Anselm

ON SAINT ANSELM, BISHOP OF LUCCA, AT MANTUA IN ITALY.

In the Year 1086.

Preliminary Commentary.

Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, at Mantua in Italy (Saint)

Section I. The homeland, veneration, and Life written of Saint Anselm.

[1] Two illustrious cities of Italy are seen, Lucca and Mantua: the former, in Tuscany, under its own government constitutes a free republic; the latter, in Cisalpine Gaul or Lombardy, flourishes on the river Mincio under the Most Serene Dukes of Gonzaga. The people of Lucca number and venerate among their holy Bishops Saint Anselm, Saint Anselm is venerated at Mantua as Patron, whom, when expelled by schismatics, the people of Mantua received and cherished, and when he died piously and was enrolled among the Saints, they chose him as Patron of their city, and annually on March 18 celebrate his feast with a solemn Office, even if it falls on the second, third, or fourth Sunday of Lent, of which then only a commemoration is made. If it occurs on Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday or the days immediately following, the Office is transferred, but Mass is solemnly celebrated in the Cathedral Church, and his sacred body is publicly displayed: which is preserved intact to this day with the greatest veneration in the main altar of the Cathedral Church, And his body is preserved: and is venerated with great devotion of the people: as prescribed in the Proper Offices of the Church and Diocese of Mantua, printed in the year 1626 by order of the Bishop of Mantua.

[2] Among the people of Lucca, in the episcopal archive, certain authentic instruments are seen, At Lucca some of his writings survive: written in the hand of Saint Anselm himself, which are to be preserved as sacred relics and serve to recall his memory. In the ancient library of the Canons scarcely any monument of him survives, except a few words which, in a very ancient codex, while the Translation of certain holy bodies of that church is treated, are appended thus: That Alexander, He was the nephew of Pope Alexander II, who is also called Anselm (the reference is to Pope Alexander II), to whom his nephew Anselm succeeded, who glorified the Church of Lucca by faith and works as long as he was permitted, until a storm separated him from this place. These were unearthed by the most distinguished Francesco Maria Florentini in his learned study on the life of Matilda, the great Countess of Italy, whom Saint Anselm, the subject of this account, attended as Counselor. And together with him, a Milanese: That Alexander II the Pontiff, previously called Anselm de Baggio, was a noble Milanese, distinguished for learning and integrity of life, the son of Anselm, a man formerly prominent in that city, is recorded by Panvinius, Ciaconius, and others: and that Saint Anselm himself was a native of Milan and of noble lineage is manifestly stated in the Life at number 14, whence the assertion of Panvinius and Ciaconius is also made more probable. We can also conjecture, with not improbable reasoning, that Saint Anselm grew up under the discipline of his uncle, who from the year 1056 had been created Bishop of the Church of Lucca, and was cultivated in every kind of knowledge and virtue. Ciaconius and some more recent writers add that he was also created a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Alexander II: from which title the contemporary author of the Life and domestic witness entirely abstains, and with him Baronius, Florentini, and other more accurate writers, nor does Panvinius enumerate him among the Cardinals created by Alexander.

[3] He was, however, designated Bishop of Lucca by the same, and consecrated by his successor Gregory VII in the year of Christ 1073, and then in the year 1086, on the fifteenth day before the Calends of April, or March 18, called from this mortal life to the heavenly one, he shone with very many miracles. Life written His deeds and miracles were written within two months of his death, concerning which the author in number 43, in the Epilogue, has this: These things concerning our most blessed Father and Patron Anselm... I, B., a sinful Priest, By B., a Presbyter consecrated by him: his servant in Penance, I do not say his son, but his servant, promoted by him to the same order with many tears, have devoutly explained for you who reverently requested it. Cardinal Baronius had these Acts and inserted not a few things from them into volume 11 of the Ecclesiastical Annals: the same were afterwards sent by Petrus Consolinus, Provost of the Congregation of the Oratory at Rome, to our Jacobus Gretser, who gave them to Sebastian Tengnagel, the Imperial librarian at Vienna, by whom they were published at Ingolstadt in the year 1612 among the Ancient Monuments Published at Ingolstadt. written formerly against the schismatics in defense of Gregory VII and certain other Roman Pontiffs. Appended at the end of these Acts was a note of Don Constantino Gaetani, from which it was established that the copy had been taken from an ancient manuscript parchment codex, which he adds survives in his own museum. Arnold Wion in his Notes for March 18 asserts that the same Life (of which he cites the same beginning), seriously written by a contemporary, From an ancient manuscript codex. is found in manuscript in the monastery of Saint Benedict at Polirone. That monastery was liberally endowed by Countess Matilda and is situated in the territory of Mantua, in which, having left the Episcopate, as is read in number 4 of the Life, he was made a monk and subjected to the rule of Saint Benedict. Meanwhile, we are greatly surprised that the Bishop and Canons of Mantua did not know that the Life existed in the said monastery, and that, leaving aside the authentic and complete document, they had to collect from the Annals of Cardinal Baronius the lessons to be recited at Matins, although they were scattered here and there. We have a compendium of the Acts of Saint Anselm taken from the manuscript of Saint Salvator at Utrecht, which we omit.

[4] The name of Saint Anselm is inscribed in the present Martyrology

in the Roman Martyrology and that of Galesinius in these words: At Mantua, Saint Anselm, Bishop and Confessor. His name inscribed in the sacred calendars. But without mention of the place, it is reported in the manuscript additions to Usuard, by Witford in the Martyrology published in English, and in the Calendar of the Roman Missal printed at Venice in the years 1487 and 1508. A Suffrage or Commemoration of Saint Anselm, Bishop and Confessor, is prescribed to be said in the Breviary of Worms of the year 1576 and of Meaux of the year 1640, with Antiphons and Prayers taken from the Common Office. But in the Calendar of the Breviary of Meaux the name of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, is indicated, as also in the Calendar of Felicius. In the manuscript Florarium these things are read: On the same day, of Anselm, Bishop of Vélice, and Confessor, in the year of salvation 1150. Which seem to need correction, and should be written: of Anselm of Lucca, and in the year 1086. Gelenius inscribes it in the Cologne Calendar and calls him Bishop of Mantua, following the error of many: but he is entirely silent as to how he pertains to the people of Cologne. He writes in Book 3, chapter 78, that the upper part of the head of Saint Anselm is preserved among the Carmelite nuns, but since the feast of Saint Anselm is celebrated there on April 21, the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be meant. He is inscribed with greater foundation in the Benedictine Martyrologies of Wion, Dorgan, and Ménard in approximately these words: At Mantua, the deposition of Saint Anselm, Bishop of Lucca and Confessor, a man of the greatest humility and learning. Bucelinus appended a longer eulogy, who writes that he was Mantuan by birth and was first buried in a monastery and thence translated to Mantua: which, along with certain other things, would better be absent.

Section II. Various eulogies of ancient writers concerning Saint Anselm and his written works.

[5] Among the ancient monuments collected against the schismatics, together with the Life of Saint Anselm, Tengnagel published two books of poems on the Life of Countess Matilda by the contemporary author Donizo the Priest: Testimonies concerning the holiness of Saint Anselm, from which Baronius with great praise of the writer cites various passages in volumes 11 and 12 of the Ecclesiastical Annals. This poet in Book 2, chapter 3, has the following concerning the death of Saint Anselm:

When the month arrived which began first in order, On its eighteenth day, the Lord Reigning in the heavens carried Anselm to the skies: Of Donizo, the contemporary poet. Like unto him, I believe, no one existed in this time. Fulfilling the double office of monks and pontiffs Night and day, he mortified his body as an enemy; Catholic, celibate, pious, and equally sober: For whose death the faithful truly grieve, The schismatics rejoice: but he was opposed to these, Whom the Countess, committed to her through Gregory, As was fitting, worthily buried, sorrowful and kind. Mantua interred the limbs of Anselm in the earth: What was desired of him, you showed, O Christ, to Matilda: For by your power he performed many miracles. This servant of yours was one of the Saints, A sign, as it were, of weakness to the Catholic party, Whence the Countess rejoices, triumphing by prayer. For she thinks she is aided by the prayers of this Father, And when the tomb of the Saint was giving many miracles; So that it might be shown to many in ages future after us, The cultivator of justice ordered them partly to be composed, Which, together with the Life of his Chaplain, they dictate to her: The third from him, the Bishop of Lucca, exists, and that Rangerius the Ruler composed it for her in verse. He recently composed a second fine book, Which defines the dispute about the staff, and sent it to her.

Thus the text. The second Bishop of Lucca after Saint Anselm was Godfrey, whom the aforesaid Rangerius succeeded as the third from Saint Anselm, who in the year 1098 was present at the Roman Council. But the poems which he wrote, whether concerning the life and miracles of Saint Anselm or concerning the nature of Investitures, Tengnagel thinks have either perished or are still fighting with dust, decay, moths, and worms somewhere. He prefixed to the said poem of Donizo, as he had found it, the Account of the Treasury of the Church of Canossa transmitted to Rome: of which Account we give the first part here on account of the celebrated memory of Saint Anselm, [Of another, concerning the treasury of the Church of Canossa offered to Gregory VII,] and it is as follows:

[6] In the year of the Lord 1082, Countess Matilda with Bishop Anselm, who was also the Vicar of Pope Gregory VII in those days in Lombardy, requested the treasury of the Church of Canossa from Abbot Gerard, who then presided over the aforesaid Church, for sending to the Pope for the defense of the Roman Church, which at that time was suffering great persecution from the heresiarch Guibert. And so the aforesaid Abbot, together with the congregation of the Brethren, having faithful love and affection for Blessed Peter and the Roman Church, eagerly offered the treasury to his Vicar at the request of the Countess, which consisted of twenty-four crowns... At length, when the treasury was transmitted to Rome by the assent and will of the Pope, who had received from her a charter of offering of all the estates of the aforesaid Countess; the above-named Vicar, who was also then governing this Episcopate by command of the Pope, at the request of the Lady Countess for some small restoration of the treasury that had been taken away, placed two Chapels at Filma and one at Casula under the Church of Canossa. Afterwards Bishop Heribertus, lovingly Catholic toward the Roman Church, praised the deed of Bishop Anselm and by praising confirmed it, and consecrated the Church of Canossa. Concerning Canossa, by others Canosa, the Life below treats in number 13; it is nine miles from Reggio nell'Emilia; it now has its own Count, who holds other domains in the Duchy of Modena. But the Episcopate which Saint Anselm governed is that of the said city of Reggio, whose Bishop Heribertus, called Aribertus below in the Acts in number 33, was present at the burial of Saint Anselm; in Ughelli he is called Eubertus, and is incorrectly placed as having died in the year 1081.

[7] Among the Transalpine writers who mention Saint Anselm, Bertold of Constance can be considered the first, who in his Appendix to Marianus Scotus, extended to the year 1086, presents the following for the year 1082: Blessed Anselm, Of Bertold of Constance. formerly Bishop of Lucca, in the very same year of his deposition began to shine with innumerable miracles: who after the death of the venerable Pope Gregory VII, while still living in the flesh, greatly incited the faithful of Saint Peter against the tyranny of Henry; but much more after his own death, shining with miracles, he strengthened them to persist against the same: whence the party of Henry began to fail from day to day; but the Catholics did not cease to advance in the fidelity of Saint Peter. Next to Bertold is Sigebert of Gembloux, who inserted the following into his Chronicle for the same year: Of Sigebert of Gembloux, Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, the tireless collaborator of Pope Hildebrand, dies in exile at Mantua, who published treatises on Jeremiah and on the Psalms, and confirmed the doctrine of Hildebrand with a splendid book: whose holiness was declared by miracles.

[8] Somewhat younger than these, Paul of Bernried in the Life of the said Hildebrand or Gregory VII, which he wrote in the year 1131, has this: Here there seems to be introduced the principal follower and heir of his virtues, namely Blessed Anselm, Bishop of the Church of Lucca: Of Paul of Bernried, who before all things always had this study, to imitate him in all things, to such a degree that he wished in no way to differ from him in anything. Then whatever was in him, he always attributed to the merits of that man. For Gregory was, as it were, the fountain; Anselm flowed as a stream and irrigated dry lands. The one, as the head, governed the whole body; the other, like a diligent hand, accomplished what was enjoined. The one, like the sun, illuminated all things; the other, like its splendor, declared each individual thing. Of old, Elijah, about to depart from the cohabitation of mortals, left his mantle to Elisha, the instrument of the prophetic office; similarly Gregory also, about to depart from this mortal life, sent to Anselm the insignia of pontifical power, namely the miter of his head; by this indeed with God's cooperation, that just as the former inherited the prerogative of Prophecy through the mantle, so also the latter should obtain sacerdotal eminence through the miter. Indeed the resemblance proceeded so far that just as Elisha demonstrated signs of virtues through the mantle of Elijah; so also Anselm exhibited certain great works through the miter of Gregory. For, to bring forward one of many that is more widely known, the reverend Bishop Ubaldus of the Church of Mantua, who for many years had been most severely afflicted with disease of the spleen and ulcerated over his whole body, especially in his legs, so that he could scarcely stand in any manner, scarcely even lie down or sit, who had also spent much on physicians and had profited nothing, when the same miter was applied where the greater pain pressed, was restored to his former health. It is pleasing to extract a few passages from the Treatises of the same Anselm on the Psalms, and to show more clearly what pious affection he had toward the holiness of his Teacher Gregory. He speaks thus in the treatise on the second Psalm: The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together against the Lord and against his Christ. The kings of the earth, namely the members of him who reigns over all the sons of pride, not only came but also stood fast, and with their army besieged the Roman Church, and the princes of the priests, conspiring, met together against Saint Peter and against his Vicar Gregory, indeed against him who said: Who touches you, touches me: who despises you, despises me. They crucify again the Son of God... Of how great holiness the author of the Treatise was, we perceive partly from reading his holy deeds, partly from the account of religious Brethren, who testified that they had been invited by revelation to come from afar to his tomb, and that they had been freed without delay from serious and prolonged illnesses.

[9] To the said Writers should be added Conrad, Abbot of Ursperg, who in his Chronicle, extended to the year 1230, treats of the letter of Saint Anselm to Wigbert at the year 1080, and after citing some passages from it, adds this: These things were written by Bishop Anselm, And others. a man most excellently learned in letters, of the most acute talent, outstanding in eloquence, and, what is greater than all, most renowned for the fear of God and holy conversation, to such a degree that both in life and after death he is reported as famous for miracles.

[10] There could be added those who composed Catalogues of Ecclesiastical Writers: the aforementioned Sigebert, Trithemius, Sixtus of Siena, Arnold Wion, Antonio Possevino, Robert Bellarmine, Philippe Labbé, Aubert Miraeus: but since they drew their encomiums from the said authors or from the Life shortly to be related, we do not wish to heap up similar things. Concerning his principal writings, the matter is treated below in chapter 5, to which Possevino and Wion add others which the Reader will be able to see in them, and a more accurate judgment would be rendered if all were collected by the Mantuans and published together in print.

LIFE

By a Domestic Presbyter and Penitentiary B.

Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, at Mantua in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 0536, 0537

BY A CONTEMPORARY DOMESTIC AUTHOR.

PROLOGUE.

[1] We are urgently compelled by the devout prayers of certain persons to explain in a compendious work the life of our most holy Father, the Lord Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, which we saw with our own presence and faithfully received from those dwelling together with us: The author narrates things seen by himself or proved by faithful witnesses: which certainly shone forth, illustrious with so many and so great virtues, that we are by no means sufficient for so great a task imposed upon us. And yet, while we consider their venerable desire, although we are insufficient, we nevertheless begin as best we can what they request: since for all the faithful it provides a foundation of faith and a horn of salvation; but for the excommunicated, confusion,

shame, detriment, and ruin.

CHAPTER I.

The learning of Saint Anselm. The Episcopate of Lucca. His monastic life.

[2] How he lived from boyhood we pass over, both because we do not fully know, and because we judge it better to remain silent about it for the present. We have learned, however, as he himself frequently related, that even then he was studious in reading scholastic books; Saint Anselm splendidly educated, which the outcome of the matter also clearly proved, because he was skilled in the art of Grammar and Dialectic. When, however, he now seemed suitable, namely worthy by his merits, character, and learning to be raised to the honor of the Episcopate, he was sent by the Most Reverend Pope ^aAlexander to the ^bKing, with the religious Bishop of ^cSanta Rufina named ^dMeginard given to him as a companion. But because he had already perfectly begun to hate the practice that sacred Ecclesiastical Orders should be given by secular powers, He is designated Bishop by Alexander II. by whatever occasion or reason he could, he departed without the investiture of the dignity; although the Lord Pope had sent him with that intention. And no wonder: for he whom God afterwards worked many things through, He reserved for a Catholic election. The King, however, grieved as if slighted, and deplored it as a great detriment to the royal Empire.

[3] When the aforesaid Pope Alexander had died, while the most holy ^eGregory VII, at the instigation of the Holy Spirit and by the common vote of Clergy and laity, had been elected, long resisting, as Roman Pontiff; He is consecrated by Gregory VII. so that this man might follow him in all things, he too was elected Bishop of the Church of Lucca, and was afterwards religiously consecrated by him. Therefore, while he stayed for some time, not once or twice but very often, with that most religious Ordainer of his, he considered his life to be ineffably wonderful and wonderfully ineffable. Because, He imitates his virtues; when from all and every part of the world there was a concourse to him, he rightly satisfied all: truth and justice never failed from his mouth; indeed, what is more wonderful, even in secular business he frequently went beyond himself in mind, his spirit being exhilarated by heavenly contemplation; who, if sometimes he was alone, was also gladdened and strengthened by divine revelations. While he fervently desired to follow in his footsteps, I say, he began to forget the world, and with all the powers of mind and body, day and night, to sigh toward God, committing himself not only to assiduous reading but also to continuous affliction. ^fAnd having searched through books of various authorities, he began to consider his life as one of the most complete damnation, and to think of the dignity of the ministry received as a grave peril of burden, not a joy of honor. He grieves that he had gone to the Emperor for investiture: But fearing before all things that after his Catholic election he had received the ring and the pastoral staff from the hand of the King; he judged utterly invalid whatever he had done, as if by the authority of that abominable investiture: but also the Lord Pope only once reproached him for this.

[4] He therefore resolved to visit certain shrines of the Saints for the sake of prayer, and unknown to his relatives and faithful who were with him, He becomes a Benedictine monk he suddenly became a monk, subject to the Rule of Saint Benedict.^g Not long after, he was recalled against his will by the Most Blessed Pope Gregory: into whose hand he also returned and renounced whatever he had received from the King, and every royal gift in him was annulled: he himself, however, was restored to the fullness of his dignity, He is recalled by the Pope: the monastic habit ^hscarcely being left to him: for the Lord Pope even threatened to take that from him. How great, therefore, was his religious devotion from that time on, neither tongue can relate nor hand express in writing. He endeavored to fulfill the life and order both of a Monk and of a Canon: he strove also in every way to be a prudent and faithful servant, so as not to be found idle in the harvest of the Lord, nor to hide the money of his Lord: but so as to be able to meet the returning Lord with confidence, saying: Lord, behold your mina has gained ten minas.

[5] He becomes therefore an outstanding preacher of the word of God, an eminent instructor of religion, An outstanding preacher, he loves the Clergy reverently and teaches them wisely, and instructs all the people fittingly: and to conclude briefly, he became all things to all, He instructs all, especially the Clergy, that he might gain all. He diligently makes the circuit of his Diocese, he yearns to learn the life of all, especially of the Clergy, and paternally admonishes and greatly desires that every Clerk should be worthy of his name. For thus the most learned Doctor Jerome, describing the life of Clerics, says that a Clerk is so called from the lot of God; namely, that having cast aside the impediment of this world, he should seek nothing besides God as his lot. First, therefore, in the city of Lucca, he most gently approaches the Canons of the major Church, which is dedicated in honor of the most holy Bishop and Confessor Martin, And the Canons: he admonishes, cajoles, and persuades them to practice in deed what they are called by name. For a Canon is said to be, as it were, a Regular: and he studiously preaches and prays that they should lead a regular life. And when he had pressed them for a long time and frequently urged the same, they were at last indignant and answered far too rashly. But he, like a pious and gentle Father, receives all things kindly, and not only does he not wish to be overcome by evil, but strives to overcome evil with good. He promises finally, He pledges to lead a common life with them. like another most religious Bishop Augustine, that he will lead a common life with them. He wishes to have nothing of his own apart from them, but to have all things in common with them; he wishes to become poor, so that he might make them rich in Christ: by every possible effort, both spiritually and temporally, he strives to attract them.

CHAPTER II.

Aid rendered by the Marchioness Matilda. Calumnies and ejection from the Episcopate.

[6] At length he invites as an assistant to his endeavor the Marchioness, Lady Matilda, He receives the Marchioness Matilda as his helper: most noble in character and lineage, who, spiritual and most religious in secret, led a secular, or to speak more truly, a military life in public: yet she so maintained both the spiritual and the secular that she did the one in Christ and the other for Christ. The secular life, however, was for her a source of greater anxiety and labor; but also, I hope, of much greater reward: for the former was of her own will, the latter indeed of obedience. Therefore, whatever talent she had, whatever wisdom or counsel; she poured forth cheerfully in this business. Accordingly she addresses the aforesaid Canons, sometimes collectively, sometimes individually: she incites, urges, strengthens them, and promises the increase and honor of the Church; and advantage for them too, both in the future and in the present. She also promises their parents riches and honors; so that she might thus attract their wills. But they, blinded by a wicked age, reject everything: they choose rather the water of anguish unto damnation than the wine of gladness unto salvation. They prefer to be poor servants of the devil than rich servants of Christ.

[7] But the aforesaid Bishop and most diligent Pastor, not wishing the sheep committed to him to perish; attacks them now with threats, now with blandishments. He presses the decree of Leo IX. When they resisted him and contradicted as much as they could; I believe he would now have ceased, excessively but vainly wearied, had it not been that the Blessed Pope Leo IX had established under a decree of anathema that the Canons of the same Church should lead a common life and live regularly: whenever he saw or remembered the command of that decree, he was terrified and did not dare to be silent. It happened therefore that the most holy Pope Gregory VII came to the same city; He is aided by Pope Gregory present there, and the same matter was brought before him: who immediately began to admonish them first with paternal affection, and to say: that it is not permitted to disregard the decrees of the Roman Pontiff. He asks them and kindly persuades them to obey the most salutary decrees and to carry out the will of the Most Reverend Father: and not once or twice, but often and much, sometimes with the same holy Bishop, sometimes without him, he addresses them, now harshly, now gently, bringing forth the sacred Scriptures and authentic authorities. But they, although they sometimes feigned to hear the blessed admonitions humbly, nevertheless when absent they perverted everything.

[8] They are finally summoned to the Apostolic See, and there they are detected as conspirators against their own Bishop and plotters. Therefore, when the Canons were brought forth and the Chapter of the holy Martyr and Bishop Fabian was read, The rebels condemned in a Council, who ordered that conspirators and plotters against their Bishops be handed over to the Court; by the judgment of the whole holy Synod they too are handed over to the Court. Then the faithful and prudent Marchioness Matilda, calling those men servants, summoned them to the servitude of the Court: for which reason, sad beyond what can be believed, they caused as many as they could to conspire even against her. Very many Bishops therefore assembled again at San Genesio, a castle not far distant from the city of Lucca, among whom the most reverend Bishop of Albano, named Peter Igneus, acted as deputy of the Lord Pope: who together with the same Bishop of Lucca, Saint Anselm, and with all the rest, excommunicated those conspirators: And with the pseudo-Bishop Peter established, whence they, grieving and indignant beyond consolation, maliciously stirred up the whole city, and relying on the aid of a most abandoned man, the aforesaid so-called King Henry, they drove the most religious Bishop from the city: and they also became completely rebellious against the aforesaid Lady. The head and prince of this conspiracy was a certain man named Peter, a false

[9] This man, finally, not long after, when Henry came into Tuscany with the heresiarch Wibert, about whom we shall treat more fully afterwards, since he seemed suitable for the present madness, because he had neither fear of God nor reverence for man, he was imposed as Bishop of error on the same city of Lucca: He lives as a private person in a castle: who, having joined to himself the most wicked men of the whole land, namely perjurers, robbers, fornicators, and adulterers, invaded the land of the Church, and by force, fraud, or money attracted to himself castles and men. Only one castle remained for the venerable Bishop, which even that tyrant, because it was close to the city, almost daily ravaged with raids, fires, and murders. But he, the meekest of all, joyfully endured all things and desired poverty for Christ; who, content with two Chaplains and a few servants, remained humble with the most reverend Matron whom we have mentioned. And so, that that adversary might put on the entire tunic of every curse, he was at last, I do not say consecrated, but execrated by the heresiarch Wibert: so that like might imitate like in all things. For just as the one defiled the Roman Church by invading it, while the most holy Pope Gregory VII was still living; so the other did the same to the Church of Lucca while its most religious Bishop was still alive. And so, to use the words of the most blessed Martyr Cyprian: neither one nor the other is anything: because neither is the successor nor the predecessor of anyone: both are parricides, both the most wicked violators of their mother Church.

[10] While therefore that expelled man desired to sit securely with Mary, almost all the Bishops and Princes became, I do not say merely disobedient, but completely rebellious against the holy Roman See; and the Duchess and Marchioness Matilda alone was found remaining in the faith, He obeys Matilda, commended to him by the Pope: having the zeal of God, obedient to the Lord Pope Gregory. Because, when she recognized the most holy life and the ardor of his religion, she delivered herself entirely to his direction, hoping to be freed from the burdens of this world by such obedience: to whom on the contrary it was given, for the remission of her sins, that like another Deborah she should judge the people, wage war, and resist heretics and schismatics. And lest she should fail as if alone, she is commended to be guarded by the aforesaid Bishop of Lucca, Saint Anselm; she is commended, I say, with all diligence and affection of charity, commended by the most blessed Master to the most faithful disciple, just as on the Cross Christ commended his Virgin Mother to his Virgin disciple, saying: Mother, behold your son: and to the disciple: Behold your mother. And so, while each endeavors to escape the whirlpools of the world and to devote themselves to contemplation, they are entangled in the greater affairs of the world. Therefore the most holy disciple, while he strives and hastens to attend to her guardianship, and to burn with all the zeal of holiness more and more from day to day; we can most certainly affirm of him that the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding: and he was the Angel of great counsel. For since the above-written Lady Matilda, devout handmaid of Lord Peter, had many secular judgments to make; he himself by his counsels so caused her to perform all things He instructs her excellently: that she observed both the precepts of the Gospel and the institutes of the Canons and the rights of the laws; which in human minds and talents is rarely or never found. But he himself had so learned from his Teacher, the Most Blessed Pope Gregory; and the Holy Spirit had filled both of them.

CHAPTER III.

The Excommunication of the Emperor Henry IV. The embassy of Saint Anselm to him is impeded.

[11] Then therefore in an incredible manner the Roman world raged and went mad against itself: for Henry, son of the Emperor Henry III, Henry IV Emperor. exercised great enmity against all Catholics: who when from his very infancy, his Father being already dead, he had received the governance of the kingdom, A disturber of the Church what was said through Solomon was fulfilled: Woe to the land whose King is a child. For committing himself to childish counsels, trained in every kind of filth, he soon did not blush to confound all religion and every right, and devoted himself to his lust in every kind of turpitude. In that time indeed no one could be a Bishop or Abbot or Provost unless he had the greater sum of money or had been a partaker and supporter of his filth. The good life or conduct of no one was inquired into; indeed, all religion and truth and justice were held abominable. That Priest was more praiseworthy whose garments were more elegant, whose table more copious, whose concubine more splendid: nor was a soldier called glorious unless he had been three or four times perjured. Pope Gregory admonishes through Legates, When the Most Blessed Pope Gregory, grieving and sad, considered this, desiring to restore the holy Church to ecclesiastical use and canonical laws, he sent to him frequent kindly embassies, now paternally admonishing, now even more sharply reproving. His mother the Empress, and Bishops: And when he perceived that he was making no progress even in this way, he at last directed to him his own most religious mother, the Empress ^aAgnes; and with her two most reverend Bishops, of ^bPraeneste and of ^cComo, in whose presence; having carefully heard their counsel, he feigned penance, vowed obedience, and promised amendment of all things.

[12] But when they returned, he reverted to himself, made worse than before: for then with unheard-of audacity and astonishing pride, Arrogating to himself authority over the Pope he gathered together accomplices of his crime, men not to be called ^dBishops, in the city of Worms, and holding a conciliabulum they proscribed the Bishop of the First See, which has never been heard of since the beginning of time. He then sent a legation to Italy, affirming the same presumption through schismatic Bishops who were his accomplices. The bearer of this legation was a certain man named ^eEberhard, a Teuton by birth, a son of the age, a hook of the devil, the inventor of almost every lie. He went around and traversed the land, to infect all with the schismatic contagion. Many indeed who had ceased from the divine office on account of the interdict of the Lord Pope, he himself, being interdicted and bound by the bond of perdition, with unheard-of rashness and pride reconciled: and on behalf of his Lord the King, he ordered them to celebrate the Office as before. He excommunicates him: When therefore the Apostolic could no longer dissimulate the malice of so great a crime, he excommunicated both him and all his ^fsupporters, and interdicted him from all royal dignity, and absolved those bound to him by oaths from every debt of fidelity: And interdicts his royal dignity, because, what is even shameful to say, besides the heretical guilt which we have mentioned, his messengers were present in the holy Council, daring to bark thus: Our Lord the King commands that you leave the Apostolic See and the Papacy, as being his own, and that you no longer obstruct this holy place. O horrible! and o execrable rashness of a most unhappy man! Behold, he says it is his own, what Christ the Lord committed to the Prince of the Apostles Peter alone: nor did he commit it suddenly indeed, but three times before committing it he asked: Simon, do you love me? Not as though he himself did not know, but to provide a sign for future times, lest the care of souls should be quickly and precipitously committed to anyone. To him therefore, after the third and certain pledge of his love at last: Feed, he said, my sheep: he excepted no King, no Emperor, or any condition of the Christian profession, except him who would deny himself to be his sheep. Therefore, him whom the Lord reserved for the judgment of himself alone, this man dares not only to judge but even to call his own and, as far as in him lies, to condemn: for which reason the whole holy Synod, rightly indignant, proclaims and confirms anathema upon him.

[13] Therefore, not long after, the same Most Reverend Pope, through whom all canonical rights, almost entirely abolished, began to be restored, is asked by very many Princes of the kingdom, especially strengthened by Countess Matilda, who then governed the greatest part of Italy, About to go into Germany, to deign to descend into the Teutonic regions for the common necessity of Mother Church. For they, because of his insolence and the anathema, had deposed Henry as their King and Lord: who also, equally coming together, compelled him, having repudiated his counselors of iniquity, to remain privately in a certain castle, lest he contaminate many with the leprosy of his anathema. For they had decreed among themselves that, having humbly summoned the holy Pope Gregory to the city of Augsburg, they should also bring him before the Judge of all Christendom in a common council of the whole kingdom: desiring that by Apostolic authority they might either recover him amended and absolved; or with him justly rejected, elect another in Christ. But he, with his conscience accusing him, He absolves the Emperor who comes as a suppliant did not wait for the holy assembly but came to meet the Lord Pope at the town of Canossa, humbled even to his feet; and having given security to the Lord Pope by oaths, as he deigned to prescribe, in the presence of Bishops and Abbots and Countess Matilda and Adeleida and many others, on the third day he was finally absolved; but he was not restored to the kingdom.

[14] And so he returns again to his former counsels, to the perverse gatherings of the excommunicated; and what he had ⁿpromised on oath he observed only for a brief time. For within fifteen days, as I think, when the blessed Bishop Anselm was bringing the legation of the Lord Pope together with the most religious Gerardus, Bishop of Ostia, to Milan, they were impeded by his soldiers, and the Bishop of Ostia was captured; By this relapsed man the legation of Saint Anselm is impeded. but Saint Anselm they in no way dared to touch, because

he was a native and of noble lineage. He himself, moreover, voluntarily pressed to be taken captive, saying that he would not depart from his companion of the Legation: either, he said, let them release him, or let them hold himself captive together with him. But since they did not presume to do this, he departed sadly, wishing, if he could, to lay down his own life for his brother. For this is the perfection of charity, this the sum of love, that one should lay down his life for his friends. Others in so great a necessity are accustomed to feign and dissimulate many things, some to lie and very many to perjure: but this man did not wish to dissimulate anything by even a single word of dissimulation: which he well could have done, as we afterwards heard from those very ones who were captured. By these things indeed and many similar, the oaths of the aforesaid sometime King Henry were made void.

* Perhaps "was eager to indulge."

CHAPTER IV.

The illustrious deeds of Saint Anselm in the schism of Wibert the Antipope.

[15] Meanwhile in the Teutonic lands ^aDuke Rudolph is elected as King to defend the unity of the Catholic Church; With the Emperor Rudolph dead, for which reason Henry, more and more indignant, spurning the counsel and aid of the Lord Pope, rages wickedly against all Catholics. ^bWhen King Rudolph died in the Catholic faith, he dares what the most powerful Emperors of old, whether they were heretics or apostates or even pagans, never presumed; he dares, I say, The Antipope Wibert is elected: having convoked some heretical Bishops, while Pope Gregory was still living, to whom he had even made himself obedient by oath, without holding any universal Council, without judgment; he dares indeed to elect as Pope Wibert, formerly Bishop of Ravenna, but then already excommunicated for many years; of whom we have made some mention above, but briefly. But who was so suitable for this as one who from his very cradle, filled with the spirit of pride, A proud man, meditated nothing but exaltation and pride? For this man, as we ourselves saw, showed all obedience and subjection to our Lord Pope Gregory; and he himself received him with honor and love as a guest in the holy Lateran Palace, and held him next to himself on his right in the holy Council, and first in all things in which it was fittingly appropriate, hoping that what the most lost man dissimulated was true. A perjurer, a parricide: But that man not long after fell through pride into disobedience, becoming equally perjured, and at last a wicked parricide: because he persecuted the holy Father even unto death. Such a man, I say, so just, so holy, Henry with his supporters elevates as Pope. Rome is not consulted, neither the Roman Clergy nor the people. One man indeed was present, ^dHugo Candidus by name, but blackest in mind, once a Cardinal, but already long since justly excommunicated and rejected for his crimes: this condemned man praises the condemned, this perjurer the perjurer, this parricide the parricide. In a place indeed horrid and most harsh, in the midst of the snowy Alps, where there is continual hunger and cold almost always constant, the place itself is a village instead of a city, which is called ^eBrixen, surrounded by the highest crags, where even the very name of Christianity is scarcely maintained: With every right trampled upon, here the privileges of the principal Church, here the rights of the supreme Priest, here the institutes of the holy Fathers, here all canonical decrees are annulled. Indeed, if anyone were to ask him to impose another God upon the heavens, as far as was in him, I think he would have done so and confirmed it: for it is not at all a new stratagem that he practices; from his boyhood indeed he so learned.

[16] For indeed while the venerable Pope Alexander had once been canonically elected, he elected his own Pope, ^fCadalous, Bishop of Parma, in the Teutonic regions, Just as had formerly been done when the Antipope Cadalous was assumed: and sent him to Rome; who committed prolonged discord and many wars. His mother the Empress Agnes herself was present at this nefarious presumption; who, moved by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, afterwards made confession before the same Pope Alexander and received penance. On which account this was especially enjoined upon her: that she should remain in Rome, and there satisfy Saint Peter with vigils, prayers, and fasts, and benefit the Church with her counsel and aid as much as she could. But he, persisting in his detestable obstinacy, worshipping the Wibert demon, is again admonished by the Apostolic with paternal affection, sending to him the Bishops of ^gAlbano and ^hPadua. And when he is not reformed, he is again most dangerously excommunicated.

[17] He then, as if with a new stratagem of tyranny, began to distribute to his soldiers both the estates and almost all the treasures of all Churches; and he bound them all to his party except the very few whom the Lord reserved for himself, that they should not bend the knee before Baal. Therefore, having gathered an army, he marches on Rome, and at the very first entry turns all his fury against the aforesaid Lady Matilda; he burns estates, destroys castles: she, however, with divine mercy protecting her, did not sustain excessive damage. The Countess Matilda in that persecution Then, I say, you could praise the talent and wisdom of the man, namely the holy Bishop Anselm. For even if a ship is strong and well built and the sailors prudent; yet it easily perils unless the helmsman is wise and valiant. Saint Anselm consoles and aids her. He was solicitous for the piety of the mother, he meditated the art of governing: she exercised authority, he governed: she gave the command, and he gave the counsel. Yet he excelled in all things, because both she and all her people obeyed his holiness; but she more than all. And no wonder: for he so providently and wisely counseled each individual in each matter, that against the aforesaid sometime King and all the greater and lesser men, the house of that one woman alone resisted almost all of Italy, vindicated the injury of God and her own, maintained her honor, and did not lose the grace of God. Indeed, by his merits this was obtained, that that praiseworthy and glorious woman was proclaimed even through foreign lands. And why not? For she acted nobly and magnificently, in a manner unusual for women, more indeed, I say, than manfully, fearing scarcely any danger. What powerful man ever led his army as she led hers? Yet very many of her people withdrew from her and went backward. They separated from us, I say, because they were not of us: for certain Angels too fell from heaven, while others were so strengthened He strengthens others, that they could no longer fall. Those too who remained were strengthened, both by the sweetness of Pastoral wisdom and by the benevolence and cheerfulness of so desirable a matron. For that outstanding Pastor and Doctor was present to them day and night with spiritual teachings and admonitions: emphasizing especially among other things that they should keep themselves from the excommunicated: since if anyone had communicated with the excommunicated, unless he had first received penance and been absolved, he could have no communion with the rest. With perfect hatred indeed he hated the excommunicated; Or converts them: whence by his teaching he made many anxious, prevented very many from such tyranny, converted some even completely, He admonishes the Emperor and the Antipope by letters: and finally he dictated a warning to the aforesaid sometime King himself; and he admonished the heresiarch himself, the invader of the holy ⁱRoman See, ^kWibert, with salutary writings.

[18] What then? The tyrant invades Rome, as he had begun, attacks it for three years, which at last, perjured, he conquers more by money than by strength or wisdom, and the holy Church of Blessed Peter becomes a den of impious robbers. Against the rebel invader of the City, But he did not yet conquer all Rome: since in the castle called the Castle of ^lCrescentius, the most reverend Pope Gregory remained. Certain nobler Romans also remained, neither corrupted nor deceived nor conquered, desiring to obey God rather than a heretical man. Therefore, as the impious persecution of the heretics increased, Robert, Duke of Apulia, summoned, frees them from these: the Duke of Apulia and Calabria, ^mRobert, was invited by the Apostolic Man and hastened to Rome; before whose arrival Henry, having left the City, fled, and in a single day the Duke boldly conquered it by armed force, and brought the Lord Pope from the confinement of the tower to the breadth of the holy Lateran Palace with great triumph and glory. And so, having spent some days there, they went together to Salerno, where the most holy Pope departed to Christ. For the miracles Pope Gregory dies, famous for miracles: which the Lord worked through him, some indeed we saw, others we heard from suitable witnesses, of which this is not the place to speak.

Henry therefore having been driven from the city into the Teutonic regions, he immediately returned, having first stirred up almost all the Lombards against the aforesaid Lady and against her holy guardian, but also against all Catholic unity. And not long after, behold, Bishops and Marquises with many others assembled, Against very many rebels who with great fury suddenly invaded the land of the same Countess, thinking to subjugate the whole of it immediately to their dominion. Then therefore they assembled and

our men were indeed few, since they had been forewarned scarcely a single day before. Nevertheless, they were exceedingly strengthened, because our Lord Saint Anselm the Bishop had directed his blessing to them through our humble person: Saint Anselm encourages the few with his blessing: especially commanding us in his instructions that, if any had communicated with the excommunicated, we should first absolve them, and then equally bless them all with Apostolic and his own authority: instructing them in what manner and with what intention they ought to fight; and thus commit the peril of the impending battle for the remission of all their sins. When the engagement was joined, the enemy very swiftly turned their backs, soon making them victors in battle. and the ⁿBishop of Parma was soon captured, along with many nobles, and of the lesser sort without number: and the number of the dead was not found. Of our men, however, three died, and few were wounded. In which matter all the faithful can recognize the glory of God and the virtue of the blessing of the most Reverend Bishop. For from that time the assemblies of the heretics were confounded, and their exceedingly lofty insolence was brought low: but all the Catholics rejoiced and were strengthened, especially that house which our holy Father Anselm the Bishop afterwards guarded unconquered and preserved persevering in the Catholic faith.

CHAPTER V.

Episcopal inspection throughout Lombardy by Saint Anselm. His virtues and manner of living.

[20] And he who had once been the Bishop of a single city, though innocently expelled, He is appointed Vicar throughout Lombardy: became the magnificent prelate of many cities: for the Lord Pope committed to him ^ahis authority and his own office throughout all Lombardy, wherever Catholic Bishops were not to be found, who at that time were assuredly very rare. Therefore all who have zeal for the Catholic faith hasten to him from every part of Lombardy.

There Catholics receive his blessing, and the excommunicated who have returned receive absolution: there they seek Chrism, there sacred Orders; there the desolate find comfort, the uncounseled find counsel, the counseled find joy: with him whatever is anywhere in doubt is wisely determined: he is always found of the same gravity and reverence, and is corrupted neither by bribes nor by entreaties. He helps all who flee to him: Many often came to him, sometimes nobles, sometimes common folk, poor and rich, who, while they wished to acquire something from the aforesaid Countess or to hold more securely what they had acquired, sometimes promised him great gifts, and others promised still greater; to whom he, although poor himself and all his people destitute, responded angrily, spurned the gifts, He spurns bribes: refused his assistance; for if they had asked freely, they would certainly have obtained it more quickly. For he said: if what they seek is unjust, I shall be a participant, indeed the author, of their injustice: but if it is just, I shall be guilty if I have sold justice. If any of perverse mind, perhaps divinely blinded, or perniciously entangled in the avarice of the world, resisted the Catholic and Apostolic decree, when they began to reason among themselves, they suddenly fell quite silent: because they could not resist his wisdom, indeed they marveled at the man's eloquence, so great and so reasonable: He knows Sacred Scripture and its interpreters: for he knew nearly all of Sacred Scripture by heart; whatever individual or all the holy expositors thought about any question, he would answer as soon as you asked. We learned that many things from the Sacred Scriptures had been divinely expounded to him, some of which we have in writing from him, some we retain in memory: He publishes books: he wrote many small books with his own hands: he compiled one ^bApologetic work from the diverse volumes of the Holy Fathers, with which he defended the Lord Pope's decree and all his acts and precepts with canonical reasoning and approved them with orthodox authorities. On the Lamentations of Jeremiah he composed a most lucid exposition: he also expounded ^cthe Psalter most brilliantly at the request of the most blessed handmaid of God, Matilda, briefly indeed but usefully, up to that place where it says: "We have blessed you in the name of the Lord." For there he ended both his life and the exposition, He converts or confounds schismatics: and like another Patriarch Jacob he blessed us all; whose blessing, as is known to all, descended upon all Italy. For in him and through him some heretics and schismatics are converted, others are confounded: whose teeth are thereupon broken, while with the Lord's own words it is promised to them: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the mute speak.

[21] But what shall I say about his abstinence? He held almost all foods in loathing, even the most delicate: those which his aforesaid daughter in Christ often sought out for him, I do not say he did not eat, but he scarcely tasted. All the blandishments of the world and the delights of the body, in which men rejoice, he turned for himself into torment, abominating each one as if it were poison. Also the foods set before him, when he was sometimes compelled by those sitting around him to eat, he honestly feigned illness or a vow or some other excuse; Wonderfully abstinent in food and drink, so that he might both observe his desired purity and not cause sadness to his fellow diners. Wine, as the Blessed Jerome says, he fled almost as poison. I saw, I say, what I also silently noted, that a morsel taken into his mouth he would not chew with his teeth, as is the common custom of men, lest he take any sweetness from it; but having softly touched it and briefly wrapped it, he swallowed it. Throughout an entire meal he often did not drink, but if thirst ever pressed more ardently, Even in drinking water, perhaps around vespers he privately drank a little water. For even in water itself, as he often spoke with me, he judged there to be the gluttony of the throat, feared a snare, and therefore tasted more sparingly. If the necessity of nature did not compel, I think he would have remained sleepless at all times. And in taking sleep: Throughout the whole night he either read, or wrote, or prayed; and if sleep pressed more heavily, he slept standing: and if more indulgently at times, he slept bowed down upon his knees. In bed indeed most rarely, unless compelled by the utmost modesty or necessity; and not for extended hours, but as if for moments. He had already almost conquered nature itself, so that he no longer seemed a body, but as if entirely spirit. Truly we could recognize in him this Gospel saying as if bodily, that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God: for while he withdrew from himself nearly all food, yet he labored more than all. He performed very many acts of penance at night, or, if he could, privately during the day. He stood very frequently until the third hour.

[22] In consecrating churches or altars, as if full of the spirit, he trembled entirely; Fervent in ecclesiastical matters; because with ever fervent love of devotion he performed whatever was ecclesiastical. We all marveled at the unconquerable powers of his subtlety: because while we were utterly and completely exhausted, he alone labored. But when it came to the solemnities of the Mass, he immediately flowed entirely with tears. Wherever he found a book, he immediately strove to examine it most diligently: and whatever he gathered as if in passing during the days, that he ruminated upon more fully at night. If ever he was on campaign, as very often, or on a journey, although very fatigued, he nevertheless neither took food more lavishly on that account, nor rested in bed. His greatest delicacies were fruits or herbs. He concealed his whole life and conduct as much as he could: Even on a journey, whether he was with the army in the field or privately at home, he surrounded his bed with a small curtain, so that there alone he might either read or write. From the middle of the night always, as the Prophet says, he rose for the morning Office, unless he rarely spared the weakness of the daughter entrusted to him, namely the glorious Lady Matilda: for discretion, the mother of all virtues, reigned in him. O happy she to whom such a provident pedagogue always attended, not as a provident man, but as an Angel of provident counsel: never, I think, while he stood by, was she defrauded or deceived.

[23] He piously instructs soldiers and other members of the household: It is wondrous to marvel at: while he sometimes stood the whole day with secular men in many and diverse councils, his mind was not alienated, but he always inwardly pondered something divine and contemplated heavenly things. The soldiers of that house, although excessively worldly, all looked to him, fearing him more than their natural Lady. In campaigns and in chambers, amid all conversations or counsels, he either preached or spoke good words of any sort. As many as faithfully followed his counsel, as he predicted to them, so it very often happened. If he did not convert all outright, he preserved the more faithful for God and their Lady. Indeed he restrained all from many crimes, made them stand against the heretics, except for very few sons of darkness. He venerated all religious as Fathers: He venerates the religious: he rebuked the erring; and a heretical man, corrected a second or third time but not reformed, he avoided. Throughout every church in all the often-mentioned Lady's land, he established the regular life of clerics

or monks: indeed he said that he would prefer that in the Church there be no cleric or monk at all, rather than one irregular, so to speak, and irreligious. In what affection and contrition he was in the divine offices, I am not able to set forth.

[24] He permitted nothing to be read in the Church except the writings of the Orthodox Fathers, He regulates the ecclesiastical reading, as holy authority prescribes. He strove to observe order and harmony in both chant and readings, as the holy Fathers had established. He did not receive any apocryphal works in the office of the Church, as the most Blessed Pope Leo had decreed: yet he did not entirely reject them for private reading at meals or at collation. And the chant: He commanded that we sing the Psalms carefully and meditatively, and otherwise he rebuked sharply. God knows that I sometimes seemed to myself as if full of the spirit from his very appearance, and as if forgetful of myself, he seemed to me like an Angel.

[25] During the divine mysteries he never or rarely sat. He never completed the solemnities of the Mass, as far as we could perceive, without tears. He imitates Gregory VII. Above all he always had this intention, that he might first imitate his Master, Pope Gregory, in all things, so much so that he was wholly unwilling to differ from him even in anything. He always attributed to his merits whatever was in himself. When he recalled the monastic and solitary life, which he often lamented having lost, he was consoled in this same Master, because he had been made obedient to him even unto this. That one was the fountain, this one flowed from him like a good stream and irrigated the arid land: He is given his miter: that one as the head governed the whole body, this one as a diligent hand carried out what was enjoined: that one like the Sun illuminated all things, this one like a splendor made known each thing: that one, dying, sent to this one the miter of his head, as if his own power of binding and loosing, and, I believe, of working miracles also. For not long after, as all of us knew, Renowned for miracles, through his counsel and great faith, God worked certain illustrious wonders through that same miter. For among other things, the most reverend Lord Ubald, Bishop of Mantua, having been very gravely afflicted with a disease of the spleen for many years, ulcerated over his whole body, especially in his legs, so that he could scarcely stand in any way, and could scarcely even lie down or sit, and who had spent much on physicians and profited nothing: when the same miter was applied where the pain was greatest, he was restored to his former health.

[26] The most blessed Master, so great and so wonderful, worked many miracles both living and dead: the good disciple also worked them as Master, I say, in God: the disciple in God; and in the most blessed Master, the disciple, as is said, works even more. Nor is this surprising: for Peter did more than Christ; not indeed by his own power, but because denying himself he followed Christ, and as this venerable Father of ours, because he imitated his pious Master in all things, works many virtues. For there are many, By his example he works miracles: whose life we know to be most holy, and who truly obtain eternal rest; but they have not displayed the power of miracles. This man, however, not only because he led a religious life, but rather because he carried out faithful obedience, also hating with perfect hatred the party of the excommunicated and loving and defending the unity of Catholics, he confirmed by miracles what he taught by word. Therefore all you who have hitherto obeyed the precepts of the Lord Pope Gregory in Catholic unity, rejoice and exult; and to those who have gone backward and abandoned the footsteps of truth, tell them, so that they may now believe by deeds, what they once refused by words.

CHAPTER VI.

Miracles wrought during the life of Saint Anselm. His death and burial.

[27] We who were present saw in his lifetime his Subdeacon, named Tento, who always had weak eyes; who, if he watched beyond his custom or perhaps drank wine, could scarcely see anything for a long time the next day, Eyes are healed by the water from the washing of his hands, and for some time could not read at all. Therefore he took the water with which the Lord Bishop had washed his hands after the sacrifice, washed his eyes, and had healthy ones thenceforth: he was able to watch and read no less than the rest of us. Similarly also his Priest Wido, suffering from fevers, And fever is removed. received the water from the washing of his hands, drank it, and recovered.

[28] A Deacon is healed, Likewise his Deacon John, while he was ill at Milan, hastened to send word to him, adding this in the message, that as soon as he heard of his suffering, he wished to feel in himself the power of his blessing; and it was done as he believed: for he immediately felt it, and shortly after fully recovered, and the same Lord Bishop afterwards ordained him Priest. He also healed by his blessing alone the aforesaid daughter entrusted to him, namely the most noble Lady Matilda, Matilda very often: from various infirmities on many occasions; and, as she was accustomed to relate to us, she frequently felt virtue going out from him, so that at his touch every then-pressing illness fled.

[29] He sometimes clearly knew the thoughts of men, even as they were thinking them. Thus and thus, he said, He knows the thoughts of others, at such an hour and in such a place you were thinking. God is my witness that I do not lie; for when I was once conferring with him about my sins, as I was often accustomed to do, I confessed and told him of a certain temptation with which the evil spirit was then more fervently striving to assail me; and he said, You speak the truth: because even in the very ministry of the altar it sometimes occurs to you. When I heard this, I immediately was terrified, and from then on I strove to restrain myself from every wicked thought, especially in his presence. During the holy celebrations of the Mass he was especially accustomed to see such things: and he always had this practice, that he would celebrate Mass daily. But if on some day he did not celebrate, which very rarely happened due to some impediment, he was sadder that whole day and exceedingly heavy: just as he also deplored that night as heavy and restless when, compelled by excessive vigils, he slept a little.

[30] He also very frequently saw revelations worthy of remembrance; some of which it is pleasing to touch upon briefly. For at a certain time, while in the church of Saint Paul in the territory of Mantua, He saw the Virgin Mother of God appearing, near the Bishop's residence, he was consecrating a certain altar in honor of Saint Mary, he saw her with his bodily eyes at that same altar during the very solemnities of consecration. At another time also, on the Purification of the same glorious Virgin Mary, when he came rather late to the church, while the Clerics were already singing the Invitatory, where it says, "Going to meet her God," he saw Christ coming to meet him, Christ come to meet him as he entered. On yet another occasion, while with great compunction of heart and tears he was chanting Psalm And inclining toward him. 81, that is, "Incline, O Lord, your ear"; he felt the Lord inclined toward him, and as if applying his ear to listen. Indeed he did and saw many other things, which we now pass over in haste.

[31] Finally, how happy an end he made, many Bishops and Clerics and nobler laity who were present saw. He did not make a testament: because he had nothing from which to make one: On his deathbed he makes no testament, imitating also in this his Master, whom we knew to have died poor and in exile, who also in his last moments, as we learned from his religious Chaplains, said: "After all things, I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile." Indeed, what the Master and disciple taught in their life, this they also confirmed as if by testament in their death. He commends the doctrine of Gregory VII, That one, those whom he had blessed while still living as obedient to him, dying also he commended to the Lord by his prayers; but the Henricians he utterly and completely rejected, unless after a great conversion and penance. This one, in our presence, commanded in the word of the Lord that we should remain in the faith and doctrine of the most blessed Pope Gregory; which he also enjoined upon us with his blessing and commended it for the remission of our sins.

[32] Present at this blessing was a certain matron named Berta, noble by birth, nobler in the character of her mind and the devotion of her soul, wife of the most illustrious Count Bernard, who was suffering from an unusual infirmity in her head: for she was afflicted with such great coldness at the crown of her head that she could sometimes think ice had been placed upon it; He removes an unusual infirmity of the head by his blessing: which she often tried to dispel with furs or pillows warmed at the fire: but having sought out many physicians, she obtained no health. And if cold or wind ever touched her there, when she perhaps slept carelessly without her head well covered, she was tormented by violent pain, so that she feared her eyes were rolling or starting out, and as if the sinews of her neck were contracted, she could not bend her head. This woman, I say, had come during that Lenten season to the city of Mantua to the Countess Matilda, in order to hear the holy and daily Office of so venerable a Bishop: whence it happened that in his last moments she hastened to the blessing which we described more quickly than many others. When she most devoutly sought the blessing from him, he placed his hand upon her head, and when the incurable cold was immediately expelled, she received a most healthful warmth: and with sweat and some matter issuing through her ears, by the octave of Easter every occasion of the infirmity was removed. How many most illustrious signs God worked through him thereafter, what need is there for me to say, when it is established that very many saw all things in person?

[33] He asked therefore, as long as he lived, that he might be committed to burial in the Chapter of the monastery of Saint Benedict, which is on the bank of the river Po, under the obedience of the holy monastery of Cluny, whence he himself was a brother and monk. He desires to be buried in a nearby monastery, And when, with the Bishop and the Countess and all the others consenting, the body was already being carried to the monastery, there suddenly appeared a Bishop of ^aSutri named ^bBonizo, whom the Holy Spirit also raised up, so that he might cry out He is buried in the Bishop's residence, that it was fitting for a Bishop to be buried in the Bishop's residence: Such a great lantern, he said, it is not fitting that it be hidden. He himself while still living humbled himself as unworthy: but we ought to exalt, as truly worthy, a man whom we know to have been most holy. The same was immediately acclaimed

by all, and the body was seized from the care of the monks and carried to the Bishop's residence, and there venerably buried. We marveled at this as if it were a first great miracle, not knowing that what was to follow would be still more marvelous. For we also noted at that time that many Bishops and Cardinals, and also a great multitude of soldiers, had come to that same city on the day of his death. For there was present ^cthe Bishop of Maguelone, named Godfrey, and ^eBenedict the Bishop of Modena, and ^fAribert the Bishop of Reggio, In the presence of several Bishops, and the Bishop of that same city, namely the Bishop of Mantua, called Ubald; but also Damian, Cardinal of the Roman Church, who was also Abbot of the monastery of ^hNonantola. All these, as they and other Catholics had often been accustomed to come, had arrived. The Bishop of Sutri had also departed only the day before, but soon, after his passing, on that same day he was opportunely present. These, And Cardinal Damian, I say, and very many others, greater and lesser, were present, who both witnessed his passing and recognized the clear miracles after his death in person.

[34] Therefore in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1086, in the thirteenth year of his episcopate, Indiction 9, when the seven years of the excommunication of Henry the sometime King had already ended, nine months and twenty-three days after the passing of the most blessed Pope Gregory VII, He died in the year 1086. the Venerable Lord and our Father Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, fell asleep in the Lord on the tenth of the Kalends of April, in the city of Mantua, with the most reverend Bishop Ubald presiding, and the most noble Duchess and Marchioness Matilda ruling there.

CHAPTER VII.

Miracles wrought after the death of Saint Anselm.

[35] On the third night after the venerable repose of the most holy Father, a certain woman with contracted limbs, A woman with contracted limbs is healed, who always crept rather than walked on one hand and on her hindquarters, and who had remained for one year and two and a half months in the house of the Bishop's nephew, was raised up healthy at the tomb of the aforesaid Father by his merits, in the first watch of the night. On the following day, around the third hour, as it seemed, A blind woman, it is reported that a certain woman blind from birth was there illuminated, whom we then heard was an inhabitant of the county of Brescia. A bent man, On that same day, around the sixth hour, a certain poor man who had been maintained for some time by alms in the hospice of the poor of the aforesaid Bishop of Mantua, bent from the loins down, praying at the sepulchre of the same holy Father, suddenly raised himself up healthy. When such miracles had been spread far and wide, A blind woman, behold, a certain woman from the castle called Capitellum, who had entirely lost her sight, began to beseech her husband to lead her to the body of the holy man. When he refused, her brother, moved by mercy, having yoked oxen to a cart, began to carry her. When she had gone two miles, she began to see trees and the cart and the oxen and all other things: giving thanks to God and His Holy Confessor, making a vow from her poverty, she returned home.

[36] On the ninth day there was in the same castle another woman with contracted legs and loins, A woman with contracted limbs, who could not leave her bed on her own for any need. She obtained by her prayers from a certain citizen of Mantua who had come there, that he placed her on his cart, brought her to the city, and carried her on his shoulders to the tomb of the holy Bishop: and after making some prayer, shortly afterwards she rose up healed. On the eleventh day, also in a castle called Goudium, A blind woman, a woman who had been deprived of her sight for twenty months, fasting for two days and staying near the holy body, received the former clarity of her eyes. On the fifteenth day, another woman from a castle called, as it is said, Lazese, A woman with contracted limbs and epilepsy, with a contracted hand and foot, a twisted mouth, most grievously afflicted with epilepsy, there enduring for some time, recovered full health.

[37] A blind woman, On the sixteenth day, while we were standing together with the most glorious Lady Matilda and singing psalms on the holy day of Good Friday, a certain woman came from a place called Coloniola, who had lost her sight, weeping and wailing, most devoutly making prostrations, and after a while rising up; she wiped her eyes on the cloth covering the sepulchre and received her sight. On the eighteenth day, also a certain well-known woman of that same city, Tormented by pain of teeth and bowels, was tortured by pain of the teeth and bowels: fleeing to the sepulchre of the aforesaid Confessor, she was immediately made well. Another woman from a town Bedridden from illness, called Castellucule was so ill that she could not rise from bed in any way. Hearing of so many miracles, she made a vow, and shortly after recovered, and on the eighth day coming on her own feet to the tomb of the holy man, she herself fulfilled the vow.

[38] On the twenty-first day, moreover, there was a citizen of Mantua who had lost the sight of one eye when a film came over it. Blind in one eye. Spending much on physicians and accomplishing nothing, he fled to the true physician of salvation through the merits of the most holy Bishop mentioned above, and recovered his sight. On the twenty-third day after this, a boy from a village Deprived of the use of his arms, called Vadum-ferratum, whom arthritis had deprived of the use of his arms, was brought to the same oratory and received his health. On the twenty-fourth day, another boy from Burbassic, Blind and dropsical, deprived of the light of his eyes and suffering as if from dropsy, admonished often in his sleep, finally fled to the patronage of the most holy Father and recovered.

[39] On the thirty-first day there was a Priest from the bishopric of Brescia, from a castle named Garelengo, from whom the disease that men call "good" by antiphrasis had taken the light of one eye: who, hearing the fame of such great signs, Blind in one eye, hastened to the holy sepulchre. Having made his prayer there, he returned: and, being irritated by some itching while on the road, he rubbed his eye with his finger, and when his eyelids were soon opened, he saw clearly. Returning therefore to the city, he gave thanks before all to so pious a patronage. A paralytic woman, On the night following the thirty-first day, a certain woman came from a castle named Maratica, near the port of Lignacum in the county of Verona, having her left hand closed, and that whole side ruined by paralytic gout. On the thirtieth day after the death of the same holy Bishop, praying at his tomb, she rose up healed. A lame man: From the county of Milan also, from the parish of Resade, a certain lame man had come, who, thus contracted, went about seeking health at many shrines of the Saints. Falling prostrate at the holy tomb and making his prayer, he was immediately made well.

[40] On the thirty-ninth day it then happened what was joyful and wonderful in the eyes of many: for during the Litanies called Gregorian, A doe willingly allows itself to be captured: when an innumerable multitude of people was flocking to the aforesaid city of Mantua, certain people from a village called Fornicata and another called Blittolo, coming with banners and relics as is the custom, and seeing a large doe beside the road, admonished by one of their Priests, began to invoke the omnipotence of God, that through the merits of his most holy Priest, to whom they were devoutly proceeding, he would grant it to them unharmed; and so it was done. For, as if fixed to the spot, it stood quiet. And they, casting a small rope around its neck, And it is led to the sepulchre of Saint Anselm: led it most gently all the way to the sepulchre of the venerable Confessor. And so there was an inestimable rush of the crowd: some snatched its hairs as a sign of the truth; others only wished to see it: but all marveled with equanimity. But because it was pregnant, Its flesh drives away diseases, it could not endure such pressure; it reached the sepulchre, however, and there succumbed, and shortly after, since it could not live, it was killed: its flesh was divided into various parts as a blessing, and it certainly restored their former health to many sick people. But what follows is no less praiseworthy and glorious.

[41] For as they were returning after completing their prayer, they came to a certain body of water which they could not cross except by boat: but that the works of God might be made manifest, the boat had been taken to the other side. Therefore waiting a long time and somewhat sad, A boat comes of its own accord to the other bank, because they were fasting and fatigued, remembering the earlier miracle, they again invoked God, that through the merits of his holy Confessor Anselm he would give them a way to cross. The prayers were scarcely completed when, behold, a boat broke free and came to them without any rower. Therefore giving thanks to God and to his most holy Confessor, they all crossed safely, and from the wood of that boat very many were healed of various pains.

[42] We also wish your holy desire to know what we learned from no other source, A man made insane from a wound in the head: but rather saw ourselves and did ourselves. The venerable Countess whom we mentioned was at the siege of a certain castle, where a certain German was wounded in the head by the blow of a stone: who three days later was brought into our lodging, so that there he might have better tranquility than among laymen. Then a stroke, which physicians call paralysis, attacked him so cruelly that he was rendered utterly insane, so that he felt nothing rightly and recognized no one. Finally we also were summoned: so that having imposed penance upon him, we might give him Communion.

But we could not make him understand what penance was. Finally, we could not even make him recognize what God was, or invoke God or any of the Saints. We were quite certain that he had a demon. For he cried out, as the insane are wont to do, with a loud voice shouting many incongruous things; and unless he were held by force, he would have torn apart not only his garments but even his limbs. A clamor was heard on every side, many ran up, some lamenting, others marveling. We also heard in the chamber of that Lady the lamentable voice of her who, moved by divine impulse, said to me that I should wash the ring that had been Saint Anselm's in water, He is given water to drink in which the ring of Saint Anselm had been immersed, which the Blessed Pope Gregory had also worn for some time, and offer it to him to drink: hoping that by their merits he would be freed. Rising therefore, having taken the ring, I went to him, whom I found crying out in a marvelous manner and tearing himself apart. For although five strong men held him — two by his legs, two by his arms, and one at his head — yet he struggled with his chest and belly more than I would have believed, had I not been present and seen it. Having therefore taken water, we placed the ring in it in the name of the Lord, and having opened his mouth with great force, with a spoon we barely managed to give him a little to drink at first. Not long after, he called me by name and began to recognize my voice, He is healed. and being admonished he immediately invoked Saint Anselm; and, to say it briefly, after one hour, as I estimate, by the merits of the holy Confessors, who used the same ring in the divine Office, he rested most gently and spoke correctly. To this miracle indeed many were present, who saw and heard in person, and glorified the mercy of God in his holy Confessors.

[43] These things about our most blessed Father and Patron, the holy Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, very few indeed Epilogue. in comparison to his merits, but, I hope, profitable to your pious desires, I, B., a sinner, his Priest in Penance, not his son, I say, but his servant, promoted by him to that same order with many tears, have reverently set forth for you who devoutly requested them. I beseech you, pray for me.

CHAPTER VIII.

Other miracles added shortly after, inserted from the letters of the Bishop of Mantua, and also written by a certain Hugo.

[44] ^aOn the forty-ninth day after the holy man's passing, with the sun already setting, the Lord deigned to show this miracle also through his servant. There came to the tomb of our most holy Father a certain woman from the bishopric of Cremona, from that region called Cancer, A nearly blind woman is healed, from whom a film on one eye had entirely taken away the light: and the other eye could barely see during the day. Persisting in prayers for some time, by the merits of the holy Bishop, she received the clarity of the blinded eye: and the other, for which midday had previously scarcely sufficed for seeing, now the twilight of night suffices. A great multitude had gathered at the city of Mantua for the veneration of the holy man, from the city and bishopric of Brescia, among whom were some under the pretense of religion, indeed for the sake of pretense: to confound whose unbelief and to strengthen the faith of the believers who were present, A man deprived of the use of his feet. the Almighty Lord showed his mercy. For a certain old man of the household of Manfredus, from a place called Pigognata, on account of an incision in one knee, with gout also affecting the other, by reason of this incision had lacked the use of his feet for three months: who by the merits of the most Blessed Anselm was restored to his former health, on the fiftieth day of his death.

LETTER I.

[45] To the Lady Matilda, Ubald, Bishop of Mantua, sends joy and gladness. With immense desire we write to you the longed-for gladness. There was a certain woman from Capriana who walked on hands and feet like an animal, Three people with contracted limbs are healed, whom Almighty God through the merits of our most holy Father raised up and granted to proceed on foot alone, as human nature requires. A similar remedy He deigned to confer also upon a certain man from the Island of Parma, which is near the head of the Parmula, who was similarly bent. Moreover, a certain boy from Monte Chiaro had a contracted hand and foot, and God restored both to proper use through the prayers of the most blessed Bishop. Also to a certain woman from the place called the Island of Ogerius, who had a withered hand, the desired health came through the intercession of our same Patron. He also restored sight to a certain boy from Ripalta. Similarly a woman from the bishopric of Verona, A woman with a withered hand, when she was already approaching our city, received the clarity of her eyes. Also a certain man from Plevazano, whose heels adhered inseparably to his buttocks, Two healed, was restored to his former health; whom we showed to the Lord, the religious Archbishop of Lyon, A man with heels adhering to his buttocks, and pointed out the place where the heels had been joined. Many from the bishopric of Brescia and Verona and from various other parts, who had gathered for the veneration of the man on the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord, seeing these things done, were converted to the Lord, renouncing the devil and his followers, and promising that they would sooner come to the shedding of their blood, should they be brought to that point of danger, than fall away from this faith. All these things were done on the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord and on the following night: and many other things, which we could not ascertain because of the multitude; which, if we find them, we shall describe to you.

[46] There was moreover a certain woman from a castle whose name is Gudiciole, who, unable to touch the ground with her foot because of a contraction of the knee, Miserably lame, walking bent over with two sticks, barely sustained her weak limbs. After some days she obtained the health-giving remedy for her infirmity by seeking the mercy of the holy Bishop. There was likewise a certain nobleman named Adecherus, Bleeding from the nose for two days; who with blood bursting from his nostrils for two days, as if from a vein struck by iron, was already thinking only of the expectation of death. But when no care applied by physicians could restrain the breaking blood, appealing to the holy Bishop and vowing to come to his body, he escaped the danger of imminent death, by the merits and prayers of the most holy man.

LETTER II.

[47] Certain miracles either consigned to oblivion or previously unknown, but now discovered, I wish to present to your knowledge. The people of Brescia, remaining with joy, about whom I recently wrote to you, when they had come to the ford which is a little above Godium, finding no boat, bore no vexation in their hearts, placing all their trust in God and Saint Anselm. While they tarried, A dying horse, seeing a certain horse on the other side of the river, which, dying and gasping, without food and drink, had lain there for three days, one of them without hesitation asked God and Saint Anselm that it might rise and carry them all across: and it immediately rose and offered itself to transport them. Behold how magnificent the merits of our Father: behold how imperious his power. The law of death is broken; its own rights are lamented as altered: one subject to death is snatched away: granted to life, restored to life, that he might serve the servants of God; It recovers for a time, and he who could not carry himself prepared to bear a burden, offering himself so servantly to obey, as if he did not lack reason. He seemed to want to say, if nature permitted: Why do you not mount me? Why do you not employ me in your service? I have been granted life for no other purpose, snatched from the jaws of death. Meanwhile, certain boatmen seeing them standing by the bank, came with a boat to ferry them across, hoping to receive payment from them: they entered that boat and crossed safely. See how the horse was laboring to show itself obedient: and how it strives that the will to serve might be manifest. But what it does not speak with its mouth, Having rendered service, it dies. it professes by the gesture of its body. For as the boat crossed, it crossed too; and when that returned, it also returned. Finally, when all had been ferried across, it went to the place whence it had come, and there shortly after ended its life.

[48] A boy with a withered hand is healed. There was a certain boy from Cremona, brought to the tomb of the holy man by many of his neighbors, who had a withered hand. They reverently and confidently, and out of great confidence almost threateningly, sought his healing, saying: Most pious Bishop, Saint Anselm, Confessor of God, hear us who pray for your servant: if we merited anything from you in life, if we faithfully received your preaching, if we preserved our faith uncorrupted, if we constantly resisted those who contradicted you, hear us, help him and free him: you healed many for unbelievers, grant at least one to the faithful, lest perhaps enemies insult us, objecting: Now it appears how grateful, how faithful you were to him in life. If he had loved you in life, he would have honored you also in death: but because he judged you unworthy, abominable, contemptible, he has made you strangers to such grace. Repel from us, most pious Father, this reproach, and quickly bring forth our joy. Show yourself propitious to us, on whom we have always looked, whom alone we set before ourselves as a mirror to contemplate, Likewise another: from whom we seek aid. As they prayed so devoutly, the health they sought was obtained by their prayers: which also a certain Hermann of Scorzariolo, who similarly had a contracted hand, obtained.

[49] Moreover, a certain woman who always looked at the ground bent over, and could not walk unless supported by a stick, was raised up at the tomb of the aforesaid Father, with many watching. A woman bent toward the ground: I did not note her place of origin, because she could not be found on account of the multitude. On the third day preceding the Ascension of the Lord, two wonders were performed. For a certain woman from the bishopric of Cremona, from a place called Casa-anserij, A blind man, received the light she had lost for eight years, through the intercession of the most holy Patron. On that same day, A bent woman, a certain woman from the Abbey of Leone, having a withered right hand, which with contracted sinews of the arm she always held nearly at her shoulder, and with a contracted knee on the same side she barely touched the ground with the tips of the toes of her foot, found healing for both afflictions at the tomb of our holy Father.

[50] Among those things which on the Ascension of His Son God magnificently wrought through His servant, I eagerly make known to your desire the power of his virtue, afterwards declared to me by the same man to whom the author of our salvation conferred his medicine. For there was a certain man from your village, which is near Rosina, named Ciliano, who grieved not so much that straightness of knees had been denied him as that the strength of his hands had been wholly taken away: for the gout pressing upon him so savagely that he trembled, Deprived of the strength of knees and hands, he could do nothing and hold nothing. To him therefore the Lord revealed through a vision that if he reverently vowed to come to the tomb of the most holy Anselm, he would immediately rejoice that he had obtained health from both infirmities. He therefore, waking up and thinking about the vision,

not knowing what to do, uncertain what to believe; incredulous of the revelation, yet desirous of health; had certain good men of his neighborhood summoned to him, and having narrated the vision, received counsel from them to make a vow, and having made the vow, he immediately recovered. Likewise a certain woman from Fossa-capraria, A bent woman, bent at the knees, deprived of the service of her feet, and long using the aid of sticks in their place, when she had already come to the tomb of our Father, with the sun already setting, suddenly received health from so grave and varied an infirmity.

[51] What a certain honorable matron, the mother of John of Persico, related to me, I thought should be reported to you also. She, full of faith, perfected in the love of God, instructed in the teachings of the most holy Anselm, spurning the ministry of her own Priests on account of excommunication; one day, when she asked those standing about where she might find someone worthy and suitable to celebrate Mass; a certain man from Casale Maggiore standing by said: Why do you despise the ministry of your own Priests? On account of the love and preaching of Saint Anselm, she said, for whose merits the Almighty Lord daily works wonders. He said: Now I beseech you, pray to him with all your heart; One who mocks miracles becomes lame with violent pain: that if he has raised up anyone, as you believe, let him make me a cripple: or if he has given light to anyone, let him take my sight away. Scarcely was the prayer finished when he felt the vengeance of God was present; and immediately bending to one side, he began to limp greatly. But she, seeing this, began to pray God more intently to increase the punishment upon this son of unbelief: and immediately the pain grew so great that he could barely make it to his lodging, and was left as if dead. When therefore this matron came to give thanks to God and Saint Anselm, a certain man from Monticelli-Guiberti, well known to her, meeting her as he was already returning from the city, narrated to her a great miracle that had happened to him. A bucket lost in the river is recovered: One night, when he had gone to the river Oglio to draw water, and having extended his hook, since the bank was high, the current of the water took his bucket away from him, and the torch being lost, since the night was dark, when he saw it being carried off by the swirling of the river, he asked Saint Anselm to return it to him. When the prayer was made and he had lowered his hook barely two arm-lengths near the water, the handle of the bucket immediately lifted itself up and attached itself to the hook.

[52] Through the merits of the same most holy Father of ours, a certain nun from the regions beyond the mountains, A woman blind in one eye is healed, from a village called Gamudium near the castle of Cisne, received the light of one eye, and by the grace of God now sees more clearly from the other, from which she had seen only a little. A certain woman from the bishopric of Cremona, A boy contracted from birth, from a castle named Benengo, which is situated near Iovisalta, had a boy of twelve years; who from the days of his birth, with contracted sinews, had never known how to walk. His mother, therefore, desirous of his health, full of devotion, perfect in faith, vowed to carry him to the venerable sepulchre: and carrying him, already weary from the burden, when she reached the Marcha Regia, she set him down; and by her faith and devotion he immediately found the health which he had always lacked. Moreover, a certain woman from Wartalda, forewarned in her sleep, believing the revelation, came to implore the saving aid of our holy Father. A woman with dropsy. She was so afflicted with the disease of dropsy that she could not support herself: for her body had swollen so much that she could barely contain herself from bursting: nor was it to be called a body any longer, but rather a trunk; nor was any human form to be seen in her, but she was wholly deformed and presented a certain face of death: for the joints of her hands and feet had become solid. But although her form and the sockets of her eyes had perished, and death rather than life was pressing upon her, she did not despair of health. It was worthy, therefore, that the most holy Anselm should grant the grace of health to this woman, from whom she expected such great healing, which she rejoices to have obtained the following night.

[53] As I have just learned from Count Guifredo and from Sigefredo of Beredo, his soldier, I write to you. While you and the Abbess of Saint Paul of Parma were staying at Mantua, his soldiers, having heard of many signs from the holy man, wished to go to his venerable tomb for the sake of prayer, and asked a certain man named Alberic, the son of Alberic of Palmia, One who scorns Saint Anselm, to go with them to seek pardon for his sins. As, he said with a foolish and envious mouth, I would go to a donkey, so I shall go to him, unless perhaps for the sake of mockery, to seek his help. But they, rebuking him and heaping reproach upon him, finally compelled him to come with them. On the last day, there was a certain man with contracted limbs, whom they desired to see prostrate at the tomb, and they approached; and reverently praying and kissing the stone of the tomb, they returned rejoicing. But he, wishing likewise to approach in order to see the one who had been freed, was prevented from the sepulchre, as one unworthy and blasphemous, by about two paces, his feet sticking heavily and sluggishly. He cannot approach the sepulchre: He, thinking his shins were bound by wrappings, removed them; and finding that this had not hindered him, he entered again, unable to go beyond the same boundary. He, grieving that he had been repulsed so many times, When a blind man is illuminated, went out with shame, wondering and astonished at why this had happened to him. Meanwhile a certain blind man was illuminated. He therefore recognized his own foolishness, and repenting of his curse, wept bitterly. Finally, returning from Saint Andrew's with the Canons to render praises, with many tears shed before the door of Saint Peter's, he merited to approach the tomb of our Father, just as the others. The penitent approaches. He kept silent about this, lest his companions should cast it as a reproach against him: but now, to the glory of God and the most holy Anselm, he preaches everywhere what happened to him.

[54] When some citizens of Brescia had come to venerate the tomb of our Father, they met a certain poor man similarly coming from the bishopric of Como to seek his health, A lame man is healed, from the Valtellina: who, bent over, could not walk unless supported by sticks. They took him with them and for the love of the most holy Anselm gave him provisions. To confirm their faith and increase their devotion, the Lord through the intercession of the aforesaid Father, on the 10th of the Kalends of June, with night already approaching, raised this man up and granted him to walk without the support of sticks. Moreover, to a certain boy, deaf and mute from the days of his birth, shortly after the passing of the most holy Anselm, A deaf and mute boy, by his merits, without our knowledge, He restored his hearing. And on the second day of the entering month of June, around the ninth hour, He loosed the bond of his tongue, according to that which is read in the Gospel: "He has done all things well; he has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

CHAPTER IX.

Other miracles from the writing of the same Hugo to the Bishop of Mantua.

[55] Another miracle also, which I learned from the report of Brother Vitalis, a Priest of the Church of Brescia, a man of religious life, and from many others, I, Hugo, was not reluctant to write to your Paternity, venerable Father, Bishop of Mantua, as you commanded. A lame and mute girl is healed: In a village whose name is Murana, which is seven miles from the city of Brescia, there was a certain woman who had a daughter so deprived of the use of tongue and feet that, unless carried by another, she could in no way rise at all; who, when she was carrying her contracted daughter outside the house as usual, sighing at the tedium of her daily labor, said: Most pious God, through the merits of your most holy Confessor Anselm, having pity on my tribulation, either restore this wretched half-dead girl to health, or by removing her from this present life, free me from such labor; otherwise I leave her here to you. Do what pleases you: because I shall suffer no labor for her henceforth. Having said this, she immediately departed, the daughter left behind, as she said. But after a short interval of time, returning home, she found the one whom she had left to the most holy Anselm to be well. And the one who shortly before had been bound of tongue, she heard speaking words fluently: which deed the woman, marveling and rejoicing, rendered praises to the Lord and the holy Bishop for the health received for her daughter.

[56] Also by the narration of the Priest Otto, a man of praiseworthy life, and with the attestation of the citizens of Cremona, I learned of another miracle, which should by no means be passed over in silence. On a certain day, when some of the citizens of Cremona were riding outside the city, they began in varied conversation among themselves to relate certain miracles which the Lord works through the merits of the most holy Confessor Anselm. And while they were discussing these things among themselves, a certain one of them, being of a faithless mind, reproachfully asked them whether they believed such vanities; or that God displayed miracles through him. One who does not believe in miracles, When they answered that he was undoubtedly a holy servant of God and glorified by many signs of miracles, that perfidious man said: If he is, as you say, holy, or if he has restored anyone's gait, let him now make the horse on which I sit lame. And so it was done. For having gone forward a little, the horse on which he sat immediately stood still with contracted limbs: and the aforesaid man, overtaken by infirmity, labored for a long time, He is punished by the horse being crippled and his own illness: until he resolved to go humbly to the holy body.

[57] What also I learned from my mother narrating about herself should not be consigned to oblivion. One day, when a stroke suddenly came, Pain and a discharge of the eye are healed, it so covered the light of one eye with blood that she could not even look at the ground with direct sight. Pressed therefore by the pain of the eye, she fled to the tomb of the holy Confessor, humbly seeking relief for her pain with these words: Most holy Confessor, confer upon me a healing medicine: for I seek no physician but you: for you are able to confer a saving remedy for my infirmity. Having therefore rubbed her eye against the stone which covers the casket of the holy body, as she was returning home:

"Of this I am a witness: soon the noxious humor receded."

[58] By the report of Brother Vitalis, a Priest of the Church of Lodi, in the hearing of many, as also the other things, I learned a thing worthy of memory, who was present at this deed. His faith and life, long tested in the things of God, undoubtedly demonstrate that credence should be given to his testimony. Arialdus, the brother of the most holy Confessor Anselm, has a certain daughter of five years, whom the force of fevers was afflicting: and furthermore, from the opening of her ear, from a discharge which they call a fistula, Fever with a discharge from the ear, a certain putrefaction continuously dripped drop by drop: which also generated disgust in those who came near her. The parents of the aforesaid girl, having washed a small piece

which they had of the wood of the boat (the miracle of which was noted above), they gave the water of its washing to their daughter to drink, invoking the most holy Confessor to come to the aid of his niece; and when she had drunk it, the aforesaid girl was immediately freed from both infirmities.

[59] The matter which I now relate I learned under the narration and testimony of the Lady Matilda the Countess; to whose attestation we know credence should undoubtedly be given, from her proven faith and religious character; which also became known to me equally by the assertion of the same girl to whom this happened. One night, a pain suddenly came, as often happened, acutely tormenting the girl named Athelasia, the daughter of the Marquis Azo, who was in the chamber of the aforesaid Lady, in the part of her belly, and compelled her to give great cries. When the aforesaid Lady inquired what was the matter, the answer was given A torment of the belly, that she was frequently invoking Saint Anselm to her aid. And when, by the command of that same Lady, the cushion on which the holy Bishop while living had been accustomed to sit was placed upon that part of the body where the pain was pressing, the girl immediately cried out that she was freed from all pain.

[60] By the assertion of a certain man named Constantius, I learned moreover a thing to be committed to memory. An illness coming upon a boy, Suffocation of the voice, the squire of a certain soldier, had so suffocated his voice that he could scarcely be heard by those even a little distance from him. And because he could not call his Lord by the cry of his choked voice, he had a horn, by whose sound he indicated to him where he was. This boy, therefore, with the aforementioned Constantius, devoutly seeking a remedy for his suffocated voice at the tomb of the holy Confessor, obtained such full health of voice that he can now be heard even by those quite far away. The aforesaid Constantius, having devoutly completed his prayer, took with him dust scraped with reverent devotion from the stone of the sepulchre of the holy Confessor and reverently received from the custodian; which, mixed with water, he gave to drink to a certain woman greatly suffering from the force of fevers, Fever, invoking the aid of the most holy Bishop: and as the woman drank the draught of water, all the affliction of fever was put to flight, and she immediately recovered.

[61] A certain man, a citizen of the city of Mantua, called Oddo of Martinus Canevarius, was constrained by the anguish of so great a pain Anguish of the chest, that frequently his whole body was covered with the water of sweat from the pain. And because he was tormented by the intensity of the excessive pain, he said that he could be healed by this medicine alone: if, with his garments cut open, he were permitted to split open his chest with a knife. When, however, he was already thinking only of the expectation of death, there was brought the cushion on which the holy Bishop had sat while in the flesh: and when it was placed upon his chest, with the name of the holy Bishop invoked, immediately all pain departed.

[62] By the report of Guido and Vitalis, Priests of the bishopric of Lucca, men of honest life, and equally under the testimony of Allucio, a noble man of the city of Lucca, I learned the thing I narrate, who were present at this miracle. A certain man had a hand contracted near his arm, A contracted hand. to whom the brother of the aforesaid Allucio out of piety ministered the necessities of life in his house for a long time. The aforesaid Priests, and likewise the already-named Allucio, trusting greatly in the mercy of the most holy Bishop, led the man with the contracted hand to a certain church in which the aforesaid Priest Guido had deposited certain vestments of the holy Bishop for reverence and honor. When therefore they prayed unanimously and sought with much devotion that God, to confound and overcome the wickedness of Peter the heretic and invader of the Church of Lucca, would declare the admirable glory of the most holy Bishop in this man, the man whose hand was contracted was healed. The aforesaid Priests, therefore, beholding the joy of so illustrious a deed, lest the mighty works of the Lord be concealed, by the precept of obedience commanded the healed man to hasten with the Cross raised into the city of Lucca; so that the crowds of people, beholding this man miraculously made whole by the Lord's mercy, whom shortly before they had known to be crippled, might at least thus repent, because they had expelled the holy Bishop, who preached the way of holiness, from his own see without cause: so that those who had been unwilling to believe his words might at least believe such evident works. But Peter the heretic, who, even laying his hand upon the Lord's anointed, did not fear to presume to expel the holy Bishop from his own see and wickedly to seize it for himself; with hardened heart, having seen signs and wonders, still perseveres in the cruelty of his wickedness. Considering then, that wicked man, that this had happened to his confusion and detriment, he attempted to thrust the healed man into prison, wishing to conceal the sign of this matter by such perfidy. But because the word of God is never bound, fearing the people aroused against him on this account, he was confounded and permitted the one he held imprisoned to depart.

[63] Under the testimony of the same men, I also learned another miracle, wonderfully worthy of wonder. The men of a place named Castellonium, digging a well for a long time and deeply, could find a vein of water by no skill or ingenuity. And when, already wearied by long labor and despairing of finding water, Water is obtained in a well, they wished to abandon the fruitless work, they began to exhort one another, saying among themselves: By the insistence of prayers and the generosity of almsgiving, let us unanimously beseech the Lord that through the merits of the most holy Bishop Anselm he may grant us to find water, for the finding of which we have long labored in vain. When therefore they were distributing the charity of almsgiving to the poor, suddenly a boy arrived announcing that an abundance of water had been found in the well.

[64] In a letter of the Archdeacon of the Church of Treviso directed to the Lady Matilda, and by the report of the messenger who brought it, this matter became known to me and likewise to many others. There was a certain man named Lanzo the Judge, of Milanese birth, a resident of Treviso, whom the disease of figs burning violently and the affliction of gout severely striking his feet, A man with gout and the disease of figs is healed, had deprived both of his gait and sleep was given him not at all. And because, his strength now failing, he could scarcely turn himself over in bed, a rope had been tied above the bed, by whose aid he moved himself to either side. On a certain day, therefore, drawing sighs and shedding tears, he began to pray with these words: O God, through the merits of Saint Anselm, whose admirable glory I hear, show in me also the clemency of your power. Holy Confessor, remember the familiarity which joined us as companions in school: may the words of friendship, most pious Bishop, which I very often exchanged with you, profit me. I will come to your venerable tomb, if you grant the joy of health. And so the whole following night, seized by the drowsiness of sleep, he rested until the next day. When morning came, feeling that he was already recovering, he immediately began to walk confidently, and thus freed by the mercy of the holy Bishop, he now rejoices that he is perfectly well.

[65] Moreover, a certain young man had been deprived of the faculty of hearing and speech from birth: Deaf and mute from birth, who, remaining with us for more than two months, had given us and many others certain knowledge of his infirmity. Four times in his sleep he saw the holy Bishop at the holy tomb, and his ears being opened as he prayed, and the bond of his tongue likewise being loosed. Coming therefore, as he had been forewarned, to the holy body, moaning and beating his breast, he devoutly sought with all his strength the aid of the most holy Bishop. Persisting therefore for some days in prayers, he obtained both the joy of hearing and the full capacity of speaking distinctly: which we who were present saw, and nearly the entire population of our city.

[66] Moreover, there was a certain woman long deprived of light, whom, when gout came upon her from time to time, so great a pain of the head tormented, A blind woman with pain of the head, that in her frenzy she gnawed her own limbs from the anguish. This woman, led to the tomb of the holy Confessor by the encouragement and assistance of Opizo of Gonzaga, was both freed from the anguish of the gout and likewise obtained the joy of light. Of her past infirmity the aforesaid Opizo is a witness, who out of piety long provided her with the sustenance of the body in his house. On the property of the Canons of Blessed Peter, in a place whose name is the Village of Saint Lawrence, there was a certain woman Disfigured by a swelling of the nose, whose nose had horribly swollen, and a burning color within emitted pus. She, devoutly beseeching the holy Bishop, obtained the desired health.

[67] Likewise a certain boy from Sacciula had been deprived of the joy of light, who, returning from Cremona, was hastening to the tomb of the holy Bishop, from which he had departed a few days before. Hastening therefore thirstily to return to the body of the Saint, he very frequently struck his feet against small stones, Two blind persons, being a man who could in no way see what was adverse before him. Grieving therefore and groaning, he humbly implored the holy Confessor to deign to look upon so great a calamity. To him thus praying on the road while he was coming, the remedy of the desired light came. Likewise a certain man from the bishopric of Treviso could not open his eyes for his own use: he also, coming to the venerable tomb, received the joy of longed-for gladness.

[68] There was likewise a girl in a village upon which common usage had bestowed the name Mairana, Mute with some paralysis, not far from the city of Brescia: from her the use of her tongue had been taken, and some of her limbs, except the right hand, could not perform their function. Her wretched mother, beholding her half-dead, devoutly vowed to carry her to the mercy of the most holy Confessor, as another Canaanite woman about to plead for her daughter. According to the promise of her vow, therefore, with her parents carrying her, the girl on the road received both the use of her tongue and the use of all her limbs; whom we saw giving thanks to God near the holy sepulchre, and her father giving testimony of this matter. When many were gathering at the holy body And a contracted person. to obtain a remedy for their infirmity, a certain man also from a place named Carpum, situated beyond the Adige, near the port of Lignano, was coming: who, having a contracted hand and an arm weakened by withering, received the benefit of health on the very journey.

[69] Likewise we learned a thing worthy of memory, narrated about herself by the Lady Matilda, the venerable Countess, The Countess Matilda is freed from fever, to whose testimony her most proven faith and life equally full of religion gives credence. The aforesaid Lady had labored exceedingly with fevers for many days, and a violent pain of the head had wearied her: From pain of the head, when on a certain day she was present as usual at the solemnities of the Mass, striving to stand on her feet while the Gospel was being read, she soon fell, overcome by her infirmity. There was near her, out of reverence, in the chapel of the Bishop, a wooden board placed, on which, after the spirit had departed, the holy body had been washed for the funeral rites: humbly therefore seeking the aid of the holy man, and drawing her forehead across the aforesaid board, she was immediately freed from the pain of the head. From scabs, Not many days later, fractures of no small scabies had savagely filled the hands and nearly the whole body of that same Lady. When, however, she had in her hands the episcopal ring which the Bishop of God had used in the celebrations of Masses, she began to reflect within herself that the merits of so great a Bishop could come to her aid even through the touch of the ring with which he himself had offered so many sacrifices to God; and so placing the same ring upon the fractures, from that day she was healed from

that same infirmity. From dimness of sight: A few days later, the sharpness of vision of the aforesaid most Christian Lady had been so disturbed that she feared to give herself to reading at night as was her custom. During the solemnities of the Mass, however, while she held in her hands one of the prayers which the holy Bishop had written for that same Lady with his own hand, for her use in prayer, she placed the paper on which the aforesaid prayer was written upon her eyes and wiped them; and thenceforth, having received the clarity of light as before, she did not fear to persist in reading by night and day.

[70] A certain man of French birth named Everard, a Priest by Order, Gout is removed: was with us: upon whom gout suddenly coming had rendered both his smaller fingers of one hand rigid, and had seized the palm likewise and the joint where the hand is connected to the arm, so that he could not bend it for the use of any function. And because the strength of his whole arm had also failed, a strap tied around his neck supported his suspended arm. While he was dining with his companions, a certain poor woman came, seeking alms to be given to her in the name of the charity of Saint Anselm; and he, offering her broken bread with his hand, was immediately healed from the aforesaid infirmity.

[71] Let no one of perverse mind presume to contend that what I now intend to narrate is fictitious or fabulous. The witness of this matter is present: he himself, who, with chains of no small size broken, was miraculously freed from the anguish of prison by the aid of the most holy Confessor Anselm; the broken chains also bear witness. In the presence of Bishops, with the people listening, he has preached and preaches the miserable distress of his captivity and the praiseworthy joy of his liberation. As the tempest of violent persecution grew, as is known throughout all lands, against the holy Gregory VII, the worthy Apostolic of the Roman Church, for his preaching of truth and justice, and likewise against the Catholics of the whole Roman Empire; the most Christian Countess, the Lady Matilda, labored with all her strength for the defense of the Church. Ubertus, the son of Arditio, In the war of Matilda against the schismatics, was one of the aforesaid Lady's captains; and so that in this disturbance the same Lady might undoubtingly rely on his fidelity and service, among many other promises of fidelity, he compelled all to whom he had entrusted the custody of his strongholds to swear that they would freely hand over the fortresses of the strongholds they guarded to the power of the above-named Lady and would thenceforth remain in her fidelity, if the same Ubertus should do anything unfaithful against that Lady, When others defected from her, or treacherously plot anything. After Ubertus was captured for the wickedness of his infidelity, his men, against the pledges of their oath, did not fear to do whatever they could injuriously against that same Lady. From their number, a certain man named Lanfrancus de Piola, a soldier by office, Lanfrancus, faithful to her, is captured, because he refused to adhere to their perversities, was captured by their ambushes and treacheries, and from the month of August until the eighth of the Kalends of April was afflicted with harsh imprisonment and bound with chains of no small size. Those same malicious men were also plotting how they might take his life, yet they did not wish it to be known that it had been done by their contrivance.

[72] When, constrained by so many anguishes, he was expecting only death, on the Vigil of the holy Bishop Anselm, seized by sleep, it seemed to him that the most holy Bishop was walking before him, in the garb in which he was still accustomed to walk while in the flesh. Crying out immediately to him, he said: Saint Anselm, when I served you usefully on many occasions, you often promised me that you would well reward my service. Behold, look upon my sufferings: He is comforted by the appearing Saint Anselm, who promises liberation, and because you are able, bring aid: and since you were never deceived, now fulfill your promises. You could never more fittingly repay the gift of my service than now: at least restore me to the Church, which they forbid me to enter. To whom the most pious Bishop of God said: Do not fear, I shall restore you to the Church. Then it seemed to him that he was led by him into a certain church and signed and blessed. To whom he immediately said: Behold, you have been restored to the Church. To whom the man said: I rejoice enough that I have been returned to the Church: but I still implore your help, Lord. The holy Bishop, piously consoling him, said: On the eighth day from today I shall both send you my knife and render the necessary assistance. And so, on the eighth day arriving, With chains cut, there came to him a certain man of the city of Reggio, previously unknown to him, carrying with him a very sharp file: which, having been given, with all watching and none of the guards who were present contradicting, he quickly cut through the shackles and chains. But while he hesitated to go out because of the guards, suddenly the most holy Confessor appeared, and the Lady Matilda appeared to have arrived, He exits unharmed. with a multitude of men following. And when she said to him: What are you waiting for to go out? Do not delay; rise confidently: he arose in the sight of the guards and went out unharmed.

[73] The miracle of the present narration was made known to us in the hearing of many, by the narration and testimony of the same woman to whom it happened. In the summer just passed, a certain woman from Ripalta had gone out into the fields to the labor of harvesting as was customary, leading her little daughter with her; at that time, however, the plague of wolves had so increased A girl snatched by a wolf is restored to her mother. that they did not even fear to snatch children from the sight of their parents. When, as I said, she was in the fields, a wolf suddenly snatched her daughter from her. When the wretched mother saw her daughter being carried away, torn by the beast, she called upon the most holy Anselm with whatever voice she had, to bring aid to her and her wretched daughter. Immediately upon invoking the name of the most pious Bishop, that rabid beast cast the girl from its mouth, no longer daring to touch her, and watching her from afar. But the anxious mother, trusting however in the aid of the most holy Confessor, hastened to help her daughter: and as she was leading her away, the wolf followed both of them. Often crying out for the aid of the holy Bishop, finally the hunger of that beast was restrained, and both women were freed from its bites.

[74] A woman with contracted limbs is healed, What we saw in person, we have by no means thought should be passed over in silence. A certain woman, contracted with her legs twisted beneath her, carried her whole body on her hands and buttocks. She, long seeking the aid of the holy Bishop, was raised up at the venerable tomb: whom we knew to have been previously sustained by alms, and many of our citizens as well. The son of the Archpriest of Colurnio, named Ubald, is still present with us, who has related, and when often asked relates again, the narration of this matter. While he was in our city engaged in the study of the art of Grammar, showing no devotion, no reverence to the holy Confessor, he detracted from his holy virtues. But on a certain day, seized by a violent pain of the head, And another is punished with pain of the head for his unbelief. and believing that he was near death from the pain, he invoked the aid of the holy Bishop, promising that once freed he would thenceforth be a believer and would preach the glory of his virtues, as he had previously spoken perversely about him. Wearied therefore the whole night, around the hours of the morning time, seized by a gentle sleep, in his dreams he saw the holy servant of God place his hand upon his head and bless him with the sign of the holy Cross. When the vision had passed and he awoke, he found himself freed from the torment of that pain.

[75] On the day of the Ascension just past, a certain woman from Godi, named Richilda, well known to many, for an entire year and more, as much as is from the Epiphany...

The rest is lacking in the manuscript codex.