ON ST. THEODARD OR AUDARD,
ARCHBISHOP OF NARBONNE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 893
PrefaceTheodard, or Audard, Archbishop of Narbonne in Gaul (St.)
G. H.
[1] Two Cities of the Gauls venerate St. Theodard, or Autard, with celebrated cult: Narbonne, which had him as Archbishop; and Montauban, which place in antiquity was called Mons-Aureolus, Sacred cult where there was a most ancient Abbey under the name of St. Martin, built as is related by the parents of St. Theodard, as below in the Life num. 24 is written. Hither sick he withdrew, and from death was buried: whence also, the name being changed, it was called the Abbey of St. Theodard: and then erected into an Episcopal See by Pope John XXII in the year 1317, as is known from the Extravagant Salvator, where the vulgate reading needs emendation, and for Theodori is to be restored Theodardi, after Catel soon to be named notes Antonius Dadinus Altaserra, of the affairs of Aquitaine book 1 chapter 8. Its Cathedral Church is still dedicated to St. Martin: and in it is said the sacred body of St. Theodard to be hitherto preserved. His memory is on these Kalends of May inscribed in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay in these words: At Montauban St. Theodard Bishop of Narbonne: whose Life was an example of sanctity, a stupor of eloquence, and a miracle of doctrine. Of the same Ferrarius makes mention in the General Catalogue, the Breviary of the Church of Montauban being cited. To the Benedictine Order he is ascribed by Menardus and Bucelinus, and is said in the above-indicated monastery of St. Martin to have served God as a young man, which we have not read elsewhere. The same as a Saint venerate John Chenu, Claude Robert and the Sammarthani in the Catalogue of the Archbishops of Narbonne, William Crucius in the Bishops of Cahors page 49 and elsewhere others.
[2] Some Life, and that fairly long, of St. Theodard, was published in the year 1633 by William Catel in book V of the History of Languedoc or Occitania from page 750, The Life written. which he asserts was found in the old chartulary of Toulouse of the Church of St. Stephen: but toward the end imperfect. But Peter Possin of our Society a man eminent in erudition and humanity, and famous for various published books, when he still dwelt at Toulouse, indicated to us in the year 1642 that he had found a Life of St. Theodard of Narbonne, published here from Catel and the Toulouse MS., not a little fuller than that which Catel published, which at our asking he caused to be transcribed, and the following year transmitted; probably from the library of the Friars Preachers, and from that volume which concerning the Lives of the Saints, by the testimony of the same Catel, once collected Bernard Guido, afterward Bishop of Lodève, dead in the year 1331: for from it taken Altaserra above cited asserts it. We give this Life, but noted with our animadversions, from which the reader will learn many things, as the author premises, partly by reading, partly by relation of the faithful received, not to have been discussed with judgment sufficiently solid: which meanwhile we were unwilling to pass over and to truncate the text, because from this Life by various persons various things have been excerpted and published as sufficiently approved.
[3] What chiefly displease, and therefore are proposed by us only under the title of suspected faith or apocryphal fiction, in it displease the things related concerning the Jews, are two; drawn not so much from the relation of pious faithful, as from the reading of certain supposititious writers (as I think). The first is the cause of the Jews, set forth at Toulouse by St. Theodard, and by him ventilated in judgment, and decided in favor of the Archbishop of Narbonne; for the instructing of which the Saint produced in num. 5 two royal precepts, of Charlemagne namely and of his most glorious son Louis, which could not but have been fictitious, if from them was taken
the historical relation concerning Waifarius conquered and slain by Abderamus the Saracen, and this one driven from the Gauls by Charlemagne. Suspect also is Count Richard, to whom Carloman, wrongly called Emperor, referred the cause, because there is no mention of him among the Counts of Toulouse. But the contention with the Jews proceeds in that manner and with those arguments, which would seem to become a caviller rather than a Christian disputant. We fear therefore lest the whole narration concerning the crime and punishment of the Jews of Toulouse, the reader judge to be a pure and sheer figment, to whose judgment we commit the whole of it.
[4] The other, worthy of graver censures, part is contained in the whole chapter 5, and the Acts of the Synod of Port, relating the Acts of the Synod of Nîmes held in the village called Port, (as Sirmond judges) in the year 886, in the cause of Selva, a Spanish Clergyman who is blamed to have invaded the See of Urgel, Bishop Ingobert being expelled, to have usurped the title of Archbishop of Tarragona, to have brought into the See of Girona against the servant of God a Bishop Ermeninus, relying on the power of Count Sinuarius, and the assent of Frodoinus Bishop of Barcelona: against whom St. Theodard produced the sentence of Pope Stephen, as if passed in the Council of Troyes, [on account of the fictitious sentence of Pope Stephen, concerning the church of Tarragona,] celebrated seven years before Stephen entered the Pontificate. Meanwhile there the Pontiff is feigned to set forth at length, how from the church of Narbonne the church of Tarragona depends, as also the rest of the Spanish ones, commended to the same by the Apostle Paul, when he constituted Sergius Paulus first Bishop at Narbonne: which church of Tarragona, if at some time freed from the Saracen yoke it were restored, the Roman Pontiffs on the said cause commanded to return to the subjection of Narbonne, and to have an Archbishop consecrated only from the hands of the Archbishop of Narbonne, or of him whom he should substitute for himself here.
[5] Francis Diago in the History of the Counts of Barcelona book 2 chapter 19 exhibits a Privilege of Pope John, which subject to Narbonne, at the prayers of Count Borrell uniting the Archiepiscopal title of the Church of Tarragona and the right over all suffragan Bishops, to the Church of Vich, in the person of its then Bishop Otho. That constitution, obnoxious to the suspicion of no fraud, as from the style and other adjuncts appears, because by the manner then in use it is noted only by the character of the Indiction, which then was the 14th, leaves us indeed in doubt, whether it regards the year 971 and John XIII of that name; or rather John XV and the year 86 of the 10th century; neither Pope John, yet making no mention of subjection toward the Church of Narbonne, seems sufficiently to do away with that pretended right of it, nor to acknowledge the Pontifical Privileges, from which Stephen is feigned to have proved it. No more does Gelasius II make mention of that right, in the 1st year of his Pontificate, which was of Christ 1118, nor Gelasius 2 said. confirming by his authority and gifting with the Pallium the Archbishop St. Oldegarius constituted to the city of Tarragona now recovered, as it is allowed to see in his Life on the 6th of March num. 23, where also in num. 19 we gave the Privilege of Raymond of Barcelona and Marquis of the Spains, handing the dominion of the city of Tarragona itself to the Church of Tarragona and its Prelates, who should govern the same Church under the obedience of the Apostolic See, no account being had of Narbonne, which neither in this whole restitution of the Archbishopric was heard or consulted.
[6] The Urgel schism seems to have given cause for the fiction, Tamayo Salazar on the 3rd of October, in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Urgel, speaks of Selva thus, as if not the Archbishopric of Tarragona, but of Narbonne itself he had arrogated to himself, St. Theodard being expelled: which he could have received from this Life, read with too light an eye: but he says that his memory survives even to the year 900 and beyond, namely in the Bishopric of Urgel. Certainly hardly sooner could his next successor Rodulf have entered the Bishopric of Urgel. Hence there is given occasion of suspecting, that when in the year 879 Bissagus Bishop of Urgel had died, the zeal of the Clergy being split, on this side Ingobert was elected, and instituted by Sigebod Archbishop of Narbonne in default of the one of Tarragona, perhaps decided in favor of Narbonne. who was none, as by the Primate of the province, embracing that Spain of Tarragona itself: thence the Spaniard Selva, brought into possession not by the Count of Urgel Sinuarius (for he then perhaps was not yet born) but by his father Guifred, the first of this name, Count of Barcelona: who the same exceeding the limits of his power, without the consent of the Apostolic See transferred to Selva the right and Patriarchal title: whence he presumed to oppose the ordination of the Servant of God, made through St. Theodard, and in his stead to ordain Armemirus Bishop of Girona. But this cause was at length ventilated in the Provincial Synod, and decided in favor of Narbonne; and hence by some fabulist the occasion was seized, of extolling the rights of the Church of Narbonne, by the fiction of a more ancient sentence, unhappy in this, that it confounded the time of the Council of Troyes with the Pontificate of Stephen: to which fiction another superadded the degradation of Selva, and the reconciliation of Count Sinuarius: how ill all these things cohere in the Annotations to Chapter 5 it will be allowed to read.
[7] The author of this compilation, so incongruously sewn together, seems to have been of Narbonne, The author lived before the 14th century nor can he be deferred even to the 14th century. For in num. 35 narrating how St. Theodard, for the redemption of captives and the relief of the public famine, even sold the sacred vessels; he excepts two boxes full inside of the relics of Saints, it was written at least before the 14th century which, he says, our age placed in the years of its boyhood saw: and in num. 54 he widely describes the monastery on the Mount which is called Aureolus, no mention being made of the name of Montauban and the Bishopric erected in the year 1317. Some compendium of the Acts of St. Theodard from an old MS. of Jacob Sirmond Gabriel Cossart transmitted to us from Paris, The MS. Compendium omitted. but which is excerpted from the larger Acts, nor sufficiently worthy that it be either separately, the others being omitted, published; or joined to the same.
[8] In the said Acts Theodard at the beginning is called, afterward more often Audard is written. He is said to have been consecrated Archbishop in the year 885 in num. 25, and to have completed the marble altar erected by him in the year 890, in the 8th Indiction, The time of his See and death. as in num. 30 and 31 it is explained. Meanwhile in the year 887 he was present in the church of St. Mary, at the translation of the relics of St. Antoninus the Martyr on the 13th of the Kalends of July. As the Sammarthani more widely indicate in the Archbishops of Narbonne. For the last three years of his life he labored with a fever, which we number from the year 890 until the year 893, in which we judge him to have departed on these Kalends of May from this Life. For his successor Arnustus presided over the Council of Maguelone on the Nones of May, of the following year 894. But the Aribert who in Catel and the Sammarthani is interposed, to whom Pope Stephen sent a Bull related by Catel, is no other than Arnustus, the name being corrupted by the copyists; but this Stephen, diverse from the one above named, who sat from the year 885 until 890; namely the 7th of this name, by others held the 6th; and sat from the year 896 until the year 900.
LIFE
From the Toulouse MS. and Catel.
Theodard, or Audard, Archbishop of Narbonne in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 8045
FROM MS. AND CATEL.
CHAPTER I.
His birth, studies: the cause of the Jews set forth.
[1] Since therefore by divine, as I believe, disposition it is brought about, that of the most blessed and most learned, and more than can be said most holy man Theodard, Confessor of Christ, and once Archbishop of the Church of Narbonne, in public but faithful speech, and which can easily be understood, we faithfully relate the history; as partly by reading, partly indeed by relation of the faithful we have learned; Sprung from noble lineage, from most noble parents, and illustrious for signal nobility, once by God's bounty begotten, of the Province of Aquitaine, and of the territory too of Toulouse he was a native. For he after the tender and very boyish age of infancy, was as soon as possible handed by each parent to the studies of literal discipline: so that, God and the Lord imparting it, by the very same discipline he might be fully animated to the fear and equally the love of almighty God, and in the divine law always, as is written, imbued with studies, to meditate. Who the years of his boyhood, and also of his adolescence being passed, when now into manly strength by the natural law he had passed, did nothing, as is related, infamous or contrary to sanctity, or whence by other men he should justly be reproved, or in anything reprehended. Psal. 1, 2 For he was by goodness and benignity and the bounty of alms, adorned with all honesty and virtue, also by continual fastings and obsecrations frequently intent; in genius most prudent, in speech polished and purged of all rusticity eloquent, in aspect serene, and in the habitude of his whole body so comely that from the very fitting composition of his members, and the alacrity of his countenance, the benignity of his mind could sufficiently be known; although to the wicked and wholly undisciplined he often showed himself severe, and with the goad of worthy correction argued them. When therefore by these and works of this kind he was so intent, that it was evidently given to all to understand, that he was a true servant of God; dear to all, and that what he did not by human favor or grace, but for the zeal of divine love and the increase of holy religion he took care to exercise; he was held in so great love and veneration of the faithful, both laymen and also Clergy, that all loved him with a wondrous affection of charity, and exhibited to him daily the service of true worship and reverence.
[2] Meanwhile while these things were being done; for there was none who would speak an evil word concerning him; it happened (as by the testimony of certain ones it is related to have been done, and the effect of the same matter hitherto manifestly proves it) that great loss was brought to the Church of Toulouse, and both to the Bishop of that city, and also to all the Clergy and people of it, and was violently agitated. Finally at that time the Jews of the aforesaid city went to c Carloman, King of the Franks, the Jews complaining of an injury inflicted on them before King Carloman, son of Louis the Emperor; and complained that an injury was done them by the Bishop of the already said city, and by all the Clergy and people of it, in buffeting and equally striking thrice a year one of their Advocates, and that they could not bear longer so heavy a yoke imposed on their neck. After this with knee bent and tearful voice they asked of him, that by his authority he would prohibit that to be done, and from so heavy a weight and unjust punishment relieve them by royal institution, and there the succeeding offspring of sons through the single generations, who in the already said city were to remain in perpetual habitation: But if he did this, infinite and very numerous weights of gold and silver they would deliver to him.
[3] To these things the venerable King, and full of the Christian faith, is related to have answered. By the purpose of just deliberation and the precept of Imperial authority, with such and so heavy and wholly insupportable a burden you have always been repressed, and condemned by divine judgment. And as far as pertains to the present business, the decrees of my predecessors how should I utterly root out
and tear up, which by them were established, and strengthened by the seal of their impression? Far be this, and let it never with any stability be confirmed. But lest I seem to set behind clemency and commiseration, and from this the cause of the complaint referred to a Council, and somewhat to decline from just judgment, by which the seats of Kings and Princes their rights are established, and through long times handed to their sons and grandsons are preserved, I will send for the cause of this your complaint a legation, to the most faithful, and industrious cultivator of our majesty and perpetual glory and Duke of the province of Aquitaine d Richard, who by his patronage against the Bishop of your city, and against all your adversaries may so long fortify you, and from their violence and oppression protect you, until by certain examination he approve, whether by royal edict this be established and confirmed, whence you greatly demand by tearful petition my help; or whether by the wicked daring of Bishops and Clergy, or of the citizens of the aforesaid city it was done, that on your neck so heavy and so insupportable a yoke the King unconsulted was imposed. But that over this clamor of your grave complaint anything be done unjustly, I will command the mentioned Duke Richard, that an Assembly of the Bishops of e Septimania and Aquitaine being gathered in the aforesaid city of Toulouse, the most reverend Archbishop of the Church of Narbonne f Sigebod presiding over the same venerable Council, in whose diocese the oft-said Toulouse is known to be situated, by their just judgment it be terminated, what is to be done concerning the complaints of the Jews. For I will not rashly judge or define anything concerning Ecclesiastical causes. But you depart as soon as possible, and go back to your city: for I will send my legate to the aforesaid Duke, that he be zealous to fulfill the things said, and omit to do nothing of these. Which was done, and diligently as the King had commanded and at an opportune time fulfilled.
[4] And when that Council was strenuously held at Toulouse in the hall of the Pontifical Church, and there was there a great frequency of the faithful and of the Jews, and on each part, the very cause for which they had come together there, with sagacious discussion was ventilated; the Jews saying, that unjustly there had once been imposed on them by the Bishops of that city the burden of striking and buffeting them; and on the contrary the Christians contradicting that it was not so, but that by just judgment they were condemned to such a punishment. Since neither part of them yielded to their adversaries, there rose, the Bishop of the aforesaid city g Bernard assenting, the already said Theodard of excellent disposition, St. Theodard having asked the faculty of speaking, and with his hand indicating silence said: If the loftiness of Pontifical glory bid it, and especially of the Lord Sigebod the Archprelate, and besides of the great Duke of this country and province Richard, who discharging the Royal turns presides over this great council, the author equally and disposer of those things, which by the King were commanded to be done, and by the Bishops with diligent care to be investigated concerning the complaints of the Jews, and concerning the intolerable damage inflicted on the Bishop of this city, by truthful and from the bond of all ambiguity loosed discourse I will convince in your sight that they cause unjustly, and that sufficiently undeservedly an injury against the Bishop is stirred up, and the pertinacity of the complaint by reasonable allegation God helping I will now make to desist and wholly to cease.
[5] Which when to all the faithful who were present had greatly pleased, and they said one by one; So be it, the Archbishop and Duke bidding, that same blessed young man Theodard brought forth before all two royal precepts, as is related, of Charlemagne namely, and of his most glorious son Louis, and noted diligently with the certain impression of their seals, in which it was written: that for this reason by the same Emperors with such a punishment, and such a vengeance they had been condemned, because before the rest who were in the whole world those Jews, who at that time dwelt at Toulouse, [he shows that Abderamus King of the Saracens by the persuasion of the Jews broke into the Gauls,] not compelled, but of their own accord went to Abderamus King of the Saracens, and by many persuasions to this animated him, that hostilely coming with his whole army he should destroy all the multitude of the Christians even to extermination, and so their kingdoms and regions should subjugate to his dominion in perpetuity, as he had now subjugated all Spain and i Iberia, and Hesperia, and all the borders of the same regions. It was contained moreover in the same royal precepts, that for this cause came the aforesaid King of the Saracens, and took all the land, and all the regions from the Pyrenean mountains even to Lyons, and slaughtered all the people of the Christians with the sword, except a few who scarcely could escape his sword and persecution, by fleeing into foreign nations. But the Princes and noble by birth, and all the warriors who against him bore arms; he condemned with an atrocious and wholly dishonorable death, as many of them as he could take alive. For at that time the Duke of Gascony and Aquitaine, and especially the President and Lord of the city of Toulouse l Waifarius was by the right of battle conquered by him, and slain with his whole army, and not long after the already said City of Toulouse was besieged and taken, and the sons of the aforesaid Prince were slain with the rest who were found in the same city, except only the Jews, who had made a pact before with the aforesaid King of the Saracens for the sake of living, and of freely dwelling together in the oft-said city of Toulouse. Which also they did until the reign of the great King of the Franks Charles, who compelled the aforesaid Abderamus conquered in three great battles to flee, with a few who from the battle remained wounded and made him return m into Spain, whence proudly he had gone forth.
[6] After these things therefore when the cities, towns, castles the aforesaid Charles had taken, which before by the Saracens had been invaded; taken and retained in his own right, the Saracen inhabitants of them being slain, he handed to the cultivators of the Christian or Catholic faith: [and therefore these being driven out by Charlemagne them marked with ignominy and punishment.] who then going to Toulouse, having found that the Jews its inhabitants had done in striking a treaty with the Saracens, and betraying the same city while it was besieged; he adjudged them all to be worthy of death. But when all they with their sons and wives, their tunics torn, and ashes sprinkled on their heads, had come forth to meet him; asking commiseration and life from him, and with clamorous voices saying: Render not to us according to our malice by which death we are worthy, but according to your benignity and mercy, by which we believe yet to live; the King bent to mercy, only those who had been the authors of the mentioned pact he condemned to death, but those who had given assent, but had not been present at the aforesaid pact, under the condition of such a punishment to live, and in the same city to dwell he permitted, so that through each year one each, both of themselves and of their successors, a Jew, on the day of the Lord's Nativity and his passion and on the day of the Assumption of St. Mary, should be buffeted before the doors of that church, where the Bishop of the same city should bid, with one only blow of a strong man, a weight of three pounds of wax being first offered for the census. There was moreover this also subscribed in the same volume: That this so holy and so just and ever-memorial condition, nay royal constitution, signed with the impression of the royal seal, and besides by the subscription of many Bishops under the bond of anathema by such institution confirmed, that no one of Kings or Princes, or of whatsoever condition, sex, or age should dare or presume to dissolve it, or in anything whatever violate it, which whoever should do, let him know himself to be condemned to eternal vengeance and to have no part in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The disputation with the Jews of suspect faith.
[7] And when by the blessed and holy man Theodard these royal precepts had been read through in the sight of the whole Council, and all the Jews who were present had been astonished, not having what to answer to them;
there rose the mentioned Duke, who was the Advocate of the abovesaid King Carloman, and said to the Archbishop and the rest of the Bishops who were with him: Lo, Lord Priests and Pontiffs, the statutes of the Holy Emperors, and why this was done whence the Jews complained before the King and hitherto complain, from the very reading which has just been recited you well know what to you thence may seem, to discourse with most right judgment. To this all answered together and said: Far be this from us, that against this Imperial and right and most just sanction we oppose anything contrary: the Jews denying that the offenses of the fathers are to be imputed to them, for who is so wicked and a perpetual enemy of almighty God, who would dare anything of these to violate or tear up? Which heard, the Jews said that judgment was not rightly made for them, nor ought it to stand at all in perpetuity, because if their Fathers incurred so great an offense, their sons too it was established became immune from their iniquity: according to what is written; The son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father, and, The Father shall not bear the iniquity of the son, but the justice of the just shall be upon him, and the impiety of the impious shall be upon him. Ezech. 18, 20 Otherwise this decree is by just examination proved wholly frivolous and unstable: especially since the Lord in the law foretold our race to be punished not with such a judgment or punishment when the other things which were to come upon us he had set forth one by one through Moses his servant.
[8] Which heard, the excellent man Theodard is related to have answered: Since once I have begun, I will speak still, and by the following discourse I will refute, that the Jews do great injury to the Pontiff of this city, nor ought they to be heard over the complaint of this matter: for they are at leisure for this that by importunate garrulity the honor due to God they may supplant and wholly trample under foot: whence there is no doubt but that they are to be condemned with that punishment, with which their law most rightly commands them to be condemned, because they bring forth the testimonies of their law in the sight of the whole Council. And when one of the Advocates of the Jews, I know not who, said to him, would that this were done and we were judged according to the institutes of our law, and nothing of evil except what the law commands were inflicted on us; B. Theodard answered and said to him: Do you wish that according to the precepts of your law you be judged? We wish, they say, and exceedingly we wish, and that it be done with suppliant obsecration we beseech; for it is not just nor weighed with a just balance, that innocent sons be struck for a crime, or be hurt by paternal things, as a little above we have brought forth, The son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father. and them wishing to be judged according to their own law. Such a thing also in the law concerning the same matter is written, The Father shall not be slain for the son, or the son for the Father; but each shall be punished with his own guilt: otherwise therefore with no rectitude or stability will your judgment against us be able to be worthy; because the judgment of almighty God by human will and the censure of your deliberation you wholly despise, and esteem as nothing and void, what he by his own mouth commanded to be done. Deut. 24, 16 Which since it is so, let the great Duke and all the Princes and satellites who are with him know that we again go to the King, and bewail before him the injury, which you inflict on us against his precept: since by an unjust judgment you judge and condemn us; for we are Jews, not Christians, and to us and our parents through himself almighty God promulgated a faithful law, according to which we wish to be judged, because it is good and holy, and always faithfully by our whole nation to be kept. For that our law is good and holy, a certain one of the cultivators of your faith said: The law indeed good and holy, and the commandment just and good. And the Psalmist: The law (he says) of the Lord is irreprehensible: for what cannot be reprehended, there is no doubt but that it is good. Rom. 7. 12, Psal. 18. 8 But concerning you our holy and faithful Prophet says: Among the Gentiles there is no law: therefore if among you there is no law, as neither among any Gentiles which are under heaven except the Jews, who always observe the divine law, how according to your will and not according to the authority of the divine law do you unjustly judge us? Since that law is so good, that Christ himself yours of the same said, I came not to dissolve the law, but to fulfill. Matth. 5, 17
[9] When therefore, as is related, with a long protraction of words the Jew, as he was skilled in speaking, had perorated these and many things of this kind; B. Theodard said to him, instructed especially in divine and equally liberal studies of letters: Theodard judges it should be conceded, The importunity of Jewish perfidy, to God equally and to men always rebellious, today through you has burst into so great insolence, that you say the Christians have no law, since your law has been by right taken away from you on account of the malice of your zeal, and to us Christians more fully and more perfectly than to you or your parents handed; Theodard judges it should be conceded, according to what once the Lord in the Gospel speaks saying; The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth its fruits. The same thing both the lawgiver Moses and the rest of the Prophets and writers of the Hagiographa after him, by many and diverse documents of the Scriptures, much before they were done, by the divine spirit brought forth: whence if it please the Archprelate, and his other fellow-Bishops, and besides the Duke and Princes and also his satellites and all this Synodal frequency, let all this Jewish people merit to obtain what intently it demands, and says injury to be done it if it be not judged according to its own law: for I, if it please God and you, will be your pleader equally and arbiter in these things, and all the trouble and all the injury of disputing by the license of your bidding I alone will most willingly bear. Matt. 21. 43
[10] Which when it had pleased all the favorers of the Christian part, and it was established by the decree of the elders, especially of the Duke, that it be done; B. Theodard addressed the Jews with such words; Say, I pray, Jews, always enemies of the Christian faith to your knowing and being able and perpetual adversaries, whether either according to that judgment you wish to be judged, by which your law commanded each one whether just or unjust, while still your Fathers inhabited the land of promise handed to them by the Lord, to be judged; or otherwise after they were placed in a hostile land, in which also you still abide, and indeed so that they themselves should choose judges for themselves: their viperine brood and progeny? Who said; We prefer indeed to be judged by that judgment, by which our Fathers while still placed in their own region were judged, than hitherto servants by the judgment of enemies, and erected by no liberty, or dismissed to do what we will. And B. Theodard: So, he said, let it be done as you greatly demand: Choose from yourselves wise and knowing men, who may justly judge you, since none of foreigners ought to judge you according to the precept of your law. And the Jews to these things; Good is what you assert, and you decree today and propose with right judgment. To which also B. Theodard: If it is good (he said) what you say, why do you not strive to fulfill it? Hasten therefore to do this, since this whole great Council is greatly vexed for the cause of this matter, and wearied with long laboriousness withdraws, not able with equanimity to tolerate the delays of so great a deferral: especially since now the day verges into evening, and the author of light declining and headlong sinks very much into the setting.
[11] To these things the Jews are said to have answered: We know indeed that the day now declined grows toward evening; to which being brought up to the morrow being given, and therefore if we begin to judge, and with certain judgment to define over this business by which we complain of our oppression, that which you bestow on us to be judged, we shall not be able today to bring to a perfect end; since (as has been said) the sun hastens to set, and to withdraw the rays of its light from the gaze of our sight with most swift velocity, and it is not opportune that under the smallness of this so brief a little day it be discussed: for so great and so nefarious a judicial crisis we shall not be able, in disputing against you enemies, easily to dissolve. Wherefore if it please the Duke and the other Princes, let this prolixity of acting be deferred to the morrow; and let there be given us a place within the precinct of our Synagogue for judging, since within the enclosures of your Church we ought neither to treat, nor to dispute, nor even to have any place of habitation. For although we are exiles and pilgrims, and placed far from the site and borders of our land; yet by royal bestowal once to our parents by hereditary right a place was handed within the walls of this city, in which hitherto is built the synagogue of our work, where also we daily pay to God the due vows of praises and prayers, and immense thanks to him as is fitting always render with bowed worship. when in their synagogue about to judge they themselves had sat down, With these and assertions of this kind long perorated, the Duke yielded to their petitions, and also of all the men who had come together the general crowd most willingly gave assent to their words: whence it was done that on the morrow according to the agreement no small multitude of peoples of each sex ran together, that how the same matter, and the event of the same matter stood, they might fully desire to know. The Jews therefore in the hall of their synagogue prepared for the Duke and the Princes who were with him not a few seats, covered with diverse coverings of ornaments; but for the Bishops, and their Clergy of diverse order, they allowed and adorned no little place of session for them in sitting; although their Official ministers brought with them the Pontifical canopies, and for their fellow-Bishops set up in opportune places arranged for sitting, as the matter itself by right demanded. But the Jews, at the entrance of their gates, and beside the doors of the aforesaid synagogue, brought for the Judges of their nation palled chairs, each of them being brought, and the judicial books being placed on each architrave, by which, according to what was written contained in them, those Judges believed they decreed all things, and by their judgment freely determined.
[12] And when now the time was at hand for performing the business of the same matter; the oft-said Duke Richard is related to have said to the Bishops who were present: Lo, most glorious Pontiffs, the opportune time now presses for acting, on account of which we all have come together here, the judicial examination of the Jews long protracted by us. Now also since the matter itself demands, and the congruous time of exercising it presses, lest more prolixly the cause of the Bishop of this city and of the Jews be deferred by any deferral, we earnestly pray. To whom when the Bishops also forthwith had answered that it be done; by the precept of the Bishops B. Theodard is said immediately to have risen, he commands the accused and their accusers to be brought: and to have stood in the midst of all, and so to have addressed the Jews. I see, I say, I see, O Jews, your Judges constituted on each side of your gates and in the very gates also; but I do not see the persons of the accused, who are to be judged by you, except only the men of your nation: whence it is expedient for you, that those who are to be judged by them, be presented by you together with their accusers and witnesses, who well know the crimes, whence by your Judges they are deservedly to be acquitted or condemned. And the Jews answering to this said: The accused therefore, whom you say are to be judged by our Judges, are you, who unjustly inflict persecution on us, and all who depress us continually with so heavy a yoke of servitude. To which the venerable Theodard is handed down to have answered: What law commands, or what edict, that Jews judge Christians, and by judicial decree subject them to themselves? unless perhaps that of the Psalmist be fulfilled, by which it is said, Because two-edged swords are to be borne by you to do vengeance on the Gentiles, and chastisements on the peoples, to bind their Kings in fetters, and their nobles in iron manacles. Ps. 149. 6 Which if it is so, judge the present Duke and all his Princes, and exercise on them vengeance for the evils, by which unjustly they have depressed you and afflicted you with diverse punishments, and then bind the King in fetters and all his nobles.
[13] Which heard the Jews answered: The vengeance, which is to be exercised by us, is to be done not on one only King or Prince, them answering that the accused are the Christians, but on the Kings and Princes of the whole world. But what you say, that no Christian was judged by our parents or by our nation, read the books of the Gospel, and you will find perhaps, that not only the rest of the Christians, but even your Christ was judged and his Disciples, and condemned to death, and slain by a most hard death, but the rest were expelled from the borders of our land by the judgment of our parents and Princes. Which when the Duke and his Princes had heard, they said: With your own mouth you have just spoken, whence you are worthy of burning and diverse torments. But lest we seem to bring injury upon you, or against the King's decree to machinate anything unjustly against you, judge whom you will and by your judgment condemn them. And when on the Bishop of that city, and all his Clergy they wished to retort the judgment, and said that they were worthy of the same punishment, with which they themselves also had depressed the Jews; B. Theodard is related to have said: Where does this your law command that you inflict retaliation on us for the punishments, by which as you say you were afflicted once by us? And the Jews: Does not our law say that the guilty are to be punished with the same punishment, with which they themselves also afflicted others, as is that; Eye for eye, tooth for tooth and the rest, which follow? otherwise the judgment cannot be right, unless you receive such things, as you inflicted on us and our parents. Lev. 24. 20
[14] To which also B. Theodard says: I know, he said, and well I know, that this law was promulgated only to the men of your nation: further to no gentile, to no uncircumcised, to no one alien from the religion of your faith was it given. he denies that these are subject to their law, For the men of our faith, namely Christians, ought in no way to be judged by this your law, since they are not placed within the regions of your land, nor after your manner cut with a little knife or circumcised, just as neither are they accustomed to bear the yoke of your law: especially since yesterday, in the sight of the Duke and all the Bishops who were present and the whole Council, you said, that we have no law, and this very thing by Prophetic testimony you attempted to affirm, by saying, Among the Gentiles there is no law. If therefore according to your testimony we have no law, how shall we be subject to your legal judgment? and the yoke, which neither we nor your Fathers could bear, shall we suffer to be imposed on our necks? especially since the Apostle says, Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers. 2 Cor. 6. 14 But that you are unbelievers, and have lied to almighty God, and continual prevaricators of that law (whence also by Mosaic curses you are ensnared, but that these themselves according to it are to be punished sevenfold, and wholly entangled) not only the Law, and the context of the Prophecies and Psalms, but also the penal effect of the same matter evidently shows. For if this yoke, whence sedulously you sound out a complaint to the King and Duke with clamorous voices, we should wish to take literally, not only with one blow of a strong man, but also for each one of those seven buffets shall be impressed on you; according to what in your law is written the Lord saying, I will increase your punishments sevenfold against you walking contrary to me. Lev. 26. 21
[15] These and allegations of this kind being perorated by B. Theodard, the Duke (as is related) said to the Jews: Let us hear what to these things your controversy may oppose. And the Jews, These things indeed, they say, in our land the Lord justly for our sins threatened to inflict on us: but now, because we are in a hostile land, such punishments or torments ought not to be inflicted on us. To these things the Duke angry against the Jews is said to have brought forth: I wonder greatly at the importunity of Jewish perfidy; for they suppliantly, and with mournful groans besought me, that they might be judged within the enclosure of their synagogue by that judgment, by which according to the decree of their law, when in their own land not yet exiles they were judged; which not only I willingly granted them to do, but also the Judges and Censors themselves of those things whereof they complained to be constituted; who when they thought to subject to their judgment the men of our faith, and saw that none ought to be judged by that censure except the men of their nation, because according to the precept of their law the Jews were judged in their own land; but not the Christians, because by no pact of faith are they joined to them, and always strangers from the yoke of their law and from the society of their mutual love; they complain that there is not given them faculty of avenging on the Bishop of this city and his Clergy and all the people, by whom with worthy punishment hitherto they have been chastised. Who since they have no just allegation, whence from themselves they may shake off the due punishments of buffeting, nor what by accusing ours and excusing themselves they may object to them; since sevenfold to them the Jews diverse punishments are to be increased according to the scriptures of their law; I will send concerning them, and their wicked perfidy a legation to the Emperor, and what has been done, or how in judging them, which yet that it be not done he is besought, and what by ours has been objected (for neither will I omit to make known to him what they said all hearing, that Judges by Christian right they ought to be made, who their Christ and Lord by their judgment judged and condemned, as guilty of death by the punishment of the cross) that what over these things is to be done, by his royal edict he may determine.
[16] And when now the matter was at hand that by the precept of the Duke the same legation should be written, and the Jews struck with too great terror became bloodless; prostrate at the knees and feet of the Bishops, that they would mercifully succor them, by obtaining indulgence for them from the Duke; moved at length by their weepings they went to him asking, that he would let them, bound by that same punishment, by which by the Emperors before they had been condemned, live under silence and tranquility. Who when all had gone to the Duke, that they might obtain mercy from him for the Jews, and he himself was unwilling to give them assent; B. Theodard is related to have said to him: In this, provided they now confess that they are justly punished. Lord and most clement Duke, you ought to acquiesce to the Bishops asking, if something to the glory of almighty God from your aforesaid purpose be added to the punishment of the Jews. For it will be memorial, and to all Christians not a little acceptable, that he who is to be buffeted the Jew, before he be struck with the fist, before all standing around shall thrice say to himself with raised voice: Well indeed and justly enough was it decreed, that the necks of the Jews be subjected to the fists of the Christians, because they would not be subject to Jesus Christ the Nazarene, God of Gods and Lord of Lords. But if he will not, let him be struck seven times, that there be fulfilled what in their law is written, I will increase your punishments sevenfold against you walking contrary to me: for if you do this, it will be for you for eternal memory, and the reward of eternal salvation. The same moreover that by no oblivion it be effaced, let it be impressed on a sheet, and carried to the King, and by his decree nonetheless be handed to parchment, and by the most certain impression of his seal be sealed. Which when it had pleased the Duke and the whole Council, these things comprehended in letters were sent to the King. And when to him also that which had been done concerning the Jews had greatly pleased, it was written by his precept, and diligently sealed, and also sent back to the Duke, for the sake of this matter, that being again handed over to the Pontifical treasuries, it might safely there be preserved in perpetual testimony.
ANNOTATIONS.
c The same, enemies.
CHAPTER III.
The ordination as Archdeacon, Priest, and Archbishop of Narbonne.
[17] Led to Narbonne, Meanwhile while these things were being done, and the Council being dissolved each returned to his own; it happened that the aforesaid Archbishop went back to Narbonne, leading with him the mentioned venerable young man Theodard; because he was, as is handed down, in heart and body holy, and instructed greatly, as has been abovesaid, in divine and secular letters, and eloquent in both literal and also vulgar speech. After therefore the venerable man oft-said Theodard came to Narbonne, together with Sigebod the Archimandrite aforesaid; so great grace the Lord conferred on him, that by all the inhabitants of the same city he was loved with a special love, and continually always cultivated with honor. But not long after when by all he was loved with too great affection, and he himself sweated at good works; it happened that a certain Archdeacon of the aforesaid Archpontiff migrated from the light of this life, and paid the tribute of fate God disposing it. He being dead by all the Clergy of the Church of the holy Martyrs Justus and Pastor, and all the people of the already said city of Narbonne, the Archbishop being first animated to do this, he is sought to undertake the headship of the Diaconate, who hitherto, as is related, he is created Archdeacon; discharged only the office of the Subdiaconate. The blessing of the Diaconate equally and the office being received, into so great exuberance of goodness and benignity he burst, that that treasure of clemency and continual piety, which long in the hidden places of his heart he had concealed, from the purpose of pious devotion to all he made known.
[18] From that time therefore in which he undertook the headship of the Diaconate, as if light brought forth from darkness, the brightness
of his innate piety he poured out scatteredly upon all. he exercises charity toward God and neighbor; What poor man, what widow, or what orphan, or what stranger, guest or pilgrim, also infirm or weak, or hurt in any member of the body there was, to whom he did not, as he was able, mercifully exhibit help? and to whom did he not from the strength of his own substance procure necessaries? Finally when by these and works of this kind he was always so given to good works, that deservedly if he wished, like blessed Job, he could truly say; I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame; the pilgrim did not stay outside, and my door was open to the traveler; to this (so to speak) increase of faith and religion he grew up, that almighty God in all things and through all things, and beyond all things, he intently loved, and to obey his precepts unceasingly insisted. Job. 29, 15 For passing the night in vigils and prayers he led almost all the nights sleepless, while on the single days also the hours, by Canonical disposition limited to the praise of God by sevenfold determination according to the horological designation, so skilfully the most diligent observer of the hours observed, that he yielded to no necessities but that at the opportune time he prayed to the Lord with bent knee in the name of Jesus Christ, whether he were resting, or were a traveler, fulfilling that of the Psalmist, Seven times in the day I have given praise to thee; and again, Lord God of my salvation in the day I have cried and in the night before thee. Ps. 118. 64, Psal. 87. 2
[19] Why many words? When he most religiously observed the office of the Diaconate, and the Evangelical sacrament enjoined on him exercised; it pleased again the Clergy together with the people, but especially the Archbishop, that he be advanced to the Sacerdotal honor. But he when he said himself unworthy, he is ordained Priest: and that it could in no way be, that so holy and so mystical an office, divinely once handed to holy and most just men, he should undertake except unwilling, compelled by the exhortation of the whole people and Clergy, but especially of the Archbishop, the Sacerdotal summit at length he attained. The dignity therefore of the Priesthood being received, what kind of man, and how holy, and how religious toward the worship of God he unceasingly was, no speech of my mouth avails to unfold. For when far and wide he greatly prevailed in good works, and his fame went forth into foreign nations; the aforesaid Duke, of whom we have made mention above, Richard, and of excellent nobility Hugo c Abbot of St. Saturninus Bishop and Martyr, the former by words, the latter by letters, besought the mentioned Sigebod frequently, that if in any diocese of Septimania it should happen anyone of the Bishops his suffragans to die, in his place he would substitute the most learned man St. Theodard. But by divine disposition it was brought about that none of the Bishops in the aforesaid Province breathed his last breath; and esteemed worthy of the Episcopate, until of divine memory the frequently aforenoted Sigebod rendered to him his spirit, who had given it; and his body according to the precept of the threatening agreement returned to the perishing matter, whence it had been taken.
[20] He indeed being withdrawn from this temporal life and handed to the eternal, there come together the Cathedral Bishops of the aforesaid See and Church, namely Gisloranus d of the Church of Carcassonne, and Agilbert e of Béziers, to Narbonne: and all the peculiars of the deceased Pontiff and of the already said Church, namely the treasure and books, and the diverse ornaments of the oft-said Church, they diligently sought out; and a description being made of all the things pertaining to the same Church which they had found, the Archbishop of Narbonne Theodald being dead, again to those to whom before they had been entrusted nonetheless under caution in the sight of the Clergy and people they were zealous to commend them. But after these things, as the matter itself necessarily demanded, the supernal clemency inspiring, God and our Lord Jesus Christ helping, generally the whole Church of Narbonne, namely the Clergy and the nobler Laics, the middling also and the common people, with one mind and the same desire choose for themselves B. Theodard the Archpriest about to be profitable as Pontiff and Pastor. When therefore still the venerable aforesaid Bishops were at Narbonne within the church of the holy Martyrs Justus and Pastor, who had therefore come together that they might visit the same place, because that church by its most noble man, as has been aforesaid, was widowed; they called the Clergy and all the people of that city into the already aforenoted See, that if there were found there, Christ leading, a prudent and holy man, who so great a burden could bear, and so great a people rule and govern, they should declare it; supported by the royal authority before, and having in writing in the present concerning this of the most exalted Abbot Hugo, and also of Richard the Marquis, and the Envoy of the same Princes Agilbert the venerable Bishop.
[21] Finally these things being duly perorated by the Bishops, the most glorious Bishop Gisleranus ascending the ambo, set forth to all the people of the city according to the authority of the Canons, that it is not lawful to ordain a Bishop, except whom the Clergy has chosen, and the people has demanded: by the Clergy and people he himself is chosen, whence also he admonished them in God and for the sake of God, that if such a person could be found in that Church, who according to God and according to the world could worthily apply to them the Pastoral care, with his own mouth each should forthwith proclaim it, the counsel of his own being taken together. Then all the Clergy answered, and Abbots, and the whole people the things which they knew to be true. There is a certain Archpresbyter of ours, by name Theodard, full of knowledge, most adorned with charity, efficacious in prayer, most noble in lineage, and conspicuous for all honesty of manners: and because he is an immovable column on account of the continual instance of good work, he assuredly avails to rule this Pontifical Church of this great See, and us after God excellently to govern; wherefore we choose him today, and we acclaim him with all our hearts, that he be our Pontiff, Pastor also and lamp of this Church, whom we know to be a Priest full of good manners, who avails powerfully to bear the animosities of others, and can be profitable to and preside over all. For he himself upright in life, who will show a good example to all the sheep entrusted to him, and what by words he shall have preached by work he will fulfill.
[22] Which heard the blessed Bishop adjured them all, that if there were anyone, who against this wished to object anything, he should rise and with confidence say it. To these things all answered together: If there is one who any ill thing concerning him presumes to say let him come forth now, and in your sight a liar he shall be proved by us. And when there was none who objected anything to these things; the Bishops gave thanks to God, and all the people likewise filled with joy, rendered praises to the Lord; whence also the aforesaid both Bishops who were present, on the sheet of the same election were zealous to impress their names in letters thus: with great joy and approbation of all. Gisleranus, Bishop of the Church of Carcassonne, with the Clergy and people granted to me, I give assent to this holy and blessed election. For I also Agilbert, Bishop of the Church of Béziers, with the Clergy and people granted to me, to the same election consent. After these the Archdeacons four, and Abbots five, and Priests ninety-five, who were there present, all with their own hands impressed their names on the same volume in letters: but the number of the Laics who were present is not known for their multitude. Which according to the aforesaid reason being duly performed, the aforesaid Bishops who were present, namely Agilbert and Gisleranus, according to the institutes of the Canons (which command that a Metropolitan Bishop ought not to be ordained except by the presence, or consent of all the Bishops of the same Province over which he is to be set, who the headship of the governance of the same and the pastoral care nonetheless is to undertake) sent to all their fellow-Bishops and Co-suffragans, the Suffragan Bishops are invited to his ordination specially pertaining to the right of the aforesaid Church of Narbonne, that all should come together to consecrate to their holy Metropolitan Church him, whom the Clergy and people had chosen, and with one mind and one consent had demanded as about to be profitable to them Bishop Theodard.
[23] Who all, the letters of the aforesaid legations being received, filled with great joy, gave thanks to God, that so great and so excellent a man into the dignity of the Archprelacy by divine disposition they were to undertake, whom neither any stain of sin, nor of popular objection, nor even of lineage or nobility darkened. Whence it was done that all wished to go for the sake of this matter to the aforesaid Metropolis at the time appointed for them: but this their will the vast difficulty of diverse adversities hindered not a little, and therefore only three set out to the already said Metropolis for the cause of the aforesaid consecration: of whom three of whom the first was Gisleranus, the second Agilbert, the third also Ausindus f Bishop of Elne. These too with alert and most prompt mind were present: but the rest, whom a certain difficulty of hastening thither kept off, with their single legations confirmed by their own hand that they themselves wished to have as Pastor, as Archpontiff, him whom they knew worthy of so great an office, and specially fit for such affairs, as soon as possible to those, who had sent to them, this they were zealous to send back to the Bishops.
[24] Further those who could not come to consecrate the already oft-mentioned Archbishop Theodard, are read to have been seven; whose names therefore to note in letters my pen has not grudged, lest anyone judge me to have brought these forth from the archive of my own Rectors' heart, by the consent of the other seven absent, and to have impudently inserted some things lacking truth into the little work of this my description. For the first of them g Frodonius, Bishop of Barcelona, on account of the infestation of the Saracens, who hostilely at that time against the natives of that land were disposing to come, omitted to be present. The second Maclarius, h of Lodève, because he was held by grave sickness. The third namely i Nigobertus k of Urgel was: who himself also nonetheless for the cause of bodily infirmity deferred to come. The fourth also l Theutarius m of Girona, occupied with too great sickness, to the aforesaid consecration, as also the rest, consented, but to come to it could not. Finally the fifth of them was Bernard of Toulouse, of whom far above mention was made: for he therefore omitted to come, since he was placed far outside the borders of his Bishopric. But the sixth of those who were absent was Boso n of Agde, who on account of the too great vexation of the o garrison-troops, by which continually the territories of the aforesaid Bishopric were devastated, deferred to come. For the seventh of them Asahel [p] of Uzès is written to have been absent therefore, because by much and long sickness he was occupied. At which time therefore [q]… and [r] the Church of Nîmes … were widowed of their Bishops, and no legation of them was present, since they could not be present sooner, than the aforesaid Theodard was ordained nay consecrated Bishop.
[25] he is consecrated Archbishop, Why many words? There came the day of the appointed time, in which the holy and most blessed Theodard was to be consecrated by God's disposition Bishop. It was moreover the Lord's day and also of August, as is said, the fifteenth day, on which always yearly the solemnity of the Assumption of the most glorious Mother of God and of one man Jesus Christ is by the whole Christian people venerated and cultivated. the 15th of August of the year 885, Further then from the time of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred eighty-five years were computed, but the Era the nine hundred twenty-third, and the third indiction: in which year Carloman,
whom we have aforesaid King deprived of the light of the present world, had as successor of the Kingdom Odo. Therefore the Bishops who had come together to Narbonne, Ausindus, Gisleranus, and Agilbert, a three-day frugality being performed by them, together with the then future Bishop fasting with them, according to the ancient custom anciently handed down by the Apostles, accompanying them an innumerable multitude of Clergy and people, entered the church of St. Mary, where the most holy body of B. Paul surnamed Sergius, once disciple of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, buried even today rests, that for the sake of him for whom they had come together there, in the church of St. Mary: they might most devoutly consecrate and ordain a Bishop. Which indeed they holily and religiously performed, all who were present rejoicing together and congratulating.
[26] The blessed and truly most holy Bishop Theodard being ordained, the whole city resounded with praise-flowing voices, blessing the Lord, who such, and so benign a Bishop had clemently conferred on his people. And to this blessed and just renown there was subjoined by all: Happy, I say, this day, and exceedingly happy, with the joy of all on which so great and so religious a man received the citadel of the Prelacy, and the Chair of Pastoral care gloriously merited. When these and the rest of this kind the whole crowd of each sex of the aforesaid city resounding very frequently sounded out, it added saying: Blessed, I say, blessed always the eternal God, who by his provident dispensation and most clement goodness today granted us blessed Theodard as Pastor and excellent Rector, and the light of peace and benignity from darkness with him brought forth. These indeed, and the rest of this kind the citizens with great favor resounding, also of the Jews: there was present no small crowd of Jews; which both in their own Hebrew, and also in our, no doubt the Latin speech, over the consecration of the Bishop returned praises to the Lord and thanks. Whence it was done, that he being consecrated, when returning he entered the gate of the city, all in one body ran to meet him, saying; Blessed be the Lord forever, so be it, so be it, who constituted you to himself a faithful servant, and a great Priest of his Church. All the Clergy too of diverse order and age, rejoicing equally and exulting most highly, hymned, We praise thee O God, we confess thee the Lord: and chanting these things, after they had entered the church of the holy Martyrs Justus and Pastor, they honorably placed him on the Pontifical throne. led into the church of SS. Justus and Pastor he celebrates Mass, But he the solemnities of the Masses as with devout affection of mind, so also with festive worship on account of the imminent festive time performed, salutary hosts being offered for himself and for the flock committed to him, and for the whole Church of Christ. These things being duly and excellently completed, he blessed the people, and dismissed each one filled with great joy to return to his own, while he himself did not withdraw from his purpose, which he had always solicitously exercised toward the divine worship.
[27] For from the time of his Episcopate, as if new, anew into the divine service he so grew, that neither by days nor by nights did he withdraw from the exercises of the Christian religion, nor did he do anything whence he could deservedly be reproved, he grows bright with miracles. either in words, or in works. Wherefore it was done that he long and much persevering in diverse business of good things, the Lord clemently decreed to show his merits openly to all. For it is related that by his command, in the name of Jesus Christ, demons were frequently expelled from possessed bodies, the frenzied and lunatic and those detained by any madness were restored to a sound mind; but the dropsical, paralytics, and lame, and those occupied by diverse infirmities, were restored to former health: feverish ones too, with the water of his blessing given to drink or sprinkled, were immediately healed. And because the manifold benefits of his miracles I cannot relate, just as neither those by which he was always most frequent, intent on prayer, continual in fasting, frequent in vigils, accustomed to alms, bland and modest in the consolations of the sorrowful, severe too in the corrections of delinquents; to those things which he specially after the blessing of his Episcopate devoutly performed, let our speech as soon as possible return.
ANNOTATIONS.
a The MS. citadel.
b The same, election.
p Ucetia, commonly Uzès, in Narbonese Gaul, and distant toward the east 24 leagues from the metropolis Narbonne, whose Bishop Asahel is numbered the 16th.
q The name of Maguelone seems to be lacking; whose Bishop afterward elected below in num. 17 is referred. That city was distant from Narbonne 15 leagues toward the East on the sea shore. Its See is now in the city of Montpellier.
r Nemausus an ancient city of Narbonese Gaul: in which we have said St. Honestus Presbyter and Martyr was born at his Life on the 16th of February. Of it we shall again treat on the 20th of May at the Life of St. Baudelius, there crowned with martyrdom.
s It was by error written the 18th day, in place of the 15th day, which in the cited year 885, the cycle of the Sun being 26 the Dominical letter C, fell on the Lord's day.
t And here by error was printed the Era 913, and in the MS. the Era 924; whereas it was 923.
u Nay within a year: for on the 6th of December of the past year 884 he had died: whom then Charles the Fat the Emperor succeeded.
x Odo after the death of Charles the Fat in the year 888, dead the 12th or 13th of January, taken up as King, in the following year was crowned.
y Concerning St. Paul Bishop of Narbonne below it is more widely treated: where also we note some things.
z SS. Justus and Pastor Martyrs of Complutum are venerated on the 6th of August.
CHAPTER IV.
The Roman journey: the Church of Narbonne restored. The needy and captives helped. Selva the Pseudo-bishop assailed.
[28] He goes to the Roman Pontiff, Having attained therefore the dignity of the Pontifical summit he was zealous forthwith to go to Rome, and to go to the Lord Pope Stephen, that he might receive the Pallium and equally a privilege from him, so that supported by his Apostolic authority and blessing, he might be held the greatest and truly chief Bishop of all his diocese; by whom also at length all his Suffragan Bishops, after the departure of their predecessors or their mortal passage, might be blessed, nay consecrated into the Pontifical honor, and besides Ecclesiastical business be conducted by his disposition and command, and moreover by the privilege of the Apostolic majesty whatever were proper and familiarly pertaining to the right of his Church might remain safe, all infestation of the malignant being removed. For he after he had happily gone to Rome, sought the helps of the Apostles a suppliant and devout; and then a small interval of time being passed, went to him whom we have aforesaid the Roman Pontiff, by whom gloriously received, all that he asked of him he most willingly obtained; whence also he received letters from him, published against a certain Selva, who secretly and furtively had made himself Archbishop, against right and against all the institutes of the Canons: for he having advanced into Gascony by only two, not Bishops, and receives letters against the Pseudo-Bishop Selva: but rather Anti-bishops, for a blessing a curse had obtained, and thence returning Rigobert the glorious Bishop of Urgel, whom of divine memory Sigebod predecessor of B. Audard had canonically ordained, by rash daring, from the See and Pontifical Church together had ejected and expelled.
[29] After these things therefore B. Audard going out of Rome went back to Narbonne by a prosperous journey. For returning, by his fellow-citizens and all the people of Narbonne he was honorably received, having kissed and embraced them with mutual love; and then concerning all things, of which it seemed good to him, a colloquy being benignly held with them, he dismissed them to go in peace: but he himself withdrew to Ecclesiastical business. For the walls of his Church, which in very many places were destroyed and likewise uncovered, at his own expense he greatly strove to restore; which indeed he carried on through a four-year period, and God favoring it fully and perfectly completed it.
[30] The same blessed Pontiff Audard made moreover for the same Church, of great and most white marble, an altar engraved with wondrous work of sculpture; nonetheless supported by five marble shafts, on which were bases and architraves of marble, in opportune and congruous places. and erects a marble altar to SS. Justus and Pastor, This altar surely, with some Bishops of his Diocese, as with devout and religious, so equally with celebrated and festive worship he dedicated, in honor of almighty God, and the everlasting memory of his holy and most venerable Martyrs Justus and Pastor; whence also that altar with congruous loftiness he raised, and to it the names of the aforesaid Martyrs under the smearing of most sacred consecration and chrismal fatness he imposed; whence even today that same altar, full of sanctity and miracles, discharges and is called by the same names. But of how great sanctity and virtue the aforesaid altar is, the infirm of adverse health and languor often experience; since while the sick and weak come together to it, sound wholly and unharmed to their own they return. That therefore no one suspect B. Audard to have acted rashly or superstitiously, in the anointing of the aforesaid altar or the imposition of the aforesaid names, let him read indeed what Jacob the Patriarch, going to Mesopotamia of Syria or returning thence, did. Gen. 28, 18 For first setting out, the stone which he had put under his head, upon
which also he had slept, he erected, and over it poured oil: but returning he elsewhere built an altar, which in his own, that is the Hebrew speech he called Eleloyn Israel, which is interpreted The Most Strong God of Israel: although in certain codices it is falsely written, that he invoked over it the most strong God of Israel. Gen. 32, 32
[31] He made also around the altar a marble base, adorned with certain prominent carvings, and in Latin characters containing these things.
The excellent prelate Theodard with the highest honor of this temple adorned the work: And devout composed this floor with bright marble, with this inscription of the altar; He erected on all sides wondrous portals: And the sacred building, which had been long ago lost on account of the manifold rage of barbarism, Restoring, on the fifth of the Nones of October he anointed, Dedicating this altar to the Lord with pious right: May he who renders him a reward for so great a contest, by the excellent prayers of Justus and Pastor.
He made also a very wondrous throne brought forth of most excellent marble, and stretched high with a lofty top, on which also these things are written:
This throne Lord Theodard made of marble, The excellent Prelate: there rise on this side and that on high, Three steps of polished stones in order.
likewise the Episcopal throne. The same most glorious Pontiff, in the year of the incarnate Word eight hundred ninety, and also of his Episcopate the fifth, completed the aforesaid work, in the third year of King Odo, in the eighth Indiction.
[32] But this work of so great adornment being completed, laborious indeed, but most beautiful, which scarcely through five years he completed; yet he did not lack the sedulous vexation of diabolical infestation, while he bore not small ambushes of enemies opposing him, he is vexed by various troubles; and the long-protracted annoyances of the same ambushes; which afterward the Lord helping he wholly drove away, and in turn to those who strongly resisted him most strongly opposing, retorted the same upon the same: of which afterward in their places more fully to relate the Lord favoring we wish. And because now the instance of his sanctity and benignity, and likewise of patience and humility, and on the contrary the harshness of austerity, of correction also and terribleness, fortified with virtues: and against all the malevolent and perverse his undaunted and wholly impregnable resistance to pursue wholly we cannot, let us recall to memory a few things out of many, scanty out of more. For he was in word and work so holy, that beyond the rest of other men he was distinguished by all, in heart and work bright and most pure.
[33] Plainly of what goodness and benignity, of piety also and commiseration he was, as long as he survived in the world, after the summit of his Episcopate attained, merciful toward the needy and afflicted the continual daily necessity of the crowds of the languishing and famished, of widows too and orphans proved, in the apparatus of foods and the covering of garments: since to all the men of his city suffering necessity the bowels of his mercies and his strength were always open. But if any perverse or insolent or tergiversating one presumed to take away the goods of widows or orphans, and their protector. to filch them, or by any craft to usurp them; a Judge and avenger forthwith severe and wholly hostile thence he became, desiring unceasingly that Lordly precept once sung through the Psalmist always to fulfill, Judge for the needy and orphan, justify the humble and poor: rescue the poor, and free the needy from the hand of the sinner. Psal 81, 3 For although to all, good and evil, just equally and unjust, faithful too and unfaithful, the bowels of his own mercy he did not deny; but to all, as far as it was possible for him from his means many benefits secretly and publicly daily to the needy he distributed, (since a splendid light could not lie hidden in the darkness, according to that, No one kindles a lamp, and puts it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel but over the candlestick, that those who enter may see the light; and again; So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven) yet he was still always intent, that secretly and latently the stipends of alms, as far as the means of doing it was given him, to the needy he might hold out, that he might fulfill that Evangelical. Matth. 5, 15 Attend lest you do your justice before men. Matth. 6, 1
[34] When therefore by these and such things long and much before God and men he prevailed; for proving the inflexible rectitude of his commiserations and mercies, it happened by the mass of sins, For the redemption of the faithful from the servitude of the Saracens, that by the infestation of the Saracens the sea shore, which lies near the Tyrrhenian sea, near the territory of Narbonne was grievously infested, and its inhabitants by their ambushes and violence were captured; while some and others were pierced with swords, but others captured with hands bound behind their backs were sent into Spain; although some of them by their kinsmen, and certain other men moved with mercy were often redeemed. At this time therefore the holy and upright man Audard, in as far as pertains properly and specially to human frailty, opened and brought forth his whole treasure for the sake of this matter. and for feeding the famished, For neither did he retain anything for himself of his own means, but that for the redemption of captives and the hunger of the poor he mercifully expended all, that he might loose captives from the bonds of the Pagans, but the needy from the hunger of death he might free.
[35] But meanwhile while these things were being done, and the infestation of the Pagans more and more daily raged, and besides a three-year famine oppressed the whole aforesaid region; what the holy Pontiff Audard should do; what the excellent Pastor of usefulness or advantage should impart to the flock entrusted to him, he knew not. At length the Lord having mercy, divinely he obtained this counsel inspired, he expends his own and the church's treasures that for the salvation and redemption of the Christians he should sell the means of his Church, only that the body of Christ, which is the Church, redeemed by his precious blood, from the peril of death he might rescue; and so to Christ them, to God and the Lord, whose, the Apostle witnessing, they were body and members of members, he might faithfully preserve: which surely solicitously to do he was zealous, whence many of them from the perils of diverse atrocity and death he freed. 1 Cor. 12, 27 Nor did he leave anything of the domestic things of his Church which he did not faithfully expend all for the salvation of the faithful, that so them into the heavenly treasures, as if B. Sixtus and his glorious Archlevite Laurence, carried off by the hands of the poor he might transmit; reserving only the relic-cases. that there more fully and more safely preserved, in the resurrection of the just, he might find them divinely, for a great gift of eternal retribution, rendered to him, not single, or double only or triple, but even hundredfold. But the Cross, drawn out to the likeness of human stature, covered with gold and silver, in which a particle of the Lord's Cross was hidden; but two boxes nonetheless overlaid with gold and silver, and painted with certain carvings, and full inside of the relics of Saints, which our age placed in the years of its boyhood saw; and certain other little shrines, and little vessels of diverse quantity and quality, by which the most sacred pledges were covered, placed within he was unwilling to sell, but unhurt and wholly inviolate into the treasures of his Church he inserted.
[36] When therefore amid the pressures and the straits of his own mind, and the storms and tempests of this fluctuating world, as if by sea-tides hither and thither he was tossed, not able in any way to reach the port of quiet, and still as if swimming by no means suffered to be drowned, After other difficulties overcome hoping that he, Christ helping, at some time to a tranquil shore should come; still to him the enemy of the human race prepared a deadly loss, by which absorbed by his beastly gluttony into the belly of his malice he might direct him wholly to be consumed. But he, as if Jonah the shipwrecked, from the midst of the belly of him who in a certain manner had devoured him, sedulously invoking the Lord, at length merited to be vomited; and not only of his own but also of others' remedies of perpetual salvation he merited. And so the Lord helping, those which he believed himself never able to escape, aided by divine help, the innumerable miseries of evils fully he escaped; and not only to his own flock he succored, but also, as a true shepherd, foreign sheep from the plague of perpetual death most frequently he rescued. Selva and his accomplices in the ordination of the Pseudo-bishop of Girona For while the famine and the atrocious aforesaid incursion of the Pagans the Narbonese, as we have set forth, greatly oppressed the province; a certain Selva, a Spanish Clergyman far above aforenoted, who himself Archbishop, as has been said, had made, the holy and most reverend man Ingobert by letters and manners well instituted being ejected from his Bishopric, whom of divine memory Sigebod had canonically ordained; to this presumption he was advanced, that by rash daring over the one ordained by B. Theodard in the Church of Girona by work and name Servus-Dei, another he presumed to ordain, against right and against all the decrees of the elders, of insane mind a Bishop, by name Ermemirus: concerning which matter the aforesaid Servus-Dei sought the protection of B. Audard a suppliant and devout as soon as possible.
[37] But he by the letters of his legation continually busying himself, not only Ermemirus, but also his ordainers Selva, and Frodonius of Barcelona, and Godmarus of Vich, called, and a time and place where they should likewise come together appointed for them; that them removed from so grave a presumption, he summons them to plead their cause, he might restore to the bosom of mother Church to be cherished again and nourished. But they the admonition of him calling them, nay testifying, being despised, not only would not come, but also what had been commanded them by the Archbishop they would not hear: and those who had been sent to them for the sake of this matter, with not small disgrace expelled by them, to him who had sent them to them they quickly sent back. Wherefore moved vehemently against them B. Audard, sent to all the Bishops of his diocese, that all without any delay of deferral, at the time appointed by him, namely the fifteenth of the Kalends of December coming together, should be present together in the village which is called Port, and which is situated midway between the borders of the people of Maguelone and Nîmes, to dispute there and to dispose over the business of this so unspeakable a matter: but he himself with a few hastened to the Province, about to seek a suppliant the helps of the Archbishops and Bishops dwelling there.
[38] But they, no doubt c Rostagnus of Arles, and d Matfredus of Aix, and also Ermaldus e of Embrun, and with them Paulus f of Apt, g Berengarius also of Marseille, and certain other Provincial Bishops, at the time set them came with prompt mind to the aforesaid village. in the Synod of the Suffragans There was present also the man of venerable life Audard, having with him the Bishops h Girbertus of Nîmes, Guileranus of Carcassonne, Elegius i of Albi, Amelius of Uzès, Abbo of Maguelone, Boso of Agde, Agilbert of Béziers, Riculf of Elne, Godmarus of Vich, Ingobert of Urgel, Servus-Dei of Girona, Bernard of Toulouse, and Macarius of Lodève. Of all these two, Ingobert and Servus-Dei, brought the letters of their proclamations, and offered them to the other Bishops; and besides by living voice colloquy their injuries unjustly inflicted on them by the acephalous Anti-bishops, in the sight of all who were present, they set forth. The aforesaid Godmarus being met concerning this, especially because he had presumed to ordain Ermemirus with
the aforesaid Selva and Frodonius, the causes forthwith of his presumption and temerity, before all who were present, related, and how compelled by Count k Sinuarius he had done it. l Wherefore with bare feet and prostrate on the ground, among whom he receives Godmarus of Vich penitent. with mournful and sobbing voices that he had sinned, and that he had grievously erred he confessed; whence also pardon he scarcely so merited, that he should henceforth have no fellowship with the abovementioned Anti-bishops, neither he himself nor anyone of his household; nor should render them any service or attendance, until they should make satisfaction over the perpetrated crime.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
The apocryphal Acts of the provincial Synod.
[39] After this therefore the same who had summoned the rest, the glorious Archbishop Audard rose; and the causes of the presumption of the nefarious Anti-bishops to all who were present in order recited: a how the aforesaid Selva, setting forth the presumption of the Pseudo-bishops called to make satisfaction over the things for which he was impeached, before the presence of King Odo would not come, when, the mentioned King being placed at Troyes, the aforesaid Count Sinuarius, by the Roman Pontiff and other fifty-two Bishops, was excommunicated, because he had plucked out the eyes of b Igmarus Bishop of Laon: and because then the aforesaid Archprelate by the excommunication of the abovementioned Pope and of all the Bishops who were present decreed the oft-said Selva and Ermemirus to be anathematized; but conquered by the prayers of the Bishops so long deferred to do that, until he should see, whether again called he would make satisfaction to the same Archpontiff Theodard. These things being perorated by the Bishop, the same subjoined, that after he returned from the King to Narbonne, having with him letters commanded to be made by the aforesaid Roman Pope, and confirmed by his subscription and of the rest who were present, namely two and fifty Bishops, with their own hands, to the same Selva he sent: but he lifted up with elation held them as nothing and despised them, in which legation were contained these things.
[40] Stephen d servant of the servants of God, to Selva and Ermemirus and Frodonius of Barcelona. he is feigned to have brought forth a letter of Pope Stephen Know, I say, know Selva brother (if it is right to say that you ought to be called by a fraternal appellation) that by the precept of the most glorious and Catholic e Emperor Odo I lately came f to Troyes, about to celebrate there a council concerning many and diverse business, with the rest of my fellow-Bishops and fellow-Priests adorned with Pontifical fillets fifty-two, as if written at Troyes who with us were present at the same Council. For when concerning certain Ecclesiastical causes by us it was solicitously treated, and duly how they ought to be was disposed, among the other things which by us with just judgment were decreed and established, it came to the most indecent disgrace of your most insolent and too presumptuous arrogance, by which with the inflated stomach of your elation you presumed to rebel nay to resist the perpetual disposition of almighty God, wishing the institutes of him and of his holy Apostles, but specially of B. Peter the Apostle, to tear up and wholly to make void. Finally that I may set forth to you diligently the cause of the same matter, to him once by the Lord Jesus Christ the universal Church, not only generally as to the rest, but also specially before all his fellow-Apostles, was committed and to his faith entrusted, as you have written, You are Peter, by which he, alleging his supreme power, and upon this rock I will build my Church: and again when he was asked by him after his resurrection, whether he loved him, thrice he was charged by the same Lord to feed his sheep: by which authority the same supported and his successors after him always dispose and determine Ecclesiastical business. Matt 16, 18, Joan. 21, 15
[41] But you still persevering in your malice, full of madness, not as a wise man, but in the manner of one foolish, esteeming the eternal constitution of God, who, as is written, changes times and ages, and reproving Selva for rashly usurping the title of Archbishop of Tarragona transfers kingdoms and constitutes them, and also the decrees of the ancient Fathers to tear up, while the Archprelacy of the Church of Tarragona into your right and your Church's you machinate to filch, which by divine disposition passed into the dominion of the Church of Narbonne; not by filching or any violence, but by the will and election, without the contradiction of all the natives of the same land, both noble and ignoble, especially also of the Bishops and Counts, and also of the Kings of the Franks, to whom the loftiness of the Principate of the same land specially pertains. Dan. 2, 21 For so and on this condition the right of the Church of Tarragona passed into the service of the dominion of the Church of Narbonne, that it can never from its subjection by any pact or any reason withdraw, he declared the church of Tarragona so subject to that of Narbonne even if the Metropolis of the province of Tarragona and the Church be reformed into its former state, because the Church of Narbonne in the place of a guardian always was to the Churches of the aforesaid diocese, which scarcely could escape the devastation of the Pagans.
[42] Further if the already said Metropolis still return to its ancient state, and all the churches of the same diocese, which before had obeyed it, return into the bondage of its service, so that if it be restored it ought to receive its Archbishop from her, according to the determination of the Catholic Fathers; yet that Metropolis according to the institutes of the Pontiffs of the Roman Church, and the Apostolic privileges, in this always to the dominion of the Church of Narbonne and to perpetual service shall succumb, that everyone who shall have obtained the citadel of its Pontificate by the election of the whole Clergy and people of the same Church, not before in any reason be ordained or consecrated, until the aforesaid Pontiff of the Church of Narbonne coming consecrate the same who shall have been elected into the honor of the Archprelacy. But if compelled by any difficulty he shall not be able to come, to consecrate the Bishop of the aforesaid Metropolis; let him send in his stead some one of his suffragan Bishops, who may diligently perform the same matter, and on the Pontifical throne to place and to enthrone solemnly busy himself; whence also the same who shall have been consecrated the gift of due obedience to the Church of Narbonne always in all things shall yield, only that from the Roman Pontiff he receive the Pallium with privileged authority: for always the Pontiff of Tarragona, the Clergy too and all the people, if the matter itself take effect, ought to remember, that the Churches of those Parishes, which from the power and right of the dominion of Narbonne, under which by long education in the manner of a nurse they had been nourished, and to be subject to her as the rest of the Spanish churches: after they passed into the maternal bosom, if the same matter at some time take that effect of doing it, for the grace of the same nurturing ought to repay praise-flowing thanksgivings; and besides for the cause of the aforesaid education, as if to a mother to bestow the reward of subjection, and of honor. For if we return to the ancient causes of the early institutions, performed by the Primates of the holy Church, no doubt Peter and Paul, by the divine nod; not only the Metropolis of Tarragona, but also all Spain, in as far as pertains to Ecclesiastical right, to the Narbonese always ought to be subject in precedence, and by its patronage as if by maternal milk to be nourished.
[43] For the documents of the sacred faith first from the same it received, and illustrated by the light of faith, as if from the sleep of perpetual death awakened, into the splendor of eternal life it woke; as hitherto in the chest of B. Peter they are diligently kept laid up, just as also those things which by the disciple of the Apostles Peter and Paul, g Sergius nonetheless Paulus are read to have been done, so that those which from her first received the faith, which as you may see, you wholly are ignorant of: for if you knew them perfectly, I judge that animated to the senselessness of so swollen an elation you would never dare to sigh. Now too because they have hitherto lain hidden from you, by us to you, although in a brief and compendious speech, yet truthful, I have judged they are to be intimated that you do not henceforth presume to do such things. That therefore I may show evidently how the same matter stands, when the blessed Apostle and Doctor of the gentiles Paul, going out of Rome, set out into Spain for the sake of preaching (according to what the same in his Epistle before had signified to the Romans who had believed) having taken with him h Trophimus of Ephesus, and also the most prudent Man Sergius Paulus, whom the same before had gained to Christ, i Torquatus too, Secundus, and Endelecius and certain others, after he came to Cisalpine Gaul, Arles, which is the Metropolis of the Province, he as soon as possible went to. Rom. 15, 28 And when in the same city he tarried for some time, preaching and announcing the kingdom of God, and many through his doctrine were converted to Christ; he left there, for confirming the souls and minds of those who had believed, Trophimus before ordained Bishop by Peter the Apostle; through preachers sent by the Apostle Paul, but he himself with the rest going on even to Narbonne advanced: whence the aforesaid Torquatus, and six others his companions and fellow-disciples, to Galicia to preach according to the precept of Peter the Apostle forthwith he destined. But he himself after many, not only from the same city, but also from several cities everywhere flowing together to it, together with the aforesaid Sergius evangelizing, sedulously taught and excellently converted to Christ; when he had now recognized those whom he had taught strong in faith and wholly immovable,
he sent some of them to preach through diverse regions of the Gauls the Lord Jesus Christ.
[44] But after this setting out thence together with Sergius Paulus, both came even to the further Spain, evangelizing through the single cities, as we have aforesaid, the future glory of the kingdom of God. and then through Sergius Paulus the first Bishop of Narbonne No small time of his preaching being performed, they charged those who had believed, that the faith which they had received they should faithfully preserve, and to the rest to whom it had not yet been preached greatly should be zealous to impart it. Therefore after this the aforesaid Apostle deliberated to return to Rome, and, for the consolation and confirmation of the believers, that he would send back to them his companion and fellow-Evangelist Sergius Paulus he again promised: whom also he commanded saying, that to him in all things and through all things they should give service, and to his admonitions most willingly obey. And when with these and such things through the single cities the Apostle exhorted the Brethren who had believed, commending them to the Lord and bidding them farewell, to return to Rome he solicitously busied himself. Who returning when he had come again to Narbonne, all things being disposed which it behooved to be done, he left there his colleague nonetheless Paulus, commanding them, that those whom he had now to the Lord through the grace of faith as if travailing begotten in diverse regions of Spain, with the milk of consolation he should be zealous to nourish so long, until he should know without doubt them to feed on the solid food of perfect belief; whence also that whole region into the office of his Apostolate the Lord cooperating he committed to him. and Metropolitan of the Gauls: But the peoples of the Gauls he therefore entrusted to him to be preached to, because for doing this very thing B. Peter had sent him, and in his stead for the sake of this matter had consecrated him Bishop, and also the oft-said Narbonne the illustrious Metropolis of the Gauls specially for teaching and evangelizing the peoples had handed to him.
[45] For after this when all things being consummated, which by the common intention of each excellent preacher were to be done, they had withdrawn from each other with mutual affection of love; to whom the Apostle also subjected the Spains, with alternate exhortations and embraces they were zealous to commend themselves to the Lord, and so bidding farewell to themselves, after kisses and weepings divided from one another, the Apostle set out to Rome, Sergius remained at Narbonne; but each the office of preaching enjoined on him so strenuously exercised, that by no terrors and punishments did he leave it, until through martyrdom each of them to Christ calling him undaunted came, that the talent entrusted to him fivefold doubled he might offer, and from him a hundredfold multiplied for the recompense of perpetual reward might receive. But if you wish to know, what after the departure of the Apostle Sergius Paulus did for the flock committed to him, which with the Apostle to the Lord Christ he had acquired; be it known to you and to all the natives of each sex of the Spains, that both through himself and also through his own, which even the Spanish Doctors acknowledged. whom in the faith of Christ he had now nourished and taught as disciples, all the regions of the Spains traversing, and their inhabitants unceasingly teaching, so some of them into the summit and worship of the Christian faith he raised, that of none except his own did they need, either they or some of their successors, sound doctrine. Read therefore the books of B. Leander, Isidore too, and also Braulio, and likewise Julian, and the rest of the Catholic Doctors of the same Province, and so perhaps you will prove me to say true things. But if not even thus done you believe enough, the volumes of his deeds comprehended by the disciples of the same Paulus in three volumes with most diligent care peruse; and then, unless I am mistaken, what before you wholly were ignorant of, openly afterward you will recognize the effect of the same matter.
[46] But if not even thus you will give heed to counsel, but always with perverse obstinacy the censure of the Roman Pontiffs (by whose decree, and therefore the Pope threatens Selva and his companions with anathema confirmed by divine authority, the whole Church of Christ persisting throughout the whole world is always governed and disposed) full of madness you shall hold contemptible, in so far that from the insane injury, which with impudent face and immoderate rapacity to the aforesaid Archprelate Audard you inflict, to withdraw you in no way suffer; be it known to you and to all, who give any suffrage or aid to you over these things for which by us you are justly impeached, that with the bonds of anathema you will be continually bound, and insolubly knotted. Wherefore lest we seem to do you injury, we have constituted, I and the fifty-two Bishops who are with me, a term for you to make satisfaction to him to whom you do injury continually the Pontiff of the Church of Narbonne, unless within a certain time they make satisfaction. even to the festivity of St. Michael the Archangel. But if even to the aforesaid and next solemnity of the mentioned Archangel you shall not have made satisfaction to him, so that into his proper right and his Church's, all that you have taken away from the right and dominion of the same Pontiff, most entirely and without any reservation or restitution you restore; by the authority of almighty God, and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and also of all the Pontiffs of the Roman Church, of me too and of all the Bishops who are present at this Synod of Troyes, by excommunicating we excommunicate, and by cursing we curse, and with the perpetual bond of anathema insolubly, both you, and your accursed Ermemirus, and Frodonius the perjured and Apostate Anti-bishop, and all who give you any aid against so unjust a presumption we knot; that from the time established or predefined by us, from all Christian assembly you may always be held exiles and excluded.
[47] But the excerpt being read to the end of the aforesaid reading, the same Bishop said to the rest of the Pontiffs who were present: Lo most blessed Priests of the divine deity, These being read, the Bishops asked their sentence and most upright Judges and censors of his law, who not only secular and wholly transitory things, but also those which exceed human judgment, namely Angels according to the testimony of the Apostle, who enjoying the support of perpetual life wholly are ignorant of the departure of their own substance, by your judicial examination you shall judge; what over these things is to be done decree, and the rest by the deliberation of your true contest establish. 1 Cor. 4, 6 n To these things all the Bishops who were present are related to have answered: After the glorious Man of holy life and conversation, of whom mention has been made, the Pontiff of the Roman Church Stephen, whose decretal sanction has just been recited to our ears, by free institution judged, together with the rest of his fellow-Bishops who were present at the aforesaid Council, what over these things is to be done, is not of our judgment; for he himself by the condemnation of perpetual anathema separated the aforesaid Selva from all the fellowship of the Christian people. they confirm the anathema on the rebels: Wherefore by that same anathema, by which by the aforesaid Pontiff of the Roman Church and the rest of the aforesaid Bishops his accomplices he was punished, let him himself and his Anti-bishops be pierced by you, and all who against this so presumptuous a crime shall have given him any suffrage, or any support: to which also, by the equal and common agreement of all, the event of the same matter complied: for with so great an anathema of excommunication and worst detestation they condemned them, that no hope of pardon or propitiation from any of the Pontiffs, or any medicine of cure could be applied to them, if they should not even to the time of the then next future Lent make satisfaction to the aforesaid Archprelate, and to his Metropolitan Church in leaving, nay rejecting from themselves all right, pertaining to the dominion of holy Mother Church of Narbonne and the dignity of the aforesaid Archprelacy, before the judgment and decree of whom oft mention has been made the Archbishop.
[48] And when now the matter was at hand that the aforesaid Count Sinuarius they should strike with special excommunication, and Count Sinuarius admonished the same venerable Archprelate aforesaid Audard was unwilling; but by his and the rest of the Pontiffs who were present legation, they made known all that by them in the same Council had been done, and how they were unwilling to knot him with the bonds of anathema; whence also it behooved him to believe God not the devil; but to give consent to wisdom, not to folly; the wicked filchings of evil men also grievously to depress, and the just counsels of good men willingly to extol: wherefore, as a wise and honest man, lest he should seem to resist almighty God, and the ancient statutes of the elder seniors to tear up, wholly should spurn all the figments of the false-speaking, and the truthful assertions of the faithful always should admit; and that as is written, It behooves to obey God rather than men, he should give to almighty God glory, and the honor due to the Church of Narbonne should not diminish; but of his own accord not unwilling, humble not elated, that to it he should restore; lest before the sight of almighty God commanded to render account, as if sacrilegious from his face he should be expelled, the perpetual flames of Gehenna atrociously to pay. and amended with his own, These too and such things by the Bishops to the aforesaid Count by legation transmitted, Bishop Godmarus the bearer of the same description, with good mind he bore it, and all the natives of the same region: whence also letters being reciprocated the already said Sinuarius and the nobler Princes of the aforesaid region many times summoned the oft-said Archbishop, to a common colloquy of each part.
[49] Why many words? The Bishop assented, and with some of his fellow-Bishops and other companions going out of Narbonne, with a swift step went to the mentioned Count. Who after he came to him, honorably received by him, gave him thanks, that by no pact and no reason he had suffered himself to be excommunicated. the Archbishop Theodard receives him. But after this both the Archprelate Audard and the Count, coming to the City of Urgel, entered the church of St. Mary for the sake of prayer, with a company of nobles not few. But on the morrow a multitude of Bishops being gathered, and besides of Clergy, and laics noble and ignoble of diverse order and age, seats were prepared for the single Bishops who had come together; and the volumes of the Canons being brought, it was found from the decrees of the holy Fathers, that whoever presumes to be ordained and consecrated outside the consent of his Metropolitan, from all Order let him be deposed. he removes Selva and Ermemirus from their grade, Whence it was done that by the judgment of the Bishops who were present, both the aforesaid Selva, and he who was ordained by him Ermemirus, the Episcopal vestments being cut off in the sight of all and wholly torn, and their staves over their heads broken, and also the rings of each from their fingers with great disgrace plucked off, from all order of the Clergy were cast down and wholly deposed. But Frodonius Bishop of Barcelona they therefore did not depose, he admits Frodonius penitent, since naked and unshod and with bent knee before the feet of the Archbishop he fell, asking indulgence to be given him by him, all who were present asking the same thing: whence also the pardon which he asked, although late, he merited. Which being duly performed, a description being made of all these things, the glorious Archbishop Audard returned to Narbonne, giving thanks to God for all the Ecclesiastical causes which had prosperously turned out for him.
[50] But after this rejoicing and exulting, when he came to Narbonne, and returns to Narbonne. swiftly and prosperously with all the apparatus of gladness and the lights of tapers, with hymns too and sweet-sounding songs by the Clergy and People gloriously received, the church of the holy Martyrs of Christ, namely Justus and Pastor, he entered; and after prayer and the manifold thanksgiving of God, what and how it had been done concerning the aforesaid business of the same church,
to all who had come together in order he related. Further the description which concerning the same matter had been made, in the sacristy of the same church to be preserved for posterity safely they laid up in its place.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
The three-year fever: the journey into his country. His death, burial.
[51] After this therefore when by the disposition of the divine decree the labors of past evils, by which sedulously the blessed Archbishop, of whom oft mention has been made, no doubt of whom by us the present discourse is made, By the reading of Sacred Scripture he is perfected in every kind of virtue. B. Audard up to that time was vexed, had received an end; and the same aforesaid Pontiff to the port of quiet long desired by him had come; yet from the industry of true faith and religion he could not cease: because kindled with the fire of divine love, by days and nights he gave his effort to the divine Scriptures. For he believed that through the understanding of the same Scriptures to the summit of the highest love of Christ he could ascend, and his most desired vision without end with all the Saints most benignly enjoy. For in this continual perseverance of the inextinguishable burning of divine love, the same most blessed Pontiff Audard long and much enduring, how frequent in prayer, and how continual in the bounty of alms, and how benign toward all the faithful, and how merciful too over the miseries of any afflicted he was, is incredible, if they be related one by one, by those assuredly it will be judged, who do not believe all things possible to those who believe. Wherefore many of those things which he did, while he survived here in the world and drew the breath of this mortal life, passing over, to those which around the limit of his death he exercised let us turn the article of our description.
[52] Finally when without intermission he was intent on good works, and walking on the right path of justice, of benignity too, and perpetual commiseration, and declining neither to the right nor to the left, toward the heavenly things he tended; whence also by the judgment of all he was decreed Holy and truly worthy of the company of the Saints; laboring with a three-year fever yet toward the eyes of the highest Beholder he had not yet come to the summit of perfection and justice, and therefore the grace of divine commiseration for the proof of that most upright and wholly inflexible faith of his, nay for the perfect remuneration from God of his good actions, by a certain sickness of fevers for three years he was detained, even to the last day of his death: on which bidding a last farewell to earthly things, he penetrated the heavenly from the lowest, always to live and always to remain with Christ. For the languor of the aforesaid fevers growing heavy toward the man of God, he himself so much the more gave thanks to God, the more he felt himself vexed by the annoyance of continual infirmity.
[53] Shaken therefore by long sickness, when most often he was urged by the physicians, he admits no medicines, that he should suffer some fomentation of medicine to be applied to him for the remedy of future health and his own salvation, he was unwilling, but said: The will of the Lord be done, to whose command always health and sickness, life and death serve and minister: I will oppose rather a natural than an artificial antidote to my health, if perhaps God being propitious so I may be able to be restored to former soundness. For where born, and whence hither the Lord leading I have come setting out, to return sooner I will not refuse, namely into the territory of Toulouse; and on its natural foods I will daily feed, and also salutary, as the matter itself necessarily shall demand, draughts I will use; and the very pleasant places of the same land traversing, he returns to his native air at Toulouse. some remedy of health, with these things which from the first beginning of my youth I have willingly used, for former health perhaps, the Lord having mercy, I will procure. Which being perorated by the Bishop, to hasten his journey for the sake of the same matter he commanded his servants, and according to what he himself had foretold all things to fulfill he did not delay.
[54] But the ardors of the aforesaid fevers not ceasing, but more and more daily burning; the man of God Audard understood without doubt, that only that divine fomentation of divine commiseration would be, and the purgation of all his offenses, that him whom thus far to the perfect his good works had not cleansed, afterward the rod of correction mercifully applied by God might more fully cleanse. After therefore the aforesaid man of God Theodard manifestly and wholly without doubt recognized, that he was divinely called from this world; into his own which once his parents, and thence to the monastery of St. Martin in the Cahors country. on their own, as is related, estate under St. Martin, once Bishop of Tours, of venerable always and perpetual memory had built a monastery, his journey forthwith he turned, that there his own departing from this light he might render to the Lord his spirit. The already said monastery is moreover in the Cahors territory, on the Mount which is called Aureolus; at the root of which mountain a certain river runs down, which the natives of that region call the Tesco. This by its course divides the confines of the Toulouse and Cahors country by its liquid flow openly, which withdrawing from the aforesaid mountain after a small space of land is immerged in the river Tarn.
[55] But when the holy oft-said Bishop of the Lord Audard, had come to the abovementioned monastery, and there burdened by the too great force of fevers lay down, and now in mind foresaw the day of his death not to be far off; his sins confessed, he called to him the Abbot of the same monastery, and all the rest of the Priests who dwelt under his care using the monastic office: and the profession of his confession of the offenses which he had committed (for there is no man on earth who does good and sins not) evidently with mourning and groaning and great contrition of heart and also sighs he set forth. he is fortified with the sacred viaticum, After this moreover the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood offered to him with most devout and most prompt affection of mind he received; with these and such prayers sedulously entreating God: he pours forth prayers to God, Of supreme clemency and perpetual goodness and immense benignity almighty God, who all things which are made, when wholly neither by any genus nor by species they were, by the omnipotent virtue of thy word powerfully and very wisely didst create, and the created things didst wondrously dispose, as the effect of the same matter, by that quality by which it is done and consists, shows and approves: and who of all the things which thou hadst created lastly to the appearance of thy image and likeness (in as far as pertains to the frailty of human knowledge concerning the same matter to know) from clay didst form, whatever by the breathing of thy breath thou didst vivify: by which vivification continually persevering, by no reason can every spirit of the human race, by natural and legitimate procreation possessed, die; although the body of each man at the time divinely established into its origin be reduced, and become according to the Lord's threatening dust and ashes, until the Lord coming, in the body reformed from dust and by its spirit reanimated, the new man rise again, about to render account of those things which he did. Be present to this thy servant, although unworthy of the veneration of thy service, but yet of thy commiseration and piety not distrustful; and my spirit now in peace receive, most clement Father. Let not therefore the prince of darkness meet me nor any incursion of evil spirits, but neither remember my offenses, since there shall not be justified in thy sight every living thing.
[56] Be propitious I pray to me, and whatever otherwise than I ought I have done, by the grace of thy piety benignly remit: because according to what is written of thee, thou art sweet and mild and of much mercy to all who invoke thee. Psal. 85, 5 For if thou shalt observe iniquities O Lord, who shall sustain the offenses? Therefore since now the time of mercy presses, O God, be not far from me, but to my help clemently look. Let them be confounded and fail who
seek my soul to take it away. he invokes Christ But thou the advocate, our God equally and man, Lord Jesus Christ, whom always with my whole heart, my whole mind, all my strength I have loved and love and always shall love, to whose desire and love I have never set anything before, who moved with immense piety, coming from the bosom of the Father, didst will to become man for the salvation of our redemption, that from each substance true and perfect God one might be Christ; and who born of a Virgin mother according to the prophecy of the Scriptures, to suffer, to die, and to be buried, and also to rise again didst hasten, that to us the hope of rising again from death, the author of eternal life, thou mightest grant: receive me departing from this world, and to another which I have not yet experienced hastening swiftly, and to the company of thy faithful Pontiffs happily aggregate me: and when thou shalt come to judge, with the same perfectly vivify and resuscitate me, and among the troops of the same Prelates most benignly place me. and dies piously, These being duly perorated by the Bishop, when all who were present had sounded out, Amen; the same blessed Pontiff Audard, with his eyes on heaven and his hands intent bidding the last farewell to the world, to the Lord soon in peace rendered his most devout spirit. Amen.
[57] But he being now from his earthly and corporeal Dwelling to the heavenly things benignly assumed, and to the most glorious and very delightful and most beautiful sight of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Angels becomingly offered; and beyond what our speech avails to explain in words and to set forth in sentences, for the works once well wrought by the same holy Pontiff a worthy recompense of heavenly gifts abundantly received; f what concerning his holy and venerable body was done, in few words to relate, and the things which by their protraction may not bring nausea and annoyance to their hearers, the Lord favoring I will attempt. For almost all the men of each sex of that region, the fame of his death being heard, he is bewept by all running together from everywhere. to bury his most sacred body in swift haste hastened; not believing that they could come to the corpse of the aforesaid Pontiff before in the sepulcher prepared for him by faithful men it should be laid. But because by the Lord's disposition it happened that it was not buried before an innumerable crowd of those flowing together there should be present; with so great veneration of true religion that venerable body was treated, that before it was placed in the sarcophagus, in the whole body, except his face, it was wrapped in a purple and silken pall, according to the precepts of the Apostolic See always to be preserved of holy Bishops.
[58] But the holy corpse being treated and exposed to be buried, all the multitude which had come together to celebrate his exequies, both of laics and also of clergy, with mournful and equally sobbing groans, voices of this kind gave to heaven. O after God and the Lord merciful and pious father of orphans, just judge and avenger of widows, O helper of the wretched and poor, and is invoked: perpetual consoler of the grieving and sorrowful. O purger and driver-off of evil and hostile men, who will make us safe from the incursion and oppression and rapacity of those laying waste and plundering us and all our things? alas! alas! what is it now for us to live? O glorious and blessed Pontiff of Pontiffs Audard, whose exequies today we follow grieving and likewise mourning. Amid these therefore and mournful discourses of this kind of the same people, the prayers too and of the rest of all the Priests who were present, and tearful petitions to the Lord for him and absolutions, and most frequent blessings at his tomb; he is buried beside the altar of St. Martin. that holy corpse forthwith is handed to a new and stone sepulcher, situated beside the altar of St. Martin on the Eastern part, within the precinct of the same church. But long after times with the same tomb thence raised and elsewhere in the same church transposed and more honorably than before it was buried: where hitherto it rests, it is transferred to a more honorable place awaiting the effect of its resurrection promised by the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ reigning equally and ruling all things which are, were, and shall be and continually disposing them, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, through all the ages of ages. Amen.