Rictrudis

ON SAINT RICTRUDIS

ABBESS OF MARCHIENNES IN GALLO-FLANDERS.

ABOUT THE YEAR DCLXXXVIII

Rictrudis, Abbess of Marchiennes, in Gallo-Flanders (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] Of Marchienne or Martiana, illustrious at this time

a monastery is of monks of the Order Benedictine,

in Gallo-Flanders at the Scarpe river,

between Douai and Saint-Amand, in which

formerly S. Rictrudis a widow, The time of the Life in the allod of S. Adalbald her husband

her, an Abbess to the nuns presided. Born she had been in

Gascony about the year DCXIV, dead on the IV of the Ides of May, completed

seventy-four of her sojourn years, as

Hucbald below in the Life hands down. The author of the miracles asserts that she happily

fell asleep in the year of her age the seventy-fourth.

Buzelinus book 2 of the Annals of Gallo-Flanders relates her death

to the year of Christ six hundred eighty-eighth.

Into the Acts by Mabillon edited is intruded the year

DCLXXXVII, of her age LXXIV, of her Prelacy XL. Which

words in all the Mss. are wanting. Wrote those Acts Hucbald

a monk of S. Amand, The Acts written by Hucbald in the year 907. to that excited by Stephen

Bishop of Liège, as in several places is indicated by the Author of the miracles

book 1 number 17. He to the same Stephen inscribed

this Life, which in the Prologue he asserts by himself edited in the year

nine hundred seventh in the Indiction the tenth. We it

give from a most ancient Ms. codex of the Marchiennes monastery,

collated with a double Ms. of Saint-Omer and the edition

of Mabillon; which however by the later ones partly is interpolated

partly truncated, with various of the holy Scripture places

expunged. Surius the same Life had, but because the style

to him seemed obscure and simple, it for the favor of the Reader

he changed: rightly indeed, as then were the times: but now

a greater favor of the same Reader to be about to repay we know, if

with the original style it we give: Christian le Roy for,

a monk of Liessies, and to our studies very much addicted, formerly

each Life collated, and various faults indicated, by that

of style change introduced, which is not worth the trouble here

to note.

[2] There flourished afterwards about the year a thousand John

likewise a monk of Saint-Amand, and in verse by John of Saint-Amand, which being omitted who at the request of Erluin

Bishop of Cambrai, the Life by Hucbald written in verse

heroic edited, with an epistle to Stephen a monk

of Ghent, and of this to that one a response; in which he asserts

with the illustrious of Hucbald zeal feet to have given. We what to

S. Adalbald the husband of S. Rictrudis pertain, hence excerpted

we edited on the day 11 of February: now indeed, lest the mass of the work

too much grow, this whole poem, which we have from the said

Ms. codex of Marchiennes transcribed, of our own accord we omit,

with Hucbald's relation content. After those in the same argument

himself exercised a certain Fr. W., of whom we have a Ms. Epistle,

of this matter the index, sent to a friend Saswalo, made

for of S. Rictrudis a mention thus he continues: Of whose

namely Most Blessed Rictrudis Acts, there are given works in S. Rictrudis's praise. unworthy

indeed and sparing a relator, a few I have committed to writing, in

some addition of her praises, after these things

by the of her prayers worthy gift, to the King and Spouse

her heavenly offered, withdrew me from the secular birdlime

or from the wolves' jaws. I have set down however somewhat

concerning her most holy daughter and virgin Eusebia, who with a most sweet

harmony resounds to the Lord from the most chaste of humility

and of subjection and of piety the cithara: but also

concerning the rest, by our elders with honor reserved

of Christ illustrious soldiers, whose with us

most pleasing and most holy rest unto the day

of the Lord bodies… Of the situation also of our place, which

God from its inordinate state changed and ordered,

of the venerable by merit Arras Bishop, a man religious

and in the divine law very much learned (who now

survives and long may survive) Robert by the providence, in

the cult ecclesiastical and religion divine… of whose

hands' sacred imposition and more sacred intercession,

to the altar's ministries to be performed, more secure

made I approached; and to God, who to so great a Prelate in

of the Diaconate and Presbyterate the celibacy me reserved

to be initiated, I blessed. For rude of these from

a secular habit or from of the secular wrestling-place the pride then

returned I was present at the monkish gymnasium, which

votive and native, ignorant the cause of my exile Richard

the Father of the Cloister, I had left. For partly

by the creeping in of the occasion of the schools, partly for the subversion

of the cloister of Marchiennes, divers institutes traveling through

of nations, in a certain way to the devil I had professed

I had been, and faith to the world I had made, whence not undeservedly

my heart grieves.

[3] He moreover who, according to of his age the manner, accustomed in epistles

by only the initial letters to note the proper names of the one saluting

and of the one saluted, written by Walbert or Gualbert of Marchiennes himself here wrote Fr. W., in that which concerning

S. Rictrudis, as here he hints he had edited the work of Fr. Gualbert's

name at full expressed often he used, for they are alternated

W and Gu (as in Willielm and Guilielm appears) nearly at

pleasure. That moreover work we have from a Ms. of Marchiennes,

by D. Christian le Roy diligently with the original collated,

under this title, The text of the work, of the Saints of Marchiennes

the merits commending and especially of B. Rictrudis:

composed after the death of Rudolph Archbishop of Rheims,

deceased in the year MCXXIV, and before the slaughter of Charles the Good

Count of Flanders, in the year MCXXVII perpetrated; inasmuch as

at number 45 of the very work the Archbishop is said of good memory, within the year 1125, and the year 1131,

and in the Epistle mentions the author the verses concerning that slaughter by

himself written, and by Saswalo reprehended in that too much

of secular literature they breathed; from which to be gathered to be able

I judge, on the next after the said slaughter year seen and loved

by Walbert Saswalo, of Arras as I think a Canon,

perhaps on occasion of the sacred Orders at Arras by

him undertaken. There died moreover Robert the Bishop, by whom

the Orders he undertook and under whom that epistle wrote Walbert

in the year MCXXXI: whom two years after followed by dying

Amand the Abbot, under whom to the monastery had returned

the same Walbert: who then a work another wrote in books

two, and called it the Epilogue of the life holy and to God beloved

of Rictrudis, and certain miracles of her distinguished

sanctity. He wrote moreover this, as in the Prologue is said, when

already the head was distinguished with gray hairs intermixed, and a death

swift quickly about to fix the nails beam-like in the temples

white. But because from a similar work of the Monk Anonymous,

book 2 number 25 it is established, Gualbert after his return

a small of life residue to have had; to infer we can to have returned

him to Marchiennes about the year MCXXV, under Amand the Abbot. to have written

concerning the Saints and concerning Charles the Good within a biennium or triennium,

then also in sacred Orders to have been initiated; concerning the miracles indeed

to have composed books in the year MCXXX, living still Amand

the Abbot, just as in a note Marginal by a hand more recent

is indicated; and finally to have died within the sixth or seventh

of his return year or even sooner, of years perhaps

not yet sixty old; inasmuch as he in the time of Richard

the Abbot the monastery deserted, the psalms, chant and the rest, which

to the cult divine pertain, sufficiently

taught, when already the years of puberty he had attained: namely

sixteen or eighteen years old in the second or third of Richard the Abbot

year, in the year of Christ MXCI ordained, but having gone abroad

in the habit Clerical for years about XXX.

[4] A style uses this writer very much verbose and luxuriant, the 2 books of miracles of the author anonymous being premised however

and with an affected from the words' transposition elegance

and of the periods length somewhat obscure. Wherefore of the reader hastening

to the tedium about to consult, after the Life by Hucbald written,

the aforesaid being omitted for a while works, to be given I judge

of a monk of Marchiennes another, although anonymous, and by years

nearly forty later books two, concerning the Life and miracles

of S. Rictrudis, drawn out from the same of Marchiennes

Mss. as being with a style far more moderate and order better digested

begun, after the translation of the body made in the year MCLXIV,

as is said book 2 number 72 living still Goswin of Anchin

the Abbot, finished in the year 1168. as is had number 49, and so before the year

MCLXVI, and continued unto after the year MCLXVIII,

when in a young paralytic perpetrated is narrated the last

miracle, ordering John the Abbot to the rest added

to the edification of those hearing. And these to suffice

to most will be able. To those indeed who of the Marchiennes matters an accurate

notice to have shall have wished, we will give of the already often

said Walbert or Gualbert the works, in another however than

were written in order, so that in the first place is set the Letter to Saswalo, then the two books of miracles, and finally that work of his of which, as composed earlier, the said Letter makes mention, together with the beginning of the epistolary preface, which we have, sent to Gerard, monk of St. Trudo of Hesbaye. In which I shall take this liberty to myself, that where the discourse shall have seemed too much entangled by words incongruously transposed, I may sometimes make it clearer by reducing them to the natural order of grammar for the reader's benefit, but not by changing them; sometimes also I may strike out a few little words or one line or another, plainly redundant in the context, and therefore obstructing clarity.

[5] After John the Abbot, the first of this name, who by his living reached up to the year 1170, What might be had from the Marchiennes Chronicle there presided over the same monastery Henry, John the second, Stephen, and Simon, taken up about the year 1191. He gave occasion to a certain Marchiennes monk of writing the Marchiennes Chronicle, which we have hitherto unedited, and from it we gave on February 7 an Epitome of the Life of St. Adalbald. The author of this Chronicle Buzelin reckons to be Andrew Silvius, moved by these words of Abbot Simon, related in the Preface: That he ought rather to have written these things for the profit of the sons of this Church, than to compose the deeds of Kings and the wars of Emperors. Now these deeds of Kings written by the said Andrew, under the title of a Synopsis of the Franco-Merovingians, illustrated by Raphael de Beauchamps, a Priest of the same monastery, are extant, printed at the Douai press in the year 1633. But they had been written by Andrew Silvius at the urging of Peter Bishop of Arras, consecrated from Abbot of Cîteaux into Bishop in the year 1184, and dead in the year 1203. Which times plainly agree with the Prelacy of Simon among the Marchiennes monks, established in the year 1199 and dead in 1202. But if the words noted here from the preface already mentioned be read in their context, it will appear that they are perhaps directed to Andrew Silvius, narrating various things to Abbot Simon from the report of ancients, which he confessed were not written; and therefore he was deservedly accused, after the Merovingian Synopsis, yet not written by its author, that, caring for external and secular things, he did not write domestic things and those making for spiritual edification. Of him, however, as of some third person, and one slothful in the execution of a work sought by many even before but more languidly, the matter is there treated; then the author himself speaks thus of himself in the first person, as if about to do that which the other being asked neglected. Therefore according to the command of the Venerable Abbot, though in unpolished speech, we shall say some things about the state of our church, but we shall also insert something about the times of the Kings, and we shall write a few things about the life of our special Patrons. We think therefore the author to be different from Andrew; and that at the same time, in which the latter was busy at his work, the former also wrote, and thence occasion was given of confounding them; just as afterwards Valerius Andreas in the Bibliotheca Belgica, and John Mabillon at the Acts and Translations of St. Rictrudis, confounded the same Andrew Silvius with the author of the books promised in the first place, who hitherto had been Anonymous to others. Meanwhile Mabillon confesses that these said books bear the inscription of an Anonymous Author, two books on the Life and Miracles of St. Rictrudis: these are here omitted. and so Buzelin continually cites these books under the name of an Anonymous Author, as also another, a Chronicle composed under Abbot Simon, although he suspects, as we have said, its author to be Andrew Silvius. But in this Chronicle we find nothing worthy of being related, which has not been more accurately set forth by Hucbald and the said Anonymous Author or Gualbert. We also pass over the Polyptych of the Marchiennes Monastery, in which its old rights are contained, and the principal estates are described curiously enough: because it is now found neither whole in the autograph, nor does it greatly serve sacred history.

[6] On June 22 is venerated St. Rotrudis the Virgin, in the monastery of Andres, St. Rotrudis the Virgin constructed in the year 1084 by Baldwin Count of Guînes in the diocese formerly of Thérouanne now of Boulogne, where the body of St. Rotrudis the Virgin was once kept, afterwards translated to the church of St. Bertin; which here in the year 1516, together with the body of St. Silvinus, was shown, and a rib of it given to Oliver Abbot of Auchy, as we have widely set forth at the Life of St. Silvinus, February 17, §4, near the end. There is in our possession a manuscript Chronicle of Andres, carried from the year 1083 to the year 1224, which Luke d'Achery also printed in volume 9 of the Spicilegium: the same wrongly held to be St. Rictrudis the widow, its Author William the Abbot, deceived by some nearness of name, believed St. Rotrudis the Virgin and St. Rictrudis the Widow to be one and the same; who although she was the mother of four children, yet because she lived most continently as a nun among the holy Virgins, and presided over others as Abbess, is from time to time called also Virgin, that is, a Nun. But what is handed down concerning the body of St. Rotrudis, kept among the Andres monks; these things the said Author attributes to the body of St. Rictrudis, as if it, and not that of the other Rotrudis, had been secretly translated from the Marchiennes church toward the domains of Guînes, and deposited in the chapel of B. Medard among the Andres monks: when the diocesan Bishop Gerard, glorifying God in the recent fact, as if the body of this one had been translated to the Andres monks. approved the deed. Gerard presided over the Church of Thérouanne from the year 1074 up to the year 1099, in which, he being deposited, he had as successor B. John, as is indicated at his Life, illustrated January 27, chapter 3.

[7] Hence it is clear that the said William in his Chronicle greatly errs, in asserting that the body of St. Rictrudis was carried off from Marchiennes, which since it was at Marchiennes in the year 1033 while in that same monastery the Nuns still resided, and was hidden beneath a thorn until the year 1084, that is, beyond sixty years after their extinction. For in the place of the nuns, monks being introduced, an Abbot was established in the year 1024, and had as successor in the year 1033 Albric, under whom the bodies of SS. Rictrudis and Mauront are handed down to have been kept among the Marchiennes monks by the Author of the miracles, book 1 number 17, adding that of their bones was carried to the village which Osbert the Advocate wished to subject to himself. To Albric succeeded St. Poppo; and he within a month being deceased, in the year 1048, Wido in the year 1048: under whom because of the burning plague a multitude of peoples is handed down to have run together to St. Rictrudis, number 23. But under Fulchrad the Abbot, in the year 1105, elected in the year 1105, the bodies of SS. Rictrudis ^l Mauront, by another Fulchrad there a Lay-brother, lest they should perish, were diligently and with the highest veneration guarded, as you read in book 2 number 3. The said Fulchrad being deposited, Amand was substituted, in the year 1130, in whose time the bodies of B. Rictrudis and of other Saints decently reposed in the crypt rendered the place gracious to those praying, as is indicated in the same book 2 number 10: and it is added in number 31 that some Relics were carried to Saillac, before which in a public procession two candles were kindled by divine power. Then in number 45 it is narrated, in the year 1140, that when the body of St. Rictrudis was to be translated from the old coffin into another newly made, it was granted that this should be done at Rinenghe in the territory of Ypres. Then two coffins being taken with the most sacred body, certain of the monks set out thither, and the Convent through the affection of devotion, outside the monastery, as far as was permitted, followed their Lady with psalms and praises. But the clod of the most holy body in the year 1140 being shut up in a new coffin by the Bishop of Arras, the sacred body was carried back to Marchiennes. Then in the year 1149, in the year 1149, because of an imminent war between the Counts of Flanders and of Hainaut, the coffins of SS. Rictrudis and Eusebia were handed down to have been carried to villages, that they might be protected, in the same place number 59.

[8] These things have been more widely set forth, because the above-indicated Raphael de Beauchamps, monk and Priest of the monastery of Marchiennes, in the Appendix to the Franco-Merovingian Synopsis page 1087 grants that the body of St. Rictrudis was once carried to the monastery of Andres, and during the whole already-indicated time, namely from the year 1084, was there detained, and thence in the year 1164 carried back to Marchiennes, he says, wrongly is it said carried off in 1084 and brought back in 1164, and among the Marchiennes monks laid up in a silver shrine all gilded. There is described below in the said book 2 number 70 that whole history, and the body is said to have been before kept in the Marchiennes Church in a wooden coffin, not brought from elsewhere. Moreover we wonder how John du Joncquoy, the most erudite Abbot of Marchiennes (by whose liberal gift, when he visited our Library at Antwerp, we received the aforecited work) and others cited at the beginning, were so easy as to believe that the body of St. Rictrudis was really brought to the monastery of Andres and there so long preserved. The Andres monks had, as I said, the body of St. Rotrudis the Virgin, which even now is kept in the monastery of St. Bertin, and its rib to be in the Auchy monastery near Hesdin, Rayssius testifies in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium: who in the same manner asserts the body of St. Rictrudis to rest in the Marchiennes church, in a silver gilded bier, skillfully made; but the head in a silver gilded casket. We have at times venerated the relics both of St. Rictrudis and of St. Rotrudis in their places, the rest concerning the Life of St. Rotrudis, now prepared for the press, shall be said on July 22.

[9] The sacred cult on May 12 The ancient veneration of St. Rictrudis is built up by the manifold histories of her Life and miracles, and in them the various churches and altars built to her, and the festive day kept without servile work in several places. Her memory is inserted at this May 12 in the manuscript Martyrology of Centula or of St. Riquier, likewise in the manuscript Florarium, and in the printed Fasti of Molanus, Miraeus, Galesinius, Canisius, Ferrarius, Gelenius, Saussay: likewise in the Benedictine ones of Wion, Dorgan, Menard, Bucelin, and in the Birthdays of Canons of Ghini. There is also celebrated some elevation of her and of her daughters on the day February 7, as we then warned among the Passed-Over. February 7, Some transposition also of the body was made at Rinenghe in the year 1140, on the fourth feria of Pentecost, and therefore on the day May 29, Easter having been before celebrated on the day April 7 with the Dominical letters GF. May 29, But much more solemn was the translation into the new shrine, in the year 1164, on the Lord's Day, the 4th of the Nones of August, made by Henry Archbishop of Reims and Andrew Bishop of Arras, August 2, the Abbots being present, Martin of St. Vedast, Fulco of Hasnon, Walter of Bergues, Baldwin of Ypres, Henry of St. Quentin of Beauvais. Finally some memory of her is inserted by Molanus in the Additions to the first editions of Usuard; and by his example in Canisius and Ferrarius, on the day October 29. There is besides a singular cult of St. Rictrudis at Douai, October 29, in the collegiate church of St. Amatus, where is seen a spacious and most excellent chapel, with an altar sacred to St. Mauront and his parents, and statues exposed to public cult; where the third is of St. Rictrudis, holding in her hand the sacred Marchiennes house, as its foundress. There is kept there among other Relics of Saints a tooth

of St. Rictrudis: Relics also at Douai. likewise in the collegiate church of St. Peter there is a joint of the fingers of the same St. Rictrudis together with a rib from the Relics of St. Eusebia her daughter: concerning which, donated in the year 1537, an authentic testimony is read in Rayssius, in the said Hierogazophylacium page 412.

LIFE

By the Author Hucbald, monk of Elnone.

From the Marchiennes and other manuscripts.

Rictrudis, Abbess of Marchiennes, in Gallo-Flanders (St.)

BHL Number: 7247

BY THE AUTHOR HUCBALD FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

In the framework of Christ's members, to the Lord Prelate Stephen, as the more excellent, so deservedly the more honorable, according to his name, crowned by men indeed with the sign of Apostolic Reverence, but at length on account of the marks of his merits to be crowned by God together with those whose office he discharges; Hucbald, the least of all Priests and monks, wishes the joy of that unfading and blooming crown of the flowers of virtues.

[1] Being entreated by the Clerics and nuns of the congregation of B. Rictrudis the handmaid beloved of God, to apply a new pen to the writing down of the deeds of herself and of her offspring; I long and much resisted, either because I knew my poor little knowledge, however small, unequal to so great a matter, or because, so great a time having passed, I had seen or heard no writings of any certain account of these things, fearing This Life collected from some writings and the report of certain persons lest perchance I should assert doubtful things for certain, or false for true. And when, as I resisted, they showed me certain copies of histories agreeing with their words; and besides those, whose persons seemed not to be despised, giving me credence, that these things, which they reported, had once been delivered to letters; but had perished in the assault of the Norman devastation, at last being adjured by the dread name of the Divine Majesty, I finally acquiesced: and if not as I ought, yet I strove as I could, not to serve the trappings of words, but to consult the edification of those reading or hearing.

[2] But the little work being now finished, when it was being delivered for recitation, or rather for the examining of your excellence, it seemed to your prudence that, of those things which are wont to be required by the Scholastics for corroborating the authority of any book, certain things were lacking; namely the person and the place with the time. To me, however, it seemed enough and more than enough to have sufficed, if, when the names and deeds and places of such great men were so illustrious in the speaking writings, the place and person of the writer were suppressed, lest through it, as through a black cloud, the stars of so great a splendor should seem darkened. But, because it so pleased your sanctity, the famous lamp of your name shining forth, our shadows also, though foul, shall be illumined: and while the Preface of this little book shall speak of Stephen the renowned Prelate of Liège, mention shall be made also of our slight person. Moreover the place, as you know, is not for me of any now, as once, most celebrated city; whereas I would rather gladly glory to be the lowest cenobite of the monastery of the most blessed Amand, the excellent Confessor of Christ, your predecessor too of old; were I not, my sins requiring it, so frequently driven thence, for fear of the Barbaric assault. But what shall I say of the time? Which, that it be so said, seems to be the worst: it is at least allowed with the Psalmist to cry out to God: We have been glad for the days in which thou hast humbled us, the years in which we have seen evils. Psalm 89 Look, O Lord, upon thy servants and upon thy works. We are compelled finally to hear the Apostle admonishing: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephes. 5 Yet lest I should seem to transgress the authority of your command, the names of our Kings being omitted, let the time be made known by the time of the Nativity of Christ the highest King, completed in the year 907, of which there was passing the nine hundred and seventh year, the Order of the tenth Indiction being revolved in the year of this published writing. For the profit of the Catholic Church I wish you happily to prosper to the common vows.

[3] May your shrewd prudence favor our vows, Which everywhere spreads the sweet odor of fame, That, a cultivator of the true, it may also unveil the clouds of the false. May it deign to visit with placid countenance This our work, and weighing the balance with just examination. Let it correct the faults, if any an evil error has brought in. with happy invocation. But if the scale by no turning preponderates the deeds, Nor any fraud mixes itself with unequal parts, That it is just to rejoice together in the pious labor, Father Illustrious, thou knowest; and to pay due thanks to God, That we are and have wisdom, and are moved in this life, While rather we hope for the joys of the true life, Which may the Lord Jesus grant us equally to receive, By the prayers of the Saints, whose deeds we have signed.

There followed a division of chapters of about thirty, so brief, that since many of them do not exceed three or four lines, the title sometimes is made almost equal to the text itself, rather too prolix. Wherefore we have deemed it superfluous, not only to set here the wordy series of the titles, but even to note in the margin such dense numbers. Let it suffice to have warned of this here, while in our manner we distinguish this life into Chapters and numbers.

CHAPTER I.

St. Rictrudis's noble birth in Gascony. Marriage with St. Adalbald. Four holy children. Mourning at the death of her husband.

[4] When the divine grace had willed that the Frankish people, of old in its chiefs sprung from lesser Phrygia, and propagated from the royal ^b stock of the Trojans, deluded also long by the fanatic madness of idols, should come to the acknowledgment of truth: which before secular times it had predestined, almost at the end of the times of the world, when the diligent King Clovis held the scepters of that same people, the devoted instance of the most blessed Prelate ^c Remigius decreed to be accomplished. The Franks being converted to the faith with King Clovis, Which most sacred Pontiff, mighty both in holy probity of morals and in admirable virtue of signs, imbued the aforesaid King, and also the greatest part of his army, with the doctrine of the Catholic faith, and (as they say) with chrism taken from heaven, in one day with the grace of Christ's baptism about three thousand. and their kingdom being greatly enlarged, From that time thenceforth more and more, both holy religion among the Franks, and over the kingdoms bordering on them or even certain placed far off, partly elaborated by their elders, their dominion grew strong. Which they obtained not by the fierceness of their morals (from which the Franks are thought by some to be named, in that there is in them as it were a certain natural ferocity of mind, and their morals are unkempt) but because they were propped by twin and great columns, upon which the whole state of the whole Church seems to lean; namely by the authority of the holy Pontiffs, by the surpassing honor of Him whose office they discharge; and by the virtue of most powerful Kings, in administering the affairs of the commonwealth shrewd in all things; therefore, divine grace going before them and following, to better heights everywhere they were advanced.

[5] among various Saints Finally where once sin had abounded, so far did the grace of God superabound, that, as heaven is adorned with the various beauty of stars, so also by the Father of lights, from whom descends every best gift and every perfect gift, the land of the Franks was illumined with the brightness of manifold perfect Saints, both natives and those coming from foreign regions, of either sex and every order. From whose most sacred college shone, like a certain star with quite comely splendor, Rictrudis the devoted handmaid of Christ, St. Rictrudis stood out, acceptable to her own God, and amiable and praiseworthy to all good men by the merit of her justice and sanctity. She arose from a quite bright ^d stock, brought forth by Ernold a noble sire, and Lichia her mother, born of a noble lineage in Gascony: of the agile and warlike Gascon people. Now the more ancient of this people were first called Vaccaei, from a certain town situated near the Pyrenees, so surnamed. But afterwards they were called ^e Wascones as it were Vaccones, the letter C being changed into S; and their region, which before was called Vacceia, was named Wasconia. Whose inhabitants although at that time were almost all given to demoniacal cults, yet Rictrudis, pre-elected by God, so came forth from those same impious and godless men, as a rose is wont to bloom from thorny brambles: who from the very cradle, with the advances of tender age, was nourished and instructed in honorable morals.

[6] She was in the times of Chlothar the Great King, who from Clovis among the Kings of the Franks, as was aforesaid, that region being subdued by Charibert and the Franks, the first converted to the faith of Christ, was the fourth; or also of his son Dagobert the renowned King, who, brought up by the most blessed Arnulf Bishop of the city of Metz, that he might reign together with his father and succeed him, as is written of him, was worthy both in diligence and in strength. He, after the death of his father Chlothar, taking up the royal scepters to be governed, was pleased to grant to his brother Charibert, not his own uterine brother, to govern the districts and cities, on this side the Loire, and the boundary by which it stretches to the parts of Gascony ^f, or also the Pyrenean mountains, using wise counsel: namely with this firmness of compact made, that never against him should his brother any more demand anything of the paternal kingdom. Charibert therefore holding the See of Toulouse, since he reigned also in the parts of the province of Aquitaine, not after much time also subdued all Gascony to his dominion. But the aforesaid King Dagobert, although in many things he governed the Royal rights most well, yet too much given to the love of women, her whom he had obtained in marriage, because she seemed to be barren, he left, and taking another into matrimony, willed her to be Queen. And when concerning this crime he was reproved by the Pontiffs, and especially by the most holy man and worker of wonderful works the Prelate Amand, he, moved by Royal indignation and pride, the same venerable Pontiff, not without injury, drove out from all his kingdom. Who, bearing most patiently the persecution brought upon him for the truth, which is Christ; and because he most gladly desired to pour out his own blood for Him, he is instructed by St. Amand in exile, scattering through divers places the seed of the divine word, at length among the rest entered the native country of Rictrudis, namely Gascony; that there he might irradiate both many others and this fair star with the heavenly-infused light wherewith he burned; reckoning also, because of the savagery of that people, that he could obtain there the palm of martyrdom.

[7] Meanwhile the already-mentioned Prince and King Dagobert, since he had not a son whom he might rejoice could be made his successor; greatly grieving over this matter, took also a third spouse to his bed. Then at last turning to the Lord, and seeking the suffrages of many men, from the same one in the same year he had, God granting, a son, acquired by many prayers and bestowals of alms. Solicitous finally to whom most of all he should deliver him to be washed in the sacred font, and to be imbued with the divine law, that, as he himself had had B. ^g Arnulf for his pedagogue, so he might also cause his own boy to be educated by some greatest of God's servants according to the exercise of the Christian religion; and remembering and repenting the former deed, that he had committed so great a crime against a man of such great sanctity; afterwards being recalled he sought that the most reverend Pontiff Amand, most studiously sought out by his ministers everywhere and scarcely found, be recalled to him. What more? The true preacher and worker

of the Gospel is brought back from exile, afterwards being recalled the venerable Bishop, like a new John the Evangelist returning from Patmos. There is made common joy both for the King and for the Nobles, and to all the people a solemn dancing for joy at his return.

[8] Prostrate therefore at his feet the King; asks pardon, most easily obtains it. He pours forth a prayer for his son; but his petition is frustrated. For that thrice-blessed one answered him, with the voice of Paul our Paul, that one warring for God ought not to be implicated in secular affairs. These things said, he straightway departs from the sight of the King, but the royal fervor of desire by no means recedes. Finally what he cannot through himself, he is eager to accomplish by the suggestions of good men ^h. For Audoenus indeed and Eligius, men foremost in sanctity and prudence, and therefore to Amand the lover of these virtues deservedly most beloved and most familiar, the King directs after him, approved executors of his vow. for the baptism of St. Sigebert, To whose holy petition because it was not lawful to be opposed, the holy one assented, though compelled by the King's pleasure. Therefore the Royal infant is brought, who was reported to have from his nativity no more than about forty days, to receive through the blessed Priest the sacred grace of benediction; but now about to lose the Etymology of his natural name. For while by him he was made a catechumen, and the prayer being finished, no one of that so great a multitude of the army should answer Amen, the Lord who opens the mute mouth and makes eloquent the tongues of infants, opened the mouth, that it be so said, not now of an infant but of a boy; and, all hearing, with clear voice, Amen, he answered. A thing sufficiently astounding, both that the bystanders against custom were silent, and that this one against nature had spoken. And straightway the holy Pontiff regenerated him with life-giving baptism, and ordained him to be named Sigebert: whom Charibert the King, the King's brother, received from the sacred laver. And so the Lord while He glorified His Saint, and magnified him in the sight of Kings, filled both them and either army with great joy and admiration at a sign of this kind. The year following after this Charibert the King, and without delay after him his little son, died, and all his kingdom with Gascony ⁱ Dagobert the King reduced to his power. All this, both on account of certain preceding things, and most of all for those which follow, I have interposed; that those reading or hearing may know what was the cause of B. Rictrudis's coming into France.

[9] In the aforesaid times therefore, when frequently Gascony became passable to the Franks, Rictrudis a maiden of good disposition, now become marriageable, is seen, is loved, and is chosen by a certain Frank ^k, Adalbald by name, sprung from illustrious and just descent. His mother indeed Gerberta had been the daughter of St. Geretrudis, she marries St. Adalbald: resting in the monastery, now called Hamage, built by herself. He also from a boy instructed in the best disciplines, was strong in copious estates and riches, and in the King's hall was very dear and honorable: plainly a worthy man, who should exist as the husband of the worthy Rictrudis. By whom according to custom she is betrothed, dowered, and taken into matronly companionship, though some of the maiden's kinsfolk being unwilling. But the cause of taking a wife was not of incontinence, but of having dear offspring. But those things meet in both, which are wont to be looked for in choosing a husband or wife. For in the man there were virtue, family, beauty and wisdom, which of these is the stronger to the affection of love: but in the wife beauty, family, riches, and morals, which more than the rest are to be sought, were had. And not to delay with many words, according to the Apostle their marriage was honorable and the bed undefiled. Heb. 13 For they had not passed over with deaf ear the words of the same Apostle: 1 Cor. 6 Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price, glorify and bear God in your body. and living with him as becomes Christians, And likewise: Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and likewise also the wife to the husband. And that: Defraud not one another, except perhaps by consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer. 1 Cor. 7, 3 & 5 And again: This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of desire. 1 Thess. 4, 3 Keeping therefore such faith of wedlock, they set before their eyes also that of the Apostle: Let every one love his own wife as himself, but let the wife fear her husband. Eph. 5, 33 And likewise: Wives, be subject to your husbands, as it behoveth in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter towards them. Coloss. 3, 19 Therefore by the framework of faith and charity so cleaving to one another, that they were two in one flesh, and now not two, because one flesh; of one mind with one mouth and concordant operation, they honored God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, all their days serving the Lord in holiness and justice before Him, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house.

[10] There were given to them also children according to the blessing of the Lord, which He first gave to man, saying, Increase and multiply. And there was their firstborn by name [l] Mauront, afterwards Abbot and a holy Levite; and three daughters holy Virgins; Clotsendis, she begets Mauront, Clotsendis, Eusebia, Adalsendis, after the death of her mother Rectrix of that monastery; Eusebia, a good worshipper of God, according to the interpretation of her name: after these also Adalsendis: whom, since their parents were just, both through themselves and through the servants of God familiar to them they educated and instructed in the fear of the Lord, increased from infancy with heavenly blessing. To Mauront indeed the venerable and God-worthy Priest ^m Richarius was spiritual Father, and regenerated him to God through sacred baptism. Clotsendis the excellent Pontiff Amand, because he received her from the saving font with sacred and worthy hands, rendered in all things worthy of God. But Eusebia from the sacred laver Nanthildis the Queen, wife of Dagobert, received. O truly blessed and to God well-pleasing offspring! Of this finally it is rightly said: O how beautiful is the chaste generation with brightness! Wisd. 4 For truly with spiritual gifts the just are generally so enriched also with temporal goods, as the Psalmographer sings: Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, that walk in his ways. Psal. 127 For thou shalt eat the labors of thy hands, blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of thy house: thy children as olive plants round about thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. In which words although there is a spiritual understanding, yet according to these there is given sometimes to the just also temporal advancement.

[11] After these things Adalbald of good and praiseworthy memory, husband of the devoted handmaid of Christ Rictrudis, from the district of ⁿ Ostrevant, where also he was enriched with several possessions, sets out on a journey to Gascony, very sad for his own people. she laments St. Adalbald slain: Whom the noble matron Rictrudis follows a little while, but as quickly as possible, as she had been bidden, mourning returns home: for her mind, in some way presaging of future grief, already portended what she yet knew not; and what she did not yet suffer, she already as it were lamented. What more? While journeying by the snares of the malignant, and, as is reported, of those to whom the holy marriage had been displeasing, the just man is attacked, wounded, slain: then with honorable obsequies, as was fitting, entombed, dead to the world, he lives to God. He lives, I say, his happy soul lives, cleaving to Him who is the true life: which the signs attest, which to declare his merits are frequently shown at his dead bones. Nor are there made many delays in announcing these things to Rictrudis the handmaid of God: who, smitten by so sad a report, is affected with no small mourning of mind; and the grief increases gradually, by the grief of the grieving offspring; the lament grows, by the lament of the lamenting household.

[12] At length some time of so great weeping being passed, and she resolves to renounce the world. she enters into counsel with the lovers of Christ familiar to her, and most of all with Amand the most holy Pontiff of God, and takes wholesome counsel. Finally that true counselor of souls sets before her that of Paul the Apostle: The woman is bound by the law, as long as her husband liveth: but if her husband die, she is at liberty; let her marry to whom she will, only in the Lord: but more blessed shall she be if she so remain, according to my counsel. 1 Cor. 7 To which she raises her ear, raises also her mind. She hears also from him, nay rather hearkens to, that sweet and to Christ-worshippers embraceable Evangelical voice: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Luke 14, 33 And: Whosoever doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be my disciple. Matt. 19, 21 And likewise: If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And again: Every one that hath left house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.

ANNOTATIONS.

i. In the year 630.

CHAPTER II.

The sanctity of St. Rictrudis the widow, the monastic life with her daughters, the Clericate of Mauront.

[13] Fixing the anchor of her mind in these sacred and life-giving words, the relict of Adalbald, Spurning a second marriage proposed even by the King but the lover of God and beloved by God Rictrudis; every doubtful

delay of deliberation being set aside, promises that she will acquiesce to his wholesome admonitions. But behold, both the wholesome counsel of the Prelate and the pious vow of the holy Matron the envious creeping-in of the devil strives to oppose. Nor does he in disturbing these things move any of the lowest or middling sort, but the highest Chiefs of the world: through the King himself finally he attempts to persuade her mind, that she should join herself to one of his Nobles in a second marriage. Which when she utterly spurned, many encouragements of blandishments, but in vain, are poured out. And when at these her state, wholly fixed in God, was not moved, the terror of Royal threats, though in vain, is set before her. But she in like manner makes light of him raging, as of him caressing. And because of the three parts of Philosophy she had grasped most of all that which is in action and in the cause of conducting oneself rightly, which in Greek is called Ethics, in Latin Moral, using the prudent counsel of St. Amand and is known as the mistress of living well; which also is divided into four principal virtues, namely prudence and justice, fortitude or temperance: here rendering to each its own, as through justice she had disposed to obey God rather than men; and through fortitude she could neither be softened by allurements, nor broken by adversities; so through prudence cautiously to remove from herself the Royal indignation; and through temperance she busied herself to keep the rule of humility and the measure of life in every word or work. Finally using the counsel of her fellow-initiate, namely the God-bearing Amand, and for a time dissembling the immovable purpose of her vow in the service of God, she promises the King that she will hereafter act with his counsel or permission in what should be judged to be more useful for her.

[14] And why should I delay with many words? When she had thus rendered the King unsuspecting, as though she wished to obey his will; in her estate, that is, in the village of ^a Bairejo, she invites him to a banquet: she prepares a sumptuous banquet worthy of Royal magnificence. She invites the King with the Nobles, and during the dining gladdens all with the suavity of speeches seasoned with salt.

After hunger was taken away and the love of eating compressed, Then cheering the bright banquets with much Bacchus,

she rises, and not tremblingly but constantly, not tepidly but fervently, not sluggishly but shrewdly, not womanishly but manfully, what she had conceived in mind, she accomplishes in deed. And first she inquires of the King, whether he would grant her in her own house to do what she wished, using free power in his presence. But he assented quickly, reckoning that, the cup being taken up, as is the custom with many in compelling to drink; she should gladden either herself or her guests. and in his presence sets the sacred veil on her head: But she, according to the wholesome counsel of her counselor Amand the renowned Prelate, brought forth from her bosom, the name and aid of the dread God being invoked, places upon her head, the King himself and all being astonished, the veil now blessed by that same Pontiff. Which done, the King moved by anger, leaving the ungrateful viands, departed from the banquet. But she, casting her thought upon the Lord, committed herself wholly and her own to His judgment, that by Him they might be nourished and consoled with ever merciful consolation.

[15] And first her faculties and possessions left to her being distributed by prudent arrangement, secular cares being laid aside and the thorny cares of this world being utterly rooted out from the soil of her heart; she who before in conjugal life bore the thirtieth, afterwards, the seed being doubled, began to bear in widowhood the sixtieth fruit: and who before, while she busied herself to minister to Christ in His members, had been Martha; now sitting beside His feet, by hearing and keeping His word, was made Mary: and since by His own attestation she chose the best part, which shall not be taken from her; she deserved to receive the best reward of that same beloved and chosen part in recompense. Luke 10, 24 Indeed, that the inner man might show also what it bore, the outer; as she had changed the habit of her mind, so she changes also that of her body. She casts off the pompous garments, with which she was adorned as a wife, thinking sometime of those things which are of the world, she takes black garments: how she might please her husband: and together with these she is stripped of every impediment of this world, that although she seemed a widow, that is, divided from her husband, she might not now be divided in mind; but ever solicitous only of the things which are the Lord's, how she might please God. She is clothed with the garments of widowhood, which by their very appearance should show the contempt of this world. For as white garments suit exultation and solemn gladness, so black ones befit humiliation and mournful sadness. Whence also the head, which is the chief part of the body, is veiled with a foul covering; that the chief part of the soul, that is the mind, to be veiled may be signified by the mourning of grief and penitence. Which, though it be brief, and, so to say, momentary, works that consolation, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matth. 5, John 16, 20 And elsewhere: Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

[16] And that she might overcome the once-experienced pleasures of the body, and the troublesome suggestions of demons, she afflicts her body with fasting and hair-shirt: with excessive vigils and continual prayers, leading frequent fasts, she is clad with a ^b hair undergarment; by whose assiduous prickings she might tame the prickings of lust, and (as is said by the poet) without Ceres and Liber Venus should grow cold, and truly with the Psalmist she might sing: But I, when they were troublesome to me, was clothed with haircloth, and humbled my soul in fasting, and my prayer shall be turned into my bosom. Psal. 34 But the place where she should give effort to spiritual exercises, with the counsel and aid of the oft-named Prelate, who was her confidant, she chose very fitting, namely a monastery called Marchiennes, she resolves to dwell in the Marchiennes monastery: which by that same Pontiff had been built upon the river Scarpe. Over which to be completed and ordered the same Prelate had set his disciple as Abbot St. ^c Jonatus, a venerable man, whose sacred body is still held laid up in the same monastery. In which B. Amand wished also the Order of monks to be had: but the said Abbot gathered nuns, as had seemed good to him. This place therefore, suitably enough remote, the handmaid of God Rictrudis sought out, and B. Amand consenting, and performing the office of reconciliation between the King and herself, with the privilege of Royal authority she received it; so that there, though placed in a fragile body, she might strongly overcome the bodily concupiscences. And not this only, but contending against the aerial powers, against the rulers of the world of these darknesses, against the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places, and overcoming these equally with the world, she might from the supernal Spectator expect and receive the triumph of victory and the worthy rewards of the contest.

[17] And that she might be sufficient to accomplish these things happily, and that it might be made plain to all by way of example from how great a perfection she had begun her conversation; according to that Evangelical word, Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven: after casting from herself the burdensome packs of estates and riches, after the continence of widowhood professed to God, and after taking up the holy garment of the nun's habit; not content to offer only herself as a living, holy victim, well-pleasing to God; also of the earth, that is of her womb, she consecrates 3 daughters to God she offers to the holy and undivided Trinity sacred and chief firstfruits, namely the aforesaid three daughters, white as doves, to Him indeed most acceptable victims; that, immaculate in heart and body, and keeping perpetual virginity, they may follow the Lamb, the Son of the Virgin mother, whithersoever He goeth, with sincerity of heart and flesh, blooming with the flower of inviolate virginity in body, and shining with the purity of unviolated truth in heart; that they may be ever without spot before the throne of God, singing to Him a new canticle, that is, rejoicing with Him over the incorruption of the flesh forever. Matth. 5 Which canticle although they can hear, yet no one of the Saints will be able to say it, except that white throng of the uncontaminated.

[18] Since these things are most truly so, hear, I beseech, and perceive with your ears all who have ears of hearing, to the cult of perpetual virginity. to whom it is yet allowed to rise to the privileges of Angelic chastity, and to acquire the fellowship of so illustrious companionship, and with them to sound that so sweet melody of the new canticle. Hasten, run, make speed, and mindful of Lot's wife, be unwilling to look back. Flee putrid luxury, trample carnal concupiscences. All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass. Let these exhortatory words penetrate the inmost parts of your heart, which are not put forth from my own, but borrowed from the words of Father Augustine the excellent Doctor, with which he exhorts Virgins. Augustine on Holy Virginity chapter 28 Go on, he says, holy children and maidens of God, males and females, the celibate and the unwedded: go on perseveringly to the end. Praise the Lord more sweetly, whom you think on more abundantly: hope more happily in Him whom you serve more instantly: love more ardently Him whom you please more attentively. With your loins girt and your lamps burning, await the Lord, when He shall come to the marriage. You shall bring to the marriage of the Lamb a new canticle, which you shall sing on your harps: of such a kind indeed, as no one will be able to say except you. And it follows after a few words: Follow the Lamb, because the flesh of the Lamb is also a virgin: follow Him with virginity of heart and flesh, whithersoever He goeth. For what is it to follow, but to imitate? Because Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His footsteps.

[19] Rictrudis therefore the faithful woman of God, she encloses herself in the Marchiennes monastery. who had devoted herself wholly to Him in holy continence; also betrothed her three daughters to one husband Christ, while yet of tender age, that in the aforesaid manner they might ever follow the footsteps of that same Lamb, and the Canticle, which she could no longer through herself, she might cause to be sounded to Him through the harps of her daughters. All things being so wisely disposed, and being stripped of all the cares of the world, she enters the monastic gymnasium, where she might run through the stadium of the present life by contending, and might strive against the devil by wrestling, after the manner of wrestlers thus naked, lest in anything she could be held by the malign adversary, and anointed with the oil of heavenly grace; and according to what the Apostle says, contending in the contest, she abstains from all things, and by her example teaches her daughters to live; Mauront her firstborn being still in lay habit detained in Royal services and military affairs, in body rather than in mind: of whom in what follows there will be opportune discourse for us. 1 Cor. 9

[20] In those days therefore dies Adalsendis, the last of her daughters: and she who had been the last to enter the door of the present life, the daughter dying on the Lord's Birthday is the first to enter the door of death. And why do we say dies? when by the anniversary revolution of the cycle, on the very most sacred solemnity of the Lord's Nativity, when to this world dead in sins came the remedy by which death with its prince is put to flight, she was, not dead, but rather brought forth to light and life

eternal? But good Rictrudis, amid adversities strong and long-suffering, what should she then do, two affections of mind very contrary meeting her, namely of joy and of mourning? while on the one hand she heard the Angel thundering to the whole world, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people; on the other hand she had before her eyes her dead daughter, whom that she was to be grieved for the very condition of nature compelled? Yet the manly strength of mind, which was in her, overcame the womanly affection: nor did she suffer the mourning of her daughter's death to dominate her, she defers her grief until after the feasts, or that there be there a place of sadness, where the birthday of life was being celebrated. And to dispatch in few words things worthy of memory: the due office of burying is completed after the manner of the faithful, the custom of lamenting their dear ones being put away. Thus was passed the first, thus the second and the third day of the following solemnities.

[21] At length the fourth day succeeding, on which the holy Church recalls the immolation of the little ones, slaughtered for Christ by Herod, and the miserable cessation-of-business of the mothers; prudent Rictrudis, knowing what she ought to spend on each time, and because there is a time and times for everything under heaven; then by the example of the Bethlehem mothers she begins to mourn. and therefore distinguishing the time of rejoicing and the time of weeping; after the fulfilling of the sacred mysteries, by which to the praise of God to those same holy Martyrs honor is shown, not grief; and the vows of ceremonies are paid, not of tears; when for herself and the other nuns the refreshment of bodies was now prepared; she, all being called together, said: Now let your social charity, O beloved sisters, go, and rejoice partaking with thanksgiving of the gifts of God: but let it permit me, by the example of my Ladies, namely the mothers of the most holy innocent boys, of whom on this day a great wailing and howling was heard, to mourn also my own little innocent one, snatched away in some way by a similar, that is, an untimely death. These words said, she sought a secret place friendly to mourning, and as nature required, she satisfied her grief. O woman praiseworthy and imitable in prudence, longanimity, and patience! whose works praise her in the gates. O strong woman! who in chastity girt her loins with fortitude, and in the perseverance of good work strengthened her arm; and therefore her lamp is not extinguished in the night!

[22] But since in the preceding things mention was made of the blessed man Mauront, it seems not amiss briefly to narrate something about him. He, as was set forth, was the spiritual son of the excellent Priest of Christ Richarius in baptism. Now it happened sometime that the same venerable Priest, both for sanctity and also for familiarity, carried on horseback visited blessed Rictrudis. And when after the sacred conversations, in which equally they took the sweet viands of heavenly life, the man of God, having mounted his horse, wished to return to his own; that same handmaid of God also, for the cause of affection having gone forward a little from the house, bearing in her arms her own little son by natural generation, but his by spiritual generation, followed his steps, that the little one himself might be fortified with a paternal blessing. But when now the man of God sitting on his horse had taken the same infant in his hands, whether for blessing or for kissing; the enemy and envious devil of all good things sent an unusual ferocity into his horse. For raging like one possessed, gnashing with its teeth, kicking with its feet, running here and there with too violent an impulse, it had struck a doubled terror into both, but a single one into the Priest and the mother. The Priest indeed feared for himself and the boy, the mother for the Priest and the son. And what should the anxious woman do? Now almost lifeless, as if seeing imminent death present before her eyes, she turned away her face darkened with tears, lest she should behold the miserable downfall of both at once. But also the sad household, grieving and wailing, pressed on with great lamentations, and from the danger of being thrown down miraculously rescued, gathered to the sad spectacle. But the servant of God, lest he should fall, holding the little one with his hand, poured forth a prayer to the Lord: which completed, both the boy was set down to the earth unhurt, as if a light little bird flew down; and the horse was restored to its former gentleness like a placid sheep. But the mother at length, her spirit recovered, received also her son sound, and lifted him laughing in her arms: and so so great a sadness was turned into great joy to all who were present. Which no one ought to doubt was granted to the merits of both. And since so great is the clemency of God Almighty, that whence the malign enemy gapes to wear down the just, thence he makes them more and more to profit, this temptation also turned to the profit of virtues for the blessed man. For reckoning within himself, that the Lord his God, while He proceeded to the redemption of the human race, to insinuate the example of humility, was carried not with a proud array, that is, not on a caparisoned horse, but on an ass strewn for Him by the Apostles; he himself also afterwards, if ever the necessity of going somewhere pressed him, by a similar example used the same carriage.

[23] But after he came to manly years, the same venerable Mauront, adhering to the Royal side, grown older he dissolves contracted espousals, as his nobility required, given over to its continual services, as has been said, was also bound with the bonds of espousal. But the voluptuous fetters of carnal love, in which as it were he had set his foot, he quickly loosed, Amand the Prelate, the gainer of souls, suggesting to him the sweetnesses of spiritual love, and the delights of eternal joyfulness. But when he had related the vow of his mind to his holy mother, that he by no means wished to use the companionship of his bride; she fearing lest perchance through the abrupt courses of wantonness, as is the custom of certain young men, he might deliberate to follow the broad way leading to the lower regions; is smitten with the greatest sadness of mind, and again asks Amand, the physician of sick minds, to succor her. Who coming to Marchiennes, soothing her with gentle and to her known fomentations of words, restored her to her former alacrity toward God. Then the solemn celebration of Masses being performed by the same Prelate, St. Amand approving the counsel: when Mauront himself stood present, the oft-named Prelate sees a bee thrice circle the crown of that same man's head. But the man full of God understanding straightway what the presage of this sign portended, having called him, exhorts that he accomplish as quickly as possible in deed, what he too had once begun in heart, and had recognized as revealed to him under God's auspices. Which he himself by no means delayed to do.

[24] Then the most holy Pontiff Amand, blessing him according to the Ecclesiastical custom, and shorn made a Cleric, cut the hair of his head, tonsured him into a Cleric, and made him wear the sign of the crown, by these things which were done exteriorly intimating, what by the signification of these should be kept interiorly: namely that the bared summit of the head should signify all the secrets of the heart to be bare and open to God; and whatever is thought or done in secret, all to lie open to the eyes of Him who discerns all things; but the frequent cutting of the hairs should teach that the superfluities of evil thoughts are to be cut off frequently; the comeliness too of the crown should express both, the tiara of the highest Priest, and the diadem of Royal dignity; that through these he might know himself to pertain to the Royal Priesthood; and also that, after the endurance of divers temptations being completed, and the proving in these through patience, he would deservedly receive the crown of eternal life, promised by God to those who love Him. Which the same holy man Mauront, not only from the wholesome tradition of this Prelate, but also from the holy reading and admonition of holy Scripture receiving and committing to memory, studied most devotedly, that he might ever fulfill it by assiduous work. For being afterwards made a Levite, he took care to be conformed by a conversation and life worthy of that same name and office. he is ordained Deacon And as one brought forth of bright lineage, he shone illustrious also in the King's hall, honored with the Royal seal, as a prudent Notary, writing down the edicts of the Royal precepts. To whom also, to take up and heap up the profit of holy conversation, God added the holy fellowship of the holy man ^d Amatus the Bishop. Which blessed man, elected and exalted to the Episcopate of the city of Sens, at the time when ^e Theodoric the King exercised an iniquitous tyranny, falsely accused as if of infidelity before him, was bidden to undergo exile in the monastery of Péronne situated in the town of the Vermandois, and takes up St. Amatus to be guarded, over which the holy Abbot ^f Ultan presided. Then after the decease of blessed Ultan, he was delivered to the aforesaid handmaid of God the Abbot Mauront, that he should consign him to custody in his monastery, which was called Breuil, very recently built by him, in the territory called Lætia. He being received, when he had experienced his religious conversation, just as in guarding a heavenly treasure he applied all diligence of serving him all the days of his life, having in him the most beautiful mirror of life and sanctity for himself and his fellow-brethren.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The Acts with St. Eusebia the daughter. The death of her and of SS. Amatus and Mauront and of St. Rictrudis herself.

[25] Meanwhile the handmaid of God Geretrudis, who had been the grandmother of Adalbald the venerable man, accumulating longevity of life with good works in the Hamage monastery built by herself, St. Eusebia at twelve is set over the Hamage monastery. where also the sacred virgin Eusebia her great-granddaughter was being educated, enters the way of all flesh. To her as in the place of governance the same Eusebia succeeds, a maiden indeed of good disposition, but still of quite tender age, namely twelve years old. But her mother ^a Rictrudis, truly a Christ-worshipper, using deeper counsel and prudence, knowing well that the cunning of the malign enemy seduces many exercised in many virtues even at an age now mature, feared for her daughter, lest perchance she be tempted by serpentine fraudulence, if she enjoyed untimely liberty: wherefore she wished her to come to her, and to dwell with her. But she refusing and wishing to dwell at Hamage, her mother was compelled to knock at the Royal ears, that by his authority she might be able to receive her own daughter. He granting it,

and a letter being sent commanding her to return, the holy Eusebia returns sorrowful to her mother at the monastery of Marchiennes, with the body of her great-grandmother the holy Geretrudis, whence drawn away to her mother, and with the Relics of the Saints which had been laid up there, and with all her congregation. But her mother, having obtained the object of her vow, exhorted her daughter with many admonitions, to serve God with her in spiritual warfare. Who indeed most gladly obeyed her words, consigning herself continually to divine services; but her intention could not be made to give way from the love of the place as it were native to her.

[26] Whence it happened most frequently and almost every night, that after the completion of the Vespertine synaxis, while she was thought to take rest of body with the rest, she for dissimulation, her sandals left before her bed, would go to Hamage in silence in the dead of ^b… night with her gathered company, and others faithful, as she thought, partners of her secret. And there the Vigils being celebrated, and the Offices of all the hours, to the monastery of Marchiennes, the faithful theft accomplished, she would return soon enough cheerful, so that there too she might not seem to be absent at the nocturnal or matutinal hours. Nor was there lacking one who should report these things to her mother's ears. And again calling her together, both soothing with caressing words, and terrifying with harsh speeches she appealed to her, that she might recall her from the purpose of her will, knowing for certain that she was detained with her by the nearness of body rather than of mind. And when neither through herself nor through her friends or familiars she made any progress, counsel being taken in a matter of this kind with her son Mauront ^c… it seemed good to both, that she ought to be chastised with stripes, for that very disobedience and as it were a certain pertinacity of mind. Which when it had pleased the mother to be done by that same brother of hers, and therefore being chastised by his command, he commanding it, confined between the arms of a servant, she is subjected to the adjudged correction. And because that same boy, by whom she was held, was girt with a sword, while amid the straits of the stripes the Virgin bends herself this way and that, her tender side, as is reported, is hurt by the hilt of his sword; so much, that for many years, which she afterwards survived, she would spit out from her mouth purulent saliva mixed with blood.

[27] But when not even thus did the intention of that same sacred Virgin cease from what she had begun, at length she is permitted to return thither they call together Bishops or Abbots and illustrious men from the neighborhood, who all dealt with her in divers ways, that she might be recalled from such a desire. But she with very constant address resisted them all much. Who, when they perceived her mind inflexible, gave counsel to the mother, that she should permit her to return to the desired place. Which the mother also assented to, though unwilling, strengthening her religious conversation with persuasive admonitions, and commending her to God with sacred prayers. and there she passes the rest of her life. She, having obtained the long-desired effect of her vows, with all her little flock, the holy body of her great-grandmother being again received, with the venerable Relics of the Saints, full of joy returned to the monastery of Hamage. And there leading an angelic life on earth, in the midst of the years of her adolescence she is snatched to the bridal chamber of the heavenly Spouse; lest, as the Scripture says, malice should change her understanding, or lest deceit should beguile her soul: and being consummated in a short time, she fulfilled a long time; for her soul was pleasing to God; therefore He hastened to bring her out of the midst of iniquities. Wisd. 4

[28] But indeed because of the inept garrulity of certain men, it is pleasing for a little while, by sharpening the stylus, to prolong, with which the tongues of those may be pierced through, who speak iniquity against the just in pride and in abuse; who set their mouth in heaven, Those carping at this deed of the Saints while they fear not to detract from those, who, now taken from earthly things, are believed to reign with God in the heavenly places. For they say, devising tricks of this kind: Lo, of what sort these are said to be Saints, the Mother persecutes her harmless daughter, willing to serve God: the Daughter, as an enemy, so execrates and flees her own mother: the Son, in agreement with the mother, the fugitive sister, betrayed by the secretly carried-off sign, afflicts with most dire stripes as guilty of theft almost unto death; whom though he does not slay at once, yet by a long torment of pains he makes to waste away. Do these things make Saints and pleasing to God? What sanctity in these? What peace? What charity? What therefore shall we answer to men of so insane a head? O foolish arrogance of a mad mind! O rabid barking of fools, not of men, but of dogs! What shall be given, or what shall be added to the deceitful tongue, but the sharp arrows of the mighty, that is, the darts of the words of God Almighty, brought forth from the quiver of the holy Scriptures? Which are so efficacious, that not only do they transfix the loquacious mouths, but the very smoking hearts as well.

[29] And first such are struck by the Evangelical thunder: Judge not, the author restrains them He says, and you shall not be judged, condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Matth. 7 Then let the trumpet of Paul the Apostle resound: But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? And likewise: Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To these let be added: Judge not before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, teaching that nothing is to be rashly judged, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise from God. Rom. 2. 1, 1 Cor. 4, 5 Let him hear also that of James: Detract not one from another, my brethren. James 4, 11 He that detracteth from his brother, and judgeth his brother, detracteth from the law, and judgeth the law. But also this which God speaks through the Psalmist: Thy mouth hath abounded with malice, and thy tongue framed deceits: sitting thou didst speak against thy brother. Psal. 49, 19 And a little after: I will reprove thee, and set before thy face. And likewise: May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things. And again the Scripture says: He that detracteth from his brother, shall be rooted out. Why, wretches, do you not greatly fear these things? Why do you love to speak vanity and seek a lie? Psal. 11, 2, James 4, 11 God will destroy all that speak a lie? And: Because you have loved iniquity more than to speak equity, and you have loved the words of casting down, that is, of blasphemy, O deceitful tongue, therefore God will destroy you in the end.

[30] Hear if you are able, and consider: Rictrudis the holy mother, and the innocence of St. Rictrudis, does not persecute her harmless daughter; but considers her untimely age: knowing that all things have their time, and that for every business there is a time. Prov. 29 And since, as the most wise Solomon says, A child that is left to his own will, confoundeth his mother; and she hears the Scripture saying; Hast thou daughters? have a care of their body; nay rather therefore she desires her to remain with her, that by her own exhortations and examples most of all she may advance her to more perfect things. Eccli. 7, 16 of St. Eusebia, Her daughter too Eusebia, although she be betrothed to the heavenly King, yet does not haughtily spurn or despise her blessed mother, since she knew such to be the edict of her Spouse; Honor thy father and mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the earth; but in the effort of His grace, who had pledged her with His ring, and burning only with His love, she wished no affection of any other love, not even of her own mother, to be shown to her, lest she should sever herself even by an immoderate love from the love of the implanted fervor. Exod. 20 But also her brother the minister of Christ Mauront, and defending St. Mauront not from hatred, not from cruelty tortures his sister with scourges, but rather from brotherly charity, as one insolent, and (so to say) as it were disobedient to a parent, as her age required, chastises the little child, knowing it written: He that spareth the rod, hateth his son: and that the rod and correction give wisdom. Prov. 13 And what wonder if the mother and son are deceived by human judgment in correcting the sacred Virgin, not yet knowing the divine grace, which was in her, when the holy Prophets sometimes thus from their own bring forth a human sentence as if from the spirit of God? Let them cease therefore, let the foolish empty words of fools cease: for they cannot be assigned to the works of iniquity, which proceed from the root of charity; the Truth itself attesting, which says: If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. Matth. 6 But further as to what by occasion of this deed the blessed virgin is said to have lain subject to bodily infirmity while she lived, who does not see that this profited her to the heaping up of the grace already conferred? That while she failed in body, she might be strengthened in spirit, according to that of the Apostle, For when I am weak, then am I powerful. 2 Cor. 12 Let the mouth of those speaking iniquities therefore be stopped, since concerning these through the Prophet Isaiah the divine voice thunders: I will give their work in truth, and I will make a perpetual covenant with them, and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring in the midst of peoples. Isai. 61, 8 All that shall see them, shall know them, because these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

[31] ^d But the truly good worshipper of God Eusebia, full of virtues, departed on the 16th day of March, SS. Eusebia dies March 16. which is the 17th of the Kalends of April. But after the Lord took to the heavenly fatherland the holy Bishop amiable to her and the monk Amatus, from this hardship of troublesome pilgrimage, on the ides of September; his sacred body the holy Mauront honorably entombed in his own possession: St. Amatus September 13. and the estates of his whole inheritance by the instruments of charters he made over to him. The venerable Abbot Mauront himself too, the God-worthy Levite, although he survived his holy mother in this life, St. Mauront May 5. after the duties of his pious administration being fulfilled, on the third of the Nones of May, freed duly from his function, that he might receive the worthy rewards of his labors, carried up to the palaces of heaven, living a perennial life with Christ, rejoices with Him in continual glory.

[32] But to return to those things which we began to explain, Rictrudis the most devoted handmaid of God with the whole effort of mind, with the whole service of body, given to good works, and St. Rictrudis having abdicated governance walking from virtue to virtue; with enlarged heart she ran indefatigably the way of God's commandments in the stadium of faith and justice, drinking in with open ear; Run while you have the light, that she might be held worthy to receive the heavenly prize. John 6. 38 And that in all things she might show herself most perfect by the imitation of Him who said: I came not to do my own will; she also, subjecting herself to the governance of another, obeyed her commands most obediently; Matth. 20 and serving after the manner of the other handmaids, that which is said: I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; she ever attended before her eyes; nor anywhere or ever going out of the enclosures of the monastery, she offered herself as an example of good works to all in humility, in obedience, in patience, in chastity, in fastings, in vigils and continual prayers, in longanimity, in meekness, in modesty and benignity. And what more? As a daughter of the day she ever walked in the light, whose fruit is in all goodness and justice and truth. And so persevering in the purpose of holy virtues, seventy-four years of her sojourning being completed,

on the fourth of the Ides of May, having obtained the long-desired joy of her vows, she rendered her little body to the earth, May 12 but her holy soul to heaven. And she was buried honorably in the same place by the Priests of God, and others warring under Him in the order of Ecclesiastical dignity, and also by very many men of the Christian religion flowing together from every side to the obsequies of so great a mother, grieving indeed at her temporal absence, but rejoicing at the eternal one, she is buried honorably in which she enjoys glory with Christ. And now with the hope of ineffable congratulation she awaits the great day of her more powerful glorification, when that which is sown in corruption shall rise in incorruption; and that which is sown in ignobility shall rise in glory: and that which in infirmity, shall rise in power; then at length by that happy resurrection, to be glorified with a double glorification, she shall rise in blessed glory, to be happily crowned with all the Saints at the right hand according to the merits of her acts.

[33] But lest anyone doubt of the efficacy of the lively merits of that handmaid of God, she shines with miracles, there afford us truthful proofs the many marks of virtues displayed, at the examined members of her body: For there the blind have received sight, the deaf hearing, the dumb the office of speech, the lame their gait, the fevered and those laboring with various sicknesses have more frequently received the desired health, and even now those asking with faith receive it. And of this matter there yet survive many witnesses, both of those who have obtained the gifts of the desired health, and of those who seeing these things and praising God wonderful in His Saints have congratulated themselves on His benefits. Thee therefore, holy and beloved of God handmaid Rictrudis, we beseech with the whole affection of heart, that by thy sacred intervening prayers and merits, by which thou loosest the bonds of various infirmities, thou wouldest loose us also from the chains of our sins: she is invoked by the Author. so that, freed from these by the grace of benign Jesus, on the dread day of His judgment, the heavens and the earth burning, He may snatch us, rescued from the gehennal flames, with thee to the joys of eternal felicity, of whose mercy and pity there is no end: to whom with God the Father coeternal to Him, and the Holy Spirit, is the kingdom and power, honor and glory, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

d. About the year 687.

HISTORY OF THE MIRACLES

By the Author a Monk of Marchiennes.

From a manuscript of the same place.

Rictrudis, Abbess of Marchiennes, in Gallo-Flanders (St.)

BHL Number: 7252

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

BOOK I.

Things done and miracles up to the year 1100.

CHAPTER I.

Synopsis of the Life of St. Rictrudis.

[1] In the reign of Chlothar the second over the Franks, and Heraclius over the Romans, who, having conquered Chosroes King of the Persians and his son, victoriously brought back the wood of the Lord's Cross to Jerusalem, B. Rictrudis in Gascony, Piously educated in Gascony from the city of Toulouse, and of a royal lineage, was born… ^a To her indeed Ernold was father, and Litia mother, both noble enough and worshippers of the Christian religion. She was brought up within the paternal household quite delicately: but drawing nothing of the barbarity of that nation, she began from infancy to venerate and fear God. And when Dagobert King of the Franks, for his brother Charibert, who a little before deceased had ruled Gascony, had reduced those parts into his power; he was wont to send thither frequently of his friends, as necessity required. There was at that time a certain ^b Erchinoald, a Frank, the King's nephew, and second from the King in his Palace, a prudent man and of great grace, with God and men: brother of Erchinoald the Mayor of the Palace [who for the building of three churches procured of his own the cost and expenses: of which one of St. Peter of Lagny ^c was constructed, another of St. Fursey at Péronne, the third at Douai in honor of the holy Virgin Mary, which is now named St. Amatus. Beside that, he built also a most fortified tower, and of wonderful height: which fell to B. Rictrudis as her own property by hereditary succession, after the death of her husband. Whence because the Counts of Flanders possess that tower, as they succeed one another in turn, for the cause of this matter they have been wont to confer on the Marchiennes church five shillings yearly.] His brother was Adalbald, who for a certain affair of the King set out into Gascony. And he abounding in innumerable revenues, she marries St. Adalbald: in power and lineage, because begotten of royal stock, was great, according to the name of the great who are in the earth, instructed from a boy in the best disciplines, and in the Royal house exceedingly gracious to all in all things; having seen there a noble maiden, of whom we intend to write, in order to betroth her to himself as a wife he inquires of her parents, entreats, and obtains. And behold powerful men, the maiden's kinsmen, vainly resisting contradict, indignant that a maiden of so great a lineage should be joined to any Frank. They contend, and labor to make all things void: but it is not granted further. For the virgin being dowered, and the nuptials solemnly celebrated, the man with his wife happily returns into France.

[2] But that they entered marriage solely for the cause of succession, straightway in the beginning of their conversation it began to appear. with whom living holily in wedlock, For knowing their members to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, they busied themselves that their wedlock might be honorable and the bed undefiled. The debt too to be rendered to one another not being ignorant, except perhaps by consent for a time that they might give themselves to prayer, each knew to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of desire. Finally the man not bitter toward his wife, loved her as himself: and she deferring fear to her husband, was subject as it behooved in the Lord. There was to both the token of true love, to will the same and to refuse the same: but in the very summit of nobility, much nobler devotion to Mother Church he daily bestowed. Meanwhile there were born to them sons, namely the holy Mauront, she begets St. Mauront and 3 daughters afterwards a monk and a religious Abbot, three daughters, from earliest age pleasing in the purpose of virginity to the Spouse of Virgins, whom through themselves and through men familiar and religious to them, they studied to form by doctrine and example in good morals. Whence the good which immature age had not given, this shone forth in them in a short time by the manifold comeliness of virtues, the grace of God cooperating. For in whatsoever excesses, even the slightest, fearing to offend the sight of the Divine Majesty, being well composed within themselves, they held the glory of the flesh and its pleasures as nothing. To Mauront indeed the sacred Prelate Richarius was spiritual teacher and godfather, and regenerated him to God through saving baptism: Clotsendis the Pontiff Amand both wholesomely instructed her as a daughter: but Eusebia was received from the sacred font by the hands of Dagobert the King and ^d Nanthildis the Queen, who ^e gave possessions and many revenues in France, all which were, by the hidden disposition of God, to profit the Marchiennes church.

[3] After these things Adalbald, a man having from all a good testimony, took up the journey of going to Gascony, his own people however contradicting with much weeping and howling. Whom Rictrudis the most noble Matron followed as much as was permitted: who straightway being bidden returns home mourning, not to see him more. Joy excludes lamentation, and now her mind in some way presaging of evil dreads the grief which she is about to suffer near at hand. Wicked men therefore, to whom the marriage had been displeasing, with their kinsmen and friends had entered into counsel, how they might by guile catch and kill her holy husband. And now to accomplish the crime mourning her slain husband which they had conceived, having found an opportune time, while journeying, snares being prepared, they killed him who had done nothing worthy of death. The sacrifice is offered for him, and he is honorably, as was fitting, buried. But the grace of healings, which up to this day those seeking find at his sepulchre, is witness, that received into the consort of the Angels, with them he rejoices in equal glory. Without delay, the evil which had happened was announced to B. Rictrudis and her friends: who, smitten by so grievous a report, at first knew not what she should do, what she should say: but while the grief of her children and of the whole household burst forth into tearful voices, the mother more grievously troubled was afflicted. She knew that one should weep but little over the dead, whose death is precious in the sight of the Lord; but carnal affection naturally exacted grief from her.

[4] Whence some days being passed, she enters into counsel with religious and familiar men, how she ought to spend that little remnant of her life. by the counsel of St. Amand she chooses to remain a widow But the Pontiff of God Amand sets before her the words of the Apostle, exhorting widows to continence, where he promises they shall be more blessed, if they so remain according to his counsel. 1 Cor. 7, 40 He brings forth also that Evangelical word, where the Lord says: If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Luke 14, 33 To these and many other things in this manner, she raising her mind, said: All things which I temporally possess, I resign to Him from whom they are, and myself equally, for I am His: I will lose for a time my soul, lest I lose it forever. To her proposing such things there was not lacking the revived temptation of him, through whom the first woman in Paradise was seduced. There through the serpent the devil poured in the poison of death; here he who is ever the enemy of another's salvation, through the King of the Franks attempted to cast down our matron from the citadel of her high purpose. and a second marriage being urged by the King, For the King caresses and persuades, that she should consent to marry again any one of the nobles of his whole kingdom: but when by his prayers and those of his men he sees she will not acquiesce, he applies royal threatening: but profits nothing. For she, weak in sex but strong in faith, both spurns him caressing, and does not dread the authority of him threatening. Yet she ceaselessly revolves within herself, how she may be able to soften the King's indignation, and consign the desire of her heart to effect. Finally what she received from the counsel of the Prelate Amand, she dissembles the fixed constancy of her purpose, and that which would be more useful, she promises the King she will do with counsel and assent.

In this word she rendered the King unsuspecting of her will, who, intent on better goods, prepares herself to bring force to bear upon the kingdom of the heavens.

[5] Without delay in her village, which is called Bajerium, she sets up a general and sumptuous banquet: to which she solemnly invites King Dagobert with his Nobles. in his presence at the banquet Those who had been invited are present, and during the dining by pleasant affability and abundance of foods she rendered the guests merrier. They being satisfied, but still reclining, she rises from the table, and strengthened by the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, before all thus addresses the King: I ask that in my house and at the solemn banquet thou grant me to do as I shall please, so that the good, which I have begun, may find a worthy issue among the guests. Whom the King, beholding her speaking with cheerful countenance and confidently, suspects that she is thinking of his nobles being still more gladdened. she sets the sacred veil on her head: Whence he both judged it not equitable to go against her petition, and began to entreat her to do it. But she, according to the counsel of the Prelate Amand, drawing forth from her bosom a veil blessed by him, and invoking the aid of our Savior, glad and rejoicing places it upon her head. The reclining guests are astonished, and the King indignant marvels; and straightway departing from the banquet, complains that he had been deceived by the unauthorized leave. Then she, making light of the Royal indignation, commits herself and her own to the divine counsel and will, and prudently arranges and distributes the possessions left to her. She strives to exclude from herself utterly the care of the world, holding for nothing whatever delays those going to the heavenly life, nor does she now desire any longer to have anything of her own. She chooses with voluntary poverty in fastings and prayers the service of God, and by the deliberate counsel of the Prelate Amand Marchiennes as a place very suitable for exercises. For the place is remote from the noise of secular things, where by the diligence of the same Prelate a monastery had been built. There, the pompous garments cast off, our noble Matron is clothed with the habit of religion, at Marchiennes clothed with the habit of religion, benevolence and peace between herself and the King being first restored through the aforesaid Pontiff. The hair-shirt is applied to her flesh, to her eyes too she brings in the mourning of penitence: and she who before by honorable conversation in conjugal life merited the thirtieth fruit, now in widowhood obtains the sixtieth. She who had been Martha to Christ in His members, by devoutly ministering; now sitting at His feet, was made Mary, by incessantly hearing Him. She sat and was silent, knowing according to the Prophet that the cult of justice is silence. Isai. 32, 17 O ineffable mercy of the Divine Majesty! She who a little before, possessing villages and castles and other innumerable revenues, was among the Franks after the Queen of highest dignity and veneration, now prevented by supernal illumination, glories to be poor and to be in subjection. Good Jesus, this is Thy work, Thine is the grace: who hadst so disposed through Thy Priest Amand to gain so powerful a woman and of so great a family.

[6] Yet all these things would not have satisfied her desire, if she had not brought in with her her three daughters to serve God in the monastery. she consecrates 3 daughters to God: Having therefore these Virgins still of tender age, she rejoiced with herself in their conversation, and offered to God through them the integrity which she could not in herself. By doctrine too and the example of her life instructing them to the contempt of the world, that the sweetness of human felicity is sprinkled with many bitternesses; and that no one in the world is of such composed felicity, who does not in some part quarrel with the quality of his own state. Lastly she taught them, that the goods of body and fortune, as they have a beginning so they have an end: and therefore all these being set aside, with all strength one must pant after eternal beatitude. With these and other words of this kind they were wholesomely instructed: for what they heard, committing to memory, they fulfilled in works. But lest anything should seem lacking to the mother's desire for the heaping up of joy, as also her son St. Mauront. by divine grace something still is superadded. For Mauront her firstborn, by his own and the Prelate Amand's exhortation and counsel, for everlasting wages chooses to war for God. And although he was the King's nephew, and one of the chiefs of the Royal house; yet he understands that in these the sum of human felicity is not to be placed. Whence he more approves the poverty of God's servants with good works, than the King's purple with its revenues. Renouncing therefore the world, he studied to serve God with vigils and prayers, and from the good which he had begun, until he should come to the prize, to be turned aside by no secular allurements.

[7] But if anyone should ask, in what manner he and his sisters conducted themselves, their life is written elsewhere: he can read or hear it, who shall wish to know. For I have not proposed to say anything about it; but the conversation of their mother being briefly and compendiously dispatched, I have determined to narrate a few things indeed out of many of the miracles of that same Matron of ours. She therefore having entered the monastery, enjoined on her body so strict a penance, that never afterwards for any occasion did she wish to go out of the enclosure of that place. Retaining too in memory that the Lord had said, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, she studied devoutly to spend herself wholly in the service of the handmaids of Christ as a servant. Matt. 20, 28 Leading a harsh life, She was an inexorable chastiser of her own body and of a quite austere life, serving God in fastings and supplications day and night. Her life was a law of life and discipline, her aspect officious and lowly, her speech serious or none. Whence to others it was a matter of great admiration, that a woman a little before most powerful, and nourished among the greater riches of the world, in service and in every kind of humility now showed herself the first. she dies in the 74th year of her age. This was the institute of her life and spiritual exercise, until in the seventy-fourth year of her age, on the 4th of the Ides of May, taken up by the Angels she happily fell asleep in the Lord. And the Bishops, Abbots and several other religious men assembling at her obsequies, with the Clergy and a multitude of people, honorably and with reverence buried her body, before the altar of John the Baptist and Andrew the Apostle, on the right side of the church.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The state of the Marchiennes monastery under the nuns. A demoniac freed. Other miracles. The Norman irruption.

[8] That at her burial many sick and crippled found the grace of healings, our predecessors are witnesses, and he who described her life Hucbald, monk of St. Amand, Miracles formerly done Hucbald attests: number 31 a religious man and of advanced age: which when he had described, for the testimony of her sanctity, he concluded it with this ending: But lest anyone doubt of the efficacy of the lively merits of that handmaid, there afford us truthful proofs the many marks of virtues displayed, at the lifeless members of her body. For there the blind have received sight, the deaf hearing, the dumb the office of speech, the lame their gait, the fevered and those laboring with various sicknesses have more frequently received the desired health, and even now those asking with faith receive it. And of this matter there yet survive many witnesses, both of those who have obtained the gifts of the desired health, and of those who, seeing these things, and praising God wonderful in His Saints, have congratulated themselves on His benefits. But we, to whom it is to be imputed that these things were not written, know not, and on an uncertain matter we dare not bring a certain sentence. For it could have been that for the memory of posterity our predecessors left them diligently written; but when the Marchiennes church was by the Normans, all things were burned with fire. other things if written, perished through the Normans: But if through their carelessness nothing was written, and in five hundred years oblivion has deleted the whole, let not God impute to them, that their negligence has withdrawn from us the knowledge of so great a matter. Yet from the divers miracles, which by the merits of this Matron, the grace of God now cooperating, we frequently see done, we conjecture that both many and very great ones were then done. Which lest hereafter oblivion could similarly delete, only those which I have seen, or have learned by truthful relation to have been done in our days, I will commit to memory by writing; if I can, rightly; if not, in whatever manner.

[9] There was therefore a certain young man having a demon, who attacked with bites whomsoever he met, and tore the garments with which he was clothed, with a certain terrible indignation: and since he was to be feared in tongue and hand, already by all who knew him his recovery of health was despaired of. A rabid demoniac Whence his parents had bound him with ropes, and strongly; because that rage itself had made him strong to hurt. But when, the report increasing, the virtue which B. Rictrudis had divinely received, became known to many, they were asking among themselves about their son, what need be done. This finally was their counsel, that he should be led to the burial-place of B. Rictrudis, there without doubt to find the remedy of his vexation. They lead him therefore, and make him, struggling too, lie upon the sepulchre, and in the faith with which they had come find the effect of their petition. For the young man is cured of the demon, and all who were present rejoice. at the sepulchre of St. Rictrudis he is freed. The parents too, who had come with tears, return to their own with joy. But what he should do, or what thanks he could repay to God and B. Rictrudis, he knows not; while he recalls not ungratefully who he was, and who he now is. He confesses that nothing was repaid to his own merits at all, but ascribes the whole to the handmaid of God, mindful of the conferred benefit ^a. This too, that power had been granted over him to the unclean spirit, he proclaims in returning that he deserved midway on the road. To known and unknown he preaches what was done, that for the praise of God and His handmaid he may loosen the mouths of divers persons. But he himself what he suggested to others, living he did not cease to do, but from then on B. Rictrudis, worthy of memory and veneration, he cultivated with devout services.

[10] To Dagobert too the King of the Franks and other Nobles of the earth, living in the body, she was of great authority and reverence. But after her passing her solemn memory was for a long time retained by their successors with due veneration.

successors with due veneration. The Bishops too and Abbots and all religious men, Her memory celebrated among Princely men, busied themselves to bestow on her a great service of devotion. Whence Stephen Bishop of Liège, a man aged and of wonderful sanctity, ordered her Life to be written by Hucbald monk of St. Amand. This is moreover the Bishop, who composed the chant namely of the Trinity, and the Life of B. Lambert the Martyr, which he so devoutly and so elegantly composed, and many other things by God's inspiration spoke: which Mother Church has retained in memory and in authority. Who for this reason chose Hucbald to write her Life, because he was a lettered man, and among the monks there was held a sound opinion of his conversation. To whose words his long works and the tenor of his conversation immune from complaint give credence. Lest anyone therefore doubt that the Chiefs of this world had our Matron for such devout cultivators; out of many, who are of great authority, I will subjoin one for the sake of example. The miracles being seen and her conversation heard, Charles the Roman Emperor understood usefully enough, that her memory could not be recalled in vain. He ordered therefore all things which were then of her right to be written, and to be possessed by the Brothers serving God without any secular exaction, free in perpetuity ^b. For not all the things which living she had possessed were written down, because through the carelessness of the nuns, and their life more secular than religious, already many had been ill alienated, and reduced to secular uses. There is moreover in the archives of the church the Imperial subscription, strengthened by the impression of his ring; in the last line of which privilege, the royal munificence for love of the aforesaid Matron instituted, that if the Brothers or Sisters serving her should lack anything, it should be supplied from the royal Domain ^c.

[11] Now it remains to be shown, in what manner the Marchiennes church was destroyed by the Normans, and what occasion of destroying Flanders with the Franks supplied them spirit. Which destruction that it may shine forth more evidently to the reader, it must be taken up a little higher, and a few things out of many repeated: which being briefly explained, we must hasten to the restoration of the church, which by the Divine pitying clemency was made. But we pray that this digression be not burdensome to the reader: because for the sake of those not knowing the history we will run through briefly and succinctly. In the year therefore of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and forty, Louis Augustus the most pious going the way of his day, his three sons Lothair, Louis, and Charles divide the paternal kingdom among themselves. Through intestine wars among the sons of Louis the Pious, Of whom Lothair, who was elder by birth and Emperor, attempted to disinherit his aforesaid brothers; who gathering a copious army from Italy, on the 7th of the Kalends of July ^d in the district of Auxerre, in the place which is called Fontenoy, strove with hostile array to deprive both his brothers of the portions of the kingdom. And when he could by no means be recalled to the concord of peace and brotherhood, his brothers meeting him on the morning of the Sabbath day being intercepted, many falling on both sides, very many being wearied, basely conquered he fled away. But the slaughter of those scattering was driven on everywhere, until Louis and Charles, fervent with piety, decreed that there must be a ceasing from their killing. With these evils at that time France and Germany with Lotharingia were afflicted. Whose miserable discord, and iniquitous condemnation hearing, those who dwelt beyond the Ocean sea, the Normans being secretly joined to them, in the same year crossed the sea, and laid waste all Gaul very often with burnings, killings, rapines, not even sparing the churches. And all these evils by the just judgment of God, as I reckon, befell them. To which thing the like once befell the Jewish people the Scripture testifies. For Hyrcanus their King, and Aristobulus his brother, when they contended among themselves for the ambition of the kingdom, by the Romans little by little even unto destruction, the Kings themselves and their successors with all the people and the temple, the Normans being stirred up, lay waste France for 50 years were destroyed. For that sentence of the Savior is truthful, which says, Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate. Therefore as we have aforesaid, the Normans with the Danes laid waste all France for nearly fifty years. Luke 11, 17 But it is not of our purpose now to pursue in order all their evil deeds, but only those which seem to be congruous to our present narration.

[12] In the year therefore of the Lord eight hundred and seventy-nine, Louis son of Charles the Bald died: after whose death a wonderful and ruinous dissension arose among the Franks. For Hugo, who was son of Charles the Great by a concubine, mindful of the fidelity which he promised to King Louis his cousin, namely strove to establish his sons Louis and Carloman in the paternal kingdom ^f. But Godinus the Abbot and Conrad the Count ^g called Louis the Teutonic King, kinsman of the aforesaid Louis, into the kingdom. These finally discording among themselves, the aforesaid Normans, placed beyond the sea, hearing their discord, by a naval invasion crossed the sea, the city of Thérouanne of the Morini, in the middle of the month of July, with fire and sword laid waste. After these things the churches round about being destroyed, and after Thérouanne being burned they spared not the little villages and other cities; slaughtering the peoples of either sex, of whatsoever condition and age, without any regard of mercy, by the edge of the sword. The monasteries too being overthrown, which were situated upon the river Scarpe, even the Marchiennes monastery, in which the body of B. Rictrudis rested, the dwellers of the land being put to flight or killed, was destroyed. They destroy Marchiennes. But the bodies of the Saints, which in the destroying of the churches had been hidden, were carried safe to safer places by divine providence. In which destruction perished all the ornament of the Marchiennes church, namely in charters and privileges, in books and the deeds of the Saints, and the rest of the things pertaining to the adornment and use of the place.

[13] But if perchance anyone should ask, whither was translated the body of the aforesaid Saint because of the infestation of the Pagans, let him know, that it still rested quite decently in a stone tomb before the altar of B. John the Baptist: the bodies of SS. Rictrudis, Mauront and Jonatus being preserved. but when it was elevated thence, or by what persons, is not plain enough to us. But in the inquiry into the elevation of St. Jonatus the Abbot, who was the disciple of the excellent Confessor Amand, we found it written, that in the time of the Abbess Judith, who presided over the Marchiennes monastery in the time of Lothair King of the Franks, there still rested in stone tombs, set before the altars, the bodies of the Saints, namely of B. Rictrudis, the noble Matron, and of the good Confessors Mauront, and the aforesaid Jonatus. And when by divine revelation the relics of the oft-named Confessor had been elevated, and decently laid up in the crypt; that same relator, who writes these things, subjoins: There too afterwards were placed the relics of B. Rictrudis, the noble Matron, and of Mauront her comely offspring, and they are venerated by the supervening peoples with religious devotion. But we celebrate the day of the elevation of that same most blessed one on the 7th of the Ides of February, according to the custom handed down by our predecessors, now for sixty times twenty years most devoutly.

[14] But after the passing of her, and of the holy Confessors Jonatus and Mauront, nuns ruled the Marchiennes place, over whom first presided the daughter of that same Saint, The monastery inhabited by nuns, a Virgin named Clotsendis. Where B. Amand, who built that monastery in honor of B. Peter, wished the order of monks to be had. But God disposing it, St. Jonatus the Abbot gathered nuns, that there might be there a fitting habitation both for B. Rictrudis and for her Virgin daughters consecrated. Over which monastery the nuns, from the death of B. Mauront, who passed from this world in the year of the Lord seven hundred and one, for three hundred and twenty-two years presided. Who as they were weak and feeble in sex, so also they were, for protecting the things of the church nobly founded, through womanly inactivity powerless. And what more? The things of the church in villages and revenues and innumerable possessions, is ill administered, were so by their insolence and womanly powerlessness alienated from them, that scarcely had they whence they could sustain a miserable life. For as it has been related to us by our ancients, a certain Abbess named Judith, of whom we made mention above, so began to dissipate the possessions of that same church, that to a certain knight her nephew she dared with wonderful temerity to hand over the villages around the monastery by hereditary right. Among which she gave the Village, to which antiquity imposed the name ^h Warlen, in which now the Lord of Lauda has built a den of robbers. I forbear to narrate, because of the loathing of the readers, the innumerable things which befell the Marchiennes church through their so long inhabitation, namely the loss of the village of Orchies, of the Douai revenue, of the wood of Rinenghe, and of the rest of the things which we know and of which we do not remember. Let these things said of these suffice: and let us turn the stylus to the renewal of the church, which through the Holy Spirit, and the prayer of B. Rictrudis, and the religion of the faithful monks was made.

ANNOTATIONS.

d. In the year 841.

CHAPTER III.

The Marchiennes monks under the first 4 Abbots.

A fire and the sacred fire extinguished by the help

of St. Rictrudis.

[15] When therefore the Norman rage had destroyed the Marchiennes monastery, and with it many others, and the nuns too had reduced its possessions almost to nothing; it pleased the pious Lord, whose property it is to have mercy, to impose an end on so great evils. And since He held hateful the dissolute life of the women, He did not endure them to dissipate the whole substance, by which those serving God ought to have been sustained, as they had begun. To ^a Baldwin therefore Count of Flanders, namely the grandfather of ^b Baldwin, who at Hasnon was honorably buried, Count Baldwin He bestowed a good spirit for the restoring of churches: and the grace of God in him was not void. For he began wisely to treat within himself, where the holy man

both holy and perfect could be found in the inheritance of the Lord, not seeking the things which are his own, but those which are others'. He seeks the best man, the liberator of many: who straightway through the spirit which he had received, is shown to him. This is moreover Ledwin, Abbot of St. Vedast, a man truly holy, and at that time of singular wisdom and virtue. He was a lamp burning and shining, and in him was wisdom and grace with God and men. He cared not to be set over, but to profit the multitude of the faithful; and clear in the light of the nations, he did not smoke from on high, but illumined how many by his example and doctrine: he showed himself the form of religion and the last of all to his subjects: in the office of Prelacy by his word and work, He exhorts Abbot Ledwin to restore Marchiennes thinking to give light not from the blaze, but from the smoke. The aforesaid Count Baldwin therefore, such a man being summoned, by exhortations, and the promised aid of his cooperation, bent his mind to that which he intended. Thou seest, he said, Reverend Father, the monasteries of Flanders destroyed by the Norman incursion, and that our age is destitute of men, who should expend any solicitude on restoring them. But I, if life be my companion, God willing, will rebuild their ruins; if thou wilt not be loath to communicate to this restoration the grace which is in thee. Finally among others let us strive to recall to its pristine state the Marchiennes church, which, the sins of the nuns requiring it, by the burning of the monastery and the loss of revenues is made desolate. Do thou execute our voice, nay rather the Lord's, in this work as a faithful servant, the nuns being ejected, and the nuns being removed by our authority, substitute there monks and the order of regular discipline. But if through thy industry, the grace of God cooperating, according to our faith the matter turn for the better; all things being well ordered, I will lighten thee of this Pastoral care and burden.

[16] He acquiesces, not affecting honor, but desiring to claim the inheritance of the Lord, from the hands of those plundering it. And he who before confessed himself unworthy to rule one church, now over two by divine providence the solicitude is enjoined on him. He hands over the place to monks, Without delay. By the Count's precept the nuns depart, and he choosing some monks of good testimony of his own, sends them to Marchiennes. Then there the rigor of cenobial discipline, the leisure of contemplating, the assiduity of praying is renewed. Finally within nine years, in which that venerable Father presided over the Marchiennes place, the affairs of the monastery were recalled to a good state, and all things were changed for the better. The nine years therefore being run through, and all things pertaining to the monastery being well ordered, solicitous for his own peace, he sought dismissal, and as Abbot presides over them 9 years: and the whole that he had labored at, content with the governance of one place, he ceded to another. Who although he laid down the name of Prelate, yet retained for himself the affection of love toward the Brothers and the church: to whom he showed himself, as long as he lived, a staff of support, as he could; and the troubles and anxieties of the place, only being troubled and anxious, he was able to hear. By helping, he showed himself to have a Father's bowels: but ceding the dominion to another, how much he weighed temporal glory evidently appeared. then he substitutes Albric for himself, To one therefore of his sons, namely Albric monk of St. Vedast, he enjoins to take up this burden; and lest he pretend excuses, he promises to be his coadjutor. He takes up, as he was fervent in spirit, the command in all alacrity; and most of all because he did not distrust that his tribulations were to be overcome by the aid of so great a Father.

[17] Being chosen therefore by the Abbot and the Brothers he is presented after the custom to the Bishop of Cambrai (for that Diocese and the district of Arras at that time had one Bishop, and the See was established there). The benediction therefore and Episcopal assent received, with due honor he is brought back to Marchiennes. And when now for his office he had begun to act strenuously, hence and thence manifold and difficult causes to be sustained began to emerge. For many of those things which they had never possessed, complained that they were disinherited, suspecting that he would satisfy their desires, for that he was a new Abbot. But B. Rictrudis had a certain village, by name Haines, which ^c Arnulf the Old Count, at the time when he ruled Flanders, under him the village of Haines being given to the monastery had taken from her by unjust invasion. But ^d Lothair son of Louis, son of Charles the Simple, having attained the monarchy of the kingdom, among others, by the grace of the Lord, obtained ^e a prudent and religious wife. Who being interpellated by the Brothers and Sisters of the Marchiennes church, obtained with the aforesaid King, that the village, which Arnulf had unjustly taken, he himself by fear of the divine judgment and the Queen's intervention should most devoutly restore to the most blessed Rictrudis, and that without complaint she should possess it in perpetuity. a free house But there was in the same village of B. Rictrudis a certain house, endowed with such liberty, that it was lawful for no one to extort tribute for it from the guest remaining in it. And this a certain man had received from the monks to be guarded, laboring in it that he might sustain himself and his family. But there was an adverse knight, whose name was Osbert, who had usurped to himself the advocacy of that same village, yet not an advocate, but a tyrant. He not bearing the liberty of the aforesaid house, confessed himself to have nothing, while it was not subject to his power. There came therefore a day, Osbert wishing to subject it to paying tribute, that from that man he should require his revenue for it. He stupefied at the unexpected by the admonition of revenue, began to wonder whether he spoke knowingly. But when the knight with pertinacious words, with grim eyes, wholly rushed upon him; he understood that he was contriving to do an injury to B. Rictrudis. Whence trusting in justice, he affirmed that he would never give what was asked. The adversary: Wilt thou nill thou, thou hast to render the tribute, which is owed to me for the lodging, nor think thyself to be borne with further. Whence to him affected with many contumelies he threatened hard punishments and chains.

[18] He, fearing the threats of the tyrant, demanded that a respite and consideration be granted him. And I, he said, within these days, will procure for myself a faithful Patron, who may freely speak forth justice against thee and defend it. This being heard, sureties being received that what was promised would be ratified, he appointed a day of answering, and said within himself: Now I have reckoned the whole, because he is not going to find one, who against me would dare to bring a sentence. The cause therefore being suspended, the man needing help runs back to Marchiennes, sets forth to the Abbot the cause of his coming, and he reports the matter in order to the rest of the Brothers. But because the bodies of the Saints could not be carried thither so easily, the counsel was that something of their relics, for the chastisement of the tyrant, should be sent. The sacred relics of SS. Rictrudis and Mauront, nothing more revered, Taking therefore with trembling and reverence of the bones of B. Mauront and St. Rictrudis, the monks set out to the village. And when on the appointed day that tyrant beheld present the man, whom he had called in the cause; he began to require concerning the faithful advocate whom he had promised to bring. The monks are present, and bring forth the treasure which they had brought before all; showing that the Saints of the Marchiennes monastery had come for protecting their right. To whom while the constant ones show due veneration, he would not even rise (for he was wholly given over to satan), but presumed to say, that the adversary had not a legitimate defender, since not through himself but by the bones of the dead he trusted his part to be fortified. The wretch did not believe, that, the inhabitant departing, in the dry limbs any virtue remained: and that those who rejoiced in equal glory with the Angels would not care that reverence be shown to their bones. And rushing upon that poor man, he beat him with his fists; and from him extorted the undue tribute by violence. Making little of what he had done, he returns home, and forthwith leads to water the horse which he had. Which straightway by God's judgment seized by a demon, shook off its rider into a pit: whence drawn out half-alive, he was so grievously crushed, he miserably perishes. that after a few days he miserably breathed out his soul. Yet in the days in which he survived he confessed himself to be miserably tortured by B. Mauront and St. Rictrudis, and that for the temerity of his unbridled tongue and work, he had not undeservedly undergone so grievous a sentence. Seeing this they who were present venerated the Relics of the Saints with greater devotion, and lest they should incur their offense, became thenceforth more cautious.

[19] Meanwhile Albric the Abbot prudently discharged the office of his Prelacy. He had a great name without and within: his life was the rule of the Brothers: his prudence a punishment to those who contrived to disturb the church. Which the devil perceiving grieved, because there was no fellowship for the Brothers with him, no more than for light to darkness. What should he do? The number and religion of the Brothers daily increased, and the whole state of the church prospered. Through the violence of his ministers, that is the sons of this world, the church with the monastery is burned, he could not take away the good which they had seized, nor turn the Abbot aside from his prayers and the right intention of his mind. But because the church, situated in the midst of a perverse nation, was lawfully contending; through tribulations and straits it pleased the divine sight the more. For all these things the enemy of human salvation, when by the constancy of those resisting he could not undermine it, attacks them with another kind of harming. He suggests to one of his satellites, for he had many in the world, to level the Marchiennes monastery with fires, having confidence, that religious men would thus be driven out of their place. He girds himself to the burning of the temple and the buildings, and straightway the effect follows the will. Yet the Brothers do not desert their place, nor did the religion of the Abbot for the loss of temporal things feel any detriment. For He who before suffered Job to be tempted, that after the trial he might appear more approved; in this place permitted the devil again to take up the guiles of his malignity. And as it was there said, But yet save his soul; so also here we doubt not it was said by the effect of the work. There he who had come to tempt, all things being taken away which were that man's, conquered by patience departed: here too for the temporal loss, he found not those who would murmur against God. And so what was sometime to be ended, while less is found, the crown of the tempted and the punishment of the tempter grew. After these things the Abbot survived about five years, and on repairing what had been destroyed expended what effort he could.

[20] Afterwards Albric happily departing from this world, ^f Baldwin Count of Flanders, son of him whom we mentioned above, had come to Arras, and there ^g met Poppo Abbot of St. Vedast. Him moreover, because he had a great name, Poppo by Baldwin of Lille Abbot of St. Vedast and grace with God and men not unequal, from Stavelot, where he presided over a great number of monks, the Count had bidden come to him. And hear the cause why. The Abbot of St. Vedast had fallen asleep in the Lord, in whose place to substitute this one, for his singular wisdom, religious men and Princes

of the earth had obtained from the Count: and this had been done in the same year: and under him many monasteries were irreproachably administered. But the Count had compassion on the pressures of the Marchiennes church, because in its first rebuilding the solicitude of his Father had kept watch. Whence since the aforesaid Abbot, for his wisdom and sanctity, was held in admiration by all who knew him, he bids him be summoned; and not as a Count, but as a devout son, blandly and gently addresses him. By God's providence and exhortation thou hast deigned to take up the care of this Abbey, but one thing which I still suppliantly demand I beg that thou hear. There is at Marchiennes a monastery, and likewise constituted of Marchiennes, which my father, God aiding, having rescued from the furnace of poverty, abounding in all goods left: but the devil, not enduring to bear the grave struggle laid upon him by the Brothers, afterwards to their injury consumed it with fire. Now therefore I pray, that this also be constituted under thy providence, because we do not distrust of its profit, if it have such a dispenser. But he alleged that he was distended by so many cares and various occupations, nor could suffice for all things, nor was a burden to be enjoined on him which his shoulders would refuse to bear. At length when he could in no wise decline the instance of him entreating, he acquiesced even unwilling: whom brought to Marchiennes a rejoicing procession of the Brothers met, as we found written in his Life.

[21] But O the miserable condition of human felicity! No security indeed is to be placed in earthly dignity, for that the present hour scarcely has certain faith. Whence whoever thou art that attendest to thyself preferred to the rest, the things which now seem glad to thee while thou speakest; think that they can become sad. For this man who but now presided over so many Brothers, straightway seized by a fever lay down in bed, and within the month in which he had come to Marchiennes, fulfilled the lot of the human condition. within a month he dies, For whose death, all Flanders and many other provinces were troubled, because they had lost a man of sound counsel and a reformer of peace. This is he, who while he was still a novice, with St. Remaclus at Stavelot performing the office of almoner, on a certain day received a certain leper to be lodged in the house of the poor. formerly renowned for a leper received and cured. Whom of those things which he had in hand, as a devout servant, he refreshed quite abundantly: and lest anything should seem lacking, a seat being placed beside the fire he set him over it, for it was winter. After these things Compline being said, while he was being led to his bed to rest, mindful of his guest he accused himself in this manner. There is cold, against which to ward off that poor man has no garments: whom if this night it happen to die of too great chill, shall not his soul be required of my hand? Taking therefore his coverlet he returned to him, and did not delay to cover him placed in the little bed which he had strewn for him, and morning being come returned, to know what the guest did: and approaching him, under his coverlet, found him cleansed of leprosy. Which seen he was made glad, yet the work of piety bestowed he was unwilling to make known to the Brothers, but it could not be concealed. For the merits of this man this one grace sent from heaven I would not pass over: that from this the reader may conjecture, how prudently he instituted the remainder of his life, who from the beginning of his conversation, illustrated many by such a miracle. If of how great an opinion he was, who yet in work was found no lesser, I should wish to narrate; I should say that I speak forth or even think nothing worthy of it.

[22] At that time the men of the village, which is called ^h Wasiers, under him the Church of Wasiers, around the church which in honor of the Lord and B. Rictrudis was there dedicated, had placed the masses of their hay and corn, for the precaution of safer keeping, whence they reckoned themselves to be sustained in future. But it happened, that the enemy man for the destruction of the monastery, presumed to set fire to that hay or to some house (for the little village was near), or whether it was done by some other chance, yet it is certain that it happened. Which when it raged into the corn and the little hay, scarcely could the pinnacle of the temple be seen by the bystanders, the masses of hay and crops burning round about the flame and smoke keeping off their sight. Yet there was no one who could approach nearer to its defense, because in the arranging of the annual harvest, which they had built there, they had left only a certain quite narrow path, through which on feast days with their Priest they entered the church. But all, forgetful of their loss and future beggary, complained only for the burning of the temple which was imminent. There was a common groan and a like outcry of all, that B. Rictrudis would deign to free her monastery from the instant peril. Meanwhile those who had fled farther off, and the more freely beheld what was being done, see a certain Matron of reverend countenance walking upon the pinnacle of the temple, she is freed by St. Rictrudis appearing, who with the sleeves of her garment beating back the flames, twisted them to the lower parts; and the more they were augmented by the subjected matter, the more freely running through the upper parts she powerfully pressed down their masses lest they should harm. At length the fire grew quiet, and she vanished from the eyes of the beholders. What had been done, those who had seen, related to others, and faith could not be lacking to their words: for it was an evident miracle, and the truth of the deed done, since the raging and surrounding fire was found to have consumed not even one rule beam of the monastery.

[23] These things being so, Wido monk of St. Vedast, is chosen Abbot at Marchiennes: whose conversation and wisdom had sprinkled a good odor among the Brothers. Under Abbot Wido, restorer of the monastery, He was indeed wise in administering exterior things, and for gaining souls a servant in the house of God quite necessary. And let this suffice to express the grace divinely given him, that in his days the fabric of the monastery was restored, and its ornaments, with those things which were necessary for the uses of the Brothers, made whole again. And while all things are prosperously carried on, behold the hand of the Lord chastising the multiplied peoples of the nations. For a plague, which is commonly called the ⁱ infernal fire, began to vex the human race. Not a city, not a castle, the sacred fire making great slaughter. not even a little village could be found, which complained not to be molested by this plague. There was no measure of condoling, since now of those grieving there was no number. Many powerful, and those who were of the lowest parents, to Soissons and Tournai (as they dwelt in the nearer places) and to the sweet memory of the Mother of God were carried in litters, where some bewailed with tearful voices their half-burnt members, in many by the help of the Mother of God others now beginning to burn; all dreading lest anything still worse should befall them. For they feared lest the horrid destruction of this scourge should straightway burst even to the vitals, and thus in one hour they should lack both life and the scourge. But the Mother of mercy hearing her suppliants, sent back none uncured to their own.

[24] He too who was able by one word at once to free all from the scourge, willed through B. Rictrudis's merits to heal the scourged. Whence He inspired the minds of certain persons, that they should have themselves carried to her monastery, where without doubt by the merit of their faith they would find the grace of healings. Carried therefore to Marchiennes, the name of that same Saint being invoked, they returned, and the Lord was glorified in the merits of His handmaid. in others St. Rictrudis being invoked one is cured. Many peoples had heard this, and those who because of the distance of places never enjoyed mutual sight: for the swift fame, the messenger of divine virtue, ran through several provinces under one warning. It exhorted the ill-affected to flee to the heard suffrages, loosing the tongues of many into true praises. No condition therefore of men, not sex, not age prevailing to escape the plague of the Lord, began to flow together to Marchiennes, and in fastings and devout cries awaited the help of B. Rictrudis. Thou wouldst see all the doors of the monastery open; yet the crowds of those going out and entering gravely pressing themselves, for the curing of the brethren unanimously prayed, and the desired health followed their prayers. Then hymns and praises were not lacking, and that these be more often repeated the frequent miracle urged. Finally no one was defrauded of the health sought, and no one was found, who to God and B. Rictrudis for the benefits obtained should be ungrateful.

[25] likewise the water of the well dug by St. Mauront From our predecessors too we have heard, that in the crypt of the same church B. Mauront dug a well: for he judged it unworthy, that of the water which was necessary for the other uses of the Brothers, should be put in the sacrifice of the Lord, and this same should serve for cleansing its vessels. Whence the water of this well was deputed only to this ministry, and is still called B. Mauront's well. Beside it he himself was buried and the bodies of many Saints rested: where the Lord, what their merits were, frequently deigned to show. Among the rest, which the divine virtue there worked, we read that one thing worthy of relation was done. A certain disease, which they commonly name ^k Scroëllas, had spread itself into many, and remedies were sought now from physicians now from the suffrages of the Saints. scrofula is taken away, Thou wouldst see worms of this corroded flesh flow out into the earth, his throat and neck disfigured with pitiable holes. But He who above had distributed the miracle in the hand of His Saints, revealed to certain laboring with this kind of disease that they should run back to B. Rictrudis's suffrages. the suffrage of St. Rictrudis being added For there by the instance of prayer He would restore to health the sick, whom a mortal and hired physician could not cure: yet they should first wash the place of the disease with the water of the aforesaid well, hesitating nothing in faith. To whom God made this known through the Holy Spirit, they did as they were forewarned: and the corruption of the sickness being washed away, by the merits of the aforesaid Matron and of B. Mauront her son, they brought back the health for which they had come. Whence rendering thanks to the Lord and the Saints, whom they had visited, they exhorted several others by words and the open testification of the miracle to a like work. There came many even from far parts of the lands, who all after the washing of their ulcers, partakers of their vow, returned with thanksgiving whence they had come. Here let recur to memory the deed of Naaman the Syrian, whom seven times washed in the Jordan, cleansed of his leprosy, by the testimony of Scripture we have known. 4 Kings 5 In both places a grave infirmity, and a great miracle: but this simply, that however happened in a figure.

ANNOTATIONS.

married to Otto I the Emperor, whose Life shall be given December 16.

CHAPTER IV.

A blind man enlightened. Those injurious to St. Rictrudis punished.

[26] After these things Wido, when he had ruled the Marchiennes monastery for thirty-six years, received as successor Alard the Abbot, taken up from the monastery of St. Vedast ^a. And he in word and work not unequal to the above-mentioned men, was never extolled by the event of a prospering work. Under Abbot Alard Toward the poor and afflicted, merciful, he is read to have done one thing, which is not to be passed over in silence. The village of ^b Sailly being burned with fire, those who before there had led a poor life, then reduced to want, run back to the Abbot, suppliantly demanding something from him for their sustenance. a great almsgiver, Who, taking the vessel, in which B. Eusebia's body was laid up, did not delay to despoil it of the gold and silver with which it was adorned above: and bestowing them on his men, as need was, he clemently indulged another's beggary. O Man truly merciful! poor to himself, he was rich to the poor: in whose hand while the gift does not stick, he proves himself not to be solicitous for the morrow. Where are those who, plundering others' things, while they lie upon their furniture and little substance, are moved at things lost and neglected? In the codices I can read some like to this: but a rare bird is in the lands, and most like to a black swan.

[27] In the times of the same man there was a man at Rinenghe the village of B. Rictrudis, The keeper of a wood at Rinenghe made blind, rich and of an illustrious lineage: him the Count of Flanders had set as keeper of a certain wood of his, which is situated not far from the village. But it happened that he incurred the plague of blindness by I know not what occasion. But while I attend to the issue of the matter, I would confidently say this happened, that afterwards the glory of the Lord, and the merits of B. Rictrudis might be manifested in him. Who although he possessed the riches of the whole world, would do little of it, since for buying the light by which he might behold them no money would suffice. And now for expelling his blindness he sought no aid: because even if he sought it he hoped in no way to find it. Whence to cleansing his interior light he had wholly turned himself, drawing the blindness of the exterior man to the profit of the interior. while he applies himself to pious works, And not only abhorring depraved work, but also solicitous to amend evil thoughts, he intended his mind to good studies; as if daily about to hear what he should revolve in mind. But if sometimes for expelling the darkness of his blindness he prayed the Lord, not enduring delay in these things, for obtaining the salvation of his soul, with alms and prayers he insisted to make good the ways of his life; knowing that a man, who shall have lived well, would never die ill. The memory too of the Saints with the highest veneration retaining, he merited their patronage by devout services. to the fount of St. Rictrudis He invoked all, whose names occurred to his memory: yet before the rest he was devout to B. Rictrudis, specially imploring help from her. To whose fount, which flows within the aforementioned wood, a multitude of the sick ran together, washing there the face, or even the whole body, weakened or weighed down by some debility: others drawing thence a draught, were cured of panting fevers. Which when this blind man frequently heard to be done, he rejoiced with those returning and now healed, bursting forth with them himself too into praises and thanksgiving.

[28] In these things very many years passed, and behold on a certain night sleeping he saw a dream. he dreams that he is healed. For he thought himself to stand at the fount, and to bathe there his face and eyes. Prayer too being made and the name of B. Rictrudis invoked, the blindness was wiped from him. This therefore not a vision, but the truth of the matter reckoning, he vehemently rejoiced: but the joy straightway vanished, because awakened he recognized it had been a dream. Yet revolving that within himself, he resolves it should be repeated in the ears of any wise man, eager to know, what this vision portended. Rising therefore, to his Priest he sets forth the order of the matter. Who silently considering the things seen; wherefore by the counsel of his Parish-priest And yet, he said, do what thou hast seen: for the fount is not far from us, nor is it difficult to attempt the matter. Approach the fount with full faith, because He who first created eyes for thee in thy mother's womb, He Himself can now reform them, if it be pleasing to Him; yet first confess wholly to God: for I believe that the vision of one truly penitent cannot be void. And he, I am straitened, he said, my Lord, to choose one of two. For if obeying thy command, I shall have profited nothing, I have set myself for the derision of another's pride. Those who shall know the deed done, will say; Behold the dreamer, and (to the reproach of my blindness) Let us ask, what profit his dreams to him? Of a great crime too I shall be found guilty before God, that transgressing His command, I have presumed to tempt Him. But if I shall not have done this, and the divine virtue, which could be manifested in me, be not through me preached, this silence will be to me an occasion of death. I know not what I should choose, but do thou strengthen my wavering mind, because this other thing, unless thee being consulted, I dread to attempt. To this the Priest, I know, he said, that thee speaking with me, or wheresoever thou shalt be, the hand of the Lord is not unable to heal. But as Naaman the Syrian was sent to the Jordan to be cleansed of leprosy, so also thee to the fount of B. Rictrudis, by divine disposition, I trust to be enlightened. he washes there his eyes and is healed: By these exhortations made more cheerful, to the destined place a boy being guide he sets out: he tastes of the fount, and washes his face, and his eyes being bathed therewith, by the merits and intervention of the aforesaid Matron sight is restored to him. Stupor and joy seized all, who saw and heard. Whence giving thanks they blessed the Lord and His handmaid, from then and thenceforth preaching her worthy of greater devotion.

[29] But she who thus aids those still tarrying in the world, will not sometime be lacking to the complaints of the Brothers continually serving her. For it would not seem just, St. Rictrudis avenging her injuries, that, having compassion on strangers, she should desert her own nurslings, and not communicate to them the grace, which she received from the Lord. She was wont to free them from pressures, and to beat down the pride of those injuring them with many afflictions. And although I have read of many, who when they had done ill did not long glory; if I recall some of these, which occur to memory, with the stylus, let no one be angry with me. For they are not to be recalled to the notice of men for an example of offending: but lest anything similar, whoever shall have heard the divine vengeance, should presume to attempt. There was therefore a certain Knight, by name Helvin, dwelling at Marchiennes, he had usurped to himself the advocacy of the same village, and for the office of advocate, against the church and its men exercised tyranny. Helvin oppressing others at Marchiennes, He had also taken to himself sixty knights or more, by whose protection made more secure for doing ill, more monstrously his unpunished temerity raged. He lived of the substance of the little ones and widows, reserving what was over for the costs and stipends of the knights: whom crime, want, a guilty mind, drove on, these were Helvin's neighbors and familiars. But if anyone also free from fault had fallen into his friendship, by daily use and allurements he was easily made equal and like the rest. Given to daily rapines, he drove out his neighbors round about from their bounds, and whomsoever he had seized brought to Marchiennes, from him by various injuries extorted his little substance. But ^c Richard, in vain admonished by Abbot Richard: then Abbot of Marchiennes, successor of Dom Alard, of whom we spoke before, a man honorable according to the world, and according to God God-fearing, frequently meeting the flagitious man, admonished him to come to his senses. Setting before him too the Scriptures, which to those persevering in evils denounce the punishments of gehenna, now by terror, now by blandishment he strove to draw him back from his ways.

[30] But he persevering in ^d obstinacy, would by no exhortations desist from his beginning; and despising the Abbot, did not cease in many ways to afflict his monastery without and within, plundered its Villages, and took captive its men. To do ill the minister of the devil daily lay in wait for the life of the innocent, believing nothing done, while anything remained to be done. To whom Marchiennes was a refuge, a secret place; and water and wood, by which it is circled about, rendering him more secure for every depraved work. But the Abbot while daily he saw his malice augmented, and the afflictions of his men increase; and the patronage of St. Rictrudis being implored, enters into counsel with the Brothers, what need be done. And they unanimously answering, decree nothing better, than to run back to the mercy of the Lord and B. Rictrudis. For the complaint was not to be referred to an earthly judge, since one would not easily be found who would presume to put a hand upon him. All the Priests therefore strike the man with anathema, and await the censure of divine vengeance. The year revolved, on the same day of the Kalends on which he had received the sentence of excommunication, smitten with anathema he is killed. unreconciled to the church he was killed: nor is it doubtful that by B. Rictrudis's intervention he paid the penalties of his temerity in this manner. Whence he who before neither feared God, nor revered man, now a corpse was carried back to Marchiennes on the shoulders of his own. Where his friends imploring burial, the Abbot and Brothers by no means acquiesce, knowing the place of the courtyard would not at all profit an excommunicate. They carry him to Hasnon, but justice in divers places does not dictate a divers sentence. Finally by the prayers of many, he is scarcely permitted to be buried outside the courtyard, the Lord requiting him what he had deserved. This man therefore so miserably deceased, let us run to the rest.

[31] B. Rictrudis had ^e a bailiff, in her village which is called Haictis: to whom while his own did not suffice, he presumed to extend the cupidity of his mind to others', and to seek occasion, how he might make his bounds another's. Thence avarice persuading, the offense of the Divine Majesty was spurned, Another unjustly plundering the goods of the monastery, and in those things which were of the right of the aforesaid Matron he dared to put a hand. For after the harvests, when his crop was being threshed on the floor, that man supervening, asserted the straw of all the produce to be his by hereditary right. At this word the Brother who presided over the manor wondered, for a reclamation of this kind seemed to him a new thing and something unheard-of. He contradicts what that one asserted, and so the cause was brought to the Abbot. Who reproving his bailiff, willing to be malign, admonished him, lest the care of present advantage should work his own destruction. For he had understood his party, propped by no truth, whom ambition delighted, and pride the beginning of all sin. But this man's wholesome counsel, the contradictor spurns,

reiterating, that he would not suffer himself to be disinherited. And going down into his house, he began to consume and plunder the things of the monastery, to affect those resisting with contumelies, the damages too being continually multiplied to be found daily worse than himself: and while, vomiting threats, he did not desist from his beginning, he complained that he had suffered the injury which he was inflicting. He said the Abbot acted unjustly against him, who would not prosecute justice, and appoint a day to him for examining the truth. that he may obtain the cause in judgment But the church sustaining a grave loss of its things, at length by the common counsel of the Brothers a day and place is fixed beforehand for settling the suit. Meanwhile the shameless man seeks for himself coadjutors, by whose industry he might obtain, what the law of justice did not permit to be twisted to his right. He distrusts his party, if it happen that carnal friends be lacking in the cause. With these therefore he meets at the appointed day. The religious men who had assembled, the parties being called together, dictate a form of peace. But he answers that until they obey his will, he will not acquiesce.

[32] Finally what he had conceived with an evil mind, had not a good issue. For he promised that with a third hand, by faith and oath he would defend his cause to be just. The Abbot hearing this, believed that he would not dare to proceed so far, that he would not dread to offend so openly against the Lord and His Saints: and he assented to his petition. Who straightway is made glad, and to the heap of his perfidy, adds perjuries to false words, to violence he adds perjury: showed no reverence of the Lord to B. Rictrudis, and so to his death obtained what he had coveted. He rejoiced that against the Abbot in the affair he had prevailed, but the detriment of his soul he did not at all attend to. And behold near at hand the hand of the Lord seized him. For occupied by a grave disease of body he lay down in bed: a multitude of friends is present, admonishing that he should restore as quickly as possible the things of the Marchiennes church, unjustly usurped; confess that he had grievously offended against B. Rictrudis, and penance being received promise amendment for the rest. But if he should neglect it, deceased he would be damned to perpetual torment; and while the ill-gotten passed to his heir, it was to be feared lest a like fault should obtain a like vengeance. These things they vainly persuading, the sick man, being put beside himself, loses reason. For seized by a demon, foaming he began to roll in his bed, vomiting against the surrounding friends words full of horror and contumely. The household laments, the kinsmen wail, and grieve more at the turn of the tortured body, wherefore seized by a demon, than dread the imminent peril of death. They were not allowed to have any day or night exempt from so laborious a care and watch of him. But the matter finally came to its state: for in such and so horrid a vexation captive in mind, he breathed out his wretched soul. But what without horror of mind I cannot recall, devoid of the Lord's Body, he miserably perishes: he found the last day of the present life. Those who were present, in vengeance of the evil, which he had brought upon B. Rictrudis's church, asserted that he had undergone this bodily sentence.

[33] Two others also, who had been associates in the perjury, seized by a sudden infirmity, likewise two of the associates of the perjury, did not escape the due penalties of their temerity. For both were bodily scourged, by an equal miracle indeed, but by an unequal lot. For the one of the village of Sandemont, not after many days placed at his extremity, confessed himself miserably to burn in his tongue, and praying begged after the example of that rich man, who placed in hell preferred to have his tongue cooled by Lazarus, the one burning in his tongue, that B. Rictrudis the tip of her finger being sent into water, would assuage its burning. But as to him a late penitence profited not; so also this one did not, living in the body, lack the cautery, with which he had been struck. Who by a swift death made out of the midst lest he should harm the Marchiennes church, left the memory of his torment to posterity. But the third, namely the Mayor of the village of Goy, did not at all attend to the horrid death of the two that he might come to his senses: but the Lord was not forgetful of His word, which He had said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Rom. 12, 19 Return, wretch, to thy heart, attend to thyself lest thou die in thy sin. While it is allowed reconsider what thou hast done, because after death late is the retraction. the other impenitent, The vexation and ignominious death, which thy friends merited, let them announce to thee the fewness of thy days. Consider that thou hast seen them temporally pay the crime of perjury, who, perpetually more grievously to be punished, went out of their bodies. If thou desirest to escape a like sentence of damnation, the mark of falsity is first to be washed away with tears and confession. If thou art wise, their punishment will be thy correction, whence it is said:

Now thy affair is at stake when the neighboring wall burns.

But O the wretched condition of human ignorance! which never has prevailed to hold anything certain of the morrow. The face of the man, making light of what he had done, straightway is wholly besprinkled with a most evil ulcer. After this his mouth, which he had loosed into perjury, his mouth turned backward, he is dumb. was turned back, and occupied the hinder part of his head. O new thing, and great miracle, unheard-of from the ages! There was to be seen not a man, but a monstrous thing and terrible to see, even to his own friends who had assembled too much to be feared. But if anyone treated with him of the salvation of the soul, he answered nothing, who was now destitute of the plectrum of the tongue. If one required sense or motion of the body, he differed nothing from a stone. And so sustaining the avenging hand of the Lord and B. Rictrudis, at length by a horrid death he breathed out his last spirit. In the three therefore, who for distracting the things of the Marchiennes church had conspired together, the issue of things sufficiently indicated the truth. Which many seeing, and those who could hear, wondered, those who were of the seed of Canaan saying; Let us flee to incur the offense of B. Rictrudis, for the Lord fights for her.

ANNOTATIONS.

BOOK II.

Miracles and things done from the year 1100 up to the year 1164.

PROLOGUE.

[1] Since concerning the Abbots, who sweated in restoring the Marchiennes church, we have incidentally appended certain miracles. Let no one be troublesome to our humility, The fortune of the Marchiennes place turned for the better, if we still recall to memory what their successors did. It can be held for a miracle and is to be referred to the praise of B. Rictrudis, that in so short a time the state of the Church was changed for the better, and all things anew restored. Where before dissolution had prevailed over the rigor of cenobial discipline through the nuns; now by God's grace the place was one of contemplating, and the form of all perfection, those collaborating to whom specially this work was incumbent. And these had now recalled the possessions for the most part into the right of the church, as anciently, and prosperously carried on all things without and within: but if anyone stood opposed, B. Rictrudis did not delay to avenge the injuries of her monastery. But upon others fear and trembling, the miracles being seen, rushed; and they rested in all subjection, made thenceforth more cautious. But the way of man is not in himself, nor is anyone except in his last death to be praised for his past conversation. Present fortune too is not much to be desired, since neither faithful in remaining, and when it shall have departed about to bring mourning. And these things make its threats not to be dreaded, nor its blandishments to be longed for. But this I say for this reason, because the church which by degrees had changed bitter things into prosperous, now the Lord turning away His face, as in one moment fell back into the same. and again driven backward. What with labor it had restored to itself, it grieved to be again withdrawn through the carelessness of the Prelates. Nor yet is it to be wondered that it was so often assailed by the assaults of the demon: for envy seeks the heights, the winds blow through the highest places. And as the huge pine is more often agitated by the winds, and lightnings strike the highest mountains; so the Church, which ceases not to afflict itself with spiritual exercises, the demon frequently strives to disquiet; he suggests venomous counsels, builds calumnies of his own against innocence, nourishes discords: sometimes too he twists the substances, by which the Brothers ought to have been sustained, into secular uses, that those, on whom he has imposed a grave conflict, he may lead back into the world. But these evils now concurring upon it, the Marchiennes monastery is now reduced almost into a solitude. But the more it lifted its head from the graver pressure, by the help of St. Rictrudis it is restored. the more confidently it is to be ascribed among the miracles, and the works of B. Rictrudis are to be preached with greater love. Let us say therefore, that as it was so grievously avenged upon those, who had distracted her things; so frequently her church was almost wholly destroyed, that in the manifold restoration, how great grace she has with the Lord, might shine forth.

CHAPTER I.

The Marchiennes monastery dissipated and restored. Those laboring with blindness, and hernia, and the stone healed.

[2] The aforementioned Fathers therefore being dead, who had taught others by word and work the religion brought with them into the monastery; the Brothers constitute as Abbot ^a Fulchard, a Hasnon monk. And he was of the iniquitous progeny of the Lauda men, under Abbot Fulchard of an evil life. brother of those who at that time seemed to be as it were the head of that perverse nation. Who was chosen for this, that a man according to the world of great family, could more freely accuse those infesting the church: and beat down the contumacy too of those resisting, now by the censure of ecclesiastical interdict, now by the power of his kinsmen. This was the consideration in the election, but God permitting, the matter was fulfilled otherwise. Ordained Abbot he spent the remainder of his life, not religiously, but secularly: expending the substance of the monastery in depraved uses, he bestowed much on those asking him, and the will of the Lord was not inquired into; without and within he dissipated the patrimony of Christ, dissipating the goods of the monastery and alienated many possessions from the church. Over his subjects he exercised tyranny as a lord, nor as a father did he ever apply the fomentations of consolation. His predecessors had ministered well by word and work: but he by the example of his life and continual expenses, destroyed what they had built. How ill he lived, except for avoiding it ought not to be repeated, nor yet are all things to be said because of the venerable reverence of the monastic profession. Of whom that it be said briefly, he was stiff-necked to discipline, filthy to life, an Abbot in name, in fact a hireling. And because human nature is prone to sinning, and undermining discipline by his example his disciples in his conversation received the snare of their own destruction. Thence the dissolution of ecclesiastical discipline, the enervation of censure, the evacuation of all religion. The Brothers wandered at pleasure, and what they could take from the church, each named his own. From the men of the world a habit somewhat distinguished them, but, things failing, looking back, they were made dogs returned to

their vomit. A great adversity oppressed the Marchiennes place as by an inundation made, nor was there one who should recall the erring neighbor.

[3] Only a ^b Lay-brother had remained in the monastery, by name Fulchard, Fulchard the Lay-brother observing the rule, guarding diligently and with the highest veneration the bodies of the saints, which otherwise with the rest would have perished. He for many days in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness served God; and as if set in a solitude, he frequently sustained the visible encounters of satan. But he labored with a rupture of the groin, but from holy prayers he could not be turned aside by the bodily molestation. Of which infirmity, when afterwards the dissolution gave place to religion, by B. Rictrudis's merits, we read that he recovered in this manner. There was in the crypt of the monastery an altar having near a window, and a stone above ill-cohering to the remaining wall: which when daily the aforesaid sick man attended threatening ruin; he feared lest, the Priest there celebrating the divine mysteries, that stone should fall upon the table of the Lord. he is healed of the rupture Which grave sin if it should happen, he dreaded that he would be guilty of death, with the Priest and his minister. But his bowels against nature hanging beneath the groin, did not allow him to work anything: and although the good will was not lacking to replace the stone in its place, that the infirmity might not attempt the work it for some time drew him back. Finally, the spirit of fortitude being divinely assumed, with his right hand he raises a ladder, with his left supports his bowels, and with mortar and trowel strives to ascend. But his strength does not suffice: but the virtue of his mind not succumbing raises the sick man a second time. The third time, God aiding, the work is consummated: and the sickness being wiped away, by divine grace and the invocation of the name of the aforesaid Matron, whom he had had as helper in his work, the intestines flee back to the natural place. Perceiving which, beyond what can be believed he rejoices: and all who knew him admiring at the evident miracle, gave thanks with him to the Lord and B. Rictrudis. Scourged also by the Lord with pain of the sides, gout, and several other ways, and of other infirmities. as often as it was necessary for curing, he confessed to B. Rictrudis. He prayed without intermission simply, as a layman: nor did he hear anything from another, pertaining to the divine office.

[4] The place thus desolate The place of the oratory was little by little reduced into a pasture of oxen: the walls of the buildings, the roofs falling, threatened ruin. The religious men, attending to the Brothers being perverted and the place being destroyed, could not patiently bear it: and prayed that the Lord would impose an end on so great miseries. Meanwhile when the solemn day of All Saints was at hand, the Abbot of St. Amand sends two of his monks to Marchiennes, that there they might devoutly spend the celebration of so great a day with the preceding night in psalms and hymns, and other things pertaining to the divine cult. For since he was a good man, he was saddened, if in this solemnity no service should be bestowed on God and His Saints, who rest there. But they knowing that without bodily nourishment they could not long subsist, carry with them, what for the food of one day would be necessary for them. But if they had not done so, after the vigils and the completed mysteries, the want of the place would compel them to return fasting to their own. After this the ^c Bishop of Arras, to whose diocese it pertained, prevented by divine grace, commands Fulchard the Abbot to be called to him. To whom, those present standing by, What, he said, do I hear of thee? Render the account of thy stewardship. and Fulchard being deposed by the Bishop of Arras, A most evil thing is that which thou hast done. A dispensation was entrusted to thee, and thou an unfaithful servant hast dissipated the whole: esteeming nothing of more value, than that thou shouldst smell of the wantonness of the body and temporal glory. If by fasting, tears, and continual prayer, what thou hast sinned living in the body, thou punish not; after the last examination they shall be punished with worthy and perpetual animadversion. Reconsider what thou hast done, and yield to another Abbot to be ordained of the church; for now thou shalt no longer be able to be steward. Which when he had merited to hear, yet he took it grievously, and demanding mercy, promised amendment thenceforth. But the Bishop remaining in his sentence, he insolently asserted that his kinsmen would be avengers of so great an injury. And when he could by no means be reconciled, it happened that one of the days moved by anger, he returned the pastoral staff to the Bishop, or rather threw it down. But straightway repenting of this deed, with prayers and services, that he might have the Count of Flanders as his coadjutor, he expended much labor. Adding too gifts to gifts, he promised greater, provided that he be restored in the place of Abbot. And while he profits nothing, for shedding innocent blood, he prepares snares for the Bishop: but the Lord protecting him, it was not permitted to the wicked men to proceed further.

[5] Under this dissension, threats and prayers being frequently alternated, only four monks, who had now returned to Marchiennes, constitute for themselves as Abbot Amand the Prior of the church of Anchin. Amand chosen as Abbot, The Bishop assents, because a sound opinion of his morals and conversation was held. But he by resisting, opposed his own inexpertness, the destruction of the place and order: and on the adverse side Fulchard and his men, who would by no means suffer the matter to be prosperously done. For he said that anything was striven in vain, and that it was to be imputed to extreme madness, to seek nothing else by wearying oneself, but hatred. These and other occasions, sufficiently necessary for excusing, he pretended; but obedience and the prayers of many being added, at length he was compelled to take up the burden. Yet the aforesaid squatter and his men prohibiting, he did not at once come to Marchiennes, but at Anchin given to vigils and prayers, awaited from the Lord God the aid of consolation. Two years therefore being run through in this temerity of Fulchard, before the Archbishop of Reims and several religious men, after two years he comes to Marchiennes: he at length promised to keep peace toward his successor and the things of the monastery. To whom, concord dictating, two villages of B. Rictrudis for the sustenance of himself, as long as he should live, were granted; whose fruit with the woods, and certain appurtenances pertaining to those same villages, he dissipated both into the abuses of his own and into private ones, never bearing a pacified mind for his deposition. After these things it came into his mind to hasten as a pilgrim to St. Giles, and the things which were necessary on the journey being prepared he set out. But when he was returning ^d seized by disease, he confessed his sins groaning; and the Eucharist being received, those reporting who were present, in a good confession he breathed out the last spirit of life.

[6] Then the Bishop of Arras coming to Marchiennes, in so great a defect of things found the place, that even what was necessarily set before him, where being aided by the Bishop he saw to be lacking, the Brothers from Anchin brought cups, towels, even dishes for his service. And after the refreshment he gently and blandly consoled the Abbot: he pledges by work and effect, admonishes not to distrust, promises that God will be present, whom all his adversaries shall not be able to resist. Who having humanely enough compassion on the miseries of the place, bade farewell to the Brothers, and departed: but the Abbot remaining in the hands of the Lord, amid perils and sweats, was comforted by Him: and the lettered Brothers and others without letters, of whose life and morals he was secure, he takes up the Anchin monks, choosing at Anchin, he constituted them his coadjutors in the house of the Lord. Of these some going forth, gave effort to procuring exterior things: but others inwardly given to meditation, demonstrated by word and work the law and rule of the life of monks to be kept. The house little by little began to admit correction, to receive discipline. Depraved customs are made out of the midst: Confessions and the solemnities of the Sacraments are duly celebrated: at the Canonical Hours to psalm to the Lord there is a running together with the highest devotion, and he goes before them by example. in the life of the Abbot all reading, what was the institute of monastic conversation. For he went before them in holiness and justice before God, doing many things beyond the common institutes singularly, and to such hard things all could not imitate him. The Lord therefore blessed the place, and in a short time it was made great, in religion, works and persons. For it was heard and spread by frequent report, so several of their own accord seeking the habit that at Marchiennes the acts of religion are devoted to, and into a good state without and within the church is recalled. Whence many perfectly renouncing the world, the Lord calling, entered the monastery: whom as the firstfruits of his labor, the aforesaid Abbot educated laudably in the fear of the Lord, and the law and discipline, which he imposed on them, he himself bore as Master and Lord.

[7] These are they whose fruitful life is recognized to have been both to those to come and to those present; in the contempt of their bodies showing, with how few and least things human nature is content. These are they who, living honestly, raised the things of the monastery into the greatest advances, men wise both according to God and according to the world. In their most necessary coming, the Marchiennes church is truly preached happy round about: the Marchiennes church flourished again, because the manifold good, which with the grace of the Lord they accomplished, is in evidence. They labored, and the Lord, a reward being laid up for them for their labor, deigned to call many into their labors to serve Him. Of the continence and manifold grace, which they received from the Lord, I would gladly repeat some things: but I fear to incur the mark of adulation. Knowing also that they do not seek to be praised, by speaking truth I dread to offend such friends. For still while I speak, certain of them living in the body, from the good which once in novice fervor they began, for old age and the debility of members are not retarded. These certain miracles, which through B. Rictrudis the Lord deigned to work, seeing and hearing, could not but speak to us. and the veneration of St. Rictrudis, But we too for the memory of posterity have deemed it worthy to commit them to writing, knowing that their testimony is true. And although the things we are about to say, are far inferior to the miracles of B. Martin or of any Apostle; yet in our times worthy of admiration, they cannot be held for the least. For so far has the rarity of sanctity prevailed over us, that, iniquity abounding, scarcely can be found, I will not say a Saint, but one who can save himself.

[8] As therefore we received from the aforesaid Brothers, three brothers dwelt in the territory of Lille. There is moreover there a certain village of B. Rictrudis, which is called Lorgies, having a monk deputed to its custody. About to burn the barn of St. Rictrudis, By whom when those brothers complained frequently that they were disinherited of a certain portion of land; they did not, as they wished, sometime receive an answer. Whence when by prayers and assiduous reclamation they profited nothing, they agreed among themselves to burn the grange of the aforesaid Matron. For they reckoned they would receive a great consolation of their grief, if in one hour by fire should perish, whence the monk and his family ought to be sustained the whole year. Having found therefore the opportunity of time, appointing the night for perpetrating the nefarious work, in the determined place they rested a little more than midnight. And when the hour was at hand, in which by sweet sleep men are wont to be more deeply oppressed; the two who were younger awakened, began to rouse the elder brother to set out.

And he, as in age, so in counsel and iniquity went before them. Who as if awakened from a heavy sleep, complained that he had lost the light of his eyes. he is struck with blindness: But they by no means believing, urged that he should hasten the work: because, a little delay intervening, the fitting hour would pass. On the contrary, he whom the Lord had seized, repenting of what was begun, confessed his error, that for the rash daring, he had deservedly incurred the darkness of blindness. Let me, he said, lament my grief, dearest brothers, who henceforth must needs be led wheresoever by the hand of another. Consult for yourselves, and from the beginning, which opposes your salvation, while it is allowed, come to your senses: otherwise I fear you are to be divinely punished with me by a like vengeance. But because of the mercy of the Lord and the Saints one must never despair, to His church, to which I had come about to bring damages, who being led to the altar of St. Rictrudis, lead me your brother; where passing the night with a contrite heart, I may wash away my guilt, and humbly await aid with poured-out tears. For now in sleep my blindness seemed to me to be wiped away, if at Lorgies the right horn of the altar of B. Rictrudis being grasped, I should sleep there a little.

[9] Then they, beholding what evil had happened, as they had been asked lead him to the village; the rest, who had come to their aid, being turned to flight; and to the monk they set forth the vision, and the order of the whole matter, not without a groan. But because they knew their enemies dwelt in a neighboring place, dreading to tarry there longer, their brother being left in the hand of the monk, they swiftly depart. Whom the monk taking up brings to the church, and as in sleep he had been admonished, he grasps the horn of the altar: where satisfying his grief, he is left alone. After tears and prayers, as is the custom of those mourning, he began to sleep. To whom a woman so sublime and beautiful seemed to stand by, that, awaking, he asserted any on earth, however comely of face, by no means to be compared to her. And she clothed in snowy garments, for his rash thought first as it were rather harshly having spoken to him, did not delay to show the cause of her coming by the effect of the work. For she drew her sleeve across his eyes, and straightway the blindness was wiped away. Which when awaking he had truly recognized, rejoicing and exulting he preached the ineffable mercy of God and B. Rictrudis. And the monk being summoned and all who were present wondering, he voluntarily promised that he would henceforth bring evils to no church. Not ungrateful too of the benefit received, living in the body he showed himself a devout cultivator of the Lord and B. Rictrudis. In sign too of devotion, his head being shorn, he constituted himself a servant of B. Rictrudis by two pennies, to be paid yearly, and so glad returned to his own. Of this miracle a witness is Simon, formerly Chaplain of B. Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux, who still survives, who preaches and testifies that he was present at this matter, and saw the hairs shorn.

[10] A certain brother too dwelling in the monastery labored so grievously with the disease of the stone, hindered from Mass and the office by the pain of the stone, that for emitting urine freely, or for containing it within himself even a single hour of the day, all faculty was denied him. Praying and fasting many days he had served the Lord, whom now from celebrating the divine mysteries the temptation of the passion coming on prohibited. For intent on psalms and hymns, from the body as much as he could, he was led to the spirit. And because with the Brothers at the Canonical hours he could not run together, psalming them to himself, he alone repaid to the Lord the due service. For he was a Priest, and if for infirmity even a single hour they ceased from praises, he feared to offend the Lord. Meanwhile there came a day, which every year in honor of B. Rictrudis is solemnly recalled by the Brothers. The nocturnal vigils therefore being passed in hymns and spiritual canticles, on the feast of St. Rictrudis, morning being come the Priests about to celebrate the solemnities of Masses; adorned the altars with things dedicated to this cult: and that they might more worthily approach they fortified themselves, one with tears, another with devout prayers, according to the divisions of graces. But the said Brother with the other infirm had gone forward to the church, and sitting in a certain corner, attentively beheld what was being done by all. Then his spirit was made anxious, and worn by a vehement grief, that in so great a solemnity, like the other Priests, he did not go forward to the altar. And rising he went into the crypt of the monastery: where the Bodies of B. Rictrudis, and of the other Saints, decently reposed, render the place more gracious to those praying.

[11] There frequently with bent knees, before the Relics themselves prostrate with his whole body he lay long, before the Relics he prays: and suffused with tears, prayed thus: God, to whom the human will speaks, may the scourge by which my body is worn down profit me unto salvation, and may I have Thy Saints as intercessors, whose bodies resting here with the whole affection of mind I have long since venerated: and woe to wretched me! whom so grave and long an infirmity does not permit to minister to the Lord. Would that it were allowed me, at least on this solemn day, with my hands, though unworthy, to handle the Lord's Body, and to communicate in the uncontaminated and life-giving mysteries! But lest the effect should follow this desire, the kind of my sickness is recognized to impede. For when for prayer I can scarcely stand so long, until in the church I complete by reciting the seven Penitential Psalms, how, entering to the altar of God, shall I suffice to fulfill the ministry of the Priest? And what will become of me, if I fall into peril and straits, that, the disease growing heavier, what I shall have begun, I cannot consummate? But although I am worn out by old age and the infirmity of body, yet I know that in a contrite and humbled heart mercy will not be lacking. Let Him therefore aid my impossibility, who by word teaching, by work showed that not the sound, but the ill-affected have need of a physician. Presuming nothing of my own merits I run back to thy patronage, B. Rictrudis: do thou obtain for me from the Lord the consummation of this ministry without offense.

[12] Which said, tears and confession being premised, he approached the altar, and whatever was necessary to this office being prepared, fortified too with the sign of the Cross, for whom thereupon they celebrate the Mass: he humbly began to do the things which were the Priest's: for of consummating the ministry he had great confidence in the Lord, and no small hope in the patronages of His Saints. But when he had come to the place where, that which had been bread, into the true Body of the Lord by the virtue of the word was transferred; that being elevated with the highest reverence a little from the altar, his flesh in the part of the groin, as if cut by a razor, yet without pain was divided; and the stone, which was pressing, gently slipped within his drawers. Perceiving which, he knew not what this was: but having his whole desire toward the Lord, under the elevation the stone fell out. what he had begun, with fear the devout cultivator fulfilled. In whose flesh neither wound nor any scar seemed to have remained, because it was not the work of man, but Divine virtue worked the whole. O great miracle, and for its magnitude worthy of memory! But the ministries being fulfilled, that Brother greatly wondered, that he felt no pain: and going out of the church, found the stone in his drawers. Then exulting beyond what can be said, he narrated the miracle to the Brothers. Who rendering thanks in common to the Lord, extolled with praises B. Rictrudis, by whose merits and intercessions this had been done, and recalled her feast day every year more devoutly.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Hamage once built, then desolated and restored. One punished with death for threats made. Those straying from the way, and fallen from a height saved.

[13] Not far from the Marchiennes church is a place, called Hamage, Of Hamage after B. Gertrude and there a church which by St. Amand, in honor of B. Peter the Apostle was constructed, and by the same Prelate solemnly dedicated. There nuns served the Lord many years, over whom at that time presided B. Gertrude, and St. Eusebia, great-grandmother of St. Eusebia the Virgin. She by that one well informed of all things of monastic discipline, after her death, when she was still twelve years old, ruled the monastery: and in juvenile years, the Lord calling, was made out of the midst: whose departure the religious men, who had assembled for this, commending to the Lord, in a part of the same monastery decently buried her body. To her a certain nun, Gertrude by name, another Gertrude presides; in morals and age aged, succeeded, who in her days wisely administered the dispensation entrusted to her. But that place now pertains to the Marchiennes church, and by itself obtained the name and dignity of an Abbey. This Abbess therefore, seeing the place of the oratory too narrow, of the wealth which she had brought with her into the monastery, and the gifts of faithful friends, under whom the body of St. Eusebia was elevated near the village in honor of B. Mary began to build another church. For grievous to her was the cohabitation of the nuns so narrow, and most of all because she thought to translate the body of the aforesaid Virgin into a more decent place. Wherefore that it be elevated from the earth, and for dedicating the church, after it was finished, she devoutly and humbly demanded the presence of St. Vindician Bishop of Arras to be present. He in those days detained by various occupations, Hatto, the first Abbot of St. Vedast, that in the elevation of the body he might supply his place, received the mandate. And he when he had come, enjoined a three-day fast on the religious men and faithful people who had assembled; that by this observance the will of the Lord on this might be made manifest. The third night therefore at the edge of the marble, with which the body was covered, some watching, to whom the Lord willed to reveal this, as it were a man's hand appeared, which seemed to strive to remove the stone. By which sign divinely shown those who were present rejoiced not moderately, lifting up from the earth straightway that most holy body with due honor. After this some days being passed, for dedicating the church, and placing the body in it, the Abbess again invited the aforesaid Pontiff with prayers. Who coming with his Clergy, November 18, on the 14th of the Kalends of December, according to ecclesiastical custom solemnly executed both. These being performed, having exhorted all of the good of perseverance, he bade farewell to the congregation and departed.

[14] But the Abbess living, neither in the monastery was religion lacking, and afterwards the place collapsing nor the subsidies of the handmaids of God taken away by the violence of anyone, or by the carelessness of those to whom they had been committed diminished. But when she was loosed from the bonds of the flesh, with the detriment of religion,

the things of the monastery being little by little changed for the worse, dissolution forer an the future desolation. Yet the nuns, who presided over the Marchiennes church, also presided over that place after her death for a long time, and from them the care passed over to the monks, who succeeding one another in turn, up to Fulchard the Abbot what they had destroyed, these strove to restore. But in the times of that Abbot, of whom enough has been said above, what he did, of what sort he was, when his monks had consumed with him the substance of their church, neither did they spare that place: which had come into so great contempt among their mad minds, that they delegated the custody of the monastery to a certain rustic and his wife. Marchiennes is carried over. The Abbot too granted to a certain knight his kinsman, weak and leprous, the whole, whatever there for his sustenance he could receive. But when the body of the said Virgin was brought to Marchiennes, and by what persons, whether before this destruction or at the time of it, we have nothing certain. But since of the matter it is established, if the time is unknown we make little of it; not wishing to affirm, what we have not heard from our elders, nor has antiquity left written to us.

[15] But up to the time of Amand the Abbot there was no one who reconsidered to remove the pack of this poverty. But he not ignorant of the labor destined for him, A monk bidden to restore that place, while at Marchiennes he intended to rebuild, on account of the destruction of the Hamage church, because the place was holy, his mind began to be afflicted: and a certain Brother being called to him, who was religious and according to the world wise; with him lamenting the desolation of the place. Brother, he said, it is necessary through thy industry to rebuild something. Go to the place of poor obedience, a diligent and glad executor, because for thy good will I am certain, that the grace of the Lord will not be lacking to thee. At this word the Brother stupefied, A great labor, he said, but no utility will follow. For the place has now for many times past been neglected, and the means, as he excused himself, whence the things that are destroyed can be rebuilt, I have not. And what shall I do? Command not a matter, in which thy son should consume effort vainly: cease to wish this command to be fulfilled, and for taking up whatever other things thou shalt enjoin I am prepared. Not so, he said, son, thy will ought not to go before ours, nor is it expedient for thee. If thou judge otherwise better to be done than thou hast heard, receive not the command from me, but from the Lord. The one thus humbly excusing, what the other enjoined; the Brothers the next night, after they had rested a little in their little beds, according to custom rose to confess to the Lord.

[16] These psalming in choir, that Brother, whose mind wavered about taking up the command, as if to decide what more certain thing he should do, coming before the altar of B. Mary, upon a stone reclined his head, propped on his elbow. Who while he was troubled by his thoughts, as is the custom of those mourning, he is animated by St. Eusebia, slept a little. And behold a certain Virgin of inestimable comeliness, as it seemed to him, standing before him, blandly and gently, lest he should be troubled, admonished. And, Why, she said, dost thou refuse to take up the obedience, which is enjoined on thee? Despair not, take it up, our aid will not be lacking to thee. This said, the Brother was awakened, and she who spoke with him, disappeared. Then recalling the vision, he did not believe it had been vain, and consolation being received, morning come, he narrated to the Abbot whatever he had seen. And I, he said, most loving Father, will go to the destined place with your blessing, trusting in the Lord, that by your prayers I shall not be destitute of the promised aid. Each therefore rejoiced, but of the two, namely the venerable Mother of God and B. Eusebia, they knew not, which in that apparition had shown her presence. But the Brother coming to the place, found no one, the rustic and his wife, who had been constituted keepers of the monastery, being already driven out by the Abbot. and 20 marks of silver being found But while he beheld nothing except the deserted place and the walls of the monastery, within a certain little chink of the wall he beheld unexpectedly twenty marks of silver. Whence the more exulting he took them; then knowing for certain, that from the Lord God had been the vision which he had seen.

[17] The things therefore which he needed being procured, masons too and woodcutters being hired, he busied himself that first the walls and roof of the monastery should be restored. about to repair the roof; But when the beams to support the roof had been prepared, a certain one in the measure of three feet was found less than the rest in length. Of which matter the workmen with the monk being made sad, knew not what they should do. They are asked to begin again to measure diligently, lest perchance deceived by error, the matter be otherwise than they say. They repeat, what twice had been done, but the just measure of the inequality of the beams answered no otherwise than at first. Then, a beam less than just said the workmen, on account of one beam, our whole work is retarded; and while the days pass, we are at leisure idle, gaining nothing: either let them seek for us, what is necessary for finishing the work; or wheresoever we shall serve another, about to receive the agreed wage for our labor. This heard the monk sad, runs back to the Abbot, and indicating to him the matter, requires counsel and help. But he, Thou seest, he said, son, that I cannot help: go: He who up to now has been present to thee, in consummating things let Him procure aid. Sadder therefore than he had come, he returns to the workmen. Who wishing to depart. To procure another beam, he said, the price is lacking to me; but I pray, that this one's length you yet once more diligently consider. Then they being angry, You mock us, they said, to whom once and twice repeated, but vainly, the doubling does not suffice. Yet conquered at length by the instance of prayers, he rejoices that it was suddenly made longer than the rest: with the highest diligence they repeat the length of the thing, which so often considered, they could not confess themselves to be ignorant of. A wonderful thing! They find that beam, not only made equal to the rest, but by the measure of three feet in length exceeding all the rest. Whence for the evident miracle praising the Lord, they finished the roof of the oratory with joy.

[19] From those days four or five Brothers, for serving the Lord, thenceforth the place serves the infirm Brothers. were deputed there, and that place is for the infirm Brothers of the Marchiennes Convent, for repairing the strength of body, very necessary. Wonder not, reader, that we have wandered farther from our purpose; because since the Hamage church is one with the Marchiennes, that there the restoration might become known, this digression was made. Whatever too is ascribed to B. Rictrudis, while the advance and restitution of the Marchiennes church is preached, can also be referred to her praise and glory, that that place through the carelessness of predecessors, once a den of wild beasts, is now a house of prayer. And we, these things omitted, it remains that we return to those things which we began, as the Lord shall grant, to be narrated.

[20] The venerable Abbot Amand therefore diligently discharged his office, and the things ill dispersed by his predecessors he little by little recalled into the right of his monastery. Whom rooting out depraved customs, Abbot Amand intent on the Marchiennes restoration, certain of the secular sort did not love, since they were compelled to render the things which they had unjustly possessed: the Brothers within were given to religion, and he without sustained grave injuries for them. And while all things are prosperously, but with the greatest difficulty, carried on; the Brothers suggest to him, that certain ministers of the church being removed from their offices, he substitute others in their place. For they knew that each of them presumed to defend his ministry to himself by hereditary right. These being called, Your wage, he said, I am prepared to render to you, forewarning that henceforth, you transfer yourselves to be hired to another Lord: for the offices, over which you preside, I have now decreed that others be preferred, but for your long service to you living mutual love will remain. he reclaims the lands from the tenants, At these things they stupefied: It has come, they said, to us by hereditary succession that we should serve the church; we will by no means suffer ourselves to be disinherited. What from our fathers came to us, reason dictating shall pass to our sons. Never, said the Abbot, if reason protected your part, would I presume to stand opposed: but since I am not ignorant that my predecessors plundered the rights of the church, it could have been, that, making little of greater things, also from those which you now defend they did not care to suspend your fathers. pretending hereditary right: It was love or sufferance, not consent to possess the inheritance of the church. I pray, be not troublesome to my humility, which is distracted by various affairs, because I cannot assent to you, unless abstaining from another's. They contradict, and with hardened brow defend their part.

[21] But one of them taking more grievously what he had heard than the rest, answered more obstinately, and did not delay to refer the complaint to his kinsmen, for that he had more of them in the world. Then they rising up against the Abbot, harshly met him, and most of all a certain knight Ingebrand, for one of whom a certain knight whose surname was Pagan, resisted him to the face, and threatened the absent. Whence when on a certain day he stood before the Abbot, By what, he said, temerity do you presume to disinherit me and my nephews? To whom the meek man meekly answering, Never, he said, have I desired another's right to be reduced into the power of my monastery: but if anything I have understood to be unreasonably withdrawn from the monastery, not to your injury nor anyone's, as much as was in me, I have cared to restore to its proper place. But if to your nephew, who provoked you to these quarrels, what he perilously desires, I should grant; yet the whole would be held void, because the common Chapter of the monastery would not grant it. Would the Chapter, he said, deny me, what I should assert to be mine? I within the next thirty days, threatening to come into the Chapter with 30 swords, with as many swords in their Chapter as master and lord will sit, wishing more certainly to discuss, who dare resist my petitions. To these things the Abbot, The Lord, he said, who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, within the named days, can confer peace on us, and beat down the pride of adversaries.

[22] These blasphemies he having vomited against the Lord and His servants, with great indignation withdrew, in a short time to be tortured with penalties for the temerity of his unbridled tongue. For the Count of Flanders had foretold that against the Count of Hainaut, on a named place and day, with a strong hand and arms he would come. To which place that Pagan, strenuous in arms, that he might bring back some gain, ran together, by his friends with lamentation and the greatest grief straightway to be carried back to Marchiennes. For it happened that on that day, by I know not what chance, with his own lance he transfixed himself, and between the hands of his own, rendered the last spirit of life. He therefore who had not feared to say, In the Chapter with thirty swords, he is transfixed by his own lance about to avenge my injury, I will preside; within the determined time with the tears of thirty of his kinsmen, by an unexpected death withdrawn, was carried back to Marchiennes: who for the dead humbly demanding pardon, promised that to B. Rictrudis's church they would

henceforth bring nothing of evil. But the Abbot, as a merciful man, easily acquiesced to their petition: and he is buried at Marchiennes. and the Eucharist being offered to the Lord for his soul, his body with tears and devout prayers he buried. For he had read that B. Ambrose did something similar, who patiently sustaining the blasphemies of a certain rash virgin, on the next day, when he heard her freed from the flesh, accompanied her corpse mercifully even to the place of burial. By whose example, when the aforesaid Abbot for the contumely received had repaid a service; many before infesting the church, for the vengeance which they had seen, studied rather to serve than to be malign.

[23] Of the benefits too of blessed Rictrudis a certain boy had been nourished: who being delivered to letters, was sufficiently taught the psalms, chant, and the rest which pertain to the divine cult. a young Marchiennes monk, But when he attained the years of puberty, with what malady this age is wont to labor, his mind was distracted by various affections. Finally esteeming nothing of more value, than the windy science of secular literature, it entered his mind, that he ought to transfer himself to the doctors of this science. He set out therefore into France, and thence to Maastricht to Master Lambert, that he might be more fully informed by him of all things. For he had heard, that this man, returning from studies finished at Maastricht, best learned in the seven arts which they call liberal, had not a few disciples, and for his science, among the Clerics was of great authority and reverence: with whom for several years given to scholarly exercises, from the abundance of his science he daily drew something for himself. But the first instruction, which from a boy he had received, by neglect and time began to grow obsolete, and after study at certain hours, he gave himself to leisure and bodily pleasure with his equals. When a long time had flowed by under this vanity of negligence, he thought to return to his country. Which that he might bring to effect, while from day to day he the more burned, he experienced as true what he had read:

I know not by what sweetness the native soil draws all men, he strays from the journey. And does not suffer them to be unmindful of itself.

[24] Taking therefore with him one Clerk, he took up the journey. But not yet having gone out of that land, on a certain day he strayed from the right way: and proceeding a little, no one recalling, no one showing the way, he fell into a dark valley, which was full of shrubs and the violence of much marsh. and fasting for three days, The terrible place exhibited monstrous lurking-places only to birds or wild beasts. But when the day declined toward evening, they feared more, lest either torn by beasts they should be eaten, or in the vast solitude perish by hunger. For neither on that day had they taken any food, nor then near at hand: and until the third day both fasting, in fear of a pitiable death they endured. Who placed under the open sky, since it was still winter, were pressed by the waters below and the snows above; yet with the voice with which they could, but horror frequently interrupting it, they implored the aid of the Lord. On the third day when they almost failed, that wretch recalled B. Rictrudis, he invokes St. Rictrudis: in whose monastery so delicately he had been nourished: and the name and aid of her being invoked, he humbly confessed that he had offended against her. Without delay. He sees before him a man, whom before he had not seen; doubtless, by the merits and intercessions of the Matron, whom he had invoked, divinely sent. by whom a guide being sent he escapes: He of beautiful face and comely of aspect, the thick growth of the trees with the iron, which he bore in his hand, began to root out; and in the pathless place those two following to open the very way. He drew them therefore half-dead out of the horrible valley, and even to the house of a certain Priest, a faithful companion and guide of the journey, did not desert. Whom the Priest beholding in great failing, the issue of the pitiable matter being known, kindled for them a copious fire; and they being refreshed most abundantly with his foods, as long as they wished, wishing to depart, when he could not long retain them, he restored them to the way. He therefore with his little Clerk coming to Marchiennes, related the deed done to the Brothers, and the little remnant of his life in the service of the Lord and B. Rictrudis a devout cultivator spent.

[25] At the same time too, while the dormitory of the Brothers was again anew restored, the wall being consummated, a workman fallen from on high in peril of being crushed, the workmen fitted each beam in its place to support the ridge. Of which one when it was being drawn above, its summit now resting on the wall above, those who below supported it, were weighed down by the too great weight. Which a certain workman, who was over the others, beholding from a higher and remote place, to bring help to those drawing that beam to themselves along the level of the wall he hastened with a very swift course. But when he had come to the place, to which he intended, where he wished, because by too great impetus he was borne, he could not stop. Having need therefore to undergo one of two dangers, namely either by a perilous leap to be carried to the bottom, or headlong drawn together to fall; from the summit of the wall, whose height was raised to the measure of twenty-five feet, he leapt to the ground: and he who had run, about to bring aid to the rest, that he might escape the peril of death set in a strait, the same being invoked he remains unhurt. could not consult for himself: for impetus ill ministers all things. But before he touched the ground, he invoked the suffrage of B. Rictrudis. Then the Abbot and the rest who were present, believing him dead or not long to live, ran troubled to him: to those inquiring how he did, he answered without delay: I feared indeed, but of hurt or pain I feel nothing, saved by the help of her, whose name falling from on high I invoked. The same hour, ascending again whence he had fallen, he worked with the others: and those who saw, giving thanks to the Lord and B. Rictrudis, wondered. The Abbot too commanded so evident a miracle to be written, that what with his eyes he had seen, by writing he might announce to posterity. One too of the Brothers, in the same dormitory not yet consummated being with others, on a certain night fell into the Chapter, which was full of stones: who similarly by the name and help of B. Rictrudis appeared unhurt.

CHAPTER III.

Various malevolent persons divinely punished. Candles kindled of their own accord.

[26] Not yet to the aforesaid Abbot Amand, in the leisure of contemplating and the assiduity of praying, was it permitted to tarry according to custom; while because secular violence infested the church, he was frequently compelled to go out to complain. The neighbors did not cease to plunder the patrimony of Christ, each taking thence what he could; A powerful man for the detained goods of the monastery and the Abbot could not sustain their malice. Yet a certain one the more opposed himself, in that he was higher than the rest in family and power, dwelling in a neighboring place, the hereditary successor of paternal iniquity. For whose violence, because it was continual, if the monks were saddened, he cared not; but when he had brought this or that damage, he hastened to bring another: whence with all his household he was struck with a horrible anathema. But from day to day made more insolent, with a hardened heart he scorned to come to his senses. Which when the Abbot attended to, provoked to B. Charles the Good, not enduring longer to bear it, he set out to Charles Count of Flanders, that by his authority the pride of the powerful enemy might be beaten down. Who beholding him coming, because he knew him a religious man, and worthy of great reverence in the Lord; descending from the upper house, hastened humbly to meet him. Whom saluted he embraced as a dearest father, first inquiring the cause of his coming and weariness: for he greatly had compassion on his old age, seeing that to go in and out for old age and debility he could no longer easily. To whom the Abbot, Our church, he said, is situated in the midst of a perverse nation: and sustaining various injuries from its neighbors, scarcely is permitted to have any day or night exempt from pitiable oppressions. At present too wrapped about your knees, it suppliantly implores the tyranny of a certain powerful man and of great family to be beaten down by you: who wholly given to a reprobate sense, subject to excommunication, holds it for nothing.

[27] But the Count so loving justice, that he gladly opposed himself as a wall to those wishing to be malign, having blandly and gently consoled the Abbot, admonished him to return to his house glad with the hope of future peace. For he knew it to be the right of equity, that while the oppressed cried out, the oppressor should feel it; and the impious should not be proud, while the poor was burned. The Abbot therefore the man being named whom he sustained so troublesome, bade farewell to the Count and returned. After some days that Knight, of whom there is treatment, is sharply reproved by him, having something to say to the Count, secure entered to him, because he knew not that the outcry concerning himself had been referred to the court. And saluting him, at first he received no answer as from one indignant, but considering himself beyond custom regarded with grim eyes, that he had presented himself to his sight, he tardily grieved. To whom the Count, What is it, he said, that I hear of thee? With what confidence dost thou presume to disquiet the Marchiennes Church, which by the grace of the Lord I have taken up to be maintained; and the Abbot, whom not moderately I love, now an old man? Go hence into thy house, and rest henceforth in all subjection, because if henceforth such a thing be found in thee, of the injury of God and of ours I will appear a strict avenger: for it was temerity and presumption, that after so grave an excess thou didst not dread to come in to us. Then he, few or nothing for fear answering, confused withdrew: and coming home, showed himself sad to his household, as he was. The wife wonders, and inquires the cause of the grief. To whom he, Never, he said, to a man of our family, for any excess, has the Count spoken so harshly as to me, nor has anyone received before his Barons a heavier threat. Henceforth the Church, for which I have borne such revilings, I shall not be able to love, nor the man, who without my knowing in vengeance of us opposed himself to me, not to hate. Thus the contumely which he had received he sustained with trouble, but not daring to strike back, he observed an opportune time in which to repay the requital.

[28] the Count being afterwards slain After this a short time being run through, of which we spoke, the Count of pious memory his Barons, nay rather most evil traitors, slew their Lord, and all Flanders in his death was troubled: for justice had lost its defender. And then the hatred, which against his neighbor each bore shut in his breast, did not lie hid, the aforesaid knight too, mindful of the accusation which he had received, when he heard the Patron of the Church dead, straightway a certain mill of his being burned with fire, threatened that he would level the workshops of the Abbey with the earth. But the Abbot and the monks, not despairing of the Lord's mercy, again excommunicated for the burned mill, incessantly besought B. Rictrudis, that by her intercession she would restore peace to her Church. By the Bishops too and the convent of the Brothers publicly in the churches the excommunication was frequently repeated, and the Priest holding the Lord's Body in his hands, concerning the adversary the daily outcry did not cease to ascend to the ears of the Lord. But on a certain day while that was devoutly being done by the Brothers, he, whose heart the Lord had hardened,

passing through the village of Marchiennes, heard the sound of the bells and the outcry of the Brothers. To him from those who accompanied him inquiring what that outcry meant for him; Now, they said, when the Priest elevates the Lord's Body from the altar, the Convent of the Brothers lies prostrate on the ground, and demanding peace from the Lord binds thee horribly with the bond of anathema: and this is the outcry to be feared, which thou hast heard. At these things he vomited so detestable a word of contumely against the monks, that human ears deservedly dread to hear it. Wholly therefore given over to satan, making light of what he had said or what he had heard, with exultation he withdrew. But by Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, for the monks answer was made to him. For on the morrow near his house, he is miserably slain. and among his kinsmen, and by those who hated him, contemptibly enough he was slain: nor was there of his kindred one who avenged the blood of his neighbor. Which seeing, those who knew him excommunicated by his sins requiring it, lest by a like sentence they should be punished, feared the more to bring calumny upon B. Rictrudis's monastery. His wife too and sons, led by penitence, by the devout instance of prayers obtained pardon, promising by faith and oath that they would henceforth bring nothing of evil.

[29] The Castellan of Lille had directed one of his Squires, to guard his crops, in the territory of ^b Bassée at the time of harvests, knowing that he would sustain damage from several, if the keeper were seen to be lacking. He while he faithfully executed his Lord's commands, For sheaves taken from the cultivation of B. Rictrudis, it happened one of the days that he stole four or a little more sheaves from the cultivation of B. Rictrudis: and a certain rustic being called, he commanded his cart to be loaded with the sheaves, which he had received in custody, and so to be led home, the stolen ones too he did not fear to place on top. Which done, mounting again upon his nag, he went on to go, and bade the rustic immediately to follow his steps. Who the animals yoked to the cart first with rods; the beasts with the cart remain immovable then, when he saw they did not move, with cudgels beat: but they, as if they had stuck to the ground, remained immovable. But the Squire at the outcry of the rustic, with great indignation beating his animals, looking back; whom he thought to come after him, he beheld standing in the same place: and desiring to know what was a hindrance, that he did not follow, he returned to him. Then both, the one on this side, the other on that, beat the sides of the beasts with cudgels, raising an outcry with blows, that by a doubled goad they might be roused to set out. But while by beating they profit nothing, they are the more angry, and to the staves once and again recurring, strength for raging further does not suffice. And while they stood astonished, that Squire returning to himself, Unload, he said, thy cart of its sheaves, which from the land of B. Rictrudis I have furtively taken, lest by the just judgment of God this evil be the occasion of the delay, which we sustain. He obeys, and in the same moment in which the beasts were lightened of that unbearable weight, of their own accord, as if they had sustained no torment, they take up the journey: and the things which by too many blows had been affected, until these being set down they are unloaded. now the cart unloaded of the sheaves draw so briskly after them, that they seemed to draw an empty one or even nothing; but for the rustic, if he would overtake them, more than usual must he hasten. At this issue of the matter therefore the rustic is stupefied, the Squire wonders, and coming to the village they cannot keep silent the evident miracle. He who had committed the theft, manifests to his Lord what had happened: by whom it is suggested to him, that he must hasten to the monk of Haines, and do penance before him. But he gladly obeys, choosing rather before men to be confounded of his error, than on the day of the strict examination a sentence be given against him, which it would be necessary to bear. And since penitent of the deed he humbly confessed he had erred, from the monk he easily obtained pardon. All therefore to whom the deed done came, preached that it was right not to offend B. Rictrudis. He who was wise, took heed for himself solicitously, lest he should offend; but he who presumed to injure her monastery, at length experienced her avenging hand.

[30] Charles therefore the reverend Count of Flanders, as has been said, being slain by his own; those who were of the seed of Canaan, Peace being taken away with the death of B. Charles, the wicked sons, rejoiced: for while he lived the more powerful did not exact forced services from their subjects, but content with their own revenues, that without offense before their Lord they might appear, they specially intended peace. The husbandmen, the citizens, with the rest of the people blessed the Lord and the Count, in whose times, whatever powerful man had presumed to injure his neighbor, was punished without mercy. Whence Abbot Amand loving justice and lacking a protector, his death heard, began abundantly to bedew his face with tears, which the greatness of sadness, the indices of the heart, had poured forth. For he had learned to lead a tranquil life: but then through each moment suspended about his safety, what he should do, he knew not. Each therefore being grievously oppressed by the more powerful, when there was none who should rescue, alone there remained as a remedy of grief, that the injured should oppose the shield of patience, and overcome evil with good. For William ^d of Ypres with the rest sighed for plunder and homicides: William of Ypres occupying Sluis, and seeing all things troubled, I will make, he said, chariots, and horsemen, and obtain the County of Flanders. For the illustrious Count without children being withdrawn from this life, has left me his kinsman, to succeed by hereditary right into the dignity of our fathers. And his accomplices being called together, a certain castle, called Sluis ^e, which from the Countess ^f Clementia he had received in dowry, secure he entered. The tower was strong, surrounded by a village, a wood, a fishpond, and marshy waters, whose access by one quite narrow way lay open to those entering. This place, apt enough for repelling the incursions of enemies, William entered. But the King of France [g Louis] hiring archers and other satellites, and William the Norman resisting him, to all who favored his party, threatened the peril of prison or ignominious death. For the Dukes with the Nobles of the land had substituted William ^h the Norman, in the place of the deceased, now Count. The more contumacious this one raged against the poor, desiring to lay waste with iron and fire all things, which he beheld reduced into another's power. Rich too in gold and silver, he spared not expense, that whomsoever he could have with him, he might make obliged and faithful to himself.

[31] Under this pitiable dissension, in which not even the monasteries were spared, the Marchiennes Abbot feared for himself and his guests, lest the church, over which he presided, should sustain damage, the Abbot fearing the villages were to be laid waste, and his guests be led captive. For the villages of the monastery were not far from the castle, which protected those homicides; and therefore among the first they should feel the desolation, which gravely was imminent. The rustics living in mourning and the greatest fear, said that death rather was the end of hardships, than the torment. For as, the winds running on from the opposite side, the wave of the sea knows not which master it should obey; so divers Lords drawing these into subjection, to whom they could more securely flee, they knew not. The prefects, whom for guarding his land the Count had appointed, extorted daily services from these, whose yoke sustaining, they could not escape poverty. Then the Abbot, greatly having compassion on their miseries and outcries, the Relics being brought to Sailly counsel being taken received of the relics of the Saints, which were preserved in the monastery, and them by the hands of the monks, at his village of Sailly he cared to send: for to the enemies plundering, that little verse was deservedly to be fitted,

Whatever the Kings rave, the Achaeans are punished.

The Brothers nonetheless before the Lord with fastings and prayers for peace to be obtained daily afflicted themselves: who for the greatest part for a time according to their desires were heard. he preserves it: For in the same year, in which the Relics of the Saints were brought to Sailly, the adversaries, showing reverence to God and B. Rictrudis, feared to plunder the things which pertained to the church. They themselves too with their offerings frequently turned aside from the way to them, with devout and humble mind about to render their vows.

[32] But the men who dwelt in the aforesaid village, had woven a certain bower of branches and green leaves, before these held there in great veneration, in which beside their church on Lord's and other feast days, those Relics with the highest veneration, they had resolved to place. Yet not in their absence were they carried thither, but when all the sign being heard had assembled, a Cross with a wax candle and thurible going before, they themselves carrying them followed, and exulting in the Lord they spent a glad day, their neighbors to offer, although the monks did not intend to receive offerings, each one reinviting. But on a certain day, when they decreed to do it more devoutly than usual, the candles extinguished by the wind two men according to custom going out of the church with the rest, a force of wind snatched away the light of the wax candles. Which perceiving being saddened, they call one of the youths, who to seek fire could quickly run and return. He is sent, but hastening, while in some houses he finds not fire, he runs to others, and in returning delay is woven. And since to one desiring nothing is hastened enough, those who had sent, the sent one's delay not enduring; while others command that one running should bring back that foolish one delaying, are divinely rekindled. fire divinely sent rekindled the extinguished wax candles in the hands of those bearing them before the bones of the Saints. Seeing this those who were present wondered, and with augment of devotion and joy began to preach God wonderful in His Saints: nor only they, but all who heard this word, the Marchiennes place for the relics of the Saints, which it preserves, thenceforth more venerated.

[33] Blessed Rictrudis, those whom she had borne in the world, as has been said, by the grace of the Lord, withdrew from the world: and all things perfectly being despised, which temporally pass, they were faithfully consummated. But the relics of St. Mauront her son (with the relics of his mother in the Marchiennes monastery, for a long time resting) afterwards I know not whether God permitting or willing, furtively taken, were translated to Douai. After the relics of St. Mauront were brought to Douai Where in the Church of the holy Mother of God, which is now called St. Amatus's, beside the body of that same Pontiff, those who then served God there, in a gilded little vessel, with exultation decently reposed them; those who were present affirming and saying: These two men, by mutual affection, while they lived, loving themselves in the Lord, not even in death suffer their bodies to be separated. Whether they spoke truth concerning the separation, or not, we have nothing certain; those reporting who were before us, that when the things of the monastery once by various, as above said, chances perished, that he might be joined to the once-beloved St. Amatus; the Relics of the said man were furtively carried thither: but of the mutual love, by which through God's grace they had been illustrated, there is no doubt, since of it a notice quite manifest to posterity their works transmitted. For Mauront by Theodoric

King of the Franks, to whose side he adhered, received this man to be guarded, the dignity of the Archbishopric of Sens with all its revenues being taken from him by royal violence: and shutting him up in his monastery, which at Meurivilla he had built, he was wont frequently to visit him: where having tarried a little he was compunct, and in his presence and discourse not moderately edified he departed: finally in his innermost bowels he so embraced him, that his whole patrimony with filial and devout affection he conferred on him. But all these things being omitted, which are elsewhere more fully written; let us return to the matter, which we wish to make known to posterity.

[34] Of the relics therefore of B. Mauront for the greatest part taken to Douai, the Clergy and people conniving it was decreed, that on the 3rd of the Nones of May, his feast to be kept without servile work which is the day of his Deposition, by all dwelling there a memory of him should be solemnly represented every year. But when the year revolved brought back the same solemnity, this was announced by the Priests, who presided over the people, in the churches on the preceding Lord's Day to all: and servile work being publicly interdicted, each on that day, as is now also done, hastened devoutly to the church. But the memory of the feast day sometime recurring, after the ninth hour, which preceded that day, for reverence of that Saint, each was disjoined from the works, which are called servile. But it happened that a certain cobbler, after the interdicted hour sitting at his work, did not show honor to the Saint; a cobbler contumaciously violating it, and moreover scorned to hear the corrections of his neighbors. For those who beheld him working said to him: With what temerity dost thou presume to scorn God in His Saints, not observing the tradition of Mother Church? Dost thou not remember the Lord to have said in His Priests? They who hear you obey me; and, despising you, they despise me; and, Do what they say? This annual day is delivered to us festal according to custom: and thou, serving avarice, fearest not to transgress the Lord's precept? To whom he; The Priests, he said, and blaspheming the Saint and his mother impose on us whatever they will. But who is Mauront, and who Rictrudis his mother? Mortals indeed, nourished among riches, but in nature like me; and after the course of this life, like the rest were gathered to their fathers. I do not worship them, nor revere them: because both the virtue of aiding and the faculty of harming was taken from them in death.

[35] This said, his hand being a little raised to work, the little knife which he held, through his other hand, he hurts his own hand and becomes most poor as if by the cobbler's art about to cut something, unexpectedly he drew. But so grave a wound was inflicted, that with that same hand he wrought nothing thenceforth, nor could he ever by physicians be perfectly restored to health. Whence given to idleness, he who had been rich, in process of days was reduced to poverty: and at last oppressed by another's debt, secretly from the village, that he might deceive his creditors, poor he fled away. Which the neighbors attending to, recalled the blasphemy, which against the Saints of God they had heard made, for which they asserted the man so grievously punished. Of which contemner the casting-down, both to those to come and to those present in the same castle, announced that the feast days of the Saints were to be recalled yearly more devoutly.

[36] As the praise and glory of the mother redounds upon the daughter, so whoever shall have offended the daughter, doubtless exasperates the mother herself. Two afflicting the subjects of St. Eusebia, Asconium therefore, the village of B. Eusebia, serving two Advocates, sustained rather of old the violence of two tyrants. For they frequently exacted a collection of money from the guests of the Church, and he who would not give, affected with many contumelies was thrust back into prison. But when the monk dwelling in the village, attended so pitiably to the fortunes of the poor being plundered; kindled with the zeal of God, he grieved no otherwise than those who suffered. Whence meeting those Knights, he found them alien even from a good answer. To the aforesaid Abbot he manifests the matter; and he commands the tyrants to be present on a named day. They being called come: but when their most evil exaction no reason protected, the Abbot pressed them with prayers, that out of regard of God they should not afflict the guests of the Church henceforth. But they enduring in their obstinacy, We have received, they said, nothing from them, beyond the custom of our fathers: what they did, we too will likewise do: to be deprived of hereditary right is not counsel. To whom the Abbot, It is not of your will, he said, that now for God's sake the affliction of the poor should cease: I trust in God, that when He shall will it, even you being unwilling it shall cease. They had been called, if perchance they would hear, and rest; but after the admonition of the man of God, more hardened, to their own with great indignation they returned. Then adding to the yoke, which their predecessors had imposed on the subjects, without mercy they treated them: and whence the one sustaining wept, thence the exactor of services gloried. But the Abbot bearing neither the tears of the afflicted, nor revering His Body brought, nor the insolence of the tyrants, the Body of the aforesaid Virgin being taken up directs it to Asconium, where in the middle of the church, that by those entering it might more easily be seen, upon thorns it was let down to the ground; the monks asserting, that they would never lift it from the thorns, if he did not first restore peace to their guests. So therefore for some days it lay, the Lord awaiting the penitence of the persecutors; but they cared not to attend to what was being done.

[37] But the time of harvest coming on, at Gaugiacum a village of St. Rictrudis, that something happened by truthful relation we have known, whose recollection is pleasant enough. through a crow about which the Saint had revealed, One of the servants of the monk, who had gone to the reapers, returned home, for weariness slept a little. And behold a certain woman, comely of face, seemed to stand before him. Addressing whom, Behold, she said, when thou shalt have been awakened, a certain crow flying hither, in this house and in this courtyard like a domestic bird will rest: it is my messenger; preach to all on my behalf, that no one presume to drive it away, no one to be troublesome to it. And this sign that I have sent it, and by which it is to be discerned from the birds of other kinds, weak and as if infirm it will limp on one foot. At this word that woman disappeared; the servant too awakened, recalled the dream which he had seen. To him narrating it to the bystanders, there was no one who would believe, no one who would care to hear, each saying, that in a foolish man a ridiculous vision is found. Who struck by the contumely of this common proverb, went forth: and looking about he sees through the air a crow by a direct flight settled at the destined place, and walking through the courtyard: which because it limped on one foot, manifestly satisfied the despised vision; and the servant silently considering the matter, rejoiced. Those therefore being called together, who were within, he accused them of incredulity, and all now beholding what they had heard would be, knew not what this portended. But to whatever place that bird flew through the day, at night as if to its own nest thither it returned; which, the monk defending it, no one ever presumed to hurt. Meanwhile fame announcing through the whole province, of it there was much discourse among the people. And some, because of the authority of her who sent it, revered it; others laughed, beholding it limping.

[38] But some time being run through, when still the body of the aforesaid Virgin lay with thorns set under it on the ground, and the persecution brought on her guests did not cease; this crow on a certain day to the body, as if about to avenge the injuries, flew over. Where when the aforesaid Knights, nay rather tyrants, perceived it tarrying; terrified at it flying to her body, terrified they said to one another; That the Blessed one, that her anger may rage upon us, has directed her crow hither. While it is allowed, let humble penitence prevent the imminent scourge: for to receive correction or to be tortured is necessary. At the coming therefore of the crow wholesome counsel being taken, they run back to Marchiennes; and prostrate at the Abbot's knees, suppliantly implore pardon of their error, and for the rest promise amendment. To them showing a contrite and humbled heart, according to their desires answer was made. they are amended. Then suppliantly bending their shoulders to the burden of the holy body, they lifted it from the thorns before a multitude of the people; and with immense joy restoring it to its place, the crow too, after the satisfaction flying away, nowhere appeared further. If it come into thy mind, reader, how the Lord terrified the Egyptians in the irruption of flies, thou wilt not wonder: nor will it seem ridiculous, that the violence of these was condemned through this bird. In both an equal miracle: except that the Egyptians, the plague being removed, lied to the Lord; but these made more cautious, beyond what the law of justice required, from the guests of the Church received nothing more.

[39] This same Saint has a village, in the territory of Arras, called Baireium; and the surrounding lands, of the Saint's own allod, ample enough. Over this village a monk presides (whomsoever the Abbot shall have chosen) wisely providing in the dwellings and the cultivation of fields what the time requires. Not far is a place, which is called the Valley-of-the-nuns, because anciently it was theirs: and this of the demesne of the Marchiennes Church, at opportune times with much increase, was wont to render fruits to its cultivator. But sometime it happened, that the time of harvest returning, before the barley was reaped, a certain knight commanded his horses, that they might feed on the grass, which little by little was advancing into corn, Horses sent into the crop of the monastery, to be led to that place. To whose commands the servants, ever prompt to do ill, did not delay to obey: nor was there lacking, who at the same hour announced the matter to the monk. He is present, meets them, and accuses them of injustice, that to lay waste they had not feared to enter another's crop. Admonishing he entreats, that they remove their horses thence. But they scorn to turn their ears to the word of him entreating: but with great derision, the monk entreating in vain, Lord, they said, monk, return into thy house, when our horses shall have been satisfied we too will return to our own. It behooves that to be accomplished which is enjoined on us, because servants not obeying their lord are to be subjected to the scourge.

[40] Then he, because he bore grievously the damage so presumptuously brought in his presence, hastening to their lord, complained to him of his servants. Humbly too he asked that he should strictly command them, lest again they should presume to do the same. At length from that Knight, not that he would not decree his future transgression, but because so manifest was the injury, and their Lord continuing the injury he extorted this answer well enough known to all: Be not saddened: I, he said, will correct all things. Which he lightly promised, he did not fear perilously to break. For after a few days he sent back his horses, eight in number, to the place to feed, the grass now coming forth into the ear. The monk runs back to him, and now says the offense is doubled, because both he held the pact void, and the horses into the crop of B. Rictrudis, as into his own pastures he sent back, and says: A most evil thing it is, which thou doest: the Brothers who serve God

at Marchiennes, were to be sustained the next year of that produce. It has profited no one to diminish the things of the Marchiennes church: take heed, lest when thou canst not amend it, then too late thou begin to repent.

[41] The Knight the wholesome admonition heard, bursts into contumelies and threats; Lo, he said, a grave damage: and replying with contumelies, if the grass be cropped in our field, an accelerated cutting, while it is still in the blade, gives to the future harvest the augment of a dense crop. But if the execution of my command were a hindrance to your produce, would not after the harvests your barns preserve anything the less? Have you not ample and several cultivations, so that the lesser granges being destroyed it is frequently necessary to rebuild greater ones? For you monks acquire all lands to be possessed by your monasteries, and not only in heaven, but in this region of ours strive to lay up treasure for yourselves. But the monk knowing that with such persons contradiction is not to be mixed, as if unwilling departed from the place, and the Lord for him repaid to the adversary the requital, which he had been unwilling to. For the horses being satisfied, and shut up in the stable at home, first two or three were touched by contagion, and of the rest too no one escaped that plague. all perish by plague. But before the eighth day succeeded the day on which the crop of B. Rictrudis had been fed upon, all the horses alike were dead, and the eight hides of them brought to market to be sold. Then their Lord tardily repented that his violence could effect anything against another's right: and the rest, knowing why this had befallen him, lest by a like sentence they should be punished, studied to avoid a like harm.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

A monk amended. The translation of St. Rictrudis into a new shrine, aid promised to her devout ones. The controversy about a new Abbot allayed.

[42] Whatever damages therefore, brought in exterior things, served the utility of the Marchiennes Church: because the divine vengeance passing upon one offending somewhere, repressed the violence of many, lest they should presume to injure. But when the enemy of the human race attended that his attempts were incessantly beaten down, with another kind of harming he attacked the Brothers, who were within. The Sacristan of the monastery thinking of flight He sees them daily contending in the heavenly contest; but one of all he chooses, to disturb all. He sets before him the spaces of a longer life, the tedium of cenobial discipline, the various delights of secular things: that he had begun less advisedly what he could not sustain unto the end. To whose suggestions the wretch acquiescing, premeditates to undertake flight: and he having his little bed in the temple, had received from the Abbot the treasure of the church to be guarded. To whom since the ruin of himself alone did not suffice, of a certain lesser Brother, in whom he had confidence, by signs rather than by voice he began to turn aside into the loathing of the purpose he had taken. For fearing to be accused, he did not dare at first to name flight to him, until by some conjectures he should perceive the secret of his will. and a younger monk being enticed to the fellowship of the crime Whose mind when he understands wavering, and loathing the cloistered life, he seeks an opportune time in which to speak more secretly with him. They therefore meeting to converse, after the customary saying, Bless ye, straightway to evil-speaking their tongues are loosed. They set forth to each other their consciences, and mutually exhort one another to flight: but lest in the world it should happen to lack, whence with the world they could rejoice, and in every manner serve the concupiscences of the flesh; that keeper of the temple, nay rather now a thief; Thou knowest, he said, that the keys of the church and all the treasure I have with me. Whatever in gold and silver, and precious ornaments is possessed, we will carry away with us; about to carry off with him all the treasure, even if we are to live a long time, nothing more can be lacking to us. It is very easy to change bitter things into prosperous, from mourning to joy, from intolerable subjection to pass to glory. What is said pleases, and they appoint the day of flight; by mutual faith satisfying one another, that what each had spoken to the other would be secret.

[43] But the next week was at hand the feast day of the dedication of the church, to which, because the solemnity of B. Rictrudis was named, many of divers condition of sex and age yearly flowed together. Until this day should pass curiosity persuaded these two Brothers to tarry in the monastery, on the very feast of St. Rictrudis he is seized with disease, that they might see the celebrated assembly of so great a multitude. But on the Lord's day, which preceded that one, that elder Brother a vein being cut diminished his blood: thence disease occasion being received afflicted him grievously for some days: nay rather, that I confess the truth, B. Rictrudis instructed her thief with a scourge, lest he should accomplish his ill-conceived things. But on the feast day, the disease growing heavier, by the bystanders he was thought to spend his last day: who solicitous for his salvation, hastily begged Dom the Abbot to be called. For he believed death to be at the doors, and a definite judgment, and confession being made recovering that he be drawn to hell, unless led by penitence, he should disclose the sacrilegious intention of his mind to his spiritual Father. The Abbot therefore is present, the sick man humbly confesses his error; and, If, he said, the Lord permitting, I should be restored to health, I would rather choose to die, than henceforth to assent to this sacrilege. Unhappy I have grievously fallen, thinking that I should break the vows, which before God and His Angels my lips distinguished; and the church, which conferred on me many goods, I should leave destitute of its ornaments. Then the Abbot wondering, having consoled the Brother enjoined penance, and the holy Oil being anointed commending him to the Lord, thenceforth he remains weak in the feet. gloried within himself, that he had not blushed to confess his sin. The same hour the sick man compunct in heart began to recover; living however in the body, he was never restored to full health. For to the recollection of his sin and the caution of others, farther from the monastery on foot he could not afterward go: but while going, a staff supporting his limbs, even if his will were sometime distorted, bodily infirmity did not suffer him to wander farther. Who therefore before with a vigorous body, by agility of limbs went before the other Brothers; now weaker than all, taught all silently, who knew him, that against B. Rictrudis a like thing was not to be presumed.

[44] The devotion of the ancients, adorned the coffin of that same Saint with gold and silver and precious stones decently enough: The greater part of the monastery's rights being recovered, but their posterity, which was a long time before us, did not fear to expend the whole exteriorly shining ornament, to consent to carnal concupiscences. But the Abbot understanding the malefactors of the church divinely terrified round about by vengeance, and their violences for the greatest part lulled; since he had very many years of age, rejoiced. Yet how often he recalled that coffin of so abject antiquity, he asserted that not yet had any good thing through his industry been conferred on the monastery. And the Brothers being called together, who were of a sounder counsel, You see, he said, that the merits and intercessions of B. Rictrudis from the oppressions of secular men incessantly protect this church. The Abbot decrees a new shrine to be made: It is unworthy therefore, that her most sacred bones, which in every necessity succor us, a contemptible little vessel longer should serve. Let us make for her a new coffin, whose form may both delight the beholder, and the price respond to and be compared to the form. Of all there was one and the same sentence, that the Abbot's will was to be consigned to effect. The means are prepared, and a new vessel, having no small quantity of gold and silver, is set up. Straightway the loquacious fame went before to the ears of many, that B. Rictrudis was to be translated from the old coffin into another newly made. This matter spread by celebrated discourse could not long lie hid from the Flemings. These are they who extol the memory of this Saint with devout praises, and her help being invoked, how great she is with the Lord, frequently to have experienced they protest.

[45] Hearing therefore what was to be, those who dwelt in the territory of Ypres, into which the sacred body was to be translated the country-folk too round about, rejoiced: and assembling those who among them in family, power and counsel were preeminent, they approach the Abbot, devoutly demand, that at ^a Rinenghe, anciently the village of that same Saint, the body solemnly to be transposed be brought. The tithe, they said, and other revenues, which the church through the carelessness of predecessors lost, now, if it is of your will, it is easy to recall into proper right. The Abbot assented to their devout demand, and the matter with a determined day to the ^b Bishop of Thérouanne is announced. Which when he had heard was to be celebrated in his diocese, he rejoiced, answering that his presence would be present, every excuse being lulled. ^c Alvisus too, the Reverend Bishop of Arras, asked by the Church, nonetheless with his Clergy thither resolved to come. Then two coffins being taken with the most sacred body, it is carried to Rinenghe, certain of the monks set out thither; and the Convent with the affection of devotion outside the monastery, as far as was permitted, with psalms and praises followed their Lady. How great a multitude of people met her on the way, how great and what reverence each showed, it is not of my possibility to unfold even the half. At her presence, as if each one's own mother were returning to her country from a pilgrimage, they rejoiced together; and conducting her passing with joy, by repelling one another they jostled, that they might touch her coffin. So with the highest devotion and gladness of all even to Rinenghe she is brought, the presence of the aforesaid Bishop Milo bodily molestation excusing. ^d On the fourth day therefore of Pentecost, the Clergy and Nobles of the land and an infinite multitude of people standing by, by the sacred hands of the Bishop of Arras, with great fear and reverence; the clod of the most holy body was shut up in a new coffin, in the year 1140 in the year of the Incarnate Word 1140. Then after the same Bishop completed a sermon to the people and the solemnities of Masses, and thence is carried back to Marchiennes. with equal honor, the sacred body being carried back to Marchiennes, they returned to their own.

[46] At the same time a certain foreign monk and without letters, but religious and of a quite austere life, in the kitchen performed the office of Subcellarer; to this ministry, because he conducted himself irreproachably, deputed for several years. Toward the poor, infirm and infants his care was great, and a continual study of obeying in all things the regular institutes. The Subcellarer of the monastery a holy man But on a certain day, as if he presaged the imminent coming of death

the coming of death, of every offense which under the office of the kitchen he had negligently contracted, in the Chapter before the Brothers, that he might merit to receive absolution, he humbly demanded: he begged nonetheless his dismissal, all wondering, foreknowing his death he asks to be released from office for that he seemed sound as yesterday and the day before, and unanimously asking that he should cease from prayers by no means to profit him. But he pretending his impossibility, the more each answered things contrary to his petition, the more he insisted with prayers and devout supplications. He affirmed that in the kitchen he would no longer sit as keeper; and, If, he said, by force you compel me, will I, nill I, my impossibility straightway will have to excuse me. Whose instance of prayers not bearing, he who presided over the Chapter, the Keys committed to the Brother, from his hand, and obtains it: though unwilling, received; and that of the contracted negligences he might be absolved, all besought the Lord.

[47] The Chapter being dissolved after the absolution, that Brother the same hour withdrawing into the infirmary, seized by a fever lay down in bed: which was a wonder to all the more, awaiting the issue of the matter. and fortified with the last rites, After a few days, the disease growing heavier, his sins humbly confessed, he asked the Viaticum, and the unction of the holy Oil: who of the grace of such wholesome Sacraments was not defrauded. The Convent departs, and straightway is recalled, because the sick man made in an ecstasy, was believed to have put off the filthy matter of the earthly mass. The psalms therefore and litany over him after the custom being completed, returning to himself and looking at the bystanders, of the place to which he had gone, and of the vision he was asked. I, he said, Brothers, went nowhere, nor yet did I perceive present the mercy which you have shown me. For here B. Rictrudis with the holy virgins Eusebia and Cecilia, [he sets forth the help promised by St. Rictrudis to himself and all devout to her.] showing her presence to unworthy me just now, forewarned me not to fear, saying: that not only me, but neither anyone serving her, her help being withdrawn, would she ever desert uncompanied. This said, now secure of himself, in good confession he sent forth his spirit. The Brothers who were present informed of the consolation heard, with augment of devotion, from that same Saint more confidently awaited aid. For they themselves, their sins requiring it, by Dom Alvisus Bishop of Arras at that time were grievously afflicted, and his hand against them daily did not cease to be aggravated. But the cause of the dissension, and the sentence of the stirred-up correction with its end, hear, reader, whoever thou art, be not loath: because neither will it be beside the matter, for those not knowing, to dispatch these things in few words.

[48] When therefore ^e the Abbot, who had succeeded the venerable Amand now deceased, attended to the burden of the Prelacy; he began to abhor the labor, Liebert resigning the Abbey, and to fear the discussion of the future strict examination. Whence the Brothers being called together in the Chapter; To discharge the office of the Pastoral Care, as is worthy, I know not: and see, little sons, what you are about to do, because I will no longer dispense. To whom while it was answered, that he should not do this; and he repeated the cause of his inexperience, and equally the affection of one unwilling; rising at once and before all weeping, the Pastoral staff being seized, he placed it upon the altar of B. Rictrudis. Then there was no need for anyone to ask, for what he had done this, all knowing, that in the offering of the staff, he had renounced the Pastoral office. But the Brothers seeing what had been done, that they had not an Abbot, announce to the aforesaid Bishop: and he demands the order of the deed done to be more manifestly set forth to him. and the Bishop disapproving the election made by the monks, Dom, they said, the Abbot, before all accusing his impossibility, and the consent of his own will, that he should no longer preside, of his own accord renounced the name and office of Abbot. To this the Bishop, Let another, he said, who is worthy to preside, canonically and with the fear of the Lord, be substituted in his place. And it was done so. The election is announced, and it does not please the Bishop, and he intends his mind to dissolving the cause. He prohibits the Brothers to proceed further, and as they had deserved, that most holy man, after the interdict, spoke harshly to them. But they receiving the contumelies of words, at the indignation of the Bishop, they appeal to the Pope. knowing his word to be living and efficacious, the more feared: whence lest at present his excelling dignity should more grievously correct them, themselves and their church into the protection of the Holy Roman Church under the testimony of those standing by the same hour constituting, they returned to Marchiennes. For they still hoped, that while in the monastery they gave themselves to quiet, within a few days the Episcopal indignation would grow quiet.

[49] But the third tongue which, because it has troubled many having peace, the holy Scripture detests, had crept upon the Venerable Bishop as upon a man, that to the petitions of the Marchiennes monks he should not acquiesce. Eccli. 28, 16 This restless and disquieting evil too suggested to him, that his authority should both repress their insolence and correct their excess. The Bishop nonetheless, When therefore the Brothers had gone out, he with some of his Clergy, the horses being mounted, hastened to come to Anchin; and recalling them, as it had pleased in his eyes, so he spoke to them, and commanded that their Abbot, who had dismissed them, no delay intervening they should bring back with them. But Dom ^f Gosuin, Abbot of the Church of Anchin, who still survives, a religious man and of advanced age, the Abbot of Anchin with his men interceding in vain an inexorable chastiser of his own body (whom to praise I forbear because he does not seek to be praised) and the rest of the elders of the same house, being asked what need be done, although he who was commanded to be brought back was their monk and companion, yet did not approve that same Abbot to be restored. And knowing that the sentence of the Venerable Bishop exceeded measure, they humbly besought him, that toward the Marchiennes church he would deign to act more mercifully. But he, as he was fervent in spirit, with the zeal of God and according to knowledge, or even believing himself to act all things more remissly than were fitting, insisted by Episcopal authority to recall the Abbot into the place which he had of his own accord dismissed. Whence those who stood opposed, fearing a still graver sentence, unwilling to restore the abdicated one he subjects them to interdict. Against us, they said, most holy Father, what with your peace we have said, you act unjustly, and therefore the sole remedy of the Apostolic See we appeal to. There when before the supreme Pontiff our cause shall have been discussed, and decided, into your friendship we are, God assenting, to be recalled. To this the Bishop grievously indignant, By no means, he said, on account of your appeal will I set out for Rome, but you at present, as rebels to me, I subject to excommunication.

[50] This said, those Brothers grieving went forth, and from the divine offices their church was suspended. For they said: He who has bound us with this bond, is the Lord, and his sentence by no means to be broken. Then counsel being taken, some of the elders of the monastery set out for Rome, and while others plead the cause at Rome, who the cause of this business entrusted to them, before the Lord Pope irreproachably prosecuted. For the Lord, who was with them on the way, so prospered their journey that, the business being finished, from the hand of the supreme Pontiff to their Chapter they received letters, full of grace and Apostolic benediction: others too to the Bishop of Arras, such as that universal Father appointed to be directed. While these things were being done, the rest of the Brothers of the Marchiennes church, suspended from communion, the Bishop moved by mercy restored to communion. But after the absolution he commanded, that of three persons, whom he should name to them, whomever they pleased they should constitute Abbot for themselves, because he would no longer endure the house of God to be under this destitution of a dispenser. Hence therefore awaiting an answer from the Roman Pontiff, hence the Bishop urging them to an election, what they should rather choose they knew not. For neither could they obey the Bishop without detriment of free election, nor await the return of their own, unless the precept of the Bishop so strictly commanding being set aside. Of which one, he compels the rest to an election pleasing to himself. when it was to be consigned to effect, the Abbots and other religious men being consulted, concordantly answered that satisfaction must be made to the Bishop. There was none who said their Brothers would return any more, especially since no one believed they would ever at Rome receive an answer according to their vows. Into these straits these being brought, they said to one another: since at length we are to yield to necessity, before the scourge to yield is much better. Three persons therefore being named by the Bishop, and the option being given, that whichever one of these they wished they should take to themselves; he whose opinion was sounder, this one was chosen, and constituted Abbot.

[52] But on the same day, on which he was introduced at Marchiennes, and received by the Convent; it was said to those who were within, Behold a messenger stands before the gate, concerning the return of the Brothers, who were said never to return, there come the sent ones with Apostolic letters, bearing a good message, Good Jesus! how great and unhoped-for gladness this report brought back to the minds of each? That joyous day: there was exulting and rejoicing in it. For each despairing, had wasted away with grief: but at this word, the spirit of whomsoever revived. Without delay; those who had accelerated the journey of their return, turn aside to the Bishop, the letters of the Apostolic See humbly presenting to him. The Bishop wonders, all wonder, through whom they make their passage, because with long beards and scorched by the heat, not monks, but the likeness of pilgrims they had put on. Hence to their Brothers they hasten, announcing the Apostolic benediction with letters impressed with a seal. Hearing which each, that Father, as if present, with lowered countenances they adore. and the monks restored to their liberty Thence with cheerful countenance and mind into the kisses of the announcers they rush, and by one the contents of the letters to the rest hearing were recited. These read through the Abbot gathered his furniture, and departed: because whatever things constituted after the appeal the authority of the Apostolic See condemned. Who if he had wished to remain, the monks while he lived, the reverence of the Lord Pope being saved, would by no means have chosen another: for he was a wise and religious man, for his sanctity at Reims at B. Remigius's to be taken up as Abbot a little after.

[53] Then very few days being passed, a certain Legate of the Roman See was directed into France, and in the Council of Lagny that he might do judgment for those suffering injury, and beyond the Alps explicate the parts of the supreme Pontiff. He at Lagny convoked a Council, to which the Bishops with the Abbots and an infinite number of Clergy flowed together. Many things which were worthy of correction, there were discussed and cut off. While the oppressed cries out, or the oppressor strives to defend his part, the cause between the Bishop and the Marchiennes monks long ventilated the Bishop and those who adhered to him recalled. And while the Cardinal Priest asked, what cause there was that the Marchiennes monks called had not come, about to receive full justice; those who favored the Bishop, answered that they, as fugitives from justice, would never come. For who, they said, in the spirit of a lie set out for Rome, with what confidence or temerity, those being present who know them within and in the skin, kindly heard by the Cardinal Legate, would presume to manifest themselves to the assembly of the Saints? So while against the absent the crime of falsity is intended, behold three Brothers, who from Rome unexpected

had returned, meeting at that same place, that celebrated assembly being briskly saluted, thrust themselves into the midst. At whose presence, for that they were said never to be about to come, the Legate, who had known them at Rome, made more cheerful; rose up to them, and assenting that they should sit, deigned to show them no small honor before all. After a little, he commanding, one of those same Brothers standing in the midst, whatever to the Roman Pontiff had become known, all in order in the ears of all from memory did not delay to repeat. To whom the Legate, The word, he said, Brother, which thou hast now said, most consonant is with that, which at Rome thou didst speak; pertaining to the matter nothing is added or omitted. For when I was present, I sufficiently recall that thou didst pursue all things in this order, and now, you being silent, to the venerable Bishop, who acts against you, the faculty of answering is granted. The Bishops answering, who favored his part; Most holy Father, with counsel the Bishop is to answer. Justice, he said, dearest Brothers, opposes your petition. For these Brothers have not an advocate, without counsel they have spoken: it is equitable, that whoever stands opposed, unadvised and without an advocate should answer.

[54] [he and the Bishop and St. Bernard confessing themselves deceived they are reconciled,] Seeing therefore the Bishop, that for answering, justice dictating, he could not have a respite, that he had been deceived, and by inflicting fraternal injuries had grievously sinned, before all confessed. For as a wise man taking precaution for himself in the future, he said that he would rather be confounded in that celebrated assembly, for that he had exceeded the measure of one correcting, than at the day of strict examination with this harm to come unpunished. The Legate hearing these things, and inclining himself to Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux (for he was near) a man namely of sweet memory, Thou hast heard, he said, the confession of our Brother and Coepiscopus, for the humility of so great a Priest most worthy of all praise. Where then was the discretion of thy Sanctity, when ^g letters, so detestable and sprinkled with the mark of much bitterness, thou didst send to Rome against innocent Brothers? To whom he, I have sinned, he said, and humbly confess the fault, because I did it ignorantly: I believed the messengers of the Bishop, and each of us by one and the same spirit was deceived. These things wholesomely confessed pardon being granted, by the wisdom of the Bishops who had assembled procuring it, they were reconciled to one another. and they recognize the effect of the promised help And those who discordant with one another had come thither, returned friends. Yet those Fathers demanding that to the Abbot, who through the Bishop had been taken up, not being deposed the Pastoral care should be entrusted; the Legate by no means would acquiesce to the unworthy petition, because the appeal had prevented this election. Nay, he said, dearest Fathers, all the recent institutions being annulled, according to the Apostolic tradition, to the Marchiennes monks the privilege of free election is restored: to whom also, if they shall judge a suitable person, the Abbot, whom before the appeal they had chosen, it will be lawful to have. Thus B. Rictrudis her servants from the hand of those hating them and from the falsity objected, not only rescued, but through her benignity alone, worthy of friendship and praise, before so innumerable and religious a multitude of men, demonstrated. This too gave faith to the vision of the infirm Brother, of whom it has been said: namely that of that same Saint's aid never to be deprived, whomsoever in her service she shall have found devout.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The apparition of certain persons existing in Purgatory, the restoration of the monastery, benefits granted to various persons.

[55] But she so mercifully succored these, that the negligent, and those who the goods of their monastery have ill plundered, unless penance first being performed, do not feel her help. For from the Lord, equity dictating, For the instruction of the living nothing is released unpunished: on whose will this whole thing depending, even in her own servants, whatever she shall have found worthy of vengeance, she condemns. Whence for our correction, who are subject to various temptations, a certain vision revealed to one of the Brothers, is not to be passed over in silence. But if a great miracle it be not reckoned, yet it is a form and example of more instructive life. That Brother was religious, spending the hundredth, or more, year of his age. He in the night, in which B. Cecilia's passion is solemnly recalled, when to the vigils of the Brothers the devout old man had run together, sat in the Chapter with the other infirm; not to the signification of the things which were read, but to the voice of those psalming, To a lay old man at the time of the Chapter, like a layman, lending his ear. Then by the importunity of sleep unwilling he began to drowse, so that which of these, He sleeps or He is awake, of him more truly should be predicated, he knew not: yet hearing the monks there psalming, who, when he psalmed, that he never was ignorant afterwards he truly affirmed. And behold he sees before him a monk, clothed with terrible and ruddy armor, as it seemed to him. To him asking who he was, a monk appearing clothed in a fiery cuirass, he answered that he had been a monk of that monastery. And extending his hand, that of the kind of clothing he might know something certain, by the dead man, lest he should touch him, prohibited, and thus rebuked, Touch not, he said, anything of these, with which I am clothed, because they are fiery arms, and altogether burn, whatever mortal body they shall have touched.

[56] Forty years are there, since, my sins requiring it, not even for a moment have I ceased to bear these, with so mournful and horrible a penitence, ten years yet to be tortured. But the cause of this so pitiable lot is this: Coming in the body, my tongue from detraction I never restrained: he sets forth the cause of his long torment: whatever my Abbot or Prior did, I judged it should be done otherwise: despising my inferiors, I reckoned myself worthy to be preferred to my coevals, putting a stain even on the elect, those obtaining a higher place: but if anything of the things of the monastery I sometime received to be guarded, for the greatest part in my own uses I expended it, not solicitous to keep it as I ought, nor faithful to restore it. This was the tenor of my life: thus to the injury of monastic religion I lived, and what was good, I was wont to interpret as evil. Therefore, as I said, to me laboring under this grave burden, came kindly salvation, but by a hard path; and I beg, that in thy prayers, for God's sake, thou wouldst deign to have memory of me. But yet of the horrible lamentations, which I hear, dost thou too have compassion? To him answering, that he heard nothing; Hearken, he said, more attentively: for those whom I ask thee to hear, are near, and thou knowest them. And while he more diligently attended, he heard two conversing with one another, whose words committing to memory, these afterwards he made known to the Brothers.

[57] For he said, as from the dead man speaking with him he had received, that the one had been Hugo surnamed the Calf, a knight too is heard, saying he is tortured. who grievously groaning, thus repeated to the other his misery: Woe to me, who B. Rictrudis's monastery living never ceased to oppress; and what was hers, mine to be I violently defended: the controversies, between me and her monks frequently arisen, the dissension never could be legitimately lulled; until by violence or the protection of a lie against them I should be made the possessor of my vow. For excesses of this kind, with an incredible and long-lasting punishment I am tortured, so that I would rather not have been, or, as before, be reduced to non-being, than even for a moment the torments, for sins against the monastery: to which I am addicted, to sustain. But the other, who had never committed anything against B. Rictrudis, and asserting his word true and the penalty just, affirmed that he had never done anything, whence mercy were due to him. His wife too, by living ill, he said adhered to his footsteps, afflicting the guests of that same monastery, and glorying in the injuries of the monks. Then he who seemed to stand before that old man disappeared, and those who spoke likewise were no longer heard.

[58] But he not unmindful of those things, which so openly he had seen; morning come, to the Prior announced all in order. The Prior believed, because religious old age would not suffer him to lie, and that the Brothers should spare themselves from detraction of tongue, did not delay to disclose the vision to all in the Chapter. and the vision is narrated not without fruit. Through which some being corrected, of the things of the monastery to commit fraud afterwards did not presume, guarding themselves, that even without the vice of murmuring, they might finish the journey of the present life. But that the dead man, who spoke with the living monk, was in the time of Fulchard the Abbot, according to the time of the enjoined penance through the Chronicles and the computation of years was found. The wife too of the knight, what concerning her husband had been heard, did not long lie hid: who hastening whatever from B. Rictrudis's monastery she had taken, up to satisfaction, restored to the monks; and promising for the rest amendment, of past things obtained pardon: and commending her husband and herself to the prayers of the Brothers, through the vision not moderately edified withdrew.

[59] In time of war The time of harvest sometime at hand, between the two Counts the Fleming and the Hainaulter so grave ^a discord had emerged, that without detriment of either party they could not be reconciled to one another. A great and strong army therefore each had constituted for himself, and the rustics not being able to resist, among the first on both sides were punished. But because the aforesaid monastery has lands situated on the confines of both Counties; the monks fearing the imminent damage, common counsel being taken, directed thither the coffins of B. Rictrudis and Eusebia the Virgin: that they might place them in the villages, the coffins of the Saints being carried out to villages to be protected which more feared the incursions of the enemies, because they were nearer; and conversing with each Count, that the crops of the Brothers serving the Lord be spared, humbly besought. And they were heard in the Princes, and to the men of either party under great strictness the oppression of the aforesaid monastery was interdicted. There was none who presumed to violate the commands of the Princes, except a certain squire: who entering one crop, granted to his horse, as if it were the hay of a meadow, fodder. The monk prohibited, and began to ask that they should go out; saying this injury to B. Rictrudis ought not to be brought. Whose prayers the squire making light of, the horse sent into the harvest a demon occupies. until the horse should be made full he would not depart, contumeliously answered. Whence the belly of the horse with the crop being filled, to the wicked spirit, that by it he might be vexed, he was delivered, so that even its own master as its rider it refused to have. To no use therefore afterwards was it necessary, the first and the last, to which the crop of the aforesaid Saint at that time was not denied.

[60] At Ghent there was a certain burgher, who

given to trade, by boat to Douai frequently was wont to go, carrying and bringing back whence might accrue to him a manifold opulence of things. But to him going and returning the passage was beside the Marchiennes monastery, and he as often as he passed, turning his face toward the church, A young man with his uncle wont to visit St. Rictrudis, invoked B. Rictrudis and the Saints of that place, and prayed to be fortified by their aid: for it was an institute of his devotion so to dispose his affairs, that every year on the solemn day of Easter coming to Marchiennes, there he should receive for himself holy Communion. With him always walked and returned for the sake of serving a certain youth, his nephew: who contemplating the constancy of his devout mind, he too in passing toward the church, with his whole body humbly hastened to [bow] himself. So together for several years they lived, until that man in good confession had fulfilled the lot of the human condition, and his nephew now grown made a man. Meanwhile by I know not what will of the Lord ^b Eugenius the Pope, Louis King of the Franks, and other Nobles of the land agreed among themselves, that the sea being crossed with an infinite multitude of Christians, they should succor Jerusalem, then in the time of the holy war about to consume the villages and very many cities of the Saracens. By their exhortation therefore and counsel, the cities and castles were emptied, so that seven women, scarcely one man being found whom they could lay hold of, called themselves widows, their husbands still living. In this expedition, as it had pleased each, by land and sea they set out, into the hands of the enemies left by the Lord, because they turned back when they walked.

[61] But with the Flemings, who by boat had accelerated their journey, in Palestine captured by the Saracens, was this youth of whom we spoke; and he captured, coming into the part of the Saracens, was addicted to divers punishments. There he recalled the Saints, whom in his country he had frequently heard invoked: and from the nation given to the cults of demons by their prayers to be rescued he humbly demanded. These being invoked it was easy to hear the desire of the petitioner, had not the Lord willed in this too to declare B. Rictrudis's merit. and freed by St. Rictrudis being invoked. For after some years it came into his memory, how devout a service to that Saint his uncle, while he still lived, bestowed; and that on the holy day of Easter to her church yearly for communicating he had turned aside. Then with tears he began to pray, that she would mercifully absolve him from the bonds of the Pagans. Who on the same night, not through a dream, but to him waking manifestly appeared; and the bolts of the chains being dissolved with which he was bound, Rise, she said, and follow me. Who rising, even to the place where he should not fear the Saracens, by her with very great swiftness was led. And coming to Ghent, there he did not tarry, he comes to Marchiennes, but with ineffable joy hastening to the church of his liberatress, brought to her a candle and a thread of silver, extended to the length of his stature. Where when on a certain night he had come, he knocked at the doors of the monastery, and the awakened keepers, who were within, opened to him knocking. To whom he, The Saint, he said, at whose tomb you sit, captured me in the land of the Pagans lately absolved, and now to her my offering I bring, with votive piety yearly to be paid. But the monks because of the observance of silence, because it was night, said nothing to the man departing: but morning come to their spiritual Father what they had heard they announced. To whom he, Why, he said, and in what manner he was absolved, did you not ask? For the knowledge of so great a matter, in the nocturnal hours, certainly the silence ought to have been broken: and his vow he pays every year. if for the rest he shall return, inquire the manner of the absolution, nor let him depart, unless to you first the order of the matter he shall have set forth. But after a year with his offering he returned, and the matter to the monks asking, as it had been, truly made known. While I write these things for the smallness of my poor wit, that man yet lives, what once he vowed every year repaying, the monks too still survive, to whom first he related the mercy done in him.

[62] At that time Dom ^c Hugo, a man of holy memory, Abbot Hugo, presided over the Marchiennes monastery, whose life never even the opinion of sinister suspicion sprinkled. For from his youth, the flames of an age naturally hot sweating to extinguish, he was a good monk; but afterwards, for his life and merits, to be constituted Abbot, unless he were compelled by infirmity, a holy and humble man, of his accustomed rigor he never sometime relaxed anything for himself. Sober, chaste, and humble, as in subjection he had learned, in the higher place he remained; nor as one domineering over his subjects, but made a form to the flock, to all who knew him was an object of reverence and love. If any murmurers or those subject to other vices he had found, he knew himself their father, knew himself their Abbot: but to the sound and religious not a father, but an equal; not an Abbot, but a companion he showed himself. In commanding discreet, in speaking modest, in every matter more trusting prayer, than his own industry or labor.

His it was to solidify faith, and to heal the mind, To add goads to virtue, and hope to the guilty. And he swore to root out the crime, not the criminals, And to himself he was nobody, to all he was all.

He would indeed have preferred to have many Fathers, deputed to his custody, that so much the more secure he might go out into the pastures, the more he should have felt to bear care of him. For when he was chosen, he sufficiently refused; all things, which are necessary to a Prelate, humbly asserting himself to be lacking. But the more he accused himself as praiseworthy, the more praiseworthy he appeared, the sanctity of his life and the glory of his fame convincing him. Afterwards when by his disciples, conversing with him, Father, Lord, Abbot, or Master, or something of this kind he was called, and they wished him a long life, harshly and with tears reproving them he said: Call me not Master or Abbot, but a servant and unhappy; nor ask for wretched me a longer space of life, but to live well, and to be happily consummated: for this is the grace to one's friend, more excellent than every office; but the rest of the things which are desired, are good indeed in opinion, and have a common name with the true, but the property of good is not in them.

[63] This man so conformed to unity, the place over which he presided, by God's grace, with religion adorned: and the Lord with temporal goods without the more, within too with the number of good Brothers heaped up. The Marchiennes monastery therefore was old, about to enlarge the straits of the old monastery, and very small, built by Blessed Amand: but when it was built, it seemed ample enough, and in those days sufficient. But now both by the number of Brothers, and by the exterior goods enlarged, it was narrow, nor by any arrangement acceptable. Which when that Abbot (of whose manifold grace I confess I have said nothing worthy) bore grievously, in honor of the Lord and the convenience of the Brothers, it seemed good to him, that he ought to build another. But because he had read, for avoiding penitence, all things to be done with counsel, on this the Abbots and several religious men he consulted: and all, that in the name of the Lord he should begin the work, concordantly answered. he lays the foundations of a new one: By their exhortation therefore and counsel, the Convent being summoned, with his own hand he placed the first stone from the foundation, some obedientiaries however, because of the imminent quantity of expenses refusing. To us, they said, the ancient monastery sufficed, what need is there of a superfluous work so proud? Whence to us the means to finish? Why lay you so ample a foundation, whose structure will exceed measure, will conquer strength, will surpass faculties? It is easy to begin whatever you will, but the possibility of consummating the work first ought to be consulted. To which he; Brothers, he said, ceasing from complaints, cease to be troublesome. The oratory, which I have begun, will be great and very beautiful, and many too will see it finished, the Lord and B. Rictrudis, whatever in it shall be expended, sufficiently providing. For his heart was having confidence in the Lord.

[64] As we have heard, so we have seen, of the form equally and the perfection: and a work so sumptuous of the allod of that same Saint, without others' offerings, and it being finished within a quadrennium he dies. was wholly finished. Finally in the four years in which he survived building, whatever in stones, and the ornaments of columns was to be constructed, he almost consummated, all wondering, that a structure so great and comely in so short a time had advanced. And while to completing it with all solicitude he aspired, he who had lived well, was happily withdrawn from the midst. That we had such a one, who failed no one, the bosom of piety being spread out for all, we rejoiced: but that we have lost such a one, now who he was more certainly perceiving we still lament. Lastly such is the monastery, which he erected, that by those, who saw not himself in the flesh, beholding his work, his soul may be endowed with blessing. And those who, while the foundation was being laid, abhorring the expenses, persuaded that there must be a ceasing, what once was begun, now not moderately rejoiced.

[65] But when now the wall was said to have a height of forty feet or more, on a certain day the masons above still were fitting stones, On the occasion of this building that it might appear more eminent. And while at the work, as yesterday and the day before, they insisted; the mouth of one began to pale, and his face for fear to change into divers things, his knees scarcely sustaining some of his members. For his mind was in some way presaging of future evil; and not knowing what he feared, he suffered before, than of the peril he could know. Him his companions beholding terrified, of the secrets of his thoughts inquired. To whom he silence being enjoined, Let me, he said, because I presage nothing of evil. This said that support, upon which to work they walked about, unexpectedly fell, and they with it fell. But his companions, to certain holds their hands being thrown, are said to have escaped death by chance. But he, whose heart before the ruin had fallen, falling downward, upon a heap of sharp stones fell down: a mason fallen from on high upon stones to whom the Prior and other monks in great stupor running together, dead or placed at his extremity they thought. And when they had perceived he had not expired, how he did they inquired: but his spirit for fear being made anxious, there was in him no voice nor any sense. But after a little returning to himself, and beholding the bystanders, Blessed, he said, Rictrudis, whom falling I invoked, under so great a peril of death deigned to preserve life for me. In sleep I saw her the past night; and when by the steps disposed to the accustomed work I could not ascend, her hand reaching out to me, to the place, to which I had intended to go, swiftly and without difficulty led me. She therefore who to me striving with all strength rendered the ascent easy, he narrates himself saved by St. Rictrudis: she me falling, her hand mercifully placed under, reserved for life. But some hurt, but this very little, to my leg the sharp stone inflicted, the rest of my members feeling no pain. But the same hour when to do his work

he wished to ascend again, the Prior and the monks prohibited; and so on that day to leisure and quiet to give himself he consented, though unwilling.

[66] Two servants too, for supplying stones to the workmen carrying up the mortar, he who came behind, the same being invoked another too falls without harm. downward began to look at the reddening cherries: for it was the time in which that fruit is wont to ripen, and the more avidly it is plucked by men, the more the trees as it were the firstfruits of the earth hasten first to produce it. And while they proceeded a little, twenty feet or more now far from the earth, he who had seen the fruit, allured as much by its appearance as by avidity, and not turning his eyes from it, his foot stumbling slips downward. And he falling invoked the name and aid of B. Rictrudis: who, if thou take away the fear alone, she preserving him, suffered nothing of evil.

[66] At another time also, while a great and ponderous beam fell from above, a certain monk by chance had come in the place, another receives that falling beam on his head, in which it threatened it would fall. Which seeing, those who were afar off, that to avoid the imminent peril by flight he should consult for himself, they cried out. But he by their horrible cries and the near crisis of death was so terrified, that to withdraw to one side, or to move his foot from that place even a little, he could not. This beam therefore falling upon his head unwilling he received; and those who had seen, the head crushed and the brain poured out, believed him dead. But since, the machine falling, he had cried out for the help of this Saint, whom we have frequently named, the ponderous beam its weight naturally inbred, that it might not hurt, then divinely lost.

[67] Douai is a Castle of the Count of Flanders. There a certain woman, of the office of one of her arms now for several years destitute, dwelt. Which great inconvenience, her poverty made graver, To this poor woman invoking the same while both bodily subsidy was lacking, and to work, whence she might be sustained, weakness prohibited. The long duration therefore of the infirmity had cut off the hope of recovering health; when on a certain day, her face suffused with tears, B. Rictrudis devoutly she began to pray, that to her she would deign to bestow aid. The same hour the passion fled, and she extended her arm, and now to move her hand to her head there was no difficulty. She wondered if truly it were what it was, and beyond custom, the extension of the arm, almost a dream she suspected. But after she had truly understood the mercy of the Lord done in her, the use of the dead arm and hand is restored. by whose merits and intercession she had been cured, rejoicing and leaping up, to whomsoever she spoke, she announced: and hastening to Marchiennes, of her poverty offered a gift great in devotion, and to the monks inquiring what cause there was, This arm, she said, hanging dead from my side, for several years was to me more a hindrance than a use, the dry hand wrought nothing: I invoked the Saint, whose relics you preserve, and she vivified it. Not only therefore the woman, but the monks too rejoiced: she for the health received, they that her body laid up with them they had, who at the invocation of her name brought back the grace of the desired health.

[68] Another woman too, dwelling in the district of Tournai, almost three years had labored with quartan fevers, from another a long-lasting quartan is taken away: so afflicted and her strength exhausted, that those seeing her distrusted of recovering health. By votive pilgrimage she frequently went round the holy places, and most of all where ^d B. Livinus's memory is more solemnly recalled, thither more often hastening, that the bodily molestation might depart, the tears of devotion she offered: for his monastery was nearer, and how great merit he was of with God, by coruscating miracles was shown. Yet the Lord's will was not, that through any of the Saints, whom she had approached, she should be cured: and the fever growing heavier, and her whole body emptied of flesh, scarcely could she go in and out. But if to a human physician she had recourse, not only without counsel, but despised because of her want, or rather exasperated with contumelies, she would return. For poor since she was, she had not whence human suffrage, or even baser medicines for herself she could procure. And because to the poor and infirm an accelerated death is, not a torment, but the end of hardships; if it were the divine will, she desired to die, that so her unhappiness might cease to be. Finally by her friends and kinsmen, who had heard what B. Rictrudis was with the Lord, it was persuaded to her that from her she ought to demand aid: to whose counsel she gave faith, and the fever as yesterday and the day before at the accustomed hour wearying her, she humbly besought B. Rictrudis, that to her she would deign to succor. And thou, she said, Lady, whose help, as I hear, several have experienced; although nothing of thee I have merited, yet suffer not me, excluded from thy benefits, to be tortured longer. Thou who the rich and poor equally admittest, cure me a poor woman, and have me as a handmaid. May my poverty move thee, may a passion so long-lasting move thee; for that thou couldst cure me when I had heard, I undoubtingly believed. These prayers of her desire being fulfilled, the fever disappeared, and she began to recover, a sickness of this kind thenceforth not to feel. When therefore from a disease so grave she had known herself relaxed, she rejoiced with unspeakable joy, and with her husband coming to Marchiennes, to her, who had made her safe, repaying thanks, of the vow which she had vowed she absolved herself.

[69] But a certain boy, his age now passed, and under which to the rest, that they be raised and walk, the faculty is naturally attributed, in all his members dissolved, was to his parents a burden and labor. to a boy the faculty of walking is given. He lay in their house as a corpse, nay heavier than a corpse, because for the continual passion carnal affection exacted from them continual grief. The mother finally, the celebrated memory of this Saint heard, she too came to Marchiennes, bearing in her arms her son; whom although she had not dead, yet as one deceased daily she lamented. Who when she had entered the church, what she had come to ask the tears witnessed; and that sound he might return, whom infirm she had brought, more at length she prayed. The Lord however willing, the same hour; what with full faith she had demanded, she received not; but when she had returned home, after some days, this one standing upon his feet and firmly walking we have heard.

ANNOTATIONS.

a. In the year 1149.

CHAPTER VI.

A new translation of the sacred body: various miracles.

[70] The ornament of the former coffin being distracted, It was said above, that the Relics of that same Saint at Rinenghe from the old coffin into a new were solemnly reposited; whose little vessel's price too shining exteriorly, our predecessors presumed to expend. The exterior ornament therefore by fraternal and concordant devotion now a second time set up, ill-faithful succession had a second time wholly plundered, but thanks to God, that to us that most sacred Body in the church was preserved. For we ought not to be ungrateful, that the gold and silver being melted down, and the precious stones distracted, what was incomparably of more value, to us could come. We found therefore a wooden coffin, in itself abject enough and contemptible, although among the minds of the faithful for the Relics very precious. When therefore the new building of the Marchiennes church had been consummated, it was a shame to the Brothers, that in an unadorned little vessel her Relics, anew after the restoration of the monastery which for finishing a work so great means sufficiently had provided, should be contained. This one of the obedientiaries attended to, and touched with grief of heart inwardly, and inspired by God, thought that he would make for her another not less good in form than in price. He knew not letters indeed, but was according to the world very wise, and according to God a God-fearing man. Who when he had divinely conceived this desire, recalled what from his Fathers he had learned, a pious monk thinking, that to those working good the Lord in the Gospel prohibits, that their left hand be permitted to know anything of the profit of the right.

[71] After the manner therefore of B. Nicholas, who three virgins, want urging, addicted to harlotry, so studied to redeem, that men might not know the person of the redeemer; this one too thought so to honor his Lady, that he himself in the honor shown to no mortal should become known. in another's name Whence the Prior being called, he took him aside; and reports himself to know a man, who that in so poor a coffin that treasure is contained not moderately grieves. He subjoins too of that man, that in the preparation of another little vessel twenty marks of silver he is about to offer, he offers the necessary means, and still greater he promises he will confer. He wishes however the matter to be secret, lest if for the good work by popular favor in anything he be delighted, he lose the fruit of his labor. The Prior hearing this, for so great devotion of the unknown man rejoiced; and hiring workmen in gold and silver, of the person of that man, for that he wished not to be known, longer he did not inquire: but while at the begun work there is insistence, and it being finished the Lord betraying it the author could not be concealed. For that Brother Martin himself it was, who had begun the work, and for finishing it prepared the expenses, we have heard: and thence with greater love with God and men was found worthy.

[72] The little vessel therefore with great apparatus of gold and silver being consummated, Dom ^a Henry, the Venerable Archbishop of Reims, August 2 in the year 1164 the translation is celebrated. had come into Flanders. He on the 4th of the Nones of August in the year of the Incarnate Word 1164, but of his Archbishopric the third, to us turned aside; and assenting to the prayers of John the Abbot and the whole church, on the same day B. Rictrudis's Relics, with his hands taken up from the old little vessel, into the new with fear and reverence placed. There were present Clerics, an infinite multitude of men and women; some, to follow a man of so great dignity and the german brother of Louis King of the Franks; others, that they might present behold that translation of the sacred Body. But also Andrew ^b Bishop of Arras, with his Clergy and the neighboring Abbots, to this feast day hasten to run together: with whom, a celebrated assembly of monks standing by, in all things as was fitting solemnly and devoutly the matter was done. But whoever for his authority anything of those Relics from the Abbot of that same place could obtain, that he had received a great thing rejoiced, carrying it with him to be preserved in his church, for a fortification of the present and future life. The Archbishop himself too, laying up something for himself, for the solemn memory with due honor carried it with him into France. In the same year not only the neighbors, but also several dwelling in remoter places, Various diseases are cured: with whatever bodily molestation they labored, at the invocation of her name, to their pristine health were restored

were: of whom several, about to show thanks, hastened to Marchiennes, each of his own faculty offering to the Lord and B. Rictrudis the vow, which they had vowed: and because they were seen by us all, to pass over them in silence we deemed unworthy; her glory, of which we speak, the more securely preaching, the more we received it by those reporting that through her they were restored to health, who obtained the grace.

[75] In the village therefore of B. Amand, which is called Remegias ^c, there was a pregnant woman, who now nine days had sustained the difficulty of childbirth. There was no one who promised her a longer time of life, A woman in labor on the 10th day is freed: her friends through each moment expecting that she would render her soul. She incessantly invoked God and His Saints, whose names occurred to her memory: but the Lord by a hidden cause, which He Himself knows, deferred her desire. And so almost lifeless with torments, at length on the tenth day she recalled B. Rictrudis. To whom turned; Bring, she said, most pious Mother, help to this unhappy little woman, to whom either from near death there is a remedy, or from the absolution of childbirth there is at hand a solace. For if thou defer the aid, now wholly I shall fail: but if to my voices and tearful sighs thou shalt mercifully look back, undoubtingly I believe I shall quickly bring forth. Scarcely had she completed the prayer, straightway the aid of her, whom she had invoked, followed what she devoutly demanded. The women too awaiting the issue of the matter, and the friends, who stood outside, rejoiced equally and wondered. After the days therefore of her purification, thanks together and an offering to show, her husband accompanying, she came to Marchiennes, and of the mercy done in her to us, asking what so devout an offering of a gift meant for her, all in order narrated.

[74] At Ruma ^d too a village of the territory of Tournai, a certain young man had betrothed a wife to himself; of whom as the age was not unequal, so by the numerousness of their parents neither excelled the other. a maiden now betrothed is healed of a grave sickness At the day therefore of the nuptials while vying they prepare the necessaries the bridegroom and the bride, and invite the presence of their friends; that virgin not only of the head, but of the whole body began to be tortured with sickness. And while through the days her several members are almost destitute of their office, her parents physicians being summoned, spare not their faculties, that they may receive their daughter safe. But while the medicines profit nothing, to the suffrages of the Saints there is recourse; and the friends now despairing of recovering health, from B. Rictrudis with tears demand a remedy: and she straightway begins to recover. After this a few days had flowed by, when of her infirmity she had fully recovered, clothed in woolens to the flesh, and with bare feet with her mother coming to Marchiennes, to the Lord and His handmaid, who had made her safe, she gave thanks. And offering at the altar two pennies yearly to be repaid, with all her succession obliged to that Saint by the bond of servitude, with joy to her own she returned.

[75] Rinenghe, as has been said above, was a village of that same Saint: where of her under great veneration not only by the dwellers of that place, but by the neighbors too the memory is continually retained. a young man seized by a demon There a certain Knight's son, now constituted in manly age, began to be vexed by a demon; and unless bound with chains he were restrained, not even his parents would have endured to dwell with him. In the house there was outcry and a strong tempest, bold and unbearable to all, in tongue too and hand to be feared. The friends were saddened, and those who knew him, and thence grief the more grew up, because according to the world from the lowest parents he did not draw his lineage. Whomsoever he perceived enter the house, not only with a horrible outcry, but with the extension of his arm he called to himself. after the parish-priest of Rinenghe being foully torn, To whom when all dreaded to approach nearer, the Priest of that village coming, called by him, by I know not what confidence, presumed to sit beside him. Then he hands being thrown laid hold of his head, whose mouth and face tearing with his teeth, scarcely by the bystanders could he be forced, that the prey even unwilling he should give back. Confused therefore and his face disfigured, he who to the furious one incautiously had offered himself, went out of the house: and behold a certain Knight standing at the door, by the contumely of him going out taught what he did, dared not to enter. But the madman bound with chains beholding, not only himself, but him too, with this prayer not vainly sent forth, with the sign of the Cross he fortified, The Lord, he said, by the supervening Knight signed with the Cross and His handmaid B. Rictrudis, whose men we are, son, may reduce thee to the office of a sound mind; and the invader of another's thing may they not permit further to dominate thee. At this word the demon withdrew from him, and he was cured. Who the same hour calling the Knight, that he should enter prayed; asserting that through the occasion of his coming, to the health, which by the maleficence of demons he had lost, he was restored. For since, he said, the sign of the Cross premised, thou didst invoke B. Rictrudis's aid upon me, in the name of St. Rictrudis he is freed. by her merits and intervention, the demon fled away. He therefore being loosed, and the friends running together, there is joy and exultation; and for so evident a miracle the Lord was glorified, and His handmaid by the dwellers of that place more than usual honored.

[76] Not far from the city of Soissons the blessed Virgin Eusebia and her mother have a village, whose name is ^e Vergny. In Vergny a village of Marchiennes right, This Dagobert King of the Franks and his wife Nanthildis to the said virgin, for that they had received her from the saving laver, with royal munificence conferred; confirming it too with their privileges, that thenceforth no earthly power over this should presume to be troublesome to her. But the mother after this in the Marchiennes monastery clothed with the habit of religion, she too the grace of the Lord cooperating brought in her daughter with her: who this village with its appurtenances, as she possessed it free, to that same Church perpetually and freely to be possessed handed over. Hence it is that from that place every year wine is sent to Marchiennes, whereof some portion for the celebration of Masses in one part decently laid up, of the rest to the infirm Brothers and guests sufficiently and with charity yearly it is ministered.

[77] But the monk, who for guarding the things of the monastery, and doing what is needful, there is deputed; reported to us that he had seen something worthy of memory. intent on a quarry. For he said: When sometime for repairing our buildings I attended to the stones necessary for me, I sent a man, who from the bowels of the earth should dig them up to be drawn out: for a rocky place is not far from the village, where that man for some days began to labor, in the sweat of his face eating his bread. But they who were his coadjutors, standing above at the mouth of the cave, ropes being let down and certain machines prepared for this, vying drew out the stones, and the more ardently insisted at the begun work, the more they looked in upon him digging deeper. These therefore drawing out what he supplied, and here and there a spacious place below empty as it were one chamber remaining, all the weight of stones which above appeared, upon that man unexpectedly, falling, even those whom it did not touch by the horrible crash of the violent ruin terrified. An outcry and lamentation is raised for the man, under the ruin he is found unhurt whom by a lot so pitiable they thought dead; and running to the village, the issue of the matter with tearful voices they announce. Then every age and either sex hastening thither, the earth with the stones from the place more pressingly threw back, that whom they distrusted to live, at least after the human manner more decently they might bury. But when they had come to him, without any hurt standing upon his feet they found him. To them inquiring concerning the preserved health, By Blessed, he said, SS. Rictrudis and Eusebia being invoked. Eusebia's and her most holy mother's aid, because them, so great a mass of stones coming upon me, I invoked, the imminent peril of death, the fear being taken away nothing of evil feeling, unhurt I escaped. Hearing this, those who had assembled, praised the Lord in His Saints, and that man with admiration and spiritual joy led back to the village.

[78] Worthy too we believe to relate that memorable and evident sign, which, many beholding, through the invocation of B. Rictrudis is recognized to have been perpetrated by Almighty God, In the year 1168 about Lille in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand one hundred and sixty-eight. There is in the aforesaid territory of Lille a village of that same Saint, which is called ^f Runeimium, in which a church, in honor of her dedicated, up to this day is shown. In this village a certain poor young man dwelt, who his daily food by the labor of his hands acquired for himself. On a certain day therefore after the labor at evening returned home, the poor man himself with a poor supper was refreshed. Eccle. 5, 11 And because as the Scripture says, Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eat little or much; the young man dismayed by a horrible dream, that his wearied members with sleep he might refresh, after food he went to bed. And when he had slept, he saw a dream, and the vision of his head troubled him. For he saw four malign spirits, under the appearance of as many women very deformed enter into his house, and kindle a copious fire ascending even to the roof of that same house. But when it had been vehemently kindled, those malign women, as it seemed to him, approach his bed, and by the hairs draw him out. Whom dividing from head to the lower parts, his right part upon the coals to be cooked they throw, but the left far from the fire they lay aside.

[79] In so great a crisis of tribulation therefore, that is, in this horrible vision constituted, and therein to invoke the name of Jesus by night he went to cry to his most faithful friend man, the Lord Jesus, and in his tribulation invoked Him. And the Lord sent from heaven, and freed him, and gave to reproach those that trod upon him. For when by the hands of those cruel women intolerably through the dream he was tortured, the Lord sent him a liberatress, who should rescue him. For suddenly another woman appeared to him, in form and habit beyond what can be believed venerable; and straightway she being seen there rushed upon them dread and fright, in the greatness of the Lord's arm, and seeming to himself aided by a beautiful woman, and that monstrous throng was turned to flight, because there is no agreement of Christ to Belial, no fellowship of light to darkness. But that holy woman, who had appeared to him, approached the fire, and the part of the body, which upon the coals was being burned, drawing out, to the left part, which from the fires remained, joined: and the whole body with a bandage binding, that sick man, after the example of that Evangelical Samaritan, upon her shoulders placed, and in a certain secret place of the house laying him, from the eyes of the beholder vanished.

[80] And when he had awaked from sleep, he could not rise even to sit up from his bed, he remains paralytic for 7 days, nor bring his hand to his head, nor turn himself to the other side.

For thus wholly paralytic he lay for seven days, as if for many years a long sickness had dissolved him. But he, as much for the aforesaid vision, as also from the infirmity terrified, sent forth great cries with weeping, and made all who rested in that house come to him. To them inquiring the cause of the outcry and weeping, he discloses all in order, and prayed that the Priest be called. Who at dawn coming with the people of the aforesaid village, commanded him, that he should intimate to all the thing done about him. Which he truly narrating all, the hearers equally were turned into admiration and grief: for greatly they had compassion on him. To the Priest too his sins confessed, with the Sacrament of the Lord's body he was refreshed. After the holy Communion therefore, by that same Priest and by all his neighbors he was wholesomely admonished, that he should more attentively beseech the Lord, that the aforesaid Saint, who in him a good work had begun, He would again direct, that what was well begun she might better consummate. For seven days therefore and as many nights that sick man destitute of the office of his members, scarcely could take food or sleep. amid pains incurable; Yet in that part of the body he labored more, in which upon the coals through the vision by those phantasmal women he had been burned. He invoked the Lord assiduously, that to him the aid of His grace He would deign to send. He looked to the help of physicians, and there was none at all who should help: because He without whose nod neither a sparrow falls to the earth, nor a leaf of a tree, had disposed to heal this one in another manner. For God and our Lord Jesus Christ willed this His handmaid in the sight of men very often to magnify, because she while she lived, studied to glorify Him in all her works. For He Himself through the Prophet says: He that shall glorify me, I will glorify him, but they that despise me, shall be ignoble. 1 Kings 2 For B. Rictrudis glorified God, keeping herself chaste and irreproachable, and to the poor, orphans and widows, pilgrims and guests of her wealth sedulously ministering. And what more!

[81] On the seventh day therefore now growing toward evening, by the prayers of this Saint, as we reckon, the aforesaid sick man returning to himself, then being placed where he had seemed to himself to be aided, called his wife, and said to her: I beseech thee, dearest sister, that in that secret place of my house thou make me a bed, because there, as I recall, by a most pious woman, who appeared to me through the vision, I was laid in a bed: perhaps in that place, by the merits of that Saint, the Lord will somewhat relieve me. Straightway in the place, which he had designated, a bed is set, and by others' hands he is carried thither. He invokes the name of the Lord and His holy Mother: he invokes also the name of B. Rictrudis. They commended him to the Lord, and in the darkness of that night the Orient from on high visited him. A wonderful thing! A very small space of the night therefore being passed, and invoking St. Rictrudis, peacefully and with great quiet he slept. When behold suddenly there appeared to him a certain monk, the Provost of that same village, and said to him: Walter (for this was his name) rise as quickly as possible, and let us go together to Marchiennes, because this is the Lord's precept to thee and me. when he had dreamed he was led to Marchiennes Who straightway, as it seemed to him, from the bed rising unhurt, with the monk came to Marchiennes, and the future solemn procession now going out of the cloister he met. Moreover the monk who with the Cross preceded the procession, approached him, and said to him: Take this saving Cross, and precede the procession into the church of the Brothers. But he taking the Lord's Cross, to carry the Cross before the procession, through the middle of the church proceeded, and upon the altar of the holy Cross it decently laid. Which laid, from the church he went out, and before the door of the temple, that he might hear the solemnities of Mass, as is the custom for penitents and excommunicates, he stopped. But the Mass even to the reading of the Gospel solemnly sung, the Cellarer monk brought him bread of wonderful whiteness, and said to him: Enter hastily the church, and for thy health to the Lord Abbot, assisting at the holy altar, offer this bread. Which when thou shalt have offered, to God and B. Mary, and the offering being made to return home, and also to B. Rictrudis give thanks; and from the holy altar withdrawing, into thy house return sound. But he the bread received offered to God, and His Mother, and to B. Rictrudis gave thanks, and so the benediction received withdrew.

[82] This as has been said, in sleep being seen, straightway he awoke from sleep, his head wholly now sound he raised, with his right hand his forehead with the sign of the Cross he armed, the same night sound he springs from the bed and his feet from the bed setting down, he clothed himself with his garments. Not yet was it day, yet he, although a layman, to God, who is the true day even in darkness, desired to render thanks. He rises, and to the church of B. Rictrudis (which, as said above, in the aforesaid village had been consecrated) to God and His Saints for the health restored to him he rendered thanks: and very early he came to the house of B. Rictrudis the sun now risen. But to the Brother who guarded it, and to all, who were there present, what had befallen him he narrated; and in the morning making known the help at the house of St. Rictrudis and hearing that the Lord had magnified His mercy with him, they congratulated him. Moreover his neighbors and those who knew him, very early to visit him hastening, found him not, and what had become of him began to wonder. For none of those, who had seen him so suddenly fall into so great an infirmity, thought he could further escape the molestation of so great a sickness. Therefore to seek him all go, and in the house of the Saint they find him, he is found by those seeking him, and now not paralytic, but robust and strong with the other workmen fulfilling his service. All are filled with stupor and ecstasy at what had befallen him, since whom the past night they had left half-alive, now they saw leaping and praising God. All these things, as said above, that young man, to whom this had befallen, then he narrates all to the Abbot. who also still survives, to Dom Abbot John and our Brothers faithfully and with great devotion narrated. But Dom the Abbot for the edification of the hearers, that they be written commanded. With that faith and devotion therefore, with which he narrated to us, we have related also to you, most holy Brothers, that hearing and reading these things, with the psalmist David you may say: Wonderful is God in His Saints.

[83] In the County of Arras is a village of B. Rictrudis called Baierium, where once when in the world, by body more than by spirit, she was detained, In a Village of St. Rictrudis very often she dwelt. There once from St. Amand counsel being received, she veiled herself at the King's banquet, and committed herself and her own to the Lord's judgment. To this village she had surrounding many lands and revenues, and possessions of her own inheritance infinite. Which coming to conversion, to God, who had given them to her, she rendered, and using wise counsel, distributed them to the poor. For she had heard the most pious Lord and her spouse Jesus in the Gospel say to a certain rich man: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me. Luke 18, 22 But woe to the malignities of men: For the sons of this world, seeking the things which are their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, joined the fields of B. Rictrudis's church to their fields. But woe to him, who gathers not his own, and joins field to field. In the territory therefore of the aforesaid village a man dwelt, full of robbers, who of the lands, which from the Saint he held, the tithes yearly without fraud paid. In that season that district was full of robbers and thieves, and what seemed intolerable, the Castellans and the chiefs of the people favored them; and counsel being shared with them, took away from the poor their little substances by force or theft. Isa. 1, 23 Of such as these Isaiah says; Thy princes, companions of thieves.

[84] At harvest time therefore, when the men of that district reaped their harvests, they guarded them in their fields because of the infestation of the aforesaid thieves day and night. But it happened on a certain day at evening, the month of August now in the middle, of the harvest committed to his keeping that no one could remain in the fields, a strong and perilous tempest arising. Then the aforesaid man returned into his house, and his crops, which in the field remained, to God and B. Rictrudis commending, prayed thus: O B. Rictrudis, I am thy servant, thine is the crop, thine is the field: guard thy part, save also mine. The prayer therefore completed betaking himself into the house, he shut the door: and trusting in the Lord, and the holy keeper left in the field, he cast himself on his bed. Truly according to the Lord's word all things are possible to him that believeth. For three of those robbers upon their horses run up, and thinking all their own, three men having stolen, to the ground descend: for neither did the great rain detain them, nor the thunder with its crash terrify them. The field therefore reckoning to be without a keeper, they bind heavy loads and unbearable to themselves, and scarcely by the horses themselves to be carried. They take up what they had not laid down, and reap what they had not sown: upon the horses they leap, and seize the protection of flight. then when all night they had wandered about on their horses, But the faith of the man and the keeper of the field B. Rictrudis detained those thieves, nor permitted them to go farther with their crop. For those thieves with the theft could by no means go out of the field, because turned into error, all that night circling they went round that field: nor indeed, that keeper detaining them, could they depart, because they returned when they walked. Morning therefore being come, when now they thought themselves, being alienated in mind, before the doors of him they had injured they are set, far from that place; before the door of that man, to whom they had brought damage, greatly stupefied they find themselves to have stopped. For drunk all that night they had been, but not from wine: for in their own will the Lord had led them.

[85] And they at what had befallen them beyond what can be believed wondering, and of the theft which they had committed too much fearing, said to one another: We have heard B. Rictrudis to be merciful: whence we think her monks do not degenerate from her. Let us go therefore to her house, and the sheaves restored they ask pardon and to her vicars our sin even unwilling let us confess: for it is better for us that before men confounded we should disclose our crime, than for that same crime by men be punished: for the house of the aforesaid man was not far distant from the house of B. Rictrudis. Therefore straightway to her house with their theft they come, and from the horses to the ground descending, they themselves with their own hands the crop to the ground

set down. Forthwith before the feet of the Brothers prostrate on the ground falling down, what had befallen them they related; and of their offense demanding pardon, without delay what they asked they obtained. Which done in their temple adoring God, and giving thanks to St. Rictrudis, for the rest that to her or the church they would do nothing of evil of their own accord they promised. and they obtain it for an example to others. But their accomplices hearing what had happened to them, feared greatly; and a little in mind being made more equable, suffered the poor more quietly in their land to dwell. The needy heard this, and rejoiced, and gave thanks to the Lord, who had heard their desire. The religious Brothers too knowing this, the father of orphans and pupils the Lord Jesus with the prophet David praised saying: To thee is the poor man left, thou wilt be a helper to the orphan. Psal. 10, 14 This strong woman too more than usual they loved, for that she had opened her hand to the needy and stretched out her palms to the poor: and God the bestower of all good things for this deed they glorified: to whom is honor and glory, power and dominion, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

ANOTHER WORK

On the miracles of St. Rictrudis, by the author Gualbert the monk.

From a Marchiennes MS.

Rictrudis, Abbess of Marchiennes, in Gallo-Flanders (St.)

BHL Number: 7250, 7251

BY THE AUTHOR WALBERT FROM A MS.

LETTER

Sent to his friend Saswalo.

In the same very small moment of time, to the happily seen and beloved Saswalo, ^a professing the sacred publication of the Regular or Canonical profession, more by work than by word; to the Episcopal ^b side and familiarity, by probity of morals and the virtue of knowledge, decently adhering; Brother Walbert ^c, scarcely a journey, through many ^d courses of times begun, after the manner of a monk directing; of the blood of the Lamb, each post being signed, worthily to take, and His flesh with the religious severity of unleavened breads and wild lettuces to cook.

[1] The flesh of the uncontaminated and immaculate Lamb is to be eaten, dearest Brother, especially in that momentary lot in which we live; lest the exterminating Angel, The felicity of one worthily saying Mass being weighed should be able to meet the troops of the Egyptians fleeing and walking in blind night, to impede their journey, to plunder the spoils, to crush the members; moreover, the firstborn being dead, to find the houses full of mourning and groaning. Let us therefore set upon the laudable guile, and for this let us obtain the gift and aid of God. Let us enter Egypt, let us seize the golden and silver vessels, let us make lots in the spoils of the Egyptians. But lest we return sometime to Pharaoh's exaction to devour a kid, we who have now experienced with the palate of the heart the most sacred edible of the most meek, mildest, and cleanest Lamb. Happy however, who with worthy hands the most clean flesh of the said Lamb with singular cleanness shall have touched, and the gore flowing for redemption from the Redeemer's side shall have taken; happier indeed, who to the imitation of the Lord's passion with the sacred fire of the Cross shall have strengthened a whole mind; but of the highest felicity, who with the food of life and the inebriating chalice, the inner man, after the manner of an eagle, being renewed, yet a new dweller in the new Father's kingdom, new dishes and excellent cups to taste forever shall have merited.

[2] But alas, wretched me! what shall I do to these things? whither shall I turn me? he grieves to have communicated so often unworthily what way shall I walk? with what front shall I approach to judgment? what remedy shall I find? what at length of excusation shall I bring a sentence? Good Jesus, whither shall I go from thy spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy face? Will it be in the power of a man, as Job says, that he come yet to his God in judgment? Job 34, 23 Redeemed only, best, benign one, how often the most sacred flesh of the Lamb ^e most worthy with unworthy hands have I touched? how often thence, unless thou hadst clemently reserved me, punishment have I merited? and whence, I confess, thy manifold mercy I thought to merit, judgment rather, as I fear, and to handle the sacred mysteries henceforth fitly, of the mildest and most patient judge I incurred. Therefore because the patience of the merciful God to penitence leads the sinner, according to the Apostle; it is necessary henceforth on the way to gird the reins; with shoes the feet, lest they tread on the venoms of scorpions, to fortify; nonetheless the right hands, that they may dash the head of the venomous serpent, with staves to support; but also in the inner furnace the fire of the mind to kindle, and to apply the manner, whether raw or cooked in water, or neither raw nor cooked, but only roasted with fire, as it was commanded to Moses, any sinner ought to eat the Lamb. Rom. 2, 4, Ex. 12, 9 For the Pasch is near, and now is at hand the day of the Lord, in which there is made a passage into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God, from which there be no re-passage to enduring further the heats of the world.

[3] But that the dissolved reins may worthily be girded, and the heart be burned with the fire of love, he asks the aid of St. Rictrudis, and into the grace of God be reformed; the weak of my powers daily I commit to blessed Rictrudis; in whose interventions under the Lord I most confide concerning crimes to be relaxed, who the secular thorns left, preferred to be joined to the perennial Spouse in the stars, than to the wedlock of an earth-born one briefly remaining, although she shone in the hall of Royal dignity, propped by whatever fragile, falling and momentary circumstances of pompous emolument. She chose not from the heart, as for certain I reckon, longer to be subject to the first, who so grievously refused to the second (although by the King's precept she were compelled) to adhere as a spouse. And yet after the first, again devoid of the manly bed B. Rictrudis married a second, now not mortal, but to whom is joined so great an assembly of the holy Angels and men, immortal namely and insoluble, by an indissoluble and firm bond joined to herself, whose and other Saints' praises he wrote before. and before all most beautiful. Of whose namely most Blessed Rictrudis's acts, of whose clientele I am eager to be even the last, an unworthy indeed and sparing relator of her acts, I have committed a few things to writing in some addition of her praises; after she by the worthy gift of her prayers, to her King and heavenly Spouse offered, drew me back from the secular birdlime, or from the jaws of wolves. I have appended however somewhat of her most holy daughter and virgin Eusebia, who with sweetest harmony resounds to the Lord, on the most chaste harp of humility and subjection, and piety. But also of the rest, by our elders with worthy honor reserved illustrious soldiers of Christ, whose with us most pleasing and most holy rest until the day of the Lord the bodies, the blessed hope and immortality together in the reception of souls awaiting; and whose names are better inserted in the book of life, than contained and written on the surface of a leaf.

[4] Of the site too of our place, which God from its disordered state changed and ordered, by the merit of the venerable Bishop of Arras (a religious man and in the divine law quite learned, but now ordained a Priest, who now survives, and long may survive) more by the liberty of testimony than by the discourse of the name to be set forth Robert's providence in the Ecclesiastical cult and divine religion. The same venerable Prelate commanded unworthy me and a sinner at the holy Altars among the colleagues to be ordained ^f, and made me a bearer of the sacred mystery by the worthy execution of his ministry; and from the altars of the gentile prevarications, or of poetic traditions, a keeper of the sacred vessels, though the lowest, into the monastic treasuries he admitted: finally the sacred orders upon a little man, of merit unequal to the rest, who were worthy of the sacred fillets, he imposed. Of whose namely sacred imposition and more sacred intercession, to the Altar ministries to be performed more secure being made I approached; and to God, who to so great a Prelate in the celibacy of the Diaconate and Priesthood reserved me to be initiated, I blessed. For rude in these, from the secular habit or from the pride of the secular wrestling-school then I was present, returned to the monastic gymnasium, which votive and native from a boy, Richard the Father of the monastery being ignorant of the cause of the exile, I had left. For partly the occasion of the schools creeping in, he excuses that from secular knowledge, partly for the cloistral subversion of Marchiennes, traversing the divers institutes of nations, in a manner to the devil I had professed, and given faith to the world. Whence not undeservedly my heart grieves, that so long with the erring world I erred, that with the falling I sustained a fall, that with one doing iniquity iniquitous things I did; lastly that uncleanly I fed swine, that even to the husks of swine I was in want, and scarcely the robe with the father's ring coming to my senses again I sought.

[5] Thence however the more I mourn, that to the side of a gentile or Egyptian woman, an Ethiopian and captive, by the name perhaps of the Shunammite (whence Solomon in the Canticles, Return, return O Shunammite, not yet sufficiently re-purified. that we may behold thee) eagerly I adhered, of whose membranes, so to say, some little part I appended (more from carelessness however, than of design) in the beginning of the verses composed about Charles ^g, the incomparable and illustrious Count of Flanders; nor for its cleansing, even the least of the uncleanness of its hairs did I shave off. Her blessed Jerome himself shaves bald, and rubs off the hairs, cuts the nails, takes away the forest of eyelashes and whatever superfluous things, until she be joined to a lawful bed, and inserted into the choir of faithful books. Ep. 26, to Pammachius For so it was done with any captive, the same attesting, in the old law. If anyone wished to take her in marriage, first he took from her the baldness, shaved the eyebrows and the superabundance of hairs or the concretion of nails; and so the future spouse lost the reproach of captivity. In whose not unjust contumely you reproached the impudent wantonness, that he mingled something into his verses about Charles the Good: and grieved for my turn (while with us our Lord the said Bishop made a court of benediction) that ever even in a single word, of her, to whom I had given the bill of repudiation, I had made memory. That captive woman however, so wandering and wanton, indicates the gentile writing or its science: which is lopped off, and cleansed, and that it be inserted into authentic and catholic books is rendered fit. Whence however I have thanks, that aptly and congruously and modestly enough you objected, nor did you resist, as also Paul Peter to the face, where by the mark of reprehension he was to be noted from the simulated converse of the gentiles. Therefore Paul (yet not as Saul) to Cephas, If thou, being a Jew, livest gentile-wise and not Jewish-wise, how then dost thou compel the gentiles to judaize? And yet that Paul did not brand Peter his Coapostle with the mark of craftiness by the cautery of infamy, an indication is the discourse of Peter, which he used in the praise of Paul, namely in the most eloquent writing of his epistles.

[6] The matter therefore being brought to the middle, namely of the unworthy handling of the life-giving mystery, which the more remorsed me, for the dissolution of its guilt, and he asks that in turn Saswalo send his own about the same. of prayers

of B. Rictrudis incessantly I send before the present offices. For the rest I beg you to be mindful of me, nay rather of your promise, by sending me the metrical verses, which you composed about that same Charles the most worthy Count and irrecoverable Duke of Flanders. I hear indeed and hold with much avidity whatever new is written in his honor, whether of the most just disposition of his County and life, or of his most unjust and lamentable killing. Whose namely slaying God the avenger, God of vengeances strong, by His just judgment even in the present avenged, and those who killed him unjustly, especially in the sacred penetralia, in holy times, and for the laws of the fatherland, as they were worthy with a terrible vengeance punished; and as may be believed, to strike terror into the Flemings, lest they should dare more in the betrayal of their Lords, or into their own bowels, by their own betrayal, to thrust iron. Farewell: and with the love of God, who is in you, prove the love of your neighbor in loving us in return, and most of all with us in the most worthy veneration of B. Rictrudis: who so cast off all the impediments of this world for the most vehement ardor of the heavenly Spouse; whose congratulating fame too Charles even that illustrious Count of Flanders in the necessities of his own met most gratefully. formerly devout to St. Rictrudis, But hastening to that business, I have published this letter, and scarcely written just now I have sent it, our bearer-minister hastening to his own, to whom I have committed it to be amended, reread and rendered to you. Do you therefore having received it correct it, and to the nail, as is said, with the writing above bring it, if there be in it anything of incomposition or solecism.

ANNOTATIONS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] Once in the summer suns, the modulation of None being premised, the customary draught to the Brothers, in the refectory hall, after the manner being served; the license of speech being granted and taken by the sound ^a of the stroke of the boards, Gualbert at the time of conversation by chance for a while separated from the conversation of the Brothers, I sat in a certain remote cloistral and Western corner, meditating somewhat in the book of St. Augustine, which he himself makes to Valentinian and with him the monks, on grace and free will: which recently brought from the Anchin monastery I feared to be more quickly carried back, the business of some proposed morality being unfinished. When therefore more attentively the most useful arguments of that same discussion, and the manifold kinds of speeches and argumentations, and the copious examples of the divine Page for informing morals I inspected; free for reading St. Augustine, and the notable document of St. Cyprian, by B. Augustine so often related, namely In nothing, since nothing is ours, is there to be glorying, frequently I attended; when also the controversy of certain men, defending the grace of God, but to its position denying the free will of man; or on the contrary affirming the free judgment of the will, but, this being posited, evacuating the profit of the grace of God, in the same work through almost every page I unrolled; behold from another part of the cloister but the Eastern (I believe sent by Him, whose name is Orient) there came a certain of the Brothers by name Gualter, of good disposition, well useful, and quite religious: and as if inveighing and vehement against me, not unjustly with abrupt rebukes, What, he said, here all day as a sluggish trunk dost thou sit? nor at least the miracles of B. Rictrudis, a Brother accuses, that he neglects the miracles of St. Rictrudis: which are less supplied in her exarated deeds, do you write; especially being of the ancients, nay her nursling from a boy? Now thy head is distinguished with ^b gray hairs intermixed, swift death will swiftly fix the beam-nails, as says the Cynic ^c Poet, in the white temples; and what fruit will be residual from so many of thy labors? The earth by cast or by casting seed is broken up, that a crop thence may come, and little by little the fruit arise: the vine is pruned, that the grape may bud, and with glad germination project from the tendrils: the cultivation is applied to the olive, that the lees being shaken off, the liquor of oil may be expressed, and shine above the other liquors. And you therefore, if with the ploughshare of some discipline you have furrowed and cultivated the earth of the heart, let the fruit come forth into public to glorify God: if also you have, according to the Satirist, withdrawn your hand from the ferule, let the effect appear in the praises of B. Rictrudis.

[2] To whom I; Brother, I said, dearest, that there were several miracles of B. Rictrudis, neither is the antiquity which still survives silent; for although the older ones burned in the Hunnish fire, nor yet, not fully emulous of the ancients, does posterity, taught by the ancients, hold a certain thing. But that the exaction of both proportions may dispatch itself in few words from determining a question of this kind, that is, what or what sort of marks of her came into the admiration of mortals, they assert these, with the too great and sudden burning of the temple, by the barbaric infestation of the [d] Huns, once burned: together with that, which at that time according to the manner of things had been gathered, the Library. I treat not, said the Brother, of her older, nay rather of her more recent miracles: by which the Lord God by His mercy deigned to succor things in peril, almost in our days. For many things, as we have received, even in modern times, through her the Founder of things has wrought, to the vengeance indeed of malefactors, but the praise of the good. For who ever toward the Saint of God did ill, and departed unpunished, that there are not lacking very many recent ones, or remained at all unpunished? Who sometime her things, ill cautious or rather mind-captive, invaded, and sooner or later escaped the penalties of his presumption? Who even of a single word sewed a patch of old cloth to a new, and was not by avenging penalty with dire exaction beaten? Who ever even a little by driving her own, the burst skins of hearts mixed with biting wine, and did not vehemently dread the scourges of the avenging matron? And therefore, if it seems good to you, let vengeance, not cruel, not unjust, but divinely adjoined; and the chastisement of many be brought to the middle: the multitude meanwhile of miracles and the magnitude being suppressed, to the drinking gold of the vulgar, as being continually serving fame, be reserved. Although equally (if there is leisure, and acedia does not impede the author) the same divine operation, not for itself but for us requires, especially the vengeances divinely taken on adversaries, lest perchance by future and swift oblivion, for the inertia of the writers, they be deleted, not to say wholly lulled. Are not even among the greatest miracles reckoned the vengeances brought, and by their authors related on enemies, namely of the holy Fathers; for example, of Benedict, teaching the institutes of a stricter life; and also of Remigius, the Metropolitan and Reims Prelate? to which St. Remigius the same Blessed Benedict gave an indication of sanctity, ^e sending to him to be cured a lunatic Toulouse maiden, his most powerful exorcisms bringing force and contrary to the malign one.

[3] And worthy indeed she is and well merited, that of her according to our strength we should speak: and it is worthy, and to us specially pertains, That this indeed she merits, who of her own accord was made poor, that her merits before others we should venerate, of whom indeed we enjoy the pleasing presence, of whose voluntary poverty we are enriched, of whose munificence we are fed, and without grave solicitude through each day, thanksgiving being premised, we are refreshed. But what did she? Her uterine offspring with benign guile she disinherited, her spiritual offspring of her most copious and most ample abundances, spiritual nonetheless commerces being pledged, both for her own and her own's salvation providing, prudently she made heir. Which faithfully on both sides being dispensed, these thickets woody, marshy, little from a desert (especially at that time) distant, that she might found the Marchiennes place, she chose to be inhabited: here as it were an anchoretic life the rest of her life she led: here in holy conversation to the Lord God to serve she studied, and her own with her to lead the warfare of the Lord and the thin life of worldly exile, and to bear the spiritual cross she exacted. What thanks therefore or praises can we worthily repay her? with what tongues, with what praises are we able worthily to rise to her munificence? If a hundred or a thousand tongues of each of us should put forth a hundred or a thousand sounds, for her praises we should not suffice: if as many mouths as we have members, should acclaim untried and inexhaustible tones with an iron voice, to her harmonies and benefits going before, as is fitting, we should not sufficiently applaud. But what to these things? We must go, I say, into the sentence of the vulgar, I rise, says the vulgar, ever with as much praise as I can to one doing well to me. Which also in other words more openly it expresses, I praise, saying, him who does well to me. Whose bones, as I began, most sacred with us, to the heap of felicity laid up, are held most worthy of veneration; whose wondrous fragrance the foul odors are put to flight, the mockeries of demons are driven off, the nocturnal specters terrified are exterminated from the sacred places: whose patronages to injuries, injustices, misfortunes strongly resist: whose commands to the earthly Nobles frequently bring force, and (will they, nill they) the contumacious hearts, the brawny breasts, the stiff necks to herself she bends: whose benefits to necessities to succor do not desist: whose tried medicines as much of bodies as of souls to those rightly seeking take away the detriments. and might shine before posterity by the example of virtues: Here finally we possess the domestic companionships of the Saints: here we can merit, if good will be present, the rewards, which from divers ends and far-placed of promiscuous sex the divers itineration seeks through long tracts, through divers gulfs, through manifold spaces of lands. But to these things our most holy Lady set forth to us an imitable example, who in this so solitary a place, so strongly, so gladly, and so promptly conquered the temptations of the flesh: to whom too that in the first place might be acquired the offices of the heavenly life, of her gifts so liberal she willed additions to be made to the servants of God. Therefore by a certain excellence we owe due reverence to her holy benignity and magnanimity, who so diminished for herself her own abundance, and voluntarily supplied our indigence; and the too great want, which constrains the pusillanimous, dispensatively drove off. For us indeed

from hunger and thirst, from cold, plague and slaughter, and the vehement whirlwind she defends; our weak nature and fragile matter she renders more circumspect for the service of God.

[4] And turning his face suddenly to me; You, he said, have the very greatest cause of praise, she who recalled even him to the monastery from the world, of whom by the benign prayer and intercession from a long pilgrimage the Lord brought you back, nay rather brought you to the famous religion, which anciently was not. But also, as is read in the life of ^f B. Autbert, Bishop of Cambrai, according to Maurosus as it were she snatched you from the jaws of the malign robber, nay rather a straying sheep, as from death to life, lost and found to the Lord's and domestic sheepfold, though unwilling, though rebellious and resisting, she turned. Who also so many and so great perils of swords, robbers, travelers, those lying in wait, those raging, and as transmarine as also marine, from you removed; and those greatest two (which still with a certain admiration or with a trembling or horror of the members you are wont to narrate) perils. For as I can recall the truth of the matter, when coming from the Maastricht study, and from you assigned diligently I understood; when from the barbarous region or city, which is on the confines of the Frisians, Maastricht, and also from the most divulged school of the almost supreme and incomparable man master Lantbert, in every endowment of life (that the praise of his good qualities and morals be strictly and summarily comprehended) most illustrious, and most learned, you were returning; into a deserted, watery, pathless valley unexpectedly you fell; the way, no one indicating, no one coming or going passable, you lost; which lost, a devious and malign error you incurred. Night came on, the day was closed: the day being lost, the nocturnal air obscuring the diurnal, in a pathless and woody place you had strayed; nay the diurnal succeeding to the nocturnal air, that same error at least longer you could not continue. The inundation therefore surrounding you on every side with your little Clerk companion, as much of woods as of streams, and as in a terrible solitude, of leaves, shrubs or of much marsh the violence, the monstrous lurking-places of wild beasts, for human habitation remote, sought, demanded, and enough in the very twilight or the silence of night cried out for, neither had nor found, you sad chose to be inhabited. In that, I say, night, the rough, unpleasant and horrid caverns, the tongue cleaving to the palate for fear, unwilling you cherished. But neither the too great morning or evening shower, or the wintry air, or the heap of snows, the Balance not yet plainly restoring ^g the damages to the Ram, more certain of death than of life, from your back you removed. What, alas! was then your mind? But why do I say mind? when rather in ecstasy or in agony wearied of grief, and the whole night being passed under the open sky, nor of uncertain death in the interval of the whole or yearly night, by a slower delay (if I err not) the customary Lucifer of the day approaching, an unaccustomed dweller in unaccustomed and almost uninhabitable regions you dwelt? when with the open and woody, natural not handmade roofs, so many inarticulate or unlettered voices assiduously you caught? when nothing at all certain except the whistlings of the breezes, the noises of wild beasts, the crashes of trees with open ear you drank in? At each of these you seemed always to see imminent before your eyes that very slaughter, at each commotion (but in spirit the Lord) imminent and striking troops to hasten, from any of any even invisible and so much more atrocious enemies, or some monstrous beast of a lair lurking somewhere. That night a dark whirlwind, no sound alternating the watches of cocks, possessed.

[5] But the light of the following day succeeding, an unequal but equally grave crisis, under the evening of the following day, of a sword even to the very penetralia grievously cutting all things, namely of intolerable hunger, set forth a dire lot. For the day, that night so grave so perilous preceding, almost without food you had made; but the following now at hand, like a wave passing; and (as a certain of the Cynics says, Day is thrust on by another day supervening) rushing to its setting, much more you feared; and of life, scarcely retained, to be retained you doubted. But what more? Nor there you, unhappily deserting yourself B. Rictrudis deserted, nor the happy the unhappy at all empty dismissed. For of that same light the None declining toward evening, to your voice crying out, querulous, tearful and despairing, hoarsely with labor crying, by crying laboring (for to the hoarse throat the voice had failed) but through an echo resounding, the sound of a man, as it is ours to profess, divinely sent, though unhoped, from opposite cried back: and you (your little Clerk, however almost for the weariness of labor sleepless and dead of hunger; a guide of the way being sent but with certain roots of herbs in the little baskets, or rather of books in the packs by chance found, the spirit a little resumed) from the woody thickets, from the thorny, narrow and dense lairs, from the shady glades, and malign groves, fasting, famished, trembling, pale, and failing, a certain man meeting sent by God, by so efficacious and so illustrious an intervention of B. Rictrudis, in a pathless and impenetrable place, and also from human sights far removed, scarcely cutting the way before himself with foot, hand, iron, in whatever manner cast out: and from the depths of unknown death and of the wood, and through the wood scattered bestial savagery, rescued: Then quickly enough for the event of the matter the seized ones he led to the hall, with goods many with benevolence filled, he led you into the house of a certain Priest, of a certain Teutonic Priest of that same land, whose soul may rest in peace: who you with his foods most gladly, most abundantly and most largely, a copious fire being kindled before the hour, and even in the very hour of the Lenten refreshment refreshed; and the narrowed veins and scarcely enough fit for foods, as by a certain art, namely the ministration being shown little by little, he loosed; the stomach too nonetheless, from accustomed nourishment unaccustomed, the impassable way of foods, passable by shrewd industry he habituated: whose hilarity and munificence ought greatly to be commended, who so to you in all things benignly ministered, benignly your inconveniences alleviated, benignly and humanely with you condoled, by whom you were refreshed, not a sluggish executor of the Apostolic mandate, Of beneficence and hospitality be not forgetful. Heb. 13, 16 And although gnashing barbarously (as being of a barbarous region, of another star, of another tongue indeed not ours) yet far dissimilar from the ill-cautious craftiness, both in fact and in name unworthy of the Priesthood Florentius, who according to the example, which he had seen in his heart wasting with the plague and poison of envy, mixed venom in bread, better than Florentius did to St. Benedict: and to the Father of monks B. Benedict sent it in guile, as for a gift of benediction. Which after, borne by the ground it harmed not the bird, of the contained color of blackness ^h as if accidental to it and properly its own; the Lord adjudged him, according to what he had ill devised against his neighbor, the higher upper room being broken under his feet (the rest of the solidity of the house remaining whole). Tob. 12, 6 But, that I may return to you, with that devotion with which Tobias, Bless ye the God of heaven, the most excellent Artificer of all things, who you almost addicted to death, from the gape, tooth, bite of the woodland wild beasts freed; with the same power, the same clemency, and the same virtue, with which He led out Daniel from the lake of lions.

[6] At another time also, if I remember well, still serving with juvenile fervor the vanity of vanities, she who the same one before, going to Bourges, eager to contend with some of the literary profession, such things to the subversion of the hearers or of morals not reckoning to avail; when you sought the Synodal Assembly [i] of the city of Bourges, which is near the river ^k Loire and bordering on the further Long-haired Gaul; the hostile creeping-in, which on the whole journey to supplant the swift steps of the four-footed horse, the pious Lord still awaiting you, by no means prevailed; at the very entrance of the city, malign snares malignly and astutely enough throwing, almost supplanted, almost the horn-footed one with you monstrously slew. and over the Loire perilling on a raging horse, For while the stone bridge, of much length and breadth immensely extended, and as high as strong, your companions of that same journey having passed, alone you ascended; the horse, on which on the left turn you sat, wanton, hard, wicked, untamable, and so to say, frantic and intractable, the bits in every way resisting, nor accommodating its ears to the reins as desired, into the abyss of the waters, beyond what the keenness of eyes could draw of those subsiding under the bridge, almost leapt down; almost as much to itself as to you a ruin and destruction (to both deceitfully devised by satan) ill headlong brought. Now as it were from the side, as it were from a far region, namely having your back to the comely and excellent face of good Rictrudis, briefly, thinly, I know not whether humbly, the suffrages of that most holy Matron you cried out for. But she without delay, by fact rather than by voice, I am present, she said, and so with it to be cast headlong from the bridge, why hast thou cried me out, by no means thus worthy of our sights, unfortunate one, or of our protections? Now the horse with brute effort giving itself to the precipice, the two fore feet from the bridge, as in the air, and as in the abrupt of the lower abyss, and as much steep as remote surface had suspended; but the two hind ones still upon the brink of the bridge vibrating, scarcely strongly with the strong hind hoof pressed, the fore parts of the suspended body, for two or three moments, balanced or sustained: when behold the divine, and as we believe, B. Rictrudis's force, both the fore steps, too much obnoxious to the air and imminent to the fall, had wonderfully preserved, gathered; and the contrary resistance, repugnant, to the hind ones joined; or rather in a circle, you almost springing back and dashing or shaking and crushing the head of the bridge, turned and bent back its neck. For indeed even then it was right to experience, in a mute beast though, the probable sentence of Flaccus, He who saves an unwilling one, does the same as one killing. Moreover that same nag, of the excess of its fury as if to itself returned, as if made rational, of its fall or peril of death, and likewise had made him think of returning to the monastery. which from you and itself had escaped, more timid and more pacified, as it seemed; now not crosswise, as it was wont, nor malignly circling, but by the straight path going, yet with swift step, the four-footed ones, who had preceded it, hastened to follow. Yet to none of the preceding companions, what had been done, you indicated, lest perchance of you it should be conferred, what of B. Paul, before into the fire he shook off the viper adhering to his hand, This man without doubt is guilty of death, nowhere on earth lies open to him a place to dwell. Thanks to God however and B. Rictrudis, your after God rescuer, within the chamber or secret of your heart silent you gave, to her rescued from so many adversities and perils, that you would sometime return to her and serve her (as the truth of the matter today has itself) you promised.

[7] So with a pleasant, nor (as I reckon) useless delay, of the benign Lady the benign Brother benignly perorated; Moved by these things Gualbert and the course of his discourse by no means importunate, through each thing to that which he intended, of Jesus Christ's handmaid the most holy Rictrudis, almost reflected or reciprocated, a little he restrained. To whose benign

importunity in few words I: Brother, gladly, what charitably and devoutly you enjoin, I would attempt; if I trusted the unaccustomed pusillanimity of my strength; if by a certain relation, the works of the Lord, which through His handmaid He designated, I held in present knowledge; and the detractors as much of the words as of the merits of B. Rictrudis (for nothing is so well said or done, but it can be depraved, as says the Comic) I feared not. Nor longer, said that Brother, is to be prolonged the beginning of a long-delayed matter: for from the very exordium taken, according to Flaccus, the half of the following work is generally held the business. Nor for confidence in you is it to be begun, but in His, who says, Be confident, because I have overcome the world: for not always is the depraved custom to be borne with for venomous or viperous tongues. John 16, 33 For whom by so filed perfection to the nail rubbed it is established to be carried to the heights, that he should not in some even the least point be subject to a doze to be carped at? he girds himself to writing. To whom again I; My Brother dearest, although it be grave to recollect things heard more than seen, and to please the morals of divers persons; yet comforted by the fraternal exhortation or favor, supported by friendly exaction, confirmed by alternate admonition, relying too on the Lord's support, and B. Rictrudis's pious intervention, I will set upon whatever writings, as more truly of our Lady I shall be able to perceive. The sense however, not as it were word for word to render I will try; and with a simple narration things suitable to the relation I will pursue. But howsoever the sayings be varied and differ, yet with a pious mind, full faith, all doubt placed far off, the sum of the matter be attended; that is, the great deeds of the working God, and of B. Rictrudis cooperating.

ANNOTATIONS.

BOOK ONE.

The benefits bestowed on those invoking the Saint.

CHAPTER I.

The gladness of the Angels at the Birthday of St. Rictrudis, an energumen freed, the pest of the sacred fire repressed.

[8] The passing of St. Rictrudis the anniversary day, The pleasing revolution of the standard-bearing Zodiac, by the benign rising of the Bull, the month of pleasant May, and the pleasing turn of the praise of B. Rictrudis brings back to the devout Congregation, most devoutly and most justly recalling the most celebrated and most sacred deposition of her bodily tabernacle; in which her most blessed and most happy soul, the clod left to the parent earth, happily and perennially with Christ to reign, by the oarage of virtues migrated to the secret places of the ethereal palace. To whose dissolution, to whose funeral and burial we believe indeed the celestial phalanxes to have been present, to have shown worthy obsequies to worthy exequies, the sacred watches with sacred songs to have led forth, the wholesome airs with precious odors to have breathed upon, such funerals as holy Jerome recalls, that holy choirs of Angels very often to the bodies of any Saints solemnly performed. is believed to be celebrated by Angelic choirs, But those, who composed the sacred limbs by entombing, and from divers parts thither flowed together, rejoiced themselves soothed by sacred chants, and by a clear and ethereal light themselves irradiated, and by the fragrance of a wonderful odor breathing besmeared and recreated they attested. Nay more above incense and balsam the redolent aromatics, very many kinds of diseases from the possessed bodies they expelled, and the weak members deprived of the endowment of health to health they brought back, but also to their pristine vigor restored. To this sacred deposition the concert of the Saints with congratulating plaudits, in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles and in the voice of exultation and confession, in cymbals of jubilation and well-sounding, the choirs alternately a sweet melody clashing met: and of so holy and to God beloved a soul, in the battle-line of the living God with itself constituted, a cheerful, festive, and continuous day it led, and on earth likewise to be done it enjoined. To this nonetheless the Thrones and Dominations namely in organs, psalteries, lyres and timbrels, and all kinds of musical instruments came forth to meet; and with sweet symphony praises to God in the highest singing together, the friend of God, the spouse of Christ, the without-gall dove of the Holy Spirit, with mutual honors heaped up.

[9] Her too the Cherubim and Seraphim more ardently assisting the divine service, with the same dancing, the same plaudit, and the same jubilation, with true liberty endowed, as being of the worldly pomp the soiled tunic not again to be put on stripped off, and also from the aerial and deceitful snares of the hunters with wonderful humility rescued, into their consort they received; her same one, forever to live and perpetual gladness to enjoy, presenting her sublime sanctity to God, to the Lord of the Angels gratefully they offered; her sacred memorial, not with real or deletable ink, to the codex of celestial life they inscribed; her most fortified bond with golden letters in the Senatorial dignity with grateful assent they affixed: the testament of reconciliation, for the love of supernal felicity to the members of the supreme Householder on earth made, to the King of Kings they represented; for the supreme in the lowest the Word, not so much by reading as by imitating, of loving God above the earth and the neighbor, abbreviated and re-consigned to the Court of the heavens assisting, rejoicing together, applauding the lesson on the contempt of the world, they explicated; and the things which she had so greatly desired, to which with her whole soul she had sighed, with which she had in every way girded, exercised and roused herself, affectionately they recited. How sober, how chaste, how continent or celibate with her husband she led her life; how large, how secret, how voluntary to the needy bestowed she showed; how divers, how alien, how changed from the rite of her nation, especially idolatrous, a way she held, the celestial harmony consonated, and with sweet harmony with consonant plaudit of the celestial court the same sacred dance of the pole in turn resounded. Whence by no means is it to be denied, that the celestial Powers most pleasantly with spiritual ear perceive, that the handmaid of God, her inheritance (with which her offspring begotten of her flesh and to God by singular industry by the admonitions of maternal persuasion converted, she had not willed to be entangled by the world, or initiated by the malign snare) to those vacant for God's service more attentively had left; for earthly things celestial, and for falling she had exchanged things obnoxious to no chances.

[10] It delighted indeed the celestial bands to discourse, that the Blessed handmaid of God, who the world and marriage being spurned the delights, allurements, blandishments of secular pomp, her husband being made out of the midst, wholly had despised; the Royal threats, the tyrannical angers, the legations of a second union sent to her far from herself had removed, nor womanishly had dreaded; the very earthly King too, although proud and most powerful, although noble and prudent, strong and on the throne sitting, yet mortal, therefore threatening and caressing, both by divine virtue and by the perspicacious providence of holy men and those learned in the law of God probably had deceived; but not much after, the fellow-initiate of God B. Amand the Confessor laboring at the blessed espousal, the Royal favors to blessed concord had inclined; and to the dowry, which to the tablets of her second but celestial and immortal spouse, equated to the completion of the Mosaic law, not so much by flesh, as by the Spirit of God dictated, nor so much of stone as of a devout heart, nay not now carnal but spiritual, as on a high cedar of Lebanon composed she had written; whose pledge to her arm, whose ring to her finger, whose kiss to her mouth she had bound, joined and confederated, favorably had assented. How good therefore and how pleasant; by spiritual collection the Virtues of the heavens dancingly to extol and beatify a feminine constancy, nay rather a woman surpassing the instance of a manly breast; the tender age, the notable flower of youth, the too elegant beauty; the earth of the heart ploughing, the eyes after her back not to have bent; the steps of Lot's wife being turned back, into no snares of the enemy to have fallen; but the cheerful countenances and once fixed in the Lord, divers things tempting, divers things proposing, into divers things not to have changed; in the dunghill of the monstrous pest, according to Zechariah, of lead in the talent residing, or in the dregs of worldly concupiscence, neither after the manner of a beast to have rotted, nor after the manner or lethargy of a drunkard to have slept; finally to the world congratulating itself with her, as being of the world possessing more, flourishing, smiling, inviting, with almost no delight, (although with a rare or least misfortune reluctant) to have adhered? Zech. 5, 7.

[11] Behold what joys in heaven, what gladness, which it is not lawful for a man to utter; on earth of two Lords, of the one to have despised the tyranny; of the other the apprenticeships, an excellent but in Christ humble person, strongly to have apprehended; in the stadium running, but humbly the goal attaining, she adhered to her spouse Christ; the prize of the incorruptible crown to have obtained. Not with a deaf ear therefore more frequently the ethereal cohorts rejoice together: The commands of the holy doctrine of the Gospel keeping she passed through; whose mind the splendor of so precious a pearl so pleased; for whose high dignity to be procured or bought, all her things she disposed to distribute to the needy. Wherefore the strong woman sought and found amid the wave-sounding storms, the divers shipwrecks, the innumerable disasters of the worldly salt

being waded through, and the sail of faith spread out, by the vessel of the holy cross powerfully overcome, it is certain to have applied to the port of salvation; and the heat of carnal allurements being pacified, the course of affluent voluptuousness being reined in, under the shade of the heavenly Spouse, for whose conceived long-lasting and desired love she had languished, sitting, the force of the too great heat too much through the day burning, as happily as constantly, to have avoided; and also from the tree of life the sweet fruits to her throat, satiety with no loathing following, nor desire begetting anxiety, according to her vow to have plucked. Apoc. 3, 21 For so it is promised generally to the spouse, That the conqueror ought to be refreshed of the tree of life. Moreover into the wine-cellar introduced, and now not so much of charity to be ordered as to be perfected accomplishing, it is established that with the inebriating chalice cups of pure wine, nay (as in the same Canticles is insinuated) in the honeycomb and honey, in wine and milk a wholesome eating, a sweet draught she took. and adorned with virtues, Whence it is plain, that the most blessed Matron on every side looked about for herself; on both sides her flank with a walled rampart of virtues surrounded; nor does it now grieve that she, thirsting for the fount of life, gaped after heavenly desires, renounced the nefarious sacraments of the most wicked robber, skillfully avoided the penalties of Phlegethon, refused to groan with the giants under the waters of Acheron; and therefore by the circumspect action of the Saints, through the figure of the four animals, not incongruously deserved to be described by Ezekiel. For irradiated with eyes within and without, he teaches in the act the whole body of the animals to be filled with the splendor of a coruscating lamp. But neither devoid of that same light, which from the same sense the prophecy of the Apocalypse attests, while John the Evangelist re-sculpts the four animals, each having six wings, and round about and within full of eyes. Apoc. 4, 8 And lest anything too much, lest while beyond measure she insisted on any virtue, she should neglect any even the least of the others; and there her gaze not purely defecated should swell, where she should singularly incline her mind, and the more exert or exercise herself (for according to James the Apostle, even if she observed all the commandments of the law, and incurred the offense of one transgression, guilty of all and negligent she would appear); therefore in all things cautious, in all things provident and voluntary, nay from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned, a minister to her sisters; with wonderful simplicity, true humility, by interior affection to the family of God bound, though wearied with prayers; she cast off from herself in every way to be preferred to the rest by any domination; and rather to all all things being made, she willed to be subject to all, of the reward certain not uncertain. James 2, 10. Always before her eyes and in her memory was turned over, the sentence which in the lesson of patiently afflicted she had heard recited; When man shall have slept, and naked and consumed shall not at all appear, where, I ask, is he? Job 14, 12

[12] Wherefore it is manifest, that the most holy handmaid of God sings the canticle of the Lord, She sings the canticle of the Lord in the heavens, not in a strange land, nay rather in the secure and pleasant colony of the paradise-dwellers; not in exile, but in a place by a certain limit predefined; not in transit, but in a certain and prefixed state; not in pilgrimage, but in the Lord's mansion; nay rather in the order of the twenty-four Elders to bring forth harps and phials full of odors, which in stead of prayers she pays eternally to the Lord of Lords the ineffable canticles of canticles; nor defrauded of the oil of the holy continent ones, she is introduced to the immortal nuptials in the Holy of Holies: and now she holds in fact, what in Daniel she had received in hope, namely thousands of thousands to assist the eternal King, and ten times a hundred thousand to serve God the man; with whom our blessed Lady Rictrudis, the notable handmaid of God, is gladdened by the divine sight, which was a singular commerce to represent to the world; Worthy art Thou, saying, Lord, to take the book and worthily to loose its seals, and the rest which follow in the same revelation of Blessed John. Dan. 7, 10 It is clear therefore, that the Marchiennes place is happy by the precious pledge retained of the blessed Matron; nor less happy the Convent, with their Lady most dear, namely the most holy Rictrudis, to be crowned, the royal diadem being obtained by many and illustrious merits. Wholly happy the habitation of the Marchiennes monastery, if to the King of Kings with trembling they shall have served, and to the Blessed handmaid of God. But if, the sin unto death being removed, they shall have sinned a sin not unto death; humbly penitent, they have a certain asylum, a near refuge; the open bosom of mercy the possessors of a certain thing not in vain possess. Of hope therefore and pardon presuming let them approach; their complaints in the ears of their Lady placed near familiarly, Made Patroness of the Marchiennes monks. faithfully, and safely let them deposit; herself, nothing doubting, lest they become like the waves of the sea, herself indeed, nay rather the Lord Jesus through her let them invoke, by asking let them knock, by knocking let them ask, and what they will they shall obtain. For neither in the wholesome affection or effect of their petitions shall they be frustrated, nay rather they shall be made partakers of their vows, and shall obtain the things desired (although sometime by just and dispensative consideration deferred). Such things the session of the celestial college published, such as without doubt the event of the matter wonderfully afterwards proved; while virtue, majesty and power by equal weight and measure balancing the highest and lowest things, through B. Rictrudis's marks and the miracles wrought under the eyes of very many, became more clearly known to the world.

[13] It happened therefore in the following time, the fame of B. Rictrudis's merits far and wide increasing, that the nefarious enemy, A boy energumen is freed. the impure guest grievously grieved, grievously bearing himself compelled by the lash of the divine virtue and the intercession of B. Rictrudis, to go out of the little vessel of a boy invaded not without the admiration of many. Whose parents when they saw the demoniac vehemently vexed by the demon, more vehemently from day to day agitated, nor any remedy by human indices able to obtain, attacking with bites whomsoever, beating, tearing garments, and doing other signs of an energumen unhappy enough; the boy bound with manacles, fastened with chains they snatched with them; and with them, of the mercy of God not at all distrusting, but faithfully presuming, to the prayers of the precious Marchiennes Saints they brought, and upon the tomb of the most sacred handmaid of God Rictrudis hastily cast him. Without delay, invoking the divine virtue, the virtue of the Saint in the boy they perceived, and glad cries of the boy unhurt, almost even to heaven they raised. Wherefore the demon being expelled from the boy, innumerable thanks to the Savior God and to B. Rictrudis's suffraging subsidy performing, those who before had come sad, the mourning turned into joy, glad to their own returned. That same boy rescued from the demon, nor now vexed as before by a deformed and pestiferous maleficence, as owing nothing to the former possessor, the favor and affection of the vulgar not so much in himself, as in B. Rictrudis provoked; and his native soil alone with his own revisiting, by the exhortation of his own, to the name of the Lord the hymn of the three boys, in the furnace of fire sustaining nothing of harm, by singing he blessed, and B. Rictrudis's merits round about diffused and preached.

[14] But how great a grace of miracles B. Rictrudis shone forth, while under the whole heaven the most known consumption of the fire through the climes of the Roman world ran through the peoples, those present at that time saw, and recognized, and those following to the most truthful relation to give faith did not doubt, and to their posthumous sons who shall be born and rise to be narrated handed them down. All the doors of the Marchiennes monastery were open, of those hastening from every side some came, some withdrew, but also of those coming or going some at the narrowed threshold scarcely entered: others scarcely went out. Men, women, old men, old women, youths, maidens with clear voices resounded; Holy Rictrudis, Lady beloved of God, succor us. Of either sex, of either age a quite miserable condition, one another by a long rope of hands (a miserable spectacle) drew, there is a running together to Marchiennes: one another between the shoulders or between the arms carried: one supported another by pushing before himself, one carried another on a litter, or in a cart or two-horse or four-horse vehicle to the court of B. Rictrudis conveyed. An assembly, a session, a concourse, a running about, a sound everywhere confused (so that there was almost no difference between these and a fair, or between these and forensic and public lawsuits); the vigils, lamps, wax candles, lamps, fires, not so much in the vestibules or in the recesses or in the lodgings, as before the greater altar, neither by day nor by night ceased to give light, to give heat. Scarcely anyone took sleep in the tabernacle of God; scarcely even the keepers themselves, the assiduous noise sounding, rested. But of the very great series of those sitting, lying, reclining, rolling themselves at each altar, prostrating themselves at each prayer, one grieved that his foot was consumed by the grim fire, or consumed blacker than soot; another cried out, that his whole leg or the remaining half of it, another almost his whole body or half; but the vital spirit now failed. and several being successively cured, And what more? Some went out cheerful and sound, others entered sad, infirm and half-burnt. But of those who went out sound, those who stood by raised glad cries to the stars, and to the triune and one, living and true God thanks and praises paid.

[15] The bells with continuous sound terribly were shaken and dashed together; for a sign of miracles being done or heard, the course of the assistants being agitated, straightway they were agitated. The Brothers of the monastery with sweet modulation, and high sonority of voices, the jubilations accustomed to miracles vyingly resounded: yet scarcely had they finished the begun praises, behold of others and of others, from the fire through the bodies and through the bones too much raging, but now ceasing to rage by the mercy of God and the working of B. Rictrudis, again the assiduous trumpets of the signs sounded, continual miracles are made public. again the finished hymns the Brothers resumed and distinctly resounded. But what need to so often reweave in writing, as often as the iteration of miracles had to proceed into public? There were alternated in the same place mourning and gladness, joys and laments: assiduously were beaten the divine ears, for the prodigies or benefits of miracles to be obtained or obtained. Which if sometime they delayed, on account of someone's offenses perchance; they ran back forthwith to B. Rictrudis's known and tried suffrages, of whom they trusted that God effectually heard the vows. That therefore briefly may be dispatched the mercy of the Lord, through B. Rictrudis's help, let a brief compendious repetition of the aforesaid become known. The monastery of the Marchiennes monastery full of peoples, day and night resounding, tumultuating, some mourning, some rejoicing together, and the Savior of the world our Lord glorifying, made noise; as if in it fairs were frequented or celebrated, or forensic businesses there were transacted or sweated at. For they saw miracles, ran to the bells, sang, hymned, represented, with the hymn, namely Te Deum laudamus, the great deeds of God and of B. Rictrudis.

CHAPTER II.

The crops saved from plunder, the church from flames, the monastic discipline restored.

[16] As indeed they think, who relate the pure truth, to note, Under Abbot Fulchard still Abbot Fulchard administering the governance of the Marchiennes monastery in his own manner, that a miracle in the showing of B. Rictrudis's merits happened, from several often turning it over in their mouth I have received, which to insert into this little work, at the request however of certain Brothers, I have not judged unworthy. In the sixth month therefore, which also Augustus by another name is denominated, in the territory or parish of Lorgies, namely in B. Rictrudis's vicinity, of the possessions

vying were gathered the harvests, while the Lorgies rustics thus gather their harvests, to profit for the subsidy of the expenses of the whole following year. There was there a wonderful expectation of the people, partly with the sickle cutting the swelling stalks, partly by following the steps of the reapers the remaining remnants of the ears with a certain artful sedulity, from the empty, so to say, trunks of the cut stubble separating, and from the bosom of the earth by an almost indefatigable force tearing out. As therefore is the custom of that time, each part what it could in whatever manner gain in the reaping, this avidly laid up for itself or for future time, the care of the present being almost set aside; and after the manner of bees laboring, and sparing as it were the mellifluous dew of the gathered crop, was solicitous and meditated how it might pass the so long age of the coming year; most of all reckoning within itself the Wise man's wisely-said, That which is useful is dear; and on the contrary, that not only among the ancients (for example in the times of Pharaoh King of Egypt, the seven courses of the annual computation rich and lean, Joseph being the shrewd interpreter of the dreams presaging it) but also among the moderns, by the sterility of one year compensated in turn by the fertility of another, frequently it shone. Yet neither part presumed to bring fraud upon the surrounding crop of B. Rictrudis, fearing the same vengeance almost to be done to itself, which a little after it heard brought upon a certain husbandman; fearing nothing however of conscience or meriting. so that what was the Saint's no one should touch; They feared too the divine fire suddenly to be at hand, if they should distract anything of the things of the Saint and beloved of God Rictrudis; and by a miserable and pitiable vengeance, either in hands or feet to be contracted, or in the whole body to be dissipated, as once, when (as above related) from divers parts of the world, the consumption of the fire miserably raging, to the greatest part and loss of the human race, namely the plague most known to the four-cleft world, in troops they came to the thresholds of B. Rictrudis, in the praise and honor of the Founder, not by visible water, but by the invisible grace of the Holy Spirit, the summits of feet and hands, the legs, or the rest of the half-burnt, lacerated or truncated members swiftly extinguishing. They preferred therefore to abound less, than in their abundance of a thing unjustly taken from B. Rictrudis to indulge their fraud at all.

[17] As therefore the aforesaid time requires, divers pairs of yokes of oxen, a certain man with his wain is detained immovable: by the industry of the herdsmen, agitated by the frequent prickings of goads, the Cereal gifts carried away, to be set out or threshed and laid up at any receptacles of the barns. But when the burning wheels of the wains wore the divers paths, the drivers too threatening, the oxen yoked, exceedingly hastened; and about to return by a hastened journey for other things cut down and exposed in the fields, the former loads of the crops set down; a spectacle was made a certain one of the husbandmen, of certain passing by and asking, why there immovable in the daytime as a stone he stood? why he hesitated? why he stuck? why not rather, like the rest, for preserving and bringing in his necessary stipends, did he intend home in great haste, and the wain and the oxen which in that same place he held fixed, for the rest if any remained to be gathered, lead back? But he first using tearful sighs, meanwhile however agitating but in vain the oxen with goads, to those pressing and inquiring the stupendous matter the wretch in few words gave answer, saying himself to be held by divine judgment, urged by the avenging sentence of the supreme Judge, and for an old crime, with a new shame perhaps adjoined, by a renewed scourge from the Ancient of days, now on the throne residing, as is read in Daniel, to be touched. For so he says: I beheld till the thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days sat. Dan. 7, 9, Job 41, 23 Not however (he added) Once the abyss as if growing old, as in Job of Leviathan is said, did I esteem: but rather with the Psalmist, The judgments of the Lord to be a great abyss not undeservedly I learned. But what more? Psalm 53, 7 I say at length myself not to be conscious of any nefarious committed thing; and unloading it nothing the more profiting, yet nothing will I leave unattempted to in whatever manner approach, what very early I left, the hut. The oxen therefore I will relieve, the wain I will unload, not without damage the sheaves of ears I will throw down, and the thrown ones I will try to depart. These things said, he ascended the cart, the loads continuously he cast down; and to loss, as before to gain of the family substance, he reckoned he must labor. But the wain wholly emptied, neither the encouragement of the pricking goad, nor the outcry or anger of the chafing and indignant rustic, profited, the oxen not even kicking back; none of them even a little in going moved a foot from the place.

[18] Therefore the rustic raving, with the gnashing of teeth striking terror, hand on hand the sign of grief on his breast redoubling, beat the sides of the wretched cattle, with knotty staves, with the hard matter of the ways, namely with clods and the strokes of stones; sometimes the hinder ones, sometimes the fore ones, as if for help, with the pole drawing forth and pushing the wheels, hurt the bodies of the oxen, nothing advancing, while destitute of counsel he asks the help of God, as immovable, and as if wholly stiffening into stones. Wherefore at both evils, at both damages groaned beyond measure the wretched little man; namely the oxen unusually beyond custom stupefied in the stable, and also the crops shaken out under the open sky in the streets in a quite inconvenient barn. What therefore should he do? Should he go? Alone he was unwilling. Should he leave the bullocks? Absent, for them and especially for the cast-down sheaves he feared. Again and again should he urge the same? And this very often he had done, nor profited. What therefore? The wain very often unloaded, again he loaded; the sheaves so often thrown down, again he placed on top; and long hesitating there, the divine clemency, which so often regarded the desolate and heard the prayers of the humble, devoutly he awaited. Nor long was the divine mercy absent, which to the wretched man demonstrated, by what misfortune he was detained in that same place himself and his so often beaten most wretched cattle. For terrified by the terror of the divine vengeance soon to be at hand a certain of the clientele of Roger Castellan of Lille, by a name as it were barbarous, as they say, Ferragus, [he understands that from the crop of St. Rictrudis 3 sheaves were joined to his own,] what he had committed, or what of damage he had brought upon B. Rictrudis, disclosed to very many who had come, wondering at such and so unusual a matter; and only three sheaves, which secretly he had placed on the rustic's cart, indicated; saying them without doubt to have been the cause of the immobility to the wretched and so often beaten oxen. Which when once, twice and thrice with the admiration of many he repeated; the spoils drawn from that same wain (which he alone, who had laid them up, the husbandman being ignorant, recognized) into the midst he threw, and them to the Prefect, tithing or collecting B. Rictrudis's tithes, forthwith rendered; and pardon but also the grace of the most holy Rictrudis he required, and easily obtained.

[19] Wherefore the husbandman, the hope of escaping received vehemently made glad, as if before he had borne nothing of inconvenience, and these being restored freed he is dismissed. the former sadness soon from himself in every way cast off, the mourning into joy he changed; and the goads being seized, the animals accustomed to the yokes to take up the customary journey he roused. Thou wouldst discern the wonderful, stupendous, unexpected marks of God and B. Rictrudis's deeds, and which could elicit from hearts though adamantine the streams of tears. For the oxen forthwith almost more agile than feathered birds, taking up the journey, as if they felt no loads of the wain, most swiftly hastened to those barns, which the rustic leading they had disposed to approach. Meanwhile that same dweller of the country, with hands clapped, with immense voices, what B. Rictrudis had done for him, what glad and what sad things had been for him, to whatever husbandmen he met he did not conceal; but to all all things which had been done, through all the places through which he walked, for an immense miracle he promulgated. Psal. 117, 18 Ferragus likewise the aforesaid, who had shown himself to have been the cause, who could utter with the Psalmographer, Chastising the Lord hath chastised me, by the divine admonition corrected, although not yet through his own, but through the so evident misfortune of another, a great testimony of sanctity to St. Rictrudis bore; and that nothing unjust ought to be done toward the Saint and the elect of God testifying; such a thing further by no means presumed to attempt; and also those acting depravedly equally, lest henceforth they should attempt such things, in few words admonished. Happily indeed it is done for him, who from another's inconvenience is corrected to the profit of salvation, as by a certain from a certain presage of the divine oracle,

Thy affair then is at stake, when the neighboring wall burns,

evidently and cautiously is asserted. Let everyone therefore beware to bring damages to B. Rictrudis or her own, who so regards not only the quantity, but also the quality and faculty of the thing, by nefarious art to be acquired.

[20] Worthy too of memory seems also that notable miracle, At Wasiers the heaps of hay and crops burning around the church, which was done in the village from the clods, as we think, called Wasiers, by the clemency of God, and also through the merits of B. Rictrudis. In the same, namely, according to the size of the village, a church is dedicated in honor of our Lord and of as Blessed as venerable the handmaid of God Rictrudis. But, as happens in the haymaking and reaping time, from the field gathered a mass of hay and crop, near and around the aforesaid village church, for the greater both preservation and security, was placed, a quite short way and narrow, scarcely passable for those approaching to the solemnities of Masses, being left. But although with fragile matter surrounded, walled and fenced about the church was; itself however by the divine nod and B. Rictrudis's protection, from the perils of the sudden overflowing flames of fire, mercifully was rescued. Attend, peoples of the Savior and Redeemer of the world, attend, I pray and see the wonderful testimonies of your Creator. Whether therefore by chance, or by the craft of some malign one, or from the heat of a certain burning village, by a certain impetuous and sudden leap, the fire began in the hay and crop to rage, more and more to grow, to exert its strength and vehemently to exercise it: the globes of flames, as the burnings of a boiling oven, and the burning cords of sparks began to fly up, to obscure the air, to threaten the church, to wish to lick the summits of the holy place, and not be able.

[21] For from the beginning of the fire, in the middle summits of the house of God, the Saint is beheld to protect it, a woman of wonderful beauty, of imperious carriage, clothed in snowy garments, seemed to stand by, to defend the church, to deflect the globes of flames this way and that, nor to suffer the raging fires to approach nearer. The fiery heat ascended the higher parts, but the most beautiful womanly image standing above, with broad and white sleeves spread hither and thither, the same continually to the lower parts turned back. The flaming points the green matter though abundantly from the lower parts fed: but the imperious Matron the matter with its flames from the upper parts powerfully pressed down and cast down. For the flaming pyramid, with fiery hail neither its anger nor the subjected matter in any way spared: but the Mistress from the more eminent roofs against the one sparing none and more and more raging pressing on, the indignant pest to spare the chapel consecrated to her compelled. But those who from near and those who from afar, the flames not being able to resist, nor to succor the crop or the heaps of hay, now forgetful of the annual substance perishing under the fire, only condoled with the church, likewise straightway and by the same consumption of the fire about to perish. What therefore? Each one in affliction and straits very often broke forth into these words or laments, O St. Rictrudis,

blessed Lady, save it, I beseech; thine is the church. But by the obscurity of the smoking air they could not with their gaze fully make out the comely beauty of the woman, at the pinnacle of the temple, until the matter being consumed the fire subsided. the fire chafing and from everywhere scraping together matter for continuing its strength, for the protection of her dwelling. What more? The blessed often-named woman projecting forth, the eminent matter from the rapacious wolf, that is the overflowing fire, as a sheep snatching, the strength of the fire being wearied the point of the fire fell, falling failed, and lulled little by little grew quiet. But then those who from farther off, and therefore more freely had looked on, affirmed, swore, and by deferring to judgment wished to convince and prove, that they had seen B. Rictrudis on the top of the ridge of the temple at the hour of the fire, and the approach of the flames from the place consecrated to her constantly to have prohibited. Such things our Lord cares to show concerning B. Rictrudis, that He may show how great veneration she is worthy of among men.

[22] Since therefore our most blessed Lady Rictrudis, the handmaid of Almighty God, protects and defends so the other places, which in her honor are consecrated; what therefore do we think she will do in a special place, The monks dissenting from their Abbot, where her sacred bones rest? Which she strenuously preserving and between pious arms embracing the confines of Marchiennes, the enemy will not prevail: he will be able to contrive, but by no means to prevail. For the bracelet is bored through her jaw, the enemy will not prevail: but if it had not been bored through, his most evil attempts frustrated he would not so quickly have deserted. The malign one tried indeed to destroy the Marchiennes place; and the house of God, which becomes holiness unto length of days, to reduce to nothing: he tried indeed, and, the divine will permitting, a part of his attempt he effected; but again, the same goodness regarding, from the begun attempt he desisted. Yet to this he tried, that he might reduce into solitude the place, from which the sower of discord between the sheep and the shepherd, alas the crime! had taken away the unity of peace. The shepherd pretended a cause against the sheep, that religion was not kept by them; the sheep against the shepherd, that the bodily necessity was not sufficiently bestowed on them. The shepherd intimated, as the matter had itself, that it was commanded him by the Bishop, that whatever flock he had under his hand, he should represent to him and by exerting just judgment; the flock on the contrary brought forth, that it ought not to be put under the Episcopal hand, correction or punishment. By this altercation therefore this way and that, alas the shame! making parties, and the enemy sowing the cockle of discord, and the venom of the ancient death, served, diffusing, the house of God was neglected; the service of God being neglected, the sacred altars too being neglected, the sacred edifice little by little was endangered. None indeed had remained in it, who either by day or night should celebrate the due psalmody in the house of the Lord; no one of the Brothers of the customary and accustomed convent was present, who with David on the ten-stringed psaltery, on the harp, timbrel and choir before the Ark of God after the manner of the Fathers should play; whence not now the daughter of Saul, but the malign robber; nor now by deriding, but by envying, the enemy grieved.

[23] The ancient enemy plainly rejoiced, perceiving opened to him the freer accesses of the house of God: the most evil preacher exulted, seeing himself not resisted by the customary songs of the sacred exorcisms. and the cult of the sacred bodies being neglected, By whose envy finally death entered into the world, he rejoiced above other misfortunes, that the bodies of the Saints were neglected, nor illustrated by a decent abundance of lamps; nor frequented, after the old custom, by the sacred offerings, observances, and devotions of the faithful. By the blemish therefore of envy, by the corruption of malice affected and vehemently infected, not his first but greater arts and more perverse he exerted, repelling the approach of the faithful, in the house of God devout watches to keep preferring: for they dared not to approach nearer, or within the monastery to hide, or passing the night to rest. For they said, that by I know not what terrible voices, in the nocturnal time they were wearied; and that by the bleating of cattle, the roaring of asses, the hissings of serpents, the gnashing of swine or mice, or by any feigned noise of divers animals they were terrified. But seeking refuge, they were therefore the more terrified, because by the matter of any light, the darkness of night was the less driven off; nor were the horrors of shadows, by the illumination of the accustomed lamp before the bodies of the Saints, in the inner and more secret little shrine at least wiped away. For to this of miseries the matter now had been reduced, that the singular and B. Rictrudis's faithful and familiar Brother, who bolder than the rest, his diligence, equally in nocturnal as in diurnal time, to the tabernacle of God both deserted and desolate bestowed, had not whence he might buy the simple aliments of life, much less for illustrating the relics of the holy bodies the lights both diurnal and nocturnal. But the enemy of the human race, the enemy ever of light, nothing greater after souls, than the prison darknesses required: who the blackness and horror of the deep night, with his blackness and horror blacker and more horrible made: who so much the more securely within the walls of the temple wandered, the more secure he was, because no one's merit within the space of the holy habitation like was found.

[24] Datius the Bishop of the Milanese, B. Gregory relates at Corinth to have joined a conflict with a demon, the demon possessed the place as his own. when the same Bishop by night resting the demon with astute and iniquitous whisperings disquieted; but the Bishop lest he should not bring too great force without prejudgment, should pre-occupy a snatched house of wonderful magnitude, sufficient for his great retinue, namely a horrible habitation by demonic mockery for a long time possessed. Dial. 3. c. 4 Whom also the most reverend Priest with words of reproach, with words rebuking, reproving, and reproaching his fall, pursued; Now, saying, glory wretch, once reckoning thyself ought to become like or equal to the Most High; now lift thyself on high, wicked one, whose horn the Lord has broken, whose proud neck He has broken; now, I say, be proud, criminal, since thou seest, or rather thou thyself makest to be equated to thyself any animal even to a vile and little shrew-mouse. Cease, wretch, cease the ancient arts, craftinesses, guiles, frauds, to the servants of God, born again from the font, signed on the brow, especially the undeserving, to weave: the woman, who is reported in the Apocalypse to have brought forth a male, to persecute desist: from heaven to earth now cast down, the gehennal penalties, to thy calamities or torments imminent, intolerable to be it becomes at least to remember. But the weight and force of the words of the kindly Prelate the enemy did not sustain; for neither did the exterminated wicked spirit to the house long possessed, and now not his, further appear. But not yet in the same Marchiennes monastery, namely in the place destitute of its own, had the Lord indicated his future clients approved to Himself and religious to be present or to serve religion: whom at a time pleasing to Himself together both to be at hand He bade, the armor He ministered, the contest to rouse Leviathan firmly He taught. Meanwhile negligently and sordidly the utensils of the tabernacle of God were handled, and its goods were dissipated: because of the impetuous, intestine, or conspired crises of the hostile bands rushing in. But the exterior benefits, deputed to the uses of the Brothers, constituted by the ancients for the uses of the Brothers, lay open to plunderings, spoils, rapines: and because there was none who should resist or contradict those incessantly plundering, on this account the robbers to plunder, to scatter, to dissipate, even to the least farthing by no means rested. But what through each particular? For if more clearly and more evidently with running stylus all the kinds of dissension, destruction or subversion, and also permutation of the Marchiennes monastery we should try to unfold; the mind, tongue, and hand would fail, the papers perhaps would not suffice, the hearers would doubt to believe.

[25] Therefore the just Lord, not so much the Shepherd, as the Hireling of the house of the Lord, until under a new Abbot discipline was restored. who was (as they said) the head and author of all the depraved disputation, according to His just judgment justly judged; with the rod, with which He willed, He struck him; and from the Prefecture or from the seat of the Abbey, in the manner in which He willed, He deposed him: and a successor, whom He knew worthy, and who was worthy, pleasing to Himself and religious, in his place He substituted. And so the pious Lord the continuous and assiduous prayers of B. Rictrudis heard, the place so neglected He relieved; which at length a house of obedience He made, and religion being conferred to religion the servants of God there gathered together He commanded to keep watch. From that time therefore, with the irrigation of the saving word He bedewed their hearts; and eternal life, if they shall have remained in the purpose of religion, He promises.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles wrought in the restoration of the monastery through St. Rictrudis.

[26] In the magnitude or admiration of so great a miracle, of the renovation or restitution of the Marchiennes monastery, The Brother who alone had persisted in the monastery, after the glory of the Lord wonderfully shone, and how great B. Rictrudis was with God became known, a matter admirable, stupendous and unexpected in the same monastery, by the Lord now visited, happened. For the diligent and solicitous Brother, whom above we have foretasted (the rest being put to flight by the most foul significations of the unclean spirits) intent on monastic things, while the monastic habit being taken up to the Lord he served, and no less than usual to the church watched over the business and devotion of religion and the fellowship of the Brothers; was too much aggravated in his genitals, nor to any work, as he was wont (for neither could he, too sick or detained by an intolerable lot) further girded himself. For dissolved in the privy parts, by a hernia which he had incurred by laboring, by carrying heavy loads, by sustaining unbearable ones, by continuing works, by repairing things falling, by running through arduous places, by leaping over difficult ones; now failing, between his groins he scarcely sustained his bowels, which from the belly's cavity, from the hidden domicile of the uppermost parts, flowed horribly to the lowest parts tuberous, gibbous, and elephantine, the unshapely deforming genitals. Lastly sending forth manifold wailings and tearful sighs, almost to his extremity, he was vexed with an infirmity as continual as daily. To whom therefore neither art, nor ingenuity, nor exercise, nor the experiment of carnal medicine, finally no accustomed antidote of skilled physicians promised an indication of health to follow; no human remedy being applied, B. Rictrudis, not cutting with material iron, not the hand freeing the intestines, the foot constrained in a stock, or rather with ropes bound, beams placed under the body in the manner of a stock composed for incision, not the needle repairing the skin, the thread imitating the way of the needle, not even the cut one on painted hangings or softly strewn supports reclining the sick man, or with the long use of baths or unguents the inflicted wound fomenting; but by spiritual fomentation, by a saving liquor, with invisible oil suffused, in a moment made the religious Brother enjoy the desired health. he is healed in the repairing of a certain window. Hold, Brothers, briefly what I say, hold; memorially preserve, I pray, the wonderful things of God. The aforesaid Brother therefore, while almost even to death he was aggravated by the dissolution of the groin, and of his health altogether there was despair; he approached, asked, knocked at the ears of B. Rictrudis; and health, while one of the more eminent stones of the glass window to the remaining wall of the Saints present from devotion he was repairing, and mercy under the same becoming structure of the crypt he besought, mercy he obtained: for which unhoped and wholly attained, continually due praises and thanks, although not yet publicly, to God and the most holy handmaid of God not ceasing to render, to spiritual works thenceforth with greater instance he girded himself wholly.

[27] Thence began the old things, as seemed necessary, to be pulled down; new things, as was deemed opportune and the matter suffered, For the restoration of the dormitory to be built; wood, stones, mortar

to be brought together; the walls long neglected by disuse, to be repaired, the new ones inserted into the old to be raised higher. Among the other halls or workshops of the monastery, however, the house of rest more needed the hand of a repairing craftsman; to which the Brothers, both after the diurnal, and after the nocturnal, both in winter and in summer; synaxis, intended to go to rest. Therefore both the Abbot, and he who was over the garments, the same who in the vulgar edition is called the Chamberlain, the convent assigns the expenses of its wardrobe; by the consent or prayer of the whole Congregation, there bestowed the expenses of the garments; preferring to lack the customary distribution of vestments, than to be drenched by the most infesting collision of rains, especially wintry ones; than also to be disquieted by the malign and intolerable whispering of the little flies, which are better called gnats; nor less by the dusty squalor of the antiquated matter, and therefore dissolved into the minute particles of rottenness or putrefied wood, and also by the filthy ejection of unclean animals, which it is not necessary to express by name through each. And so with all haste, the price being computed, from others' lands, a heap of stones, beams, and woods exceedingly necessary for this work being conveyed, with much solicitude, the rest of the necessity of the house of God being interposed, the hall of the Brothers resting after labor as if from scratch began to be composed; but also by a certain new insertion of a new wall with the old on either side, by the hand of the masons, namely of two monks (of whom one the father, the other the son) of the church of the faithful to grow higher.

[28] But indeed when with fervent and brisk zeal the begun work advanced, which work while it is being promoted, and with immense joy the multitude of craftsmen exhorted and admonished one another; the envious creeping-in of the malign enemy, both hostile to the associated assembly and little by little under the pretext of religion to be associated, by no means was lacking: which all that collection, congratulating concerning the advance or repair or renovation of the heavenly habitation, the old (as they say of the serpent) skin laying aside, into immense sadness turned. For while from the frequency of the neighbors (who had assembled there, as to a feast day, or as almost bees to the hive, at the trumpet of the bells heard) above a heap of beams was being fitted, upon a pile of woods, on either brink of the walls in the manner of ladders composed; a workman wishing to succor a beam about to fall one of the craftsmen of those standing at the top, fixing the higher mass of matter with the lower by nails, seeing from afar the penultimate beam incompositely drawn through, and so perilously from the hands not so much of those drawing, as of those drawing down and striving toward arduous things to slip; with juvenile strength, through the heaped beams in the upper row placed crosswise, leaps too great, too ample and incomposite, to succor the wavering and almost falling beam, he made; and a helper to the many striving, with the wooden auxiliary machines with ropes placed in the midst, as quickly as possible to be present he wished. But while he hastened; while to those holding up the wooden mass on high, lest it should be loosed, he cried out; and the threefold rope bound to the beam to grasp, and to the rest crosswise to equalize wished; he himself falls headlong, unexpectedly his other foot in the too precipitous course of one hastening deviated; and snatched through the void, with a swift whirl, from the too great height of the walls, the name of Christ and B. Rictrudis being cried out however, to the ground, such as he was, unhurt he fell. But what was more admirable, while he slipped, while by a most foul lot he was rolled headlong, while nothing with him and about him except about death was treated; sense and memory he did not lose, but rather with a certain and necessary industry of life the wooden wall before him, contiguous to the slope (so to say) of the dormitory of the cell of the infirm, with both hands a certain arching of the body being made from the belly extended, lest it should be obnoxious to hurt, he pushed off; and so quite with peril, in a swift moment, his body to the earth he dashed; but with the strongest wall, the Lord protecting, and the most Blessed Rictrudis's incessant patronage, the imminent disaster, all who were present being stupefied, he escaped.

[29] The fellow craftsmen and the rest of the workmen, nay all who to that work more than usual on that day had assembled as helpers, as to a spectacle, to his fall flowed together; and all rather a lifeless corpse, and the companions running up than anything of a living man they reckoned they would find. Yet the former little assemblies of the craftsmen, congratulating the unhoped health or life of their comrade, What dost thou, Rainer (for by such name from the saving laver he had been born again in nomenclature) What dost thou, they said, dearest? Dost thou live? Or hast thou perceived the present and most illustrious merits of the Marchiennes Saints, whose death is so precious in the sight of the Lord? and especially of B. Rictrudis, whose work with us thou wast so greatly pursuing, the patronages? Or, she who so often was a port to any suffering shipwreck, did she neglect at least to nod a port to thy little board dissolved in the deep air; and to thee alone, especially her workman in peril, which be far, denied to bring protection? What therefore to thy own, or to thy wretched wife shall we report of thee? That thou didst sport in the municipal arena, and didst bring back such a prize? But what meanwhile of the merits of Rictrudis the most holy handmaid of God? Say therefore, whose informers we are to be, of death or of life? Why art thou silent? Dost thou live? I live, he said, I live; defrauded of no office of life, and nothing in me the devil prevailing: with my Lady B. Rictrudis as guide and rectress, the vital airs most fully I take, of whose namely, that now with her more familiarly and more truly I may deal, he testifies himself preserved by St. Rictrudis, bosom I have made use in the misfortune of such and so great and so sudden a fall. Otherwise how long could I survive, while so many times distracted through abrupt places, and whirled through the void, by fear alone I could almost have fallen dead? Truly B. Rictrudis from the highest to the lowest, without grave offense to me, bore me lightly; and gently in her arms, or with the swifter feathers of an eagle, as being impeded by no weight of burden, me without doubt protected from the iron wrappings of the enemy, or the snares stretched everywhere through the air in ambushes, for catching, as B. Anthony to his disciple Paul manifested, the souls going out of bodies; which B. Severinus to his Archdeacon, while the holy places after the Matins offices he went round, St. Martin to have escaped signified, a pious complaint being subjoined. What therefore will be of us so involved in such filth? The guest therefore, although not yet a citizen, yet faithfully insisting on his things to be perfected, B. Rictrudis would not be at present exempt from life; nay rather him whom she bore to the earth almost without hurt safe, confidently I say, of a longer and better life she will wish to be the survivor. To God therefore and B. Rictrudis I give thanks, I have escaped death, I am not held by pain; and what in fact I have experienced, the most holy handmaid of God, namely blessed Rictrudis to be of great merit with God I know and profess, and myself obliged to her service more earnestly henceforth I promise. Whose work indeed more instantly now I will resume, and what remains, unhurt by her gift, more swiftly I will perfect.

[30] And when by the bystanders he was persuaded to refresh his stomach, and soon he returns to his work, food and drink being taken at least very little; he said, that he would by no means partake of the offered refreshment, which he owed, to her from whom he had obtained it, to B. Rictrudis. Yet after, again about to work without delay at the interrupted work, to the upper parts of the roof, which was being prepared for rest, he ascended; his companions compelling and fearing, lest wearied by so great a work, and now from the morning fall up to the sign of Terce continued, he should fail; he refreshed his spirit with a simple and very small hasty draught of bread and liquor, and the begun work daily with the rest he continued, and to the very end completed. But this we know and attest of him, that as long as he was present at the aforesaid work, the name of B. Rictrudis almost without intermission he had in his mouth, and with a willing mind concerning her conferred: and that what miracle had been wrought concerning him through Blessed Rictrudis, to everlasting memory assiduously to be exarated he implored. This therefore, which he asked, we have executed, although not as we ought, at least as we could, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through His and such a handmaid, salvation and such salvation has wrought in the midst of the earth. For Emmanuel is His holy name, may He be according to the interpretation of the name God with us, and may He rule and lead us to the pastures of eternal greenness, B. Rictrudis having attained her espousals.

[31] By the praise too of many even to this day is extolled the illustrious, benevolent and indefatigable intercession of B. Rictrudis for her own: From the same dormitory not yet floored who most powerfully, and as mercifully so also wonderfully, a Brother of the Congregation devout to her, laboring in the same work, rescued from the confine of death. That therefore concerning the very fabric, to be fit for rest, the Apostolic sentence may be conferred, The old things are passed away, and behold all things are made new; 2 Cor. 5, 17 And John's dogma in the Apocalypse, Behold I make all things new; the inveterate and consumed by rot, by the craftsmen themselves were removed the boardings of the lower paneling and solidity; Apoc. 21, 5 there was left a long path, so to say, broad and solid, but in breadth quite short and narrow: which should serve the Brothers' necessity or necessary journey, if ever they wished to proceed to the further domiciles of natural cleansing. But it happened that a certain Brother, by name William, to the sacred altars, as being a Levite, called and taken up; to whatever cloistral things agile enough, and to that same work of which there is treatment most industrious, wished to pass through, after Compline, that same malign limit, narrow and dark, nor by any lamp the dense darkness wiped. a Brother fallen down into the place of the Chapter, But very little he had proceeded; and behold, by stupor at once and horror pressed down and seized, he slipped down into the lower place, which is deputed by custom, or rather for discipline or religion to be preserved, for the judgments of the Brothers. Who would not see that an immense peril was to him about to fall, when he knew not nor even perceived, where hands, where feet, or head with the other members, to what abyss or precipice ought to be subject? Themselves indeed in like manner accompanying and suddenly were the fall and the going. For still he thought to walk rightly, and firmly to direct his steps in passable ways, and now pathless and deep places he penetrated, with no or little endowment of memory, ingenuity, or intellect left for the caution of avoiding death. There fought therefore the fates and B. Rictrudis's worthy suffrages. Without delay; the darkness of the contrary vicissitude being wiped away, the God-worthy handmaid of God Rictrudis was superior in the cause: for she ceases not to behold her own, whom by her own, not others' expenses she disposed benignly to protect. But now let us more diligently attend the sum of the matter, upon the rubble heaped there, and for the aforesaid and named Brother in the service of the Confrères, and also in any equal and most useful work, from that very gaping and open jaw of the mansion appointed for rest ill to have descended, upon a heap of lime and gravel, nay upon an immense mound or rampart heaped of the old lowered matter, let us condole. Nor yet from above, but from the side he fell, and continually upon the hardened clods of the ancient wall, the very hard fragments of the ancient oak being strewn under, he rebounded. But thence the Lord

according to the multitude of His mercies had mercy on him, that he did not fall upon the oak fixed with iron of the two columns, (if I err not) placed in the same place as a sign of love of the Brothers to be loved, whose office however was deputed to serve the paneling or the support of the beams. For if he had fallen upon them, soon his head being diminished and his brain dashed out, of life wholly he would have lacked.

[32] At whose fall and the neighboring sound three or four Brothers, who from the completed synaxis had remained as procurators of things, a light being brought, the order of the deed done and the pitiable condition inquired; and over him greatly groaning, that by some enormity of crimes the diligence of St. Rictrudis was averted and taken from him they complained. But he, he indicates by signs that he was preserved from being crushed, because Compline in the Convent with the rest the office he had completed, rather by the nods of hands and signs, than by the plectrum of the tongue and the modes or sounds of words, the divine correction or animadversion, and his own falling and manifold collision of members demonstrated. Over these the same Brother very frequent signs in the middle of his forehead or in the near affinity of the throat and neck made, by which for the suitable interpretation of the Brothers, nodding his head, by the virtue of the holy Cross, and by B. Rictrudis's intercession, himself from the present strait of death rescued he designated: of which thing the fortification a little before by a triple prayer before the altar with the Brothers, as is the custom, after Compline he had implored; and, as was to be discerned at present, he had obtained; but also in his fall something little to the same nor intelligible he had murmured. To whose grief, especially of the right side and of the right part of the arm, and from the pain of the bruised side and arm upon which he had fallen and which most he bewailed, condoling; the seized one between their arms the Brothers, into the cell of the infirm led, or rather scarcely fit for walking carried, and him lamenting and grieving, nor in life or health having hope fully, on a softer bed humanely composed. Eph. 4, 3 Yet solicitous to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, as the writings of the Apostle admonish, awaiting the morrow's colloquy, they invited him to bring vows and prayers to B. Rictrudis before her sacred sarcophagus; and there the health of body to be recovered and restored, if he should devoutly pray, most benignly admonished. But he not a sluggish executor of the precepts of the Brothers, as he could, as quickly as possible the secret colloquy of B. Rictrudis sought; and there with her, as in the secret of a bridal chamber, scarcely two or three days treating of the necessary matter, he is healed at the sepulchre of the Saint: health he obtained; and the desired glory of the King's daughter with him from within he brought back; and to God and B. Rictrudis, the troop of the Brothers being adjoined, he blessed; and that he would serve her, as long as he lived, more faithfully and more devoutly by a saving covenant he promised.

[33] Now the vehement estimation of the little common folk toward the veneration of blessed Rictrudis how great thou wouldst think, and of how much thou wouldst esteem, when, the recent fame of the notable and such deeds heard, by these miracles to help the work thou wouldst see according to their ability bringing tiles, bricks, lime, sand, stones, and mutually one another in these simple words exhorting, Let us go, let us go; St. Rictrudis frees from all evils those serving her, who suffers not her workmen or craftsmen in their falls to be made headlong to death. From this fame therefore, as it were a spark of glowing brass migrating, a sparing at first and infrequent cultivator, even to the chief men, each one now congratulated himself, the zeal of the people and of the nobles is kindled. to tread the thresholds of B. Rictrudis, and himself and his own by the religious deprecations of his own and his own's wholesomely to commit. But who, many causes and secular inconveniences concurring, could not be present; yet the favor and grace of B. Rictrudis he did not omit, by the access of very many good ones mediating, to seek; whose praises, the miracles betraying, he discerned to pass through even all remote places. But the slippery serpent and the livid enemy, with his deadly satellites sad and confused, finding nothing now his own in the house of God for his will, grievously perceived that he and his were basely yielding to the holy religion, which, in a proportion much dissimilar from the former, the miracles increasing he beheld in holy morals not a little prevail.

CHAPTER IV.

The author's paralysis cured, the conversion of the criminal Baldwin, the disease of scrofula cured.

[34] But that examples be not far sought, that we may know on earth, The writer himself, how much with God the Reverend Rictrudis is, of works through merits and of virtues through works; I recall indeed myself, namely Brother Gualbert, the least, I confess, of those serving her; not indeed by my presumption, temerity, or ostentation, but by the frequent attestation of the faithful Brothers, exhorting that the most certain mark of the matter be preserved by a perpetual monument, relating, writing, reciting these same things; me, I say, I recall to owe my safety to Blessed Rictrudis; whom unexperienced, new, unheard-of, cast down, weakened, dissolved by dissolution and paralysis, having now almost no power of any of the members of the body, she restored to wholeness; with no sign or vestige at all appearing (as the truer admirers of B. Rictrudis's miracles attest) obnoxious to the past infirmity. returned from the world to the monastery, For in the second going out of Egypt or from the barbarous people, nonetheless having renounced the nefarious dominion of Pharaoh the cruel exactor, pleading the cause of one inert and in religion still rude, as being a new recruit, newly reconciled, initiated, and gathered to the Lord's sheepfold or flock; a case happening, with the Father of my monastery, the near confines of the Anchin Brothers I sought, and by seeking, the spiritual troop placed near devoutly I saluted; by more devoutly saluting, to their most devout prayers I committed myself: there too finding the compendious hand of the bloodletting servant, after I had sufficiently extolled it, the same running through, the father commanding, and the son obeying (both however spiritual) I gave satisfaction to my vow or desire and necessity. while a vein being cut at Anchin, For the inconvenience of the bloody flux prevailing, but failing then at Marchiennes, with the convenience of medical skill, work, art, ingenuity of a fit minister bearing the place of a physician; the disquiet of the depraved, noxious, and superfluous humor inwardly assailing I drained off, and outwardly beyond the legitimate and instituted term retained blood wholesomely I emitted; and so the noxious things, which were adverse or contrary to the harmless ones within, gladly I lost, and the damages without damage I tolerated.

[35] But a little or almost no delay being interposed, after I diminished the blood, he returns to Marchiennes, the necessary legation of that same Father, according to the etymology of his denomination (by which he was named Amand) of all good things willing and loving discharging; through the descent of the water, and through the same path of the channel, through which thither together with the aforesaid Father I had passed, the oarsman hastening, I returned. Returned therefore on the third day of the begun diminution, I began perhaps to reproach the undeserving water, and the causes of the sudden dissolution little by little creeping through the members to impute. he incurs paralysis: And now that inconvenience daily growing heavy or increasing, the hairs of beard or head by a razor to be shaved or pulled out I could by no means suffer, or the cleanings of the other Brothers to perform. But condoling piously my Abbot with my passion, so prevailing and confounding the surface of the ill-altered face, by discreet counsel sent me to be cured to Dom Bonio, to be cured he is sent back to Anchin, a physician of Arras by profession, but at Anchin dwelling: who before others skilled in the remedy of his art, bearing the bowels of mercy over the infirm, from his whole heart having compassion on the ailing, applied manifold kinds of cures; and for eight days, in which with him I dwelt, assiduously night and day almost by force of diacodion and the rest of the potions or confections to expel this kind of disease he did not cease. But I meanwhile, my mouth basely distorted, scarcely with any kind of foods could be refreshed. Sitting indeed at table, after I had served the daily calamity or abstinence, certain infirm Brothers, where worn out by nausea and vomiting, and also clients pressing or supporting the back of my head, and the same ministers, the yoked chariots of hunger as it were to enervate attempting in whatever way, wretchedly enough indeed I ate; but the same foods eaten, without delay, or rather with labor passed into the belly, scarcely or not at all chewed I vomited up: for the nauseas or retchings now by no reverence could I restrain. Thence one despairing of life, some sign being formed for the confused tongue, between arms they drew to the bed, or as if half-dead for the necessities of nature crying out, grieving, wailing, wholly affected with weariness of life, they bore and carried back. Thou wouldst shudder at me gaping, and striving into words; but my mouth misshapenly opening wide; but with a confused murmur stifled in the throat, confusedly, I know not what, with words by the plectrum of the tongue not fully formed, [and unable to utter anything, his mouth distorted, he returns the same as he had come:] babbling. And what need of many words? He sent me back, laboring on me in vain, much but useless art in the cure of me benignly expended and consumed, Dom Bonio, a good monk and a benign physician; yet enjoining what I ought still to do over this, namely for nine days baths from morning even to evening daily and continual to use, a fiery brand taken in hand, a largish nut in the cheek, the same cheek breathing on the brand, nourishing and exciting the flame, that thus the contracted mouth might be reduced to its place or to its pristine state; much mustard too ground and pounded into powder, with the hot waters of the baths exhibited and mixed.

[36] From the same infirmity or dissolution, however, the seventh revolution of seven weeks being accomplished, and after 7 weeks quite unhappily I labored, very many asserting the same disease incurable, especially to advanced age. At length by the pious intervention and efficacious cure or remedy of B. Rictrudis, whom daily by the persuasion of the Abbot or the Brothers I visited, by visiting I frequented, by frequenting I besought, before whose most sacred body prone I lay, my face cast down to the earth, my heart touching heaven, my hands spread out to the Lord, I received health. Whence all cried out, that no other at all, except the medicine of the Lord and B. Rictrudis, could render me so and so perfect and whole health: which without the vestiges of the former hurt seemed so perfectly to be present, except that inverted and stammering words I seemed to bring forth from my mouth, he is healed at the sepulchre of the Saint, rarely however. For she the pious, merciful, and propitious, the singular, special and proper Lady of the Marchiennes monks Rictrudis, the most devoted mother, sister, daughter of the supreme Father; who though boldly, yet not impudently to one returned long ago seemed to have said, Congratulate with me, little sons, the little sheep returning from a far and long-lasting exile: she, I say, consecrated and beloved to God, knowing well to use my evils, not now as I had deserved, the requital of evil, nay for evil good bestowed on me. For I had deserted my Lady, which I do not blush, as neither the Evangelist blushed concerning the publican, to confess she by whom he had been brought back to the monastery once forsaken. what had been ill; and conformed to the apostate Angel into an apostate, the faith however by no means, but the matter of a monk denying, or simulating a cleric and dissimulating the boyish vow of monkhood, long, alas the crime! I had served Baalim. For worldly wisdom, which according to the Apostle, with God is reputed foolishness, had allured me to itself beyond measure; and me a fugitive from her, with too tenacious a glue as much to herself as to the world wicked

and vicious had bedaubed. 1 Cor. 3, 19 But scourged, but chastised, but amended, or, would that for the better! changed, inexperienced of her grace, as the measure of a gomor, expended, remeasured, and if I err not, the state of religion being advanced doubled, sweet manna offering me for nourishment, not loathing, nor now in Egypt desiring the pots of flesh, again bound to her service, as in the Lord Jesus Christ I trust, by no means deserted me the memorable sanctity of Rictrudis the excellent.

[37] But not only bodies, but also souls knows how to heal under the grace of God our most dear and most blessed Lady Rictrudis: Baldwin a criminal soldier as of a certain military man, constituted in age midway between young and old, a robber, unjust, and to every crime prompt and ready, by name Baldwin, we have learned. Who while he was assiduous, especially want compelling, at rapines, burnings, and hostile slaughters, to almost no one inflicted a wound even a slight one (whence also he himself too much complained) but from the wound, or a slight motion by him inflicted, without retracting of remedy he would be slain. But this so flagitious, so cruel, so execrable man, while by chance on a certain night, his limbs wearied by the indefatigable action of the day, in his accustomed bed more deeply indulging sleep, was wholly loosed; it seemed to himself suddenly that he was translated to Marchiennes and was present, and at the solemn Mass, which B. Rictrudis herself the same, clothed in Sacerdotal fillets, was celebrating, with a certain other in the first flower of youth growing up, Anselm by name, of the Father of the spiritual flock, according to the name of Amand, to God and men to be loved the nephew; both however, he dreams that he, when the Saint was celebrating Mass, under the open air outside the walls of the resounding crypt, awaiting the benediction of that same reverend Priest. And when after the recitation of the sacred things, in the Evangelical lesson of the words of the Lord, after the Sacerdotal manner, his humble face, the apt folding of fingers, with the rest of the fitting of members, to those humbly standing by he inclined; and bent himself, that for himself each one might beseech the Lord the true Priest; with eyes, surpassing the nature of the lynx, the obstructing wall in the bending back of his body to the altar he penetrated; is touched by penitence; and that guilty, nefarious, criminal one, bloodied with blood, but demanding pardon, beating his breast with fists, plucking his hairs, promising every kind of amendment, and willing to repent, but for shame nothing even to whisper daring, he beheld.

[38] Which seen, forthwith moved with mercy over him, she turned herself again to B. Eusebia the sacred virgin there standing by, her most dear daughter; Go, said B. Rictrudis, bore through continually the wall; and at her command being bound by St. Eusebia and bring in with haste him, whom thou shalt find outside sad, groaning, lamenting, but also bearing the habit of a penitent: for he bears with him the likeness of reptiles, the abomination of unclean animals, the worship of idols, as is read in Ezekiel, execrable; but to all these he promises without delay renunciation. Yet first these (and perhaps she held a thong in her hand) bind him; and so bound and brought in make him within on the right part sit with us. But Blessed Eusebia, the most prudent virgin of Christ, obeying the commands of her most holy Mother without delay, the named man the wall being bored through approached, and him through the midst of the flanks with a maternal binding bound; but yet of design still awaiting the commands of the Mother to be repeated, on that turn the same one she did not bring in. Again to B. Eusebia returning to her the most holy Mother, Take, she said, these supparae (that is, as it were the apt bindings of sleeves) and bind him strongly about the breasts and about the chest; and so bound, fastened and seized, lead him with thee, no more from us to withdraw, as being about to renounce the world, nor now to gape after earthly gains. It was done therefore, as the blessed Mother had commanded. The kindly Eusebia indeed, a fit virgin of Christ, to be brought in to her: executing the legation, bound, constricted, brought in, and standing in the presence of B. Rictrudis weeps and grieves, and repents that the wretch had committed. But there was also meanwhile the other young man, who had come with him, awaiting the event and issue of the matter still outside. But him too B. Rictrudis commanded, the spouse of Christ Eusebia inquiring what of the same should be done, a little after to be bound, with a simple binding however, and to be brought in.

[39] But being awakened, he who before had been commanded to be bound and brought in; began vehemently to weep, too much to grieve, which seen now wholly another and his whole bed with the overflowing shower piously to irrigate. Weeping therefore assiduously at the Marchiennes village, called Asconium, he approached the Abbot, while the bodies of the Saints were being carried, namely of blessed Rictrudis and her most sacred daughter the Virgin and spouse of Christ Eusebia, outside the Basilica, for removing, placating or terrifying the army of the Flemings, laying waste the crops of the Ostrevant men, lest the same should be done to the new lands deputed to the food of the Marchiennes Brothers. Weeping, I say, and prostrate at the feet of the Lord Abbot, wholly into prayers he rushed, he asks the habit from the Abbot and obtains it, related the things seen, implored mercy, asked for monkhood, promised to obey God and man under God and her. Moreover, what was very wonderful, that one seen, who with him had been bound through the dream, whom never before he had seen, namely Anselm, the son of the sister of Dom Amand the Abbot, very well he recognized. The Abbot vehemently resisting, and bringing forth the causes of the impossibility both of himself and of him, and unfolding them; and he recognizes the one seen bound at the same time the Abbot's nephew. more vehemently he persisted in his petition, and most vehemently studied to beseech the Lord; until girded not only the reins, but also the breasts, as is figured by the Angel in the Apocalypse, with a golden girdle, he merited really to be bound; and into the garden of delights, as being about to be associated to the assembly of religious men, to be admitted; and of the sought place a co-dweller to be made, as B. Rictrudis had commanded, and had co-signified in the aforesaid vision. Apoc. 1, 13 But of that other simply bound with him, not yet B. Benedict's yoke being put under, the same he awaited, longed for, and with tears near at hand from one near sought. But the too great splendor, which in the crypt shone, and the canorous sonority, and also the remiss modulation or jubilation, when B. Rictrudis in the same apt, as it were subterranean cave, the solemnities of Masses celebrated, with many groans and pious complaints relating, many times the Brothers he gladdened and exhilarated.

[40] Once also, as by the truthful assertion of the ancient Fathers it was related, B. Rictrudis was frequented by a populous access of those laboring with a most wretched infestation of worms, The disease of scrofula is cured, which kind of disease scroëllae is commonly called; which kind indeed of inconvenience, the framework of the members, to which it adheres almost like a cancer, miserably lays waste. But as indeed, the world prompt to evil, the charity of many grew cold, so for the greatest part grew lukewarm the frequent devotion, or visitation of the Saints. Those approaching therefore, laboring, ailing, swarming with worms, and bringing worms with them, the malign itch raging, continually experienced the virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ and B. Rictrudis, and also of her most holy son the Levite and Abbot Mauront; of whose water of efficacious remedy, at the well of B. Mauront the help of his mother being invoked. which even today is called the Well of St. Mauront, which he himself is said to have dug, that it might be at hand for the sanctification and cleansing of the sacred vessels; of his, I say, wholesome water having drunk, their faces and members through each washed were cured, no longer detained by the occupation of worms. Then commending themselves to the prayers of the most holy handmaid of God Rictrudis and her blessed offspring, they set out to their tabernacles, rejoicing with unspeakable gladness over all the goods, which to them had conferred the true King Solomon the peaceable, through the merits of His Saints. But the one, and the same benign, and triune God; who in His own sometimes is not new in works; after whom, nor before whom, neither is, nor was, nor will be another God; the same and greater knows how to give to His faithful, with right faith, hope and the fervor of charity demanding, in cleanness, innocence and sanctity of life going before, and with the highest help of reason to the other living creatures striving to excel. But since a part, as we have recalled, of B. Rictrudis's proposed miracles in whatever way we have touched on, now to the rest, which have come to our knowledge, nor by any loathing have been intercepted, let us resume our strength.

BOOK TWO.

The vengeances divinely exercised for the Saint.

CHAPTER I.

The miserable end of four Advocates and as many bailiffs of the monastery.

[41] This notable privilege too of liberty, as above in the proem it is established to have been foretasted, The faculty of exercising vengeance granted to the Saints, the Sower of things reserved to the free service of His own; that as God Himself and the Lord of vengeances triumphed and warred down the powers, and captived the nefarious rights of darkness, and exiled the confused phalanxes of the perfidious Jews; so not a hostile, but a concordant of unity, and of peace, and divinely avenging incursion of the Saints, may rise up against the pompous tyranny of worldly men, and the unjust power in the chair of pestilence residing of those ill domineering, and also against the factions, injuries, fraudulences of those acting malignly; oppressing the holy mother Church, without spot or wrinkle the beloved spouse of Christ; without mercy, without regard of justice, the damages and calamities of the poor orphans, pupils, widows, pressing on, And as Solomon says, in the worst things and when they have done ill too much exulting. There relied on the commerce of this prerogative men admirable in the things of God, the Holy Martyr Livinus, and the Holy Confessor of Christ Bavo, that we may interpose them for example, for a horrible, rare, and tremendous working of a miracle under an example; lest the vengeance of the most blessed Rictrudis, on those persecuting herself or her people, seem importunate, dire, or inhuman. Prov. 2, 14

[42] The Saints themselves named rose up against the madness or too great presumption of a certain Arnold, sprung of high blood of family, such as appeared against Arnold, and with the chalice of fortune overflowing, but a little after turned into vinegar, too much drunk, no turn of reverence being kept either to man or to God. But, O wonderful virtue of Christ! How much the enemy had been malign in the Saint, whose mouth was full of cursing and bitterness and guile, blaspheming and bringing forth; What to me and to Livinus? But in this manner by reviling, he did not give honor to the most holy Martyr, there for deciding the bounds of St. Bavo, for settling the suits of the people flowing together with a great retinue, substituted. Lastly corrected once and a second time, both publicly, and secretly, addicted too in the word of the Lord to the spiritual sword, neither to come to his senses, nor those things which justly belonged to St. Bavo, by unjustly usurping them, to restore would he, in a pertinacious and avaricious mind: like Ahab, demanding the vineyard of Naboth, pertinaciously usurping the estate of St. Bavo, in an obstinate and hard heart indeed, and like Pharaoh. But yet to the public assembly of the anniversary dedication of the Basilica of St. Bavo, among any who met, he too did not fear to meet, and as if nothing against the Saint he had committed, the offering of a coin within the celestial hall presumptuously brought. But indeed while at the sacred image of the crucified Lord he stood; and from the end of the temple, not promising an end of the evil, the holy Cross he beheld; as if about to repeat a second prayer, prone on his face he fell; and, while he was thought to be free for prayer, his spirit being changed, to seek pardon, about to render the land possessed with injustice, further to desist from malice; suddenly

the wretch lacked soul, life, and lifeless lay on the earth; and what wickedly against the Saints by acts and words he had done, openly to all, who were present and to the feast day had assembled, appeared. and in it suddenly extinguished; At length his body or corpse a little before with the living soul exposed and absolved, the office of burial according to the rite of the faithful, not altogether was denied to the sinner; the land, which he had abused, contiguous to its bounds, anew by his kinsmen reconsigned, and to St. Bavo restored; promising of their own accord, grieving and lamenting from near at hand, that they would not commit henceforth anything against the Saint of God. By no means however does it proceed from unmercifulness, that thus the strong bands of the Saints exert themselves to vengeance; but rather from immense mercy, by Him and through Him sent in, who prefers bodies for a time to be punished, than to suffer the losses of souls, nor judges twice upon the same thing.

[43] They report too of blessed Rictrudis our most beloved Lady, with this same liberty obtained, it appeared also in St. Rictrudis: that she strongly avenges herself on the enemies of holy Church, who bring or strive to bring upon herself or her family injustices, injuries, frauds. For prevented sometime by a sudden and unexpected death, even of their things to the least farthing by destitution worn down, surrounded by miserable poverty, and destitute of human solace, they die. Others hostilely themselves, with their own hand inflicted on themselves, miserably cut down; and atrociously with their own arms, the hostile occasion meeting and thrusting itself in latently, rush upon themselves. Others by a sudden conflict of enemies, on this side gaping after the spoils of the adverse party, on this side with the opposing darts of their own defending their rights, both for life severely avenging herself and for things manfully fighting, giving their backs, grievous wounds from the contest bring back, from which either scarcely or never lying heavily on a bed do they rise or escape. Of whom that seems to be fulfilled, which through the Psalmist is said, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, on the unjust Advocates and bailiffs of the monastery. nor in bow and shield and sword and warlike array shall complete their enmities and perverse arts; finally however much they will be able by no means to harm the servants of God. Psalm 5, 7 A grievous hand of B. Rictrudis, however, especially the Patron (who also Advocate) and also the bailiff of the Marchiennes Church, as many attest, perceived; nor undeservedly. For right exacted, that those who toward the handmaid of God by a bolder presumption had offended, a heavier lot should redound upon their heads of the punishing or avenging penalty.

[44] Whence they say that the perverse custom of a certain ill-patronizing one, of whom one corroded by lice perishes attained a wonderful and from the ages unheard-of sentence of the avenging Lord; and by an inevitable persecution of animals, denominated from their many feet of their size, even in those almost boiling baths, for slaying the unspeakable swarm of design devised and prepared, swarming from each of his members, a certain Albric consumed and choked miserably expired. But how often his domestics, and especially the more fragile sex, scraped off these reburgeoning minute particles of worms from his flesh, as by the hand of Alcmena's son scrutinizing the divisions of the growing hydra, from superfluity I forbear to demonstrate. Nor yet by the pitiable cases or conditions of his predecessor was he terrified, another oppressing the people, as he ought, the unworthy successor of the succeeding office Fulbert: who he too held the depraved vestiges of the unjust judgments; a dire exactor, the people's decrees with indignation and bitterness and anger he handled; abusing the laws of the fatherland, consulting the purse rather than the cause, cupidity more than correction, what was just unjustly he disputed; not so much by the counsel of the young, like Rehoboam, as by his own allured, the people of God with scorpions he scourged. But the Author of things, the Judge of all, who judges the world in equity, did not long suffer the Patron with his judicial rod his iniquitous fury to exercise, with which He of the Israelite people, not obeying His commands, by a placable vengeance however willed to correct their errors. For his neck being broken, while he flew about with four-footed course, his neck broken he expires: the same pitiable Fulbert paid bitter penalties by a pitiable vicissitude or rendering before the supreme Judge of penal and inevitable punishment, with little or no and late deliberation of confession or penitence.

[45] It is worth the labor too of two of the same kind, a third like to him of the one to insert the sudden, unforeseen and unhoped-for slaying, of the other the grave and importunate want, that their posterity may learn, B. Rictrudis not lightly to bear her own afflicted. Dodo an iniquitous Judge, too cruel and austere to those whom he ought to patronize, by unjust questions afflicting his subjects and outcries, on a certain day, with an obstinate mind, that he would spare none of his subjects, too turbulent for the causes to be acted sat down, multiplied devised causes, mixed many false ones with fewer true. And what more? More indeed than on previous days, with rebukes, invectives, sureties moreover being given, he afflicted the wretches. But after it seemed to him, that he had sat enough at the complications of causes; indignant in mind, that by prolonging the justice to be executed many and maliciously devised things he was deserting, he ascended his conveyed horse, on the caparisoned one supine and proud he sat, and the way about to return to his own, even to almost the middle of the neighboring wood, he took up. And behold from behind the vengeance of the Lord, the rod of fury, the rod indeed of an incurable plague, which pursuing him swiftly, grievously, and atrociously struck him. For a strenuous knight by name Guntard, he is fraudulently transfixed; whom too much the vulgar even today rejoicing in novelty extols, swiftly his horse let loose after him pursued passing, as if bearing the mandate of Amalric of Lauda, as much of his own as of that Lord, to a colloquy of the same he called out; and the same Dodo, though unwilling, though refusing, to retire with a savage voice he compelled. And when unexpectedly recalled, he chastised the mouth of his horse with the reins alternated, and with spurs to hasten by a retrograde journey the back of the quadruped urged on; Guntard reproaching him hastening, why he did not hasten more, the back of him hastening with a grave wound dashed grievously fell at the first stroke, nor a second being applied his spirit into the airs thrust out; and so the enemy of God and the adversary of B. Rictrudis's clientele utterly extinguished. Then indeed thou wouldst discern men and women, little ones and old men, leap out of their caves, raise clasped hands to heaven, the just Judge's accelerated judgment and B. Rictrudis's notable deed to praise together, to venerate and to magnify; and also the breasts, which he had sucked with milk who had slain him, to extol and to bless; with songs, dances, by meeting roads to him returning, passing, sporting, congratulating to go out; gifts, services, hospitalities to Guntard to offer.

[46] But of the impudence and notable calamity of the other, whom likewise we proposed, namely surnamed Phamred, a brief and evident discussion, the fourth from the highest wealth will be a cautious circumspection of the rich, lest the same things befall them or lest they suffer the same. Whom the successors of that age attest by true assertions, from annual successes, from Royal expenses, from double changes of garment, to have come to such want, that even of life to be sustained with any foods he despaired, and almost even to desiring the husks of swine he descended; from place too to place of villages, municipalities, cities the sands by running he trod, by treading ran; venal wares of any kind to be borne on the neck to carry he did not disdain; nor of little, but rather of much esteemed for a fasting stomach, rarely scorning common things nay rather more than Esau wasting away from the desired food, he is rolled down to the greatest want. with vile expenses or merchandises to succor. But whoever of his former acquaintance met him, his former fortune, his former power, now seriously, now by mocking reproached him, and the miracles of B. Rictrudis of past time, in respect of this so evident one, as for nothing held. Whence often they also added; B. Rictrudis, the sport of fortune is in thy hands: let thy enemies fear, lest perchance thou be too angry, and let them more swiftly come to their senses.

[47] But of the bailiffs a certain and prefixed sentence is, that frequently with much calamity, with much torment, and a wretched death punished, ill from this life and miserably they went out. The bailiff of Goy, ruling the family of his widow mother, But while succinctly the ill-administered estates by the carelessness of those ill-administering we strive to note, there thrusts itself into memory the sad end of William the bailiff of Goy, from this world, not to say from the miry abyss of his sojourn. For this William, in the first flower of youth not content with military stipends alone, directed his mind, like a bent bow, to the solicitude of the paternal succession or of the family to be ruled, in the stead of his father or deceased brother now regarding himself; in whom, besides the affection of a son for ruling or preserving his mother, flourished the marital affection, happy, if he had equally cherished the rights of B. Rictrudis, as he cherished those, even though most usurped or invaded, of his carnal mother. But this man sometime, Lucifer the face, office, denomination, but not essence altering, not yet however the redness of the dawn into the pallor of day changed appearing, is roused very early not yet the neighboring sign of the Twins Cancer or the solstice scorching the earth; this man, I say, William, the time of harvest near, bearing the industry, as aforesaid, of paternal solicitude, and so much the more pressing the immaturity of the crop to be preserved; while still he indulged the bed of morning rest, it is uncertain whether in sleep, or sleepless he drew in the voice, of one ill foreboding the feeding-down of others' beasts on the ill-omened crop. to ward off others' horses from his crop; Wherefore the torpor of sloth, which most of all I know not by what means about the morning time is wont to oppress the lazy, to besiege the diligent or slow, from his temples he shook off; and meditating on the crops to be revisited (O death! how near thou art to man, but man knows it not) and suspecting no evil to be at hand, on the back of the quadruped he leaped: and a spear being taken, not his own or second that day using fortune, the fields overflowing with new plantations alone with his lone horse he approached; into the pleasing whistlings of the breezes, the wanton tresses of the growing harvests, the swelling bendings of the ears, the reedy and weak spears of the trees yielding to the strong impulses of the zephyrs, not about to return he immersed himself; to the place he came, where lurking and feeding others' horses he found in the crops.

[48] Which seen vehemently moved and kindled into anger, and wishing to strike one of them, he complained to himself, that for himself now by no means, because about to receive nothing, he had sown. Wherefore after them to be pursued, put to flight, seized, and with him captured to be led, or without delay to be killed, he swiftly let loose his courser: but those going before, consulting at once for life and for their feet, absented their guilty selves from him desiring their presence and now treating of penalties. One however, one remaining, and against his threats running plucking the tops of the ears to follow more swiftly he reckoned; and because to a desiring mind nothing is hastened enough, that himself even a little baffled nor having overtaken the wantoning colt, most monstrously he grieved. Upon which however more cautiously bearing itself his spear slanted he threw, thinking to transfix it and so to retain it. But alas the grief! the matter much otherwise, than he had reckoned, proceeded. For the spear fixed in the earth, and on this side with the upper iron sloping, he himself is transfixed by his own spear: on this side with the hinder point by the ground retained, a miserable death he met and by the same

impetus, with which the iron being girded to the feet he had driven the course into his steed, the spear slipped from his hands he ill received. For several causes concurring, on this side the horse, the edge of steel penetrating and ulcerating its ribs; on this side the knight, of the concord of the horse and the goad despairing and beside himself snatched; the wood fixed with iron cruelly into the vitals he admitted, the secrets of the heart he shook, the flanks he perforated. And what more? With what onset and impetus the spear penetrated the recesses of the heart, with that a torrent of gore, from all the fibers or parts of the body emitted, the surface of the earth discolored and stained; nor only himself, but also all of his kindred suddenly with grief troubled: all finally he confounded; himself guilty of homicide he made, from the secular right partly well partly ill the vengeance he took away, his parents unsaluted and sad he left; the family, directing itself to his nod and regarding him, desolate to fortune he exposed and set forth; nay rather his aged mother, not so much the slaying of her son as the turn of her husband more deeply groaning, he captivated. Therefore after life deserted the lifeless limbs, the bloodless body from the horse, by no means recognizing its former strength in its lord, fell to the earth: the horse free and wandering by ploughing through the crops, maddened by the blows of its sides, took up flight; nor returned home in the track, that at least by that sign it might become known, what had been done concerning the load wont to sit on its back.

[49] But long awaiting either their lord and householder to return with the horse, or at least the horse empty of its lord; when the return of neither they saw, and dead carried home by his own, they put forth diligences, divided their troops, surveyed the paths, and now not indulging labors, the ways closed by the dark grove of crops his domestics opened. All the windings and byways being surveyed, at length from the several parts of the monstrous slaughter to the crossroads they came, namely to the place of grief, mourning and sadness, where by the nefarious touch of the enemy lay the lifeless body with the spear-shaft. But alas! what grief and lament, what mourning, outcry and lamentation of his own, beholding so sudden, so pitiable a funeral, over him was uttered? They redoubled laments, beat their breasts with fists, on the face the lacerating nail raged, the undeserving and torn hair disfigured the heads, a sad and resounding outcry struck the airs. After the pitiable tears and the long-protracted complaints (for what else should they do?) not now of a man, but of a dead man the bloodless limbs, a tortoise-shell of bucklers being composed, they lifted up; and others going before, others following, not a few surrounding the sides, into the stone household, in a few days, not to say very few hours, the future guest they brought in, and the rest of the day and the following night the watches mourning they continued.

[50] But by his very aged parent, now almost for grief leading her gray hairs to the lower regions, at Marchiennes he is buried by his mother, obtaining pardon for him; before others consulting for the soul of her son, the rest of the kinsmen contending about the body to be buried in the vulgar manner, the sentence was carried in common, the son or deceased to be represented to Rictrudis the most holy, to profess his offenses, to merit pardon by the mouth of the faithful. And so the next day dawning, again a funeral chant going before, and no less following, the mournful pomp also from the side hastening, the mother first seizing the bier, the merciful, the helper, the intercessor swiftly and devoutly they sought; all with concordant voice bringing forth, St. Rictrudis be propitious; with wretched groans, they placed the bier of the funeral in the midst in the sacred Marchiennes edifice. The solemnities of Masses there being performed, and the due sacred obsequies for the funeral with the religious troops of the Brothers according to the custom of the Ecclesiastical sanction being done, they performed the religious manner of burial; the body indeed to the bowels of the earth to be consumed commending, they reserved for the day of the great judgment; but the soul to God and our Lord and B. Rictrudis, justice being offered, pardon being given and obtained, as much as was right, and as much as the matter placed in a strait suffered, they reconciled. Therefore relieved by mutual consolation, fortified by the prayers of the Saints, strengthened by faith and hope, happier than the brother, who lacked burial. more cheerful for the event of the matter to their own they disposed to return. And now the other of the brotherhood departing from the midst, they had almost forgotten the former adverse fortune, namely the former cruelty in the elder brother by birth, by name Guido; whom they had known and grieved, many beholding, cruelly to have met death; meeting with a horseman, grievously from the horse to have fallen; the seat being changed, from the back of its overweighing lord the horse unexpectedly and monstrously to have rebounded; and life by the too great heaviness of the fall, not so much from the lord, as from the enemy to have snatched away. Whom however they too much grieved of this kind of end, which remains unto the end, to have lacked the religious consolation of a funeral. By these and such things they say B. Rictrudis, of the injuries of her enemies, if those offending her in obstinacy shall have remained nor sometime come to their senses, herself nay rather the servants of the Lord and her own to avenge.

[51] Nor ought to fall from memory the obstinacy or importunate malice of Stephen the bailiff of Sailly, The bailiff of Sailly, troublesome to the tenants of St. Rictrudis whom the strong mediator, by the protection of B. Rictrudis, so openly repressed from his depravity or madness. For on the free estates of her he brought violences, the threshers in the threshing of the floor with contumelies he affected, the reapers and gatherers of sheaves in the field with reproaches he lacerated, those cleaning the new lands in the grass he confounded, and from the begun work he cast down. To whom, by the judgment of God a sudden, as we believe, destruction came upon; while he wished by force to twist back to himself the plunder of the Sailly district, violently snatched by the rushing enemies. Happy he too afterwards, if he had preserved in his heart the proverb descending from heaven, namely Know thyself; if also he had given the testimony of his fellow-bailiffs, by the enemies he is killed, who testified that those would be happy, whoever should not be transgressors of the liberal goods of St. Rictrudis, the estates, revenues, and the rest necessary for the uses of the Brothers. Therefore indeed they so greatly built up that faith ought to be kept to B. Rictrudis, lest it should befall them, another following the enemy falls upon his own iron. just as also to a certain pagan, by surname rightly or by his own name called Ingebrand, a strenuous knight, whose threats, whose stiff neck, whose swords forty in number proposed in deliberation, the benign dispenser Lord as it were into ploughshares and sickles melted; nor permitted them to be present at the Chapter of the Brothers, as he had threatened. Who while he wished to become an enemy of another, himself the enemy suggesting an enemy he chose, the hostile hand having searched out his own bowels he turned upon himself. For the hinder wood, vicarious of the iron, claimed for itself its use; and his intestines being poured out, wars, so to say, more than civil miserably and horribly he waged: and so the Lord constituted for him the term of life, which he could not, diminished by the spirit of pride, pass over.

CHAPTER II.

Another exemplary punishment of those injurious to the monastery.

[52] The matter seems to urge, not to pass undiscussed the offenses of a certain Ibert, The bailiff of Haicourt, claiming for himself the last straw of the threshing, though in a reversed order, once being bailiff in the village of B. Rictrudis, from frequent cultivation, as I think, called Haicourt, under the Marchiennes then Abbot Fulchard. For that same Ibert affirmed in every way, that by paternal succession into his right ought to cede the last straws, which we can commonly call by the name of stubble, in the threshing of the floor of any corn or seed to be threshed in the floor of Rictrudis the most holy. The more obstinately therefore he affirming the matter wholly so to have itself, he did not cease to bring very many inconveniences, the clients prohibiting and resisting with contumelies to affect, on those gainsaying and contradicting, threats, injuries, violences to bring, the brought ones continually to multiply. Meanwhile however he complained of the Abbot, that toward him he acted unjustly, that with him justice to execute he would not; that no day at least for justice to be discussed, by setting suits, he would appoint, which also before his own he might establish: lastly to judge rightly with him with his own he shunned; nor that which the Psalmist sings, If indeed you speak justice, judge right things, you sons of men, by the evil custom inveterate in him observed. Psalm 57, 2

[53] The Abbot at length compelled both by the loss of the family things, and by the assiduous complaint of the impudent man, and most of all by the immense shame, because he was reported of his own accord to be detained in injustice; and for that cause forswearing in judgment, a day of discussion of both parties, having used the counsel of his own, appointed; to the discussion he approached; several of his own for him to be convinced or compelled he called out. Moreover much cavilling on both sides being performed, the one in a wonderful manner remaining in his obstinacy, the other moderately turning aside the discriminations of right from himself; the aforesaid man offered an oath: which being granted, not so much for justice, as for his unjust controversy or madness to be reined in (for neither was he thought to dare even to that, lest perchance he should forswear) with a third hand of his own, as is said, he completed perjury, nor did he fear the vengeance of the Lord or B. Rictrudis to follow for the perjury. But, O little man, why dost thou rejoice at ruin? For it is written, Before ruin the heart is exalted. Prov. 16, 18 He congratulated himself indeed too much that he had convicted the Abbot of St. Rictrudis, that he had plundered her spoils nay rather of the Marchiennes church, that his cause against her cause had prevailed; ascribing to his probity not to his improbity, that like victorious eagles, the trophy obtained, he had brought back to his household.

[54] But the inept gladness is fulfilled in the number of a few days. from a disease fallen into madness For dread and fright suddenly seize him, a tremor shakes his bones, sickness and dissolution rush upon him, he lies down in bed. And behold a multitude of friends admonishes that he confess, repent, communicate, and lament what he had committed against B. Rictrudis; render as quickly as possible what he had unjustly usurped, lest his heir with sin should possess them, nor with sin he should go out of this life. But while they pursued and persisted in such things, but profited nothing; behold suddenly by a malign spirit seized he was grievously urged, his sense lost he was vehemently tortured, devoid of sense cruelly he was vexed, in the bed foaming hither and thither he rolled; nor now to anyone's affability caressing or raging rightly but inverted words he spoke. The family mourned, unexpiated he dies: the gathering kindred mourned, more for his cruel vexation, than for the near death. Thus, not however persisting in the mourning of penitence, before death he lacked sense, reason, and understanding; and, what is greater, but unspeakable to say, the wholesome draught or eating of the Lord's Body or Blood. Almost all who were present cried out the vengeance of the Lord and B. Rictrudis; and that from the former and spiritual madness, by which before he had infested B. Rictrudis, to this effect of bodily madness he had come they asserted.

[55] Nor with a lesser penalty, though a different one, he who was a partner of the perjury in the cause, as also one partner of the perjury: namely Alewin of the village of Sandemont, escaped from this world; the same untaught and too late, what against the handmaid of God B. Rictrudis he had unjustly done, bewailed. For coming to his extremity, he felt his tongue to be not so much in moisture, as in flame; nor a drop of the minutest water, which the rich man in the punishment of the gehennal Etna asked to be poured upon him, by the extremity of a finger reached out, of which he would not have mercy, from B. Rictrudis did he merit to obtain. Whence admonished of those things which Mother Church was wont, especially at the extremity, to her sons

to show, little he consulted for his soul, little or nothing could he heal his parched tongue. Needy at length and poor, according to Isaiah, he sought waters, but there were none, his tongue burning up. Thus those two, the author of the evil and the partner of the perjury, addicted to a wretched death, from this life (no small document or monument to posterity) departed. But lest to anyone, from anything, to anything penally it should befall to forswear, the Lord in the Gospel (the canonical eloquence of the Epistle of James the Apostle afterwards consonating) in a simple and not deceitful proposition or purpose, by the negative or substantive particle of the verb, convicts and admonishes us, either simply to affirm, or simply to deny: But that which is more than these, is of evil, says the same our Lord; and James attesting it falls under judgment. Matth. 5, 37, James 5, 12.

[56] But the third partner taken up of the same offense or perjury, namely the bailiff of Goy, by a like name not unlike in malediction Alewin, but the other punished by the distortion of his mouth, not after many of these days placed at his last, with a most wretched torment he too began to be tortured, by an unheard-of kind of penalties to be roasted, by a horrible and monstrous ulcer in either face deformed to be made foul. For his mouth and the strength of his mouth was turned back; his mouth as if by a cancer creeping, by the testimony of the truthful old men, from its place suddenly was moved; and even to the very sinciput almost, the surface of the face being confused and indiscriminate, was contracted. Nor now was it right to behold, as being indiscriminate, the lips, nostrils, and eyes, and also the confines of the jaws. Deservedly therefore he lost the beauty of form and the comeliness of countenance, who crafty and too keen in a deceitful cause neither revered God nor man, especially B. Rictrudis's minister and Abbot. Thence however the pious Judge just, strong and patient, by no means as much as men deserve through each day being angry, happily seemed to spare him, that from the sole of the foot even to the crown his skin was not distracted; not that some merit (like also of Holy Job) should be augmented, but that the contracted rust of false-speaking from the now useless pleader being drawn off, for the salvation in the interior man to be reformed should be consumed. And what more? Now horrible, now grievous even to see he was punished atrociously, that thus foolishly by straying against B. Rictrudis he had gone into the counsel of the malign, more foolishly he had persisted in the indirect path of the sinning, of the matter of B. Rictrudis certain as if uncertain most foolishly, B. Rictrudis pleading the cause for her own, he had sat in the seat of contradiction of the pestilent. And who now would treat with him of the salvation of the soul, to whom the organ or plectrum of the tongue was lacking? A part however of the friends nodded to him, he himself perishes equally impenitent: what things were suitable to salvation. But he immovable and almost insensible sustained the avenging hand of B. Rictrudis. O most wretched condition of man! Let them fear more vehemently the future discussion, who both here by doing ill flourish, and obtain no temporal penalty of this kind. For prefiguring these things the supreme Ruler piously weeping says to the city of Jerusalem, And indeed in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace. Luke 19, 42 Not undeservedly therefore by a horrible end He stripped the man, who as has been said, without regard of justice, or of subsequent vengeance, bore false testimony against the blessed handmaid of God, and the unaccustomed distraction of her things.

[57] Nor yet thus did the plague cease, nay it redounded to the next heir, but I mean Thomas surnamed Bigot, likewise his son-in-law and heir, who had taken the daughter of the aforesaid Ibert the bailiff of Haicourt (as we suppose) for his wife, and his spouse being mediatrix had bound the covenant of son-in-law with father-in-law in the same affection. But this one perhaps led by the more correct example of life of the fathers would not follow the depraved vestiges; nor after the manner of the former allured by cupidity of possessions, detracted B. Rictrudis's benefits; nor returning to the controversy, the fugitive portion of substance, which less belonged to him, drew back to himself by the decrees of just laws, subjected to will more than to justice. Alas the grief! But indeed (as the Teacher known to the whole world set forth in the proem of the art of Grammar, By how much the younger, so much especially under the tongue with honey smeared with poison the more perspicacious: and as Flaccus says, A wicked progeny bore for succession sons more wicked) the things which had been given to him from the affinity of his spouse, by the craftiness of the serpent he cared and busied himself to enlarge from those things which were not of his right, namely from the just and also free estates, even to the very winnowing or threshing, which was done in its time in the floor of the most blessed Rictrudis. But these neither long, nor unpunished. For in the flower of youth prevented by an untimely death, who died in madness, but also before death deprived of the endowment of the five senses, and that I may deal with the Psalmist, when he was in honor he understood not, nay rather would not understand toward B. Rictrudis what excesses he had had; he lacked indulgence, confession, penitence; nor God nor His Saints did he recognize; the wholesome Viaticum he by no means sought, the memory of good things or of the human condition he lost, the same likewise at length to insanity he came, with which continuing what seemed to be his own he left; which too greatly clamoring, of his fellow-bailiffs in many things toward the Saint of God the obstinate minds either he terrified or could terrify. Psalm 48, 13, 21 And indeed he being taken away, for others as an example. and as smoke faileth being deficient and emptied, there were Angelic countenances, and terrified and fearing for themselves for a time were purged, but in the time of temptation, as dogs to vomit, or as washed swine to the wallowing-place of mire, to their pristine and perverse morals they returned; and what their fathers unjustly had held, and with fraud had usurped, they more unjustly and more dishonestly, and as violently so also fraudulently, pursued. But the blessed Widow, with a dark covering her sacred head above snow whitened, joined to no and to one man, sparing to no and to one heir, provident and humane to no and to a great collection of sons, blessed; I say Rictrudis, the beloved of God and humble handmaid, did not suffer to be given to plunder, what to God she had offered in holy widowhood, for the justification of herself and of the servants of God.

[58] But what shall I report of a certain Amalric, the steward or bailiff of the Marchiennes circuit? whose extreme end of his transferred bailiffship sufficiently indicated the business, The same a steward suffers unfaithful. how unfaithfully he served B. Rictrudis, concerning her little flock by judging rightly, or her things whether in woods, or in waters or in lands, or rather by the cords of distributions or mansions, by preserving. Of whom his kinsmen serving God and religious asserted, about the goal of the extreme hour, scarcely God his maker and of all to have recognized, scarcely himself to have anything against anyone to have known, scarcely confession or penitence wholesomely to have indulged, scarcely finally to James the Apostle's sentence concerning the anointing or the leading-in of the Priests over the infirm to have acquiesced. 5, 17 And when he was admonished of the past perpetration of his evils, of pardon to be sought only in the stadium of the present life, of no or not fruitful according to the Psalmist infernal penitence or confession, and by no means there to follow the remission of his offenses; certain old-wifish fables or dirges he began to discourse; nay rather his neck bent this way and that, that by a certain nation of Ethiopians suddenly seen he was occupied he muttered and certain little reasonings to weave. Psalm 6, 6 And when also he was reproved why the sign of the saving wood to his forehead he neglected to imprint, by smiling or deriding to shake his head, and (what was more discordant) into the face of the holy Cross assisting him, foamy salivas flowing from his mouth after the manner of one moon-struck little by little to throw about. But neither in the article of the penultimate light did he seek a respite even until morning, just as that unhappy man of the province of Valeria by name Chrysaorius, who even today by the words of B. Gregory, seeking a respite cries out to his son a monk: Maximus, hasten, make me partaker of thy faith certain, I never harmed thee, thou knowest, recompense the turn.

[59] His father indeed Godfrey, to the mouth of the gainsaying vulgar most known, Godfrey the Sacristan, not to say notable or infamous, was also contrary to B. Rictrudis; who after the manner not however old of the Priest Zachary, in the order of any his turn, to the institutes of the parish in a quite decent fashion first served. But yet of advanced age, the affection being interrupted of his published offspring, under Abbot Richard a venerable and simple man he enjoyed, not for succoring, nor for remaining, the garments of that religion. Yet long in the monastery he conversed, the things of the monastery between his hands he had; but (as those grown of his very lineage and B. Rictrudis's nurslings asserted) more his own, through whom the treasure of the church was distracted, than the will or utility of the Brothers he served. But also of the treasures of the church not so justly to the same Abbot of venerable memory Richard, as blessed Lawrence obeyed Sixtus the most holy Bishop of the Roman city. And what does it matter again to publish the mark? For he distracted the carving of wonderful work in gold and silver most decently composed, in solemnities exhilarating those solemnizing; the tablet set to the altar of the Prince of the Apostles; three golden texts, namely Codices of the Gospels, bearing the mark of the Holy Trinity, with a golden series adorning the surface of that same altar; the rods of the supernal Aaron which had budded, not however almonds, but the precious germs of tawny metal and gems, by their binary presignifying the force of the binary of the love of God and neighbor, in the manner of pastoral staves from the tops bent back, and to the altar for the adornment of the house of God fixed; the necklaces too of wonderful magnitude, which were said to be St. Rictrudis's, filled with the relics of the Saints, wonderfully wrought in refined gold, solemnly suspended from the panels, or rather in mid-air, a pole mediating, for the illumination of that solemnity which was present balanced; besides a silver thurible of the greatest weight, in which by jubilating in the Holy of Holies to the supreme Priest festively the incenses were burned.

[60] The voice therefore of the Spouse of Christ sad, and her face blackened was hers, who before laden going with gold and also with various furniture, and the very reliquaries of the Saints stripped, in copes, in chasubles and palls, in white dalmatics, tapestries, but also festive amices decently protecting the confines of the back of the head. And these were of divers colors and of the same color, and most of gold embroidery. But B. Rictrudis both the lesser and the greatest, and as much extrinsic as also intrinsic detriments, even to the very supports of the books gold or silver tolerated; until it came to the spoils to be detracted or the coverings of either reliquary to be decrusted; her own, which was of first and purest silver; and her daughter's the sacred virgin Eusebia's, plain, but with wonderful incision and sculpture fabricated, polished and decently composed. For these our Lady, as several testify, by no means tolerated, the habit being laid aside he returns to the world: and as afterwards the effect of the matter demonstrated. For then began to be turned aside from the right paths, then began to be led into a reprobate sense, then began to meditate or devise, what did not befit a Monk or

[61] Near is a district, from the abundance of alders, as they say, denominated, The unhappy death of a certain Alberius. flowing about with abundance of waters, streams, fountains; enclosed with the density of woods, shrubs, brambles; within however with fields, meadows, gardens quite pleasantly green. But who there would even suppose Mars to bear a sword? Yet not by the edge of the sword, but by the minutest point of a dart he did the deed, when through the hand of a certain bailiff of the dwellers of that same little place, by name Robert, the kinsman of Godfrey of Hamage and a Marchiennes monk, he slew. But him who inflicted on him the lethal wound, in a wood cutting wood unjustly he found. For the axe taken away, with the wood and the boat, an altercation began to arise between them, and so from whom he hoped not, he paid the debt of Adam. But the same bailiff before his bailiffship, of the manor so to say a follower, the court of St. Rictrudis very long had observed; at length he experienced, if anything perchance he committed either here or there, which had displeased St. Rictrudis.

CHAPTER IV.

The punishment of Hiluinus the Marchiennes tyrant: the aid afforded to those in peril in England.

[62] But that of the other enemies of holy Mother Church we may keep silence; Hiluinus the Marchiennes tyrant, of a certain Marchiennes tyrant called Hiluinus let us see, and what miracle God, the pious hearer in tribulations, inclining a benign ear to the pious complaint of B. Rictrudis, wrought, let us recall to memory. For in that same district, too near the monastery of the Brothers, as in a most firm and safe castle, as being girt by the enclosure of the surrounding water like a walled circuit, he dwelt; and by a bridge of a boat prepared for this crossing the channel of the flowing-down river, plunders, slaughters, rapines round about he performed: but thence returning, the malign or nefarious troops to his comrades-in-arms, nay rather to the joined accomplices of his insolent tyranny, he divided; but of the remaining portion, which belonged to him, with these same pleasantly, but abusively and nefariously he lived. But the foul and nefarious vestiges being left through many spaces of lands, the matter of madness so far proceeded, that to the ecclesiastical right and the liberality granted to the servants of God he kept not faith; but also into B. Rictrudis's free possession to put a hand he presumed, nor of the little village of Goy, from joy as we suppose denominated, did he spare the spoils. The plunder therefore taken from Goy itself, having plundered the village of Goy, into the villages of Marchiennes he carried, and a part of it with his soldiers after his manner he divided, the rest necessary for daily provisions to be reserved for his lodgers he deputed. Meanwhile of B. Rictrudis's little folk the pitiable lamentation and howling in those neighborhoods was heard, partly the captives led away, partly the plunder of things, partly of cattle or the spoils groaning over and demanding; but of the pitiable lot of the damage no one consoled her. The tyrant himself however is present summoned by the Abbot and the Brothers: but in his cause and answers it could be conjectured and noted, what mind was to be from his premeditated prayers.

[63] But the Abbot at that time, by name Richard, brother of Lord Adelard Archdeacon of Cambrai, and therefore by Abbot Richard, afterwards a monk of Anchin, and not much after Abbot (but of a short alas! interval of time) of the same Marchiennes monastery; whose successor was Abbot Fulchard, a Hasnon monk; whom for his unworthy, unreasonable, unjust and indiscreet, as they say, bailiffship, traveling and seeking the supplications of St. Giles, in foreign bounds, under other stars to die according to His will the Lord disposed: the Abbot, I say, Richard, and those who were under him the Brothers, with the tyrant much concerning the unjust, unusual and unheard-of distraction of things; concerning the liberty, liberality, concerning the sanctity, and B. Rictrudis's future and accustomed vengeance; against the most cruel man having no other vengeance, concerning also his in that same B. Rictrudis's Marchiennes village, though ungrateful, though violent, yet his reception, long and suppliantly they treated, but nothing of mercy, nothing of consolation from him could they obtain. But neither was the law of clemency in his tongue. What therefore? The Abbot grieved, his Congregation grieved. But what should they do? Should they seek vengeance? But from whom? Under almost no one's power was he reduced. But of what? Whose ill deeds if another Maro should designate, what Library would contain? For what does it matter to know the miserable spectacles of the captives, the dire chains of the fettered, the immense weights of chains, the leg-breaking of the stocks? Besides the wintry drenching of one frozen, the intolerable burning of the stream of fat consumed by burning; the wretches to be touched (according to that of Flaccus) with triumviral scourges even to the loathing of the crier? Nay the limbs fainting by the long filth of prisons, the tyrant commanding, looking on, nor compassionating, to be tortured even to the shedding of blood? But if ever, like a second Pharaoh, the unstable quality of the infesting air restraining his madness, with chariots and horsemen he did not enter the bloody sea, that is, the warlike tumult of rapines, slaughters and plunders; he was free with all his industry or vigilance for the spectacles of wild beasts, namely bears, horses, bulls, bound with light matter, a new kind of penalty, by the grim fire agitating themselves, displaying. Now indeed of the rarity and silence of the unknown village, almost inaccessible, nor so by the country-folk frequented, as being enclosed as much by the wood as by the inundation of the surrounding river, he seemed to have made the frequency and disquiet of a clamorous municipality or a populous city.

[64] But after these things what justice from a man iniquitous, criminal, and deceitful should both the Abbot and the Brothers exact? excommunicated; Plainly none. What then? Did it remain unpunished? In no way. But what? Since therefore from a man concerning a man they expected no justice, the justice of God further to seek they did not delay. Seeking vengeance from heaven, to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth not inefficacious outcries they sent forth; and the bells being strongly touched, whom they could not by human, by supernal bonds, namely the bonds of the customary anathema, they bound. But, alas! the miserable condition! nay rather the notable operation of the justly disposing or judging Lord, and B. Rictrudis's worthy vengeance followed! For the circle of the year being revolved, on the same Kalends, on the same day, the sentence being passed on the very anniversary day almost the same hour, in which for the penalty of excommunication the bells of the monastery had been struck in turn, by a triple repetition, for his soul, his body from the prison-house far exiling and absenting itself, by the dire torment of a wound returning to the heart, in the confine of the right side fixed and the groin penetrating the vitals, the same bells with a terrible trumpet sounded. The event of which thing the innumerable peoples flowing together, for an immense miracle reckoned; and the day and hour noting, and admiring, the praises of God they cried out, the virtues of our Lord and B. Rictrudis they extolled, sowed, conferred, he miserably perishes; discoursed; and to others to be sown, conferred, discoursed they brought; lastly by frequent rumor the wonderful to be said deed in their mouth they turned. By the Marchiennes Brothers however nothing was done concerning his burial: elsewhere was translated the pitiable burden of the unhoped funeral; but nonetheless to the borne funeral the Hasnon courtyards were denied. Outside however the boundary of the Hasnon courtyard scarcely a little of turf, by the great intervention of his own, at length he obtained.

[65] He therefore so great, he, I say, whom a little before almost the world did not contain, nay rather to whom the whole worship of the earth did not suffice, made a public example to all and his cupidity, and whom the plague of almost the whole world feared; in a few moments, the orb of unstable fortune being turned, nowhere appeared. Finally of the transitory, passing, mortal pomp, of all the glory of the surrounding worldly circuit; of all that, I say, which we are wont to admire re-sculpted in the worldly map; on which with so great vigilance, with all shrewdness and industry, with an almost indefatigable spirit, rest being denied to his limbs, as if turning night into day, he sweated; a little heap of dust, enclosed in a small cave of the earthly prison, now sufficed. Whence not undeservedly being stupefied, we recall that divinely-said elogium of Boethius: O glory! glory! nothing else made to thousands of men, but a great inflation of ears! But whether he was loosed from the bonds of the anathema afterwards, we leave to the knowledge of the Most High. We know not however whether purer than Turnus, he left the darknesses of the worldly light; whose, according to Maro, life with a groan fled indignant beneath the shades. But lest perchance someone object, that ill deeds ought not to be retracted, nay rather devout supplications assiduously for offenses ought to be made; the causes are, if I err not, not unbecoming to such retracting. For through this partly to the greater glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ and B. Rictrudis we serve, partly to the more frequent intervention of the faithful we are suitable, and also to the more cautious correction as much of present as of future ones we keep watch. We know however that B. Rictrudis, nay rather the Lord by the merits of B. Rictrudis foresees, what He sees to be expedient for His own troops, to His servants so greatly obliged.

[66] But who would think this glorious Lady by her most holy merits to have crossed the seas, where the singular and wonderful Lord, Certain men in England making a journey through winter for the commendation of her most holy memory, among the barbaric and British isles, willed to show something notable of a miracle? For a certain scholar, for a time dwelling in England, thither however having wandered from that same blessed Rictrudis's illustrious school, was returning from a certain city of the English-born, which is called Baidia: which he had approached partly led by the novelty of things, partly by the wholesome warmth of the hot waters, through certain pores and clefts of the earth flowing, to those approaching a sulphurous odor of themselves presenting; which though they be common to many, are yet called the baths of Kings. But on the return, recent hail and snow from above as yesterday and the day before flowing; white frost mixing the footprints, finally the heart of winter, as is said, about the Birthday of the Lord more stiffening; on the return, I say, he knew not to keep the right path with his squire, though English, companion. He entered therefore the too great, most foul, among marshes they stray; and most deep marshes, simulating the soil of the earth, with crusted ice over the top: which while by a certain force at least he thought passable, fixed in the mire of the deep he groaned, and exclaimed they would be impassable. The same too his color changed, his spirit perturbed, now of life despairing, exclaimed the companion of the journey. But the deceitful ways were the more from this, because on this side solid ground, on this side rare shrubs lurked, within which the slippery footprints by the deceiving softness, lightly to the depths flowed down. The horses three and four times having slipped, and into the deep relapsed, miserably spread out their legs, scarcely bending within the obscene marshes their knees: which now not only reached even to the very trappings, but even to the necks with the miry depths of those relapsing and the heads; almost now enclosing the throbbing eyes, almost rolling down with them their riders, lifeless willing to bear to those same protections.

[67] Seeing therefore, their garments too much disfigured the aforesaid travelers, the perils of death no less to them than to the horses imminent; they thought and spoke wickedness, namely their vehicles, that is the animals, even to death to cherish the marsh, but themselves to retire, and now thinking of leaving the horses in the mire, and to seek if perchance they might find some traveler, lest so great a chasm or overthrow with the horses themselves perishing they should incur. But to them thinking these things, the reins being taken up again, as if condoling with the ones to be deserted, and together with pious threnodies or complaints invoking the protection of B. Rictrudis known to many, before the mouths of the horses they began to shake those same reins, by shaking to be shaken to confer to one another, they are freed from the rough places, St. Rictrudis being invoked Thinkest thou we shall be without our vow, as soon as we shall have invoked B. Rictrudis to our aid? To them therefore conferring such things, and at each particular concerning B. Rictrudis as if delaying complaining; the horses suddenly leaps being given, with retrograde steps, among the marshes hastened to run, to break asunder the sandy things meeting, the soft, muddy ones, as if solid, to tread down. And so sadness was turned into joy: which was so great, not so much for the damage, as for the shame, if to them, although unhurt, it should befall, on foot to the English places which they inhabited to return. Therefore thanks to God the liberator and B. Rictrudis the pious helper in returning they did not cease to render, from instant death rescued. And deservedly. For if a little more or farther they had proceeded, nowhere either they or the horses would have appeared further. But to those shipwrecking, though in far-removed regions, B. Rictrudis was not lacking, to those crying out their rescue so greatly from her.

[68] These few of the many miracles of B. Rictrudis we have inserted, whose birthday being honored these things written by him the author professes. with which we may be more fully free in the praises of our nourishing Lady, especially on the day of so great a solemnity or her sacred deposition. But by whose liberal expenses we are sustained on earth, by her prayers and devout suffrages, with the celestial banquets with her, without loathing, without anxiety, sometime to be refreshed may we merit in the heavens, our Lord Jesus Christ assenting, whom she praises together in the highest with the troops of the blessed Angels and all the Saints adjoined. Today therefore the blessed handmaid of God escaped the shipwrecks of the worldly sea, and not again to be undergone the perils on a happy tablet she depicted: today happily she sang, How beloved, O Lord, are thy tabernacles! Today perennially she entered, what with her whole soul she desired, the pleasant courts of her Lord: today finally seventy-four years of holy conversation being run through, as in her deeds is more fully reported, clothed with the stole of immortality, the brambles of worldly sterility being trodden, of the blooming regions the white and unfading lilies with a happy hand she plucked; the immortal Spouse commanding and calling, whom she chose and took up, all mortal pomp being set aside, not failing, but living and reigning unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE PATRONAGE

Shown to the Marchiennes monastery by the Saint, and described by the same Brother Gualbert.

From a manuscript of the same place.

Rictrudis, Abbess of Marchiennes, in Gallo-Flanders (St.)

BHL Number: 7249

BY THE AUTHOR WALBERT FROM A MS.

EPISTOLARY PROEM

To Gerard monk of St. Trudo of Hesbaye.

According to the name by singular property and univocal reason denoted; but according to the profession, of St. Trudo from a Cleric, in a place and time opportune, a beloved, pleasing and commendable monk Gerard, Brother Gualbert of Marchiennes, of a monk at least bearing the name in profession, greetings to be made equal to the drops of the sea or the sands, or to the equal or unequal number of stars known to God alone. As Boethius before the hypothetical syllogisms premised, Every good is more pleasant, when it is brought into common. A good and pleasant thing, if also to you, it seems to me (not as much as to the style of the author, but relatively) whatever good to the praise and honor of the Lord our God, and of Blessed and beloved of God Rictrudis, if with you it be brought into common,… which I had promised I would send you, while at Anchin the anniversary of the Dedication solemn was celebrated.

There followed a prolix excuse of the work, written in such a style, that it ought not to come under the eyes of Gerard, unless he himself were the one, who should know with how little leisure and apparatus of writing it was composed and could correct and polish it. That makes nothing to the matter or history, but neither can it confer anything to a better knowledge of the Author. And so let here be the end of it for us, that we may come to the very text.

CHAPTER I.

Brother Fulchard's grave hernia, and miraculous cure beside the body of St. Rictrudis.

[1] About to write of the restoration of the monastery, Therefore that the other great deeds, in which the singular omnipotence of the supreme King has to work, by passing over we may venerate; let us attend that the things of the Marchiennes monks, by the enormity of crimes long laboring, the pious Lord, through the suffrages of the Saints resting at Marchiennes, with diligent consideration regarded; nor of His mercy, who as He wills, from the deep lake raises the immersed, and from the dung of vices revives the lowest, further let us distrust; but more and more debtors to our Founder and Repairer, for these and such His benefits, which to us gratuitously He conferred, let us study unceasingly to pay thanksgivings. But first let us consider the regard of divine grace concerning a certain Brother, he premises the health conferred on Brother Fulchard: by too great sickness invalid, by name Fulchard; in the former convent of monks the order not yet being placed a Layman under Abbot Fulchard, and a Lay-brother afterwards in that very, so to say, point of religion, of much devotion, and loving in others, what not yet in himself he could experience, a monk of a novice religion, solicitous indeed and devout concerning the coming of the Brothers and the service of the religious, the same devotion and solicitude persevering, which before had been for himself alone, in assigning and preserving the things of the monastery or the pledges of the Saints.

[2] This therefore young man of good disposition, of whom we intend, shrewd enough in secular affairs, the son of a poor widow; with no endowment however, but neither with the fetter of a spouse or sons, bound by worldly concupiscences, to his mother and especially in her widowhood not only of a son, but also of a most dear husband the sedulous administration, not so much in his mother's as in the supernal Father's grace, most affectionately bestowed; all loves or carnal voluptuousness, besides this which his mother intended, for nothing and as dung without doubt reckoning. Therefore almost all worldly pomp cast off, and especially for the cause of his carnal brothers, by whose untimely death beyond the human manner he wasted away, to the world not now a friend, nay an enemy; to God alone, by the habit of holy conversation, with B. Benedict to please he busied himself. who after grief over the death of his brothers But indeed to good and faithful men even in just works temptations are not lacking, by which either vices are melted away, if they manfully resist; or to the augment of virtues, if there is nothing to be melted out, they profit. But those to whom with Paul the world is crucified, can indeed be tempted; but from the right state, if they have well fixed the anchor of their mind, by no means fall away: though assailed, though tempted, to the tempter by no means yield, or weakly succumb. Gal. 6, 14 Job a most holy man was tempted and with dire stripes scourged, as being for an hour, for almost no committed thing, granted to the petitions of the enemy; but although he scraped the corruption from his members placed in straits, by no means yet could he be compelled to this, that ever the benign Judge he should gnaw at; who had delivered him to the hands of satan. What therefore wonder, if tempted was not only a son, but also a devout client of a widow woman? and his mother, Nay although beneath the feet of Elias, to the Sarepta woman, as it were in the cruse and the pitcher of meal propitious, to whom always concerning the service of his mother, as to the Roman monk concerning the service of Father Benedict, the enemy envied? He fell indeed into the first temptation, namely into intolerable grief of his deceased brothers: but not therefore did he cease to bear labor concerning his mother, nay rather by laboring in his life he cherished, whom above all he had loved, his mother.

[3] on a certain night And not much after, his limbs grievously dashed, he fell into the second, in fact indeed, but by no means in groan, dissimilar from the first; while in the nocturnal hours of the things of the monastery he made diligence with panting step; while the purpose of his mind, which before was turned in the care of a carnal, of a spiritual mother he turned into custody. For the lamentation had now been made over his parent, whose body to funeral exequies, after the manner of the faithful, committed to the urn diligently according to his manner he had composed; but her soul to the due obsequies for the salvation of souls, with frequent tears suffused, the last farewell making, to the Repairer of all he had commended. In the stumbling-block therefore of a scandal, a long and broad and too ponderous beam, from the entrance of the choir even to the doors of the temple extended, in the darkness of night, dashing against a great beam, his legs through the middle of it spread apart, he struck; upon which also a grave fall making, his body grievously dashed he rebounded. Then late, by the command only by name of Abbot Fulchard, so rashly placed (to this however that afterwards, the rays of woods crosswise in the manner of a ladder on either part fixed, it might be fitted for the ascent of the tower) which how many pairs of men could scarcely carry off, when he alone had moved it, his strength being presumed, certain levers only being placed under, to the other part, beside the walls of the temple not without immense loss of his body to have moved alone, even late he grieved vehemently. For he felt after a little, not without a grave groan and mourning, both groins being bored through, the proper seat being changed, from the upper to the lower parts to seek a passage his bowels; and little by little from the throne, so to say, of its solidity, by a miserable event, into the lowest parts of the genitals to flow down.

[4] But not knowing to suffer delay in doing, nor content with the customary manner; while setting upon whatever harder things, the customary runnings, as of an agile nature and abundantly mobile both in mind and body he continued; he incurs a most grave hernia: and while almost preventing the roes and the fawns of stags, scarcely in works strenuously to be continued rest either of day or of night to his wearied members he indulged; in the same moment, by a sudden impetus and as if a battle-line being formed, almost all the intestines slipped down into the groins; and formed (alas the grief!) by the help of the supernal Potter, as it were an immense pot between his legs. Who therefore of mortals would presume to trust in his own strength? who would dare to promise himself a certain hope of future health? Behold, a little before a strong and robust young man, and (so to say) exulting as a giant to run the way, now is not able rightly walking to fix the path of the parent earth, much less

to work. For to no uses a useful body, almost into the stead of a trunk it had been reduced. By signs sometime and nods, with which he could, of hands rather than by words, which made him useless to every work all but dead. the Lord's Viaticum he sought; and as if straightway about to die necessarily he received it. For every hour wearied of life, neither to stand, nor to sit, scarcely only to lie supine could he; but either to the right or the left side to incline himself could not. And what through each particular? Now neither to die nor to live according to his desire could he. If ever at table he sat (for with foods sometime the wretched body it behooved to be refreshed) both knees bent to one another, his left hand to the genitals, lest the passage should lie wholly open to the intestines, he applied; but with the right the foods applied to his mouth, to refresh rather than to refection the stomach, into the empty pit of the belly he passed. For with immense labor, with much wailing, and an outcry almost sent to the clouds, the very entrails, which were poured out, the surface of the belly being thrown back, the spirit almost breathing out life, he replaced; and these with long effort being relocated, again them, by a miserable event, to go out he dreaded: and therefore, although his legs were bored through by the assiduity of the bed, from the companion bed, now too domestic, to rise not undeservedly he doubted. If ever however it was necessary to go out of the door or to enter, first he made a sitting upon the threshold of the door; and so step by step, alternately, one by one beyond the threshold his legs miserably he exposed.

[5] In this state enjoying the consolation of Siger But yet He who by a just judgment, as being a just Judge, justly concerning him had judged, devoid of counsel or aid not wholly had left him. For the benign consolation of a certain religious man an Anchin monk, by name Siger, then in the order there dwelling, through each day to himself he offered; who from a certain familiarity and religious affability, him more familiarly bound bore the love in his breast; and whom he consoled and by relieving supported, by consoling and supporting relieved: whom also the patience of Job he taught, and also of the patience of the same the manifold both here and in the future remuneration, or from the infirmity at length to be received eternal consolation. But while the humble man from charity wished to fit the bindings, which Lord Godfrey the Tournai monk, who in writing the series of the Matins of the whole year there dwelt, and of Godfrey the monks', of the firstfruits of the Order with the rest dealing, was wont to carry about for an infirmity of this kind; by the intolerable weight of the privy parts hanging from the legs beyond measure he was stupefied, and the sign of the Cross, by too great stupor terrified, on his forehead he imprinted. Every touch however the infirm Brother, anxious with too great pain, fleeing or rather abhorring; the part of his hose from both knees downward contiguous being cut, and the knotty buckling of the thongs he had excluded; and with a thread about each leg below the confines of either ham, the remaining part of them he had knotted. The cushions too being set aside and cast off, with a light pile of feathers woven, and together with the fillets and girdle to the groins distinguished or bound about, that he would be a man henceforth he despaired: and although our Lord from a stone could raise a son of Abraham, yet to health to return by no means trusted, nay more and more death imminent from day to day awaited.

[6] And when leading a long-lasting sickness, an inert life he moved, but advanced nothing, nor did anything useful; and that he was born, the produce, he recalls the rock in the crypt of St. Rictrudis perilously loosened, nay the viands of the rest of the Brothers, day and night keeping watch to God's service, to consume by grieving he bewailed, by bewailing grieved; there came into his mind the projecting in the window of the glass crypt from the more eminent part the ruin of a rock, which his fall daily and the destruction of him, who should celebrate Mass at the altar set beneath the window, threatened, from which unexpectedly a grave peril might befall, unless more swiftly it were disjoined, or in some manner to the remaining wall equalized joined. But when this frequently he retracted, and God devoutly besought, that at least this before the end of life to B. Rictrudis of the work he might effect, from the bed his members, too much wearied of rest, he seized; and the infirmity being despised, to life equally and to death, and creeping to the same place to whatever God should incline him, boldly he set himself, and to the divine will constantly he exposed himself. But yet by the long consumption of fasting, as being not presuming to take food, because of the swelling of the bowels by food taken heavier, his macerated limbs long by a straight path to sustain he could not: the begun journey however by creeping, by limping, leaning with his right hand on a staff, to the church in whatever manner he completed; and the heavenly Father, that to his vow He would be present, suppliantly and simply he besought.

[7] Then into a lodging of the monastery withdrawing secretly, and having God alone as helper, to the mixture of lime and sand against his strength he began to lean, mortar he composed, the mortar taken he raises the ladder and ascends, and to himself the form of a mason to assume against custom he disposed. Without delay, with the mortar the place of the crypt or of the glass window, where the fall of the mass about to fall he had prenoted, he sought; the ladder, sought for the ascent of the window, on high he directed; and a basin filled with mortar and placed on his neck, little by little upon the steps of the ladder leaning, to the higher parts his steps in whatever way he raised; and the rock with a mason's trowel by chance found, to draw over the daubing of mortar he began. But in the very entrance of the work, his left hand to the privy parts, for prohibiting the slip, or for resisting the customary course of the bowels, he had applied; but with the right he worked; and lest he should slip down, sometimes he sustained himself; and only with one foot leaning on the ladder, but with the other lower on the window, his work to perfect he busied himself. but in the effort of doing the work failing once Now indeed a little of the work by the effort, with which he could, he had effected; and behold from the bottom of his breast deep sighs drawing, he began to fail, failing to groan, groaning the work interrupted to leave. And what should he do? The begun work with much effort was to be finished. But how should he finish it? A vehement pain from the vehement infirmity urged him; shame persuaded to insist on the work; strength denied further in the same to persist. By shame he was urged; because if he should desist, the reproach of this kind of one inert he would incur; This man began to build, and could not consummate. Luke 14, 30 But lest beyond measure on his strength he should insist, he had heard that of the Wise man;

What thou canst, that of work attempt, lest pressed by the weight The labor succumb — — —

And while he was straitened, on this side by the objection of shame, on this side by the imminent failure of strength; his strength at length failing shame yielded. Wherefore shame being interrupted, unwilling however, the aforesaid sick man to work ceased.

[8] Therefore his body being wearied, nay rather exhausted of the strength of virtue, and again; nor longer able to insist on the begun business, his spirit panting for the too great heat of sweat, to the ground he descended; descending, for rest he chose for himself the lap of the earth, before the relics of the sacred bodies; and the failing strength to his half-alive body, again about to ascend, somewhat he repaired. The few strength therefore, for the quality of the time, being resumed, not from the touch of the parent earth, as they report of Antaeus after many contests choked by Hercules; but by the excelling help of the Saints, by whose patronage and intercession he was cherished; he is compelled to descend: a second time to the summit of the window, by a straight path, of the erected ladder the feet and hands he interwove; and alternating his arms, continuing the business his members though weak upward he carried, and with a more constant mind to the remaining work, as if straightway about to fulfill it, he girded himself. But in vain he expended effort, to whom the reciprocal infirmity so often resisted. For where with a certain sedulity the strenuous manner of a workman he began to perform, just as first his strength being intercepted, so the second time also his virtue failing, to perfect what remained, to grow weary he began; and so for pain his members with his nails cutting, with his teeth tearing, with a roar raging, in his effort he failed. For a monstrous pain of the vitals, the inmost of the heart with frequent prickings miserably penetrated; for which reason neither to fulfill his purpose to persist, or in his effort to suffice could he.

[9] and while before the sacred bodies he lies almost lifeless; Wherefore as first, so the second time, and scarcely descending against his will resisting, himself wretched and himself hateful to God redoubling, he set himself lower: and long in the presence of the Saints, in the same crypt resting, not so much of rest, as of the framework of his members to be dissolved; not so much of life, as of death hastening secure or solicitous he was. For long placed in an ecstasy, almost in his dissolution laboring, almost the last spirit of life he breathed out; of which thing an evident mark was the frequent pulse, which so frequently from his breast emanated. Yet devoid of life, as if for the space of three or four hours lying lifeless on the face of the earth; he felt as if from a far region his strength gone abroad to return to him, he felt the divine virtue in him and through him to wish to work. Wherefore to the divine will, at length he feels strength restored to him, and finishing the work the offices of life about to contend again to his Artificer offering, to obey by no means he delayed; but again to the arduous things of the window to be repaired, through the middle sides of the ladder its steps being interwoven, his limbs suspending, by a repeated ascension, himself higher as quickly as possible he carried; nor however the third time, as the first and second working, to God ungrateful was he. For not now content with one only, but rather with both hands (little or nothing deliberating about sustaining the privy weight, as hitherto) at the heel of the work, with his strength in working in every way he strove; nor meanwhile of the former pain from the torment of the bowels most wretched did he remember.

[10] But indeed while more and more to the nail or to the end to bring the so often interrupted, so often repeated, from so great devotion begun work he tried; lighter than usual himself, he wonders himself healed of the hernia, and more continuous in the last execution of the work with himself silently he wondered. Whence now with a presaging mind cheerful of some notable future thing made, he began his flesh, of whose sustaining, too assiduous to the work, he had been forgetful, very little before infirm to handle: but now not the flesh of an infirm one, nay rather as of a seven-year-old boy, he felt to be present. He wondered within himself enough and more, of late who he had been, who now he was, the bowels being drawn back upward: as they report of Blessed Gregory the Pope, when he suffered the incision of the vitals, nor could sustain the fast on Holy Saturday, namely the bodily inconvenience, called Syncope in Greek. For those; those, I say, notable things, which hung as far as the legs and even below the legs in the manner of a jar flowing down the bowels, by a passage to the upper parts retrograde, one of the two below balanced and fit for generation with them associated, while he intended the work before he should fail in perfecting it, to their own domiciles returned; and below the empty belly, and, so to say, of the intestines downward the places usurping the genital ones bereaved, after the old manner the natural ones, henceforth not from the contrary to return, constituted their habitations.

[11] This therefore again and again with himself retracting, again and again to his modest flesh in the customary and quite usual manner his hand interweaving, which while he hesitates to publish and beyond measure what miracle had been done being terrified, neither himself to himself, nor the deed done concerning himself believing; what to himself seemed incredible, to no one to publish, lest guilty of a lie he should be held, for a long time he dared.

And, what he reckoned like a portent, he who a little before in the manner of one creeping, by the protection of the standing vehicle scarcely upward drew himself; now with the agile course of a swift runner, his steps from the bottom to the higher step of the ladder, now upward ascending, now downward descending, by varying he moved, by moving varied. Who although with himself immense, for the health conferred on him so suddenly and so unhoped, the sickness contrary to health, so wonderfully and in a manner so unhoped, being driven off, thanks to render he did not cease; yet in this he did less to his physician, that is to the Founder of all the Lord, that the due praises for the miracle, that is, Te Deum laudamus, to show to all nations through the world how great a miracle the most powerful God had done concerning him, in jubilation to psalm he did not admonish or even cry out. But truly and without doubt of him we can attest; that not by malice, but using a certain simplicity, leaning on the testimony of the Psalmist, I was dumb, relating in humility, and I was silent from the commemoration of good things; and most of all, as I said, lest he should seem so quickly relating to wish to inculcate false for true or to hunt for words, what the supreme Artificer of medicine conferred on him, he kept silent; nay rather for the future on a suitable occasion to be related he deferred. Psalm 38, 3

[12] And when raised so wonderfully from the squalor of the infesting sickness to health, and to the Author of health too much congratulating he was held by the great joy; the sense of pain recurring he is brought to his extremity, partly from the agitation of his members, which was a sign of the interior man dancing for the repaired health of the exterior man; partly from the straits of the bowels returning to the inner parts of the belly, with a vehement pain again he was afflicted; of which things, and perhaps for the commixture or shaking of the testicle remaining within, or with those, which by straying to the exterior had not wandered out the knotting, for three days by a flux of blood he wasted away. Therefore for three weeks on the bed of pain, with the almost daily Viaticum of the Lord's body and blood, as if the last day of life at each and daily moment about to close, fortified he lay. and again is healed But the divine, as it prevented him, so followed him the same grace; and so of this inconvenience too devoid he recovered. Seven years the passion, labor and pain of the rupture of both groins he tolerated: which hiding, scarcely to a few, and those friends, the burden of it no longer enduring to bear, almost in the last point of the seventh year he opened: seven years, I say, grievously to be afflicted both groins he bore; until in the eighth year, by a wonderful virtue and excelling power, the wonderful God, and truly as God wonderfully on the sick man working, the merits however of the Saints suffraging, by the merits of St. Rictrudis. whom according to his ability he served, health restored. For neither is it right to doubt, that the present pledges of the Saints to their cultivators these and such remedies with God could obtain; whom we know to have chosen the desert of Marchiennes in life as exile, in death a certain rest for themselves: of whom this we hold certain, that not only things and the voluptuousness of things, but also their own wills for Christ they left; nor only the world, but also the concupiscences of the world under their feet, as something empty or of no weight, they subjected.

CHAPTER II.

The miracle done in Fulchard is published: his eyes from a flux, his hands from paralysis are suddenly cured.

[13] But now the sun in its course had traversed the twelve signs, now the anniversary day of the revolved year had come, The next year after and still the aforesaid sick man made unhurt, awaiting the opportune time of speaking of design, sometimes in going and returning faintness he simulated, health he dissimulated; making no word to the Brothers of his unhurtness, of the heavenly medicine, of the condescending clemency of the Founder to his daily faintness; and to his mouth imposing silence, that divine and admirable work and miracle with the highest veneration to be recalled, nor by any oblivion to be deleted, to the public ears he did not bring. And when the word of the Lord concerning a certain matter, long serving silence, not with a malicious mind, but with pious as I said simplicity, preferring piously to lie hid, than more swiftly rashly to publish, he hid; and to indicate the heavenly secret (to the praise of Him, whose most wholesome prognostic offers swift remedy to the sick, whose most powerful poultice wholesomely resisted the irruption of the bowels, and made him sound) from day to day he prolonged; Lord Siger, who had been present at the Marchiennes Order, a monk from Anchin, a man very good and religious, to visit again led the Marchiennes place; and also the religion of the Brothers, Brother Siger returning to Marchiennes, whom concordant in religious love and a religion to be loved he had left, again with pious solicitude of both to admonish he procured. Who among the rest, which there he had spiritual businesses, the health offered to himself and restored to the rest, the infirm Brothers (that, as with the Apostle he rejoiced with those rejoicing, he might weep also with those weeping) with benign and secret consolation to be relieved and recherished he sought.

[14] But when into the cell of the infirm he directed his proposed journey, and his familiar, whom he was wont with mutual colloquy to relieve being very infirm, before others he demanded; by chance, whom he sought, Lord Fulchard he had meeting him. Which seen, and meeting Fulchard now sound, a plaudit being given to one another and returned, the first but common question being set forth, what he did, he inquired; and the second to the first, of his infirmity's monstrous heaviness, how he did, the private, no delay being interposed, question he added. But he smiling, nodding his head, in few words this kind of answer gave, Well, saying, well. But he; I saw, said Lord Siger, the whole series of the past year, our conversation being equally set, you weighed down by the miserable weight of the bowels flowing into the genital sacs. But by what manner or by what reason (for I seek familiarly to know) I behold you more instantly than usual fixing your steps on the soil of the earth, more constantly leaning on the joints of your feet, the calves of your shins not weakly broken, your legs this way and that not spread apart, finally the other parts to whatever to be bent nor to slip? And that of the whole I may briefly conclude, he asks what to him and open to you my mind, your whole body erect and to whatever running about, as if wholly sound, and this from afar or near diligently noted, with a certain admiration, your state both present and past, although uncertain of the future, I behold. Wherefore it is necessary, that either the magic art, or the divine operation in this I understand. But far be it, that for the cause of a nefarious art ever you have lied to God. Therefore either with the customary bindings more solidly you are bound, or by despairing to fortune you have set yourself to be agitated. But far be it, that ever with an obstinate mind of the excellent Father Benedict you should wish to go against the command, earnestly commanding, of the mercy of God never to despair. But, he said, empty conjectures I assert. Bare, bare faith to me will your flesh make. Cause therefore that I may prove, whether it be in fact or not, what of your health I conjecture.

[15] What therefore? Now now, will he nill he, Lord Fulchard it behooves to confess the matter as it is; and the matter wondering he learns: while he offers himself to his familiar to be handled, his face suffused with redness. But at the first sight of the lower parts, Lord Siger not bearing the divine indication, for too great stupor going backward, to the ground almost fell; and in turn fortified his forehead with the sign of the life-giving Cross, before for too great mourning of the infirm Brother, now for too great exultation at the thing done by the divine nod. Returned indeed to himself, What, he said, dearest Brother, what is it that I see? what is it that so unusual I behold, or rather beyond the customary course of nature I seem to imagine? What is it? I say, understanding it hitherto to have been concealed, hide it not from me, I pray: what is it that has been done, which so greatly I am eager to utter, nor am able to bring forth? Divine is what I discern, at the miracle I am stupefied. Has not the heavenly oracle, the notable gift of medicine recently done, lain open to the Brothers, that there should resound to God the hymn, namely Te Deum laudamus? I would not, he said, so quickly be an indicator of heavenly secrets, on account of the repugnant causes of divers persons feeling divers things, and with a depraved conscience frequently repugnant to truth. For I feared to contract offense, if alone to several and from my opinion diverse I should have wished to declare a divine opinion. I feared besides lest by the indices of future time, and no less by the just judgments of my Lord who made me sound, if perchance again I should bewail, by my evil deserving merits exacting, by a repeated dire lot from the bowels poured out, by the contrived fraud of a simulated hypocrisy, solemnly a liar I should seem to have announced uncertain things for certain. Lastly to myself, with myself discussing the judgments of the Lord, I said: If it is a work of the Lord, if to the supreme craftsman it shall have pleased it to be revealed, when and how He shall have willed He will sometime make it to be had publicly.

[16] And what, said Lord Siger, if I be that one, through whom the pious Lord His cause does not disdain to assert? Therefore dearest one will not over this matter (for you prohibiting and opposing the divine praises ought not to be suppressed by silence) will not, I say, obliquely over this matter discourse, that I ought not to become a public asserter of the secrets of a friend. For it does not befit a servant of God to be saddened, the faculty of revealing it being asked, nay rather it is to be rejoiced with unspeakable gladness, if it happen that anything be added through a servant to the praises of the common Lord. For we have through the Psalmist: And I will add over all thy praise. Psal. 70, 14 For how many mouths shall praise together the Lord for thee, the cause of their salvation without doubt thou wilt seem to be and of glory, but the glory and salvation of those praising together will add the increment of thy crown. Whether therefore into public thou bring it, or keep it silent, and persuade to keep silent, I cannot now from then contain myself, I cannot to the divine praises not be free, and that I may use the words of the Comic, I am full of chinks; therefore, will thou nill thou, this way and that thou wilt see me flow out. And saying these things by crafty persuasion, he wished from him the license of bringing it forth to elicit. For unless the power of speaking from him by benign fraud he should extort, neither would he grant it, nor this one betray the faith of the secret. But what more? Brother Fulchard, at length bearing the pleasing force, and to the better and one better consulting obeying, As, he said, you are better well, so also better you know what is fitting to be done, what ought to be kept silent, what apt to be professed. And we therefore, said Lord Siger, will profess it, and the glory of the Lord to the Brothers ignorant of this matter as quickly as possible will be revealed.

[17] That friendly conference to one another being thus determined, and Lord Fulchard, as being one who not gladly was free for leisure, returning to his own; Lord Siger with panting step seeking the colloquy of the Brothers, to the Brothers he indicates it: without delay announced the great deeds of the Lord, and repeating concerning the Brother what and how it had been done, exhorted the Brothers to live in all sanctity and religion and justice, whom again the Lord had visited, offering miracles so open. By such things compunct in heart and into tears the Brothers being dissolved, the omnipotent Lord unanimously they praised together, and gave thanks; they grieved however, that at the recent miracle, the melodies due to God for some time they had not sounded. Whence often benignly they reproved the Brother afterwards, who the divine benefits had kept silent, nor had risen forthwith partaker

of the heavenly medicine into the high-sounding praises of his Physician. But he both those reproving and rebuking with a modest smile both sustained and restrained, saying: So the will of the Lord had to be ended. And no great delay being interposed, to the spiritual and religious cenobitical Householder the wonderful and stupendous matter became known: But the Abbot on that occasion exhorting them to trust in God, for neither did the divine goodness from one scrutinizing and willing to know longer lie hid: and he glad to the plaudits of the Brothers was present, and as if ignorant, having inquired the cause of them spiritually and more than the usual manner dancing, he too equally with those dancing for the benefits conferred from heaven danced. He too anew the unaccustomed things received, suffused with pious tears, to the pious Sower and Remunerator of good things secret rather than public thanks paid; and the name of the most high Lord, wonderfully in the new rudiments of his and by Him visited church, visiting his flock, blessed; and briefly the Brothers admonished that to God, with chaste fear they should war, to the proposed religion heartily intend, to be crowned in the end legitimately contend. For if they should so persist in the begun religious things, the benefits of the Founder neither here would desert them, nay rather the divine works would prevent them, and the gifts of the supernal retribution they would faithfully apprehend. He commanded also the deed done, to everlasting memory to be noted, commended, frequented; and the frequented, commended, noted, effort to be expended on the divine works; and this requital, he commands the miracle to be written. as great as can by mortals, by praising together the heavenly things to be recompensed. This indeed several, besides those subject to him, religious Brothers persuaded; asserting indeed, if such a thing had happened in the primitive preaching of the twelve and also the consecrated number, the Church not being to be advanced under the infancy of its birth without miracles, when by more frequent signs there was to be drawn and subjected to faith, accustomed to the most filthy worship of idols, the ignorance of the people; the orthodox Fathers would not have wished it to be passed over without much retracting. So therefore by the command of the monastic Patron it was written; so the powerful craftsman of things God concerning the infirm Brother by the consonant intercession of the Marchiennes Saints deigned to work.

[18] But now what the divine mercy concerning the same Brother besides the aforesaid not much after time mercifully did, let us pursue. The same Fulchard again is here scourged For He who to the blessed Apostle to the third heaven's summit borne, and of the heavenly mysteries beyond man instructed, for the keeping of humility a sting of the flesh, contrary to his will nor at the third turn of prayers relaxed, benignly inserted; the same benign dispenser, to the Brother in a wonderful manner restored to health, lest the magnitude of the miracle should extol him, as I reckon, the pain with which before his head somewhat ached intolerably aggravated. For the fount of the bored head being perturbed, through the middle of the neck to the eyes and especially to the right eye, by a flowing redundance of tears, without failing of pain or of prickings almost blinded, the same infirmity with a pitiable look was stretched out; a flux almost blinding his eyes: with which almost even to the going out of life for two years continuously irremediably he was tortured. With an eye-salve the swollen surface of the eye was anointed; medicine by purging sometimes was applied to the brain: but by no carnal medicine the daily growing sickness was driven off. He cried out, groaned, sighed, himself by adding pain to pain tearing; as if exiled of sense on the earth he rolled, death before his eyes now dead beholding; that he had never done anything of good, if ever openly he could speak, then with beaten breast he complained, a groan from the bottom of his breast brought forth. Often the force of pain interrupted his speech; nor the begun words fully to form, the natural instruments failing, could he. Sometimes his speech wholly he lost: if ever returned to himself he resumed his spirit, his hands to one another, as in the manner of a comb interwoven, strongly he bound; and his breast, as if from debt grievously by beating, he afflicted. The whole eight days or half (which the greater wonder seemed of one living) given to continued and sole pain, many times he fasted; the sole remedy, a long fast, now from domestic custom implanted in him, he esteemed.

[19] It is incredible to say to one going through each particular. From the same infirmity, through each day growing heavy, in the space of one year twice with holy Oil he was anointed; and thereby twice brought to his extremity, twice on ashes and haircloth, as if about to make a last farewell, set; twice water being set to the fire, for washing straightway the body of one about to die were prepared the watches, on each night, at each moment, awaiting his spirit about to pass. His speech almost lost, still between his teeth certain things scarcely understood and inarticulate stammering, to the ears of those standing nearer he murmured; treating solicitously of the little packs to be cast off, which from himself to be removed, or rather to be cast off he demanded, lest perchance that should be deputed his own by the malign enemy, what for his own uses sparingly he reserved: and what perchance to him had been committed or commended, by the nods of his hands rather than by articulate voices signifying, whose they were, to bestow he hastened. But what more? The benign invective, or rather the paternal correction of the pitying Father, all the leaven of malice, if any was residual, melted out; and as by the impulse of a hammer, a wedge to the brain being constrained, all the most evil juice of vices from him expressed. At length the pious Father, who scourges whom He instructs, suddenly he recovers. the body scourged exteriorly, the heart contrite interiorly, with His accustomed piety regarded; and the body almost lifeless from the sickness of the head, restored to life He powerfully raised. For while in the twilight of a certain night he was turned to the fire, and the bed wearied him; in the same moment sick, in the same moment sound he stood in a very short point: because the Lord, the skilled and merciful Physician, from the infestation of the long-lasting calamity, many admiring, and in His name blessing, rescued him.

[20] Nor is that to be given to oblivion, nay rather to the praise of the mediator of God and our Lord Jesus Christ to be frequented, Then having his hands dissolved by paralysis, that not long after time, while restored to his pristine unhurtness, he showed the care of the poor, led by the chain of obedience to this; the aforesaid Brother's hands occupied by an unspeakable disease, the skin consumed and drawn off, with bare bones only seemed to lie open. Thou wouldst see those hands as if demolished by a moth, from whiteness to pass into a saffron color; from saffron, by a sudden change or even the emptying of the skin, into redness; nor less from redness into pallor; lastly to stiffen, to be cleft with chinks, with frequent borings to gape; turned into a swelling now to be hot, now to cool. The fingers dissolved, and as if from one another disjoined, no commerce among themselves were thought to have. And while in a wonderful manner from quality into quality alternately a transition was made, nor was applied, but was neglected by him the cure of medicine; one however familiar refuge was to him, namely in the presence of the Saints a devoutly poured prayer. No inequality of the hands, as I reckon, through so many accidents was seen sometime to vary: a few sinews however being left, not now hands, nay rather signs of a hand intimated them to have been hands. What shall I report, that he could not in the customary manner for ecclesiastical things to be washed or cleansed insert his hands, who for his own uses by no means could serve? He grieved more however concerning the pilgrim Brothers, than concerning himself, to whom in the stead of Christ devoutly service he was wont to bestow; and yet ministering to the poor as he could, whose furniture in divers uses he did not neglect to provide, the vessels of foods even for the relics into the refectory, and from the refectory to carry and bring. But although with his hands, as they said, by an unusual paralysis dissolved, no work could he perform or himself feed; yet in carrying foods to the refection of the poor he did not cease to offer his contracted hands.

[21] Whose devotion and sedulous benignity, and toward the poor of Christ voluntary though he could not fully bestow the service, in a like manner he is healed: the Preserver of the ages attending, to the hands, to him prompt to serve his little ones, the pristine vigor restored. For He who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, the medicine not by art being sought, to His faithful minister, a useful ministry to His least ones not long delayed to bestow. Now he grew weary to draw water and to heat it, and for the other uses of the pilgrim poor destitute of help less could he be free; when the omnipotent Physician, condescending to the infirm, the infirm altered, the weak hands healed, and what was more wonderful, almost no vestige of deformity in them left. This still ignorant the Father of the monastery, rather esteeming the Brother wearied by disease to have dismissed his obedience, nor in any way to serve the members of Christ to be able to strive, commanded him to be summoned to himself. To whose infirmity condoling, when he had shown himself quite affable, pleasant, benign and a cheerful countenance to him; he asked of him, whether the enjoined office of the care of the poor Brothers he had cast off? and to him asking why he had dismissed the office the Abbot To whom the Brother; Not presumptuously, my Lord, that good of obedience before others to be sought I have cast off: but for an hour I dismissed it: and there is a cause, if I err not, and a just one, why I withdrew myself. You know yourself too, if it please, that I dismissed that care not without cause, and from the office justly, which I could not worthily fulfill, for a time withdrew myself. I know, said the benign Father, that of the hands too much you are infirm Brother; but if in some way you can bear it, it befits you perseveringly to serve God in His members, as you began. And after a few words, Show me, he subjoined, your hands, if perchance in them some sign of future health appear; lest perchance the physician despair, when to treat of them, and a poultice to impose he begins. Not me, said the humble Brother, Father most loving, does the infirmity of the hands perturb, he shows his hands made whole: which is none; nay rather there is in them both whole and perfect health: but of the office great is the dignity, and mine, lest a worthy vengeance follow one unworthily serving, the unworthiness terrifies me. And these things said, his hands being exposed, with glad discourse, to the former health a health superadded he taught.

[22] And when for too great joy himself he could not contain, and wholly into spiritual joy the spiritual Father overflowed; and the sound hands handling, and his exhortation being received the Brothers rejoicing together, that thence to God they should render thanks, often he showed them; God, he said, forgive thee; dearest Brother; why hast thou done this? why hast thou kept us in suspense? why, I say, the mercy of the Lord, concerning thee His wonderful things working, so long hast thou kept silent? Go therefore, and henceforth of good hope, gladly serve God, thy and all's Creator, who so often freed thee, so often willed thee to be restored to unhurtness. The rupture without the pain of incision thou hast escaped, of the infirmity of the head a happy change thou hast perceived, to the hands cast down by manifold misfortune a wonderful medicine and from past ages unheard-of thou hast received. And so both from the virtue of God visiting him, and from the dear exhortation of the spiritual Father much he profited; and much the Brother himself comforted, his past life little esteeming, wholly to the Lord and to the judgment of his magistery he committed himself; and like the meekest beast to the plough furrowing the hearts with the word of God, whatever quantity of his strength he consigned: excellently profiting toward sanctity, finally to whatever, shame being set aside, to be done, cleansed or cured, his humility he inclined; and to the yoke of the law, as of another Mosaic one, within the enclosures of monastic discipline, as much to the gentile as to the Jewish people mercifully indulged, his neck more fervently to be tamed he subjected. For the force of the divine seed not in

brambles, not in rocky rubble, but in the rich and cultivated soil of the most fit earth obtained a place of germinating, and the most peaceful fruit in its congruous time into the Lord's barn laid up; and from the thirtieth produce to the hundredth or sixtieth grade, he disposed ascensions in his heart. But what is this? For now, as I reckon, the medicine has exceeded measure. For it is written;

Praise not a man, except when he has come to the port.

[23] he resumes the care of guests and the poor. Therefore the words of exhortation, with a pious mind laid up, the busy Brother, for some things about the monastery to be done or repaired, himself from the sight of the pious Father reverently snatched. And not much after, although for some time he resisted (plainly for this, because, as they said, to his hand fully sometimes there did not abound, what to widows, orphans, pupils and especially to pilgrim guests and newcomers he ought to bestow) yet obeying the will of the aforesaid Father of the monastery, now toward him bestirring himself, now as if showing an angry face, now to avenge his disobedience preparing, by no means unaccustomed from his former custom and as much sedulous religion as religious sedulity, not only basins, dishes, cauldrons, baskets, for the rest of the foods or pottages of the Brothers to be gathered, to the refectory station he brought; but also the fragments or crumbs falling from the tables (mindful of the Lord's sanction; Gather the fragments that remain, lest they perish, commanding the disciples) lest they should perish, to be swept, solicitously he took heed. Shrewd indeed in distributing the dole or alms, as he saw it to befit the necessity of each one needing, rich indeed for his good will, after the example of John the most holy Patriarch, the hospices of the poor more in affection than in fact decently he fitted. With a few gifts too in the grace of God brought to him, the new religion not yet sufficing to these for the rest to be fulfilled, several inconveniences being found not yet dispatched, the habitations of the needy Brothers with quite suitable industry he reformed; and there to those supervening and asking nourishment condoling, a good word over the gift bestowing, to God again in His members to obey and serve he studied.

[24] Lest however by any even slight wandering, he should forget the works of the Lord, if wholly he should be made devoid of the stripes of the instruction of the supernal Physician; the Lord beholding all things and providing for the salvation of men, often too afterwards from various diseases sometimes His criers, that is, the most grievous pains to him sent, and by the concussion of the sides, the cutting of the flanks for three or four days, His most devout servant to a bed irrigated with tears affixed, for the straits of spirit groaning afflicted, and by the fear of death set almost at his extremity vehemently he affected. But yet by the medicinal and supersubstantial antidote, namely the sacred Libation of our redemption taken, the Eucharist being taken he is cured. so much the more pleasing, as it conferred unhoped health. For He would not, as we truly dare to conjecture, the Lord skilled in the highest medicine and piously instructing His own, that, so often obliged to His immense piety, the said sick man should be given forgetful of His alacrity, instructed by pious stripes. Wherefore according to the documents of Solomon, In all works one ought to remember the last things, of the last day more and more suspicious, with gravity of morals, continuation of prayers, in abstinence more strictly to the gullet declaring war, more amended he lived. Who also in the contest of the pious struggle sweating against Leviathan, as often as the inconvenience of body or the discussion of the heavenly hammerer permitted, to the heavenly building striking stones fit when He wills and as He wills, to the service of the poor, the needy, and also the pilgrims briskly he ran back. Whence clearly can be gathered, how great is the clemency of our Founder, who not even to those obeying Him clemently spares; but those whom He sees worthy to be remunerated, with the mattock of often-striking rebuke He cuts, and with the file of paternal correction their noxious rust He removes.

CHAPTER III.

Brother Richard's long-lasting struggle, for protecting the place, with visible and invisible enemies.

[25] The Brother therefore, with whom the Lord so often exacted the work of mercy, his end with fear, as has been said, awaited: in whose mind, Blessed is the man who is always fearful, assiduously was turned over. Of whom, after we have premised, it remains, that what we have deferred, we may inspect; namely how the merciful same God and Lord, the things of the Marchiennes monks, too much inclined to the setting, of the sun, so to say, brought back to the rising by the intervention of the Saints, Once alone persevering for the protection of the church, in the same place by bodily presence awaiting the day of the Lord. But for greater evidence, often is to be commended the above-mentioned Brother's as skillful diligence, as in their faithful preservation the diligent skill. For that Brother, of whom we treat, was within the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul, as in seclusion a solitary, as much by his own, who at that time was almost only-by-name Abbot, Fulchard, as by the rest of the Brothers, through divers places round about wandering and discording from their Abbot, deserted; and not to say of sumptuous provision, now of the daily bread's refection solicitous; by solitude, solicitude, cold, nakedness, and with the labor of hunger and thirst, the assiduity of vigils vehemently afflicted. Besides a greater instance pressed him, namely the custody of the church committed under his hand; but above all the vigilant observance of the Saints' pledges, namely the incomparable treasure; and also of the Brothers, whom partly under the threat of the ban, partly with the Episcopal anathema Abbot Fulchard, before he was deprived of the power of the staff, from the monastery had excluded, because they would not yield to religion, both the nocturnal and the diurnal persecution.

[26] For they grieved, by tyrannical and unjust domination, as they said, expelled, while besides the infestation of the Brothers expelled from the monastery the less to be able to their own to return; and the exterior things by any misfortunes to nothing almost being reduced, that little which was of the interior things in the church residual, not to serve them at pleasure; and, what more troublesomely they took, that they could by no means by the law set even in the village be lodged. For the decree of the law constituted by the very Patron of the church sounded forth, That if anyone should receive any of those, who had been struck by the sentence, in the whole vicinity within a lodging and especially for the cause of passing the night, either a whole mark, or half, or a fourth part of a mark, the quantity of family substance being determined, as making against the edict of the promulgated law, should pay. The detriment of which sanction certain of the neighbors pertaining to the church of the guests a little after incurred, who either the aforesaid law of due servitude setting aside or of the law still being ignorant, within their huts them wandering through the crossroads had received. Of these therefore, who as their own right demanded it back, and of certain malefactors, who joined to their society, the cause, place, time of spoiling the church in every way investigated, the lances, bows, swords, pride, threats, suits he greatly feared; and sometimes alone meeting hand to hand those meeting, in places nearer the monastery, with a bolder mind, not so much from his own, as from the strength of Jesus Christ and the Saints, taken, a staff as for a sign being seized, the standard-bearer of the Lord the strokes of all sustained; and with heart with hands lifted up to God, under the protection of Moses the lawgiver, far from himself as another army of Amalek he drove off.

[27] By these and such anxieties or perturbations, the light still continuous of the day, by the frequent assault of the visible enemies he was dashed; also the demoniac illusions he sustains. but by the foul conflict of the invisible, admitting almost no rest granted for refreshing his limbs, in the silence of the dead night, with graver molestations he was affected. None, even of those who were bound to him by the law of nature, within the walls of the church presumed to keep watch with him; feigning (uncertain whether it were so in fact) tumults, sounds, runnings of malign spirits, envying the devotion of the faithful: whom they were not ignorant in so deserted a place to remain faithful, and lest by long disuse it should be led to neglect, in guarding to take precaution. But yet the demoniac illusions, which asked or by price called out they had not dared even with the ear to perceive, [he] fortified by the trophy of the life-giving Cross, of our Lord's virtue, the company of the Saints accompanying not distrusting, alone had dared to bear. The same however Brother, on a certain of the nights roused from his rare quiet, On a certain night having gone out into the cemetery the weight of nature of the day before he had need to relieve; nor the surfeit of an exquisite supper, but the morsel of simple food taken, nausea molesting, to belch up; the passages too of the veins, after the watery moisture cast out, with the wholesome air to temper. Therefore the more late, so much the more vehement inundation of sleep from himself he shook off, from the bed he leaped, the boots he put on: but the poor man of God lacking the matter of a light, kindled not a light; and no torch the darkness being removed, the dark lurking-places of the middle recess as usual he leaped over. But while to the door, which directed the way to the Brothers' cemetery, he drew near; and into the other part of the garden he turned aside and returned; the incautious snares of the enemy of the human race he suffered: by which suddenly impeded, especially alone, especially destitute of human solace, by a sudden dread prevented, to the dead resting in that same cemetery he was almost numbered.

[28] But attend, I pray, how crafty the contrivances of the most foul ambusher, how subtle and prompt against the servants of God are his juggleries. For he knew and well had noted, whose importunity too to be put to flight on the preceding day with a shower of stones from the nearer enclosures he had driven, wantoning, butting, and the light members through the passable enclosures of the public courtyard agitating, the wild fig-trees too and the rest of the herbs growing up from the tombs of the dead plucking, a certain neighboring or widow woman's little cow, of a black form's appearance presenting a dire omen. Her he saw standing by, nay rather standing by he thought, blandly and with no grim indication presenting itself, and as if from the serene tract of the nocturnal air its wantonness in the green lap of the herbs to cherish meditating. and dismayed by the appearance of a black cow there appearing, But at the first sight, nor attending, nor reckoning, nor detecting the Brother detected to be in it anything of evil in its bland countenance presented to him, without a presage of terror somewhat he tarried under the open sky: whom it delighted with a running eye for his simple sense to re-read or to look out, what he had heard recited by the more prudent concerning the wandering course of the stars and retrograde, concerning the fire borrowed of Phoebe from the burning of her brother, concerning the path of the fixed sphere direct nor discordant from the indirect journey of the planets. But since it did not transfigure itself in the manners in which it was wont to have itself, nor itself, by wantoning, by perturbing the footprints, by circling leaps, by treading down the grass it presented; the Brother who the other nights fearless had penetrated the entrance and exit of that same passage, now began with his members to tremble, with his hairs to bristle, with his words to stick, the cold of an icy torpor inwardly to perceive, and after the lost virtue of body, the subtler experience of mind to lose. Whose straits were incomparable, because neither under the bare sky for the rest of the night part to tarry was it fitting; nor to the bed, by the path by which he had come, the malign obstacle interposed, to retire; nor however little, with wavering steps, sticking legs, lastly fainting strength of the whole body to proceed; nor without a keeper, wholly solitary, of which the rest of the doors he had bolted, the monastery to leave he dared.

[29] But while in the very article almost of death and of life thus he wavered, and thus mind-captive almost into madness he was turned, Psalm 50 being recited and with a flowing torrent of sweat wholly he flowed out; with a thin and scarcely intelligible murmur, still one of the customary Penitential Psalms he ruminated,

Have mercy on me, O God; often singing under, O God have mercy. And when more frequently the Psalm known to him he repeated; and the mercy of the Lord, who deserts not those hoping in Him, rather with a clamorous mind, than with a high modulation of words, he invoked; the faithful God, who (as the Apostle says) suffers not His servants to be tempted above what they can bear, His faithful servant did not suffer longer to be exiled of his intelligence or pristine virtue; nay rather both the sense and the fortitude of his members, and also the understanding, and the sign of the Cross being made, whereby he might discern the Sower and Author of all, by the powerful virtue of the words restored to him. 1 Cor. 10, 13 But the Brother himself restored to himself and to life, and as if from a certain sluggish wrapping of torpor shaken out, continually the standard of the Lord's passion against the enemy he raised: nor only on his forehead or head, but also on the rest of the framework of his limbs the title of the precious wood with his right thumb often he superscribed. Whose virtue the cunning and multiform robber perceiving and not enduring to bear, he drives off the demon. into thin airs like smoke from the eyes of the Brother vanished, and leaving unclean vestiges behind him, by a foul odor, no one intimating, who he was disclosed. But the Brother perceiving a free access to lie open to him, although vexed by the horrible vision of the enemy, yet not diminished in the capacity of sense, with discreet action as before, through which he had gone out by the same way returned, nearer approached, the door over himself he shut, the shut one with a bolt he fastened, with a bar he fortified, and to the bed of rest, giving thanks and the Lord for his rescue magnifying, returned. But before the silence of the cocks, at which time the spirits of the malign are said more freely to wander about, the interrupted rest, rare though and thin to resume he by no means could. And so the victory over the impulse of the roaring enemy, and envying the future religion of the vast place, to his most faithful client the victor and protector and defender Lord delivered; while at the expression of the precious sign namely in his body of the consecrated wood, both the spiritual wickedness into the airs he thrust out, and a safe and unimpeded going out and returning to the perturbed Brother he laid open.

[30] But this as magnanimous as unanimous Brother, as in the sacred edifice in the nocturnal vigils alone he passed the night; so also the necessary bodily recreation or refection, At other times taking food in the church, which God to him through the hands of His servants administered, in the diurnal and congruous hours alone in the same he took: not because the house of prayer he wished to be made a house or recess of business; but because by faithful diligence he would not have his presence farther absent, in the precaution of the heavenly but neglected mansion. But it happened on one of the summer days, he toward midday refreshing himself in that part, where with the due consecrated veneration are recalled the altars of St. Martin Bishop of Tours and also of St. John the Baptist, by a horrible crash he is struck; an immense sound, in the manner of a dashing or striking thunderbolt, from that part where is dedicated the altar of the blessed and glorious Mother of God Mary, to his ears to have come: from whose unusual noise, tiles, beams, panels, stones too seemed together to have fallen. Wherefore the Brother trembling, and too much over this wondering, then conjecturing what this could be, nothing yet suspicious over the fraudulent enemy bearing, especially since so great a part of the day remained; with a swift leap, with hastened step, the not great apparatus of foods in the midst being left; that part, in which the tumult before unheard he had perceived, he sought; and so to say, upward, downward, rightward, leftward, before and behind the gaze of his eyes he carried, and all things being surveyed or led around; but all things everywhere whole and all immovable he surveyed. Nor this only did he reckon to suffice for him, who now, as if he should detect the mark of a manifest matter, with panting running the rest of the parts of the temple began to go round; on the bendings, lurking-places of the corners, sides, the clear gazes of his eyes more diligently to fix; if any signs even the least from the stroke of the noise-maker he could, or by the cast of one stone, in any way to note. And when longer handling it, from a demon he understands it to have proceeded: and long traversing each place, no indication of the unusual matter he had perceived; then at last he began in his mind the superstitious arts of the venomous enemy to retrace: whom now by an alternate turn he had felt to have exercised mockeries, but vain, on the house of God which he beheld so enormous and so long from the service of God to have been free.

[31] Therefore with the Apostle comforted in the Lord and in the power of His virtue, and against the struggles of the aerial power by the memory of the precious wood and its virtue strengthened, to take with thanksgiving the little portion of refection left, the tripod of his table he revisited, and a morsel sticking in his throat almost choked, with a repeated benediction it he sanctified, and, In the name of the Lord subjoining, a little morsel to his mouth he applied. Eph. 6, 10 Which while chewing with his jaws, by the channel through his palate through the windpipe to his stomach to be digested he had wished to pass; he felt it grievously to turn in his throat; he felt it, the passage lost, anxiously in his jaws to remain, nor further to proceed. Therefore lacking help, and especially removed from human solace, of the last things only he thought, and by a sudden fall to death almost he panted. What more? While therefore longer he was tortured, nor was rest imparted to his dire torments; the terrible and ineffable name of the Lord he began to invoke, that He should not permit, at the coming or malign contrivance, over the ruin of His unworthy servant the enemy to exult; who not moderately envied him concerning the faithful custody, which he saw to the relics of the place set aside himself to be able to bestow; the help of God being invoked he is freed. and therefore so craftily the cunning serpent thrust himself in, because by the pestiferous venom of his wickedness he raged in whatever way the vigilance from the sacred altars to drive off. And when in this manner he reasoned, but more with his heart than with his mouth with the Lord; the fragment, which stuck in his throat, suddenly into his palate, from his palate into his mouth, from his mouth outside rebounded; and so that intolerable passion the Lord, whom piously he had invoked, helping he escaped, and to the pious liberator immense, for the obtained health, thanks and praises without delay paid.

[32] Now indeed incredible to relate it is what that inexpugnable and undaunted Brother, through almost each night, The same the demon boasting his strength, with the enemy blacker than soot wrestled: and sometimes even until morning, and as if a duel on both sides being joined, the unequal combatants seemed to insert hands into one another. Whom too the demon full of frauds, with the address of one indignant strove downward to dash; Flee, saying, hence to evil ruin, with thy irreligious watching. Dost thou think, long with me thou canst contend? dost thou think the spiritual band with a clayey effort to overcome? to be proved from the sins Am I not he, who a sublime seat to the North disposed to place, and almost not without my vow obtained a throne equated to the Founder? Art thou not unmindful of the first-formed man, whom by the gluttony of the forbidden tree surrounded, and from the pristine state of immortality changed, craftily I led out or rather seduced, and ejected from the delights of paradise? Dost thou not recall the fratricide, which the first nursery of man first brought upon his first brother? Nor would that fratricide almost of the bereaved old man even to destruction settled have rested quiet, had not the selling of the other to be transferred by the Ishmaelites into Egypt intervened. of Adam and the sons of Israel, Recall, that we not only upon Egypt's, but also upon the boundaries of the whole world a plague brought, while not only the midwiving, but also the various kinds of cutthroats, barbarians, unmerciful ones, of either sex with cruel slaying we made to rage. Did we not within the straits of an aged womb enter the hostile play of boyish persecution, the intestine hatred between the twins kindling? Who laid low so many thousands in the desert, the tongue easily slipping, as dwelling in moisture, and therefore sinning with murmuring speech, after the molten calf and raised on high, by a manifold kind of musicians; of Solomon, These are thy Gods, O Israel, the Jewish people crying out? Who that same people, resisting the divine commands, made to be led away from the abundance of milk and honey, after the established placing in the land of promise, except the unquiet force of our but malevolent persuasion? Who too after the fount of the heavenly treasure drunk up, after the heavenly gift of wisdom committed to him, before all adopted, sought by such great prayers, the womanly assembly importunely admitted subverted the heart of the one reigning and in peace on the throne residing, so that almost excusable seemed the adultery of the parent? Who taught the youth rude in arms, of Absalom, of excellent form surpassing the beauty of all mortals, to rise up not so much against his sole parent, as against the whole breadth of his kingdom; whose desired beauty, the battle-line going out against the madness of the recruits, the father commanded to be preserved, by admonishing, beseeching, repeating, Preserve me the boy Absalom surviving? of Samson, Who after the solving of the riddle, after the casting down of the Philistines, after the digging out of his eyes, after the shameful turning of the mills, made his own destruction to be held for nothing in so great a slaughter and ruin of his enemies, the post of the middle house being shaken, the spectacle too into mourning being changed, and by a sudden death with the strong man together perishing? Who, I ask, with thongs, scourges, scorpions, and sinews tamed the Maccabee brothers, unwilling even by any simulation, much less by the truth of incorporated swine's flesh, to transgress the commands of the Law?

[33] Lastly reweave the series of the old and new Testament, the texture of the annals, histories, acts of Kings, and thou wilt find the most monstrous assaults of adversaries, and of Christ Himself the death being cured, the troops of armies coming from opposite sides, the dashings of hostile corpses, the ferocities conquered and the victorious eagles of barbarians. For what? Did I not in the new, what I reckoned myself less to have accomplished in the old preceding command, supply, while concerning the death of Jesus, surpassing all crime, with Judas, Pilate, Herod I dealt; but also the Jews ill foreboding, and the soldiers laying hands in crucifying, nonetheless the disciples to the Lord and Master renouncing (although to my, as they say, detriment) to the very end I completed? Who besides of the Jews, gentiles, heretics, false Christians suggested the rites to err, and erring from the truth with us together to incur the sentence of damnation in gehenna? Run therefore through each particular, and continually thou wilt see our sports, and the exercises which rarely turn to nothing, stupendous and wonderful. and commanding him to yield the place, But thou, whoever thou art, who breakest forth into such audacity, who us from our own household, nay from the neglected seats of this tabernacle to expunge thou triest; from this place perhaps thou shalt not depart, until thy sense being perturbed, from thyself not a little, thou shalt be alienated. But ho! thou, lest perchance it seem a disgrace to yield to spiritual wickednesses; yield, hasten, depart, and the less to visible, the more to mightier tyrants succumb: otherwise more swiftly by the exterminating angel, both from the place and from sense, thou shalt be exterminated; and after thou shalt have lost thy wits, with mourning to the lower regions willing nilling descending, with us concerning the injury committed thou shalt reason. But the Brother intrepid, making a noise into a fierce one, treading him under foot the breath gathered breathing on the enemy, the spittle of his mouth throwing, and again the wrestling joining, by the helping virtue of God and the Saints, to the ground the malign one, as he was in an ecstasy, threw, with his feet

trod under, with a dire stroke beat, and by choking wearied. But yet when between the earth and his feet the pride of the fierce robber he thought to wear down and to humble, suddenly neither the spirit, nor the body, which he thought to have been present, did he constrain: but as it were a certain mass, whole nights with him he wrestles: in the manner of a woolen fleece, under his feet awaking he trod down. But these inconveniences or crises, or grave misfortunes, nor yet yielding to the impure enemy, but confidently in the Lord the devout Brother acting, importunely he suffered sometimes even to the cock-crow itself, sometimes, as aforesaid, even to the bordering dawn of the eastern morning, or the appearing of the sun's beam.

[34] Nor once or twice; nor in a day, week, or month; but by a long interval of time thus he was made anxious, thus he suffered, with no or rare sometime sustaining refection, with no or rare use of the stomach's support, his body worn out by too great hunger, while it was feared by him for himself, but much more for the things of the church. nor finally does he suffer himself to be induced by any necessity If ever, as to the beautiful gate of the temple, by the faithful dwellers and those fearing God the nourishments of charity for the reward of his soul were brought, of those his lean body, and quite by labors and the bonds of various cares attenuated, rather than refresh, he sustained; and content with these, neither sureties, nor sellings of the treasures or ecclesiastical benefits, which yet between his hands he had, sometime to make he disposed. And when by several both neighbors and far-placed often such a thing was suggested, and that word, for the things of the church to be distracted. much less the deed, as a crime he shunned and execrated; by an oath he affirmed himself to prefer to die of hunger, than ever to distract anything; especially since this he had not wished to be done a little before for a certain layman monk of a quite noble lineage in his old age, by name Robert: whom long depressed by faintness, with shrewd zeal according to his ability he had preserved; and to him in food and drink, though sparing nor delicate, with large weeping however recompensed, sparing enough, alas the crime! for the defect of things, a minister he had served. Whom although having entered the way of all flesh with worthy exequies he accompanied, yet for his soul to be commended to God from elsewhere a Priest he had called, since now in that same place not even a Levite for entombing him was found.

CHAPTER IV.

The vain attempts of the deposed Abbot Fulchard for his restitution.

[35] It happened meanwhile that Abbot Fulchard, resounding with contumacious words, and breathing many threats, as being devoid of the right of his Abbey (whose staff, the judgment of the Lord urging him, Abbot Fulchard being deposed at the Episcopal See many being present, and many accusing and convicting him present, to the Arras Pontiff himself angry he had rendered, or rather with a certain indignation had thrown down) to Marchiennes to return, and penitent of the rash execution and sudden bestirring, to wish, as much by his own as by the force of his kinsmen, the things whole, as before, of the Abbey, which he had abjured, to obtain or rather to usurp. He attempted too sometimes by threats, sometimes by persuasions and bland words the charters from Brother Fulchard, then a Lay-brother, afterwards at the beginning of religion straightway a religious Monk, into his right to twist back. But the provident Brother insuperable by the thunders of him imminent or threatening, neither by threats thundering nor by words persuading would sometime acquiesce. Thence soon the burnings of the eructating Etna, thence the lightnings of a great furnace, voices and thunders, to one wishing to subtract the charters and things of the church thence brawls and battles of words, or the darts of contentions: again a feigned peace, and subtle words. Who too from then like a roaring lion, no longer lay in wait for the sheepfolds, which here and there not only by the former tyranny were scattered, but also the Shepherd being struck now from pastoral care wholly were destitute, about the lonely and desolate walls he kept watch; if perchance of the distracted by any art or fraud little packs of the widow Mother Church, he could the pot, kindled from the face of the North, namely the mind laboring with the pest of envy, extinguish. Thou wouldst see the humble slinger with the sling of David assailing the tyrant, the Brother intrepid resists, and from his wallet bringing forth a shower of stones upon Goliath the most monstrous enemy, at length transfixed with his own sword, namely prostrated by grief, overcome by anger, and rushing upon himself. For blind with fury, alienated from himself with fury, with fury wholly like a furnace of fire he overflowed; with fury, I say, although raging without, with fury however raging within, of fury indeed grave penalties upon himself he twisted back. Moreover the oven so kindled, so raving, so by infernal furies agitated, finally so raging like a wolf, the placid sheep, in the protection of God and the Saints dwelling, thou wouldst discern confidently to resist, nor at all to wish to yield to his perverse effort.

[36] But yet neither would this one his injuries longer have tolerated, nor that one his most evil attempts have deserted, supported by the favor of the Countess and the Bishop, had not partly the fear of the Countess, partly the anathema of the Pontiff premised repressed them. For the favor of the Countess cherished the part of the Brother, who the Church subjected to her dominion, even by her command as faithfully as skillfully preserved. But the Pontiff to the succeeding Abbot now assigned, now chosen, now consecrated the care of governance with much favor reserved, opposing, lurking, doubting, but in the future by Pontifical compulsion, nothing of the enjoined care to relax willing. But while the widow from her Shepherd groaned and awaited the rights of a successor, meanwhile the Lord Prelate the Church under his hand, under his protection, with holy precaution held; and it in the stead of the Lord Elect, against the snares, wickednesses, and craftinesses of the malign ones, with divine arms, in the spiritual battle-line girded, defended. By which security, not with full faith however obtained, what before the not unfaithful Brother had conceived in mind, now at length too great hunger compelling him by the very work he accomplished. He approached therefore the chest, in which the sum of barley harvest to the quantity of a modius and two minae he had prenoted laid up. and with the price of the secretly subtracted barley he repairs the roof, In which one however, two wonderful things he accomplished, because both the chest he despoiled, and the same whole and bolted, with no execrable maleficence however he left. It was related however by him afterwards, that he had effected this, the wooden nails only being unfastened, and being removed from the back of the chest. But indeed whence the gluttony of his belly to satisfy he had proposed, thence with the borrowed price, a certain part of the monastery ill uncovered he disposed to be recovered: preferring with the customary chastisement to resist his belly, than that on both sides the entrances of the temple should lie open to Aeolus the tempestuous King of the windy cohort.

[37] Which done, a case happening, of the exterior courtyard from the side to the coming Abbot Fulchard the matter longer did not lie hid. For fixing upward his raised gaze of eyes, the repaired roofs of the temple renewed he prenoted, and within himself that Brother Fulchard golden mountains to have found he murmured. Yet of the presage of damage fearing, the avaricious Abbot gnashing in vain: and also by fearing the uncertain cases more often rolling to worse things, continually the barley-bearing chest he sought, the bolted one he opened; but of the treasure of the hidden barley, the day before yesterday committed to the chest, nothing he found. Whence his color changed, Who therefore, he said, of places henceforth shall obtain a little possession of security in the world? But now I will repress myself, lest too greedy for the thing, to too great cupidity I should seem now degenerate to serve: and these things saying, he raised himself against himself. His brow therefore he did not cast down, the comeliness of his brow he did not lose, he blushed to be angry, he blushed to contend; mindful indeed of the Prophetic attestation; The brow of a harlot is made thine, thou wouldst not blush. Jer. 3, 3 But neither was it right openly to reproach or to be angry. His irascibility therefore and brawls he repressed, or rather through fear of the Pontiff or the Countess his sad countenance in whatever way he palliated: with an altered countenance however he seemed to pretend an honest cause, bearing himself to have been moved with piety over the Brother's want; Another, saying, if he had perpetrated the same in this way, by no means patiently would I have tolerated it. By a like type, not to say theft, to say and do quite pleasant, by a like necessity compelled not much after needing the Brother, benignly a like work he accomplished, under the inhuman austerity of the great Butler Hugo the Anchin monk, formerly Castellan of Cambrai; succoring his hunger in bread and pottage of oats, and also in fat and meal; grieving beyond what can be believed or said, after the departure of the monks of St. Bertin, these things to be done inhumanely in the chamber and under the bolt, the matter wholly as before almost perturbed.

[38] But seeing he who was Abbot Fulchard, himself by open efforts nothing or little to profit, who while for his restitution he turned himself henceforth to other arguments, esteeming by another way his cause better and more expeditiously to proceed. For by frequent running he was anxious, he strove more curiously to frequent the Courts of divers persons, the Palatine Nobles for the restitution of his right as helpers to call upon, to the Count too and the Countess to offer much and to promise more. The ears of the Prelate, which he knew bolted to gains or shut up to simony, concerning simony or worldly cupidity not to be able nor to ought to interpellate, he ceased not by much petition, demand, beseeching both through himself and through his own assiduously to knock, attempting whether into the grace of his former bailiffship he could return; if under a faithful testimony his life and morals to correct; if also by a future immense effort, the depraved dignity of the Abbey, which his sins and his own's perversely had handled, promising better things acts before the Bishop; and with foul infamy had defamed, not to say befouled, he should promise to relieve: otherwise into the same sentence of damnation, with which now he mourned and to which now he was obnoxious though unwilling, within a few days of his own accord, without any controversy, scarcely the command of the Lord Prelate awaited, himself gladly he would precipitate. Which words indeed like one entreating, so often repeated, so often inculcated, the merciful Prelate without mercy would not have deferred; had not discordant and unbecoming, for the accelerated benediction of the following election, before the holy Fathers it shone. For if the deposition of the other had prevailed, indeed the holy College of religious men, this change of the right hand of the Most High, would not have praised before; nay rather the sacred hunger of gold and silver would have had a cause of resounding.

[39] To whom however perorating generally nor to the things asked answering, by him he is reproved for the dissipation of things, the Prelate from the opposite side opposed: How, Brother, thyself and the sheep committed to thy care to be fed, protected and ruled, and the things both interior and exterior of the whole Abbey thou hast disposed, as known I pass over; and therefore as it were from superfluity so known, so perspicuous so often to repeat I forbear; rather these to the frequent people (this is little) to almost the whole world reclaiming against thee to be narrated now I leave. For I pass over the roofs of the monastery, the cloister, refectory, dormitory, and the rest not only uncovered, but also by thy negligence or carelessness destroyed: the ornaments too, sureties being made, from the church removed and lost: and the rest in the same manner the furniture of the temple, to depraved uses deputed, little by little are eliminated of the supreme King outside the camps. What? that even, the barn failing, fail the victuals of the Brothers, as also the rest wholly necessary? But what hope is there of future things, since there are no beasts and the lands are by no means cultivated? Which since by external cultivators they are occupied, not only the estates of lands, but also the rest of the revenues are lost. Without it is ill, within nothing of remainder is made: without rage the visible enemies, within tumultuate

the elders, nor are the invisible ones driven off. by the ruin and profanation of the buildings, The service of God in the sacred edifices, alas the grief! is neglected; the Lord God for the indulgence of offenses neither by day nor by night is roused. Hail, snow, rain, if ever they rebound, within the workshops with overflowing torrent slip down, or scarcely by a thin and old covering are kept off: the old walls are washed away, new ones are not built upon, and (that I may confess the truth) stone upon stone almost is not left which is not destroyed. Alas! what more execrable, than that to the stables of swine the most sacred places be reduced, where once the watches of holy Angels were wont to be? Plainly so sacred a place is reduced to a desert; where calves with their mothers, rams with sheep, and with the rest of the cattle, through the garden and through the shrubbery for gardeners wander, nor by the enclosure of any circuit are the windings barred. The vulgar of either sex, without retracting, without obstacle, both enter and re-enter the habitations of the monks, which so solitary were wont to be. What? that to this it has come, that even certain malign ones contrive by malign art the bells from the tower of the citadel to be wrenched out, and into the deep on high to be plunged, lest further, or lest at least to the coming new Abbot they appear? What? that a little before, no longer monks, but, what too from nature is said, recruits and vehement tyrants in the neighboring glade on the opposite side fortified camps, or as it were the camp-lurking-places of a Romulean asylum, while to demolish they try?

[40] Woe woe to thee (that now I may dare, our reverence being saved, a little to inveigh against thee) woe, I say, to thee: and the imminent extermination of so sacred a place to exterminate indeed they strive, not now of the temple, but I know not what remnants of the desert; while even the sons of Belial prefer with dishonest rapines to cut the maternal bowels, than over the desolate mother at least to bewail her funeral. And what more? The commonwealth of the monks, to indiscreet action, as being devoid of Pastoral care, indiscreetly obnoxious, now to be subverted is mingled, and as into a precipice of a certain chaos, alas the crime! from almost uncultivated cultivation, little by little slips down, is immersed, is endangered, and to nothing is brought. Plainly of the sacred habitation so sacred a mass in the ruin of wall, roof, and foundation, as if nowhere there had been a structure, from the root is torn out; plainly, I say, as if never to the sacred edifices antiquity had laid a foundation, the house of God is confounded, much less at least a rude and as it were undigested cottage however vile seems to subsist. But yet pious, I believe, stripes ^b, not by an inhuman Brother to his most dear Lady, had not Brother Fulchard resisted. namely St. Rictrudis, piously brought, were without doubt before God in the cause, lest still wholly be reduced to the lowest the pious Sanctuaries of so excellent a place. Not therefore of all do I bring a dire sentence; namely of those, who executing a worthy election, disposed the future religion to observe, and submitting their necks to the yoke of the Lord, as quickly as possible chose to live, to the judgment or will of as religious as spiritual a Father. So the Prelate.

[41] Confused therefore, he who still only the name of Abbot retained Fulchard, confessed himself to have erred, again acknowledging his fault, himself to have offended, himself iniquitously to have acted; a youth in the past courses of the Kalends rude and indiscreet to have lived, now first to manly years to have come. Hitherto not well to have used the command of the mind over the rebel flesh, and therefore little advisedly to have resisted the voluptuousnesses of that same flesh. Therefore, venerable Father (he pursued) the vigor of the spirit by its command tamed, and too much subjected to itself the wanton, rebellious, and untamed flesh: for these to one another are adverse, as the Apostle says, while the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, as at present enough and more I experience. Gal. 5, 19 Wherefore not undeservedly the complaint of the Apostle I configure to myself: Not what I will good, but what I will not evil, this I do. Rom. 7, 10 But whence this? Because, if I err not, to the spontaneity of free will, first granted to the parent, I do not legitimately resist; thence the perverse spouse frequently resists the legitimate bed of the spiritual man, namely sensuality very often to rationality with unbridled dominion is contrary, nor yields to it by mutual vicissitude in the battle.

[42] But indeed, that according to the elogium of the vulgar for myself indeed I may speak a few things, Father, not with a good omen is he born, whose life sometime is not corrected. The wolf too, and that he would be more cautious henceforth, according to the same vulgar, is not so huge, as he is extolled: more than enough of him rumor says, than is deserved to be said. But lest I be a wolf in what follows, as by the mass of his sins weighed down, a fable so that I be now turned in the common parable of the vulgar; nor by malign rumor be gnawed; for the rest with chastised morals, for myself I will take precaution. Therefore since, as Maro says, The wolves first saw Moeris; lest the wolves see me first, and the voice, as they say, take away; from my sight the wolves manfully I will bar, nor to them further a place of feeling ill concerning me will I grant, your prayer and aid intervening. What therefore by us partly by imprudence, partly by ignorance so unworthily has been done, both by your prudent industry and by your illustrious prudence let it be corrected: henceforth the line, hitherto curved, to the straight your hand directing let it be led: and the same firmly holding the helm, the shipwrecked vessel to the port let it be directed. For the sudden gall of the stomach, with so slaying a sword it is not yours, the one asking to be received into the former grade, Father, against me to rage, whose circumspection or discretion, to the angry waves, the incautious, and grievously offending is wont mercifully to spare. Hitherto the matter has not well proceeded; let it be allowed to correct. From the higher grade, the heavier the fall, I have fallen; let it be allowed to rise again. Little for myself, I confess, in past things I have consulted; let it be allowed better of future things to consult. It repented indeed the youth, the parent's command rashly to have violated: it repented indeed and rejoiced Jonathan, his father laudably forswearing, pardon wholesomely to have obtained. But also I may merit pardon, Father most reverend; for it repents me a transgressor of the Lord's things to have been. But you yourself after this to the unadvisedly straying sheep a shepherd, as is fitting, consult. But this contumely, not to say injury to me indulge, lest I seem with disgrace the right of the possessed thing, in your time especially, to lose. Therefore with your benediction to our little place interrupted and desolated I will return; and the interrupted things, with your license, with the customary but more shrewd provision I will provide for.

[43] Against whom again thus the Prelate pursued: Not so, my Brother, not so will it be. To our Elect keeping watch over religion, the Bishop persuades that he should of his own accord yield to the new Abbot: not so much I, as the Lord, for remaining blessed, and he shall remain blessed. With the oil of benediction is fattened the head of the just; nor does it befit, that what by us once and reasonably has been done, be made vain or void. But thou to concord, by a sounder counsel, rather strive: lest either thou be wholly devoid of the allegation of things, and the successor of religion enjoy a just peace. Truly, Brother, let it not be grievous to thee: truly I say to thee, God benignly spared thee, that with a just thunderbolt He did not extinguish thee; that provoking thee to penitence, the intolerable yoke from thy neck happily He withdrew. Now it is allowed thee to be free for thyself alone, now the neglected time, while it is allowed, thou canst redeem; and thy soul from the penal places, while it is day, rescue.

[44] But to these wholly a deaf hearer himself Lord Fulchard, did not admit to the secrets of the interior man, what, but in vain, he attempting in various ways to return, more solicitous of temporal things, scarcely he perceived with the ear of the body, much less of the heart, namely concerning the salvation of the soul the saving words of the vigilant Shepherd. From the higher things therefore the often perorated repeating, that hard rock long he rolled; very often the first with the last, or the last with the first, the middle with both joined, but with no effect, he joined. Wherefore so often repeated, with vain petition he was frustrated: for neither from those days now dared the Prelate to his promises, especially fallacious, to give credence. Whence even the Lord Bishop himself often fell in; and bore the terror and peril of his kinsmen; nor therefore would he relax the begun rigor, holding, and continuing constantly in the former disposition, over him of God and our Lord, namely the just Judge, the given judgment. But when, deprived of the Abbey, he saw that nothing ever changeable of the censure of severity, in the constancy of his mind resided; at length with a repeated anger and too great indignation his presence he withdrew from the Prelatical See Lord Fulchard, gnashing and adding: The burnings of our furnace by the ruin of very many soon I will extinguish, with the Lord Prelate's disturbance.

[45] But the clement Lord the place of Marchiennes neglected, and the flock to be, longer would not frustrate of its proper Patron, until at length peace coalesced, who would know how to resist the wolf coming, the unhappy business of the unfortunate hireling being removed. At length (since, as Crispus says, just as by concord the smallest things are advanced for the better, so also the greatest by discord slip away) it seemed to be expedient to the Arras one himself, in whose diocese a business of this kind was turned, namely the venerable Robert the Pontiff, with very many both honest and wise and discreet men called by himself, Coepiscopi, Abbots, and religious monks, Clerics too and laymen of good testimony being present, before the Archbishop of the Church of Reims, of good memory Rudolph, between the Deposed and the Marchiennes provider Elect, by the intervention of the Archbishop of Reims God-fearing and religious, in the metaphor of his name then already presignifying a good and amiable one, by name Amand, the peace and concord ratified and unshaken to conform, to confirm, and to preserve. Yet still the new guest's, nay rather the worthy successor's mind to approach the taken-up office resisted; and from the uncultivated field of God the thorns, so to say, and the briers to tear out he deferred; and long and vehemently he refused to take up the enjoined care of governance for a double cause; either because by suits and contentions, causes hence and thence arising, he abhorred himself sometime to ought to be free for it, which the Apostle prohibits, saying; Not in contention and emulation; or because the contemplation of Mary he doubted to mingle with the action of Martha, a pusillanimous executor still of the Prophetic intimation, They went, said Ezekiel in that vision of the four animals, and returned often, namely from that very contemplation. Rom. 13, 13, Ezech. 1, 14

[46] Peace therefore and concord being made, in the presence of the Archprelate of Reims; and very many, as has been signified, religious men standing by, attesting, two villages being left to Fulchard, and granting it the assembly; both by certain counsel, and by discreet consent, and as suitable disposition, as also clement dispensation, were granted to Lord still reclaiming Fulchard, of the customary food of the Brothers, as long as he should live, two villages for his own uses. Which granted and through mercy received he possessed, dissipated, and both into his own and into private abuses, with the woods and certain appurtenances regarding those same villages, for the rest of the space of his life he occupied, or rather into his own, not to say depraved uses he reduced. But yet not thus a pacified mind he bore, whose abettors nonetheless burned the house of the guests, grieving with unremitted grief

over his deposition; detracting too assiduously from the religion, which he heard to be vyingly fervent in God. A more manifest specimen of which thing shone, when the house of the guests, in the very courtyard of that same Marchiennes monastery, in favor of himself and grief of the deposed Lord, certain of his Circumcellions set fire to, as fame afterwards promulgated. Which, had not the mercy of God favorably indulged the place in peril, and the Lord's body against the fire, from whose sight the flame straightway was turned back, been brought; and prayers too and also lamentations and tears, but also of either sex flowing together, the rest of the monastery being preserved through a miracle. and from every side beams from the house by the too great fire burning drawing off and extinguishing a vyingly flowing-together troop; truly nothing of remainder after the fire, as much of the church as of the rest of the workshops, would have stood; for the walls and buildings, from the least even to the greatest, by the voracious flame into ashes would have been reduced; nor only in the circuit of the walls, but even in the gathered apparatus of provisions and the rest of the necessary things, the flame of the fire would have spread, and the marks of a foul odor, no thing surviving, after the stripes of Vulcan so grievously eructating, would have left.

[47] But whether life, morals and habit the oft-named surnamed Abbot Fulchard changed, but he himself, who seemed in no way amended in life, in his present life, the present world presently to judge, and by sight to discern could; but also the right judgment of the Lord on the journey of St. Giles openly declared. But, although it be reckoned a very great miracle, that he so by a sudden departure from the sight of his own snatched himself, and the things of the Brothers and as much the consortium as the cemetery in the midst left; yet we conjecture it availed to the indulgence of his offenses, that outside his own, outside his native soil, and as is commonly said, a captive he died. But yet although he was placed in captivity (as from certain of his own, who returned from his funeral, we have received) the way indeed of truth he did not desert; nay rather God his Creator, his heart dissolved into tears, devoutly he recognized. For with the Viaticum of the Lord's body, against the spiritual wickednesses fortified, by penitence and confession the manner of a Christian and a monk executing, the debt of nature he fulfilled; leaving what with him he had brought on the pilgrimage, for the salvation of his soul, to a certain place, two miles on this side of St. Giles, called Miliacum, to which he offered himself to be entombed.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The punished insolence of certain men. The enumeration of the Marchiennes Saints.

[48] More I fear for a certain Knight, of late to the Brothers, of whom the discourse arose, namely the Marchiennes ones an ill neighbor, by name Ingebrand, by surname Pagan: who in the very apprenticeship of the order, with insane tyranny carrying insane strength, threatened ruin both to the clients and to the religious servants, Ingebrand the knight having threatened the Brothers, and most of all to those giving effort to the things to be done in the mill. Who too to such madness with a savage spirit came, that he dared boasting to threaten, that he would bring thirty swords into the Chapter, and with unspeakable governance cut off the faults of the monk Brothers. For then was a question of the master baker, his nephew, next after the line of his brother joined to him in consanguinity, who such things to his right exacted, which the old tradition of heirs had not given: which however he strove in every way to be granted; nay rather by much force to be extorted, and by a perpetual covenant to be possessed, what neither right gave nor reason. But the humble God, by that conflict which He willed, resisted the proud; by that peace which He willed, strengthened the humble in spirit. For not much after in the Flemish expedition, made for laying waste the Ostrevant crop, it happened him to suffer a pitiable and unexpected stupor, by an unforeseen and sudden condition to be taken from human affairs, by a monstrous and execrable manner the man to go out, and to end his life.

[49] For while, what were not his own, by too great cupidity of military gain seized, he coveted; transfixed by his own spear, while upon a certain military Fleming, not using his own fortune, he rushed, and from him both the rest of the spoils and the arms, with a certain brother of his, accompanying him in military affairs, by name Acarinus, to plunder or to draw off an onset being made he wished; after other notable deeds that day strenuously performed, almost more than the former, to lighten himself his cuirass put off, with the hinder point of his own spear, the cruel event of the battle turned upon himself, from the groin upward to the right girding of the side he disemboweled himself; and himself grievously hurt, and to death by his own hand wounded, miserably and unhappily bewailed. Who in the few days, in which afterwards he survived, that he unjustly against the servants of God had offended to profess and to repent, God granting him space, could. To whom however coming to his extremity, he asks to be buried at Marchiennes and obtains it. and the due solace to death by a funeral pomp demanding, a malign turn the Brothers did not recompense; nay rather by the command of Lord Amand the Abbot, compunct at the groans of the lamenting Brother, the bearers of the funeral they went out to meet. To whose exequies after the funeral marks bearing they proceeded, not according to the iniquitous merits of his preceding life, quite honestly beside the doors of the temple they committed him to mother earth. Which however had been done concerning him, the Marchiennes Brothers themselves reckoned for a very great miracle: and worthy of writing, to the correction of other malefactors, not unreasonably they judged.

[50] There is also another from the neighborhood, which by their judgment is not to be passed over, nay rather with the writing of Blessed Job, either with an iron stylus or a sheet of lead on flint to be re-sculpted, or in the hardness of any other indissoluble metal, lest it be deleted forever; namely of Stephen of Sailly toward the Marchiennes cenobites, as long as he was surviving in his iniquitous bailiffship, an indissoluble and immutable hatred, and also against those things, which pertained against them, especially in the confine of his tenor, a malevolent and contrary in every way mind. moved by such an example somewhat terrified, Of this aforesaid plague therefore, cruel, horrible, unheard-of, the swiftest relation being learned; fame exasperating the event of the divine examination, the Bailiffs of the Marchiennes Church, attending to so strict a severity of the avenging patience, to the Lord Jesus Christ gave glory; who just in mercy, and merciful in justice, gave them space, and set forth an example of converting and coming to their senses from the infestation, injury, or oppression, by which first, the faith of the Church being saved, to which they had confederated themselves, by the obligation of an oath they ought to be estranged, and others ill-acting, according to their strength to estrange; nor to abuse the things, by whose sustenance the cohort of the Brothers gathered in the Lord, and dwelling in one, more freely and pleasantly to the heavenly hymns could be free.

[51] And although certain of them, at least for a time, believing dreaded the coming judgment of the Lord, yet of the Marchiennes bailiffs the most infesting, but not Stephen of Sailly: who presided over the village of Sailly by name Stephen, in his customary manner, by unjust occupation, did not cease to insist on the distractions of the holy things, the Abbot and the Brothers reclaiming; and the goods, which by no right ceded to him, as his own gradually to claim. Besides those breaking up and weeding the soil with hoes, with iron hooks, for thistles to be torn out, for new lands to be cleaned giving effort; the reapers in the field of harvest in time the crops cutting, and the summer suns with pleasing labor lightening; but also the hour of winnowing following, the threshers threshing, and on the floor the grains from the chaff separating (besides a few, who vexing the Marchiennes tenants, who obeying him, and taking precaution for themselves by consent of the raging man, to the labors to be exercised proceeded) he drove out; with fists, scourges, cudgels he beat; sometimes the same, by several injuries driven and dishonored, his dagger drawn, he wounded; nor to God, nor to a monk showing reverence; but doing evils, and more and worse to do threatening, scarcely with the malign spirit raving did he impose to his savagery from morning even to evening an end.

[52] But thence returning and thither sweeping back, both in the three-roads and in the four-roads speeches inserted and often repeated, because of a field which he pretended to be of his right, a sob the words interrupting and a lament, alas! not intermitting, in this manner deceitfully he framed; Thus, saying, may there profit you the crops of the land of Audomer: which yet from Audomer himself, far from his kindred diverse and remote (although this he himself asserted, reclaiming and usurping his land) by the truthful attestation of the country he knew consigned to the Marchiennes Church; to which namely Audomer himself had devoted himself, and his vow as much in the habit as in burial had paid. He denied too, and as constantly as impudently, that he with his offspring (which yet many present both heard and saw) compelled by the public law, and also by the justice of the Patron and Defender of the church, publicly and by name them had abjured, ungrateful to his liberators; when scarcely master of his body, from fetters, chains, prison darknesses, and the rest of the inconveniences of a hard custody constrained, an offense however contracted elsewhere toward the Advocate adjudging him guilty, he had been absolved. For neither at the simple outcry of the Brothers was anything done concerning penalties, to be brought with the detriment of anyone's body for any injustice on the guilty to be punished. For neither were the Brothers ignorant, that it was not theirs to adjudge the guilty to iron bonds, and the rest of the engines of the prison; rather one ought to pray with due charity for the absolving however infesting enemies.

[53] And when on his impudent mouth silence he did not impose, on his cursings reins he did not strike, nor daily from his manifold ferocity came to his senses, with clamorous voices the inepties of words, the indices of evils, both present and future; the Inspecting Arbiter from on high a certain and sudden limit to him, as He willed, imposed. For by an avenging sentence, by the divine nod distinct and procured, unexpectedly our Head, while he sets himself against the enemies driving plunder, of His members on earth the persecutor, and though less by words, by deeds however reclaiming, Why dost thou persecute me? the savage enemy of His church prostrated, and with a cruel plague and sudden pain of the hurt head groaning suddenly punished. For just it seemed, the troops of the enemies, plundering the packs, attacking others' labors, men into captivity with hands joined behind the back leading away, with wounds afflicting, with spears slaying and with contumelies affecting, according to their strength

to pursue but in the same, boldly hand joined with an armed knight, it pleased the just Judge, on the rash rhetorician the long-awaited judgment to exert. For the point of the adverse party being balanced, a spear coming hand to hand from the opposite side, on his brain a grave wound dashed; he is wounded in the head, and his head exhausted of strength, by no means now capable of the five senses, by the thunderbolt of the sudden stroke vehemently astounded, beyond custom it dashed. He being grievously wounded, nor now joining for too great pain a hand in the warlike tumult, those who from the whole vicinity were with him unanimously for defending or resisting gathered; who too often a hand-to-hand encounter being given, but for the multitude of those resisting their effort frustrated, busied themselves to twist back to themselves the plundered plunder, by the hostile troop dispersed, into flight compelled, by wounds worn down, slain, their limbs truncated, by an ignominious capture captives from afar led away, scarcely a few miserably returned, not so much from the battle, as from a miserable so to say spectacle. But he himself scarcely returned on the back of his standing horse, the bed groaning and stupefied ascended, a few days was sick, and brought to his extremity, for eight days, with immense torments a wretched life continued.

[54] But of the last things and most of all of the hidden it is not ours to judge; and frenzied he dies, for to Lord the Marchiennes Abbot Amand, called to himself both by his own prayers and his own's, he confessed: to God therefore we leave concerning him to dispose according to His good pleasure. But yet we know, that he in his frenzy laboring of the brain's concussion abhorred the garments of religion; his own spouse admonishing, beseeching, weeping together, and consulting for his soul. Let it not be imputed to him, that to augment the consortium of monks he would not concerning himself for a few days, by an oath asserting that he would never be a monk. But what more? From that madness of the wound raging, leaping from the bed he snatched himself, beat his wife, his children and slaves, on the third day breathed out his vital spirit; and was laid in a tomb beside his father in the common namely courtyard of the country-folk.

[55] Such was the end of this and so wretched a condition. Let the living bailiffs reconsider, Let others therefore fear, what is to come to those who follow, from that which was done concerning their predecessors. For near the gate stands He, who, after the persecution of the Hivite and the Amorite and the rest, for the sons of Israel even now justly to judge concerning the enemies disposes. And if ever fiery serpents, or scorpions stinging with the sting of sin, or with a fierce roar the malign lions, them traversing the devout warfare of the sacred legion infest; and against the venoms of sins not so much the exterior as the interior eyes to the supreme Liberator, condoling with human miseries, let them raise, and them by holy sobriety, and beseeching, with the assiduity of vigils far from themselves drive away. For the notable, as above was foretasted, our Lady, namely blessed Rictrudis, and the devout handmaid of Christ, the brazen serpent, let them look upon the Cross placed at Marchiennes by St. Rictrudis: for extinguishing the deadly and serpentine fire, for the uses of those serving the Lord on high raised; while in the monastery namely the Marchiennes one, by her bestowals excellently distinguished, and also by the inscription of a royal hand confirmed in dowry, liberally exalted, the standard of the Lord's cross she affixed. She exhorts therefore in the exemplar and as in the mirror of her excellent life, those touched by the bites of lurking serpents and inwardly hurt, to the mark of the sacred image to look back; with the golden girdle of holy devotion, though not even to the breasts, the girded heart upward to raise; with the memory of the saving Passion, the venom of the raging enemy infused into the bowels to pour out. She indeed those whom she sees devout to obtaining a remedy, with the hand of piety aids; she with prompt circumspection, the unseen serpents slays, dashes, dissipates, the poison casts off; and against the temptations or the darts of the malign ones, the weak breasts she strengthens.

[56] Whose patronage there suffrages those there entombed, To whom by a wonderful disposition and free dispensation the omnipotent Lord conferred a quite familiar protection, namely a suffraging College of collateral Saints, in the same arched square, with a beautiful vault quite aptly walled, set and composed, and also in a suitable and secret place, resting with her. First attend, between the mother and the great-grandmother, on this side and on this the middle one, but the second daughter of B. Rictrudis, St. Eusebia the daughter, holy, and to her Spouse Christ worthy Eusebia: who from almost the very cradle, the manly bed cast off, far from herself the bed of concupiscence made, devoted to God her continence; conscious however of almost no even carnal commotion, of her brother fearing from the craftiness of the enemy, with a very tender little body still adjudged to correction, the admirable patience of the stripes raging on her she received. In the third place, on the left side of her consecrated to the only Son of the King Eusebia, of her whom we have premised, the great-grandmother is to be found, her navel with holy continence girded the most holy Gertrude, of the holy and beloved of God and illustrious Gerberta the noble and illustrious mother; St. Gertrude the mother-in-law of St. Adalbald, which namely holy Gerberta was the mother of the notable man, and B. Rictrudis's sacred husband, and also of the Martyr Adalbald. To which namely holy Gertrude, grasping the prize of holy widowhood, not less devout, not less pleasing, for the carnal goods by which we are sustained, we owe veneration; who, the things proceeding first from her gifts, B. Rictrudis with her husband and from her husband received in dowry. But that same Lady of ours, straightway after the death of her husband, which often is to be commended, renouncing the world, her things which had been, she left in inheritance to the Marchiennes Congregation, in the service of God overflowing.

[57] In the fourth place in the lower session it is to be seen the Holy Abbot Jonatus, worthy of memory and honor, St. Jonatus the Abbot, illustrious in the quality of his merits; whose notable conversation by a cruel stroke in the third admonition the monk Malger experienced, the two admonitions preceding made by him not giving credence, but refusing to believe, and reckoning as phantasms, the certain thing to be admonished or demanded, which St. Jonatus himself admonished or demanded, the sacred and by God granted to him elevation of his sacred body to be made. In the fifth place we venerate near to blessed Abbot Jonatus and set beside him St. Chrodobald, St. Chrodobald the monk, equally worthy of celebrated memory, glorious in merits, of the most holy Confessor and Pontiff Amand a monk and Provost; struck however by God for contumacy, boasting and pertinacity; but humbled, and by that same Pontiff, the framework of his members by the disease of paralysis dissolved, on account of the vice of disobedience toward the blessed man committed; the master commanding, and the disciple not obeying the service of charity, by the virtue of the Lord healed and corrected. For whose merit to be demonstrated to posterity, concerning him such a miracle became known in the Marchiennes monastery. For when in ancient time the temple of that same monastery was burned, his tapestry placed over his sarcophagus, with burning embers everywhere covered, over whose chest unhurt from the flames was preserved the tapestry. the flame everywhere being hot through the whole monastery, as by the ancient Fathers was related, wholly remained unhurt. To whose notable miracle by the eyes both of those to come and of those present daily to be renewed, the tapestry is still preserved laid up, or rather in the vestry, on which are placed Albs, Copes, and the rest of the ornaments, it stands set. Whose feast for this reason is not celebrated, and therefore the man notable of great merits is obscured, because his going out from this world or the certain Kalends is unknown.

[58] By these Companions therefore thronged, in battle-line proceeds B. Rictrudis, to fight for her domestics against the enemy of the human race, With these and others the Saint appeared to Abbot Fulchard at hand to defend the place of her rest, lest it be reduced, as before, by sins requiring it to nothing, if she should see our sabbath from evil works. For neither does the Averter of the malign party cease to survey the enclosures of the temple: which Abbot Fulchard was wont by the attestation of the Holy Trinity to profess to himself in fact to have been learned. Indeed himself sometime almost from midnight in the monastery passing the night, bearing solicitude, diligence more instantly than usual to the things which were under his care applying, our Nourisher and Lady B. Rictrudis, with the dear triple offspring of her daughters, a white garment to the brightness and womanly habit adding brightness, going before, and also a multitude of holy men, whose names God knows and whose Relics rest laid up in that same church, with sweet, visiting the altars of the Marchiennes church, pleasant and submissive melody resounding, and following, each of the beloved habitation's altars, on the sides too of the north and of the south she visited, went round and surveyed: and the diligent survey being performed, of the interior quiet she returned to the secret places, the religious and honest things being alternated, to be recreated, and by an ordered journey, by which she had come, returning back whence, much light coruscating, the walls of the resounding church gleamed. Wherefore the dreadful, exhilarated however and compunct in heart, began thenceforth Abbot Fulchard the place more to venerate, but also by loving to fear, and by fearing to love; the merits too of B. Rictrudis more evidently to extol, and also into the praises of the present Saints the effort of his strength more widely to extend: to whom indeed it would blessedly be granted, if in like manner, with like vow, and like will to the due veneration of the sacred place he had wished to insist nor grow weary.

[59] By whose bodily benefit therefore, daily sustenance, continual custom, the troop of the Brothers, under God's, and her, that is the kindly Rictrudis's, service enjoys; by whom the author promises the Brothers to be aided, by whose miracles and assiduous prayers before God the Marchiennes place is distinguished, sustained, and relieved; by her at length spiritual benefit with the supreme Patron and Judge of all at the last examination obtained, the carnal one meanwhile from her not undeservedly nor ungratefully taken, the spiritual Convent (for neither is it right to distrust) in eternal glory eternally shall be sustained. But since our nature by itself does not suffice to strive, by her remedy daily as much in soul, as in body it is changed for the better; just as the above-mentioned sick man, by the example of Brother Fulchard healed namely Fulchard the keeper of the temple and a most faithful brother, almost into ashes from the daily faintness of the aggravating rupture dissolved; but by her, nay rather by God in her, but also in the rest of the Saints associated to her, working, with living voice protests. For neither is it to be thought of the familiar good of B. Rictrudis to wish her companions present devoid, with whom so familiarly joined she rejoices together at their bodily presence, of whom in the eternal rest of souls may we merit to enjoy a legation with Him, who triune and one God without end remains unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CONCERNING SAINT GERMANUS

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

AFTER A.D. 780

Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

CHAPTER I.

The sacred cult. Studies and virtues in youth.

[1] Two most illustrious lights of the Christian world of the same name the Catholic Church proposes this month of May, each a Germanus, the one on the day the 28th, and him in the West Bishop of Paris; the other in the East Patriarch of Constantinople, of whom on this May 12 we have determined to treat. This one Cardinal Baronius at the year 730 number 6 calls the bulwark of the Church of Constantinople, the burning and shining lamp of the Eastern Church: In the defect of Acts collected things from various sources are given, as one who not only by holy works and the defense of the Catholic faith the whole

East illustrated, but also by his writings the Catholic Church herself with light suffused. Would that we had his illustrious Acts, written by some contemporary author! In the defect of these from various writings we gather some things done by him, and from his sacred cult we begin; or for this reason most of all, that in this day's Office among the Greeks, his family and the things accomplished before the Episcopate taken up are more accurately indicated. Let the first be an elogium, taken from the Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus the Emperor.

[2] Our holy Father Germanus, born under the Empire of Heraclius, was the son of Justinian the Patrician; whom on account of envy the son of Heraclius (nay rather from a son the grandson) slew, and Germanus himself he caused to be made a eunuch, Elogium from the Menology of Emperor Basil, and set him over the Clergy of the great Church. Then he first indeed gave himself to the study of the divine Scriptures, and to contemplation and the rest of the virtues to be acquired he spent himself wholly. Afterwards initiated a Bishop, the Church of Cyzicus to be ruled he took up. Thence transferring his See, to the governance of the Church of Constantinople he was advanced, elected Patriarch. There then by his doctrine he illuminated the people, and the deeper secrets of the divine Scriptures he expounded: persisting in that office even to the Empire of Leo the Isaurian. Whom when he had seen averse from the cult of the sacred images, and him neither by reasons nor by exhortations from the heresy to call away could, the Humeral, that is the Patriarchal vestment over the sacred altar laid aside, to his own house returning, a quiet life he led: where prayers assiduously to God offering, ninety years old he migrated to the Lord. Thus far the Menology of Emperor Basil: which plainly the same things are read in the new Anthology of Antony Arcudius, printed by the authority of Clement VIII. But that almost a hundred years old he departed from life, below from the epistle of St. Gregory the second Pope it will be established.

[3] To these we subjoin another elogium somewhat fuller, excerpted from a manuscript old Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople, which belongs to the Paris College of the Society of Jesus. another from a manuscript Synaxary of Constantinople. It turned into Latin is of this kind: He was born under the Empire of Heraclius, son of Justinian the Patrician, a conspicuous and celebrated man, who undertook very many public governances, and by the whole Senate on account of his highest piety with great admiration and veneration was honored. But on account of emulation and envy not at all bearing that, namely that it had been deliberated that he should be set over the empire, the nephew of Heraclius slew him, and made blessed Germanus a eunuch, and enrolled him in the Clergy of the great Church. Then this one gave himself to the contemplation of the divine Scriptures: but by the swiftness of his ingenuity and by assiduous labors to the greatest wisdom and knowledge of things he came. But when the affairs of his life he had rightly composed, first indeed he was ordained Bishop of the Church of Cyzicus, not at once and by leaping the orders received; but by law and the customary statutes advancing, to the summit of the sacred honors he came. Then when the Church needed a provident administration and a man more exercised in eloquence and the use of affairs, from Cyzicus to the great Cathedra of the city of Constantinople he is transferred: where infinite peoples by his doctrine he illustrated, and the deeper and obscure places of Scripture having interpreted, by frequent discourses and encomiastic sermons the Church he exhilarated; and what in vigils is hard and laborious, by his canticles and sweet hymns he soothed: and in these exercises he persisted even to the Empire of Leo the Isaurian. Whom when he had seen the sacred images to abominate and with a certain rage to persecute; he tried as much by the words of sacred Scripture, as by other exhortations to persuade, that from that heresy he should call away his mind. But when he the more blasphemed God, and the most sacred images with contumelies affected; Germanus laid upon the sacred table his Humeral, and to his own house returning, quiet he embraced, and at length in a good old age finished his life, now having gotten of years of living ninety. Whose funeral while it was being borne, it drove off the various diseases of those approaching to his Relics, and after his burial the assiduous benefits of healings overflowing from his sacred pledges the faithful obtain. But his body was placed in the holy monastery of Chora. His feast day is celebrated in the most holy great Church.

[4] Things similar to these are read everywhere in the various Menaea of the Greeks, written by hand and struck in type. 3 Versicles from the Menaea, In these three similar Versicles concerning St. Germanus are contained: which, because of so great a man they are, it pleases to add. The first is: The Leonine mind, the bawd of impiety, strongly, O Germanus, thou didst overcome: for the cult of the venerable images of Christ and of all the Saints that wretched Leo denied: but by thy discourses, O interpreter of the Saints, he was confounded; and as a madman, he remained foolish. The other versicle: Leo, as an impious wild beast, hateful to God and the forerunner of Antichrist, because he oppressed the veneration of the image of Christ, from the lot of the faithful was expelled. Therefore we ask thee, O Germanus, by thy divine prayers calm the present tumult. The third finally Versicle: Thou hast obtained thy desire, long since most prudently longed for, O Prelate of the Sacred things, Blessed Germanus. For to thy Lord, as becomes a sacred man, with confidence thou hast come. With whom since thou art present enjoying divinity, obtain peace for the world. The whole remaining Canon belongs to St. Epiphanius, whose Acts above we gave. In the Menology of Sirletus is added: that Leo burned the books composed by that holy man concerning the orthodox faith. But in the Menaea are said simply burned books, composed for the defense of the sacred images: no word added whence it may be understood, that Germanus composed such.

[5] The place, in which his body was deposited, is thus expressed in Greek: Κατετέθη ἐν τῷ ἐυαγεῖ μοναστηρίῳ τῆς Χώρας. He was deposited in the holy monastery of Chora, the sepulchre of Chora, which to have been in Pontus we said January 8 at the Life of St. Cyrus Patriarch of Constantinople, its Founder: who by Philippicus the Emperor driven from his See, there finished his life. Not however did the holy body remain in that place: for when on the day February 3 we treated of St. Remedius Bishop of Gap, his and St. Germanus the Patriarch of Constantinople's bodies to be kept in Gaul we said: but concerning the Translation of this one Saussay writes thus in the Supplement of the Gallican Martyrology at this May 12: On the same day the passing of St. Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople… Whose sacred body afterwards into Aquitaine by the Franks, the translation of his body into Gaul. the subjugators of Constantinople, conveyed, in the confines of Auvergne and Limousin in the town of Bort, enclosed in a silver casket, with the relics of St. Remedius Bishop of Gap was laid up, where now even with all reverence it is preserved. But Bort is on the river Dordogne, where it, coming forth from Auvergne, grazes the boundary of the Limousin territory before, the river Rhue being received, it is augmented; nearer to the city of Tulle in the Limousin than to Clermont the metropolis of Auvergne.

[6] Finally his sacred memory is inscribed in the present tables of the Roman Martyrology by this formula: his memory among the Latins. At Constantinople St. Germanus the Bishop, notable in virtues and doctrine, who Leo the Isaurian, promulgating an edict against the sacred images, with great confidence reproved. The same on this day celebrate Antony de Balinghem in his Ephemeris or Calendar of the most holy Virgin Mary, and Francis Marchesius in the Sacred Diary, and that on account of his singular affection toward the Mother of God the Virgin: for which cause Hippolytus Marraccius collected and at Rome in the year 1650 published in print St. Germanus the Patriarch of Constantinople's Mariale, in which the same St. Germanus's all works concerning Mary the Mother of God the Virgin, which could be found, expressed in Latin and illustrated with notes are contained. Finally at the day January 12 his name is inserted in the manuscript Florarium of the Saints.

CHAPTER II.

Things done up to the year 720. The Archbishopric of Cyzicus. The Patriarchate of Constantinople.

[7] Heraclius the Emperor (under whom was eminent Justinian the father of St. Germanus and this one grew up) departed life on the day March 11 in the year 641: after whom when for some months his sons Constantine and Heracleonas had reigned, By Constantine Pogonatus after his father slain made a eunuch, the Empire was deferred to Constans his son too: who after twenty-six years of Empire at Syracuse in a bath being killed, was substituted his son Constantine, surnamed Pogonatus: who at the beginning of his reign, as in Theophanes is read, Justinian the Patrician, the father of Germanus afterwards Patriarch, slew; but Germanus, τραχύτερον more troublesomely bearing it, the manly parts being cut off he chastised. Which deed we reckon about the year 669. But of how great authority he was thereafter, even with Constantine himself, will be established below from the epistle of St. Gregory the second Pope. But when the pious Emperor Constantine, says Theophanes, had reigned seventeen years, his son Justinian took up the Empire, afterwards surnamed Rhinotmetus, because mutilated of his nose into Cherson relegated he remained, while Leontius for a triennium, and Absimarus for a septennium administered the Empire. Then at last Justinian the Empire recovered reigned again even to the year 711, in which together with Tiberius he was slain by Philippicus: who then the Empire gotten by crime for about a biennium held, in the year 713 his eyes being plucked out cast down.

[8] There flourished under the said Emperors St. Germanus, enrolled in the Clergy of the great Church, from a Cleric Bishop of Cyzicus, and set over the same, and thence on account of the excellent splendor of his virtues and doctrine he was ordained Bishop of Cyzicus the metropolis of the Hellespont: but under which of those precisely is not clear. Under Philippicus that he administered the See of Cyzicus, indicate Nicephorus the Patriarch in his history, and Theophanes in the Chronology: with whom Germanus, among those who then to the heresy of the Monothelites against the holy and Ecumenical sixth Synod favored, with John the Pseudo-Patriarch, intruded into the place of St. Cyrus, is numbered: which is wholly false, he did not adhere to the Monothelites and excerpted from the guileful charters of the heretics. Nay rather with St. Cyrus he seems driven from his See, and with the same in the monastery of Chora to have cohabited, so that for this reason there he wished to be buried: and in Theophanes to the said St. Cyrus, but the sense being changed, he is joined. But how sincerely the orthodox faith he ever cultivated, testify three hundred and fifty Bishops in the second Synod of Nicaea, in the sixth Action near the end, with these words: Germanus as a luminary in the world shone, containing the word of life: who nourished in sacred things, always held Orthodox: and like Samuel from infancy deputed to God, and to the holy Fathers like was proved. Whose disputations to follow to be necessary, his writings affirm, celebrated through the whole world. For the exaltations of God in his jaws, and two-edged swords in his hands, darted against those dissenting from the Ecclesiastical tradition. Nay that the sixth Synod against the Monothelites might be convened, that St. Germanus collaborated below will be established.

[9] Meanwhile Philippicus being cast down, the Emperor crowned was, on the very feast of Pentecost in the year 714, Artemius; and Anastasius he is called. He was excellently cultivated in letters, and a favorer of the Catholic parties, who John the heretic being expelled, St. Germanus to Constantinople transferred, in the year of Christ 715. Of which translation thus writes Theophanes. But in the second year of the Empire of Artemius, who is also Anastasius, in the fifteenth Indiction, on the eleventh day of the month of August, from the metropolis of Cyzicus to Constantinople

Germanus was translated. Made Patriarch of Constantinople in the year 715. A decree concerning that translation, which is subjoined, was promulgated. By the suffrage and consent of the religious Presbyters, Deacons and the whole more sacred Clergy, and the sacred Senate, and the whole Christ-loving people of this God-guarded and imperial city; the Divine grace, which ever cures the weak, and fills up what is lacking, Germanus the most holy Metropolitan and President of the Metropolis of Cyzicus, into the Episcopate of this God-preserved City and Queen of cities, transfers. This translation was made before Michael the most holy Presbyter and Apocrisiary of the Apostolic See, and the rest of the Priests and Bishops present, Artemius reigning. Thus there, which confirm the man to have been of orthodox faith.

[10] To these it pleases to append, what in the Life of St. Stephen the younger, on account of the sacred images under Constantine Copronymus a Martyr, are had, of which this is in our Greek manuscript the exordium: Θεῖόν τι χρῆμα ἡ ἀρετὴ, A certain divine thing is virtue. Leo Allatius in his Diatribe on the writings of the Simeons page 126 acknowledges that Life to be a genuine offspring of Simeon Metaphrastes, which James Billius subjoined to the works of St. John Damascene, whence wrongly to him some have ascribed it. from whose mouth first entering the church When the said St. Stephen the younger was still in his mother's womb, these things are narrated to have happened: When the excellent man Germanus was about to ascend the Patriarchal throne, the people with an immense throng to the great temple of St. Sophia, from the desire of seeing him, ran together. For he was renowned and illustrious by the name of virtue, and in the tongues of all not without pleasure was turned. But together with all that illustrious pair of the parents of Stephen running up, had occupied a certain bench: from which him, whom she desired, from a higher place she could behold. When therefore he passed through the Church, straightway the woman (for the care of him, whom she bore in her womb, urged her) Bless, and to St. Stephen the younger blessing, Lord, that which is in my womb, began to cry. But he with the perspicacious eye of the soul beholding him, who was carried in the womb, May the Lord bless him through the intercessions of the Protomartyr Stephen, he answered. Before all moreover the woman affirmed that at that hour, in which she heard this, a fiery flame leaping forth from that divine mouth she had seen. When therefore he was brought into the light, a flame seen to leap forth, straightway him, as the great Germanus had foretold, they called Stephen. But since with baptism too it behoved him to be illustrated, who, before even he came into the light, had been illuminated; to the baptistery of the great Sophia there was a going. But it was then the evening of the great Sabbath of Christ's Resurrection, the same one he baptizes and to that most illustrious Germanus into his hands he is given: who straightway baptizes him and anoints; him I say, who now soon was to be the spiritual unguent of the Church. Thus there, which also, and indeed more fully, are explained in another Greek manuscript, which found in the Vatican codex 808 at Rome itself we transcribed; and these all things will be at the November 28 day, the birthday of St. Stephen the Younger, to be illustrated.

[11] To this St. Stephen the Martyr, with respect to the Protomartyr called the younger, we adjoin another St. Stephen, Founder of the monastery τοῦ Χηνολακκοῦ, or at the Lake-of-geese, as we set forth at the January 14 day his birthday: Another St. Stephen he receives, of whom in the Menaea of the Greeks, equally as in the manuscript Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople, these things are read: He came to Constantinople, received in hospitality by the most holy Patriarch Germanus: with whom for some time tarrying, very many things from him he learned, and great fruit thence he received, and in the things to be done with wholesome counsel he aided him. Hence is that monastery, which from the Lake of geese received its name, to whom he donates a little field. founded by him: in which he himself lived, and a great number of monks gathered. Thus there, to which is added in the Menology of Emperor Basil: Most humanely by Germanus the Patriarch received, and presented with a little field, in which a monastery he founded.

[12] Anastasius Artemius, in his affairs distrusted, being substituted and as if by mockery made Emperor was Theodosius of Adramyttium: Recalled from exile under whose beginning of empire the friends of Artemius being seized, and together with Germanus the Constantinopolitan Prelate to Nicaea deported, write Theophanes, Nicephorus the Patriarch, and others. But Theodosius the opinion of Germanus the Patriarch and the Senate being required, from Leo the Isaurian, who in this transaction had admitted the Patriarch as arbiter, an arbiter for Leo the Isaurian, the faith of immunity and safety to have received, and under it from the Empire to have abdicated himself and to Leo to have delivered it, is said in the same Theophanes: who at this Leo's third year, of Christ 719, these things writes: This year to the irreligious Emperor a son, in impiety and irreligion superior, the true forerunner of Antichrist, was born. But of the month of October on the twenty-first day (or as another manuscript has κε᾽, he foretells future things at the baptism of his son Copronymus the twenty-fifth, which following the author of the Miscella wrote the 8th of the Kalends of January) Maria his wife in the triclinium of Augusteos (which more entirely Balsamon calls the Augusteon) received the consortship of the crown, and with a solemn retinue, without her husband, to the great Church proceeded. And vows there being conceived, before the Entrances to the great altar the solemnities, to the great baptistery, her husband by a few domestics surrounded, to the same place betaking himself, she herself proceeded. Where when the heir of the empire and of their malice Constantine by Germanus the Prelate with the lustral water was purified, a dire and foul indication of himself from infancy he gave, namely his bowels into the sacred laver discharging, and at his coronation. as by eye-witnesses worthy of credence is reported. So that the most holy Patriarch Germanus, the greatest evil to the Christians and to the Church itself through him to come, by that sign to be portended divined. Hence to the said Constantine the surname of Copronymus adhered. Then in the fourth year of Leo, in the third Indiction, on the very day of Easter (it was the 31st of March) by his father Leo Constantine in the tribunal of the nineteen Couches received the crown of the Empire, the customary prayers Germanus the Patriarch of blessed memory performing.

CHAPTER III.

The acts with Leo the Isaurian for the cult of images.

[13] It pleases with Theophanes, from whom the above we have taken, to proceed. In the year, says he, of the Empire the ninth, the irreligious Emperor Leo, concerning the proscribing and deposing of the sacred and venerable images, Leo the Isaurian beginning to act against the images first to have a treatment began: whose purpose being learned Gregory the Roman Pope, having written first to Leo himself a decretal epistle, in which he admonishes that it does not become an Emperor to determine anything concerning faith, and the ancient sanctions of the Church confirmed by the holy Fathers to innovate or to pluck up, the tributes of Italy at length and of Rome to himself to be brought he prohibited. But, as to the following year 726 is referred, that impious one, not only in the error concerning the relative veneration of the venerable images was turned, but also concerning the intercessions of the most holy Mother of God and of all the Saints: and the intercession of the Saints, and their Relics the most criminal man, after the manner of the Arabs his teachers, abominated. From that time therefore enmities with the blessed Patriarch of Constantinople imprudently he took up, all his predecessor emperors, Prelates, calls his ancestors idolaters: and the Christian peoples as idolaters, on account of the veneration of the sacred and venerable images, condemning: since he, for too great incredulity and rusticity, of the relative cult of them reason and discourse by no means could grasp.

[14] Then at the thirteenth year of Leo, which is to us the year of Christ 730, the same argument pursuing Theophanes: The nefarious, he says, Emperor, against the right faith raging, the Holy Germanus summoned to himself with words divinely inspired (that is the Scriptures, but distorted into his depraved sense) began to allure. The blessed Prelate therefore thus addresses him: Of the holy images indeed the future proscription we have heard, yet not while thou reignest. He, in whose age or Empire the matter would be to be executed, more solicitously inquiring; Germanus answered: In the time of Conon. He said: But Conon is my name, in baptism itself truly given. The Patriarch subjoins: Far be it, Lord, that while thou reignest that evil be perpetrated: for the forerunner of Antichrist is he, who that crime will fulfill, and of the divine Incarnation the subverter and enemy, such as once Herod inveighed against the Forerunner. But the security of faith, before the Empire taken up offered, the Patriarch into memory recalled; by which namely, God being given as surety, nothing of the Apostolic and traditional things sanctioned by God concerning the Church of God itself he would at all innovate he had promised. But so far was it from the wretched Leo to be ashamed of what he had begun, that besides he was bent on this, the Patriarch's discourses catching, and others deceitfully mixing, that he might convict him guilty of treason: that him, as seditious, not indeed as a Confessor, from his throne he might drive.

[15] For that matter having gotten as helper and partaker Anastasius, Germanus's disciple and Syncellus, who to his accomplice Anastasius foretells an evil end, to him, as an emulator of his sentiments and in all things conscious, he promised, that he would be the successor of the See. This one when so against himself depravedly affected the Blessed one was not ignorant, his Lord imitating, as another Iscariot, openly indeed, but gently him of the betrayal admonished. But when from the error him to be recalled could not he perceived, on a certain day to the same Anastasius, of Germanus going to the Emperor the hinder hem of his vestment treading, the Patriarch himself said: Do not hasten, for into the stadium of the Circus more swiftly than thou wilt thou shalt enter. But neither was he by these words troubled, nor did others understand the presage: which yet fifteen years after, namely in the third year of the Persecutor Constantine, in the twelfth Indiction at length had its issue, in ill usurping the Patriarchate: and not without a divine impulse to have been uttered it was established. For Constantine, Artabasdus his son-in-law being expelled, when alone he had gotten the Empire, Anastasius with his other enemies being beaten with stripes, then naked, and on an ass with his face turned backward sitting, through the stadium of the Circus openly to be led about commanded: as one who together with his enemies himself from the office of Emperor abrogated had cast him out of the Empire, and Artabasdus had crowned.

[16] Moreover that sacred and divine Germanus, the defender of the decrees of the true religion, and resisting Leo with St. Gregory II, flourished at Byzantium; against Leo, from the matter having his name, and his satellites, as against wild beasts, fighting. Just as in old Rome a man on every side sacred and Apostolic, the successor of Peter the Chief of the Apostles, by erudition and illustrious deeds was renowned Gregory: who Rome and Italy and the whole West from Leo's obedience, as much civil as ecclesiastical, withdrew. Then indeed at Damascus of Syria John Chrysorrhoas a Presbyter monk, son of Mansur, an excellent Doctor, and St. John Damascene. by sanctity of life equally as by doctrine shone. Moreover Germanus, as subject to his power, from the Patriarchal throne he cast down. But Gregory by epistles, which all know, to him given was angry with him: and finally John, together with the Bishops of the whole East the impious Leo with anathema bound.

[17] But on the seventeenth day of the month of January, in the thirteenth Indiction, on the third feria of the week, the irreligious Leo a silentium against the holy and venerable images in the tribunal of the nineteen Couches celebrated, Germanus the most holy Patriarch being called: whom he reckons to be persuaded, that to his decree concerning

abolishing the sacred images he should at length subscribe. But the strong servant of Christ, of his own accord he abdicates. to the abominable counsel of Leo by no means yielding, nay rather the word of truth in a right sense distributing, abdicated himself from the Episcopate: nay even, the Pontifical Pallium of his own accord laying down, after a quite long and pure-doctrine-full discourse, at length he said: If I am Jonah, into the sea cast me. For without the authority of a universal Council, O Emperor, concerning faith anything to innovate I am not able. Then indeed into the place, which is called Platanium, into his paternal house betaking himself, the rest of his life with the highest silence he passed. He held the Pontificate fourteen years, five months, six days.

[18] But on the twenty-second day of the same month of January, Anastasius is created Pseudo-Patriarch, Anastasius a man of false name, the disciple and Syncellus of blessed Germanus himself, in his place they substituted: who namely moved by the ambition of secular dominion, since to Leo's impiety he assented, Pseudo-bishop of Constantinople was created. But Gregory, the sacred Prelate of Rome, as I have already premised, Anastasius together with his little books adjudged; and Leo himself, as irreligious, by epistles reproved: and Rome with all Italy to defection from his empire stirred up. Whence the tyrant by a greater daily fury driven, persecution against the holy images moved: so that many clerics and monks and devout laymen, for the right decrees of faith endangered, were crowned with the crown of martyrdom.

[19] And these from Theophanes, but cleansed of error. Thus far Theophanes: in whose royal edition, from the carelessness of the copyists, some σφάλματα errors occur in the numbers. Hence above number 9 in Petavius in the Rationarium of times is read the fifteenth Indiction: and rightly, since wrongly is printed the thirteenth Indiction. For in the year 715, in the 15th Indiction, was translated St. Germanus to the Patriarchal See of Constantinople: and this indeed to have been done is established in the month of August, but concerning the day there is a question. For it is expressed in the editions the eleventh, and afterwards he is said to have held the Pontificate fourteen years, five months three days, and to have abdicated himself in the thirteenth Indiction, namely in the year 730 on the seventh day of January, on the third feria of the week: where that the number of day and feria may agree, in that year in which the Cycle of the sun 6 bore the Dominical letter A, for the seventh of January (which also the author of the Miscella and Anastasius finding noted wrote, the seventh of the Ides of January) ought to be read the seventeenth. But then ought to be said the Saint, beyond fourteen years, five months, to have sat six days: which for this reason the more I approve, because the day 11 of August in the year 715, in which to the Constantinopolitan See he was constituted the Saint, the Cycle of the sun 24 the Dominical letter F, was a Lord's Day, fit for such an action by the old institute of the Churches: and therefore again number 18, where it is said in the place of St. Germanus substituted Anastasius on the seventh day of January; an evident error to be corrected I have judged by putting the twenty-second day. A reading of this kind certainly before their eyes had the author of the Miscella and Anastasius in history, when they wrote, the eleventh of the Kalends of February, which day similarly was a Lord's Day. But if from elsewhere it were established that only three days, not six, are to be reckoned for Germanus's Pontificate, then I would say him on the solemn day of the Marian Assumption the 15th of August in the See of Constantinople placed: for most easily ια᾽ for ιε᾽ could creep into the Greek numbers: and this with the notable affection of the Saint toward the Mother of God excellently would square. In the first Exegesis before the third volume of March, especially chapter 5 we indicated and corrected similar errors several, through the carelessness of copyists sprinkled on Theophanes; and his Life, written by St. Theodore the Studite, we gave March 12.

[20] From Theophanes besides, what concerning St. Germanus they bring forth, excerpted Constantine Manasses, Michael Glycas, John Zonaras, George Cedrenus, and others in their several Annals. Only it pleases from the above-praised Life of St. Stephen the Younger the undaunted mind of St. Germanus to be beheld to set forth, while against Leo the Isaurian the veneration of images he defends: For, as the authors of the said Life say, when of that impiety more certain had been made Germanus, St. Germanus's discourse in defense of the sacred images a man with free and intrepid piety endowed, through one of the chief ministers of the Church these things to him he sends: By no means ought it, Emperor, thee, who both life and Empire from God hast received, against thy Founder insolently to be extolled; and, as is commonly said, the things not to be moved to move; and the bounds of the Fathers, which they anciently set, to transfer. For the human form, by God the Word from the holy and pure Virgin assumed, when all worship of demons was extinguished, then all adoration of idols departed. But of the Theandric likeness the image of Christ to be adored by us and to be cultivated perspicuously has been delivered: and likewise of her, who Him in some way more excellent than every discourse brought forth, and of the Saints whose life to Him pleasing and acceptable was. For since He in our form to us came (but hence seven hundred thirty-six years now have flowed) the Fathers meanwhile and Doctors, whose highest virtue was, the cult of the venerable images to us perspicuously delivered. Not to go far, after Christ's ascension into heaven, that woman, who labored with the flux of blood, by Him restored to health, His image as a received benefit referring, sculpted. And before too by Christ Himself, the very image of the Father, on a divine cloth His face was impressed, and to the Toparch Abgar demanding it to Edessa sent. Finally by the Evangelist Luke it was painted. Nay from Jerusalem too the image of the Virgin the Mother of God was sent: for which cause the divine and most sacred Councils, at various times and places convened, not that they should be trodden, but that they should be adored decreed. I would wish therefore that thou know this, Emperor, that if this iniquitous dogma to confirm and establish into thy mind thou shalt induce, me first by no means assenting thou shalt have, but prompt and prepared, who for the image of Christ my soul will pour out, for which He, that He might restore my fallen and prostrate image, His gore poured forth. For it is perspicuous that that ignominy and contumely, which to the image of Christ is brought, to the exemplar itself redounds. Wherefore by us it must be done, that performing the office of grateful servants, for the Lord's honor we should undergo peril.

[21] This free discourse that arrogant soul, not even with the extreme, so to say, ears to accept received with stripes, enduring; soldiers girt with swords he sends, who the holy man contumeliously treated, and with stripes ill punished, from his throne should drive. He therefore straightway to the monastic and quiet kind of life betook himself. These from the said Acts of St. Stephen the Younger, which very much by Baronius are praised; where since in the text of both Lives, in Greek, in the year 726 from the day of the divine Incarnation even to the day of this discourse are reckoned, in that year which in the vulgar Era among the Constantinopolitans 722, with us 730 would be called, it seems from some more accurate and then perhaps at Constantinople among the learned everywhere known, although among the vulgar not used, Chronology to be taken: which by the greatest consent of almost the whole antiquity to lean we showed at the beginning of our April at the Proem of the old Pontifical Catalogue. But what concerning the stripes brought upon St. Germanus is related in that Life of St. Stephen, is confirmed by St. John Damascene; whom Baronius at this year 730 number 8 asserts, in these very days to have set about writing discourses on the images. For he in discourse 2 of those; Elias, he says, Jezebel persecuted, and the swine and dogs licked his blood… John Herod slew, with blows, and consumed by worms expired. And now Blessed Germanus with blows struck and into exile sent has been, and very many other Fathers, whose names we are ignorant of. Is not this of robbers? etc. In the same manner Constantine the Pious, formerly Bishop of Tium on the coast of the Euxine Sea, writes in the discourse on the Finding of the Relics of St. Euphemia, which in Greek from the Vatican Library codex 820 transcribed we have: The impure, he says, and profane Leo, of the nation of the unfortunate Isaurians, began to bark against the Church of God and to break the venerable images… Wherefore our most holy Father Germanus the Patriarch, and with scourges. in life and discourse resplendent, with impudence and scourges using, from his See he ejected. We omit to heap up several authorities to this matter.

CHAPTER IV.

St. Germanus praised by St. Gregory Pope II. His name inscribed in the diptychs. Various books published by him.

[22] There presided in this turbulent time over the Roman See St. Gregory II Pope, elected March 25 in the year 708, dead in the year 731, St. Gregory II writes to the Emperor Leo and deposited on the day February 13, in which his Acts we illustrated. This one St. Germanus, what Leo the Emperor was contriving, seriously admonished. But also Leo himself his edict concerning abolishing the images to Rome sent, and in turn two letters from Gregory received, which from the translation of Fronto Ducaeus Greek-Latin published Baronius at the year 726. In the former these things concerning St. Germanus are read. Thou those things (the Pope addresses the Emperor) which are known and beheld as light, openly hast assailed. The Churches of God the holy Fathers had clothed and adorned, thou hast despoiled and laid bare, although thou hadst such a Pontiff, namely Lord Germanus our brother and fellow-minister. that he should obey the counsels of St. Germanus, His as of a Father and Doctor, and as of an elder, and of much experience both of Ecclesiastical and civil affairs abounding, counsels thou oughtest to have obeyed. For he completes today the ninety-fifth year, having served each of the Patriarchs and Emperors; and perpetually was occupied, because to both kinds of affairs to be managed wonderfully useful and apt he was. Him therefore omitting to adjoin to thy side, that wicked Ephesian and his like thou hast heard. Thus there. But there is indicated Theodosius Bishop of Ephesus, who afterwards too to Constantine Copronymus the son of Leo a counsellor was: and of the Conventicle by this one gathered in the 13th year of his Empire, President was Theodosius the Bishop, of Ephesus the son of Absimarus, as at the said year writes Theophanes.

[23] It is said above in the Menology of Emperor Basil, likewise in the manuscript Synaxary, St. Germanus ninety years old to have migrated to the Lord: completing the 95th year of age but if in the ninth year of Leo of Christ 725 or at least at the beginning of the following, as above is said, he completed the ninety-fifth year (in Greek ἄγει σήμερον ἐννενήκοντα πέντε ἐνιαυτούς) he seems to have attained about the hundredth year by living: which also these words in the said epistle of St. Gregory adjoined indicate: When Lord Germanus and he who at that time was Patriarch Lord George had suggested, [who once persuaded Constantine Pogonatus to seek a Synod against the Monothelites.] and had persuaded Constantine son of Constans son of Justinian, that to Rome to us (that is to the Roman Pontiff then existing) he should write, thus an oath being interposed he wrote, and with us dealt, that to a universal Synod to be congregated useful men we should send. Nor with them, he said, will I sit, or imperiously speak, but as

one of them, and as the Pontiffs shall determine, I will execute; and those who speak rightly we will admit, and those, who speak ill, we will expel, and into exiles relegate. If my father has perverted anything of the unsullied and pure faith, I first will anathematize him. Then we God being benevolent sent, and with peace the sixth Synod was celebrated, namely at Constantinople from the month of November of the year 680, even to the 16th of September of the following year, in which Synod the heresy of the Monothelites was condemned. Lo of what authority then was St. Germanus not yet a Bishop, that he in the first place before the Patriarch is placed, who with him suggested and persuaded Constantine the Emperor, that the said Synod to be congregated he should seek.

[24] Finally it pleases to adjoin, what in the said epistle by a certain irony the Pontiff objects to Leo the Isaurian: When the Churches of God, he says, enjoyed deep peace, Chief in the East against the Iconoclasts: thou warrest and hatreds and scandals hast stirred up. Cease and be quiet, and a Synod will by no means be needed. Write to us, and into whatever regions of the world, to whom an offense thou hast been, that Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople and Gregory Pope of Rome concerning the images have not sinned, and we from this care quiet thee will render, lest a sin or any lapse be thine, as we who from God power both of heavenly and earthly things to loose have received. Excellently Cardinal Baronius at the year 727 number 17 St. Germanus calls the first Chief, who against the Iconoclasts in the East the standard of confession raised: which most appears from that very epistle of the said Gregory Pope to St. Germanus, which whole Greek-Latin is inserted into the fourth Action of the Nicene Council II held in the year of Christ 787, where in the beginning these words the holy Pontiff uses.

[25] What and what delight my soul thus to gladden knows, as the gratifying message concerning thy name, which reverend truly to me and to be magnified decently is, with great joy of the same St. Gregory O sanctified and divinely-acted one? For this both now I through thy honorable letters being evangelized have exulted, and for too great joy, in spirit I have been gladdened. Then into heaven extending my eye, to the Giver of graces of all God I returned thanks: who in such a manner too willed, and even to the end with you cooperates, and all your things into light brings forth. For this both must be prayed by me both by night and by day, and never sometime this desire to be deserted in Christ trusting I will pronounce. But testimony bears to my discourse, O most-to-be-praised and beloved of God, also the recollection of thy through every hour benevolence: which having as an inhabitant on my lips, and the grief of the word to bear not being able, straightway to affection through letters I hastened. For it is a debt to me and more notable than all debts, thee my Brother and the defender of the Church to salute and to address, and the materials of thy struggles to praise together. Even if anyone should say and quite fittingly: Let rather that forerunner of impiety cry out, who now has suffered, the evil action by a good action with thy felicities to be exchanged… How therefore with God fighting, O thou Most Holy, against those, who without God and against God are, art thou not moved? on account of the exalted Cross of Christ, Where thou hast so begun the battle, as God Himself to thee has shown, commanding to preside in the camps of the kingdom of Christ the glorious truly and notable labarum, that is, the life-giving Cross, the great against death trophy of its greatness (in which the bounds of the world fourfold He has circumscribed, with lineaments distinguishing them) then also the holy image of the Lady of all and the true Mother of God, whose countenance the rich of the people will beseech. and the image of the Mother of God the Virgin For holy it is, as to the Fathers it seems, who thus by you piously honored bestows requitals. For the honor of the image passes to the principal, according to Basil the Great. And after many things concerning the sacred Images most excellently explained he subjoins:

[26] What need is there to extend the epistle into length, and most of all to a man chosen by God, having obtained the grace of the spirit, and into the depths of divine dogmas able to look forward, and God being the leader to consider thoughtfully the highest height of knowledge. But hence to our purpose let us return. The magnifications of thy Defender, O Most Holy, and of all Christians the Lady, and what thyself thou hast been shown, in all things by her directed and saved, and against the enemies comforted, admiring. But those, who from much time against her have raved, so much found her resisting, as much they found her contradicting them. comparing him to Judith And this is no wonder. For if Bethulia by the hand of Judith an Israelite woman was saved, whose work the slaying of Holofernes was; and this savior of Israel, those who through the same time were proclaimed; how would it not behoove rather thy most ample Holiness, such a Defender having used, to assail the enemies of faith, and with victory to crown thy subjects? But by her supplications and of all the Saints, the powerful in battle God ours, strong and longsuffering, who has led thee above Joseph as a sheep, may He keep thee, Most Holy, into prolix years, of the whole Christian well-working conversation; and wishing that he may long live and to obey the sacred canon teaching all and inciting, and to keep the deposit, which from the Fathers we have received; converting those, who for a little have not understood: O our continual joy, and common utility and refection, Most Holy and to all Christians amiable. These St. Gregory II Pope.

[27] There flourished under the iconoclasts St. Nicetas, an illustrious Confessor Hegumen of the Medicium in Bithynia, whose Acts written in Greek by Theostericus his disciple, rendered into Latin we illustrated at the day April 3, where chapter 4 is described the heresy of the Iconomachs, arisen from Leo the Isaurian, saying, that Christ ought not to be painted, nor in His image adored. These things, The sadness of the Church on account of his abdication, he says, while they were being done migrated from his throne the Great Pontiff Germanus; and there fled from her nest the venerable swallow, who the vernal tranquillity of the Church with a sweet-sounding chirping adorned, the Lord's feasts gracing: and into his place was led a deformed crow, gaping and a discordant croaking, the Church prostrate and sadly groaning, that of so great and so divine a Prelate she was bereaved. That sadness lasted under Constantine Copronymus, especially when in the 13th year of his Empire, as Theophanes speaks, the Emperor into the forum proceeded on the twenty-seventh of the month of August, with the sacrilegious Patriarch Constantine and the rest of the Bishops, and the anathema inflicted on him by the iconomachs. who all their depraved heresy before the whole people promulgated: and the most holy Germanus, George the Cyprian, John Chrysorrhoas the son of Mansur, holy and venerable Doctors, with anathema to strike they dared. The very formula of his condemnation is inserted into the Nicene Council II, where with these words to Germanus, in a double sense and a worshipper of wood, anathema is said. Of St. John Damascene May 6 we treated. But St. George perhaps is he, who is venerated August 24, by Leo the Isaurian, whom of the broken images he had accused, his nostrils being cut off and his head burned slain. Nor does it stand in the way that in the manuscript Synaxary of Constantinople and the Menaea he is called Limniota, because from the sea or Ocean, in which is situated the island of Cyprus, to Mount Olympus and Constantinople he had come. Which yet then will be more accurately to be discussed.

[28] But how in the said Nicene Council the honor was restored to St. Germanus, in the Life of St. Theophanes the Chronographer, which from a Greek Sforzian manuscript we published March 12, is read number 13 in these words. When there was created Patriarch of Constantinople Tarasius, of the true but in the Nicene Synod inscribed in the diptychs, faith the most holy light, and the Ecumenical Synod convened, were confirmed those, which had preceded it, the holy six Synods; subjected to anathema, the above-named Constantine, and his successor Nicetas the heresiarchs and fraudulent Patriarchs; Germanus the most holy Patriarch inscribed in the diptychs; and the foolish error of the Iconomachs removed from the midst, and like a spider's web was dissolved. Hence the most honorable mention of him in the fourth Action of the said Nicene Synod, where everywhere he is called Ἁγιώτατος, μακαριώτατος, ἐν ἁγίοις Πατὴρ ἡμῶν. Most holy, he is honored with most honorable titles, his epistles being inserted. Most blessed, Holy Father ours; and there are brought forth his epistles, namely concerning the sacred images, most accurately written, to John Bishop of Synada, to Constantine Bishop of Natolia, to Thomas Bishop of Claudiopolis: and the former epistle being read Tarasius the most holy Patriarch said: Our Father the Holy Germanus accords with the predecessor most holy Fathers, before in the same fourth action related, who are St. Basil, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory Nazianzen, Athanasius, Nilus, Anastasius, Sophronius, with various Acts of the Saints.

[29] Would that in this learned age someone learned in Greek and Latin, A wish that his works be published in Latin-Greek. would expend effort on collecting the works of this St. Germanus, and at the same time on bringing them into light! a most useful work to the Church he would render, and then easily would be discerned whether some treatises ascribed to him, were to be attributed to other authors, for example to Andrew of Crete or to some younger Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople, for two of the same name in the 13th century presided learned men. Philip Labbe in his historical Dissertation on the Ecclesiastical Writers accurately collected a little list of those books and discourses which either by St. Germanus were written, or under his name published. Hippolytus Marraccius published the Mariale of St. Germanus, in which, as above we said, are contained the works which pertain to the cult of the Mother of God, and is prefixed the Patriarchal effigy of the same St. Germanus, to which at the right arm is appended an icon representing the face of the Mother of God Mary. Francis Combefis into the Auctarium of the Greek-Latin Library of the Fathers inserted some Orations concerning the Mother of God, and page 1482 from a Royal Greek Codex adds an encomium of St. Germanus, in which he is said to have taught the word of truth with right faith, and quite many discourses to have written, by which the pious he might gain: but also various hymns to have published for the Saints to be praised, and canticles for the admirable works of divine grace to be celebrated, by which she the ruin of the human race anew repaired. Hence too Simon Wagnereck, in the Prolegomena to the Marian Piety of the Greeks number 21 observes, that the name of St. Germanus the Patriarch, among the expressed hymnographers of the Menaea shines.

[30] Finally Photius in the Library chapter 233 these things has: I read a book by the author Germanus, who first ordained of Cyzicus, after Patriarch of Constantinople was: which book is inscribed, The Requiter and the Legitimate: which is just as if thou shouldst say: On the true and legitimate retribution, that it be repaid to men according as they have lived. And this indeed the inscription of the title. by Photius is praised his style and manner of writing, But he contends Gregory Bishop of Nyssa, and his writings to be immune from the error of Origen. And the deliriums of the Origenists being related, Against whom, he says, Germanus, the patron of piety, the sharp sword of truth drawing, and the enemies prostrated by the wound leaving, victor and superior him constituted, against whom the heretical filth had drawn snares and set them. His style in this little work pure and clear, and the tropes of words happily seizing, with a comely and elegant phrase,

not verging to frigidity, quite insisting on his purpose, equal too in undertaking contentions, and mixing nothing beyond necessity, omitting nothing which were necessary to be said, both by construction and epichiremas, and by enthymemes, and it is as it were a norm of sound doctrine. Therefore also of those, if anyone vehement, clear, and pleasing, and the spiritual doctrine preferring to ostentation orations wishes to write, an excellent example it is and worthy of imitation… But the books which by snares to catch the heretics contrived, and which Germanus the primary defender of truth from the assault of the robbers without harm preserved, by which he defended certain works of Nyssa. are the Dialogue to his sister Macrina on the Soul, and the Catechetical book, and that which contains the narration on the perfect life. Thus Photius, by these words intimating, which of the books of Nyssa before the rest by interpolating into their own matter the heretics tried to draw, and to wrest from them by his defense Germanus contends. Concerning these can be seen our Labbe, rightly with Casaubon noting, that neither the great Catechetical Oration, so often by Theodoret in the Dialogues against the heretics cited, although it contain some blemishes sprinkled by the sectaries of Origen, ought to be called into doubt whether truly of Nyssa it is; nor the Dialogue to Macrina, because there at chapter 6 is read concerning the human souls together with the choir of Angels created according to those same Origenists, from whom certain heretical dogmas mixed into that work to have received he writes Nicephorus Callistus book 11 chapter 19. In the same manner to be excused the little book on the perfection of a Christian to Olympius will be, which here seems to be noted by Photius: but the whole matter would lie open more clearly, if the very work of St. Germanus composed for those should come into light.