ON S. ALBANUS MART.
AT MAINZ IN GERMANY THE FIRST.
LIKEWISE ON THE HOLY MARTYRS ALBANUS BISHOP AND DOMINICUS HERMIT.
HONORED AT BURANO NEAR VENICE.
CENT. IV
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Albanus, Martyr at Mainz in Germany (S.)
Albanus Bishop, Martyr, honored at Burano near Venice (S.)
Dominicus Hermit, Martyr, honored at Burano near Venice (S.)
BHL Number: 0200, 0202
BY D. P.
§. I. Martyrdom, and homeland of S. Albanus of Mainz.
Blessed Rabanus Maurus, fourth after S. Boniface Archbishop of Mainz, ordained in year DCCCXLVII, In Rabanus's Martyrology, whose Acts Henschen illustrated IV February, already from year X of the same century, in which he undertook the magistery of the Fulda school, made then there Abbot in year DCCCXXVII, shone with various writings of books, of which of each a sufficiently accurate account is held with the ancients, nor is it difficult to know the age. Archbishop however, although in holding Councils and graver businesses involved, however he must not be believed entirely to have put aside the pen, nay rather thereafter something he wrote down as long as he lived, for the Fulda Abbey written, died in year DCCCLVI. In these could have been the Martyrology of Hrabanus, as in the Monastery of S. Gall among the Helvetians titled was found by Henry Canisius, and in tome 6 of ancient Lessons, he inserted. Because however no title at all is added to the name, rather I would believe it by him not yet Abbot to have been written, for the private use of the Fulda Brothers, whose various dispersal afterwards effected that the little work perished with them, but was preserved with the Sangallenses.
[2] These therefore I have premised: because in that Martyrology, so ancient (if the presumption is true) and to the Mainz diocese, only S. Albanus is referred to on this day; within which the Fulda Abbey is, so closely belonging, on XI Kal. of July only S. Albanus is named; and indeed with a more prolix, than generally most others elogium, conceived in these words: At Mainz the natalis of Albanus the Martyr, who under Theodosius the Emperor from the Island Namsia proceeding, with S. Theonestus and Ursus, came to Milan; and thence going out came to the Gauls: and remaining in the service of God, to martyrdom for the name of the Savior was ready. After however in the city of Augusta B. Ursus received Martyrdom, Theonestus with Albanus came to Mainz: and while there he was preaching the word of God, Albanus his disciple completed Martyrdom, and was buried next to the city. All the same words in the spurious from about five hundred years ago Bede (for the Genuine is vacant) are described thus, that Diocletian for Theodosius is named. And this deceived very many; that, not so in the spurious Bede although they scarcely doubted that it was an error, however that of Bede himself it was they believed, There follow there Albanus so prolixly praised, in the first place saint Rufus and Martia with a longer elogium: then the names of Romana and Demetria. Bolland, in his general Preface to the Acts of the Saints Cap. 4 §. 7, mentions another Martyrology, which the major of S. Maximinus he is wont to call, because from the codex of that monastery, before five hundred years
written out, was transcribed for us together with another smaller and older one; and that, although the name of the author is not added, in many things however is found similar to the Ms. Sangallense. or the Ms. of Trier, which is not of Rabanus. But there, neither first nor alone is Albanus read, nor with an elogium; but in the middle among four others in this manner: In Africa of Saturninus. At Caesarea the deposition of Eusebius the Bishop. At Mainz of S. Albanus the Martyr. In Sicily in the city, of Rufinus and Martia. Likewise in Africa, of Quiriacus and Apollinaris. Which since they are, as you see, far most dissimilar; badly that would be called of Rabanus; granted elsewhere the San-Maximianesian writer rather often and liberally used it. Why also not in this place? Perhaps because they seemed too little congruous with those things, which from Goswin's more prolix legend, then generally were believed about S. Albanus, although altogether unsystematic.
[3] We to all these things, with however much verbosity adorned, That we believe, from the island, perhaps Naxia, in nothing delay that we should embrace especially that more solid and more certain notice which Rabanus offers; in which however we grieve that by copyists the name of the place has been depraved, whence to Milan the Saints came. For Namsia or Nansia or Nausea no one knows; although we can presume from the affinity of name, that should be read Naxia island: (which is one of the Cyclades by the older called Naxus) whence Paul Bishop τῆς Ναξίων πόλεως of the city of the Naxians in the Council C. P. Act. 5 is found subscribed to Menna the Patriarch, bringing a sentence against the heretics. Whether S. Theonestus was a Bishop, what posterity wished, I dare not asseverate; as neither that his disciples Ursus and Albanus were Presbyters. under Theodosius Albanus came, He could without that character, an egregious man and notable in some ecclesiastical dignity among the Naxian Presbyters, for the cause of a business to be treated with Emperor Theodosius, have come to Milan, about year CCCLXXX or CCCXC, together with two Cleric disciples of his; and by the exhortation of S. Ambrose, fighting most strongly against the Arians, have been animated to a similar contest and directed into Gaul. In this attempt, when at Augusta Praetoria in Salassia S. Ursus had undergone martyrdom, of whom we treated I February, finally also came to Mainz Theonestus after the death of S. Maximus, from the Arian heretics many and most atrocious snares and persecutions having suffered for the orthodox faith, after the death of S. Maximus: and seven times from his Church driven out (as about him writes Megenfridus) plainly similar things Bishop Aureus sustained, and he himself sometimes for the same cause exile, as in the Commentary you read which about him we collected XVI June, Then truly Albanus, as younger, so also more spirited to provoke the heretics than Theonestus, from his master snatched the crown of martyrdom, on whose cause so solemnly by the citizens he is venerated.
[4] To this exposition to a hair agree the painting and verses, from the same can be believed verses, inscribed in the front of the chapel and house, in the street which is called of S. Peter at Mainz standing; and first indeed in German rhyme this sense is expressed.
Saint Albanus rested here, With head split he completed the contest.
In Latin verses then, assigning year of the Lord CCCCIV to the martyrdom of Albanus, and not from the style and age of Rabanus departing much, thus more fully is explained the whole matter.
After Christ born, and the human race redeemed, The world counting four hundred and four years, While Honorius holds the helm of Empire, of the city The scepter of Mainz Aureus the Prelate and exile bears, And Arius shakes the faith with dire schism; There came the Holy Albanus from far shores. and we ascribe the killing to year 404 and to the age of S. Aureus the Bishop. Who when of divine word he was steadfastly the seeds Sowing and of true faith convicting the enemies, Overwhelmed by an unfaithful, for Christ's name, throng, Here with head offered passed and rested; and himself He himself (O deed marvelous to all ages!) Embracing with his own palms by heavenly numen, Deserved and was able to carry it to the consecrated place: Now there as much of Head as of Body the bones rest.
[5] Here in the middle is depicted S. Albanus carrying his head with his hands; in that way namely, in which elsewhere often we have warned all Martyrs beheaded are painted: for such a custom gave occasion of supposing, that they truly with split head walked, and themselves brought it to the place of burial: which popular error there is no need to argue with more here: rather let the remaining verses be added, painted on the other side of the Saint.
Hence this piety of the ancestors once built For Albanus, decorating with a sacred altar a chapel: in the very Place where he is believed beheaded From these buildings hence the name ascribed to Hun. For according to the Histories, in Albanus's time suffered, Of the Huns, as broadly Germany extends, rages The nation, but then more cruelly in the field of Mainz. Therefore, Albanus, once a pious stranger to the Mainz, Now a citizen of the heavenly fatherland and coheir of Christ, We beseech, Patron, that you implore the Almighty.
From here had flowed the beginnings of the following verses, and only could the last hemistichia be read and renewed; not perhaps ineptly thus to be integrated,
May Otgarius live famous through ages by name, And under Prince Ludovicus the Lord, our Continually may he keep, bless, protect the buildings: And to these and to the whole people heavenly with himself After the end of life, may he give without end dwellings.
[6] So supplied the verses would signify, that they were written within year DCCCXXV, in which Rabanus's immediate predecessor Otgarius was moved to the Archiepiscopal Chair; placed at the Hen so called: and the year DCCCXL, in which Ludovicus Pius departed life. When however the place itself commonly was named ad Hun, that is, at the Hen (so namely in German today is written what for the variety of dialects in others Houn, Hin, Hen is expressed) it pleased to make an allusion to the Huns, depopulators of Germany and devastators of Mainz, and at the same time to indicate the martyrdom of S. Albanus not so much to have preceded the Martyrdom of S. Aureus the Bishop, perhaps however somewhat later suffered the Saint, in year CCCCLI (as we judge) killed under Attila. Nor is it foreign to likelihood, either that Aureus from the beginning almost of the IV century entered the Episcopate, and held it for fifty years, among the almost annual incursions of the barbarians; which finally with the destruction of the city received the end; or that in the last years of Honorius, about CCCCXX of Christ, Albanus with Theonestus first arrived at Mainz, in aid of the diocese, most gravely afflicted by the Arians.
[7] In the Life of S. Maximus, which Trithemius in the book on illustrious men compiled from Meginfred, when there a most disturbed state of the Church was: about the end of the X century the Fulda Chronologist, it is said that under the disturbances of the church, which there he enumerates, and of which a good part pertains to the times of Emperor Honorius, many thousands of Christians, on account of the confession of the Catholic faith, by the infidels and heretics at Mainz and in all its borders were cruelly killed: of whom with mortals no memory at all is had, on account of the malice of the impious and the lack of faithful writers. Nowhere sufficiently in cities and towns secure; when both the sword everywhere was raging of the Gentiles, the insanity and no less the perfidy of the heretics prevailed. For although the Church seemed to have peace from those who to the Roman Princes were subject, that to abnegate Christ now no one was compelled. The madness however of the Arians at that time so prevailed, that nothing or little it differed from the persecution of the gentiles. Finally the Franks, both Oriental, and those who at the mouth of the Rhine had been confederated Occidental Gothic also nations, and other Pagans frequent into Gaul movements and incursions making, Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Worms, Speyer, Strasbourg and other cities across the Rhine with too great cruelty often molested, sparing no rank, sex, or age.
[8] Such was, with S. Aureus holding the Episcopate, the appearance of things: which when finally to the extreme of the otherwise most powerful city, the destruction inflicted by Attila, were known to have fallen, all that multiplicity of inundating Pagans, however before Attila King of the Huns in year 251 devastated the city. began in the mouth of men, under the name of the Huns to come, and to be handed to posterity by the speech of the vulgar: so also the slayings of Albanus to the time of the same to be referred, although many years before the irruption of Attila perpetrated. Meanwhile here to be noted occurs, that since the Walls of the earlier Mainz, through the Huns overturned in a spacious flat place, more distant from the Rhine were founded, where now is the house of the lepers and the church of the Consecrated women of S. Mary, which is called the Holy-valley, as writes Sigehardus in the Acts of S. Aureus through words by us related num. 10, must be noted, I say, that from the old site the city flowed to that, in which Albanus is believed to have been killed, then a suburban place: whose body and head was brought then to the neighboring mountain, which anciently by the Gentiles was named the Mount of Mars, but from the Martyrs entombed there in great number, perhaps suffered in the age of Diocletian, the Mount of Martyrs began to be called, but now from the church and Abbey, there erected about the end of the VIII century, the Mount of S. Albanus is called.
ANNOTATED.
* otherwise Nausia
* whether continued?
§. II. Life by Goswin badly stitched together, about the year 1072, and published by Canisius.
[9] Nicholas Serarius our, in book 1 of Mainz affairs ch. 48 num. 4, In the XI century the Life is written by Goswin with the conjecture of Henry Canisius refuted, by which he the Acts of S. Albanus published by himself attributed to Sigehardus Monk of S. Alban, namely to him who is called Author of the Acts of Aureus and Justina, scriptures under year MCCXCVII manuscripts, he says, my best, clearly and designatedly the author of the Life pronounces Goswin, and prefixes two Prefaces of his… one to Sigefrid, Archbishop of Mainz; the other to Bardo, Abbot of S. Alban: whence is gathered first, that he wrote about year MLXXII, which and afterwards in that very year confirms the same Ms. Then, he seems indeed to have been a Monk, but not of the Monastery of S. Alban… For of Abbot Bardo and of the Monks' assembly committed to him so he speaks, as if neither were his… Nay even S. Alban, of Bardo indeed and his sodality the Patron he calls, not however his own. Finally the prior Preface so he begins, that in the Episcopal monastery a Brother himself he indicates with these words. Of S. Martin likely a Monk, Although to Christian Religion, from the profession of sacred Order, I owe, that to God and all his Saints Orthodox with humble devotion I serve; To you however, my most holy Father (he addresses Sigefrid the Archpresul) and to the Church, over which by Christ's authorship you preside, by a certain special law of servitude I add myself, and to the yoke of humility under your hand my mind's neck I incline… Thus he, with the aforecited Serarius, apt for a Canon perhaps, rather than a Monk, to signify, unless the same Serarius had taught us in ch. 18; That among all monasteries the first and pre-eminent was, what among the ancients the Episcopal, or the Major, or the Monastery of S. Martin was called, but today the Metropolitan college of Canons.
[10] The Prefaces themselves, not seen by Canisius, to bring forth
into light Serarius did not judge worth the trouble; for me however, who have them from the Mainz Chronicle, once communicated by Gamansius, it is necessary to delve into both at least so far, that may be established, with a double Preface. why and how the Author set out to write. And first indeed to the Bishop Lord Sigefrid the Archpresul, the humble Brother Goswin praying whatever commends a man to God more acceptably, after some other things proceeds thus; Seeing therefore Mainz, of S. Albanus the Martyr, to be illustrated and sustained by his patronage; nor indeed his life or virtues, except quite a few, to be contained in sacred codices; I asked diligently from the seniors of the place, what was the cause, I to Sigefrid the Archbishop. that a man of such great veneration, and Martyr of such great name, should lack the due tribute; and to the salvation of believers his Life with historical garment to those seeking should not lie open. Who when with simple truth they explained, that by the old destruction of the city, or rather by the laziness of the ancestors it had become obsolete; and many things of this kind, which on account of the mark of time must be passed over; began urgently to ask, that what they themselves through tomes scattered had read, or from the ancestors handed down had received, with care applied I should gather into one, and to the honor of the blessed Martyr and the salvation of readers in letters and memory should commit.
[11] I indeed, when small vein of ingenuity and slender spirit, to fill this trumpet of speaking, with due humility I was excusing; teaching whence he gathered the things to be written; at last by the request or rather command of the venerable Bardo Abbot of the same place, (of our Bardo the Great from year MXXXI to L Archbishop, as much in lineage near, as not dissimilar in sanctity; for he was his cousin) by his command, I say, I betook myself to the pen, and what by the white-haired faith of the seniors as authority I had learned, into one with the pen serving I gathered; not indeed leaning on my own strength, but in the Holy Spirit confident; not from the buskined haughtiness of swelling words presuming, but with the living water to be refreshed desiring by drink. Of great weight indeed seemed such a thing beyond strength to undertake; since I knew if to public ears it should come forth, I was to be noted by many: but again to constancy of soul strengthened the reverend grayness of the seniors, mature in years, flowering with swan-like head, with the authority of all altogether most worthy; which me refusing pressed, with the goad of obedience resisting drew, with the leash of charity bound saying there was no cause which would deter me so much from such things; since almost all history and chronicle more heard than seen narrates. So therefore judging it impious in such things not to believe; I held it ratified to obey the commanders, whence also a pedestrian prose I wove according to my ability history: in antiphons however and Responsoria I sprinkled the melody of harmonic sweetness.
[12] But if anyone should object that some things about Fasti and Chronicles are here inserted; and when the Martyr's contest and crown I ought to weave, and how; me rather to chronography or topography ostentatiously to study should laugh; let him recognize to erudite ears nothing such seems wonderful; since often the truth of things is wont to be gathered from the congruence of places and order of times. But if he should argue further pressing, that here some things otherwise than in certain historians are placed; let him know also the holy Evangelists, although they spoke one truth, which is Christ, however not in one way or the same order to have digested all, nor ever many writings of the same matter to have agreed in all words and sentences. Excusing then Goswin that taking the beginning from Christ himself, he seems to be ridiculous to propose to some, as one who — Begins the Trojan war from a twin egg; and deprecating lest perhaps noble Mainz be angered; and, that to ingenuity such a thing to be hammered out he did not leave, should reason; he asks also, that he himself be held as indigenous; and finally turned to his Archbishop; Now now Father, to you I return, he says; to you, on whom wholly I lean and look up. You to one staggering extend a right hand; correct errors, supply gaps, cut off ambitious things, conveniently said things Patron receive graciously: for whatever here is written shall be held for nothing made and unsaid, unless by your authority strengthened.
[13] Then truly to the Theoretical bearer of the Evangelical cross, Lord Bardo the Abbot, the same Brother Goswin praying in spirit to live, 2 to Bardo the Abbot. in spirit to walk also, up to the crown of glory; professes, that this divine Martyr, although he performed many things, by which the notice of so great a name always surviving lives; and so with signs of miracles spread himself everywhere, that until the end of the world by no oblivion to be obliterated he fears; nevertheless to his special merits even this reverence is owed, that the Life with the end of martyrdom committed to letters, to all posterity to immortal memory be extended… Polished therefore, he says, shall be written, if anything about so great a Martyr antiquity has narrated, if anything on the little scrolls of the faithful devotion has sprinkled, as much as then the inhumanity of the heretics suffered; that a certain Passion, although modest from then written it seems to indicate. There is praised with Trithemius in the Chronicle of Hirsau, Goswin collected his from old little scrolls about year of the Lord DCCCXCII Rupert the Monk most learned from every source, in Greek and Latin skilled, who presiding over the school of Monks at Mainz in the monastery of S. Albanus, left many monuments of his ingenuity to posterity: the Life also of S. Albanus he described metrically. If this is true, this too could Goswin have seen and followed. But I fear lest the name deceived Trithemius, and the author of that Life is another Rupert far younger, who rendered Goswin's context metrically in the XIII century or even later. This indeed for certain should be judged, if about that Life Trithemius treats, not however from the meters of Rupert, himself younger, from which, as in the prior century still by himself read, although by Serarius nowhere found, D. Latomus a certain with the same Serarius page 276, described these Leonine verses begun to be cultivated at most in the XII century:
Under such schism, from the Pontifical throne Driven cast out, Theonestus seeks Rome. Thence to the rich Mainz seat he comes… The renowned Albanus, proved in the virtue of faith, By expounding the faith, condemned the sects there.
[14] But whatever or whenever written things Goswin found, an unhappy historian, in connecting them he was quite an unhappy historian; when two Theonesti, and two Albani, in places quite far apart and most diverse times dead he conflated into the same person. For as for S. Theonestus master of Albanus of Mainz (in German called Sint-Thenaus) he is venerated on the day XX of October, and there likely by dry death died; perhaps also entombed in a chapel of his name, which, as Serarius teaches, in book 1 chapter 31 on the bank of the Rhine outside the walls below the castle of S. Martin was situated; and there went from the temple of S. Peter frequent procession, nay even the piety of the ancestors especially on the Paschal feasts, in imitation of the Emmaus disciples, whence also it was called Emaus, perhaps from a corrupted German name and badly divided as if Sint-Enaus it were said. Theonestus the Bishop however with the Companions Tabra and Tabratha, from Africa likely brought to Altinum in the March of Treviso in the time of the Vandal persecution, as also many others to various places of Italy, there with the same died; and with the city overturned by the Huns translated into the Cathedral edifice of Torcello, there is venerated XXII November. Similarly another from the Mainz Albanus, companion of neither Theonestus, and he Bishop, is held at Burano, which is one of the Venetian islands; on the same day however as the Mainz one he is venerated; on account of the defect of his own Acts. But about this Goswin seems to have known nothing, from the Altinensians however he seems to have borrowed Thabraham, and Thabratham, whom to Theonestus as his companions of peregrination he might join, and from Mainz departed together would make to be martyred at Altinum.
[15] Nor was he more happy in the distinction of places: for S. Ursus, of whom by my predecessors treated 1 February, and whom Rabanus says, topographer, from Milan into the Gauls wishing to cross, in the city of Augusta crowned with Martyrdom; Augusta Prætoria understanding, he himself transferred Augusta, the city of the first Rhætia, or Vindelicia. Which error recognizing the most learned Marcus Velserus, of Augustan affairs book 8 at year 425, I fear, he says, some of ours led by the error of the name (he could have said deceived by the writings of the Mainzese) of the Vindelician city to have wrongly interpreted, what pertains to the Praetorian of Salassia. For for Praetoria not obscure arguments are some. The consulted tables of the church of Burano… plainly have the city Augusta, which is situated at the foot of the mountain which is called of Jove. Then the wealthy author Antoninus in the Itinerary, describing the route from Milan to Mogontiacum, placed Augusta Prætoria in the place of the fifth mansion: then the most ancient at it monastery under the title of S. Ursus I hear survives. To us on the contrary neither does the reason of the route give suffrage, nor does our Church retain any memory of Ursus. Now further how foreign from likelihood is, that Theonestus, Bishop of Philippopolis in Macedonia (a city certainly inland and LXX P. M. removed from the shores of the Aegean sea) is said to have been sent into exile by the King of the Vandals dominating in Africa? Hence Serarius conjectures that Theonestus was the Hippensian, or Cipipensian, or also Hipponensian in Africa Bishop: which to be valid about him, whom in the time of the Vandal persecution under King Hunericus we believe to have arrived at Altinum; however does not lack its difficulty; for that, although Hippa and Cipipa Ptolomy names, and Hipponensian Bishop we know was Augustine, however to prove we are not able that those Cities were Episcopal, when Victor of Vita enumerated all the churches of Africa, whose Catholic Bishops in year CCCCLXXXVI gathered at Carthage, with the Arians about to dispute, with even the Sees named which then perhaps were vacant: that it would be necessary those three places, if all were Episcopal, to have had Arian Bishops; in that year and so Theonestus, if from any of them driven came, under Geisericus the father of Hunericus to have been driven many years before.
[16] But all the absurdity of the prior confusions surpasses the confusion of times, when sent into exile by Hunericus, persecuting Christian Bishops and Clerics in Africa from year CCCCLXXVI to CCCCLXXXV, and chronologist. he is said to have fled to Rome to S. Leo the Pope, who ruled the Church from year CCCCXL to CCCCLXI, and thence to S. Ambrose who died at least in year CCCXCVII. But soon to Sigismund King of the Burgundians the Catholic to have gone, who after year five hundred to this faith first betook himself; from this then to S. Paulinus of Trier, who according to S. Jerome in the Chronicle died in year XXI of Constantius, that is CCCLVIII year of Christ; so that an ambit of almost two hundred years of one Albanus, not very old or rather still young the life so explained should comprehend. We omit therefore these things so badly cohering, we omit also the compendium of that life, which from the Ms. Windbergensi consequently exhibits Canisius; where in the beginning, in place of the irruption of Hunericus, is written the name of the most pious King Honorius. Of the Persians and Medes and Vandals nation; by whose order while at Carthage a Synod was gathered, both of the Faithful and of the Arians, six hundred seventy Bishops
came together; among whom a very egregious man Theonestus, expelled from Philippi and deprived of his own see, for the contest of the faith of the undivided and holy Trinity, for the cause of peregrination came to Rome; although his name as has been said is nowhere found in the most accurate Catalogue of Victor of Vita, listing the names of all Catholic Bishops who there appeared.
§. III. The church and monastery of S. Albanus, and its fortune to the present age. The Relics of the Saint himself.
[17] After the restored city & Let us come finally at length to those things which after the death of S. Albanus, and the restoration of the city of Mainz, and the institution of the Archiepiscopate of Mainz done, with more certain testimony Goswin could know: and these are referred by him in these words. After that persecution, which in vengeance of this crime and heretical impiety, under Attila King of the Huns, by heavenly judgment made we have above related; when to the churches peace was restored, with the prayers of the Saints propitiating the wrath of divine animadversion; the tomb of S. Albanus began to be celebrated by miracles, with miracles growing more frequent at the tomb of S. Albanus and to be frequented by a great gathering of peoples: because they saw how the Lord glorified the Saint, and how He exalted His magnificence in him. For they saw there his prayers to flourish, virtues to flash, by his merits many benefits to be granted to those asking, to the sick health to be given. Everyone who came to him from whatever tribulation about to cry out, immediately with consolation obtained joyfully returned. They saw there the blind to be enlightened, the lame to be raised to solid steps, and the pains of all limbs to be recalled to pristine health. Hence the Christians, led by religion, as then there was abundance, over the sacred ash a Church of small mass they fabricate, dedicate the altar, commending themselves to his patronage, the coffin of the holy body before all venerating. Some progress of time elapsed, when now the city was entirely renewed, and the Christian religion both Catholicly and canonically to fullness restored; a little church is built over the same, the venerable Richolfus, from the Bishopric of the great Boniface third Archbishop of the holy Mainz See; as he saw the place of the egregious Martyr to flash with miracles, so this with fabrics and other divine cults he undertook to honor; founding first a basilica befitting so great a Martyr: of whose fabric the manner and structure, because it is ready for the eyes to see, which Richulf the Archbishop amplifying, and dowering, there is no need to weave into pages; and it is superfluous that by letters or reading it be depicted, by whose face or appearance every one entering is delighted. Over the sacred ash however a Mausoleum he erected, which clothing with gold, silver and gems, diligently on every side he decorated. He added besides also, for the cult of the sanctuary and for the ministry of the altar, golden and silver vessels, fit for sacred ministries; sacred vestments also, for divine Offices, as time dictates, suitable. to it he added a monastery. He constructed also there all the workshops of regular life, which he wished to be receptacles of the servants of God, in that place dwelling for the perpetual vigils of the Martyr; that by his suffragating merits, they may receive him into eternal tabernacles. He offered moreover to the holy Martyr, for the expenses of those serving God, estates and villas and tithes of the Churches which to his holy altar he confirmed by ratified stipulation, and bequeathed in written testaments with perpetual stability.
[19] That was dedicated in year 804 1 December Hence among the ruins of that edifice, a stone was found inscribed thus:
The humble Bishop Riculf founded this hall, Sacred indeed by the name of the Martyr Albanus: This also he ordered to be clothed with shining metal, With titles, with an altar, and with sacred adornment. The perpetual reward of whose labor O Christ, By the prayers of Albanus, I pray, render piously.
Next to it lay another stone for one describing this, denoting thus the time of the completed work.
This Church is consecrated in honor of the holy Savior our Lord Jesus Christ, on the Kalends of December in the year of his incarnation DCCCV, indiction XIII. Where the Dionysian year is noted, nine months anticipating January and is understood the year DCCCIV, beginning in September month to count the Indiction when the Dominical letter F shows the First Sunday of Advent, Sunday of Advent suitable to concur with such an act with the 1st day of the month. That however already before some at least little church was there, these verses testify with Serarius book 1 ch. 30; perhaps found with Latomus, from S. Albanus's metric Life of which above these namely:
The roofs of Martyr Albanus renewed Richolf, The humble Bishop, devoted by love of Christ, Adorning the altar with precious metals.
[20] Goswin further continues: The same venerable place therefore in such celebrity began to be held, that not only the Pontiffs of that royal city, thence many Archbishops buried there, but also the leaders of the kingdom, when they died, sought to be buried nowhere else. As an argument of faith within and around the Church on every side stand Mausoleums, designating by titles the name and day of death of each. Of these with Serarius are found Epitaphs, first of Richulf, page 616; then of the successor Haistulf, page 619; of Otgarius, page 623; of Rabanus page 651; of Carlus, page 654. Of the following Luitpert, although buried in the same place, either no Epitaph existed, or abolished it fell from memory: of Zunzo or Sonderild, in year DCCCXCI VI Kal. of July by the Normans at Worms martyred, and brought to S. Albanus, see the monument with the same Serarius, page 668. About Hatto's burial nothing is clear. After this the church received Hildebert, to whose praise Trithemius ascribes, likewise from year 935 the first X Bishops sainted, where about S. Maximus, that in year of the Lord's incarnation DCCCCXXXV, Indiction of the Romans VIII, on the day of the month of March fourteenth, the bones of ten Pontiffs of the Mainz Church (those namely who under the Romans ruled it) from the chapel of Divus Hilarius, with solemn procession of Clergy and People, to the church of the monastery of Divine Martyr Albanus he translated, and in the choir with the highest reverence placed. There follow further the Epitaphs of those buried in the same place, of Frederick, page 685; of William page 689; of Hatto II page 695, Rupert, Willigis, Erkenbold, Aribo, Bardo, Luidbold; and he finally, to whom Goswin inscribed his book, Sigefrid, elsewhere obtained burial.
[21] To mention the secular Princes buried there the Author judged superfluous, when for all others to the ornament of the place could suffice, also besides other Nobles Queen Fastradana, that, as he himself continues, That most powerful Charles, Magnus and orthodox Emperor, when Fastrada his wife at Frankfurt had died, ordered so noble a funeral to be brought to the monastery of S. Albanus, and in the Northern vestibule before the altar of the Apostles to be committed to the earth. The witness is the title of her monument on the wall of the same vestibule inscribed within the vault for whose soul's remedy certain estates Charles conferred to the holy Martyr, whence even today to the Brothers are administered allowances. This title now you never find; I believe because the vault suffered ruin, after the age of Goswin, perhaps in the XII or XIII century; when another Epitaph, and perhaps in another place substituted, for whose first Epitaph another placed still survives, in part Leonine verses (of which then the use first had begun) thus described.
Fastradana the pious, called the spouse of Charles, Beloved of Christ, lies covered under this marble. In the year seven hundred ninety-fourth: Which number to close in verse the muse refuses. The pious King what bore the Virgin, although here she rests, May her spirit be heir of the fatherland which knows no sad things. Α. AND Ω.
[22] And this there I believe so persisted until the year MDLIII, when that torch of Germany, after year 1553 translated to the Metropolitan; Albertus Brandenburgicus, in the month of August driven from Frankfurt which he had besieged, all into neighboring Mainz the venom of wrath and fury poured out; and having entered it with no one resisting, sacrilegiously spoiled the temples; the castle of S. Martin, which was the Archbishop's domicile, nefariously burned; and at the same time on day XXVII, the day before S. Bartholomew, the most noble temples of S. Albanus, of S. Victor, of S. Cross, and the Charterhouse, as Serarius says page 920. With him departed and the city received, then other perhaps more old monuments into the city brought from the mount of S. Albanus were; then that especially, what I said, of Fastrada's epitaph, in the chief edifice near the door at the Southern entrance over a column was placed; with this more recent Epigram added, witness of the deed.
The monuments of Fastradana which you behold, Were not first fixed in that place: But in the edifice sacred to Albanus, and near the slain Martyrs, on a clear summit of a hill it was. Now because that edifice perished by hostile flames, Moved from places by pious zeal are the monuments.
[23] What was done with the sacred bodies, although Serarius does not indicate, from those few Relics however which by sight and hearing known to himself he writes book 1. ch. 17 you may understand; most involved in the ruins of the place and consumed by flames perished. when also the Head of the saint was brought into the City; There in the first place is named the Head of S. Albanus, then other notable remains eleven are counted, all of illustrious Saints which Relics, when on account of wars and fires placed by the Lords of S. Albanus in the Parish church of S. Ignatius had been, were recently found (suppose under the end of the past or beginning of the current century; for in year 1604 his own published Serarius) by the very Reverend and Noble Lord, Capitular Canon of the high temple, Wolfgang of Hensenstein, with some other monuments of antiquity. Nor about the truth of that Head let anyone be moved a Namurcian writer, on the occasion that the Patron of that diocese also is S. Albanus, running through his history, where even now it is with the Canons of S. Albanus, and affirming, that in year MDXCIX of this S. Albanus he saw the head at Munich in the chapel of Duke Albert. For with the matter examined Serarius thinks page 276 that either he saw another sacred head, and the name to him either badly indicated the Mystagogue, not at Munich, or well indicated by memory escaped. For this, he says, at Mainz is kept by the Lords of S. Albanus themselves, and indeed now in the temple of the Preachers where they perform their sacred rites; which not only with eyes, but also with kisses to touch, and with hands to handle, although to one unworthy, has often been given. So he, calling them Lords, these had succeeded the Monks in year 1419 because as he had said before page 110, what before had been a monastery of Monks, until year MCCCCXIX, with the concession of Pontiff Martin migrated into the College of Canons: who, although the place is destroyed, still enjoy their revenues, and their divine cultus, with Psalmodies and the sacred liturgies of Masses, perform in the aforesaid temple of the Preachers.
[24] Of the Albanian temple, when Serarius was writing, only walls survived, that however, he says about some sanctuary there to be restored to hope it is permitted makes the Rev. and Noble Lord Dean Eberhard of Heusenstam piety, the church destroyed by heretics. and of the today's Archbishop John Swichard of Cromberg in the very year 1604 ordained, who before his election there was Provost, and of many others munificence. Nor was the hope vain
it was: for when in year MDCXXXI, Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden occupied the city, already then stood completed a notable Choir, and other sacred buildings, such as can be seen in Matthew Merian's Topography of Mainz of the year 1646; but enclosed in the ramparts of a new and primary citadel, built on the southern side of the city; from which time it is credible that much has departed from the religion of the place, on account of the moroseness of the garrison soldier observing the gates.
[25] Happier was the condition of another Albanian church at Namur. This, of origin so ancient that the beginning is unknown, Another of the same Saint is at Namur, when with frequent conversions of public affairs either had collapsed or threatened ruin; under Adalbert or Albert the Count, it rose again into a Canonical Collegiate; and within our parents' memory, under Philip II King of the Spains, was also made Cathedral, with a Bishopric instituted there. John Baptist Gramayus, in the History of Namur page 46, the second and better foundation describes thus. Count Albert, to Reginald Bishop of Liège (from year MXXV to MXXXVI) brought aid against Count Odo of Champagne; where while he rushes intrepid into the packed throngs of enemies, he is reported to have died. But hiding unknown among the corpses, in the 11th century made Collegiate, now Cathedral, with a vow conceived that he would restore the Martyr Albanus's edifice, unharmed to his own he returned. And bound by the vow, by the counsel especially of Frederick then Archdeacon of Liège, afterwards Pontiff (under the name of Pope Stephen IX) began to repair the temple; and in place of the Monks, to substitute Canons. Thus Gramayus, noting in the margin, that the work in year MXLVII began the aforesaid Count Albert; and completed MLV. To the labor of this and of Bishop Frederick Arnold Raissius imputes, in the Gazophylacium Belgicum, that from Mainz were obtained the Relics of S. Albanus: neither does he name the instrument of donation, by the same Raissius thus expressed: whose Canons established Fraternity with those of Mainz,
[26] William, by God's grace Abbot of S. Albanus at Mainz, and the whole Convent of the same place, to the dear in Christ Brothers Canons of S. Albanus of Namur, greeting, with the perpetuity of sincere and fraternal love. When there had come to us venerable men, the Dean and other your Canons; and through them we had understood, that your church in honor of the glorious Martyr Albanus, our Patron, is specially founded; with them about Relics of the said Martyr with humility asking, to their most just petition we have judged to assent with willing soul; and among the other Relics, that your church the more solemnly may be had in veneration, led by the sweetness of eternal fraternity, received a particle of the head: of the most precious Martyr's head a part to you, through the aforesaid men, we have transmitted; and fraternal sincerity, in body and soul, to be preserved with perpetual stability, we have ordained. Whence your Fraternity, for the salvation of your souls, in all ways we admonish and ask, that the Relics, which we transmit to you, with the fear of God and the reverence of men, and the Fraternity in the Lord ordained between us, without intermission you preserve. The Author of the Sanctuary of Namur, published in year 1619, nine years before the edition of the aforesaid Gazophylacium, begins his Epitome of the Saints male and female of the County of Namur from S. Albanus, and adds; is it a coxendix bone in our College there? Part of his cranium is held in the chief edifice, enclosed in a silver statue: about which I would not wish to doubt, since this does nothing against the truth of his Head, which still at Mainz is preserved: but when he subjoins, that of the same coxendix a sufficiently notable part has the Namur College of the Society of Jesus, then with me he will find credit, when similar letters of the Mainz Chapter donating it I shall have seen; otherwise I shall fear, lest from Rome or elsewhere some sacred bone brought under the name of S. Albanus the Martyr, be held for a bone of the same Albanus, of whose head only some part, and that perhaps quite exiguous is in the Cathedral.
§. IV. On the Holy Albanus the Bishop and Dominicus the Martyrs resting at Burano among the Venetians: and on another fictitious Albanus.
[27] When so celebrated was S. Albanus the Martyr at Mainz Which is the greatest head of the kingdom of the Franks to the people, The Life by Goswin written at Mainz as the Poet of the metric Life the author speaks, alleged from Latomus with Serarius; and now was held and widely divulged the Life, by Goswin adorned; it was easy, that whoever others found among themselves Albanus, or some Theonestus Martyr known only by name, to them applied that Legend received from Mainz. This especially did the people of Torcello, with the bodies of SS. Theonestus the Bishop, Tabra and Tabrata his Deacons received by them from Altinum, whom landed there from Africa and dead more as Confessors than as Martyrs, applied to the Patron of the Torcellans Theonestus and companions easily we conceive. That however the same from the Philippensians having gone out from the island Nausia, having visited Rome, and having saluted Ambrose at Milan, crossed the Gauls preaching, and came to King Rosimund, (a man perhaps made for them from Rosimunda, the wife of Alboin King of the Lombards in the VI century) I would not believe more, than that with the companions, Ursus the Cleric at Augusta, and Albanus the Co-bishop at Mainz lost, they themselves there at Mainz with much slaughter slain, in a perforated ship were sent… but by God's power, the little ship restored… came to Altinum as from the writings of the people of Torcello narrates Peter de Natalibus book 10 ch. 98: for that is equally absurd, for 23 Nov. as if you said the Alps were navigated; for what naval communication of Mainz, situated on the Rhine, can be conceived with Altinum, set on the shore of the Adriatic sea not far from Venice? The rest pertaining to that day of the Torcellan Patrons namely X Kal. of December, on which at Altinum with companions he is said to have suffered that Theonestus, we reserve to be weighed.
[28] In the same gulf of the sea Burano is, from the dominating city of the Venetians 5 m. p., but distant one from Altinum; and of the Buranensians S. Albanus the Bishop M. of which the Northern part looking it is said to have drawn its name thence, as if Boreanum. Hither, as Peter de Natalibus writes book 5 ch. 133, the bodies of two holy Martyrs Ursus and Albanus translated, there entombed are preserved: and there also lies the body of a third Martyr holy Dominicus the Monk: who although in their passion is not found specially named, by the inhabitants of the place however a companion of Albanus and Ursus is said to have been, and with the same for the name of Christ is believed crowned with martyrdom: and immediately Peter adds, The Passion of these Martyrs there is held XI Kal. of July, so that it may appear no other day is known there, than that on which at Mainz S. Albanus suffered, with companion S. Dominicus Hermit M. in another place altogether, year and day, than his companion Ursus. About reconciling such things nothing solicitous was Nicolas of Castro Taglia-petra (for so I interpret the surname, which he himself writes in Italian, da Ca Taja-piera) Primicerius of Torcello, who under the title of the Catholic Peregrinator in year 1630 published in Italian the Life of S. Albanus, the Bishop Martyr, whose body rests at Burano, in the Parochial church of S. Martin. He after he had as elegantly as he could patched together all the things above mentioned; only says that from the tradition of the ancestors is had, that the bodies of the three aforesaid Saints, within a great ark of solid stone, miraculously flowed there upon the waters; which ark is even there now preserved with its cover, together with a marble tablet within it found and so inscribed barbarously enough: Albani Episcopi, Dominicus Heremita, both in one hour were killed for the faith of Christ.
[29] as in the sepulchral tablet That these might appear more distinctly, I asked one of our Fathers of Venice John Baptist Romaniolus, that running to Burano, he delineate for us the tablet itself exactly and describe it whole; which with his own hand most diligently he did in this way. The same advised, that the marble was wholly white and smooth, except that the interior bottom was depressed below the extreme broader rim, as much as is needed, that from it extend equally two smaller tablets, on one of which is inscribed the name of Albanus, but in characters (which you may marvel) inverted, the other is left empty, the right side of the rim is somewhat darkened by age, as also the lower tablet at its extreme part on the right.
[30] With these well considered, the aforepraised Nicolas da Ca Taja-piera could have understood, that just as in the Acts of S. Albanus and Ursus, as if against all likelihood brought from Mainz. however depraved, with Peter de Natalibus himself testifying no mention is had of Dominicus, so in the tablet, placed by the holy bodies, no Ursus is named, nor anything at Burano is shown, which is properly his, or makes faith of more than two bodies: and so only therefore by the inexperienced inhabitants of Burano is Ursus joined to Albanus, so that the same may be believed to be he who is venerated at Mainz, although there as the highest he is venerated as a Presbyter, when the aforenoted title expressly calls Bishop, him who to Burano was brought. In such a manner as is asserted he truly to have been brought with Dominicus, scarcely will they persuade me, men leaning on so little solid tradition. Let the reader see what I have written XXVII May about S. Liberius, Patron of Ancona on the same Adriatic sea, whose body there is said, through fiction nonetheless absurd, to have been placed in an ark, fabricated by the four crowned Saints next to the Euphrates, and for that end through the sea miraculously borne to the Anconitan shore. As much as this deserves no credit, so much surpasses all likelihood that from Mainz to Burano flowed this stone ark, which with similar faith could have been said across the Alps to have flown through the air. If divining is to be done, I would have conjectured, under the Iconoclasts together suffered somewhere in Thrace, or Macedonia or Epirus, or such province of the Constantinopolitan Empire, Albanus the Bishop and Dominicus the Hermit, whose bodies somewhere found, just as also many others, the Venetians brought, when of that Empire the Latins were in possession: with these brought however that ark the people of Burano procured and placed in their Parish church, with then likewise sculpted in Latin a tablet, according to the notice in the place where they were first venerated, or from a similar Greek title casually received.
[31] The Church itself the same Nicolas says was rebuilt with new work, Their bodies there more decently in altars not less beautiful than sumptuous, if it be compared with the poverty of the inhabitants: whence neither does it have any certain revenues, but is preserved and adorned from mere alms, which there by the faithful vulgar in small but frequent are offered. Now however, he says, the Confraternity sodality, there in honor of the aforesaid Saints instituted, under the patronage of the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. Marcus Zeno Bishop of Torcello, who, by abundance of munificence supplying the defect of the poor people, took care to be built for the bones of the saint an altar, yielding to none of the surrounding churches, placed in this century. that nothing less of honor those have at Burano than at Torcello have the bodies of SS. Theonestus, Thabra, Thabrata, Heliodorus, Liberalis, and other Holy Martyrs and Confessors, placed in altars, Festive cultus, by the pious liberality of Anthony Grimani, before Bishop of Torcello and afterwards Patriarch of Aquileia, fabricated; within which the same his successor Marcus most festively translated them. The same
at Burano done I understand, from the Epistle of the aforepraised P. Romaniolus writing thus: The bodies of SS. Albanus and Dominicus (from the vulgar error is added also of Ursus) are preserved in a great chapel, erected at the Gospel horn of the major altar, in which also the feast is celebrated with solemn music; whose vigil by most is observed with fasting, with no precept compelling.
[32] A memorable case altogether in this very year MDCXCI happened. those leading dances under it punished, The youth of Burano was wont by old custom to spend a part of the feast afternoon in dances, to be led in the area open before the temple. This when to the new Parish priest of that place seemed incongruous, he asked the orator, who in the morning was about to speak to the sermon, sharply to rebuke that abuse, and in the name of the Parish priest to prohibit. There was present nevertheless after dinner the youth about to dance, with a throng of fiddlers. And behold a mast erected in the middle of the forum, above a most firm column, with the standard of the Community, suddenly fell, and by its fall crushed three persons; about to crush easily fifty, if in the customary number then had run to the spectacle the people. The matter however the more terrified all, likewise one who joked about S. Albanus because the very column, to which the mast had been fixed, through the middle split asunder, with the heavens entirely serene and without wind. This also year about the end of September, to the new foundations behind the church of our Professed House, applied a boat, brought from Burano, with some inhabitants of that place. These while during disembarking joke among themselves, one of them asked, whether Greek or Italian S. Albanus had been? And suddenly slipping into the waters, ceased to be seen: but the body long sought by fishermen, although the sea there scarcely the half stature of a man equals in its depth, nowhere appeared, that more certainly might be judged that revenge to have been divine. Thus far P. Romaniolus. Ferrari, in the General Catalogue of Saints lacking in the Roman Martyrology, Errors of Ferrari. writes thus: At Torcello of the Holy Martyrs Dominicus the Armenian Hermit (which his origin whence he received I do not divine) and of Ursus, companion of S. Albanus the Martyr; in the Notes however alleges the tables of the church of Torcello in which their bodies are had there translated. Meanwhile in neither Catalogue does he reckon among the Saints of Italy Albanus, with whom Dominicus is held at Burano is established: Ursus moreover neither there nor at Torcello, but at Augusta Praetoria.
[33] Now what about that other S. Albanus the Martyr shall we say, Another Albanus M. whom Peter Mersaeus Cratepolius, in the book on the Saints of Germany, arranged in alphabetical order, makes prior to that disciple of S. Theonestus, handing down his Legend in compendium? This one, says Serarius page 274, today altogether is unknown, and that good author whence he sculpted, I know not. He would have known, if he had had Peter's Catalogue: for there in book 1 ch. 16 he would have found a more prolix but very fabulous Legend. Because further the same Serarius says, that such, not in the monuments and schedules of the temple, killed near Mainz by Robbers, not in ritual books, not in printed or written-by-hand codices, not in men's speeches and any memories at Mainz is found; I cannot marvel enough, how about his there as publicly best-known cultus could feign the Author described by Peter, that, as where at the end is read, with the kingdom (of Hungary) left made Anchoret and pilgrim, near the city of Mainz, in a grove by pagan robbers found, while he said himself Christian, was slain; the body also was thrown into the river. Which by the course of the river brought to a mill, while the leprous daughter of a certain Soldier was bathing in the river, suddenly is cleansed from leprosy. who is said to be venerated 1 December. Which when admiring she bore into the city, many lepers coming, and dipping themselves in the river, were cleansed. And to all marveling, whence such virtue the water had asking, they found the body of the Martyr: and a box found suspended from his neck, and a Life enclosed therein read through, giving thanks to God carrying the body with honor to the city, venerably they buried it Kalends of December, where also it rests famous in miracles.
[34] So the Life described by Peter de Natalibus, in his work as we have it printed at Vicenza year 1945, is found with Peter de Natalibus, one and a half columns fills; and is only a compendium of another more prolix, which as found by themselves indicated Belleforestius and Balbinus ours; and Belleforestius indeed so long ago to Bolland, in a certain French Ms.; Balbinus however to me about year 1671, from a Ms. Codex in Bohemia, each with this beginning: There was once in the parts of the North a man powerful and noble; with such an ending: Give us therefore Lord the grace of compunction, the tolerance of labors, from Ms. Legendaries, the efficacy of repenting; that by the example of your servant Albanus, we may deserve with him to be washed from our crimes, and above snow in eternal glory to be made white. Amen. In the Bohemian Ms. is added moreover this Collect, as if to be recited at Mass or at the tomb. Grant, we beseech, omnipotent God, that tending to the heavenly promises, supported by the deprecation of B. Albanus your Martyr, we may be made heirs of your heavenly kingdoms. from which one Cistercian, Through Christ &c. These Acts are easily fourfold more prolix on both sides, than is Peter's context; nor do I know whether they themselves are not also taken from another much longer, such as the other Legend indicates, found by us in 1661 returning from Rome in a Cistercian Legendary codex tome 4, written at least three hundred years ago. It is greater than the prior, whether however its origin owes to that which in Bohemia and Gaul I have said is found, judge it yourself if you can, Reader, having seen the Cistercian Ms. Prologue of this kind. Peter professes the more verbose argument is contracted by him,
[35] It is wont to please faithful souls, to proclaim the merits of the Saints with worthy preconia; and there to fix the desire of devotion, where they can obtain the augmentation of sanctity. To us therefore that the study may be quiet, and silence attentive, the Life of Albanus is proposed to be pursued by whose examples instructed, and by whose protections animated our mind, neither of its own forces presume, nor of the clemency of the Redeemer presume dare. Which indeed by another, in our times notably eloquent, digested and with rhetorical laws known we knew distinguished; so that on account of the unaccustomed ornament of the scintillating tongue, the very brightness of eloquence was preferred to the dignity of the matter. Of this our journey however he shall deserve to exist as guide, who as if before my face seemed to have run before the surface of my narration; and from the abundance of his exuberant dictations, our augmentative subtraction shall supply the defect. For so the poor edition could not pollute, but flourish; if it has some origin on which it leans, of which by discussing it does not desert the truth. There followed then in style, sufficiently for the age elegant, the Passion of S. Albanus the Martyr deduced, with this beginning: There dwelt a certain Emperor in the parts of the North, as much elated by the lineage of nobility, as raised by the dignity of secular empire; to whom a wife not born of the lowest birth, joined by stable marriage, conspicuous by the decor of singular form, and what is more praiseworthy commended by the title of modesty.
[36] More to describe was not vacant or pleasing, since the whole matter seemed poetic, and at the end he adds for an Epitaph a metric Epitome. and imitating the fable of Oedipus and the substance already from elsewhere was had: I noted however for myself the conclusion with the Epitaph, in the place of the shorter compendium to come: where after the death and burial of Albanus noted thus the Author proceeds: Whose act and life because we have described, such, as if upon his marble tomb, an Epitaph we engrave:
From the incest of the father bearing herself a son to her daughter, To hide the crime, lest it be seen, she acts. He is borne to unknowns: he is exposed; thence at the bidding He is handed as prey found to the Hungarian Duke. He flourishes: is adopted: wishes to lead: is joined to him Mother, friend; daughter, bride, daughter-in-law. The King to the boy; the boy to the wife veiled reveals: Each believes, royal gifts gave faith. By these the elder vanquished returns to his senses: punishment is ordered, If Three are removed, which four-year * shall be. The journey is fulfilled, to the seer's enclosures returned. The night harms: into crime the matter repeated returns. The author of piety abhors the work of impiety, And the work of piety for piety he kills. Pertains to pardon the punishment of doubled labor: This work, this series our page contains. The peaceful, mild man the impious hand truncates. The spirit seeks the heights, the body in the river remains. One before, through her general leprosy is put to flight, The praise heaped on the tombs of virtues thrives. By these merits of life whitening Albanus in white, Passes to the whitened and whitens his own.
[37] I do not remember, whether in that Ms. nor do I know, whether in the two others is held noted Kalends of December, as with Peter. But neither is the matter worthy that it be investigated more laboriously. For whatever the whole narration is, where Albanus is said to have been adopted by the King of Hungary, it must be that it was first composed after the Hungarian kingdom was instituted and imbued with the Christian faith, which first under S. Stephen happened, at the end of the X century converted; and so not only after the age of Rabanus (whom therefore it is no wonder in his Martyrology, on the Kalends of December, about such Albanus to be silent) but also after the Life by Goswin written, who otherwise could not have omitted, that at least by passing he would have remembered some more recent Albanus, likewise a Martyr, and at Mainz venerated. The matter however in the XII century or later done, and celebrated with annual cult, how could it so entirely from the notice of the Mainzers have departed? Nor however if that other Albanus, either now had, or otherwise was proved to have had at Mainz a tomb and cult, founded on the true sanctity of some Hermit, killed there by robbers, whom God by a miraculous healing of lepers wished to be manifested; the parricides and incests fictitious are multiplied, not therefore, I say, would I think anything of truth lies under that Life which about him is circulated; but for reverence of the prior S. Albanus, I would believe, the name of Albanus to have been made for him otherwise unknown; the Life however, as is added, I would deny altogether, so by him to have been ordered written, as is pretended; and to have been found suspended from the neck with the body; and I would say, it pleased some idle fabulist to mock the credulity of the vulgar; example perhaps taken from the similar Acts of SS. Julian and Ursius, of which Henschen briefly treated on III May. Since the former of these, father and mother; the latter, father, wife, and son are said to have killed, otherwise inculpably led by error to the deed, which by long penance afterwards they expiated. But from the parents of these, as the disgrace was absent, so no true infamy thence is derived to the sons: but of this Albanus the progenitors, with twin and that voluntary incest are stained, and a graver calamity than that of Oedipus is feigned to have been: which I do not know to whom it could have pleased.
Annotated* that is seven-year