ON THE HOLY CONFESSORS—OR MARTYRS?—POTENTINUS, FELICIUS AND SIMPLICIUS,
PATRONS OF STEINFELD IN THE DIOCESE OF COLOGNE.
6TH CENTURY
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Potentinus, of Steinfeld in the diocese of Cologne (Saint) Felicius, of Steinfeld in the diocese of Cologne (Saint) Simplicius, of Steinfeld in the diocese of Cologne (Saint)
BHL Number: 6904, 6905, 6906
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
§ I. The controversy is proposed, and the text of the more ancient Legend, for the first part.
Five German miles above the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle, Formerly at Carden on the 3rd of January on the left bank of the latter, lies Carrodunum, otherwise Caradonum, commonly Carden, a town distinguished by a College of Canons, to which Saint Castor, a Presbyter of the place, a disciple of Saint Maximinus of Trier in the 4th century, brought its first celebrity, concerning whom our Bollandus treated on the 13th of February. This Castor, while he lived, is believed to have buried there Saint Potentinus with his companions: whose bodies, translated to Steinfeld in the 10th century—formerly of Benedictine Nuns, now venerated on the 18th of June at Steinfeld: now an Abbey of Premonstratensian Canons, situated on the border of the dioceses of Trier and Cologne—are venerated as Patrons of the place, on this day of their translation, with an Octave: and likewise on the 3rd of January, on which the people of Carden and of Coblenz seem to venerate them, as on the natal day of Saint Potentinus. Whether one ought to call them Confessors or Martyrs, and by what rite especially the feast ought to be kept, the writings make ambiguous—writings utterly most diverse, written about them before and after the coming of the Premonstratensians, and brought to us; neither sufficiently ancient to give sure credence concerning things done in the 4th century; but both to be set forth here summarily, that the Reader may be able to discern for himself on which side the greater probability stands.
[2] From the year, says the Premonstratensian writer, of the Lord's Incarnation 920, in which Henry the First, Emperor of the Romans, from the beginning of the founding of the monastery about the year 920. (rather to be called King) took up the Kingdom, for one hundred and seventy-seven years, and so up to 1097, under Abbesses and Nuns professing the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Lord was served in the monastery of Steinfeld. When these were removed on account of their negligence, Canons Regular from the monastery of Springiersbach were substituted; which about the year 1097 was transferred to Canons Regular, who, professing the Rule of Blessed Augustine, for twenty-three years, that is, up to 1120, served the Lord there. These men, whatever place they occupied, had no slight zeal to write Legendaries of the Saints throughout the cycle of the year, and to communicate the histories of the Patrons found in each place, to be transcribed by other professors of their Order. Hence that Legend, which after the Translation of the bodies of the Saints was written for the use of the Benedictine Nuns, from the instruction of the Canons of Carden, we received not indeed from Steinfeld, the Life passed into several manuscript Legendaries of the Order, where the earlier one seems to have been abolished by a new one introduced over it; but from two monasteries of Canons Regular, one the Cologne of Corpus Christi, the other of Böddeken near Paderborn, and also from a third manuscript of the Collegiate church of Saint Salvator at Utrecht, always without the prologue, which—desirable indeed to us, but not very necessary for the use of the Choir—those writers everywhere omitted. The last manuscript is thus entitled, The Life of Saint Potentinus the Duke; in the second is added, and Confessor. But the text of all is the same here.
[3] The venerable confessor Potentinus, therefore, drew his genealogy from the most illustrious lineage of the Aquitanians: where Potentinus is said to be Aquitanian by birth, and clothed with the garment of Christ, in the bosom of the Church he was trained from infancy in sacred disciplines. His parents indeed, as far as the world goes, opulent and noble, were the foremost cultivators of the Christian confession; and they sedulously, by the example of exhortation, formed the offspring born to them to follow the same way. They strove also, from the earliest flower of his age, to instill in him whatever incentives of the virtues, so that the still rude and tender mind might taste beforehand what afterward, in advancing time, the rest of his life might firmly retain… Finally, as afterward became clear by evident signs, and piously brought up by Christian parents, not without a certain divine providence, as an omen of future prosperity and salvation, he received the name Potentinus. And when he had been brought to the age of understanding, he longed to emulate, by increases of the virtues, the paternal nobility which he had signally expressed by the privilege of his name. His first virtue was: frequently to break the incentives of the vices, to give in himself no tale of obscene rumor, to bridle the fervor of adolescence, never to commit anything such by which he could offend the grace of the heavenly Judge; but with cautious moderation, turning aside neither to the right nor to the left, he walked the royal road. For he knew that it was written: The best measure in everything, and a praiseworthy mean everywhere.
[4] Knowing therefore that marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, he was joined by the conjugal bond, with this intention, namely: that, with matrimony once announced, he might seize the grade of chastity, and by the honor of his morals and his continence again restore celibacy. that he had sons Felicius and Simplicius For he preferred to proceed safely in lower things, than to waver with unsteady step in higher ones. From this nuptial union two most illustrious pledges
named Felicius and Simplicius, as the outcome of events afterward proved, were begotten with a wholly happy progeny. And when the glorious servant of Christ shone with rather widespread fame, and the munificence of charity in him and the constancy of his virtues had become known far and wide, by the King of the Aquitanians, who at that time strenuously and nobly governed the helm of that nation, with friends and parents consenting, and with them, having given up the Prefecture and his homeland, he was received into the court. And perceiving in him the title of nobility and the elegance of his merits, by the acclamation of all he is most worthily appointed in the place of Duke. He inclined this peak of so great dignity not to the glory of the world, but to the humility of the Christian religion: now taught by the Apostolic example, having become all things to all men that he might gain all; he anticipated his elders in honor, he admonished his juniors with paternal affection, everywhere through the office committed to him he sought studiously not his own things but the things that are God's. For although he still sweated in the gymnasium of the secular arena, yet with ardent desire, with all his inward parts, he continually adhered to the Lord; clothed, namely, with the breastplate of justice, he took up the shield of faith: having his feet shod in preparation for the Gospel of peace.
[5] This forementioned servant of God, therefore, … inspired by divine grace, having trodden underfoot the delights of the world, in order to gain the glory of the heavenly fatherland, went out from his land and from his kindred: so that he who before, in the array of wars, contended studiously as an athlete for earthly affairs, might afterward, about to serve Christ the King, take up the wages of eternal life. having gone on pilgrimage to the holy places But not unmindful that many turned back after Satan, fearing to leave the aforesaid two sons, namely Felicius and Simplicius, behind him, he took them with him: so that they too, having put off the worldly tunic, walking the way of truth, naked and unencumbered, might follow the footsteps of Christ. But how much he endured for God on this journey, how assiduous he was in frequenting the holy places, is clear in this. For while he traversed many Regions, visiting the Churches of Christ, it happened that he also entered the city of Trier, then most celebrated for the patronages of the Saints. At that time Blessed Maximinus, that he joined himself to Saint Maximinus of Trier, adorned with the Pontifical stole, administered the See of this city. An excellent Pastor: who then, a true teacher of the Catholic faith, cultivated the field of the Lord's crop, an untiring husbandman, with the seed of the Divine word: for he was wholly busied about the salvation of souls, wholly overflowing with the bowels of mercy. By this chosen Prelate of Christ the holy man was charitably received, and treated with the office of hospitality and humanity, and he set forth the whole cause of his pilgrimage: and his most holy companions, like Mary, reclined beside his feet in listening; lest, when the Lord came, he should appear empty in His sight, but might bring back the talent committed to him doubled with interest.
[6] Nor long after, while he tarried there; perceiving the frequency of those coming and the intolerable tumults of men; exceedingly fearing lest the burdens of the world, from whom afterward, separated by his zeal for solitude, which he had earlier cast off, should again somewhat flatter him under urban delights; he approached the Pontiff, earnestly entreating that he would permit him to migrate to more remote places, where he might have been able to spend the whole course of his life without disquiet; knowing that it was written, that he who serves God as a soldier ought not to be entangled in secular affairs. The Blessed Prelate, hearing his wish, although much saddened if he should be deprived of the presence of so great a guest, yet acquiesced in his prayers; and showed him a certain place beside the streams of the Moselle, whose name is Caronotum, he submitted himself to Saint Castor the Presbyter, within his Diocese, suited to his purpose. Now about the same time a certain Presbyter, named Castor, of wondrous sanctity, constructing a small little cell of habitation in the same place, dwelt there, eminent in every kind of virtue; rich in alms, sublime in humility, sober in mind, chaste in body, midway between the rich and the poor, wholly given to vigils and prayer, laboring day and night for love of the heavenly fatherland. To this spiritual father the confessor of Christ joined himself with brotherly charity; where, the more secretly, the more freely he served God; fighting, namely, the good fight, finishing his course, keeping the faith, for the rest knowing that there was laid up for him the crown of justice.
[7] Meanwhile, after a few days had passed, it happened that a certain merchant arrived at the same place with a ship laden with salt. and with him, by praying, rescued the ship from the danger of sinking; One of the neighboring almsmen implored him for this seasoning: but the merchant's obstinate mind, despising Christ in the poor man, denied the requests. As he was now departing and the ship was making for the deep, suddenly, the waves swelling, a very great storm arose, so that the utmost peril now threatened all. The misfortune of this man certain ones swiftly reported to the Servant of God, beseeching that through his prayer he might be freed from shipwreck. Immediately, the help of Christ being invoked, the storm was stilled, and all came out to land safe and unharmed. There are indeed many other miracles which the Lord deigned to work through him, unknown to us, known to God alone. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? But if we should attempt to write those things which we have learned by the truthful report of certain persons; time will fail sooner than the material.
[8] But how he also migrated from this world to the Lord, let us begin to explain. After the pious athlete and Holy Confessor of Christ, and finally, having died piously, was buried by him. his course faithfully accomplished, was to receive the rewards of his labor; he lay down, an infirmity prevailing: divine clemency predestining, that in the same place where he had sweated most in the service of God, thence he might attain to the crown of eternal beatitude. And so, Blessed Castor having been summoned, that by his prayers he might commend his soul to its Creator, fortified with the Lord's sacraments, freed from the prison-house of this life, he sent forth his spirit to the heavenly realms. And he was buried by the same Confessor of Christ and other approved persons, in a place worthy of the office of a funeral: where afterward the bodies of his sons, namely Felicius and Simplicius, were honorably entombed. In which place a little church was constructed by certain faithful men, in which to those adoring and believing many divine benefits were shown, to the praise and glory of the supreme Trinity, to whom is honor and jubilation with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
[9] Here is the end of the Legend, brought from Carden, and, at the points marked here … mutilated only in those places which, contributing nothing to the history, either praise the state of matrimony, Superfluous things are omitted; and Aquitaine fruitful in Saints, and the Saints Maximinus and Athanasius; or uselessly extend the discourse. And these things have been omitted with this end, that you may more easily judge whether in this whole narrative there is anything written improbably; except only the mention of a King ruling in Aquitaine, and constituting Potentinus Duke: namely from the usage of the 8th or 9th century, in which these things seem to have been written: but as for the miracle narrated in number 7, you will read it attributed to Saint Castor at greater length in his life. So, after many courses of time had rolled by, when the Lord had wished to declare the merits of the Holy Confessors, to the end that such illustrious luminaries, set upon a candlestick, should shine more widely, with the most splendid radiance of sanctity, to the salvation of many, and the translation of the bodies to Steinfeld is added, than they would have lain hidden, concealed beneath the recesses of a single place; it became known to a certain noble and religious man of Ripuaria, named Sigebodo, by a certain divine revelation, how they were to be translated thence, and conducted to a place worthier than the former tomb. Made more certain by this vision, and much rejoicing in the Lord, he obtained the same bodies from the Pontiff of Trier, to whom that place was subject. For, translated thence, he placed each in a separate sarcophagus, and reposited them with worthy honor in his estate of Steinfeld: where afterward, constructing a monastery, he instituted the cenobitic life of Nuns: who, living there under the regular path, should incessantly render divine praises to the Lord. To them also he assigned as much of the substance of his estates as could have sufficed them for necessities.
[10] The author of the other Legend adds, that, the coffins having been opened in which the bodies of the Saints had rested, a paradisal odor soothed not only the nostrils but also the minds of all; and that on that day the Lord, the giver of grace and of glory, deigned to magnify His Saints with every kind of grace of cures. And this Translation, he says, was made on the fourteenth of the Kalends of July: the 18th of June. and the treasure of the most holy Relics, precious above gold and topaz, was brought into the place where now its celebrated memory flourishes, situated in the forest which is called the Ardennes, in the district of the Eifel, in the place called Steinfeld; where the aforesaid noble man, according to his vow, had constructed a church, in honor of the holy Mother of God, and of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles: and there he gathered a number of Nuns; who, at the most sacred Relics of the blessed Potentinus, Felicius and Simplicius, should attend to the divine praises, and serve the Lord in the Regular institutes.
§. II. The age, origin, and authority of the other Legend, which makes Saint Potentinus and his companions martyrs, is examined.
[11] About the year, as I said elsewhere, 1120, Saint Norbert came to Prémontré, [the Canons of Steinfeld having been incorporated into the Premonstratensian Order after the year 1120,] and there laid the foundations of the new Order; who, since he had previously been a Canon at Xanten in the diocese of Cologne, among the first cares which he expended for the aid of his homeland, held not the least to lead thither a colony of his Brothers. Nor did the place have to be sought long, the same Canons Regular, who not so long before had obtained Steinfeld, submitting themselves to the Premonstratensian Order. And thus, says the writer of the other Legend, in the same Order until now service is rendered to the Lord, and, by God's clemency granting it, will be rendered; as long as the providence of God, disposing all things, foreknew it to be rendered to Himself. May our God therefore be blessed unto the ages, the Saint shines with many miracles, who did not exclude His little flock from His grace; but deigned piously to visit our place and paternally to make it His inheritance; while He willed to dedicate it, through the venerable Relics of the Saints, to the honor of His name, and to enrich it with a precious treasure; that He might raise up us, His poor, by the presence of such great Relics with steadfast confidence, and fortify us with so great a patronage. And through the merits of His Saints, the Lord has deigned to illustrate our place with such great miracles, and does not cease to heap benefits upon benefits; so that it may truly be said by all, that the Lord is in this place …
[12] In these words the other Legend nearly ends, by which alone you may understand that it was written not only by a Premonstratensian, but also a good many years after the introduction of this Order, a new Life is written about the year 1150, as of a Martyr, for this is what the particle "Until now" usually signifies. You will ask, how many? Fr. Melchior Weirtz, Pastor of Saint Andrew in Steinfeld of the same Order, about to publish the Life itself, under the approbation of the very Reverend D. Aegidius Gelenius, Canon at Saint Andrew's in Cologne and Archiepiscopal Historiographer, in the Commentary directed thereon to him, and sent to us from Steinfeld, prefaces thus: I judge it was written about the year 1150 more or less; namely when
the monastery was still administered by Provosts (of whom, says Miraeus in the Premonstratensian Chronicle, five are found to have been), and, with Frederick the Archbishop of Cologne assisting in this, it was enlarged by Theodoric Count of Are and reformed for the better, and endowed with greater goods and revenues in the year 1142. The same monastery then, about the year 1194, the Provosts being raised to Abbots, persists under their governance until now. But let us see the arguments by which the aforementioned Melchior judges that so great an antiquity must be conceded to this Life; and, what follows, that Saint Potentinus has been venerated as a Martyr for five hundred years and more. For thus he reasons for the year 1150.
[13] To that year I can refer the Canonical office which here in this place is publicly and solemnly chanted twice a year of Saint Potentinus the Martyr; and that it is taken from this manuscript Life, or this from it, is certainly manifested to those reading. For I found a manuscript Diurnal, which contains the Office of Saint Potentinus, and bears the year 1512. I found another, which has the Collect of the same Office, written in the year 1464. as is proved from a book written then: Finally I found a written Psalter, together with the Collects and Capitula customarily recited in every Office throughout the year, of the same hand as another similar one, in which these words may be read: This book was written, with others contemporary with it, in the year more or less one thousand one hundred and fifty; but cleaned from its old grime in the year 1549. It is of parchment and manuscript, yet much worn, although often bound anew. Since this contains the Collect of the same Office of the holy Martyr Potentinus, the same that there is today, that Life is taken from a more ancient rhythmical poem I have no doubt at all but that at the time at which that book was written, both the Office and the Life were in use among us; which Life, without the Prologue that is found in other copies, divided into certain Lessons, is customarily read for the Lessons of the Nocturns, at the time of the Translation, on the 18th of June, throughout the whole Octave. I saw thirdly another Manuscript of the Life, together with the Translation, but of such antiquity that I could scarcely read and understand it; especially because it consisted of meter and rhythms, strongly redolent of an ancient age.
[14] This last and more ancient than the others—if it is to prove anything—must be understood to have been of the same substance, it seems to be taken; as regards the narration contained in it, as the Life and the Office: but I am vehemently mistaken, unless it is itself the source of both; and therefore I fear lest the whole authority of both be poured back upon the Poet, who, about to make trial of his talent, having set aside the old Legend received from the people of Carden, preferred to invent another in the style of the Romances of that age, with more than poetic license, and to obtrude it as a legend. But this being supposed, it would be of excessive simplicity to lend it credence, and to change the old rite of the Office, and instead of a Duke and Confessor to name a Levite and Martyr. Meanwhile, following this, Grevenus, in the Additions to Usuard of the year 1521, wrote that on this day is venerated the Birthday (the people of Steinfeld call it the Translation) of the holy Martyrs Potentinus the Deacon, Felicius the Presbyter, and Simplicius the Soldier, resting in Steinfeld. The same word for word in German Adam Wallasser gave, the editor of the German Martyrology, printed at Dillingen in the year 1573, and reprinted there in '99; which, because it came to light with the Preface of our Fr. Peter Canisius on the cult of the Saints, my predecessors Bollandus and Henschenius are accustomed to cite under his name. The Florarium of the Saints, which the more recent Martyrologies followed. composed at the beginning of the same century, also speaks from a similar authority on the present day: Likewise of the holy Potentinus and his Companions, Martyrs. Yet, this change being introduced, the people of Steinfeld did not think that the dress of their Patron must also be changed; but his images and statues, however many we saw there in the year 1668, and however many survive to this day, old and new, represent the Saint armed in his whole body, with a lance and two arrows; namely a fitting dress for the title of Duke, by which he was originally designated, when he was believed a Confessor. See here the Image itself together with the effigy of Blessed Hermann Joseph, expressed in a similar manner and in the same places, and the more gladly added here because we mentioned it in the Commentary on Saint Norbert on account of the old form of the Premonstratensian habit.
[15] These things being premised, however, I would not wish the Reader still to prejudge, until he has received the substance of the later Life, and compared it with the Epitome of the earlier one already given. The author, therefore, desiring to commend in writing the praiseworthy Life of the illustrious Martyr Potentinus, That Life makes the Saint as he prefaces, so as to exalt, as it were long ago lying hidden under the bushel of concealment, upon the candlestick of manifestation… invokes Christ as his helper, then thus begins. Therefore Saint Potentinus, sprung from most noble parents and most illustrious according to the dignity of the world, the son of a King of Paris, but gentile, was begotten (as it is wont to be said) a rose from thorns. For his father, Antimius by name, was a fierce and unbelieving King of the Gauls, who by a special name are called Franks, and ruled over them with barbaric tyranny. He had the Seat of his kingdom in the city of Paris. Potentinus, therefore, from the time of his birth prevented by divine grace … began to refrain from all vices… to love Christians, and tenaciously to cleave to their footsteps… His impious parents admonish, rebuke, from whom for the faith's sake the boy suffered many things that he should observe the ancestral rites, venerate the sacrifices of the Gods… The winds of words stretching out in vain … it comes to blows: Not yet a Christian, for the love of Christ he is harshly chastised, tortured, scourged… Placed in the fire of tribulation, not consumed … more frequently and boldly he entered the dwellings of Christians, and was eager to hear their doctrine with delight …
[16] But when it pleased Him who had set him apart from sinners, he also obtained the sacrament of baptism, and at fifteen secretly baptized, when he was now in the fifteenth year of his age … and he was thinking of separating himself entirely from his parents, and of joining the Christians openly. Thinking therefore that by the opportunity of the place his desire could be assisted, he withdrew from the royal city about a journey of one day … and delighted in the solitary place, suspending the whole keen edge of his mind in the contemplation of God. But so great a lamp of all the virtues could not lie hidden long, but rather quickly was made known to all… Therefore on account of so great a reputation of virtues, Christians flowed together to him from various parts of the world, withdrew from the court; desiring to see eye to eye what had been revealed to them by the announcement of fame… He went forward, advancing in all ways before God and men, so that in a short time, the unction of the holy spirit teaching him about all things, and divinely taught the Scriptures, above all the Christians remaining with him, he became illustrious in the wisdom of God and the sanctity of life… But perfect in the knowledge of the Scriptures, which he had long ago drunk in with a thirsty breast, he took care to belch forth to others also for salvation. … Great virtues too the Lord wrought through him at that time: and endowed with the grace of cures, for a certain woman, who had labored under the disease of paralysis for more than fifty years, and was continually held in the bed of sickness, by prayer alone and the laying on of hands he restored to health: likewise also a man, having thirty years in the same infirmity.
[17] let him be ordained a Levite; In the ecclesiastical Orders too, ascending up to the grade of the Levites, he was promoted by the grace of God: which Order he adorned with so great a grace of humility and devotion, that no one doubted … that all the virtues, with which all those serving the Lord are adorned, then at the 30th year of his age sought for the Bishopric of Münster became more illustrious in such a man by a certain excellence… When therefore, now made thirty years of age, he had advanced into a perfect man in age and grace; to the dignity of the Bishopric, in a certain congregation of Clerics he was elected. For there were at that time in a certain city of the Teutonic kingdom, in the province of Westphalia, in the city which is called Monasterium Münster, Clerics gathered in the service of God. Certain of these, when they had traveled into France, through Saints Felicius and Simplicius as legates; where they had heard and seen a man of such great virtues … persuaded the other Brothers, that they should choose Blessed Potentinus for themselves as Pastor… And legates having been sent, honest men and fearing God, Felicius the priest, and Simplicius the layman, they humbly interpellated the man of God to consent to them.
[18] The holy man indeed had a brother, named Castor, older than himself, and a sister named Castrina, [having set out thither with his brother Saint Castor the Presbyter and his sister Saint Castrina] now cleansed by baptism by the admonitions of Blessed Castor, although secretly… Encouraged by the counsel of this his brother, Blessed Potentius decided to accept the burdensome honor of the Bishopric… The time of setting out having been arranged, Blessed Castor, desiring to travel with his brother, decided not to leave the sister alone among the enemies… Approaching therefore the parents, by pious cunning he obtained that he might be able to lead her, as if for the sake of recreation, from the royal city to the suburbs. Having gone out, therefore, they followed step by step their most holy brother: and met with him in the place they had agreed upon. Having slipped away by night from those who were with them, they had now completed a journey of two days, he was killed by his pursuing uncle along with his companions: when the report became known to the parents: and soon their uncle, a most cruel man … pursuing them with monstrous fury, rushed upon them and killed them. But raging more savagely against Potentinus, the Levite of God, than against the others, he atrociously pierced his body not only with swords, but also with the blows of many arrows: and thus in holy confession he was gloriously consummated …
[19] The sacred martyrdom of the Saints Potentinus, Felicius, and Simplicius, their companions who had escaped buried the bodies, of Castor too and Castrina, having thus been accomplished, the persecutor departed; and the inhuman torturer left the bodies of the Saints unburied, to be torn by wild beasts and animals… But those who had been in the company of the saints, and, fearing death, had escaped the hand of the torturer by fleeing; when he departed, returned to the place of martyrdom: and in the same place they delivered the bodies of the Saints to burial, with lamentation and tears: and marking the place as they could, they returned to their homeland, and indicated to the Brothers what had been done … But after many days, the same Brothers returned to the same place, and digging up the treasure of the holy Relics, proposed to conduct them to their church. But … when by the descent of the river Moselle they were returning to their own place, they came to the place which is called Cardena: which, when afterward they are carried to the Monastery by the Moselle, and in a wonderful manner it came about that the bodies of the Saints became so heavy and unbearable that they could in no way be moved from that place. When therefore they had been wearied a long time with vain labor … they yielded to the divine will, whose works they recognized these to be; and the bodies of the Saints being buried there, filled with vehement amazement at what had happened to them, they went away. But the place, in which the persecutor rushed upon them, was of no famous name; but there was near the place a church, which was surnamed Rufa the Red, and after the times of the Saints' martyrdom it was twice by the unbelievers
destroyed. And they suffered in a certain pleasant place, on the slope of a mountain beside a spring, which is called Roël, on the third of the Nones of January. Where this spring is to be found—written elsewhere also as Regel—someone will divine with difficulty; the bodies, becoming immovable at Cardena, remained there: perhaps too one will suspect that he who, with no account taken of times, was able to fit together things separated by so many centuries, by fabricating inconsistencies, could have borrowed from Scripture the name of the spring Rogel, noted in the books of Joshua and of Kings. The more indulgent Melchior would prefer the name to be believed twisted from a village Regel on some Moselle many leagues above the confluence. The same place is probably the one which in Tacitus, book 4 of the Histories, is Rigodulum; a place enclosed by mountains or by the river Moselle, which against the Romans Valerianus had occupied with a great band of the Treveri, and had added ditches and barriers of rocks; yet he could not defend himself, but, vanquished, was captured by Cerialis, who the next day entered Cologne of the Treveri, the soldiery eager to plunder the city. This district King Dagobert is read to have handed over, with some others, to the church of Saint Maximinus, in a privilege elsewhere praised by us.
[20] But these Martyrs, says the later Legend, here ending the Life, and these things are said to have been done before the year 286, are of great antiquity: for before the times of Saint Maurice and his companions they suffered, in the time of Saint Gaius the Pontiff. Saint Maurice and his companions, baptized by Saint Marcellinus, then his Presbyter, afterward his successor, and then crowned with martyrdom, while the same Saint Gaius was still living, about the year 286; in which year the Emperor Maximian, who had summoned them to fight against the Bagaudae, triumphed over those very Bagaudae; as I noted in passing in the Essay on the Pontiffs. But what of the Franks, of whom Antimius is feigned to be King? They first crossed the Meuse, and, by the indulgence of Julian Caesar, not yet an Apostate, fixed their seats in Toxandria, when as yet there were no Franks in Gaul which is our Brabantine Campine, about the year 358; which seats, almost 80 years afterward, Clodio gradually pushed forward to the Scheldt, having occupied Cambrai, and placed the seat of his Kingdom at Tournai. This then, his kingdom extended as far as the Seine, Clovis I transferred to Paris, about the year 490. Westphalia is the Western part of old Saxony, whence too it has its name: but to bring this to the faith of Christ, and at the same time to join it to his empire, Charlemagne first intended with effect: who, the nation finally subdued—troublesome with almost yearly defections—or any Christians in Westphalia, founded the Bishoprics necessary for instructing it, and among them that of Mimigardeford, now called Münster, the first prelate, Saint Ludger, being instituted there about the year 802; before whose Life, on the 26th of March, §1, Bollandus treated that subject at length, and in it made an end of writing about the Saints, having undertaken nothing further that was of great study.
[21] [Saint Castor therefore is better venerated as a Confessor by those who have his body.] I do not think more is needed, that anyone whose will is not altogether obstinate may understand that the author of that rhythm of whatever sort, whence such things were taken, must be called a poet rather than a historian, who, furnished with no or scanty knowledge of things and times, came to versifying about Saint Potentinus; nor must the people of Steinfeld hope that they will persuade the people of Carden and Coblenz that their Patron Saint Castor, whose whole Life among them sounds of nothing other than a Confessor, must be venerated by them as a Martyr; or that there must be joined to him Saint Castrina the sister, known to them by no other argument. Let the people of Steinfeld, moreover, see whether they themselves can further persuade themselves that anything of solid truth underlies such a Life. I am not indeed ignorant that their Abbot Balthasar Panhausen sent a compendium of such a Life to Jacob Mollanus, a learned man of the Order of Preachers, to be communicated with Aubert Miraeus, who was composing the Premonstratensian Chronicle about the year 1613, as that compendium is read inserted in it on page 47. They also have, and have sent us, a Commentary which their Melchior composed, to smooth out certain difficulties that would occur at first glance. Yet I am confident that, these things considered, there will be none among them, however obstinate in retaining the Martyrial title, Why should not Saint Potentinus thus be venerated anew? who will continue to maintain the history of the Martyrdom, as it is handed down. Nay rather I think that most will wish that, the old usage being resumed, and the titles of Levite and Martyr being sent far away, Saint Potentinus be honored in conformity with his images and statues, received from the unvaried tradition of the ancestors, as a Duke, or Soldier, and Confessor; not at Paris from the Stock of the Franks not yet Christian; but from the noble lineage of the ancient Aquitanians, using the Roman religion and law, from which also Saint Maximinus, and perhaps Saint Castor too, proceeded. That they should do this, our Johannes Grothusius would be the author, if he were alive, as is clear from his letter, which we have, given to Bollandus in the year 1634: I wish to prescribe nothing to them, only to show on how no foundation rests the tradition of the Martyrdom of Saint Potentinus: although credence given to this was perhaps the cause why his statue is represented not only with a military spear in hand, but also with arrows, as if taken from the last Legend, better in my judgment to be omitted.
§ III. By the commentary of a certain learned man of Steinfeld the controversy is examined, and the cult of the Confessor is proved to be more ancient and more certain.
[22] Thus far I had been commenting in favor of restoring the title of Confessor, when, by the kindness of the present Abbot, the Most Ample and Most Reverend Michael Keul, I receive a learned Commentary on the aforementioned controversy, written by the Reverend D. Peter Rostius, Canon of Steinfeld, Peter Rostius, in the year 1626, in the year 1624; to this end, that it might be of use to our Heribert Rosweyde, who had promised to collect the Lives of the Saints in a larger work than Surius had published, for adjudicating the whole case; as the Author professes at the foot of that commentary. That we have not found it itself among the monuments left by Rosweyde of the collection begun is to me an argument that it was never sent; but that it was not sent, I suspect was done by those who, desiring to hold the title of Martyr by hand, he proposes to Rosweyde wished the Life with the Office, as it was then read, to be committed to print, under the authority of Gelenius, as said above in number 12. Now, since the people of Steinfeld profess that they look to nothing else in the cult of their Patrons than the Truth, or at least the greater likeness of it, I will gladly here append the aforementioned commentary, just as I received it.
[23] Two dissimilar Histories or Lives of Saint Potentinus and his companions exist. For besides that which here among us is found in an old codex, two Legends, the venerable Priest of Christ D. Conrad Lutenus eighteen years ago transmitted to us another, dug out from the Library of the Böddeken Monastery in Westphalia. Our Steinfeld Life has it that Blessed Potentinus, son of Antimius, the Ethnic King of the Gauls, a Deacon by Order, of which one makes him a Martyr, together with Castor his brother, and Castorina his sister, and Felicius the Presbyter and Simplicius the Layman, by the legates of the Clergy of Westphalian Münster (who had sought him as Bishop for them) was crowned with Martyrdom. On the contrary, that Böddeken Life has it that Blessed Potentinus was a Duke of Aquitaine and a Confessor, brought up excellently by most religious parents, in the fear of God, to virtues of every kind; that he entered Matrimony within the second grade of chastity, and begot Felicius and Simplicius as sons: and at last, the Court of the King of Aquitaine and all things being left, together with his sons undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy places; and so, various Regions being traversed, coming also to Trier, was devoutly received by Blessed Maximinus the Bishop, the other makes Potentinus a Confessor, also an Aquitanian and noble, and treated charitably, and, burning with desire for the solitary life, was at last with difficulty dismissed by him to a place beside the Moselle, called Carodunum: and there joined himself to Blessed Castor, a Presbyter and most holy Hermit; by whom at the end of his life, fortified with the Sacraments, he was buried.
[24] Yet in the chief points both Lives agree, namely that Saint Potentinus flourished about one thousand three hundred years ago, and was a most holy man, otherwise agreeing in many things sprung from a most illustrious birth in Gaul, and from boyhood entered the narrow way that leads to life: that, the court being left, he went out from his land and his Kindred, having the Saints Felicius and Simplicius as companions of his journey or pilgrimage: that, delighting in solitary places, he used the counsels of Saint Castor the Priest, also in life illustrious for many miracles; that he himself and his Companions were buried at Cardena, and that their merits were declared by God with many miracles, and various Benefits bestowed on the faithful of Christ invoking them: That Sibodo, a most religious and most noble man, after a revelation made to him, translated the Relics of these three Saints, the Bishop of Trier consenting, to his estate Steinfeld (in which afterward a Convent of Nuns was founded by him); and that the feast of the holy Potentinus, Felicius, and Simplicius is celebrated on the 18th day of June.
[25] That Life, which has hitherto existed here, seems to merit credence even for this reason, to it the old Office, three centuries more ancient, adheres that the modern office of the Patrons agrees with it in all things: which office to have been frequented not much less than three hundred years the more ancient Codices of our Church prove. To this, the Tomb or Case of the holy Patrons has on the outside this ancient inscription: Saint Potentinus, Martyr. And Canisius in his Ecclesiastical Calendar on the 11th of January has thus, At Steinfeld, the Translation etc., and on the 18th of June thus: and Canisius. The Birthday of the holy Martyrs Potentinus the Deacon, Felicius the Priest, and Simplicius the Soldier. On the contrary, that the Böddeken Life, which records that Saint Potentinus was a Confessor, and the father of the Blessed Felicius and Simplicius, existed here at Steinfeld before this modern one, and was held worthy of credence, The greater antiquity of the other is proved a certain most ancient office of the mass of the patrons demonstrates; which, conformable to that Life, is found among us in a Missal written about five hundred years ago or thereabouts: for it was inscribed by the same hand by which both parts of that larger lectionary in our Choir were inscribed. That the prelates of this place formerly used that Missal can be gathered from this; that it contains only the offices of the chief solemnities, marked with golden initial letters, the Epistles and Gospels omitted, which are chanted by the Deacons. The Introit, indeed, in the aforesaid codex or office of the patrons, has been erased and changed, from Missals written more than 500 years ago and likewise the Offertory and the Communion: but that these were originally Let the just feast, God is wonderful, and I have chosen you, can be proved partly from the traces of the erasure, partly from a codex equally old. The Collects are the same as the modern ones, except that for the erased word "of the Confessors," by a more recent hand the word "of the Martyrs" has been placed. The Gradual, They shall exult; the Alleluia; Rejoice. The Gospel and Epistle in the text of the equally old Gospel-book have been erased and changed. The Sequence has this beginning: Let the sweetness of the organ-like Voice lament; and, a few things being interposed, there follows: praising God, wonderful in His Saints, and
after some verses, Among whom, with his sons, heirs of the same (eternal) life, Potentinus powerfully dances for joy in the Heavens.
[26] The same mass is found at Füssenich, in a Codex written, as it seems, four hundred years ago by a certain Virgin: and in writings 400 years old, in whose Calendar on the 18th of June it is found thus: Of Potentinus the Confessor and his Companions. The Introit, Let the just feast. The Collect, Be propitious, we beseech, O Lord, to us your servants, through the glorious merits of your holy Confessors Potentinus, Felicius, and Simplicius, etc. The Epistle, But the just shall live forevermore. The Gradual, The Saints shall exult. Rejoice. The Gospel, Let your loins be girded. The Offertory, God is wonderful. The Communion, I have chosen you. With this more ancient Office of the Mass and the aforementioned Böddeken Life these also agree: the inscriptions of the holy Relics which, with the present Most Reverend Lord Christopher Pilckman, the modern Abbot, as witness, are found within the case itself: The Head of Saint Potentinus the Confessor; Saint Potentinus the Confessor; Saint Simplicius the Confessor; Saint Felicius, etc. likewise by the labels of the Relics. But as for the fact that the same Tomb has on the outside this inscription, Saint Potentinus the Martyr: It could be said: That Tomb was perhaps fabricated in the interval of time at which our patrons began to be believed martyrs; or that the goldsmith by error entitled Saint Potentinus a Martyr, and thus gave to posterity occasion for no slight error. But as for the fact that Canisius in his Ecclesiastical Calendar inscribed our holy Patrons thus, At Steinfeld, of the holy Martyrs Potentinus etc.: this is not to be thought to come from elsewhere than from Usuard's Martyrology published a hundred years ago by the Cologne Carthusians with additions; who would have learned the names, the day, and the history of our patrons from us.
[27] Our Steinfeld Martyrology has thus on the 10th of January: The Passion of the holy Martyrs Potentinus and Castor the brothers, and Castrina their sister; Thus also Saint Castor is venerated as a Confessor. who, illustrious as much in lineage as in virtues, for the Confession of Christ, with the holy Felicius and Simplicius obtained the palm of Martyrdom. But on the 13th of February it has thus: At Cardona, of Saint Castor the Confessor; and we, together with the people of Coblenz, who rejoice in his relics, and with the whole diocese of Trier, on this 13th day of February keep the feast of Blessed Castor as truly a confessor. Ought we not therefore to reconsider and doubt whether we rightly recently, on the 10th of January, celebrated the feast of the passion of him and his companions? We read that Saint Castor was handed over by most noble parents to Blessed Maximinus, Bishop of Trier, to be instructed, and when by him he had been excellently brought up and ordained a Presbyter, the world being spurned, he entered the Wilderness, and there day and night served God in all sanctity, but in the year of Christ 400 rested in peace, and was buried at Cardona, and afterward carried to Coblenz; whence it seems more probable that he was a native of Belgic Gaul and perhaps of the very Bishopric of Trier, than of Celtic Gaul or Aquitaine. If therefore our Steinfeld Life errs in this, that it asserts Saint Castor to have been the son of a King of France and a martyr, who would judge that it must necessarily be believed when affirming the same about Saint Potentinus? Add that we see the same depicted in his large wooden statue in the dress of a cataphract Duke with a lily-bearing shield, such figures as are also painted on certain old vestments; whence it easily appears what opinion the authors of those held about our holy Patron, and about his state when he came into these parts from Gaul—not Presbyteral (as our legend now bears) but Lay, such as the Böddeken Acts indicate.
[26] Surius is said to have refused to insert the life of our holy Patrons into his Volumes; which is not so wonderful. Surius rightly omitted the Acts, For in those times in which that Life relates Saint Potentinus to have flourished, namely before the times of the holy Martyrs Maurice and his companions, who suffered in the Year of Christ 297, France did not yet have Kings, of whom, after the Dukes, Pharamond was the first in the year 419; nor did any of the Kings of the Franks bear the name of Antimius, nor did any reside at Paris before Clovis, who in the year 499, converted to the faith, established there the seat of the kingdom: nor could Saint Potentinus, one thousand three hundred years ago, have been sought as Bishop by the Westphalians, as prematurely inventing Kings of France, who eight hundred years ago could scarcely be compelled by Charlemagne to receive the faith of Christ. He indeed first erected the Bishopric of Mimigardeford (the name of Monasterium Münster that place afterward received); and over it set first as Bishop Saint Ludger, who died in the year 809. and Bishops of Münster
[27] Also in the time of the translation, and of his Companions, the histories do not agree. Our Steinfeld Life has it that Saint Potentinus, Castor, and his Companions were buried at Cardona. And near the end, with no mention or exception made of Saint Castor, it says the same saints were exhumed and translated to Steinfeld: and wrongly differing in the translation of Saint Castor, yet it says that, God willing, the Relics of our saints were Divided, so that in different places provision might be made of Patrons, and God might be praised in His saints in several places. Both Lives also have it that the Bodies of the holy Patrons were translated to the estate of Steinfeld before the monastery was founded there, whose Church, according to our Annals, was constructed in the year 920: before which church, some Chapel seems to have existed there. But according to the Trier manuscript Chronicle of our Library, Saint Castor was translated easily a hundred years before Blessed Potentinus; for it has thus: Hettus, Bishop of Trier, in the 23rd year of the Emperor Ludovicus, son of Charlemagne, (that was the year of Christ 836) admonished by Saint Maternus in a vision, carries off the Body of Saint Castor from the place which is called Cardona to Coblenz, to the monastery which he himself had Constructed: which on the day before the Ides of December he consecrated in honor of Saint Castor and all the Confessors: and after the Consecration he reposited the Holy Body in the Church, and there Ludovicus the Emperor presented many gifts.
[28] As for the time in which our holy Patrons flourished, our Steinfeld life says: that those martyrs are of great antiquity and suffered before the times of Saint Maurice and his companions, but anticipating the age of Potentinus. who is read to have suffered before the year of Christ 300: according to the Böddeken life, our holy Patrons lived in the times of Saint Maximinus, Bishop of Trier, who set Saint Severinus over the people of Cologne as Bishop, and received in hospitality Saint Athanasius the exile, and Saint Potentinus with his companions, and brought up Blessed Castor and ordained him a Presbyter. Thus far Rostius, who then deduces the chronology of the aforesaid Saints from Cratepolius and others in such a way that it must follow that Saint Potentinus, if he was contemporary with them, died long after the times of the Theban legion, in the 4th century carried beyond its middle. Whoever wishes to have their times more certainly defined, let him read Henschen's Commentary on the 29th of May, and he will find that Saint Maximinus, ordained Bishop in the year 332, prolonged his life until the year 49 [349]; but Saint Castor, whom he ordained Presbyter and by whom Saint Potentinus is said to have been buried in the Böddeken Life, Bollandus, at his Life on the 13th of February, judges can be deferred until the year 79 of that century; which agrees not badly with the opinion making them all Confessors. Toward which, the same Rostius, more inclined, thus proceeds. About the same times as Blessed Potentinus, there also flourished Saint Paul the first Hermit and Blessed Antony, whose recent example one might suspect that the holy Castor and Potentinus and their companions followed; Saint Paul died in the year 340, Saint Antony in the year 356; Blessed Athanasius, who had known the virtues of Saint Antony, and doubtless made them public by relating them to others in narration, had come thither in the year 336.
[29] But that our holy Patrons did not recently begin to be believed and venerated as martyrs is gathered from this, that the Office, the opinion of the Martyrdom seems to have been born in the 14th century, customarily sung on the feast of our saints, was written about the year of Christ 1352 by the hand of F. Wilhelm Gressenick, by which also the Life of Saint Potentinus that exists here seems to have been inscribed; and perhaps this Wilhelm was the author both of the office and of the Life. The chant of the office, which is most sweet, is said to exist somewhere at Cologne, whence its author, whoever he was, is thought to have borrowed it. Wilhelm of Gressenich, who succeeded Weinricus Rumscuttel the Abbot upon his resignation or deposition, and not long after himself resigned, seems to have been a learned man; and there exist several books of the divine office, beautifully written by his hand. In two of these he added at the end, in some leonine or rhythmical Hexameters, the current year, his own name, and some things that happened in that year; whence it is gathered that he was also the author of the Life of Blessed Joseph, consisting of the same meter and written by his own hand. the truer Acts now lost It could happen, in the course of time, while here at Steinfeld monks succeeded the nuns, and Premonstratensians the Springiersbach men, but especially under that mournful state of the monastery, when it had noble canons, that that earlier and truer life of the patrons fell out of use, and thence gradually such ignorance and error arose, that those were believed martyrs who were perhaps Confessors. Certainly the Author of our Steinfeld life seems to complain of the carelessness of his predecessors and the forgetting of so difficult a matter, when he speaks thus in the Prologue: Desiring to commend in writing the praiseworthy Life of the illustrious Martyr Potentinus, so as to exalt, as it were long ago lying hidden under the bushel of concealment, upon the candlestick of manifestation, I invoke God as Author etc. But that that Life was written by some Religious of Steinfeld, a Norbertine, appears from the last chapter of the same, where he describes exactly in how many years there service was rendered to God by the nuns, and how many by the Springiersbach men, and when the Order of the Premonstratensians was introduced.
[30] In the Latin rhythmical history of our foundation, or that of Bonscharians, which begins, A certain boy of illustrious seed is begotten, who by his proper name is called Sibodo. what is to be thought of the Old Rhythm afterward composed? In the very series of rhythms, after the narration of the elevation of the Relics of our holy Patrons, there follows the better part of the aforesaid office, namely all nine responsories and then six antiphons; then at last he goes on to weave the history of the translation, as if one and the same were the author of both. But no one would easily say this, since that history seems to contain fabulous things, and in the Responsory, "the lamp of so great a light could not lie hidden," he fables, as if it ought to be understood of the Treasure of the holy Relics dug out from the recesses of the earth, what in the office of the Patrons is understood of blessed Potentinus desiring to lie hidden and to be unknown in Solitary places, but not being able, because the faithful of Christ, his reputation for sanctity increasing, came to him from every side. The same history, or rather fable, of Bonscharians, affects our founder with no slight injury, whom both the Steinfeld and the Böddeken Life describe as a most religious man, and such a one to whom God deigned to reveal the Blessed Relics of the Patrons. But the Poet affirms that he was not accustomed to fortify himself with the sign of the holy Cross, and that he knowingly and willingly used the ministry and labor of his Bonscharians, the latter not only carrying him through the air wherever he wished to go, but also sometimes laying low his enemies in the invisible and horrible form of a Demon
etc. Nay, what is more shameful, he does not fear to add that by the indication of Bonscharians those sacred Relics were found, and therefore the whole of that fable would deservedly be handed over to Vulcan the fire. It is more credible, and perhaps to be understood of Sibodo and Bonscharians, what Caesarius of Heisterbach, in book 5 of the Memorable Matters, chapter 36, narrates about a certain soldier or nobleman, to whom a Demon in the form of a handsome youth diligently and faithfully served, and who once, while he was journeying with him on horseback, surrounded by enemies, led him across a great river, showing him the ford; who also healed his wife, sick unto death, with the milk of a lioness brought in the space of one hour from the mountains of Arabia; whom the soldier, perceiving from this that he was a demon, immediately dismissed.
[31] The ancient Office of the Patrons perhaps is found somewhere entire in old antiphonaries written here, such as are at Ruestrin, Remains of the ancient Office. Tulpetum, Dirdorf: and a part of it seems to be the following responsory, which exists here: The house of prayer, containing the Relics of the holy Bodies, overflows with heavenly benefits: in which the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the demons are put to flight. ℣. Upon the asp and the Basilisk one walks, the lion with the dragon is trampled down. Likewise that Antiphon, Most powerful Potentinus, holy inhabitant of Heaven, shining again on high like a bright star: with simple Simplicius, with happy Felicius joined to you; come to the aid of your clients, too greatly weighed down with the burdens of crimes. Likewise this, Blessed be the Lord, who, as He has spoken, has raised up a horn of salvation for His faithful people, by the merits of the Saints removing harmful things, granting things desired, making the seasons fruitful, bestowing prosperity, that we may serve Him without fear in holiness and justice.
§ IV. On the Translation described in old meter, and on the Relics existing today.
[32] The History of Bonscharians, or rather the fable, does not deserve to be given to public light in its entirety: yet because it is of the same Author who described the Life of the Saints rhythmically, Among the miracles of the translation not hitherto found by me, or because he had the same before his eyes; he could have taken from it certain miracles of the Translation, just as from the office he transcribed the Responsories and Antiphons: it would not therefore be altogether useless to bring forth some part of it. After, therefore, the insipid poet has introduced Sibodo consulting with his Bonscharians about the new church he had built at Steinfeld, to be honored with the Relics of the Saints, and has compelled the latter to indicate the body.
Of Potentinus the Martyr, most powerful, Lying with his own at most fitting Cardona,
he proceeds thus:
These words being heard, all hasten, They incline themselves with prayer to the Chief men of Trier, For the translations of the holy Martyrs; The choir of Prelates assents to these prayers… The monks with the Clerics, the Patrons having been found, With hymns and canticles and with singing, Celebrate, with joint exultation, The feast and the prodigies of the Finding. There comes together from everywhere a great concourse of peoples, Every sickness at last of the ailing is healed. made by the consent of the people of Trier, The signs which the Finding of Stephen noted, This revelation recapitulated.
[33] The Epistle of the Presbyter Lucianus, on the Finding of Saint Stephen, mentions only the sweet fragrance bursting forth from the discovered treasure, and the rain falling opportunely: to another History therefore the Author seems to look back, namely that which Baronius judged fabulous; and whose absurdities I was compelled to make known more distinctly, in my Responses to the Exhibition of errors wrongly imputed to me, Article 12, §1. There it is read that, The venerable Pope Pelagius together with the Clergy… followed the venerable Body up to the Basilica of Blessed Peter, the immobility of the body is recounted, which is called ad Vincula… and they strove to bring it in there; which, when they often attempted, and accomplished nothing; at last, wearied, they rested: until, namely, the devil speaking through the mouth of a possessed man, they learned that the Saint wished his Relics to be placed beside the Body of Saint Lawrence. Examples more certain than this of Relics immovable on a similar occasion, the Poet could have adduced from better Acts of the Saints; nay, nearer to the fact he was about to narrate; where, namely, such immobility was an indication that it would be pleasing to the saints if some offering were made there to them, as on this occasion is affirmed to have been done in the following verses.
To Potentinus the Count offers his own gifts, Which are the first that he freely grants, such great goods, at Ellen… The Count truly glories in the Relics, Proceeding with his companions the first night at Wehr. moved by which, Count Sibodo In the morning he wishes to proceed: and his comrades, Coming near the Monastic men, Say: Either the peril will give sad minds, Or a great miracle will make them rejoice: For we cannot carry the Sanctuary, Nor lift the shrine, though we all wish. Sibodo says to them: I reckon that truly The Patron wishes in every way to have more. He bestows gifts upon Potentinus again, to the estate of Ellen added others He who freely had his goods at Wehr. After this Offertory the Saint is consoled, The Sanctuary becomes light and is carried off.
[34] The elders of the people say (and this truly) That frequently the corners, in which the Martyrs stood immovable, the grasses grow green, And inviolable flowers grow there. While the Count proceeds with the Relics toward Wyterscheidt: Thus with its appurtenances he gave that whole. Toward Nechterscheim the procession then moved, Again it renewed the first gift; Saying: O holy Potentinus, Martyr of Christ, Who deigned worthily to receive my First gift, have Nechterscheim too with it; and again others. Receive it entire, I will keep nothing of it back: That you may be an avenger over those who wrongly take away. Thus, I ask, smite those who wrongly rule them. Arise, Potentinus, and render inglorious The plunderers, lay low at once those who spurn you. Thus he makes him heir in a perpetual gift, That he may take the reward of eternal fruits. After these Relics entered the land, The peoples of the province came together into one, They receive the Patron, worthily venerating Him. With voices they begin, singing to the Lord, The monks with the Clerics, "We praise You, O God," The rustics with the laity, "Let us give Thanks." At Nechterscheim a spring is brought forth. Hence a man comes hastening by an out-of-the-way path; He commands silence, as if indignantly; He rubs the ground with his staff: the bystanders marvel; He says therefore to the people: If Holy things are handled, Let a spring come forth from the earth, let the thirsty drink; Let this sign appear, let it satisfy the needy. The staff draws forth a spring, a new Testament; The whole people drinks together with the beasts of burden: A tree is made from the staff; those seeing marvel, Men attest the miracle, the spring and the tree. The Relics are lifted up with devotion, The community of the church with a Procession Meets and receives so worthy a Patron, With whom indeed it receives so honorable a gift.
[35] The Melchior praised above, in his Commentary to Gelenius, testifies that in a certain manuscript two or three miracles of that Translation are read; nor can we doubt but that these are those very ones, and that the manuscript itself is this same rhythmical History; because he says one of them is about the spring at Nechterscheim, which flowed forth for the solace of the thirsty, hitherto well enough named. The Author would have had these from popular tradition, from which and from the monuments of his Monastery, it is wonderful that the same did not have knowledge of the holy nuns previously placed there by Sibodo, but everywhere mentions Monks, as if these, not those, had been originally placed there. Wherefore it would be worth the trouble to append here the instruments of both the foundation and the donations made to that place by the Counts Sibodo and Theodoric; if we should sometime receive them from the Steinfeld Archive.
[36] These will perhaps be given, together with many others, by the new History of the Monastery which those Learned Religious are undertaking. The people of Carden to the people of Steinfeld, Meanwhile it makes more closely to the present matter that the Chapter of Carden, congratulating the people of Steinfeld on their happy successes, offered them its Fraternity, and in turn requested theirs, by letters in the year 1228. At the beginning of these they preface that the occasion of doing this was given to them from the fact that their Saint Castor was the son of Saint Potentinus—whom the Steinfeld legend wishes to be believed to have been brothers, and the more ancient Böddeken connects by no kinship: in the year 1228. hence, moreover, it is understood how little in agreement with each other were the traditions of both places concerning their holy Patrons, from the very beginning of both Churches and of the translation of the holy Bodies to them. Yet it could and ought to suffice for wishing and cultivating a mutual confraternity, that it stood certain that the Relics of Saint Potentinus had once rested at Carden, and had thence been translated to Steinfeld. Therefore read here the tenor of the letters themselves, as we received them from Steinfeld:
[37] To the Reverend Lord Macharius the Abbot, founded everywhere in Christ in spiritual Virtues, and to the whole Convent of the Church at Steinfeld, Iggebrandus the Provost, Godfrey the Dean, the whole Chapter and Convent of the Church of Cardona, devout Prayers in the Lord and eternal salvation in Christ. Since between the Father, namely your Patron Potentinus, and his son, our Patron Saint Castor, true love as much Carnal as spiritual, pure faith and the affection of perpetual devotion know no end and no idleness; the things which are useful and best and salutary to our souls, to the Churches of our Convents, which we piously urge and seek, they do not delay to work, so that, as much as we are able in the Lord, your Prayer for us and ours for you may always remain a memorial. Our Communion therefore has decreed faithfully to impart to your Communion whatever it shall be able to do in Prayers and other good works. Whence with full firmness and perfect Charity we grant to you and to the succession of your Congregation the Communion of all our benefits. Moreover, if any of your brothers shall come to our place or pass through by us, he shall rejoice in the reception of our Prebend like one of us. This act, therefore, that we may leave it firm in perpetuity to you and to your successors, we Confirm the present writing by the impression of our seal; and we request that the same be done for Us by You in all things. These things were done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1228.
[38] It remains for us to speak of the Relics of the Saints themselves surviving to this day. [The chest broken open in the year 1592, the Relics scattered, and repaired in the year 1615,] These were, from time immemorial, so enclosed in a certain wooden chest, illustrated with gold and colors, that they could be exposed for veneration on the Altar, and carried around in supplications. Such did the Dutch robbers find who in the year 1592, on the 10th day of January, invaded the Monastery; and the two garrison soldiers who guarded the Church being killed, and the rest put to flight, having plundered all, they also broke open the sacred Chest and scattered through the pavement the Relics found inside. The Brothers, having returned, gathered the scattered ones, what it now contains and shut them up again in the same Chest: which, when in the year 1615 the Abbot of that time had had repaired as best he could, he there shut up the sacred pledges wrapped in four silk cloths: of which the first—what it contained—three old parchment slips indicated, enclosed in as many new slips, representing the old and almost obsolete writing thus renewed. in three little bags I. Of the bones and sepulcher of our Patrons. II. The Relics of Saint Potentinus the Confessor and of Saint Simplicius. III. Saint Simplicius. When the modern Abbot Michael Keule, in the year 1697, opened the second cloth, intending to inquire whether some writing, which appeared none on the outside, at least lay hidden within, he found none, and wrapping the old one in a new linen cloth, just as he had found it, he reposited it within the aforesaid Chest. Upon the third cloth are found slips
two slips, with the heads of Saint Potentinus and of one of the Ursuline company. inscribed thus, the First: The Relics of Saint Felicius the Confessor. The Second: Saint Felicius. Thus far the aforesaid Most Reverend man. About the Head of Saint Potentinus himself, adding that these words had likewise been inscribed on it, The Head of Saint Potentinus: and that another Head too is found in the same Chest, on which is inscribed "of the eleven thousand Virgins"; which he suspects to be that of Saint Gertrude the little Virgin, brought from Cologne by Blessed Hermann, as is narrated at length in his Life, Tract 1, Chapter 5. It pleases here also to add the form of the aforesaid Chest, expressed in bronze:
[39] One part of the jaw at Wehr, Of other Relics elsewhere I have not yet learned, except that I understand the jawbone, divided into two, is held in two Parishes, one of which—the Church of Wehr, dedicated from the very beginning half to Saint Potentinus—received its half by the gift of the Most Reverend Christopher Pilckman, Abbot Elect in the year 1635; as I find written in a Letter which D. Henricus Firmenich, Pastor of the place, dictated, where there is frequent curing of eyes asserting that the other half, exactly like this one, he himself saw at Sayn in the year 1659, in the choir within the Reliquary on the left side of the Altar, with the inscription Saint Potentinus. He is the chief Patron of the aforesaid Parish of Wehr, and his feast is celebrated there with the greatest concourse of the surrounding places: whence not only on that day but also throughout the whole year many come for the sake of a vow, and have masses read on account of special benefits of health, which they have frequently received by a vow made to this holy Patron: especially those who either are quite blind or suffer some notable and incurable defect in the eyes.
[40] This, says the aforesaid pastor, a certain woman experienced in my time in her daughter, at Hersbach in Kesnigerthall, proved by the experiment of the year 1659. who, after much had been spent in vain on physicians, and despairing of obtaining through them a remedy for her daughter's eyes, at last undertook to make a votive pilgrimage hither, and marveled that she had received the desired benefit, even before she fulfilled her vow. And she fulfilled it in the year 1659 on the feast of Saint Potentinus, together with her daughter. I myself saw on that day, after the Divine offices were performed, that woman with her little daughter praying with tears before the altar and the statue of the saint. But having returned home and narrating what I had seen to those whom I had invited to the feast, and at the same time describing the dress and condition of the woman, I understood from the Neighboring Pastor D. Matthias of Ridden, who himself too had come for devotion's sake, that the woman was from Hersbach, who, having lodged that very night with him, had narrated how her daughter had been cured at the invocation of Saint Potentinus. I immediately sent someone to seek the woman in the Church and lead her to the pastoral House, that I might learn more accurately both her name and the remaining circumstances of the fact: but this was in vain, in so great a multitude of people: wherefore I was content to commit this to writing, as I could, for my own memory and that of others.