Ladislaus

ON SAINT LADISLAUS, KING OF HUNGARY,

AT VÁRAD IN TRANSYLVANIA,

IN THE YEAR 1096.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On his cult, and Acts, and the Relics of his sacred body not violated with impunity.

Ladislaus, King of Hungary, at Várad (S.)

BY D. P.

Várad, a city most strongly fortified even today, the same S. Ladislaus the King who founded it while living also ennobled with a sepulcher and miracles around the year 1083, the Saint buried in the city founded by himself, having died in the year 1096. Although his last day was the second-to-last of June, by the testimony of Bonfinius and others, yet his annual veneration fell to the 27th of June; I believe because his body was then, by the sentence of the Apostolic See, elevated from the earth in the year 1192, or because his birth-day was hindered by the solemn commemoration of S. Paul, just as the two preceding days were hindered by the common feast of the Princes of the Apostles, and its Vigil, as also the several following days throughout the Octave of the same. About the same time, certainly not long after the year 1200, a Life was also written, which D. Joannes Hoybergius, he is elevated in 1192 on this day, Procurator of that monastery, sent from the Corsendonk Manuscript of the Regular Canons in Brabant to our Bolland, who already before had another copy from P. Joannes Gamansius, but quite entirely similar, from the Legend of the Holy Patrons of Hungary, printed at Cracow in the year 1511. This we give from thence: but concerning the sacred body we warn that it remained there inviolate, until, in the 5th year of King Béla IV, about the year of Christ 1240, the Tartars bursting into Hungary, in the same in the year 1240, stormed the city, plundered it, burned it, only those being safe who fled into the citadel: but this latter, dissembling their withdrawal, when they understood that the city was beginning to be restored by the surviving citizens, returning fraudulently they seized it with like violence, and burned it all together with the very great and most strongly fortified basilica, to which the weaker sex and age had fled, raging unto the common slaughter of all, as Antonius Bonfinius describes at length in his Hungarian Affairs, Decade 2, book 8.

[2] Then in the year 1285 the Tartars are read to have invaded upper Hungary again, and laid waste in 1285, and to have again desolated the villages a little before restored, laying waste all things with sword and flame as far as Pest; no special mention being made of Várad in Bonfinius, which is credible to have lain still wrapped in its own ruins. Among these, however, the monument of S. Ladislaus seems to have remained somehow safe: above which at length a new temple arose: for the Basilica of Várad is praised by Bonfinius, near the end of book 1, it is honored with a new basilica, where the body of the holy King Ladislaus rests, and there is to be seen his equestrian statue of bronze. Then I should believe was composed the proper Mass concerning the holy King, which, after a similar one concerning S. Stephen, likewise King, is contained in the Votive Missal of the kingdom of Sweden, printed about two hundred and fifty years ago, under an introit common indeed to other Confessors: but with a Lection from the book of Ecclesiasticus chapter 47, where the holy King David is praised with these notable eulogies. The Lord gave confession to the Holy and Most High, in the word of glory. With his whole heart he praised the Lord, and loved God, who made him, and gave him power against his enemies: and he set singers before the altar, and made sweet melodies by their voices: and he gave beauty in the celebrations, and adorned the seasons even unto the consummation of his life, that they should praise the holy name of the Lord, and magnify the holiness of God in the morning. The Lord purged his sins, and exalted his horn forever; and gave him a testament of the kingdom, and a throne of glory in Israel. How aptly all these fall upon the holy King most zealous for divine worship, to be promoted through pious foundations, the matter itself speaks; nor less fitting is the Gospel taken from chapter 11 of Luke, with such a beginning. No man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick that it may give light to all who are in the house: even as Ladislaus shone before all the kingdom of Hungary with the examples of Christian virtues.

[3] It is also pleasing here to note the three proper prayers of that Mass, as they are read in the said Missal in this order. I. O God, who hast exalted B. Ladislaus, thy King and pious Confessor, with the glory of immortality; grant, we beseech thee, that by his suffraging merits we may both be fortified against all adversities, and enjoy eternal joys. II. We beseech thee, O Lord, that the Sacrifice which we offer to thy Majesty may, by the intervention of B. Ladislaus, thy King and Confessor, pass over unto the remedy of our souls. III. Having received thy gifts, we beseech thee, O Lord, absolve us from all sins, by the intercession of B. Ladislaus, thy King and Confessor; that, having received pardon of our sins, we may be worthy to serve thee with free minds. Would that the kingdom of Sweden, from whose ancient religion that Mass is here restored to the use of the Hungarians, would again restore the same sacred rites among itself, obscured as it is by heresy and schism; and that we, who congratulate the kingdom of Hungary on so great a good received under King Joseph, may see it likewise restored by the same religious zeal to the Northern kingdoms.

[4] In this manner the venerable name of Ladislaus began to be inscribed also in certain Calendars of other nations (to say nothing of the Hungarian ones, particular knowledge of which has not reached me);

whence Bellinus of Padua, in his Martyrology, printed at Venice according to the custom of the Roman Curia under the mark of the year 1498, thus set it down: In Hungary, in the city of Várad, and from this it has been inscribed in the calendars, of S. Ladislaus, King and Confessor, who flashes with most brilliant miracles even unto the present day, which words are now read also in the Roman; more briefly the Carthusians of Cologne and Molanus, from the more ancient manuscripts indeed, from which also the Manuscript Florarium has thus: In Hungary, the Deposition of S. Ladislaus, King and Confessor, in the year of salvation 1095. In that year also Abraham Bakschay writes that he died, in his Chronology of the Kings of Hungary carried down to the year 1567, where he thus briefly touched upon his deeds: This man joined the kingdoms of Dalmatia and Croatia to the empire of the Hungarian Kings. He waged many wars against the Tartars and other adversaries, rivals of the kingdom. He died without children on the 3rd before the Kalends of August, buried with most honorable obsequies in the church of Várad, built by himself: where also in the year 1433 he says that Sigismund the Emperor, the same being King of Hungary and Bohemia, was committed to burial.

[5] But most splendidly of all the above-praised Antonius Bonfinius described the history of the holy King, born at Ascoli in Picenum, who, most learned in Greek and Latin, after the ancient Life a longer one is given from Bonfinius, when he had joined himself to Andreas Corvinus, King of Hungary, most fond of letters and of men of letters, at his exhortation undertook the writing of the Hungarian Affairs, and dividing them into five Decades, carried them down even to the year 1495: but in Decade 2, books 2 and 3, having spoken much concerning Ladislaus and his elder brother and predecessor in the kingdom, Géza, he presents both successively as King, and chiefly Ladislaus in book 4. Therefore from this so highly praised Historian, who diligently scrutinized the more ancient writers of the Hungarians, the Jawbone is said to be at Bologna, it pleases me to excerpt the more extensive Acts of the holy King. Joannes Pauli Masini, in his "Bologna Surveyed," notes at this day that some Relics of S. Ladislaus are had in the church of S. Stephen and the Metropolitan of S. Peter; but in the church of S. James the whole Jawbone; but, the instruments of translation or donation being hidden, it is difficult to divine whether the Relics were brought to Bologna on the occasion of the heresies growing strong throughout Hungary, or in some one of the earlier centuries. Yet because Masinius published the first edition of his work in the year 1650, and so a decade before the city was taken by the Turks; this at least we know, that before that last calamity, particles of the holy Body were communicated to the Bolognese, and perhaps to several other places.

[6] Thus far I had written, and had prepared for the press the Lives which I indicated, about the year 1691; after which, the rebels being conquered in Hungary, and Transylvania reduced to the patronage of Caesar, I began to hope that something could be learned through our Missionaries in those parts; On account of the chest of the sacred body despoiled by George Rákóczi, nor in vain. For from the illustrious man D. Gabriel Kapi, a curious searcher of his fatherland's affairs, being asked whether he knew anything concerning the body of the holy King, they elicited this response, given on the 16th of October 1691. I confess indeed that I have never been at Várad, nor can I report things seen with my own eyes: but nevertheless, having dwelt for nearly forty years in Transylvania (within whose bounds Várad is included), and even frequently continuing my habitation there, very often I inquired and questioned from men who both saw with their own eyes and have full knowledge of how matters proceeded with the sacred body of the holy King Ladislaus. From these I received, that the elder George Rákóczi, most greedy of gold and silver, after he had been made Prince of Transylvania, having understood that the burial of the holy King was at Várad, ordered his crypt to be opened; and he took away the silver tomb and the crown buried with the Saint, but restored the body, enclosed in a wooden chest, to the same place and crypt. George the Elder was after the year 1631 son of Sigismund, before Gabriel Bethlen Prince of Transylvania, elected successor of the same Gabriel in the year 1631; and dying in the year 1648, he had as successor his son George the Younger, of the same name. But how that sacrilegious greed of the father was avenged upon its author in his posterity, the above-praised Gabriel narrates thus.

[7] From the time I received notice of this fact, I have observed by perpetual reflection of mind, neither he nor any of his own that of that family there has not been even a single one whose body after death has been permitted to rest in the crypt. For more than forty years ago, while the same George Rákóczi had moved war against Caesar, and had advanced against him with Caesarean, German, and Hungarian forces, when Nicholas Esterházy of best memory, Palatine of the kingdom of Hungary, was awaiting him near the camp of Ezaranes, his soldier, invading the churches of Szenes and Vadász (which were castles of the Rákóczi family), overthrew the sepulchers of the whole family, and perhaps also reduced to ashes the bodies buried there. But George himself, dying a little after, and after him his son Sigismund in the year 1651, is permitted to rest in the tombs; but before him his younger son Nicholas had been buried at Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia): which when, thirty-two years before, the Turkish and Tartar army had occupied, it burned the citadel, overthrew the crypts in the church of S. Michael, broke into fragments the tombs of George and Sigismund Rákóczi, and reduced their bodies, laid upon the pyre, to ashes: the body of Nicholas also, which had been deposited in the crypt of another Prince of Transylvania (of Stephen Bocskay or Gabriel Bethlen, buried there), they carried out thence and likewise consecrated to the flames, the crypts of the other Princes remaining inviolate.

[8] The son of the same George Rákóczi, likewise George, but were either scattered and burned, died of a wound at Várad; and for safer interment his body was translated to Patak: where it remained indeed untouched by the enemy; but after the Caesarean soldier occupied the citadel of Patak, it seemed expedient for fortifying it, that at its entrance a gate should be opened through the middle of the church, and on this occasion the body had to be moved from its place. After Várad yielded to the Turks, Ladislaus Rákóczi (a grandson, perhaps, of the elder George through his son Sigismund?), unexpectedly attempting to recover it, was slain there, nor can it yet be known what became of his body. The son of George Rákóczi the Younger, Francis, having died in the citadel of Zboró, had been buried there together with a little son who had died before: but they too had to change their place: for, raised together from Zboró, or at least were moved from their place. they were thence conveyed to Kassa (Košice), to the church of the Society of Jesus, where also that Francis did not remain unharmed. For, as report has it, the Rebels, occupying Kassa and possessing the College, broke through the crypt, and from the finger of the deceased drew off a precious ring. Thus the divine vengeance passed even unto the fourth generation; which would that it might have its end here, and spare the surviving Count of that same family, a youth of better hope, and his two sisters, Countesses.

[9] Furthermore, when Várad, in the year 1692, on the 20th day of May, passed happily into the power of Caesar Leopold, The City being recovered in the year 1692 twelve thousand Turks having been slain who were bringing aid to the place laboring with famine; our Francis Xavier Mazoll was present at the camp, who on the 26th of July, being asked by P. Matthias Soutermans to keep watch over such matters, wrote thus to Vienna. Six weeks ago, nothing remaining was found. when I had arrived at Várad, my first care among the rest was to inquire, through myself and others, into the sepulcher, the image, or any other monuments left there of the holy King: but I found not even rubble or traces of the church; and it is said that this was utterly overthrown in the time of the Borzkai tumults, and in its place the inner citadel more splendidly built.

[10] Four months later, namely on the 17th of November, concerning the same matter, after it could be better investigated, P. Georgius Bandovicz, then Superior of our Society at Varasdin, wrote not very dissimilar things, speaking thus: This one thing is to be lamented, that neither outside nor inside the citadel is there any temple. I curiously investigated the sacred shrine of S. Ladislaus, but I found not even a trace of it, nor does any of the little old men of the village recall where it was; it is thought that Borzkai, in the year 1604, when he had expelled our Fathers thence after twenty years' habitation, ruined that same shrine. Whether under the ruins of the new and more splendidly built citadel, of which at number 9, lies hidden the wooden chest of the sacred Body, God will perhaps open in his own time, when, all the places of both Hungaries and of the neighboring provinces being purged from the Turkish dregs, the ancestral religion shall have everywhere recovered its former splendor, and the Emperor Leopold shall be acknowledged as sole Lord, which would that God might quickly bring to pass. Meanwhile our Janning saw the Head, or rather the Skull, of the holy King, withdrawn from the aforesaid ruins and from avarice, in the year 1700 in the month of September, at Győr in the Cathedral church, beautifully enclosed in a silver bust; redeemed of old, as the Canons said, from the Transylvanian heretics; through the Bishop of the place, the most Reverend D. Demetrius Napragi, who died in that his Episcopal See in the year 1619: and the silver bust itself can be seen to have been made in his time. Perhaps this precious Relic contributed something to the fact that for many years now, by the care of the most pious Caesar whom I named, Leopold, Ladislaus, elected Patron of the Hungarian kingdom, is annually celebrated at Vienna in the Metropolitan church of S. Stephen with a panegyric, in which the orations successively delivered are read, printed in one little volume.

LIFE

From the Corsendonk Manuscript and the Cracow edition.

Ladislaus, King of Hungary, at Várad (S.)

BHL Number: 4671

FROM THE MS.

[1] The Blessed King Ladislaus, an excellent worshiper of the Christian faith, with pure devotion of mind studied to serve Christ. adorned with all Christian virtues, For, illumined by the grace of the Holy Spirit, reckoning the perishable and transitory glory of the world that smiled and fawned upon him, he hungered and thirsted for justice, that he might more happily attain to the eternal fatherland. For although the world, flourishing for him, played about him, yet in his heart it had withered, to whose concupiscences he himself had been crucified. Living therefore in this mortal body, now not he himself, but Christ in him, holding by faith with his whole mind the right, true, Catholic faith, founded in Christ, rooted in the hearts of the Patriarchs and Prophets, commended by the Apostolic preaching, he embraced it faithfully. 1 Cor. 3:12 Upon this foundation he built, according to the Apostle, a dwelling pleasing to almighty God, adorned above all with mercy and liberality, a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, of gold and gems and precious stones. For he was abundant in mercy, long-suffering in patience; serene as a King in piety, full of the gifts of graces; a cultivator of justice, a patron of chastity, a consoler of the afflicted, a relief of the oppressed, a comforter of orphans; a pious father of the fatherless, and a helper of the wretched; and, abounding in the bowels of mercy, he came to the aid of the necessities of the needy.

[2] But in natural goods, by the grace of divine compassion, endowed also with an appearance worthy of a King, he had set him above the common worth of men by a special prerogative of preeminence. For he was strong of hand, desirable to look upon; and according to physiognomy, having, like a lion, great extremities: tall of stature, preeminent above the rest of men from the shoulder upwards: so that the very appearance of his body, worthy of empire, declared the overflowing fullness of gifts in him, in examining judgments, not so much to judge

as to be judged, and he believed a more terrible judgment to be imminent for himself than for those who were judged by him. Whence, tempering the rigor of justice with the gentleness of mercy, he so showed himself toward his subjects, most studious of equity and of piety, that he was loved by them rather than feared. For the helm of the kingdom was to him not only an honor, but a burden. For he sought not his own things, but the things which are of Jesus Christ: on account of which, from the propriety of things and names, as it were with name changed, the pious King was called by all his nation; he constantly applied himself to fastings and prayers; he bewailed the sins of the people, and on the altar of his heart offered himself a living victim to God. But if it had happened that he was wearied by nocturnal vigils and more prolonged prayers, he did not seek again the delicate couch, but rested a little in the porches of the churches.

[3] On a certain night he entered the monastery of Várad, praying by night he is beheld lifted up from the earth; that he might pray. Now it came to pass that, while he prayed more prolongedly, a certain chamberlain of his, who alone awaited him outside, affected with weariness because of the too great delay, rose and looked in; and he saw his Lord, with body glorified, marvelously lifted up on high in the air. Truly a blessed man, whom, still set in the flesh, the fleshly mass did not press down, but the sanctity of his merits raised up to the fellowship on high! After these things the marauders of the Bissenes burst in from the borders of the Hungarians, and from thence led away captive men and women: whom he himself, pursuing with his army, came into a great wilderness, and they had nothing to eat. And when the army was perishing of famine, he himself was drawn apart from them; for the army laboring with famine he obtains provision by prayers, and prostrate in prayer, he implored the mercy of God; that He who once fed the children of Israel, raining manna from heaven, would not suffer the Christian people to perish of famine. And when, rising from prayer, he returned, behold a herd of deer and buffaloes met him, and together with him gathered into the midst of the army, their fierceness laid aside. Each one therefore took from the animals as much as sufficed for him, praising and glorifying God in his Saint, through whom they had obtained such mercy.

[4] Since therefore the pious King Ladislaus was armed with humility, he founds or endows pious places: and powerful in piety, yet was he chief in largesse: for all the royal Churches and Monasteries, whether founded by himself or by any other, were enriched by his alms: whence deservedly even unto the present day the whole Church of the Hungarians recounts his alms. He also ordered two Bishoprics, and enriched them with royal largesse: for he was great and munificent according to his glorious name. For if we allude to the etymology of his name, Ladislaus is, as it were, "praise divinely given to the peoples"; b for Laos is interpreted "people"; but Dosis, "giving" or "gift" or "donation"; and the first syllable of his name is "Laus" (praise) by paragoge. He had vowed that he would go to Jerusalem, that, where the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was poured out for our redemption, desirous of the holy war, he there with his own blood might fight against the enemies of the Cross of Christ. But the Dukes of the Franks, Lotharingians, and Alemanni, who were about to set forth thither with the army of the Lord, had all alike harmoniously disposed to set the pious King Ladislaus, worthily worthy, over themselves as Leader and instructor.

[5] But before the army of the Lord from France and Germany and the other western regions could assemble in Hungary, the pious King, is compelled to set forth against the Bohemians; pressed by necessity, set forth on an expedition against the Bohemians: and there, seized by a sudden sickness, he began to be wholly deprived of bodily strength: and, the Princes of the Kingdom being convoked, he indicated that the dissolution of his body was imminent. Whereat the clamor of the multitude, of those mourning, lamenting, in that expedition piously dies, and groaning at the death of the most pious King Ladislaus, was raised up unto heaven. But the pious King, having received the Eucharist of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom he faithfully believed, and whom he loved with his whole mind, happily passed over to the Lord. And the whole multitude of the Hungarians bewailed him, clergy and people, rich and poor alike together, young men and maidens, for the continuous space of three years; in squalid garments they led no dances, and every kind of musicians and soothing sweet-sounding instruments were silent beyond the time of mourning.

[6] But when his faithful were carrying his body to Várad, he is carried to Várad to be buried. wearied by labor and grief they fell asleep. And while, heavy with sleep, they delayed longer than was just, the chariot in which his body had been placed, without conveyance and without any help of any animal, is led by a straight course to Várad. But waking, and not finding the chariot, saddened, they began to run about through the places: and they found the chariot running of its own accord toward Várad, and the holy body placed in it. Seeing therefore the miracle, A blasphemer against him is grievously punished, that the body of the blessed Confessor was being borne divinely to the place which he himself had chosen beforehand; giving thanks to God, they praised God. But when a great multitude, performing the office of humanity, was attending at his burial, a certain one of the bystanders said that the body stank, while all the rest perceived a most sweet fragrance of odor: and forthwith his chin was twisted back to his back, and could not be turned back. He, seeing himself crippled by divine vengeance, cried out miserably: I have sinned against the Saint of God: and falling down before the sepulcher of B. Ladislaus, he implored his mercy. The skin therefore with the flesh of his chin, which had clung to his back, was torn away: and he indeed recovered health, but the scar of the broken skin grew hard upon his chin.

[7] A certain Knight, urged by necessity, exposed for sale to a Count his silver dish, which the pious King had given to his father; as also a perjurer at his sepulcher, which dish the same Count, touched by the ardor of greed, pretended had been secretly carried off from himself. By judicial sentence therefore it was decreed, that the same dish should be placed upon the sepulcher of Ladislaus, that the Lord might prove which of the two ought justly to have it. The Count therefore, presuming too much upon himself, approached the sepulcher to take the dish: and straightway he fell as if dead, and vehemently astonished, could neither take the dish nor rise from the earth. But the poor knight, likewise approaching the sepulcher, giving thanks to God, took what was his own.

[8] In our times also God glorified his holy Confessor Ladislaus with many marvels. For in the year of the Lord 1192, his holy body c was canonized. Then therefore, from the causes above, the law of nature being changed, Canonized in the year 1192, the condition began to follow the privation in a reversible order. For many blind men, through the merits of the blessed King Ladislaus, were illumined; and there fell from their eyes as it were little scales of a white film; he is renowned for miracles, which religious men also saw, who also bore testimony to the truth. Many also, the bonds of their tongue being loosed, received the faculty of speaking rightly. The lame, the paralytic, and those worn down for a long time with various languors, coming to his sepulcher, having implored his help, were healed. Individuals also, invoking the most pious Confessor for their necessities, received the benefits they wished.

[9] At the very hour of the Canonization also, a certain boy, who in place of hands and feet had a swollen mass of flesh, with a star appearing above the place. wholly lacking in bones, floating about; by the merits of the same Saint, the bones growing, received perfect health of hands and feet. At that same hour of the day, about the sixth, a glowing star of brilliant splendor stood directly above the Monastery, where the holy body had been placed. And this a very great multitude gathered before the Monastery, for the space of nearly two hours, plainly seeing; a certain one, coming to its solemnity, was cleansed on the way.

[10] After these things, in the year 1200, on the 4th before the Kalends of June, on the very day d of Pentecost, while the Canons were praying and celebrating the Office of the first Hour, In the year 1200 a contracted woman is cured. a certain woman, whose hands and arms had been bound to her breast, was healed at the sepulcher of B. Ladislaus. But also in many other parts of widely extending Hungary, and in the surrounding regions, very many miracles and copious benefits were shown to the faithful imploring his patronage: which are not written in this book, lest a tedious prolixity should beget weariness in the readers. But these things were written, that the hearers and readers, through the intercession of the most pious Ladislaus, may so pass through temporal goods, that they may also attain eternal joys; our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES OF D. P.

THE MORE EXTENSIVE ACTS

From the First Decade of the Hungarian Affairs of Antonius Bonfinius.

Ladislaus, King of Hungary, at Várad (S.)

FROM BONFINIUS.

CHAPTER I.

The return of the brothers Géza and Ladislaus from Poland into Hungary, their victories over the barbarians and over their cousin Salomon.

[1] S. Ladislaus was the great-grandnephew of S. Stephen, the first King of Hungary, through his brother Ladislaus the Bald, Géza and Ladislaus born in Poland born together with his elder brother Géza of Béla, Duke and afterward King, at the house of his maternal grandfather Mieszko; to whom Béla had withdrawn, being ordered to live in exile from the holy King with his brothers. The elder of the brothers was Andreas; he, having gained the kingdom in the year 1047, when he seemed sufficiently firm in it, restored the Christian religion, abolished a little before by his permission, and ordered it alone to be held; then, when he perceived that he was inclining toward old age and lacked children, he caused his brother Béla, Béla, the father being in exile, by sending legates into Poland, to come to him with his children and wife, and assigned to him the third part of the Kingdom with the title of Duke. Then, having married Agmunda, daughter of the Duke of the Ruthenians, Andreas himself begot Salomon: whom when he had designated as his successor, and had shown that he did not sufficiently trust his brother; and afterward as King. he, through fear of plots, fled to his Polish father-in-law: and aided by arms, when he had invaded his brother's kingdom, and was now about to withdraw from the field, conquered in battle;

the Hungarians who followed Andreas suddenly deserting to him, and he dying a little after, Salomon was taken up as King in the year 1056. Salomon withdrew to his father-in-law Henry IV the Emperor with his wife Sophia.

[2] Béla died in the ninth year of his reign, in the year of Christ 1065, and straightway in the place of his deceased uncle Salomon succeeded, Henry striving with the utmost strength: against their cousin Salomon they are summoned into Hungary, and although, when he had departed from Hungary, his cousins Géza and Ladislaus had returned in arms, yet Bishop Desiderius persuaded that a treaty should be entered on this condition: that Géza should cede the kingdom to Salomon, though younger, and obey him as the legitimate King, but should himself obtain his paternal Duchy. Conquered by his admonitions and prayers, Géza, together with his brother Ladislaus, in the sight of all Hungary, in the city of Győr, is reconciled to Salomon. A solemn treaty was struck between them and fortified by mutual oath; which they say was concluded while the anniversaries of Fabian and Sebastian were being celebrated. Their minds being reconciled, and reconciled with him, mutual charity and constant intercourse intervened between the King and Duke Géza and Ladislaus. The following Easter was celebrated by them in the city of Pécs (Quinque-Ecclesiae), with the whole multitude of Courtiers and Magnates: where, in the Basilica of S. Peter, amid the solemnities, Salomon, the people again acclaiming, is crowned by Géza. Which was celebrated with so great joy of all the Hungarians, that they entered the day among the Calendars as a day of public gladness …

[3] Then a war had to be waged with the Cumans, who once and again had entered Hungary with a wasting host under their Leader Osul, a notable victory over the Cumans they win, prefect of Gyula King of the Cumans: who, declining the decisive engagement, betook himself onto the very lofty Mount Cherhelem, and there fortified himself. Nonetheless the Hungarians under Salomon, with their cavalry, scale the steep slope of the mountain; Géza, far more considerate, most prudently seizes an easier slope; which when he found easy and favorable for his cavalry, he ascends by it; and suddenly engages with the line of the archers. Ladislaus above all inserts himself among the densest enemies, and at the first onset kills four fighting in the front rank: Ladislaus, though wounded, while he next attacks a fifth, he is hurt by a grievous wound from him; but not with impunity for the latter, since he slays the man as he stands. Soon by divine help, they say, the man most pleasing to God was cured. By this onset the spirits of the archers, consternated, began to give way. The Hungarians press the harder, and rage against the shaven heads of the Cumans, after their custom, and split them clean apart with drawn swords like gourds.

[4] But here I cannot pass over a certain notable exploit of Ladislaus: from a barbarian he frees a ravished maiden by slaying him, who, when he beheld a certain horseman carrying off a ravished maiden on his horse, continually pursues the man, that he might be seen to be a defender of holy virginity. The enemy flees: he with all his strength presses on from behind; and when, hindered by his wound, he could not seize the ravisher, he cries out to the maiden, endowed with wondrous beauty, that she should cast herself headlong from the horse, and drag the enemy down with her. Swifter than the word the girl performed his bidding, whom he thought to be the daughter of the Bishop of Várad, deceived by opinion. After the magnanimous Duke beheld the Cuman thrown from his horse, thinking it would be unworthy to fight with an enemy not on equal terms, and especially in single combat, he leaps down from his horse: and attacking him with the axe which he carried after the Hungarian manner, he slew him. Some report that the maiden, struggling behind with the Cuman as he wrestled with Ladislaus, struck him with a snatched axe, and was a reinforcement to her defender: others on the contrary write that she supplicated for the enemy. Others add, that the horse of Ladislaus was excellent not so much in strength and swiftness as in nature; the rest he routs with immense slaughter: for that it marvelously observed the commands and nod of its Master; whose custom it was to attack the enemy with bite and hoof, never to desert his master, and in the greatest peril to employ wondrous dexterity of wit. The middle of the slope being now overcome, when the enemy beheld themselves surrounded by the Hungarians, their spirits failing, they knew not whither to flee. While they are carried in different directions, the multitude of captives, a sedition being made and a clamor raised, having snatched up arms, rages against the backs of the enemy, hurls them back upon the hostile arms of the Hungarians. So great a slaughter of the Cumans was wrought upon the mountain, that not even a messenger is said to have survived. Salomon therefore and Géza with Ladislaus, having gained the victory and gladdened with glorious joy, returned into Hungary. That day of public gladness was entered among the calendars: thanks were rendered to the immortal God with sacred hymns, and supplications were celebrated.

[5] They remained about three years in peace, and great concord flourished among the Princes. the concord between the cousins being broken Scarcely had they passed the third year, when behold from Mysia a grievous war arose from the Bessi and Bulgars: who being routed and Alba captured, when it had pleased them to divide the treasure found there into four parts, the fourth fell to Géza, whence he is seized with the utmost indignation … And when between Salomon and Géza the rivalries and hatreds were renewed by the partition of the hostile spoil, Ladislaus withdraws into Bohemia, they found greater increases day by day. Hence the brother Kinglets, fearing plots, took care above all of this, that the King should not be able to seize both at once; it pleased that Ladislaus should go away for the sake of aid, to the Ruthenians, then to the Bohemians. Salomon on the contrary, attacking the solitary Géza in battle, conquers and routs him; who, when he was hastening to Vác, encountered Ladislaus and Otto Duke of Bohemia, his kinsman through his sister, hastening with most valid aid: and brings aid to his brother; whom when he had seen, he straightway burst into tears … Ladislaus on the contrary, fortified with excellent virtue, now consoled his brother, now more severely rebuked his womanish wailings; admonished him of greatness, patience, and fortitude … and, since all power is from God, urged that he await the controversy to be determined by divine judgment. This battle was fought at the beginning of spring, a little before the Lenten fast, in the field of Kemej: where … Salomon, having gained the victory … descended on the fourth day into the plains spread out beyond the Danube and Pest …

[6] On the contrary Géza, Ladislaus, and Otto hastened into the forest, where Vác now is, yet, defeated, they gather themselves into the Island of Vác which was twenty thousand paces distant. They say there was once there a great grove, named after one Hermit only, whose name was Vacio. He, abhorring the misery of human life, and stirred by true repentance, had withdrawn into that solitude, that he might more conveniently and safely serve his own salvation: wherefore they report that the most holy man passed away, and that Géza, having afterward gained the victory, named the city placed there with a basilica "Vác" after him. When in this forest the forces of Ladislaus and Géza had halted, and there the Dukes, where we have seen the little chapel of S. Peter now to be, and there being assured from heaven of victory, were disputing about engaging in battle with Salomon; behold Ladislaus, whom success showed most dear to God, when he had beheld an Angel place a crown brought from heaven upon his brother's head; Hast thou seen, brother, said he, with what honor the divine benignity has honored thee, and with what favorable auspices it now portends victory? A celestial messenger from the heavens has placed a golden diadem upon thy head. Therefore be now of good courage, since the divine powers are propitious to us. We shall rout Salomon raging in his insolence, and compel him to yield the kingdom. But Géza on the contrary: So may God almighty confirm these prodigies, which lay open to thy eyes alone: but if thy auspices have not frustrated thee, now I duly undertake vows to the Divine Mother, that, having gained mastery of affairs, I will here build a most celebrated basilica.

[7] Scarcely had he said these things, when he ordered the standards to be raised, that on the morrow he might engage with Salomon. they return to battle; Between the two rose Mount Mogyoród, which when they had surmounted, they determined straightway to join hands with the enemy: but, delayed by the too great darkness of the threatening clouds, they neither surmount the mountain nor commit themselves to battle. The following night each remained in his own station, awaiting the enemy. As the day dawned, Salomon, his line drawn up, ascended the mountain, and showed himself from the summit to his enemies … on the contrary Ladislaus and Géza, who were below and held the plain; where they looked up at the forces of Salomon, they drew up their line more diligently at the first hour of the day, Ladislaus holding the left, Otto the right wing, Géza stationing himself in the middle … To S. Martin Ladislaus, before joining battle, vowed a shrine, if he should gain the victory; and having gained his vow, he founded one not ignoble. … They report also a prodigy concerning him, not discordant with the man's sanctity: and animated by a happy omen for when he had mounted his horse, lance snatched up, and had turned it in a circle, that by both prayer and example he might strengthen the spirits of the soldiers, he by chance touched a bramble with his spear in bending: upon which, a most white weasel having settled, as if a messenger of the imminent victory, it glided down through the spear into the Duke's lap, rejoicing. Behold, said he, these signs, comrades, which promise us present victory … therefore fight with most valiant spirits, and seize victory under good auspices: but I betake myself, if God grant, to fight today for the good and safety of the kingdom in such a way, that you shall behold me either a victorious Duke, or beautifully falling among the densest enemies.

[8] Soon, swifter than the word, he orders the signal for battle to be given, and he himself above all is borne with great onset against the enemy: which when the soldiers saw, each with equal ferocity rushed against the enemy. through the singular industry of Ladislaus Otto, Duke of the Bohemians, who presided on the right wing, joins battle with no less onset. Salomon, who had descended from the mountain into the plain, had placed on the left wing Vid with the men of Bács, on the right Erney, himself with a most valid line in the middle. … Ladislaus, led by immense piety, while he greatly fears for his brother Géza, had on purpose exchanged standards with him, reckoning (as it happened) that Salomon would above all attack with extreme efforts the host of Duke Géza, whom he had a little before vanquished: wherefore, intent on his brother's safety, he turned all the force of war upon himself. Nor was he frustrated of his design: for the King straightway, the standards of Géza being descried, is borne with the greatest fury against his line, hoping that the enemy, once vanquished, would more easily give way. Scarcely had he himself begun to join hands, when he understood that he had to do not with Géza, they rout and put Salomon to flight. but with Ladislaus, a most valiant and most invincible man, and recognized the standards exchanged. … Wherefore, having turned his back, he suddenly turns himself against Géza: Ladislaus … forthwith pursues him, presses from behind, Géza from the front … at last Salomon, the greatest part of his men being slain, and the rest captured, escapes with a few … Ladislaus and Géza, from the second hour of the day until late, pursue the King …

[9] But the pious Ladislaus, having gained a notable victory, when he had somehow gathered himself, He, having seen to the burial of the slain enemies, and surveyed the bodies of those who had fallen, was turned into deepest tears, while he reckoned with himself, that all who had fallen had been brothers in Christ …

But when there had been enough weeping, he took care that all the corpses should be duly buried; rendering to each according to his dignity, and the shrine vowed to S. Martin at Mogyoród, he discharges his vow to S. Martin, with the spoils of the enemy added; he added also no mediocre revenues, by which the continual obsequies of the dead might be celebrated … Nor can that piety of Ladislaus be passed over in silence; for when he rode about among the corpses stretched on the ground, that he might leave none deprived of his due office, where he recognized Erney lying among the densest enemies, no mediocre lover of peace; he suddenly leaped down from his horse: and embracing and kissing his bloody head miserably: Liest thou here, Erney, said he, lover of peace, and uniquely an assertor of fraternal concord and public safety? Not this did thy probity, not this did thy equity deserve. and he mourns the slain dukes of Salomon. The peace which thou didst not find in this life, in the other thou hast obtained by deserving well and admonishing … Wherefore straightway by his command, the soldiers bearing Erney's body on their shoulders, it was carried to where Vác now is, and honorably buried. A little further on, the victor himself had advanced among the corpses to be recognized, and behold from one side the body of Vid is offered, wounded not only in the breast but also in the head; which when it was recognized: I grieve indeed, said he, at thy death, Vid, although thou never didst dissemble thy iniquitous mind toward us. Would that it had been permitted thee to live longer, that after repentance thou mightest have been able to reconcile us to Salomon!

CHAPTER II.

After Géza's three-year reign, Ladislaus, Salomon being excluded, is elected.

[10] After Géza and Ladislaus, having gained the victory, had defrauded the bodies of the dead of no honor of sepulture according to each one's dignity, and had paid the due rites; their camp being moved, they cross the Danube, Géza elected King, that they might hasten to Székesfehérvár (Alba Regalis) … There, the soldiers being discharged, they break up the camp, and bear themselves more civilly among the Hungarians, that it might be free to these to crown as King him whom they most chiefly desired. This modesty, by no means feigned, kindled the minds of the Pontiffs and Magnates: for what the rest panted after, these seemed to seek by virtue rather than by ambition. Therefore, a most frequented assembly being held, Géza, the elder by birth, by the consent and acclamation of all, is declared King of Hungary, and on the following day according to custom is crowned: Ladislaus is pronounced by him Duke of the Kingdom about the year 1074.

[11] That best of men, having gained mastery of affairs, turned his mind not to savagery or to pleasure, [he founds the church of the Mother of God at Vác, with a little chapel of S. Peter,] but to religion and to the discharging of vows to God. For, not unmindful of the divine benignity, he returns with Ladislaus into the field of Vác, where his brother had said that an Angel placed upon him the crown brought from heaven: and when he was speaking with his brother about establishing there a basilica to the Divine Mother, where the little shrine of S. Peter is; behold a stag, notable with spreading antlers, which most ardent torches had encircled, appeared before their eyes; soon, turned to flight, it sought the forest, untraceable; and there only fixed its tracks, where the shrine was afterward placed: which, when the soldiers pursued it with arrows, they relate to have cast itself into the Danube, and never afterward to have been seen. Ladislaus, seized with admiration of the portent; Doubtless, said he, that was an Angel of God. the place being marvelously shown. But what are the torches on its horns? said Géza. Soon Ladislaus: Not horns, but wings, brother, said he; nor are those which thou callest burning, torches, but most shining feathers. But where it fixed its tracks, it has shown us the place where we are to build the basilica. Wherefore where on the first day the auguries were seen, lest the place full of the divine power should lack lawful religion, there they dedicated a little shrine to S. Peter; soon they established the temple of the great Mother; and endowed it with many villages and ornaments. They also founded a shrine of the Divine Virgin at Buda, likewise another at Buda to which they assigned the tolls of Pest and three villages in the field of Somogy, and rendered it adorned with most elaborate and golden vessels. Afterward, when they think enough has been done for religion and vows, they turned their mind to setting the kingdom in order: most grievous edicts were promulgated against assassins and other malefactors, salutary laws also were issued and injuries prohibited.

[12] There remained in the field of Moson Salomon, * retaining Pozsony (Pressburg) alone; whom the Duke of the Bessenes, Zultan, demanded to subdue for himself: he calls Leopold Duke of Austria, the father of S. Leopold, to his aid; routs Zultan: denies to Leopold the agreed reward of his subsidy; solicits Henry IV the Emperor against the Hungarians in vain; Salomon after some little victory for he too led back his army into Germany with his purpose unaccomplished. Salomon again betakes himself to Pozsony: Géza, the kingdom everywhere pacified, gains mastery, called "the Great" by surname. besieged at Pozsony by Ladislaus, When Ladislaus had learned that Salomon had withdrawn thither, not unaware of his cousin's plots, he judged that no time for breathing should be given him, at that especially tempestuous season, when he had heard him to be forsaken by the Germans: therefore he decrees that Pozsony be straightway besieged, not that he might reduce his brother to extremes, but that he might unwilling teach him fraternal charity. Which when it was done, a great despair came upon Salomon from the siege … but that which befell in this siege, which for some days could not be raised, is by no means to be passed over in silence.

[13] They relate that Ladislaus, with arms changed, approached the walls alone at midday, as if about to explore something: he beholds Angels assisting him: on the contrary, while all looked on, as if to single combat, Salomon came forth; for he did not recognize the man, but thought it was a soldier of Ladislaus; and when he had come to him, deterred by a certain divine portent, he drew back his foot. To the soldiers afterward asking, why he had fled from the enemy, contrary to his custom and audacity, he straightway answered, that he had dreaded not a man, but hostile Divine beings: that he had beheld two Angels, settling on the enemy's shoulder, who with gleaming and hostile swords defended the man. By such a miracle, they say, the soldiers thereafter the more dreaded and observed him. Likewise whatever soldiers, whether taken in war, or thereafter coming over to Ladislaus from a great famine of things, were safely sent back to Salomon, and not even ungifted according to their merits and dignity: wherefore he so earned grace among the enemy, that among them he was held as a most longed-for friend and Leader.

[14] After these things, when the Nativity of our Savior had drawn near, Géza inclined to peace, King Géza took care that it be celebrated at Szekszárd. Desiderius, Metropolitan of Esztergom, following him with the whole college of Pontiffs and a band of Nobles, during the sacrifice delivered a sermon on fraternal concord, on human charity, on public peace, unworthy neither of himself nor of his hearers. By this the King's mind was so far moved, and he seemed so to repent; that, while the people looked on, weeping, he cast himself at the Metropolitan's feet, frankly confessing his crime, that he had usurped the kingdom of Salomon, legitimately crowned, he offers to restore the kingdom to Salomon: that he had driven out the true King, that, finally, he had occupied another's right: therefore that he, led by penitence, publicly promised, that he would straightway restore to Salomon the usurped kingdom on this fair condition, that he himself should retain the third part of the kingdom from the crown received, which was once of Ducal right; that Salomon should possess the two parts with the chief diadem, just as he once possessed those things which are wont to be of Royal right. By this repentance and condescension of Géza the minds of the spectators were so far gladdened, in surpassing joy, that they extolled the King with divine praises, proclaimed him truly worthy of the surname "the Great," and reiterated that he was the father of the fatherland and the author of peace. Legates were forthwith appointed to Salomon, to bear the conditions of peace and restitution; which if they should please, and while the conditions are being treated then it would be free to him to receive the power of the Hungarian kingdom. The legates perform their mandates, bring back replies, which detracted somewhat from the proposed condition. Often were orators sent on both sides, and various conditions tried to and fro, yet no reconciliation could be made.

[15] While the matter of peace is being conducted, Géza, seized with adverse health, dies on the 25th of April. although nothing before he departed did he more eagerly affect than this reconciliation, yet, impotent of his desire, on the 7th before the Kalends of May he was compelled to depart from human affairs; longed for equally and lamented by all, since he excelled no less in virtues than in orthodox faith. His body was carried to Vác, and buried with a most celebrated funeral in the basilica of the Divine Virgin, which he had built. He reigned three years … After Géza had been honorably buried, the Hungarians, distrusting Salomon, the Hungarians began to think about electing a King: and although they had the legitimate King Salomon within the borders, whom they might safely have recalled, and although that they should do it they were daily solicited by letters and prayers and sometimes by gifts; yet by no means could they blot Ladislaus from their mind: for as often as they consulted about the good and safety of the kingdom, nothing occurred more desirable than the probity and fortitude of the most holy Duke.

[16] For they recalled to mind the man's justice, piety, prudence, fortitude, and more inclined toward Ladislaus and above all his sanctity: since they had understood that he neither esteemed greatly the smiling fortune of this age, nor was subject to ambition, nor seething with depraved lusts; but despising all mortal heights, and most observant of perpetual chastity. There was added greatness of mind, indomitable strength of body, likewise unheard-of constancy of deeds and words, popularity and affability, and ineffable charity toward his own and toward the rest: all which things indeed conciliated to him so great grace, that with most expressed vows they sought and pronounced him. Not even the man's miracles had fallen from memory; nor his most valiant deeds, which rendered Ladislaus worthy not only of empire, but of divine honors. most worthy of the kingdom by the gifts of mind and body, Likewise the memory of his profuse beneficence and liberality kindled their minds, which no one could consign to oblivion. Very many reiterated that he was the sole assertor of Hungarian chastity, the refuge of the wretched, the exemplar of sanctity, and the liberator of his nation: others proclaimed him the sole workshop of human offices. Beggars freed from misery, the depressed who had been relieved by his help, virgins vindicated from rape and endowed with dowry, likewise farmers preserved by his protection, and the rest of every kind of men and of all orders affected by his benefits, came in rivalry to the royal assembly, that without ambition and without a nomenclator they might of their own accord render their votes. To this all were exhorted by the majesty of his appearance, joined with the highest comeliness; likewise the tallness of his body, very conspicuous from the harmony of his limbs, eminent above the rest of men up to the shoulders by his height; and in speaking he used such great temperance of right, that you would reckon him no less just than merciful; wherefore he was called "the Pious" by surname.

[17] After to that assembly the Pontiffs, Magnates, and every Magistrate from the towns and villages had come together; though he declined, they raise him to the throne, they declare Ladislaus King by one consent; and before he had come down into the assembly, all saluted him as King; and him, most obstinately refusing this dignity, with most urgent prayers they compelled to accept it … about the year 1077 yet he did not permit himself to be crowned with the royal diadem, because he had understood that Salomon was still alive: who, bearing himself as King without the crown, for he reckoned it iniquitous to usurp the crown of the legitimate King; he hoped there would be concord between him and the latter, which he trusted would proceed from this modesty: nor did he ever take up that insignia, until he understood that he could not lawfully receive it. Very many record that this was done out of contempt for human glory. Being now raised to the height of the kingdom, and administering all things rightly nothing was indeed more precious to him than

to found basilicas, to apply himself to religion, to provide abundantly for the colleges of Priests, to invite others by his example to divine worship, and to cherish nothing more vehemently than piety, whose offices he forsook not even in the least part. But that was held less admirable in the divine Prince, that he satisfied both divine worship and the management of affairs equally, and neither was a hindrance to the other; since to perform both is reckoned most difficult. For above all, when occasion was given, he amplified Hungarian affairs; since he added Dalmatia with Croatia to the kingdom of the Hungarians by perpetual right.

[18] At that time Zelomirus, King of Dalmatia, was ruling, whose wife was the sister of Ladislaus. The man, being without children, by the gift of his sister whom he had defended departed life, the Kingdom being bequeathed to his wife. The Queen, afflicted with various injuries of her enemies, and especially of those who aspired to tyranny, sought aid from her most powerful brother. Ladislaus, a levy being held, prepares an army, and undertakes the Dalmatian expedition by right of kinship: the Drava being crossed he rouses all Valeria, he joins Dalmatia and Croatia to Hungary. which extends between the Sava and the Drava, against the Dalmatians: he straightway routs and puts to flight his sister's enemies: he recovers the occupied towns: at length he restored entire to his sister the pacified kingdom, which he had recovered in a brief war. But she, laboring with bereavement of children, since she had no one to whom she might more justly bequeath the kingdom, suddenly assigned it to her brother and his posterity, and ordered that thenceforth all Dalmatia and Croatia be held of Hungarian dominion. From which time indeed the Hungarians began to rule the Dalmatians and Croatians by right.

CHAPTER III.

The victories of S. Ladislaus over the perjured Salomon, and the Cumans joined to him.

[19] Let us return to Salomon, who from Pozsony, a Roman colony, threatened constant incursions against the kingdom. With Salomon remaining at Pozsony All the Prelates and Nobles of Pannonia daily thought of nothing with greater solicitude than of reconciling the Princes, from whose concord a perpetual peace was hoped. Nor could that matter have been accomplished, had not justice and innate piety conquered Ladislaus: since he understood Salomon to be fierce of disposition and inexorable of mind; but it did not escape him, that the kingdom belonged by hereditary right to his cousin rather than to himself, had not the man's ferocity and cruelty hindered it. He preferred at length to have regard for fraternal charity rather than for his own advantage. On this condition therefore a treaty was struck, and concord entered in the fourth year of his reign, that he should pay yearly to Salomon such stipends as befitted royal dignity; yet that he should lack the power of entering the kingdom, and that Ladislaus alone should rule Hungary. Salomon accepted the condition of peace. The pious King ratifies the concord; But if he had perceived that his brother would be steadfast, they say that Ladislaus would have ceded the Royal office of his own accord, and would have been altogether content with the Ducal dignity alone; but the Nobles and the colleges of Pontiffs intervened, who, reckoning that the restitution of Salomon and the abdication of the most holy King would be most calamitous to them, suffered no partition of the kingdom to be made; nay rather they proclaimed that they would first undergo all extremes, before they would desert the most pious and most valiant King, given from heaven and a most invincible champion. Nor indeed were they ignorant how great evils threatened the Hungarians, if they should by chance fall again into the hands of the savage King: they understood his inexorable wrath, as the issue of the matter soon showed.

[20] For, being reconciled to his brother, the dire mind of Salomon was somewhat quieted; but soon, having obtained from the concord an occasion for vengeance, which he, having abused, he began to think about preparing plots … Therefore by letter he begs a conference with Ladislaus in the field of Moson, that they might the more vehemently confirm perpetual concord between themselves, hoping that under this pretext he would easily circumvent him by plots. Ladislaus undertakes to be present on the appointed day: but he, since he was under divine protection, a few days after is secretly warned by a messenger, that in the conference with Salomon he should beware for himself, that he should know that snares were prepared by his brother, against which if he should not provide, he would feel the danger of death imminent for himself. The King, forewarned of these things, understood that he must contend with Salomon by equal art. and being caught in the crime Wherefore, after the conference was reached, Ladislaus, relying on a stronger guard, which he had concealed, circumvented and seized Salomon, caught in the fraud. He, when he saw himself caught by his own art, could indeed accuse no other than himself; and had he not been prevented by the guard set over him, he would have thought of inflicting death upon himself. Salomon being thus captured is led to Visegrád, is captured, which was once an old Royal seat, and is cast into prison, not to dishonor his dignity, but to soften his atrocity … But although Ladislaus seemed to rage against his brother more than was just, that he might calm his indomitable wrath; yet never did he cease day and night from divine prayer, that he might behold the man restored by heavenly help to the office of fraternal piety. And he would often of his own accord have ceded the kingdom, and most gladly reduced himself to the Duchy, if he had understood his brother to repent at any time: whom, lest he should constantly disturb the kingdom, for the sake of public safety, he was compelled, even unwilling, to confine in prison.

[21] But how abominable to God fraternal discord is, He showed this most especially. For when S. Stephen, in the veneration of his body, who, by the intercession of S. Stephen the King, which had lain hidden for fifty-five years, was about to indicate his divine power; he inspired no mediocre desire in Ladislaus the King of earning Relics of this kind, that by the benefaction of his nephew he might procure divine honors for himself. Wherefore, by counsel of the Fathers and edict of the King, a three-day fast was proclaimed for men and women alike, and in all the shrines lectisternia; likewise supplications at all the altars, that some signs might be given divinely, by which they might understand the will of almighty God. On the fourth day they came together most frequently to his sepulcher, and not otherwise permitting his own body to be elevated that they might bring forth from the subterranean vault the body of the most holy King: which when they had attempted, the stone could be moved by no force. A Virgin of wondrous sanctity being consulted, who dwelt constantly in the monastery of the Savior, answered; that they strove in vain, until Salomon should be freed from prison. Ladislaus, hearkening to the oracle of the Virgin, straightway orders him to be freed; he proclaims also a three-day fast with supplications. Which being duly performed, when into the basilica, with the whole band of Pontiffs and Nobles, he had again come together; the stone, touched, which had long clung to the sepulcher, easily suffered itself to be removed, and the Relics of the divine King were brought up … he is dismissed free;

[22] Salomon, released from prison, spent a few days with Ladislaus: for, relapsing into his accustomed fury and wrath, he turned his mind to avenging his injuries: he stirs up the Cumans against Ladislaus and when he little obeyed the counsels and prayers of his brother, likewise of the Prelates and Magnates, dissembling, he begs a discharge by flight. The unhappy man was drawn in different directions, and of the Christians no one offered himself to him as a Potentate whom he might stir up against the Hungarians and his brother: wherefore he turned his mind to the profane. It occurred to him that Guthescus, Prince of the Cumans, a most powerful neighbor with a barbarian band, most greedy of the dominion of the kingdom and of Transylvania, could easily be stirred up to this war. So he secretly begs barbarian aid; Transylvania being promised to them; by which, if he could be restored to his former dignity, he promises and affirms by oath, that he would concede the kingdom of Transylvania to the dominion of the Cumans in perpetuity, would also receive his daughter as wife, and would strike an eternal treaty with him. The barbarian, drawn by vain hope, an immense multitude being gathered, bursts into Hungary; first he attacks two little forts, of which one was named Ung, but together with them is conquered, the other Borsua. From the irruption of the Cumans a tumult arises: Ladislaus straightway gathers an army, hastens against the Barbarians. He could scarcely believe the rumor which reported that Salomon had conspired with the nation of the Cumans. At length, the safety of his brother being despaired of, by continuous marches he came to the camp of the enemy. Their bodies being refreshed, he so attacks the enemy with valiant spirit, that, compelled to turn their backs, he continually routed and put them to flight. Of the Cumans ten thousand, of the Hungarians scarcely a thousand were lost. Guthescus with Salomon procured safety for himself by secret flight; the King, having gained a clear victory, returned with immense booty; he performed sacred rites at all the altars, and supplications were celebrated for rendering thanks to God. The spoils were affixed to the temples of the Divine ones in monument of the victory, procured by divine help: a shrine was erected to the Savior.

[23] nor is he seen any more, having escaped by flight. Meanwhile Salomon with the surviving Cumans turns into Bulgaria; slain by the Greeks, and besieged in a deserted town to which he had withdrawn, he breaks out and escapes across the Ister: soon, carried into the nearest forest, he withdrew himself from the sight of his companions, nowhere seen any more: unless perhaps afterward once in Hungary, and after a long penitence in the desert, buried at Pola in Istria in the time of King Coloman, the twelfth century perhaps having begun, where he is venerated as a Saint on the 26th of September. Ladislaus, The Cumans returning reckoning him to have been long since dead, since he nowhere appeared, had bent all the sinews of his wit to defending the kingdom from hostile assault, since he understood that in his right hand he bore the public safety, and that the nation committed to him was to be governed with all zeal. Meanwhile behold again the fury of the Cumans broke out, and under their Leader Copulclio, son of Crubi, there is raging in Hungary. With its first onset this innumerable multitude invades Transylvania … which being ravaged and Mount Carpathus surmounted, there is a hastening into the field of Bihar, where Várad is. At the river which is now named Unsoer, and having depopulated Transylvania camp was placed for some days: after this it seemed good to cross the Tisza … and to divide the army into three parts … The regions therefore being depopulated by arrangement, they came together at a certain village or water, which they call Rechen; where, laden with intolerable booty, they straightway take counsel of returning, gloriously boasting among themselves, "Making war we came and hunting we return." From the immense magnitude of the booty, than which nothing greater had before been heard of, this insolence arose, since an innumerable multitude of noble children and matrons was led away captive.

[24] Ladislaus, who was then engaged in Illyricum, and had added the kingdom of Slavonia, Ladislaus, having gained, bequeathed to him by his sister and before defended by him, to the Hungarian dominion, since he was far away, could not be present for these affairs. But when he was informed that in the trans-Istrian part of Hungary all things were being plundered by the wild nation, he hastens his journey begun, sends ahead swift cavalry, with the cuirassiers follows them day and night. He restrains the departing Cumans by continuous marches at the river Temes, who, the river being now crossed, believed they could return safely to their own seats. After he had come thither, whence the wretched booty could be seen, an assembly being called: Alas, a wretched spectacle, Ladislaus cries out. Then having exhorted his men in a few words to the present matter, and confused with a flood of tears, he is borne on his roused horse against the enemy, and orders the red standards to be carried forward at the same time: the rest, smitten with equal grief, follow their most valiant leader, with no less spirit. The Cumans, after they see themselves attacked from behind, halt their column, and form themselves into a drawn-up line. A most fierce battle is straightway joined, he engages with them, since fear strengthened the spirits of these, the charity of their own and indignation at the captivity those. The King hurls himself into the densest battle: and while he indulges his piety, he neither spares himself, nor dreads any perils; from the beginning many fall on both sides.

[25] Meanwhile the column of captives, ordered to hasten, looking out that help was at hand from behind, and the captives being turned against the enemy struggles against those pressing upon them. Men and women alike strive to free themselves, they loose their bound hands by mutual

help, that they might from the front aid their own: which when it was done, they utter most intense voices with congratulation … The Cumans see themselves reduced to straits, from behind they are most grievously cut down, from the front they are hindered by the baggage and especially by the column of captives … Wherefore from the flank they began to turn their backs, all flee scattered, the Hungarians pursue. Which when it was seen by the most pious King, he straightway cried out: Spare human blood, he gains the victory. spare them, soldiers: enough hostile gore has been shed: take the fleeing multitude by the head, that, if perchance it should wish to turn its mind to the orthodox faith, we may amplify the people of God. The wrath of the soldiers cooling at these words, all the Cumans who had survived were taken captive; one servant only, who was called Escenilus, escaped, as it were a messenger of the memorable slaughter: Capulchus with the foremost had fallen at the beginning of the battle: the victory being won. The Hungarians flew together to the most dear column of captivity, asserted into liberty a while before: each one found his own, and all were recognized not so much by name as by voice. But when enough had been done for a while for the public congratulation, by a sudden edict of the King supplications to the Divine ones were proclaimed … thanks were rendered to God everywhere; and in perpetual monument of the victory, the river Temes is surnamed, even unto the present day, from the famous slaughter of the infidels, "Pagan."

[26] The peoples of the Cumans, the slaughter of their own being known from him who had escaped, Again proudly provoking, a public mourning being proclaimed by a cessation of business, bewailed the death of Duke Capulchus and of the rest: and when they perceived that an innumerable band of their own was held captive among the Hungarians, they decreed by one and the same war both to avenge the death of their Duke, and to vindicate it from servitude. So they renew their forces, and to restore the army they solicit also the bond-slaves: as far as their power, they draw together aid from everywhere, they strive to rouse into Pannonia the Cumans, the Hamaxobii, and the Ruthenians. After these things they send legates to Ladislaus, to whom they gave mandates, that they should order the King to restore the captives, or, if he refuse, should forthwith declare war, and appoint a day of battle. When these had come into the sight of Ladislaus, and appointing a day of battle, by mandate they most insolently demand back the captives, using no reverence … At the futile words the King smiled; saying that imperious words do not befit the conquered, and then especially when they are about to ask something of a benign victor which may seem to be of great moment. He recalls the injuries of the Cumans, who, provoked by no war of the Pannonians, have now for the third time invaded Hungary, and with a more than hostile spirit have driven off men and cattle. Therefore he affirms that nothing should be indulged to such pride, and orders them to depart with their purpose unaccomplished. Who, before they bore their foot backward, forthwith proclaim a day of war.

[27] As soon as possible, the King gathers a most fortified cavalry, the Saint, having attacked, town by town and village by village summons men: he hastens to the borders of the kingdom as quickly as possible, that he may meet the enemy before the day, and not suffer them to enter the kingdom. On the contrary they were present on the appointed day with an innumerable multitude; not far from the bank of the Ister, on the Sabbath day, by arrangement they join battle: and when they were fighting with standards joined on both sides and with most obstinate spirits, nothing then occurred to Ladislaus as more precious, than to fight in single combat with their Leader. their King Aco being slain, Wherefore, declining the engagement with most of them, he everywhere seeks the King of the Cumans, and running about in all directions, he reiterates, "Aco, Aco." But he, not daring to refuse a peculiar battle, was straightway present. The engagement being entered and the strength of Ladislaus tried, he so failed in spirit, that at the first stroke of the axe he nodded with his head, and, the sword soon added, transfixed he expired. The death of Duke Aco being beheld, the Cumans, consternated in spirit, the Hungarians pressing, were compelled to turn their backs: then they flee scattered, and are everywhere cut down: he destroys them unto extermination. against the most insolent barbarism the King so far raged, that he made few captives; nor less did he permit the ferocity of his own to rage against the enemy beyond their custom, lest Hungary should be further vexed by Cuman war. At last, having gained a notable victory, he brought back the rich spoils to the divine father Stephen, and with most heaped-up thanks to God discharged proclaimed supplications …

CHAPTER IV.

The kingdom being pacified on every side, Ladislaus, demanded as Leader of the holy war, dies in its preparation.

[28] After the slaughter of the Cumans, the war of the Roxani arose, Peace being given to the suppliant Ruthenians whom they now call Ruthenians, but the region they call Russia, the Latins more frequently name them Roxolani. But Ladislaus, the Cumans being worn down, attacks the Ruthenians, since he knew that they had stirred up the Cumans against him, had sent aid, and had now thrice fostered the war with men and provisions. But they, relying on better counsel, judged that the most noble Prince should be overcome not by arms, but by obedience. Nor were they deceived in their counsel: for when they had approached him as suppliants, and frankly confessed their fault, and undertook that they would plainly do all things commanded; he straightway remitted their errors, and embraced all with so clement a spirit, that he wholly reconciled the enemy to himself not so much by force as by piety.

[29] Then the Polish war blazed up, because there was a rumor that they had conspired with the Ruthenians and Cumans against the Hungarians. Ladislaus therefore, Ladislaus overcomes in battle their allies the Poles, since he judged that the enemy should be worn down rather by audacity than by delay, after the Cumans had been slain unto extermination, and the Ruthenians received into surrender, turned himself against the Poles; whom neither necessity of blood, nor old friendship, nor the laws of neighborhood had kept in their duty. He had already penetrated the borders of Sarmatia, when the army of the Poles met him. For some time it was fought most fiercely, and on both sides many fell. At length the Polish line gave way. The Hungarian presses the more vehemently as his hope grows: he besieges Cracow, but when the enemy poured out into flight, he could not restrain his onset any longer: he cuts down the fleeing everywhere, and the victor receives so much spirit from victory, that until he reached Cracow, b founded by Gracchus a Roman citizen, and the Royal seat of the Poles, he was unwilling to set foot anywhere to a halt. But when the metropolis was reached, Ladislaus surrounded the city with a most fierce siege … The siege was now prolonged into the third month, and great famine and want of almost all things came upon both the besieged and the besiegers: but ingenious necessity found a new device. and a feigned abundance of provisions in his camp, In the dead of night by edict of the King each soldier is ordered to bring before the walls of the city a greave or helmet filled with dug-up earth: which when it was done, soon a mound of the heaped earth, by no means mediocre, arises, which the King orders to be sprinkled with flour as soon as possible. As the day dawned, the townsmen behold before the walls of the citadel a most lofty mountain of flour, they envy the provisions of the enemy and equally marvel, they commiserate the urban want. induces them to surrender, Soon they take counsel for the public safety: that, lacking food and reduced to extremes, they cannot endure any longer the long siege of the enemy, who had most long fortified themselves with grain-supply; nay rather they now labor with so great a famine, that they can scarcely resist for an hour: wherefore on the following day they surrender themselves with the citadel. The King, their obstinacy being somewhat chastised, after the humble surrender, restored every right to the city; he admonished them for the future, that, the law of friendship being contemned no more, they should attempt nothing against the Hungarians: which they all undertook to do.

[30] Thereafter the journey was turned into Bohemia; where, since he had once had some peoples hostile to him, the vengeance of injuries being exacted, and many asserted into captivity, and finally he chastises the Bohemians also, with a most dexterous tenor everywhere of the same fortune, as a most glorious victor, he betook himself into Hungary with his now enriched army. When after the wars he had recalled himself to leisure, in the field of Bihar while hunting he is admonished by a heavenly messenger, that he should dedicate to the Divine Virgin a basilica at the river Körös, and fortify it with a people added, signifying that that place would be most pleasing to the great Mother. he founds Várad, He straightway performed the divine mandates, erected a most magnificent shrine, and set over it a Pontiff; he founded a town, and ordered it to be called Várad; he adorned the Pontifical shrine with a most ample donation, for the sake of divine worship. When the Germans bore with iniquitous spirit the discord of Henry and the supreme Pontiff: he refuses the empire offered by the Germans. they invited him with many prayers also to take up the Roman Empire: but when they found him most obstinately refusing, they declared Rudolf, Prince of Saxony.

[31] Ladislaus panted after nothing more eagerly than the prefecture of the Jerusalem expedition … His hope was increased by the rumor now spread abroad, that Peter the Hermit, born of the Gallic nation and endowed with wondrous probity of life, having returned from the holy pilgrimage, by the command of S. Peter c had admonished not only the Roman Pontiff, but the Gauls, Spaniards, and Germans, that Palestine and those most august places, At the preaching of Peter the Hermit where the Savior of the world was both born and died, should be wholly asserted from the Saracens … nay also that Urban, having gone into Gaul, had held a most frequented synod at Clermont in Auvergne, and had persuaded all the Princes who were present to undertake this expedition; that Godfrey, Eustace, and Baldwin, born of the most excellent race of Bouillon, Kinglets of Boulogne in Gaul; likewise the Bishop of Le Puy, Raymond Count of S. Gilles; besides Hugh the Great, brother of Philip King of the Gauls; two Roberts, the one Prince of Normandy, the other of Flanders; and Stephen, finally, Kinglet of Chartres, had given their names of their own accord to the most holy warfare; nay also that three hundred thousand men, war being promulgated, having laid aside the toga had taken up the soldier's cloak, and had inscribed the right shoulder with the sign of the Cross, Christians armed for recovering the Holy Land, which very many record to have befallen in the year ninety-fourth above the thousandth … To Ladislaus, kindled with this salutary glory, and celebrating the Paschal feast at the town of Bodrog, behold from Gaul, Spain, and Britain legates come … who most instantly besought the King, that, with the Pontifical authority and the command of the Christian people, they choose Ladislaus as their leader: for asserting from the power of the Saracens the sepulcher of our Savior, he should undertake this expedition; that he should gladly accept the delegated prefecture and governance of the most sacred army; nor refuse the command of the sacred legions, which were to avenge the inexpiable injuries of infidelity.

[32] The King did not permit himself to be entreated by more: to Jesus Christ the best and greatest, that He had inspired so excellent an exploit in His people and nobles; then to the Potentates of the Christians, or to these especially who by the office of legation had conferred the most glorious Prefecture, he gave thanks: he praised the sacred expedition; and at length with cheerful and valiant spirit he accepted the most holy command, and sent back the legates, honorably treated and amply gifted. In those solemnities also, who, having joined to himself the Duke of Bohemia, his nephew, to all the Prelates and Nobles of Hungary, he signified that he would accomplish the Jerusalem expedition in that year: wherefore, having embraced all, the safety of the kingdom being commended, he dismissed them sad and weeping. Then to Conrad, Duke of the Bohemians, son d of Otto, and his nephew through his sister, he sends straightway a courier; who should signify to him the command of the Jerusalem expedition delegated to himself, and should order the young man to gird himself for the warfare, to set his house in order, to prepare an army for avenging the injuries of the Savior as far as in him lay. With most willing spirit the nephew undertakes the commands, promises to be present on the appointed day, much gladdened by the salutary expedition.

[33] While both gird themselves for the foreign war, behold Sentapolcus, e who touched the young man by close kinship, while, the same being expelled by the perfidy of his own, in the name of Duke Conrad, and at the dead of night, comes to and takes Prague. On the following day, honorably received by the conspirators, with the Bishop of Prague favoring, he occupies the tyranny; Conrad, driven out from the dominion, fled to his uncle,

he narrates the crime of his kinsman, implores aid, for the father recalls his faith and the ancient benefits. But the King, by no means unmindful of the f merits of Otto, promises that he will be not only auxiliary forces, but both emperor and soldier for the restoring of his nephew. Therefore he straightway orders an army to be gathered, and prepares a most valid cavalry: nay also he commands two other nephews, sons of his brother Géza, to gird themselves for war; of whom the one was named Coloman, together with his nephews, the sons of Géza, he prepares to come to their aid, the other Álmos. He loved Álmos more than Coloman, since he had foreseen that this one would be a shedder of much blood, but on the contrary that one milder out of his wisdom. Wherefore he had destined Coloman for the Priesthood, that his dire disposition might grow mild through religion, and, moved by this counsel, he declared him Bishop of Eger. Which when it was signified to the nephew, on the following night he fled into Poland, led by his innate ferocity, nor ignorant of old affairs, that his father and grandfather had once been honorably received by the Poles: very many nobles followed the young man. The King bore Coloman's flight with iniquitous spirit, abhorring the wickedness of his disposition: and at length, his forces being gathered, he hastened into Bohemia.

[34] Scarcely had he reached the borders, when behold a disease and great languor came upon him; wherefore he orders all the Princes and Prelates straightway to be summoned, he is seized by disease, that he may consult for Hungarian affairs, and before he departs from human things, may dispose concerning the future King. Likewise to Coloman he sends as orators Marcellus, a Presbyter endowed with great sanctity, and Peter the Count, who should in his name recall him from Poland. The sickness then increasing, he declares his nephew Álmos his successor, the Magnates being convoked, he orders Álmos, a youth of milder disposition and more excellent character, to succeed him in the kingdom. Soon by testament whatever goods were found in his possession, all he bequeaths to the basilicas and sacred monasteries; and he left no shrine in Hungary deprived of his beneficence. On the following day that King, held by the judgment of all peoples most holy, in the year of salvation ninety-fifth g above the thousandth, on the third before the Kalends of August, in the nineteenth h year of his reign, fell asleep in the Lord. and he dies in 1095, Some report that he departed without children, nor is it sufficiently established whether he married a wife; except that from a certain epitaph inscribed upon a tomb at the basilica of Veszprém, into which a certain Prelate gathered the bones of Queens Gisela and Olhait, it seems to be proved that the last of these was joined to Ladislaus. The epigram is such, "Here rest the bones of Stephen i and Ladislaus, most holy Kings of Pannonia, consorts." Which I should not difficultly believe, since the Annals plainly hand down that Piriska the daughter of Ladislaus was placed with the Emperor of Constantinople: they omit the name of the Emperor, whom I think to have been Emmanuel. k The body of Ladislaus was buried at Várad with most honorable obsequies. But Álmos, buried at Várad. led by good simplicity, ceded the kingdom to Coloman, returning from Poland, lest he should seem to defraud his brother of the right of primogeniture.

NOTES OF D. P.