by whose merits he believed the soul

of the Emperor to have been saved; and made the vision

known to Abbot Richard: who enjoined many prayers

for the soul of the Emperor, and also bestowed many things

on the poor.

[7] To Henry the second succeeded Conrad, a very pious

Emperor, he procures peace for the Emperor Conrad, and one who uniquely loved Richard the Abbot:

by whose prudence and counsel the wars

y and feuds, which intervened between the Emperor himself and

Gozelo, Duke of Lorraine, brother of Frederic

the Monk and of Hermann, Count of Verdun,

were pacified. But to Bishop Haymo

succeeded z Rembert: who also loved Richard

much, and was munificent toward the churches.

The affairs of his monastery being most excellently settled, with the leave

of the Bishop of Verdun, he set out for Jerusalem.

When he was passing through Trier, Eurinus the Abbot α joined himself

as a companion to him. having set out for Jerusalem, First they came to Constantinople,

that they might survey the holy places of that city.

There they were honorably received by the Emperor β and the Patriarch,

by whom they were enriched with many gifts.

But the Patriarch gave to blessed Richard two little portions

of the Lord's Cross γ, which Richard had engraved

in gold in the manner of a cross, which he hung from his neck,

as a most safe shield against the demons;

the Patriarch added also many Relics of the Saints,

which the Abbot himself, returning, placed in the convent

of S. Vitonus. Both Abbots therefore being dismissed

by the Emperor and Patriarch, with a happy voyage,

Christ as their patron, were carried into Judaea.

Having entered Jerusalem they surveyed all the holy places with the highest

devotion. But blessed Richard,

in memory of Christ's baptism, he recovers by a miracle the Cross lost in the Jordan: wished to be washed

in the Jordan: but as he was being washed, the aforesaid Cross,

which hung from his neck, without his knowing it

slipped into the river. Washed, he came out from the river:

and when he was farther off, recalling the Cross,

it not being found, he returned to the river; and standing on the bank,

looking hither and thither, tears welling up, he saw the Cross,

across the river swimming toward him:

which received, giving thanks to God, he hung on his neck.

Afterward he went to Antioch: and the holy places of that

city being venerated, returning into France, with a certain holy

man, whose name was Simeon, with the greatest

joy he was received by his Monks: to whom

he gave holy Relics for adorning the church.

Many Monks and Bishops visited him, among

whom Wolbodo δ, Bishop of Liège, and Roger

ε, Bishop of Châlons, who, inflamed by his sacred colloquies,

built monasteries in their cities,

of S. Lawrence at Liège and of S. Peter at Châlons,

ς the care of which they committed to B. Richard,

who led to them a colony from his own Monks:

Afterward ζ blessed Richard began with fair buildings

to adorn his monastery, returned, he adorns the church; which was decorated with so many precious relics.

Columns, approaching the likeness

of marble, from the monastery of S. Amandus η

in Aquitaine he had brought, with which the cloister of the monastery

he decorated.

[8] But here is not to be passed over the charity of the blessed man,

never to die out through any ages. Odo, Count of Champagne,

besieged the castle of Commercy, with this

mind, that he might utterly destroy it. Which heard θ,

Richard at once ran to the camp of Odo, he saves the Relics from the flames,

with a certain Monk; but when he had come to the place,

he found the greatest part of the castle scorched by flames.

The Monk, companion of the blessed man, wished through

the midst of the flames to break in, that the sacred Relics, which

were kept in the chapel of the castle, he might rescue from the fire:

[9] A little after he was created Abbot, the blood

of Christ by a certain Monk, performing the divine service,

was spilled on the ground ο. Richard deferred the punishment

of this fault to the next chapter: he is admonished by an Angel, on account of the brother's fault not corrected; but when by night

he was lying in his bed, there appeared to him an Angel terrible

in aspect, who threatened him with a sword. Richard, astonished,

leaped down from the bed, and to him lying on the ground, and

ignorant of the cause of so great fury, the Angel said;

that God was angry with him, because against him, who the most sacred

Mysteries had profaned, he had not animadverted.

At once the Brothers being called together into the Chapter, to them the vision

he narrated, and ordered himself to be beaten with rods sharply and even to

blood; but on the author of the fault only a light

penalty he imposed. By these things we are taught, how

hateful to God and ungrateful it is, to handle irreverently the most sacred

Mysteries. On another day he was lying upon his bed,

meditating some passage of holy Scripture. When

into his sight gave themselves S. Peter and S. Vitonus,

the tutelary Saints of the monastery. The Abbot, giving thanks

for the grace of so great a visitation, the cause of their coming

inquired from them, they answered, that they

had gone around all the places of the monastery, and had found all rightly

disposed: but that he had sinned in his office,

because he had not yet given the signal for the nocturnal synaxis, he sees SS. Peter and Vitonus

the hour already past; and this said they disappeared.

When he was constructing the crypts of the church, he found

the relics of S. Nicasius π the Martyr, Bishop of Rheims:

and therefore he established, that yearly his feast day in

his monastery should be celebrated. On the first day on which the feast

was celebrated, likewise S. Nicasius, the nocturnal synaxis performed, he saw

S. Nicasius, adorned with the Pontiff's miters, from the very

crypts coming forth; who in the choir gave himself into the sight

of the Abbot and Monks, as if to give thanks

for the honor, by them to him conferred.

Many Abbots, subject to blessed Richard, to the general

chapter in the monastery of S. Vitonus had come together;

they being present, a little chapel, under the Mass he is lifted from the earth: which from the name of S.

Nicholas he had constructed, he was taking care to have dedicated; and in it

the most sacred Mysteries celebrating ρ, he was seen by all

more than the measure of one cubit from the earth on high

lifted up. in Lent, sick, he asks for bread sprinkled with water and ashes: When on the day of Parasceve, on account of the Lenten

fast, he was very weak in body,

and could not on that holy day abstain from food; he ordered

bread sprinkled with ash to be given to him, that all

delight might be absent: which however in eating he recognized to be of the best taste;

and the water, which he had ordered to be given him to drink,

seemed to bring back the taste of wine. The Abbot again ordered

water and bread sprinkled with ash to be brought; but

they seemed of the same taste as before: which with thanksgiving

he took. There is still preserved a bowl or

plate, into which water of this kind being poured, was turned

into wine, in the sacristy of the church of S. Vitonus of Verdun;

into which the Monks are wont to pour water,

which when drunk those laboring from fever are cured. From Jerusalem

he had brought back an image of Christ fixed upon the cross,

after the likeness of that one, which Nicodemus had ordered

to be erected. he is in turn besprinkled with the tears of the Crucified, This image he often kissed,

bedewing it with tears, and the image itself in turn poured tears

upon the head of B. Richard. At last the blessed

man Richard, worn out with old age, migrated to the seats of the Blessed.

Richard, Bishop of Verdun,

his son in holy baptism, and afterward his disciple,

taught by him good morals and sacred letters in the monastery

of S. Vitonus, was present at his death, washed the body,

and honorably buried it. Bishop Richard buries him dead. But Richard

the Abbot died on the 14th of June, in the year of the Lord one thousand forty-

six. He was buried first in the crypts,

which he had built; then in the year one thousand two hundred

thirty-eight, his body was translated

into the chapel of S. Nicholas, which is now commonly called by his name

S. Richard's. At last about the year one thousand

six hundred it was translated into the church,

not far from the sacristy opposite the chapel of S. Sanctinus:

and over him a marble stone was placed, supported by four

columns. it is translated at the end of the 16th century. In which translation his

chasuble, girdle, and other priestly insignia, without

corruption were found. But although B. Richard is of so great

merit, nevertheless his feast in

the monastery is not celebrated: because he is not yet enrolled in the number

of the Saints. This Life I composed

from the old monuments of the monastery of S. Vitonus

transmitted to me; which is truly full of wonderful things,

as Trithemius says in the Chronicle of Hirsau.

ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.

d Hugh

writes that it was first deliberated, and Odilo approached, before the habit

at S. Vitonus was taken; of the second deliberation he is silent.

f He adds

the same, that the cloister's door was divinely unbarred for her about to go out, and

likewise divinely closed for her returning. Certainly such Recluses could not go out by themselves,

the key remaining with the Prelate who had enclosed them.

he writes) came to the place of the election at the solicitation of Frederic;

and that all the Monks, after receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Body,

sworn according to custom, with one voice named Richard, divinely thus inspired.

h The same

indicates, that the place was several times devastated by the barbarians: namely from the beginning

of its foundation, through 8 centuries preceding the introduction of Monks under

Bishop Bercharius.

p It was printed — "verum positis manus ipsa," from which you can draw no sound sense; which by an easy change I have restored, even if somewhat sinning against the laws of quantities; of which the author was less observant, sufficiently appears. But these verses might seem composed in the time of Richard himself.

q Analogium, otherwise Pulpitum, above, from which the Lessons are recited: and to this perhaps pertains, what in num. 18 Hugh says, that he heard from many, that the bodies of five unnamed Bishops, beneath the pulpit, from which the Gospel is recited, are contained. It was printed "Analogium pulpitum," with no sense.

r In the very year in which Frederic died, says Wasseburgius, which the people of Vedastus in Rayzzius say was 1022; but into this time falls the Jerusalem pilgrimage of Richard.

That therefore a place may be given to the five-year anchoresis, following from that lawsuit, the matter must have happened much earlier. Nor does Hugh disagree, when, as it were

outside the order of time, in num. 73 treating of the same anchoresis he says; But the man of God dwelt first in a place, 5 miles distant from Remiremont etc.

s Thus I believe it is better written, than in Wasseburgius "Ronibec."

t Only one was there, says Hugh: but several could have, and it is likely, gradually come.

u Wasseburgius adds another in this manner:

The same happened to another, formerly blind; who, when he was likewise persuaded

that he could be illumined, if with that water, with which Richard washed his hands,

he should wash his eyes; the same obtained, also recovered sight.

x Wasseburgius cites the Life of the good Abbot Richard, about whose age and authority I presume to determine nothing, before I have seen it.

y The same

in Bishop Rembert sets forth the cause, because the Bishop, Count

Hermann being dead, to whom he had committed his stead in the County of Verdun, as

its Lord by the donation of Frederic his brother, had substituted in his place

Otto, Count of Chiny, passing over Gozelo, brother of Frederic and

of Hermann: who as it were complaining of the injury before Conrad and

suffering a repulse, invaded that man's lands; and was the instigator to Robert,

King of the Franks, that he should claim Lorraine, as his own, by arms;

then having entered the County of Verdun, he killed Otto, and brought great

damages on the possessions of the Bishop. To this pertains Sigebert in

the Chronicle at 1026; Robert, King of the Franks, intended his mind to invading

Lorraine; but quickly desisted from this attempt.

Duke Gothelo, who on account of private hatred burdened the Kingdom of Conrad,

and other Princes, being brought to the unity of peace, prosperity accrued to the King

and tranquillity to the Kingdom. Anselm, Canon of Liège,

or rather Aegidius the amplifier of Hariger and Anselm, in the deeds

of Bishop Wazo, chap. 95 mentions a war, by which Godfrey, in others Gozelo,

was permitted to rage against the city of Verdun; which, devastating with a most prevailing

fire, also the church of the Mother of God, both first despoiled of its ornament,

and afterward utterly overthrew.

z The same asserts, that the Episcopate was offered to Richard; but that he himself among the Clergy and Princes of his country took pains, that Rembert be elected.

α Thus Wasseburgius: it was wrongly printed "Primus": but it was Ervinus, in others Eherwinus, Abbot of S. Martin, who wrote the Life of S. Simeon, as a witness and companion of the pilgrimage.

β There reigned at Constantinople, from the year 975, Basil and Constantine the brothers, sons of Romanus the Younger: but the Patriarch was still Sergius, surviving until the year 1026.

γ Hugh

does not mention the lofty Constantinople (which indeed is altogether out of the way,

removed by the whole Archipelago from Crete, which is wont to be left on the left by

those sailing to the Holy Land) and asserts that the Relics were donated by the Patriarch

of Jerusalem: which is much more likely.

δ I have already said that Wolbodo died, before Richard returned; but that his successor Durand was offended with him, on account of his not approving at once the Stephen whom he had substituted for him at Lobbes.

ε This one indeed still survived, until the year 1042, or at least 1035.

ς Both foundations seem to have been much earlier, and so it is narrated by Hugh.

ζ And this too was begun before, by the help of S. Henry the Emperor.

η Better S. Amantius, of whom Hugh in num. 68.

θ Wasseburgius says that by Gervinus, the scribe of the monastery, the danger was announced to the Abbot: but he narrates the matter a little otherwise in num. 22.

ι This Hugh describes at length, after num. 72: but it is Bar, the capital of the County of Bar in Lorraine.

λ Dammartin, in Latin Domnus-Martinus, a castle

with a town now almost ruined, between Paris and Soissons, nearer to the latter than

to the former. Wasseburgius adds, that the wife of the deceased for this cause conferred many

goods on the monastery of S. Vitonus, and likewise the wife of Count Odo.

μ Bretueil commonly Breteuil, a town

of Normandy, 6 leagues from Évreux. Hugh indicates, that before the battle Waleran, bound by a vow

of entering a monastery; on that title sought and

obtained his life from the adversary.

ν This life we have in tome 2 of the 4th Benedictine Century page 531; and from it we understand, that he was by his true name called Chrauding, whence usage made Roding (just as from Chlodoveus it made Ludovicus), but that he died on 17 September, not December, as wrongly in his Supplement Saussay. Mabillon cites the Legend we have desired, speaking thus of the said Life: Among which Abbacies, undertaken by Richard,

the church of Beaulieu, notable for the merits of the glorious Martyr Maurice,

and of S. Roding the Confessor, whose life he himself composed in honorable discourse,

and whose bier he decorated with gold and silver, exists ennobled by his

sacred studies. Hence led into hope of obtaining the aforesaid Legend, I asked it of Mabillon, and by his kindness easily obtained it.

ξ Wasseburgius says, that these visions, offered toward the end of his life, are contained in the ancient Mss. of S. Vitonus.

ο The same from the old registers of the monastery only writes, that the sacred Blood was spilled upon the altar: but he refers the matter not here, but to the beginning of his rule (as was fitting), and makes the first of the aforesaid Visions the following.

π S. Nicasius is venerated

on 14 December. Wasseburgius adds that for this cause the Religious of Beaulieu

instituted the feast, to be celebrated yearly, so that the matter seems to indicate that the thing happened among them.

ρ The same says this happened toward the end of the Preface, when the Monks were singing the Sanctus; and that the anniversary of that Dedication is celebrated on the 15th Kalends of November.

ς This is thought to be held at Lucca in Etruria: and Wasseburgius here again cites the ancient Chartularies of the monastery.