Lietbert

CONCERNING BLESSED LIETBERT,

BISHOP OF CAMBRAI AND ARRAS.

IN THE YEAR 1076.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the Life accurately written by Radulf, a contemporary, on his age, and his cult.

Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, in Belgium (Bl.)

AUTHOR G. H.

There flourished in the eleventh century of Christ Blessed Lietbert the Bishop, whose virtues and deeds Radulf, a Monk of the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre at Cambrai founded by him, described. The author might seem sufficiently contemporary, who at number 2 cites witnesses, The Life by the author Radulf the Monk still surviving in his own times, of the holy life of Gerard, his predecessor in the Bishopric; who nevertheless had died about twenty-six years before the death of Blessed Lietbert; and at number 33, treating of the Scythians raging in Pannonia, when the Bishop was about to pass through there, seeking Jerusalem, "they are circumcised," he says, "after the manner of the Saracens, as we saw from those of them who were slain." Moreover the deeds, exactly described, commend the fidelity of the author. But when at number 5 I read that the little church of the Holy Sepulchre built by Gerard, which his successor Lietbert

left intact… afterward, with the course of many times slipping by, Walther, Abbot of the same place, but interpolated in the 14th century, because it was falling down through excessive age, took pains to enlarge it by improving it; when, I say, I read these things, I am forced to think that I have it only interpolated by Radulf, who not only added certain opportune things, but amplified what had been written more simply by another with many trappings of words, and that perhaps in the 14th century; for we do not find, after the first Walther appointed Abbot by Lietbert himself, another of that name before the year 1283 and 1296, in which two others, separated by an intermediate John, presided over that Abbey, as we shall note below.

[2] We have thus copied that Life from the illustrious manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden, marked number 1419; it is given from the manuscript. and we have collated it not only with the edition of Luc d'Achery, who published it at the end of the 9th volume of the Spicilegium from a manuscript codex of the Holy Sepulchre, but without the Prologue, and in some places corrupted by later hands; but also with another most accurate copy, which the Reverend Father James Mascault, Rector of the College of Cambrai, sent in the year 1678, transcribed from an old codex, by the care and at the expense of the very Reverend Lord, Lord Bernard de la Haye, Abbot of the said monastery of the Holy Sepulchre. The Prologue, omitted by d'Achery, is there. The Author used, and presently cites, the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, drawn up by Baldric, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, but who did not carry it down to the death of Blessed Lietbert.

[3] Some marks of time are excellently noted, to which various Authors, not attending, and d'Achery himself, greatly erred, when they referred the death of the said Gerard, his predecessor, and the Bishopric conferred on Blessed Lietbert, Made Bishop in the year 1051, to the year 1048 or the following; whereas they ought to be referred to the year 1051, at which time Emperor Henry, son of Conrad, celebrated the feast of Easter, as is said at number 11, at Cologne. Let the accurate Writer of that time be witness, Hermann the Lame, who carried his Chronicle down to the year 1054. He at the said year 1051 writes these things: "The Emperor spent part of Lent at Nimeguen, but the Easter feast at Cologne, and there his son Henry was baptized by the Archbishop." Easter was then celebrated on the 31st day of March. And the said Bishop Gerard had departed from life, as all everywhere write, on the 14th day of March, then falling on the Thursday before Passion Sunday. But after his burial Lietbert the Archdeacon was then elected by the Clergy and people as Bishop, and soon with others went to the Emperor at Cologne, by whom on the very day of the Resurrection he was approved, and then first consecrated Priest, then Bishop. The said mark of the Bishopric undertaken in the year 1051 is confirmed at number 49, he consecrates the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in the year 1064, where the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre is said to have been consecrated in the year 1064, in the 14th year of the Pontificate of Lietbert, on the 28th or 25th of October, when already for six months he had entered the said 14th year of his Bishopric. The charter of the foundation of this monastery is extant in Miraeus, book 1 of the Belgic Diplomas, chapter 35, and in the Notice of the Churches of Belgium, chapter 93, with this clause: "This was done at Cambrai, in the same monastery of the Holy Sepulchre, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1064, in the 2nd Indiction, Henry reigning as King of the Lotharingians in his 12th year, but the 14th of the Bishopric of Lord Lietbert." Finally toward the end of the Life these things are read: "He was buried with glory and Pontifical honor in the 26th year of his Pontificate, on the 10th of the Kalends of July, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1076."

[4] He dies in the year 1076 on June 22 These things joined together altogether establish that he lived in the Pontificate from the month of April of the year 1051 until June 23 of the year 1076, when he migrated to the Lord: but on account of the burial given to him on the following day with solemn pomp, buried on the 23rd he is everywhere referred to this 23rd day, at which, in the illustrious manuscript Martyrology of the Cathedral Church of Arras, these words are added by a more recent hand: "The death of Lord Lietbert the Bishop"; that is, a memorial of the death of Lord Lietbert who died the day before, but was then buried. In d'Achery, from the codex of the Holy Sepulchre, these things are added at the end by later hands: "On the 10th of the Kalends of July died Lord Lietbert, 31st Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1076. On the 4th of the Kalends of October his Translation, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1271; from his death to his Translation, 135 years. From the first Translation to the second, 61 years: which took place on the 8th of the Ides of June": which are sufficiently perplexing. Molanus has an illustrious summary of the deeds in the Births of the Saints of Belgium, at this day June 23, where he honors him with the title of Blessed; and concerning that Translation he has more correctly: "On the 4th of the Kalends of October he was translated by Albric, Archbishop of Reims, in the year 1211," namely the first time, 135 years after his death, whence again, counting 61 years, up to the second translation, one comes to the above-noted year 1271. Toward the end Molanus observes these things, that, "Although in the monastery built by him he is honored as a holy Patron, his memorial in the Fasti. and among the people he has obtained the title of Saint on account of the merits of his life; yet on the day of his death and translation he has solemn Vigils of the dead, such as are held on the Kalends of November: and then his mausoleum is adorned with branches and herbs: and each day he is incensed at his tomb by the Deacon of the greater Mass." We have already several times observed, both elsewhere and this month at St. Norbert, that the continuation of a funeral office of this kind detracts nothing from the veneration which is given to such as Blessed or even Saints by the faithful people.

[5] And so in the Martyrology of Liège published in French in the year 1624, and in Baldwin Willot, Lietbert is honored with the title of Saint; but with that of Blessed in Ferrarius in the General Catalogue and Miraeus in the Belgic Fasti: who also in book 1 of the Belgic Diplomas, chapter 32, reports a privilege of immunity, and other things granted by him in the year 1064 to the monastery of Eename. The same Miraeus in chapter 36 indicates that, the secular Canons being removed, Regulars were substituted in the Cambrai monastery of St. Aubert in the year 1066: and in the Codex of Donations, chapter 49, he teaches that the Church of Brussels was given liberty by him: which can be seen more fully set forth in the same place.

LIFE

By the author Radulf, Monk of the Holy Sepulchre.

From the manuscript codex of Christina, Queen of Sweden, and another of that very place, and the edition of Luc d'Achery.

Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, in Belgium (Bl.)

BHL Number: 4929

BY THE AUTHOR RADULF. FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

The worship and stability of the Christian religion is without doubt constituted in this: to believe faithfully, by working, in the bountiful generosity of almighty God, and, by believing, sincerely to preach it. Of this religion that faith prevails most which, both on account of the precepts of universals, by which the authority of that religion is understood; and because its worship has emanated through all the ends of the world, is called Catholic or Universal. For to worship one God is the true worship: one principle of all things and the wisdom by which whatever soul is wise is wise, and the very gift by which whatever things are blessed are blessed. God Himself, since He is spirit—because God is a spirit making His Angels spirits; and since He is fire—because our God is a consuming fire, making His ministers a flame of fire, disposing in His own that the gifts of their endowments be glorified; inspires those who work, inflames those who preach; thus, therefore, with both walls of the heavenly Jerusalem joined together in one spirit, there comes to be one faith of minds and one piety of actions. But the merits of those who work, although they are hidden from our sight, insofar as the mercy of God is published; nevertheless when their toils and praises are recited, they are patterns of good hope to the minds of hearers. Moved by this consideration, and also by the charitable compulsion of our Brothers and Lords, we gird ourselves to hand down to the ears of our people the life of our Lord and Patron Lietbert, Bishop of the Church of Cambrai, the toils which he sweated for the same Church, and also the end of his present life; and to set the lamp of faith, kindled by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit, upon the Ecclesiastical candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in the house of God. In this work, then, of charity let not the bleary eyes of biting envy grow blind; let them not set the left hand of malice against a wrinkled brow, let them not ascribe the usefulness of the commonwealth to pride or arrogance: but in this and His other benefits let them bless the Lord at all times. Nor do we undertake this to disparage the writings of our Elders concerning the blessed man; but we strive to supply what was less said, and to restore it to its due order.

With the Father's breath, be present, O only one, with the Father: While it yields to Christ, be thou the measure of my song. Press the stake with thy heel; let the anchor draw a stable harbor; The apple becomes fragrant, if the South wind blows at its rising. With deceits removed by thee, O light and way, I seek To describe with a true pen the Acts of the Priest. Let the reader see the work; let him close the verses and clauses: Let the critic sustain the heel; wisdom praises.

THE OLD DIVISION OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE TITLE.

CHAPTER I.

His birth, education at the court of the Bishop, Prefecture of the school, Provostship of the Episcopate, Archdeaconry.

[1] Otto the younger sustained the imperial throne of the Roman Principate by his military arm; After the death of Emperor Otto III and re-reading the power of the ancient Kings, by the mobility of a youthful spirit he strove to become more powerful than all. But in order to fulfill what he meditated, he admitted to the Imperial councils the trafficking barbarism of the Romans, eager to glut their gluttony with gifts and benefits. But to the Palace dogs, as is wont, there came, from frequent assiduity, defiant insolence, and from excessive familiarity, contempt. So far did the madness of factions boil over, that the Emperor was driven from the city, not without the death of his own men. While he gathers in the camps of soldiers to avenge the injuries, St. Henry having obtained the Empire, while he surrounds himself with imperial forces, he dies; and with the grief and mourning of his people he is buried with royal honor in the church of Aachen. He being removed from the midst, Henry, son of Henry, Duke of the Bavarians, by the nod and prudence of God, by the counsel of the Lotharingians clad in the Royal purple, is marked with the Imperial arms. How prudently, how bravely, how peacefully, how catholically he ruled his Empire, the inscription of his name itself shows; through which he is entitled not only Augustus and Emperor, but moreover Orthodox and Peaceful. His enemies appeased without blood, he lived powerful for himself and his Empire; studying more for peace and piety than for warfare; serving more the Catholic and Apostolic religion than the fury of Mars.

[2] Amid these things, Erluin, Bishop of Cambrai, having died, the Lord Emperor himself, using the not-sluggish counsel of his men, gave his assent to the election made of Gerard, his Chaplain, born of not the lowest parents of the Lotharingians and the people of Carlu, Gerard is made Bishop of Cambrai. over the election of him as Bishop of Cambrai. How holily he, made Bishop, lived, how Canonically he ruled the Church committed to him; the men of sacred religion, still surviving in our times, are witnesses; the renewal and restoration of the houses of holy Mother Church is a witness; an index is the noble monastery of Florennes, in honor

of God and in memory of John the Baptist and Judge of Christ, constructed at his expense, and endowed with paternal inheritances; the See of Cambrai shows it, nobly adorned by his aid and zeal, and also exalted Pontifically at the head of the same See; the Church of Arras attests it, after the conflagration of a heavenly fire restored by the same Bishop better and more beautifully than it had been: the order of which matter, and of his other good deeds, we direct those wishing to know to the text of his life, and we shall sweat in the bundle we have taken up.

[3] Blessed Lietbert is born, The Christian world danced for joy, sustained by the arm of the peaceful King; Mother Church rejoiced, with all advancing from virtue to virtue by the harmonious justice of the Saints, under the evident song of the heavenly Bridegroom: "How beautiful are your steps in your sandals, daughter of the Prince!" In this solstice, then, of peace and tranquility, with the Kingdom well agreeing with the Priesthood, the radiance of an illustrious splendor shone forth in the province of Brabant. Cant. 7:1. A noble infant, of noble lineage; by the accustomed manner of Christianity, he is handed over to the Ecclesiastical sanctions; after holy Baptism, anointed with the unguent of Chrism, by divine presage he received the name Lietbert. And rightly: for he was about to free the people to be committed to him from the cunning jaws of the rabid enemy. So greatly did he study the liberty of the commonwealth, that to the image of Lietbert public liberty is ascribed. he applies himself to the studies of letters: When the boy was weaned, no disagreement arises: by the equal consent of each parent he is stamped with the elements of letters. And although the nobility of his birth resisted, and the manifold inheritance of maternal and paternal possessions sought a Soldier rather than a Clerk; a stronger one came upon the strong, who is able to plunder the vessels of the strong, and to unite them to His own most holy body. The teachable boy learns what he hears, and all the innermost things proclaim him a docile boy: his parents and kinsmen hear, he dwells with Bishop Gerard: and rejoice with him. Thus by favorable report it is suggested to the aforenamed Bishop Gerard, near to him by the kindred of the flesh. Soon the boy, sought after on hearing this, is transferred to be educated in the Pontifical hall; about to give a measure of wheat in his time to the household of his Lord: he is handed to Tutors under scholastic mastership, about to keep with pastoral care the flocks of the shorn ones, which came up from the washing. He is led with thirsty breast, running to the fountain of Philosophy, and drinking up the seven streams of threefold flavor, now he studies Logic, now he sweats at Physics, and, intent on these, he gives leisure to Ethics. With his masters searching, he penetrates the labyrinths of the Scriptures; and conferring with his colleagues, he gathers what is loosed, and of Scripture: and dissects what is folded together. He becomes a master from a disciple; and he who had come to be taught, teaches, by the judgment of the teachers. It is recited to the Bishop by the masters concerning the young man's industry, his character, his knowledge, his pure religion.

[4] By the command of the Lord Bishop, and the assent of all his faithful, he is set over all the scholars, by prudent dispensation; that in this it might be proved whether he would persevere in devout character. He took up the lordship of the scholastic mastership: but lest he should seem to cast off the studious weight of anxious labor, against the hope of some, with dove-like eyes he rejoices in the office. The well-modest gravity of the imperial master enters the palaces of the schools: he is set over the schools as Doctor at whose sight the gazes of all look up with pale lips. They wait intent, what he wishes, what he hints, what or to whom he commands. Study burns, each one snatches a place for himself: manifold questions of various lessons are pressed in. The most prudent Doctor prepares answers for all to all things: there was present indeed knowledge of which the mixing-bowl was rounded, never lacking cups. Thus tempering affably the manifold sense of his most skilled heart, he diligently instructs those whom he had taken up to be educated; diligently, I say, having been led into the chamber of the King, he slept, like a mighty man overcome by wine, in the midst of the lots, the feathers of the dove silvered over, whose hinder parts of the back are in the greenness of gold, namely among the mysteries of both Testaments. Ps. 77:65, Ps. 67:14 For keeping the discipline of gentile letters, the illustrious charm of gleaming eloquence, he retained within the sacred cabinet of his learned heart, by the testimony of the divine Scriptures, the golden brightness of heavenly doctrine. Happy and prudent knowledge, which then grew accustomed in the studies of the schools, which afterward was to declaim among the peoples: and that it may be said more plainly: after the mastership of scholastic study was completed, he was exchanged in Royal honor, raised up to the heavenly ministry of the highest Priesthood. By the report of messengers passing back and forth it is pleasantly recounted to the Bishop what our Arch-scholar does; how he conducts himself: his unspeakable knowledge is preached; his praiseworthy doctrine, his unsluggish solicitude, his pure and immaculate religion. The Bishop marvels and exults, and praising the munificence of God, his suppliant prayers heard, he prays for better things.

[5] then Provost of the palace, But since the age of so great an old man daily inclined toward decrepitude, taking precaution against what is wont in that age, namely to dispose of one's affairs less providently; he deliberates with prudent counsel to set over his household members the one of whose praise he gloried. The deliberations are fulfilled, he is drawn away from the schools, and among the Palatine Nobles is exalted as Procurator of the Pontifical house. Happy court, to be sustained by so great a procurator: but happier household, to be governed by so prudent a provider. The Doctor of boys becomes the Consul of peoples: and he who shook the rattling rods amid the songs of poets, discerns concerning the civil complaints of manifold cases, the ordinary rights of judicial laws. The blessing of the one about to perish came upon him; and he consoled the heart of the widow: he broke the jaws of the unjust, and snatched the prey from his teeth. And what you may marvel at the more, he shook off his hand from every bribe.

[6] He was now living the third age of men; nor was it shameful to him, lest preaching the truth he should seem insolent or talkative, from whose mouth speech flowed sweeter than honey: and at last made Archdeacon for to the illustrious greatness of his mind a more abundant learning had been added, and that melodiousness in his voice altogether shone. Holy Mother Church, perceiving so great a liberty of the generous procurator, sighs for the son whom she had nourished, now withdrawn from her; and complaining that the keeper had been set over the public vineyards, she demands that an Archdeacon, which she lacked, be ordained for her, that he might also keep her own vineyard. The Bishop, now long since weary with growing old age, fears envy; and with tears poured out over this matter he runs back to the Ark of the heavenly oracle. At last, with the cloud of divine counsel appearing, he receives the answer that not absurdly does holy church demand back her son. There comes a notable dissension, a memorable divorce. The courtiers by military power retain their Provost; the Clergy and people by Catholic right manfully extort from them an Archdeacon. The virtues of the man being weighed long and long, counsel taken, by the nod of God he is judged worthy to be exalted, not only to the lordship of the Provostship, but moreover to be distinguished with the office of the Archdeaconry. And because divine clemency and wisdom had exalted him with virtues, the Bishop thought it convenient to magnify him, conferring the Archdeaconry with the ministry of the Provostship.

[7] He so used the honors he had received, that he was judged more worthy of enjoying greater ones. Mother Church receives not a prodigal son, hungering for the husks of swine; he administers all things holily and religiously: but our Simon, son of the sevenfold dove, after the eating of serpents and creeping things entering Caesarea and the house of Cornelius, namely satisfying the holy Church with the food of the word of God. Acts 11. You would see in one man Mary and Martha, now busying himself about frequent ministry, now at the feet of Jesus with tears and attentive prayers, beating his heart and breast, suppliantly prostrate. Now with Jacob in the field he was afflicted by the contrary tempests of the air; now returning home he divided the curds of milk and the honeycombs to the children. Now sitting in the ship he was pressed by the marine waves of various tempests; now led into the wine-cellar, through the love of God extending himself into the love of his neighbor, he exercised the fruits of holy charity. Behold our Solomon, son of the true David, wisely administers the temple of the Lord: in whose construction neither axe nor hammer sounds. Behold the true Moses, drawn out from the sacred waves, and set in the house of Pharaoh, girded with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, he passes from gate to gate to destroy and to root out, to build and to plant.

NOTES OF G. H.

The monastery of Florennes, situated in the borders of the territory of Liège, a league and a half from Philippeville, a town of Hainaut, of the double monastery constructed there, the one of St. Gangulph, the other of St. John, Baldric treats in book 3, chapter 18, and we set forth some things at the Life of St. Gangulph on May 11.

CHAPTER II.

The old age and death of Bishop Gerard. The election of Blessed Lietbert, the consent of Emperor Henry II to him.

[8] With the course of time slipping by, with the years of Bishop Gerard inclining to their setting, there remained a fourth cause of old age, He helps the Bishop in his old age which most seems to distress and make anxious that age; namely the approach of death, which certainly cannot be far from old age. But Lietbert, the magnificent Levite, the solicitous provider of the Pontifical court, whom he had exalted with honors, wisely helped him in all things. There was at that time Walter, Castellan of Cambrai, who, on account of the excessive pride of his arrogance and the unspeakable insolence of his power, against the hostile attacks of Walter the Castellan, was slain by his enemies and perished, and left surviving a single son with his wife. Which wife indeed, named Ermentrude, did not cease from the madness of her husband; but wandering through all the worse things, she surpassed the malices of her husband: and because she could not fulfill by herself what she desired, for her son was a boy, she joined to herself in marriage a certain tyrant named John, Advocate of Arras, and made him guardian of herself and of her son; and of John the Advocate, but that son soon died, according to what is written: "The generation of the impious shall perish": but John busied himself, in whatever way he could, after the death of his stepson to transfer the Castellanship to himself, which no law permitted. Prov. 10:28 There stood in the way moreover the most wise Rector, upon whom no deceit could creep. Whence, with causes feigned, John contracted enmities against him

he accused him, and even revealed to very many that he would bring death upon him. But since the just man trusts as a lion, the standard-bearer of Mother Church made little of the counsels of malignity; striving to fulfill in deed what he bore in his name, the trophy of liberty.

[9] Meanwhile the Bishop fell sick, and with the trouble of decrepit age was distressed by the illness of an acute fever, so that he could not go out of his house unless carried out by the hands of another; nor dispose of anything that would be useful for himself or for the commonwealth. But Lord Lietbert, the liberty of his country, could not be assiduous with him; since he stayed at the New Castle, appointed to his keeping. he guards the New Castle: There the soldier of Christ guarded the convenient neighborhoods of the whole province, on account of the plunderings of incursive robbers: of whose help in defense both his own and strangers, both near and far, gloried. If in any way any incursive enemy had entered the set borders of that province, on hearing the virtues and name of the man, at once turning back, like a traveler at the sight of a serpent, he fled, and hastening, betook himself into safe hiding-places. He was the support of peace, the safety of the province; a foot to the lame, light to the blind, the defense of the poor, the hope of widows, the protection of orphans, the fear of the enemy, and the arms of his own. For he used neither a sally, nor spears from afar, nor swords at close quarters: but counsel, reason, judgment. And although the will of all hung upon his nod; yet he preferred to all the command of the Lord Bishop: whom he often revisited, and the dregs of pains and infirmities, and the disturbances of cases, he sweetened with the honeyed refreshments of his consolations. For as wise old men delight in young men endowed with a good disposition, and lighter is the old age of those who are cherished and loved from their youth; so young men rejoice in the precepts of old men, by which they are led to the studies of virtues.

[10] With the time of his calling coming on, Bishop Gerard dies; yet John remains in the city, ungranted the Castellanship. After the death of Gerard Furthermore, the Bishop being buried, with the reverence which befitted and with honor; the church of Cambrai came together in one, about to elect with equal consent that Lord Lietbert be advanced to the honor of the Pontificate. Him therefore the Clergy and people seek with all efforts as Pastor, whom they had felt to be a pious protector against enemies. They know that he does not yield to ravening wolves, whom they had known not to have yielded to the arms of John and Walter and the other tyrants. Therefore with equal consent, with like counsel, with harmonious voice, with equal consent he is demanded as Bishop, they demand that a Bishop be ordained for them; whom, full of piety and mercy, they had hitherto had as Archdeacon. For it was just that where he had devoutly served as a soldier, there he should obtain the summit of promotion. But with him refusing, and at the same time wisely opposing the manifold dangers of human frailty; he is seized, dragged, and exalted high on the Pontifical throne, worthy by his merits, acclaimed by all. The generous Archdeacon, overcome now by prayers, now by reason, not without tears, yielded to the vows of those praying. There comes a celebrated joy, with the bells likewise sounding in harmony, all praising the mercy of the divine regard: nor did they make little of having obtained what they had sought: for they deservedly gave thanks who, after God, gloried in the election of a good Pastor. For they had known the virtues and justice of the man not by popular report, he is led to the Pontifical hall. but had felt them, as said more often, in their necessities, by experience. With hymn-sounding praises he is led to the Pontifical hall, and with hands stretched out all pledge him their fidelity.

[11] After these things they approach King Henry; namely the newly Elected Lord Lietbert, to Emperor Henry, the Provost and Archdeacon, and the other Archdeacons, with the Nobles of the Church of Cambrai, announcing the tearful event of their destitution, and the deposition (passing) of their Bishop. For in those days he was keeping watch at Cologne over the observances of Lent, awaiting the Lord's day of the Resurrection, about to consult there the noble counsel of his Palatines. Hearing of the death of so great a man, he piously grieved with him, because he was lovable to all: and he began to inquire diligently who could be established in his place. But since the venerable day was coming on, that which received its name from "Preparation" (Good Friday), the Lord Emperor deferred to consult the opinion of his Nobles on this matter. To whom indeed, anxious in this matter, it was suggested by the people of Cambrai that Lietbert, Provost of the same city of Cambrai, who was already long since his Chaplain, whom he had proved most faithful to himself and often necessary to that city, had been chosen by all to rule the Church of Cambrai. Yet this same thing, lest, on account of the recollection of his sins, the sacraments of the Lord's passion and of the Christian religion, his election having been heard, and the veneration of the Lord's sufferings, the votive silences should seem to be cut off, he meanwhile kept silent, until the day of the most sacred Resurrection should dawn. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are His judgments and unsearchable His ways! O the illustrious knowledge of the divine dispensation: O the venerable grace of the catholic faith: O how joyful, how fitting it is, that on that day, by Royal and also Imperial generosity, the magnificent Levite Lietbert should obtain the Royal prerogative of the Pontifical election; on the very feast of Easter confirming. on which the King of Kings, Christ, returning victorious from the lower regions, with the devil triumphed over, freed His own creation! O prudent presage! O celebrated day! on which the liberator of souls and Savior of all bestowed on Lietbert the Levite the generous advancement of the Pontificate. Now the holy morning was entering the windows,

And the Phoebean lamp, putting night to flight, was scattering its rays over the world, Driving away the darkness of Hecate, when the King, sleep being driven off, calls his chamberlains, and orders the Imperial seat to be prepared for him. The legates of the Church of Cambrai being summoned, the King opened to them the opinion of his will; namely that he, together with them, chose Lietbert the Provost as Bishop of the Church of Cambrai. On hearing the name of the man, with their eyes raised to heaven, all praised God and the King, and gladly assented to the Royal will.

[12] With all assenting to this Imperial counsel, one of the legates began with murmuring to resist, namely the Archdeacon Guo, who, as he was averse in name, so was discordant also in judgment. Yet this was proved, that he did it for two causes, by the faction of the aforenamed John, or because he aspired to this honor. But since proved virtue reproaches the foolish, soon, asked by the Lord Emperor, he openly confessed him most worthy of a greater and higher honor, whom he was murmuring against as not fit for this. For when he was asked openly and privately Guo the adversary too soon approving, what of contradiction and slander he knew in the man of God; he answered, under the oath of truth and faith, that he neither knew nor had known anything that could stand against him. Moreover he protests him a Deacon without reprehension, a Judge adorned with character, well Catholic, a most wise provider for the house of God; he confirmed him wholly without spot, whom the grace of God had imbued: he greatly affirmed the excellent virtues of the man, his constancy of mind, his unsluggish solicitude, his assiduity of fasts and vigils, his devotion of prayers and tears. At these things the Lord Emperor paused a little, and raising his royal countenance, at last thus opened his mouth.

Re-reading the many deeds of holy men, We know Martin worthy of the summit of virtues: Then well praised, then Defensor believes him reproved. The Bishop a Defender, an unsound critic of all things, A like judgment of a like deed of compact. The same law of fraud if not equal the glory of praise. Whence, through these bounds which the present age has conferred, With the Pontifical summit, with the enemy testifying what is so, Unless he be defrauded, in my judgment he is held worthy.

The cry of those praising God who governs all things, and confirming the judgment of the Lord King, goes to heaven.

[13] Our Lord Lietbert was elected on the holy day of Easter by the Emperor and all the Palatine Princes, and praised and testified to by all his own. and the Te Deum sung by the Emperor and Palatines. You would see the whole Palace filled with joy and exultation, the Emperor himself even beginning, "Te Deum laudamus" (We praise Thee, O God), all following to the church with the jubilation of this hymn: and Mother Church solemnized the day crowned by the Resurrection and victory of Christ: and applauded the celebrated election of Lord Lietbert, especially in the prerogative of the Imperial election. This was done at Cologne in the Imperial Palace, confirmed in the church of the Prince of the Apostles and heavenly Key-bearer. Thus, with Guo and all the rest assenting, Henry II, Emperor of the Romans, gave the city of Cambrai with all its appendages to Lord Lietbert. So, the Dismissal received and all suitable things fulfilled, he hastened to return to his city.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER III.

His Sacerdotal consecration, then Episcopal.

[14] With rumor running ahead, it is announced to John what had been done: [On account of the church and hall of the Bishop violently occupied by John the Advocate] for which cause, exceedingly terrified, he reckons long and long what need be done. Afterward, with his men gathered in one, he reveals the secret of his mind; affirming that he would offer no entrance into the city to Lord Lietbert, unless he first chose to give him the Castellanship, which he coveted. With such counsel he violently invaded the Mother Church of our Lady St. Mary; and, the Clerks being cast out, he subjected the treasures of the Church, and whatever he found within, to his own dominion, and placed his armed soldiers therein: he proudly entered the Pontifical hall, leading his wife into the Bishop's chamber, had his bed made ready in the Pontifical bed, and ordered ministering to himself and his satellites from the expenses of the Bishop. While these things were being done, the new Lord approaches the city, to whom John, meeting him with a prepared army, Lietbert remains at the New Castle, closed the gates, and repulsed him far from entry. And so, turning aside to the New Castle, he is received with honor and joy by his own, and there stayed for some time.

[15] Baldwin, Count of Flanders, returning from the King of the Franks, found him there; and made glad by his lordship, brought him with him as far as the city of Cambrai. As they approached, it is announced to John; who, soon slipping away in flight, he is led to the city by the Count of Flanders: granted free entrance to the coming Lord. The Prince of his country, therefore, cheered, soon to be consecrated Bishop, both for the grace of the Emperor obtained, and for the conquered pride of the rabid John, busied himself in every way to exalt the city of Cambrai. The citizens therefore

who had been reduced to poverty by the oppression of long sedition, quickened by the sweetness of peace, rose again as if from the pit of death. And by the solicitude and zeal of the new Prince, in the city of Cambrai and all around in all its appendages, mercy and truth met each other, and tasted the kisses of peace. All things were opened and unbarred: neither thief was found nor robber, nor any one doing injury who inflicts harm on anyone. The Clerks in the Churches, filled with abundance, rendered praises to God; the laymen, in all peace, gathered their victuals. Ps. 143:18 They called the people blessed for whom these things are, indeed the Lord more blessed, through whom such supports of peace sprang up. Thus, with God the governor of affairs disposing the beginnings of the Principate of our Lord and Patron, the people of the city and suburbs, made cheerful by the support of peace and religion, rejoiced.

[16] Over the Metropolis of Reims presided Guido the Prelate, a man indeed conspicuous, and among his compatriots illustrious in all things. To him, to the Metropolitan of Reims approving the election since it was of his right, the aforenamed election is suggested by suitable persons, and his authority of corroboration is suppliantly implored: the epistolary assent of the Bishops of the province is added, and the day of consecration of the elected Bishop is asked by all. The Lord Metropolitan, having heard of so religious and so celebrated an election, and the virtues of the man considered, also himself praises the munificence of God. Then, the day and place fixed, a letter is directed, which would paternally move Lietbert the Levite, not only to ascend the rank of the Priesthood, but rather to ascend to the Prelacy of governance. Companions and supplies are prepared; the labor of the journey is undertaken, lest he seem to go against the commands either of God or of the Metropolitan. They pass by Saint-Quentin, and mark out the lodging of the first night at Laon. Laon receives the Levite rejoicing, and rightly cherishes him by the right of hospitality: soon about to go forth with hymns and praises, with canonical worship and religion, to the Bishop returning home.

The dawn, leaving the saffron couch of Tithonus, was driving away night; it brought light and rays, when, with his companions roused, the morning journey is undertaken, and is directed toward the city of Reims. After it was come there, he sets out: and it is announced to the Lord Metropolitan that the Archdeacon of Cambrai is present with his men; they are admitted, as soon as possible they bow to his knees, are raised to kisses; all most courteously re-greeting one another in turn, the causes of his coming are told: which soon are corroborated by metropolitan authority, the rest following the same. But because he could not undergo so great affairs alone, it is discussed among them who should advance the Archdeacon to the honor of the Priesthood.

[17] At Châlons the Bishop Roger dispensed the food of life to the household of Christ, a man of venerable life, and magnificent in the gift of character: at Châlons he is ordained Priest by the Bishop. to him he is sent to be promoted to the summit of the Priesthood, and to be taught to offer the life-giving libation of the most sacred Body and Blood of Christ. On the appointed day, the Levite to be advanced proceeds to the church, sacred by the relics and name of the holy Protomartyr and Levite Stephen. Having entered, with eyes cast down, suppliant with his whole body, he prays God with the whole affection of his mind, that he may be worthily promoted to God by the merits and intervention of the holy Martyr. The Bishop also proceeds, wreathed with Pontifical fillets, decently introduced by the companies of the holy orders. With scrutinies made in the Canonical manner, the persons and names of those to be ordained are presented: among whom and before whom Lord Lietbert the Levite, the rest are consecrated in their places and proper turns, until it is come to the order of the Priesthood. And when, at the Pontifical imposition of hands, it was said during the ordination to the new Priest, "Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall remit are remitted to them"; he trembled, and showed the disposition of his mind by the expression of his countenance. John 20:22 His generous face grew white with the purity of his mind: his eyes flowing with familiar tears bedew the insignia of the Sacerdotal vestments with which he was clothed with blessed dew.

[18] Having discharged the office of the Priesthood, for which he had come, he retraces his journey; and seeking again the Lord Archbishop, he awaits on the next day the Pontificate of the highest Priesthood: the new Priest prolongs vigils and fasting unto the morrow.

The next dawn, rising, the shadows put to flight, Was illuminating the world which Phoebus circles. When the Lord Metropolitan, the melody of the matutinal hymns being run through, he is consecrated Bishop by the Archbishop and Bishops, orders a session to be held; and the Bishops of the diocese being summoned, treats of the consecration of the Bishop of Cambrai. All feeling the same thing, they go to the church: the sacristans are summoned, the utensils are set out: with the bells sounding in harmony there is a frequent assembly. The Metropolitan proceeds, wreathed with fillets: the Bishops follow, with a crowd of peoples thronging. When it is come to that part of the divine Office that it was said by the Precentor, "Come to him and be enlightened"; the signal given, the Bishop to be consecrated is introduced; he is placed before God; he is presented to the Bishop; the election is recited, attested by all. Ps. 33:6 There comes a concourse of peoples, there comes a din of joys. All, stretching their hands to heaven, prayed: for there was the pious expectation of the mingled multitude and of the Priest to be consecrated set in prayer. And all these indeed invoked the Lord, that this consecration might be confirmed; but the Metropolitan with the whole affection of his mind uttered the prayers of supplications. To this consecration the grace of the Holy Spirit openly bears witness: for when the codex of the holy Gospels was opened, there was found what it says: "This is my son, in whom I am well pleased, anointed with the oil of gladness and exultation": and wreathed with the Pontifical garments, he is moreover given the Bishopric of Cambrai. The blessing completed, the new Bishop enters to celebrate the most sacred solemnities of the Masses.

[19] King Henry ruled the kingdom of the Franks, and at the same time the Queen of the Franks is crowned, a man vigorous in arms, and worthy of the kingdom which he held: who, flourishing in youthful age, had as yet undergone the marriage of no union; but the nobility of the Franks was preparing for him the daughter of the King of the Russian nation. Hearing that the consecration of the Bishop of Cambrai was to be, since he had long preferred to see the man, he was present, also about to conduct the cause of his own business: he asked that the Bride who was being prepared for him be blessed in the same assembly, and likewise be distinguished with a Royal consecration. At this Royal consecration our Lord Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai, was present and presided.

[20] To the King of the Franks is joined a carnal Bride; with an unequal comparison on both sides. to Lord Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai, the Royal and Sacerdotal Chamberlain, the holy Church is committed. But this union, the holier, the better. The former procreates a carnal offspring, the latter generates a holy progeny of adoption; the former of corruption, the latter of virginity. For thus says the Apostle: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present a chaste Virgin to Christ." 2 Cor. 11:2 The former bears children in pain, the latter, singing, makes them be reborn of water and the Holy Spirit. To the King of the Franks is led the daughter of an earthly King; to our Lord Bishop Lietbert is committed the Bride of Christ, the King of Kings.

[21] All being accomplished, both by his own blessing and by the Royal consecration, St. Lietbert is received at Laon he retraces the journey by which he had come, turning aside at Laon for the sake of lodging; with messengers running ahead, they hear him coming, all rejoice. The city exults, the church is crowned in the ecclesiastical manner; all go forth to meet him; received, they lead him to the church; they enjoy his blessing, which they prefer to all gold and precious stone, with the utmost devotion.

[22] Fame flies with swift course; with favorable rumor. It is announced to the people of Cambrai that their Bishop comes with the glory of his blessing. and with the greatest joy at Cambrai; All are cheered, young men and Virgins; old men with the younger: and every age, both sexes, dances with as much joy as it can. That day is present, holier than every day, on which Cambrai deserved to obtain Lietbert the Bishop to preside over it. Happy that day, on which the Church of Cambrai received a Bishop, who offered himself to all as a form and example of justice and truth. Happy, I say, the day, on which Lietbert the public liberty possesses Cambrai, about to free the people committed to him from the arrogance of the proud and the rage of tyrants. O happy feast; and joy of the feast-day! on which dead nobility revives, captive liberty returns to liberty. This day I would call a jubilee year, since to each his rights are restored. Then the magnificent possessor, entering his city, and received with honor and reverence, goes to the church, with a great crowd of his sheep thronging.

[23] What prayers he there poured forth, what tears he shed, what sighs he drew with purity of heart, in the church he pours forth prayers: the spirit which searches all things is witness. He prayed so full of the grace of God, that he turned the eyes of all upon himself, and moved their hearts to the affection of devotion and the grace of compunction: you would think the Publican standing afar off, and beating his breast, nor raising his eyes to heaven; you would say Peter with John, in the Beautiful Gate raising the steps of the lame man, or in Joppa raising up Tabitha.

[24] The prayer completed, turning to the bystanders, he spoke a few words for the occasion: and with a brief exhortation he rouses his people, "I exhort you, men and my neighbors, and I exhort myself with you, that we run with as much speed as we can to that to which God exhorts us through wisdom. Let us not love the world, since all things are the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the age. For those who love more to go than to return are to be sent into farther places: since they are flesh, and a spirit walking and not returning. But he who uses well even those five senses of the body, for believing and preaching the works of God, and for nourishing His charity either by action or by knowledge, for pacifying his nature, and for knowing God, enters into the joy of his Lord. Therefore the talent which is taken from the one who uses it badly is given to him who used the five talents well: not because the keenness of intelligence can be transferred: but it was thus signified that the negligent and impious clever ones can lose this, and the diligent and pious, though slower in wit, can attain to it. For it was not given to him who had received two (for he too has this, who already lives well both in action and in knowledge), but to him who had received five. For he does not yet have it for contemplating eternal things, who believes only in visible, that is, temporal things, but he can have it, who praises God the artificer of all these sensible things, and is persuaded of Him by faith, and beholds Him by hope, and seeks Him by charity. Those, then, who use so great a good of the mind badly, to them will be given the outer darkness. And this I judge to signify, that their hands and feet are bound, that is, all ease of working is taken away: for this will be accomplished in them after this life, what in this life they love more. But if we agree with the adversary, while we are with him on the way; the grace of God will free us from the body of this death, through Jesus Christ our Lord." and with a blessing he dismisses them. Having recreated them with this and a like and holier admonition, and sanctified them with the Pontifical blessing, he dismisses them to their own homes.

His excellent character thenceforth, and the labors of his flesh, We shall promptly tell; the Lord and life willing.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER IV.

His holy life in the Bishopric. Preparations for the journey to Jerusalem.

[25] Established in the Pontifical See, of what kind and how great he lived, it is indeed not of our power to write; but of Him who gives abundantly, and when He has given does not reproach. Of His gratuitous gift to him, how much He bestowed, we shall tell: and how much the series of our elders has touched upon in their Annals. We shall recite, I say, not as is fitting but according to our power, the works of the Bishop; partly worked secretly with his intimates, and some, that the young maidens may run in the odor of his unguents, mercifully poured out. We paint the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: from which hang a thousand shields, all the armor of the strong, against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness; against the spiritual wickedness set in the heavenly places in Lebanon, and it looks toward Damascus; discerning between good and evil, lest, not knowing himself, he should go out and depart after the footsteps of the flocks, feeding the kids beside the tents of the shepherds. Lietbert addicted to no vices, The Bishop, studious of the divine law and an example to his own, lived thus, that he abstained from immoderate care and adornment of the body, from the empty business of games, from the torpor of sleep and sloth, from emulation, detraction, envy, and even from immoderate desire of praise itself: but the love of money he believed to be the most certain poison of all his hope. He did nothing weakly, nothing rashly. But in the sins of his own people he either drove away anger altogether, or so bridled it that it was like anger driven off. He greatly observed, lest, when he punished, he do too much; when he pardoned, too little. He punished nothing which did not avail toward better; he indulged nothing which would turn to worse. He thought those his Lords over whom power had been given to him: whom he so served that he was ashamed to lord it; so lorded it that it delighted them to serve. In the sins of others he was not troublesome to the unwilling. He avoided enmities most cautiously, bore them most equanimously, ended them most quickly. In every dealing and intercourse with men, he diligently kept that common proverb: "Do to no one what you do not wish to suffer." In every place and time he either had friends or strove to have them. He complied with the worthy, even those not seeking this; the proud he cared less for, he himself was by no means proud, he lived aptly and fittingly, he worshipped God, thought of, sought God, by faith, hope, charity. Placed in this virtue of mind, he diligently desired tranquility and a sure course of his own study and of all who lived with him, and for himself and all whom he could, a good mind, a peaceful life. Thus a new man, and inward, and heavenly; he turned out perfect in every virtue having for his portion, not by years but by progress, certain distinct spiritual ages of his own; he leaned upon the highest and unchangeable law by the steps of reason: and shining forth into a perfect man, and apt and fit to sustain and break all the persecutions of the world, he lived peaceful, in the riches and abundance of ineffable wisdom; invited to the forgetfulness of temporal life, and passing into the perfect form, which is made to the image and likeness of God. Ascending by these steps of justice temperately to the throne of prudence, he clung strongly to God; not that he might merit some good from Him besides, but to whom nothing else than to cling to God Himself was good. This man, as long as he was in this life, used friends, to repay grace; used enemies, for patience; used whom he could, for beneficence; used all, for benevolence. And although he did not love temporal things, yet he rightly used temporal things, and for their lot he consulted for all, if he could not equally for all. Wherefore if he addressed some of his intimates more readily than any other, he did not love him more, but had toward him greater confidence, and a more open door of time: for he treated those given over to time so much the better, the less he himself was bound to time. Finally in all his offices, he was not broken by labors, by the sure expectation of future rest. And since liberty delighted him, which he preferred in name and deed, he desired to be free from the love of mutable things.

[26] And therefore, laying aside every weight and the sin that surrounds him; through patience he ran the contest set before him, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith; who, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered outside the gate. He considered how mercifully the human race was provided for, wholly intent on meditating and imitating the works and sufferings of Christ; when the Son of God Himself, consubstantial with the Father, deigned to take up the whole man, and dwelt among us. For thus He demonstrated to the carnal, and to those not able to behold the truth with the mind, and given over to the bodily senses, how exalted a place human nature has among creatures: which He could also have done in some ethereal body, tempered to the toleration of our gazes, but He appeared to men in a true man: for that very nature was to be taken up which was also to be freed. And lest any sex should think itself despised by its Creator, He took up a man, born of a woman. He did nothing by force, but all by persuading, admonishing. He reconciled our faith to God by miracles; He who was like to man in suffering: Speaking to the crowds, by his doctrine He appeared God; by his ages, man. The peoples, satellites of pleasures, sought riches; He chose to be poor; they gaped after honor and commands; He refused to be made King; they shuddered at insults, He sustained every kind of insults; they thought injuries intolerable—what greater injury than to be condemned, just and innocent? They abhorred the pains of the body, He was tortured with scourges and thorns; they thought the cross an ignominious kind of death, He was crucified; they feared to die, He was punished with death. All the things which we desired to avoid, deviating from the zeal of truth, He cast down by enduring them: for no sin can be committed except while those things are sought which He despised; or those things are fled which He sustained. And so His whole life on earth, through the man whom He deigned to take up, was a discipline of morals.

[27] Well pricked with compunction by these and the other benefits, the Bishop worthy of God, that he might obey the Apostle saying, "Let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach; for we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come"; conceived with the whole affection of his mind the desire of going to Jerusalem. Heb. 13:13 But not for the sake of seeing the stones of the towers or the summits of the houses: he conceives the desire of going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem: but of embracing and kissing the footsteps trodden by the feet of Jesus. For he believed it would be blessed to see the narrowness of the manger, to adore in his mind with the shepherds the wailing child; in the church of Golgotha to celebrate the Sacraments of the blessed passion, crucifixion, and death; with the blessed women to weep the death of Christ at the sepulchre, and to wash away within the enclosure of the sepulchre with tears his own faults and those of his own, on the Mount of Olives to wish to follow Christ ascending above the heavens with Mary the mother of Jesus and the blessed Apostles, with the inmost affection of his heart. But that he might do this prudently, he meditated how he might leave either the city or the Church committed to him tranquil and peaceful, and provide for the whole country a suitable champion and defender.

[28] At that time, John, Advocate of Arras, having slipped away in flight, as has been said; the Bishop, taking precaution for the future, and fearing lest either John himself, he makes the boy Hugh Castellan under the guardianship of Ansell, or any tyrant like him, should enter the aforesaid Castellanship, from which the same John had been cast out, either by force or by cunning, and afterward a just heir, seeking it back, should make tumults from it; summoned Hugh, nephew of Walter the Castellan, who was the next heir: and granted him the Castellanship. And because this Hugh was still a boy, but had a certain kinsman, Ansell by name, excellent in character and arms, he appoints the boy to his keeping: whom that Ansell, until the appointed time, ruled faithfully and excellently with the whole Castellanship. John, deprived of the Castellanship, and presuming to do nothing of evil against the Bishop on that account (for he had been forbidden by Baldwin, Count of the Flemings, whose liege soldier he was), left him and betook himself to Emperor Henry. There were at that time the greatest rivalries and enmities between the Emperor and the aforesaid Count. The series of which matter, since it is more fully described in the Pontifical Deeds, we omit, and direct our pen to carrying out the Bishop's journey.

[29] Thus, Ansell being constituted procurator and champion of the country of Cambrai, the Bishop, trusting in his fidelity and diligence, others vainly dissuading the journey, he is constant in his purpose gradually laid aside his own and his people's affairs in public matters, and with the whole effort of his mind procured the expenses of the conceived journey. Meanwhile he busied himself greatly that it might be kept hidden. He knew that if it were found out, it would beyond all doubt be contradicted. Eccl. 12:12 But, as Scripture says, "Frequent meditation is the affliction of the flesh": his lowered look, his lean face, the assiduity of his vigils, his frequent solicitude, betrayed what he wished to conceal. At last, assembled familiarly by his own, he opens the secret of his heart, seeks counsel. All are dismayed in mind, very many dissuade, the manifold dangers of the causes are set forth; the intervention of death, the desolation of the country, together with the destitution of the Church committed to him. Those whose mind was sounder, considering more deeply the Pontifical purpose, fear to contradict; fearing from this to undergo the displeasure of God or of their Lord, the Lord Bishop protesting: "I will render to God my vows, which my lips have distinguished"; not without weeping all alike assent. Ps. 60:9

[30] The counsel confirmed, companions are leagued together, among whom and before whom these whose names we subjoin: he chooses companions for the journey. Lord Walcher, Archdeacon and Provost of the court; Hugh the Chaplain, whose holiness the cloisters of the Canons of the Mother Church show, the monastery of Anchin shows; Erlebold, Judge and Procurator of the city; and another Erlebold, surnamed the Red, whom, what kind of man he was, the Church of the Holy Cross proclaims. But of these two, namely Lord Walcher and the Judge Erlebold, of how great goodness they were and what kind of cooperators and helpers of the Lord Bishop, we shall tell in their place, if God wills.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER V.

The journey to Jerusalem; and the return from Syria with the effort frustrated; health restored by the Mother of God to Count Fulcher, who was dying.

[31] In the one thousand fifty-fourth year of the Lord's Incarnation, In the year 1054 Lietbert sets out with three thousand the permission both of the Clergy and the people scarcely obtained, the liberty of his country, the ornament of the Church, the Bishop Lietbert worthy of God, sets out from his city of Cambrai, holding his journey toward Jerusalem. There follows him for nearly three miles, not without tears and immense groans, every age of both sexes. Passing by cities and towns, the regions and provinces of cities, the difficult passes of mountains, the dangers of forests; he crosses the country barbarous in culture, character, and language, which the Huns inhabit. And, to gain the shortcut of the longer road, the Danube being forded, he penetrates Pannonia, illustrious by the blessed nativity of St. Martin.

[32] It is announced to the King that certain men had come from the outer parts, in a pilgrim's habit, wishing to pass through the borders of his kingdom: whom he soon ordered to be summoned and presented to him. he is kindly received by the King of Hungary: And so the King, seeing the Bishop, by the nod of God his former mind changed, rises quickly from his throne; and most courteously, having saluted him, invites him into his consistory. He asks the causes of the journey: he marvels at what he hears. He marvels that such and so great a man has undergone the burden of so difficult a labor. But since in those days scarcely anyone, or almost no one, undertook this journey; he thought lest they were pretending it for the sake of some other business: whence, his men being secretly called, he orders them to be diligently watched step by step, lest they should contrive anything sinister. The religious holiness of the Bishop being explored over some days, and at the same time his most generous liberality in the stipends of the poor being heard of, his assiduity in vigils, prayers, fasts: the devout King bestows his service, and what the Bishop asked for himself and his men he willingly grants help: for now under his fellowship so great and so manifold a throng of people had come together, that it was called the army of the Lord. Thus, a guide given as far as the farthest borders of his kingdom, by the procuring mercy of God, he allowed him to depart safe.

[33] Having passed the frontier borders of the Pannonians, he enters the woody solitudes, which they call the deserts of Bulgaria, and which the robbers of the Scythian nation inhabit. These, living after the manner of wild beasts, are coerced by no laws, contained in no cities. They remain under the open sky, having entered the solitude, they have for seats whatever places night has forced upon them: they besiege those passing by, kill those they meet, plunder the rest: they go in flocks, carrying all their things with them with all their furniture, their little ones and wives. Named of no heresy, by the sect of no religion are they held in divine worship: yet, as we saw from those of them who were slain, they are circumcised after the manner of the Saracens: barbarians, cruel, murderers; without affection, without piety. his companions terrified by fear of the barbarians The Bishop, entering these deadly solitudes with that company of his, met certain men fleeing back, and tearfully telling the cause of their flight. Very many are terrified, and likewise meditate to go back with those fleeing. They related that they had run into bands of robbers; that very many of their men had fallen; that the rest, wounded almost to death (as could be seen), had scarcely escaped. All are disturbed, and tearfully implore the mercy of the divine regard; he encourages them; since they know not what need be done. The Lord Bishop, having heard the tearful lamentation of the disturbed multitude (for he followed behind on foot, alone, that he might more attentively give leisure to psalms and prayers), stood still, and inquires why they lamented. The case known, he put on himself the sign of the holy Cross: and with his right hand raised, he made the sign toward the part by which he was about to go. Afterward, recollecting with himself the words of the Psalm with which he was praying, he found this verse: "Deliver me from those who work iniquity, and save me from men of blood." Thus the soldier of Christ advances a little, and briefly addresses all who were present: "My fellow-soldiers, let not your adversary the devil terrify you, who goes about as a lion, seeking whom he may devour: resist him, strong in faith; for if God be for us, who is against us? Ps. 58:3 Wherefore put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand and to be perfect in all things: for your God tests you, that He may know if you love Him: but He will make with the temptation also a way out, that you may be able to bear it. Hastening, hasten the journey which you have undertaken: for no one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God." Thus the soldier of Christ, with his familiar and domestic company, goes as prince, and exhorts the army of God not to fear. For ten days and more they traverse those solitudes: through which (as has been said) the Saracens always wander here and there with uncertain seats.

[34] And when now on the seventh day they believed they had escaped the danger, himself burning with the desire of martyrdom; they suddenly see riders of horses and camels, robbers, among the thickets of the forests, with crested and filleted heads: and with half-naked body trailing cloaks, and broad boots. From their shoulders hung quivers, and they carried loose bows and long spears. At the sight of these the rest are terrified: but the Lord Bishop becomes more cheerful, hoping to seize the prize for which he had undergone the labor of so great a course. This was in his prayers, this he zealously prayed with the whole love of his mind, that he might be slain by these; or be led captive into outer and barbarous nations, on account of the name of Christ, to be sold. He set before himself, with the affection of a devout mind, the Savior sold by a happy exchange for the redemption of the human race; and that, to destroy the rights of death, He had undergone the passion of the life-giving Cross. and he passes through their midst unharmed. Whence, greatly preferring to be a partaker of the martyrdom and chalice of Christ, and to communicate in the sufferings of Christ, that he might rejoice in the revelation of His glory, he said: "In me, O God, are your vows: which praises I shall render to you." But He who rules the world in equity, attending to the prayers of the Church of Cambrai, by which it laid before Him day and night its Bishop: in this so great peril of death preserved him unharmed with all his men. You would see at the coming of the Bishop the wretches grow stiff, and fail in their attempts, and—what you may marvel at more—in a manner show the way to those passing by, by yielding place. In this manner the Bishop worthy of God, with his companions, passed through the deadly region and the dwellings of the robbers unharmed.

[35] Having entered Dalmatia, and the places traversed in which once Diocletian, by building baths, had inflicted various tortures of death upon the Martyrs of Christ, He visits the body of St. Demetrius: he bends his course toward Isauria. Passing which, he comes to Corinth, and there hearing that the body of St. Demetrius, illustrious among the Martyrs, rests, he sought his tomb, and with the whole affection of his mind seeks divine help by his merits. Thence advancing, when he came to Laodicea of Syria, finding that the Church of the Lord's Sepulchre had been violently barred shut, the Christians having been cast out, by the King of the Babylonians, and that the road was utterly closed off by land through fear of the Pagans, he made delays in the same city for three months. He stays at Laodicea for three months, But with the rest despairing of the journey, and scattered everywhere; he himself, with his noble and familiar company, persisted; and because he could not go by land, he committed himself to a sea journey. The shores being viewed, and the masters of ships diligently inquired about, the number of prices is reckoned, victuals are conveyed, lest, when the signal was given, any delay should be made in going.

[36] While he awaits a fit time for sailing, one of the companions, namely Lord Fulcher, anxious on account of the illness of Fulcher, fell into bed. And when the languor was increased from day to day, and the time of sailing came on, the Lord Bishop was shaken by the greatest waves of thoughts. He was distressed whether he should defer the navigation, or await the crisis of his sick and faithful companion. With the languor growing, the time of navigation flowed in, and fear with desire tormented the mind of the Bishop: fear, lest his most faithful companion should die in his absence; desire, lest the time of the begun journey should be cut off. With the Bishop placed in this anguish of mind, the health of the sick man is despaired of by the physicians, and by the touch of the veins, by the small sign of the pulse, the future death of his long suffering is announced. The time was present, and the master of the ship was preparing the rigging of the navigation, and announced beforehand the time and hour of departure. Each one was summoned: great was the tumult of those snatching for themselves their destined stations. What should the soldier of Christ do, should he desert his companion, or defer the navigation? The Almighty did not bear that he should be further disturbed, whom He saw devoutly serving Him. He put in his mind counsel, He who stretched out His hand to the sinking Peter. He restored to his memory the answer which He once gave to one wishing to bury his father: "Let the dead bury their dead." Matt. 8:23 Strengthened by this voice of the Savior, he conquered by the love of God the necessity of the flesh. He revisits the sick man, and as if drawing his last breath in a dead body: whom, addressing now by voice, now by nods, in whatever way he could, he asked leave to depart. But the sick man, although he was now being handed over to another world, whom, as if dying, he commends to God and SS. Mary and Andrew, recognizing the voices and sobs of the Bishop, his spirit resumed, opened his eyes: and understanding with great difficulty the words of the speaker, likewise he too asks leave to depart, as one who was withdrawing from the world. Whom the venerable Bishop, with the greatest laments and the whole affection of his mind commending to God, committed to the holy Apostle Andrew and to the merits and prayers of the glorious Queen Mary, the Mother of God. Nor is it a wonder that he laid the one whom he loved more familiarly with those whom, before all others, he more attentively cherished. After this, as if bidding a last farewell, and giving each other the kiss of peace, the Lord Bishop proceeded to go, the sick man remaining there. Who, although despaired of by the physicians, abandoned by his companions, was now believed to be dying; yet, recreated by the blessing of the Bishop, refreshed by his tears, breathed a little; and with the vigor of his mind, in whatever way he could, drew the air of his voice. Thereupon, recollecting with himself the words by which the Bishop had committed him to the holy Apostle Andrew, and by which he had implored the holy Mother of God for him; drawing the inmost sighs of his heart, with tears springing up he said, as he himself afterward testified: "O holy Andrew, to whose protection my Lord Lietbert the Bishop committed me, and whose memory he cherishes in the monastery which is situated at the New Castle, if you are truly that comely Andrew, the manly Apostle of Christ, the friend of God, whom the Lord loved in the odor of sweetness; succor, hasten, have mercy; and dipping your finger in the oil of the mercy of the Mother of God, our Lady St. Mary, by your prayers sustain my failing soul, help it as it labors; succor, friend of God, by the Sacrament of Christ your master. Now I die, and what I cannot do by myself; ask the Mother of piety, that she may help me; not by my merits, to which the penalty of death is owed; but by the tears and prayers of him who committed me to you."

[37] That night the Bishop spent sleepless, commending himself and his men to God, and with his accustomed groans and suppliant vows he prolonged the life of his dying friend. And now the fourth watch of the night was approaching, when, with the others who were in the house in which the sick man lay being asleep, whom, terrified by demons it seemed to him, as if half-waking, that he had fallen asleep. And behold, he sees two spirits of demons standing before him, carrying an iron trident, flame-vomiting, as if drawn out from a furnace of fire: which, as the same man related, they called the sting of death: for they said that they had brought it for this, that they might fix it in his heart, and thus cast out his soul. What fear that was, O God! what pain, what anguish!

The sick man labored, labored and was failing. He watched the blows of those threatening to strike, and was utterly dissolved. Sobbing he was dissolved, and amid his sobs he only sounded forth: "Holy Virgin of Virgins, Mother of Jesus, holy Andrew."

[38] In this so great and so terrible crisis of tribulation, amid the mists and shadows of death, the appearing ones recreate him: flashing from heaven, the Star of the sea, the Mother of piety, and, if it is right to say so, the Piety of piety, illuminates the place with her most holy presence; by whose prayer the piety of God spares the faults of those praying. There is present, I say, the Hope of the wretched, the Salvation of the weak, the Joy of the worshippers of Christ, perchance the Lament of the demons; carrying in her right hand, with which she wrapped Christ in swaddling clothes and laid Him in the manger, the sign of the life-giving Cross, leaning to the left upon St. Andrew the Apostle. "And what," she said, "you most wicked spirits, is this great terror of your fury? Whither do you rush? What is this great pride of yours? Has so great a confidence of your kind held you, that you wish to claim those who are committed to us? What have you to do with the sick man, whom my Son restores to safety by the prayers of this St. Andrew? Go away hence as quickly as possible: go away." At whose command, swifter than said, those spirits of demons vanish. Then the Mother of piety regarded the sick man with a countenance of serenity; with the countenance with which she led down her weeping Son; with the countenance with which, among the banqueters, she suggested that the wine was failing; with that, I say, countenance with which she regarded the grieving Theophilus; with a countenance of sweetness and grace: and he is bidden to rise: with that, I say, countenance she regarded the sick man, now almost dead, snatched from the hands of the demons; and, by commanding, signified that he should rise and follow his Bishop, and so she withdrew.

[39] The vision withdrawing, he who seemed to himself to sleep, the sick man, opened his eyes; and found himself whole and safe, safe, he soon prepares everything for departure: as if he had endured nothing of evil. Soon, calling the boy who had remained with him for this, that if he died he should not remain unburied; he ordered that he bring him his garments as quickly as possible, and prepare all the necessities of the journey that was to follow the Bishop. While the boy thought him out of his mind, he himself at once rose, called the master of the house; asked how much was owed for the expenses bestowed on him. These reckoned and paid, he orders his horses to be made ready as quickly as possible, and warns the boy to forget nothing of his furniture. Whom not only the head of the household, in whose lodging he had stayed, marvels at, unharmed; but the whole neighborhood rejoices that he is safe, the whole city rejoices and applauds: since the one whom, by the Gospel precept, they had resolved to bury late as a dying man, they saw in the morning going ahead of his horse with swift steps. But he himself, to all who asked, joyfully related how great things the Lord had done for him, through His glorious Mother and the holy Apostle Andrew. Thence at the swiftest pace, accompanied by his servant, he hastens to overtake the Bishop, whom the piety and providence of God detained on the shore. The rising sun had poured streaming rays into the eyes of the sailors: at the sight of which the masters of the ship marked beforehand a future tempest. By common counsel they waited, until at the middle hour of the day they should catch what the splendor of the sun portended. Amid these things, at the third hour of the day, while the Bishop, walking on the shore, weighed the miseries of the present life, and wept with himself the case of his abandoned faithful one; it is announced to him by those looking out, he comes hastily to the Bishop. that Lord Fulcher comes. At first astonished, then recollecting his mind, he inquires how they knew this. As they reported that they had truly seen the horses which he was wont to ride, and also his garments; he is said to have answered, sighing: "It may be; it is not Fulcher but perhaps his boy, who, his master being buried, follows us: for Fulcher, unless by the sole clemency of God, I now do not hope to see. Nevertheless I do not despair of the mercy of Christ, which restored Lazarus to his sisters, the only son to the widow: for I am believing in the sureties to whom I had committed him." While they were speaking these things with themselves, and intently looking at those coming, Fulcher is present. O how joyful was the joy: how glad the gladness, let the human mind know. What and how it had befallen him, it was not permitted to relate: so great was the tumult, and so great the throng of those pressing themselves into his embraces.

[40] His companion received, by the order of the sailors the Lord Bishop boarded the ship with his men. Having entered the ship, they are tossed by a three-day tempest; Cautiously they rise on the oars with all their strength. The wind, rising from the stern, follows those going. They leave the ports of Laodicea and fly over the deep, and gather the straits sown with frequent lands. They spread the sails, and the vast sea is run over by the hollow timber. After the ship held the deep, and no lands any longer appear, a dark rain-cloud stood above their heads, bringing night and storm, and the wave bristled with darkness. At once the winds roll up the sea, and the black waters rise: imperiled, they are tossed in the vast whirlpool. The storm-clouds wrapped up the day, and the humid night took away the sky, the fires redouble from the burst clouds: they are shaken by chance, and wander in the blind waves. The most skilled sailors themselves, and in a manner familiars of the marine waves, deny day and night on the water. For three so uncertain suns they wander on the sea, and as many nights without a star: on the fourth day land seemed to raise itself and open up mountains afar, and roll up smoke. The sails fall, the sailors rise on the oars as quickly as possible, and, straining, they whirl up the foam and sweep the blue.

[41] and having delayed in Cyprus, The shores of Cyprus receive the Lord Bishop, saved from the waves, with all his men, whom the Katapan, by this name they call the second to the Lord, fearing lest he fall into the hands of the Pagans, detained from the day before the Nones of June to the day before the Kalends of August: not to Jerusalem until on that very day, with much gold the exit scarcely obtained, while again he believed himself to be setting out for Jerusalem by sea journey, but they return to Laodicea, by the deceit of the sailors avoiding the ambushes of the Pagans, he was brought back to Laodicea. In which place, while he again wove delays; and no hope remained of accomplishing his vows, with very many returning with Helinand, Bishop of Laon (since he too in those days had gone to Jerusalem), reporting the difficulty of the journey, They return to their country. at last by the counsel of the Bishop of Laodicea he sadly undertook the journey of returning.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER VI.

Things done after his return. The monastery of the Holy Sepulchre constructed.

[42] In the kingdoms of the Lotharingians and also of the Franks, very many rivalries having arisen, Emperor Henry and the King of the Franks came together at Yvois for a conference, to settle them: but they departed with peace unaccomplished. And not long after, Emperor Henry, in the presence of Pope Victor, who, for the affairs of the Papacy, having been badly treated by the Romans, had come to complain to him, closed his last day. After whose death, with his son Henry and the Queen, Lietbert is present at a plea of the Empire, the Lord Pope as arbiter, and also the Bishops and Princes of the Kingdom as judges, both Counts Baldwin, namely father and son, were reconciled for the rivalries which they had had against the father. At this plea was present the Lord Bishop Lietbert, still unshorn, since, returning from his pilgrimage, he had not yet come to his city, because he had familiarly loved that Count from the beginning of his Pontificate.

[43] It was fixed in his mind not to enter Cambrai before he revisited the New Castle, in the castle of Cambrai he gives thanks to St. Andrew with Fulcher, the faithful stronghold of his Principate, which on account of the memory of St. Andrew he cherished more diligently. Arriving there, accompanied by Lord Fulcher; with the rest of the companions of his household, he is most courteously received to prayer. Prostrate on the ground, he did not seek in prayer the tears which he always had most familiar. Then rising he gave the blessing: having kissed those whom he could at the time, he came forth openly; and relates to all how great cases of the journey he had endured. Then Lord Fulcher, in his presence, proceeds to the altar, narrating what and how great things the Lord had done for him through His glorious Mother, by the merits and prayers of St. Andrew. After the giving up of his head, with all watching, he handed himself over to St. Andrew, offering upon his holy altar two ounces of purest gold; and that in the same place, to the honor of God and the memory of St. Andrew, there might be a perpetual service for him, he handed over there his son, named after his own name Fulco: and he comes to Cambrai. who, being made a Monk, he conferred great gifts to the victuals of the Brothers, which by the right of privileges he confirmed by the authority of the Bishop. All being duly performed, the Lord Bishop came to Cambrai, and is received by his people with the joys which were fitting.

[44] Meanwhile Hugh, nephew of Walter the Castellan, whom we noted as endowed with the Castellanship, Hugh appointed Castellan, advanced in age; and the time was near at hand when Ansell should be without the rule of him, and he himself should receive his good. Furthermore it seemed to Ansell that that youth was not yet fit to govern the Castellanship; and therefore he wished to prolong the office of his keeping, if the Bishop should permit him. But although the Bishop felt the same thing with Ansell about the immaturity of Hugh; he was unwilling

nevertheless to defraud him of the span of the predefined time; thinking that the youth could be recalled to the way of truth by his discipline, if through the ignorance of his blindness he should deviate from the right. Thus Ansell could in no way obtain, by prayer or price, that Hugh should not receive his Castellanship on his day. And so Hugh, having obtained the helm of his honor, openly at once made plain to all what he was shutting up in his mind: for before, how would you have known him, when age and master alike held him back? But now, master of his own power, a despiser of all mastership and discipline, and confounding right and wrong, he walks after the depravities of his heart and his unlawful wishes without any regard. Can he hold a regard for justice, but doing many evils, he excommunicates him. who in the city of his Lord afflicted the better and richer citizens with insult and injuries? Others, uncondemned and unjudged, he shut up in a most vile stock: the steward and chamberlain of him (the Bishop), seized, he bound with chains; the herd of him and of the other citizens, with his Lord opposing, he violently led away. For these and other things of this kind often reproached by the Bishop, and unwilling to be amended, but rushing to worse, he was excommunicated by him. But he despised even this, and seeking no mercy, went off to the Count of Saint-Quentin, and there, having tarried a little, did whatever evil he could against the Bishop and his Church.

[45] The Lord Bishop had a custom in the nightly hours to go around the Churches of the city, with his familiar Clerks, with bare feet, Visiting the Churches by night, and suppliantly to entreat the clemency of God for himself and his men. It happened on a certain night, which preceded the holy day of Preparation (Good Friday), that he was keeping his accustomed vigils, and going around the churches and oratories. the dead respond "Amen." Others surveyed, when he had come to a certain little oratory, constructed within the city; and entering the cemetery that he might commend to God the souls of those resting there and of all the faithful departed; although silently, although he said it with himself as that night required (a wondrous thing), the spirits of those buried there, with a clear voice, with all who were present hearing, responded over his blessing, "Amen." With all astonished and terrified by the novelty of the matter, the Bishop asked that it be covered with silence, which he could not fully obtain.

[46] For what cause that little oratory was constructed let us set forth more fully. In the times of Lord Gerard, Bishop of holy memory, the predecessor of this Lord Lietbert, a famine that had arisen at Cambrai, and also in the regions lying all around, In the cemetery constructed by Bishop Gerard so prevailed that the cemeteries of the city of Cambrai could not hold the bodies of those dying. There fell, therefore, to Lord Gerard himself a reasonable counsel, that outside the walls of the city he should have dug a "Polyandrum" (common burial-ground), which would be for the receiving of so many bodies of poor people to be buried: beside which place he afterward consecrated a church, constructed in honor of the Lord's Sepulchre, with the church of the Holy Sepulchre that, on account of reverence for so great a name, there might be burial there for the poor and for pilgrims: which, with the course of times slipping by, while he disposed to improve it, worn out by daily old age he died.

[47] But Lord Lietbert himself, animated by so great and such an example of his predecessor and master, he adds a monastery to it, entered to labor on the devout first-fruits of him. And since the Church was small, he left it intact; and beside it, in a better and larger design, he built a monastery, just as at present it is seen. For carrying out so great a work, the Lord Bishop constituted as cooperators and ministers those whom we noted to have been companions in the pilgrimage of the journey to Jerusalem, namely Lord Walcher the Archdeacon, and Erlebold the judge and minister of the city.

[48] O holy Moses! O Moses, a man most meek above all men who dwelt on the earth! for which he is compared to Moses, O Moses, set in the cleft of the rock, through which the bridegroom descends into his garden, that he may eat the fruit of his apple-trees! O Moses, most faithful in the whole house of his Lord; not who composes a tabernacle that may be carried around, but who builds a house upon the rock, which is moved by no whirlwind! The Lord called to Moses Bezaleel and Aholiab, learned in all the knowledge of smiths and weavers: He gave to Lord Lietbert Walcher and Erlebold, full of faith and justice. Ex. 31:2 and his helpers Walcher and Erlebold Those were called who should compose the tabernacle of the ark of the covenant from boards and stones; these were given who should build a temple to Christ and His Mother. Those carved onyx stones with awls and sharp tools; these composed living stones by the generosity of alms. There were stripped off the skins of goats and calves; here are laid down by tears and compunction of heart the filth of sins. There were burned hot oily breads; for Bezaleel and Aholiab. here the blood of the Apostles and Martyrs gives forth its fragrance. There the remaining flesh of the devoured cattle was handed to the fire; here the inscrutable judgments of God are reserved to the Holy Spirit. There manna was kept in testimony of the perfidy of the Jews; here the most sacred body of Christ is taken for the salvation of the soul and the remission of sins. And when the Lord Bishop had summoned to himself the aforesaid men, the cooperators and counselors of the work undertaken; he handed over to them not only what he had in his house and in the city, but in all his possession, for doing the work. These, since their Lord was entangled in the great affairs of the Bishopric, daily pressed on the work, until by their solicitude it was completed, God who is the true Bishop granting it.

[49] With the bodies of the Saints of his whole diocese gathered—of Martyrs, and he dedicates it Confessors, and Virgins—in the honor and name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the memory of His holy Sepulchre, and of the blessed and glorious and ever-Virgin Mother of the same our Lord, Mary, and of all the Saints of God, he consecrated it: and, a cloister being built with the other workrooms, like women keeping watch at the sepulchre, he assigned an Abbot and monks to that place; about to present, however, not to a dead Christ, but to Christ reigning in heaven, the mystical unguents of prayers. To this holy consecration, that the heavenly power in the virtue of sanctification might openly become clear to all, and visibly demonstrate that it had been present; with a fiery sphere appearing on the preceding night, through the whole space of the night which preceded the day of the holy blessing, over that monastery a sphere of light in the manner of a crown, sent from heaven, hung: God doubtless now signifying that, for this expenditure of labor, Lietbert the Bishop would receive a crown of mercy. This will seem incredible to those who do not believe all things possible to those who believe. But lest it move a scruple to incredulity in anyone, I am defended by the relation of truthful witnesses. Truth itself also promises to its faithful, saying: "If anyone ministers to me, my Father will honor him." John 12:26 Whence we believe that the honor of the Father was not lacking there, where so many bodies of Saints had been conveyed. Twenty-two are said to have been present, whose names, lest prolixity should beget loathing, we omit to write: in the year 1064, but those wishing to know them can gather them by themselves. It was done and consecrated in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand sixty-four, in the second indiction, also in the fourteenth year of the Pontificate of our Lord and Patron Lietbert, with Pope Alexander presiding at Rome.

[50] And lest the monastery should remain outside the circuit of the city, they took pains to enlarge the walls, surrounding all that building of the monastery with a rampart and ditch together with the whole city. afterward enclosed by walls. Which it is established they did for two causes, that the city might be ennobled with larger buildings and very many inhabitants, and that those dwelling around that place might be fortified by the strength of the city. But the little church, which we said remained intact, afterward, with the course of many times slipping by, Walcher, Abbot of the same place, because it was falling down through excessive age, took pains to enlarge by improving: and, the relics of Saints being added, he established there the memory of the most holy Nicholas.

NOTES OF G. H.

p Alexander II sat from the year 1061 to the year 1073, whom then Gregory VII succeeded.

q In d'Achery, Walter; and Colvener thinks that here the first Abbot, who died in the year 1095, is understood. But then the little church does not seem able to have fallen down through excessive age. Carpentier, in part 2, chapter 8, having obtained some Catalogue of Abbots by the kindness of Lord Clauvez, Prior of Crèvecœur, has two Walters or Walthers in the 13th century: of whom the first, surnamed de Briastre, bought a certain house in the year 1283; the other, John de Thuin mediating, the successor of the former, surnamed de Roisin, acquired certain meadows in the year 1296: to either of whom that restoration will better be attributed.

CHAPTER VII.

Other things done at Reims, the injuries inflicted by Hugh and avenged.

[51] At Reims, Philip, son of King Henry of the Franks, with his father present, by the counsel of the Princes of the kingdom, was to be blessed as King. This blessing by his own right Gervase the Archbishop procured, The Saint is present at the coronation of King Philip. a man in every

way conspicuous for goodness. He, that the celebrated authority of his office might be commended, took pains to invite the Lord Bishop by his own messengers as well as the Royal ones: who, although he was otherwise held occupied with the greatest affairs, and especially on account of the tumults of wars which he foresaw arising; nevertheless with a willing mind presented himself to those asking, and was present at the Royal blessing, as was fitting. The Archbishop himself indeed loved him in every way, and venerated and cherished him above all the Bishops of his Metropolis.

[52] It happened on a certain Thursday of the great week which precedes holy Easter, On Maundy Thursday he celebrates the solemn Mass at Reims. while the Archbishop, wreathed with the Pontifical insignia, proceeded to celebrate the most sacred solemnities of the Masses, that, looking out, he saw our Lord Bishop Lietbert standing by. At the sight of him he stopped, and returning back, he is stripped of the insignia with which he was wreathed, and suppliantly asks Lord Lietbert to celebrate the Sacrament which he himself was about to celebrate, which he scarcely was able to obtain. Which thing was to all who were present a cause of great veneration toward him.

[53] In this course of times, the aforesaid Hugh, in the territory of Cambrai, not farther from the city than ten miles, at a certain place called Porgival, fortified a stronghold: into which entering with his satellites, he devastated the neighboring things of the Bishop. This the Bishop could not bear for long, but, gathering horsemen and footmen, directed them thither. He overturns Porgival, the stronghold of Hugh: The stronghold is overcome by assault, and, set on fire, is laid to the ground, and so that place is cleared of the satellites. Hugh, the den of his robbers lost, turned aside elsewhere, and renewed his plunderings and very many evils against the Bishop. By these and very many other misfortunes the soldier of Christ was not broken: but bearing all things wisely, he meditated how he might crush his insolence: which he also did.

[54] After these things Hugh began to love a certain girl, named Ada, namely the niece of Richeldis, Countess of Mons, and to wish to join her to himself in marriage. But because he was excommunicated, he knew not how or by what reason he might accomplish this. What should he do? He did not greatly care for absolution, yet he sought it from the Bishop through intermediaries, out of desire for the girl he longed for. Furthermore the Bishop, wearied by his many injuries, was unwilling to absolve him, unless he first made a relinquishment by his own hand (which is also commonly called "Werpire") of every benefice which he had within the circuit of the city of Cambrai. [Hugh, having made the relinquishment of his benefices, he absolves from excommunication,] But Hugh, inflamed with desire for the young girl, did to the Bishop according to his choice. He relinquished openly before all, with his Lord and his soldiers present, with Countess Richeldis and her Princes present, whatever benefice he had within the city itself of Cambrai: and thus, absolved, he made fealty to the Bishop concerning the rest of the goods of the Castellanship, and gave hostages thereof. But this fealty was not long observed by that Hugh, because, promised on oath on the nativity of St. Andrew, he broke it on the Monday after Palm Sunday: for on this day of the great week he refused to return the plunder taken upon the people of Cambrai: but on the very day of absolution, which is before Good Friday, he sent a defiance to his Lord. Afterward, leaving Cambrai, but afterward suffers worse things from him; he set himself to do, as at first, whatever evil he could. Often admonished under the name of his land and in the fealty which he had sworn; with his peers present he at last came before the sight of his Lord; but, unwilling to do right in whatever matters he was interpellated, he departed more unjust than he had come. Whence his peers and very many other Nobles, who were present at the plea of the common cause of both, judging him guilty, adjudged against him the land which he held from the Bishop: but Hugh returned to the stronghold which he had prepared for himself at Oisy, and did not cease to do evil against the Bishop. The Bishop nevertheless, patiently bearing all these things; fear cast off, went around his parish; and blessing the churches which were to be consecrated, and completing the other works of his ministry.

[55] It happened that, with the exercise of this labor, he came to a certain village, Buricel by name, and, consecrating, blessed the church of the village, indeed intent on his own duty, and after the consecration, wearied in confirming the crowds, passed the night there. The report of this matter did not escape the aforesaid Hugh, who, having taken with him his accomplices, came to that house, in which the Bishop, already received into bed, was commending his wearied limbs to rest. The doors of the house being broken, and certain men resisting being slain, he came to the chamber in which the Bishop lay, with Wibold his Provost and his Chaplains. Wibold, perceiving the tumult and violence, opposed himself to the door of the chamber as if for a bar: but, one not able to resist many, the door broken, he fell, slain by Hugh himself. he is led away captive, Finally, the Bishop, as he lay in bed, with only his shirt, that insane murderer did not fear to take, and to carry off thus naked to his stronghold, and to keep shut up in custody.

[56] Roused, therefore, by this report, Arnulf, Count of Flanders, and his mother Richeldis, he is freed by Arnulf, Count of Flanders, and his mother. their soldiers taken, both at once came to Oisy: and seeking the Bishop, found with the utmost diligence, they brought him back to Cambrai, with great glory and honor: they moreover gave palls and gifts to the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, and to the other monasteries of the city of Cambrai. These things, therefore, worthily and laudably accomplished, the Count of the Flemings with his mother returned glad to his own country, but the Bishop, pursuing Hugh with all the forces of his mind, did not draw back his hand until, the stronghold of Oisy destroyed, he drove him far from the borders of Cambrai. Expelled in such a way, he was silent against the Bishop concerning all clamor: in his life the land too rested from the face of his malice and tyranny.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER VIII.

Benefits bestowed on various Churches. The generous deliverance of Cambrai besieged by Robert the Frisian.

[57] With old age coming on, the Bishop began, languishing in body, The Saint benefits the Cathedral Church, but solicitous for eternal life, to grow strong in mind, and the illustrious inheritance which he possessed from his ancestors to the glory of this world, he took pains to transfer toward gaining the country of eternal life. So much from the inheritances and the revenues of his own right, to the Church of the holy Mother of God Mary of the See of Cambrai, by the instruments of charters, he conferred, that thence the Canons might have refreshment of food and drink through all the Sundays of the whole year, yet in such a way that on all Mondays a Mass be celebrated generally by the congregation, for his soul and for all the faithful departed. In the church of St. Aubert he constituted Regular Clerks, and set an Abbot over them, He constitutes Canons Regular in the church of St. Aubert; the certain Clerks being first cast out who served there too negligently and disorderly. He added very good altars and illustrious possessions, magnificently restored the prebends from his own property. He greatly helped Erlebold, who built the church of the Holy Cross, both with means and counsel, and in choosing and placing the Canons he applied the number and the election. he bestows other goods on the churches. The church of St. Vedast, which the same Erlebold caused to be restored, by his counsel and help. To the monastery of our holy Father Gaugericus, the mother-church of this city, he gave tithes, and took pains to enrich the place with other very good things. The New Castle and the Abbey of St. Andrew the Apostle, and the monastery of St. Humbert, he always cherished, always took pains to improve, never ceased to exalt. To the congregation of St. Mary of Arras he handed over the church of Belrem. In the monastery of St. Vindician at Mont-Saint-Éloi he constituted Regular Clerks; and, those being cast out who served there negligently, he added many of his own goods to those serving God there. The city which, made Bishop, he found deserted on account of the sedition of wars, he made populous and opulent. He harmed none of his citizens, since he took pains to benefit all. He loved his Clerks and the whole Ecclesiastical Order, like a hen, which, gathering her chicks, cherishes them under her wings.

[58] At that time Robert, hearing of the death of his brother Baldwin the Count, who rebuilt the church at Hasnon, by the faction of the greater part of the Flemings burst into Flanders against Count Arnulf and his mother: to resist whose violence the aforesaid Countess Richeldis, with her son Arnulf, After Arnulf, Count of Flanders, was slain with whom, as has been said, she had drawn out our Lord Lietbert from the captivity of Hugh, summoned Philip, King of France, and by his help prepared to do battle at the Castle. But with the Flemings, by whose guile that Robert had entered Flanders, fighting treacherously and turning their backs, the boy Arnulf himself is slain. He being dead and his mother put to flight, the whole Marquisate fell to Robert. By this outcome of war made too savage, he suffers very many things from Robert the Frisian: he broke out into such madness that he wished to snatch the Lordship of the city of Cambrai from the Imperial sovereignty, and to subject it to his own dominion: whence, a frequent army gathered, the villages nearest the city

depopulating, he raged through the whole neighborhood. And when he did this not once, but twice yearly, and reduced the whole country of Cambrai utterly to a solitude; the Lord Bishop often appealed to him through intermediaries, and that he should desist from what he had begun, now by prayer, now by price, he often entreated him. But not even willing to listen, puffed up with the arrogance of secular pride, he threatened not only not to cease from the devastation of the region; but to reduce the very city itself to nothing, unless the Bishop should render it to him.

[59] Amid these laborious sweats of mortal life, amid the prescribed exercises of the works of Saints, the Bishop worthy of God, wearied, to whom, sick, carried into his camp fell into an infirmity, which for three continuous years he sustained with wondrous patience. And that tyrant, hearing that he was sick, as if rejoicing over the Shepherd's absence, again roared, again raged into the folds of the Lord's flock. The greatest army gathered, as if by surprise he flies to the city, as though about to storm it. Which deed the Lord Bishop bore most grievously, and grieved beyond what can be told. He ordered that as quickly as possible he be lifted onto a litter-bed, and carried through the midst of the battle-lines of the warriors up to the tent of that very tyrant; for he was distressed by such great pains of gout that he could in no way stand on his feet. Carried by decision up to the tent of the Count, after he saw him he roared gravely, and with the greatest severity rebuked the wicked daring of his presumption: and that he should depart from the land of his Lady St. Mary, he admonished him by Pontifical authority. For he was his Parishioner, inasmuch as the County of Arras fell to him: since the church of Cambrai and Arras at that time obeyed one Bishop. With him not caring, [in vain admonished to withdraw from the siege, he terrifies him by excommunicating,] but with proud mind mocking the Bishop's reproaches as if they were certain trifles; the Bishop, supporting himself with his hands, his strength resumed, sat up in bed: and ordered that the Pastoral staff with the Sacerdotal stole be handed to him. These received, in their presence he straightway excommunicated the Count himself with all his army, until satisfaction. The Count, seeing in the man of God such constancy of mind and justice, revering his age, revering the authority of the Bishop, and what is truer, struck with divine terror, since it was the ninth hour of the day, moved his camp: and although roaring, although redoubling his threats, as much as the day allowed, he withdrew outside the land which was being denied him. The rest, whose mind was sounder, before they withdrew, prostrate on the ground before the Bishop, ask pardon: and that thenceforth they would not repeat this evil upon the Church of Cambrai, they swore, the Relics of the Saints being touched. and thus he frees the city, And so, each one compensating the damage which they had inflicted in depopulating the country, absolution received, they return glad: since those who had come armed with the fury of war, withdrew gratified by divine fear. Thus the city, freed from the terror of the siege by the zeal of its Bishop, renders praises to God and to His glorious Mother.

[60] O glorious Bishop, fighting not with arms but with faith! with great praise of his constant spirit. The hireling, and he who is not a shepherd, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Behold the safeguard of liberty, behold the office of a Bishop: Lietbert frees his country from the oppression of hostile invasion; the Bishop, after the rebuke of crimes, implores pardon for those confessing. With the liberty of a noble spirit he manfully thrust himself upon his enemies, by Pontifical authority he rebuked the rage of the tyrants, lest so cruelly, to the peril of their own souls, they should rage in the plunderings of the peoples. He went up against them, opposing himself for the house of Israel, that is, the church committed to him; that he might be able to stand in battle in the day of the Lord. To go up against them is to oppose with the free voice of reason any powers acting depravedly: and in the day of the Lord to stand in battle for the house of Israel, and to oppose a wall, to defend the faithful innocent against the injustice of the perverse by the authority of justice. But he cannot stand in peril who, in that over which he presides, does not love the sheep, but seeks earthly gain: souls perish, and he himself rejoices in earthly advantages. But our Shepherd, good by the grace of God, and the liberty of his country, did not tremble to oppose himself against the peril, lest he lose what he loved: nor did he fear to enter the ranks of the warriors, lest the flock committed to him should suffer harm. The just man trusts as a lion. Truly he trusts, who did not blush at the face of the Count of Flanders; who, amid the swords of soldiers, did not keep silent about the pride of his malignity: finally, who did not fear the threats of his tyranny. Truly he trusts, who rebuked the Count of Flanders in a Pontifical manner; and because he refused to obey, excommunicated him, present. The victory accomplished, the enemies put to flight, the liberty of his country, by the bed in which he had been carried, is brought back home, and replaced within the Pontifical chamber.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER IX.

His last illness, his desire for eternal life, his death, his burial.

[61] With the strength of the body failing, the infirmity was increased, and from day to day his senile age was troubled by many discomforts. And since he had lain with a long languor, Lietbert, old and sick, remits nothing of his accustomed rigor even though with the flesh putrefying a livid color flowed down from almost all his limbs, yet he never chose to change the hair-shirt which he had always used from the days of his ordination, nor permitted the hardness of his bed to be softened from the proposed rigor of his religion. He labored in his groaning, washed his bed every night, watered his couch with tears. As long as he lived, barley bread was constant for his food; nor did anything raise him from it except a solemn day, which he had so carefully, so honorably ordered to be set before him among the Pontifical feasts, that it could be perceived by none of those banqueting. Dishes of meat indeed were sufficiently set before him, but bread and water were taken in a disciplined manner. Among those banqueting he was fasting, among the merry he was sober. he drinks from the same cup as the leper: The poor were never lacking at his table, for whom he had appointed a daily ration, like his other household members: among whom if a leper had come, the Pontifical cup was offered to him: and, like the illustrious chalice of the Lord, it was again presented to the Bishop. The penitential Psalms in the days of his infirmity he looked at and read, and wept abundantly and continually: and lest his intention should be impeded by anyone, he made use of religious and ecclesiastical men, by whose consolation he relieved the sufferings of his flesh and soul.

[62] O the unrefusable necessity of death! O the inevitable condition which spares no one! he aspires to heavenly rest. For our Bishop, worn out as much by old age as by disease, awaited the last day of his calling, and like a thirsting stag to the fountains of waters, he panted to the hope of eternal rest. Who indeed, lying in bed, although melting away with broken strength, yet conquering diseases and years by the fortitude of his mind, by holy admonitions invited all to the inheritance of the heavenly country. For he became an imitator of his master, of whom it is said: "Jesus began to do and to teach." Acts 1:2 He insinuated meekness and mercy, the generosity toward the poor of Christ which he had always exercised, teaching how great confidence before God those who exercise it would obtain, that they (the poor) might receive them, perishing in that day, into their eternal tabernacle. He himself had fulfilled the Gospel command which says: "Sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasures in heaven." Matt. 19:21 He sold his own, but to God: since of all the things that were of his own right he had pledged the bride of Christ his Lord, namely the holy Church, and in many places, as we have stated above, he fed the poor of Christ. And desiring with the whole affection of his mind to advance from virtue to virtue, he exhorted all committed to him, those present as he could, to put behind them the desires of the present age, and to love the heavenly.

[63] And when, complaining over his imminent departure, they lamented to one another, he said: "Do not think, my dearest sons, that I wish, as if my course were run, to be recalled to the prison from the road. For what has human life of pleasant? what rather not of labor? he does not shudder to die: For it does not please me to deplore life, as many and unlearned do; nor do I repent of having lived, since I have so lived that I do not think myself born in vain; and I depart from life as from an inn, not as from a home. God, the author of nature, gave us a lodging for sojourning, not for dwelling. Death certainly must come, and it is uncertain whether on that very day. But all things which happen according to nature are to be held among goods. And what is so according to nature as for old men to die? The hours indeed pass, and the days, and the months, and the years; nor does past time ever return, nor can what follows be known. With whatever of time is given to each for living, with that he ought to be content. So much remains, which you have attained by right deeds and virtue. But the end of living is best, when, with mind whole and senses sure, God Himself who joined together His own work dissolves it; as he who constructed a building most easily destroys the same: so God who glued together the same man most excellently dissolves him. Let us therefore meditate on death impending at every hour: for while we are enclosed in these frameworks of the body, we discharge a certain heavy work of necessity. But God Himself, the author of immortality, that He might set an end to necessity, gave a term to carnal life: willing us to come to that very gift of immortality. Whence I do not judge death to be mourned, which immortality follows. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again; so also will God bring with Him those who have slept through Jesus."

[64] Amid these things, with the South wind blowing, the lily was passing gradually into pallor: because, namely, all flesh is grass, he hears the passion of Christ read aloud, and all its glory as the flower of grass. Which those who were present noticing, they bring the codex of the most sacred Gospel, that to him departing from the world the sufferings of the Lord's passion, which He sustained for our redemption, might be recited; and the spirits of the demons might be repelled by the winnowing-fan of so great a reading. And when he was asked by the bystanders,

whether he was attending to the things that were being read; he answered that the passion of Christ was being recited according to the Gospel of John. John 19:30 After it was come to that, "When therefore Jesus had received the vinegar, he said: having received the Viaticum he dies It is finished"; and he himself, receiving the viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ amid the hands of those mourning, to God to whom all things live, and to whom our bodies do not perish by dying, but are changed for the better, gave up his spirit in the twenty-sixth year of his Ordination. Happy Bishop, an old man emeritus, an ancient guest, full of days, giving peace to his sons and bidding a last farewell, happily freed from the bonds of the flesh, on the tenth of the Kalends of July, June 22. with the sun setting, he migrated to Christ.

[65] Those who were present testified that, after his spirit was given up, the whiteness of his hair returned to the former color of youth. The color of his hair returns to that of youth in death, The truth of his comrades, religious men, also testifies that for ten years before he departed from life, he wholly abstained from touching his genital members. But if natural necessity, either in resting, or in any other readiness whatsoever, compelled him to touch them; he wrapped his hand in his cloak or shirt. and his hands fold themselves to cover the genitals: But while his body, dead, was being stripped for washing; that God might show the modesty of chastity which he had kept, with his hands crossed he covered those members for himself; and so he lay until he was reclothed. Washed with water, and bathed with wine, after he was reclothed in his under-garments, he loosed his clasped hands, and so they fell back again as if dead. Those who were present, seeing it, glorified God who does wondrous things; and completing the funeral rites, they raised the body onto the bier: the body is laid in the church of St. Mary; which, carrying, they placed in the church of the holy Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, and the vigils of that night they performed there with Psalms and prayers in the greatest grief and mourning.

[66] Morning come, they carried it to the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre which he himself had built from the ground, as has been said, he is buried in the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre. and, an Abbot and monks having been appointed, had honored the place with possessions and convenient things, as is seen to this day: where also, five years before he departed from life, he had a tomb dug for himself: which, revisiting on certain days, and first indeed lying down upon it, he watered the grave with tears and groans; then filled it with bread or meat or other foods, which he soon had distributed to the poor. He was buried with glory and Pontifical honor, in the 26th year of his Pontificate, on the 8th of the Kalends of July, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1076, in the times of Pope Gregory VII, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.

Here ends the life of Lord Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai, founder of the Church of the Lord's Sepulchre in the same city; published by Lord Radulf, monk of the same monastery.

EPITAPH

[67] You are shut by this title of stones; Lietbert the Priest, The hope and love of your country; the praise, the ornament of the Church. And you happily established this House of Christ in hope, That on the eighth light you may again enjoy it. The sixth day is closed for the world by the entering of the Crab, and by the departure of the sun: which becomes your rest.

NOTES OF D. P.

Ovid in the 6th of the Fasti, at the 15th of the Kalends of July or June 17, sings thus: "Now six and as many lights remain of the month, Yet add you one day to this number. The sun departs from the Twins, and the signs of the Crab grow red." Now six days hence is the 23rd of the month, on which the Deposition is celebrated, the day after his death.

APPENDIX

From the manuscript of the Monastery of Vaucelles.

Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, in Belgium (Bl.)

AUTHOR: RADULF. FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

[68] This venerable Bishop, the 30th from Blessed Vedast, governed the Church of Cambrai and Arras alike. In his days too, at Mont-Saint-Éloi, the body of Blessed Marcellus, Pope and Martyr, was found, Lietbert translates the Relics of St. Marcellus the Pope, which in the time of Dagobert, King of the Franks, and of Blessed Vincent surnamed Madelgarius, monk and founder of the same monastery, by the bounty of the blessed Pope Martin, had been carried thither. Which Bishop, namely, Lietbert of holy memory, among other gifts which he conferred on various Churches, also gave to the Church of Blessed Mary of Cambrai the altar of Anverlet with its appendages, he confers gifts on the Church of St. Mary, and a third part of Folietseinis, and half the village of Ogy. At Cambrai indeed the tithe of the Mint and the "mathera," and in the village of Paschiertrau one brewery, and in the bakery-quarter one oven, and in the market one "Gavalum." Likewise it is to be noted, He sets up the Sepulchre of Christ in the middle of the Church. that when he had built a basilica in honor of the Lord's Sepulchre, he also constructed for the Lord in the middle of the same basilica a sepulchre of round shape, namely after the manner of the sepulchre which is at Jerusalem. Whence also the marble placed over the Cambrai sepulchre has a length of 7 feet; since the place too where the body of the Lord was placed exists of the same length. Now marble columns adorned this sepulchre greatly on the outside; but within it was so propitious that anyone coming with a hard heart would most easily be moved to the affection of devotion. Furthermore that sepulchre a certain Abbot of the same monastery, named Fulbert, overturned; but another, on the right part of the same basilica, as at present is seen, he built.

[69] But since the describer of the deeds of this holy Bishop asserts that, for dedicating the basilica of the Lord's Sepulchre, 22 bodies of Saints of the diocese of Cambrai had been brought, and yet did not, on account of weariness, designate them in writing, but asserts that one wishing to know can gather them by himself; we indeed, partly knowing and partly not knowing who those Saints were whose bodies were conveyed; therefore it pleases here to note down the names of the Saints, not only of the twenty-two, but also of others; namely those whom we have learned, either by reading or by hearing, to be or to have been in the Bishopric of Cambrai.

NOTES OF G. H.

The village of Ogy I think is the town of Oisy, almost midway between Douai and Cambrai. The other places named here, while the tables do not express them, I leave to be inquired into by the people of Cambrai themselves.