Beatus

ON ST. BEATUS

OF VENDÔME IN THE DIOCESE OF CHARTRES.

Beatus, of Vendôme in the Diocese of Chartres in Gaul (S.)

G. H.

[1] Some difficulties appear concerning S. Beatus,

so that it can be doubted whether one or several

are to be established. We will indicate clearly what

is the sense of the ancients. The first

memorial is made in four ancient apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology

but on various days, especially toward the end

augmented in Gaul and England. Of these the most ancient

is the Epternacian, Ancient cult. inscribed nearly a thousand years ago. In which

toward the end these things are read: And elsewhere of Beatus the Confessor:

in the other three, namely Corbeian, Lucan and Blavian, these things

are had, The birthday of S. Beatus the Confessor. But the MSS. of Reichenau

near Constance in Swabia, of Prague of the Cathedral

Church, the Augsburg of S. Udalric and the Parisian of Labbe, not at Rome

mention only Beatus the Confessor, who in the MS.

of Trier of S. Martin is called Beatus the Presbyter. Behold the illustrious

vestiges of ancient cult, but no place is indicated.

First Rabanus in his Martyrology hands down these things: At Rome

the birthday of S. Beatus the Confessor. Rabanus was copied by the author

of the Martyrology supposed under the name of Bede, and this by Galesinus.

But the MSS. of Arras of the Cathedral Church, of Brussels of the church

of S. Gudula, and of Tournai of the monastery of S. Martin, conjoin

these things: At Rome the birthday of the Saints Beatus the Confessor

and S. Primolus. That an error crept into these from the adjoined

Primolus, who suffered at Rome, and is immediately placed before S. Beatus

in the cited four apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology,

is gathered from the MS. Epternacian: where between Primolus

and Beatus is expressly placed, and elsewhere: which

is the same as if it were said, not at Rome. But that place

in the most ancient Martyrology of the Queen of Sweden marked num. 313 is thus indicated: but to be assigned to Vendôme. In the territory of the city of Chartres at the castle

of Vendôme, the birthday of S. Beatus the Confessor. The same things drawn from there

Lucas Holstenius has in his Animadversions to the Roman

Martyrology. But Usuard: At the castle of Vendôme

the deposition of S. Beatus the Confessor. The same or similar things have

Bellinus, Grevenus, Molanus, Maurolycus, Felicius,

Canisius, Saussay, with today's Roman Martyrology.

[2] Various Acts found multiple times differing only in style. In the MS. of Ado of the monastery of S. Lawrence at Liège

it is added, that his Acts are had. These we have multiple,

but none of first note and credit: which we have differ from one another

only in style. Wherefore we give only those which

we think older than the others, transcribed by Father John Gamans

from a notable parchment Passional of the Bodecense monastery,

of the Order of Canons Regular of S. Augustine in Westphalia

and the diocese of Paderborn, collated with another codex

MS. of the Church of the Holy Saviour. Others, somewhat more adorned

with cultivation of words and almost extended to double,

we have from four MS. codices, namely those we ourselves transcribed

from the MS. codex of the above-indicated Queen marked

num. 863, likewise at Paris from two MS. codices preserved

among the Fathers of the Feuillants, among the collectanea of R. P. John

the other was distinguished into nine Lections, and in place of Beatus

bore the name of Siviardus. The fourth copy was sent to us

from Rouen by R. D. Francis Pommeraius Religious

Benedictine. With these four copies collated with each other,

we had prepared a second Life for the press, with that intention,

which in January and February we used several times, concerning those Saints,

of whom we had no life of preeminent authority and antiquity,

we gave several of inferior note and credit, differing almost

only in style, that free choice might remain to the reader.

But because we have observed by use that it is the judgment of many,

that those Lives are little usefully multiplied, of which even one

would be too much to read, desiring that more certain and only first-

credit Acts be proposed in this work; we judged that we should abstain

from its edition, and refer to the notes if

anything singular occurred in others. From either Life moreover

are taken Lections from an old MS. Breviary, sent to us

formerly by P. John Wallon at Rouen: likewise other

compendia which exist both in the Breviary of Chartres printed

in the year MDCXXXIII, and in the proper offices of the Church of Constance

in Swabia, in these themselves it is read that his body

was given for burial in the castle of Vendôme. Namely, as also

has the Breviary of Chartres, when in a crypt close to the castle

of Vendôme he had passed the rest of his life;

and all the Lives, which we have mentioned, agree.

[3] That in the diocese of Chartres and the Deanery of Vendôme

is a village and parish of S. Beatus, parish, Relic. pertaining to the patronage

of the Abbot of Vendôme, the Register of benefices

of the diocese of Chartres printed in the year MDCXLVIII attests. There is moreover

there an Abbey, dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, of the Order

of S. Benedict, in which is preserved the arm of S. Beatus

enclosed in silver, the above praised Pommeraius

the Benedictine indicated to us. And all these things confirm S. Beatus

in the said diocese of Chartres and in the vicinity of the city of Vendôme,

commonly Vendôme, to have piously passed his life and concluded it with a holy

end, and there to have obtained ancient veneration.

[4] In what century he flourished. But now in what time he flourished there is to be investigated.

The Acts to be given below have him among other Apostolic men chosen

by S. Peter the Apostle, instructed and sent into Gaul.

Meanwhile the said Pommeraius, when he sent us those

Acts, in the accompanying letter indicates that he judges he

flourished in the fourth or fifth century of Christ. Indeed some

scruple is injected from the lections of the Breviary of Chartres,

because in them no mention is made either of the city of Rome, or of S. Peter,

or of the Roman Pontiffs, since from this mission of S. Beatus

made by S. Peter could accrue the highest dignity and excellence

to the said diocese. In the Breviary of Constance

he is handed down as sent by the Roman Pontiff into Gaul, for the cause

of disseminating the Gospel. What therefore is to be said to the said

Acts? Perhaps they would seem to someone written from pictures formed

in honor of S. Beatus, in which is indicated the mission

made by some Pontiff, with keys painted in signifying the power of loosing

and binding, and soon from sole love of antiquity,

with which everywhere men burn in promoting

the beginnings of the received faith, someone presumed that Pontiff

to have been S. Peter the Apostle. Consult Francis

Bosquet, who hands down similar things in the book of histories of the Gallican

Church: some of which we insinuated on XXII of March,

at the Life of S. Paul Bishop of Narbonne. We leave these things

to be further discussed by the learned men among the Chartrains and Vendômois.

[5] Another, and perhaps more doubtful thing, is ascribed

to S. Beatus, and what kind of fight he had with a dragon. as if he no less than S. George had to

fight with a Dragon or some huge serpent,

which he had to expel from a cave or crypt. The Acts of S. George

we elucidated on the day XXIII of April, and §.III at length we showed

the fight imputed to him on occasion of images, which

in similar manner expressed his victory, idolatry having been destroyed

won over the diabolical infernal dragon: which here also

seems to be able to be believed, and therefore about the serpent or dragon nothing

is handed down in the printed Lections, indeed even in the ancient Lectionary

MS. as below to the prior Acts we annotate.

[6] Near Confluence the city of the territory of Trier, where

the Moselle falls into the Rhine, Another S. Beatus among the Treverans. there is the mountain of S. Beatus,

where Carthusians dwell, we found noted at the miracles

of S. Servatius on the day XIII of May num. 34, whose body brought

there is said, as if saluting the said Beatus, three times

to have inclined itself. He is venerated XII of May, S. Modoald

Archbishop of Trier, whose body was in the year MCVII

translated to the monastery of Helmwardenhusen, together with

a tooth and part of a rib of S. Beatus the Confessor, obtained at Trier

from two women devoted to God, in the church

of B. Mary enclosed, as there in the History of the Translation

num. 16 is read. John Enen and John Scheckmann

in the Epitome or Marrow of the Trevirian Deeds printed in the year MDXVII

page 57, report the sacred Relics of the monastery

of S. Mary at the Martyrs near the bank of the Moselle and among other things

have these: A finger of S. Beatus the Confessor, who also

with body here reposes. But that he is buried at Confluence among the Carthusians,

is indicated in the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck printed in 1490, likewise in Canisius,

Molanus and others: but on the day XXVI of July: and that he with

his brother Banton lived in the Vosges, is indicated in the Life

of S. Magnericus Bishop of the Treverans XXV of July. Consult Brower's

Annales Trevirenses book 7 num. 32: and from all these

conclude that that Beatus of Confluence is different from that of Vendôme.

LIFE

From the MSS. Bodecense and Utrecht.

Beatus, of Vendôme in the Diocese of Chartres in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 1064

FROM THE MS.

[1] In those days, when very many Provinces

were devoted to warlike pursuits, Among other Apostolic men Aquitaine and at the same time

all Germany were sweating in public errors, and the whole

multitude of the gentiles lay subject to the vanity of idols;

it was done by the providence of divine restoration,

that for recalling peoples from their madness, very many

athletes, armed with piety and faith, by S. Peter the Apostle

from the city of Rome were directed into all the ends of the earth:

who by the seedbed of the doctrine of God might call the Gentiles

to grace, so that from the throng of believers

daily growing the Church of Christ might leap forth. Among

whom stood out the man of God, Beatus by name and by work,

great and excelling in religion, noble in birth, but more noble

and more sublime in faith; comely in form, endowed with wisdom,

rich in resources, but more rich in the grace of God.

He coming with not double but suppliant heart

to conversion, S. Beatus, his goods having been distributed to the poor in part distributed his substance to the poor,

in part divided to the Church and brethren,

and retained nothing for himself except simple clothing,

fearing that example of Ananias and Sapphira

or punishment, especially that which the Lord in

the Gospel says: He who does not announce all that he possesses,

cannot be my disciple. Thus therefore

naked and unencumbered to the world, but with the arms and

virtues of Christ clothed, by Bl. Peter sent to preaching,

a pilgrimage into Gaul ^a he is handed down to have undertaken

joyfully, that he who among acquaintances was venerated as greatest,

among the unknown might be reckoned a beggar; recognizing in himself, in Gaul he preaches:

what the Lord to the poor and humble

his own promises again, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit

for they shall possess the earth. Luc. 14, 33, Matth. 5, 3

[2] And so the journey of preaching having been undertaken, the word

of truth in seed was not lacking to him, nor fruit in operation,

nor harvest in retribution. For to whatever

peoples he came preaching the word of God of their conversion

he merited to receive from the Lord very much

fruit. ^b But he was glorified by signs and virtues in all things,

so that whatever sick or feeble ^c his healing right hand touched,

it conferred salvation and health on them from divine mercy.

Nor wonder, for he was of such great continence,

innocence and purity, that it did not seem to him to be

absurd, what in the Psalm he daily ruminated

the canticle, Innocent of hands and clean of heart, who

has not received his soul in vain. Ps. 23, 4 For now in flesh

dead beforehand, in mind he unceasingly desired heavenly things;

and the songs of prayers without ceasing resounded

his lips. he labors with his hands: Nor less did he work servile work with his hands,

that he might have whence to give to those suffering need,

offering an example to others, that they not refuse

the daily work of labor. He performed with his hands

work in rushes, nor did he diminish the work of the mouth in Psalm:

he wove little baskets, and exchanging them for daily food,

he imitated the examples of the ancient monks,

and observed the precept of the Apostle with

diligence, who in order to rouse the sluggish and idle, He who

does not labor, he says, let him not eat. Thess. 3, 8

[3] he converts very many to the faith. Faith burned in his breast, and the dignity of religion

flashed in his face. He regenerated through the laver

multitudes, and from the error of paganism removed huge

troops. For through his prayer and divine inspiration;

the very worshippers of idols destroyed

the temples of the images and profaned the rite of sacrifices

of their own, confessing and desiring to observe

the true religion of the Christians. For wherever

the man of the Lord S. Beatus the Presbyter remained,

he could in no way long lie hidden, because the light upon

the candlestick was placed: since for his daily

virtues he was venerated with the highest honor and loved

by all. But if ever he conceded

a little sleep to his eyes, sparing in sleep and food. he cast his weary limbs

upon the ground and the bare hair-shirt: but about food and

drink there is no need to say, since he was of such great abstinence,

that many even after his death taking the example of his continence,

obtained the effect of his virtues and

signs. One Companion

to whom strenuously and continually he rendered service,

so far that he often took off his shoes and bestowed the love

of pure and sincere charity on him;

procured food for him fasting, and indefatigably extended his own fasting

through three days, nor however did he remain more severe

thence.

[4] And when with such glorious fruit of good works

he was running through innumerable provinces, he profits much among the Nantes: he turned aside into

the city ^e of Nantes, situated upon the river Loire,

where he was received as guest by a few Christians and honored

after the manner of a pilgrim. Having tarried there for a short time,

he kindled the hearts of all from the divine

eloquence: for he spoke and exhorted all the hearers

about the principate of the Patriarchs, about the consecrated

number of the Prophets, about the choir of the Apostles, about

the glorious army of Martyrs, about the reward of the Confessors,

about the brightness of the Virgins, among whom Bl. Mary

the Mother of God obtains the principate. So he instructed

the souls of the faithful, proposing to them the examples of all

the Saints, kindling their hearts to the fellowship

of the supercelestial virtues, concluding the last sermon

about the nine orders of Angels and about the beatitude

of the holy souls, over whom alone reigns

Christ, who is Holy of Holies, to whom with

the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory unto ages of ages.

Amen. After these things when he had very many there

confirmed in the worship of God, and having heard that near Vendôme there was a cave suitable for him, through whom of the holy

Church the institute of religion might be confirmed; he began

to inquire from all about a more secret and remote place from

men, where he might be fed by sole

divine contemplation. And when he was diligently investigating from sailors

a business of this kind, he heard from the shipmasters about a town of Vendôme

a message dear to him, namely that there was

a cavern hewn in stone in some more remote place, not

far ^f from the castle Ledum, at the roots of a mountain, above

covered with a grove. But he with humility supplicated

the shipmaster, that the faculty might be given him to pass through with

them. Who when he asked from him fare or viaticum,

he produced the little book of the Sacraments, whence he was wont

to celebrate the divine ministry, when to the Lord

he immolated the most holy sacrifice. Whom

the shipmaster when he had recognized to have nothing more except the sole

clothing, was unwilling to receive

anything from him.

[5] Therefore ascending the ship, with the Lord so directing

they had a prosperous course, he sails there, so that the sailors said among

themselves mutually, that they had never sailed so prosperously. For

a thin breeze breathed for them, and the wave was placid in service,

whence with one accord all who were in the ship rendered thanks

to God, saying, Now certainly we know, that this man

is truly a servant of God, to whom water divinely renders service,

and also the blasts of the winds give

the support of aid. Thus therefore the Saint of the Lord

Beatus, always bearing a blessed mind, with prosperous

journey, with the Lord mediating, came to the desired

place. Therefore seeing the cave in hollowed stone,

remote from all fellowship of light, covered by the density of woods,

and the serpent removed there as a solitary he lives he greatly rejoiced over it. They report

moreover this about the same place, men dwelling not

far from there, that a serpent of wonderful magnitude

once possessed that habitation,

who in the same region a great destruction, both in men

and in beasts, is said to have perpetrated: whom the man

of the Lord, relying on divine help, when he had exterminated,

and had cleansed that place from its filth and stenches,

as if into a workhouse he thrust himself into the cave,

for the Lord and for the kingdom of heaven; that

he might fulfill, that Prophetic word, He dwelt in the heights

of the most firm rock, placing in the height of the mountain

his nest and with the beasts his bed: and he holily dies. and again another

Prophet says: He shall dwell in the heights, the fortifications

of rocks his sublimity: He shall see the King in his

beauty. Is. 33, 16 With roots of herbs he sustained his body:

and if ever he took dry bread, he said it was the highest

banquet. ^g

[6] In this place therefore, the man of the Lord remained leading a harsh

and strict life, and ascended to decrepit

age, honored by divine signs and virtues,

until from the calling of the Lord himself

he was clemently visited ^h. Then that happy soul, to

the heavens gloriously migrated to the kingdoms, and in the same

cave, his holy little body was honorably buried by religious men:

so that the cavern itself, which had had as a guest

him alive, might have him also as deceased,

and might become salvation of very many ailing ⁱ.

[7] After these things a long space being completed, a certain Alessia,

a woman, [there is buried Aleffia the Virgin. consecrated to Christ from infancy, shining

from a noble race, remaining more noble by illustrious

virginity, had the fame of her religion spread far and wide.

She when she was completing the term of life,

issued this precept to her familiars, that they should bury

her little body next to Beatus the Presbyter: that in one

place they might honorably be preserved in the tomb, whom

the religion of one faith had made companions in heaven. From ^k that

time, with God Almighty mediating, daily

there in the people signs and miracles are wrought without

number, the infirm receiving health, the consolation

of the oppressed, and salvation of every kind to all the faithful,

through Christ our Lord, to whom

is honor and glory unto ages of ages. Amen. ^l

ANNOTATA.

Vendôme. Here above Angers joined to the Sarthe, soon into the Mayenne,

then flows into the Loire: whence appears the reasoning of the navigation, here more

obscurely indicated.

Before this time he had converted few pagans from the cult of the idol of Iacus: but when

the fame of his miracle increased, he began to be held in price among the Vendômois,

and his teaching to be made of greater account. Frequently he went to the city to teach Christ

the Lord; his sanctity moved more than the magnificence of his speech. From

the faithful he accepted nothing: but on herbs and roots

he subsisted: after three days he sometimes only took those foods. On

solemn days only, if any of the faithful offered, he received bread,

and holding it in the highest delicacies he ate. He touched no wine,

unless when he handled the most sacred mysteries: he knew no drink besides water.

He passed sleepless nights in ashes and hair-shirt. But what here about the harshness of life

are exaggerated, are taken from another Life.

Before he died he was seized with a very light fever, by which his strength

little by little diminishing, from the little bed,

where in the beginning of the disease he had been laid, into ashes and hair-shirt

he let himself down: where among the Angelic troops of the heavenly army, which were

both heard and seen to descend from heaven, he most placidly breathed forth his soul

on the seventh of the Ides of May.

where virtues from that time began to grow up and miracles to flash forth:

whose fame having spread far, very many from various places

came together, where they recovered the health which they were seeking.

And there be supplied about this the saying of the Apostle, Honorable marriage and

undefiled bed. For not one from himself: but through the merits of both,

with the Lord mediating, daily there flash signs without number: but most

it is to be believed for the honor of S. Beatus, who finished a pilgrim life for the love of the Lord

in the world, with our Lord granting etc.

APPENDIX

On the veneration of S. Beatus among the Helvetii: and whether another Beatus announced the faith of Christ to them.

Beatus, of Vendôme in the Diocese of Chartres in Gaul (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] Some Life of S. Beatus published in the year 1511. George Carnefelt the Cologne Carthusian book

4 on the Lives of Hermits ch. I sets forth S. Beatus

an Apostolic man, and writes these things: To the Index in

the Life of this Saint, which bears an ancient character,

and was published by Daniel Agricola in the year of the Lord

MDXI at Basel. From this I will briefly narrate. While S. Barnabas

was preaching in the parts of Scotland and Britain,

Suetonius a young man believes in Christ, and being baptized

is called Beatus: then he comes to Rome, and by S. Peter

the Apostle is sent to the Helvetii to be converted.

He did his work for some years strenuously; and after

inflamed with love of the solitary life, withdrew into a desert;

killed a dragon, and died happily in the year

of Christ CXII, about the age of XC. And I think the same

is he, of whom the Roman Martyrology IX of May,

Molanus, Canisius, and others. And in the margin are placed

these words: At the castle of Vendôme the deposition of S. Beatus

the Confessor. This Life, by the work of John Grothausen

Presbyter of the Society of Jesus, transcribed from the Cologne Charterhouse

we obtained, and first of all began to prepare for the press,

then we began to survey the other Acts, of which we have treated above;

and soon we feared something of fraud lay underneath,

because with some additions and changes the same matter was being narrated.

Therefore we collected all monuments of antiquities, and

nowhere before the year one thousand and fifty did we find

any vestige of the Apostolate of S. Beatus among the Helvetii.

But at length we fell upon the bright Commentaries of German Affairs,

issued in the year MDXXXI and

then reprinted, by the industry of Beatus Rhenanus, born in the year MCCCCLXXXV

at Schlettstadt and dying in the year MDXLVII at Strasbourg.

He solicitous for his Patron, whose name he bore, book

3 page 161 of the prior edition of 1531, or page 172

of the later edition of 1551 brings forth this observation worthy of note:

A certain man in past years, who I still hear survives,

invented that Beatus, the Helvetian anchorite,

as the common people preach, was called Suetonius,

describing his life, and that he had as companion,

whose name was Achates. I went to the man, intending to ask

whence he asserted that: for I thought these things

he did not say without an author. But hear his impudence.

Therefore, he says, I added that he was

called Suetonius, because I read that he came forth from Sweden: and because

faithful Achates always clung to the Virgilian Aeneas, and his companion Achates, therefore

I gave his comrade this name, who otherwise would be anonymous.

And nevertheless this history; if so we wish to call it,

is not only painted in temples and written,

but also struck off in print. Thus Beatus Rhenanus. Meanwhile

the said Life published by Daniel Agricola obtained credit among

posterity, and at first whom the author had said to Rhenanus came forth from Sweden,

in the Life he asserts to have been a young man named Suetonius converted by S. Barnabas and in baptism

called Beatus, [why might he not also have invented him in England or Scotland converted by S. Barnabas?] when the said Barnabas was traversing the provinces of England

and Scotland. And perhaps the author asked,

why he wrote that he, whom others have said was a Roman citizen,

was converted in England, of which then the appellation was not yet born,

or in Scotland and baptized by S. Barnabas; would have replied,

that under the beginning he might say something different from the other

authors, whom he was copying: then that S. Lucius the Apostle of the neighboring Rhaetians

came from Britain: and assumed

Barnabas, because S. Aristobulus (whose Acts we gave

XV March) is said to be brother of S. Barnabas, and to have promulgated the Gospel in

Britain. As if indeed it followed thence that S. Barnabas

also set out into Britain.

[2] Dempster wished him to be called Setonius, Dempster book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History of the nation of the Scots

ch. 159 makes him a Scot, and not Suetonius

but Setonius called, because there still exists a most noble

and most excellent stemma of the Setonii. But of what credit

Dempster is in his Scottish affairs, is known to learned

men. One thing we wonder, that he did not bring forth some

books written by him, as he everywhere feigns about other Scots. Dempster

is rejected by Michael Alford in the Annals of the Church of Britain

at the year 59 num. 10, 11 and 12, others either by others in Britain and asserts that Suetonius,

son of a noble man in Britain, was converted

to the faith by the first preachers of this island, and

after baptism called Beatus, and was sent to S.

Peter at Rome: and first Rhenanus is cited, but not read

by him, because the words of him reported indicate that the plain contrary is said

by him. Others whose words Alford brings forth, are

Henry Pantaleon and Peter Merseus Cratepoleus, or baptized at Rome. but

these hand down that he was baptized at Rome, and are more recent authors,

and Pantaleon a non-Catholic man published the Prosopographia

of Heroes in the year MDLXV, in whose first part page 114 about

S. Beatus he treats: Cratepolius wrote his little book on the Saints of Germany

in the year MDXCI. Another is Francis Guillimanus

on the Affairs of the Helvetii published in the year MDXCVIII,

who book I ch. 15 judges that Suetonius converted by S. Peter going into

Britain, and his companion Achates,

were sent into Helvetia. No more conducive to making credit

are John Stumpf book 7 of Helvetic

Affairs ch. 122. Eisengrenius century 2 part

5, distinct. 2, and George Wicelius book 5 ch. 38, who

wrote after the year MDL or even MDLX, and one from the other

took his own things, which finally all are resolved into the Life of S. Beatus

published by Daniel Agricola: whence also chiefly

the Life of S. Beatus written in German in Helvetia Sacra

published in the year MDCXLVIII Henry Murerus drew, who

also asserts that he was first called Suetonius, and separately the Life

he adds of Achates, whom he also calls a holy Anchorite

and Confessor, but would prefer them to have been instructed at Rome or Milan

by S. Barnabas. But of whatever quality they are,

they sufficed, that in the English Martyrology of John

Wilson the name of S. Beatus, because another was lacking, was placed at

this IX of May, where he is said to have been consecrated Priest by S. Linus the Pontiff.

But alas! it is enough: let us proceed to the rest

attached to this Saint.

[3] in all the Acts the same things are said about almsgiving and clothing, In the other Acts above brought forward it is said that he being about to be sent from Rome

to Gaul distributed his possessions to the poor and the churches,

this Agricola hands down he did in England or Scotland, before

he departed thence to Rome to S. Peter. We praise the prudence

of the writer, that he was mindful of his fiction. Indeed because

in the other Acts he is said to have retained simple clothing;

Agricola adds that he was stripped of all except a hair-shirt to

the bare body, and a simple and cheap garment retained over.

Then he is said to have been instructed by S. Peter,

after other Orders received ordained Priest, to have confirmed the word of God

with miracles, and humble in his own eyes converted many.

These last things accomplished in Gaul are handed down in the other Acts,

since he was sent into them, and with woven baskets. but in place of Gauls and

especially of Aquitaine, are placed Helvetii, and then the same things

are everywhere handed down, namely that he according to the saying of Paul, He who

does not labor, let him not eat, lived from the labor of his hands, and rush baskets

wove: and because in the prior ones he is said to have come

to the city of Nantes, situated upon the river Loire,

it is ingeniously asserted in Agricola, but in place of Vendôme Vindonissa, that to the valley Interlaken

in the upper boundaries of the Helvetii he turned aside

at the river Aar, whence ingeniously others interpret

that valley of Interlaken to be between the Aar and the Reuss,

where the village of Windisch is situated, formerly Vindonissa an Episcopal city,

whence the See was translated to Constance. Further

they hand down that this Vindonissa in the Martyrologies is called

the castle of Vendôme. Could they also add it situated

in the territory of the city of Chartres, in which the city

is called by the Gauls Vendôme? The English Martyrologist thus

begins: At Vendome in Helvetia the deposition of S.

Beatus Confessour. But who would not spit out such ignorance? and his first Bishop, recently was handed down.

[4] In the Chronicle of the Episcopate of Constance to the year

MDCVII brought down, and published by John Pistorius,

S. Beatus is established as the first Bishop of Vindonissa, and

were followed by Bucelinus, in part I of Germania Sacra published in the year MDCLV,

and Jacob Merck in the Chronicle of the Bishops of Constance

published in German in the year MDCXXVII. But

no mention of Episcopal dignity conferred on him is had in

any Acts, even those published by Agricola. But Caspar Bruschius,

in the Bishops of Germany printed in the year MDXLIX, enumerates these

alone as Bishops of Vindonissa: Paternus, Lando,

Maxentius, Bubulcus, Grammatius, and

Maximus or Maximinus, who is held the first Bishop of Constance.

We have the Breviaries of the Church of Constance,

revised by the order of Christopher Bishop, and at Lyon

in the year MDLXI printed, and again by the authority of Marius

Sittich the Bishop and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church revised and at Dillingen

reprinted in the year MDLXXV, but without any notice of S. Beatus.

But in the proper Offices of the same Church of Constance,

printed some years ago, he is celebrated equally as in

the Breviary of Chartres under the rite of a Confessor not Pontiff and

an Antiphon is assigned, I shall liken him, and the Prayer for the Constancers

the first from the Common, God who us of S.

Beatus Confessor etc. but for the Chartrain the second from the Common,

Be present O Lord to supplications. the same about anchoretic life,

[5] But these being rejected let us proceed to the remaining Acts of S. Beatus,

in which he is said to have panted for the anchoretic life,

and when he had nothing but the book of the Sacraments, which

he used while sacrificing, kindly received by the sailor

and freely transported, with the highest tranquility

and admiration of the sailor. These things are common to all the Acts.

but with places changed, But in the prior Acts and Martyrologies he is said to have sailed

from the city of Nantes through the Loire, and leaving it

to have come to Vendôme-castle of the diocese of Chartres

upon the river Loir. But in Agricola it is said,

that he sailed across the lake to the root of the mountain, and

then what is in fewer indicated about the huge serpent or dragon in

the prior Acts, are described in Latin in Agricola: likewise about the dragon expelled

and the flight of the Dragon through the air in the image at

Murerus is expressed: by which symbol nothing else is signified than

idolatry conquered with the demon, we have shown above. abstinence and death are said. In

the cave S. Beatus in great abstinence and on wild herbs,

and dry bread lived, and at length in good

old age holily died, and buried in his crypt

shone with miracles, all the Acts have. In Agricola

by Achates his companion, to whom he had commended this, is said to have been given

burial. By others the year of death is assigned

the one hundred tenth and the place of habitation and burial

not far from Lake Thun under the town of Under-Seven:

where the cell of S. Beatus is said to be, where also a boy fallen from a height

and harmed by a grave bruise is handed down in Agricola

to have been healed in the year MDXI.

[6] Relics at Lucerne and elsewhere. Murerus adds that some bones of S. Beatus, because heresy

prevailed there, thence in the year MDLIV to Lucerne

were translated. Bucelinus in the Sacrarium Benedictinum at

this IX of May, writes that the arm of S. Beatus the Apostle of the Helvetii

is at Einsiedeln. Why might not all those

Relics translated to Vendôme, commonly Vendome, or to Trier,

have given occasion of inventing this third S. Beatus? whose Beati they are.

we propose these things with all reverence to be discussed for further and safer

knowledge, wishing nothing detracted

from the Helvetii, if they can prove some Beatus their Apostle from elsewhere

with greater certainty.