Basinus

CONCERNING SAINT BASINUS, ARCHBISHOP OF TRIER,

TOWARD THE END OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

Preliminary Commentary.

Basinus, Archbishop of Trier (Saint)

[1] The earliest origin and territories of the kingdom of the Austrasians, widely and broadly dispersed, were indicated by us and carefully established in several paragraphs before the Life of Saint Sigebert, King of the Austrasians, published at the very first of February. The principal portion of this kingdom was Belgica Prima, [The deeds of the Austrasian Kings and the Bishops of Trier in the seventh century,] whose capital is Augusta Treverorum (Trier), under which is contained the episcopal city of Divodurum of the Mediomatrici, commonly called Metz, the seat of these Kings, situated together with it on the River Moselle. So great was the ignorance of later writers concerning events in this kingdom, especially in the seventh century, that Dagobert II, the son of Saint Sigebert, was buried in an ungrateful oblivion of nearly a thousand years and expunged from the royal catalogue -- whose name and royal dignity we restored to him, having published a dissertation or diatribe on the three Dagoberts, Kings of the Franks; to which we appended a fourth book on the Bishops and Councils, because the times in which they occupied the sacred thrones of the Churches or attended Councils had been less correctly ordered elsewhere; and in Chapter 5 we treated of the Archbishops of Trier, and specifically of Saint Basinus, who on this fourth of March is venerated with ecclesiastical worship, and of several of his predecessors and successors.

[2] Among these, the Bishops Saints Modoald, Among them is Saint Modoald, who attended the Council of Reims under Sonnatius in the year 624 or the following year. Thirty years are attributed to him. Saint Numerianus, called by others Nemorianus, succeeded him; Numerianus, King Childeric, in the diploma of donations made to the monasteries of Stavelot and Malmedy, attests that King Sigebert made use of his counsel. The same Numerianus signed the documents of Saint Deodat, founder of the monastery of Val-de-Galilee, in the time of Childeric. Saint Sigebert died in the year 663, and after the deposition of Childebert, son of Grimoald, Childeric succeeded him the following year. Numerianus is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology at the fifth of July. Saint Hildulph succeeded him in the time of Childeric and Ansigisus, Hildulph, who wielded great authority with the King, and confirmed to Saint Deodat the privileges and immunities granted by his predecessor Numerianus and by the Roman Pontiff; and having left the episcopate, he built the monastery of Moyenmoutier. In the times of Childeric, Theoderic, and Dagobert, Saints Hildulph, Deodat, Arbogast, and Florentius were joined by the closest friendship; the latter two were successive Bishops of Strasbourg. We treated of them at length in Book 2 of the said Diatribe, Chapter 3. We believe Saint Hildulph died in the year 692, Basinus, although in his Life the year 707 is interpolated. When Hildulph retired to the hermitage, Saint Basinus succeeded him, perhaps around the year 670, with Childeric still reigning, who was killed in the year 679; and he seems to have lived until the times of Childebert, during whose reign we conjecture he departed from life around the end of the seventh century. The duration of his See is to be confirmed from the years of his successor. That successor was Saint Liutwin, Liutwin, nephew of Basinus through his sister Gunza, who as Bishop subscribed the donation of Saint Irmina the Abbess, made on the first of December in the fourth year of the reign of Childebert, that is, the year of Christ 701. The same endowed the monastery of Mettlach in the year of Childebert

of King Childebert, the twelfth year, that is, 709 or the following year. Saint Liutwin, before the episcopate, had a son born from a lawful marriage, named Milo, who in the year 717, having expelled the legitimate Bishop Saint Rigobert, and the usurper Milo, obtained the episcopate of Reims; and indeed upon the death of Saint Liutwin, he also seized the episcopate of Trier, which Hincmar, in his Preface to the Life of Saint Remigius, reports that he ruined for about forty years. And these few things we have said about these Bishops of Trier, leaving aside the fuller proofs deduced elsewhere.

[3] The sacred memory of Saint Basinus is inscribed in the ancient Martyrology of Saint Maximin at the fourth of March with these words: "Likewise, of Saint Basinus, Archbishop of Trier." The sacred veneration of Saint Basinus in the Martyrologies, In another manuscript, now preserved at Cologne among the Carmelite Fathers, brought there from Frankfurt, the following is read: "At Trier, of Saint Basinus, Archbishop"; and "Confessor" is added in the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490 and in the supplement of Greven to Usuard. But Maurolycus and Felicius call him Prelate of Trier, while Galesinius, Canisius, and Molanus call him Bishop. These are expressed thus in the manuscript Florarium of the Saints: "At Trier, of Saint Basinus, Bishop and Confessor of this city. He flourished in the year of salvation 659." But Ghinius, in his Birthdays of the Holy Canons, thinks differently about the date: "At Trier," he says, "of Saint Basinus, Bishop, who, having administered the same See excellently, rested in peace on this day in the year of the Lord 750." The reckoning of both is refuted from what we cited above. The ecclesiastical cult of the same Saint is prescribed in a manuscript Breviary of the diocese of Trier, and in Breviaries, which we have in our possession. In the Trier Lectionary printed in the year 1665, for those who recite the Roman Office, it is only noted that a Commemoration of him should be made.

[4] In a certain booklet about the relics of the Monastery of Saint Maximin, formerly printed, it is stated: Translation of the body "On the fourth day before the Kalends of June, the precious bodies of Saints Maximin, Agricius, Nicetius, and Basinus were translated by Saint Hildulph." But these events are more accurately described in the Life of Saint Agricius published by us at the thirteenth of January, number 10, with the name of Saint Basinus omitted -- and rightly so, since he succeeded Saint Hildulph in the Episcopal See. But all agree that after his death Saint Basinus was buried in the same basilica. Afterwards, in the year 937, that church was nearly consumed by a devouring flame, and soon restored anew by Abbot Ogo, completed in the year 942, and dedicated with solemn pomp on the third day before the Ides of October. On which day, it is added in the aforesaid booklet, "the precious bodies of the Blessed Archbishops of Trier -- Maximin, made in the year 942, Agricius, Nicetius, Basinus, and Weomad -- were raised up and translated into the new church and placed beneath the high altar in separate sarcophagi, as is now seen. The first three together: Maximin indeed in the middle, Agricius on the right, Nicetius on the left; at their heads, Basinus on the right, Weomad on the left." So it reads there, which Brower reports at the same year in Book 9 of his Annals of Trier, page 557.

John Enen, in his German Epitome of the Deeds of Trier, rendered into Latin by John Scheckmann, in Booklet 3, the treatise on the Imperial Church of the Monastery of Saint Maximin, Title 2, writes the following: "The present Basilica is adorned with many bodies of saints. together with the bodies of four other Saints: In the small crypt beneath the high altar rest the five most holy Archbishops of Trier. Behind the altar of that small crypt three repose: Saint Maximin (from whom the place obtained its name on account of his many miracles) in the middle, to his right Saint Agricius, Patriarch of Antioch, and to the left of Blessed Maximin, Saint Nicetius. Before the altar of this small crypt are two Archbishops of Trier: on the right side Saint Basinus, who was Duke of Lotharingia and uncle of Saint Liutwin, Archbishop of Trier; on the left, Saint Weomad. These two, Basinus and Weomad, were Abbots of this place before their episcopate." Of the said Saints, Maximin is venerated on the twenty-ninth of May, Agricius on the thirteenth of January, as we already said; Nicetius on the fifth of December, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology; and Saint Weomad on the eighth of November, inserted in the sacred calendars of Saint Maximin and others.

[5] The Acts are given as collected by Abbot Nizo. We have some Acts from a Trier manuscript sent to us, both of Saint Basinus and of his nephew Saint Liutwin, composed by the same author, as is clear from number 19 below. He is Nizo, Abbot of the Monastery of Mettlach, on the pleasant banks of the River Saar, either first built or certainly restored by the said Liutwin. He inscribed the Life of this his Patron to Udo, Archbishop of Trier. This man, called by some Ado, was ordained in the year 1066, and after ten years in the See died in the year 1076. In another manuscript, Nithardus is read in place of Nizo. He complains below in the Prologue that the ancient Acts perished through the Normans, and that none were substituted, whether through poverty, sloth, or certainly through the negligence of writers. Nevertheless, so that some notice of Saint Basinus might be had, he scraped together these materials, but he errs in many places. First, the Bull, or diploma of a certain Pope Gregory of Rome addressed to a certain Abbot of Saint Maximin named Basinus, is unsatisfactory; and the author interprets this Abbot as the same Bishop. But meanwhile it is established that he did not live in the time of any Pope Gregory. The Bull of Pope Gregory, Saint Gregory the Great died in the year 604, at which time we do not believe Saint Basinus had yet been born, although we have shown that he was made Bishop and died in the same seventh century. was obtained not by Saint Basinus. Meanwhile, the author of the Life says that he was not yet Bishop but was Abbot of Saint Maximin, and then obtained the said Bull from Pope Saint Gregory II, whose Acts we carefully examined at the thirteenth of February, on which day he departed this life in the year 731, having been elected on the twentieth of March of the year 715 -- when at least forty years had already elapsed since Saint Basinus ascended the episcopal throne of the Church of Trier. Furthermore, it does not seem that the ancient monasteries, having left their original constitutions, accepted the Rule of Saint Benedict, which is mentioned in that Bull, before the times of the Emperor Louis the Pious, as is gathered from the Acts of Saint Benedict of Aniane and Inden, Abbot, published at the twelfth of February. During whose reign also the monastery of Landevennec in Armorican Brittany accepted the Rule of Saint Benedict in the year 818, as is said in the Life of Saint Winwaloe, founder of this monastery, on the third of March. In a doubtful matter nothing certain can be established. Perhaps Gregory IV gave it to another. What if Pope Gregory IV, in the year 834, Indiction 12, which is indicated here, in the time of the Emperor Louis the Pious, after the acceptance of the Rule of Saint Benedict, sent the said Bull to the Abbot of this monastery, named Basinus? Certainly the catalogues of Abbots are so mutilated that from the foundation of the monastery to the year 868, only four Abbots are expressed by name in the Sanmarthani. Moreover, that Basinus could have received the name from the earlier Saint Basinus the Bishop either in baptism or upon taking the monastic habit, or could also have given occasion to writers to attribute to the Saint the monastic life and the abbatial dignity of the Monastery of Saint Maximin, which is not mentioned in the older Martyrologies or writers. In the manuscript Deeds of Trier, he is called Abbot of the Cell of Saint Hilary in the territory of Trier. But we propose these things to future investigators of the truth, because they are doubtful and obscure to us, so that they may shed more light if they can and establish the truth -- to which we shall willingly yield.

[6] Our Brower, in Book 7 of the Annals of Trier, page 428, treats of Saint Basinus and asserts that he was a man of a generous and noble stock, and of no lesser fame for religion and sanctity; and that there are some who report that Blessed Clodulph was his brother, Was Saint Clodulph a brother of Saint Basinus? with whom he says he is neither willing entirely to agree nor to deny credence. The author below, in number 5, asserts that the name of the brother is unknown, but that he was a Duke of Lotharingia -- that is, a Duke or powerful man in that part of Austrasia which was later called Lotharingia. Hence the name of Clodulph seems to have been assigned to this Duke; and perhaps Francis de Rosieres, author of the book on the Genealogies of Lotharingia, led the way -- whose work, as stuffed with inventions, was condemned in the Supreme Council of Henry III, King of France, in the year 1583, as Louis Chantereau le Febvre reports in the Preface to his Historical Considerations on the Genealogy of the House of Lorraine. Here therefore Rosieres, in Volume 3, Chapter 49 of the main history, treats of Clodulph, son of Saint Arnulph, and among his children numbers Saint Basinus, first a monk then Archbishop of Trier, or father? and Gunza betrothed to Gerwinus. Arnold Wion, citing this author, composed this eulogy in his monastic Martyrology: "At Trier, the birthday of Saint Basinus, Bishop of Trier and Confessor, who, being the son of Saint Clodulph, Duke of Austrasia, which is now called Lotharingia, first embraced the monastic life in the Monastery of Saint Maximin at Trier, then was raised to govern that See, and after having governed the people committed to him for many years by word and example, departed to heaven, famous for miracles." Menard, Dorganius, Saussay, and Bucelinus copy Wion and establish him as the son of Saint Clodulph. Bucelinus assigns the year 645 for his death. But Trithemius, older than the said Rosieres, in his work on the Illustrious Men of the Order, Book 3, Chapter 159, and Book 4, Chapter 70, following these Acts, establishes Basinus as the brother of the Duke of Lotharingia, without naming him. Hence Brower preferred to write that Blessed Clodulph is reported to have been his brother. All of which collapses when the foundation is overturned.

LIFE

By Nizo, Abbot of Mettlach,

From the Trier Manuscript.

Basinus, Archbishop of Trier (Saint)

BHL Number: 1028

By Abbot Nizo.

PROLOGUE.

[1] By many testimonies of the divine Scriptures we are taught what great usefulness and what great power there is in writing the deeds of the Saints. Among the chief of these, not the least is that oracle of the Archangel Raphael, by which he addresses Tobias: "It is good to hide the secret of the king, but it is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God." Tob. 12:7 David too, that Psalmist of ours, proclaims all the works of the Lord to be very good, The Saints are the heavens, and equally explains what the works of God are: "The heavens," he says, "are the works of your hands, O Lord." Psalm 101:26 But by the name of heavens, very often in sacred speech the Saints are understood, the same Psalmist declaring: "The heavens declare the glory of God." And again: "The heavens announced his justice." 18:7; 21:32 They are called heavens on account of the pre-eminence and loftiness of their merits. Whence it comes about that the heavenly condescension of the Divinity cries out to us also this word of Moses: "Look and make according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain"; as if to say: "Set before your eyes some one of the Saints, and lean upon his demonstrated examples; and respond to his most virtuous deeds with your own." Exod. 25:40 Who does not know that the elect are mountains? Mountains For, placed on the height of virtues, by treading upon all earthly things with contempt of mind, they have deserved both to be called and to be mountains, as another Prophet cries out and says: and hills: "Mountains and

hills shall sing praise before the Lord." Psalm 148:9 In what way mountains? In what way hills? Mountains indeed, because they always stood in the citadel of virtues; hills by their merits, because although they were lofty, they thought humbly of themselves and concealed all the height of their merits. Hence I would not inelegantly contend that any Saints may be called Heavens, beyond the interpretation already given. For they think the word "heaven" is derived from "to conceal," which means to hide -- because it hides the ethereal realm by concealing it, or because it clouds the face of the earth with its horizon. Therefore any Saints can most rightly be called both heavens and mountains. set forth for imitation: "In these heavens your throne, O God, is prepared for ever and ever." And passing beyond the summits of Gilboa, you deign to inhabit these mountains: you have given them to us as an example and a model for life; you have directed them as Doctors to your Church, whose integrity of honorable character and the holiness of their exacting life grants a great pattern for imitation.

[2] Among the other Saints chosen by you from the foundation of the world, your blessed Bishop Basinus was not moderately pleasing to you, whose life, full of virtues, shone brightly. But (alas!) his most illustrious deeds, although they are believed and truly are marvelous, have not all come to our knowledge -- which we report with sorrow. This was the doing, if I am not mistaken, of the furious rage of the Normans, devastating the churches of God everywhere with fire. For it is well known that the city of Trier, together with its suburbs and adjacent churches, The Acts of Saint Basinus were lost through the Normans: was burned to ashes by the same most filthy Normans. On which account it happened that not only the Life of this holy Basinus, but also the most resplendent deeds of many other Saints, committed to writing for posterity, went to destruction. At length, after the Emperor Arnulph had routed the impious captains of the Norman host and peace was granted, the deeds of very many Saints were afterwards recovered. But Basinus, together with many others, was left suppressed in silence -- whether through the scarcity of writers, or through sloth, or certainly through negligence -- to Him who wrote the merits of each one in the Book of Life. Nevertheless, lest the outline of the merits of the most blessed Basinus, perhaps reserved for this our age -- late though it be -- should remain entirely unknown hereafter, certain things are here presented, since they can contribute not a little support for living well and blessedly, it has pleased us -- indeed the love of God and the illustrious honor of Basinus has compelled us -- to record with the service of the pen at least those things concerning his renowned life that have come down to us. But before we begin the course of our narrative, we have thought it worthwhile to review from the beginning the origin of his lineage, or rather the meaning of his origin's name (for he is reported to have descended from the Dukes of Lotharingia). The cosmographers report that the province of Lotharingia was first called Austrasia, with an absurd etymology of Austrasia, or Austerasia, or Upper Austria, while Brabant was called Austrasia, or Austerasia, or Lower Austria; and the etymologists assert that the word Austrasia is derived from Austrasius, a most magnificent Prince, grandson of Charles the Fair, through his son Lando. In ancient times also, Austrasia was called the ^eMajorship-of-the-Palace, which it is established that the holy ^fArnulph, Bishop of Metz, governed most flourishingly, and after him ^gPippin the Elder. But before it was divided so as to be called Upper and Lower Austrasia, it extended from Burgundy all the way to Frisia, bordered by the British Sea. Then it stretched from the River Meuse to the Rhine, while extending along the channel of the Moselle; and finally it was divided into Upper and Lower Austrasia, or Austria, as we have indicated. They say that Upper Austrasia was afterwards named Lotharingia from ^hLothar the First, Emperor, son of the most pious Emperor Louis, son of Charles, the most Christian and unconquerable Emperor, whom they do not hesitate to call the Great, comparing him with Alexander the Great and the most warlike Pompey. This Lothar, since he had two brothers who divided the land after the departure of their father Louis the Pious from the world, named the portion falling to him Lotharingia from his own name. And although Lotharingia at that time included many territories, faithful antiquity has transmitted to posterity that part of the territory around the city of the Mediomatrici, which they also call Metz, and the surrounding country retained the name of Lotharingia. Brabant, which was formerly called by a similar name, emerged from this; from the line of the Dukes of Brabant the title of Lotharingia arose and was deservedly claimed for themselvesⁱ. Enough and more than enough has been said about these things; now let us apply our pen to condensing the Life of blessed Basinus, on whose account we have recited these things.

CHAPTER I.

The birth, education, and monastic life of Saint Basinus.

[3] Saint Basinus descended from the Dukes of Austrasia, The blessed Basinus, therefore, the glorious Archbishop of the metropolis of Belgic Gaul, namely the most eminent city of Trier, a Duke from the Dukes of Upper Austrasia, which they now call Lotharingia, was descended from a lineage not so much most noble as most fortunate. But just as his parents were great in generosity and power, according to the name of the great ones who are on earth, so the most worthy offspring emerging from them, as the worthy scion of a worthy stock, increased the distinction he drew from his birth by the merits of a blessed life. Hence I would believe that the name Basinus was given not rashly but fittingly in the bath of regeneration. For certain reason teaches that the word of this name, derived from "basis," was suitably bestowed upon ^ahim. called, as it were, the foundation of virtues: For as great as a base is in bodily mass, solidity, support, and stability, so great was he in virtue of soul, humanity, fortitude, dexterity, and prudence.

[4] The boy grew up, the ^billustrious scion of his noble birth, equally the sweetness and glory of life. Then, crossing the shores of infancy, he approached the shores of boyhood, growing no less in virtues than in strength. Then, knocking at the doors of adolescence, as he grew in age, so he grew in wisdom and grace before God and men. holily educated: Hence from the very beginning of his adolescence, there began to appear openly what the youth of good disposition showed in secret. For the industrious young man, seeing that the whole world was placed in wickedness, and already being a guest of virtues and an enemy of pleasures, pondered silently with himself, turning over in his heart that Gospel saying: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul?" Mark 8:36 And likewise this: "Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:33

[5] When he had frequently turned these things over in the depths of his heart, at length he gave effect to his wishes, knowing that without deeds the thoughts of men are vain. Therefore in the very flower of his age, fleeing glory, pleasures, wealth, parents, his ancestral land, and finally the world and himself as he was, he enters the Monastery of Saint Maximin: so that he might find himself made new, he devoted himself entirely to the pursuit of the cenobitic life. And for him, going out from the world, accompanied by the divine disciplines of good letters, not far from the walls of Trier, to the Monastery of Saint John the Evangelist, which is situated in the suburb of the said city on the northern side in the Campus Martius, and is titled with the name of Blessed Maximin -- that was his ^crefuge; where he found what he desired and sought, leaving to his brother, the Duke of Lotharingia (whose name, however, we have not received), and to his sister Gunera, the perishable little possession of his ancestral soil. For he preferred subjection to dominion over the earth, and to seek the grace of God rather than that of men, understanding the glory of riches and the ambition of lordship to be transient and fragile, while the state of religious life is held to be glorious and eternal; whence he also made the memory of himself as long as possible.

[6] Introduced into the courts of the house of the Lord, where, according to the mystical sense of the Psalmist, he chose to be cast down there rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners; having laid aside all pride, holding fast to hope and confidence that good grace would come to him through his humiliation, he subjected himself to the authority of his spiritual Father with such humility of soul, he obeys his spiritual Father: willing to please the Lord, that, saving the integrity of his character, he claimed nothing for himself from the privilege of his noble birth; where he whom his origin bore free, his own will made a servant, knowing the highest nobility to be that which the service of Christ approves. Psalm 83:11 Therefore, having bowed his neck to the sweet yoke of Christ, he trusted nothing in himself, believing in Him alone -- above all in Him to whom he had voluntarily committed himself to be governed and protected. And he could do all things in Him who strengthened him, who also said: "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." John 16:33

[7] But just as it has always been the habit of the insolent and base mind to mock the characters of others, while it is that of the serious and distinguished mind to look for upright men to imitate -- so Basinus, servant of the Most High God, in order to carry out more carefully the purpose for which he had come, diligently observed the graces of each one he imitates the virtues of all: and strove to carry something from them to the nourishment of his memory. He was instructed by the wisdom of one, enkindled by the constancy in prayer of another; he was delighted by the obedience of one, by the chastity of another; he followed the humility of this one, the sobriety of that one; he was formed by the sound doctrine of one, by the good life of another; he admired this one as a cautious judge of silence, that one as a skilled arbiter of speaking; he contemplated the strict fasting of this one, the temperate eating of that one; in one he marveled at the labor of the active life, in another the ardor of contemplation. And so it came to pass in a wondrous manner that while he gradually gleaned something from the virtues of each individual to serve as his example, he alone became an example to all. He himself is established as a pattern for all: And although on this account he was an object of reverence and wonder to all, he was not thereby found more elated (as is usual), but rather more quiet and submissive in all gentleness and modesty -- not impatient of instruction, not fleeing discipline, not wearied by devotion and prayer, and finally not desirous of praise -- which the nobility of the flesh is especially accustomed to find sweet and familiar.

[8] About this time, when King ^dChilderic was disposing the monarchy of the kingdom, the most noble Duchess Gunza, whom we mentioned above, the sister of the holy Basinus, married a certain nobleman of senatorial rank, from Gunza the sister, Saint Liutwin was afterward born, who drew his lineage from the most powerful Kings of the Franks, named

Gerwinus, from whom she bore a son, the glory and ornament of the entire lineage, whom they named Liutwin in the waters of baptism, as if by a prophetic prayer. But it is pleasing to investigate the etymology of this name, even if perhaps we attempt it too playfully and are thought to jest. Liutwin in the Teutonic language means "clear wine." For since he was to be a future hierarch and dispenser of the divine sacraments, and was to inebriate the people of holy Mother Church with the wine of inexpressible sweetness... of compunction, he most fittingly deserved to be distinguished by this name.

CHAPTER II.

The life of Saint Basinus after he was elected Abbot.

[9] Further, the Christ-loving Basinus, as he was daily making more and more progress in the pursuit of his monastic profession and had emerged as a most distinguished man, Upon the death of Abbot Herwinus, it happened at length that the Abbot of that place, Herwinus, exchanged life for death. What should the Brethren do? They deliberated, they conferred with one another as to whom above all they should appoint in place of the deceased Herwinus. And behold, they cast the anchor of their hope upon the venerable Basinus, a man pleasing to God and acceptable to men, he is elected Abbot, laudably trained in the school of holy religion, most attentive to the winning of souls, and in every respect suitable for executing ecclesiastical affairs. Upon this man, I say, and such a man, as their Father and intimate, they agree amicably; they pour out their wishes to him most familiarly; upon him, as on the resting-place of their soul, they lean with confidence. And opening their will to him in due order, trusting themselves to him more than to themselves, by common counsel they choose him as Abbot. He, like a faithful and good father of a household, submitted his neck to such an honor and burden alike, not from the desire of dominating but with a view to advancement, knowing that by this means the fullness of all justice would be accomplished.

[10] Meanwhile he frequently ponders in his mind that saying of the Wise Man: "They have made you a ruler; do not be exalted, but be as one of them." Sirach 32:1 Whence it came about that the greater he became, the more humbly he bore himself. You might then have seen this veteran soldier, long exercised in the contest of virtues, presenting himself as a new recruit in the conflict of repelling vices; and as if he had just now for the first time begun to serve Christ, he avoids vices: he fled the swelling of a puffed-up mind, hateful to all; he devoted himself to humility, embraced frugality, shunned gluttony, restrained luxury with continence, waged war against the most tenacious avarice with generous liberality, avoided the harmful devices of factions, entered into the bonds of peace, checked anger with modesty, wrath with gentleness, shuddered at the short-cuts of rivalries, walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart, he strives for perfection, and directed all his attention to other upright actions. Clothed with these flowers of virtue, of no mean nobility -- indeed of no mean humility -- the man full of God, Basinus, began to be held as renowned and more festive, powerful among the powerful, not inglorious among the glorious, exalted among the exalted of the earth.

[11] That monastery which he had undertaken to govern rejoiced in many gifts, not only royal but also imperial, as well as privileges and liberties. For its foundation is known to have proceeded from the glorious heroine, the holy Helena, discoverer of the Wood of the Lord, and also from the Emperor Constantine the Great, father of Augustuses, her son; for indeed by their command, effort, and expense, it had been built and consecrated by Blessed ^aAgricius, the venerable Archbishop of Trier, in honor of Blessed John the Apostle and Evangelist; A Pontifical Privilege is procured, and it had been received and amply provided for, not only by the aforesaid Constantine but also by succeeding Emperors and Kings, under imperial authority and the shield of royal protection -- especially recently by ^bDagobert the First of that name, the most powerful King of the Franks. Lest, therefore, these imperial and royal statutes should suffer any loss, the God-beloved Basinus, providing for the future, judged it worthy and useful that they should also be strengthened by Apostolic confirmations. In the revolving course of that age, Pope ^cGregory the Second presided over the Roman ecclesiastical affairs, and Emperor Leo the ^dThird over the state. He therefore petitioned with prayers that Pontifex Maximus Gregory, so that he too by his Apostolic authority might ratify the decrees of such ordinances. Then the supreme shepherd of God's sheepfold not only confirmed and ratified these things, but also, struck by the most fragrant fame of his merits, confirmed by privilege to the same man of God Basinus, and to his future successors as Abbots, the power of using the mitre, dalmatic, and ^esandals, admonishing that the increase of honor should be an increase of virtue. We have thought it not inappropriate to weave into this small publication the written copy of this bull.

[12] "Gregory, Servant of the Servants of God, to Basinus, Abbot of the venerable Monastery of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist and of the most holy Confessor of Christ, Maximin, the formula of this privilege: whose body rests there, to you and your successors, greetings and Apostolic blessing. If those things which accord with pious desires are always to be granted, then all the more readily must those things which are requested for the sake of divine worship be bestowed with eager devotion, with every obstacle removed, and with benevolent intention, without delay. You have therefore asked us that we should grant to your monastery, which is known to have been built in the suburb of Trier in honor of Saint John the Evangelist -- where the above-named Confessor of Christ rests in body -- for the purpose of confirming to the Brethren there serving God the rule of monastic tranquility, a privilege of our holy Apostolic Church (which by God's authority we serve). And we have taken care to give assent to your pious petition, decreeing by the precept of Apostolic authority that the congregation serving God there religiously, just as has been granted to the same monastery by Kings in preceding times, shall henceforth have free power to create among themselves whomever they shall choose according to God as their Abbot; nor shall any person of whatever dignity presume to ordain anything within the aforesaid monastery at his own pleasure or to exercise any authority recklessly, unless summoned by you or by another Abbot who is your successor. Furthermore, by our Apostolic authority we forbid in every way that it should ever be subjected to any Church or See by exchange or by any contrivance; but it shall enjoy, unharmed and perpetually, the same immunity and liberty as other royal places enjoy. The place of the monastery itself shall remain perpetually under the protection of the Kings, and shall lie open to no person ever for benefice or invasion; but shall remain undisturbed for the tranquility of the monks there serving God under the Rule of Saint Benedict. We also decree and by this paternal love grant to you and your successors that you may use the mitre, dalmatic, and sandals at the sacred mysteries on principal feasts; admonishing your fraternity that with the increase of honor there may also be increased in you the power of divine love. We also prohibit, and by the authority of Blessed Peter, whose office we exercise in this Apostolic See, though unworthy, we utterly forbid that any Duke, any Count, or indeed any person whatsoever, whether ecclesiastical or secular, shall presume to seize a hill or rock in the possession or allodial property of Saint Maximin, or to make any fortification upon them -- unless perhaps the Abbot of the same monastery, on account of fear of pagans or on account of the incursion of wicked men, may for a time fortify himself and his people there until the tranquility of peace returns. For the fullness and increase of monastic tranquility we also add that no person of whatever dignity shall presume to alienate or diminish anything, great or small, of the goods of the Church, whether those which have been granted to the same monastery by you or by others, or those which other faithful persons shall hereafter bestow for the remedy of their souls. But if anyone -- God forbid -- should presume with nefarious audacity to break or in any way violate those things which have been established by us for the praise of God and for the stability of the aforesaid venerable monastery, let him know that under the testimony of divine judgment, through the intercession of Blessed Peter the Apostle, he is inextricably bound with the chain of anathema, and is to be alienated from the kingdom of God and to be burned with the devil and his followers in the most atrocious punishments. But whoever shall be an observer of this our Apostolic precept out of regard and respect for the divine fear, may he merit to obtain the grace of eternal blessing from Christ the Lord. Written by the hand of Benedict, Scriniarius of the Holy Roman Church, in the month of January, Indiction the twelfth, in the name of God."

[13] Exalted and raised above the cedars of Lebanon by this edict of the papal privilege, but humbled and abashed in his own eyes, the man worthy of God, Basinus, did not think loftily it is received with thanksgiving and humility but with sobriety. Hence he bound himself more tightly to the divine service; hence he spent his days and nights in divine conversations and prayer; hence he watched more laboriously over the word of exhortation. And because all the praise of virtue consists in action, what he taught by admonitions he himself first approved by the rectitude of his life. In the interval, Liutwin, concerning whom we wove our discourse above, the nephew of the holy Basinus through his sister, now grown to adulthood, obtained a wife distinguished by the titles of her parents and equal to his own lineage; from whom he begot a son similar indeed in genealogy but degenerate in character, named Milo, Saint Liutwin, having married, begets his successor in the See of Trier -- not by legitimate election but by tyrannical seizure. For when Blessed Liutwin had entered the way of all flesh, by unanimous consent they had decreed that Clodulph, Bishop of the city of Metz, Milo: son of the holy Arnulph, Bishop of the same See, by his wife Doda, should be enthroned in the chair of Trier. This Doda, after her husband -- that is, the most blessed Arnulph -- had withdrawn to the hermitage, served Christ as an enclosed woman at Trier.

[14] Having spoken of these affairs of Milo by way of digression, it is necessary to return to the point from which we wandered. Liutwin, knowing how to possess his vessel in sanctification, doing nothing frivolous, nothing soft, moreover governing his wife and household with the most upright management, He is appointed Duke of the Franks, and the rest

his substance and duly dispensing it, the Lord advancing him to secular dignity, he obtained the honor of the Dukedom of the entire kingdom of the Franks. He was so constant a reliever of the poor, so gentle a consoler of the wretched and sorrowful, protector of the poor and so bountiful a giver of alms, and finally so shining an executor of every kind of innocent life, that if we wished to commit to a small book even the works of his piety alone, the abundance of his deeds would exceed the brevity of our narrative. He performed such and similar good works advanced by the instruction of Saint Basinus not so much by anointing as his teacher, as by the exhortation and instruction of his uncle, the holy Basinus, by which he was both drawn away from harmful things and directed toward salutary ones.

CHAPTER III.

The deeds of Saint Basinus in his episcopate. His death.

[15] At that juncture, the God-pleasing Pontiff Saint Numerianus was driving the chariot of God at Trier, sufficiently beneficial to his Church among his predecessors; who, when on account of the abundance of his merits he was to be numbered among the Saints, as his ^asoul left his body, He is elected Bishop of Trier he happily ascended to the heavens to gaze perpetually upon the face of the Eternal King, on the third day before the Nones of July. The people of Trier, therefore, deprived of their shepherd, deliberated with no idle curiosity as to whom they should appoint as successor to the aforesaid ^bNumerianus on the episcopal summit. An assembly was convened, and those who were to elect a Pontiff gathered in council -- when the votes of all pointed to the most blessed Basinus. Then they decreed that he, as the most suitable and most deserving, should be placed upon the pontifical throne.

[16] The holy Basinus was therefore raised to the pastoral summit as successor to the Blessed Numerianus; ^cUtilrad succeeded the illustrious Basinus in the abbatial government. This Utilrad lived on in human affairs until the times of the most blessed King Pippin, there is inserted the approval of the Abbey made by King Pippin, father of Charles the Great, the most unconquerable and most Christian Emperor Augustus. To this same Utilrad and to the succeeding Abbots, the most clement King Pippin bestowed a ^dprivilege with royal munificence, commanding that the same monastery with its treasure and the entire abbey should remain under the Abbot of that place, since he had found that it had been so constituted by Kings in preceding times; and he ordered that the same Utilrad and all future Abbots of the same place, together with the monks and the abbey, should remain under the protection of the Kings for all ages -- so that freed from all disturbance, they might be able to serve God more freely with spiritual joy; adding also by the authority of royal magnificence that they should have the power of electing whomever and in whatever manner they wished as Abbot; all of which he ordered to be written down and sealed with his ring in the ^efourteenth year of his reign.

[17] We have digressed beyond our purpose; we must return to Basinus. The most holy Basinus, having been made Bishop, soon showed in deed what his voice sounds in his name. For indeed, ascending the base and wall, he set himself in opposition for the house of Israel. Nor did he neglect the monastic discipline, dear to him from the very cradle of infancy, even though he was weighed down by the burden of pastoral care. Outwardly indeed he presided over others with pontifical excellence, while inwardly he profited himself by monastic exercise. He leads his people by example: And what shall I say? As was his inner man, so was his outer; as was his outer man, so was his speech; and his deeds were most like his speech, and his life like his deeds. For what he forbade others to do, he showed by his own deeds should not be done -- just as it is written of Christ, our Lord and Savior and the head of all the elect: "Jesus began to do and to teach." Acts 1:1 But just as he took care to break the bread of the Word of God for the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into his house, and to assist orphans (for Bishops ought to protect none more than these), so he was especially vigilant with watchful care for his beloved kinsman Liutwin, girt outwardly with the military sword and inwardly with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; involved outwardly in worldly affairs, but inwardly intent upon the divine commandments. The most pious uncle admonished his most gentle nephew to render unto God the things that were God's, and unto the King the things that were the King's; and the nephew was so acceptable to the King that he conducted almost all affairs through him. He admonished him, bound as he was by the bond of lawful marriage, to prefer divine love to conjugal love, and to value heavenly things more than earthly. He therefore embraced with the privilege of love the man of God and repository of all virtues, Basinus, he instructs Liutwin: who was to him an uncle by flesh and nature, a friend by charity and goodwill, a father by care and age, and a Bishop by God's mercy and office of prelacy; and through his salutary admonitions he was renewed day by day according to the inner man. O joyful, praiseworthy, and holy friendship! Truly no society is more excellent, none more firm, than when good men, equal in character, are joined by familiarity. Especially at the exhortation of the most holy Bishop, he enriched the holy places of the Saints, especially of the city of Trier, with the most ample gifts; and he yearned with all the effort of his heart to build a monastery among his own people.

[18] There is a place on the River Saar which is called ^fMettlach. This place was most pleasing and well known to him, because he ranged through all its turns, caves, and lairs of beasts in assiduous hunting. One day, as was his custom, coming upon this wooded solitude for the sake of hunting, it was shown by the sign of a certain miracle how great and what manner of man Liutwin was before God. For when he was traversing the dusty meadows of that soil and the dewy hills of flowery fleece, with the sun already heating the middle of the day, the limbs of his weary body demanded rest. But refusing the benefit of the shade of a tree, by whose interweaving of leaves he might have been covered from the scorching rays of the sun, he was said to have been protected from the sun's heat by an eagle casting himself upon the grassy ground of the field in the open air, by divine inspiration indeed, he granted refreshment to his tired limbs. And then, as was bound to follow, sleep crept over the weary man. And so, the surrounding shade of the branches being despised, he was provided with a heavenly covering: for indeed the eagle, queen of birds, with wings spread in the air, defended the face of the sleeping man from the heat of the blazing sun. His armor-bearer stood by, and overcome by the novelty of the prodigy, stood astonished in wonder; and while stunned, he awaited the outcome of the event, and then reported everything in order to his lord when he awoke. In return, Liutwin forbade him under great threat from revealing the glory of so great a sign as long as he lived. But the indication of this miracle could not and would not remain hidden from his most intimate friend and uncle Basinus; he rejoices: especially since love grows by such offices, if the secrets of one are revealed to the other. Moreover, he knew that one ought to speak as boldly with a friend as with oneself, and that friends should have the same wishes and the same aversions, since it is established that they had one heart and one soul. And in those in whom there are the same pursuits and the same desires, it comes about that each delights in the other as in himself; and, according to that saying of Pythagoras, in friendship one is made from many.

[19] Blessed Liutwin therefore revealed to the most blessed Basinus the outcome of the whole matter. Then Basinus said: "Come, most beloved son, God has brought you to the harbor of your desire; go, complete the work that you have long revolved in your mind." He dedicates the churches built by him -- of Saint Dionysius, Then, having summoned workmen, Liutwin first built a basilica in honor of the precious Martyr of Christ, Dionysius, and through the same most venerable Archbishop Basinus, with the relics of that athlete of Christ and of other Martyrs deposited there, he had it dedicated. And indeed the basilica was dedicated most justly in the name of Blessed Dionysius. For just as the eagle, which designated the place for such a structure by shading the face of the sleeper from the sun's heat with its dark body, is accustomed to fly higher than other birds and to fix its gaze more clearly upon the solar rays, so the divine Dionysius the Areopagite (for so he is surnamed) wrote more sublimely and acutely and most eloquently and ornately than all other Doctors of the Church Militant about the hierarchies of the Church Triumphant. After this, Liutwin built a monastery. Then, having assembled orders of monks, he commanded an oratory to be consecrated in the name of the Prince of the Apostles, Peter, and a basilica in honor of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with the blessing of blessed Basinus -- where, of Saint Peter and of the Virgin Mother of God, widowed not by virtue but by his wife's death, laying aside his secular habit and spurning public business and palatine cares, he afterwards put on the monastic garment -- having first, however, obtained permission from the King, albeit with difficulty. In which place, so great and such a one, he shone in virtues, that after Basinus was removed from their midst, he was held worthy of the succession. What Liutwin did thereafter, with what fervor of soul he served God, what the course of his life was, how holily, how justly, how piously he lived -- whoever desires to know, let him turn to the book of his holy deeds, and there he will find everything clearly described. We have inserted these things from his deeds, however briefly elaborated by us, into this our little treatise, because Basinus and Liutwin sprang from one root, and because the life of the one could not be explained without the other; hence it would have been unfitting to separate them in our treatment,

whom we have recognized to be joined by equal love. Therefore, just as in their lives they loved each other, so also in our little publication they are not separated.

[20] When the Bishop of God, Basinus, beheld that Liutwin, drawn by the net of his exhortation from the stormy and turbulent sea of this world, had been brought to the desired shore of holy religion, with what joys he was filled is both incomprehensible in thought and difficult to express in words. For daily he supplicated God in his prayers: "Now, Lord, now safe, now free, now joyful, I sigh and pant to enjoy and see you. Now I know and am certain that you are able to preserve my nephew until that day of my departure, to be appointed in my place. You, Lord of all, he commends him to God as his successor: whose will none can resist, guard this will of his, by which he has subjected himself to your sweet yoke and lightest burden, that he may be separated from you by no temptations -- so that I may come to you secure and rejoicing. You, from whom all power that is in heaven and on earth is named, from whom all honor depends and flows, preserve this your servant Liutwin, who is to be set over your people through you. Grant, I beseech you, right speech in his mouth, by which he may be able to make for you a people for your possession, a follower of good works, and to bring to you a nation that did not know you. For I am weary of this present life -- not, however, wearied of labor; I will undergo for you whatever work you impose. But if you care for my salvation -- indeed because you will the salvation of all and will all things that pertain to human salvation -- command me to depart from this calamitous life, which ought rather to be called death than life, so that I may live in that eternal life. He yearns for heaven: I desire indeed to be dissolved and to be with you. The world is exile to me, a prison, a rack; heaven is my homeland, my liberty, my delight. Why do you delay, most loving Lord? Have you cast me away from the face of your eyes? I know and firmly hold that you do not forsake those who hope in you. Break, therefore, the delays; dissolve the bonds; my heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready. Have you, casting off, rejected Basinus, or has your soul abhorred him? I know what I shall do: I shall not cease from my petition until, removed from the stewardship of my bishopric, you receive me into your eternal tabernacles. And indeed I have good cause: I leave your sheep a suitable and fitting Shepherd. There is nothing of adversity that now threatens, nothing of destruction that intervenes. You have tested his heart, O God; I have learned that he will be a man according to your heart. Old age itself, I will not say a stranger, has consumed my strength; and in all things I ask for no administrator and helper except Liutwin, your servant, my disciple, who gave half -- indeed all -- of his substance to the poor; who also, not defrauded but promoted and advanced, restored fourfold. He, finally, through your mediation, was, is, and will be a man prospering in all things. Therefore I boldly inquire why you delay my dissolution. As the eyes of a handmaid are upon the hands of her mistress, so are my eyes upon you, O Lord my God, who dwell in the heavens, until you have mercy on me and release me from the bond of this death."

[21] At that time, King ^gChilderic of the Franks held the helm of the kingdom; when meanwhile Basinus, of extraordinary holiness, the base and support of the temple of God, wondrously adorned with mystic lions and oxen in relief, on the fourth day before the Nones of March paid the debt of the flesh; he dies, and he who had long sat weeping by the rivers of Babylon while remembering Zion, came with praise into Zion, full of days and holiness. He therefore, in a good old age, was gathered to his fathers and was buried in the suburb of the city of Trier, to the south, in the basilica of Saint John the Evangelist -- so that, just as he had once supported that place before his episcopate in his abbatial government with the flowers of virtues, so now, his most sacred body being dead, he might illuminate it with living virtues; where he rests together with the other holy Bishops of Trier -- Maximin, Agricius, Nicetius, and Weomad -- as well as three hundred Theban Martyrs; he is buried in the Monastery of Saint Maximin, by whose merits and intercession God, glorious in his Saints and wonderful in his majesty, performs wonders, to the praise and glory of his name, which is blessed for ever and ever, Amen.

e. That year was 764.