ON ST. MARCULPHUS THE ABBOT,
IN THE DIOCESE OF COUTANCES IN GAUL.
ABOUT A.D. 558
PrefaceMarculphus the Abbot, in the diocese of Coutances in Gaul (S.)
G. H.
Double Acts of St. Marculphus we have: the former we described from an old MS. codex of the Most Serene Christina Queen of Sweden, marked number 141, and another our codex, in which they are mutilated: the other we have communicated to us from a most ancient codex of Lord Preudhomme, Double Acts from MSS. those very ones namely, which before the incursions of the Normans in the IX century written with the style changed Laurentius Surius edited, and restored to the genuine style from MS. codices are extant in the first volume of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict. In the former Acts no mention is made of the body, translated by St. Audoenus toward the end of the seventh century, as is made in the second Acts, these only adding above the first, the rest expressing only in a more polished style: whence it seems consequent that those first were written before the Pontificate of St. Audoenus, that is before the year 640, within the first century from the death of St. Marculphus. Nor is there cause why the appellation of Neustria and the Neustrican region, in which the Saint is said to have flourished, should move a scruple to anyone; as if taken in the sense of those, who thought the part of the Gauls, afterward called by the name of Normandy, ought properly to be called Neustria by a certain affectation of antiquity. For in the sixth century was called Neustria, whatever from Paris and Orléans lies between the Loire and the Seine, as from the Chronicle of Tours writes Hotomannus, and we at St. Sigebert February 1 num. 16. Yet in that region, which now properly is called Normandy, and in the city of Bayeux born Marculphus, received Sacred Orders with the Priesthood from the Bishop of Coutances, and in the territory of this city built the monastery of Nant, and in it stripped of mortal life had his burial: A compendium in the Breviary of Coutances. and hitherto he is venerated with solemn office in the whole diocese with proper lessons wont to be recited in the second Nocturn; but which, as they are had in the Breviary printed in the year 1610, seem not faithfully enough contracted from the Acts.
[2] The body was once translated into the field of upper Picardy of Laon, The body at Corbeny, and deposited in the church of the town of Corbeny: to honor which the Most Christian Kings of the Franks, as soon as they are anointed at Reims, are wont to set out. For they are said by the merits of this one to have received the divine benefit of healing the king's evil by their touch. There is believed to have been erected there by St. Louis the King a confraternity, a confraternity, in which he himself first inscribed, is held the Protector of the same hitherto. There is thither a very great concourse of pilgrims, and St. Marculphus is invoked especially by those, who labor with the trouble of the king's evil. To the likeness of that Confraternity others have been erected in several places, and most lately in the year 1667 one at Brussels in the church of St. Mary of the Sand, with a chapel and proper altar, where also water under the invocation of St. Marculphus is blessed his relics being dipped. A triple feast. But a triple feast of the same Saint is celebrated at Reims; the first and chief at these Kalends of May, when also plenary Indulgences have been granted by the Supreme Pontiffs: the other is observed on the day July VII, and the third on October II, as is indicated in the small booklet of the Office of St. Marculphus, printed at Reims in the year 1628. There also has been printed in French in these last years a collection of the more notable miracles wrought through St. Marculphus especially in this century, which either the very instruments whence it is drawn authentic concerning each I asked to be communicated to us, to be rendered into Latin, and either here after the Life if it come in time, or in the Appendix to be related.
[3] The memory of the same at these Kalends of May is inscribed in various calendars, The memory in the sacred calendars. and especially in the old Lucca transcript of the Hieronymian Martyrology in these words: In Gaul, in the monastery of Nant, the transit of St. Marculphus. We have also an illustrious transcript of Usuard, which than the rest we judge more sincere, and less interpolated, in which thus is read: In the district of Laon of St. Marculphus the Confessor. Hence we gather that before these times the Sacred Relics had been translated to Corbeny. The same things are had in Greven, Molanus, Canisius, and in the MS. Florary. With a long encomium the Saint himself is adorned in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay, both from the very Acts, and from the cure of the king's evil granted to the Most Christian Kings, and the cult in the field of Reims. To which these things are added, not read elsewhere: This blessed man's precious pledges, on account of the Norman incursions, into inner Gaul, a church with the relics at Mantes with the sacred bones of his Companion Domardus, translated, were placed at Mantes, a basilica being constructed in honor of so great a Saint, which until now by his patronage and venerable remains is notable. These things there. But Mantes, commonly Mante, is in the province of Île-de-France on the river Seine, 12 leagues below Paris toward Rouen, in the dominion of the French Vexin. The same Saussay writes on the second day of May, a cult on various days. that at Reims in the monastery of St. Remigius is made the office of the deposition of St. Marculphus the Abbot, as also in the diocese of Coutances. Vincentius Bellovacensis book 22 of the Historical Mirror chapter 11 mentions Marculphus, but makes him Abbot of Bayeux: Relics at Troyes following Vincentius Trithemius book 3 on the illustrious Men of the order of St. Benedict chapter 54, adds, that his feast is celebrated on the seventh of the Kalends of May, to which day then referred Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, and with them Ferrarius, who again refers the same to the day April XXVIII, and attributes him to Mantua in Normandy, perhaps he read Manto for Nanto, but then he should have written at Mantes in the French Vexin. That some relics of the same St. Marculphus are preserved at Troyes in the Church of St. Stephen, and his feast there celebrated on the very Kalends of May, hands down Nicolaus Des-Guerrois on the Saints of Troyes.
[4] Among the marks of time, by which the age of this Saint can be defined, stands out the reign of Childebert King of the Franks and Ultrogotha the Queen. This is Childebert I, who his father Chlodoveus I dying on the day November XXVII of the year 509 was made King of Paris, The time of his life, and died on the X of the Kalends of January of the year 558. Under his reign St. Marculphus shone with illustrious manners and acts, and was living, as his Acts have, born long before, about the year perhaps 490, and thus in the year 520, when he was thirty years old, he had received the Clerical habit from the Bishop of Coutances Possessor or Professor, and after the other Orders had been instituted Priest and Preacher. the Priesthood, All
notice of this Bishop is drawn from these Acts, and he is set as successor of Leontianus, who was present at the first Council of Orléans under Chlodoveus I. But to Possessor himself a successor is assigned St. Lauto, who visited St. Marculphus sick, and buried him dead. He was present at the second, third, fourth and fifth Councils of Orléans and was Bishop at least from the year 531 until the year 547. Nay because St. Gildardus the Bishop is believed by many to have departed life in the year 529, before that time St. Lauto would have been Bishop, inasmuch as consecrated by him. Moreover when St. Marculphus now a Priest, had for some time in the diocese of Coutances preached, and was famous for the report of his virtues and miracles, he went to King Childebert, and obtained Nant, and constructed a monastery. But what if these things be said to have happened while Possessor was still living a Bishop, about the year 526? Thus with great likelihood of truth we shall be able, to grant another at least thirty years, afterward passed by him amid his labors and constructions of monasteries, and of his death. so that about the year at least five hundred fifty-eight he went to King Childebert and Queen Ultrogotha for the second time at Compiègne, and from them obtained the confirmation of the donations made to him, and a little after died, when St. Lauto was still among the living. If anyone shall find more certain marks of his life, we will gladly follow the same. That there were in those parts of the Gauls many monasteries, even when St. Marculphus was born, is clear from the Acts of St. Martin Bishop of Tours, at whose obsequies were present more than a thousand monks: but which of these and precisely when received the Rule of St. Benedict, is unknown to us: nor do we think this greatly pertains to St. Marculphus.
THE FIRST LIFE
From a MS. of the Queen of Sweden and another of ours.
Marculphus the Abbot, in the diocese of Coutances in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 5266
FROM MSS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] The life of the Saints, and their constancy worthily persevering in the purpose of good acts, with the affection of the highest veneration, we ought to commend to human ears: for nothing in the course of this mortality is more worthily done, than if the tonguelessness of our loquacity in the praises of God be continually a moderated. The praise, I say, of God is most excellently sung, if the prudence of the Saints, which by His bestowing they received, be expended to the ears of the faithful. Hence therefore vain fear is driven off, thence the charity of perfect love is more solidly corroborated; when we hear their faith so radically planted in the firmest rock, that neither by the storm of perturbation can it be agitated, nor by the fortune of prosperity in anything extolled. Several also of their number on account of the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of the eternal kingdom, afflicted with divers tortures of penalties, preferred to barter their life, some also sought by various kinds of torments to lay down the same, although provoking the sword they did not find martyrdom. But the band of both increasing, the Holy Church began to be stabilized, gleaming with flashing lamps, once darkened by the assiduous whirlwinds of persecutions. The fierce ferocity of the tyrants had ceased to rage against the Christians, when it found their faith rather to be increased, when they were tortured with immense torments of penalties. b
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER I.
His birth, Priesthood, going to King Childebert. Miracles.
[2] By birth of Bayeux. The most blessed Marculphus therefore, Childebert the Most Christian King now reigning, in the parts of Neustria at those times was dwelling. He sprung from the town of the city of Bayeux, drew his progeny therefore from the lineage of nobles, that he might deserve to be made a faithful steward of Christ. Whose age of boyhood is asserted to have been of so great simplicity, that scarcely did he give himself to playful office, after the manner of little ones; but although most tender in body, yet he retained the measure of the perfect in mind. When therefore the strength of a manly mind exceeded the bounds of tender youth, supported by the solidity of a more robust faith, with all his strength he expended himself to divine servitude. For he took the greatest care of pilgrims and the poor, he does good to pilgrims and the poor. affording them their necessaries, according to the measure of his possibility, and rejoicing with them, as with brethren, with the affection of wondrous love. He spared the pleasure of food and drink, always urgent in the vigils of prayers. For he was clear in mind, as the brightness of his countenance showed without; adorned with virtues sweet in affability, most mild in conversation. He avoided the boasting of fallacious glory, despised the honors of pompous power. Shining also with such kinds of ornaments, as gold marked with various orders of gems, the things of his portion being set aside, he began to meditate the habit of pilgrimage.
[3] For at that time the holy a Possessor, a man of the highest religiosity, presided over the Church of the city of Coutances: whom St. Marculphus approaching, by the Bishop of Coutances he is instituted a preacher: with all the cheerfulness of charity was received by him, by whom also for publishing the faith of the Lord's Incarnation, he was elevated by the grades of Ecclesiastical dignity. These things being so done, while for some time he tarried there, so great grace the Divine piety granted him, that by all as a Father, with a worthy exhibition of reverence, he deserved to be cherished. For the whole people rejoiced that he was a man of so great mansuetude, whom they perceived most overflowing with the gifts of all virtues. But the said Marculphus setting out thence, made pilgrimage through the neighboring provinces, preaching to all to receive true remission of sins, believing the Father unbegotten, the Son only-begotten, the Spirit also proceeding from both, and in the threefold number of Persons to be the power of one God: this faith also he announced was to be stabilized through the exhibition of good works. Persevering indeed in such dogmas of preachings, he works miracles: he solidified the greatest band of peoples in the Catholic faith. The word of sacred preaching was embraced by all, because there followed miracles flaming with innumerable signs. For he restored light to those not seeing, voice to those not speaking, hearing to the deaf restoring, the steps of the lame reforming, but the paralytics, and those whom the diversity of diseases had made feeble, he repaired possessed of their ancient health: and so the famous wonders of many virtues, his most sacred fame was divulged through all the nations of the Western peoples.
[4] On a certain night therefore, when his most blessed members macerated with long vigils he refreshed with the slumber of scanty quiet, there appeared to him an Angel of the Lord, addressing him with these words: Let not, O worshipper of Christ, the labor of the begun affliction break thee, because the greatest gifts of worthy remuneration are prepared for thee. Rise now as quickly as possible, by the admonitions of an Angel, and go to King Childebert; who always devoted to divine worship, is much delighted by the presence of the servants of God. But there is a certain place subject to his dominion, which Christ commands to be consecrated to Himself with the religious habit of monks: I will accompany thee, and well will dispose thy ways. St. Marculphus therefore, awakened by the Angelic vision, disposed with a swift step to take the way divinely designated to him: he also chose with him in company two venerable men, taking Cariulphus and Domardus as companions, Cariulphus and Domardus, and so after his custom mounting an ass began to set out. There met him a not small crowd of both sexes, because they saw many signs done by him over these, who deprived of their own virtue, were everywhere afflicted with divers kinds of diseases.
[5] On a certain day finally when King Childebert, surrounded after his custom by the greatest frequency of Palace officers, having addressed King Childebert, stood at the divine offices of the Masses; coming Blessed Marculphus with the two aforesaid nobles, in a certain corner of the same church prostrated himself, as he was wont, to divine prayers. But there were present there certain men, so wearied by long vexations of unclean spirits, that not only to others after the manner of the possessed in whatever way they strove to do violence, but also tore their own limbs atrociously with the dire bites of their teeth. And when they felt the holy man of God to be present there, the demons cried out with great voices again and again, and said: What to us and to thee, man of God? Does it seem too little to thee to have expelled us from thy borders, where so great a multitude of peoples was subjected to our deity, unless thou also persecute us hither. By these obscene voices the whole people much stupefied, praying in the church he is manifested by the demons: began to inquire, Who was he, whom the demons called a man of God. Inquiring also more diligently, they found Blessed Marculphus, still as he had begun in prayer prostrate: for the Omnipotent would not have so great a lamp lie hidden under a bushel, but that it be placed upon a candlestick, ministering light to those who entered the house.
[6] But St. Marculphus rising from prayer, with the highest reverence of the people, is led to the presence of the Royal power. received kindly by the King, But the venerable King beholding the holy man of God, filled with immense joy in all his bowels, said to him: Approach, my Lord, for we greatly rejoice in thy coming: for he had a long time desired to see him, because he heard the miracles, which were done over those, who languished with several diseases. Blessed Marculphus also, understanding the clemency of the King divinely benevolent toward him, thus answered him: Peace be with thee, King, and justice and truth be ministered to thee from heaven. The sign of peace finally being performed by both, the King said to him: Whence have we thee, most blessed man? and what cause has carried so desirable a treasure into our parts? St. Marculphus answered: From the Neustrican region, not once admonished by an Angelic vision, I have come hither to your presence. There is namely a place, which is called Nant b, situated on the shore of the Ocean sea, not very far from the city which is called Coutances; he asks for Nant for founding a monastery: which our Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of His name, commands to be distinguished with a devout monastery of monks. For this cause very often admonished by the Lord himself, we have hastened our journey to you, as I have already said.
[7] These things heard the most devout King suffused with immense joy, because such a Patron the Lord deigned to send to him, said to St. Marculphus: With all efforts I am ready to fulfill whatever the Lord through thee His servant has willed to manifest to me. Nevertheless let avail, I pray, my entreaty with thee, that these men, who now a long time are held wrapped in the fierce bonds of Satan, at his request aided by thy most holy prayers may be able to enjoy their ancient health. But the most blessed Marculphus with great voices proclaimed himself unworthy for this. Nevertheless recalling to memory the Lord's words, who promised that those believing in Him could put unclean spirits to flight from human bodies; prostrate in prayers he frees the possessed. with body stretched out with tears he prostrated himself in prayer. While therefore the prayer of the most holy man on account of the great delay was protracted at length; behold suddenly of the demons, going out from the besieged bodies, indications by signs of this kind manifest. For so great an affliction they had wrought in those, whom by the prayers of Blessed Marculphus they unwillingly left, that no one of the bystanders thought breath to remain in them, especially since through their nostrils and ears rivulets of blood seemed to have burst. Then the man of God rose from prayer, and those whom the whole people thought to be dead, the sign of the Cross being placed over them he restored to their former health. By this miracle therefore all stupefied, magnified God, who granted so great grace to a human man.
[8] The venerable King therefore, so many signs of miracles now heard, and also finding then by sight what before he had learned by hearing; to Almighty God of thanksgivings
rendered actions, he receives letters of donation. who in no wise delays always to have mercy on the human race. Suppliant also and humble he besought the holy man of God, that those things which he had asked, and moreover ampler ones, with a willing mind he would deign to receive. Therefore because the place already named was held the royal treasury; he ordered a precept to be made thereof, that never by any contumacious man could this gift be violated. Then the most blessed man of God Marculphus falling to prayer, with all the effort of his heart began to bless the Lord; by whose mercifully disposing, he deserved to be possessed of his vow. So finally bidding farewell to the King, the Princes, and the rest of the people of the Palace, rejoicing and exulting the way, by which before he had come, his steps being turned he began to set out. The King also sent with him a certain noble man, by name c Leunutius, who should indicate to the inhabitants there, that what the Saint had asked of the King, was completed.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER II.
The monasteries, Nant and others constructed. A life passed in islands. A demon driven off. The Saxons slain.
[9] When therefore he returned to the place, by the merciful divine grace by his prayers thus given to him; behold there came to meet him a very great crowd of men and women: who had heard so great a Patron, received with goodwill by the people of Nant, flashing with so many signs of miracles, entering their borders. They brought with them the sick, deprived by the multitude of diseases of their own functions, to whom by the prayer of the most holy man the desired health was straightway restored. The number of the faithful increased daily, because the gifts of divers virtues were augmented. Blessed Marculphus therefore, coming to the place, which the Lord admonished to be girt with the monastic religion; first an oratory, he builds a monastery: according to the quality of his strength, he caused to be constructed there. Then choosing men of good fame, whose probity was reported by all, he constituted them monks of the same place, for the peace of the King and the stability of the holy Church assiduously imploring the mercy of the Lord.
[10] These things thus orderly disposed, preferring to lead for some time a solitary life, he sailed to one of the islands, which in the rustic tongue are called a Duae-liniones; and there remote from human sight, in a small cell, which he himself had constructed with his own hands, in an island he lives alone, under a wondrous measure of abstinence he was urgent in divine prayers. For two or three days continuously being passed without the eating of any food; when now most sharp hunger more than fairly afflicted his human limbs, in great abstinence of food then a little barley bread with a scantiness of herbs he hungrily used; lest the whole body, destitute of its nature, should seem of its own accord to seek such a death. Of the vigils I do not think it necessary to describe the quantity, and of sleep. because him whom so assiduous a leanness of fasts had afflicted, rarely I believe could be oppressed by the torpor of dozings. His bed had not even anything of softness, but only lying on the bare ground, a hard pillow of flint was placed under his head, and with such abstinences of vigils and fasts the man of God Marculphus macerated, dead indeed to the world according to the Apostle, lived to God. Gal. 2, 19
[11] On a certain day therefore of the holy Lent when he had gone forth before the doors of his cell; behold to him the ancient enemy, a demon transformed into the appearance of a woman always hostile to the human race, under the appearance of a woman, as if having suffered a maritime shipwreck, with a tremulous voice said to the holy man of God: From transmarine parts, my Lord, we were coming by ship, and now we seemed glad to grasp the lands with our yard-arms.
When suddenly the clouds snatch away both sky and day From our eyes, black night broods upon the deep; The poles thundered, and the ether flashes with frequent fires; Hence the winds heave the whole sea from its lowest seats And rolled vast waves to the shores.
From this tempest indeed no one of ours could escape, except me alone, who embracing the stern of the broken ship, carried hither and thither through the waves, today first clung to the lands. Wherefore I beseech thee, man of God, that thy great piety would deign to grant me to rest a little under thy hut, because exceedingly wearied by cold, I scarcely am able to stand upon my feet. St. Marculphus indeed not ignorant of the wiles of the devil; in the name of Jesus he puts to flight: by which always he tries to ensnare the human race; entering his bed brought a crust of bread, and so with a blessing offered it to her saying: In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ receive this bread, and if as a tempter thou hast come, withdraw from us. Then that venomous serpent, finding the fictions of his fraud to be laid bare, with great wailing with a leap precipitated himself into the sea, through which before he feigned himself to have rowed. But Blessed Marculphus with knees fixed in the ground, turned his voice to the praise of the Omnipotent, who always does not cease both here to guard those fearing Him from evils, and in the future to reward them with unutterable goods: Whence says the Prophet: To him fearing God no good shall be wanting.
[12] But the Paschal solemnity approaching, again ascending a ship, he returned to the monastery to visit the Brethren, returned to the monastery, because he thought it impious, that on this most chief of days he should be held segregated from their fellowship. Hearing therefore the Brethren of this holy monastery their Patron to return to them, they came to meet him with wax candles and a choir of those singing psalms, and so very glad into the monastery singing they led him. He narrated then to them, what had happened to him at that time, what machinations of snares Satan had endeavored to bring upon him, and how the Divine grace preventing him a victor he survived all whatsoever the enemy brought. Therefore a fame of this kind being divulged round about, that Blessed Marculphus flourished with so great miracles of merits, there hastened to him from external and divers regions religious monks, the monks coming from every side he exhorts: desiring to be instructed by his examples, and erudited by the mellifluous admonition of holy dogma. But he, like a pious Father, with joy receiving them, exhorted each one of them, that in that vocation, in which each was called, according to the precept of the Apostle, by the works of faith he should study to please God. Eph. 4, 1 He taught, that the biting cares of this world be set aside, which always are wont to gnaw human minds; and so it comes to pass, that while the mind is divided through divers things in contemplating corporeal things; in each of spiritual things it is found least. He asserted also that they had not here an abiding city, but ought to seek the future one. With the greatest and divers documents being urgent, and disclosing the path which leads to the gate of the future city, he restrained some of them from the ambition of fallacious glory.
[13] When therefore he had passed some days in the monastery; the Brethren being called together to him, he indicated that he wished to set out to Britain. And when they lamented, with Romardus he goes off into the island of Britain, weeping the absence of so great a Shepherd; with a tearful voice he said to them: Do not, Brethren, do not, I pray, be saddened over me; because, life accompanying, I shall not long delay to return to you. For it behooves me through other places to evangelize the word of God, because for that I am sent. Then a certain Priest, by name Romardus, a most religious man, besought Blessed Marculphus, that he might deserve to be a companion of his most holy journey. But he, not wishing to bring trouble to his devout petition, took him only with him in company. Setting out therefore into the region of the Britons, they came to an island which by the inhabitants of that place is called Agna; and there making a little stay they found a certain Brother, by name b Eletus, now for a long course of days leading a solitary life. Then these three most holy men, he finds Eletus the hermit, conferring in turn by which and how many ways the malign spirits had endeavored to impede the purpose of their religion, and how by the aid of Divine grace always that tortuous serpent vanquished withdrew; giving thence thanksgivings to the Lord Jesus Christ, each rejoiced with his brother: and dwells with him, for they were bound by the bond of unanimity, doing nothing else except abstinence, and the assiduity of prayers.
[14] The crafty enemy therefore seeing, from the beginning always contrary to the operation of good things, this island flashing on every side with these three luminaries; not unmindful of his thousand arts of harming, he stirred up against it plunderers, almost three thousand of the Saxon nation: for there were in the same island colonists not many in number, but with divers riches and the luxury of cattle not moderately filled. But the new morning rising for them, that each might hasten to exercise his own affairs according to the custom of his country; there invoked by the inhabitants against the Saxon plunderers behold a very great multitude of Saxons now were hastening to grasp the shores. But they first struck with terror, inasmuch as of so great a band of enemies, ran to the cell, where St. Marculphus prayed with the two aforesaid; and clinging to his feet said, Help us, most holy man of God, because we are now placed in the hands of enemies, for there is no place of fleeing, nor is there with us power of resisting them. How shall we very few in number, and men unaccustomed to wars, against this people be able to fight? Then Blessed Marculphus looking up to heaven, said to them: Little sons, these same being animated to battle, do not be terrified by this multitude: act therefore manfully, and let your heart be comforted: for the Lord will fight for you. The sign of the holy Cross being made over them, he commanded them saying: Fear not the thousands of the people surrounding you, because the Lord will strike those opposing you, and over you His blessing will be. Go quickly without wavering against your enemies, because it is in no wise difficult for the Lord to grant safety even in a few.
[15] By these exhortations finally strengthened, and putting in the Lord God their hope, they went forth to meet the enemies, he obtains the victory, because nowhere appeared a faculty of turning aside. Then the holy man of God Marculphus with his whole body with tears prostrate in prayer, implored that divine aid in this their crisis should come from heaven. For it is reported, and also is asserted by many, that not more than thirty inhabitants at those times dwelt in this island. The adversaries therefore beholding so many men, as if prepared to resist so great a multitude; the enemies some being submerged, with great clamor leaped from the ships, thinking that they could with one cast of their darts depopulate all. And when some part now held the dry sand, the rest of the multitude still presiding in the ships; behold suddenly the greatest force of winds seized the fleets and with great impulse carried them back into the deep, and there mutually by frequent strokes on account of the whirlwind of the winds dissolved into bits, with all their furniture submerged them in the deep. The inhabitants of that island therefore seeing by the prayers of Blessed Marculphus the Lord contending for them; the others being slain. exhorting
one another, they directed their line of battle against the rest, and struck them even to utter destruction: and so it was brought about, that of this multitude, the Lord fighting for them, none could escape. Returned also to the cell, where the man of God with body stretched out still lay on the ground; they began with great voices to bless God, who did not forsake those hoping in Him, and who by the merits of Blessed Marculphus willed to free them from the multitude of enemies.
[16] The peoples of the Britons also hearing the wonders, which through the holy man were daily wrought, there came to him a not moderate crowd of them. This word came also to the ears of the most devout King Childebert; he builds there and elsewhere monasteries. whence exulting in all his bowels he said: What God is great as our God? He is the God who works wonders. Then Blessed Marculphus constructed a certain oratory in the same island, where monks proved in all their life, to serve God most devoutly he placed. At that time indeed many monasteries in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ are read to have been founded by him.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER III.
Miracles. The second going to the King. His pious death.
[17] A boy wounded by the bite of a mad dog he heals: Many days therefore being passed in the aforesaid island, when now almost all Britain had by his most holy documents in the divine worship, as if by a certain recent Apostle anew been reformed, he returned to the former monastery to visit the Brethren, solicitous of him. And when he was on the way, there met him a certain noble man, by name Genardus, bringing his son, by the bites of a mad dog atrociously so lacerated, that the spirit by which his most tender members were scarcely yet quickened, seemed crueler than the death to come. But when the mournful father approached the most blessed Marculphus, falling at his feet, with tears he said; Have mercy, holy man of God, on an unhappy father, because now a most cruel death prepares to take away this my son from me most wretched. But if thou wilt deign at least to extend thy finger over him, I trust that he can by this recover his own health. Then Blessed Marculphus with eyes lifted to heaven with a groan, placed his hand over his wounds, and forthwith the boy was restored to his ancient health: for the disease could not remain there, where such a physician put in his hand.
[18] The crowd of monks therefore increasing, whom through divers places the servant of God had gathered in holy religion, he judged it necessary to augment also the measure of the victual stipend to the number. The care of this business pierced his heart with assiduous goads; because with want more than fairly imminent he feared the state of religion would be diminished. The companions therefore being summoned, with whom the most holy man was wont to be accompanied, he set out to Childebert the most glorious King, who at that time conducted the Republic in the Gallican parts. And when he kept a hare hiding under his cope: he came over the river which is called Isère, wishing there to refresh his members a little with slumber, on account of the length of the journey exceedingly wearied, he heard the noise of the King's hunters, who were pursuing a certain hare with a great clamor of horns. To such a murmur now long Blessed Marculphus had applied his ears; and behold the unwarlike hare, forgetful of so many ways of safety, the multitude of dogs pressing, when it approached the servant of God, with frequent leaps accelerating its course, hid itself under his cope. But the dogs filling the whole place round about with great barkings, all stood afar off.
[19] Then one youth, immoderately agitated by the goads of furies, with this contumacious voice threatened the servant of God: Cleric, unless thou now more quickly dismiss the game, which thou hast wished to steal from us, and dismisses it safe from the hunters: now my sword shall fatally rage against thee. But the venerable Marculphus, inasmuch as a man of wondrous mansuetude, not wishing to scandalize his brother against himself, the cope being lifted up, commanded the little beast to seek again its own path. The hare then recalling to memory, by what way another time it had preserved its life, through the midst of the dogs seized flight. Whom the prayer of the blessed man forthwith fixed with so great weight, that none of them could put foot before foot. He also, who showed the servant of God no measure of reverence, when he wished briskly to mount his horse, with so great an impulse struck against the higher part of his little saddle, that the inmost part of his testicles, the coverings of the bladder being rent, hung outside: and so undone he fell from his horse, that he seemed as it were to be dead. But the rest of the companions, beholding the things which were done, one before injurious to him and miserably hurt he heals cast themselves from their horses, and holding the feet of St. Marculphus said, Forgive us, servant of God, because whatever crime we have committed against thee, befell concerning thee to us ignorant who thou wast; but also have mercy on this youth, whom the image of pale death now hastens to drag to the wave of fierce Acheron. Thus the man of God moved by mercy by their prayers, ordered the genitals, which had flowed forth outside the little bag of the natural skin, to be put back in the proper places of nature. Nor delay, and behold he who was lamented as a companion of death by the rest, professed himself to have received the strength of his former virtue.
[20] It was therefore announced to the King by those telling what things were perpetrated by the holy man. The venerable King indeed, by the relation of the miracles understanding it to be the most blessed Marculphus, with the greatest dancing in all his mind made glad, he is honorably received by the King, went forthwith to meet him. When therefore he approached him, the haughtiness of secular pomp being set aside, he descended from his horse, as quickly as he could, and so with bent necks came to the servant of God. They weeping, and mutually rushing into the kiss of peace, the King began to say to him: What cause, my Lord, has now brought thy most holy steps to our sight? For the providence of God not wishing to deprive the nation of the Franks of so great a light, willed thee His servant to return to us. To whom Blessed Marculphus, There is to me, he says, a certain little petition to thee, O most devout King, and is endowed with various estates: which has compelled me to repeat so long a journey now. For the religious flock of Monks, whom in places divinely designated to me in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ with thy aid I have constituted, daily exceeds the quantity of the former number little by little by a greater proportion. Whence, good King, I judged it necessary to meet thee, that by thy comforts they may in whatever way they can be supported; lest by too great trouble of want pressing on, the devotion of so great religion seem to be reduced to nothing: Then the King to the most blessed man: Let us hasten, he says, home, and at length we will satisfy thy most sacred petition. The servant of God therefore passing a little time there with the King, the King commanded, that if there had once been any appendant villas to the places, where St. Marculphus had instituted churches of the faithful, with all integrity they should go to the uses of the monks, there serving God.
[21] These things therefore being performed, he blessed the King and the rest of the people of the Palace; and so thence, rejoicing and exulting, he returned to his monastery. returned he passes his life in all sanctity: For there given to vigils, assiduous in prayers, macerated with abstinences, illustrious for the largesse of alms, not at all requiring the things which are his own, but those of the Lord Jesus Christ, all the peoples of the Gauls and Neustria, he irradiated with his most holy example. Very often indeed also he sought for the name of the Lord his most sacred soul to be cut off by the stroke of a slaughtering sword, or by divers kinds of torments; but now the ferocity of the tyrants rested, vanquished by the perseverance of the Christians in every way. Moreover, although not by the edge of the sword, as the holy man desired, he had been slain; yet according to the word of Paul denying himself he was martyred who said, But now I live, not I, but Christ liveth in me. Gal. 2, 20 For to Him truly he lived, who for love of Him, not only counted the things accidental from without for nothing, but also according to the precept of the Gospel hated his own soul. John 20, 25 For indeed he is well said to have hated his own soul, because he did not acquiesce to its carnal desires, broke its appetite, and resisted its pleasures. What then? if to a human man it is lawful to impart all kinds of virtues, let us profess this one bound with all.
[22] sick he animates his own against the assaults of the demon: But the day approaching on which he felt his body, now attenuated with long languors, to enter the way of all flesh; there came to him the Brethren from divers situations of places, who had heard their Patron to be sick: whom as he was wont kissing, he exhorted them as a good Father, that they should not yield to the snares of diabolical fraud, which he from the beginning always casts against the servants of God; For neither, he says, does your adversary sleep, but like a roaring lion everywhere investigates, whom he may devour. Whom it behooves you strongly to resist by faith, lest vanquished he thrust them back into darkness as captives. For you are Sons of light and of day, and not of night nor of darkness. Wherefore do not slumber as some, but watching be sober. To Him alone cleave with all your strength, who called you from darkness into His admirable light. I indeed am now compelled to render this little body to the earth, which from the same I took, our Lord God recalling my spirit, because He Himself placed it.
[23] he piously dies And when he had uttered these things with a lamentable voice, with eyes and hands lifted to heaven, he rendered his most sacred soul to the choirs of Angels, who placed it in the seats of the Jerusalem of the supernal city. The most blessed Lauto the Bishop therefore, who in these days had come thither, the Presbyters of his parish being summoned, and all the Clerics of the rest of the order, with all reverence laid the body of the most holy man near Cariulphus his colleague; who now used the quiet of the sweetest peace, awaiting the coming of our Redeemer. The most sacred Confessor of God therefore completed the course of his most happy contest, May 1. on the first day of the Kalends of May, bearing his sheaves with exultation to our Lord Jesus Christ, who from the beginning, now and always reigns, with the Father and the Holy Spirit one God, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANOTHER LIFE
From old MS. codices.
Marculphus the Abbot, in the diocese of Coutances in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 5267
FROM MSS.
CHAPTER I.
His birth, studies, Priesthood, sermons.
[1] At that time therefore, in which the glorious and to God amiable King Childebert strenuously and honorably ruled the scepters of the Franks, the most blessed Marculphus, great and illustrious, shone forth in manners and acts. Who when he had sprung from the most noble and most rich and most Christian citizens of Bayeux, Sprung of a noble Bayeux family, from his very boyish years, with all effort and all desire he began to pant for the supernal country. There was put forward in his years a boyish lightness, but there flourished in his manners a senile maturity: for all playful things, by which that age especially is delighted to be occupied, being cast away; those things which were of divine religion, both with an eager ear to perceive, and to a tenacious memory to commend, and with a curious pursuit to perform he was busy. He avoided finally
the good-natured boy, piously educated, the empty talk and wanton little gatherings of his contemporaries, and always sought to be present at the assemblies and colloquies of his elders, imitating now without the demonstration of readings that precept of Moses, Ask thy fathers and they will declare to thee, thy elders and they will tell thee: and he said with the Psalmist: Depart from me ye malignant, and I will search the commandments of my God. Deut. 32, 7, Ps. 118, 115 When therefore he exercised himself with such things as it were preludes of the future warfare of Christ; by his pedagogues by a pious provision (for now long both his parents had met death) to be instructed in the divine studies of letters he was delivered. It was fitting indeed that whom thus the divine grace claimed for itself, should be bound not to worldly but to divine affairs. But him whose conscience the giver of knowledge the Holy Spirit had cleansed from the filth of all malevolence, in learning no tedious delay could be present: for within the interval of a short time, he was so instructed in all divine letters, that he was found second to none of his fellows.
[2] But after attaining the years of puberty he passed into manly strength, like a soldier well from his first years exercised in the training of Christ, a youth famous for every kind of virtue, he began manfully and untiringly to contend for the prize of the supernal calling; forgetting the past things with the Apostle, and extending himself into the future things; giving himself to prayers, urgent in readings, macerating his flesh with vigils, and attenuating it with fasts, to all exhibiting humility and obedience. Phil. 3, 13 Large in alms, profuse in mercies, he sustained the needy with his own expenses, succored the necessities of orphans and widows. He corrected finally his ways in keeping the commands of the Lord: for he corrected his own, and followed those of the Lord. By such manners therefore and offices beloved by Christ, and by men he was held grateful and reverend: for the whole people of Bayeux rejoiced and was glad in such a fellow citizen, trusting that the state of all its republic through him would be firm and stable in the future. For the most blessed man incited all by frequent exhortations; that, which is the foundation of all good things, the Catholic faith they should firmly hold, and their hope in the Lord and not in men they should set; integral love they should cultivate, he teaches others the way of salvation: that the Lord above all things and their neighbors as themselves they should love, and that by daily advances of virtues, to merit the beatitude of the supernal city, they should hasten.
[3] Finally when the aforesaid man of the Lord abounded in temporal things by hereditary succession, and when he desired to serve God alone, in both procuring and disposing them to be long occupied he in no wise wished: but not a deaf hearer of that Evangelical saying, that he who does not renounce all things which he possesses, all things being left, cannot be the disciple of Christ; of that also of the Apostle, that no one serving God should implicate himself in secular affairs; the house and the things of his father being left, naked escaping from the shipwreck of the world, he seized the desired pilgrimage; made poor, that he might follow Christ made poor for us. Luke 14, 33 And since now long he had received the fame of the sanctity of Blessed Possessor Bishop of the city of Coutances; he goes to the Bishop of Coutances, him by a straight path he sought, desiring to be instructed by his doctrines and examples. By whom benignly received, with him for no moderate time he stayed, and by him he is tonsured when he was thirty years old. He received the Clerical habit. But afterward through the rest of the Ecclesiastical Orders by a worthy promotion elevated, at length he ascended the grade of the Presbyterate. He began finally, and by him is instituted a Priest and Preacher. the aforesaid Pontiff commanding, traversing the district of Coutances, unceasingly to admonish the people, that what once they had professed at the sacred font, both in manners they should hold and in works exercise, and the ways of living rightly always should follow, and the vain glory of the world little esteem, and to the heavenly with all intention tend. By these ensigns therefore of heavenly deeds illustrated, by all as a father he was cherished, and with the highest praise extolled, and to the words of his holy exhortation those who had heard obeyed with equal devotion. For the holy man was profound in wit, eloquent in speech, prudent in counsel, mature in deed, a cultivator of virtues, an extirpator of vices. But the beauty of the form of body also did not obscure this comeliness of mind. For although he was small in stature, yet in aspect he was comely, and composed with an elegant fitting of his members.
CHAPTER II.
The going to King Childebert: the monastery of Nant constructed. The possessed freed.
[4] But on a certain night, while after a long lucubration in prayers and the praises of God, Bidden by an Angel for constructing a monastery he indulged his wearied members a moderate quiet, there is present to him a supernal messenger, shining in habit and pleasant in aspect: who exciting him, addresses him with these words: Peace to thee, most blessed Marculphus. To the Almighty King thy works are grateful, grateful indeed to Him through all is thy warfare: and know thou hast in this especially merited His grace, since not only about thy own, but also about the salvation of thy neighbors thou solicitously watchest. And since through thee He has disposed that several be torn from the jaws of demons, and claimed for Christ Himself; hasten to go to King Childebert, to go to the King: and ask that there be given to thee a certain place in this district of Coutances, whose name is Nant, with all things pertaining to the same place; in which both a monastery thou mayest construct, and some Brethren, who under thy rule may devoutly serve God, thou mayest constitute. But since the heart of the King is in the hand of Him, whose this is the command; in no way distrust that thou wilt obtain, what thou art admonished to ask. These things said he forthwith disappeared.
[5] Morning therefore being made, the ass on which he was wont to sit being mounted, with Cariulphus and Domardus set out to him, and the Brethren Cariulphus and Domardus being taken with him, he seized the commanded journey. And when the aforesaid King with his Queen, Ultrogotha by name, and with a great crowd of his Nobles, on a certain festal day devoutly awaited the celebration of the divine Office in the church; Blessed Marculphus came upon them: and entering the church, he did not immediately present himself to the royal sight; but he to whom all worldly lightness was beneath, and in whom a humble gravity remained, into a certain most hidden part turned aside, and praying secretly in the church, where removed from all tumult he could pour secret prayers to Christ: fulfilling that of the Gospel, When thou shalt pray enter into thy chamber, and the door being shut pray to thy Father. Matth. 6, 6 For the holy man would not follow the boasting of the hypocrites, who in the synagogues and public places, that they might be seen by men, standing prayed; of whom the Lord, Amen, he says, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matth. 6, 16 But since the lamp of Christ could not lie hidden under a bushel; whom humility the guard of virtues was busy to conceal, the vanquished pride of the demons disclosed. For as soon as the man of God entered the church, he is betrayed by the demons: through certain ones, who perchance had been brought thither, possessed men of both sexes, with great and tearful voices the demons began to cry: Spare us, spare, servant of Christ Marculphus: for thy presence grievously torments us. But if from these seats through thee the divine power shall have expelled us, that it thrust us not into the abyss, may thy sanctity obtain.
[6] But on this the King and all his exceedingly astonished, who he was that was called by this name, he is received with goodwill by the King: to whom thus the demoniacs cried out, diligently he commands to be inquired. He is found at length, and is admonished that to the King he should hasten to come. He coming, the King saluting him most officiously, Well, he says, mayest thou come, blessed of the Lord: for through thee it is certain that our pusillanimity is visited by the most pious maker of all, Christ. To whom on the contrary the most blessed Marculphus resaluting, Peace to thee, he says, and mercy from the very Lord Jesus Christ, most illustrious of Men, from heaven be afforded: who although both in dignity thou dost excel and in the throne of royal majesty thou dost sit, yet considering thee to be one of mortals, not swollen with pride dost thou despise thy subjects, but tranquil with humility, inasmuch as similar to them by nature, thou makest thyself equal; well indeed mindful of that saying of the Wise man; he extols his virtues: They have constituted thee Prince of the people, do not be extolled, but be among them as one of them. Eccli. 32, 1 Finally illustrious for justice nor sluggish in piety, those same subjects of thine, both with justice thou sparest, and with piety, if they have transgressed, thou correctest. By these therefore and the exhibitions of the other virtues thou livest to God, and to His Saints through all thou art pleasing.
[7] But the King by so great a heralding of praises not moved to elation, but rather to humility; began with bland address to inquire, from what shores the holy man came. But answering the most blessed Marculphus, Of the city, he says, of Bayeux I am a native, of parents not lowest begotten. But by the command of the Lord admonished, from those western parts, he asks for Nant for founding a monastery, thy amplitude and thy magnificence I seek, that the treasury in the district of Coutances, which is called Nant, with all its revenues, not to me, but to Christ (by whose giving thou possessest many things temporally, and more things to be possessed eternally thou expectest) by a solemn donation thou wouldst grant. For truly know it is the will and command of Almighty God, that the aforesaid place, no longer to human, but to divine dominion be bound; namely that there a monastery be constructed, and Brethren who hold the path of a stricter life, for thy and the whole Republic's salvation, to Christ assiduously about to pray in the same monastery be constituted. By which petition the King vehemently made glad, Thanks, he says, and obtains it: to my most merciful Maker I render, who through thee His beloved one to me the lowest of His has deigned to disclose the deliberation of His will. For His is the earth and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell in it. Let there be of all things, which He has mercifully bestowed on me, His will and command: but all in common, venerable man, we beg thy sanctity, that to these wretched ones thy piety may succor, whom the impiety of wicked spirits ill torments.
[8] But the man of the Lord for this in no way fit, nay protesting himself unworthy, at the King's request at length overcome by the prayers of many, with knees bent to the earth and hands and eyes stretched to heaven, invokes Christ with these words: Lord Jesus Christ, most powerful King of Kings, to whose command every creature is subject, who art life and salvation and piety, and by gratuitous grace didst deign to become man, that thou mightest redeem us from the dominion of demons, and who to thy disciples and their successors gavest power over serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy; a prayer being poured forth, to these thy servants impart the help of thy piety, that from those by whom they are cruelly vexed, the demons being put to flight, of them, who alone art creator and redeemer, thou mayest exist the possessor; and they restored to their former health, may pay to thee due praises and thanks. This prayer therefore scarcely completed, the unclean spirits leaving certain footprints, were turned to flight. he frees the possessed: For through the nostrils and mouths of those whom unjustly they had pervaded, themselves fleeing, most abundant blood burst forth.
[9] So great therefore and such a miracle, the King and the rest who were present admiring, he receives letters of donation: to the Almighty
God rendered immense thanks. A scribe finally being summoned, he commands a Royal testament to be written over the gift, which the holy man had asked. Which fortified by a ratified stipulation, the same King delivered, with all giving their suffrage, the aforesaid treasury, with all the revenues pertaining to it, to God and the holy man and his posterity, perpetually to be had and possessed. He commands also that whatever thereafter he wished from him, without any hesitation of obtaining, he should seek. These things therefore thus done, the man of the Lord asked license of returning to his country: but the King very long in his first colloquy and last kiss tarries; and commending himself with his wife and sons to his prayers, and earnestly begging that he would more often revisit him, at length dismisses him. But he delegated to him a certain one of his men, Leontius by name, who should determine the lands of the aforesaid treasury by a most certain designation of the boundaries.
[10] Returned therefore he undertakes to cultivate the place. But he constructed a monastery apt for the regular institution and congruous. The things finally within and without by prudent dispensation prepared and disposed, not a few, he constructs a monastery: with whom he should lead the monastic life, he chose for himself as Brethren. Whom assiduously, not only with the incitements of pious exhortation, but also with the examples of divine pursuit he admonished, that always the arduous and holier things they should follow; that going from virtue to virtue, the King of Kings in Sion to contemplate they might merit. He admonished indeed, that integral unanimity should remain among them; that according to the form of the primitive Church there should be to them one heart and one soul, he instructs the monks. nor should anyone sell to himself anything proper except sin; but all things should be common: idleness finally as a viperous venom they should flee; but vying either with the labors of the hands, or to reading or prayer they should be intent. For he inculcated to them, that nothing more strongly than monastic idleness obstructs perfection.
CHAPTER III.
A solitary life passed in islands. A demon driven off. Plunderers punished. Monasteries constructed.
[11] Again that also is worth the trouble to insert into the reading, how the holy man prevented the snares of the ancient enemy of God. In Lent he withdraws alone into an island: For at some time the days of the observation of Lent being imminent, when the most blessed Confessor with daily advances always to ascend to higher things, and from day to day, by the salubrious boiling-down of carnal affections, like gold in a furnace, cleaner and more purged to become was busy; a certain island, whose name is Induolinionis, unaccompanied he sought; that there, through that sacred Lenten time, his body more rigidly than usual he might macerate; and by how much more remote he was from the assemblies of men, by so much more apt and more expedite for exercising vigils, prayers, and fasts he might exist.
[12] But on a certain day while before the entrance of the little hut, which for the time he had prepared for himself, about the sixth hour residing, a demon transformed into a woman he was intent on divine reading, behold the malign spirit, the untiring adversary of the human race, hoping to deceive him with a pestiferous mousetrap, transformed into a woman, is present before him: and crying that she was shipwrecked, and there by chance cast out, with a mournful prayer she supplicated, that he would cover her with a roof and recreate her with food. But the man of the Lord, as he was provident and circumspect in all things, forthwith catching the deceptions of the diabolical fraud; the book, which he held, he laid down; and entering the cell, took bread, and depicting over it the sign of the Cross; If not a phantasm, he says, by the sign of the Cross he puts him to flight: but truly thou art, as thou professest, a woman take the bread, which I offer marked with the small sign of the Cross. But he whose perpetual enemy he is, his name in no wise able to bear, forthwith like smoke vanished, and from a high rock precipitated himself into the sea with a horrific roar. For he always followed the precipice owed to him by right, who once on account of his pride from the heavenly summit cast down, so great a column of the holy Church strove to subvert. For what in our head Christ, namely moving a servile war against Him, he had before been unable to accomplish; this with assiduous ravaging in His members he ceases not to attempt.
[13] But this holy man was surrounded by these defenses, by which an enemy of this kind, the Lord attesting, is easily repelled: for with fasts and prayers and the other exercises of Christian warfare he was untiringly urgent. Mark 9, 28 For with no other foods besides barley bread and raw herbs he fed: he feeds on barley bread and raw herbs the tunic finally, which he used, was a hair-cloth sack: but his other garments, sheepskins. But sleep, to which only weariness compelled, a little lying upon the bare ground, and placing a stone under his head, he took. Thus therefore the soldier of Christ contending, he sleeps on the ground: all hostile infestations he removed far from himself. The Paschal solemnity finally approaching, resolving to revisit the Brethren, he repaired to the monastery and to them what had happened to him being recounted, at Easter he returns to his own: all were filled with immense joy, both for his exceedingly desired return, and because the divine defense had rendered him safe and unharmed to them.
[14] But the fame of the blessed man far and wide was dispersed, and to him very many from the lying-around places ran together. the gifts offered he piously expends But many kindled by his holy conversation and doctrine, the goods of the world wholly renouncing, whatever they could have they brought to him, and that they might be able to be under his rule humbly begged. But the man of the Lord gladly assenting to their devotion, as a faithful steward of Christ, the things which were offered to him, and founds several monasteries: partly in the recreation of the needy, partly in the redemption of captives, partly also in the construction of monasteries he distributed. For founding several besides the first, with the things of those, who fled to his mastership, he enriched the monasteries.
[15] The venerable Priest of the Lord Romardus finally, renouncing all the cares of worldly business, flew to him. with Romardus he departs into the island of Britain, With whom Blessed Marculphus after no great space of time, resolving for some time to lead the eremitic life; he went to a certain island lying adjacent to the region of Britain, which was called b Agnus. But that same island was inhabited by very few colonists: in which also a most religious man, c Helibertus by name, macerating himself with the rigor of too great abstinence dwelt: and with Helibertus the hermit he lives: whose hut the man of the Lord Marculphus with blessed Romardus entering, long with him, exercising harsh contrition of heart, they clung to the speculative life. But how great and what a miracle in the same island Christ, through the merits of the holy man, wrought, is not to be passed over in silence.
[16] For at some time very many pirates, to almost three thousand, against the Saxon pirates, from the unexhausted gushings of the Saxon nation bursting forth, the ships being ascended and accelerating their swift course with oars and sails, to the aforesaid island to plunder and depopulate began to tend. Which the islanders, who are reported to have been not more than thirty, catching from afar; suddenly struck with fear, what they should do or what refuge they should seek, the islanders imploring his help, inasmuch as surrounded by the sea, altogether not knowing; at length a salubrious counsel being found, alike to the protection of Blessed Marculphus they ran: and wrapped about his knees, that he would succor them they implore with cries. To whom the holy man, Sons, he says, be of a brave mind: God is able to snatch you from the hands of these. he animates them to battle: Wherefore if you will acquiesce to my admonitions, constantly seize arms, and with intrepid minds go to meet the enemies to resist them. For I promise you the victory over them about to be present: for for you He Himself will fight, who once Pharaoh and his army with magnificent power crushed. By these incitements therefore animated, boldly they snatch swords, and not in their own but trusting in the grace of God their right hand, and the prayers of the most holy man, strongly about to fight they go to meet the pirates. There is made on both sides a most sharp encounter: but through the power of God and the intercession of the blessed man, all the islanders unharmed, a few of the barbarians slain by the sword, and very many absorbed in the marine gulfs, none survived who could carry back the fall of the rest to his country. But the Lord of the same island hearing, so many thousands of enemies so magnificently consumed through the suffrage of Blessed Marculphus; rendered immense thanks to God, there he founds a monastery. and to the dominion of the same holy man the same half of the island by a devout delivery bound. The most blessed Priest also constructed there a monastery, in which he constituted some, who should constantly serve Christ.
ANNOTATA.
a. Acherius bulwarks.
CHAPTER IV.
Miracles. The second going to the King. His happy death and the Translation of his body.
[17] A little time finally having elapsed, when the monastery which he had first constructed, to revisit he hastened; a certain father, Genastus by name, his son, by the bites of a mad a wolf miserably lacerated; and now contiguous to death; offered to him, asking with great cries, A boy mangled by a wolf's bite he heals: that lest the boy should die the man amiable to God by his prayers should obtain. But he who in the bowels of piety wholly abounded in Christ, and who to succor the miseries of his neighbors was always most prompt, forthwith about to pray to the Lord is prostrated to the ground. But by how much nearer to the earth, by so much nearer to heaven: as soon as he rose from the dust, the boy was healed of every wound. Great gladness arises to the bystanders: to the father for the restored son, but to the rest for the unhoped-for miracle.
[18] But when now not far the term of his dissolution, the holy Spirit revealing it, he foreknew to be present, King Childebert, before he should migrate from this life, he resolved to go to; that the donations of the estates (which to the monasteries which he himself had constructed many faithful men for the salvation of their souls had made) that without any calumny of posterity, about to go to the King again, unmoved and uncontaminated they might perpetually remain, by Royal authority they might be ratified. Therefore the provision being prepared he began the journey. But what virtues Christ the Lord through him by the way wrought, it is not convenient to keep silent. For before he came to b the camp of Compiègne, where then the King tarried; coming over the river which is called Isère, that a little from the weariness of the journey he might be recreated, into a certain meadow he turned aside. But behold the hunters of the King were pursuing a hare with the dogs sent in. But the hare through the open
plain fleeing, now and now to be caught, a hare fleeing to him deferred its imminent death by frequent turnings. And when on this side and that with the fields open it foresaw no escape by escaping, as if divinely commanded under the cloak of the man of God it fled. But one of the servants, proud in mind and immoderate in mouth, approaching him; By what temerity, he says, Cleric, he dismisses it safe from the hunters, hast thou presumed to invade the King's game? Render it, otherwise now now by the sword thou wilt perish. But the man of the Lord, not for the cause of avoiding peril, but that the magnificence of Him who saves men and beasts might be disclosed, dismissed the little beast. But the dogs, who stood about prepared to catch it, were so fixed and made rigid, as if there were to them no vital mobility. But he who irreverently and contumeliously had assailed the man of the Lord, from his horse, which goading with spurs on both sides, him injurious to himself, hurt, he heals: that he might follow the fleeing one, he urged, falling, was so dashed to the ground, that his belly being torn was emptied of its intestines. Which done his companions stupefied, and knowing that on account of the injury inflicted on the holy man this had befallen the wretched one; rolled at the feet of the same blessed man, that he would spare him now about to die, they implored. But he who to have mercy rather than to avenge was prepared, where he lay half-alive forthwith came; and with his own hands handling the protruding entrails, restored them to their place. But when very long he had bent to prayer, he raised himself from the earth: and the sign being made over him, who seemed almost lifeless, was so made whole, as if he had suffered nothing of evil.
[19] But the King returning from the hunt, after he heard what had been done; vehemently, both at the coming of the most blessed Marculphus, and for the miracle which God through him had wrought, rejoicing, hasty to tend to him began. But as soon as from afar he could behold him, presently leaping from his horse, on foot with the greatest reverence he came to him; he is honorably received by the King: and that the holy man would bless him, suppliant he begged. May the Lord bless thee, he says, out of Sion, and mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life, and may all thine be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. With mutual embraces finally long kissing one another, after he had intimated to the King the cause of his journey, they alike entered the aforesaid camp. Meanwhile the sun falling night came. But on the following day the King a testament concerning all those things, for which the man of the Lord had asked, he obtains the confirmation of the donations: of the donations of estates, ordered to be made; and that, the Queen Ultrogotha being present and the rest of his Nobles, and all attesting, with the ring of his authority he subscribed. Moreover the King and Queen presenting him with very many gifts, suppliant besought, that Christ for their salvation he would deign to intercede. Which done the most blessed Marculphus returned home.
[20] But since now the day was at hand, on which Christ regarding his sweats, from this weakness of corruption to the health of perennial incorruption to migrate him had disposed, touched by a moderate trouble, sick he consoles his own, rejoicing and exulting he awaited the hour of his calling. The languor finally growing strong foresignifying the near term of his exit, the Brethren from every side, and a great crowd of peoples from the neighboring places, among whom also the venerable Prelate of the city of Coutances c Lauto, with the zeal of visiting ran to him. But the good Shepherd blandly consoling his flock, and that the norm of the holy purpose in no way they should desert admonishing and exhorting, a prayer being made he piously dies. to the highest Christ the Shepherd supplicated, that those whom by the effusion of His most sacred Blood He had redeemed, He would surround with the constant defense of His protection. And at length with eyes and hands intent on heaven, Lord, he says, Jesus Christ, only-begotten Son of the eternal Father, have mercy on me an old man now growing weary: and if now it is enough to thy piety, that hitherto in the camps of thy warfare I have been present; may I deserve thereafter, the long-desired liberty being granted, to be mingled with the fellowship of the supernal citizens. These things said he breathed forth his spirit, to be associated with the Angelic choirs. All grieve, all are troubled: the mourning of all who were present becomes intolerable, for the absence of so great a man. But the man of the Lord on the Kalends of May putting off the man, was buried in the monastery which he had first constructed, in the place which is called Nant: with him also two Brethren, who at the same time had died, Cariulphus and Domardus, were buried in Christ.
[21] After no moderate interval of time finally, the venerable Pontiff of the Church of Rouen d Audoenus, when he went round his diocese with pastoral care, came into the district of Coutances. But he was sought by Erminus the Abbot of the oft-said place, His body St. Audoenus translates: that he would visit the same place; and the body of the blessed man, from the place in which it lay to another place, which he himself had prepared, would translate. To whose petition the aforesaid Prelate gladly assenting, went to the place, and undertakes the business for which he had come. But the body of the most holy man being lifted from the tomb, although the flesh consumed only the skin still by the power of God incorrupt clung to the bones, yet so vivid his face appeared, as if it were cherished by a quickening spirit. Which miracle that to many it might become known, uncovered it remained for three days. But the most blessed Audoenus asked the aforesaid Abbot, that of the holy man's body, both for the compensation of his labor, and for the devotion of sanctity, he would grant something. To which thing he most gladly consented. But when with himself he treated to take away the head; he is forbidden to carry off the head. a little paper written with these words sent from heaven by his hand settled: Of the rest of the members of the most blessed Marculphus take, but his head in no wise presume to touch. The most holy Prelate therefore, by this divine interdict recalled from his purpose, in the little coffin, which was present prepared, with the highest veneration the relics of the most blessed Confessor he laid. In which place miracles frequently wrought, that the holy man is not dead, but truly lives, testify. For there by the merits of the most blessed Marculphus, both blindness recovered sight, and deafness hearing, and debility its step, and every infirmity from whatever languishing ones is put to flight afar, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY BY THE AUTHOR
and the foundation of the Monastery of Corbeny.
Marculphus the Abbot, in the diocese of Coutances in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] Most diligently collecting the history of the Metropolis of Reims D. William Marlot, Charles the Simple King of France Great Prior of St. Nicasius of Reims, and Administrator of the cell of Fismes near Lille, published its first volume in the just-said city of Lille among the Flemings in the year 1666, and book 4 chapter 7 begins to treat of the villa of Corbeny, and the Priory there founded by Charles the Simple the King on the occasion of the Relics of Blessed Marculphus: and there sets forth the charter of foundation, drawn from the archive of the place itself, which clearly explaining the series of the matter in the title appended, merits to be wholly here transcribed: and it is of this kind.
[2] [the body of the Saint, translated for fear of the Normans, he receives at Corbeny,] In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Charles, by divine providence King. If to the servants of God and to places bound to divine worship we impart aid, we wholly trust this will profit us. Wherefore let it become known to all, that on account of the too great and long-lasting infestation of the Pagans, which, sins exacting it, through the whole Church raging wanders, the most holy and truly most blessed Marculphus, from his own place by the same plague with the fugitive Clerics driven, for the love of God we received, and in our treasury of Corbeny, as the time dictated, we placed. And since it remained uncertain, whether the divine disposition willed so great a pledge to remain with us, or again willed it to be carried back to its own monastery; from our faithful both Bishops and laymen we received responses, and having received from the Bishops the faculty of retaining it, that without the license of the proper Bishop the precious body should not be detained. Using therefore salubrious counsel, both license from Bishop Erlebodus of retaining it with us, for the reason that the return remained difficult, we obtained; and a letter, subscribed by the same Prelate and by Archbishop Guido and the rest of the Co-bishops, concerning the same matter we received.
[3] On this matter therefore, inspired by divine love, and desiring to be imitators of our predecessors, not only in human things, he founds and endows a monastery but also in divine; for the remedy of our soul, in the already-said treasury of Corbeny, in honor of Blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles (for the reason that in the Basilica, which is dedicated to his name, the already-said precious body was placed) we disposed to make a monastery, and to endow it of our own things, and Clerics or ministers, to pay praises to Almighty God, and who for the state of the Church and our welfare and the stability of the whole kingdom incessantly should pray, we took care to institute: and that this it may delight the servants of God there more delightfully to fulfill, we grant to Blessed Peter the Apostle and St. Marculphus the Confessor two manses in the same villa in the County of Laon, for the lights of the same place; and for the uses and stipends of the Brethren there serving four manses in the same villa, in Craonne one manse and a half, in Albiniacum a half &c.
✠ the sign of Charles the most glorious King.
Ernustus the Notary, in the stead of Noskericus the Bishop, recognized and signed. Given on the VIII of the Kalends of March, in the IX Indiction, in the XIV year reigning of the Lord Charles the most glorious King, in the IX of his restoration. Done at the Palace of Corbeny, in the name of God happily. Amen. Amen.
[4] This year is noted of the Christian Era 906, and the indicated restoration has its beginning from the year 898, in the year 906, when Odo the King, who Charles being abdicated had reigned ten years, had died, and Charles had resumed the kingdom. Erleboldus, from whom the license of retaining the Body at Corbeny was asked, must have been Bishop of Bayeux: to be placed between Erkambertus, whose last notice is found in the subscriptions of the Council of Ponthion in the year 876; and Heinricus, of whom no memory is found before the year 927; and so from this Corbeny diploma can be supplied the gap, which in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Bayeux in the Sanmarthani occurs. But he who here is called Guido Archbishop of Rouen, is written Wito by the same Sanmarthani, and is found to have last subscribed to the Council of Trosly, celebrated about the year 909. Noskericus, by whose stead as Chancellor the diploma is confirmed, of what place he was Bishop hitherto I have not been able to find.
[5] The same moreover King, the following year about to take as wife Frederonna, the sister of Bono Bishop of Châlons, [and this together with Corbeny itself he gives to Queen Frederonna in the year 907:] among the treasuries to be possessed and disposed at pleasure, which to her by the name of dowry he attributed, by a charter, to be read in Marlot, at the Palace of Attigny on the III of the Kalends of May, Indiction X, Charles reigning … XV, in the X of his restoration; in the first place is put Corbeny in the county of Laon, with
the church which is dedicated in honor of St. Peter the Apostle, where the body of the Confessor of Christ Marculphus rests. Moreover before the tenth year flowed from the signing of the dotal page, and from this woman dead by legacy Frederonna saw herself to have reached the end of her life; and solicitous concerning the salvation of her soul, to the cenobites of St. Remigius (for those who had brought the body of St. Marculphus to Corbeny were either extinguished by death, or, things being pacified, had returned to their own) the very villa, with the cell or monastery of St. Marculphus, delivered; and that the King might become the author of the delivery, she asked him: which on the XVI of the Kalends of March Indiction V, that is in the year of Christ 917, after his wife's death the King did in the monastery of St. Remigius itself, thus beginning:
[6] We wish it to be known to all, namely present and future, that Frederonna, once Queen my dearest wife, in the year 917 to be confirmed by the monks of St. Remigius: for the love of Almighty God and the veneration of St. Remigius the Apostle of the Franks, before whose most sacred pledge by the blessing of oil and consecration she was anointed into a Queen, gave to the monks there strenuously serving as soldiers, for their table for the remedy of her soul, whatever she was seen to have in the dominion of her jurisdiction, so long as her life ruled her limbs, namely from the dowry of our Royal wedlock, that is Corbeny in the county of Laon; except the little cell, which is dedicated in honor of Blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, where also the body of the Confessor of Christ Marculphus rests; and which the aforesaid cenobites granted to me in my life generally under a tax of ten solidi to be paid every year she keeps for herself under an annual pension, … asking earnestly our munificence, that to the oft-said monks according to the legal custom I should deliver and a precept of our authority should make for them, whereby more securely through the successes of times, without anyone's gainsaying nay disquiet, they might be able to hold … To whose spontaneous petition, as was fitting, benignly through all favoring, as she asked and her soul desired, the Lord granting, in all things we executed …
[7] Marlot suspects that the little cell, and indeed a sacred one, by the name of dowry was assigned to the most powerful Queen, because a more frequent crowd of pilgrims daily flew to Corbeny; not from avarice to usurp the offerings of the faithful. by whose alms the church of Blessed Marculphus being gradually enriched, by giving it to his wife, Charles thought it provided for his own affairs, and just as much reserved for his treasury, which otherwise by the name of dowry would have had to be subtracted. The same I believe Marlot would have suspected, if anyone had asked of him, why of all Corbeny, that cell alone the King wished to keep for himself, under an annual pension though to be paid to the monks: for the same follows from his general thesis, by which he sets, that those were then the times, in which not even the Kings themselves spared the altars, whose revenues, as also the offerings of the faithful taken away with sacrilegious hand, into their own uses they converted: which that Charles also did there is place for suspecting, he says: for the fame of the miracles which were done at Corbeny had become widespread.
[8] I concerning the Simple, but yet pious and good Charles, and other Royal dispositions of this kind judge more humanly: and this very thing I think can, the records not opposing, be maintained; namely that into the Cell of St. Marculphus, and its proper possessions, namely six manses in the villa of Corbeny and others elsewhere, he gave no more right to Frederonna and these the people of St. Remigius wished attributed to themselves by him, [but to the right of Patronage, which alone before had passed to the Queen, to be received] than what he with the title of Founder had before retained for himself, afterward could have passed to the Queen; namely the right of Patronage; through which it belonged to him to confirm the election of the Prior, or even to designate him, and other things of this kind, nothing detracting of the temporal thing from the sacred places, but only preserving the honor belonging to Patrons. And so the dotal records, which I said, are to be understood with respect to the right, which over each part of Corbeny the King obtained, whether as Lord, as he was of most of the estates; or as Patron, as he was of the Cell of St. Marculphus, and not otherwise.
[9] But why that right of Patronage, which he had already once abdicated and transferred to the Queen, from pious affection toward St. Marculphus, and she had bequeathed to the monks of St. Remigius, Charles wished to draw back to himself, the cause must have been, not avarice, but pious affection toward the place founded by himself. In which nevertheless lest he should be injurious to the monks, not otherwise than under a tax to be paid to them did he wish to usurp that right, that by that reckoning the supreme right, which from Frederonna they had received, should be reckoned to remain with them. But what, if on account of the same piety of the King toward St. Marculphus, from whom he had received the privilege of curing the king's evil, to him and his posterity was divinely granted the privilege of curing the king's evil; and indeed with some heavenly and sensible stipulation, so to speak, going before? Would not, this being set, there have been a great cause for the King, not to wish that place wholly abdicated, whence so singular a prerogative came to him? I know there are those who from Chlodoveus I make the beginning of that power: but as by no suffrage of antiquity that rests, so easily can the gratuitous conjecture be rejected: but ours will seem so much the more probable, by how much more difficult it can be shown that the Kings arrogated to themselves that power, before the foundation of Corbeny.
[10] Indeed that they think they have it from no other source than from St. Marculphus, even from this can be proved, that, as Marlot says, immediately after the inauguration celebrated at Reims, which the later Kings seem as soon as they are crowned to acknowledge. thither from many times back they are wont to make pilgrimage, where they perform a novena by themselves or through one of the Almoners, and their cult toward the aforesaid Confessor they testify by certain gifts and immunities, imparted to the church and the citizens of the place, of which matter a booklet is extant published by a Remigian Ascetic. Of this kind also are those who still serve that place, and among them one Custodian or Treasurer of the sacred pledges, to receive the offerings of pilgrims, who from various parts of the world frequently fly to the aforesaid place, to receive health from the scrofula by the merit of Blessed Marculphus. But as now from the offerings nothing is derived from the church into the royal treasury; so much less is it probable that this was done in the very first ardor of the new piety under the founder Charles.
THE TRANSLATION OF A RELIC
to Antwerp to the Abbey of St. Saviour.
Marculphus the Abbot, in the diocese of Coutances in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[11] Treating of St. Mary the Egyptian on the day April II, we had occasion of explaining, how the notable relics both of her and of the other XXXV Saints long preserved in the Priory, Concerning the Relics translated in the year 1672 now Abbey of St. Saviour of the Cistercian Order, after they had been brought hither from Lusitania, with notable pomp were carried around through the city of Antwerp, and exposed to public veneration on the day August VII of the year 1672, by the care and zeal of the Most Ample Lord Francis Dieriox, the third Abbot there. But that the cult of these Relics might be more solidly confirmed, a Confraternity was instituted in the same church, and by the authority of the Apostolic See and the privileges of annual Indulgences, to be obtained on the feast days of each of the Saints, adorned: which renews the memory of the aforesaid translation every year on the first Sunday of August, and that solemnity it prolongs a whole octave.
[12] While this also was thus to be done in the year 1676, the aforesaid Most Ample Lord caused, a new accession being added to that sacred treasure of three notable Relics of the bodies of SS. Gregory the Great, Marculphus the Confessor, and Lucy the Virgin and Martyr, in the year 1676 are added new ones of SS. Marculphus, Gregory and Lucy: a new addition also to be made to the public piety of the Confreres and of the whole city, a most elegant and very large chest of ebony being fabricated, adorned with silver plates and figures, in which they might be proposed to be beheld through most clear crystal. And so the solemnity of the first festivity was doubled by another continuous week; after it had been timely cared for, that the Relics themselves by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend our Bishop Brother Ambrose Capello, according to the prescript of the sacred Canons recognized, should be approved on the day June XV; which act for the best and most religious old man, and being in the 80th year of his age, was almost the last in this kind: since he survived not beyond the day October IV, the prayers of the poor accompanying his most placid exit, whom living he had most largely sustained with alms, and dying had made heirs by testament. The tenor of the Bull is this:
[13] the Bishop of Antwerp approving them, Brother Ambrose Capello, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Antwerp, to all who shall see these greeting in the Lord. Since the bodies left on earth of the elect citizens of the triumphant Church and their other remains, to be ornaments of the militant Church, defenses of cities against visible and invisible enemies, incitements of public piety, and by right reason and innumerable experiments and the use of all ages it is proved: we cannot but embrace with peculiar benevolence and charity those, who piously preserve such sacred treasures, legitimately expose them to public veneration, and what conduces to enlarging their cult daily with a singular zeal of piety pursue and care for. Since therefore as much on the part of the very Reverend D. Francis Diericx of the Cistercian Order Abbot of the Monastery of St. Saviour in this city, and his venerable Convent, as on the part of the most noble man and Lord John Baptist van Horenbeke, Knight Toparch of Alsingen and Receiver general of the Royal dominions in the Duchy of Brabant, and also the eminent protector of the Confraternity of the XXXVI Saints in the church of the aforesaid monastery by us instituted, there was set forth to us, that the most illustrious and Most Reverend D. Peter de Walenburg Bishop of Mysia, Suffragan of the Most Serene and Most Reverend Prince Maximilian Duke of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne, and Prince of Liège and Elector, and in Pontificals acting in his stead &c. to the aforesaid D. Abbot and the devout Religious there, and their church of St. Saviour graciously in perpetuity gave a single round bone, hollow within, and without fortified with his Episcopal seal, of St. Gregory the great Pope; likewise a part of a bone and another part of a lesser rib of St. Marculphus the Abbot; likewise a notable part from the chin of St. Lucy the Virgin and Martyr of Syracuse, in which were before conspicuous five or six teeth of the same Saint, all notable parts, formerly recognized and approved by various Prelates of the Holy Roman Church, of which approbation and donation the original instrument, duly (as below) sealed and subscribed, word for word sounds, as here we insert.
[14] as given by the Suffragan of Cologne, Peter de Walenburg, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Mysia, Suffragan of my Most Serene Lord Maximilian Duke of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne and Prince of Liège, and Elector, to the very Reverend and Most Ample Lord D. Francis Diericx, Abbot of the monastery of St. Saviour of the Cistercian Order, and his devout Religious in the City and Diocese of Antwerp, greeting in the Lord. Your merits toward us, the probity of your life, the ancient familiarity in Christ,
nay even most of all the zeal and industry of studies and of the orthodox religion, by which lately against the heterodox, the credibility of the holy relics and the ancient veneration of all ages with a happy pen thou hast demonstrated, have impelled us, that we have always endeavored to pursue Thee with a special favor and love. But since now for a long time there have remained with us most worthily certain true and genuine Relics of the bones of St. Gregory the Great the supreme Pontiff, according to the quantity and situation depicted in the margin, whose feast is venerated in the Church on the IV of the Nones or the XII day of March, likewise of St. Marculphus the Abbot of Nant of the Order of St. Benedict in Gaul, whose chief feast is annually venerated on the very Kalends of May, but the first translation made by St. Audoenus Prelate of Rouen, is there venerated on the second Sunday of November, although in February it sufficiently happened miraculous: thirdly when by the death of our predearest brother by birth the Bishop of Adrianople, there devolved to us two parts of the bones of St. Lucy the Virgin and Martyr of Syracuse, whose feast is annually venerated in the Church on the day December XIII, the first and nobler from the chin in which were conspicuous five or six teeth, we took, the other from the lesser shin with us still existing. We therefore in regard of your aforesaid merits, the single round bone, hollow within and without fortified with our Episcopal seal, of the aforesaid St. Gregory the great Pope; likewise a part of a bone and another part of a lesser rib of the aforesaid St. Marculphus the Abbot, both fortified with our Episcopal seal; likewise the first and nobler part of the chin, in which were five or six teeth, as above we have described, strengthened with our seal, of the aforesaid St. Lucy the Virgin and Martyr, to Thee, most Ample man, according to the situation and quantity in the margin of these delineated or depicted, and to the holy church of St. Saviour in perpetuity we give; that they, among the other pledges of the sacred Relics, for the public veneration of the faithful and the confiding invocation of the Saints may find a place with you. declaring whence the parts of SS. Gregory were received,
[15] Since therefore the aforesaid relics of St. Gregory truly the Great, by Paul V the supreme Pontiff in the year 1606 at Rome were taken and reserved, from the Sacred Vatican Basilica, which is called the Church of St. Peter, which for true and genuine the same most worthy Pontiff gave to the Most Eminent Lord Francis Presbyter Cardinal of the Title of St. Calixtus de la Rochefoucauld, Bishop of Clermont &c. in the year 1610; and the same sacred part of the Relics designated, as sufficiently recognized and approved, afterward came into the hands of one of the most illustrious Chigi family; so we certify, that this felicity befell us that the Most Illustrious Lord Fabius Chigi, in the quality of Bishop of Neretum and Legate a latere of the Apostolic See, and Nuncio to the Tract of the Rhine, gave the same to us as such in the year 1652. Moreover we certify that our brother by birth, D. Adrian de Walenburg, Bishop of Adrianople of pious memory, the aforesaid two parts of the bones of St. Lucy the Virgin and Martyr aforesaid, and of Lucy, in the year 1653 recognized and approved received, and by a munificent gift had, from the sacred hands of the same Most Illustrious Lord Fabius Chigi Bishop of Neretum as above: who on the word of his eminent dignity protested, that he had had them for true and genuine by gift from two illustrious Nobles of the Republic and State of the Venetians conspicuous in dignity and in all faith; as also we declare that the same until now have remained inviolate with us.
[16] likewise of St. Marculphus. But concerning the aforesaid Relics of St. Marculphus the Abbot we declare it to be established by a very ancient and continuous tradition, that St. Audoenus the Prelate of Rouen in the year of Christ 677 transported them to Cologne, while between the Austrasians and Franks contending and warring he confirmed the concord of peace. Whence also by deserved right, from the very ancient and all-faith-worthy testimony of Lord Hildeboldus, Arch-chaplain of the sacred Palace and of Charlemagne the King, given about the year 800, we declare it to be established, that the aforesaid sacred Relics of St. Marculphus are separated from the same true and genuine bones of the same Saint, which in the preceding centuries first at Corbeny, then at Mantes and Troyes in the Church of St. Stephen translated in parts, in the same places are exposed to the public veneration of the faithful of Christ, and shine with innumerable wondrous signs (especially in Gaul). Given at Cologne in our Episcopal House, on the day August XXII, in the year of the incarnate Word one thousand six hundred seventy-five above, under the signature of our own hand and of our Secretary ordinary, and the impression of the lesser seal, and the same with which the Relics above given and approved were signed. In faith of which premises &c. It was signed P. De Walenburg, Bishop of Mysia. A little below, By mandate of my Most Reverend Lord, John Cornelius Huberti Secretary: and it was sealed with the lesser seal of the same Reverend D. Bishop: but in the margin were depicted the said holy Relics, according to the form and quantity, as by us they are enclosed, recognized, and sealed, and even now remain.
[17] We therefore from this clear, and all-faith-worthy testimony of the Bishop of Mysia, [first also granting indulgences of 4 days to those visiting them on their Feasts.] and the original instrument of donation and approbation, considering the most ancient and in the Church accustomed tradition of the aforesaid sacred Relics through many centuries of the incarnate Word, made through the men above named, constituted also in the supreme ecclesiastical state and degree of dignity; then with a devout mind recollecting the supreme merits with God of so eminent Saints in Christ; at the same time seriously weighing, that those honors which are paid to the holy and elect of God in the militant Church, through the pious and confiding invocation of the Saints, redound to the glory of Almighty God and the utility of the Church and the spiritual fruit of those invoking. For that reason the aforesaid sacred relics respectively of SS. Gregory the Pope, Marculphus the Abbot, and St. Lucy the Virgin and Martyr (as in the instrument inserted in these are designated in parts) a due examination going before recognizing anew, by the tenor of these for true and genuine we approve, and as thus recognized and approved we declare. Then, that the devotion of the faithful toward the said Saints, to the glory of the supreme Divinity may be more intently increased, to all the faithful of Christ, visiting the aforesaid church of St. Saviour on the annual feast of any of the three Saints &c. an indulgence of 40 days, according to the form accustomed by our mother the Church, in the Lord we confer. Moreover we make faith, that the above-written conspicuous parts of the sacred Relics inserted in the instrument, with our lesser seal within were diminished by us, placed and closed in three distinct little chests, also expressly fortified with our Episcopal seal, that the inviolate credibility of the same may always remain in the Church. In faith and strength of all which we have commanded these to be fortified with our own hand and our greater seal and the signature of the Secretary, at Antwerp in our Episcopal palace, on the day June XV, in the year one thousand six hundred seventy-six. signed Ambrose Bishop of Antwerp. A little below, By mandate of my aforesaid Most Reverend Lord. P. de Bisthoven Secretary.
Thus far the instrument of Approbation, described by mandate of the aforesaid Most Ample Abbot: who deservedly would with us wish to see expressed the very testimony of Hildeboldus of Cologne cited before, on account of its venerable antiquity.