ON SAINT HADULF,
BISHOP OF CAMBRAI AND ARRAS AND ABBOT OF SAINT-VAAST IN BELGIUM.
IN THE YEAR DCCXXVIII
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
On his miracles, translations, cult, and Relics.
Hadulf, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, and Abbot of Saint-Vaast (S.)
BY G. H.
[1] Among the ancient Bishops of the Church of Cambrai and Arras the eighth is numbered S. Vindician, whose Acts we illustrated on the XI day of March. His successors Balderic thus enumerates in the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras book 1 chapter 34: He is illustrious by miracles: To B. Vindician, Hildebert succeeded in the Episcopate: to whom Hunoldus. He being deceased, to the Episcopal throne Hadulf is elected: whom certain ones assert to have been the son of S. Ragnulf the Martyr: of whom these, the faithful who survived to our times, testified that they had seen many miracles at his sepulcher. These things there. Of S. Ragnulf we treat below on the XXVII of May. But of S. Hadulf Balderic thus pursues at chapter 35: This Hadulf was buried in the church of S. Peter the Apostle, which is within the wall of the fortress of Arras next to the monastery of S. Vedastus a. But his sanctity, as time proceeded, was shown by many and wonderful portents: in the elevation of his Body a demoniac is freed. of which the chief witness, the sacristan of the monastery of S. Vedastus, made known to Engranus the Bishop of Cambrai the visions which he had for the most part seen. He therefore, observing a suitable witness, raised the holy body. In which elevation, for the declaring of the merits of the holy man, a certain woman was wonderfully freed from an unclean spirit. Whence the Bishop, joyful, a discourse made to the people, made known B. Hadulf in the number of the Saints. These things there. The said Engranus, by others also Enguerranus and Ingelranus, presided as Bishop over both Churches from the year above the nine-hundred-and-fifty-seventh to the sixtieth.
[2] We have a most ancient manuscript Martyrology of the Cathedral Church of Arras, Memory on May 19 in manuscript Calendars, received by the gift of the Lord Canons in the year MDCLXII while we were then at Arras: in which on this XIX of May in the first place these things are read: On the XIV of the Kalends of June, at Arras the deposition of holy Hadulf the Bishop, which plainly in the same words are read in the manuscripts of Anchin and Corbie: but in the manuscripts of Aubergenville of the Canons Regular, of Utrecht of the Clerics of S. Jerome, of Leiden of S. Cecilia, of Louvain of the Society of Jesus, and various others with the manuscript Florarium these things are held: On the same day the natal of S. Adulf, Confessor, Bishop of Cambrai. and in others printed. The same too has Greven in the Additions to Usuard, and Maurolycus and Felicius agree well enough. But Molanus in the Auctarium of Usuard adorns him with this elogium: In the monastery of Nobiliacum, the deposition of S. Hadulf, Bishop and Confessor, resting at Arras in the church of S. Vedastus: which same thence Canisius transferred into the German Martyrology. Menardus drew somewhat thence. But by the same Molanus in the Natalia of the Saints of Belgium these things are added: He succeeded in the said monastery to Hatto the first Abbot, in the year seven-hundred and ten, and ruled that Church for nineteen years. The time of his See in the Abbey and Episcopate, But in the year seven-hundred and seventeen, by the acclamation of the people, the favor of the Clergy, and the command of King Chilperic, he was assumed to the Episcopate of Cambrai or Arras, the eleventh from B. Vedastus. Yet the Bishop wished to be called only Abbot by his Brothers. The year of his death the ancient Annals of the Franks from the codex of Massay signify, edited by Labbe in volume 2 of the New Bibliotheca page 733, in these words: In the year DCCXXVIII Charles was in Saxony, and Adulf the Bishop died. and his death in the year 728. He was moreover of Cambrai, and had the Abbey of S. Vedastus. Hence the Annals likewise of the Franks, from the manuscripts of Tilius and Petavius, in volume 2 of Andreas du Chesne page 7 printed, can be very well explained by these words. In the year DCCXXVIII Charles was in Saxony, and Hadulf the Bishop died.
[3] After a glorious conversation and a life adorned with all sanctity, his soul was rendered to the heavens, and his body, as said above, was buried in the church of S. Peter, in a chapel sacred to the blessed Virgins Barbara and Catharine, where in the neighboring wall is seen depicted the effigy of S. Hadulf, The epitaph formerly affixed. with this epitaph.
Here lay the Saint, the mirror of piety, Hadulf: Who vigilant ruled the choir of Arras unto the stars. Sweet hail, our Father, oppose pardon to our faults, And repay grateful gifts to thy beloved flock.
[4] The sacred body was afterward carried from the said church of S. Peter to a worthier Church, which is of S. Vedastus, and thence in the year MXXX, to honor the dedication on the XVIII day of October of the new Church of Cambrai, The Body carried to Cambrai in the year 1030. rebuilt by Gerard the Bishop, it was carried to Cambrai, and placed beside S. Gaugericus around the altar, with the bodies of SS. Autbertus and Vindician, who all had been co-ministers of the same altar, the staff of S.
Vedastus with his relics being interposed also, as is read in the cited Balderic book 3 chapter 49. But toward the end of the XII century the same sacred body was placed in a silver shrine, with this inscription: In the year of the Incarnate Word MCXCVII, Indiction XV, Epact none, Concurrent II, the holy Roman Church being presided over by Pope Celestine III, placed in a shrine in the year 1197 but William being Archbishop of Reims, the glorious Emperor of the Romans Henry reigning, but with us the most strong King of the Franks Philip reigning, the most powerful King of the English Richard likewise fighting against us; there was laid up in this bier, and bound in two cloths, the body of the most blessed Confessor of Christ Hadulf, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, by the Lord Henry Abbot of S. Vedastus, on the very day of his deposition, namely the XIV of the Kalends of June, happily. Amen. Thus far that inscription, found in the year MDCII, when Philip Caverel, the most worthy Abbot of S. Vedastus, unsealed in the year 1602 and enclosed in another, unsealed the shrine of the Relics of S. Hadulf, and adorned a casket skillfully wrought in silver becomingly, and took care that it be placed behind the major altar together with the Relics of SS. Vedastus and Ragnulf.
[5] In the church and diocese of Arras the same Saint is venerated on the XXXI of August, and in the ancient Breviaries of the said Church the Ecclesiastical office is recited of SS. Paulinus of Treves and Hadulf, Bishops and Confessors. cult on August 31, But in the proper Offices of the said Church printed in 1632, Paulinus being omitted, S. Hadulf is venerated, with a proper third lection added, from Balderic and others already related. On the same day in the manuscript Martyrology of Centula or S. Richarius these things are read: At Arras, of S. Hadulf, Bishop and Confessor. In the Auctarium of Usuard through Greven and Molanus he is referred, on account of the translation. and by this one is called Translation. Galesinius and the continuator of Canisius follow Molanus. But by Saussajus it is called the Elevation of the body, as also on the XX of May with a rather long encomium. Ferrarius on the XVII of April, in the general Catalogue of those who are not in the Roman Martyrology, refers the same; but equally badly calls him Hodulphus, when he alleges the additions of Molanus to Usuard, as if on such a day they were held in them. The same he equally faultily transcribed Demochares, as if he named him Adelphus, whom expressly there you will find written Adulf.
ON B. ALCUIN THE LEVITE,
ABBOT IN GAUL.
IN THE YEAR DCCCIV
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the Life written by a contemporary, the year of death, and whether Arno of Salzburg was Alcuin's brother?
Alcuin the Deacon, Abbot of S. Martin (B.)
BY G. H.
He flourished in England and then in Gaul, in the eighth century of Christ and the beginning of the following, Blessed Alcuin, or Flaccus Albinus, Levite and Abbot: whose exceptional doctrine, zeal of faith, and sincere integrity of morals shines forth in the books and epistles written by him, His writings published. collected by Andreas du Chesne or Quercetanus, and published at Paris in the year MDCXVII in one rather thick volume. To these some opuscula, afterward dug out from manuscripts, are added in the Spicilegia of Luc d'Achery, and of the same and of Mabillon in the work on the Acts of the Benedictine Saints in the fourth century, where in chapter 16 of the Elogium to the Life of the same Alcuin, a judgment is brought forth concerning his writings, which can be compared with the judgment of Cardinal Bellarmine and of Philip Labbe on Ecclesiastical Writers.
[2] The Life of the same B. Alcuin was written by an Author almost contemporary, The Life by a contemporary author, and chiefly from the faithful narration (as he himself testifies in the Prologue) of Sigulf, the disciple of Alcuin, at the time when Louis the Pious, as is said at number 18, held the Empire, and S. Aldricus presided as Abbot over the monastery of Ferrières, as is clear from number 19, and consequently before the year DCCCXXIX, in which the said S. Aldricus was made Archbishop of Sens. The Author inscribed that Life to a most reverend Father and likewise most loving, perhaps his Abbot, the said Aldricus, also a disciple and subject of Sigulf, as is insinuated at number 3 the said Father to have been. The Life of S. Aldricus is to be given on the IV day of June, whether inscribed to S. Aldricus, on which here it is said that under Alcuin the Abbot, the Master of letters (to whom the administration of the monastery of Ferrières at that time was committed) he received the insignia of monastic discipline. He being dead (or the burdens being distributed among the disciples, as below at number 14 is said) to bearing the care of the same place Sigulf was substituted, an Englishman by nation, sprung of noble lineage, endowed with honesty of morals, Sigulf supplying the matter; and illustrious by the prerogative of religious conversation. He, weighing the future preeminence of Aldricus … assiduously instructed him in pious eruditions … But weakened by old age he had substituted Adalbert for himself; but to him after the fourth year of his administration, freed from the prison-house of the flesh, succeeded Aldricus, to whom then the author could have offered the Life of Alcuin written by himself. But the aforementioned Sigulf, because weakened by old age, below at number 19 is called the Old man, it is necessary that he be distinguished from two of the same name, of whom one Sigulf, a Presbyter, keeper of the church of the city of York, is said to have been associated with Alcuin at number 11; the other is mentioned as a monk of Benedict Abbot of Aniane at number 20.
[3] How great is the authority of this Life, can be gathered from the age of the writer, and of Sigulf and Aldricus. The aforepraised Andreas du Chesne or Quercetanus first published it before the works of Alcuin, published by Chesne from an old manuscript codex of the Church of S. Mary of Reims, and prefixed a Preface to those his works, in which he dug out very many of his deeds from his own writings, and subjoined the testimonies of various authors concerning his doctrine and virtue. The same Life from Chesne, Achery and Mabillon above indicated published, with an Elogium distinguished into several chapters. and by Mabillon. We give the same after our manner distinguished into chapters and numbers, and illustrated with various Annotations, the testimonies and elogia of others being left aside. But since the original text is so held in both editions already said, that the very copyists' errors too are most faithfully found represented, not without great perturbation of the sense, sometimes unintelligible, unless prudent conjecture bring a remedy; I judged that in this third edition I might use some liberty, and consult the reader's tedium and labor, by applying correction, with a few letters now and then changed, or by the transposition of one word, or even by the omission of something altogether redundant: which however I have not indicated otherwise than by an asterisk affixed: so that he who shall wish to scrutinize the old reading, may recur to either of the aforesaid editions. But as for the punctuations, as always elsewhere, so also here I judged them to be free, and I think I have contributed not a little to clarity, in that I have not bound myself by the example of others.
[4] That the Author was mistaken, in rightly ordering the age and the year of death of the Venerable Bede, is noted below at the first Chapter. But that the same by most certain marks established the year of the death of B. Alcuin we know by the testimony of others. Below at number 28 on the day of Pentecost, the morning office being performed, The death assigned to the year 804 at the same hour at which he had been accustomed to enter to the Masses, the dawn opening, the holy soul of Alcuin is loosed from the flesh, and at number 29 it is added that he departed on the XIV of the Kalends of June in the year from the Incarnation DCCCIV; when, with the cycle of the Sun I, of the Moon 7, with the Dominical letters G F, Easter was celebrated on the XXXI day of March, and consequently the day of Pentecost fell on the XIX of May, or the XIV of the Kalends of June. Philip Labbe in volume 2 of the New Bibliotheca of Manuscript books published at page 733 the Annals of the Franks, from the year DCCXXVI until the year DCCXCVI, from a most ancient codex of S. Martin of Massay, to which toward the end by a hand likewise ancient these things are written added: Alcuin died on the XIV of the Kalends of June, on the first feria of Pentecost, the day dawning, the Moon VI, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord DCCCIV, Indiction XII, in the XXXVI year of the Lord Charles reigning, paralysis befalling, on the VII of the Ides of May, on the fifth feria toward evening after the setting of the sun, the Moon XXV. Which we judge to have been added soon after the death of Alcuin, at least before the death of Charlemagne: whose deeds, because they are narrated through each year in the said Chronicle, his death would not have been omitted. The same year DCCCIV is signified by the Chronicle of Angers, published in volume I of the said New Bibliotheca page 284, the Chronicle from the old Petavian codex in volume 3 of the Writers of the History of the Franks published by the said Chesne page 350, the Chronicle of Hildesheim and of Tours, Odorannus the monk in the Chronicle of S. Peter the Living of Sens, and elsewhere others: nor were we able to find any ancient writer who noted the year of Alcuin's death otherwise.
[5] Meanwhile Mabillon altogether affirms that the year is to be corrected, and that on account of three arguments deduced in the Elogium chapter 15. not to be placed later on account of the time of Arno Abbot of S. Amand And the first argument, he says, is taken from poem 54 which Alcuin wrote on the elevation of the body of S. Amandus, which he asserts was done by Arno the Priest Prelate or Abbot: who (as is held in the Chronicle of Elnon in Mabillon himself page 65 of the same volume, where on the second elevation of S. Amandus he undertook a new dissertation for this cause) who, he says toward the end of the page, from Abbot was afterward elected into Archbishop, namely of Salzburg. In the time of that Abbot flourished the venerable Lotharius, sacristan of the church, who on account of the absence of waters elevated the body of B. Amandus about the year CL from his deposition, but in the year of the Incarnation DCCCX, on the XII of the Kalends of October. then Archbishop of Salzburg At length the venerable Arno the Archprelate died in the year DCCCXXI, and is buried in the church of S. Peter. He being consecrated Bishop, Adalricus is made Abbot: he being dead in the year DCCCXIX succeeded Rotfridus: to whom in the year DCCCXXVII succeeded Adaleodus of venerable memory. These things there: in which Mabillon, in place of DCCCX, in which the body was elevated, would prefer to be read DCCCIX. But with respect to the year DCLXI, to which at that time by a very great error, now confessed by all, the death of S. Amandus was assigned, the year DCCCX is more aptly numbered, when there was from the death so numbered the year CL. Yet I would not wish to use this argument, because I do not see how from numbers of years utterly confused, and led far from the truth, any true computation can emerge. Mabillon himself in the 2 century and page 723, when at number 6 he had referred the death of B. Amandus to the year DCLXI from the sense of the Author, notes these things: This calculus, although studiously investigated by the author, can by no means stand. But he himself referred the same death to the year DCLXXIX; we even later, to the year DCLXXXIV. Therefore by the computation of Mabillon the body would have been elevated in the year from the deposition not CL but CXXXII, if that elevation was done in the year DCCCX, or even the preceding one. But this third number too we know to be faulty from the promotion of Arno to the Archbishopric of Salzburg, which we judge to have been done about the year DCCXCV: because Pope Leo III in the third year of his Pontificate, of Christ DCCXCVIII, is read to have sent him the pallium in Wiguleus Hund in the Metropolis of Salzburg page 4. Now indeed, he being consecrated, Adalricus is said to have been made
Abbot, the Chronicle confirms; whence we gather that the said elevation was made earlier, when Arno or Arnonus was still Abbot. It seems therefore, the numbers being transposed, that in place of the year DCCCX, the year DCCXC is to be established: and in this we willingly correct ourselves, who had also referred this elevation to the year DCCCIX, and thus the said argument of Mabillon is not eluded (which he did not see could be done) but plainly overturned. Here moreover it is to be added, whether here the brother of Alcuin? that the said Arno seems to have been named by the Belgians Arnt, and thence Aquila by Alcuin, who inscribes epistle 66 to him in these words: To my dearest brother Aquila the Prelate, Albinus, greeting. And in the context, You, he says, with fraternal diligence chastise my sluggishness … that by the leading of a fraternal right hand it may not grow weary in the way of truth. But the epistle was written when Arno had departed to the Episcopate. Another epistle afterward he inscribed to the same most beloved brother and most holy Prelate Aquila, related at number 104, whence also he is reckoned his brother by Mabillon. For deferring the death of Alcuin moreover other arguments of less weight are adduced: namely that he still lived when S. Ludger died in the year DCCCIX: but this Altfrid his successor passed over in silence in his Life, and it is asserted by later writers without proof. Alcuin could also have persuaded his disciple Rabanus before the year DCCCIV, in which he died, to write a book on the Cross, although Rabanus completed that book long afterward: which was the third argument of Mabillon.
[6] We say therefore, with the authors indicated above, that it seems to us that B. Alcuin departed in the year DCCCIV, and on the XIX day of May. On which his disciple Rabanus wrote these things in his Martyrology, The deposition of the Lord Alcuin. The same are read inserted in the Martyrology, which under the name of Bede until now memory in the Calendars. was held, but that it is supposititious is also clear from this, since Bede died nearly LXX years earlier than Alcuin himself. Greven and Molanus followed in the Auctarium of Usuard. Ghinius numbers him among the Canons: Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Calendars, ascribe him to their Order with Trithemius: Mabillon, who in chapter 3 of the Elogium prolixly contends for his monkhood, objects to himself various places from this very Life, where he seems to be indicated as to be ascribed to the Canons: which I do not wish to scrutinize each more scrupulously. There may be seen Charles le Cointe in volume 6 of the Annals at the year 802 number 95, succinctly touching upon what Mabillon laboriously here takes upon himself to dissolve, having begun to publish his fourth century in the year next after the edition of that volume, of Christ 1677: perhaps in turn to be refuted by the successor of Charles already dead on some next occasion. In the Annals of Fulda at the year DCCXCIV Alcuin is held illustrious in sanctity and doctrine. In the brief Chronicle of Tours: In the year DCCCIV Saint Alcuin died: yet we do not know that he is venerated with an Ecclesiastical office.
LIFE
By an author almost contemporary.
From a most ancient manuscript of Reims published by Andreas du Chesne.
Alcuin the Deacon, Abbot of S. Martin (B.)
BHL Number: 0242
BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.
PROLOGUE.
[1] The supernal right hand of Christ bedewing and grace assisting, most reverend Father and likewise most loving, you bid that I should write for you concerning the beginning and end of the admirable life of Father Alcuin, The Life written by command of the Abbot, which I could learn of him from the most faithful narration of Sigulf his disciple, in speech though unpolished and small, yet filled with truth, to profit the edification of some; asserting that you have long borne over this matter no small thirst: not because your inward parts, fired with supernal heat, cannot be refreshed by the life, pious deeds, and zeals of innumerable Saints, who by their own blood or by the renunciation of the world and its pleasures, are known to purchase the consortship of the Lamb and of the heavenly virtues: enjoying which happy ones with one sweet song, with insatiable jubilee, with garments or with the fronds of palms (with which the fruitful mind of light is adorned) made the way which is narrow and strait, by the children of the Hebrews and by the backs of the she-ass with Christ as rider pressing humbly, level and passable. But because, the world flowingly growing old with its own, scarcely indeed can a few be found, who are able in all things to follow the steep footsteps of the ancients; who the nearer to the highest head, the more by the immensity of their acts are proved illustrious, sustaining most firmly the tabernacle of the Lord like columns, of one wishing a recent example to be set forth, that by the inundation of waters and the impulsion of winds it can never fall nor be moved; therefore you assert it to be very necessary, that if the grace of Christ has conferred upon us anyone in our times to be followed by pious imitation, a lamp of this kind should not be put under a bushel, nor under the quiet of a bed, but above the candlestick, that those entering the Church may be illumined with clear light. For the father of the family himself, who at the first hour, the same also at the eleventh, hired workers for the vineyard, to whom he commanded that one wage be given. For neither if we cannot be hands, or the beard hanging about the mouth of Christ, or snowy teeth, which can chew the crust of bread for little ones, or eyes more beautiful than the wine by which virgins are nourished; on this account shall we be separated from the desirable frame of the Lord's body, only rooted and founded in the same faith, hope, and charity according to the Apostle, that being many we may become one body of the Lord, the unity of charity remaining in the difference of the stars. Eph. 3:17
[2] Indeed the Apostles were eyes, contemplating in some manner by the purity of mind the splendor of the eternal Sun, as the prince of the Apostles Peter, and the virgin John: of whom the one, avoiding the opinions of very many heresies, confessed the one person of the Son of the living God consisting of two substances, saying, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God; the other pouring forth his own soul in himself, and transcending all created things, ascended to Him through whom all things were made, and being given to drink of His breasts belched forth a secret unheard of by the ages, after the Apostles; saying. In the beginning was the Word, &c. Matt. 12:15 The blessed Martyrs were a breast of bronze by clearly preaching, and of iron by bearing the raging fires of the persecutors, as Cyprian, Lawrence, Dionysius, Maurice. Martyrs and Confessors, The holy Confessors and Doctors of doctrines existed, by which the foods might be seasoned, the belly: Martin, Hilary, Benedict the eminent Father of Monks, Ambrose, Gregory, Jerome, Augustine. These therefore all rewarded with the two denarii of the Samaritan, whatever they were able by their own sweat, spent within the stable upon the wounded man, now gloriously enriched with the awaited reward. But now iniquity abounding, according to the prophecy of the Apostle, and the charity of many growing cold, as orphans made without a father, residing on the knees of the mother, who is shaken by most bitter waves here and there, standing in the midst of the sea, we need to be fortified by the suffrages of the earlier Fathers, and to be nourished by their vital stipends, lest we be endangered by hunger in the laborious way of our course: nay rather let us leave the ship, laden with the wares of the world, that we may truly cling to the head, and say, Draw me after thee, we will run in the odor of thy ointments. Matt. 24:12, Cant. 1:4 For He who is a mountain pleasant to the harts seeking the heights, deigned also to lay open a refuge to the lowly hedgehogs, saving men and beasts together, they know who are with Him.
[3] Therefore those whom both age too much and their own health weighs down, because they cannot fully follow the ancient ones, at least will follow the footsteps of those whom they most certainly proved to have lived with them in their time, and by evident indications to have pleased Christ, worthy of imitation. namely of Benedict for the Monks, and of Alcuin in all things for the Canons, worthy of imitation. Whose, devoutly obeying your commands, most holy Father, I shall undertake with the pen, not redolent of the garland of secular eloquence, but as in body so in sense to write the life with a stammer: testifying to God Jesus, that I have not attempted to seize this by the pride of elation, but have desired to profit the souls of many. I shall therefore write faithfully what I learned only from his most faithful disciple, namely Sigulf my instructor, the most beloved Father whom you also had, who before all mortals after the departure of holy Edbert alone deserved to know his exceptional secrets. Thee therefore, Lord, thee I beseech, venerable Father, that I may be supported in this sweat by thy pious intercession, who biddest me, hitherto silent of those things, now to sound with open mouth.
CHAPTER I.
Boyhood. Studies under Egfrid the Archbishop of York.
[4] The Man of the Lord Albinus, sprung from a noble lineage of the nation of the Angles, consecrated to God from boyhood was nobler regenerated by the vital waves of Christ Jesus: who when he was weaned from his mother's carnal things, is handed over to the Church to be imbued with mystical breasts a. Whose little body Jesus already then possessing by His own condescension, did not permit it to be polluted by the ancient enemy with foul games, or with obscene acts: since He had predestined to consecrate His own seat in him before he was born.
[5] And while he was still a little one, by the light of day he often frequented the church for the canonical Hours with others, but very rarely at nocturnal times. And when another year held him from his tenth, it happened on a certain night that he, with one simple and tonsured rustic, lay separately together in a house. For that simple rustic had asked the master of the illustrious boy, for the solace of his nocturnal solitude, that on one night he would bid any boy from the school sleep with him in his cell, because he had none of his own at present: to whom by the nod of God, a lover more of Virgil than of the Psalms, the boy Albinus is granted. But behold, about cockcrow according to the wonted manner the sign of the nocturnal vigils is sounded by the keeper: the due office is performed by the Brothers: but that simple rustic, turning himself to the other side, since too negligent about such things, snored in his sleep. And when now the Invitatory Psalm with the Antiphon had been sung according to custom, suddenly that house of the rustic is filled with foul spirits, who girding his bed say: You rest well, Brother. He being suddenly awakened, they urge the same: Why, they say, while the Brothers are vigilant in the church, do you here alone snore? What more? He is profitably beaten so far, that by his salutary change he afforded to all a caution and a song: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High, while his eyes anticipated the nocturnal vigils. And while he was being beaten, the noble boy trembling, lest the same things should happen to him, as he himself afterward testified, said in his inmost heart: O Lord Jesus, if Thou now rescue me from the bloody hands of these, and after this I shall not be solicitous about the vigils and the ministries of praises of Thy Church, and shall have loved beyond Virgil more than the modulation of the Psalms; the demons terrify, who had chastised his companion, then may I be allotted such a scourge of chastisement: only earnestly I pray, now, Lord, free me. Finally that this might be more strictly impressed on his mind, after the beating of the rustic was ceased by the command of the Lord; the wicked spirits turning their eyes hither and thither, see most diligently the body wrapped in cloths and the whole head of the boy, utterly unconscious of breathing. But the prince of them asks his own, Who else rests in this house? There is, they say, Albinus here a boy hidden in the bed. But the boy, when he perceived that he could not lie hidden, suffused with too much rain of tears, by how much he had before
been suppressed by fear, by so much the more, as a boy, is rendered noisy with clamors. But they, unmercifully wishing and not prevailing to afflict him with punishment, deliberate what they ought to do about him. But constrained by the sentence of the Lord, lest they should satisfy their wish, the imprudent ones say, prudently nevertheless: Let us not chastise him with sharp blows, because he is still unformed, but only with the cutting of a knife of the feet, in which is the hardness of a callus, and we will confirm the amendment of his present promise. And now the feet being bared of clothing by the hands of the evil ones, Albinus quickly fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, and chanting the twelfth Psalm with all affection, the throng of the evil ones suddenly disappeared. And the rustic, half-alive, together with the boy preceding him with nimble step, fled to the protection of the Saints into the basilica.
[6] O lier-in-wait of the heel, whose bread is dust, not the wheat of the Lord, but confounded they depart. who art bruised in the head! O enemy of the pious! Art thou not mad, who once didst seek undue to be made the sitter of the highest heaven? If thou wert like the Most High, as thou didst boast, in the incomprehensible light of brightness on the mountain of God, why under dark night dost thou strive diligently to scrutinize human acts with thy own kindling? Indeed I will confess, as the consequences of thy doings teach, that thou justly judgest thyself made prince of darkness by thy own presence. For although thou appearest in an Angel of light, thou attemptest to take from us the inward light by thy foul dust. But if, as thou art an Ethiopian, thou hast attempted to do this in the boy Albinus, the brightness of hope by striking too much fear, thou art conquered by a humble man, who hadst conquered the lofty man. Truly if thou hadst known, thou wouldst not have crucified the Christ of glory, nor wouldst thou have sought to beat the callous soles of the Christ-worshiper Albinus. Thou hast hidden for his feet the net of capture; and he, as a bird sustained by the wings of a dove, and with feet firmed like a hart and set on high, with David fled from the face of Saul, rejoicing to abide in solitude. Thou hast opened and dug out a pit, and into it confounded thou hast fallen without the desired prey. Thy arrows, retorting their point upon thee, afflict thee with inestimable grief: thou hast fallen to the earth, wounder of the nations of the Saints, thou art trodden under with the feet of Albinus, thou art cast out from the beloved tomb, because the strong is conquered by the stronger. Thy heavy scepter, O exactor, and the yoke imposed on our shoulders, is overcome by a boy, still ignorant how to call his father and mother. With thy spoils, forgetting thee and her people, the mother Church is adorned, fruitful of spiritual charisms, celebrating the ensigns of the heavens with the virtues, the canticles of praises to the Lord. Thanks always we render to Thee, Lord, good Jesus, together with the Father, and the Holy Spirit through the ages, whose good is whatever we do, begin, and perfect. Phil. 1:13 According to Him who teaching us Thy grace says, It is God moreover who works in you both to will and to perfect; and the Psalmist, My God, His mercy shall prevent me, and again elsewhere, And Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and Thou Thyself hast said, Without me you can do nothing. Ps. 36:11, Ps. 22:6, John 15:5
[7] These things being thus concerning the beginning of the aforesaid boy, he began thence, in a certain likeness to himself of the Lord, in age, wisdom, to advance with true and living philosophy, more strictly obeying His commands. He is handed to the discipline of Egbert. And after the lesson of the psalms recited from memory, he is handed over to Hechbert the Prelate, disciple of the most learned Bede of the nation of the Angles, in merits a master similar, as one ignorant of milk now to be nourished with strong breads. He, seeing the lofty grace of Christ shining diligently in the boy, as being exceedingly perspicuous, began little by little to demonstrate to him more secretly his own secrets: since he most certainly rejoiced that he would be his imitator. For he had from the sons of nobles a flock of scholastics, of whom some were instructed in the rudiments of the Grammatical art, others in the disciplines of the liberal arts, some in the divine Scriptures, the five barley and after these the seven wheaten loaves rubbed in the Father's hands, they transferred into their own breast together with the twin fish the ears of corn. But all were imbued with faith, hope, charity, humility, fastings, chastity, obedience, and with most devout and most honest care about the offices of the Church with all circumspection, not so much with words, as with the examples of the holy Father Hechbert, a Christian Prelate worthy in all things, in whom that doctrine which had shone in his preceptors shone forth not moderately, namely in the holy Apostle of the Angles Gregory, in Augustine his disciple, in holy Benedict, and in Cuthbert together with Theodore, following in all things the first Father and Apostle, the disciples of Bede, and in the Man of the Lord exceedingly amiable Bede the Presbyter his own preceptor: who from his early age as Samuel consecrated to the Lord, ignorant of any defilement of garment, handed by his parents to the monastic rules, whatever he taught by word he strengthened by example: who after he had fought the good fight, consummated his course, kept the faith, and doubled the talent of his Lord with usury; on the day on which he wished and asked, namely on which the King of glory Christ the triumphator ascended above all the heavens, from the Incarnation of the Lord d DCCXXI, on the VII of the Kalends of June, but from the death of holy Gregory in the CXXVII year consummated, migrated to the Lord e a nonagenarian, as is the affirmation of some. For in the nineteenth year of his age he is made a Levite, but in the thirtieth a Priest: from which time those things which he had before learned through thirty years to profit the Church, until the fifty-ninth with no idle sweat he studied to put into books worthy of memory by his own style. But through other thirty years they say that he corrected what he had written; and that he instructed his disciples not moderately in the studies of all the liberal arts: before he fell sick, dictating and composing this antiphon very fitting for the very festivity, with its melody: O King of glory, Lord of the virtues, who as triumphator today hast ascended above all the heavens, leave us not orphans, but send the promised of the Father, the Spirit of truth, upon us. men most religious. Alleluia. Whose footsteps now, as has been said, Hechbert following, deputed his whole treasure to the words of the Lord, searching the inmost recesses of the Scriptures. For from the light of rising day, if an inevitable impediment did not stand in the way, or any excelling solemnity, or great festivity of the Saints, until about the sixth hour, very often also the ninth, residing on his bed, he laid open to the disciples the secrets of Scripture fitting for each. Then rising thence, and fleeing to most secret prayer, offering first to the Lord the marrowed holocausts with the incense of rams, and after, according to the example of blessed Job, lest perchance his sons should fall into the pit of blessing, he sanctified them, offering the body and blood of Christ for all. Job 1:5 And so at length the evening hour approaching, except in the great Lent, at all times both of summer and of winter, he took a sparing food with his own, yet worthily prepared; not sparing the tongue of the reader, that he might be refreshed with both bread. You would see therefore then before the Father the boys grinding themselves with prepared weapons, discussing in secret what afterward in order they might draw out in public. Does it not seem to you that of this too it can be said: As an eagle provokes her young to fly, and flutters over them, spreading her wings, and taking them, and bearing them on her shoulders? Deut. 32:11
[8] But all these, Alcuin adorned with flowery adolescence, surpassed under the lesson of humility. He at length, the father of the poor, a great lover and helper of Christ, was wont twice in the day to pour forth most secret prayer, with the irrigation of a most pure fountain, both knees bent to the ground, and his hands longer raised to heaven in the manner of a cross: he lives religiously. namely before he took food, and before he celebrated Compline with all his own: which being celebrated, none of his disciples ever at any time dared to commit his members to the bed, without his blessing given to his head. He indeed loved all, but most of all Albinus the most faithful follower of his acts, on account of the distance of merits. To whom among other virtues this was given more specially, that he chose to do nothing of himself, which the authority of the master, approving, did not season; and he never bore inwardly any engines or snares of the enemy, which without any shame he did not conceal outwardly from his master. By which it came to pass, that the goad, he discloses the secrets of his heart to his preceptor: which he had sometimes felt, the untamable goad of lust, by this wonderful art he conquered most gloriously, while as a Babylonian he dashed the little ones against the rock, bruising the head of the serpent lying in wait for the heel. For he took heed lest over him the words of Christ should be spoken, because everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, that his works be not reproved: but rather that he should come into the lot of those, of whom it is subjoined: But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God. John 3:20 O truly a monk of a monk without vow, of whose example a follower is very rarely found a monk by obligation. Let us therefore imitate Albinus the pious adolescent of the Lord, by fleeing the palpable Pharaonic darkness; and let us turn night into day, and after darkness let us hope for light, the prison of the prince of darkness being escaped. Let us sedulously recall the scales of Behemoth, with which his body, pressing each other in turn, is rendered compact. For one is joined to one, and not even a breath passes through them: one adheres to the other, and holding themselves they are by no means overcome: whose strength is in the loins, whose sinews of the testicles are interwoven, who sleeps under the shade and the secret of the reed and in moist places. We rejoice, Albinus, in thy boyhood corrected from the cruelty of the ancient enemy, while God uses his malice for thy good. We venerate the purity of mind in the adolescent and the most constant firmness in the great contest: in which the flesh, often agitated by the spirit of the duelist in many things which cannot in peace enjoy quiet, the bones, the Lord guarding, within remain unharmed. Thou didst deserve to have the Lord Christ as the guest of thy mind, by whose protecting thou didst say: In Thee shall I be rescued, Lord, from temptation, and in Thee shall I pass over the wall, who hast made my way immaculate, and my arms as a bow of bronze. Let us see therefore by what darts this soldier complains to be lacerated on the contrary again, and in the manner of the army of Judas Maccabeus let us be armed with the most invincible arms from the ancient victories of the Fathers.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER II.
Other Acts of the same in England under Ælbert the Archbishop. His departure into France. Felix the heretic confuted.
[9] On the thirteenth of the Kalends of December therefore, bereaved by the loss of Father Hechbert a, Alcuin, by the divine gift received Elbert b, a blessed and illustrious man, in the place of the one lost, a master similar in all things. The envy of his companions overcome, When therefore not only by the comeliness of wisdom, but also mighty in other virtues he preceded his companions, appearing second to none; he perceives that in many things their hearts were troubled by the spirit of envy at his progress, so far that they were by no means able to look upon him with a clear eye, nor to address him with sweet words. But inquiring the counsel of the master over this matter, he is exhorted to heap coals of fire upon their heads by benefits. Hearing at length the most salutary counsel of the Father, he did not before cease from the intention of reason, considering lest they should hear any word contrary to himself from his mouth, often prostrating himself at their footsteps, when he was unjustly reproved by them, until he should obtain for them from the Lord an evident mildness of mind; so far that suddenly changed they rejoiced to hold him in all ways with the master: and the petty king is drawn by the hand of the weaned boy from his cavern in which he lay, and there are established the gentle embraces of doves. Great certainly are the virtues of the Saints, by which bodies are healed, and of not less admiration and veneration ought to be esteemed those by which souls are healed. But Albinus marked with this virtue let us venerate with wonderful piety, who did not wish to know the wormwood of secular literature, that he might enter into the power of God. For indeed he scorned the world placed in the evil one, that being made higher than the world he might be joined to Him who is made higher than the heavens. He had read in the Apostle, that the prudence of the flesh is an enemy to God: for it is not subject to the law of God; which if Albinus, the most noble of all those, had wished to follow, vengeance not long postponed for such daring would have struck them. Rom. 8:7 Now leaping over with worthy proclamation the slippery paths of adolescence, as the sun in the mid arch of heaven he is fixed with the great heat of youth. Now also with Moses, learned in Egyptian wisdom, of which he had cut off the hair and the nails, he had ascended the mountain, on which God could be seen; and had seen the rod into a serpent, and again the serpent touched on the tail turned into a rod, and the abyss had known the abyss invoking. Clinging to the footsteps of Him who upon the mountains evangelizes, announcing good things, that he might be able to hear the raised voice of the watchmen.
[10] Reading therefore the Gospel of John before the master together with his fellow-disciples, before them and the master he is rapt into ecstasy, he came to that part which only the clean of heart know to comprehend with the mind, which is from that place where he himself says he reclined upon the breast of the Lord, until he recalls that Jesus with his disciples went out beyond the torrent Cedron. With this evangelical mystical reading therefore when Albinus was made drunk, sitting before the master's couch, suddenly his spirit is led into ecstasy: and the same, who once under the ray of the sun before the eyes of the most holy Father Benedict, now before the eyes of this one, the whole world is shown collected under one paddock or enclosure of mares. Who while he fixed the attentive sharpness of his eyes on this which he beheld, saw this whole enclosure round about as if surrounded with blood. And when he was held by this vision of the miracle, his fellow-disciples turning their eyes upon him with great admiration, since he seemed to have nothing of blood, attempt to wake him as if sleeping: at whose sound the blessed Elbert directing his eyes upon Albinus, beholds him longer silently, saying: Read, sons, and do not wake him, that indulging a little in sleep he may afterward more efficaciously be able to hear me teaching. But now Albinus having returned to himself, the lesson received, the Father bidding, all go out, retaining Albinus alone with him. To whom the same Father says: What didst thou see, I pray, do not conceal it from me. But wishing altogether to keep secret what he had seen, fearing lest perchance he should fall into the pit of elation, he answered: What? my lord Father. To whom again the blessed man: Do not, son, do not hide it from me: for neither do I require it of thee from vain curiosity, but for thy profit. But Albinus, seeing that he could not conceal it, humbly indicated in what manner he had seen the whole world. Then the same Father said to him: See, my son, see that, except to one whom after my departure thou shalt have as most faithful concerning thy person, thou indicate this to have been seen: and forbid him too that until after thy death he keep it secret. He obeying his counsels, indicated his things only to Sigulf concerning himself in his life. surrounded with blood. He therefore who desires to know how under one enclosure he could behold the whole world, let him recur to the book of the Dialogues of S. Gregory. Greg. bk. 2. Meanwhile yet let him know, that in the vision the world was not cut off and the earth contracted, but the mind of the beholder dilated: who rapt in the Lord, could without difficulty see all that was below God. Dial. ch. 35. Perhaps also someone more studious will ask, why he saw it under this figure, or why surrounded with blood. Let him know that the whole sheepfold of the holy Church is surrounded with the blood of Christ, so that from the rising of the sun even to the setting, the redeemed from the hand of the enemy by His passion, which then without doubt more ardently sat upon the mind of Albinus, when he read this before the master, can say: Confess to the Lord because He is good, &c. The whole world therefore, surrounded with the blood of Christ, is discerned under one enclosure; when all things whatsoever were significatively done by the holy Fathers and written from the beginning of the world, are referred to the sole passion of Christ, who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. But if by the enclosure circled he wishes to be understood the life of his carnal crimes surrounded with blood, which was for this shown to him, that being trodden by him it might be contemned; let it be left to his own judgment.
[11] After these things, growing from virtue to virtue, on the day of the Purification of S. Mary he is consecrated a Levite: ordained a Levite, for long before on the same day he had lost the hair of his head. And when he now knew that the blessed Elbert his Father, by an infirmity foretold, would more quickly pass to Christ (who did all things, as is said above, with his counsel), he studied diligently to inquire of him, what after they should be separated by death alone, he would wish and command him to do. To whom, as now is clear, he gave the answer of the Lord: and instructed by Ælbert of things to come, I wish you to come to Rome, and thence returning to visit France: for I know that you will make much fruit there: and Christ will be the leader of your journey, conducting and governing you thither a stranger, that you may be the expugnator of the most nefarious heresy, which will attempt to assert the man Christ to be c adoptive, and the most firm defender and most illustrious preacher of the faith of the holy Trinity. You shall therefore persevere in the land of pilgrimage, illuminating the souls of many. But blessing him with the blessings of his Fathers mentioned above, and commending him to Christ Jesus that He Himself would keep him, thus the joyful Father Bishop Elbert migrated to God on the VI of the Ides of November d. Whom pious Albinus, lamenting with tears as a mother, would not yet receive consolation. But the Levite, enriched by hereditary right with the holy blessings of the Fathers, gave great care, to multiply excellently the talent of his Lord. He taught e many in Britain, and not f few afterward in France. At which time there is associated with him a man amiable to God, distinguished by the nobility of mind and flesh, Sigulf the Presbyter, and having gained as companion Sigulf, keeper of the church of the city of York, that he might cling to him perpetually, who with his uncle Autbert the Presbyter as a boy had sought these parts, and had been led by him to Rome to learn the ecclesiastical order, and also directed to the city of Metz for the sake of chant. In which when with great penury of bread he toiled for some time, and with much fruit (after he had sent his holy uncle the man to the Lord) he returned to his own fatherland. These therefore loved each other so mutually, that you would see Rebecca joined to Isaac, and Anna to Tobias. And when now almighty God wished to glorify France with spiritual riches, as formerly with earthly ones; giving it a King after His own heart, in faith, fortitude, and love of wisdom, and in the ineffable beauty of body most illustrious in these, Charles, He moved the mind of Albinus, that he should fulfill the counsel and command of his Father.
[12] Bidden therefore by Eanbald the Archbishop, the successor of Elbert, to obtain for him the Pallium from the Apostolic See, he came to Rome. And when he was returning, the Pallium received, he had King Charles meeting him at the city of Parma. Whom the King addressing with great persuasions and prayers asked, he is invited into France by King Charles: that after the completion of his mission he should return to him into France. For he knew him, because once he had been directed to him by his Master. But Alcuin did, desiring to serve the progress of others, so that he asked of him by the authority of his own King and of the Archbishop, only on this condition, that he should again return to them: and he came, Christ affording leadership, to King Charles, whom the King holding embraces in the place of a father, by whom introduced into the liberal arts, he had known to be cooled a little, but on account of too great fervor could not be sated. he is set over two monasteries, But some time being passed with him, he gave him two monasteries, namely Bethlehem, which by another name is called h Ferrières; and i S. Lupus near Troyes. But at length Albinus, not wishing without the authority of his King and Bishop to desert his own place, where he had been educated, and where he had lost the hair of his head, and had been consecrated a Levite; asked the great King, that he would give him license to return to his fatherland. Whom Charles addresses with the voice of one coaxing: We have, eminent Master, earthly riches sufficiently, with which we rejoice to honor you as a father: we pray to be illustrated by your long-desired things, and scarcely ever found, with the merchandise of your piety. To whom Albinus: My Lord King, I do not propose to refuse your will, when it shall have been confirmed by the authority of the Canons. Willingly also, though enriched in my paternal region with no small inheritance, this being spurned that I may be able to profit you, here a poor man I delight to stand: it is only yours to obtain this from my King and Bishop. At length therefore overcome by reason, he consents that he should go: and likewise to Marmoutier. not giving rest to his mind, unless he should firmly obtain that a second one would return to him, with him
so that it might last perpetually. But no small time being elapsed, after Albinus had returned a second time to Charles, the same is set as Pastor over the monastery of k S. Martin near Tours: who worthily ruling that for God along with other monasteries, studied to correct, as much as he was able, the life of his subjects; and those whom he received untamed, he was busy that they should be reasonable and of honest morals and inquirers of wisdom.
[13] Meanwhile l a heresy hostile to God, which was sprouting in the parts of Spain, asserting the Son of God to be adoptive according to the flesh, He refutes Felix the heretic at Aachen. is brought to the ears of Charles. Which when the Great King and in all things Catholic knew by experiment, he contended with all his efforts, that the seed of the devil might be destroyed, and the tares utterly rooted out from the wheat of God. For summoning Albinus his instructor at Tours, and the wretched Felix the asserter of this heresy from the parts of Spain, he gathered a great Synod of Bishops in the Imperial palace of Aachen: in whose midst himself sitting, he commanded Felix, though greatly resisting, to contend reasonably by disputing with the most learned Albinus concerning the nature of the Son of God according to the flesh. Then how great was the silence of the Bishops that then existed! O how clear and inexpugnable the confession and defense of the faith with the authority of Charles of his master! But Felix fleeing through many hiding-places was transfixed with very many darts by Albinus, so far that he almost consumed all the cities of Israel, until the Son of man should come. For from the second to the seventh of the sabbath little else was done. At length, his folly being laid open to all, and the heresy confuted by all with Apostolic authority, it lay hidden deformedly to himself alone, until he read lamentably the sayings of Cyril the Martyr directed to him by Albinus: m That nature, which was vitiated through the devil, was exalted above the Angels on account of the triumph of Christ, and gathered to the right hand of the Father. Reading therefore this sentence, he at length testified by voice and by much weeping that he had recognized himself, and acted impiously. But because, tending to another matter, I have foretasted a few things on this matter, he who thirsts to know this more perfectly, let him read his epistles n to Felix and Elipantus, and theirs to him; and he will be able without delay to know what he desires. Christ granting, thus far a little of the beginning of the life of Albinus, which I judged not to be known to all, not as I wished, but faithfully as I could, I have written. Hence now the pen, shaken at the lips (for I judged not to insert into this small work the things which all know about him), I shall attempt to draw to his end, by crackling though contemptibly.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER III.
Acts in old age. Various things foreknown from heaven. A fire extinguished. The sick healed.
[14] When therefore by old age and at the same time by infirmity he felt himself affected more than usual, as he had long deliberated with himself, he signified to King Charles that he wished to leave the world a, asking license to lead the monastic life at b S. Boniface according to the Rule of S. Benedict, Disappointed of his wish he withdrew to Fulda, and to divide the monasteries committed to him among his disciples, if it could be done. But the terrible and pious King, with all the affection of his petition denied one; the other he willingly heard, demanding c that most quietly and most honorably he should reside at Tours, and not refuse to expend care for himself and all the holy Church committed to him: but the burdens of the world, which he himself had had, as he had asked he most willingly distributed among the disciples. Albinus too therefore did as the most wise King had asked, not seeking what would be useful to himself, but to many; and at Tours awaited his last day. His life moreover was not inferior to the monastic. For such as he had preceded in the Fathers named above, such also in him endured; namely in fastings, He is retained at Tours, and lives religiously. in prayers, in the mortification of the flesh, in alms, in the much celebration of Psalms and Masses, and in other virtues, by which it is possible for human nature to be adorned. For except the days of the Resurrection and Festivity, he protracted his fast until evening, sparing the food in which he more delighted: wherefore he very often rejoiced to have so great a sweetness given from heaven to his mouth, as human speech cannot tell. Then indeed whatever he wished, without any labor, he was able most swiftly to dictate; so that he could say, I have loved, Lord, thy commandments above gold and topaz: how sweet are thy words to my jaws! above honey and the comb to my mouth. Ps. 118:127 He who as a youth had loved the secret modulation of the Psalms not so much as other reading; now already an old man could by no means be sated with their chanting. Most secret prayer always in the day, as above of his Master it was noted, with a long extension of his hands as a cross, in the same manner with many groans (for he could very rarely have tears) he poured forth. To the disciples likewise he handed it down, of whom the most noble was Sigulf the Old, and the magnanimous Withso, after these Fredegisus and his companions. But at the last time there clung to him assiduously Raganard, where he had various disciples. Waldramn, who still survive; Adalbert too of blessed memory, as much as he could, then the son of Sigulf, but afterward a venerable Father, and d many others, of all whom would that Christ knew the names. These indeed providing with all circumspection, studied solicitously, lest they should do anything of reprehension before him; many times even also without him. For they knew that he was bound to God, and illumined by His Spirit; although with bodily eyes, old age and infirmity resisting, he could not now see clearly; and therefore they feared that their acts could not lie hidden from him.
[15] For being filled with the spirit of prophecy, he foretold to some what was to come to them, as he did to Raganard concerning e Osulf. For the same Raganard, given to sleep, seeing a certain horrible vision, He learns from heaven the fall of Osulf, which it is good to keep silent, related it to the same Father the following day with fear, fearing lest it should be about himself. But the Father himself with great grief answered: O Osulf, thou wretch, how often did I warn thee? how often did I correct thee? Much labor indeed I had over thy uncle, that he should correct himself, and had begun to work the way of the commandments of God; and I foretold to him, that unless he did so, before he migrated from the world he would be struck with the plague of leprosy: and so it was done. I foretell therefore to thee also, my son, concerning Osulf, over whom is this vision, that neither in this region, nor in that in which he was born, will he die: which afterward the event proved, for he died in Lombardy. The same Raganard too attempted to afflict himself with excessive vigils and excessive superfluity of abstinence, all being ignorant, so that for this intemperance he succumbed to a most grievous fever: to visit whom Father Albinus coming, the excessive vigils and abstinence of Raganard, bids all except Sigulf go out of his house, whom rebuking he says: Why without anyone's counsel didst thou attempt to act so intemperately? For I, considering that thou didst wish to do this, ordered thee too to sleep in the house in which I sleep: but thou, as soon as thou knewest all to be asleep, secretly lighting a candle didst hide it in a lantern, and going to that place didst keep vigil the whole night: and whatever thou didst there secretly (which God alone knew) he himself indicated to him, adding: When thou camest with me also to the command, and I bade thee drink wine; with most cunning art thou didst say: I have drunk, lord Father, sufficiently with my uncle. But when thou camest to
thy uncle, and he too bade thee this, thou didst say that thou hadst drunk with me. Thou didst wish to delude us, and thou wast deceived. Beware therefore of these things after thou shalt have risen from the fever, lest thou ever attempt to do anything such indiscreetly.
[16] Hearing therefore these things from him who was called the Old, Raganard blushed, and greatly was afraid, knowing himself caught, and that his secrets could not lie hidden from Albinus; and admiring he said: How was this made manifest? He testifies even today before God that no man had known this, no man revealing it beforehand, except God alone. Repenting at length that he had acted foolishly, through all the time afterward of the life of Albinus he did nothing such without his counsel and command.
[17] Very often too messengers of the King coming to him, and of other friends, when they were still far from him, he foretold their arrival, and the cause of the arrival, the coming of Benedict Abbot of Aniane, what too they would bring, or what they sought to carry with them. But some disciples hearing these things, until they proved them, blamed his old age as if doting. The venerable man f Benedict too, joined to him in familiarity before all the monks, often hastened to him from the parts of Gothia, for the sake of receiving counsel of his own salvation and that of his own. But on a certain occasion he wished to come to Tours in such a way that no one should recognize it, until he should stand at the door of the house of Albinus. And when he was still not near, Albinus calling one of his own, says: Hasten to meet Benedict the Abbot in such a place, and tell him, let him come quickly to me. The messenger of Father Albinus did as had been commanded him; and came after three days where he had told him, and found Benedict, and announced to him what had been commanded him. But astonished that his attempt was detected, with speed he came to Tours to him. And when they kissed each other in turn dancing, Benedict the reverend Father suppliantly begins: Lord Father, who foretold my coming to you? He answered him: No man made it known to me by words. To whom the same: Who then, Lord? perhaps you heard by anyone's letters? But he: Truly, he says, by none. To whom the same holy man again: If neither from any man telling, nor by anyone's letters you foreknew it, I pray, my Father, declare in what manner you knew it. To whom Albinus: Do not ask me this any more. But when the venerable man Benedict now wished to return, he asked him, to lay open to him in what manner he prayed for him by a special prayer. But he says: and he indicates to him his manner of praying; This namely I ask Christ. Lord, give me to understand my sins, and to make a true confession, and to do worthy penance, and give me the remission of my sins. To whom the man worthy of God Benedict says: Let us add, my Father, to this prayer one word: And after the remission save me. But Albinus rejoicing said: Be it, most reverend son, be it. Again moreover the same man demanded, that he would tell him, when seeing the Cross he inclined himself toward it, what words he silently brought forth with his lips. But he said this: Thy cross we adore, Lord, thy glorious passion we recall; have mercy on us, who didst suffer for us. After these things, leading him a little, Albinus sent him rejoicing back to his own and his own.
[18] For the great King, and now the potent Emperor, Charles, for the sake of prayer and at the same time of the desired mutual conversation with Albinus, studied to visit the sepulcher of S. Martin with his sons, he foretells the principate of Louis, Charles, Pippin, and Louis: in which place holding the hand of Albinus, he says secretly: Lord Master, which of these my sons seems to you to have me as successor in this honor, which, though unworthy, God has given me? But he directing his countenance upon Louis, the youngest of them, but most illustrious in humility, on account of which he was marked as contemptible by many, says: You shall have Louis the humble, an eminent successor. This then Charles alone heard. But when he saw those same Kings with neck erect, and Louis with humble step going for the sake of prayer into the church of S. Stephen; sitting in the place where he wished to be buried, he begins to those standing by him: Do you see Louis more humble than his brothers? certainly you shall see this one the most lofty successor of his father. And also, when after the communion of the body and blood of Christ he mingled it for them with his own hand, the same Louis most illustrious in humility, inclining himself before all to the holy Father, kissed his hand. Then the man of the Lord says to Sigulf standing by him: Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted, certainly this one after his father France will rejoice to have as Emperor. This we now see done and rejoice. Those have been deposed who seemed cedars, and the fruitful olive has been exalted in the house of the Lord. The Father himself moreover instructed Charles with much care, in the liberal arts and the divine scriptures; so far that he became the most wise of all the Kings of the Franks, who were from the coming of Christ. He taught him too through all the time of his life which penitential psalms, with the litany and prayers and entreaties, which to make a special prayer, which in praise of God, which also for any tribulation, and which he should chant that he might exercise himself in the divine praises: which he who wishes to know, let him read h his little book to the same on the method of prayer.
[19] The same man of the Lord had read as a youth the books of the ancient Philosophers, and the lies of Virgil, which he himself now wished neither to hear, nor that his disciples should read: They suffice, he said, the divine Poets for you, nor do you need to be polluted with the luxurious eloquence of Virgil's speech. Against which precept i Sigulf the Old attempted to act secretly, whence afterward he blushed publicly. For calling his own, whom he then nourished as sons, Adalbert and Aldric, he commanded them most secretly to read Virgil before him, forbidding them, that no one in any way should know it, lest perchance it should come to the knowledge of Father Albinus. But Albinus calling him to himself in the wonted manner, says: Whence do we have you, Virgilian? why did you begin and wish to act against my will and counsel, I being ignorant, so that you read Virgil? But Sigulf casting himself at his feet, confessing that he had acted most foolishly, humbly repented. Whose satisfaction the pious Father kindly received after the rebuke, warning him not to do anything such any more. The man worthy of God still surviving Aldric k the Abbot testifies, that neither he nor Adalbert made this known to anyone; but until then, as had been commanded them, in all ways kept silent.
[20] the fraud done in the wine, To the Brothers of Cormery, whom he greatly loved, the Father himself had ordered a hundred measures of wine to be given. And when they were being led to the monastery, he commanded through Sigulf the monk of Benedict the Abbot the provisors of the monastery, that they should hold meanwhile the conductors of the wine, until before them it should be changed from the vessels in which they had brought that wine, into others: because some of them taking from it furtively, that the vessels might be full when they came to the monastery, had mixed sand with water: which thus done the Brothers most certainly proved.
[21] Aigulf moreover a Presbyter, an Anglo-Saxon, he too came to Tours to visit the same Father. and the authors of a certain reproach, And when he had begun to stand before the door of his house, behold certain of the Tours Brothers together, namely four joined, looking at him, and thinking that he knew nothing of their speech, conversed with one another; This Briton or Scot comes to that other Briton who lies within: O God, free this monastery from these Britons: for as bees from everywhere return to their mother, so all these come to him. But the same Presbyter, having entered the house of Albinus: after some other things related to him what he had heard. To whom Albinus: Do you know, he says, who they are? But he: Truly I neither know, nor could I look at them out of shame, when they said these things. But Father Albinus says: Certainly I know who they are. Calling them therefore by their own names, he bids them come to him, saying: These are they. Condoling therefore their folly, he spared them saying: May Christ the Son of God spare them. But giving them each a cup of wine to drink, he bids them gently go out again: but Aigulf afterward inquiring most diligently through others, proved that they were the same.
[22] Nor have I thought that to be passed over in silence which many knew. The keeper of the sepulcher of S. Martin, A fire arising in the sacristy of S. Martin who provided the wax and all the vestments that pertained to the basilica itself, entering with a lighted candle the sacristy where these were kept, fixed the same in a stake: which when he went out he forgot to take. Fastening therefore the door with a bolt, he departed: but the burning candle fell upon the wax; the wax too giving great flames to the vestments, which hung on poles, sent out fire with much force; the vestments moreover up to the roof: which the keeper perceiving, with the key immediately fled to another l monastery. There is a concourse from everywhere, the door is knocked, nor is it opened with any sweat. The Clerics whoever had anything precious in their house, sent it out: the church of S. Martin was stripped of certain vestments: nor could anyone hope for anything but the burning of the whole Monastery: the roof was stripped of lead. Albinus was present, with eyes now not seeing. He asks therefore what is being done. To whom one of his disciples the Old: Go, he says, hence, my lord Father, lest perchance either by the lead thrown down from above you be struck unto death, or be burned by the fire: for certain destruction remains. prostrate before his sepulcher he extinguishes it. And when Albinus wished to go, again the Old to him: My, he says, lord Father, go to the sepulcher of the Lord Martin, and intercede for us. So Albinus did. And when he had come thither, he stretched himself upon the ground in a cross, sending forth a groan to heaven. In a wonderful and incredible manner therefore, as soon as Albinus cast himself upon the ground, all that fire was so extinguished, as if it were killed by an immense river. The Clerics seeing this, with great astonishment exulting hasten to that place, where Albinus prostrate in a cross before the sepulcher of S. Martin, lying for them prayed to God. But raising him from the ground, they bless God, who through the prayers of Albinus saved the whole fabric of the monastery of S. Martin that it should not be consumed by fire. These are thy worthy examples, S. Martin, who once when thou didst seek to flee fires, couldst not; turned to God in prayer, thou didst extinguish those threatening fires. Truly lofty faith, which by its heat could extinguish fiery globes. Nor is it a wonder if the elements at the prayers and commands of Albinus relinquish their own force, when He Himself rests in his heart, who loves those who love Him, and does not permit those walking in fire to be scorched by the flame. Thee in these we adore, thee we glorify, and thee we praise, who as thou didst deign to promise to thy servants keeping thy commandments, by works also in thy Albinus thou didst show most evidently,
Thou indeed didst say, Christ Jesus: If you shall ask anything of me in my name, this I will do; namely that the Father be glorified in the Son. John 14:14
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER IV.
Books written. Pious exercises. Sickness, death, burial, epitaph.
[23] That too is to be commemorated to the praise of the Lord, He heals the sick. that many often coming sick to Albinus, his blessing being received with faith, recovered bodily health. At a certain time too, it is related as by some chief men, a certain poor man, having the light of his eyes overspread with grave darkness, coming to the door of the outer house of Albinus, demanded that there be given to him water, with which his eyes might be washed. For he said it had been revealed to him, that if from it he should wash his eyes, he would receive sight. Albinus therefore being ignorant, water is collected, with which he had washed his face and eyes, and is given secretly to the poor man asking. Washing therefore that poor man his eyes with that water with full faith, put the darkness to flight, and received clear light. We too are illumined, Father, by thy sweat, and the crimes of our souls are washed by thy pious doctrine, thou not knowing thyself any longer to be wearied by the labor of the eyes; thou too didst by no means discern by bodily sight, and didst always busy thyself to illuminate the minds of others; and those whom thou couldst not in presence, by letters in absence thou didst instruct, writing many things useful to all the Church.
[24] For at the request of the Emperor Charles he wrote a most useful book on the holy Trinity, he writes various works. and also on Rhetoric, Dialectic, and Music. He wrote to Gundrada [a] on the nature of the soul. At the request of the most honest women b Gisla and Richtrude, on the Gospel of John partly of his own, partly from S. Augustine he composed a wonderful work. He wrote also on four Epistles of Paul, namely to the Ephesians, to Titus, to Philemon, and to the Hebrews; to c Fredegisus on the Psalms; to Count Wido Homilies on the principal vices and virtues; to his Sigulf most useful questions on Genesis, on the Proverbs of Solomon, and on Ecclesiastes, and on the Canticle of canticles luminously under brevity ineffably; under the names of a Frank and a Saxon, on Grammar, with question and answer, he composed a most eloquent little book. He collected from many works of the Fathers two volumes of Homilies. He wrote on Orthography. On the hundred and eighteenth Psalm too he used a golden style. There are also many other things, which whosoever shall read, and diligently scrutinized, will find no small edification of himself, as in the epistles directed to many. In these therefore and such things leading the remaining time of his life, he led a heavenly life on earth, awaiting, placed in the last vigil, the coming of the Son of man. That he might enter with Him to the nuptials, he washed every night his bed with tears, always fortifying himself with the intercessions of the Saints, whose solemnities he celebrated every day; lest he should be transfixed by any darts of the ancient enemy, who could by no means burst into his house so secretly, that he should not suddenly be detected by him, and driven off by the sign of the Cross.
[25] On a certain night therefore, wishing in the wonted manner to pour forth prayer secretly with the chanting of psalms, Weighed down by sleep, the devil insulting him, he is weighed down by immense sleep. But rising from the little bed, he took a cape over himself. And when again he was weighed down by sleep, he stripped himself of all his garments except only his shirt and breeches. Yet nonetheless, the sleep persevering, he took a censer; and going to the place where the fire was kept, he filled it with coals, and placed incense above, and perfused the whole chamber with a sweet odor. In which hour the devil presented himself visible to him in a bodily appearance; a man as it were great, blackest and deformed, and bearded, heaping darts of blasphemy against him: What, he says, hypocrite, art thou doing, Alcuin? Why before men dost thou try to seem just, when thou art a deceiver and a great dissembler? Dost thou think by these thy bendings to be able to have Christ acceptable to thee? But the unconquerable soldier of Christ, standing with David in the tower, which is set with all the armor of the strong and a thousand hanging shields, said with a heavenly voice: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? He is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Understand, Lord, my murmur, attend to the voice of my cry, my King and my God: by prayer he conquers. for I beseech thee, Lord. In the morning thou shalt hear my voice, in the morning I will prepare myself to thee, and will contemplate, rising at midnight to confess to thee. The proud apply to me a lie: but I in my whole heart will scrutinize thy precepts. Let my heart be perfect in thy precepts, and let them be confounded who iniquitously grind me, while I am not confounded, when the day shall have breathed and the shadows shall have inclined. The enemy at length being put to flight, he himself too, the prayer completed, rests. In this hour one only of his disciples, Waldramn by name, still living, kept vigil, secretly beholding all these things, namely the witness of this thing which was done.
[26] The same Father used, according to the Apostle's counsel, not for the desire of the gullet, He devotes himself to pious exercises: but for the infirmity of the flesh, a little wine. 1 Tim. 3:5 He fled idleness in all ways. For either he read, or wrote, or instructed the disciples, or devoted himself to prayer and the chanting of Psalms, indulging only the inevitable necessities of the body. He was the father of the poor, more humble than the humble, an inviter of the rich to piety, higher than the proud, a discerner too of all and an eminent liberator. He celebrated every day the solemnities of Masses with much diligence of honesty, having for each day of the week his own Masses appointed. On the Lord's day moreover, at no time ever, after the light of dawn had begun to appear, did he give himself to sleep: but quickly preparing himself in Levitical fashion, with his Sigulf the Presbyter he observed the solemnities of special Masses until the third hour: and then with great reverence he entered to the public Mass. But his disciples, when they were solicitous in other places, especially when they assisted at the work of God, studied lest anything of reprehension should be discerned in them by him.
[27] Now therefore Albinus desiring to be dissolved in body, and longing to be with Christ, besought Him with all vows, He desires to die on the day of Pentecost. that on the day on which the Holy Spirit was seen to have come upon the Apostles in fiery tongues, and filled their hearts, if it could be done, he might migrate from the world. For performing the evening office for himself, in the place where he had chosen to rest after death, namely beside the church of S. Martin, he chanted the evangelical hymn of S. Mary with this Antiphon: d O key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, and disposes himself for it, who openest and no one shuts, shuttest and no one opens; come, and lead forth the bound from the house of the prison, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Saying after the Lord's prayer these verses: As the hart desires for the fountains of waters, &c. How beloved are thy tabernacles, Lord of virtues! Blessed are they who dwell in thy house, &c. To thee I have lifted up my eyes. One thing I have asked of the Lord. To thee, Lord, I have lifted up my soul, and the rest of this kind.
[28] The time of Lent therefore, as he always was wont, in Lent, most worthily celebrating with all contrition of flesh and cleansing of spirit and disposition, the basilicas of the Saints, which are within the monastery of S. Martin, he frequented all nights, washing himself from his faults with many groans. But when the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection was being performed, on the night of His Ascension e he fell into bed, wearied with grave languor unto death, nor could he speak. At length on the third day before he migrated, with a voice of exultation he chanted the wonted Antiphon, and obtains his wish, O key of David, and recited the verses mentioned above. But on the day of Pentecost, the matutinal office being performed, at the same hour at which he was wont to enter to the Masses, the dawn opening, the holy soul of Albinus is loosed from the flesh, and by the ministry of the heavenly Levites, having with them the blessed Protomartyr Stephen and Lawrence the Archdeacon, with the army of Angels, is led to Christ, whom he loved, whom he sought; and enjoys His glory in heaven through all ages happily, whom he served in the world faithfully.
[29] He departed therefore full of number of days on the XIV of the Kalends of June, f in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord DCCCIV. But on the same night over the church of S. Martin an inestimable brightness of splendor was seen, in the year 804, a splendor appearing. so far that it was thought by those placed afar that the whole was being burned with fire. To some at length through that whole night the splendor itself was seen, to some it appeared three times. But the dawn rising, that globe, now most ample, was seen to have come over that place where Albinus lay, and his soul going forth to have penetrated heaven. For Joseph the Archbishop testified, that through the whole night it was seen by him and by his own: many testify it too, now strong in body. For to very many not those
on that night, but the preceding one, namely the first Sunday after the Lord's Ascension, that same brightness appeared in the same manner, as has been said.
[30] At the same hour too, to a certain Solitary placed in Italy, the army of the heavenly Levites was shown, His death is made known to an Italian Hermit. resounding ineffable praises to Christ in the air: in whose midst Alcuin, clad in a most splendid Dalmatic, standing by, entered heaven with them, that he might minister to the eternal Pontiff with perennial joy: which the same solitary indicated to a certain Brother of Tours, accustomed to frequent the thresholds of the Apostles, coming to him, on the same day of Pentecost. For asking him he said: Who is that Abbot, who dwelt at Tours in the Monastery of S. Martin? by what name is he called? or, if he was well in body, when you went forth thence? To whom that Brother: He is called Alcuin, and is the best Master in all France. When I undertook the journey hither, I left him sound. But that Solitary answering, said with tears: Truly he enjoys most happy health. He indicated to him what he had seen the same day at the brightening of dawn. But the Brother himself, returned to Tours, related what he had heard.
[31] Father Sigulf at length, washing the body of the Father honorably with water with certain others, Sigulf is freed from a pain of the head. placed it upon the bier. For he too then had a great pain of the head: but in faith of mind sound, he also found health of the head. For lifting his eyes upon the master's little bed, he discerns the comb, with which he himself was wont to comb his head. Taking this therefore in his hands, he says: I believe, Lord Jesus, that if with this comb of my master I shall comb my head, by his merits it will immediately be healed. When therefore at the first time he drew the comb through his head, as much of it as he touched, he had all sound: and so combing all about, he lost all the pain. Another of his disciples, Eangist by name, grievously afflicted with immense pain of the teeth, another of the teeth. at the exhortation of Father Sigulf with the same comb touched his teeth: and immediately, because he did it with faith, received health by the merits of Alcuin. But Joseph the Bishop of the city of Tours, a good man and amiable to God, hearing that blessed Alcuin had died, came thither more quickly with his Clergy, and bedewing his eyes with his own tears kissed him longer. But using wise counsel he commanded, that he should not be buried in that place, where the same Father had wished, outside g; but within the basilica of S. Martin most honorably: that of those whose souls are joined in heaven, the bodies might be one, placed in a house on earth: and so h it was done. Over whose tomb was placed, as he himself had commanded, the title, which he himself living had dictated, written on a bronze plate, and inserted into the wall.
32] Here, I pray, coming a little while, halt, traveler, [His epitaph.And scrutinize my sayings in thy breast: That thou mayest know thy fate from my figures, Let the appearance be turned, as mine, so thine. What now thou art, I had been, traveler famous in the world: And what now I am, thou too shalt be in the future. The delights of the world I followed with vain love: Now ash and dust, and food for worms. Wherefore remember rather to care for the soul, Than the flesh: since this remains, that perishes. Why dost thou prepare fields for thyself? in how small a cave thou seest Me here this rest holds: so thine shall be small. Why dost thou gape for the body to be clothed in Tyrian purple, Which soon the hungry worm will eat in the dust? As flowers perish when the threatening wind comes, So namely thy flesh, all glory, perishes. Do thou render me return, reader, I pray, of this poem, And say: Grant pardon: Christ, to thy servant. I beseech, let no hand violate the pious rights of the sepulcher, Until the Angelic trumpet shall sound from the citadel: Thou who liest in the tomb, rise from the dust of the earth, The great Judge is present to innumerable thousands. Alcuin was the name to me always loving wisdom, For whom pour forth prayers with mind, reading the title. Here rests of blessed memory the Lord Alcuin Abbot, who died in peace on the XIV of the Kalends of June. When you shall read, O all you, pray for him and say: May the Lord grant him eternal rest.