ON ST. AFRICANUS THE BISHOP,
NEAR VABRES IN GALLIA NARBONENSIS,
4TH OR 6TH CENTURY
CommentaryAfricanus the Bishop, near Vabres in Gallia Narbonensis (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
CHAPTER I.
The town and Collegiate Church of St. Africanus.
Raimund Count and Marquis of Toulouse the first of this name, in the year 23 of Charles the Bald, of Christ 862, delivered the villa, whose name is Vabres, in the district of Rouergue, in the Vicariate which is called Curiense, to Adalgisus the Abbot and his monks, Vabres a villa, in which in the year 862 an Abbey, expelled by the incursion of the barbarians from the monastery, by name Palmatus, which they had had in the district of Périgord, for constructing a monastery in honor of the Holy Saviour, and St. Mary the Mother of God, or St. Dionysius the most excellent Martyr, according to the Rule of St. Benedict. The diploma of this foundation, with the Privilege of King Charles, receiving that place itself under his protection in the year 24 of his reign, may be seen in William Catel book 1 chapter 10 of the History of the Counts of Toulouse. The aforesaid Abbey flourished thereafter to such a degree, that Paschal II the Pope, in the year 1116 deigned to fortify it with Pontifical privileges, in the year 1317 the Bishopric erected, and perhaps also exempted it from the power of the Bishop of Rodez. Certainly John XXII, when he had judged that the diocese of Rodez should be divided into two Bishoprics, in the year 1317, constituted there an Episcopal See; Peter, who had been Abbot, being ordained Bishop.
[2] From this time Vabres began to be the head of the towns lying around, since that villa before was subject to the Vicariate of Curiense. it was once subject to the Vicariate of Curiense But that this Vicariate was constituted in the town which is now called St. Africanus, many monuments of the ancient judgments prove, there still preserved: and the ruins of an ample and magnificent house, which having the name of Curia once gave its name to that very Vicariate. The honor therefore remained to the place, so that the new Bishopric of Vabres always had its Official there, and there is had a sentence passed in favor of that town itself, by which it is declared that the Bishop of Vabres is bound there to confer sacred Orders, to make Chrism, to impart Confirmation, to celebrate Synods.
[3] The beginnings and origin of the place are uncertain, that the antiquity is great, is not without reason presumed. in which the body of St. Africanus. Concerning the present name it can be held, that it was not yet in use when the monastery of Vabres was founded; although even then the cult of St. Africanus was known, his body being found in the temple of St. Saturninus, at that time either the only or the chief one, which the Saint himself was believed to have consecrated. For there is found an old instrument with this clause at the end: It was done on the day of Thursday, in the month of August, in the city of Albi, before the 9th century also having a church at Albi. in the church of St. Africanus, in the presence of Raymund the Count, in the first year reigning of King Louis, after the death of Charles the Emperor, that is, in the year of Christ 878: whereby we are persuaded, that even then for one or another century St. Africanus was famous in those parts.
[4] Yet that celebrity grew, after a new church was consecrated to him under his proper name in the very Vicariate of Curiense, which we believe to have been before the year 1214; when, as is read in a certain very ancient instrument, a treaty and accord is made, and a new one in the place itself before the year 1261, with a certain goldsmith of that city, concerning a certain repair of the chest of the eminent Doctor and most holy Confessor St. Africanus; and there are promised for the price twenty-three shields to be paid in Saluts, Tastarts, and Besonds. There was at least a new church founded before the year 1261; for of this, as diverse from the former of St. Saturninus, mention is made in a certain charter written in that year, whose author thus speaks: I acknowledge that I have certain houses from the Bailiff of the church of St. Africanus, which are confronted, that is contiguous, with the church of St. Saturninus. The notice of these and all the other instruments to be cited below, studiously but in no order collected by D. Dutaur, the Provost of that place in the year 1626, was communicated to us by our Peter Francis Chifletius, with which if we had received the entire copies of them, far more certainly we could define, whether the town itself even then had the name of St. Africanus. To the same would conduce the instruments, in which is named the Gate of St. Rochus in St. Africanus, or the House of the sick of St. Lazarus of the villa of St. Africanus, or the Hospital named of St. James in the said villa, if these were made before the years aforenoted, of which nothing is indicated in the synopsis sent.
[5] Those things meanwhile suffice to prove the celebrity of the place: which in the XIV century was vehemently augmented, when Raymund the second Bishop of Vabres, constituted that the Presbyters, sprung from the said villa and there residing, even to the number of forty, should become and be called one body, which happened about the year 1340. where about the year 1340 a Choir of 40 Presbyters. But when John Petri sprung from there and Vicar there and head of the said Presbyters, was taken to be the new Bishop of Vabres in the year 1421, his first care was to renew from the foundations the church of St. Africanus prone to fall; into which for the greater part finished, he translated the body of the Saint himself, In the same restored about the year 1427, and placed it behind the high altar about the year 1427. For there is had an instrument of the year 1430, in which is treated of the repair of the sacristy of the principal church of St. Africanus, in which are held the jewels, precious paraments, the chest and relics of St. Africanus: and there are promised to the master of the work or stonemason of the place of Brusca forty muttons of gold. And not long after Pope Eugene IV, when he was at Florence, in the year 10 of his Pontificate, of Christ 1440 on the 12th of the Kalends of February, says among other things, that the said villa than all other places existing in the diocese of Vabres is more notable and richer, the body of the Saint placed behind the high altar, and in it both the Royal Curia and also the office of the Episcopal Curia of Vabres are held; and also otherwise in the church itself of St. Africanus (which among the rest of the parochial churches of those parts is reputed famous and notable) the body of the said St. Africanus (for whose merits the Most High has wrought several and manifest miracles in those parts and daily works) is honorably preserved; and therefore and for several other reasonable causes the aforesaid Choir and University is providently considered.
[6] The same then being asked for founding there a college of Canons, in the year 1444, on the 4th of the Kalends of April, in the year 14 of his Pontificate, and in the year 1444 a College of Canons instituted, mandated the Abbot of St. Tiberius of the diocese of Agde, that the church of St. Africanus, which was parochial, by his authority he should raise into a collegiate, and adorn with collegiate insignia; and in it, the forty number of Presbyters being suppressed by that Abbot, he should constitute one Provostship, and one Sacristy in place of a perpetual Vicariate, and twenty-two Presbyteral places which we call Canonicates. To satisfy this commission the aforesaid Abbot, whose name was John, first asked a legitimate process to be formed and exhibited to him, concerning the cult of St. Africanus in the aforesaid church: on account of the frequent miracles of St. Africanus. which knowing to be in all things conformable to truth, he himself, who sprung from the said place could best know, as a witness for a long time eye-witness, professed himself to be moved especially, by the presence and miracles of St. Africanus, to pursue the said foundation: which also he did. But to the Bishop of Vabres aforenamed (who held that See according to the Sanmarthani until the year 1452) he left in mandate, that he should write Statutes for the new College of Canons, as he prefaces himself to do to the praise and honor of the most blessed Africanus the Bishop and Confessor, in whose name the aforesaid church is titled, and in which his body rests. But among other things it was enjoined, that the Canons about to elect a Provost should swear under this form; We swear and promise to Almighty God, and to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and to Blessed Africanus, under whose honor the present church is dedicated, in which his body rests, to elect and name him &c.
[7] The College of Canons being instituted there remained the front part of the church to be built, which began to be built in the year 1448, for this the revenues of the confraternity of the lay Nobles of St. Africanus being sold, For the same church to be completed about the year 1448 to the noble man Berengarius Blanchi, Co-lord of Vaulcausinus, by the consuls patrons and governors of the said revenues, consent being had of D. John Bishop of Vabres, for the price of two hundred muttons of gold, and the said price received Pontius Gasparus stonemason and master of the new building of the work. But with so great fervor the Bishop urged the matter, that he scarcely endured to be absent from the place; and continually dwelling in his Episcopal house there, commonly Baschalaria, by his people of Vabres, not bearing it equanimously enough, he was called Bishop of St. Africanus. Moreover that the work might be completed in the year 1455, in the first year of the Pontificate of Pope Calixtus III, Charles King of the Franks reigning, and Bernard Bishop of Vabres presiding; and in 1455, the price of certain revenues sold is applied. the same noble Berengarius Blanchi sold all the aforesaid revenues to the discreet man Master Bernard de Bagiis, notary of St. Africanus, for the price of one hundred and three shields of gold of the coinage of France; which price was converted into the building of the new work of the aforesaid church. Finally in the year 1489 instruments drawn up testify
that it was treated of constructing Stalls or seats in the choir of St. Africanus, and Branchades or biers serving for carrying the chest in processions. Here are worthy of note the kinds of money usual in Gallia Narbonensis. For in num. 4 are read Saluts named from the territory of Saluces; Tastarts, from Tasta a city of Vasconia commonly Dax, and Besons, that is Twins, so called from the twin faces impressed on the same; as with us are called Besoirs (from beser, to kiss) gold coins on which the faces of the Princes Albert and Isabella, as if about to kiss, are represented. But this in num. 7 are named Mutons, that is Sheep, as from a Sheep (Pecus) impressed in Latin is believed to be called Money (Pecunia). For signing which and all others serves the Cugnus, in French Coign, but here it is taken for Money.
CHAPTER II.
Of the body and relics of St. Africanus.
[8] Long before the aforesaid church was raised into a Collegiate, there was celebrated in it the feast of the finding and revelation of St. Africanus on the day January XV, At the body of the Saint commonly St. Afrigne, found before the 9th century, of the Translation on February VIII, of the Birthday on the first day of May. Of this is to be treated below in chapter 4, where more ex professo is to be treated of the Cult of the Saint himself. The Translation I should believe to be called rather the first, by which from the old temple of St. Saturninus, in which the body had lain buried, it was carried to the new of St. Africanus, long before the XIII century, than the later, made under Bishop John into the church repaired from the foundations. The Finding we judge happened before the IX century: and that the Bishop of Albi was present at it you will suspect not from a vain conjecture, since that church preserved some notable part of that sacred treasure, together with a fragment of the old tomb or sepulchre from that time; and had a parochial church erected to the Saint himself. There was perhaps also present the Bishop of Nîmes (for in his diocese also is a villa and church of St. Africanus) and from the now Bishopric of Castres, then a place famous enough, certain ones, through whom in their territory a similar religion toward the Saint was excited: but everywhere by the common folk he is called St. Afrigne; so that sometimes it has come into my mind to suspect, whether by his first name he was not called Afranius, rather than Africanus. But this must be retained, since this alone is found in the monuments of which hitherto we have treated.
[9] many miracles done. So religious an observance of cult frequent miracles merited: of which and of the rest of the arguments of the ancient cult it will help to read the process formed for this, that the dignity of a Canonical College might be obtained for a place so worthy. The tenor of that process is this. Lord Michael Gariberni, procurator and syndic of the University or Choir of the Presbyters of St. Africanus, proposed and set forth to the Reverend in Christ Father John Abbot of the monastery of St. Tiberius, several sworn witnesses assert, of the Order of St. Benedict of the diocese of Agde, that in the church of St. Africanus, which was always held more notable in the whole diocese, and is situated in the middle of it, rests the body, and are the relics of that most glorious Patron of ours, who … zealous for the cult and increase of the Catholic faith and the salvation of souls went to the Rodez people, everywhere preaching and extirpating heresies: and at the end, to fulfill the course of the undertaken ministry, came to this our city, the Holy Spirit admonishing: where he lived long innocently, in sanctity and asperity of life persevering; and in the said church his body was entombed: at whose transit and burial Almighty God wrought very many miracles, and thereafter wrought, daily helping those recurring to him. But the aforesaid witness asserts, that on account of his merits, likewise by his merits the villa remains immune from lightning and hail, as long as he lived and after his death, never did lightning nor hail fall in the whole parish. All which Raymund Bishop of Vabres considering, and that many good things were given; constituted that the Presbyters, sprung from the said villa and there residing, even to the number of forty, should become and be called one body.
[10] That Raymund sat, after Peter the first Bishop of Vabres, from the year 1329 until 1347, according to Claudius Robertus and the Sanmarthani: the sepulchre elevated and the head enclosed in silver preserved, so that by one century only the foundation of the Choir preceded the foundation of the Chapter. Let us hear moreover the other witnesses. Guillermus de Alcapis, Consul of the aforesaid city, testifies, that the body of St. Africanus behind the high altar, in an eminent place, rests; and his head is in silver, and at the prayers of the aforesaid Africanus many miracles are done. Petrus Arnaldi, the German brother of the aforesaid Abbot and Consul of the aforesaid villa, interrogated for the verification of the things contained in the Apostolic letters of the aforesaid commission and the instructional articles inserted before (whence understand that here is not had the whole process, but only certain chief attestations) sets forth, testifies and asserts the same, with D. Petrus Pomarede, Consul; and Guillermus Linsaci, Notary, inhabitant and Consul of the said villa.
[11] D. Guillermus de Serres, Prior of Targiis, Chancellor of the Lord of Vabres and of the Curia of the Officialate, residing in St. Africanus, said, that he well knows and saw several times that many miracles at the prayers of St. Africanus were done, vows and many offerings offered, and are done daily: and he saw very often those who from perils and infirmities were freed by the prayers of St. Africanus, adults and little ones, males and females coming, bearing shrouds, wax candles and other gifts and paying the vows which they had made: and while they came, there were rendered through the Vicar Petrus de Magringo and other Ecclesiastics, the miracles published by the bells rung. with solemn ringing of the bells, praises to God and to Blessed Africanus for the miracles and grace obtained. He says also that it is true, and this the public and most ancient fame reports, that never fell lightning and hail in the villa and the whole parish of St. Africanus; and this by his prayers. And that the said church is newly constructed, although on the foot part it is not completed. There is in it behind the high altar the body of St. Africanus, in a place high enough: and he saw it, when the church was rebuilt, translated by D. John Bishop of Vabres; the translation celebrated, and the high altar solemnly consecrated. And the head of the said Saint is in silver, which to pilgrims and the devout, and to all on solemn days, is shown. D. Anthosius Blanchi the Presbyter, perpetual Vicar of Bornaco, Bachelor in laws, Procurator general of the Lord Bishop of Vabres, residing in St. Africanus, and in the curias of the Officialate of Vabres and the temporal of the King and of the Co-lords of the said villa an Advocate, testifies and asserts the same.
[12] D. Guichardus de Rupeforti, perpetual Vicar of St. Africanus, Lieutenant of the Lord Official of Vabres, said the Body of St. Africanus and the relics to be in the said church and many miracles to be done, and for them praises and thanks to be rendered solemnly, the altar consecrated: by the Clergy and people with ringing of the bells and prayers. And that very church is newly built, and he himself saw the body of St. Africanus translated from the old church to the new, behind the high altar in an open place, by D. John Bishop of Vabres, and afterward the said high altar by the same D. Bishop of Vabres solemnly consecrated: and the head of the said St. Africanus is in silver, and is shown to pilgrims and the devout and others generally on solemn feasts. He said also that he himself, as Vicar of the said Church, received shrouds, wax images, candles and other vows, which those, who were healed of infirmities and freed from perils by the prayers of the said glorious Confessor, paid and brought: and he knows for true that never lightning fell in his parish and that of St. Africanus. The noble John Blanchi, Lord of the castle of Mont-cauro and Burgher of the said Villa, said that he saw the rebuilding of the church of St. Africanus, which was consumed by age, and saw the body of St. Africanus translated by D. John Bishop of Vabres and the altar solemnly consecrated. He saw many miracles done and many paying vows and bringing gifts, freed from their perils and infirmities. Master John Arnaldus the Notary, councillor and inhabitant of the said Villa, asserts altogether the same.
[13] Thus far the abbreviator of that process: who adds that many other witnesses asserted, that St. Africanus very old there closed his last day: for all which things that very church was made Collegiate. and finally that the Commissary himself testifies that he was sprung from the city of St. Africanus, and that as an eye-witness for a long time he knows all the above said, and other things clearer than light: and so that he was ready to proceed to the execution of his commission: and that especially the miracles, the body, and the relics of St. Africanus moved him to the foundation of our church before secular into a collegiate.
[14] Then in the year 1471 certain sacrilegious men furtively despoiled the whole church of the villa of St. Africanus of all its precious jewels, the despoilers of this one miraculously punished in the year 1471 to an inestimable damage: which sacrilegious men, God permitting and Blessed Africanus, were captured, imprisoned, judged to death, and suspended on the gibbets of the said villa of St. Africanus: and this, says the Collector of the notices communicated to us, I read in a certain old book in the same words. Then the same Collector with his words subjoins, I understood from the veterans that the matter was joined with a miracle; Other things concerning the silver arm and chest, for that those wretched men the sacrilege being perpetrated, could neither flee nor hide themselves, but stuck in the place as if immovable. But among the aforesaid jewels there was without doubt a silver arm, of the weight of four marks, which in the year 1461 to the collegiate church of St. Africanus gave by testament Peter Fabri the Sacristan, for placing the bones of the sacred body of St. Africanus. For the same then to be more becomingly placed, and in processions more magnificently carried around, there was fabricated afterward a large silver chest, and very beautiful, and adorned with gems and precious stones. For that it was such, says the aforepraised Collector, I learned from many having personal knowledge.
[15] There lived therefore when these things were collected in the year 1626 still many of those who had seen the said chest, before all the sacred things to those laying waste through Gaul the Huguenots fell as prey, and testimonies concerning the sepulchre. in their first ravaging through Languedoc about the year 1562. There lived also still many, but very old, who asserted to the Collector, that when they were younger boys, they had often passed under the great stone sepulchre, which behind the altar stood raised upon four little columns, within which was said and firmly believed to be the body of St. Africanus. Therefore in the aforesaid silver chest, as I have already intimated, can be said to have been some bone; but that this might be beheld, in the middle of the front of that chest was open a little window, covered with transparent
glass, as to the same Collector affirmed that he remembered the senior Cantor of that church.
[16] Moreover in that desolation of the church, which by the name of the Trojan burning the Collector calls, not only were the silver reliquaries plundered, but the stone sepulchre itself also was dissipated: The sacred bones dissipated by the Huguenots, but the sacred body was cast into a well which is called of St. John, near the chapel or oratory of St. Africanus, outside and near the greater gate of the church: as from hearing and venerable hoary age I have, says the Collector. To this damage in some way wishing to provide divine providence, had wisely ordained, that in the year 1512 on the day July XIX, in part in the year 1512 given to the people of Toulouse, D. John Michaelis, Doctor of Laws and Provost of the church of Mirepoix, by the consent and free will of the Consuls of the city of St. Africanus and the other honorable citizens, in a public instrument drawn up thereupon nominatim expressed, gave a part of the arm of St. Africanus with a silver cup to the Convent of the Religious of the Most Holy Trinity at Toulouse founded by himself, on this condition, that the feast of the Saint himself, recurring yearly on the 1st day of May, be there celebrated as solemnly as possible.
[17] And so the Canons of St. Africanus, seeing themselves deprived of that treasure, of which a part to others so liberally they had communicated, supplicated the aforesaid Religious through the heir of the said founder Master Abraham Guillermus de Pendaria, Canon and Syndic of that Chapter, and likewise through the subscription of all and singular, also strengthened with the subscriptions of the other faithful Catholics of St. Africanus; and at length obtained, that the Prior and Religious of the aforesaid Convent should permit Master Abraham himself, brought to the same sacred relics with hymns and canticles, to take thence almost a third part, to the people of St. Africanus a particle is restored in the year 1605, which on August II of the year 1605 he brought to the town of St. Africanus, and before witnesses called for it delivered reverently into the hands of D. Master William du Bent, Doctor of sacred Theology and Provost of the collegiate church of St. Africanus, within a silk wrapping and a beautiful little chest procured for it at Toulouse. This indeed the Provost himself a little after delivered to the Sacristan of St. Africanus Master John Galtier, that he should preserve the same with the relics of the most holy Patron received from Albi: as all these things are established from an instrument drawn up in French on the day August XIII under the name of Henry by the grace of God King of France and Navarre.
[18] as a little before another had been restored by the people of Albi: But as regards the relics in the same year brought from Albi, of these also there is extant an instrument written in French on April XXVI of the year 1605, under the name of Peter de Mouret, Presbyter and Provost of the Collegiate church of St. Salvius of Albi, Apostolic Protonotary, Councillor and ordinary Almoner of the Queen, making faith, that by mandate of the Most Reverend D. Alphonsus del Bene, Bishop of Albi, he visited the Relics of the Parochial church of St. Africanus, depending on his Provostship, in the presence of the Reverend Father Dominicus Brunus Preacher of the Order of St. Dominic, Master John Crayere Prior of the said Church, John Valeux for that year Consul of the same Parish, James Gorsse Syndic, and Anthony Maignon the Churchwarden, and other honorable persons: and that there being found among them two bones of the body of St. Africanus, with a particle of the monument, from each bone and the stone itself he took little portions, and delivered them to the aforesaid Father Brunus to be offered to the Most Reverend D. Francis de la Valete Cornusson, Archbishop of Vabres, that he himself should place them in the church of St. Africanus of the Rodez people, to the increase of the devotion of the pious faithful in that diocese. But that these received by him, and delivered to Master John Galtier, Licentiate and Sacristan of St. Africanus, which are at the same time enclosed in silver. to be preserved with all reverence, the same Most Reverend of Vabres testified by a similar French instrument on the day May XXV. But I, says the Collector and Provost of all these things, received all those and several other Relics, and placed them within the silver reliquary.
CHAPTER III.
Of the age and Episcopate of St. Africanus.
[19] The proper Office of St. Africanus, which is had in old parchment Manuscript and printed at Lyons in the year 1542, composed only in the XIV century, The history of his life composed very late with the lessons as will be more fully said below, contains of the Life of the Saint nine Lessons, in which Africanus is said, sprung of the high blood of the Dukes of Burgundy, and delivered to St. Patiens Bishop of Lyons to be reared, to have obtained the Primacy of the same church; and then having set out to Rome, with a few Prelates from Gaul, constant in the orthodox faith, in the Capitol before the Senate, for the great part heretical, to have disputed against the Arians, sacrilegiously asserting the Son of God to have assumed a phantastic body, the Catholic Pontiffs grieving at their blasphemous boldness, among whom of good Memory Eusebius of Caesarea, and also of holy recollection Hilary then Bishop of the city of Poitiers is said to have been present. But then, when by all means the constancy of Africanus being tried it was not bent, injuriously expelled from the council and bidden to be enclosed in prison, the next day again presented to the Senate; and rebuked and his garments rent publicly beaten, and condemned to exile, to have joined himself to St. Hilary returning to his own; and with him for some time having tarried, by his counsel to have undertaken the people of Rodez, enduring in their savagery, to be cultivated with the word of God: and at length a suitable place being descried, near the channel of a river, which by the inhabitants of that region is called Sorgia, to have consecrated a church in honor of St. Saturninus; and there to have shone with so great miracles, that the unbelieving nation of that region flew to the faith, and under the standards of Christ devoutly served God; and the labors and afflictions of the present life being at length finished, to have rested on the very Kalends of May.
[20] with great confusion of times and things. This is the sum and almost the very words of the said Lessons: in which the successor and disciple of St. Patiens, flourishing in the year 470, is composed with the age of St. Hilary, dead a hundred years before; and meanwhile he is said to be born of the Dukes of Burgundy, who only after several centuries began to be named; then to the Arian heresy is feigned a dogma, most remote from its tenets, since this in asserting the true humanity of Christ would exceed rather than fall short: and what concerning the heretical Emperor Constantius could in some way have been said, are ascribed to the Roman Senate; of which in the whole history of the Arians no mention anywhere is found in the ancient writers. Then Hilary is feigned to have been present at Rome, and for the holy Eusebius of Vercelli (who yet not even himself was present at Rome) is substituted Eusebius of Caesarea, dead almost fifteen years before St. Hilary was made Bishop. So that in all these things there is nothing, in which we can safely set foot, According to this, believed for one of two parts, except only the times of SS. Hilary and Patiens, taken under disjunction; so that if you make St. Africanus contemporary with St. Hilary, he had nothing common with Patiens Bishop of Lyons and with the Burgundians; if you believe him born of these, and educated under him; let Hilary long since dead be understood to have received the Saint at Poitiers, as Athanasius a fugitive from Alexandria would be said to have been received at Rome by St. Peter.
[21] Admitting the first, not to Rome to Liberius, not to Milan to Constantius, either he had lived with St. Hilary in the 4th century would I lead the Saint from Gaul; but at most to Béziers with Hilary, there by the faction of Saturninus Bishop of Arles deposed and cast into exile in the year 356; or rather I should believe him to have been one of some unnamed ones, whom three years before it is agreed were at Arles ill mulcted, and together with Paulinus of Trier cast out of their Sees. For to Rome to Liberius none are known to have come from Gaul: but those who at Milan suffered violence, few constant to the end, are held known nominatim. But although no one is known to have been deposed at Béziers, except Hilary, from his See; it is likely nevertheless that some were in that number, who interceding for the right faith and the innocence of Hilary, incurred the hatred of the Arians, even to exile afterward to be brought upon them through calumnies, among whom was St. Africanus; and to Hilary, restored to his See in the year 360, he had turned aside in the year 362, when Julian the Emperor had granted return to the exiled Bishops: but the cause of not immediately repeating his own See was the same to him, which to St. Dionysius of Milan, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, and some others, in whose place ordained Pseudo-Bishops Arian still lived.
[22] These things thus set down by conjecture, it would remain that we divine, of what place Africanus was Bishop. Bishop of Lugdunum Convenarum. That he was of Lyons all the monuments which are had of him assert, whether written on parchment, or woven in tapestries, or otherwise expressed. But, as I said, all later than that they can make us certain faith. Moreover there is a triple Lugdunum in Gaul. Of that which is called Clavatum, commonly Laon, there can be no question in this place; since it is agreed enough that the first author of the Bishopric there to be constituted was St. Remigius, long indeed after these times: it then is farther distant from Occitania, than that here it be allowed to mention it. But in neighboring Aquitaine we have Lugdunum Convenarum, under the Pyrenean mountains, commonly Comminges, a city anciently Episcopal, although the names of the Bishops are almost hidden, a few excepted, which are found subscribed to Councils. But to Africanus returning to Poitiers it was easy to turn aside to instructing the Rodez people, not far placed from the road and confining on the diocese of Poitiers: which would not so aptly be conceived of Lugdunum of the Segusiani, commonly Lyon, the chief and even today most famous city of this name at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône; because to this Africanus could have come more quickly from Poitiers, than to reach the city of the Rodez people. Moreover the diptychs of the Prelates of Lyons between Vasius present at the Council of Arles in the year 314, and Justus subscribed to the Council of Valence in the year 374, have interposed Maximus, Tetradius, and Verissimus: who easily could have filled, with the two aforenamed, the whole intermediate space of time, of about sixty years.
[23] And these things from the supposition that we wish to believe Africanus to have been contemporary with St. Hilary of Poitiers. But if Hilary being dismissed, as the occasion of the city of Poitiers to which Africanus fled, or of him on account of whom he was driven out the Arian heresy, wrongly drawn into this history, we should prefer to look to the times of the Burgundians and of St. Patiens; whose last memory is found in the year 475; the Burgundians were indeed then still almost Arians, not so however universally all, but that some chief ones also professed the Catholic union; especially the two Chilperici, the brother and son of King Gundericus; of whom that one having the seat of his Kingdom at Geneva constituted for SS. Romanus and Lupicinus the monks sustenance from the Royal treasury; born of the Burgundians, the younger had one of his daughters consecrated to God, the other the most Christian Crothildis, afterward the wife of Chlodoveus the Frank. But King Gundebaudus, although to the end he remained in the Arian heresy, yet his son St. Sigismund he did not prohibit from it, and he himself made no light hope of himself to St. Avitus Bishop of Vienne: so that from this part
nothing hinders, but that born of some Christian Prince among the Burgundians Africanus, could have been delivered to St. Patiens to be imbued with ecclesiastical disciplines, except only the name savoring nothing of Burgundy. But nor from Chronology can anything be objected, but that he succeeded Patiens himself, for neither until the year 490 did Patiens live (as Baronius thought) nor of St. Rusticus first named in history in the year 494, so far are the beginnings to be anticipated, but that between both could have sat, not only St. Lupicinus, but also some other, namely this Africanus, if any memory of him were extant among the people of Lyons. But it does not appear why this one alone should have come into oblivion; much less what cause could have made him an exile from the Episcopate, under that King Gundebaudus whom I said, to whom before others he could have been gracious on account of the communion of Burgundian blood. Therefore others elsewhere are to be sought, the Arians, by whom Africanus was expelled from his See, or at least suffered many things for the cause of faith.
[24] But these in Occitania, at least under the Pyrenean mountains, will be found, namely the Visigoths, indeed at the very time in which St. Patiens lived almost all Occitania driven out by the King of the Franks Chlodoveus, and driven out by the Arian Visigoths infesting Comminges in the 6th century. yet in the extreme borders without doubt clinging; under whom the Christians dwelling could more freely from the Burgundian Empire friendly to the Visigoths, than from the Provinces of the Franks ask and receive Bishops: and so to Lugdunum Convenarum fell Africanus, perhaps between Suavis and Praesidius, of whom the first in the year 506 was present at the Council of Agde, the other at the second of Orléans about the year 535; or between Amelinus and Rufinus, of whom this one in the year 585 subscribed to the Council of Mâcon, that one about the year 549 to the fifth of Orléans. But when the whole kingdom of the Burgundians also came to the Franks, since there were continual contests between these and the Visigoths, it was necessary to suffer many things, both the city of Comminges and its Bishop. But this one nothing forbids to lead to Poitiers to St. Hilary, long indeed dead, but living by the celebrity of his name; as concerning St. Patrick we explained, that he is said to have set out to Tours to St. Martin, and with him, that is at his church for some time to have tarried: then in the field of the Rodez people to have given some labor to extirpating the relics of idolatry and Arianism, while he hopes and awaits more peaceful times for his church of Lyons among the Convenae; and there to have died, and to have merited a cult fitting to his sanctity from posterity.
CHAPTER IV.
Of the cult and miracles of St. Africanus.
[25] That on the Kalends of May he read the memory of SS. Andeolus and Africanus the Martyrs, inscribed in a certain Calendar, the aforecited Collector indeed asserts, and that conformable to this title seems the image of the title prefixed to the booklet, There is had in it an old proper Office under the title of Confessor, printed about the year 1542 at Lyons and containing the proper office of St. Africanus; where this Saint is represented kneeling, to receive the sword of the lictor standing behind and about to cut off his head. But it obstructs that in the whole Office no indication of Martyrdom is found, but rather everywhere is used the name of Confessor: so that it can be believed that image used by chance, since another more apt was not had with the typographer. But the Saint is venerated as a Confessor, in the very town of St. Africanus, as was said, thrice in the year, and for each feast proper Masses are had; but at Albi and Toulouse twice, in May and February. In the diocese of Nîmes also and Castres; perhaps also of Rodez and Lyons a similar cult flourished: for in those he has churches: and a cult in various places. but in a Rodez MS. old Legendary, the same legend is found which in the Office; and at Lyons some chapel of his or altar is thought to be called from him under the name of San-Fric: but Ferrarius in the General Catalogue on May 1 cites the tables of the same church of Lyons, taken perhaps from Campegius or Demochares, in which he is found inscribed, for that he is said to have been Bishop of Lyons: and with this title and a long eulogy he is referred also on this very day in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay, and in the little Index of the Saints of Lyons of Theophilus Raynaudus.
[26] The same office, which for the people of St. Africanus we said was proper printed, is also at Albi in use: and besides many hymns composed rhythmically, contains Responsories likewise and Antiphons conceived in rhythm, together with brief Acts of the life distinguished into nine Lessons, of which the last thus begins. it seems composed after the year 1400 from tradition alone: Of this holy man a few things, which I briefly touch, I learned from a certain very venerable man and I rejoice to remember: for the book on the life and virtues of the holy man fully published, with the whole church of Lyons and several monuments, was by the gentiles given to fire. Whoever was the author, he seems not to have lived before the XIV century and the institution of the Choir of St. Africanus: but what he says of the book burned with the church of Lyons, I should think said rather by conjecture, than that this writer had any certain indication of it ever seen. And so we cannot even prudently grieve that the book was not preserved, which probably never was any.
[27] Better founded is the grief of the Collector of the notices, concerning the loss of another book thus writing, With most diligent custody, in the common chest of the Chapter, was preserved a book, an older book of miracles perished. in which very many miracles of St. Africanus were described. There perished, alas! that sacred book, with the rest of the not few monuments of our church. And this book seems the same, of which elsewhere the same Collector, after he had treated of a certain instrument of the year 1214, thus subjoins: There (namely in the said instrument) mention is made of a certain great book, in which were described very many miracles of St. Africanus; probably those which either after the first finding of the sacred body, or after its translation from the temple of St. Saturninus into the proper church were done, long before the institution of the Chapter: to which without doubt greater faith should have been given than the aforementioned lessons merit.
[28] Why not nevertheless from the same take up those few miracles, which done while he lived, are said to have conciliated for him among the Rodez people the fame of sanctity? In the life he is said to have been illustrated with a fiery circle, for such things are wont to be handed down to a more faithful memory, than the history of the life. Thus therefore they have: At a certain time, while in the aforesaid church of St. Saturninus, which he had built or at least consecrated, Africanus celebrated the sacred solemnities of Masses, while he received the Eucharist of the Lord's body, a fiery circle over his head, in the manner of a crown, shone forth, which not all, but those who were worthy, saw.
[29] But on a certain day, when from his very poor resources he succored the poor; the contracted hands of one mocking him he healed, a certain man given to jesting and petulance, the other hand, feigning it curved, that from St. Africanus he might as it were receive I know not what alms, mingled with the poor he stretched out: and when he withdrew and went off mocking, struck by divine vengeance he grew stiff in both hands. But that man returning to the servant of God, indicated what had happened to him. But the most holy man turned to the Lord said: I give thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ eternal God, who beholdest the humility of thy servants, and to those hoping in thee always givest aid. Look now also Lord from the seat of thy majesty, upon this man, deceived by the spirit of error, that glad of thy benefit, he may rejoice to have escaped the snares of the devil. But the prayer being finished, and the sign of the Cross, he returned humbled and sound to his own, who had come proud.
[30] In the time of winter again, an inundation of waters being made, a shipwrecked man he freed from death. when the aforesaid river (Sorgia) swelled high, a certain man ascending a ship wished to cross over: and when he had not yet overcome the gulf, already a heap of waters coming with a whirlwind overturned the ship: and when for the space of one hour the man had remained under the waters, with his heart he began to invoke St. Africanus, whose merit he felt in the midst of the waters. Reaching at length the bank he fled to the church, and rendered thanks to the man of God. What more? Such and so great miracles through him shone forth, that the unbelieving nation of that region flew to the faith, and under the standards of Christ devoutly served God.
[31] That these same miracles are seen woven in very ancient tapestries, our Collector testifies, and that there had once fallen to him a bronze platter of old work, in which the same likewise were seen expressed. The Responsories also conceived in rhythm, and expressing whatever is read in prose so, that you may doubt whether from them the lessons, or they from the lessons were taken, the same miracles thus propose.
Resp. VI On a certain day the pious man, while he sang the Mass And received the most sacred Body of Christ, Over his head a fiery circle appears *, With whose ray the whole church shines. Alleluia.
Vers. In the likeness of a notable crown Over the head of Africanus a fire was seen *. With whose. Glory be to the Father. * with whose &c.
Resp. VII A certain petulant man St. Africanus Tried to deceive, by curving his hand, Feigning himself needy and not well sound: Yet the servant of God he mocked not in vain *. He sees both his hands curved While he mocks the Saint of God. Alleluia.
Vers. Hear a new thing, hear a wonder, While he implores the holy man He is restored to health by the prayers of the blessed man *. Both his hands &c.
Resp. VIII To his tomb come well many men, Where are freed the demented and foolish; with mention of the frequent miracles at the tomb, And the sick while they visit the tomb of the buried one, Return whole, supported by soundness. * To thy servants therefore, O benign Ruler, Be a propitious father and a pious protector. Alleluia.
Vers. Let us venerate the true God, Just holy and sincere, Who gave us a Shepherd, By whom the nation believes in one God *. To thy servants therefore. Glory be to the Father. * To thy servants therefore.
[32] Of this last Responsory the Collector notes, that it, as often as anyone is announced to be sick, was wont to be sung under the Elevation of the sacred Host at the time of the Mass by the Canons; and that frequently followed the benefits of the desired cures. But as all the Responsories have as it were one continuous connection among themselves; so also have not only the hymns at Vespers, Matins and Lauds: but also the Antiphons at the matutinal Psalms: so that collected into one, they too would make a hymn in this manner.
* Africanus the blessed man, full of God, was born The Antiphons contain a summary of the life Of an illustrious progeny. Alleluia.
According to the dignity of the world, he had for father a primate One of Burgundy. Alleluia. at the 1st.
Although he was an illustrious man sprung of high blood, He shone yet a sublime mind with the light of letters. Alleluia.
* In his youthful age, by the protection of the Divinity, at the 2nd,
He flourished with a preeminent and sublime wit. Alleluia.
He was given for teaching and for correcting morals To the Prelate of Lyons. Alleluia.
To the sick he was a solace, and the governing of Wisdom, And the lamp of the people. Alleluia.
* By the doctrine of Africanus the faith flies to the divine at the 3rd Nocturn. The people of Rodez. Alleluia.
He gave himself wholly to divine things, Africanus, of Priests And the little flower of modesty. Alleluia.
Here afflictions, here labors he often bore, but errors Of heresies he took away. Alleluia.
* In the city of Lyons Africanus in dignity at Lauds and the hours, As Archprelate shone &c.
[33] I omit the rest at Lauds, through the Hours, at the Benedictus and Magnificat: I only add that all these same things are recited in the other two feasts of the Saint, the Alleluia being omitted and only the Antiphons at the Magnificat and Benedictus changed: so that in the feast of the Finding, January XV, at the Magnificat thus is sung:
A gem very precious found is recollected, The same are recited in the feasts of the Finding and Translation. A pearl beautiful revealed is venerated.
THE COLLECT
Almighty everlasting God, who didst will to reveal to thy faithful on this day the sacred members of Blessed Africanus thy Confessor and Pontiff; mayest thou will us, by the help of his intercession, to be freed from instant tribulations, and satiated with future consolations. Through the Lord.
The same Collect is recited in the feast of the translation and relevation, on the day February VIII, the word reveal being changed into relevate; but for this feast proper Antiphons are had, which in the first and second Vespers at the Magnificat are of this kind:
I It pleased the Most High that the sacred pledges be translated. And now he willed them to be solemnly extolled with praises.
II Hence we desire to be translated, relieved of the weight by which we are pressed; And elevated, we strive to enjoy heaven.
[34] Besides those old Rhythms, of which the Office consisted, the Collector had others nine composed about the beginning of the present century, from the vow of a certain pious and learned man; who when he had been asked to compose new hymns to the praise of St. Africanus, Other 9 hymns more recently composed from a vow, and had not assented promptly enough; that very night he felt himself seized by a certain troublesome indisposition, and interpreting that to be the penalty of his slowness sent from heaven, he vowed, that if before the morrow he should find himself freed from it, he would immediately do what he had been asked; and presently wondering himself guilty of the vow, he fulfilled his faith by the very work. But the Collector did not take care to communicate those Hymns, because he understood only the old ones to be required; and the old Prose or Sequence wont once to be sung after the Gradual before the Gospel he described.
[35] The old Prose at the Mass, This, although it contains a history equally involved as the Office itself, of which hitherto we have treated, seems not unworthy to be transferred hither.
A wonderful, but worthy of favor, day arises; To be celebrated at all hours the life of the Saint is disclosed Of Africanus the Confessor, whose feast is venerated.
At Rome lying in the worship of error the people is raised up, By the word of so great a Protector the heresy is driven away, By the gift of the high Creator he is made a Bishop.
Of illustrious Burgundian birth he flourished with wondrous praise, Whom the doctrine of the Prelate of Lyons so imbued, That he held the Primacy of the shining Church.
Chosen as the leader of Rodez, he obtained this place; Praying, with immense praises he merited to be laureled; With those beholding not offended, an Angel appeared.
But God, infusing faith into Africanus; the covenants Of the Arians subverting, puts to flight their crimes; Whence extolling the victory, he raised him to the stars.
A certain man feignedly curving his hand asks pious gifts: He is punished, and with a free voice asks Africanus: Whom restoring him wholly sound, he raised to prosperity.
Rejoice Sion endowed with the protection of Africanus: Offer praises rejoicing in the palace of heaven, And in his sweet-sounding heralding exult.
Rejoice universal people, pour forth prayers today; Praise together with equal mind this Ruler of the Church, Who merited to be crowned with the splendors of glory.
[36] And perhaps all these things in the church of St. Africanus and the other churches aforementioned, are now in some measure corrected recited; for we have among the collectanea, And all these need some correction. from which we excerpted this commentary, both Lessons and Hymns in some measure corrected, by the hand and care of the very D. Provost Dutaur, acknowledging some chief errors of the history thus far preserved. Yet I preferred to set forth the very things as anciently they were recited; leaving to the judgment of the reader, that he may discern what words especially, and into what sense he judges they ought to be changed; so long as it is not clear to us whether the mention of Patiens or of Hilary it behooves to exclude, since the truth of more certain history does not suffer both at once to be retained, and the enormous interval of time between them cannot embrace one and the same man: the age to come perhaps will bring greater light to these shadows.