Adalbertus the Deacon

ON S. ADALBERTUS THE DEACON,

AT EGMOND IN HOLLAND.

8TH CENT.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the Beginning of the County of Holland; the Life and Miracles, written by the Monks of Mettlach and of Egmond.

Adalbertus the Deacon, at Egmond in Holland (S.)

THE AUTHOR BEING G. H., THE AUTHOR BEING D. P.

Holland, the most illustrious County among the Belgic Provinces, is to be reckoned to owe the origin of its celebrity to S. Adalbertus, of whom we here treat, Theodericus is called the first Count of Holland because it owes this to Egmond, situated near Alkmaar on the Ocean, promoted to great splendor and brightness by the conversation, the burial, the veneration, and the miracles of this Saint. This Egmond did Theodericus or Diederic obtain from Charles the Simple, King of the Franks, and was therefore held the first Count of Holland. Petrus Scriverius asserts that he exhibits in good faith the King's Diploma, from a most ancient parchment manuscript codex and from the Archive of the Abbey of Egmond, in his book on the Princes of Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, engraved on copper by Soutmann about the year 1601: in which the year of the diploma, signed by Mirée, Dousa, and others omitted, is thus expressed; In the year 30, the Lord Charles the King reigning, in the 25th of his restoration, but in the year of the larger inheritance obtained … Where the year 11, omitted, must be supplied as will presently be said. The various Epochs of Charles the Simple are best explained by Jacobus Sirmondus, in his Notes on the Capitularies of Charles the Bald and of some successive Kings of France; among which are the last two of Charles III, or the Simple, he obtained Egmond from Charles the Simple and the second is given in the 29th year of his reign, in the 24th of his restoration, but in the 10th of the larger inheritance obtained, whence above it was permitted to supply the year 11. But on those Marks of time Sirmondus thus comments: The first year is reckoned from the day on which he was anointed King at Reims by Archbishop Fulco, on the 5th of the Kalends of February 28 January, of the year 893. But Charles, in the year in which he was confirmed as King, did not have the whole kingdom in his power: because King Odo, as long as he lived, held Aquitaine and Burgundy. Odo being dead after five years, he recovered what was possessed by him and restored the kingdom, and afterward subjoined the years of this restoration to the years of his reign in the public records. But "the larger inheritance obtained" pertains to the kingdom of Lothair: by whose accession Charles enlarged his inheritance, which Sigebert notes was done in the year 916. Thus Sirmondus: but that the last mark is to be referred to the year 912, in which King Louis, son of Arnulf, departed this life, is clear from the diplomas themselves.

[2] These things being laid down, the year of the diploma made for Theodericus, indicated above, the 30th of his reign, the 25th of the restoration, the 11th of the larger inheritance obtained, agrees with the year of Christ 922; but I know not by what lover of antiquity too much given to it, in the year 922 the whole matter was carried back to the times of Charles the Bald, and the year of Christ 863. But in the said year that whole domain, of which there is treatment in the diploma itself, pertained to Lothair the younger; he, having died at Piacenza in Italy in the year 869, his kingdom was divided between his two paternal uncles, Charles the Bald and Louis King of Germany: and to this Louis belonged Utrecht, and under him present-day Holland and Batavia with the domain of Egmond; which at length, as we have said, in the year 911 devolved to Charles the Simple, after the death of the last heir of the stock of the said Louis. In the said year, therefore, 922, to which agree all the marks of the Reign of Charles the Simple, the diploma was granted to Count Theodericus, by a diploma signed on the 15th of June and indeed on the 17th of the Kalends of July, or the 15th of June, amid the greatest tumults of the kingdom, when the Nobles of France were rising against the King, because he would not send away Hagano; and at length took care to have Robert, brother of the above-named Odo, elected King by them, consecrated on the 30th of June. But then Hagano, that he might have Theodericus as a more faithful friend to himself, caused a diploma to be dispatched to him from the King with this exordium. It belongs to Royal highness to honor our faithful ones with manifold gifts. Therefore we wish it to be made known to all the faithful of God's holy Church, namely present and future, how, approaching our presence, Hagano the venerable Count sought from our Clemency that there be given to a certain faithful man of ours, named Theodericus, certain things, namely the Church of Egmond, with all things rightly pertaining to it, from the place which is called Suithardeshage as far as Fontrapa and Kinnem. Whose petition kindly, as was fitting, receiving, we grant to our faithful one all these things in their entirety, etc.

[3] From what has been said there also collapse the calculations of Janus Dousa, Mirée, and others, who rejected this donation to the year of Christ 913, the L of the former number 853 being changed into C. But then the inscription, which they therefore omitted, but not in the year 913 ought to have been made in the 21st year of his reign, the 16th of the restoration, the 2nd of the larger inheritance obtained, the contraries of which are read in the diploma. There is, therefore, the beginning of the County of Holland in the church of Egmond, given to Theodericus in the year 922. For while the tumults of the kingdom of the Franks were multiplied, the power of Theodericus grew, and the aforesaid County was formed: since in the following year, 923, King Robert, conquered on the 15th of June by Charles the Simple, fell in battle; but in his place, against Charles soon captured, was taken up Rodulphus, son of Richard Duke of Burgundy, who reigned until the year 946: but he being dead, Louis Transmarinus, son of Charles the Simple, received the kingdom. All which things are best explained in the Chronicle of Flodoard. But this is the Count Theodericus, by whose procuring the sacred Relics of S. Adalbertus were elevated, and translated into an oratory chosen by him, and a convent of Nuns joined to it, possessing the Acts of that Saint; which also narrate how he himself escaped the danger of drowning by his intercession: but how long he lived, dead about the year 960, devoted to S. Adalbertus, is not sufficiently clear. An old Author in a vernacular Rhythm attributes to him a long administration of the province: some count thirty-eight or even forty years, and so, according to the calculation set above, Theodericus I would have reached about the year 960; and to him would have succeeded his son Theodericus II, having then attained a yet greater age: who, after twenty-eight years of governing, is established to have died in the year 988. That this man erected a stone basilica to S. Adalbertus, and introduced Benedictine monks in place of the Nuns, the Acts assert, and this also is confirmed from the manuscript Chronicle of Egmond, which we have written by an ancient hand in our possession.

[4] That the son of the second Theodericus, Egbert, was freed from a fever by the merits of S. Adalbertus, and afterward created Archbishop of Trier (the year 978 Brouwer notes), the same Acts teach at number 19, whose Acts were written in the 10th century by the Monks of Mettlach, written, by command of the said Egbert, by the Benedictine Monks of the monastery of Mettlach, most ancient near Trier; over which then, after Hesselo was expelled, presided Nithardus or Nizo, of outstanding genius, distinguished by experience of affairs and erudition: who raised up the now declining studies of monastic life,

and honorably roused the faint according to the good arts, dead about the thousandth year, as Bucelinus writes: but in what year he was created Abbot is not indicated. In the time of Egbert, who departed life in the year 993, we judge it was consecrated, and that the Egmond Monks were introduced for the reformation of the said monastery we gather from this, that they at number 18 below assert that they saw declared miracles. That Life Laurentius Surius had in the codex of his Carthusian house of Cologne; but he published it partly with the style here and there changed, partly reduced into a compendium. From the same Lucas d'Achery and Joannes Mabillon had the same, and, the former part down to number 13 being omitted, published the rest among the Benedictine Acts, volume 3, part 1. We give it entire, such as we obtained it, copied by the hand of Joannes Vlimerius, who, having once professed among the Canons Regular at S. Martin's of Louvain, in the year 1571 (when, on the 26th of August, he lent his work to that writing) was Rector or Father of the Nuns of Amsterdam. There was adjoined a small History of the same Life, but either extracted from the former, or wrongly augmented from elsewhere, and therefore to be omitted. There follow the miracles, wrought in the 12th century, and written by the Egmond Monks: whose Prologue was lacking in Surius and Mabillon: but there were present to them some more recent miracles, which also we give. A similar copy of the entire Acts I understand is preserved at Alkmaar in the curious library of ancient manuscripts in the possession of the noble man D. Adrianus Westphalen, and to the Egmond ones who wrote to us that his codex had belonged to the College of S. Benedict of Cambridge in England, and is marked as written in the year 1136 by the hand of Osbert, Monk of S. Clare.

[5] Furthermore, the things gloriously done by S. Adalbertus, besides the cited Chronicle of Egmond, were written by Joannes Gerbrandus a Leydis, a Carmelite, in his Chronicle of the Counts of Holland and Bishops of Utrecht, brought down to the year 1417, chiefly in book 2 chapter 41, book 9 chapters 14 and 15, and book 7 chapter 3 and the two following. their compendia. The same were written by Joannes de Beka and Wilhelmus ab Heda, in the History or Chronicle of the Bishops of Utrecht: but Heda writes that S. Adalbertus was the son of Edilbaldus, King of the Deiri, whose father was S. Oswald, King and Martyr: and so in the Appendix of Mabillon he is feigned the brother of S. Edmund, King and Martyr, and is said to have reigned 37 years before him. All these things we reject as figments, and learn the Saint's age more certainly from the age of S. Willibrord, who with his companions was sent into Frisia about the year 710, and labored there many years, even to the 44th year of that century: whether S. Adalbertus preceded him in dying, or followed him, is not said. Yet from the fact that in the Acts of S. Boniface, who succeeded Willibrord in the care of the Frisians, no mention is made of Adalbertus, it becomes probable that he died first: as also it is credible that he, who is here called a Levite, was advanced to the Order of the Diaconate. This S. Adalbertus is commemorated and solemnly venerated on this day, the 25th of June, on which in the Acts he is said to have died, The cult of the Saint and to have shone with very many miracles wrought in him. Nor through heresy does that cult universally cease, but still among Catholics in the whole Province of Utrecht an Office is held of him under a double rite, whose Antiphons and Responsories with the Lessons of the second Nocturn are taken from those Acts which are in circulation, and this Prayer is recited of him: Rouse up, we beseech thee, O Lord, in thy Church the Spirit whom B. Adalbertus the Levite served, that, filled with the same, we may strive to love what he loved, and to practice in work what he taught. His memory is inserted in the manuscript Martyrologies of S. Martin of Trier, of S. Richarius of Centula, of S. Gudula of Brussels, and others with the Florarium, both manuscript and printed in 1490 at Cologne and Lübeck; and in the Auctaria of Grevenus and Molanus on Usuard, and in the latter's Index and Natales of the Saints of Belgium. The revisers and amplifiers of the present Roman Martyrology followed, in which these things are read: In Holland, of S. Adalbertus the Confessor, disciple of S. Willibrord the Bishop. The same Ghinius reckons among the Canons; among the Benedictines Trithemius, Wion, Menardus, Bucelinus: the same Canisius inscribed in the German Martyrology, Saussay in the Gallican, and Wilson in the English; Joannes Velde, in the Westphalian Calendars lately collected, and not yet printed, calls him the Apostle of Twente and of Drenthe and of the neighboring places.

[6] Finding Henschenius's commentary thus far, I felt myself impelled to inquire from Alkmaar, near Egmond, it still flourishes at Egmond. in what state was the matter of the Abbey of Egmond, and whether anything of the old religion survived. And it was answered by our man, procuring there the Catholic cause, Florentius Montfortius, once my dearest disciple, that the citizens of Egmond are almost still all Catholics, and each year most religiously celebrate the feast of their old Patron in his oratory, and not rarely are our men summoned thither from Alkmaar to deliver the panegyric. The aforenamed Adrianus Westphalen added further, in special letters to me; A view of the Abbey destroyed since the year 1572. that the whole Abbey lies in ruins, since about the year 1572, in which the Governor Snoy there had his quarters for the Geuzen Beggars; raging with such fury against all the dwellings of the Monks and the church itself, that he left not even where his soldiers could be received, so that they were compelled to spend the night under the open sky, or to make themselves huts from brushwood among the rubble of the walls. Yet he asserted that there survives part of a thick tower built of tufa, and part of the church among the ruins of two little towers, with, standing above, the effigy of S. Peter in red marble; the name being added in letters almost Greek, drawn after the Greek manner from top to bottom on both sides, which mean only as if it were written plainly in Latin form, Saint Peter. He wrote that the appearance of the rest of the building, as it was before the ruin, could be known from a prospect delineated from that part where the place receives the southwest wind. This delineation, therefore, received from him, engraved on copper for the memory of posterity, receive.

[7] The body of S. Adalbertus (as also several other things, partly entire, The Relics being dispersed partly with a notable portion remaining) was enclosed by a chest of notable appearance and price: which the rapacity of those harpies dissipated, together with the sacred relics and the rest of the treasure of the place, unless perhaps the Monks fleeing to the high monasteries of their order, with the last Abbot of the place, Nicolaus Niulandius, were able to carry off something with them, which yet where it is (if perhaps it be anything) is not yet known. there survives a well salutary to those drinking. A well girt with stone, in the place of the Saint's first burial, gushing with sweet water, the frequent devotion of pilgrims still celebrates; and from the drinking of its water it reports frequent benefits of healings, of which the above-praised Adrianus professes himself a witness; but that there is no one who receives them in an authentic writing: as neither almost elsewhere through those confederated provinces, lest occasion be given to the heretics, ready to mock everything, of more petulantly blaspheming the Saints, whose surviving memories here and there they would wish utterly abolished. Meanwhile water taken thence is carried even into distant parts with the best success, and confers the hoped-for benefits on the sick. Yet some years ago the concourse of pilgrims to that fountain began to diminish, and to increase to a certain half-ruined chapel at Heiloo, where another similar well is held under the name of S. Willibrord.

[8] The Chronicle of Egmond, praised by Henschenius, was written by Joannes Gerbrandus a Leydis, a Carmelite, Prior of the Convent of Haarlem, in the time of Nicolaus de Adrichem the Abbot, and thus it was lately printed in Holland by that most distinguished man, the Antecessor of Law in the Illustrious Academy of Leiden, Antonius Matthaeus. The Chronicle of Egmond lately published. But Joannes seems to have lived until the year 1524. For down to this very year is found the same Chronicle, in a somewhat more polished style, transcribed by second labors perhaps by the Author himself, not without the addition of several genealogical Stemmata and Epitaphs; and such has the aforenamed Adrianus Westphalen at Alkmaar in a triple copy; with one of which I collated ours, and copied the later additions, and the last two chapters not yet printed. The aforesaid Curator of the Holland edition, in the recently passed jubilee year 1700, published and sent me his Volume IV of the Analects of the old age, in which is contained the Chronicle of Wilhelmus, Monk and Procurator of Egmond, from the year 647 to the year 1333; where on page 2 he briefly mentions the faith preached by S. Adalbertus, and the miracles and cult persevering to his own times. Whether and how far Joannes Gerbrandus used it, I have not yet been permitted to examine; only the most learned Editor of the Egmond Chronicle comes to be excused, lest anyone impute to him the typographical error in the title, by which the Author, whom he himself in more than one place professes to have been a Carmelite, is ascribed to the Order of Preachers. Yet that edition, such as it is, made me dismiss the plan I had taken of collecting the Acts of the Abbots of Egmond from both manuscripts, which would otherwise have been a not incongruous Appendix to these Acts of S. Adalbertus; and the more easily I set aside that thought, perhaps to be resumed elsewhere, because the bulk of the present month and volume would hardly suffer itself to be augmented by such a Commentary, neither quite necessary nor wholly new, although I should have made it shorter, the Acts of the Counts of Holland and of other Nobles being cut away, and matters more memorable to the rest of the world, which, inserted in the same Chronicle, and easily and better to be found elsewhere, uselessly augment the history of the Abbots.

LIFE

Described by the Monks of Mettlach.

Adalbertus the Deacon, at Egmond in Holland (S.)

BY THE MONKS OF METTLACH, FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

[1] Being about to give the entire Acts, as I promised, and about to reduce them to fewer chapters, and to transform what had been Chapters into as many Articles or numbers; I judged it fitting to subjoin together the titles of the old division.

I. How S. Egbert, Bishop of the Northumbrians, deserting his fatherland out of regard for God, migrated into Ireland; and S. Adalbertus followed him thither with very many.

II. How S. Egbert was forbidden from heaven to go to win the peoples of Germany; and destined in his stead SS. Willibrord and Adalbertus.

III. How S. Willibrord with his companions was directed to Frisia.

IV. How S. Adalbertus strove for the perfection of all virtues.

V. How S. Adalbertus promised Eggo that he would return from his fatherland when the seeds of an apple should grow green again from the fire.

VI. How, on S. Adalbertus's return, the burned apple-seeds bore fruit.

VII. How S. Adalbertus, perfected in virtues, migrated from this life.

VIII. Concerning this, that the oratory of S. Adalbertus was never abandoned by the servants of God.

IX. How the woman Escwar, through the merits of S. Adalbertus, obtained a child.

X. Concerning this, that in the holy man's oratory a beam at first shorter afterward stood out longer than the rest.

XI. How a peasant was punished and freed on account of a stolen cheese.

XII. How a hill of heaped sand was removed from his oratory.

XIII. How S. Adalbertus appeared in sleep to a certain woman consecrated to God; and admonished that his body be raised from the tomb.

XIV. How a salutary spring was found beneath the sarcophagus of the man of God; and that miracles

shone forth at the deposition of the holy Body.

XV. How Count Theodericus built a wooden oratory, and caused the holy treasure to be led thither.

XVI. How Sigifridus was punished, and after penance freed.

XVII. By how wonderful a contrivance Count Theodericus was freed from the peril of a river.

XVIII. How the younger Theodericus built a stone basilica, removing the life of the Nuns, and instituting the Monastic life.

XIX. How the son of the younger Theodericus, Egbert by name, afterward Archbishop of Trier, escaped a fever through the merits of B. Adalbertus.

XX. On the restitution of Erlinda's sight.

XXI. On the enlightenment of Wolmar the Presbyter.

XXII. On the very great restoration of the sick, and that the merits of the blessed man have the greatest power against demons.

XXIII. On the son of Count Ruoschinus cured.

XXIV. On an infant cured, who could not suck.

XXV. Concerning this, that the pallium, with which the holy man's body was long veiled, after the burning of the oratory was found unburned.

XXVI. On a certain parricide, bound, and freed through the merits of S. Adalbertus.

OTHER MIRACLES.

I. On a marine irruption, divinely prohibited from the monastery of the Saint.

II. On those who were injurious to the Saint, mulcted with a terrible punishment.

III. On a one-eyed woman enlightened.

IV. On a Presbyter enlightened, and very many cured through S. Adalbertus.

V. How, by the counsel of certain ones, an old church was destroyed.

VI. How, by the merits of S. Adalbertus, the place of Egmond was restored to a better state.

VII. On a craftsman and a peasant, freed from the peril of death.

VIII. Likewise the like.

IX. Concerning this, that, an inundation having occurred, rain did not fall upon the reliquary of the Saint.

X. On a servant, falling from a high place, and not at all hurt.

XI. How a machine of timbers, falling with the workmen, did not hurt them.

XII. On the dedication of the same church.

Likewise other miracles.

CHAPTER I.

Things gloriously done in his life and death.

[1] We read in the Ecclesiastical histories that a Egbert, breathed upon by heavenly desire, left his fatherland, his parents, and all the throng of his kindred nobility; and, out of zeal for pilgrimage, and ardor for a more retired life, withdrew into Ireland: S. Adalbertus, disciple of S. Egbert the Presbyter. where, when by a more abundant advance of virtues and an evidence of healings he showed himself notable to very many, it happened by divine help that he made for himself many followers. Bede, book 3, chapter 27 Eagerly, therefore, there flocked to him swarms both of the English and of the Scots, eager to live under his discipline by voluntary deliberation: to whom S. Adalbertus, joined like a more generous bee, undertook the institutes of a stricter life not sluggishly, as afterward appeared. For he directed his acts to the example of his pious teacher; and, like a clean animal, whatever good he had perceived by hearing, he ruminated with his mouth. He was not favorably puffed up with plausible science, but unceasingly increased by effectual exhibition: and thus, running the narrow way of the divine commandments, in a short space he obtained the breadth of heavenly virtues.

[2] Meanwhile the man of the Lord Egbert, mighty in daily successes in God, hindered by him, that he himself should not go to Germany, thought little of looking out for his own salvation alone: but, for the affluence of the benignity implanted in him, he burned to profit many in common: especially that those whom he knew to be still infected with the stain of paganism, by the help of holy preaching he might lead to the wholesomeness of Christianity. Hearing, therefore, that the peoples of Germany were ensnared more tenaciously than all in the error of unbelief (as those who, for their ferocity, were until that time almost inaccessible to the promoters of the divine word), he set his mind to go thither, if perhaps, the supernal grace cooperating, he could make of the sons of perdition sons of reconciliation. And when he was more laboriously pressing on with this expedition, he was forbidden by a divine oracle from carrying it out. But the holy man, neither able nor willing to oppose God's ordinance; chose those whom he should destine in his stead, suited to so great a work both by merit of sanctity and efficacy of erudition: first Wigbert was sent, and he sent first b Wigbert, a Presbyter of most sincere conversation: who, having long and much sweated and struggled with the barbarous rigidity, shuddering at the unconvertible perfidy, returned with the business unaccomplished. But the most prudent man, knowing well that one must never despair of God's mercy; substituted other ministers to the office of the same preaching, namely a man of Apostolic grace, c Willibrord the Presbyter, and that most illustrious Confessor of Christ (of whom we have spoken before), Adalbertus, then SS. Willibrord, Adalbertus, and ten others. with ten others, fervent with the same heat of faith: so that some of them, after manifold contests of the struggle entered upon, attained the palm of Martyrdom; others, after ascending and nobly governing the grade of the highest Pontificate, rested in peace.

[3] These propagators, then, of the Christian religion and champions of the sacred faith, both by the Father's command and by their own deliberation, gaping for the work of the Gospel, crossing the perils of the spacious sea, the governance of divine piety being auspicious, were all gladly set down at the desired port: and approaching the most strenuous Duke d Pippin, were received by him with all veneration, supported by the authority of Duke Pippin, they go to Frisia: and at all times treated with the most honorable convenience of hospitality. When he learned the causes of their coming and the tenor of their pious intention, he forthwith sent them, supported by his protection, strengthened by his authority, to Frisia lately acquired by arms, to be acquired for Christ through their ministry. And not long after, when now the excellent cultivators of the reasonable new fields saw, the seeds of their labor having been cast, the increase fructify; with the assent of fraternal unanimity, with the connivance of the aforesaid Prince, they direct S. Willibrord to Rome, to be promoted by the e Apostolic [See] to the Order of the Archpresulate. and S. Willibrord is constituted Bishop. Which being obtained, he returns to the work begun, and obtains the prerogative of an Episcopal See in the fortress of Utrecht. But what was the quality of his life, or with what sweat he strove in the dispensing of preaching, with what and how great miracles he flashed, the book of his deeds clearly opens to those wishing to know: for we have foretasted these few things, for the attestation of the virtues of our most holy Father Adalbertus; who was the most unfailing companion and cooperator in effecting all these things: henceforth let us accommodate an article to his particularity, as the Lord shall grant.

[4] There was, then, in B. Adalbertus so great a gentleness of morals, that his sweetness allured all to the imitation of him. Whatever he persuaded by words in commanding, S. Adalbertus, courteous, he showed beforehand by deeds in executing; reckoning himself maimed with the greatest loss, if an actual example did not accompany his words. Above all, favoring true humility, humble, he asserted that by the caution of this all other things are preserved. But it seems superfluous to relate the magnitude of his love: loving the salvation of others, since this was the cause that he left his fatherland, his neighbors, and all the comforts of his native soil. And lest in relating we delay more than is just, let this alone suffice to have been said for a compendium; that he was so initiated into the individual virtues, that he never was lacking to the joining of the Cardinal ones. And this was to the most holy man the unwearied continuation of spiritual warfare, until the tail of the victim was redolent to be burned in the holocaust; according to which the Lord says: He who shall persevere even unto the end, this one shall be saved. Matt. 10:14 Fortified and crowned with such preparations, the most eminent hero, f going whithersoever, watched for the winning of souls.

[5] Yet more often he remained at a place called Hagmunda Egmond, and by its retreats he dwells at Egmond: he for a while declined the frequency of importunity. Where, among many whom the fame of his virtues had attracted, a certain one named Eggo, g coming to him, in a short time having obtained his familiarity, making use of the hospitality of Eggo, clung more attentively to his fellowship; so much that the man of God Adalbertus more frequently used his hospitality; and by a happy recompense he reaped his carnal things, to whom he sowed spiritual ones. To strengthen also the tenor of this charity, he received his son from the sacred font; and, as was fitting, held him intimate in very many of his secrets. It happened one day at supper, while he was being delighted with the usual conversations, that the holy Father professed to his friend that he wished to revisit his fatherland and parents, that he might also be able to impart to them something of spiritual grace. But he, taking it too grievously to be frustrated of the presence of so great benignity, began to inquire about his return with tearful curiosity. With whose pious solicitude the man full of God, he promises a return, when the seeds of an apple should revive from the fire, with placid consideration, having compassion; throwing into the fire the remainder of an apple, which by chance he was carrying in his hand; When, said he, the seeds, set in twigs, shall have fructified by burning; me, God being propitious, thou shalt have at thy disposal in returning. These things said, S. Adalbertus gave his attention to the transmarine expedition, and brought the long-awaited blessing of his coming to his native region. Where, having tarried a while, by words and examples he allured many to the imitation of him, because the supernal grace always preceded and followed, accompanying the man of God wheresoever he turned. And thus, wholly intent on winning souls, he mitigated the harshness of present labor by the intention of future reward.

[6] Meanwhile the aforesaid Eggo, a most avid estimator of the man of God's promise, thirsted for his return with unceasing vows. But that the miracle, provided for declaring the merits of the man of God, might be more magnificently exalted; it happened that the little dwelling, in which he had set the votive seeds in the fire, was burned to ashes. Who would ever believe that from a place so burned anything of greenness could emerge from anywhere? Much less hope that the remains of the coals could beget the exuberance of a fruit-bearing shoot? But to God, to whom it is wholly the same to will as to be able, nothing is difficult in effecting. Finally, the congruence of time smiling, h the same place germinated the germ of the odor of the Lord; these bringing forth fruit, he returns: and the same seeds, growing into a revived flower, fructifying not so much a miracle, as joy from the desired return of the most holy Father Adalbertus: who, having returned to Frisia according to the agreement, is received with so much more ardent unanimity of all, as his sanctity is ennobled wheresoever by a more evident attestation of virtues and by the present exhibition of his prophetic promise. Yet the holy man, instructed in every exercise of virtues, and circumspect in every part, and on every side keen-eyed against the wiles of the tempter; not regarding, on the way of his purpose, how much of the journey he had already run, but how much of the struggle remained to be measured out; thus daily strove to add something to his past observance, as if then a new recruit he were entering the service of conversion.

[7] Therefore, advancing from virtue to virtue, what he had happily begun, he more happily consummated; and, about to receive the unfading crown of his struggle, he exchanged the dark valley of tears of the present age for the paradise of delights. To Christ Jesus, therefore, to whom he faithfully clung, he piously dies on the 25th of June. on the 7th of the Kalends of July 25 June he rendered up his most holy soul: in whose presence he gladly sang; As we have heard, so also have we seen. Psalm 47 There we believe and wish him to be mindful of our miseries; and, by how much nearer to the supernal piety, by so much the more efficacious for relieving our discomforts. Above his sepulchre a church is built. But the body of the blessed man Adalbertus, most diligently buried by the faithful of that time who procured his obsequies, and committed to the earth after the manner of humanity, awaits the edict of holy resurrection. Building above it a church, as far as men still rude in such things were able, they frequented his memory: but by the onset of the Norman irruption, the church itself i was often demolished, and all things round about were more atrociously devastated.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER II.

Various miracles. The body raised by Theodericus the first Count.

[8] But God's ordinance, that it might show of what merit S. Adalbertus was, He shines with miracles: whose Relics were preserved there; so provided that there should never be lacking one who in that place might pay the due fitting service. Nor is it a wonder, if he was honored with human watchings, who daily flashed with the marks of miracles: which are so numerous, that if we should attempt to describe them one by one, we should incur the windings not only of difficulty, but even of impossibility. Wherefore it is necessary that we keep the manner of anyone approaching pleasant green plots, who, doubtful from the appearance of the flowers to be chosen, so tempers his appetite that he satisfies the usual delight, and does not succumb to an excessive burden. This too it behooves us to use as a middle course; that a compendious recitation may be, for the studious as for the fastidious, a humoring of a twofold alternation. For the rest, we hope not to labor much in establishing the credit of what is said, since it is absurd enough that a scruple be generated in the faithful, whence it is established that, God being the author, unbelievers renounced their former error. Therefore let this now be enough said: now let us return to our purpose.

[9] A certain woman, Eswar by name, devoted herself to the service of S. Adalbertus, to a widow, after the irruption of the barbarians, believing that the straits of her widowhood would be relieved by the solace of his defense. Who, when for many years she had persisted in devout services, it happened that a pirates, brought into these parts, devastated all the region round about by a hostile incursion. The possessions, then, being plundered, and the possessors reduced to captivity, the aforesaid widow, left alone, was utterly ignorant what she should do, whither she should turn: for she had not whence she might be refreshed for a moment, nor did any supply furnish whence or where she could acquire it. At last there remained no counsel, except in the accustomed benignity of S. Adalbertus: he supplies food: which, also presuming of her, he did not despise, but was to her a pious helper in her opportunities. For he daily ministered food to her from the shores of the Ocean; showing how true it is that nothing is lacking to those who fear God: nor could she feel the common loss, who more specially sought the patronage of S. Adalbertus.

[10] As time proceeded, a certain Presbyter, b Amalathus by name, a fearful executor of his office, is admonished by an Angelic oracle, by Angelic admonition the church is repaired, that in repairing the ruins of the church of the most holy Father he should persist, all delay being put aside; and that he might not be recalled from effecting it by the interval of any doubt, he had as sharers of the same revelation three men, as religious as the lay condition admits: who, relating all things agreeing with their vision, contributed much alacrity and incitement to this deliberation. Therefore, workmen being collected from everywhere, the divinely enjoined work was fervently pursued. And when the craftsmen of this structure considered the timber-material conveyed, they found one beam much shorter than the rest. a beam being made longer by divine power By which detriment to their work being not moderately afflicted, they deferred the sequel of the matter to the following day. Morning come, assembling to that very thing, they perceived divine aid to be present. For the beam, which by its shortness threatened them the difficulty of labor; not only equaled the others, but even wonderfully stood out beyond. Rejoicing, therefore, they pressed on the work begun the more carefully, the more surely they saw themselves accompanied by signs of virtues. But the same place, consecrated by the most holy pledge, since it seems contiguous to the shore of the sea, and through this lies exposed to piratical infestation; it is not to be passed over in silence, by how powerful a compassion, by the merits of the holy Man, it was frequently exempted from this trouble. For the barbarians many times, free from the incursion of the pagans. approaching it and almost applying to the harbor, by the intervention of a cloud cast against them from heaven losing their view, are seen to be eluded in the attempts of their perversity. By the assiduity of which miracle a fitting name seems to have been given to it, that it should be called c Hagmunda, as it were a place cleansed from the irruption of hostile incursions; whence it came to pass that not only by Christians, but even by Pagans it was not moderately frequented; so much that by frequent oblations they expressed the instance of their devotion. For no querulous complainer departed thence with his vow frustrated, none who bewailed the losses of perished labor. But that there the severity of divine power is the more to be dreaded, where the bountifulness of his grace has more freely nourished, may be weighed from the subsequent miracle: for he himself works in his Saints, all of whose ways are mercy and truth.

[11] A certain peasant, persuaded by inconsiderate rashness, Having stolen a cheese offered to the Saint, he gnaws his fingers. did not fear to steal a cheese offered at the pledges of the blessed man. While, having slipped into the density of the standing grain, he attempted to enjoy the eating of it; he could obtain no efficacy of his desire: but, that by the most just tenor of equity he himself might punish in himself what he had committed when of sound mind; he gnawed the very fingers of his hands for the stolen fodder. When his master learned this, he ordered him to be led to the most sacred Relics without interval of delay. Where, having obtained the supernal benignity from the health granted to him; by legal tradition he was made the property of that church. Truly the merits of so great a man are to be extolled with magnificent praises: by whose worthy help a worthy vengeance did not swallow up the rash one, but a pious correction raised him to a better state.

[12] At another time also, a thing wonderful enough happened. For from the continual eruption of a sea-tempest (as is known to those who have either seen the sea or inhabit places contiguous to it) a sandy hill is removed from the oratory. a very great supply of the sands of the shore is carried up: which, the force of the winds pressing on, is heaped into such great mounds, that it seems to be made equal to the highest mountains. A perfusion of this kind, then, too near, at a certain time settled at the holy man's oratory. To which when by chance d Roric, King of the barbarians, had come, he enjoined all who obeyed him, that they should more quickly remove the sandy hill from the sacred building. When on the following morning it had pleased all to fulfill it; they found the aforesaid hill of sand, through the merits of the most holy Adalbertus, removed farther off as far as a stone-throw can be cast; the affluence of supernal goodness shining forth, which gave even to an unbelieving man manifest indications of how much his beloved one avails with him.

[13] The lovable Confessor of Christ Adalbertus appeared in sleep to a certain Nun, having the name Wilffit; e announcing that the most precious bones of his body, By a triple Vision which after the manner of the rest they held buried more deeply under the earth, they should place raised more eminently in the sight of all; namely for more effectually inciting the devotion of the faithful, and for more presently obtaining the intervention of his merits. And lest perchance the scruple of any ambiguity should have offended faith, he deigned to certify the aforesaid woman by three visions. Count Theodericus being admonished, the sacred bones are raised Who, lest she be bound by the guilt of disobedience, no sluggish intimater to Theodericus the first Count, who possessed that same place by right of property, as now his posterity retain it, hastened to suggest to him what was revealed to her through sleep. But he, as he always showed himself a prompt and dutiful worker in those things which are of religion; so in executing these things, which the Nun had related, was a swift executor. Therefore, whatever things were fitting for such a work being prepared, he caused the holy pledges to be raised.

[14] covered by an incorrupt pallium Then beneath the sarcophagus was found a spring, clear with wonderful limpidity; which even to the present day, for recovering health with enclosed hope, remains suitable for many. And the little place being opened,

and a spring bursts forth beneath: the pallium with which the Saint's body was veiled, that the liveliness of him resting might be apprehended, was seen immune from all corruption of decay. f

[15] But the aforesaid Count, in the place which is called Hallen, [the same are transferred to an oratory erected for that purpose: the blind and lame are healed:] built an oratory of timber-material: and, a day being appointed on which the unanimous devotion of the faithful could assemble, he caused the holy treasure to be led thither. In which venerable office of the conveyance how many destitute of health were restored may be gathered in no small number; especially indeed the restored ornament of light sported with the blind; and whatsoever steps weakness enervated, the re-digested framework of the limbs raised up. O fountain of divine piety, ever overflowing with inestimable rivers of compassions! Behold, the most holy Confessor, whose soul, in the true security of beatitude, was in need of nothing, seems to exhort that the joints of his left body be raised higher, be honored with brighter coffers. Is there in one placed in heavenly conspicuousness this delectableness, to whom, while dwelling carnally, all the beauty of earth grew worthless? Far be this credulity from pious minds. But he who, set in this pilgrimage, never lacked the bowels of charity; now abiding in his fatherland, ceases not to remember compassion and mercy. He wishes, therefore, the Relics of his holy body to be more manifestly handled, that the hearts of those beholding, kindled by the goad of compunction, may more easily deserve to be fitted for obtaining the help of the Divinity. He wishes to be celebrated with a more magnificent frequency, that more and more, in the memory of future glory, the desires of good things may be able to be enlarged. Now let us see what follows.

[16] But while they were eagerly laboring in the construction of the aforesaid oratory, a certain one named Sigifridus, disdaining to collaborate, is punished. disdaining to imitate the fervor of his companions, was deprived of all mobility and function of his limbs. Who, after, moved by salutary penance, he came to knowledge of himself; the vigor being received without delay, he was freed from the contraction of his whole body.

[17] It happened also in winter time, while all things had been bound by sharp cold, that the above-named Count Theodericus, sitting in a vehicle, was being drawn over the surface of a certain very deep lake, covered with icy stiffness. But, Count Theodericus escapes the peril of drowning. as such a passage is known to be perilous, those touching now almost the middle, while the thinness of the ice did not equal the impression of the weight, threatened, being broken, its deadly abyss: whence, all being put to flight by trembling, the Count was left alone. Who, when he saw human aid utterly lacking, with all his sighs fled to the more frequently experienced patronage of B. Adalbertus; through whose intervention he deserved a swift obtaining of his petition. For, what is wonderful to say, where a scarcely credible bottom is held, the water could not swallow him hanging at the surface; it presumed only to lick as far as the borders of his girdle. Thus indeed both he himself, being freed, escaped the peril, and all things that were borne placed in the vehicle were freed.

NOTES OF G. H.

CHAPTER III.

The stone basilica erected. Miracles proved in the time of the Writer.

[18] Nor are those miracles to be withdrawn from memory which, in the times of a the younger Theodericus, namely the son of the aforesaid Count, In the stone basilica handed over to the Monks the body is honored. we ourselves saw declared. For he, a most fervent emulator of his father's devotion, in honor of the holy Confessor of Christ Adalbertus, built a stone basilica not without great difficulty: since this land, thin with sandy slenderness, is exceedingly destitute of the opportunity of stones and lime. The pledge also of the holy body, enclosed in a sarcophagus, he adorned with the elegant artifice of the work: and lest anything should be lacking to him, in the reward of future beatitude, of perfect remuneration; he established cultivators of monastic observance to attend to God there: to whom also he furnished sufficiency for daily food from his revenues. For by his father's institution the life of Nuns formerly flourished there: but on account of the more frequently imminent trouble of Frisian ferocity, the means by no means furnished them for the observance of their purpose.

[19] This Count, then, of such excellent liberality, begot a son, b Egbert by name; whom, out of regard for divine fear, he caused to be assigned by the lot of the Clericate. They are healed; Egbert the Count's son from a Fever Who, while now in adult age he was performing the ministry of the Subdiaconate, in a certain year on the day following Palm Sunday, was invaded by a strong force of fevers: by whose bitterness, until the festivity of the holy man, which is on the 7th of the Kalends of July 25 June, he was grievously vexed. But when, by confidence in the merits of the most pious Confessor, he resolved to be present with the others at the sacred festivity; he was so utterly freed from all adverse health, as if he had never been afflicted by it: and glad at the escape from so great a plague, he attended with devotion the solemnities of the Masses of his ministry. This, finally, is the Egbert who, after obtaining from God the infula of the Archpresulate, both with most lively ardor of religion and with the most moderate balance of discretion, ruled the Church of Trier.

[20] The same Count had a dearest daughter, named Erlinda, and the eye of Erlinda his daughter, who was long frustrated of the use of one eye. But how should she not feel so great a Confessor placable to her, whom her father's diligence made a debtor by so many munificences? She received, therefore, her sight, rejoicing more from the benefit of restitution, than if she had never lacked the natural function.

[21] There was likewise of the nation of the English a certain Presbyter, named Wolmarus, who through the revolution of twenty years a Presbyter blind for 20 years could have utterly no gladness of sight: whence, having traversed many places of the Saints, he came also to Rome, that he might obtain the recovery of the light taken away. But the supernal piety, which through the Apostolic merit has been made manifest in frequent and manifold ways, deferred the health of this man, for declaring the patronage of S. Adalbertus. For while he was returning from the Roman city, drawn by the fame of the curing of many, he strove to go to Egmond: and coming to the place of the most salutary spring, which we mentioned above as found beneath the little place of the holy body; after he had refreshed his eyes with a triple washing of the liquid, he departed gifted with most serene light.

[22] In modern time also very many of the blind, the lame, and other various sick, and those debilitated by other varieties of sicknesses, through the most efficacious merits of S. Adalbertus, were restored to entire invigoration: whose names or number we have forborne to collect, lest, by a wordy wandering of style, we should perhaps inflict upon readers any tedium. But this is to be commended to most certain faith, and the demoniacs, that although this place is fruitful with incomparable medication of the sick; yet especially it rejoices in the liberation of demoniacs: for whosoever shall have come hither captivated by madness of this kind, shall glory in the obtaining of most entire redemption. For why should not the demons shun the power of the Confessor triumphing with Christ, whose inescapable struggle they experienced when he warred in the flesh?

[23] There was also a certain urbane Count, having the name Ruosckin, an incurable sick man, whose mansion's dwelling was known to be not far from the blessed man's monastery. He, forewarned by divine instinct, had devoted his son to be consigned there to divine services, and to be imbued with the regular institutes. But afterward, while he showed himself both unmindful of so great a supernal inspiration and a transgressor of his own promise; the boy, falling into an immense ill-health, was held by all incurable; until, handed over to the altar of the holy man by a regular oblation, he was freed: evidently insinuating that the perfidy of the paternal defrauding was the cause of his languor. Happy indeed, whose momentary sickness became both the correction of paternal rashness, and the occasion of his eternal salvation.

[24] A certain woman, dwelling not far from the convent of the excellent father, happened to bear a boy; who, for twenty days utterly abhorring the nourishment of milk, an infant abhorring to suck the breasts. held the maternal breasts in contempt. It might perhaps be held wonderful and incredible, were it not amply proved by the relation of truthful witnesses. The parents, therefore, considering that human counsel was not profitable to such a peril; offering the same boy to the altar of B. Adalbertus, commended him to be healed by his patronage. But soon the boy, invigorated with natural strength, began more avidly to long to suck. Who would not in this attend to the wonderful order of divine dispensation? There is withdrawn, then, from this little one the natural affection of nourishment, that both the excellence of so great a Confessor in curing may be made plain, and the observance of a loftier purpose may be provided for the same little one. In this may be weighed, that the issue of divine disposition is never free from the predestination of good, but is always engaged in the provision of winning souls.

[25] The oratory also of the most celebrated Father, preserved with less than just vigilance of its guardians, The pallium, with which the sacred bones were covered, unhurt by the fire. was twice devastated by the plundering of fire. But he who, neither slumbering nor sleeping, preserves Israel, so punished the injury of the negligent, that he declared the eminence of the merits of the Saint resting there. For all things deposited there being burned to ashes by the violence of the flames; only the pallium, which deserved to veil the most sacred Body, remained free from this burning. Let no one, therefore, be dulled with the madness of so foolish a mind, as to wish to prejudge the power of this Saint, because he did not preserve the church ascribed to himself immune from fire: for God, who in his Saints is a wonderful worker, is a propitiable hearer of the humble and of those walking in his precepts: to those withered by negligence and sloth, he urges the admonitions of his most merciful patience; but to the proud, and to those persisting in the path of perversity, he writes the sentence of most just vindication. He, finally, in the burning of the things of this church, roused the incautious; but in the preservation of the pallium, decreed to provide hope of obtaining to the devout, and to those seeking holy suffrages.

[26] In our times also, for declaring the illustrious marks of the holy man's virtues, I shall proceed to set forth a miracle shown by divine power: that the more devoutly, in the debt of his veneration, the mind may grow warm again among Christian peoples, the more the bountiful efficacy of signs has frequently regarded him to be glorified with heavenly benediction. For in the transmarine parts a certain man, mighty with infinite opulence of riches, the cruel cupidity of rapacity inflaming him, the lands of his nephews, which had fallen to them by hereditary right from paternal

succession, on account of their possessions seized he strove by unjust invasion to reduce to his own uses. Whom when both through relatives and friends, and those near by blood, they besought with manifold prayers that he would restrain his wicked attempts; saying that it did not befit him to covet others' things, as one who was sufficient with his own; he answered nothing worthy of reason: but, spurning the exhortations of his friends, what malice he had long pondered in mind, he betrayed by the exhibition of a most wicked work, and ordered his colonists to cultivate the unjustly possessed lands. Meanwhile the fierce spirits of the young men were more vehemently stirred to wrath: and the wicked things which, provoked by such injuries, they were compelled to think, they did not more obstinately fear to bring forth in words; namely, that they preferred to undergo any dangers, than to lack their paternal fields. Thence are stirred up wraths, brawls, dissensions: military bands flatter the parties: at last by a savage example a parricidal war arises; battle-lines of warriors are produced on both sides. the nephews slay their uncle, Then the brothers german, with conspired hand prompt to repay a like turn for the contumelies received, lay their uncle, having suffered dire wounds, low upon the ground, and (which is a crime to say) deliver him to death.

[27] But after a space of time, God, not willing that sinners perish perpetually, sent upon them repentance of so great a crime. Soon without delay they approach the Bishop who, repenting, bind themselves with swords turned into chains: to whose diocese they belonged; and proclaim with tearful voices that they have sinned, that they are guilty: and they besought with all the prayer of their heart that the wound of the crime committed be healed with a fitting antidote, so that with the iron by which they had perpetrated the guilt, he should order them to be bound for so long; until he who is wont by his gratuitous grace to remit sins should have decreed by his judgment to absolve them. And so the Pontiff did not refuse, namely lest, so great a crime being unpunished, their souls should afterward be tortured by the inextinguishable fire of perpetual punishment. Whence, when they were made possessed of good counsel (for one of them had bound his arm, a thong being made from the hilt of the sword; but the other had bound himself with the sword itself, as with a breast-band) they went round many places of the Saints; that by their suffrages they might at some time obtain pardon of their crimes, to whose vows they knew the Lord most swiftly to assent. Then with equal zeal of devotion they hasten to the Convent of Nivelles, and one is freed at S. Gertrude's, where with wonderful grace of signs the holy Virgin Gertrude shines forth: that they too might experience by the benefit how much it befitted them to honor the merit of God's handmaid. Where, when for a while, an outpoured shower of tears having flowed, they devoted themselves to prayer; on account of the merit of the blessed Virgin, one deserved from the Lord the loosing of his bond, whence the bystanders were filled with no small joy. But the other, while he more earnestly prayed that the divine aid be present to him, the other at S. Adalbertus's. deserved to receive this answer from the Lord, that with all haste he should hasten to the thresholds of the sacred hall of the Levite of Christ Adalbertus; and there should know himself to be loosed from the bond by which he had bound himself by his own vow. And so he began to seek out the place unknown to him, named to him as Egmond by an Angelic saying in sleep: nor did he make plain to anyone what he wished to seek there, but only that he had it in mind to visit it for the sake of prayer. And just as desires, heaven-inspired, are always brought to effect by divine grace; although with difficult step, yet he came to the long-desired place: and there, some days being spent abroad, with undoubting hope he awaits the gift of the loosing once promised to him by God. And when at some time, as he had always been wont, he was present at the hour of the divine Office before the divine face of the image of our Lord Jesus Christ; suddenly that iron armlet is broken without hands: that it might be openly given to understand, that S. Adalbertus had merited these things by his merits, because he was not ashamed to bear the stigmata of the Cross in his body. Soon the admiration of the people grew, the hymn-singing company of the monks gives thanks: and because they deserved to have such a Pastor, they together praise the Lord, the bestower of good things.

[28] These things concerning the life and virtues of the most renowned Confessor of Christ Adalbertus the cowled ones of the convent of Mettlach composed; Epilogue. by command of the most Serene Lord of that same monastery above-named, namely the highest Prelate Egbert: who is eminent as a most skillful and unwearied procurator of honest things, and of those profitable to divine worship. Whosoever, therefore, shall have this little book in his hands, let him not regard the grossness of a dull genius, nor the discordance of uncultivated rusticity: nor let him accuse them of rashness, who did not weigh the weakness of their strength against the immensity of the burden: because he subjects himself to greater peril who does not dread the harm of disobedience, than he who neglects to weigh the measure of his own possibility with regard to obeisance. c Therefore whatever uncooked thing the slenderness of the writers has brought forth, let the authority of him who commanded strengthen this. And just as it is not regarded from how despicable persons, but how shining and precious is the gold which is offered; so in this little work let not the genius of the dictators be spurned, but let it be considered how praiseworthy and acceptable to God was the life of B. Adalbertus, which the supernal grace made to shine with so many flashings of virtues. Finally, no loss comes to one meditating soundly, if the exuberance of leaves does not overshadow his tongue, when his mind, sweetened by the odor and savor of the fruits, grows fat. Let the mind of the reader, therefore, learn to have compassion on the writer's inexperience, if he desires to imitate the Life of S. Adalbertus the Confessor, which with pious curiosity he seeks. For from the root of fraternal condescension, the soul of the Saint will more justly have sprouted to behold the sublimity of the Creator; whence, regarding us with merciful hearing, may he be both a most clement intervener for our guilts, and a most prompt reliever of the straits of our tribulation; he himself assenting, who, coming from the supernal seats of the heavens, became the consolation of the wretched, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one and true God, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES OF G. H.

OTHER MIRACLES

Written by an Egmond Monk in the 12th century.

Adalbertus the Deacon, at Egmond in Holland (S.)

BHL Number: 0034, 0036

BY THE MONKS OF METTLACH, FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

[1] Since it is pious and honorable to preach God in his Saints; Prologue. the miracles which, through his blessed Confessor Adalbertus, the hand of the Lord has wrought, and assiduously works, in our times, either which we ourselves have seen, or which we have learned by the sure relation of venerable men still surviving; although unskilled in speech, we cannot, nor do we esteem it just, to pass over in silence. From the undertaking of which work, while ignorance long deterred us, and shame turned us away; compelled by the instance of the Brothers, who, out of devotion to the Saint, compelled us to the pen; we have thought it more advisable to obey their affectionate will, than by silence to consult private convenience or shame. Whosoever, therefore, shall deign to approach this work, let him not require the trappings of words, with which our rusticity is little supported; but let him attend to the series of things, and the magnitude of the miracles of the Blessed Confessor; nor let him think the words of virtues, as the gain of the tongue; but let him make the virtue of God, by serious imitation of pious work, the fruit of necessity. Of the truth of the things, moreover, let no one doubt; since both our shame, compelled to write with much labor, would have been uselessly and shamefully loosed to relating lies; nor does the Saint of the Lord need to be commended by our lie.

CHAPTER I.

The monastery protected: the malevolent punished. The blind and other sick healed.

[2] In the times, then, of a Florentius the Fat, most pious, That the Castricom people might avert from themselves the peril of inundation, the eighth Count of Holland, whose much devotion toward the Saint of the Lord and his Congregation had obtained for him prosperous successes of the present life, and good hope concerning the future; the Lord, to whom specially it is in supply to be able when he wills, through the merits of his beloved one, deigned to demonstrate such an indication of his power. A certain marsh b proceeding from the irruption of the sea, of which still great indications survive, was contiguous to the cloister of Egmond. Which for the most part in winter time, now growing strong with rainy tempest, now with the onset of the sea, so swelled up; that it could scarcely be restrained from the circuit of the cloister. This, in a certain winter, inundated more than usual, so much that to those who dwelt in the next village, namely Castricum, c it threatened no light loss, no easy peril, by the invasion of their fields and houses. But the inhabitants of that village were at that time prepotent, both in nobility of birth and in abundance of things, fortune smiling on them: which both things were the kindling and incitement of wrath, of brawl, of contention, of insolence, and of many evils in them. With swollen spirit, therefore, with armed hand, with mouth prepared for injuries, they break the dyke, made to protect the monastery, they came to Egmond, proposing to break the dyke set against those waters (which could not be done without injury to the cloister and grave loss): that while the waves ran down through other channels, they themselves might sustain less of the loss. But there is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord. These things, then, were announced to the Abbot of that place, Stephen: d who exercised the office of pastor strenuously enough, in so far as a decrepit man, and one now about, by command of the Emperor, to migrate from the garrison and station of the present life, could: whose morals that we may note in compendium, he pleasantly enjoyed the fruits of old age, namely the memory and abundance of good things, before prepared by pious labor: for he left to posterity not feeble proofs both of his strenuousness and of his labor exercised in liberal studies, namely books, which he caused to be copied both numerously and accurately for the cloister of Egmond.

[3] These things, then, being heard, the venerable old man trembled, and, fixing his downcast e gaze upon the ground, within the secret place of his heart sought counsel what he should do, but the waters are halted by the setting of the Relics against them. whither he should turn. And since in wise old men the knowledge of past things is the caution for future ones; what he was less able by strength, he supplied excellently by the hand of counsel. For he sent to those who had proceeded by rash daring to the injury of the Saint, with a certain golden shrine, one of his Brothers, Adalardus by name, who also himself afterward succeeded in the honor of the same governance; that, either terrified by the presence of the Saints, or softened by the prayers of the Brother himself (since he was a kinsman of those who were the more powerful among them), they might desist from the rashly begun injury of the most holy Confessor Adalbertus. But these, with obstinate mind, not penetrable even by the word of the Lord, returned contumelies for reverence, curses for prayers, threats for exhortation; and, an onset being made, having no regard for the fear of God, they broke the dyke set against the waters. But (wonderful to say!) as soon as the shrine of the holy Relics, with commemoration of the holy Father Adalbertus, the aforesaid Brother had set upon the waters; the air being changed into a tempest, hail and snow fell down from heaven, the waters were turned upon themselves: nor did they presume to flow out into a much more declining part, by their own voice confounding the ignorance of the imprudent, and proclaiming the merit of the Saint, whose possession they spared. By the novelty of which miracle all the enemies

turned to stupor, confounded and abashed, returned to their own. But since it is written: Into a malevolent soul wisdom will not enter, nor will it dwell in a body subject to sins; the root of pride once innate in their vicious marrow, neither did the miracle from heaven eradicate, nor could the changed natural force of the elements transmute it. Wisd. 1:4.

[4] At another time also, when the aforesaid f Adalardus was performing the office of Abbot, so great an inundation of the above-said marsh was made, that now and now, not content with its shore, the Abbot, about to turn the same elsewhere, the dyke being broken, it threatened peril likewise to the cloister. The Abbot of the place, therefore, having taken counsel with his men, found that especially which the very necessity of the matter commanded; namely that the dyke, set against its waters, since it was not allowed elsewhere, in the proper possession of the monastery he should break a little way from the cloister. And so, a few Brothers and certain ministerials of the church being taken with him, he proceeded to a place near the monastery, which they call the Sand; about to moderate the greater peril by the lesser loss, through the leading-off of the water itself. He took with him nonetheless the venerable shrine of the Relics of B. Adalbertus, lest perchance any adversity should meet him, lest the rash crowd of men of Castricum should presume to inflict any impediment, against whom he is to set them, he brings the Relics: who with ever swollen neck, with menacing horn, were contrary to the Saint of the Lord, until they were divinely restrained. Nor was his fear vain, nor his suspicion false. For scarcely was the business accomplished for which they had proceeded, when, such as we mentioned above, armed with mouth, heart, hand, for curses, for enmities, for injuries, with swords, lances, and clubs they were present, pertinacious in doing violence: who were superior both in multitude and in malice. Which seen, the Abbot with his men, who had come peaceful and unwarlike, these do not repel them with impunity; stands astonished with frozen heart, his hairs stiffened: and because neither by word of exhortation, nor by any strength of his men, could he resist this bestial ferocity; returning hastily with the holy Relics, by flight he avoided their blind onset. But because they sat on swift horses, they overtook the fleeing, afflicting all the hindmost and those slower to flight with injuries or blows.

[5] But there were on the hostile side six brothers german, in form, in strength, in riches all excelling almost their fellow-parishioners; of keen spirit, crafty, for, of the chief authors of the injury bold; given to slaughters, robberies, discord; holding divine and human things promiscuously. Three of these, namely Arnoldus, Wulbrandus, and Eilgerus, with their two cousins Sicke and Garbrandus, were more impudent in the injury of the Saint, casting reproaches and threats by words and gesture; so much that (which is a crime to say!) they struck their weapons into the most holy reliquary, vomiting forth with foaming mouth the rage of their heart. Whose names, therefore, and rash daring, we do not keep silent, that we may set forth their punishment, by what cruel and horrible animadversion they were mulcted, as a pledge of vengeance, an example of fear, an argument of caution, to the enemies of our Church and to all who arrange a testament against it. Nor did the divine vengeance proceed against them undeservedly. For since the indiscreet devotion of Uzzah, touching the ark of the Lord, was punished with death; the injury of the Saint, the elder is slain by his brother: who truly was the ark of virtues, having in himself the tables of the testament and the rod of discipline with the manna of meekness, could not nor ought to be let go unavenged. The most cruel of the brothers, therefore, namely Arnoldus, for the showing of the wrath of God, in the same place where he had been injurious to the Saint, this one is turned into madness, which is called the Sand, not long after, from his younger brother, abusing his reason, received deadly strokes of the sword in the breast and brain, the seats of reason; and trembling in his whole body and turned into fury, with worthy vengeance he sent forth his soul. But the striker, who also himself had been guilty toward the Saint of the Lord, incurring alienation of mind and suffering emptiness of brain, from rich, powerful, noble, was rolled down to such misery; that for several years begging through houses, he sought the public dole; until at last, consumed by worms, in the half of his days he ended his life.

[6] But the third of the brothers, Wulbrandus, running upon his own sword, slew himself; the third slays himself leaving the traces of a terrible example, because no one rises up against the Lord and his Saints with impunity. But Sicke, their cousin, the fourth in a short time dies miserably: within half a year, on account of the injury of the holy Confessor (for he is said also to have struck his shrine with a hunting-spear), departed from human affairs by a miserable death. But Garbrandus, since he was the nimblest of all from Castricum, strenuous for every warlike work; ready of foot, of hand for acting, the fifth touched with paralysis for running about; incurred so great an ill-health and contraction of all his limbs, that never in his life could he, not only mount a horse, but never even walk, except with supports fitted between his arms. Moreover (as those who knew him sound and infirm attest to us) his rashness, and unbridled boasting, and injury against the holy Confessor of the Lord, brought him to this extremity of miseries and calamity, that, hateful to his brothers and kinsmen, to his fellow-citizens and all his friends and connections, in a certain most vile hut, comforted by the company of no one, he remained, dragging out a miserable and degenerate life: to whom neither his hereditary estate, which uselessly abounded to him, nor the affection of his brothers, nor any fortune came to aid. Therefore, miseries succeeding, neither the Lord pitying, most miserably he wastes away, nor any of men reaching out a hand of aid, destitute in solitude, consumed by starvation, the most lost of men put off the man; warning by his example, that dust and ashes is vainly raised up, foolishly grows proud.

[7] O the ineffable abyss of the judgments of God, to whose justice it specially belongs to avenge the injuries of his Saints! others are variously punished O the admirable and pious Confessor of the Lord, who ever more keenly and more solicitously watches for the salvation of his own, than the wild rage of the wicked for their destruction! But others, authors of dissension of this kind, some with death, some with alienation of mind, or other grave punishment, were mulcted; of whose miseries we forbear to write, both lest we be a tedium to the reader, and because we hasten to other wonderful operations of our blessed Father. Let this only suffice to say, and that parish thereafter declines. that this whole parish, from that time and thenceforth, was so humbled and sat in the dust, that never further did it raise its neck against the Saint of the Lord with rash presumption: but according to that prophetic saying, she who at first had been soft and tender, is now made so vile, that she herself, with bared shoulder, takes the mill, and grinds flour: for he who is before the ages humbled them, his hand yet stretched out. Isa. 47:1. For the Lord almighty, for whom the world of the lands fights against the senseless, here assails their land with waters, g there submerges and devastates it with the sands of the sea: and now humbly they beg the suffrage of the Saint in their opportunities, toward whom foolishly once they swelled.

[8] There happened in the same season a miracle, which we learned from the relation of a certain elder of ours, a most religious man: whose authority not to believe, since his life is authority and the praise of God, They are enlightened: a woman blind in one eye, we think a crime. The Frisian nation, which dwells near to us, the fame of the virtues of the blessed Confessor Adalbertus drawing it, the peace of the times inviting, the abundances of things still favoring, had it as a perpetual custom, with much frequenting and oblations, to assemble yearly at his festivity. There came, then, with the rest a certain Frisian woman, both despised and lowly by the need of poverty, and deformed by the privation of one eye. But while others, intent on forensic businesses, consulted avarice, and a part gave their work to jests and vain wanderings and curiosity; this one did not depart from the temple of the Lord, but sent the farthing of her faith and her prayers into the treasury of divine piety, through the mediation of blessed Adalbertus. Nor did the benign Jesus defer the hearing, to whom the gift of the poor widow so much pleased, that, calling his disciples, commending it, he said: Amen I say to you, that this poor widow sent more than all who sent into the treasury. Matt. 12:43 While, then, the Gospel was being read, See, watch, and pray; the Saint praying, who with the eyes of both the inner and outer man had truly seen, prudently watched; the eye of the poor woman, lulled by long blindness, awoke to behold the pleasantness of this light. Id. 13:33.

[9] Likewise, the yearly festivity of B. Adalbertus the most pious Confessor presenting itself, and a blind Presbyter: there came with the rest a certain Presbyter, wearied, besides the labor of the journey (for he testified that he had come from Jerusalem), by the discomfort of old age, poverty, blindness: whose enlightenment, since he had gone round very many places of the Saints for the grace of curing; the Lord indeed deferred, that he might make known to peoples and nations how much his beloved one avails with him. While, then, the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, by the leader of his journey, a staff supporting him, he was led to the bier of the Saint, to which very many for the grace of oblations were approaching in throngs: and while he indulges the devotion of his heart and tearful prayers, so great an itching of the eyes invaded him, that not only with fingers and fists did he rub them, but even dashed them against the stones of the pavement; and the vessels of light, empty of sight, full of filth, to be filled with grace, by bloodying and purging, he prepared apt for light. Nor was there delay: he received the light of his eyes, not without the admiration of many, longingly awaiting the issue of the matter. Glad, therefore, and blessing the Lord, he went forth without a leader; supported by the staff, however, not for the want of light, but for the failing of his senile age and past labor.

[10] Moreover our Brothers of riper age attest to us, various sick and the possessed are healed. whose religious conversation, love of the Order, affection toward God, is the proof of true testimony; that they have very often seen such great miracles done, but especially on the birthday of the Saint, in the curings of divers necessities, that they exceed both the measure of writing and the estimation of number. In our memory also, when still a celebrated concourse of peoples, with wonderful faith, full of devotion, assembled at the festivity of the Saint; we frequently saw that those impeded by divers necessities of infirmities, or beset by demons, filled the temple with groans, clamors, beatings of hands: so much that the Brothers, attending to psalmody or the divine lessons, were impeded by their tumult, wounded by compassion, afflicted by grief. But these things especially happened on the solemnity of the Forerunner of the Lord, which next precedes the festivity of the Saint: to whose prayers the glorious B. Adalbertus joining his own, obtained with the benign Jesus, that very many of them, their discomforts being lulled, who had come sad, should return sound and consoled.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

CHAPTER II.

The old temple destroyed, the new one built and dedicated. Miracles wrought.

[11] Petronilla, a the widow left of Count Florentius the Fat, having three small sons, Theodericus, Florentius, Simon, Asselinus being intruded as Abbot strenuously ruled the County. But because the womanly sex is easy to circumvent, she was circumvented by certain powerful familiars of hers, that she should obtain that her chaplain, named Asselinus, be received as a monk by the Brothers of Egmond: that, he being immediately constituted Abbot, she herself might more freely consult for her own convenience and will concerning the substance of the church. The suggestion of the perverse, therefore, had its effect: and a man of simple nature, utterly ignorant of the monastic Order, in name only b was constituted Abbot. For the rest, the goods of the church had come into the power of an alien hand: and it was to be seen, a misery, the sons suffering want, strangers glorying over our oppression. Moreover, with regard more to avarice than to the fear of the Lord, they suggested to the Countess that the old temple should be destroyed, as unseemly and too narrow. under pretext of building a new temple It was done: and three laymen were constituted Prelates of the church, wolves rather than shepherds, namely Folpertus the White, Eylgerus, and Stephanus: who, having found occasion of clandestine plundering, under the appearance of consulting, exercised plunder upon our patrimony: and gradually exhausting the house of God, and subjecting the men of the church to their own dominion, filled their own houses with monies. the goods of the monastery are dissipated, but not with impunity. Their sons and daughters, kinsmen and connections, married and were given in marriage through the dowry of our possession: and thus a little after, great things came to great smallness. And because they did the things that did not befit, they were mulcted with a punishment befitting their malice, he fighting for his church who says: He who touches you, touches the pupil of my eye. Zech. 2:8. For all, indeed, by an unexpected death, in the half of their days, in one year, not in their houses or in their villages, died, and left to posterity an example of terror, because he who destroys the temple of God, God will dissipate him. For it was not the chosen seed of the Lord, which the hand of the Lord from the beginning prepared, to destroy, to build, and to plant in the name of the Lord; that through this not only the ruin of the temple and cloister and all its offices should be renewed; but rather the miserable and great defect of morals, of order, of religion, and of the Brothers, the Lord and S. Adalbertus favoring, should rise up and be bettered.

[12] Since the conversion of souls from vices to virtues is a much more inclined miracle than the enlightenment of the blind; Abbot Walter restores all things, it does not seem amiss to insert among the miracles of the holy Confessor, how, after the death of Count Florentius the Fat, of whom we made mention above, the place of Egmond, destitute of almost all human aid, by the counsel of the sons of the world, who are more prudent in their generation than the sons of light, almost ruined, almost humbled to extreme misery; was, by the merits of the same our Patron, by the grace of the Lord, restored to its former state, nay to a much better one. When, therefore, it had pleased the divine grace to visit the place of Egmond, it inspired Bishop c Andreas and Petronilla, Countess of Holland, to send legates with letters to d Arnoldus, Abbot of Ghent, for a monk, who should be fit to rule souls, to dispose external things, and to promote the fallen. Who, counsel being taken with his men, sent the Provost of their court, which is called e Lens, Walter, whom he had frequently proved upright and useful: whom Bishop Andreas ordained Abbot f on the Vigil of the Nativity of S. Mary. Who, coming to Egmond, and finding a defect in all things, was ignorant what he should do, whither he should turn, except to God and the patronage of S. Adalbertus. But in the process of time, by the grace of God, in which he hoped much, he had a prosperous success in all things, and all things, both external and internal, began to be composed well and orderly. Of whose zeal what it was, besides the rest, the temple is a witness, and all its offices.

[13] When the destruction of the old temple was being done, and the building of the new now was imminent; a craftsman, intent on destroying the old wall, the foreknowing almighty Lord, that both businesses were of his will, showed by attesting miracles: of which we shall say a few for the present. A certain mast of no small magnitude, beaked with iron, the hand of the craftsmen had fitted, that, timbers being fixed here and there, it could be impelled by many to the destruction of the wall in place of a ram: whose extreme part one of the craftsmen directed, that the mast proceeding straight, no impulse should go astray, none in vain. While they were acting, then, it happened that the outweighing beaked part lifted the other part on high, and held the craftsman, its director, seized by the chin, suspended on the ram. But lest he should sustain any peril or graver discomfort (which easily in such an event might have been); he escapes the peril of death by a miracle. to his aid the Father of power and mercy, through the merits of the holy Confessor Adalbertus, swiftly applied himself: and the tree, which the great hand of men could not break, breaking with his powerful arm, gently and without any injury set the man down. The astounding novelty of which miracle turned all to admiration and praise of the Lord, made all more devout to the glorification and service of the Saint. Likewise, while a certain Brother monk, Likewise a peasant, Gerardus by name, was laboring in the throwing-down of the same old building; he incautiously cast down a certain timber of no small quantity, which was dashed against the head of a certain peasant standing below. But although both the height of the place, and the force of the thrower, and the hugeness of the timber threatened the utter fracture of his brain; only in the surface of the skin did blood come out. For the rest, the man, appearing sound and unharmed, was no small kindling and matter of the presence of the Lord and of his praise, by which he is wonderful in his Saints.

[14] When, the old temple being destroyed, the structure of the new rose more and more day by day, the Monks meanwhile doing their Offices in a badly roofed little building. the venerable Abbot Walter, of whom we have spoken, striving, and the grace of the Lord aiding his effort; through the merits of the blessed Father Adalbertus an astounding miracle happened: by which both the presence of the divine favor might more be attended to, and the devotion of the faithful might be more abundantly animated to the love and imitation of the Saint. A certain hut stood before the structure of the new building, to which the Brothers assembled day and night to discharge the duties of the divine Office: in which both an altar fitted for celebrating the mysteries, and the shrine of our blessed Father, as time and the necessity of the matter taught, had been conveniently placed beside the altar; having over it a certain painted board, which, overshadowing it, might defend it from dust or any injury. While, then, after the manner, the Brothers were engaged in nocturnal Vigils in the same little house, and there had been a great serenity of the sky; the inundating rains do not penetrate it, suddenly the Lord, about to show a miracle, turned the same tranquility of the air into the horror of tempests; and so great an onset of rains descended, that it turned all to stupor and fear. But at that time the roof of the hut itself was uncovered, and open to the sky to the measure of one ell in the same place where the board was beneath, and the shrine of the blessed Confessor Adalbertus. But although so great an inundation had been made, that, the water running down among the new walls, the Brothers, barefoot, could scarcely return from the little house to the cloister; wonderful to say, upon the board with which the shrine of the Saint was covered, not even a drop of the same inundation was found to have fallen: which, if it had used its natural course, and had not been divinely restrained, would have invaded not only the board, but the whole pavement of the little house. The Brothers, therefore, astounded at the miracle, rendered thanks to the Father of lights, from whom every perfect gift descends; rejoicing that they had such a Patron on earth, whom the marks of miracles thus attest to have pleased the Father who is in heaven.

[15] a servant falls from on high without harm, In the same season, when (as we have foretold) the heavenly favor exercised the hearts and hands of all laboring in the house; the deviser of all malice and head of envy, the devil, taking most grievously the favor of the Lord's grace, the glorification of the Saint, his own ejection; by the arts by which he could, was busying himself to disarm their hands, to impede the fervor, to change the alacrity into the contrary. A certain servant, then, named Isbrandus, to whom the ministry of this office had been deputed, that he might serve the will of the masons in the things they had need of; when he was about to connect the trees and timbers by which one descended to the structure; acting incautiously, fell with a tree from so eminent a place, that without doubt he was esteemed broken and dead. But he, suffering only a momentary dizziness, rose unharmed: and so much the more devout to serving, the greater the grace by which he had been preserved, returned to the business of his ministry which he had begun; glorifying the Lord by voice and act, and attesting by his cry the merit of the Saint in the miracle wrought.

[16] When one of the four arches which surround the choir was to be closed; the whole machine of timbers, by which one ascended to the structure, and on which the feet of the workmen stood, suddenly with a huge crash collapsed. likewise several craftsmen. But the swift aid of the Lord, who by what occasion he wills preserves his own, through the patronage of our holy Father Adalbertus, preserved all unharmed, to the admiration of those to whom it had happened and of all who saw or heard. But because sameness is the mother of satiety, and a prolix relation of like things generates tedium; consulting the reader's weariness, we omit to write of cases of this kind, or of the extreme perils and the liberation of those who fell into them, which with a wonderful and copious effect, through his Saint, whether in the destruction of the old temple or in the repairing of the new, the Lord wrought.

[17] In the year of the Lord 1143, on the Nones of October 7 October, the temple at Egmond was dedicated by Lord g Hartbert, Bishop of Utrecht, in the presence of h Theodericus the ninth Count and his wife i Sophia, and an assembled people of an infinite multitude, When, in the year 1143, on the 7th of October, the Church is dedicated, so great a preparation of necessities being provided by Lord Abbot Walter, that those who were present testify to this day that they were never present at such a Dedication. A pleasant serenity of the air, also, suddenly supervening, smiled upon the festivity; whereas for six weeks before the air had been rainy. Of this event,

nay miracle, Lord Bishop Hartbert made mention in the sermon which he spoke to the people: and he said that he marveled that so great and so many Relics of the greatest Saints, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins should be contained on the extreme margin of the world. But when the Relics of the Saints were being laid up by the Lord Bishop in the altars, Frithericus, a pious and religious monk, was the most studious of all in seeking, seeing, handling, dividing, and exporting the Relics: A Monk, handling the Relics too freely, whom the Lord, the dedication being completed, immediately chastising chastised, and scourged, about soon to heal both, as well in body as in sense. For the humor of the infirmity ascending to his brain, he was so alienated from himself, that neither his words nor his gestures befitted his custom and person. After some days, when that Brother labored under the immensity of his infirmity, and the whole Congregation by praying and watching over him; he was signed with the Cross which Egbert, Archbishop of Trier, conferred on the Church of Egmond: of whose virtue's effect the Brothers of that church, and very many laymen pertaining to it, have very often had experience and are wont to relate. He being signed, then, with this Cross, forthwith the Lord restored to him the gladness of his Salvation, is punished with madness, but, the Cross being brought, is healed. and with sound sense saluted him with devout bowings: and not long after he recovered from the sickness of mind and body. But it was believed by many, that he incurred this blow from this, that he handled the Relics of the Saints so audaciously and less cautiously: that man, who is both rottenness and a worm, may learn not to thrust himself precipitately upon such things, but to handle divine things with trembling and the utmost reverence.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles afterward adjoined.

[18] The grace of the virtues of the most holy Adalbertus our Patron, About the year 1250 a young man given poison to drink by his stepmother, formerly unfolded by various prodigies of miracles, in our times also is shown to be not moderate, but wonderful and great, which to the praise of God the whole country together makes known. For in the times of b Wilhelmus, King of the Romans and also Count of Holland, a certain woman, one of the number of stepmothers, pursued her stepson, namely her husband's son, with so insatiable a hatred, that his destruction through her was sought, both by things and by counsels. The said young man meanwhile eating, and ignorant of his stepmother's machinations, a drink is given to him thirsting, with which also a mixture of poisons is swallowed. These being received, the same young man, according to the greater times, swelled the more, appeared pregnant, nor found any remedy either by art or by c physic. After, then, the said young man, with a miserable body, had come to the age of old age, and thereby swollen all over, and his death daily pleased even his own friends more than his life; certain ones, perhaps divinely inspired, strive to counsel him, that he should be willing to promise a vow of pilgrimage to the thresholds of the Church of S. Adalbertus, and there to implore the grace of Christ.

[19] He, then, at their instance coming to Egmond; when, now an old man, he had come to Egmond, and, both with the monks and with those friends whom he had brought, falling down to prayer before the Relics of S. Adalbertus; raised up, is said to thirst, by whom also water is asked more than any liquor: whence, with regard to the divine piety, he is led to the lesser basilica of S. Adalbertus, where the lovely liquor from a fountain or well is presented to him: which being drunk a second and a third time, the said tumor begins in a manner to fail, and to prepare a certain exit for the birth by vomiting. there are cast out many toads Which when it is perceived by the bystanders, draught is joined to draught. Nor was there delay: this man, like a dead man, begins to vomit, and to present from his mouth very many toads. After which act drink is added: which being received, a viler crowd is begotten. But when likewise also a third time he did so, and emitted with the greatest grief, as it were, all the progeny of cursing, namely so many toads as could not be received in a great basin, and could scarcely be numbered by anyone; he himself is seen as it were to fail with grief, and to show the face of death. After these, the first parent of them, namely the mother of all, because she could not come out whole, by God's mercy is divided into four parts, of which one by one in turn are presented by vomit. Which being done, there follows the more horrendous of these, namely their bed or tabernacle: he is healed. which being emitted, the oft-said servant, Gerardus having the surname Ever, after the recovery from his present passion, is made sound: living moreover so long afterward, until, having full age, he is laid low as it were by the stroke of a natural death. But of the oft-said one, cured by the mercy of Christ and the grace of the most blessed Adalbertus, we have known sons and grandsons.

[20] But lest B. Adalbertus be believed to work miracles through God only in the past, and not in the present; it is to be noted that in the time of d Wilhelmus, the eighteenth Count of Holland, a certain Clerk, e Notary of the town of Haarlem, was subjected to various languors of infirmities: among which especially the solace of his leg and its function is denied. But when the aforesaid one thus failed for a long time, nor had any of his friends hope of his recovery or remedy; his wife, Being deprived of the use of his leg, the Saint being invoked by his wife in a rare manner above the rest most faithful to him, began to be exceedingly affected by the tedium of this languor, and beyond measure, as was fitting, to be saddened. Who, seeing human counsel deservedly to fail, resolved with pure heart to implore divine and also the Saints' aid: of whose number the most holy Confessor of Christ Adalbertus is touched more affectionately before the rest, to whom also the devotion of pilgrimage and the gifts of oblations are promised for the said remedy. While she, then, persists in such a purpose, and disposes to visit the thresholds of the Most Holy one, the oft-said f Clerk, namely the husband of the said woman, began to revive, and to rejoice in his former health. he is healed, and with her comes to Egmond by vow. Which seen, his consort being made his companion, divested of linen and shoes, strives to applaud S. Adalbertus, and to visit his convent. In which is truly weighed worthy of relation, that whereas the oft-said woman was of such a Body and of such a constitution of it, that to the mother church, scarcely a fourth part of a furlong distant from her dwelling, she could hitherto not proceed without great sighings and various pantings, but as it were dropsical croaked; g she yet, as she most truly related, on this way, of three whole leagues, is not hurt: but this pilgrimage through her, as by a most light passage, is fulfilled by the glory of Christ and the grace of his Saint.

[21] In the year 1332, while at Egmond a certain woman on the day of the translation of B. Adalbertus, Patron there, The serum of cheese is turned into blood for one who violates the Feast, which h is on the 17th of the Kalends of July 15 June, making cheese in the accustomed manner, and gluing the curd by the graspings of her hands, strives to pour out the liquid, scarcely a small color of serum, but half a sextarius of blood is found. In which the slaughter of many could be presaged: but we ask God with our Patron to be venerated by the same miracles. A certain widow of Limmen, i deprived of the benefit of her eyes, a blind woman is enlightened. is led to the chest of S. Adalbertus, where, her guides being sent away, alone weeping and wailing, she bows down. Whose cry is perceived by the monks: by one of whom she is asked, and inquired why she lamented. Who, with confused and tearful sighs, strove to answer, and briefly to declare: My lord, I, blind and most miserable, have sought this place, hoping by the gift of the Saints and especially of this Patron to be relieved: nor will I desert their places, unless, my sight being received, my guides being spurned, I seek home. The monk, then, withdrawing, and the widow persevering in her prayers; a thing very wonderful is seen, in which the accustomed piety of S. Adalbertus is commended. For the woman, who for many years had been deprived of sight, sad, by another's guidance had sought the said place; glad and rejoicing returned to her own, namely led by her own eyes. By whose miracle we all bless the pious Lord and his most pious Confessor. But if we should deliver to writing the like things of our Patron, as they happen daily; we should confound not only the throats of readers, but also the ears of teachers * with too great prolixity.

NOTES OF G. H. AND D. P.

* or of learners.