Waldebertus Abbot

ON ST. WALDEBERTUS ABBOT

OF LUXEUIL IN THE COUNTY OF BURGUNDY.

A.D. DCLXV

Waldebertus, Abbot of Luxeuil, in the County of Burgundy (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

§ I. The cult: the time of life. The Acts written. Different from this Walbertus Count of Arques, and another Bishop of Meaux.

Luxeuil an ancient monastery, in the County of Burgundy and the diocese of Besançon, was constructed by St. Columban its first Abbot; to whom succeeded SS. Eustasius and Waldebertus, or Walbertus or Waubertus. The Life of the former we gave March XXIX, of this one we are about to treat on the present day on which we find the memory of St. Waubertus the Abbot in the Calendar of the very ancient MS. Breviary of Besançon, to which there suffrages the most ancient Corbie Calendar written nine hundred years ago in these words: The sacred cult May 2, On the VI Nones of May the deposition of St. Waldebertus the Abbot: likewise the MS. Roman Martyrology of the Vallicellian library of the Congregation of the Oratory, At the monastery of Luxeuil of St. Walbertus the Abbot. The same celebrate Greven and Molanus in their additions to Usuard, and Molanus being cited Galesinius, and following him Canisius in the later edition, who assert him a disciple of St. Columban, and perhaps therefore, because he embraced his institute and norm of living under St. Eustasius. For the same cause also he seems in the MS. Florarium on the very Kalends of May ascribed to Italy, where St. Columban in the monastery of Bobbio constructed by him ended his life. And these things about the cult: to which can also be referred what at the end of the Acts of St. Waldebertus is said, that his Relics hitherto in the church of Luxeuil are venerated; the head indeed in a silver effigy, the remaining parts of the body in a casket of gilded silver.

[2] Different from this Saint Walbertus a Count flourished in Belgium: who his County of Arques and Poperinge, a town of Flanders near Ypres, He was not Count of Arques or a monk of Sithiu handed over to St. Bertin Abbot of Sithiu among the people of Saint-Omer, for the uses of the monks; and renouncing the world, under the same Bertin was made a monk. Some Life of his and his noble lineage John Iperius, there Abbot and in the year MCCCLXXXIII deceased, describes in the MS. Bertinian Chronicle chapter 1 paragraph 10, but deceived by the identity of the same name, he adds that he afterwards was made a monk at Luxeuil under B. Eustasius, and after him immediately assumed to be Abbot, and at length as some report, was elevated to be Bishop of the Church of Meaux. Iperius is followed by Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, alleging the Office of the monastery of St. Bertin, Mirée in the Belgian Fasti, Meyer book 1 of the Annals of Flanders on the year 668. But these hand down nothing of the Bishopric of Meaux, Molanus also in the later editions of the Auctarium to Usuard regarded this, while he calls him Count. Of his birthday it is read at St. Bertin, Molanus being witness, on the day of the finding of the Lord's Cross: Likewise on that very day the deposition of St. Walbertus Count and Abbot of Luxeuil, who was very familiar to our Father Bertin.

[3] But on the contrary nothing of the County or familiarity with St. Bertin, or of the monkhood under the same has Trithemius: but

he hands down book 3 on the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict chapter 72 and book 4 chapter 137, Nor Bishop of Meaux, that he was first Abbot of Luxeuil, and then Bishop of Meaux. Trithemius is followed by Wion in the monastic Benedictine Martyrology on this day; on which Dorganius, and on April XXVI Menardus, only refer St. Walbertus Bishop of Meaux, of whom then the Translation was Bucelinus says: but they suppose him assumed from their Benedictine Order. In some MS. Benedictine Calendar not ancient, on the said April XXVI, are referred St. Baldebertus III Abbot of Luxeuil, likewise St. Walbertus Bishop of Meaux, first a monk of Luxeuil. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology in a long rhapsody joined into one the figments of all, and after him Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology; alleging in the first place Antonio Yepez, who in volume 2 of the Benedictine Chronicle on the year 617 chapter 5, admits him created Bishop from Abbot, but establishes another than he Count of Arques, familiar to St. Bertin and under him a monk; and judges that to the one the day XXVI of April is sacred, to the other this II of May. But he confesses that he does not know, whether anyone has committed his deeds somewhat at length to memory, and that he had only those things which in few words Trithemius composed; whom being cited that the same was both Abbot of Luxeuil and Bishop of Meaux John Chenu wrote in the Bishops of Meaux, but another the brother of St. Faro who died under Clothaire 2. and following him Claude Robert, and the Sammarthani. These add, that he died on May II in the monastic Martyrology, and that his feast day is kept with annual commemoration in the Church of Meaux on May XII. But in the Breviary of Meaux, printed in the year MDCXL, no mention anywhere is made of St. Walbertus the Bishop. There was some Bishop of Meaux Walpertus or Walbertus by name, brother of St. Faro and Chagnoald and St. Fara or Burgundofara. But this Walbertus, as in the Life of St. Faro, on the day XXVIII of October to be edited from MSS., is read, was Bishop of Meaux, after whose dormition St. Faro merited the fraternal succession of the Pontificate, and King Clothaire not only inclined his mind by consent, but also adjudged it to be done without any scrupulosity. King Clotharius died in the year DCXXVIII. But because Gondoaldus Bishop of Meaux was present at the Council of Reims, under Sonnatius the Archbishop in the year DCXXIV or the beginning of the following, the said Walbertus could not have sat long, who is established the successor of Gondoaldus; and of his See it would be doubted, unless in the Life of St. Faro his successor it were indicated, from which also that his death happened under King Clotharius is known. Another therefore than St. Waldebertus Abbot of Luxeuil, we establish the said Walbertus, brother of St. Faro and Bishop of Meaux; nor do we admit the new figment of Cointe, as if St. Waldebertus from Abbot of Luxeuil had succeeded St. Faro in the year DCLXXII, and in the year at length DCLXXX had died, when he says He had sat eight years, as Chenu and Saussay testify. These indeed speak of the eight years of the See: but they make him the successor of Gondoaldus, not of Faro. and the Count of Arques is much younger. But Trithemius celebrating the memory of Gondoaldus book 4 chapter 13 and the following that he was a monk of Luxeuil, and brother of Walbertus, and successor of Faro in the Episcopate wrongly writes. Far also we send away the other Walbertus Count of Arques and monk of St. Bertin, as much younger, since Bertin himself under St. Waldebertus lived a monk of Luxeuil, for whom the monastery of Sithiu Adroaldus founded, a diploma being given in the year XI of the reign of Clovis, that is in the year of Christ DCXLVII. Nor is there doubt that long afterwards the said Walbertus the Count flourished, whose deeds Iperius narrates under the government of Clotharius III, whom we said reigned from the year DCLVI even to the year DCLXXV.

[4] But St. Waldebertus the Abbot lived in the seventh century of Christ, born of an illustrious lineage in the territory of Meaux, The time of St. Waldebertus and from a soldier a monk of Luxeuil under St. Eustasius the Abbot: to whom in the year DCXXV deceased he was substituted, and in that government served God for forty years, having died in the year DCLXV. That his deeds were once written in a proper volume, nor long after his death, indicates in the Prologue of his Acts described by him Adso: who, and Hermericus Abbot of Luxeuil, flourished in the tenth century: The Life by the author Adso nor do we doubt that those things, which about his life and death he narrates, he drew from an older volume, which by the injury of the times we grieve has fallen out. But these Acts we give from the most ancient codex of the Bertinian monastery, which we alleged on February XXI in the life of St. Germanus Abbot of Grandval: from MSS. whence when an appetite had been moved in Luc d'Achery and John Mabillon, those at length obtained at the end of the III Benedictine Century, although they pertained to the II, in an Appendix they edited from a MS. codex of the Luxeuil monastery submitted; which also we have compared with our apograph. Adso erred about the family of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, as below we annotate: but afterwards describing more accurately things seen by himself even to the times of his predecessor Aalo the Abbot, he obtains with reason greater faith.

§. II. Analects taken from various Acts of diverse Saints.

[5] Jonas, writing the Lives of St. Columban and of others his predecessors, begins from this preface. The Life of St. Columban inscribed to SS. Bobolenus and Wandelbertus To the eminent Lords and decorated with the rule of the sacred summit, and supported by abundance of religion, Bobolenus and Waldebertus the Fathers, Jonas a sinner. I remember that before this almost three years ago at the connivance of the Brethren urging, or the command of B. Bertulf the Abbot bidding, when among them dwelling in the Apennine country in the Bobbio convent I stayed, I had promised, that I would study with my style to weave the deeds of the kindly Columban: especially since these, who were in that time, and beheld things accomplished by him, very many among you survive, who would narrate to us not things heard but seen, or which also we through the venerable men Attala and Eustasius learned: of whom the first of the Bobbio, the second of the Luxeuil convent, of which you are the Prelates, were his successors, who handed down the Institutes of the Master to be observed by their peoples. But to these Acts of St. Columban he subjoins in a second little book the Lives of SS. Attala and Eustasius: of which this one we illustrated on the day XXIX of March, that on the day X of the same March, where at length about Jonas the writer we treated. What he above indicates the Institutes of the Master, in the Life of St. Eustasius he calls the Rule of St. Columban, which under St. Waldebertus not only at Luxeuil observed he writes, but also various monasteries then constructed he indicates, which because they pertain to the honor of St. Waldebertus we will in few words indicate.

[6] Jonas therefore when he had indicated the calumnies by Agrestinus, an improbe man, against the Rule of St. Columban objected, and by St. Eustasius confuted; Many under the Rule of St. Columban construct monasteries, he adds at number 16 these things: Abellenus or the rest of the Bishops of the Gauls aspire to strengthen the Institutes of Columban. How many, in love of Columban and of his Rule, construct monasteries, gather peoples, congregate the flock of Christ: among whom the then illustrious man Eligius, who now presides as Pontiff of the Church of Vermand, near the city of Limoges constructed a noble monastery, Solignac by name, and many other convents in those same places. But also in Paris he builds a monastery of Maidens, in which he set over the Virgin of Christ Aurea. But in the city of Bourges a monastery of Maidens, from the Rule of B. Columban, Bethoara a woman noble by birth and by religion most holy constructed. In the suburb of the same city of Bourges Theodulfus, by surname Babolenus, monasteries from the Rule of Columban flourishing with all religion constructed: the first in an island upon the river Milinandra, another Goudiacum by name, the third of the Virgins of Christ at Carentonium, likewise another near the town of Nevers under the same he constructed. These things Jonas, which in the Notes there are illustrated. D'Achery and Mabillon, on this Life add these things in the margin: Many under the Rule of St. Columban construct monasteries, which was done in the time of St. Waldebertus, who to St. Eustasius in the year DCXXV deceased is substituted in the time of King Clotharius, to whom in the year DCXXVIII dead succeeded Dagobert, from whom St. Eligius obtained Solignac, St. Audoenus being witness in his Life book 1 chapter 15, In the time of St. Waldebertus: who then chapter 17 and 18 and book 2 chapter 51 treats of the monastery of Maidens, which, says Jonas, Eligius builds, namely when he was writing the said Life. Claude Robert writes that to the foundation of Solignac, on the X Kalends of December of the year of the reign of Dagobert X, (and so in the year DCXXXI or the following) various Bishops subscribed, and that a condition was interposed that the Monks should follow the path of Religion of the most holy men of the Luxeuil monastery. There is extant that charter in the Appendix of the 2nd Benedictine century page 109. but perhaps interpolated in these words: and the Rule of the most blessed Fathers Benedict and Columban firmly should hold. Mabillon confesses in the Preface to the said century number XI that in some very ancient instruments of that kind certain errors are found, which both the audacity of the copyists and the longinquity of times introduced: which of the said charter can be said it seems from the alleged text of Jonas, by Mabillon admitted and to the MS. Cistercian codices and others more correctly edited. But when the Benedictine Rule was introduced into the Luxeuil monastery, to us is not clear. The Sammarthani, to whom it is permitted with impunity to pronounce sentence about such things, say it was done some centuries after.

[7] The same Jonas in the said Life of St. Eustasius corrected from MSS., asserts that he a monastery of the Virgins of Christ, for St. Fara or Borgundofara, here in the monastery of St. Fara he teaches the rule. upon the paternal soil to build and decreed Walbertus, who afterwards succeeded him, with Chagnoaldus the girl's brother, that they should teach the Rule. St. Fara attacked, the same Jonas being witness, the above-mentioned Agrestinus that he might draw her away from the Rule of St. Columban, but in vain. But St. Fara is venerated December VII in her own monastery and the whole diocese of Meaux: on which day her Acts will have to be given. he gives to St. Bathild from his own an Abbot of Corbie: St. Bathild the Queen with her son Clotharius III founded Corbie, a hitherto most celebrated monastery; over which the first Abbot presided Theodefridus or Theudofredus, whom the aforesaid Lady Bathild, from the Luxeuil monastery, from the most Reverend man Lord Walbertus the Abbot sought, and wonderfully to that convent of Brethren directed. To Luxeuil also and to the rest of the Burgundian monasteries very many villas entire she granted, and innumerable money directed. Thus the coeval authors in the Life of St. Bathild, on January XXVI by us edited.

[8] We gave on the day XXI of February the Life of St. Germanus Abbot and Martyr, at Grandval in the diocese of Basel, by the coeval author Bobolenus. He led under St. Waldebertus the Abbot the monastic life at Luxeuil, who when he perceived him to be an industrious man, ordered him to be made Presbyter. But perceiving the Priest full of God and replete with the Holy Spirit

of God Waldebertus that bands of monks were eagerly gathered together from every side; he began of so very great a multitude, if perchance anywhere he could, to seek out the most fertile places, where of his monks for dwelling he might gather them. Hearing this Gundoinus … directed ministers to him, that they should hasten to him as quickly as possible. Then B. Waldebertus without any ambiguity went to Gundoinus himself … and began with gentle words to soothe his mind, that if he wished for the regard of God, he accepts Grandval, or for the remedy of his soul, or for the absolution of his sins, a confirmation of those places, strengthened by his hands or the hands of good men, he would exhibit. Then Waldebertus with the fear of God and the prayer of the Brethren went to that place, and found a most fertile place … exhorting his Brethren that there they ought to settle. He summoned therefore to himself one of his Presbyters, by name Fridoaldus, of the few monks of the Lord Columban the Abbot, admonishing that to that place he should go … After this Waldebertus, the Priest of God, began within himself silently to think, whether he could find of his Brethren one of noble birth, and learned in the sacred letters or writings, conspicuous in sanctity, who ought to govern and rule those monks according to the tenor of the rule. What more? God commanding or inspiring, St. Germanus is chosen Abbot. he constitutes St. Germanus Abbot: Therefore the venerable man, the Priest of God, coming with Germanus himself to that monastery Grandval, began to exhort him with his monks, that he should dread nothing, but that as a holy man he should gird his loins … But the Brethren he exhorted, that he should render them absolved from his obedience, and to St. Germanus, for the regard of God, they should submit the necks of obedience: which also they did. The benediction therefore being received three monasteries, namely of St. Ursicinus, and of Verdun, and also of Grandval he received into his Dominion. These things are excerpted from the Acts of St. Germanus, and in the Notes there are explained.

[9] Among the holy spiritual daughters of St. Waldebertus is with reason reckoned St. Salaberga, Abbess of Laon: from whose Acts, by the coeval Author to be given on September XXII, for establishing the reign of Dagobert II son of Sigebert we sometime took an argument; now from those excerpts about St. Waldebertus we give: In the place of Abbot Eustasius, of blessed recollection Walbertus in the government of the Brethren was raised, a man laudable by the fame of all, and of excellent sanctity, and in Ecclesiastical disciplines not mediocrely learned, among other monasteries founded, in goodness and piety and charity preeminent and exuberant in doctrine … When therefore the excellent opinion of the sanctity of B. Walbertus almost through all the bounds of the Franks excellently sprouted, and the skill of his preaching from Christ the Lord, without whom nothing good is done, abundantly grew warm, and he was pleasing to all worshiping God, and monasteries of men and women of Christ from his norm abundantly were founded; he helps St. Salaberga perceiving the servant of Christ and illustrious soldier to flourish with so many examples, and to be fragrant with supernal virtues, and assiduously as if from the jaws of wolves snatched everywhere the flocks of Christ to be gathered, St. Salaberga summoning him more frequently to her own house, for receiving the grace of benediction from him, as a divine gift to her granted by the Lord, rejoicing received him, and desired to draw salutary words and congruous to the medicine of souls from his mellifluous mouth: and her mind burned most instantly, that the trappings of the world being set aside she might be able to ascend to the summit of virtues and the height of sanctity … What more? God being author committing all her hope after God to the blessed man, her husband being converted, and her offspring consecrated to God, in constructing a monastery, the garment of Religion being received, counsel being entered with B. Walbertus, a convent of Maidens in the suburb of the city of Langres, in the paternal inheritance or succession, she attempts to build … for which work to be accomplished the venerable Walbertus provided and committed solace and craftsmen and industrious men … Then she began with the man of God to ponder in mind, that the convent of Maidens in that same place was not safe … and counsel being obtained with the aforesaid Walbertus the Abbot, who in genius and sagacious vigor and good nature in such things was endowed, whom afterwards she had as companion of the journey and associate of the labor, she chose a journey Christ being leader … and to the city of Lyon with the greatest array and with the souls committed to her by God she set out … and transferring it to Laon, and within a short space of time were heaped together in that same place or united in the monastery more or less three hundred handmaids of Christ … When on a certain night she took slumber, in the appearance of the venerable man Walbertus, as it were an Angel of the Lord appeared to her three times, who took her girdle drawn off from her loins with him: which girdle thereafter did not appear, signifying as I think, and through an Angel appearing to her indicates the time of death. that in her posterity honor by successions would increase. Who, as she herself was wont to relate, shone with too great whiteness, and with this wondrous voice addresses the woman: O most sweet daughter, prepare yourself that you may receive the prize and await the departure: because I too from your victory desire to receive the prize, because the hundredth day from this day the day of your calling will come, that the fruit of your labor, which with great sweat you sought, with multiplied interest in the granary of your Lord you may lay up. Thus far in that Life the coeval author.

[10] Besides St. Frodobertus, Abbot of Celles in the suburb of Troyes, whose Life we gave January VIII, he admits among his own St. Frodobertus, then Abbot of Celles, from his Bishop to the Luxeuil convent for the cause of spiritual profit was directed; that allured by the imitation of the religious, both he himself in virtues might grow, and to his region afterwards might bring back most lucid examples of sanctity and perfection. There then presided over that convent Walbertus the Abbot, a man both illustrious in religion and famous in the opinion of sanctity. To whom when by the precept of the Pontiff he had come, by the holy Fathers of that place with the grace of exultation he is received, and into the company of the congregation deputed … There was at that time the aforenamed Luxeuil convent in the Gallic regions almost singular, both in the summit of religion and also in the perfection of doctrine. For which cause very many, in whom in either direction was the fervor of profiting, to that same place with contending zeals from every side flowed together. These things there, where also is said a certain one from the convent of St. Sequanus an Abbot, by name Teudolenus, by Bertoaldus, Teudolenus from the convent of St. Sequanus Bishop of the city of Langres, for the cause of erudition destined thither. St. also Babolenus, first Abbot of Fossés, whether in the time of St. Waldebertus, St. Babolenus afterwards Abbot of Fossés. among the Luxovians began the monastic life, will have to be inquired June XXVI: and several other Saints of the same time, in the course of this work will appear gone forth from the Luxeuil discipline.

[11] St. Bercharius Finally St. Bercharius, Abbot of Der in the Châlons diocese, and before of Hautvillers in the Reims diocese, by St. Nivardus Bishop of Reims to St. Waldebertus about the year DCL was destined. For there was, says Adso Abbot of Der author of the Life of St. Bercharius, at that time in all the parts of the Gauls this Luxeuil convent both with manifold possessions of things, and also with the cults of Divine veneration having a singular name, because there both a stricter institution and the study of wisdom more fully was had … The fame therefore of so great a name of the religious man being heard thither from everywhere they flow together, themselves and their children very many in rivalry offer to be imbued: holding this above all things greatest, if even after the long-lived tolerance of the proving injury, in some manner they merit to be admitted into the Congregation. But now what place or city does not rejoice from the discipline of the blessed man (Columban) to have a Rector Pontiff or Abbot? since it is established that from the virtue of this mastery almost the whole Frankish world by Regular decrees was first decently illustrated. Bercharius therefore the servant of Christ, desiring always to ascend to the institutes of a higher life, by the authority and grace of his Pontiff, with swift step to this place according to his vow hastens, by the alacrity of the aforesaid Father worthy is approved, to the holy cohort of monks not so much in body as in mind and act is associated … But when now he was preeminently taught in the Regular disciplines, Abbot of Hautvillers fortified with the arms of the Divine warfare in either direction, into the province of Reims to St. Nivardus the Pontiff he returns … and the Hautvillers monastery being constructed, religious men of monastic religion he aggregated; and all things which to this Order were judged convenient, he diligently fulfilled. Afterwards he constructed the Der convent, and of Der. whose primordia must be diligently placed about the year DCLXV, in which St. Waldebertus died: and that in it St. Bercharius died from a wound in the year DCLXXXV, hands down he, who the Deeds of St. Bercharius (which until then were held rudely written and hidden) adorning with the charm of eloquence, scattered over all the coasts of Gaul, Adso Abbot of Der, conspicuous in philosophical doctrine and probity of life, who in the year DCCCCXCII on the journey of the way to Jerusalem transmitted his blessed soul to the joys of the heavenly fatherland, as the Author of the History of the miracles of St. Bercharius writes, edited together with the said Life by Nicolas Camuzat in the Promptuarium of Troyes, and written by him by the order of Bruno Abbot of Der. This Bruno had been at Rome ordained by St. Leo IX, and gifted with his name, because this Pope before was named Bruno, having died in the year MLIV, as on his Life April XIX we said.

[12] This moreover Author of the History of the miracles of St. Bercharius, a Benedictine monk, of the Rule of St. Benedict introduced in the time of king Rudolph (who in the place of Charles the Simple ruled the Franks from the year XXIII even to the year XXXVI of the tenth century) these things writes: in this monastery the Rule of St. Benedict assumed in the 9th century. The Rule of our most holy Father Benedict, hitherto unheard by the men of the Frankish Empire, by the most skillful industry of that Prince infused the ray of its brightness into very many Churches. But those who in those very times bore some monastic scheme or other, of the once most famous Luxovian name, defended themselves by some little custom. But the most prudent King … the convent of Fleury … to be corrected handed over to St. Odo Abbot of the Cluny monastery. But the glorious Abbot … the little book of the Rule of the same Father first into that place brought. By the most celebrated fame of so great a matter excited Gauslinus, Pontiff of the city of Toul … the aforesaid Rule also of the blessed Father carrying with him, first to the city of Toul showed the innovation of the monastic prelate. By the example of these the Der convent was ordered, and Benzo the Abbot being driven out, his Monks indeed for fear of the hated Rule fleeing in diverse directions, Brethren brought from the Toul monastery of St. Aper succeeded: who the memory of their prudence, to our age hitherto display, also by the sagacious ordering of Ecclesiastical volumes. But by what authors they were brought in, and the former driven out, I have forborne to write; lest of an inept controversy I should sometime seem to have furnished kindling. These things the Benedictine author: who adds that first then there shone the Abbot Albericus, a monk of St. Aper of Toul, whom succeeded Adso. Of whom above we treated. But how is the Rule of St. Benedict said to be hitherto unheard by the men of the Frankish Empire? Is it not in the Life of St. Salaberga read, that through the provinces of the Gauls

bands of monks and swarms of sacred maidens from the Rule only of the blessed Fathers Benedict and Columban began to sprout? This that writer could have been ignorant of: he could have had in his copy, from the Rule only of the most blessed Father Columban: which is more credible, be it with others the judgment; only I indicate that in that Life it is treated of the Luxeuil monastery, and its Abbots Columban, Eustasius, Waldebertus; and Mabillon does not wish to deny that in the most ancient instruments are found errors, introduced by the audacity of the copyists: whether this was not done here and the name of St. Benedict rashly added to the name of St. Columban, let others inquire.

THE LIFE

By the Author Adso, Abbot of Luxeuil.

From MSS. and the Benedictine Acts.

Waldebertus, Abbot of Luxeuil, in the County of Burgundy (St.)

BHL Number: 8775

BY THE AUTHOR ADSO ABBOT FROM MSS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] To the sacred congregation of the Luxovian Cenobites, Adso, who is also Hermiricus, by name Abbot not by merit called, perpetual health in Christ the Lord. To me considering and more often turning over in mouth and mind, what of utility and advantage I might confer on the place, The author professes that for the memory of posterity in which delivered by my parents, I remembered to have passed the youthful rudiments of my first apprenticeship among the doubtful two horns of the Pythagorean letter; this most of all occurred, that for repairing the skill of those succeeding the memory of past things, those which through the excellent Confessors of Christ the Lord, founders and rectors of almost six hundred Luxovian Monks, namely Eustasius and Waldebertus, even in our age to have been done by divine grace are known, I should commend to the style. For among those things which already have passed, and those which are hoped to come, a profound darkness as it were a certain cloud interposing, human perspicacity cannot have a free faculty of knowledge; unless externally by the tradition of literary industry it be helped, through which those things which the prior course absorbed, brought before the eyes, as if present are reckoned. especially he wishes to write the matters of his own time: By the study of which matter provoking us, we have put forth our hand, that those things, which to the honor of the Divine majesty are done, as far as our knowledge could attain, by the sloth of torpor may not lie hid: especially since the Divine providence has destined them to us as Patrons by the gift as it were of a special privilege, whose present suffrage might fortify us, the virtue of miracles more clearly illustrate. But when we praise glorious men in their life, by no means do we pass over Him, nay we judge Him to be set forth before all by right faith, through whom we doubt not that they merited and obtained all these things, who is glorious in His Saints, and admirable in all His works. Those things therefore which the same aforesaid Fathers either in life, or certainly which a little after the times of their departure they wrought, by no means do we touch: since the deeds done already long ago, are sufficiently written; but what after the course of the age succeeding long, namely with us beholding, the divine clemency through them willed to declare, out of the several things which could be committed to memory, for exhibiting more tenaciously the reverence of so great men we are not silent. For if anyone desires to know their deeds more fully, let him more diligently inquire their acts which in their proper volumes from the exordium of the things done are more largely contained, where very easily can be found, with how great and what insignia of virtues each of them shines.

[2] Let therefore your holy Paternity receive this little work of our devotion: which although it considers us unskilled in the charm of eloquence, nor to refuse if anyone should wish to set forth the same more cultivatedly. yet let it know that we have given operation, lest for glorifying the magnificence of divine works our sloth should grow torpid. Yet thus we prosecute these things, that if either more rightly or more wittily for completing these any writer should emerge, if any fruit of praise or of mortal honor to us could accrue from these; we willingly profess ourselves to lack this privilege, provided only that we yield the place, if another more powerful or more eloquent be substituted: let it suffice only to have shown the way of the material to be thoroughly known. Nor will the reward of our labor, as we hope, be frustrated by the Lord, if the faculty of voice be lacking, since the affection of our devotion has been ready.

CHAPTER I.

On the Life and death of St. Waldebertus: the miracles of him living.

[3] St. Columban driven from Luxeuil, Therefore after the most blessed Father Columban, as the book of the history written about his life and virtues indicates, under the King of the Franks Sigebert, an exile from the bounds of his fatherland Hibernia having entered Burgundy, had specially chosen for himself a place, to which from of old Luxeuil (as there is read) was the name; he obtained from the Lord so great a grace of works to be accomplished, that in that place by signs and prodigies going before, a multitude of almost six hundred monks in a short time, the bands being disposed through the small places (as even today is seen) for himself, he gathered. Who in all sanctity, wisdom, doctrine and religion being best instructed, so that far and wide through cities and monasteries from the discipline of the blessed Father Columban Pastors and Rectors were chosen from his disciples; the devil instigating, by the most impious Queen Brunehilde expelled b, having gone out from Luxeuil he sought Italy, the Bobbio monastery magnificently founded: there succeeds St. Eustasius. in which at length illustrious by many signs of miracles with a blessed end c he rested. To whom for governing the congregation of the Luxovian monks, the blessed Father d Eustasius a provident governor succeeded; who sprung from a more noble e race of the people of Langres, the institutes of his predecessor in all things having followed, equally in wisdom and sanctity everywhere most known by fame and virtues, migrated to the Lord, in the same place entombed in body.

[4] to him St. Walbertus To whom in the government the Holy successor was Walbertus: who namely a man in his life most glorious, although he was posterior in order, yet was not inferior in the quality of merits: whose years also of adolescence in arms they hand down first most excellently to have flourished. Who namely when he was most illustrious by famous lineage, in the district which commonly f Ponthieu is called, in honors and dignity of things according to his birth most rich; yet under the matters of the world's reign not unmindful of the eternal, he sedulously followed the works of mercy, doing the things which are of God, even in the world noble and toward the poor benevolent: not the things which are of men. But what and how great virtue of good works in him under that military habit shone forth, no speech suffices to explain: when in very many other things, then also in these most intent, namely to clothe the cold, to feed the needy, to provide solace to the weak, to recreate the poor, to revive the sad, to recall the discordant to peace. Thus an excellent soldier, constituted among the fasces and arms, always preferring the eternal to the perishing, with sedulous thought he turned over, what afterwards devoted he completed by work. Of whom indeed under that exercise of good works the beginning of signs they report to have been this.

[5] Within the bounds of France, in the district namely of Meaux, there is a village of famous name, by an ancient name g Nant called, Nantinatus, where he has a fountain of his name celebrated: which namely village from his progenitors by hereditary right belonged to him; by his birth too and his childish increments this place even to the present is held quite notable. To the praise also of his name a memorable fountain there arises, from which the popular crowd having been bathed, judges that it brings back to its own more joyful, on account of the memory of the blessed man, the gains of safety. In this therefore, as we said, village, a most wide field of his own right was and fruitful. For as in other things this man was most happy, so also in possessions he prevailed: and this field too wild geese, which from their whiteness or the sound of their voice in rustic manner h gantas they call, in a collected band by frequent breaking in from the very casting of the seed and the increment of the sowing laid waste. The minister indignant, when he could by no force drive them thence, takes care that the familiar damage be intimated to his lord. But he commanding, Go, said he, quicker, and in pedestrian order in entire number following shut them up at home. Soon the servant preceding you would see the sad birds, wondrous into a globe, he orders the wild geese to be led to him: their wildness laid aside, gathered; and at the nod of the one commanding, by a certain track, by which they were led, to have entered under the roof. So now for three days those birds being without food, by the indulgence of the blessed man at length are released, one being taken away namely from the number of the rest, which one of the household had stealthily taken, and ill conscious to himself in food the voracious violator had consumed. Yet those birds loosed from prison, a groan raised on high, filling the air with clamor, fly about the roofs, and into the ears of the holy man dissolve the social damage. Who soon understanding the cause, the deposit inquires, professes that he had ordered the due penalties for the crime i, not to have inflicted deaths. The presumer as guilty of theft, and one of them slain he raises. by shame detected, the remains of the feathers which by chance he had taken and whatever was residual brings forth into the midst. So the holy man, prayer being made repairing the lifeless bird, the number being restored permits them to go away rejoicing, never after this presuming to make a breaking in within that field. These things therefore already then the Lord deigned to show in His servant, whom He disposed afterwards over that holy flock of the Luxovian monks by pastoral authority to set. Who even if thus in the least things a layman could, how much more in the greatest is he to be believed under the holy habit to have prevailed?

[6] Hence now when he tended to higher things, desiring altogether to renounce the world, by the nod of God and the counsel of the blessed Father Eustasius, the Luxeuil monastery, by the admonitions of Eustasius he betakes himself to Luxeuil: which before the rest at that time by regular order more strictly by abundance of things and the number of monks more excellently prevailed, devoutly he sought: and his properties there being handed over, which through diverse places most amply he had possessed; and his arms being laid down, which even today in testimony of his sacred warfare in that place are held; to the number of the servants of God he went to be associated. Who the grace of holy conversion with so great perfection obtained, that even by the Holy Spirit illustrating he showed signs of virtues, when he stood in another's disposition. k There is still shown a place, two miles from the monastery separated, he lives solitary: under a stone indeed preeminent hollow, but by water coming forth from the earth more pleasantly irrigated, where they report that he established for himself a little cell, and against the temptations both of the flesh and of the ancient enemy for no small time singularly contended.

[7] Besides Father Eustasius (as above we have foretasted) approved by signs and very many virtues (as in the description of his acts sufficiently is read), Eustasius is succeeded: with the palm of good works, the Lord calling, the heavenly capitol enters to be crowned. Who also after the sacred altar of blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles, within the walls of the principal church, which he himself with Father Columban had founded, a magnificent (as was fitting) sepulture retains. Nor does the divine providence suffer the sacred sheepfold to be destitute of a rector. For in that college of Saints though there were very many, whom both wisdom and life commended; yet all, with equal vow and equal consent, Waldebertus, a man equally most holy, in the place of the decedent Father decree, and constitute Rector of the place, he conducts the matter most well. certain of his virtue and merits: which although in him they could be augmented, to none is it doubtful that they could not by fixed deliberation be moved. For nothing from his former vigor doing more remissly,

with sought-out stricter strictnesses of life he coerced himself. But if anything in things or the other conveniences of either life in the time of those two Fathers, namely Columban and Eustasius, remained imperfect; this most blessed Pastor Waldebertus with all industry supplied, augmented, and to the nail more perfectly filed. Villas also and copious estates, a handing over being publicly made, into the uses of the monastery he conferred: among which the village too, which above we said was called Nant, namely his native soil, with the adjacent members under a threat he handed over; that whoever should take it away from the place, should succumb to eternal malediction. In the district also l of Ternois a village by name Herlerus, with all things pertaining to it, and whatever in Ponthieu by solid right he had possessed, he offered: and of all his things blessed Peter the Apostle in perpetuity he constituted to be heir. Among his other gifts also he conferred a cup of most precious gem, of one topaz, in a wondrous manner with little golden drops (as is its nature) interspersed; an anathema being interposed, that whoever on whatever occasion thence should subtract it, or subtracted should by rash daring attempt to retain it, with the devil and his angels in eternal flames in perpetuity to be tormented should be present, the authority also being saved of the Kings and Nobles of the Franks, which usage quite was borne at that time.

[8] To Saint m Nicetius the Bishop, a man of great virtues, familiar to Nicetius the Bishop: he more familiarly adhered; a condition of a pact being interposed of both, that whichever of them first the Lord calling should depart from human affairs, the other surviving should have ordained for him the place of a fitting sepulture. Which also so happened. For when through the space of forty years the glorious Confessor of the Lord Waldebertus the place delegated to him, with every kind of virtue most well disposed, augmented in things and in the number of those serving God; adorned with many virtues of miracles, he migrated to the Lord on the VI Nones of May; he dies May 2 made the associate and partner of the supernal citizens, and to the gate of perpetual delight happily introduced. To the obsequies of whose funeral the bands of the faithful flowing together from every side, in n the Church of B. Martin, which is constructed on the side of the monastery in the northern part, buried by him: a crypt being composed by the holy Pontiff Nicetius behind the altar with wondrous work, the Lord disposing, in a most worthy sepulture there he was laid.

[9] In which place namely, after the glorious departure of his life, His body the greatest protection against the Pagans. to the honor of the divine name very many miracles are shown, when to blinded faces sight is restored, to the lame the compages of the nerves being broken gait is restored, to the sick health breathes, from the members of the ailing the hateful debility is driven, to the sad solaces, to those falling in adversities benefits are afforded: among which also are divine commerces of virtue. This by a certain reckoning the prior age is said to have approved, that the reverence of honor being exhibited due to the pious one lying, as long as untouched by the hand of man the sepulture of the sacred body remained, neither the pravity of the unbelieving, nor any savage irruption of the Pagans could there prevail. But after, either on account of the merit of fewer proclamation, or also some chance of supervening things compelling, the bones of the reverend body being taken thence were brought to the sanctuaries of another temple; neither the impiety of the perverse about to harm, nor were lacking the slaughters and misfortunes of the cruel nations. Then also long after o Pagans suddenly bursting in there, with all effort strove to burn the monastery: but repelled by the manifest virtue of God, in vain were seen to have applied their fires: at which time also, as afterwards will be said, some of the monks were found slain by the Pagans.

[10] Departing therefore from this life (as we have foretasted) Waldebertus the most blessed Pastor, saint Ingofredus, conspicuous and perfect in every kind of virtues, in his place was solemnly subrogated. successors Ingofredus & after others Mellinus, Then a long series of many times running on, in that white convent of the snowy band of monks, the Fathers (as in the catalogue of them it is easy to be found) succeeding one another, neither pastoral authority was lacking, and the abundance of temporal subsidy even to their last Abbot, by name Mellinus, prosperously endured. These things we indeed, as if by anticipation of the material briefly foretasting, since it was not our purpose to repeat the acts of past times; these being omitted, to the times of our age, as we have promised, let us return.

ANNOTATA.

b In the year 610.

CHAPTER II.

The Abbots from the times of Louis the Pious. The Relics of St. Waldebertus carried to various places. The miracles wrought.

[11] After the memorable death of Charlemagne the glorious Emperor, there is said to have arisen among four Kings a controversy of great dissension, namely Charles and b Pippin, Lothair also and Louis; quarreling too and with great force contending among themselves, to which of them the sole dominion of the kingdom of France should more specially fall, which already indeed their younger brother Charles, at the nod of their dying father, singularly had received. Which impiety of fraternal litigation when by no reason could it be overcome, was led so far, that the cohorts of the kingdoms being convoked on both sides, the wedges of the fighters being disposed, c into fraternal lines the standards were loosed. In which line the army of Lothair fleeing, d Warinus the most powerful Duke of Burgundy helping, Likewise but in inverted order the Abbots Drogo, Charles brought back the signs of victory, and thus the Kingdom of France, the parts of the kingdoms being divided among the rest, alone he received. But e Drogo the fifth, equally avid of reigning, who of most illustrious (as being of the same race) seemed to be disposition, into a Cleric they shave, and on the see of the Church of Metz a Pontiff constitute. Him also for the supplement of ampler honor f over Luxeuil they decree to be Pastor. Which place received he so strenuously after the studies of his predecessors and most powerfully governed, that the abundance of things being augmented, fifteen thousand of manses in his time to be reckoned were seen. Here meanwhile he being accustomed to stay, while he enjoys the amenity of the places, the river Lignon being neighboring for the cause of fishing having attacked, while he follows a huge fish, slipped into the waters suddenly g he is suffocated, and carried to Metz in the Church of saint Arnulf Confessor of Christ is entombed. After these times h Louis, by surname the Pious, in France Pope Stephen crowning is made Emperor. In these days through very many places of the monasteries the regular Order had failed, and the administration of temporal things by daily chances of evils was perishing. He however more frequently by synodal Councils the state of the Churches to its former condition according to his powers repaired.

[12] Ansegisus, At that time the dignity also of the Luxovians among the rest, the former rigor wasting away, now almost vacillated. Which Caesar Louis having experienced, i Ansegisus, a most worthy man, refined in morals and preeminent in the comeliness of wisdom, in the place sets as Pastor. He repairs the collapsed, recollects the dispersed, extends further the site of the church, the surrounding workshops with ampler spaces and higher walls extends, the walls also of the church with the rest of the ornaments with beautiful variety paints. The Capitularies indeed of the Kings of the Franks, which in diverse Councils had been enacted, he excepted, and in one volume caused to be contained. And when among the Nobles of the kingdom to the Kings of the Franks he was pleasing; intent on just and pious works, he made the end of his life; and there where he had more spaciously extended the church, a worthy sepulture he received.

[13] Fulbertus, Fulbertus also, a certain illustrious man, in process of time in the same place is constituted: who also the Oratories of the Saints between the two monasteries with beautiful enough comeliness composed, and with decent things adorned. k After these things long the Pagans (as we have foretold) bursting in, Gibardus slain by the Normans with some monks, the monks by the fame of sudden terror through diverse places creeping, Gibardus a man by race and doctrine most illustrious, who Pastor of the monastery and Abbot at that time had been constituted; while further to other parts he had departed, l by the arrows of the Pagans is transfixed, and in the place which is called Martin-villa, is buried. m Tetelmus also, a monk honorable among his own, not far from the monastery was found slain with certain others. Hence now even to these our times the Pastors departing, n Richard the great Duke of Burgundy, in the unhappy state of the Gauls. while hateful tyrants everywhere had begun to emerge, and one another by mutual slaughter to dash; the Church of God is confounded, rights are broken, the statutes of laws are violated, the possessions of the Church are invaded, and by the impious everywhere are snatched: to sacred places there is no reverence, but wickedness prevailing

of the impious, the whole honor of religion equally falls together: which indeed the inhabitants of the Luxeuil convent, sins requiring, fully experienced: for their villas and possessions for an inheritance to themselves the hands of strangers snatched away. And when there was no King and Judge, who in the regard of true justice was willing wholly to resist this pravity of the impious; very many of the Clergy were compelled, against the rash audacity of those snatching, to carry about the pledges of their Saints; that whom human power did not restrain, The Relics of the Saints carried about. the virtue shown of God might coerce. Hence it is that the inhabitants of this place having confidence nowhere else, against the wickedness of the perverse, of St. Waldebertus their defender, the pledges of his body being carried, are accustomed to bring in his virtue: that he who once was seen to have kept the sacraments of temporal warfare, himself also among the chances of his faithful as a pious champion may stand by. Of which matter the experiment of its own accord thrusts itself in, if the power of his virtue be considered, which he frequently shows.

[14] A villa contiguous to the marine shores, which above was called Herlerium, The body of St. Waldebertus by the force of tyrants had been taken away. The monks placed in a doubtful peril, the suffrage of St. Waldebertus their protector seek, and the relic of his holy pledges placing on themselves, through the bounds of France thither direct their journey. To them going away suddenly the river Marne met them in the way. Which when they desire to cross, a very great crowd of peoples preceding, a ship of its own accord approaching it is carried beyond the Marne. the relic of the sacred pledge had stood on this side of the shore. The monks placed in a strait knew not what to do. I am about to say wondrous things: soon a ship by divine impulse without a rower thither without human help of its own accord is conducted, by which the relic of the holy body was held. The companions wondering, were led across the river with so great facility, as they had never until then experienced. Hence therefore proceeding, a little after to the estate they come Nant above mentioned: where namely he himself both the exordium of his life temporally had taken, and by certain signs of miracles living had illustrated. Here his bodily presence being discovered, it cannot be said, how great a frequency of peoples of either sex there flowed together. Among which, on account of the grace of his benefits, when various gifts of presents with the relic of the holy man among the foliage of the trees the crowd rushing in decreed to be hung up, a certain wooden cup by someone it happened to be offered. This one of the servants had received to be kept: which when a certain wanton and petulant youth from him sought to be given him, when by chance he seemed unworthy to merit it; he, a sword being drawn, the one devoted to the service of the man of God with the sword strove to attack. And when at him he had balanced a blow, suddenly the right hand of the striker is bound in the air. The right hand of the malevolent remains suspended in the air: So he without a gibbet suspended to heaven is rendered mad, in sense is confounded, fixed is held by the earth: nor could he before be restored to himself, than by the prayer of those, to whom about to harm he had come, he merited to be absolved. So a terror of this deed had struck the breasts of very many. Finally here for some little time detained by the people, they resume the journey which they had begun; to Herlerus they come, whither they tended. There rise up from every side the unjust invaders, wishing to repel them from the bounds, whom to their own loss they perceived to have come: but the virtue of the holy man by terror subdues the minds of the impious, and to his own restores the domestic estates, which by the factions of strangers had been snatched away. So, although with labor, the things being composed, with the sacred pledges the obedient monks, more joyful are restored to their own homes.

[15] There is again a village not ignoble, Provincherias by its name called, An invader of the goods almost twenty miles from the monastery separated: which namely village a certain soldier had invaded, among his own most renowned. To whom a strait impending, because the suffrage of an earthly defender was lacking, necessity commanded the relic of the holy man to be carried. Which being placed in the church there proper, the soldier indignant began to rage, to be angry, to derogate from the Saint, to bacchanal, and to be insane, affirming that he would freely subjugate the things of the church to his dominion. Finally when on a certain day, swollen and elated on a foaming horse, through the field lying below the church with loosed reins he was borne at a swift course, the leg being broken the horse fell headlong: he himself scarcely escaping the fall, in the next moment slain by a soldier, the villa even to the present left to St. Peter freely to be possessed.

[16] At another time also a certain Robert, a soldier powerful in strength and wealth, with his nephew Berardus in the district of Dijon, the villa Caciacum preeminently wine-bearing; but Hubaldus, Molisiacum in the district of Beaune, namely things of the Luxeuil church, with a quite iniquitous domination possessed: wherefore the monks with the Princes of Burgundy more often having complained, could not prevail. The counsel therefore of o Letoldus the Count being entered, at that time in which King Lothair, the siege of the Burgundians being driven off, under his dominion p the Dijon castle had received; the monks repeat the known suffrage, the venerable pledge of St. Waldebertus they determine to be carried thither. Whither when they had come, in the middle of the villa a tent fitly with the sacred coffer they set up: when suddenly the enemies armed with sword and spirits, Berardus namely with his own, Berardus the goods of the villa being snatched those coming indeed with their Defender they dare not touch; the villa however in their wonted manner they seize, the household evilly oppress, the expenses of provisions more copiously and more harshly exact: and thus rapaciously with food and wine drenched, the monks laboring with hunger, seized with dysentery, is amended, night rushing in, in slumber their stretched-out limbs they relax. Behold suddenly in the middle of the night, their prince, Berardus namely, is seized with fever, by the disease of dysentery his limbs are tortured, by the flux of the belly everywhere he is constrained: and scarcely having awaited the dawn, he goes to the monks, before the presence of the Saint falls down, does penance for his guilt: and so health being granted, the villa Caciacus from then and now from the alien possessor is rescued, by the liberty of its proper lord is possessed.

[17] But Hubaldus the soldier, although avid in the things of the sanctuary, and by his example Hubaldus, otherwise however an upright man, and as in arms so also in morals modest, whom in the district of the province of Beaune at the villa Molisiacum the revenues of wine and crops of the monks we said he had subjugated; seeing the virtues and miracles of this Saint terrified, for the rest, although unwilling, his possession to the church he relinquished.

[18] At another time after these things the same monks in the district of the people of Alsace, the infestation of tyrants breaking out, of certain of their things had suffered losses. This necessity urging, deliberation being had, they decree to go to those parts, having with them the safeguards of faith, namely the sacred pledges of Relics from the members q of St. Eustasius, and also of St. Waldebertus, the glorious Confessor of the Lord. In which journey, not far from the monastery, at the villa which is called of St. Mary, first they were lodged. Then the place which is called Campaniolae having attacked, on the fourth day at length thither they come, whither they had been provoked by the improbity of the evil. The Relics carried toward the boundary of Alsace, There was in that company a not small number both of monks and of those ministering, with whom had gone the Abbot and Bishop, by name r Aaloncus. Coming therefore to the destined place, because elsewhere a fit place had not been, in a certain meadow, which gainsaid them, upon the trunk of one cut-down oak they set the chest. At the fame therefore of so great a novelty very many being roused, you would see an infinite multitude of peoples of mixed sex there suddenly to have flowed together. Not only from neighboring, but from far-off parts, places, villas, and towns wondrously massed all come together: and soon filling the field, with one voice, with consonant devotion, the name of omnipotent God and of St. Waldebertus all invoke, for their inconveniences opportune suffrages seek. a sound being made from the heavens But that the divine power might declare that even the corporal benefit of His Saints was present, there is made suddenly so great a crash from heaven, so great a terror, and in the manner of thunder a vehement roused sound; that the earth, as it seemed to them, trembling, scarcely the present peoples on their feet stood, and any of them in what part he was constituted knew not. They astonished, and of that matter which had happened too much frightened, after their strength being restored to themselves they returned, a bird flies up, (I am about to say wondrous things) you would see a bird, in the figure of a dove, through the serene air from the heights to have descended, and with a bland flight over the holy coffer familiarly to have flown about: which then, its course completed, into the secret of heaven is received, whence manifestly it is proved to have come. there are healed 2 blind and 2 contracted. Hence the virtue of both Saints began to be shown: for soon two, long deprived of their own eyes, at that hour in which the aforesaid bird was seen to have departed, without the leading of another, the brightness of light being received, enter the way, rejoicing hastily to hasten to their own. Then also two others, the nodosity of the nerves being folded together as if with chained limbs in the whole body bound, by the hands of others to the sacred pledges brought, by divine virtue shown on their feet suddenly were erected, and to their own without human help rejoicing returned; and the earth which before they knew not to tread, taught by a new journey, with free steps, glorifying the Lord and having St. Waldebertus as guide, they began to walk.

[19] To this same place a castle is seen to be contiguous, which in the prior time s Mons-Biliardae we know to have been surnamed. Of this town an inhabitant by name Uto, sprung from not an ignoble race, it is sufficiently discovered to have been known to many. He with his nerves contracted and deprived of the faculty of his body, with his hands creeping along the earth, could not go, likewise another contracted, unless he used either a horse, or an ass as a carrier. He therefore to the place was conducted with the highest devotion, where he had known the venerable pledge of this Saint to have stood. He comes therefore, with tears he bedews the ground, the name of the Saint he invokes, the suffrage he demands: nor before from the place departs, until by divine virtue the bonds of the nerves being broken he returns to his own, with his former safety gifted.

[20] And since the opportunity of the time and of the same benefit gave itself, it does not grieve again another thing to the praise of the divine name to relate, which in a similar matter this holy man dissimilarly wrought. In the district indeed, by the use of the country-folk t Warascum called, we know there was a certain man in the prior age, who by his proper name had been called Bernericus: who indeed was possessed of the liberty of birth; and another returning from a peregrination but yet in the whole body and nerves bound, by no faculty could solidly fix his steps to the lands. He placed on a two-wheeled cart, wherever he was to be led, with one ox and a servant in attendance seemed to be content. Who having heard the virtue of the Saint, an ox being yoked and a minister sent before, placed on the cart, came to the place, whither he had besought to be led. Before the presence of the Saint prostrate on the earth long he lies, with tears he mixes prayers, and his familiar ox to St. Waldebertus he delays not to promise, if from this inconvenience of his body he should merit to be absolved. Of whom indeed the holy man did not disdain to receive the groan of the supplicant: but yet present health he deferred to bestow: for not having obtained what he had long asked, most sad he was departing. And when he had performed somewhat of the journey returning; O holy Waldebertus, said he, does it please thee that sad I came, more sad I withdraw? Saying these things, he orders the wagon to stand, seeks the earth, and looses the ox into the pastures: when suddenly made sound he quickly returns, gives thanks, offered the ox his guide, and with firmed steps to his home most joyful returns.

[21] A certain woman again, noble by race, was held by a most grievous disease of the same contraction,

destitute of the solace of bodily faculty. Who when now of the commerce of health to be obtained she seemed despaired, likewise a contracted woman. to the same place she sought to be carried. Where when with continual prayers and tears she insisted, suddenly healed, not without the admiration of many, on her feet she stood. But when health being obtained she wished thence to withdraw, on the journey now placed suddenly to the earth she fell, and into the same disease of contraction bound herself to be she recognized. Looking up to heaven she groaned, and again to the place she caused herself to be carried back. Where when she had received her former health, as if somewhat now secure, desiring to revisit necessary things from the place she departs, and now began to go away. And so on the journey now constituted, again into one globe of body she is contracted: and anew to the place is carried back. And so it came about, that as often as thence she wished to go away, into the same disease she fell: until at length health being received she fixed her mind, and even to the last time of her life in the same place remained.

ANNOTATA.

p That it was done in the year 960 refers in the Chronicle of Langres James Vignier.

q A certain part of the relics of St. Eustasius is kept even now at Luxeuil, enclosed in an ivory and silver shrine, the body being carried to Vergaville in Lorraine.

r Aaloncus, or Adaloncus, the predecessor of the writer.

s Mons Beliardae commonly Montbéliard, marked with the title of a County, accustomed to be assigned to the firstborn of the Duke of Württemberg.

t The Warasci, were dwellers along the river Duvius or Doubs above Besançon, to whom St. Eustasius announced the orthodox faith.