CONCERNING S. EREMBERTUS BISHOP
OF TOULOUSE AND OF FONTANELLE IN GAUL.
AFTER THE YEAR DCLXXX.
PrefaceErembertus, Bishop of Toulouse, died at Fontanelle in Gaul (S.)
By the Author D. P.
[1] Concerning the Fontanelle monastery of S. Wandregisilus in Normandy we have treated more than once in this Work, and namely on 14 April, at the Life of S. Lambert, Birthday 14 May. from Abbot of the said monastery made the second Archbishop of Lyons in the year 681, where the whole chronology of the Fontanelle foundation and succession again deduced the reader will find: but if any doubt remain, it can be expedited on 22 July, the birthday of the holy Founder himself. Now concerning his disciple, his companion S. Erembertus, from a Fontanelle monk Bishop of Toulouse, that we should treat John Mabillon admonishes, The translation on 30 April is recalled. asserting that on the day before the Ides of May (when he is said in the life to have died) his memory is celebrated both at Toulouse, and in the monastery of Fontanelle, in which his Relics are honored. The same also before us did Heribert Rosweid in the Calendars, and following Heribert Philip Ferrarius in the Catalogue. Wion and other authors of monastic Calendars preferred to treat of him on the day 30 April, when in the twin copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, the Blumian and the Lucca, it is noted, In Gaul, in the monastery of Fontanelle, the Translation of S. Erembertus Bishop and Confessor: for which wrongly in the Brussels Usuard of S. Gudula is noted the Deposition of S. Erembertus the Pontiff.
[2] His Life from Andreas du Chesne, most illustrious by published books, transcribed from an ancient codex we had, The Life is to be given from MSS. and we give it collated with the editions of Catellus and Mabillon: of whom the one in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints century 2, gave it: the other in the History of Languedoc and indeed from the Moissac Codex. In this it is said, that S. Erembertus after the fire of his native village was extinguished by miracle, the Episcopate being dismissed wishing there to die an old man, where as a young man he had received the monastic habit, withdrew to the monastery of Fontanelle, where at that time the venerable rector Lantbertus presided, and there living somewhat in holy conversation, at last worn out with old age… happily migrated to Christ. S. Lantbertus in the year 667 undertook the rule of the monastery after the death of S. Wandregisilus, and held it until the year 681. Hence the author of the Fontanelle Chronicle, sets Erembertus to have died in the year 671. But against this is that in the aforecited Life it is said that S. Erembertus was born in the times of Dagobert the renowned King or his son Clovis: for Dagobert only in the year 622 began to reign, and indeed for the first six years in Austrasia alone: Clovis began 638: how then born under them, worn out with extreme old age he died, if he died, I do not say in the year 71 of that century, but even a decade later?
[3] Here I would have it observed, that the aforesaid Chronicle sins against Chronology neither in a few nor in light things: as also the Chronicle wavers for both S. Wulfrannus, whom we demonstrated on the day 20 March before his Life num. 7 to have died only in the year 741, and afterward to have been raised from the earth by Wando the Abbot, the Chronicle itself says in the year 704 to have been translated by Bainus the Abbot, together with the bodies of the Saints Wandregisilus and Ansbertus, after he had rested 11 years in the church of S. Paul. And when it speaks of S. Wandregisilus himself, defining the number of years in which he had lain there, it assigns about forty according to the opinion of those, who by wrongly drawn reckonings had taught the holy Founder to have died in the year of Christ 665. Finally in comparing the 10th year of King Childebert and the first of Pope John with the year of Christ 704 it has erred basely, as in February already alleged we showed: teaching it to have been the 7th year of Childebert, and the 3rd of John. But no more certainly than the Chronicle itself, proceeds the Life of S. Erembertus, which we give. As nearly all those things are wont which were written many centuries after the deed: for it itself also to SS. Wandregisilus and Ansbertus, translated by Bainus, about the times, joins
S. Wulfrannus, surviving about thirty years after Bainus, who died in the year 710, which will have to be examined at his Birthday on the day 20 June.
[4] All things therefore weighed on every side, concerning the age of S. Erembertus we seem to be able to say, that born about the same time as King Dagobert, about the year 600, and Dagobert's son Clovis reigning made a Monk, at Fontanelle, which is to be better ordered. but Bishop of Toulouse under the grandson of that same Dagobert Clothar before the year 670, he died not long after the year 81 of the seventh century; lest otherwise in the Life the name of Lantbertus be judged ineptly added. For this ought not so easily to be presumed: since the chief mark of things anciently described in monasteries, are the names of the Abbots: which therefore it is expedient to keep inviolate, as long as they do not conflict with surer characters of the times to be noted. Trithemius, who in the book on the illustrious men of the Order of S. Benedict reckons S. Erembertus among the Abbots of Fontanelle; but in this, as in several other things, relying on the accustomed license of conjecturing has erred: Erembertus was not Abbot of Fontanelle. since among the first Abbots of Fontanelle there is no empty time to be found, in which he could have ruled. Namely S. Wulfrannus is in a like manner also ascribed to the Abbots of Fontanelle, because he passed there the last years of his life, and for the reverence of the Episcopal grade was observed by the monks, with great honor and esteem.
[5] Concerning the Translation of S. Erembertus, so celebrated, that before his Birthday it was inscribed in the Martyrologies, his body is translated by Bainus the Abbot about the year 712: these things are read in the Chronicle: In the same place in which B. Wandregisilus had rested in the aforesaid basilica of S. Paul the Apostle, S. Bainus placed B. Erembertus the Bishop, who before in a lower place of the same church had rested buried under the arches, more or less thirty-three years, on the 31st day after the aforesaid translation, made the day before the Kalends of April, and so on the last of that same April, and built over him a repa decorated with silver. That a repa is a sepulchral ornament like a circle or crown hanging over it from above, we said in April: here only we add that such an ornament, when it was fitted to the tombs of Saints, not placed in the middle of the church, seems to have had the form only of a half circle, of which either extremity took hold of the wall. As to the years, in which S. Erembertus rested in the former sepulchre, of these a conjecture is to be made from the age of Bainus the Abbot, who in the Chronicle is said to have presided for nine years, namely from the 7th year of Hildebert King of the Franks, of Christ 704, even to the fifteenth of that same King, which was the year of Christ 712. If therefore it was the 10th year of the glorious King Hildebert, when the translation of SS. Wandregisilus and Ansbertus was made (which character of time as most usual to the ancient Franks, nay alone was in use, so it alone seems to be retained, the others being rejected which from his erroneous calculation the author of the Chronicle accumulated) it happened in the 4th year of Bainus, of Christ 707: but the Transposition of Saint Erembertus, deferred to the last year of Bainus, would at least leave us thirty intermediate years from his death.
[6] Moreover the same body of S. Erembertus, thus as has been said translated from the lower part of the Pauline temple to the upper, the other Translation made much later there rested through the courses of many years. After which thence taken and deposited it was in the chief Basilica of S. Peter, as at the end of the Life is said, and there it was when that was written. Since the Fontanelle Chronicle makes no mention of this Translation, ending in the rule of Ansegisus the Abbot in the year 832, not only do I judge the Life later than the Chronicle, but I also esteem it written only in the XII century or later. But as the Monks, fleeing the violence of the Normans, content to have re-dug the bones of SS. Wandregisilus and Ansbertus, did not care or could not care about the body of S. Wulfrannus resting in a neighboring tomb; so also much less do they seem to have been solicitous about the body of S. Erembertus placed in the different church of S. Paul. But after the former was happily found in the year 1027 and solemnly translated; it seems to be attributed to Gerard the Abbot after 1027. I should believe Gerard the Abbot, intent on adorning the temple of S. Peter restored by him, and enriching it with sacred Relics, came into the memory of S. Erembertus, whom buried in the long since desolate church of S. Paul he was not ignorant; and to seeking out this one also applied his mind, and finding it deposited it in the oratory of S. Martin, but with less solemnity and pomp; and with almost private and hidden services of the monks; whence neither did miracles shine forth, nor was the concourse of peoples to S. Erembertus excited, which to S. Wulfrannus was the greatest. But as the great celebrity of this Saint caused, that the Fontanelle men were quickly despoiled of that treasure, it being translated to Abbeville; so its obscurity preserved the other for them. But whether the Relics, which Mabillon writes are honored at Fontanelle, are held in the open; and, if so, when they were extracted from the oratory of S. Martin, is wholly hidden from us.
LIFE
From the MS. of Andreas Du Chesne collated with the editions of Catellus and Mabillon.
Erembertus, Bishop of Toulouse, died at Fontanelle in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 2587
[1] Erembertus therefore the holy and religious one was sprung in the territory of Pincinacum, S. Erembertus born in the diocese of Troyes, in a place called Viliolicorte, which was near to the formerly royal fisc Alpicum, and to the great river Seine, in the time of Dagobert the renowned King, or of his son Clovis. Then in the course of time the things of the world being despised, in the monastery of Fontanelle, from a monk under the rule of the holy Father Wandregisilus, he assumed the monastic habit: and so at length, the Lord commanding, under King Clothar the younger, namely the son of the aforesaid King Clovis and Queen Bathildis, by the command of the Kings, and the election of the people, Bishop, he is ordained Bishop of the city of Toulouse. Consecrated therefore as Pontiff, unceasingly to holy religion, chaste conversation, and humility to be imitated, also to praiseworthy continence, sacred reading, and preaching agreeing with works he exceedingly bestowed care; and like a great lamp he shone by the light of his merits in the house of the Lord. Of whom what were the merits of his life there were not lacking attesting signs of virtues; of which one memorable one I have judged to be set before this little work.
[2] For at a certain time having gone out from the city, he had disposed in mind to visit his country and kinsfolk, he visits his country which he chanced also to have done. Then performing prosperously the journey begun, he came to the aforesaid possession Viliolicorte, which then his brother, by name Gamardus, by succession of his parents by hereditary right possessed. But while he stayed in that same place, a fire suddenly vehement arising, invaded that same possession to be burned. And when the flame of the raging fire, about to swallow the whole village, came consuming buildings clinging to buildings, and no throwing of waters brought any help, but rather the loftier force of that fire rose up; all the villagers, now having no hope of the rescue of the place, and a fire arisen beg the intercession of the blessed Pontiff Erembertus against the swelling fire. But there was in that same place a basilica built long before in honor of the holy Martyr and Pontiff Saturninus by the aforesaid holy Pontiff, in which then that same Prelate begged the help of the divine piety, when this storm of fire pressed on. Then the eager clamor of the people, the air being struck back, is raised on high, the doors of the basilica are knocked by the crowd, and where human help was lacking, they begged divine help to be brought to them most quickly. But the Bishop, considering the misfortune of others, he extinguishes it with his crozier: by compassion has pity on their complaints; and therefore his crozier, that is, the curved Pastoral staff, which he was wont to carry in his hand, forthwith he directed against the raging flame; and again prostrate on the ground he bent to prayer. And no delay; at the moment of his prayer, and at the arrival of the Pastoral staff, set against the raised fire, the East wind, which had spread the fire over the village, as if bound with reins behind its back, and turned back against the South, first lost the force of its fury, and soon, the globes of flames being utterly lulled and calmed, it restrained. Then the tears of the people are turned into joy, grief gave place to swift exultation, the clear voice of the people praises together the all-powerful Christ the author of this miracle, and pronounces Erembertus the holy Pontiff to be of the highest merit with the Lord.
[3] About the same time he withdrew to the monastery of Fontanelle, he goes to the monastery of Fontanelle. where at that time the Rector Lantbertus presided: and there living somewhat in holy conversation, at last worn out with old age, he is seized with a slight languor. Brought to the extremes by which, amid the divine praises and sweet colloquies and pleasant exhortations, taking the Viaticum, and fortifying himself with the standard of the holy Cross, and bidding the Brethren a last farewell, where he is buried in the church of S. Paul. he happily migrated to Christ on the day before the Ides of May, and was buried venerably in the Church of S. Paul the Apostle, and first in the lower part of that same basilica. But when after some intervals of time the bodies of the holy Confessors were honorably translated, namely of Wandregisilus and Ansbertus, from the aforesaid Basilica by S. Bainus the Bishop into the church of S. Peter the Apostle; then in a more eminent place of that same church of S. Paul the Apostle was placed, by that same S. Bainus the Bishop, the body of that same most holy Pontiff Erembertus, namely in the apse of the aforesaid Basilica; in which place through the courses of many years it rested, by his prayers the people of the Lord, coming thither and beseeching the Lord in truth, perpetually saving, by the favor of Christ the Savior of all.
[4] His brother with his sons become monks. In the consequent time also, the brother of the aforesaid Prelate Erembertus, Gamardus by name, bestowed his possession, which is called Viliolicorte, to the dominion of the monastery of Fontanelle; and the hair of his head being laid down he was made a monk; and his sons, Nammachus and Zachaeus, likewise stripped of the troubles of worldly things, in the same monastery made monks, learned to hope for heavenly things. The garments preserved for relics But the crozier of the holy Bishop, in which the miracle had worthily been done, for a long age of years remained in the aforesaid church of S. Saturninus the Martyr; until that, shaken by ruins, it was transferred to the village Bruarium, together with the Episcopal garment of that same Pontiff. But the aforesaid crozier was afterward brought to the monastery of Fontanelle, which remained even to our times. They report also, that in the aforesaid village a certain Presbyter, An impious Priest putting it on is seized with a fever. less given to religion and an honest life, dared rashly to put on the garment of the Saint, which was kept in a little shrine hanging over the altar; in which he straightway experienced both the rashness of his guilt and the sanctity of that one. For seized with a very great fever, he confessed the virtue of the holy Bishop; and so longer vexed with the same trouble of fever, at length by the prayers of his Prelate Erembertus he obtained again his former health. But the body of the aforesaid holy Pontiff Erembertus translated from the Church of S. Paul the Apostle, The body again, rests now in the Church of S. Peter in the oratory of S. Martin the Pontiff.