Brother Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius

ON THE HOLY BROTHER MARTYRS GERVASIUS AND PROTASIUS, AT MILAN AMONG THE INSUBRES IN ITALY.

I OR II CENTURY.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

Gervasius, Brother, Martyr at Milan (S.)

Protasius, Brother, Martyr at Milan (S.)

BHL Number: 3513, 3514, 3522

BY D. P.

§. I. The undoubted passages of S. Ambrose are adduced and weighed, on the finding and depositing of the holy bodies.

At the very time when the whirlwind of Arian madness shook Ambrose, the column of the Milanese Church, Ambrose writes to his Sister, stirred up through Justina the Empress, the same was confirmed by the divine pledge of the serenity to follow, when in the year CCCLXXXVI it was given to him to find the bodies of the aforetitled Martyrs. He soon made his sister Marcellina, a Virgin sacred to God, then remaining at Rome, partaker of this joy, by writing this epistle. To the Lady sister, to be preferred to life and to the eyes, from her brother. Because I am not wont to pass over to thy holiness any of those things which are done here in thy absence, the bones all whole know also that the holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius have been found by us. For when I wished to dedicate the basilica, many as with one mouth began to interrupt, saying: As in the Roman, so dedicate the basilica. I answered: I will do so, if I find Relics of Martyrs. And immediately there came over me as it were the ardor of some presaging.

[2] Thus this beginning has the more correct Roman edition of the year 1585, which in the Basel one of the year 1538 was read thus more corruptly: to himself about to dedicate a Basilica When I had dedicated the basilica, many as with one mouth began to interrupt, saying, So dedicate the basilica as in the Roman. He indicates moreover the Ambrosian Basilica built by himself, which many wished to be dedicated with the same solemnity, with which the Saint had dedicated the Basilica of the Apostles in the Roman, that is, in the region of the city having its name from the Roman gate, with the Relics of the Holy Apostles, which Rome had received, brought there. What more? The Lord gave grace. With even the Clerics fearing, I ordered the earth to be cleared in that place, which is before the railings of Saints Felix and Nabor. I found suitable signs, with those also applied by whom hands were to be laid by us: thus the holy Martyrs began to be imminent, so that while we were still silent the urn was seized, and laid prone toward the place of the holy sepulcher. We found two men of wondrous size, as the ancient age bore: Gualvaneus Flamma in Puricellus p. 34 wrote Giant-like youths: and they were wont to choose more towering bodies for soldiery. The bones all whole, found and translated very much blood, a huge concourse of people through that whole two days. What more? We laid them together whole and in order, we translated them in the evening already coming on, to the basilica of Fausta: there vigils all night: imposition of hands. On the following day we translated them into the basilica, which they call Ambrosian. While we translate them, a blind man was healed.

[3] Hence Ambrose begins to expound the sermon, which he then had to the people: in which, on the occasion of the Psalm XVIII then read, and the sermon then had he says that the Martyrs themselves are the Heavens, who declare the Glory of God, as being those whom, not secular allurement, but the grace of the divine work raised to the firmament of passion; and long before by the documents of their morals and virtues he announced in these the martyrdom, in that against the slipperiness of this world they remained stable; and in them was fulfilled that, Day to day utters speech. With these premised the Saint passes to Psalm CXII, in which it is said, Who is as the Lord our God, who dwells on high, and regards the lowly in heaven and on earth? raising up the needy from the earth, as if of those long unknown, and lifting the poor from the dunghill, placing him with the Princes of his people. And the Princes, he says, of the people, whom else but the holy Martyrs ought we to esteem, into whose number now, long unknown, Protasius and Gervasius are brought forth, who made the Milanese Church, barren of Martyrs, now mother of very many sons, rejoice with the titles and examples of her own passion.

[4] By such words it is not obscurely indicated, that there was then no one, who knew or believed, that anyone Milanese by birth, had been crowned with Martyrdom at Milan: for S. Vitalis had died at Ravenna, his wife Valeria had been beaten on the road by rustic fury: S. Victor had been a soldier of the Maurican legion, as also Nabor and Felix; and these last indeed suffered not at Milan, but at Lodi. Nazarius was a Roman; Celsus was of Cimiez (if the Acts are true) and both were still unknown to the Milanese. Not undeservedly however, says Ambrose, very many call this a resurrection of Martyrs. Yet I shall see, whether for themselves, or for us: certainly the Martyrs have risen. You have known, nay you have seen yourselves many cleansed from demons: very many also, where they touched the garment of the Saints with their hands, freed from those infirmities by which they labored; and made famous through miracles; the miracles of olden time renewed, in which by the coming of the Lord Jesus a greater grace had poured itself upon the lands: by a certain shadow of the holy bodies you see very many healed. How many orarii are tossed about? How many garments laid over the most sacred Relics, that by the very touch they be sought back as medicinal? All rejoice to touch the outermost linens, and whoever shall touch, shall be saved.

[5] Then the holy Doctor gives thanks, first for himself, having gained such great defenders; then for the people, to whom in their revelation the eyes have been opened, as to Gehazi the servant of Elisha, that he may see the aids by which he is defended: and finally he ends that sermon thus. We have escaped, whose title old men still remember to have read; Brethren, no mean burden of shame: we had patrons, and knew it not. We have found this one thing, in which we may seem to surpass our ancestors. The knowledge of the holy Martyrs, which they lost, we have obtained. Noble Relics are dug out of an ignoble sepulcher; the trophies are shown to heaven. The tomb is wet with blood, the marks of the triumphal gore appear inviolate, the relics found in their place and order, the head torn from the shoulders. Now old men recall to have heard once the names of these Martyrs, and to have read the title. That title must have been placed under S. Mirocles, when already Constantine had begun and taught to raise and adorn the memorials of Martyrs. And it is credible that the pious woman Savina there deposited the bodies of SS. Nabor and Felix, where she had known SS. Protasius and Gervasius to be held buried: probably placed under S. Mirocles which was also the cause for S. Maternus, that he wished to be buried in the same place, with the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian still lasting and most fiercely raging. But because the notice of those whom Savina had buried was recent, and the miracles more frequent, therefore it came about, that with the bodies of the older ones left under the earth, these last were elevated, and with a church built over it the title was abolished, inconvenient for laying the pavement, with no indication of it left. From the fact meanwhile, but obscured when the basilica of S. Nazarius was built. that old men remember that title read to them, it follows that the church, which now has passed into the name of S. Francis and the right of the Franciscans, was first erected under S. Eustorgius the successor of Mirocles, surviving up to the year CCCXXXI, who nevertheless preferred to be buried in another built at his own expense.

[6] Ambrose proceeds further: the city had lost its own Martyrs, From the deposition deferred to another day, which had seized strangers (namely the aforesaid Nabor and Felix, whom Savina, stolen by theft from the city of the Lodesi, as the Acts say, led to Milan.) Although this is a gift of God, yet I cannot deny the grace, which in the times of my priesthood the Lord Jesus has granted: because I myself cannot be a Martyr, I have acquired these Martyrs for you. Let the triumphal victims succeed into the place, where Christ is the victim. But he upon the altar, who suffered for all: these under the altar, who were redeemed by his passion. This place I had predestined for myself: for it is fitting, that there a Priest should rest, where he was wont to offer. But I yield the right-hand portion to the sacred victims: that place was owed to the Martyrs. Let us therefore lay the sacrosanct Relics, and carry them into worthy dwellings, and celebrate the whole day with faithful devotion.

[7] So far the Sermon: then the holy Doctor continues the Epistle; and narrating to his sister what was further done and said by him: The people acclaimed, he says, that the deposition of the Martyrs be deferred to the Lord's day: but at last it was obtained, that it be done on the following day, XIX June, which was the 6th feria which in the year CCCLXXXV, having the Dominical letter D, after Easter celebrated V April, was the IV feria, after Pentecost held XXIV May: so that the holy bodies had been uncovered on the IV feria preceding. Antonius Pagi in his Critica thinks it follows hence, that it was not yet usual at that time, that on Lord's days

Basilicas should be dedicated; that consequence certainly would altogether be so, from the rite of dedications now observed, ordered by S. Gregory, of which one notable part is the carrying around and depositing of the Relics to be enclosed in the altar. But since the more ancient codex of the Sacraments ordered by Pope Gelasius has nothing similar; and in both sermons Ambrose by not even the least sign hints, that the Dedication was begun or to be completed on that day; I seem to myself, from the fact that the people demand the Lord's day, it does not follow that the Dedication was made on another than a Lord's day. to be able rather to infer the contrary. Namely that the people intended, under pretext of increasing the solemnity on the appointed Lord's day, to enjoy longer the sight of the holy bodies; but that the Bishop refused this, lest the lengthy order of ceremonies to be observed in the Dedication, become even more lengthy by that deposition of Relics; nay that he reluctantly granted the delay of one day, which seemed rather to be left to the preparation necessary for the Dedication to follow. But since the place of a church to be built is wont, at the beginning of the construction, to be blessed through a Stauropegia (as they call it) with a Cross fixed in, by ceremonies proper to that matter; it ought not to seem strange to anyone, that into a basilica already built, though not yet dedicated, and to an altar not yet consecrated, the Saints were brought, with their own pomp previous to the future dedication. I return to Ambrose's Epistle.

[8] On the following day, that is the VI Feria, such was the sermon again to the people. Yesterday I treated the verse, Day to day utters speech, as far as the capacity of our talent bore: today the divine Scripture seems to me to have prophesied not only of past time, but of the present too. For since I see the celebration of your holiness continued days and nights, that these are the days the oracles of the prophetic song declared, yesterday and today, of which most opportunely it is said: Then another sermon was had, Day to day utters speech: and these are the nights, of which most fitly it is disputed, because Night to night shows knowledge. For what else in this two days, but the word of God have you uttered with inmost affection, and have proved that you have the knowledge of faith? Yet of this celebration of yours, those who are wont, are envious: and because they cannot bear your celebration with envious minds, they hate the cause of the celebration, and proceed so far into madness, that they deny the merits of the martyrs, whose works even the demons confess.

[9] But this is no wonder. Since so great is the perfidy of the unbelieving, that the confession of the devil is for the most part more tolerable. For the devil said: Jesus son of the living God, why hast thou come before the time to torment us? And when the Jews heard this, they nevertheless denied the Son of God. And now you have heard the demons crying, and confessing to the martyrs, with mention of the demons confessing themselves tormented that they cannot bear the penalties, and saying: Why have you come, to torment us so grievously before the time? And the Arians say: These are not martyrs, neither can they torment the devil, nor free anyone: when the torments of the demons are proved by their own voice, and the benefits of the martyrs are declared by the remedies of the blind, and the proofs of those freed. They deny that the blind man was illuminated, but he does not deny that he was healed. He says: I see, who did not see. He says I ceased to be blind, and proves it by the fact. These deny the benefit, who cannot deny the fact. The man is known, who when he was well was bound to public services, Severus by name, a butcher by ministry. He had laid down his office, after an impediment had befallen him. He calls to testimony men, and of the blind man illuminated by whose services he was before sustained. He summons as proofs of his visitation those, whom he had as witnesses and arbiters of his blindness. He cries out, that as he touched the fringe of the garment of the martyrs, with which the sacred relics are clothed, the light was restored to him.

[10] Hence taking occasion further, Ambrose refutes the Judaic obstinacy of the Arians; The devil, he says, yields to blows, the Arians know not to yield: The devil said, I know thee, who thou art. Thou art the son of the living God. The Jews said, We know not who he is. The demons said today and yesterday or last night: We know, that you are Martyrs: to the confusion of the obstinate Arians. and the Arians say, We know not, we will not understand, we will not believe. The demons say to the Martyrs: You have come to destroy us: the Arians say, The torments of the demons are not true, but feigned and contrived mockeries. I have heard many things contrived: this no one ever could feign, that he pretend himself to be possessed, otherwise he would pretend himself to be a demon. What of this, that we see those so agitated, on whom hands are laid? Where here is the place for fraud, where the suspicion of pretending? but I do not use the voice of the demons for the suffrage of the martyrs. Let the sacred passion be proved by its own benefits. It has judges, but cleansed: it has witnesses, but freed. Better is the voice which the health of those who came infirm speaks: better soon is what the blood emits … This blood cries out by the proof of its color. The blood cries out by the proclamation of its working, the blood cries out by the triumph of its passion. Your petition has been satisfied, that we defer to today the Relics to be laid yesterday. Ambrose believed his sister too satisfied by these things related, nor perhaps could he add anything else, she probably writing the Epistle that very or the next day, which should be carried to Rome; which unless she had written before the Lord's day, she would no doubt have added something about the Dedication of her Basilica performed. And we believe this too signified by another Epistle of the next occasion, although that and the sermon then had do not yet appear.

§. II. What Augustine the Bishop and Paulinus the Presbyter, eyewitnesses, wrote on the same matter; and in what year it was done.

[11] I pass to others, narrating with similar certainty the matter seen by them, whose troop let S. Augustine lead. He, coming to baptism, S. Augustine baptized in the year 387, heaped up the joy of Ambrose, and his solace amid adversities, in the year next following CCCLXXXVII. Baronius notes the Eighth, and following him with several others Puricellus, whence he too composes the day XIX June with the Sabbath, going before the first Lord's day after Pentecost; for Easter had then been held XXV April. By such a chance indeed it would have been strange, that into neither sermon there fell any mention of the Holy Spirit. But Antonius Pagi evidently demonstrates, teaches the matter was done in the prior year; from the fact that the oration on basilicas not to be handed over, had on Palm Sunday, cannot be reckoned to have been had after a whole year and the third month of the law, in favor of the Arians passed by Valentinian, that the Portian Basilica, at the next Easter be vacated for his and his mother's use; evidently, I say, from that Pagius demonstrates, that oration to have been recited in the very year of the law passed, CCCLXXXVI; and so XXIX March, but not XVIII April; and that the same was the year, which went before the baptism of Augustine, as before in his lucubration on the itinerary of Augustine the now Most Eminent Norisius had also taught. But that the holy Bodies were found in the year going before the baptism, Augustine teaches in book 9 of the Confessions ch. 7, while on the occasion of the psalmody newly introduced into the Western church, with which to be frequented it seemed it could not be sated, he writes thus.

[12] Not long had the Milanese Church begun to celebrate this kind of consolation and exhortation, in the books of the Confessions, with great zeal of the Brethren singing together with voices and hearts. Doubtless it was a year or not much more (before my baptism) when Justina, the mother of Valentinian the boy King, persecuted thy man Ambrose for the cause of her heresy, by which she had been seduced by the Arians. Then it was instituted that Hymns and Psalms be sung, according to the custom of the Eastern parts, lest the people pine away with the weariness of grief. Then to thy remembered Bishop thou didst open by a vision, in what place the bodies of the Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius lay hid, which through so many years incorrupt thou hadst hidden in the treasure of thy secret, whence opportunely thou mightest bring them forth, to coerce the feminine, but royal, rage. For when, brought forth and dug up, they were translated with worthy honor to the Ambrosian basilica; not only those whom unclean spirits vexed; but a certain man, for several years blind, a citizen most well known to the city, a witness too of the miracles, when he had asked and heard the cause of the tumultuous joy of the people, leaped up; and asked his guide to lead him there: led there he obtained to be admitted, that with a handkerchief he might touch the bier of the precious death in thy sight of thy Saints: which when he had done and applied to his eyes, immediately they were opened. Thence fame running about, thence praises of thee fervent, thence the mind of that hostile woman, although not applied to the soundness of believing, was yet checked from the fury of persecuting.

[13] These things Augustine, now Bishop of Hippo, and so after the deed at least XVI years: as one who in book 2 of his Retractations, as also in the sermon on them, among the books which as Bishop he wrote, in the sixth place first reckons the Confessions. More ambiguous to me is, at what time the sermon was had by him on the Natal of the Holy Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, whether by the Presbyter or by the Bishop: one thing I see, after the memorial built to them in the villa Victoriana near Hippo and the feast established in Africa, that it was had, and in it the day of the Finding or more truly of the Deposition is called the Natal: for thus he speaks, and professes himself an eyewitness, ch. 5 of that Sermon which is the thirty-ninth among those on various subjects. We celebrate on this present day, Brethren, the memory placed in this place of SS. Protasius and Gervasius, Milanese Martyrs: not the day on which it was placed here, but the day we celebrate, when the precious death of his Saints in the sight of the Lord was found (or rather two days before found, deposited under the altar) through Ambrose the Bishop, a man of God: of whose Martyrs of so great glory even then I was a witness. I was there: I was at Milan: I saw the miracles done: I knew God attesting by the precious deaths of his Saints; that through those miracles, now not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men, that death might be precious. A blind man, most well known to the whole city, was illuminated. He ran: he had himself led: without a guide he returned. We have not yet heard that he has died: perhaps he still lives. In their very basilica, where the bodies are, he vowed himself to serve all his life: we rejoiced to see him seeing, we left him serving.

[14] The same Augustine, on the occasion of Rome devastated in the year CCCCIX by the Goths under their leader Alaric, having begun to write on the City of God, and finally in the books on the City of God in book twenty-second made Chapter VIII, on miracles, which that the world might believe in Christ were done, and do not cease to be done with the world believing; and there the same as above he thus explains: The miracle which was done at Milan, when we were there, when the blind man was illuminated, could come to the notice of many; because both the city is great, and the Emperor was then there, and the matter was done with an immense people as witness, when there was a concourse to the bodies of the Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius: which when they lay hid and were utterly unknown, revealed to the Bishop Ambrose through a dream, they were found: where that blind man, the old darkness driven off, saw the light.

About the same time, at which Augustine was writing the aforesaid books; at his urging, the Milanese Presbyter Paulinus wrote the Life of S. Ambrose, wrongly confused by very many with the Saint of that name, the Nolan Bishop. From his pen it pleases me to add this last testimony of truth, and instrument of more certain notice: thus he writes.

[15] the same Paulinus the Presbyter testifies, in the Life of Ambrose, At this time when against the Arians an army of Catholic soldiers guarded the doors of the church, Antiphons, Hymns and Vigils first began to be celebrated in the Milanese Church … At the same time the holy Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius revealed themselves to the Priest: for they were placed in a basilica: in which are today the bodies of Nabor and Felix the Martyrs. But the holy Martyrs Nabor and Felix were most famously frequented, but of Protasius and Gervasius the Martyrs, as the names, so also the sepulchers were unknown: so much that all walked over their sepulchers, who wished to come to the railings, by which the bodies of the holy Martyrs Nabor and Felix were defended from the injury of the sepulcher. and the punishment of the Arian denying the miracle. But when the bodies of the holy Martyrs were raised, and placed on couches; the sicknesses of many there are taught to be healed. A blind man too, Severus by name (who up to now in the same basilica, which is called Ambrosian, in which the bodies of the Martyrs have been translated, religiously serves) when he touched the garment of the Martyrs, immediately recovered his sight. Bodies too possessed by unclean spirits, cured, returned home with the utmost grace … Yet because within the Palace a multitude of Arians stationed with Justina, derided so great a grace of God … and said that the venerable man Ambrose had bought with money men, who lied that they were vexed by unclean spirits, and said they were tormented by him as also by the Martyrs … one of that very multitude of theirs, suddenly seized by an unclean spirit, began to cry out, that they were so tormented as he himself was tormented, who denied the Martyrs, or who did not believe in the Trinity of unity, which Ambrose teaches. But they confused by this voice, who ought to have been converted and to do penance worthy of such confusion, drowned the man in a pool and killed him, joining homicide to perfidy.

§. III. An Epistle on the same subject and the Passion of the Martyrs, published under the name of S. Ambrose, as written to all the Brethren of Italy.

[16] Whatever I have so far deduced, altogether most certain, make for this, [Since from Augustine and Paulinus it is known the revelation was made to S. Ambrose,] that the examination of the Relics, to be instituted, rest on its usual foundation; and before all I note, that from those it stands irrefragably established, that not only the ardor of some presaging moved the holy Bishop, to seek the bodies of the Saints, but that they themselves revealed themselves to him, as Paulinus says and S. Gaudentius to be alleged below at num. 62; and this through a dream, and through a vision as Augustine wrote; so probably all taught from the mouth of S. Ambrose himself. Hence further it follows, that his silence about such a vision alone does not suffice, to render suspect the Epistle, of which we have proposed to treat. It is had, but published by Lipomanus and Surius on the faith of most ancient Codices, from his silence about it alone and from others somewhat more correct it passed into the third edition of the Works of Ambrose, prepared at Rome in the year 1585. But as Ambrose omitted that vision, nor on that account can it be reckoned wholly false; so neither, if nothing else hinders, on the ground of some similar omission as to other circumstances, if nothing else were added, ought the booklet of Philip to be called into doubt, placed (as he prefaces) at the heads of the Saints buried by him, and described in the aforesaid epistle to the Brethren through Italy, containing the whole history of the Martyrdom such as occurs in very many Passionals taken thence. Before therefore I judge anything, or submit it to thy judgment, Reader, to be defined, receive the very thing, from the most ancient Mss. first the Puteanus, the Epistle is not overthrown which then passed into the power of Christina Queen of the Swedes, but now is kept in the Vatican; then the Treverensis of S. Maximin, with which Rosweide our man once collated the Surian edition; just as Bollandus and Henschenius collated it with a very ancient parchment codex bought by them at Liège and another more recent which we call the Moretian, because redeemed from him: nor was there leisure to collate again with the several copies found both at Milan and elsewhere, already so often collated. Here then is its tenor.

[17] Ambrose servant of Christ, to the Brethren through all Italy, eternal salvation in the Lord. to the Faithful of Italy, In the divine volumes he is written guilty, who has not been zealous to give freely, what he himself has freely received. For whatever was going to profit the Church of the Lord, he is shown to have withdrawn, when he has been unwilling to hand over to all, what he himself received not to be concealed. Matt. 10:8 Whence also the Psalmist prophesied a, saying: Thy justice I have not hidden in my heart: thy truth and thy salvation I have spoken: I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great council. And for this work, as if asking a recompense from God, he added: But thou O Lord put not far thy mercy from me; by which the saint may have narrated, as if he said to God, As I made others find mercy, so do thou too not allow thy mercies to be made far from me. Let us therefore open why we premised these things, and invite your minds, who piously think of God and believe, to joy at the finding of the holy bodies.

[18] In the days of the Lent lately past, b when the Lord had granted me, that he made me a partaker of those fasting and praying; with me set in prayer thus sleep crept over me, the vision of the Saints offered to himself, that neither waking openly, nor sleeping entirely, I saw with open eyes with me two young men, ephebes, in most white garments, that is, clad in tunic and cloak, shod with little boots, with hands extended praying. Suffering indeed no heaviness, I could not speak with them: but as I said, a part of sleep lay upon me, which did not let me utter a word at their questioning: but with me fully waking their vision slipped from my eyes: whence it came about, that I asked the Lord's mercy, that if it were a mockery of demons, it might depart; but if it were truth, it might appear more fully. But to obtain, what I asked from the Lord, I increased my fasting: and in like manner, at cockcrow, the young men praying with me appeared. But on the third night, with my body weakened by fasting, not sleeping, but stupefied, there appears to me a certain third person, who was like B. Paul, whose countenance a picture had taught me, so that he alone spoke with me while they were silent, saying: These are they, who on account of my admonitions c, spurning estates and riches, followed the pious footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ; desiring nothing earthly, nothing carnal, in the midst of this Milanese city for ten years enduring in the service of God, with S. Paul indicating their place: deserved to attain this, that they became Martyrs of Christ: whose bodies thou shalt find in that place, in which thou standest and prayest. Thou shalt find a chest covered with earth to the height of twelve feet: which chest thou shalt raise above, and in their name thou shalt build a church d. And when I asked their names from him, he said to me: At their head thou shalt find a booklet written e, in which both their origin and their end are written. Summoning therefore all the Brethren round about and the fellow-Bishops f of the neighboring cities, relating all things, which I had seen and heard, with them placed present, I first as digger of the earth approached: the rest of the Bishops followed. Digging, we came to the chest, which the holy Paul had promised: which opening, with which the booklet of Philip too was found: we found the Saints as if placed that very hour, fragrant with a wondrous odor: at whose head we found that booklet, in which were all these things written in order. I servant of Christ Philip, within my house seized the bodies of the Saints with my son and buried them: whose mother was called Valeria, and father Vitalis; whom they begot as twins at one birth, and called the one Protasius, the other Gervasius g.

[19] Whose father Vitalis was a military h Consular. He, when he had entered Ravenna with Paulinus his Judge, and saw in the sight of his judge a Christian, where with the martyrdom of S. Ursicinus premised, endured at Ravenna, named Ursicinus, a physician by art, a Ligurian by nation, after excessive torments to have received the capital sentence. But the place, where Christians were beheaded, had this name, that it was called, At the palm, because ancient palm trees were there. Therefore when, as we said, after excessive torments he came to the Palm to be beheaded, he was terrified: and while he wished to escape ill, Vitalis cried out, saying: Do not, do not Ursicinus the physician, who wast wont to cure others, dost thou wish to wound thyself with the dart of eternal death? Thou who through excessive sufferings hast come to the palm, do not lose the crown, prepared for thee by the Lord. Hearing this, Ursicinus, set his knee, and exhorted the executioner, to strike: and doing penance that he had been terrified, made himself a Martyr of Christ. And immediately Vitalis himself seizing the body of the Martyr, buried it within the city of the Ravennates; and with all honor performing the obsequies due to a Martyr, scorned to come any more to the judge. Whom Paulinus, the Consular Judge, ordered to be held chiefly therefore, not so much because he scorned to return to him, as because he was so detected to be a Christian, that even instructing Ursicinus, wishing to sacrifice, lest he perish, so to do, that he should return to the crown of martyrdom, and render to God the precious pearl, which the devil was eager to snatch.

[20] Paulinus therefore, ordered him to be raised on the rack, that through torments he might be able to turn his mind to sacrifice to the idols. To whom Vitalis said: Infinite stupidity rules thee, also S. Vitalis who had animated that one, that thou thinkest to deceive me, who have striven to free others from the danger of deception. Then Paulinus the Consular said to his Officium: Lead him to the Palm; and if he scorn to sacrifice, do not behead him: but make a pit in the earth, until you come to water: and there lay him supine, and overwhelming him with earth and stones leave him. When this had been done, God thus consecrated Vitalis to himself as a Martyr. But the Priest of Apollo, who had given this counsel to Paulinus, was filled by the devil, so that for seven days he cried out possessed there, where holy Vitalis had been overwhelmed, saying: Thou burnest me, holy Vitalis martyr of Christ, and torturest me. But after seven days cast down by the devil, he expired in the river. But holy Vitalis the glorious martyr of Christ, was buried near the city of the Ravennates, granting by his prayers many benefits to all men believing in the Lord, up to the present day. i

[21] But Valeria his wife, when she wished to carry off the body of S. Vitalis, was forbidden by the Christians

forbidden, and of S. Valeria returning to Milan, and was often admonished by him in visions, not to violate the holy body, well placed by an evil man. But she, while she was returning to the city of the Milanese, fell in with idolaters sacrificing to Silvanus: who taking her down from her packsaddle, urged her to feast with them. But she said: I am a Christian: it is not lawful for me to eat of the sacrifices of your Silvanus. But they hearing this, slaughtered her with so great a beating that her men scarcely led her half-dead to the city of the Milanese, so that within three days she passed over to Christ k. And when Gervasius and Protasius had succeeded their parents intestate, their sons are said to be Gervasius and Protasius, selling their own house and the property of their parents and their little farms they gave the whole price to the poor and to their little household, which they had even made freeborn. But they shut themselves up in one upper room, for ten l years given to reading and prayer and fasting. But in the tenth year, the eleventh of their conversion, to the palm of martyrdom m they came in this order.

[22] At the same time with Count Astasius n coming up, who was setting out to the war, which had been stirred up by the Marcomanni o, the worshippers of the temples ran to meet him with their Priests, saying: If thou wilt return joyful and victor to our Augusti p, compel Gervasius and Protasius to sacrifice: for our gods, vehemently moved by their contempt, sent by Astasius against the Marcomanni, scorn to give us responses. Hearing this Count Astasius, ordered them to be held and brought to him, to whom also he said: I exhort you, that abstaining from injuries to our gods, you study devotedly to insist on offering to them, that my expedition may be diligently carried out. Gervasius said: Thou oughtest to seek victory from heaven from God almighty, not from mute and vain images, which have eyes without light, ears without hearing, nostrils without smell, mouth without speech, hands without touch, feet without going; and a belly without entrails they are proved to have, and they are known to be without breath. Then Count Astasius, indignant, ordered him to be beaten with leaded scourges, until he should exhale his spirit.

[23] With him removed, he ordered Protasius to stand by, to whom he also said: Wretch, do thou at least study to live, and do not become a violent-death-victim q, as also thy brother. To whom Protasius answering, said: Who is the wretch, I, who fear thee not: or thou, who art proved to fear me? in vain urged to defection Count Astasius said: How do I, wretched man, fear thee? Blessed Protasius said: In this, that thou fearest to be harmed by me, if I do not sacrifice to thy gods. For if thou didst not fear to be harmed by me, thou wouldst not compel me to sacrifice: but I, not fearing thee, despise thy threats, and counting all thy idols as dung, adore God alone who reigns in the heavens. Hearing this Count Astasius, ordered him to be beaten with cudgels. But afterward with him raised up, he said to him: Wretched man, why dost thou exist so proud and so rebellious? Wilt thou perish, as thou hast proved thy brother to have perished? Protasius said: I am not angry with thee, Astasius, neither I nor justice itself, since I regard the blind eyes of thy heart: for the unbelief, which reigns in thy senses, does not permit thee to see what is of God. For my Lord Jesus Christ too did not curse those crucifying him; and the first beaten with cudgels, the other cut with the sword. but rather, that they be pardoned, he prayed, adding this, that they knew not what they did. Whence I too pity thee, because thou knowest not what thou doest. Now therefore do, what thou hast begun, that with my brother today the kindness of our Savior may be able to meet me. Then Count Astasius ordered him to be cut in the head. When this had been done, I servant of Christ Philip carried off with my son secretly by night the holy bodies, and in my house, with God alone as witness, and in this marble chest buried them, believing that by their prayers I obtain the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns world without end, Amen. r

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

they are certainly lacking in all the Mss. we have seen. He then alleges the Ambrosian Manual of Beroldus, whom he says lived in the year 1120, and gave two parchment Missals Mss. to the Metropolitan Library, in which on the VIII Kal. of April, among several things attributed to the same day, is placed the Passion of three hundred Martyrs, and of James the Brother of the Lord and of Protasius and Gervasius, to which I would credit nothing more.

p Puricellus p. 125, from Paterculus saying that the envoys whom Maroboduus sent to the Caesars, sometimes commended as a suppliant sometimes spoke as equals; Were they called Augusti in the plural, before 161; tries to persuade, that as there Caesars, so here Augusti can be said; although there was a single Emperor, here Nero, there Augustus: or that both writers spoke thus, because by the plural name they understood not the Emperor only, but also the Consuls or Senators; or as Vopiscus in the Probus names in the plural, Sallusts, Livies, Tacituses, Probuses; or finally because Galba, acclaimed Emperor by the army against Nero, was hoped to be reconciled with him, and to bear common Empire. But I know not whether Puricellus could seriously write these things, and persuade himself of it: for how would he not have thought that Augustus's stepsons Tiberius and Drusus were called Caesars by their stepfather, and this one also surnamed Germanicus for things gloriously done in Germany: but these, with the brother dead, almost shared the empire and Maroboduus could have business with both, the rest deserving no answer. and the Marcomannic war, before 169 waged. So much, namely, avails a mind once obstinate to defend some writing: to whom such a one is not, will altogether judge with Baronius, that here several could not be written unless when already by common use several began to reign together: but they did not begin before the times of Verus and Antoninus the brothers reigning together from the year 161, to 169: and in that last year it stands that grave commotions were stirred up by the Marcomanni in the Germanies, on account of which both Emperors advanced as far as Aquileia. Nor would it be strange, that some Count or Duke was sent ahead from Italy, before the Emperors themselves moved: still less before Antoninus, with his brother dead, set out into Germany, himself to subdue what he could not check through others in the prior years.

q Biothanatus, that is, taken away by violent death.

r It is strange that here the end of the Epistle is set, nor a word added about the Translation and the miracles following it:

§. IV. The silence of the more ancient writers about that Epistle through two centuries, and a relation about the Saints altogether different, from no better S. Nazarius's Passion.

[24] From the premised Annotations I think it now sufficiently clear, that the Epistle was falsely attributed to Ambrose, which places his vision at so incongruous a time, To the relation ascribed to Philip, and prior to the building of the Ambrosian basilica; and, with no less inconvenience, introduces the Bishops summoned to the re-digging of the holy bodies. It appears too, from the booklet of Philip annexed to the Epistle, equally spurious, that nothing certain can be had of the time, in which the holy Martyrs suffered. It appears finally that the author of the Epistle, if he wished to designate some time, could have had no other proposed to himself, than the common one of the two brothers M. Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Verus, sons of M. Antoninus Pius. For then the holy Vitalis and Valeria ought to have suffered, if their parents were survived a decade by SS. Protasius and Gervasius about the beginning of the Marcomannic commotions, with Verus still living, seized and killed by Count Astasius sent to compose them in the year CLXIX. and indicating the year about 169; But the age of Philip is repugnant to such a Chronology, if it is true that he was among the first converted by S. Caius at Milan, and lent his gardens for the meetings of the Christians to be held, and the dead to be buried: by which argument they chiefly rely, who refer the said martyrdoms to the first century of Christ, and the time of S. Caius the Bishop. And this the Milanese and Ravennates do with so great consensus, that it is not necessary to name them: but all ascribe the above-related passion to the Neronian persecution.

[25] That the Neronian persecution pertained not only to the Christians living at Rome, but to all scattered through the whole Empire, from Lactantius and Orosius, a writer of the 5th century is repugnant, and even the public titles of his time excellently proves in his Critica Antonius Pagi, with whom I will gladly correct whatever elsewhere I have perhaps defined to the contrary. Lactantius could have read he, who in the VI century of Christ (as we judge) composed the history of the first Bishops of Milan, by whose reckoning to S. Anatalon the first Bishop after Barnabas, succeeded S. Caius, in the year of Christ LIX; asserting that under Bishop Caius but having set out to Rome in the fifth year of his Episcopate, would have found the Apostles recently slain (this agrees excellently with the year of their death) but Caius remained in the Episcopate up to the fifth year of Domitian Caesar, that is, up to the year of Christ LXXXV. His Life from that history we shall give at XXVII September on which he is now venerated: here meanwhile I judge those things should be touched, which make for the present argument.

[26] That author says of the first years of the aforesaid Caius, that under them, were baptized, although the savage and most truculent complaint of the Pagans rose more and more against the faithful of Christ; nevertheless the daily losses of the envious enemy, and the gains for Christ from the clients of idolatry were made: and now not just anyone, but even the Consuls themselves, and those whom the glory of the world had made more illustrious, hastened speedily to the service of Christ. For in the earlier days, he says, S. Vitalis, indeed noble in origin of flesh, but nobler in the height of mind, the greatest of the citizens of Milan, and not moderately honored among his own, together with his most religious wife and sons, and the whole household of his house, was associated to the faith of Christ; and under Nero and Anulinus and with him equally very many of the older citizens, among whom also Philip with his own, a man most illustrious before the world and before God. Then having narrated Caius's departure to Rome, of Nero he subjoins, that through each province he had directed Praesides, to scatter, destroy and slay the worshippers of the Christian name with various kinds of penalties, among whom he had appointed Anolinus as the chief plague, his Secundicerius, with the Consular morsel given him against the Christians, that receiving the power of the Italian parts, he might pluck out the very name of the Christian sect by the roots, and disperse the seed.

[27] For soon as he entered Milan, the metropolis of the Italians … having heard that many of the Chief men, were there Christians; the Martyrs slain: against all he is said to have raged in manifold ways: and among many, says the Author, who in those times in the army of Christ contended unto death, I have found the most blessed brothers to have stood forth, namely Protasius and Gervasius, the most holy Martyrs of the Lord. For their father, of whom I mentioned above, S. Vitalis, the most brave athlete of Christ, had long before for the confession of Christ, He errs indeed in the time of the Neronian persecution: through diverse sufferings obtained the triumphal palm. Their mother too most devoted to God Valeria, by a similar end had exchanged death into glory. Of these therefore, as I had begun to say, the most blessed parents, the sons followed the noble example, in nothing degenerate, and were made most constant victors of the Neronian battle: nor was it enough to be beaten with leaded scourges, nor tortured on the rack; unless they also offered their body to the executioner, in place of the heads of the Martyrs. These things he: who if having regard to the times he had understood, that the first persecution under Nero against the Christians had its beginning from the burning of the city, procured about the XI year of his reign, of Christ LXIV, and lasted only a triennium; would have refrained from that long before in reporting the death of the sons after the parents.

[28] Note meanwhile that to this so ancient writer that Epistle published above under the name of Ambrose ought to have been utterly unknown, [yet by his very antiquity he teaches that, while he wrote, the aforesaid Epistle was not yet known.] for how else would he have placed Anulinus the judge instead of Aspasius the Count? or mentioned the rack, nowhere there indicated? or have said both beaten with leaded scourges and then diminished in the head, when the Epistle asserts that Gervasius indeed was bruised with cudgels, until he should exhale his spirit; but Protasius first with cudgels, then cut in the head: while yet the true Ambrose in book 7 on Luke ch. 13, says equally of both, that with persecution coming they laid down their arms, bent their necks, crushed by the sword (for he compares them to a grain of mustard) through all the bounds of the world, he says, they spread the grace of martyrdom. And let these suffice, to disprove the credit of the Epistle, so unhappily attributed to Ambrose; and likewise the booklet, ascribed to Philip under such authority. Meanwhile however, if it stood sufficiently established, that Gervasius and Protasius were sons of that Vitalis who suffered at Ravenna after S. Ursicinus, Nor is it improbable that the Saints were slain under Domitian. is now there venerated as Patron on XXVIII April; if it stood established also and their passion

to be wrongly ascribed to the reign of Nero; Paulinus, the ordinary Consul of the year LXVI, could in the following year by Proconsular power through Cisalpine Gaul have exercised that judgment; but the sons surviving their father by about XXX years have consummated Martyrdom at Milan under Domitian, moving the second persecution against the Christians; under which there existed some commotion of the Marcomanni, less memorable, to check which there was sent either Aspasius the Count, or some other, compared to Anolinus for savagery, afterward the minister of Diocletian and Maximian. Nor is it improbable, that Domitian, called another Nero by the Christians, could have lain hidden under the name of Nero to the Milanese writers of the V and VI century; since even Nero himself, by his own and his father's name was called Domitius, but only by the right of adoption Nero.

[29] Baronius doubted, in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, on this day whether he should say that the Acts which are had of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, are certain, firm and of Ambrose: but he did not doubt, that, if such they were, it must altogether be believed they suffered in the times of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Verus the Augusti, in the ninth year of whose Empire the Marcomannic war arose. But what made him incline this way is, that neither Bede, nor Usuard or Ado, or any of the ancients, or the old Manuscripts, when they treat of these Martyrs, or of their parent Vitalis on the IV Kal. of May, make any mention of Nero. As regards Bede, his genuine Martyrology had not yet appeared, when Baronius wrote, by our effort more recently published before tome 2 of March. Bede did not see it, But that he wrote nothing else in March, than, IV Kal. the passion of S. Vitalis; but in June, XIII Kal. of the Holy Gervasius and Protasius Martyrs at Milan, we think. The rest Florus of Lyons, from the epistle ascribed to Ambrose, added. Similarly all the ancient Legendaries, which Baronius saw, either described the same Epistle word for word, or adorned it with more words. But hence I seem to myself unable to draw any other consequence at all, but Florus of the 9th century was the first to follow it. than that the Acts, unknown to the writer of the VI century and to Bede himself, first appeared, because between Bede and Florus there flowed a time, which was of almost one century, since Bede died in the year DCCXXV, Florus was held famous in the year DCCCXLII. But Florus was followed by Usuard, Ado, Notker, Rabanus, and the rest with the present Roman.

[30] If now further thou ask, what that writer of the Episcopal Lives could have had before his eyes, whom I said lucubrated his history in the VI century; Although that Legend is most ancient, I will answer, a certain Passion of SS. Nazarius and Celsus, already then described, in which it was read (according to the most ancient Puteanus Ms. now to be found in the Vatican) that S. Nazarius, in the tenth year after he had departed from Rome, entered into the city of Piacenza, teaching all the people; but after some days he came to Milan, and found held in custody the Blessed Gervasius and Protasius by Anolinus the Prince, who even worked many virtues in prison: to whom B. Nazarius was now made a companion … Thence having gone out toward the Gauls, in the city of Cimiez he received the little Celsus as companion; and with him having set out to Trier, and reported by letters to Nero by Cornelius the Praeses of the Gauls, ascribing the saints to the age of Nero and Anolinus, but summoned by him to Rome and found at Embrun, he was led to Nero. And after various torments, when with the boy he was ordered to be cast into the sea, he came to Genoa, and thence proceeded to Milan: where he sought in prison those whom he had left, the holy Martyrs of God, Protasius and Gervasius; and found them: cleaving to whom, he comforted them. But Anolinus hearing this, who had expelled him from the city of Milan … ordered him to be sent to another prison. And having received an answer from Rome from Nero, consulted thereon; not after many days Anolinus ordered Nazarius to be beheaded with the boy Celsus.

[31] Of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, whether before or after they were slain is not said either in that briefer and more ancient one, and rendered into Greek on the occasion of a temple erected at C-Pole, or in the more recently adorned and in Mombritius more diffuse Legend, at XXVIII July, when solemnly is held their Finding or Deposition, made by S. Ambrose within the third year after the death of the Emperor Theodosius. A little after Theodosius the Younger, or I know not who else, built a church to S. Nazarius at Constantinople, which collapsed by age, the Emperor Basil the Macedonian about the year DCCCLXXX made anew, and more excellent than the former, as is the author his grandson Porphyrogenitus, in the life of his grandfather in Cange, perhaps before the Canon about them was composed; Christian Constantinople book 4 §. 6. The Macedonian reigned from the year DCCCLXVII to DCCCLXXXVI: at which time S. Joseph the Hymnographer, Bishop of Thessalonica, famous for composing sacred Canons, composed the Office of SS. Nazarius Gervasius Protasius and Celsus, such as in the Menaea of the Greeks is extended, to be sung on the day XVIII October, because on that day was made the placing of the sacred Relics brought there from Milan.

[32] More ancient than that Office could have been the Conversation and Passion of the aforesaid four, which we have received in Greek from the Royal Medicean Ms. at Paris, not less however than that version, but rendered into Latin from a Venetian Ms. Lipomanus published, and from Lipomanus Surius: where with a certain license usual to the Greeks, not only all four are said to have suffered at the same time, which is not probable; but even on the very day on which they are venerated at Constantinople XIV October, which is altogether most false, or certainly asserted by a wholly gratuitous conjecture, even if it were understood of Nazarius and Celsus alone.

[33] For indeed the Latin Acts, which by a briefer and neater compendium the Greeks translated for their own uses, Florus is deceived about the day of martyrdom knowing nothing of the Pseudo-Ambrosian Epistle, when they treat of the punishment and burial of the Martyrs, not only are silent about the death of SS. Gervasius and Protasius; but of Nazarius and Celsus say, that the observing Christians, stole their holy and precious bodies, and bore them on the fifth day of the Kalends of August, outside the gate which is called Roman, into their own gardens. I too judge this defined without foundation, and such a day attributed to their anniversary at Milan, for the same cause, for which to Protasius and Gervasius is attributed the day XIX June: namely for the cause of the Deposition made by Ambrose.

[34] Paulinus treats of the finding of Nazarius and Celsus in the Life of Ambrose most accurately: and when he had said, how Ambrose preceded by one day Theodosius about to come from Aquileia to Milan, and the time of the finding of S. Nazarius. about to receive him with his sons in the church; nor long, he says, was Theodosius of most clement memory in this light (having died at the same Milan XVII January, CCCXCIV) after whose death Ambrose survived almost four years: at which time, that is in that last triennium of the holy Prelate, the body of S. Nazarius the Martyr, which was placed in a garden outside the city, was raised, carried to the basilica of the Apostles, which is in the Roman district … But with the body of the Martyr raised and laid in a bier, immediately to S. Celsus the Martyr, who is placed in the same garden, with the holy Priest we proceeded to prayer.

[35] Hence it sufficiently manifestly appears how far from the truth the Acts wander, when they say; But when it pleased God, he revealed in our time to Ambrose the Bishop; and he obtained from Theodosius of pious memory: who with all the people coming to the place … found the Saints.

[36] More widely too the Greek paraphrast began, saying, that the treasure of the martyric Relics lay hid in the house of him, who had buried them, The version too errs about the founder of the church at C-Pole, until to the Great Theodosius, born of Iberia, which is now called Spain, came the scepters of the Roman Empire. But when he, after Valens the enemy of God was killed by the barbarians in Thrace, was appointed Emperor, who was pious toward God if any other, rejoiced in the honor of Martyrs; then too their sacred Relics, as a treasure, are stored up in the Milanese church, of Nazarius I say and Gervasius, Protasius and Celsus. There followed cures of the blind, lame, lepers; on which when the Great Theodosius had fallen (for then he was at Milan, contending against the tyrant, Maximus I say) and had received parts of the sacred Relics … he carried them to the Royal city, confirmed by the miracles which he himself saw against the Scythians. (that done in the year CCCLXXIX) making him Theodosius the Great.

[37] Before this great city therefore, he raises to them an elegant temple, and in it deposits the sacred Relics of the Martyrs; where they also emit abundant fountains of unguents, salutary not only for bodies, but also purging the souls of those who draw. Theodosius came to Italy against Maximus in the year CCCLXXXVIII, that is, two years after the finding of the Relics of SS. Protasius and Gervasius. He could therefore have seen the miracles, wrought at their invocation; and returning to Constantinople in the year CCCXCI have carried thither some Relics of one or other; whom it stands certain to have died before S. Nazarius was found. and to them have built a church, which afterward, on account of the remaining Relics of S. Nazarius brought to it, passed into his name, at least after the restoration, but could not have been present at the finding of S. Nazarius, much less have carried his Relics to Constantinople.

§. V. With like license forged Legends of SS. Nazarius, Victor the Syrian and Hermagoras attributed to contemporary witnesses, and a sermon on S. Nazarius wrongly ascribed to Ambrose. Whose this may seem to be.

[38] Those things properly pertaining to XXVIII July, and to be more minutely treated then with the Acts themselves produced, might seem prematurely collected here; [Such a legend is profited nothing by a booklet said to be written by an eyewitness.] unless it had to be demonstrated, that from such things nothing certain is had of SS. Protasius and Gervasius. It was therefore also worth the labor to observe how the pretended names of Ambrose and Philip ought to move no one, witnesses otherwise irrefragable each for his own time; such too would be, if he is truly alleged, that Philosopher, of whom in the aforenoted Legend it is reported, that following S. Nazarius from the beginning, he wrote the booklet of his contest; and keeping it with himself faithfully retained it: but terrified in sleep by the Saints, he gave it to Ceracius, who buried the precious bodies of the Saints; and the Saints said to Ceracius, Hide the booklet of our contest at our head, until the day when God shall wish to show it. And receiving the booklet immediately he kept it at the head of the holy Martyrs.

[39] These things, I say, all can profit nothing to give any credit to such Acts; nay that it altogether derogates from them Paulinus proves in the Life of S. Ambrose in these words: We saw fresh blood, in the sepulcher of the Martyr, who when he suffered up to the present day we cannot know … we have learned however from the keepers of that very place, that it was handed down from those parents, that they should not depart from

that place through every generation and offspring of their own, because great treasures had been placed in that place. Would Paulinus have written these things, if at the head of the Martyr there had been found the booklet which is pretended? neither would he have known to indicate the day of the passion nor the time of Nero?

[40] Equally celebrated, as the four Saints of whom hitherto, and Patron of the Milanese Church, S. Victor the Moor, That done through the indiscreet piety of that age, from the soldiery of the Emperor Maximian, under him and his Counselor Anolinus having suffered in the year CCCIII, was not much happier in his own Acts; because, although they are faulty, as we showed at VIII May, yet Maximian the Notary of the Emperor Maximian feigns himself to have written them, as he had seen present. Meanwhile he introduces the Martyr foretelling, that in that very year the Emperor would die, who nevertheless survived up to the year CCCX. I omit other things once noted: it is enough to have touched these here in passing, that it may be established, that there were in the middle age men at Milan indiscreetly pious, who thought rightly to consult the public devotion, by composing the Acts of those Saints, of whom none existed, out of the ill-cohering traditions of the common folk and out of their own conjectures. But they did this under ancient names, and apt if they were true, to make most certain credit; as we now late detect it to have been ill done; ourselves likely to find credit with difficulty among those preoccupied in favor of fables, propped by the prescription of long time; so long did the imposture lie hidden even from notable writers and otherwise learned men.

[41] But that this happened to the Acts of SS. Nazarius and Celsus thou wilt easily detect; if thou consider with thyself, with prejudice set aside, convicting the imposture by anachronisms whether it could be, that one present from the beginning at the things to be done and companion of the peregrinations of S. Nazarius, should write, that that Saint born of a Roman mother, baptized by the hands of Peter the Apostle, with Simon now overcome, and so in the last year of Peter of Christ LXV; and impelled by her to seek the same baptism, when he was nine years old; afterward came to the successor of B. Peter the Apostle named Linus, who held the Episcopate at Rome twelve years, and said to him, Give me in the Lord the seal, and so I shall set out in the name of the Lord from this City into the province of Italy. about Linus and Nazarius, But with his parents fearing for their son for that cause, because great malice had been stirred up against Nazarius, he said to his parents, Give me some part of the inheritance of your goods, and I will go out of this city, lest they kill me, and you be troubled … And they gave him seven laden animals from all their goods. And going out rejoicing from the city of Rome, for a long time through each city he preached. These are not the deeds of a nine- or eleven-year-old boy; and Nero: and yet beyond the year LXVII neither Linus nor Nero lived; for the cause of him persecuting the Christians therefore Nazarius could not have left the city, already a youth of just age.

[42] But after ten years from his going out from the City, that one is said to have come to Milan; and thence ejected by Anolinus, to have come to the city of the Gauls which is called Cimiez, near Nice; and there to have received the little Celsus as companion, with this man persecuting the Christians, with whom having set out further he was seized by Denobaus the Praeses of Gaul. By him likewise ejected, he came into the city which is called Trier, and preached there Jesus Christ. But Cornelius presided over the cities of the Gauls, and hearing these things wrote to Nero his Emperor … But Nero sent Dento his first soldier: who finding Nazarius at Embrun, brought him to Rome. But on another day Nero came to the harbor of the sea, that one, having long traveled through Italy and Gaul, and said to Nazarius, Go out hence from the cities and from my land; and put him on a ship; secretly commanding the captain, that with hands and feet bound he should cast him into the sea to be drowned. Which done, and with the ship endangered by a tempest sent therefore, the sailors received to themselves the Saints walking upon the sea, converted by that miracle, and set them down in the Agennensian place. And here perhaps it should be read Albingaunensian at the Ligurian gulf: at last would have been slain by Anolinus: for Aginnum, far from the sea, is a mediterranean city of Aquitaine. Then having entered the city Genoa, they proceeded to Milan; and by Anolinus again seized, and reported to Nero, by his order were beheaded by him.

[43] This is the sum of the drama, requiring from the baptism of the mother dipped in the year LXV, up to the death of the son, thirty or forty years: in which however besides Nero, slain in the year LXVII, who lived in the 4th century; and, like Nero, no Emperor appears; and to him is said, with Christ taking vengeance for the Saints, the right foot dried up, and so himself dead; which is most far from the truth of history nor can have been written by one then living. Yet all had to be briefly explained here, to persuade that it pleased the Author to substitute Nero for the unnamed persecutor and to join to him the judge Anolinus, the known persecutor of the Christians at Milan; if anything is believed of the Acts of S. Victor. For in these the Counselor of the Emperor Maximian is named Anolinus, whom he himself had directed there, and whose name is introduced into several Acts of more ancient Martyrs, fabricated with like credit. seems to be named, because better known at Milan. The same Anolinus, is thought by Baronius to be he, who acting as Proconsul of Africa, made many Martyrs there. But as he is noted at the year CCCXII, the same Anolinus by the command of Constantine, was ordered to favor and protect the Christians perhaps now converted: of whom however and Denobaus, fictitious equally as we fear, it is said in the aforenoted Acts, that strangled by the devil they died. The same therefore happened to Anolinus at Milan, as in Spain to Datianus, with the name distracted into several persons and several persecutions.

[44] From the things said it follows, that in both, as well in the Acts imputed to Philip as to the Philosopher companion of Nazarius, there is nothing, [So also in the Acts of SS. Syrus and Iuventius Bishops of Pavia, from a more ancient Life,] whence thou mayest form any reasonable conjecture of probable notice, that shone before those writing about the time of the Martyrdom of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, except the Marcomannic commotions, begun under Antoninus and Verus. To these too not improbably he might reduce them, the better ordered Chronology of the first Bishops of Pavia, SS. Syrus, Pompeius and Juventius; as far as it indeed can be ordered from their Legend, as is had in Mombritius, Lipomanus, and Surius, written probably by Paul the Deacon of Aquileia, flourishing about the beginning of the IX century. For this Legend indicates itself not more ancient, when it says of the city of Pavia, that by its proper name it is called Papia; which name no one is found to have written before Paul the Deacon. This being set, we seem to be able to believe Galesinius, otherwise prone to assert conjectures affirmatively, that he found the said Life of SS. Syrus and Juventius or another whence it is taken, in some Ms. pretitled with the name of Paul the Deacon.

[45] Certainly he could more easily have found this thus than that Pompeius his disciple wrote the Life of S. Syrus, [(as ill attributed to the successor Pompeius, as the Life of S. Hermagoras to Gregory his contemporary)] from whom Paul the Deacon took it, as I have in the Notes at X December. Indeed that of this at least I vehemently doubt the like rashness of Galesinius at XII July makes, where treating of S. Hermagoras the master of Syrus himself, of his Legend in Mombritius he likewise asserts, that his martyrdom Gregory committed to writing, writing to Fortunatus, which Gregory buried their bodies: for this is read of him no more than of Pompeius. If however Galesinius found both thus somewhere, by that very fact he proves our judgment, of the usual license of the middle age, of imposing ancient names on more recent writings and inventions. Someone therefore may have written the Life of S. Syrus under the name of that Pompeius as to the argument of the first thirteen Chapters: and the same with like license may have added the rest of the Acts of S. Juventius, which then Paul, or some other, as they are had published, adorned with a more brilliant style, professing he would follow the order, which he learned from the narration of the sermon of their life.

[46] He prefaces, that from the fountain of light, an inestimable brightness proceeding, called the disciple of Hermagoras, S. Syrus, shone around the minds of the people of Pavia; because from Christ to Peter, from Peter to Mark, but from Mark to Hermagoras, from Hermagoras to the most blessed men Syrus and Juventius it ran across. But the last of these he says at num. 18, possessed the chair of episcopal dignity thirty-nine years; but of Syrus at num. 10 he had said, that with eight courses of weeks fulfilled he obtained the see, that is for LVI years, and at num. 13 that he migrated to the Lord with eight weeks of his whole life doubly twinned fulfilled, that is, CXII years. But these years we are not forbidden to extend up to the year of Christ CLXX and beyond; he could have been sent about the year 107 if we are likewise permitted to protract the life of his Master Hermagoras (whom about the year LX ordained Bishop at Rome S. Mark sent to Aquileia, about to pass into Egypt) beyond the first century up to the persecution of Trajan. But why are we not permitted? since no successors stand in the way to whom we are forced to yield the intermediate times that chair vacant up to the year CCLXXV, as they will.

[47] But although the Life that is had, was written then when the city Aquileia was reckoned of the province of Austria, that is, after the VIII or IX century (for to no one before was Austria named). (nor indeed is Hermagoras proved to have died under Nero) Although, I say, the Life says, that S. Hermagoras suffered a little after S. Peter, with Nero still reigning; this however deserves no greater credit, than what is added, In the city of Rome with Agrippa son of the brother of Nero himself acting as Prefect, when yet Nero had no brother. But the Life itself supplies an argument, whence Hermagoras may be understood to have survived much longer: for it says that being asked by the Clergy near his death, whom they should have after this as Pastor; he ordered Fortunatus to be ordained for them, his Archdeacon and disciple, whom he himself from infancy had nourished with the fear of God, famous for doctrine and miracles, and companion of his whole episcopal care; a man certainly of at least thirty or forty years. But with Nero dying scarcely had passed fifteen years or at most twenty, since, with S. Mark preaching in those parts, Hermagoras himself received the faith; much later therefore he must have died, when he chose as successor his nursling from infancy in the fear of God, and perhaps first received after he was ordained Bishop, and had him as companion of Martyrdom. But as I said, slight is the antiquity of that life, as also its authority, which at the very beginning Athaulf, son of Ulfius, an illustrious man and first of the city, lifts up, held by great leprosy and cleansed at the entrance of S. Mark; for these are Lombard names, and not easily fitted to an Aquileian citizen for that age.

[48] But supposing that Hermagoras lived beyond the first century, and about the year CVII sent Syrus into Insubria; and to have lived beyond the year 170, he must have lived up to the year CLXX: and Juventius who brought the blood of the Saints to Syrus, if with Syrus he was sent by Hermagoras, however a boy since he called Syrus his Father from baptism, must have prolonged his life beyond the hundred and tenth year of age, the Episcopate held for XXXIX years. For it is necessary to his succession after S. Syrus to interpose those few and peaceful years, in which the intermediate Pompeius governed the Church of Pavia. If however some Juventius immediately succeeded him; and there was at Pavia a Bishop of that name before the one, who with S. Ambrose in the year CCCLXXXI was present at the Synod of Aquileia, and the Milanese one in the year CCCXC; but before through S. Juventius I who also could from the same S. Ambrose have obtained some relics of SS. Protasius and Gervasius, and with them have built at Pavia a Basilica, which without any probability is attributed to the disciple of Syrus.

[49] Indeed the catalogue of the Bishops of Pavia, among the Pavian writers, seems supplemented by mere conjecture, with the same names doubled and tripled; so that before S. Ennodius, elected in the year DXII, there are said to have presided, besides others named only once, three Crispins, (if however in the 2nd century there was someone, two Juventii, Maximi, Epiphanii, and as many Anastasii, with no monuments of different time produced, by which it might stand that three or two of all really existed. So from the building of the Protasian Basilica, attributed against all probability to the age of S. Syrus, it certainly follows, that it was not written by Pompeius the successor of Syrus; and so the same can be said of the whole more ancient Legend, which under his name Paul the Deacon or whoever else is said to have found; and it must be reckoned, that he who feigned it from uncertain traditions, as the not-very-certain catalogues have) from the Nazarian Legend with like credulity received, what of the Milanese Martyrs is there read, as slain by the order and in the time of Nero, as also is said of S. Hermagoras, in a similar Legend of his.

[50] What concerns these Saints, is thus narrated there. But at that time when persecution had arisen against the Christians, to have been solicitous about the burial of the Milanese Martyrs: by a certain most pagan Count named Anolinus, and some of the Christians were punished for the love of Christ; the most cruel Praeses delivered the Blessed Protasius and Gervasius, glorious men, for the Christian confession, to the darkness of prison, with very many faithful of Christ in hiding. But blessed Nazarius … came to the same city of the Milanese, in which namely by the command of Nero by the same Count he sustained the sentence of death … and when by the relation of many the most blessed Syrus had learned these things, he addresses the venerable man Juventius: With the utmost diligence, he says, run across to Milan (it is distant only XX miles) that the little bodies of our brothers, Nazarius and Celsus, be given to worthy burial with the greatest honor; and writing the epitaph of their contest with sacred letters, bury them together: but Protasius and Gervasius, who by the pestilent Praeses are held shut in prison, since they too have been crowned with martyrdom for the faith of Christ, burying them with due honor and merit, place the booklet of their contest, for future times, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of them, at their heads: because it is predestined by God that to the true faithful, who in opportune time are going to believe, for the confirming of their minds, the bodies of the Saints be revealed, if not and shine forth with honors and virtues, and restore the remedy of health to the sicknesses of many infirm.

[51] S. Syrus is venerated, on the day on which he is said to have died IX December; and S. Juventius VIII January: when Bollandus our man, gathering into a Commentary what regarded this one, for Paul the Deacon as author of the Acts, brought much authority; but of Pompeius, as first writer of the Life of S. Syrus, through anyone else whatever he rightly said he doubted: yet he touched briefly those things which seemed to regard Juventius, the examination of the Acts themselves dismissed to another time. This now compelled to apply; I judge, from the fact that some common feast of both saints was held from antiquity at Pavia on XII September (as is established from Usuard) it was believed what Usuard too writes, that both at the same time were sent by S. Hermagoras. However it be, S. Syrus could either have sent that S. Juventius, if he then lived, or some other Cleric of another name to Milan, about the beginning of the Marcomannic commotions; who finding Nazarius and Celsus buried, held it a great matter to have found the linen, dyed with their blood; not many courses of times after, when the contests of the Holy Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius at Milan were ended, and the precious bodies taken away by the Christians, and given to burial … may have received a particle drawn from their holy remains, and brought it to S. Syrus; but the same Juventius could not have buried them in the basilica of the Holy Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, which he himself had constructed: because in that age to construct basilicas, and to entitle them with the names of Saints, was not in use, nor could be on account of the persecutions, much less in the time of Nero, to which Puricellus refers all these things.

[52] What the same Juventius is said to have had in command about likewise storing up the Epitaph and the Booklet, smacks of the ferment of the Pseudo-Ambrosian Epistle, already sufficiently exploded. and to have managed the Church of Milan long bereft of Bishops. Meanwhile it is not displeasing in the same Acts, that they assert that at the time, in which persecution raged at Milan, and for some time before and after, the Clergy of the Milanese Church was ordained by S. Syrus, then perhaps the only Bishop among the Insubres. For neither can that Chronology which partitions whole CLIII years among only three Bishops, Castritianus, Calimerus and Mona, so please, that I do not always fear lest it was done gratuitously, to fill the gap of a See once and again long vacant. Certainly in the aforesaid Acts, of whatever sort, when the captivity or burial of the Saints is treated, no mention is made of any Bishop, who in the time of Antoninus and Verus ought to have been Calimerus; and so between him and S. Castritianus it will better be said the See was vacant for several years.

[53] Moreover what we have said in favor of the opinion, referring SS. Gervasius and Protasius to the times of Antoninus and Verus, Meanwhile while the time of martyrdom remains doubtful, I would not wish to be otherwise taken, than as said by conjecture; founded on that fiction so far, as even fables ordinarily have some truth underlying. Meanwhile it remains doubtful, things so standing, whether SS. Gervasius and Protasius had anything common with SS. Nazarius and Celsus, besides the place of Martyrdom at Milan, and the cult there and at Constantinople, and likewise in the Martyrologies, where equally all four are named on this day. But whether and how SS. Vitalis and Valeria touch them will equally remain uncertain. so too whether they are the sons of SS. Vitalis and Valeria For about their parents Ambrose could teach us nothing, after diligent (as it appears) questioning of the Elders: but the Author of the Episcopal Lives, could so from elsewhere have been deceived about the parents, as he was deceived about the times of Nero, ill ascribed to them. That they were however brother-germans; and since Valeria was said before death to have borne twins at Milan, the occasion was given of inventing, that she bore these at one birth; the similarity of names makes probable to me, not unusual at that time for brother-germans. So we gave SS. Cantius, Cantianus, and Cantianilla XXXI May; are SS. Gervasius and Protasius SS. Pseusippus, Eleusippus, and Melasippus XVIII January, about to give Menodora Metrodora and Nymphodora X September; whom however it is probable were brothers. but in the Caesarean History we find Constantine, Constans, and Constantius sons of Constantine the Great; and the Emperors Valentinian and Valens, all substituted to the Apostate Julian after Jovinian, brother-germans. And indeed the etymological reason of the name would persuade naming Protasius first, as the Milanese and Greeks generally do; were it not that the Roman Church, which the others and the African itself follows, names Gervasius in the first place; and this probably before the Pseudo-Ambrosian epistle was feigned, in which Gervasius is said to be crowned first.

[54] Here could be the end of criticizing, did I not see that to the things said about the unhappy composition of the aforesaid Acts there could be objected the Sermon, Another sermon on SS. Nazarius and Celsus, ascribed to Ambrose published among others of S. Ambrose at Rome and at Paris, as before Lipomanus and Surius had inserted it in their Lives of the Saints, as if said by him on the Natal of SS. Nazarius and Celsus. Puricellus p. 277, after Baronius and Bellarmine alleges also the authority of Galesinius, who doubted not that it was truly S. Ambrose's; but he found only one who contradicted, namely Carolus a Basilica Petri, who while treating in the Caius of Milan of these saints, ascribes that Sermon to S. Maximus Bishop of Turin who was present at the Roman Council under Pope Hilarus, still living and strong for journeys, in the year CCCCLXV. and contrary to the aforesaid,

[55] This itself would be very great authority for the Nazarian Legend, since indeed its whole substance is elegantly inserted in this sermon, only the names of persons and places being omitted, and the other characteristic notes of times, from which ill connected among themselves we received the necessity of disproving it. Certainly if the sermon were to be ascribed to one or other of the Saints it would more justly be ascribed to that Maximus so much younger; as one in which appear most manifestly the words of S. Augustine, younger than Ambrose and much older than Maximus, is of an author younger than S. Augustine, from his sermon 10 on the saints: Behold the profane enemy never could have profited the blessed little ones (he sets for the Blessed Martyr) so much by service (he, would profit) as he profited by hatred. But that here and there too the phrase and style of Ambrose shines out, can prove nothing else, than that the Author used, as Augustine so also Ambrose.

[56] To the reader, says Carolus, suitable arguments will easily show themselves, which deny Ambrose to be the Author: nor of a Milanese Bishop, and from that sermon some things under the name of Maximus cites Rodulphus of Tongres, in his book on the observance of the Canons. The arguments Puricellus would easily have seen, had he not been occupied by prejudice. For what is clearer? than that the Milanese Church, barren of Martyrs, as Ambrose confesses at num. 6 and with SS. Gervasius and Protasius found made a mother of sons rejoicing, by no means he wished to designate who said; The happy peoples of single cities exult, if they are fortified with the Relics of even one Martyr: behold we possess peoples of Martyrs. What likewise is clearer than that by the benefit of the Milanese church itself were brought there the Relics of S. Nazarius where the sermon is had? For indeed at num. 8 it is thus said: Let the holy Milanese Church therefore keep with itself blessed Nazarius, Martyr of Christ, whole in body, and yet has transmitted him whole to the world in blessing. For this is the glory of the Holy Martyrs, of whom though through the whole world there be sown

[57] He is not indeed known to us hitherto, that Rodulphus of Tongres, so that we may know whether he really calls the author S. Maximus Bishop of Turin, or simply Maximus a Bishop: I say however that he could have been deceived by the similarity of name equally as Carolus who himself too believed him the Turinese on account of the nearness of places and time; but he ought to have observed, that to the Turinese as well as to the Milanese Church it cannot be fitting, to glory that it possesses peoples of Martyrs. Only four cities, besides Rome, do I find, to which one might wish to fit such praise; Sion, Brescia, Trier and Cologne. Of three of these the Episcopal Catalogues so stand, that not only is no Maximus named in them, but no place is vacant, whence he could, through the negligence of those describing the Episcopal series, have fallen out. At Sion between S. Theodulus who died in the year DCCCVI, and S. Garinus buried in the year DCCCCI according to the Sammarthani, there could in the ninth century which intervenes some Maximus have sat as Bishop. But Sion itself sent to heaven the sacred Legion of the Theban Martyrs, with their Leader Maurice, from the Agaunensian field next to it; where S. Sigismund King of the Burgundians built over them a most celebrated Monastery; and then with wife and children made a Martyr he was brought to the same. We have here therefore peoples of Martyrs; we have an age apt for the Nazarian Legend; we have a city distant only thirty leagues from Milan, which could easily have obtained a blessing, that is, some particle of the body of S. Nazarius. In this therefore we can acquiesce until from elsewhere the Author become more certainly known.

§. VI. The Relics and cult soon from the finding by S. Ambrose communicated to the Italic Churches.

[58] Because S. Augustine, cited at num. 8, gratefully commemorates, how God opened to his Bishop Ambrose through a vision, in what place The whole frame of bones found whole, the bodies of the Holy Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius lay hid, which through so many years had lain incorrupt; Florus, in his Additions to Bede, can be seen to have looked to the same, when he wrote, that B. Ambrose, with the Lord revealing, found them preserved in a wonderful manner. But Usuard, Ado, Rabanus, and Notker, as if all from one source wrote; that they were found so incorrupt, as if they had been slain on the same day, for so the words of the Pseudo-Ambrosian Epistle indicated, as if placed that very hour. The present Roman added too, sprinkled with blood. the bodies are said to have been found incorrupt, But what does S. Ambrose himself say in his true Epistle to his sister? We found the bones all whole, very much blood, with which the chest was wet, as if freshly poured. Nor could Augustine have understood any other incorruption, than that they were found whole skeletons with the natural order of bones preserved, as they had been placed, and so far unmoved as even now many are daily found in the Roman cemeteries, namely bones bare of flesh, but still keeping their first position, because never moved. And that this alone is the incorruption, which Augustine mentions, is proved by the distribution of the Relics which soon followed, through various Churches, even more distantly placed, as I now proceed to explain.

[59] But in the midst before all I leave undecided, whether it be true, what the writer of the Life of S. Syrus thus recites: Then, that is after the Saints were slain and buried, from which something was carried to Pavia, a certain faithful of Christ named Liberius, with reverence and love, from the holy remains of them (namely from the garments or bodies of them) with most faithful boldness, drawing a certain particle which was lawful; brought it amicably to the most blessed Syrus, Father and excellent Doctor of the city of Pavia, as had been asked of him. But the venerable man, receiving the pledges of the Blessed Martyrs, used in them many virtues. And when the signs of healings shone far and wide, crowds of the languishing began, even from unexpected parts, to run to him, and to press upon him with immense frequency. But I hesitate to receive these things, because they are manifestly false, or the following must be ascribed to the IV century: Amid these the excellent Priest of God, it is not S. Syrus, but Fulgentius contemporary with Ambrose, exulting at the wonders, which through the merits of the holy Martyrs Christ the Lord assiduously did; conceived to erect a temple, not far from the walls of this city, outside the city in memory of their names; and this in the form of a Cross, as he undertook, he completed. This could S. Juventius II contemporary of Ambrose have done; could not Syrus who lived at least in the II century. Therefore, not to this, but to that is ascribed, what with the dedications of the notable temple or altar completed, he daily offered to God in it praises and victims. Similarly too at the boundary of the fourth and fifth century may have been done the miracle of the Jew, unworthily receiving the body of Christ; which to have happened in the II century is so much the less credible, the greater the caution with which amid persecutions one approached those sacred mysteries, even the Catechumens being solicitously excluded, so far is it from being the case that a Jew could have crept in there unobserved.

[60] Into this then built in the IV, not the II century, at the same century ending Juventius presiding over Pavia, may have translated the body of S. Syrus from its first burial, since a little before it had been dedicated in honor of SS. Protasius and Gervasius; a basilica built to the Martyrs and the body of S. Syrus brought there. probably in the very place, where S. Syrus and his successors had been wont to hold sacred assemblies, secretly bury the dead faithful, and as and when it was lawful to have an oratory, built with brief work, yet not under the name of any Saint: and hence it may have come about, that that was reckoned to have been the first church of the city of Pavia. These things are confirmed from the very ignorance of the Saints among the Milanese, when their bodies were found: for how could they have been unknown to them, who in so near a city, from the very time of their martyrdom, shone with so many miracles, that they had there too a notable Basilica of their name, to which from unexpected parts too there was a running? But let us pass to other things perhaps no more certain, related by S. Gregory of Tours, dead two hundred years after the deed, thus in the book on the Glory of the Martyrs ch. 47.

[61] In the city of Milan the victorious bodies of the blessed Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius are kept; which long (as the history of the Passion narrates, such namely as was then composed and circulated) lay hid buried: which revealed to B. Ambrose, The relation of S. Gregory of Tours about the blood, little certain: and as found by him, with miracles shown were buried in a basilica, which he himself built by his own zeal. Concerning whose Relics, because especially the Turonic city contains older churches made illustrious by them, a discourse was once had about these by certain religious, for what cause the aforesaid Relics were so thickly distributed through single places: and what about these I heard from one relating, I thought not absurd to insert into the reading, because it is not contained in the history of the Passion. For he said, he seems to have been found in the sepulcher rather than freshly drawn out, when these glorious bodies were translated into that church, while in honor of the Martyrs themselves solemnities were celebrated, that one tablet fell from the vault, which striking the heads of the Martyrs drew out a stream of blood: with which the linens or little cloths, or ecclesiastical veils, were stained, [and] the blessed gore was collected: which is said to have flowed so far, until linens were found to receive it. From this indeed their Relics, abundantly collected, were carried through all Italy and the Gauls; from which S. Martin received much, as the epistle of the most blessed Paulinus narrates. Would that this now were extant; whence S. Martin received a fair amount. meanwhile of such gore carried to S. Martin I doubt nothing: of the manner and occasion of the same collected so much the more, the more uncertain was the author who related these things to S. Gregory, manifestly deceived about the sepulchers of SS. Nazarius and Celsus, at the city of Embrun in Gaul, above which a pear tree grew, bearing salutary fruit and very profitable to the poor possessor of that little field; whereas it stands that they at Milan suffered their last punishment and were buried, where too they were found by S. Ambrose.

[62] But that this narration may waver, there is not lacking a more probable occasion by which it may be believed the blood was carried to several churches, In the year 390 a Synod was held not drawn out in the translation but found in the very finding still fluid, of which thus found Ambrose himself, in the Epistle to his Sister, is an undoubtable witness. For in the year CCCXC, the second after the death of Justina the Empress, with the insolence of the Arians, deprived of so great a patroness, repressed; when now to the Catholics and their Bishop Ambrose all things at Milan were peaceful, and Theodosius the Emperor himself present; it was truly lawful, which at the time of the finding we do not believe was lawful, to gather a provincial Synod, to reduce the affairs of the Church, much shaken by past troubles, in which it is credible the sacred bones were displayed, to a due state. Then I would believe that to the Bishops gathered, among whom too was Juventius of Pavia, Ambrose paid that honor, that he displayed to them the bodies of the Saints, found four years before; and to the same earnestly asking, liberally communicated of the blood, of the ashes, of the smaller little bones, of the garments or linens in which they were first found, or more recently wrapped; and to S. Augustine too something was sent into Africa, which gave occasion for a memorial to be built near Hippo. The same can be said of the Relics carried to Brescia by S. Gaudentius. whence something was carried to Brescia and Cremona His words in the Tract on the Dedication of the holy Forty Martyrs are these: After these we have Gervasius, Protasius, and Nazarius, most blessed Martyrs, who deigned a few years ago (so that this may seem said about the year CCCC) to reveal themselves at the Milanese city to the holy Priest Ambrose: whose blood we hold, collected in gypsum, requiring nothing more. Similarly it can be presumed that S. Syrinius the Bishop carried to Cremona that, which there in the church of S. Bassianus is had, as Merula writes, in the Sanctuary of that city. And because S. Felix Bishop of Como is believed to have taken care to build a Church of the same Martyrs in his city; therefore the author of the Annals of Como Aloysius de Tattis presumes not without foundation, that he too, as he was familiar with S. Ambrose, shared in some of the Relics.

[63] Although it is not doubtful, that at Brescia as at Pavia, the sacred pledges of this kind shone with many miracles; while however we find nothing written of them except in general, likewise into Africa to the Villa Victoriana and that only in the Life of S. Syrus, very little certain; a more certain confirmation of the same it pleases to take from Augustine's book 22 on the city of God ch. 8: for it must not be thought, that the Holy Martyrs were less beneficent to their worshippers

in Europe, than in Africa. Victoriana, says Augustine, a villa is called, which is less than thirty miles distant from Hippo regius. There is a memorial of the Milanese Martyrs there, of Gervasius and Protasius. A certain young man was carried there; who when at midday, in summer time, he washed a horse in the eddy of the river, ran into a demon. There as he lay, either next to death, or most like to a dead man; to the evening Hymns and prayers the Lady of the possession entered there, with her maidservants and certain Nuns by custom, and they began to sing Hymns. By which voice he was as if struck and shaken out, and with a horrible roar he held the altar seized, not daring, or not able, to move it, as if he were bound or fixed to it: and with great wailing begging that he be spared, he confessed, where and when and how he had entered the youth; finally announcing that he would go out, where the possessed man was freed; he named his single members, which going out he threatened to amputate: and amid these words he departed from the man. But his eye, fallen onto the cheek, hung by a slender little vein as if from an inner root; and all its middle, which had been blackish, had grown white. Which seen those who were present (others too had run together, roused by his voices, and had all prostrated themselves in prayer for him) although they rejoiced that he stood of sound mind, yet again saddened on account of his eye, said a physician must be sought. There the husband of his sister, who had carried him there; God is powerful, he said, by the prayers of the Saints, who put the demon to flight, to restore the light to him. Then, as he could, the eye, fallen and hanging, recalled to its place, he bound with a band, and thought it should not be loosed except after seven days. Which when he had done, he found it most sound.

[64] S. Ambrose had ceased to be among the living for twelve years or more, when Augustine wrote these things: but at his death was present S. Felix, the same who had been present at the Milanese Council, up to the year CCCCXXVI Bishop of Bologna: of whom there is a constant tradition, says Ughellus, that he built the Monasteries of Saints Nabor and Felix, and of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. Masinus, in Bologna surveyed, ascribes the building of the latter monastery (which is now held by Benedictine Nuns, and its church is also parochial) to the year CCCCI; and adds, that not only there are had the Relics of the said Saints, but also in the churches of S. Peter, to Bologna too, to S. Felix S. Francis, S. Cross, and S. Paul of the Barnabites; all as we can presume taken from those, which on the aforesaid occasion S. Felix brought to Bologna, and that presumption, though confirmed by no positive argument, is much more reasonable; than what is probable, what in Silvanus Razzius is read, in the Life of S. Zenobius Bishop of Florence, rendered into Italian from a Latin original, and to Florence, to S. Zenobius, from S. Simplicianus; about the Relics of these Saints, sent to him by S. Ambrose. For since that Life thus ends, I Simplicianus an old man, called Bishop, what with my eyes I saw and with my ears I heard from the Lord Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, my Predecessor, I have taken care to write faithfully; the spurious Author makes himself guilty of manifest falsehood, among those who know, that S. Zenobius was indeed dear to Ambrose, and so worthy that he should send him some part of the sacred pledges, but that he survived S. Simplicianus himself, who is feigned to have written the Life, by many years.

[65] It is added that Blasius the Monk, in the XIII century adorning the Life of S. Zenobius, (the same probably which was then imputed to S. Simplicianus, as we gave it in the second place at XXV May) thus relates in Latin the aforenoted event at num. 12 so that naming other Saints than Razzius, as before to this one S. Ambrose had sent of SS. Vitalis and Agricola; he leaves us in doubt, which of them the pseudo-Simplicianus indicated: Lo his words. When the holy Prelate beyond the Alps was approaching to visit a certain church, he found some bitterly weeping a certain companion of theirs: how, and to what they came, he asked. Imprudently the elder among them answered, that going on he had broken from a cliff with his horse: but he had directed him to you Father Prelate Ambrose, sending with the bodies of SS. Vitalis and Agricola: and that he have mercy on him, who showed grace to others, with many tears bedewed he besought. Where he is, he asks: there he went: he found him all shattered, dead with his horse: he gave himself to prayer beside the lifeless one: from which rising, he who had been dead, rises most sound: the gift, which the holy Bishop had sent, eagerly he takes in his own hands: for several days he was with him, and when it pleased he returned to the one who directed him with the greatest joy. See what we noted at that place; and at the same time have a new example of the aforenoted license, and most inconvenient for those writing history. Certainly at the elevation of the aforesaid Saints S. Ambrose was present, and of their Relics could have shared something, whence also he might give something to the Florentines.

[66] But why might he not also afterward have sent something of the Relics of SS. Gervasius and Protasius? Thus of those which are at Como in the church of S. James, likewise to Felix Bishop of Como, judges the above-praised writer of the Annals of Como part 1 p. 292, on account of the great familiarity between SS. Ambrose of Milan and Felix of Como: to whom too he thinks should be ascribed the fabric of the suburban church of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, rather than to his successor S. Provinus: and he adds that churches of similar title and patronage are had notable in the same diocese of Como, at Bormio, which is Collegiate; at Sondrio, in the Valtellina; and at Saltrio the parochial, in the Duchy of Milan. But since in that age it was not the custom to dedicate temples to Martyrs, except where their relics were, and Ambrose had the greatest communication with S. Vigilius Bishop of Trent, as is suggested from the Acts of the Saints Sisinnius, Martyrius, and Alexander, whose Relics the same S. Vigilius sent to Milan, and to Trent, to S. Vigilius; as said at XXIX May, to the successor of Ambrose Simplicianus in the year CCCXCVII; it seems to follow, that he too had some of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, when he erected a temple to them in the city at the Forum, as Janus Pyrrus Pincius writes, in the Lives of the Pontiffs of Trent p. 2, in which he freed the blind, deaf, mute and sick of all kinds by laying on of hand and impressing the sign of the Cross (namely under the invocation of the same Saints) and he himself finally made a Martyr and buried, gave occasion for changing the name, so that it is now called S. Vigilius's.

[67] What of the city of Trent and other cities of Italy, having some Relics of the aforesaid Saints, finally to Rome, where Vestina bequeathed his basilica to be built, we presume with foundation; namely that they are the gift of S. Ambrose; much more we can presume of the city of Rome. For of S. Innocent the Pope, who sat from the year CCCCII to XVI, Anastasius writes, that he dedicated the basilica of SS. Gervasius and Protasius (not indeed without their Relics) from the devotion of the testament of a certain illustrious woman Vestina, with the Presbyters Ursicinus and Leopardus, and the Deacon Lybianus, working at it. Which woman aforewritten so ordered the page of her testament, that the basilica of the Holy Martyrs should be constructed from her ornaments and pearls, sold to just appraisers, and it was constructed up to completion. In which place the most blessed Innocent, by the delegation of the Illustrious woman Vestina, established a Roman Title; and offered gifts and estates, which in his Life Anastasius enumerates at length. The Title of Vestina Oldoinus calls it in the Index to Ciacconius.

[68] Under neither, so far as I have indeed found out, name does Anastasius mention this Basilica further; but in the life of S. Leo IV, thence called the title of Vestina, he names another situated in Latium of the Blessed Christ's Martyr Gervasius and Protasius, which is placed beneath the city, which is called Fundana, where the said Pontiff, ruling the Church from the year DCCCXLVII to LV, offered certain gifts. Onuphrius Panvinius, in the booklet on the VII Churches p. 18, judges the Title of Vestina, otherwise of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, was otherwise called of S. Vitalis; by which last name it must have been called before the times of S. Gregory, to whose Synod, in book 4 Epistle 44, the Presbyters John and Spectatus of the church of S. Vitalis subscribe; but in book II Ep. 2, he himself orders, and of S. Vitalis, that thence the Litany of Widows proceed. That Sixtus IV in the year MCCCCLXXV restored it, under the same name of S. Vitalis, is found; and by the disposition of Clement VIII united to the Church of S. Andrew our Society of Jesus now possesses it. Piazza in the Roman Sanctuary adds that not only there some of their Relics are had, but also at the church of S. John in Fonte.

[69] In the same fifth century advanced beyond the middle, at the beginning of which Vestina dying at Rome had appointed a church to be built, and into Noricum, to S. Severinus, into Noricum, that is up to Austria, was propagated the cult of the Holy Martyrs through S. Severinus, the Apostle of those nations, as in his Life at VIII January relates Eugippius, a contemporary Presbyter, num. 16, here worthy to be transcribed. Since the servant of God excelled in the grace of prophecy, and was held by a singular zeal for redeeming captives, to a certain man, redeemed with wife and children, he commanded to ford across the Danube, that he might seek an unknown man in the fairs of the barbarians, whom he had so learned by divine revelation, that he indicated even the signs of his stature and the color of his hair, and the look of his face and the habit of his dress, and showed in what part of the fairs he was to find him; adding, that whatever the found person should say to him, returning he should more quickly intimate to him. Having set out therefore, he found all, as the man of God had foretold. He therefore being questioned by the same man, whom he marveled to have found, heard him saying; Dost thou think I can find a man, who will lead me to the man of God, whose fame is spread everywhere, for whatever reward he shall wish? For it is long that I beseech suppliantly those holy Martyrs, whose Relics I carry, that I unworthy may at last sometime be loosed by such ministry, which up to now, not by rash presumption, but by religious necessity I have sustained. Then the messenger of the man of God presented him to his sight: who receiving with due honor the Relics of the holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, placed them in the basilica, which he had constructed in his monastery, with the office of Priests.

[70] That monastery of S. Severinus was next to Fabiana, commonly called Vienna of Austria; whence his body, six years after his death, met in the year CCCCLXXII, was carried into Italy; where his monastery established in the Lucullan, of which S. Gregory makes mention. whence with his body the Relics were carried to Naples. Hence indeed the same body of S. Severinus was conveyed to Naples in the year DCCCCX; whose Translation the writer John the Deacon, at num. 13 says, that the holy ashes brought into the Neapolitan monastery of the same name, the Prelate Stephen, with the Relics of the Lord's Forerunner and of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, which he had found placed with them, most dutifully buried

in the altar. Hence that something was translated to Monte Cassino can be the case: for it does not seem to be from nothing, that the Cassinese Customs in Martinaeus on the rites of Monks book 4 ch. 6 make about those Saints with XII lessons eight from their Passions and four from S. Ambrose.

§. VII. The Relics and cult of the Saints in Spain, Gaul, Belgium, Germany.

[71] As about to pass from Italy into the Gauls, and there to pursue the sacred Relics of the Holy Saints Gervasius and Protasius, Puricellus makes mention of the Spains, The Relics do not seem to have been brought from Spain to Paris, writing in ch. 66, that Childebert King of the Franks brought them thence to Paris and for it he alleges, from Aimoinus book 2 ch. 20 his diploma given in the XLVIII year of his Reign. That diploma is absent from the more ancient copies of Aimoinus, and was first mingled with it about the year MCLXV; and that it is either spurious, or interpolated, Carolus le Cointe teaches, at the year at whose end it was given, DLVIII, both from other grounds, and because in it the King says he acts with the consent and will of the Franks and Neustrasians: which last name for that age is nowhere found; and therefore John Mabillon took care, in his work on diplomatics, not to adduce that diploma of Childebert, whose original parchment is nevertheless shown, otherwise deserving the first place, as a model.

[72] Let us grant however the instrument to be genuine; did Puricellus rightly read it thus, that with the Relics of S. Vincent the King says he also carried off the Relics of SS. Gervasius and Protasius from Spain? Receive whole the words imputed to the King: I began to construct a temple in the city of Paris … in honor of S. Vincent the Martyr whose Relics we carried off from Spain; or also of the Holy Cross and of S. Stephen, and of S. Ferreolus, neither does the pragmatic of Childebert the King say this and of S. Julian (of whom two since their bodies are and ever were in Gaul, no sane man would say the Relics had to be sought in Spain) and of the most blessed S. George, and of SS. Gervasius, Protasius, Nazarius and the boy Celsus, whose relics there (namely not in Spain, but in the aforesaid temple) are consecrated: and therefore the diploma said the aforesaid temple itself was begun to be built by the King, in honor, not only of S. Vincent from Spain, but of several others there named, on account of the Relics of the same, acquired from elsewhere, and likewise to be brought there.

[73] I would not indeed deny, that it can be, that the Relics of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, not only were, but even now are, both elsewhere through Spain, But the going of Gervasius to the Spaniards with Philip, and also at Saragossa, whence the said King brought the Stole of S. Vincent: but so far I have found no one, who would assign them to me. Tamayus de Salazar, in his Spanish Martyrology, where he sometimes gathers such things not negligently, is carried elsewhere; and careless about the remains of the dead, is wholly in asserting for his Spain the presence of one of them living, relying on the spurious writings of Braulio, in the Supplement of the equally spurious Maximus, and of Aulus Halus, a Poet of the latest fiction, composing for S. Philip Philotheus an Epitaph, as if buried among the Spaniards, worthy of his author. Read the words of both in Tamayus, and learn the man's character from the Acts, ascribed to Philip and founded on the pseudo-Ambrosian Epistle, which he thus begins by interpolating.

[74] I servant of Christ Philip, seized these bodies of the Saints with my son and buried them: whose mother Valeria, it rests wholly on fictions, father Vitalis were called: whom they begot as twins at one birth, and called the one Protasius the other Gervasius. And after their father B. Vitalis was crowned with martyrdom, and the most blessed mother Valeria passed over to Christ, Gervasius cleaving to me visited the Gauls and the Spains, where the office of preaching being performed with B. Leo of Rouen, having returned to Milan he himself and his brother, selling their own house in which they had been born, and the property of their parents, and their little farms, and on the ancient cult of the Saints among them, gave to the poor &c. as at num. 21. With these consonant the same Tamayus has at XXII October, in the pretended Acts of Philip himself; whom he would have believed, with the saints buried at Milan, to have returned into Spain, ordained Bishop by S. Clement, and Legate of the Apostolic See: in this too less to be borne than in the former things, that of his old cult among the Spaniards there exists no vestige; but the Office of SS. Gervasius and Protasius is found in almost all the churches of Spain, as appears from their very old Breviaries, none at all lacking from the Mozarabic to the last.

[75] The same I think Saussayus would have said of the Gallican Churches, if he had added to his Martyrology, the Notes which he had promised. as also among the Gauls, For him I myself can testify, from more than thirty Breviaries of different Gallican churches, ancient and new, in which the Calendars prefixed to the Breviaries of Autun, Auxerre, Avignon S. Andrew, Langres, Maurienne, Noyon, Reims and Séez note a Double or Solemn, the rest note an office of IX Lessons or a Semidouble, a few a simple. And those indeed all, with the Roman and the other Italic, and even the Milanese Breviaries themselves, took the matter of the Lessons to be recited at the second Nocturn from the booklet of pseudo-Philip: in the Breviaries of both but the curators of the Parisian Breviary published in the year MDCLXXX, as they cut away other false or doubtful things elsewhere, so too averse by sagacious judgment to the weak credit of the old Lessons, from the genuine Sermon of S. Ambrose and the book of S. Augustine on the City of God, substituted others, with the words of such great Fathers unchanged, in which as there is the highest gravity and authority, so there can be no suspicion of falsehood underlying. There is added moreover this Collect from the old Breviary: Venerating by annual celebration the palms of thy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, as suppliants we ask thee, that those whom thou hast exalted with heavenly glory, thou grant to come to our aid by perpetual suffrage.

[76] The aforesaid Saussayus when at XIX June he had written, that to their crowns three Cathedral Churches, of Soissons, and to five Cathedral churches. Lectoure, and Séez are consecrated; he adds in the Supplement: At Nevers on the bank of the Loire, and at Vendôme of the Cenomani on the Sarthe the veneration of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, formerly Patrons of these episcopal churches. Nor do we doubt, that he could name many others of lesser note, enjoying the same patronage, through all Gaul. Bernard Guidonis, in the little work on the Saints who adorn the Limousin diocese, num. 56, asserts that the consecrated heads of SS. Gervasius and Protasius the Martyrs, are venerated at the other Loberciacum near Glandès, in the church of S. Stephen. Indeed the Life of S. Clarus the Abbot, at 1 January produced by Bollandus from Mss. among the chief monasteries, both of men and of nuns under holy discipline, Likewise at French Vienne in the monastery of S. Clarus, both within and outside the walls of the city of Vienne, reckons the venerable memory of the Saints Gervasius and Protasius, containing fifty Monks. From the Life too of S. Germanus Bishop of Paris, illustrated at XXVIII May, num. 38 we learn, that at Paris there was a Basilica of the same, to which closed when entrance was not given to one about to pray; he himself, the sign of the Cross made, unbolted the bolt. Finally from the Life of S. Angilbert Abbot of Centula, set forth at XVIII February, it is had, that he himself under the altar of S. James the Brother of the Lord about the year DCCC deposited some of the same Relics.

[78] These moreover as they are clear and beyond controversy, so it cannot be understood, except of Relics such as we mentioned above, what at XXVII March in Saussayus, already often said, is noted, At Paris in their Basilica, at Soissons the celebrity of the finding of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, Patrons of the mother church. Claudius Dormayus treats of that church, in his Soissons history book 2 ch. 11; and brings forward various conjectures, by which it can be made credible, that the old church which once stood there, and all whose traces were found by those building the new one, was dedicated to those Saints; and therefore care was taken, that in this a chapel proper to them be built under the organs; to which two or three times a year the Chapter ascends, and at Soissons in the Oratory, to make Masses or other prayers. But at last the same Dormayus confesses, that from conjectures nothing solid can be established; and from the Obituary of his Cathedral teaches, that the Cardinal of Amiens (rather to be called of Sabina) gave to the church those Relics which it possesses, probably from the Italian Abbot, made from Dean of Amiens Archbishop of Besançon in the year MCCXXV, and two years after by Gregory IX created Cardinal and Bishop of Sabina, and lived up to the year MCCXXXVII.

[79] The collectanea of Belfortius, a man among the Gauls most diligent for investigating the Lives of Saints, where the blind man of Strasbourg, communicated to Bollandus, suggest from the Ms. of Bran a sermon on the holiness and miracles of the blessed Martyrs; in which, after a brief encomium and the miracle related from Gregory of Tours about the blood flowing from the heads; another performed at Soissons is thus described: But now it must also be noted by us, and commended with truthful style, how, after the particles of their Relics were directed into the Gauls, with a long time elapsed afterward, the Lord Jesus Christ disposed to glorify his soldiers and witnesses. For there was at Strasbourg in the city a certain citizen, unknown in lineage, held by a double blindness: who indeed ignorant of Latin speech, but according to his knowledge and power was faithful before God in all things. He asking light from the Lord, daily wandering with wood, with a hand guiding him, devout traversed the places of the Saints, which he could approach. Yet of his petition he was not immediately master: namely that he might seek the divine gifts more, and when they had come, they might be more welcome, and held more strictly.

[80] And so, counsel taken, he went to Rome: where when he had stayed a long time, and had frequented the sepulchers of the Saints; warned at Rome through a vision about going to Soissons, for the change of the air's tract, suddenly he ran into the heat of a strong fever; that there was fulfilled in him, what the Spirit writing through John to the Laodicean Church says: I rebuke and chasten those whom I love. Yet by the instinct of divine piety (which is the curer of all) while he was pressed by continual infirmity, and tossed about by the lack of nourishment; the munificence of the Apostolic one succored him for three years, and sustained him with sufficient sustenance. Apoc. 3:19 But on a certain dead of night, to him, surrendering his limbs weary to sleep, there is present in a vision the Pastor of the Church, who is also the Prince of the Apostles; admonishing him three times, that he go to Soissons, a city of the Gauls and come to the solemnities of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius; where by the suffraging merits of the same he would be healed of the darkness of his eyes. Who soon awakened from sleep, and freed from the fever, by which he panted no short time; immediately rises up; and committing to high memory the name of the city of Soissons, and arrived there hastens to the Church of B. Peter the Apostle. Where pouring out prayer, and receiving provision, he earnestly prays; that he who had sung the presage of his health, the same himself be a favorer and leader to the arrival at the wished-for place. Then having taken his journey, traversing Italy, through

the ridges of the mountains, the hollows of the valleys, and the perils of the rivers, he enters Gaul; and at last, with the Apostle as patron, he reaches the desired city.

[81] But now with the orbit of the year returning the XIII Calends of July was at hand, the triumphal day of the most renowned Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, 19 June: of Our Lords indeed the defenders; and the Lord's flock, with one mind running about through the city, gathering from all sides, the concourse of the neighboring cities invited. And when all the Clergy in the Church with a frequent people, passing the night in celebrating the vigils of the festive night, had outlasted the rising of the lamp of Phoebus; and with the courses of the hours of the day distinctly performed, under the Mass he recovered his sight. he stood becomingly present at the solemn sacraments of the Masses to be celebrated of the aforesaid two Olives; suddenly that blind Strasbourg newcomer, standing with others, and awaiting the Apostle's promise; while the Glory in the highest was being chanted in fourfold harmony; at both times as if touched by a southern breeze, he falls to the ground. Then thereupon from the orbs of his eyes and his eyelids, as if inwardly they were being cut with iron, a gushing stream of blood leaped forth. But when from pain he lay on the earth as if half-alive, at last by the hands of others he is laid out before the pavement of the altar: where with brightness poured into his eyes, the light, which before he had never seen, the new creature beheld, and openly saw the works of his recreator. Hence is raised the uproar of the peoples, hence the great applause of those who could see or hear; that until then an unheard-of miracle had shone forth in their times; with our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is glory world without end. Amen.

§. VIII. The peculiar cult at Le Mans, likewise in Belgium, Germany, and the rest of the North.

[82] Among the five Cathedral churches named above among the Gauls, bearing the title and Patronage of the Holy Gervasius and Protasius, not the lowest place the Cenomannic one obtains; Relics placed by the order of S. Martin in the new Cathedral, of which below in the Life of S. Innocent the Bishop, on account of the peculiar cult of the said Saints having died on their very day, it is thus read: He himself studied to enlarge and amplify and adorn the mother church of the city, in which S. Victurius (nay Victurus his father ordained in the year CCCXCVII in the month of January) at the bidding of B. Martin, who in that very year at its end died, had once placed with the highest honor the Relics of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius … and so the name of the same church was changed, on account namely of the virtues, which there innumerably were done in memory of the Holy Gervasius and Protasius. That the aforesaid Relics were sent by S. Ambrose to S. Martin, and by him communicated to the Cenomannic church, no one will doubt with reason: into the same enlarged one S. Innocent transfers them. but the same S. Innocent, in the church which S. Victurus had begun to build, completed, about to place them in the chief place, in the Eastern part, which he had raised, made an altar, in which he placed the aforesaid Relics of the Holy Gervasius and Protasius. Thenceforth moreover, that is from the fifth century of the Christian era, it is said in the Acts of the following Bishops, the Church of S. Mary mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, and likewise in all public instruments; but commonly out of love of brevity it is called only the Church. The same is named also of S. Gervasius a certain Villa and land of S. Mary and S. Gervasius, pertaining to the right of the aforesaid Church.

[83] But in the Life of Lord Hadoindus, the one who succeeded B. Bertichramnus in the year DCXXIII, Alanus a wealthy man, his son lost, there is mentioned a notable event, whence the aforesaid church was greatly enriched, here worthy to be transcribed. A certain man Alanus by name, had many things of his own property and an only son, whom he loved as his own soul. But on a certain day the aforesaid son of Alanus, exercising hunting in the proper villa of his father, … fell dead from his terrified horse. Seeing this the abovesaid Alanus from the upper room in which he stood, was filled with great grief: yet consoling himself he announced to his wife and to the mother of the aforesaid youth his death; considering that nothing happened without cause. Then most devoutly beseeching the God of heaven, he prayed, going round the holy places with his wife, that he grant him to dispose his affairs in such a way, as was his good pleasure, and in such a way as by them he might merit the eternal kingdom. He began therefore then on foot, together with his wife, to go through monasteries and holy places, and to seek the bodies of the Saints; beseeching day and night most intently God, that he further inspire him, to which church, according to the will of his Creator, both for his beloved son to be offered to the Lord, and for the remedy of his soul, he should hand over his goods. With such devotion rising and praying, and giving alms, he visited the thresholds of many Saints; that the Lord, as has been said, might inspire him, where he should hand over his property: since he had a great inheritance, and had no son or daughter as heir.

[84] But when on the abovesaid pretext he was returning from the monastery of S. Martin, although many servants of God had prayed him, at the sepulcher of S. Martin he is inspired, that to the places of the Saints on which they insisted he should hand over his property, and if he wished receive a price from them, and have both alms and gifts … yet his intention submitted to none of the aforesaid places, neither did his devotion incline itself, because perhaps the Lord did not wish it: and therefore perhaps did not inspire him to do this, because most devoutly in this he sought the will of the Lord. For while these things were being done, and the aforesaid man was hastening, returning from the monastery of S. Martin of Tours, to the Cenomannic city, to hand over his goods to that church: about to visit namely the holy mother and city church of the holy Mother of God Mary and of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, in which the Lord worked many virtues by their merits; and as he made his journey approaching the Pontileuvensian hospice, distant a mile from the aforesaid city; there came the servants of God of the same Pontileuvensian hospice and of Bishop Hadoindus to meet him: and receiving him with silence, and leading him with prayers, and received in his hospice, they ministered all necessaries both willingly and diligently, and served him with great honor. Because for this work Lord Bertichramnus, the Bishop of that city, had made that hospice at Pontileuva in honor of S. Martin, that all comers, both rich and poor, might there have receptions, and receive food and other necessaries abundantly therein.

[85] But on the next day, rising from the aforesaid hospice, the said Alanus most devoutly hastened with bare soles to the said church to pray: because on the aforesaid night, and by Bishop Hadoindus led into the church, while in the aforesaid hospice of Pontileuva he was most devoutly insisting on prayer, by the instinct of God his heart was kindled, that to the said mother and city church, which is built and consecrated in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary, and of S. Peter the Apostle, and of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, to which he too was hastening to pray; he should hand over all the things of his property: which also that it was done by the will of God, is doubtful to none. Thinking too to carry out these things, as it had been inspired to him; he charged Lord Hadoindus the aforewritten Bishop, he could not depart thence except with the handing-over completed: that he come to meet him, and with him could consider, how he ought to deal with his affairs. Because Lord Hadoindus was known to him and a faithful friend, as the said Alanus had charged, he came to meet him: and kindly receiving him, through the prayers of the churches of the said City, with the highest honor and great reverence led him. But when they came most devoutly to the aforesaid mother church; entering it and likewise praying Alanus and his wife, with tears publicly disclosed their will: and out of the same church of S. Mary and S. Peter and SS. Gervasius and Protasius they could not go forth, before they had handed over all the things of their property to the aforesaid Lord Hadoindus and his fellow-Priests and Ministers of the aforesaid Church, lawfully by the instruments of charters, under firm stipulation appended.

[86] But this being done, filled with so glad a mind and joy, they were made even light in body, and to their former youth, by the virtue of God and the intercession of the aforesaid Saints, were returned; where about to live perpetually, so that all seeing this were stupefied, and with tears professed they had neither seen nor heard such a thing: which that it was done by the will and virtue of God, is not doubtful. On such condition too, by the instinct of God, the remembered man devoted to God Alanus handed over to the said Bishop and the aforesaid mother Church twelve excellent villas, with their appendages, that is, Juliacum, Lucdunum, Ruliacum, Ruppiacum, Sabololium, Quinselidas, Vernium and Vericium, Tanida and Doliacum, in which the aforesaid son of his had died; and Camariacum; and afterward by handing over Asinarias and the other little villas, whose names, on account of the disgust and weariness of readers we have not inserted here … Moreover the aforewritten Alanus handed over himself and his wife to the remembered Bishop Lord Hadoindus, he handed over himself too and his wife to him, and to the servants of God in the aforesaid church serving the Lord, that of their souls and bodies they might have great care, and nourish their bodies, and gain their souls for the Lord. Lord Hadoindus too provided for them diligently, and ministered to them sufficiently, and so served them as a servant the Lord. The remembered Alanus therefore and his wife, under the power of the aforesaid Bishop, most studiously and most devoutly day and night soldiered for the Lord; and piously died. and for the abovesaid devotions, as we believe, acquired the kingdom of God, and received eternal life with the Lord granting. For they live with Christ and his Saints in blessed glory, with whom in it may we too, propped by their prayers, with the Lord protecting, be able perpetually to live. Amen.

[87] Three centuries after these things, Maynardus the Bishop, consecrated in the year DCCCCXL, established that a silver tablet, placed before the altar of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, In the 10th century the altar of the Saints is clothed with silver, be fashioned anew, and most becomingly placed it before the same altar of the Saints. In the year MLXXXIV, the first of Bishop Hoëllus, when famine had oppressed the people, and it was impossible by the resources of one to sustain the general indigence of the afflicted, by the common counsel of Clergy and People, the gold and silver which was in the tablet of the altar of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius the pious violator Hoëllus took, by which afterward distributed among the poor the city burns down. and distributed it by faithful dispensation to the poor: which however that it was little pleasing to God and the Saints (because perhaps the tenacity of the Clergy and people, rather than true piety toward the needy, had suggested that counsel) the outcome made clear: For not long after, the whole city burned down by a nocturnal fire. And so the successor of Hoëllus, Bishop Hildebertus, after about XIII years, the tablet of the altar of the Holy Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, partly from the silver, which Lord Hoëllus the Bishop of good memory, his predecessor, for this work

had left; partly from what he himself had acquired elsewhere, he honorably restored it according to the circumstances of the time.

[88] Furthermore, from that very Register of the Bishops of Le Mans from which we took the foregoing—which Mabillon published in Volume 3 of his Analecta—Abraham the Vicedominus seizing the goods of the same church, it is pleasing to attach an example of the severe vengeance against the man who had unjustly despoiled the aforesaid church and had granted immunity to others who were accomplices in the same crime. This was Abraham, the Vicedominus of Bishop Gauziolenus, who, although he held many benefices from the bishopric, and in addition a certain little monastery whose name is Buxidus … in which there also lived monks who, when it had been unjustly given to him, were serving the Lord according to rule and in holiness and nobly: these very monks Abraham began to disperse, and he took no care to gather any monk, but rather strove to hold that place under a secular guise. Now after the death of the aforesaid Gauziolenus, in the year 774, he summoned all his associates, both clerics and laymen, [and in the year 774 having obtained their confirmation from the King for himself and his associates,] and gave them the counsel that they should go to Lord Charles, King of the Franks, and become his men, and by his grant retain their benefices: and they too, seduced by human greed, acted according to his counsel. Coming therefore, well furnished with gold and silver and noble garments, to the aforesaid King, they begged that they might be deemed worthy to become his men: and he too, deluded by a certain human greed, received them, and permitted them by his largess to keep their benefices … Meanwhile the mother church herself was daily being destroyed, and the clerics and the poor dwelling there and serving the Lord were endangered by famine, and were neglected and desolate from thirst and want, and the lights and other ornaments of the church were failing; nor did they have any ornament, on account of the removal of the aforesaid goods…

[89] Hearing these things, the glorious King of the Franks, Charles, ordered the aforesaid Abraham the Vicedominus—by whose contrivance and exhortation he had done this—he fell from his favor, to return to his own country in anger, never afterward to come back into his sight before he himself should so order. But that man, coming to the aforesaid little monastery of Buxiacum, which he unjustly held by a beneficial device, and there long sick with a grievous and crude malady, afterward, day and night unceasingly, with a huge voice and great howling crying out, proclaimed that his body was burning on account of his evil device, which he had done against the mother church of St. Mary and SS. Gervase and Protase, when its goods were plundered and scattered here and there. It also appeared to him that St. Mary and SS. Gervase and Protase, together with other Saints, crying out that he was being scorched by the saints, ordered a fire to be kindled in which he was being burned; whence he most earnestly begged their aid, that they might help him, that he might deserve to escape from that fire. For he said that he visibly saw these things in front of everyone, and affirmed that he was suffering such things on account of the plundering of those goods: he perishes miserably; which deed he then wished greatly and above all things to amend, but he could not: for consumed by such punishment, he was afterward buried in the aforesaid little monastery of Buxit. His grave, as it is reported, was wholly burning round about for eight days, and the whole earth round about was consumed by flame and fire, and that whole monastery was filled with a vast stench, nor could the men dwelling there, or the clerics, have any rest; and he is deprived of burial. until his friends, secretly casting his little corpse, with that whole grave, in a certain deserted place, and plunging it into a deep lake, cast it out.

[90] Let it be enough to have passed thus rather slowly through the most powerful kingdoms of the Spains and the Gauls, so far as to touch at least with a light eye upon Britain. This land, The cult of the Saints in Britain, as it received its first heralds of the faith from Rome through St. Eleutherius, and its second through St. Gregory the Pontiffs, so also seems thence with the second to have received the rite of venerating SS. Gervase and Protase: a thing which the ancient Missals and Breviaries of the British kingdoms will attest, when it shall be possible to examine them. For now, in place of the rest, the most ancient Sarum Breviary, and the Litanies described in the Missal preserved among us, allow us to presume it.

[91] So, dismissing the English, observe further, Reader, that the Belgians too, taught by the Apostles sent from Gaul and Britain, learned the same religion, and from these same also learned to venerate both Saints in such a way that there is no church (so far as I know) of Lower, indeed even of Upper Germany, in Belgium, which does not display their names in its Calendars. What relics they have, moreover, or think they have, I have not had leisure to investigate more laboriously. Raissius in his Hierogazophylacium Belgicum asserts that a joint of St. Gervase is held in honor at Saint-Amand, among the Monks of Elnon; and at Arras in the church of St. Mary, within a new shrine, fashioned of silver in the form of the Ark of Moses, in the Northern kingdoms, together with many others, the relics of SS. Stephen, Gervase, and Protase the Martyrs. But that devotion did not stop among the Belgians, but spread further to the Northern Provinces, and there too became known through Calendars, of which one is shown to us, prefixed to the Missal of Votive Masses throughout Sweden, Denmark, and Norway; another in the Danish Fasti of Olaus Wormius, written from parchment 350 years ago. In the Diary of the Relics of the Metropolitan church of Prague, published by its Dean Pezzina de Czecorod, afterward titular Bishop of Smederevo in Slavonia, are counted two notable portions of SS. Gervase and Protase, brought from Milan by Charles IV in the year 1355: and two other portions, in Bohemia, brought by the same from Aachen in 1372; and also one part of the arm of St. Protase: and since it is not written whence it was received, the suspicion comes to me that it is from the town of Breisach on the Rhine, whose inhabitants claim that they have both bodies, brought thence from Milan when it was overthrown around the year 1162 by a certain Bishop, a follower of Frederick Barbarossa. And these alone cause trouble for the Milanese, who defend themselves by ancient possession; concerning which, before we determine anything, the Milanese must first be heard.

§. IX. The presence of the Saints' bodies disputed between the Milanese and the people of Breisach: the possession of the latter is the stronger.

[92] The bones of the holy Martyrs having been brought into the Ambrosian basilica, Ambrose yielding the right-hand portion to the Martyrs, their founder—about to bury them there beneath the chief altar—says above, no. 5: "This place I had predestined for myself: for it is fitting that the Priest should rest there where he was wont to offer. But I yield the right-hand portion to the sacred victims: that place was owed to the Martyrs." The sense of these words, as if it were obvious to anyone reading, I see has been examined and weighed by no one. The first sense that might occur to anyone seems to be this: that the holy Prelate, to be buried beneath the same altar, yielding the right-hand side in it to the Martyrs, wished to be buried on the left. But I would hardly believe that the Saint wished, not the right-hand side beneath the altar, contrary to the common custom of Christians, indeed even of Bishops, to have his body buried within the altar itself, in the manner in which the relics of Saints are enclosed in altars, and in which these of whom we are treating were buried. But if he wished only—which is credible—that a tomb be dug for him beneath the altar in which he might be interred, nothing would have hindered one or two shrines of the Saints from being buried within it. Therefore Ambrose yielded to them something more than the right-hand side; the whole place, I say; namely lest he, who was buried beneath the same altar within which the Martyrs were placed, should seem to make common to himself the honor due to be given to the Martyrs.

[93] That I may so understand his words, and believe a more mystical sense to lie hidden beneath them, Chapter VII of Leviticus serves, where the law of the sacrifice of peace-offerings which is offered to the Lord is defined; and among other things, that the shoulder also from the peace-offerings should fall as the first-fruits of the Priest … and that he himself should have the right shoulder in his portion. but left the whole altar to them, As therefore in the division of the victim the right shoulder, or the right portion, is owed to the Priest: so Ambrose judged that the more excellent part of the basilica, namely the place of the altar itself, was owed to himself the Priest; nor is he to be said to speak of part of the altar, but of the whole place of it, when he says that he yields the right-hand portion to the sacred victims. You will perhaps ask what other place the Saint chose for his tomb than the one in which even now he is believed to rest buried. But I shall beware of defining this by conjecture, since Paulinus in the Life is silent on the matter. He might have chosen his first burial before the foot of the same altar, he might have chosen it elsewhere in the same church, to be buried elsewhere, whence afterward, the flesh having been consumed, the extracted bones were buried beneath the altar with the relics of the Martyrs. When this was done, I nowhere find written; that it was done is proved by the tooth extracted from the Saint's skull by Bishop Angilbert, of whom presently.

[94] The Milanese writers think altogether otherwise about St. Ambrose's first burial, and follow Galvaneus Flamma, nor did he wish to be placed midway between the two Saints, a 14th-century Dominican chronographer, hitherto unpublished, but cited by Puricelli in his Monumenta Ambrosiana p. 89, where he asserts that St. Ambrose, when he was near death, being asked where he wished to be buried, answered in prophetic speech: "In the midst of the most blessed Martyrs Gervase and Protase; if, dividing themselves from one another, they shall make a place for me in the middle." When therefore the funeral of Ambrose arrived, those two Martyrs made a place in the middle: as if either two arks placed side by side withdrew from one another, to give place to a third to be set in the middle; or two bodies composed within one ark, by withdrawing to the sides, left an empty space between them, enough to receive a third body. Either of these could have happened after St. Ambrose's bones were elevated; and that it actually was done, the Milanese tradition of such a miracle, expressed by Galvaneus, makes us presume; so that it is true as to substance, but erroneous as to the circumstance of time; as too very often happens in such matters.

[95] But that such a thing was done at the time of the first burial, the silence of Paulinus forbids us to believe—he who carefully explains whatever miracle he knew to have occurred around the death and after it; nor would he have passed over so great a prodigy, though it perhaps happened later, where he narrates other far lesser things. What of the fact that it would be conceived altogether incongruously that the managers of Ambrose's funeral wished to place the body of a recently deceased man—however holy, but not yet resolved into bones (which still had to decay according to the common order of nature)—together with the sacred bones of others, already bare with the flesh consumed, and not to be rashly exposed to the danger of new corruption. It is also credible that the shrine of these, into which St. Ambrose gathered them (if indeed there was one and not two), and which he transferred to his Ambrosian basilica, was likely far smaller than the measure of a whole human corpse.

[96] Puricelli, in order to restore to his Milanese the bodily presence of the holy Martyrs, indubitable even for the present day,

[therefore St. Ambrose could have been hidden beneath the crypt in the 9th century,] pursues at length how Bishop Angilbert (two of this name presided consecutively from the year 823 to 860) inserted into his ring a tooth taken from the head of St. Ambrose; whence, when it slipped out and he sought it, he was warned that it would be found where he had received it; and moved by this miracle, he ordered a crypt to be made beneath the golden altar which he had built, into which the ark of Ambrose's body was placed, and covered over with a porphyry slab, so that access was altogether impossible, except perhaps through a subterranean passage; which itself too was blocked up, no trace of it any longer appearing, on account of the miracle that befell St. Bernard, Bishop of Parma and Cardinal, when he entered there: so that at the time when the Germans claim the Martyrs were carried off, no one could penetrate into the aforesaid crypt except one who, the altar being destroyed, should have removed the aforesaid porphyry slab.

[97] But all these things accomplish nothing, if it be denied—as we deny—that the aforesaid Angilbert sent down into the same crypt, together with the bones of St. Ambrose, also the bones of the Martyrs, the Saints remaining within the altar, and left the whole hollow of his golden altar empty; for if you assume the contrary, you will easily conceive how, the little side door of the golden altar being opened, there could have been drawn out the shrine or little shrines containing the bones of SS. Gervase and Protase, and given to the Emperor's Chancellor to be carried away; if not from the cause which is pretended, and which through all its circumstances seems fabulous, at least out of regard for gratitude, for the preservation of the Ambrosian basilica from the common destruction. Certainly from that time there was no one at Milan who said he had seen those relics. and that these were carried off while it remained unmoved. And thus the whole reasoning of Puricelli collapses, for the confirming of which the custom of painting St. Ambrose in the midst between SS. Gervase and Protase is of no use: for thus St. Ferdinand, King of Castile and Leon, is everywhere painted, in the midst between SS. Leander and Isidore the Bishops; nor yet does anyone suppose from this that he was so buried; but everyone understands that they are commonly held as Patrons of the city and Church of Seville, which same thing ought to hold for the Milanese.

[98] These things being premised, let us pass over to Breisach, and examine by what documents the presence of the Saints there is supported. The people of Breisach claim that this was done, First we have received it from an old Codex, printed at Strasbourg by Johann Grüninger in 1505, found in the Library of the monastery of Pfromersberg, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance near Baden-Baden. The very printed work has this title: Life of SS. Gervase and Protase, with a Sermon and Translation to the town of Breisach, whose bones are held there. There follows a painted effigy of each Martyr, in toga and of youthful appearance, of whom Gervase holds a sword in his left hand; Protase, a starry scourge likewise in his left hand; and below is seen the chequered shield of the town of Breisach, namely six hills set upon one another, three and three, the middle of the uppermost standing higher, on a red field. Then, A Sermon on the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, with their discovery and martyrdom and translation, from Milan to the town of Breisach; composed and excerpted by Friar Johann Berken, Lecturer in sacred Theology, by a Sermon published in the year 1505, of the Order of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine, happily. It begins: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God. Wisdom III. The human soul is varied in its motions according to four affections, namely joy, hope, love, and fear …" And in this Sermon, says the Author, four things are to be said in order. The first is the declaration of those words taken up into the theme; which, being wholly for preaching, does not pertain to the history. The second, the discovery of the Saints, from the Pseudo-Ambrosian epistle; the third, their martyrdom, from the booklet of Pseudo-Philip. The fourth, their translation.

[99] The beginning of this last member, alone now pertaining to us, is taken from the year 1151; in which Frederick Barbarossa, [where fabulous things are narrated about the bodies, offered by the Count's sister,] coming into Italy with an army against the Pontiff Alexander, took by force, plundered, and overthrew Milan, long defended in vain by a certain Galvaneus, Count of Angera and Prince of the city. Galvaneus, moreover, lest he be killed, his sister saved, promising the bodies of the three Magi, and of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, Nabor and Felix, to Rudolph—or, as others prefer, to Otto—Archbishop of Cologne: who asked the Emperor, about to enter the city, that there be granted to him what the first woman to meet him should carry on her shoulders; and by arrangement Galvaneus's sister met him, laden with her own brother; therefore his life was spared, yet so that, beaten with whips, he was led off captive into Germany; whence, having returned, he restored the city, surviving until the year 1682.

[100] You think, I believe, that you are reading a comedy, nor would I have it taken otherwise; especially since neither the year of the deed, to Rudolph, Archbishop of Cologne, nor the name of the Bishop fits one accompanying Frederick; and the pretended Lordship of the Counts of Angera in the city is now exploded by the Milanese. Certainly there deserves to be exploded the womanly authority so great that, even when the city was captured, it was open to her to open whatever sanctuaries, and thence to draw forth the ransom promised for her brother's life. I do not think, however, that this was a fiction of the Germans, but of the Milanese themselves, concerning the destruction and restoration of their own homeland, while no certain history existed—fictions similar to those which they wrote about the bringing in and carrying off of the holy Magi, and handed down to the people of Cologne, not without similar absurdities: which being set aside, we only ask whether, just as, notwithstanding those things, the people of Cologne maintain their possession without contradiction from the Milanese; so too the people of Breisach can hold theirs, concerning which one reads thus in the said Sermon.

[101] At last the Archbishop received the bodies of the Magi … who is said to have brought them to Breisach, and transferred them with himself, together with other relics, namely of the holy Gervase and Protase, to Germany… Now it happened that the same Archbishop came to the river Rhine, through Basel that notable city, as far as the town of Breisach in the diocese of Constance, under the dominion of the Duchy of Austria. It is moreover a noble town of the region of Breisgau, situated by the river Rhine on a hill, built long ago: for it has a castle with a famous tower, constructed in the time of King Henry in the year of the Lord 1188, but now obeys the most invincible King ever Augustus Maximilian. Now the citizens of the aforesaid town, hearing of the arrival of the relics of the three Magi, and of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, filled with no little joy, flocked and ran together with banners, crosses, candles, and procession, to contemplate those bodies, and to have given St. Gervase to the citizens, to kiss them with eyes and lips, where God worked wonders on account of the citizens' devotion. Now the aforesaid citizens earnestly begged the Archbishop that he would deign, for the sake of God, to give them at least the body of St. Gervase, that it might be placed on the hill on which the town is seen to be built, and in their church. The most illustrious Archbishop and Prince Elector, seeing the devotion of the citizens flocking together; although he had somewhat refused, on account of the importunate and reasoned petition he granted and gave what they asked: and the citizens, filled with vast joy, with great veneration and rejoicing, the Archbishop being present, led it to the Parish church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, with hymns and canticles, giving praises to God.

[102] On the next day the devout Prelate, with his retinue, having bought and arranged the things necessary that were in the ship, entered the ship; and when the anchors and the ropes by which the ship was bound were loosed, (a stupendous miracle!) and when he could not carry off Protase, the ship remained immovable. The sailors laboring in vain, the Archbishop and his men were terrified and amazed. But conjecturing that the Saints did not wish to be separated from one another, who had lived together, and together suffered, been found buried, and so far been venerated; he begged that the body be given back to him, promising greater things, that he might transfer it with the three Kings to Cologne… but the citizens earnestly begged that he gave this one too to them. that he would give to them also Protase his brother, that they might be placed together in one coffer. Considering which, the Archbishop, mournful and sad, gave it to them. Then, every impediment being removed, he sailed through the streams of the Rhine as far as Cologne… but the citizens of Breisach, filled with greater joy, with all veneration and rejoicing, There a silver ark is made in the year 1498, transferred Protase also to the aforesaid church of the Protomartyr Stephen on the fourth day of July, where with all worship and devotion they are venerated. But in these very recent days, around the years of the Lord 1498, they built a little shrine or ark, surrounded with silver, of fourteen hundred Rhenish florins, and with great solemnity placed the bones of them, just as each year on their festivals it is seen with bodily eyes by the faithful. The Courses of the neighboring villages, with solemn procession and veneration of the people, are frequented, where God works wonders in his Saints, and through them many benefits are bestowed.

[103] There follow old miracles from St. Augustine, and one new one is added thus: A certain noble Soldier, by name Peter of Hagenbach, the Saints being invoked, the Bailiff is punished, grievous to the town in 1474, took refuge with Charles Duke of Burgundy, and was most kindly received by him: for he was himself a man of great counsel and worth with that same Prince: and being sent into Alsace and Sundgau, was made his Bailiff: for which reasons he began to be most notorious and formidable not only throughout Germany, but also among foreign nations… He himself, having contrived a certain pestilent machination, with a multitude of Burgundian soldiers, entered the town of Breisach. Many citizens, terrified by his tyranny, took flight; whose goods he gave over to plunder. But although he reckoned himself raised above the stars of heaven, and seemed no longer to fear anyone in the world; nonetheless, like another Nebuchadnezzar, his sins demanding it, on the holy day of Easter, a tumult having been stirred up among the people, in the year of the Lord 1474, he was bound without the shedding of blood, and on the ninth day of May was beheaded. This change of the right hand of the Most High, by the intercession and merits (as is piously asserted by all dwelling there) of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, whose bones are honorably laid up there, freed them from the tyranny of this man.

[104] Now the citizens of the town of Breisach can say with Solomon, "And there came to us all good things together with her," namely with the bringing of the venerable Relics: In the year 1480 it is saved when the Rhine overflowed because as long as they were with them, they were freed from many dangers. Wisdom 7 And especially in the year of the Lord 1480, the river Rhine, around the feast of St. James the Apostle, swelled so immensely that it flooded through the whole suburb, commonly der Werd, as though it were set on level ground; it filled the Monastery of Nuns outside the walls, commonly Mergenow, up to the high altar; and through the streets and lanes one sailed, just as it was wont to do through its channel. The bridges at Waldshut, Säckingen, Basel, and Strasbourg, being destroyed, denied passage. Moved by these things, the citizens of the town of Breisach the bridge little firm. made a vow to the holy Gervase and Protase, since by natural means it was impossible to come to the rescue. But, to conclude many things in few, the bridge remained, although in part destroyed it was supported by some small timbers, through the intercession of the holy Martyrs, by whose help, being aided, it afforded passage to those walking over it. Thus may we

through the aforesaid glorious Martyrs, by their merits and intercession, be able to pass here in the world by grace, and in the future by the glory in which they are: which may He deign to grant to all of us, for whom they suffered, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.

[105] To these things, thus printed at the beginning of the 16th century and composed not long before, there had served as a prelude, as to the occasion of the Translation, a certain writing of the 14th century at the latest, which around the year 1520 Tristanus Calchus inserted into Book II of his Latin History of Milan, as having been brought not long since from Germany; and which Bernardus Corius, somewhat later than he, the author of the same to be published in Italian, in Part I caused to be reprinted as authentic in Latin and Italian in the year 1554, There preceded a somewhat older testimony, conceived in these words: "Frederick, the first Roman Emperor, is elected, son of Hermann (rather of Frederick, the noble Duke of Swabia, as can be proved from Otto of Freising, nor does anyone doubt it), in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred fifty-second (which last number ought to be added, as Corius himself notes in the corrections to the second addition), reigned thirty-six years. In the tenth year of his reign, that is 1162, he destroyed Milan: in which destruction the sister of a certain Visconti, because she was in the power of Frederick, by whom Rudolph of Cologne was feigned to have transferred the Saints, for the deliverance of her brother, went to the Reverend Father, by name Rudolph, and Lord Archbishop of Cologne; and showed the bodies of the three Magi, namely Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar; the bodies of SS. Gervase and Protase, and the bodies of SS. Nabor and Felix. Whence the aforesaid Rudolph placed the bodies of SS. Gervase and Protase in the town of Breisach by the Rhine, in the church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, on the left side, surrounded with iron and the firmest bars, with lamps shining day and night. There rest the glorious Saints, in whom the Lord daily works many miracles." This instrument Puricelli batters with all his might; nor is much needed to show that in the army of Frederick laying waste Milan there was no Archbishop of Cologne, Rudolph; that Rainald, indeed then the Emperor's Chancellor, bore only the title of Elect.

[106] Finally in this century, when in the year [16]38 Breisach came into the power of the French, and all Gaul flocked to see it as the most fortified bulwark of all Alsace, which is also found in the French synopsis, it seemed good to the people of Breisach to conceive a certain little French writing, with a fuller apparatus indeed of words and chronological notes, but with no more certain faith: which I have received thus rendered into Latin. "True Relics, taken from the silver ark in which rest the miraculous and most authentic bones of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, twins born of brothers, nobles of the Ravennates in Italy, and offspring of the holy Vitalis and Valeria. These same holy Gervase and Protase, while Domitian Nero was reigning as Emperor, underwent martyrdom at Milan, by order of Count Astasius, with mention of miracles, in the four thousand and eighteenth year after the founding of the World, the eight hundred and sixth after the building of the City of Rome, the fifty-fifth after the nativity of the Son of God. But these sacred Relics were revealed to St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church, after they had lain hidden under the earth for three hundred years and more. When Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor had taken possession of the city of Milan; Arnolf, Archbishop and Elector of Cologne, who was then present, reserved for himself the relics of SS. Gervase and Protase and of others. But passing through Breisach in the year 1159, in recompense for the honors which he had then received from the Magistrate, he gave them the body of St. Gervase; intending, namely, to carry off by ship the body of St. Protase, which nevertheless never permitted itself to be removed by any force. Wherefore Arnolf was compelled to leave both these bodies together at Breisach, where they are renowned for many miracles."

[107] How frequent it is, in describing things many centuries after they were done, from the tradition of the common people, that blemishes of anachronisms and similar faults adverse to the purity of history creep in, we nowhere experience better and more often than in this work: in comparison with which ancient possession is to be esteemed but if therefore it be necessary to believe the Saints themselves—whose Acts are either wholly fictitious, or stuffed with fabulous circumstances—to be invented and fabricated; scarcely would the Apostles of Christ the Savior escape this mark, except in so far as they are commemorated in the Gospels. The same must be said of relics, of whose translations there are no histories written at the very time when they were done, but a long time afterward, as happened here. It will therefore be permitted to the people of Breisach to defend themselves by their possession, until the Milanese, by the very exhibition of the bodies of the Saints, show that they are still held among them, and so are falsely said to have been carried off.

[108] But that possession of the people of Breisach is strongly confirmed by Rudolph, Archduke of Austria, whose Latin diploma, confirmed by the attestation of his own hand in German, exists at Vienna in the Cathedral church of St. Stephen, confirmed by the diploma of the Duke of Austria in the year 1363, in the year of the Lord 1363; in which he testifies that he solemnly brought to Vienna, deposited in one sarcophagus, and offered to the church of St. Stephen six bodies of Saints, namely of Gervase and Protase, Felix and Adauctus, John and Paul; and of the first two he speaks thus: "We, at the time when Albert of recollected memory, formerly Duke of Austria, our beloved Lord and father, had for the first time destined us to our lands of Upper Germany, came to Breisach on the 3rd of the Kalends of May, in the year of the Lord 1358, in the 19th year of our age, and there humbly and purely for God's sake petitioned that there be shared and given to us of the two holy bodies of the Blessed Gervase and Protase, translated thither from Milan, asserting that a part was granted to him, which is now at Vienna. and resting in the same place: concerning which petition we were, with great solemnity and decency, heard by the Priests and townsmen there; and there were shared with us the bodies of the aforesaid Saints." More about this diploma will be said below on the 26th day, where the Acts of SS. John and Paul are illustrated: here let it suffice to have noted that notable parts are called Bodies, and that these are here expressly said to be divided, so that there may remain to the people of Breisach the other part of them, on whose account they proceeded to say that they have their Bodies. But that part which was given to the Archduke by the people of Breisach, Fr. Theodore Moretus wrote that he had seen in the year 1658—the same who transcribed the diploma—of the descendants of Christophe Plantin of Antwerp admitted into our Belgian Society, where, cultivated in every kind of sciences no less than of virtues, sent thence as a helper to Bohemia, he spent his whole life teaching the higher disciplines, famous also for published books, and at last piously deceased at Wrocław in the year 1676.

§. X. The sacred cult of the Saints among the Milanese amid the Divine offices.

[109] Whatever be the case concerning the real presence of the bodies (which, wherever they exist, must be held to be greatly diminished by the dispersal of so many particles or even notable parts), it is established concerning the present and still most solemn cult in the Milanese Church, In the Ambrosian Missal proper collects for the Saints in the Vigil, according to the rites instituted by St. Ambrose, of which we wholly believe that he composed at least one of those Masses, of which one in the Vigils, the other on the Feast of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, is set before us to be celebrated from the Missal of the year 1522. And of the first indeed the common Ingressa of the Martyrs, "The just shall stand" (we call it the Introit), is followed by a prayer over the people of this sort: "Going before the birthdays of thy Martyrs, O Lord, Protase and Gervase, as suppliants we ask thee; that those whom thou hast exalted with heavenly glory, thou wouldst grant to be present to thy Faithful." After the Gospel, such a Prayer is recited over the Shroud: "May the blessed confession of thy holy Martyrs, O Lord, Protase and Gervase, unite us, and worthily implore aid for our frailty." But after the Offertory, the Super Oblata is such: "May the sacrifice, O Lord, which our devotion offers beforehand for the holy Martyrs Protase and Gervase, by their merit increase, by thy gift, our support." Finally after the Communion it is ordered to be read thus: "Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that by the power of the mysteries, with the holy Martyrs Protase and Gervase interceding, our life may be strengthened."

[110] There is nothing in these that may not be wholly Ambrose's: but the whole Preface was either interpolated or more recently composed, and the Preface, which in the same Vigils after "Almighty eternal God" is continued thus: "Who, although thou art wonderful in the protection of all thy Saints, yet in these most blessed thy Martyrs, Protase and Gervase, we acknowledge thy special gift, whom, brothers perhaps by birth, thou madest true brethren by a magnificent passion; that they might at once be the offspring of a venerable mother, On the feast itself, the Introit, and of a most flourishing Church. Through Christ, etc." Never does St. Ambrose mention this brotherhood: and I believe, if he had learned anything certain of it, he would not have left it untouched in his sermons. Much more evident appears the novelty or interpolation of the Ingressa at the Mass of the feast: "Having good physicians of our country, Protase and Gervase the Martyrs of the Lord, and Ambrose, who by their holy intercessions have freed us from all evils." Here certainly he would not have named himself, as neither in the Preface, of which behold the tenor: the Preface, "✠ eternal God: who didst confer the virtue of faith on thy soldiers, contending for the love of thy name. Among whom thou hast deigned to gather the pious brothers, the Blessed Protase and Gervase; whom their father had preceded a while before, having attained the palm of martyrdom. These are they who, marked with the heavenly standard, took up the victorious arms of the Apostle; and, loosed from worldly bonds, laying low the battle-line of the vices of the most wicked enemy, free and unencumbered followed Christ the Lord. O how happy a brotherhood! which, cleaving to sacred utterances, could be defiled by no contagion! O how glorious a cause of strife! where alike are crowned those whom one mother's womb poured forth. For whose triumphs and glory the most fruitful mother Church rejoices, who through Blessed Ambrose deserved to find such offspring, who confer upon her the signs of virtues and glory, through the same Christ."

[111] Concerning the Prayers, moreover, of the same Feast let each one determine as he will. The Super Populum is this: "Be present, O Lord, to our supplications, the Collects, which we offer in commemoration of thy most blessed Protase and Gervase; that we who have no confidence in our own righteousness may be helped by the merits and intercessions of those who have pleased thee." There follows the Prayer over the Shroud: "Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that a twofold gladness of today's festivity may receive us, which proceeds from the glorification of thy most blessed Martyrs Gervase and Protase, whom the same faith and passion made to be brethren." Super Oblatam: "Hold forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, to thy altars the gifts offered for the commemoration of thy most blessed Protase and Gervase; that as through these blessed mysteries thou hast conferred glory upon them, so thou mayst bestow pardon upon us." After Communion: "Those whom thou hast filled with heavenly gifts, O Lord, defend by the protections of thy holy Martyrs Protase and Gervase; that, freed from all harmful things, we may run with our whole heart after thy saving gifts."

[112] These things all had to be brought forward thus entire,

so that the Reader may be able to discern for himself Similar ones from the book of Sacraments of Gelasius what he wishes to ascribe to St. Ambrose, and what to others following after. To him I judge are altogether to be ascribed those things which are found in the Gelasian and Gregorian book of Sacraments, common with the Milanese. The Gelasian, and other sacramentaries of similar antiquity, from codices written more than nine hundred years ago, Joseph Maria Tomasius published at Rome around the year 1680: where likewise, as in the Ambrosian, a Mass is prescribed for the Vigil and the Feast. And in the Vigil indeed, the first Collect after the Angelic Hymn, and the Secret (which by the Milanese is called Super Oblatam) agree; but without a title, after the first Collect, the Prayer which by them is said over the Shroud, to be recited as after the Gospel, is set forth thus: for the Vigil and feast. "Let us implore the help of the holy Gervase and Protase; that we may be freed, O Lord, from all offenses." But after the Communion thus: "May the perpetual protection of the Sacrifice received, O Lord, not forsake us, and ever drive away all harmful things from us." On the feast day Gelasius willed the first Prayer to be that which by the Milanese is recited in the Vigil after Communion: a second, he prescribes none; because of such there is no use in that Gelasian, except for Vigils. The proper Secret is recited in this way: "Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that by these gifts, which we offer for the honor of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase, we may both please thee by what is offered, and be quickened by what is received." After Communion the same, here on the feast, as there in the Vigil.

[113] The Gregorian Codex prescribes the same Prayers as the Gelasian for a single Mass, without a Vigil: nor is it to be doubted From the Gregorian for the feast only that the proper Introit, "The Lord shall speak peace upon his people, and upon his Saints, and upon those who are converted in heart" (which Introit is also found in all the most ancient Missals, both printed and manuscript)—nothing, I say, is to be doubted, but that it is St. Gregory's, for thus Durandus writes in Book 7, ch. 13: "On the feast of SS. Gervase and Protase is sung, by Gregory's institution, the Introit 'The Lord shall speak peace,' from the fact that on such a day peace was restored between the Roman Emperor and Agilulf King of the Lombards: which King, Theodosia (rather Theodelinda by her native name) his most Christian wife, to whom Gregory wrote the book of Dialogues, brought to an end. For the Offices of the Saints partly agree with the Saints themselves, with the Introit of Peace, partly with those events which occurred on their days." This he says. Sigonius, Book 1 On the kingdom of Italy, adds that it agreed indeed on such a day; but first on the 3rd of the Kalends, on the feast of the Apostles, the same was confirmed by oath on both sides with great ceremony: at which news Italy, lifted up, exulted with vast joy. In these things I do not know whether there is not some confusion of facts and times: for I fear that the gladness of Gregory, attested by this Introit, looks not so much to peace as to the hope of peace, since it had been agreed for only two years, while Gregory was living and Maurice reigning, in the year 599; nor is it sufficiently certain that it was subscribed on both sides: but this is established concerning that peace which came together in the year 604: but if that, being signed, came together on the 19th of June, it came together after the death of Gregory, who died on the 12th of March.

[114] I pass to the Milanese Breviary, such as we have it printed in the year 1639, where a Hymn of this sort to be sung at Vespers is set forth, A Hymn in the Breviary, of an old and simple worship.

New thanks to thee, O Jesus, finder of a new gift, I sing, Protase and Gervase the Martyrs being found. The pious victims lay hidden, but the sacred fount lay not hidden: blood cannot lie hidden, which cries to God the Father. A grace shining from heaven revealed the sacred limbs: we cannot be Martyrs, but we have found Martyrs. Say, who requires the voices of witnesses, where faith is the deed itself? The man without his senses, restored, confesses the work of the Martyrs; The blind man, the gift received, proves the merit of the sacred death: Severus is the man's name, an attendant in public service: As he touched the Martyrs' garment, and wiped his clouded face; the light shone forth at once, and blindness was driven away and fled. The crowd loosed from their bonds, free from the coils of dragons; sent out from all the cities, returns home with grace. We have seen ancient ages; aprons cast about, by touch and the shadow of the body, health restored to the sick. Glory be to thee, O Lord, etc.

[115] That this Hymn is St. Ambrose's own we can safely believe; and other Prayers. the Lessons and Responsories at Matins appear to be taken from the booklet of Pseudo-Philip, of which nothing further is to be said. The first of the three Prayers, to be sung at the same Vespers after as many Antiphons, is the same as the first in the Mass of the Vigil: the second is read nowhere else, and is this: "Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, to thy people pardon of sins, and increase of religion; and that thou mayst multiply thy gifts to it, cause the patronage of thy holy Martyrs Protase and Gervase to be present, and bestow protection." The third, at the Magnificat: "Be present, O Lord, to our supplications, which we offer in commemoration of thy most blessed Martyrs Protase and Gervase; that we who have no confidence in our own righteousness may be helped by the merits and intercessions of those who have pleased thee." At Compline the same as in the Mass of the feast over the Shroud. At the Benedictus, such as in the Vigil over the Shroud: about all which I find nothing changed in the Breviary, The names in the Litanies and Canon. reformed by the authority of St. Charles Borromeo around the year 1582; and again by order of Federico, his nephew and successor, recognized under the date of the year 1625, and a third time reprinted after ten years. Furthermore, the names of both, which in the Litanies of the Roman Church are subjoined after the names of SS. Cosmas and Damian, after that Breviary of the third recognition immediately follow the name of St. Stephen, as of the foremost Patrons among the martyrs: but below in the Canon of the Mass, after the foreign Martyrs common to the Roman Canon, the Milanese names are reckoned in order of age: Apollinaris, Vitalis, Nazarius and Celsus, Protase and Gervase, Victor, Nabor, Felix: and everywhere Protase holds the first place.

[116] And these things were all done by ecclesiastical power; nor was secular dignity lacking for honoring these same Saints. The feast among the people like that of St. Ambrose Of this matter, from the Archive of the city, in Puricelli ch. 126, this document appears. "Blanca Maria Visconti, Duchess of Milan and Lady of Cremona, and Galeazzo-Maria Sforza, Visconti of the Duke of Milan, to the distinguished and noble, wise and prudent men, our Podestà, etc. Our beloved. The most illustrious Prince of memory never to be effaced, Lord Filippo-Maria, our most revered father and grandfather, decreed elsewhere that the day of the blessed Gervase and Protase the Martyrs, which is celebrated on the 19th of June (whose bodies are laid up beneath the high altar of Ambrose, the most renowned Protector of this city and most celebrated Doctor, and whose then manifest and many miracles, as also assiduous prayers and intercessions for us and this our country before the most high and almighty a decree of the year 1444. God, are made) should be made a feast and celebrated, and held as the day of the most blessed Ambrose himself; just as is established by the letters of his Highness given to them on the 9th of June in the year 1444. Since therefore we too are affected with equal devotion and veneration toward those glorious Martyrs; and since we gladly imitate the footsteps of that most wise and best Prince; and again in the years 1467 and 1470. we charge ourselves and you, and will; that you also by public proclamations cause that very day to be celebrated and held a feast; and that you proceed to the offering which is made on that day at the aforesaid temple and altar, with all the Guilds (that is, those bound by feudal obligation); and with what greater apparatus and solemnity it can be done, and just as is done on the aforementioned feast of St. Ambrose. Given at Milan on the fifteenth day of June 1467." In the same tenor another mandate is said to exist, in the name of Galeazzo-Maria alone, "Given at Pavia on the 14th of June 1470."

§. XI. Certain more obscure memorials of the Saints. The names of many along with theirs inscribed in the most ancient Martyrology of all.

[117] It is read in the Booklet of Pseudo-Philip that the holy brothers, their parents having died for the faith of Christ, [It is believed that the dining-room was in the same place where afterward the church of St. Protase to the Monks stood] enclosed themselves in one dining-room, for ten years devoting themselves to reading and prayer and fasting. Puricelli therefore asks in chapter 9 of the Nazarian Dissertation in what part of the city that dining-room stood, and in no. 6 speaks thus: "This even now our old men, from the immemorial tradition of their ancestors, affirm to have been there where now, not far from the merchants' market, stands the Parish church which is more commonly called St. Protase to the Monks, and sometimes St. Protase at the Oak: (for once a tall oak stood there nearby.) When the Monks were established in that place, Puricelli confesses is unknown to him: but he brings forward instruments of the 9th and 10th centuries, by which it is clear that there was there a monastery of an Abbot and Monks, which then, with the neighboring monastery of the Canons of St. Simplician, was under the rule of one Abbot. now joined to the church and monastery of St. Simplician: This is proved from the Bull of John VIII, given on the 4th of the Ides of March, in the 14th indiction, and so in the year of Christ 881, to Hardericus, venerable Priest and Abbot of the sacred Monasteries, namely of the blessed Gervase and Protase and of Simplician, and also of the hospice of SS. Cosmas and Damian, which is called 'of the Romans.' Now Puricelli says that the church of the last-named Saints, equally with the former two, stands within the city and next to those very buildings where now the Hieronymite Monks dwell; to which the joined hospice has been turned into a Parish church, belonging by title of patronage right to the Abbot of St. Simplician; for thus it is now called, since out of two churches and monasteries one new one has arisen.

[118] A house too is seen today in the same neighborhood, says the same Puricelli, where the tradition is likewise most ancient, and in the vicinity their house, that there was once situated the house of SS. Protase and Gervase: in memory of which matter there is even seen there a bedchamber, on whose wall round about, from the upper part, many years ago, the deeds of the same Saints are painted. This very house, indeed, I myself, with an old man devoted to such matters, entered: and when I had carefully inspected all its parts, I found them truly such as he had already described to me. It will therefore be worth our while to point out the same house to our reader. From that merchants' market which I named above, and which is situated almost in the middle of the city, one goes straight into the New part of the city by a thoroughfare which has the name of St. Margaret: it is shown reverently. on the side of that same street which is on the right to those going out from the market, there also occurs a very narrow little lane, which is called 'of the two walls.' To those entering that little lane the first house on the right, forming the face of the corner, is the one where SS. Protase

and Gervase are said once to have had their house, which therefore was distant by a very small interval from their dining-room.

[119] After the house of the Saints' birth thus described, there follows in chapter 23 a description of the prison, which they themselves, and the holy Nazarius and Celsus, sanctified by their presence. The prison in the tower Where this prison was, says Puricelli, is taught by the inveterate and perennial tradition of the most noble and most religious monastery of Nuns in this city, surnamed Maggiore, and from it I was taught at the time when I began to give my labor there to hearing sacred Confessions, as extraordinary Confessor, as they call it. This monastery is situated within the bounds of the Porta Vercellina, and its extent includes the old walls, in that part which looks toward the Franciscan basilica, once dedicated to SS. Nabor and Felix, and at first called from the name of its founder Philip. Upon those walls, adhering to the ancient walls of the city made of baked brick, there still stands set a huge and round tower, likewise of brick, which has also its watch-turrets disposed round about on the summit, and is divided into three stories. There flourishes therefore among the Nuns of the same monastery, even to the present day, a most ancient tradition, that the innermost part of that tower was once a prison, in which SS. Protase and Gervase (let us therefore say also Nazarius and Celsus) were at one time detained together. Wherefore now too the same holy Martyrs are seen there painted on the wall from of old, for the perpetual memory of the matter, and conspicuous as if through the window of the prison and its iron grating. Indeed for this reason there too by the Nuns each year the divine Offices are solemnly celebrated even at present, on the nineteenth of June, festive to the holy Protase and Gervase… But the chief care of such a festivity falls upon those Nuns within the convent of the Nuns: to whom by turns is committed the care of the pharmacy necessary for the uses of the monastery; since this too is exercised in the same building below… But such a tower, still existing within the enclosure of the monastery, I myself once inspected diligently and accurately, when I had to enter the enclosure of the monastery, and to pass that way by a stone stair recently built onto the old wall, in order to administer the Sacrament of Penance to a certain Nun gravely ill.

[120] Then in chapter 24 Puricelli asks, Where was St. Protase beheaded (for Gervase he believed, from the booklet of Pseudo-Philip, to have expired under the blows of leaded whips before the tribunal) & "The Gate of Jove," he says, the place of martyrdom, at the citadel of Jove, by corrupted word Zobia, once embraced also those bounds within which now stands the impregnable castle, on that account called the Citadel of Jove… Within the castle itself, and the part of the city facing it, is a vast open square: in which, not far from the moat of the Castle, and next to the present parish church of St. Protase, as it is now called "at the Castle," adhering on the other side to the city, there is seen rising aloft about four cubits a stone little column, surrounded with iron railings and engraved with certain characters: in which the year was noted, although it was read variously expressed among authors; Tristanus Calchus at the year 272 noting the number 57; Riferra at Navero, in the Italian Life of the Saints printed in 1604, the year 58; Innocentius Ecclesia, in the Life of St. Syrus, 54; "I," says Puricelli, "most desirous of finding the truth, inspected those characters many times, both alone and together with the most keen-eyed and most learned friends, where now is the column with the inscription, most diligently: and always to my companions as to myself that year seemed to be 57, and the whole inscription is said to run thus: 'In this place, where this column is fixed, was beheaded Saint Prothaxius, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord 57, under Count Astaxius.'" To this Calchus rightly noted that neither the words themselves, nor the characters of the letters, agree with those times in which the Saint suffered; for the column was carved far later and by little-skilled men: which indeed is plain even from the Epoch of the years, of which—reckoned from the Lord's Incarnation—Puricelli confesses that he found no example among the Milanese here in no. 7 before the year 866.

[121] Donatus Bossius, in the Milanese Chronicle, wrote thus about that little column at the year 1368: around the year 1368 placed in the place of the church of St. Protase, "In this year Barnabas Visconti founds a citadel, or more truly a palace, which by its size occupied the space from the Porta Tonsa to the buildings of St. Nazarius, and in the following year the whole work was completed. Galeazzo too, in emulation of his brother, founds the citadel of the Gate of Jove, for which cause he demolished the temple of St. Protase, which had been where now before the citadel is seen the little column with the bronze Cross, and very many houses under that parish." Hence Puricelli judges three things are to be concluded: namely, that that temple was founded there, as in the place in which Protase was truly beheaded: then that the column was erected there at least then, erected of old before the year 1171, when that temple was demolished (just as the words Columpna, Protaxius, Astaxius also indicate, which were customarily written thus in those times and not in antiquity), as a sort of supplement to that temple, lest the memory of Protase's martyrdom, consummated in that precise place, should perish: lastly that then too, far from the Castle, a new Parish church of the same Martyr was built there, where now the restored present one stands. …But that the temple itself stood there seems to me before the new and more ample walls were built around our city—the [old] ones having been destroyed by Frederick in the year 1162—in the year 1171, and that very temple was included within those walls. And so I think it came about that (as in the older books, as also others outside the walls. in which the three-day Litanies of the Ambrosian rite are described) what before was called absolutely "the Church of St. Protase in the Field" was afterward called "of the Field within"; so that by the addition of this adverb it might be indicated that such a church, which had been outside the narrower wall, was afterward included within the more ample wall; and so it might be distinguished from another church of the same Martyr "in the Field outside," which now too is contained within the bounds of the Parish church of St. Simplician, and of which frequent mention occurs in the public monuments of the same church and monastery of St. Simplician.

[122] Furthermore, into the railings drawn around the aforesaid little Column there is inserted a marble tablet, likewise diligently inspected by Puricelli, offering this more recent inscription to be read by spectators: "D. O. M. Philip III, King of the Spains and Duke of Milan, Don Joseph Vasques de Acuña, Prefect of this citadel, moved by the example of St. Ambrose and Blessed Charles Borromeo, a stone placed under the Column in the year 1602, Bishops of this city; of whom the former, inspired by the divine Power, found the body of St. Protase; the latter ordered his feast day to be celebrated annually; that the parish church of the same Saint and of the Citadel might be more illustrated, took care that the stone under this column, on which so great a Martyr, at once the defender of this city and citadel, was struck with the axe, lying in darkness for many years, should be recalled to the light, for the stirring up of the religion of soldiers and the pious, in the year of the Lord 1602, on the 18th day of June." By which words two things seem to be indicated; namely that there was a tradition that on that very stone which serves as the base for the Column the Saint was struck; then that the same stone, but not also the Column, had lain hidden, first laid down on the ground before the column, upon which the Martyr is believed to have been smitten. and gradually covered by earth heaped over it; but then placed as a base for the aforesaid Column to be raised higher. Both of these Riferra was ignorant of, when he wrote that the column lay hidden on the ground until the year of the Lord 1602; and that it was then found by diggers, who were leveling the surface of the Castle, uneven with rather high mounds, and erected by order of the Prefect of the citadel. Finally from the same inscription it is also understood that the feast of the Saints—the law of whose celebration among the people the Dukes of Milan in the 15th century had either first established or restored when grown antiquated by disuse—was so quickly obscured by the supine negligence of the same period; that it was necessary again in the next century (for St. Charles died in the year 1584) to prescribe it as if new, to be observed annually.

[123] "Enough has hitherto been said about the Column," says Puricelli toward the end of the Chapter; "it follows that we say something also about the present church of St. Protase, which, built there opposite, To it each year, from the church transferred a little farther, and recently restored by the present Rector Ludovico de Veteribus—a Priest indeed always seen by me admirable for his learning, prudence, integrity, and skill in ecclesiastical matters—continues. That church is parochial, and is reckoned among the churches of the Porta Comacina, and the castle itself too is subject to it… and in it is celebrated the festivity of the Saint on the nineteenth of June, especially in this order. The Cross being borne ahead by a Cleric, a frequent assembly from the Clergy, gathered for this and clothed in surplices, the Deacon likewise and Subdeacon, wearing their Dalmatics; and finally the Priest, about to celebrate the Mass solemnly, adorned with the sacred robe or cope, all together proceed from the Parochial house through the front door; and there before the chief altar, praying a little, they pause. Presently, 'The Lord be with you' being premised by the same Priest, they direct their steps thence to the column (which indeed on this very day is wont to be adorned with cloths on high and with tapestries), and as they go they sing alternately the Canticle a solemn supplication is instituted; Benedictus. And when they have arrived at the column, there they sing the Psallendum common to the Martyrs, 'Rejoice ye just and holy in the Lord, etc.' and the Priest adds the Prayer proper to SS. Protase and Gervase; and concludes it at last according to custom, adding, 'Let us bless the Lord'; and the Clergy responds, 'Thanks be to God.' But forthwith in turn from the castle, for the festive joy, with vast noise, many bronze mortars both of medium and of very great size are discharged, disposed in that part of the wall which faces the Column.

[124] Meanwhile the Clergy, returning to the church in the same order in which it had proceeded, chants Psalms: which, having returned to the Church, and all, having entered the middle of the church, divide themselves into two sides on either hand, their faces turned toward each other, and the Priest closing each side, turned toward the chief altar: and there, according to the most received rite of the Ambrosian church, they sing twelve times Kyrie eleison: and thence at last one proceeds to the Choir. There then the Priest, instead of the Cope, puts on the Chasuble, and forthwith begins the Mass, namely that proper of the holy Protase and Gervase; and so in place of the customary Lesson after the first prayer, there is read from a parchment manuscript codex the proper Passion of the same Martyrs, as it is contained in the booklet of Philip. under the Mass the Passion is recited. At this same solemn Mass the Prefect of the Castle too is wont to be present, or at least his Vicar; as in fuller testification of the religious cult with which they follow Protase their Guardian and Patron, in the name also of the whole Castle. And these things concerning the remaining memorials of SS. Protase and Gervase, which in the title I called more obscure; not because they are not now openly displayed; but because their veneration rests on a tradition very obscure and uncertain. For how, after so many centuries, could it be certainly defined where were the house, the prison, the place of punishment of those of whom scarcely

the names were known, when Ambrose found the bodies?

[125] But if these things must be reckoned obscure, far the most obscure of all is what Puricelli asserts: that the bodies lay buried for some time in the suburban house of Philip, The origin of these traditions uncertain, before they were brought into the city, to the place where they were found by St. Ambrose. For my part, in no. 5 I judged that there was no other cause for the holy Nabor and Felix being buried within the city in the place where they were found, than that the bodies of the holy Gervase and Protase were buried in that very place (at any rate from the beginning, and while the persecution was raging); and this was persuaded to me by the integrity of the bones, not only of each individually, but of all, expressed in these words: "There appear … the Relics, found in their place and order: the head torn from the shoulders, etc." For what is "in its place and order"? unless the form of a double human skeleton still preserved; which being so found, it was at once possible to judge that they were men of wondrous size; it was also possible from one ark, within which the Saints were found composed, to draw out separately the bones of each individually, [and much more, that bodies buried outside were brought into the City before St. Ambrose,] and (as Paulinus says) to place each body on a separate bier: of which scarcely anything would have been possible if the bones of decayed bodies, dug from the earth, had already been once translated from place to place. But as it was not Ambrose's care—the thing which now is sometimes done—to preserve the bones of individual bodies bound together with silver threads, composed in the form in which he found them; but he held it enough to gather each into separate little arks or biers: so too it was not the care of those who carried back into the city the bones dug up in the country. To the same effect is the tomb soaked with blood at the time of the discovery, certainly in the first place of burial: for if the bones had been translated from the first place to a second, the gore, found fluid beyond nature, would have been collected into vials.

[126] But granting that the place of burial was the same as that of discovery, there is no need for us to seek the House and garden of Philip, as Puricelli does throughout the whole of chapter 25, only because he is feigned to say in the booklet: "I secretly carried off the bodies, and buried them in my house in this marble ark": which house was situated outside the walls of the city, not far from the paving of the Ticinese road, and brought back by him to the same place from which they were taken. as is read in the Life of St. Castritianus, who turned it into a house consecrated to prayer, that there he might daily offer the victims of prayer, and the perpetual offerings of the Sacraments of Christ before the faithful. If however the Saints had first been buried in the Polyandrium of Philip, as Calchus says—what space is now occupied by the Ambrosian church and monastery—they would have been brought back to where they had been taken up for the discovery: and this could not have failed to be observed by Ambrose, and those contemporary with him, if they had truly found, together with the bodies, the booklet from which that consequence is drawn. For this would have been obvious to anyone who had read the booklet accurately, and known that there was the House and gardens of Philip, where the Ambrosian church then stood. But what they were ignorant of, who will believe became known to Posterity so long after the deed?

[127] The most ancient Martyrology of the Western Church, which is everywhere ascribed to St. Jerome, In the Hieronymian Martyrology in the Epternach copy of more than a thousand years, begins this day thus: "13th of the Kalends of July, at Milan, Gervase and Protase, Nazarius and Celsus the boy." The same are read in the same way in the Corbie and Blume manuscripts: the Lucca one, more recent than they, has both thus: "At Milan, the Birthday of the holy Nazarius, Gervase, Protase, and Celsus": which Notker, distinguishing—as they ought altogether to be distinguished—says: "At Milan, the Nativity of the holy Martyrs Gervase and Protase": and, after a long eulogy from the booklet of Philip, "Likewise in the same place, according to the Martyrology of St. Jerome, the Nativity of St. Nazarius and Celsus the boy." both on the 19th of June That the title "Birthday" is better absent no one can doubt: since this is the day of the Translation of the first two: who in the most ancient Calendar of the Church of Carthage, and likewise in the genuine Bede and the Augsburg and Prague manuscripts, are read alone; alone likewise, but in the contrary order, so that Protase is first, in the Rheinau and Reichenau manuscripts, and likewise in the very ancient German one which Matthias Friedrich recently published. But since the names of four were anciently joined together, than that on the 28th of July the four are referred to jointly; it is asked whether it is likely that the same day was equally the Birthday of all, or at least of SS. Nazarius and Celsus, whose Translation is venerated on the 5th of the Kalends of August, when in the Epternach and Blume copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology only this is read, and that in the last place, "At Milan, Nazarius and Celsus": but in the Corbie and Lucca, likewise in the last place, "At Milan, the Birthday of the Saints," or, "In Italy, in the city of Milan, of the Saints Gervase and Protase, Nazarius and Celsus the boy."

[128] I would say therefore that perhaps it was an ancient custom of the Milanese Church that all four were venerated together on each day, or because they were celebrated together at Milan, even though one had proper days for one, another for others; in nearly the manner in which the Roman church was wont, at each feast of St. Peter the Apostle, to make a commemoration of St. Paul, and conversely; that they might be indicated as to be venerated by an equal right of Patronage. The same is the judgment of the most learned Florentinius in his Notes on that most ancient Martyrology; namely that all four, although of different Order, were wont to be venerated under one celebration at Milan. And again a little after he repeats that judgment of his, when he notes that, by the Style of this older Martyrology, the Saints venerated together are not disjoined, although the Birthday in heaven is not the same for all. I add: although too the proper chief day of cult for each individually was different from that on which they have this common veneration; as is plain in these, for whom the 19th of June and the 28th of July are the days of the Translations.

[129] Yet I say "perhaps": because another reason, not a little likely, presents itself to me, namely that the Passions of those thus referred together were contained under the context of one history; or because the Passion was written jointly. and on the occasion of one or two, to be venerated on such a day as they are referred to, it pleased to name the rest at the same time. Certainly that some such history about the holy Nazarius and Celsus, Gervase and Protase, was composed at Milan after the death of St. Ambrose and the Life of him compiled by Paulinus—a history which mixed unascertained conjectures with things certainly ascertained, concerning the time and authors of the Martyrdom of these same—was persuaded to me by the Writer of the Episcopal Lives, flourishing in the 6th century. And such a history may have served as a guide to Jerome collecting the Martyrology, or to another less learned than he, and supplementing him, as Bede was supplemented by Florus; alleged at the beginning of §4 of this Commentary.

[130] But since in that history were also named the parents of SS. Gervase and Protase, for which cause Valeria and Marcellus too were named together, Vitalis and Valeria the Martyrs—and indeed, since the occasion for professing the public faith was Ursicinus wavering under that lictor, confirmed in his purpose by Vitalis, and perhaps Marcellus added as a companion to one or the other (of whom elsewhere we have not yet read anything)—and since this day, the 19th of June, was almost empty of the names of Martyrs; it seemed good to add these too at the end in this manner: "Elsewhere, of Valeria, Marcellus, Vitalis, Ursicinus," according to the most ancient Epternach Copy. And since the name of Valeria had fallen out for the scribe writing it, in the other three copies it was noted in the first place; just as for the writers of these the particle "Elsewhere" had fallen out, altogether necessary, Vitalis and Ursicinus. lest they too should seem to have suffered at Rome together with the others preceding; of whom Valeria was believed to have died at Milan, from the beatings inflicted by the Pagans on her return, the two others were crowned with martyrdom at Ravenna. Augustinus Calcagninus, praised above, thinks that some old translation of St. Ursicinus is commemorated on this day; but that is plainly a gratuitous conjecture.