Augustine

ON ST. AUGUSTINE

BISHOP OF CANTERBURY IN ENGLAND.

IN THE YEAR DCVIII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Of the Life & Translation, written by Gocelinus the Monk; & the celebrity of the twofold feast.

Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury in England (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] The memory of S. Augustine is celebrated here and there in all the Martyrologies, published after his death. Venerable Bede, in the genuine Martyrology, has these things of him: VII Kalends of June, Memory in the Calendars, in Britain, the deposition of S. Augustine, the first Bishop of the English. The same has Rabanus. But Usuard thus writes: In the Britains of S. Augustine the Bishop & Confessor, who sent by the blessed Pope Gregory, first preached the Gospel of Christ to the nation of the English. Ado & Notker add, And there glorious in virtues & miracles he rested in Christ. The more recent here and there follow with the Roman Martyrology. His deeds Venerable Bede illustrated book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation chapter 23 & following, & book 2 chapters 2 & 3, whence a collected Life you will find in Surius. Another shorter one Capgrave published in his Legend, to which he added some things at the end about the Translation of the body. We have also some Ms. Compendia. But universally all the Authors of English affairs, the older as well as the more recent, followed Bede. Life by the author Gocelinus, Among them is eminent Gocelinus, as he himself writes his name, by others Goscelinus or Gotzelinus, who set forth in style innumerable Lives of the Saints, or more elegantly emended those published in unformed shape, second after Bede in narrating the praises of the Saints of England, as from book 4 of Malmesbury on the Deeds of the Kings of the English chapter 1 we deduced on the III day of February, at the Life of S. Wereburga the Virgin, daughter of the Kings of the Mercians, which Life the same Gocelinus composed: where of this writer, who flourished about the year MLXXX & following, we treated widely, about to treat of him again on the X day of June at the Life of S. Ivo the Persian. This Author therefore, before a Monk of Ramsey, then of Canterbury at S. Augustine's, published his Life in a twofold little work, namely a Greater & a Lesser, as is indicated in the following Prologue. with the miracles & the Translation. We give the Greater little work with the book of Miracles, where the things written of S. Augustine by Bede are here and there related in this man's words. But we give those, as already from the year MDCLXVIII they are read printed, among the Acta Sanctorum of the Benedictines tome 1, published by John Mabillon; & by his kindness we subjoin the aforesaid Gocelinus's work hitherto unpublished, to the Venerable Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm, on the Translation of S. Augustine the Apostle of the English & his Companions, written in the seventh year from the Translation itself, of Christ MXCVII. That work is divided into two books, of which the former properly treats of S. Augustine, the second of the Companions, that is, the Bishops, Kings, Abbots, entombed together in the same church, & translated before him into the new church, in the year MXCI, two years sooner than S. Anselm should be made Archbishop, to whom the history is inscribed, about to give great light to English matters & Saints, especially in the second book: which although it pertain for the most part to others, yet was not to be separated from the first. The same Gocelinus's Lesser little work on S. Augustine, the Author's name being concealed, is found in the Appendix to the works of B. Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, published by Lucas d'Achery, & there it can be read. Some things thence we observe in the Annotations.

[2] In what year S. Augustine migrated from this mortal life to Christ, is not sufficiently clear among the Authors. Bede only notes him to have died on the seventh of the Kalends of June; His death in the year 608. the Worcester one adds, on the third weekday, which characters agree in the bissextile year DCVIII with the Dominical letters GF: to which year also his death was referred by the Westminster one & Sigebert. And this chronology from the time of the successors Laurentius & Mellitus we proved more widely, at the Life of S. Laurentius on the second day of February num. 10. In the first tome of the English monastic page 90 is set forth the foundation of the Ely cœnobium in the territory of Cambridge, & from the History of the Church of Ely kept in the Cottonian library, these things are written: In the primitive Church of the nascent faith & Christianity, B. Augustine built a church there in honor of the ever Virgin Mary, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord DCVII, the eleventh year of his coming into England, of which work King Ethelbert was the first founder. Whence it is clear that S. Augustine in the said year was still living. Of his monkhood & that of the other first Apostles of England many men say many things, His monkhood, which here it is not leisure to relate & weigh all. Those few suffice us, which we deduced in favor of the Benedictines before the Life of S. Gregory num. 11, from the authority of SS. Aldhelm & Wilfrid, which it nothing concerns to weave again here; because they contain no force of plainly evident demonstration: & therefore we abstain from all expression of a particular Rule in the title, as here and there in the other Monks of the first seven centuries. Yet we wish nothing prejudged to the Benedictines, who with the greatest verisimilitude & almost evidence number Augustine among their own. his more festive cultus. To these also there comes a new & wonderfully apt support for our matter, from the most ancient English Litanies, which in tome 2 of the Vetera Analecta Mabillon produces, & proves to have been used before the end of the VII century from the defect of Saints later than that century, although otherwise most celebrated among the English. For there among the Confessors none of all the institutors of Monastic life is prescribed to be named, except S. Benedict; & this indeed twice; a prerogative granted to no other there, than to S. Stephen, just as S. Mary is ordered to be named thrice: an almost evident indication, that either S. Augustine, or the collectors of those Litanies the Monks instituted by him in England, recognized him the sole author of their monkhood. But since mention has been made of the Litanies, let it also please to understand, that by a decree of the Council of Clovesho celebrated in the year DCCXLVII, it was sanctioned, that the day of the deposition of S. Augustine the Archbishop should be held a holiday by the ecclesiastical & monastic, & his name in the chanting of the Litany should always be said after the invocation of S. Gregory, as the Apostle of England.

[4] William Thorn, an Augustinian Monk, in the Chronicle of his monastery, The feast of the Translation 6 September, brought down from the coming of Augustine even to the year MCCCLXXXXVII, Chapter 8 §. 3, comprises in few words the things that pertain to the Translation of the Saint thus, no account being had of the others before or at the same time translated. In the year of the Lord MLXXXXI, Wydo, governing this Church with Pastoral dignity, happily completed his church, which his predecessor Scotlandus, death preventing, could not bring to the summit, & efficaciously labored about translating the Saints. Therefore in the year as above, the VIII Ides of September, he translated the body of B. Augustine, from the place where for five hundred years it had lain, & placed all the larger bones of that Saint & the head in a certain stone tomb, most excellently sealed with iron & lead, whose superscription was such.

The renowned Prelate of the English, pious & a high ornament, with a fair of 5 days. Here Augustine the Saint rests in body.

He then goes on to narrate, how through fear of the barbarians, often bursting into the parts of Kent, the same Abbot on the following night hid most of the bones of the sacred body, taken from the tomb, in a neighboring place: which lay hidden there even to the year MCCXXI, when again they were found & translated, as he more fully explains Chapter 2 §. 2: all which Gocelinus partly was ignorant of, because they were held secret; partly could not know, because not yet done, but they will be placed below by way of an Appendix at the end of the first book. Here from Chapter 9 §. 3, as pertaining to the feast of the Translation, I note, that King William II in the year MXCII, granted the monastery to have a Fair on the Translation of S. Augustine, so that it should last for five days, namely two days before the feast, & two days after: & that the church of S. Augustine have in the meantime all the customs, which the King has through the city of Canterbury. That Fair the Monks held even to the times of Edward son of King Henry, at which time they wholly dismissed that Fair, on account of the quarrels & suits & even fights, which frequently happened in their cemetery.

[5] Further it is, that in the year MCCCLVI Pope Innocent VI, as the same William Thorn writes, The feast of the Birthday is ordered to be doubly celebrated in the year 1356. among the other privileges granted to the monastery, commanded the Archbishop (as I think of Canterbury), that he should cause the festivity of S. Augustine to be doubly celebrated, in words of this kind: We reckon it decent & fitting, that the glorious confessor B. Augustine, who formerly sent through the Apostolic See to the nations of the English, not then yet reborn by the water of baptism, called them from the darkness of infidelity to the light of the Catholic faith by the ministry of preaching, & first erected a Church in England, be specially honored in those parts: for from this there will grow there the devotion of the peoples; & He, who is glorified in the council of the Saints, benign will regard the prayers of the devout. That therefore the festivity of that Confessor in the said parts, in which, as we have heard, it is scarcely or less solemnly venerated in the kingdom of England, may be more solemnly & devoutly venerated; to your Fraternity, in which we bear a special trust in the Lord, by Apostolic writings we commit & command, that the festivity of the same Confessor, in all the exempt Churches of the said kingdom, thou cause by our authority for perpetual future times under a double Office solemnly

to be celebrated; & nonetheless on the said festivity there be a cessation from mechanical & other works, interdicted on double feasts, by the custom, usage or observance of the same Churches.

LIFE

By the Author Gocelinus the Monk.

From the Paris edition of John Mabillon.

Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury in England (St.)

BHL Number: 0777

BY THE AUTHOR GOCELINUS.

PROLOGUE.

To the most dear Lords & sons of Paternal love of the church of Saint Augustine, with their reverend Monasteriarch, that most abject & not to be recollected, yet a sincere friend of all, salvation in the Lord. I had decreed not to bring forth this history, as a most beautiful daughter of the divine spouse & maternal Church, from its chamber, until, composed with its ornaments, fillets & necklaces, it could proceed without blemish. The truth of the history is to be discerned from circumstances; But your commanding love being impatient of delay & more keenly impelling, at length we are compelled to exhibit the longed-for one in a bashful form, since we so cannot a beautiful one: for many crowds of matters have taken away the elegance proposed to us & the swift access. But how true the things which we have written may be proved, the times, places, persons, when, where, & in which they are known to have been done; the ancient also & modern writings of yours, & the eyes of the present, undeniably testify. But that we have made new things of old, not to be despised on account of the new writing, or propagate recently done things with a recent style, let no inhabitant of antiquity be indignant at the novelty, lest perchance he seem indignant at God ever creating new things: because the God of Abraham, is the God of Augustine; & the worker of ancient signs works the same today in His modern & today's Saints, to whom the Prophet cries; Renew the signs & change the wonders; He creates new heavens, & sitting on the throne makes all things new. Eccl. 36, 6 If the ancient Fathers had not received what then were held new, nothing would now be old to us. But the Jews & the rest of the unbelieving, enemies of holy novelty & truth, prefer to remain in the darkness of antiquity & their error, than to be illumined by the light of new grace. This also under grace itself they seem to imitate, who weighed down by the rancor of old usage, refuse to be renewed for the better by new miracles of God. Most men also, what they spurn, refuse to believe; what they love, voluntarily believing they seek. But let no one despise the herald of truth, however small or least: for as a lie can be true by no one's authority, so truth has of itself its authority in anyone. But the things commanded through a vision or in dreams, are proved true from the consequence of matters: as we read that the sick through a dream were ordered to come to the tombs of the Saints for the sake of health, & obeying received soundness there. He who prefers to deride this evidence of the true as vain dreams, rather than attend to it; will be able to refuse both Joseph & Daniel & the other Prophets, & Joseph himself in the Gospel & the foreigner Nebuchadnezzar, who beheld divine mysteries, as dreamers. There are also those who ineptly are indignant, when the miracles of the Saints done in vile persons are recited, as if the names or memory of such were shameful: when no word is made on their account; but on account of their glory in God, or because of the miracles wrought in baser persons. who does wondrous things in the least, let all things be narrated. For the Lord of all does not disdain to bring forth Lazarus the beggar by name: finally neither Herod, nor the traitor Judas, nor Caiaphas would be named in the Gospel, except on account of the Lord or His own whom they plotted against. These things let benevolent souls know that we bring forth on account of the controversy of divers persons, lest with the gainsayers they begin to loathe what they love, & to believe more weakly what they have more truly known: For evil communications corrupt good manners. But we have made of the same matter two codices, The Author's two lucubrations on S. Augustine. a greater & a lesser: that the lesser amicably comply with the tedious external friends, the greater more abundantly overflow to the domestic sons full of desire. Nevertheless the greater has certain things, the lesser certain things, which both books do not have; & one savors of some condiments, the other of others. Likewise the same deeds are said otherwise there, otherwise here, that one may need the help & favor of the other. Of eloquent Ulysses the Poet says:

He often was wont to relate the same otherwise.

These things, piously alluding to & piously commending to pious friends, we pray both the present & posterity to be mindful of our affection & devoted service, though ungrateful. Thus far the Prologue, in which we corrected two words by conjecture; about to take the same liberty henceforth in what follows: yet so that, an * being added, that reading be noted in the Margin, which we shall think to need correction. Similarly the words sometimes wanting to complete the sense, we add, but between [ ], to be valid for so long, until, a collation being made with other Mss. which it has not yet been permitted to see, the integrity of the original be suggested by someone, who shall wish by that labor to deserve well of the Saint & of this our work. Mabillon transferred the Author's division to the margin & gathered the titles of the Chapters at the beginning. The same is here kept by numbers, only a new division of Chapters being introduced & apt to our purpose for preserving uniformity, which similarly shall be done in the first book on the Translation.

* otherwise, to proceed.

* memory or names.

DIVISION OF THE CHAPTERS.

CHAP. I. The Lord, Victor of the world, distributing the kingdoms of the captived tyrant to His palm-bearers, Augustine, the divine Legate, from the Roman summit obtains by lot the inheritance of Oceanic Britain.

II. This Augustinian world is here described, as a certain earthly paradise fruitful & gracious of things.

III. This vast dwelling of this place the Lord prepared for all his Augustine, as the world founded from the beginning for man founded; & Augustine leaving his country, was made into a great nation.

IV. Pope Gregory took up this man, whom in his stead he might send into England; that the English, a fair nation, he might make an Angelic nation.

V. The man of virtues is sent, with forty Evangelical Colleagues, to convert England. They go armed to the fruitful patience of glory.

VI. The Saints terrified by an evil rumor, by the Gregorian epistle were more strongly animated through Augustine to the begun journey of virtues.

VII. The Epistle of B. Gregory to them, that they act perseveringly & obey Augustine.

VIII. The Epistle of the same Pope to Ætherius the Archbishop of Arles, that he provide necessaries for Augustine & his companions.

IX. Augustine relating to his companions the Apostolic mandates, they hasten through adverse & prosperous things to the true rewards, the supernal grace consoling them also with miracles.

X. The pilgrims of God at Angers expelled by women, having followed the staff flying from the hand of Augustine through three stadia, resting by night under the open sky, are irradiated with a heavenly splendor, & are satisfied with a fountain divinely produced from the ground: & the Leader wrote there the name & cause of his journey.

XI. The neighbors, terrified by so great a brightness seen by night, in the morning run to the place; in the lost Saints, they bewail their guilt, from the letters described in the earth they recognize Augustine: they establish there a Church in his honor, which perpetually excludes every woman.

XII. A Matron trying to enter this with a wax taper; before the threshold at the very forbidden boundary, her bowels being ruptured, perished, & more keenly terrified all of her sex.

XIII. The miracle heard from the very Bishop of Angers, who dedicated this church rebuilt: how at the dedication the crops utterly trodden down & inwardly despaired of, came forth in the harvest more abundant than all the others.

XIV. Augustine with his companions, after divers perils of lands, landed in Britain, at the perpetual dwelling preordained by the Divinity.

XV. The island of Thanet received Christ in His Saints first; a happy land, by its fecundity most happy of so many God-bearing strangers.

XVI. Æthelbert, the third of the Kings of the English Kings, but the first worshiper of Christ, more clement with a Christian wife, receives the best message of eternal salvation from Augustine; but does not easily acquiesce, that from the difficulty glory may accrue to the Saints. He comes into Thanet to hear the strangers, the standard-bearers & heralds of the Lord's Cross.

XVII. Augustine sets forth to the King the best message which he had brought, namely, that the Founder & Redeemer of the world opened the kingdom of the heavens to the human race, & made of earth-born ones heavenly natives; & so loved men, that He willed to become man, & moreover, after innumerable miracles & portents of His Divinity, to die for the love of men by the death of the cross, & inextinguibly kindled His Legates, invincible by all torments, to convert the nations: & that they, such a flame of charity stimulating, had come.

XVIII. King Æthelbert indeed praises the promises of eternal beatitude, & gathers the Saints for their benevolence: but knows not yet to put off the darkness of ancient error & to be clothed with the new light.

XIX. By the clemency of the King, nay the providence of God, the holy strangers, with the standard of the Lord's Cross raised & melodious prayers, having entered into perpetual habitation at Canterbury, lived Angelically, as pilgrims of the world, & natives of heaven, & coheirs swelling to themselves the kingdom of God.

XX. In the Eastern church of B. Martin at Canterbury, formerly founded by the Roman Christians, the faithful keeper of the Queen the Blessed prelate Letardus performed the divine Offices, which the most sacred Augustine with his choir irradiated with Apostolic life & doctrine, & with the affluence of signs, by which he converted many.

XXI. The King overcome, through the sweet allurements of eternal felicity & the irrefragable examples of virtues, is subjected to Christ by devout faith.

XXII. The King from exalted most humble, from a Prince an Ecclesiastical boy, is baptized in the confession & name of the supreme Trinity, is filled by the white dove of Christ, becomes from an old idolater a new worshiper of Christ. Hence Augustine sings to God, with a supreme dance, rejoicing his vows thus prospered.

XXIII. The King glories in the new brotherhood of the throng of Dukes & peoples baptized together, nor now esteems that his kingdom which he administered, but strives to transfer & dilate the whole with the Kings & peoples subject to him into the sweet dominion of Christ; he royally builds bishoprics, monasteries, churches, as the Lord's castles.

XXIV. Augustine offering himself to the Apostolic & Ecclesiastical election, namely to the Lord's Assumption, is consecrated by the Archprelate of Arles the primitive Patriarch of England, & brings back perpetual blessing to Canterbury.

XXV. Augustine sends to Rome to announce to B. Gregory, that the King & people of the English have received the worship of Christ, that he is made Bishop, & that now workers are wanting to the great harvest. To whom the Pope sends back the Apostolic Pallium, & many helps of Doctors, & answers to divers questions.

XXVI. The Epistle of B. Pope Gregory on the Pallium sent, on the right of the Bishop of London, on the Metropolitan of York, & on Augustine's dominion over all the Priests of Britain.

XXVII. Likewise the epistle of the same through Mellitus to Augustine, that the idols be destroyed, & the well-constructed shrines purged with holy water for the Divine Offices; nor let the faithful immolate animals to the devil, but to the praise of God kill animals for their own eating, & give thanks to the giver of all.

XXVIII. Likewise the Pope himself, hearing so many & so assiduous miracles of Augustine, as rejoicing exclaims to the glory of God, so fearing to human weakness lest it grow insolent, by an epistle sent tempers the man of virtues.

XXIX. Likewise B. Gregory himself, rejoicing together at the Christianity received by King Æthelbert, exhorts him by a sweet epistle solicitously to preserve this grace, & swiftly to extend it into the peoples subject to him, to overthrow the shrines;

exhorting, terrifying, correcting his subjects; to build churches by the example of Constantine the most pious Emperor, who, idols being cast away, converted Rome with the peoples of the nations with his whole mind together with himself to Christ; at the same time he admonishes, that he obey Augustine, that God may the sooner hear him praying for him.

XXX. The venerable Queen Bertha also the same most excellent Illustrator of Churches gracefully praises in an epistolary series, both for the King's conversion, & for the pious care toward B. Augustine & his companions; & exhorts more attentively to increase these famous merits.

XXXI. These honeycombs of the sweetness of the Gregorian epistles B. Augustine, transcending the starry ladder by the degrees of all virtues, gathering; the King also & Queen, according to their affection & capacity, drawing these in, strove to obey the Apostolic teachings, that after the perishing kingdoms they might merit to attain the heavenly ones.

XXXII. The Britons, the remnants of the conquering English, dissenting from the Ecclesiastical rule, being convoked by the help of the King, Augustine, with all the instance of paternal affection, strove to admit to the lawful concord of all; but it is most difficult to correct those irrationally repugnant to reason.

XXXIII. The Advocate of the Lord, a blind man being called into the midst; In this, says he, let the Lord of things show, of which party the doctrine is true. He proposes the blind man to be cured by the Britons; they refusing, by the sign of the Cross Augustine illumines the blind man: the Britons overcome ask a truce, while they consult their own & a synod be repeated.

XXXIV. The Pontiffs of the Britons being consulted answer, that, if Augustine should rise to them coming, as mild & humble of heart, they should receive him; but if remaining seated, as proud & fierce, they should repudiate him. They came, & sitting & not rising to them they indignantly rejected. Whom he, still more clemently desiring to gain, proposes three things to be observed, a toleration being granted for the rest; that they celebrate Easter in its time as all the Churches, that they perform the sacraments of Baptism in the Ecclesiastical order, & with him together by Evangelizing to the English acquire brothers & fellow-citizens of the Kingdom of God. But they repudiating all things, he predicts that they should perish by those, whom they would not have saved.

XXXV. This prophecy of the herald of the Lord Æthelfrid King of the English cruelly carried out, who destroyed the Britons in war; & of their Monks, fighting more keenly against him by prayer, extinguished twelve hundred.

XXXVI. After the predicted evils to the incorrigible Britons, Augustine intent on the salvation of all, goes to the Metropolis of York; on the journey he raises up a man destitute by palsy & blindness, & makes him a Christian.*

XXXVII. That on the day of the Lord's Birth he baptized more than ten thousand believers, besides an infinite number of little ones & women, in the river Swale.

XXXVIII. Where they not only crossed the unfordable deep unharmed, but also all the infirm received health; where also in a church founded in memory of B. Augustine many benefits are bestowed on the faithful.

XXXIX. Of the epistle of B. Pope Gregory sent to S. Eulogius the Patriarch, in which he glories in the Lord of the conversion of the English, made through Augustine: & that he, & those who were sent with him, seem to imitate the virtues & signs of the Apostles; & of the ten thousand or more baptized in one day.

XL. Returning happily from York, he meets a sick man, wasting away with the foul whiteness of leprosy, muttering with a lamentable complaint his paternal clemency: who with clamorous piety hears with the Lord the clamorous desire of the silent murmur, & in the virtue of Him saying in the Gospel, Be cleansed, by holy faith renders this livid one most clean.

XLI. Augustine, desirable to all good men, hateful only to the enemies of light, the untamable injurers of the Saints he deforms with eternal opprobrium in the spirit of Elias, who continually reforms suppliant sick men to health.

XLII. There is added to this penalty another judgment in another nation of incorrigible men, namely that with a new & before unexperienced disease to this orb all from the least even to the greatest should blaze with a sulphurous burning, until from the dross of impiety, smelted into a precious mass of faith, they should be purged; & the inextinguible punishment by the sole Baptism of Christ, Augustine succoring, should be extinguished; & this disaster is perpetually eliminated from this country.

XLIII. Augustine & his companions, departed from the aforementioned gainsayers, are violently inflamed with thirst; but the Lord Himself comforts the Leader by His apparition & address, that he firmly believe he shall obtain whatever he shall faithfully ask for anyone.

XLIV. The Seer of the Lord in the place, where the fountain of life appeared, fixed his staff, & for the thirsty produced a bountifully flowing & for divers diseased a salutary one; he called the place from seeing God Cernel, & there founded a Church in memory of so great a revelation to the Lord Saviour, where also a Monastery built in honor of Peter the prince of the Apostles excels.

XLV. To the Parochial Priest of Cernel, gasping in a disease unto death, Augustine appearing by night, bids him go to the aforesaid fountain made common by his name, & there sing the fiftieth Psalm thrice with a triple washing of the body: who rising receives strength of going, obeying the commands he returns sound, in the morning discharges the Sacerdotal offices to the people.

XLVI. Augustine, Britain being partly traversed, returns to his perpetual dwelling Canterbury, & as the return of the sun is received with the joy of all.

XLVII. The pious curator restores a young man condemned in his steps, hearing, & speech; & again abusing his health with his wonted insolence, & struck back with the former weakness, again the Father's benignity restores with triple health.

XLVIII. It is read that he was present to B. Martyr Livinus in baptizing him, that a heavenly splendor shone over the baptized one, the divine right hand blessed him thrice with the sign of the Cross: then that by Angelic command & guidance over the waves of the long sea, as on a flowery meadow, he came on foot to Augustine, & received from him the documents of all perfection: whom, detained with him five years, he consecrates a Priest to the Lord; & liberally endowed with Sacerdotal insignia, & from a disciple a master of his Nation, he sends away.

XLIX. The attestation of Veturnosus, whom his third progeny enduring to this day asserts to have seen B. Augustine, & from a slippery & most nebulous one to have risen a modest Christian from his baptistery; but he himself, surrounded by a perpetual throng, to have wrought innumerable signs. He related also the modern survivor, the form & patrician person of the holy Father related from an ancient grandfather, his tall stature; & that he himself by traversing his native lands with bare feet, drew callouses on his soles.

L. Now wholly wounded with eternal loves, now from earthly tumults absorbed into the rest of the Lord, he did violence to heaven, with frequent pulses of prayers, sighs, & tears. At length understanding from the response of the Holy Spirit his desire heard, B. Laurentius, illustrious in Apostolic virtues, & the chief of his companions, the King with a confluent people immensely congratulating, he ordains with all solemn joy his successor, as once Peter the Prince of the Apostles Clement, namely on account of the necessity of the new instruction.

LI. The King now mellifluously exhorted & the Church & people, that they persevere in the faith & love of Christ, leaving to all the pledges of perpetual love, the King & Pontiff Laurentius being present, amid the tearful crowds of all, a heavenly dance surrounding him, he passes to the eternal solemnities of the Lord: whom let us the lowest praisers follow, not with funereal wailings, but with triumphal songs.

LII. In the Monastery which he founded, dedicated by S. Laurentius, is laid up the most precious pearl of his body with jubilation.

LIII. How beautifully Rome, the parent of Churches, gave forth such great pledges, who as fathers & institutors of the whole British Ocean shine forth: with how great an odor of sweetness & splendor of glory, one love & one chamber together binds them; who, distinct through the divers nations of the world, each as a patron might shine before each people like the sun.

* he made

* deeds

CHAPTER I.

Deeds done even to his entrance. Miracles wrought in Gaul.

The most powerful Triumpher over the worldly tyrant, drawing all things to Himself in the ordeal of the Cross, having through the insignia of the name prescribed of old, Swiftly draw off the spoils, hasten to plunder; distributed all the spoils of the captive robber to His victorious leaders; He is sent by S. Gregory: Peter grasped Rome the citadel of things, Paul subdued all things by the array of war, to Andrew fell Achaia, to John Asia, to Matthew Ethiopia, to Thomas & Bartholomew the vastest India from the rising of the sun: & that I be not prolonged through particulars, at length the supreme precentor of the Lord's nuptials Gregory embraced the orb of the earth with Apostolic wings; but Augustine, for whom this crown is woven with ethereal gems, girt about with his Apostolate the other orb of the British Ocean. Isa. 18. 1, Happy Rome, which, after the first Princes of the contemplative faith, gave forth such principal Consuls of the Church. This once preeminent by the Augustal monarchy, then by the whirlwinds of wars almost submerged remained, that it might beget these two great luminaries of the world, the one which should preside over the day, the other which should preside over the night to be turned into day. Gregory, among the sons of light shone before the Christian orb, like the sun of day: Augustine, the dark orb of Gentility & the nocturnal chaos of the Ocean he illumined with a lunar lamp, & the dawn succeeding turned into the solar noon of Christ. This obstinate zone of the world, hedged about with the arms of nations & demons, Augustine invades more spiritedly, than once magnanimous Caleb the Hundred-citied mountain Hebron. This is in Christ thy portion, this thy inheritance, this thy country translated to heaven. O native star of Rome, & our Patriarch in this region! This thou didst acquire for the Lord; thou didst acquire for the Lord, & thyself didst possess it. Whatever of piety this land germinates, whatever it makes flower, whatever it makes fruit, thou art the cultivator, thou the sower, thou the planter; the whole in the Lord is thine. Whatever also of Saints it has brought forth; thou art the institutor, thou the first-marked, thou the prince; all things regard thee, accompany thee, crown thee, which thou hast labored for the Lord: thou shalt eat the labors of thy hands, thou art blessed & it shall be well with thee. Thee Kings, Nobles, Fathers, & the Nation follow: thee they sing as protector & first-father.

[2] into Britain, But with what praise shall I exalt this Augustinian world? A certain earthly one to earthly men is a paradise; whatever of wealth anywhere is had, either is here born, or is conveyed by Amphitrite poured around with nations flowing together from everywhere. You would believe that the greatest orb had here equally found or treasured up its riches & delights, which it distributes piecemeal in its parts. It is an Imperial kingdom, a region fruitful of all things, reigned over Augustally by the Roman Cæsars, who boasted both here & at Rome to have the throne of empire. A copious soil, fruitful of all sowings & plantings; abundantly procreating not only the saplings accustomed to the country, but even those of Greece or more remote regions. It lies most amply open with most rich fields, verdant meadows, diffused plains, fat pastures, milk-flowing flocks, war-horses & herds. There irrigate it the frequent springs of fountains, leaping rivulets, distinguished & famous rivers, lakes & pools constant with fish & birds & naval traffic, accommodated to cities & peoples. There are leafy groves & woods, of plain & mountain, full of acorn & woodland fruits, opulent with divers huntings. There are also chestnut woods, acceptable to the banquets of the rich: vineyards too answer not only to Gallic & Italic, but even to Alban, Argolic & Punic, in most rich fields. There are here springs of salt-pits, there are also hot springs, & hot rivers, built with hot baths. What shall I say of the riches of the sea, which not only with naval merchandise, but also with innumerable kinds of fish both fill & adorn this kingdom? among which divers & great swimming creatures are caught here and there, dolphins & sea-calves, & moreover mountainous whales. Shellfish redden over the Indian

& Sidonian dyes; & their beauty, while all other things antiquity changes or diminishes, these more tenaciously illustrate, nor do they violate it by sun or rain. There is in the shells the price of ornaments, also of gems, namely the gemlike little orbs of pearls, splendid in whiteness, & the many-colored beauties of margarites. Some redden, others are green, these are clothed with a purple, these with a hyacinthine, these with a leek-green color: but the greater multitude of these is white. With these the ingenuities of goldsmiths among illustrious stones adorn the golden necklaces of the Church: them also equals or surpasses the golden weaving of the English virgins, who, the Royal & Pontifical insignia, flaming with the dipped murex & the twice-dyed scarlet, with splendid pearls & margarites with preeminent gems on a ground of gold they bestar, & more amply irradiate the precious garlands by a mixture of artifice. Pearls only Hesperia, Britain, & Eastern India sisterhood together. This land also prodigally begets the jet stone, the more precious by how much rarer in other ages: this moreover is gleaming with a gem-like blackness: it is found also purple, waxen, whitish, green: it burns when brought to fire: where rubbed it has grown hot, it attracts light material as the adamant attracts iron; where it is kindled, serpents are put to flight. Nonetheless from the veins of the metals of bronze, iron, lead, tin, silver & gold rich masses are disemboweled. You would wonder also at the rocks & the airy crags, & the temples here and there & the walls laborious of the stony mountains, & decorated with a certain native marble.

[3] This therefore vast dwelling of so beautiful & opulent an orb, to be entrusted to him, the prodigal hand of the Lord prepared for His beloved Augustine; who once, when He founded the world & perfected all its ornament, at length introduced man His friend, founded, for whom He had prepared these things. The Blessed Augustine therefore dismissed his sweet foster-mother & august mother Rome, embracing for his country a far-off & perilous pilgrimage; that of the raging nations in patience he might bear fruit, & acquire an everlasting inheritance for Christ. He went forth from his Senatorial kindred with the Patriarch Abraham, & coming into the land provided by God was made into a great nation. He was multiplied as the stars of heaven, in the following multitude of Saints, & the faithful people of the nations. Well therefore did he grow into so many sons of love, who came to lay down his soul for foreigners. Others bravely, this man both bravely & happily conquered, who with a martial spirit bore an unbloody martyrdom. Well also, that he who left all things, & obtained the kingdom of heaven, here also received all things [in] a hundredfold; whose Angelic charity & most generous liberality, which was most bountiful to all & most sparing to himself, this most abundant kingdom, pompous to the proud Augusti, by appetite trodden under foot he made beneficent to all. Happy poverty, which enriched so many! blessed abstinence, which ever feeds an unfailing family! By what he straitened himself, we are amplified: what he fasted, we feast: nay he himself in his heirs possesses all things & is exalted. But while we write these things, this maritime Elysium, the world growing green again, flourished; & among the Paschal flowerets, the starry Birthday of splendid Augustine being at hand, smiled with all beauty. It is pleasing therefore to recur to the series of his foreshown coming, & at length to weave again some things of his innumerable virtues.

[4] The distinguished lawgiver of the Lord Gregory had seen boys for sale at Rome, gracious with ruddy hair & exceeding form; & as he was poured out in the bowels of charity toward all, he ardently inquires the names of their nation, province, & King. He hears that the inhabitants are called Angles, the province Deira, the King Alle: but that all served paganism. The benign soul groaned, on the occasion of the English youths seen at Rome. the flowers, so congruous to the paradise of God, addicted to the foul altars of demons: but soon, as a Prophetic interpreter, rejoicing at the auspices of the names: Well, says he, are they Angles: shining with an Angelic face: well are they Deiri, to be plucked from the wrath of God! well also is the King called Alle, in whose land let Alleluia be sung. He undertook therefore the journey to convert the English: but by the faction of the Roman people, nay by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus providently dictating all things, he was drawn back; namely the Lord reserving this grace for another friend. But when he received the Apostolate at Rome, whence he was the more grievously hindered from his intention, thence he found a more powerful counsel: for what by himself he could not, through his splendid lamp & armed right hand Augustine he fulfilled. This man he found according to his heart, he is chosen: the sole remedy in the Lord of his holy desire, a man of all virtues, prepared for the Lord's wars, through hard & strong things avid of the crown; like the fortified tower of David, in which is the shield & spear & all the armor of the strong, & for all things adorned; an Evangelical vessel of the knowledge of God, a golden vessel of the Lord's election. He marveled at the generous spirit more attentive than his own exhortation; so that he seemed not so much to wish to follow to the palm, as to outrun.

[5] & with 40 companions he departs from Rome A company therefore being collected, Angelic, of the learned heralds of Christ, who should be the companions, helpers, & Evangelical co-workers of the leader Augustine; after he had received all prompt & unanimous for the proposed work, he immolates unceasing thanks to the author of all good will. Nor delay, having exhorted them most diligently & armed for the fruitful patience of glory, all things being well provided which befitted pilgrims of the world, he commends them to God & the Angels of peace, & destines them on the way of perpetual salvation. It is long to set forth, but pious to recollect, what darts of wounded charity in the bodily separation the so holy & so sweet souls of the Blessed Gregory & Augustine & the holy Brethren, torn from the maternal bowels of the monastic church, felt, what imprecations of blessed restitution, what sighs, what tears they mutually rendered: since they did not hope, beyond their beloved country, nay the mutual sights of such desirable Fathers & companions, to see them in this exile; & they were migrating to so far-off, so foreign a barbarism, & so uncertain perils of life. So once the cows carrying the ark of the Lord lowed after their calves were drawn away, & yet nowhere declined from the straight line of the way. For the Saints going went & wept passing over to the country of life, sending in tears the seeds of virtues: but coming they shall come in the resurrection, with exultation carrying the sheaves of joy from mourning & death. The year then was from the Incarnation of the Lord ^b the six hundredth, but of the Principate of Maurice the fifty-fourth from Augustus the fourteenth year, in the year 596, but from the time the English had invaded Britain about the hundred-and-fiftieth year, & of the ordination of blessed Pope Gregory the fourth; when he himself the most illustrious gem of the Roman Pontiffs, sent these starry luminaries to the English, Augustine shining before. So many soldiers of the Lord's Legation are numbered to forty, namely by the fourfold ten of the law & the Gospel, imitating the four animals. So many once the Lawgiver had sent to view the land of promise; but they, except two, were faithless; these were faithful: they, alien sons, lied to the Lord; these, sons of adoption, adhered to the truth. They proceeded as sheep to the sacrifice, a grand spectacle indeed, beheld by the world, Angels & men; terrible to the airy powers, as an army set in array.

[6] Now they had gone forth at a distance from their kindred home some days' journey, eager to run through the way of the Lord's commands: but, the truth saying, The spirit indeed is prompt, but the flesh weak; &, Without me you can do nothing; they were to be taught from human weakness, not by presuming of themselves, but by hoping in God, to act manfully; & in Him, who conquered the world, to conquer. Mark 26, 41, & John 15, 5, Ps. 59, 14 In God, says the Psalmist, we shall do valiantly. The same deterred from their purpose. The athletes therefore of God, unmindful of their constancy, are caught away by the vain-talking rumor of men, fanned by the deceit of Demons. It is announced that the Nation which they sought was fiercer than beasts, that it preferred cruelty to banquets, that it thirsted for the blood of the innocent, that it abhorred the Christian faith, that it answered the doctors of salvation only with tortures & slaughters. That the Saints indeed could be punished without cause; but the enemies of truth be bent neither by reason nor by signs. Hence therefore despairing of the salvation of such & of their own advance, they made their Provost Augustine, not able to resist, a Legate to B. Gregory: whom he had given the English as Bishop, if they should receive Christ; praying most humbly through him, that he would absolve them from so perilous & unfruitful a waste of labors among unknown tongues, & grant a placid return to their own. For such they were still invalid, & prompt indeed for the Lord's expedition, but unexercised; just as once the Disciples of the Lord, willing, but not able to follow Him to the passion, meanwhile were hidden under a refuge, until they were clothed with virtue from on high; but the glory of His Resurrection & Ascension being seen, they were so animated & made capable of the Paraclete Spirit, that they rejoiced more in the participation of His passions, than they feared to follow Him to the heavens. The charity of magnanimous Gregory could then be perturbed, as if at a frustrated undertaking & at the mockeries of the demons insulting; did he not hope in the name of the Lord, in whom he believed his undertakings happily perfected. Filled therefore with the spirit of virtue, he sends through the leader Augustine to the pilgrims of Christ this Epistle of paternal exhortation, persuading both to obey him, & to perfect the way & work begun, even to the palm & crown of glory, in the help of God confidently.

[7] They are confirmed by the Epistle of S. Gregory, Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to the servants of our Lord. Because it had been better not to begin good things, than from those which are begun to go back in thought; with the highest zeal, most beloved sons, it behooves that you fulfill the good work, which, the Lord helping, you have begun. Let neither labor therefore, nor the tongues of evil-speaking men deter you; but with all instance & all fervor, what you have begun, with God the author accomplish; knowing that a greater glory of eternal retribution follows a great labor. But to Augustine your Provost returning, whom we also constitute Abbot for you, in all things humbly obey; knowing this will profit your souls in all things, whatever shall be completed by you at his admonition. May the omnipotent God protect you with His grace, & grant me to see the fruit of your labor in the eternal country: that even if I cannot labor with you, I may at the same time be found in the joy of the retribution, because indeed I wish to labor. May God keep you safe, most beloved sons. Given the tenth day of the Kalends of August, our Lord Maurice Tiberius the most pious Augustus reigning, the fourteenth year, after the Consulate of the same our Lord the thirteenth year, the fourteenth Indiction.

[8] To the Archprelate of Arles also ^c Ætherius, that he should provide necessary solaces for Augustine & his companions the Legates of Christ into Britain, thus wrote, & they are commended to the Bishop of Arles. according to his name watching over all, Gregory; To the most reverend & most holy brother Ætherius the Co-bishop Gregory servant of the servants of God. Bk. 5 Ep. 52 Although among Priests, having a charity pleasing to God, religious men need the commendation of no one; yet because a fit time of writing has presented itself, we have taken care to send our writings to your Fraternity, intimating that the bearer of these presents Augustine, a servant of God, of whose zeal we are certain, with other servants of God we have directed thither for the utility of souls God helping: whom it is necessary that

your Sanctity aid with Sacerdotal zeal, & hasten to afford him your solaces. To which also that you may be able to be more prompt to suffrage, we have enjoined to indicate the cause to you subtly; knowing that, it being known, you will accommodate yourselves with all devotion to consoling for God, since the matter also requires it. Moreover Candidus the Presbyter, our common son, whom we have transmitted to the governance of the little patrimony of our Church, we commend to your Charity in all things. May God keep thee safe, most reverend Brother. Given the tenth day of the Kalends of August, our Lord Maurice Tiberius the most pious Augustus reigning, the fourteenth year, after the Consulate of the same our Lord the thirteenth year, the fourteenth Indiction.

[9] These Apostolic documents therefore Augustine relating & more deeply urging upon his companions, they were so confirmed; that more strongly than they had begun they rejoiced intrepidly to run through the begun things, Augustine with his companions pursues the journey, & after the manner of the best soldiers more keenly after flight extorted victory. They went therefore with the heavenly animals before their faces, & did not turn back when they went forward. Now their magnanimous Leader seemed to say to them with the Gregorian mouth Augustine: With pleasantness you shall go forth, & with joy you shall be led: for both the mountains as Kings, & the hills as Dukes shall leap up for you, expecting to receive you with joy. O immense joy, by which, although through rough & bitter things, one goes to the unending kingdom, with an unfailing abundance of merits & the sweet fruit of sons acquired for God! Understanding these things the Saints hastened through adverse & prosperous, through plain & thorny, to pass over to the true rewards; patient to all things, even unto death made obedient. But amid so many merits of virtues the lights of miracles always accompanied B. Augustine: of which innumerable ones in Anjou, a rich province of Gaul, most celebrated is what there the pilgrim then exhibited: for which a church consecrated to his honor never admits any of women. Whence many most honorable men of Anjou, coming to Canterbury to S. Augustine, through the province of Anjou: greatly marveled, that here, where he bodily rests, all women so lawfully & freely enter, as there none can obtain the grace of this license. To whom marveling it was answered by the Brethren; that those, namely, who expelled the Saint, are deservedly repelled from his church; but these, who received him of their own accord, ought to be received by him. For now of old very many nobles & illustrious Nobles of that Nation, & at the same time reverend Fathers of ecclesiastical dignity, in England, & especially with their own (as they boast) Patron Augustine, are celebrated frequent & most constant asserters of these things, which he wrought among them. All these by their successes beatified England, & especially Apostolic Canterbury, in the prerogative of the supreme Augustine & in his very bodily presence, as a bodily life; whose memory among them was so indelible, & the miracles frequent, either written, or more evident than writings. Here therefore let us relate from public notice, what signs he left there of his presence.

[10] Performing indeed the Lord's legation, as before noted, from Rome into England, in the province of Anjou the bridge ^d called Pont-Say, drawn out by a stone work for a mile's tract over the river Loire, with that holy choir of companions he crossed. Whom trying to enter the adjacent village of Say of the same name, the inhabitants repaid hostility for hospitality; & so many pilgrim men, by their pedestrian gait & humble habit, as so many wolves & unknown monsters they repelled. But the little women crowded together at once, with so great not only irreverence, where, repelled by women, but insanity, howling, contempt, mocking, derision raged against the Saints of God, that the men seemed in some way unharmed or harmless in the same comparison. Nor had it sufficed to have cast them out, but pressing further they dragged, impelled, harassed, driving them off with mocking importunity. There stood near an ample & shady elm, accommodated for a pause to wearied travelers: under this the Saints wishing that very night to rest, could not for the infestation of the women, like so many dogs. But one, more impudently than the rest pressing upon the steps of the Saint, while he with raised staff, as fighting against a beast & rapacious she-wolf, tried to drive her off; suddenly the staff, by a new sign of God's grace, flew from his hand like an arrow shot from a bow, & in the space of about three stadia fixed in the ground stood still: & soon following with the blessed company (for he felt by the Divine spirit that he was called thither at the Lord's nod) he ran up, & the staff, the staff being cast he draws forth a fountain, nay with the staff he drew out the gush of a fountain, which forthwith burst forth in a copious bubbling: by which the servants of God, rendering immense thanks to their bestower, relieved from grievous thirst & sweetly refreshed, & there that very night rested most devout in Divine praises. Then also the clemency of the Most High, impatient that the sons of His light & day suffer the injury of foul night & naked air, suddenly poured a light from His highest heaven, surpassing the solar brightness, over them; & lacking a roof through that whole night covered them with a supernal splendor, as though the Church itself left under the open sky had thus prayed with a Prophetic voice: Do with me, Lord, a sign for good, that they may see who hate me & be confounded; because thou, Lord, hast aided me & consoled me. Ps. 58, 17, All the neighbors therefore saw so immense a ray, directed from the summit of heaven even to the Saints; that to their own confusion they fully knew, how great citizens of heaven they had thrust out from their lodgings. But the most sacred Leader himself beside that fountain thus wrote with the staff in the earth: ^e Here the servant of the servants of God Augustine had lodging, whom the blessed Pope Gregory sent to convert the English.

[11] Now the twilight of light being at hand, gasping to the destined place, & he has a church set up by the inhabitants, through the city of Angers they accelerate their journey; & their contemners of yesterday, now seekers & needy of abundance, the zeal of God indeed willing it, by their salutary presence they empty. In the morning therefore the neighbors run together from everywhere to the place, where they had beheld so great a miracle of light; with grievous groan & mourning they seek again those carried off: then beholding the benefits of the new fountain, with a keener grief they waste away at their guilt. Alas us wretched! they said, how have we lost so great a good, which of our own accord we had in our hands, by our impious rejection, nor have we even merited to be blessed by such Angels! Learning therefore from the aforesaid writing the longed-for name of B. Augustine, & the office of the legation, & kindled by the frequency of miracles; as quickly as possible beside that fountain they founded a church, & caused it to be consecrated in the name of B. Augustine himself; which no woman, but where the letters of his description were found, they constituted an altar; where that perpetual miracle, as we have foreshown, endures, that none ever of women can enter that church or draw water from the fountain: ^f that indeed the world may know, how greatly this sex offended God in the injury of His servants.

[12] A certain illustrious matron with a great wax taper tried to enter here, as though now the Saint flattered her power & gift; & to those there terrifying her she answered, that she had not sinned against the Saint, but wished to honor him: & she urges the purpose of audacity. enters unpunished. Scarcely therefore had she touched the forbidden boundary & the sacred threshold, when suddenly her bowels being ruptured, & the secrets of her belly boiling out onto the earth, the unhappy one fell & perished; & dragged out dead, she terribly taught all to believe, what she had believed for none. By such a repulse so all women were instructed; that they abhor to touch the open more than the closed doors. Yet lest there the women should seem everywhere desolate of the holy Father's grace; the inhabitants moved by long compassion built for them a fitting receptacle before the doors of the church; where they could assemble, pray, pay their oblations & vows, & approach the sacred mysteries.

[13] But behold while these things were proved both by ancient fame, & by the recent assertion of the most illustrious men of Anjou; it happened that the most Reverend & most prudent ^g Pontiff of the Angevins came to the most desired Patron Augustine, & as a so ancient guest of his country with great devotion revisited him. He also was attentive not only to hear the above-written miracles from the Brethren, but of his own accord to relate them; & in the same manner in which they are written, with a fixed asseveration, as from a reading, he set them forth. He added also a new miracle, as of yesterday, declared in his presence, with such favor & grace, namely, of so great a Father. O you, said he, happy, to whom the eternal presence of B. Augustine has fallen! nor are we so unhappy, to whom his blessed memory has perpetually remained. Our country indeed before you knew him, & sooner did Anjou than England see him signs-potent: but we, I confess, in our elders rejected him present; but terrified by supernal signs, we pursued him departing with satisfaction: whom when now we had not merited to touch either by hand or sight, we began to retain him by a church founded in his honor. Why should I delay your audience from the miracle there declared by a circuit of words? There at the dedication of the new Church the trodden-down crops, The devotion of the people growing toward so great a Parent, ever audible to his suppliants, ever bestowing; they began that reconciling church of his to restore more loftily, & to bind his patronages to themselves more closely. This therefore I in the month of May, namely on the day of the Deposition of so great a Father, with great vows of both sexes, dedicated in the memory of him, whose before it was, an innumerable multitude of the peoples flowing together. There stood out around the dense crops of the fields, now nearing the harvest, now growing into ears & beards. The people like a river rushing in from everywhere did not attend to the corn, nor whose the harvest might be: there was trodden & worn, as in a threshing-floor, the labor of men & oxen, the hope of the sowings & fruits was confounded: now indeed not so much scourged & worn appeared the fruitful stubble, as a swept & bared threshing-floor. What then? All bade farewell to the wealth of that year, bade farewell also to Augustine, more abundant grew green again the Bishop testifies. hoping for themselves in his bestowals otherwise than they had lost was about to come. But at length in the desperate matters a more wonderful virtue appeared, the merits of Augustine not deceiving: so great an abundance of crops in the same month shone out for the harvest in all that devastation, that no lands of that province could equal themselves to this, either by the richness of the fruits, or by the height. By these wonders the people astounded, rejoice to exalt B. Augustine with such praises, that they believe & preach, that he can obtain from the Lord whatever he will anywhere among the nations, & can bestow whatever is faithfully asked. These things the mentioned Bishop, all the country witnessing, publishing to grateful hearers, gave a worthy certitude to all, how holily the ancient signs are to be believed, in such recent declarations.

[14] Now after Latium, after Italy, after the Gauls, after so many mountainous, the Saint lands in Britain. plain, woody & rivery perils of lands & nations, at length the God-bearing, peace-bearing, salvation-bearing Augustine, with the blessed company, with a happy course landed in Britain, namely at the perpetual dwelling & rest, divinely preordained for him. The way of the Just was made straight, & the journey

of the Saints prepared, & the Lord our God led them by a wonderful way to a certain place.

ANNOTATIONS.

* whether Gigantopolis?

* of the more remote of these

* vineyards

* it will answer

* it is intended

* land

* almost

* the world

* the deep

* only,

* divine,

CHAPTER II.

The entrance into England. The conversion of S. Æthelred the King. The joy of S. Gregory the Great.

Royal Kent has a very large & most celebrated island Thanet, capable by its amplitude of six hundred families: Augustine received in the island of Thanet, it opens a door & bosom to the transmarine throngs, a most rich & opulent land, & an apt chamber of Kent. The river ^a Wantsum, three stadia wide, distinguishing this from the continental land made an island: it, stretching forth either head into the sea, is forded only by two mouths. This island therefore received Christ in His Saints first ^b, a land happy in its fecundity, but most happy of so many God-bearing strangers, nay so many supernal citizens by its hospitality! Hence meanwhile the new Father of England with the holy college is refreshed from the marine brine.

[16] There then reigned over the English King ^c Æthelbert, the third of the Kings of the English, but now about to be the first worshiper of Christ. He by the providence of supernal election, before the other predecessors, he indicates his coming to the King by Legates, presiding also over other Kings, had extended a most vast empire even to the Humber a most vast river, which namely separates the Southern & Northern nations of the English by an interflowing. To him reigning royally in the metropolis of Canterbury the Legate of the Lord Augustine, through Legates & the interpreters whom he had taken at the exhortation of B. Gregory from the transmarine kinsmen, sends word that he, for the love & grace of him & his nation, had come from Rome; & that he brought him the best message & most worthy of all acceptation, which to those receiving it everlasting & infinite joys, with the everlasting God the ages of the heavenly kingdom, with most indubitable faith it attests. The King receiving such things with placid mind, ordered them to abide in the very island in which they were received, & to be furnished to them what the use of life should require, until he should consider, how he should dispose of them: for now everywhere shining Christianity had become known to him, especially because the Royal consort was to him from the Frankish Kings, the most Christian ^d Bertha by name, whom he had obtained from her parents under that sacrament, that he should permit her always to preserve inviolate the Christian Religion to herself with her companions. For the most holy Prelate Letardus was given the most faithful companion & keeper of the Queen, who by pious admonitions & examples, amid the damnable usages of paganism, should continually strengthen her in the worship of Christ. These things therefore made the King, although still wandering in the darkness of his ancestors, more clement to the worshipers of Christ; & as though now he himself with the middle part of his body worshiped Christ, he opened the way to the bearers of Christ, until he himself also should enter. Coming therefore the King to the island on a fitting day, & sitting with the assembly of the Nobles under the open sky, to his audience he summons Augustine with his little assembly: for the error of augury still deceived the King, like nocturnal Nicodemus, fearing, lest if they should come upon him under any roof, if they knew anything of incantation or sorcery, they should seduce him convicted. But as much as light from darkness, so far did such a mind stand from the innocent & upright: by him called to audience they rather lifted the Lord's banners, by which they should exterminate the demoniac juggleries. They came therefore, not blushing, but eminently bearing the silver Cross of the world's Triumpher, & the image of the Lord Saviour, beautifully & in gold depicted on a tablet. They sang at the same time litanies, by which should fall the adverse walls of Jericho the enemy of God; praying with contrite heart for the perpetual salvation of themselves & of those, whom they had come to acquire for God.

[17] They sitting by the King's command, Augustine first thunders with an Evangelical mouth; for thy, O King, & the whole of this Kingdom's perpetual peace having entered hither, the best message of everlasting joy, as we sent word before, we bring thee: if thou receive it, here & in the eternal kingdom thou shalt be eternally beatified. For now the Founder of the world & the same Redeemer has opened the kingdom of the heavens to the human race, & made of earthly ones heavenly natives. For so God loved the world, that His only-begotten son, as the Only-begotten Himself attests, He gave for the world; that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. John 3. 16, For with so infinite a charity the same Son of God loved the men whom He made, he explains the mystery of the Incarnation, that not only to become man among men; but even death, & death of the Cross, for men He deigned to suffer. For so it pleased His ineffable clemency, that the devil our captivator, not in the majesty of His Divinity, but in the weakness of our flesh He should strike down; & us the due prey, through the undue punishment of the cross, He should snatch from the jaws of the most impious tyrant. Whose incarnate Divinity was illustrious with innumerable portents of virtues, every weakness being cured, every virtue being wrought: in heaven, the stars, earth, sea, hell He showed Himself the God & Lord of all; the winds & sea by His command He stilled, the waves of the sea as a solid field He trod: at length deigning to die as a man for men, in three days He rose from death as God; & the sun, which at the death of its founder was darkened, with His splendor He more brightly illumined. He rose, I say, that He might raise us: He ascended to the heavens, that He might gather us thither triumphing. Thence the judge of all ages will come, that He may place believers in His kingdom with the condemned unbelievers perpetually. Therefore, O most excellent Ruler, judge us not superstitious, that from Rome into thy borders for the sake of thy salvation & that of thine we labored to come, & to substitute as if ungrateful benefits to unknown Nations. Know, most pious one, that the necessity of great charity urging we intended it. For we desire, above all appetite & glory of the world, to have very many fellow-citizens in the kingdom of our God; & those who can advance into the fellowship of the holy Angels, that they perish not, with all efforts we strive to provide. & the desire of procuring the eternal salvation of all, For this benevolence the benignity of our Christ, of the inestimable sweetness of His Spirit, infused everywhere into all the heralds of His truth, that, their own necessities being postponed, they should burn for the salvation of all Nations, & hold whatever nations, as parents & sons, as brothers & kinsmen; & all embraced in the one love of God, strive to draw to the infinite ages of all joys & solemnities. Such standard-bearers of the King, made witnesses of God with innumerable miracles, through swords, through fires, through beasts, through all kinds of torments & deaths most invincibly subjected the world to their Saviour. Now of old Rome, now Greece, now the Kings & Princes of the earth, now the Islands of the nations, drawn by Prophetic invitations, with the very orb of the lands rejoice to adore the Lord of Kings & serve Him perpetually, through whom & with whom they may perennially be able to reign. With such affection also today's Father of all Christianity Gregory, most ardently thirsting your salvation, would be prohibited neither by fear of punishments, nor of death, from coming to you, if he could (which he cannot) desert the care of so many committed souls. Wherefore he sent us in his stead, that we may open to you the way of eternal light & the gate of the heavenly kingdom: into which, if, the demoniac idols being despised, you refuse not to enter through Christ, with most certain faith you may ever reign.

[18] These & like things salutary Augustine discoursing, his suffragans: as the Lord gave, the power of preaching the faith being received. added very many things. But the King, not easily extricable from the inveterate error, answered as a sick man, favoring indeed the physicians, but not yet patient of the cure: Beautiful indeed & inviting to a certain infinite glory are the sayings & promises which you suggest: but since they are held new & hitherto unknown, it befits me not to subject my mind to these, & to desert the rites of my elders hitherto kept through all England. Nevertheless to your benevolence, by which from afar (as I see) to come to us, & to our salvation, as you know more truly & better, you have striven to consult, we wished by no means to be hostile, but neither ungrateful: but rather we desire to cherish you with benign hospitality, & to afford sufficiently the subsidies of life: but this also we permit you, that whomsoever you can into your faith & profession by preaching & exhorting you take. The King therefore so clement to the worshipers of Christ in paganism, who may worthily relate how it was deferred, that from the difficulty for B. Augustine the crown might grow, & from the unhoped-for salvation a greater joy of the Church of God might be born.

[19] Therefore by the benevolence of the King, nay the providence of God, in the Metropolitan city of Canterbury is granted to the Saints a place of fitting habitation, he migrates to Canterbury with his own & the promised stipends of bodily nourishment, & the indulgence of the desired preaching. So approaching the city to be possessed peace-bearing Augustine, with the blessed choir of Saints, the triumphal banner of the Lord's silver Cross being raised after custom, with the life-giving image of

the everlasting King Jesus Christ, suppliantly invokes upon it the saving clemency of the Saviour: then this litanial Antiphon he sweetly intones; &, the primitive nurse-Church of the English receiving him, with consonant modulation & devotion he chants: We beseech thee, O Lord, in all thy mercy, that thy fury & thy wrath be taken away from this city, & from thy holy house, for we have sinned. Well had they added, For we have sinned, who, from the charity of Christ, had come to wash away others' sins, as if their own, with documents, prayers, & weepings. Here meanwhile, composed in peace not so much by the care of strangers, as by divine dispensation, they gird themselves more attentively for the fruit of the kingdom of God. They lived not only as exiles of the Ocean, but utterly as pilgrims of the whole world: so much did they desire nothing of earthly, nothing of secular allurement, that you would be astounded at them not so much as earth-born as heaven-born. where he lives in great abstinence & sanctity: Pleasures, delights, riches, honors, & whatever should oppose those going to the heavens they had utterly cut off: fasts, vigils, prayers, almsgivings, with chastity & all sanctimony they made assiduous. The arms of Christ peaceful for virtue, but warlike against the armies of crimes most robustly they exercised; conquering all perfidy; for all injury holding forth as a breastplate all patience; for perils, for punishments, for the bearing of death itself a most invincible constancy; for the needy a wounded clemency; for all men & for the very adversaries a visceral charity. Free & unencumbered from the earthly burden, like winged animals they flew to the heavens; nay rather, as the Apostle says, Our conversation is in heaven, save that still by love of the nations to be saved they inhabited the lands, now in mind they dwelt in the heavens. Philip. 3. 20,

[20] The Church once dedicated to B. Martin, But before the coming of the English the Romans had possessed Britain for about four hundred years, that is from the time of Caius Cæsar even to the Emperor Maximus; who, the purple being snatched against Gratian & Valentinian the Augusti, the wars going on, drained the Ocean itself of Roman garrisons. But the residual church ^e of B. Martin, formerly founded by those Roman Christians, then illustrated Kent, which still remains officious with assiduous ministers, distant about half a stadium to the East from the authentic church of Christ. & cultivated by S. Letardus, In this the blessed Prelate Letardus, as a forerunner or doorkeeper of the Apostolic Legates, first to the divine offices & sacraments of the Christian Queen, as a faithful paranymph, with his Clerics gave service; & as a hart after the poison of serpents intent thirsts for the fountains of waters; so amid the enemies of the faith the venomous rites of the Pagans burning, to that very church, as to the fountain of life, with the foster-child Queen herself was carried away, when the Roman masters, like gold shining before silver, there performed the things which are God's. For these pilgrims of Christ, solitary among foreigners, in these heavenly strangers the grace of God visited; visited also His people through them about to believe, that both the Queen might not only lawfully worship Christ, but even through such instructors faithful might save her unfaithful husband. In this oratory therefore Augustine with his choir celebrated the daily ministries of the Lord; he receives it for the sacred ministries. & in psalms, hymns, prayers, & in the voice of the trumpet, by which the camps of the devil should perish, nights & days he lifted up the praises of the Lord. Meanwhile so splendid merits of the Saints a vast grace of signs & commands of God commended; nor could they dissemble, nor keep silent the imperial heralds of Christ: him with songs, him with the thunders of preachings, & the corruscations of signs more & more they sounded forth. They cured by turns all the weak & languid, either brought to them or visited by them: so that none, or rare in the flock of Augustine, was held, who did not abound with the grace of healings, that no less by miracles than by preachings they illumined the darkness of the Gentiles. These promises of perennial joy soothed the stupid senses of men; so great lightnings beat the rigid ones, as is sung to the Lord by the Psalmist: Thy corruscations have shone to the orb of the earth, the earth was moved & trembled. Ps. 76, 19. The trembling peoples cried out: Gods descending from the supernal seats converse among men. So also once the Gentiles wondering at the Apostles of God transcending earthly things, said: These are the holy Gods of the earth. Nor did they lie in their error, the Psalmist witnessing: The strong Gods of the earth are vehemently exalted. Ps. 46, 10. Hitherto therefore the untamed necks lovingly submitted to the sweet yoke of the Lord, the fruitful fields received the seeds of life into perpetual fruits, very many believed, & regenerated in Christ are made from foreigners sons of the adoption of God.

[21] Augustine therefore the Armor-bearer of the supreme King intent on all, he converts the King to the Christian faith, against the very supreme head of the kingdom directs the engine of salvation; that, the citadel of profanity being subverted, he may raise the starry citadel of sanctity, & with its King the subjected world may succumb to the Saviour. Him through the canvassings of the Queen, through legate admonitions, through opportune approaches, through the sweet allurements of eternal felicity, through all the examples & portents of virtues, through the prayers of the Church watched to God, he strove to acquire for his Redeemer; he strove, & in the Lord conquered, & obtained. The vast elephant of the land, & the enormous whale of the deep was triumphally captured by the Apostolic net. For captured by eternal sweetness, instructed by irrefragable truth, illumined by so holy & wonderful a clarity of divine institution, ancestral Gentility being abdicated with the author of death, of his own accord he delivers himself to the Author of life. Let us go, says he, we too to the great Prince of Kings, to the most ample giver of kingdoms, not only temporal, but also eternal: nor let it shame us at least to have come last, whom it should deservedly shame as in the kingdom, so also in faith not to have been first. Let us follow at length, whom it would have befitted to have gone before; especially since we seek that King, who weighs not the dignity of person or order, but the devotion of the soul.

[22] Having spoken such things, he wished, his Royalty being prostrated, to adore the servant of Christ, & he baptizes him with the supreme concourse of all: through whom into the servitude & adoption of Christ he might merit to be regenerated. Whom the minister of salvation receiving with paternal bowels, exhorts that he wash away his former errors by abstinence, indulgence, almsgivings & weepings, & by the other pious works prevent the face of Him who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. This man indulges all that to himself it be indulged, & by human benefits is prepared for the supernal benefits: the prisons lie open, the bonds are loosed, the captives are freed, & with the friends of the King the poor & guilty feast. It cannot nor needs to be set forth, with how great joy B. Augustine's soul, hitherto panting for the salvation of the Nation, exulted, what libations of thanks it immolated to God. Now he sees his desire prospered, his land to have given its fruit, all the labors & griefs & difficulties of his travails to have brought forth for him perpetual joy, since in the King himself converted the whole Ocean he encircled for the Lord's yoke. There shone forth therefore a day, most solemn to the English & the Angels, on which devoted to God, King Æthelbert, the idols & gods of his country being profaned, should be born a Christian. There assembled not only the Royal Court of the Princes & all Kent, but even most frequent England, to see the most excellent Lord of the kingdom prostrated at the steps of the strangers the servants of Christ, & as their last slave to serve in all commands; that whom foreign kingdoms by arms might dread, unarmed poor men by word might bind. The church is adorned, the baptisteries are decorated, the urn of the Jordanic & Paradisiac river is consecrated. Being asked the faith by Augustine, whether he believes in the Father & Son & Holy Spirit, & the rest which the Catholic truth requires; the faithful confessor of the Lord, with all his heart & mouth, I believe, answered to all. In this confession therefore & name of the Trinity is baptized & regenerated the English-born King: he is made from an old idolater a new worshiper of Christ, from the foul night of his orb a morning lamp. likewise other Dukes, Nobles & subjects to 10 thousand: Our Sylvester baptizes our Constantine, with a renowned throng of Dukes & Nobles & a copious people of believers. But at the voice of the minister of God the heavens were opened, & the Lord Jesus poured upon this His adoptive one His dove, which once He sent for Himself in the Jordan, the Father from the heavens testifying Him son. It descended with splendid whiteness, & rested in the one received with simple purity, as on an infant just born. Hence the new Church, after the Lord's first-born & only-begotten Christ, rejoiced to sing embracing the recently born: A child is born to us, a son is given to us. So was directed the Spirit of the Lord in our David, from that day & forever; & the same one a Solomon, into the light of His people, the wisdom of God illumined. But in the former David alone ten thousand are computed: & in our sole Prince ample Britain is delivered to Christ. Since therefore in one sinner corrected the Saviour attests the Angels to rejoice; not absurdly we believe, that the supernal hosts themselves, in this saved Head, then with consonant jubilee proclaimed; Glory to the Lord of the world, because the Kingdom of the English also is made our Lord Jesus Christ's.

[23] Thence therefore the Evangelical foster-child of the Saints, & the most robust helper of his preceptor Augustine, The King rejoices to advance Divine matters wonderfully: now esteems not that his kingdom which he administered; but His, to whom he had given himself with all his own; rather pants to subject & dilate himself to Him, who dispenses all the kingdoms of the world by His nod most justly: also the Kings & peoples subject to him, not by force but by benevolence, as he had learned from the holy Doctors, he strives to transfer into the sweet dominion of Christ. So great also was the charity in the holy & God-amiable King, that those believing in the Redeemer, now he weighed not in the place of clients, but as brothers & perpetual fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God with great congratulation & love he bound. Then bishoprics & monasteries, as the Lord's castles, by which the Lord's kingdom may be held, liberally & royally here and there he contrives. In his Metropolis the basilica of the Saviour, for his Augustine to be founded & possessed, most helpfully he determines. But in its suburb a Royal & Apostolic monastery he exalts, which should keep the bodies of the Antistes & Kings to the day of the life-giving resurrection. He founded also the Suffragan of Rochester ^f, & the Pontifical Hierarchy of London, & in other opportune places churches & cœnobia.

[24] he is consecrated Bishop. But before all things now Augustine, most chosen by the supreme Pope Gregory, with all the country, he urges to be consecrated Apostle for himself. But he, who with so great a peril of pilgrimage had sought the salvation of so many, for whom he would not flee death, did not refuse to bear the principal labor. To the Archprelate of Arles ^g Ætherius, to be ordained by him, he crosses the sea, obedient namely to the Apostolic election & the Ecclesiastical petition, nay rather to the Lord's assumption. The Gregorian Epistles also had preceded him, ever for him & for the beloved English most vigilant. Here therefore the primitive Patriarch of England is consecrated, & with the Apostolic insignia into everlasting blessing returns to his inheritance, & is enthroned in the prepared See of Canterbury.

[25] He makes S. Gregory certain of the King's conversion. But then among all the

solicitudes of nations to be taught he reckoned it a crime of slothfulness, if to B. Gregory's soul, suspended with holy desire, he should delay to announce so great joys of the Lord's gain. There is sent therefore to Rome the most sacred Laurentius, then a Presbyter, afterward the eminent successor of B. Augustine; & ^h Peter, a Monk worthy of monastic Prelacy, who afterward shone first as Abbot before the Augustinian monastery, that here also the messenger of mutual congratulation might grievously grow into very many fruits. Augustine, who rejoiced in the great harvest, anxiously complains of the paucity of workers: to this on divers questions he consults the divine Master, whence he might reform the tottering Church & the rude people. But the man of holy desires Gregory, from this exulting for joy when he learned the King of Britain consecrated to Christ with his orb, the hands of the baptizers to fail for the peoples flowing together in troops, the cultivators only & seeds to grow scarce in the fruitful fields, the public famine of hearing the word of the Lord to need many doctors; with how great joy he blessed the Most High, with how great a burning of mind & voice, that these increases of joy might be perpetually strengthened, he prayed, who could worthily relate? Thee, says he, O Lord, the author of the salvation of all, thee wonderful & glorious in thy Saints & in all thy mercies, as frail praisers in all things we magnify. For behold, through thy humble legate Augustine, once swollen, now prostrated at the feet of the Saints serves the Ocean; & the barbarous tongue of Britain now in its praises has begun to resound the Hebrew Alleluia. Receive, Sower of benefits, the fruits of everlasting grace, which in his most fruitful breast thou hast planted; receive thy stranger & ward with his speaking brethren, with whom, home, country, kindred being left, himself denied, the cross assumed, he has followed thee. Thou art able also to multiply him into a great nation, after thy ancient hearer the Patriarch; but all the difficulties & straits of the Saints it is ever thine, O Lord, to temper, & to transfer into infinite gain of joys. he receives the other workers asked for, These affections of paternal charity the most holy Pope aromatizing to God, adds to pray the Lord of the harvest, that He direct his counsel, by which He may send fit workers into His harvest. Therefore, the supernal providence aspiring, there are destined with the aforenamed Legates, Laurentius & Peter, eminent men of virtues, Mellitus, Justus, ⁱ Paulinus, Rufinianus, as the four heralds of the Gospels. These accompanies no rude throng of Evangelical ministers & co-workers, who with a terrible army should plunder the camps of the demons. For whatever seemed opportune in the worship & ministry of the Church, in the sacred vessels, Ecclesiastical ornaments & sacred Relics: in the paraments of the altars, in the ornaments of churches, in sacerdotal vestments, in the precious Relics of the holy Apostles & Martyrs, in very many codices, in any elegance of divine matters, utterly the vigilance of literate Gregory heaped up for the illustrious bearers. To this the answers to the aforesent questions & interrogations lucidly set forth he sent, which here either deferred or omitted, you will fully find in Bede. Over all these is added this Epistle of Apostolic prerogative.

[26] To the most reverend & most holy Brother Augustine the Co-bishop Gregory, servant of the servants of God. Bk. 12 Ep. 15 Since it is certain, that for the omnipotent God to those laboring ineffable rewards of the eternal Kingdom are reserved; yet it is necessary for us to bestow on them the benefits of honors, that by the zeal of spiritual work from the remuneration they may wish more manifoldly to sweat. And because the new Church of the English to the grace of the omnipotent God, the same Lord bestowing & thee laboring, has been brought; the use of the Pallium & the power of constituting Episcopates: we grant thee the use of the Pallium in it for performing only the solemnities of Masses, so that through individual places thou ordain twelve Bishops, who may lie subject to thy dominion: that the Bishop of the city of London ^l always in posterity ought to be consecrated by his own Synod, & receive the Pallium of honor from this holy & Apostolic See, which God being author I serve. But to the city of York we wish thee to send a Bishop, whom thou thyself shalt have judged to be ordained: so only, that if the same city with the neighboring places shall receive the word of God, he too ordain twelve Bishops, & enjoy the honor of a Metropolitan; because to him too, if life be his companion, we dispose to bestow the Pallium, the Lord favoring: whom yet we wish to lie subject to thy Fraternity's disposition. But after thy death let him so preside over the Bishops, whom he shall have ordained, that he in no way lie subject to the dominion of the Bishop of London: but let there be between the Bishops of the city of London & of York in posterity this distinction of honor, that he be held the prior who shall have been ordained first. But by common counsel & concord action let them dispose unanimously whatever things are to be done for the zeal of Christ, let them rightly think, & those things which they shall have thought let them perfect not disagreeing among themselves. But let thy Fraternity have not only those Bishops, whom he shall have ordained; nor only these, who shall have been ordained through the Bishop of York; but also all the Priests of Britain, God & our Lord Jesus Christ being author, subject: that from the tongue & life of thy Sanctity they may perceive both the form of believing rightly & of living well; & discharging their office by faith & morals, may attain to the heavenly kingdoms, when the Lord shall will. May God keep thee safe, most reverend Brother. Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July, our Lord Maurice Tiberius the most pious Augustus reigning the nineteenth year, after the Consulate of the same Lord the eighteenth year, the fourth Indiction ^m.

[27] Now the Lord's company laden with Apostolic wealth had gone forth farther, Also to Mellitus. nor does the mind of Gregory cease to follow those going, because infinite charity knows not to end its services. Bk. 9 Ep. 71 Again of his Augustine, again of his English his sole cares he renews; whence also this Epistle to the aforementioned venerable Mellitus he destines. To the most beloved son Mellitus the Abbot, Gregory, servant of the servants of God. After the departure of our congregation, which is with thee, we are made very anxious, because nothing of the prosperity of your journey it has happened to us to have heard. & the churches to be consecrated when the idols are cast out. When therefore the omnipotent God shall have brought you to the most Reverend man our Brother Augustine the Bishop, tell him, what long with myself thinking of the cause of the English I have considered; namely, that the shrines of the idols in that nation by no means ought to be destroyed; but the idols themselves which are in them be destroyed, holy water be sprinkled in the same shrines, altars be constructed, Relics be placed. Because if those shrines are well constructed, it is necessary that from the worship of demons into the service of the true God they ought to be changed: that while the nation itself sees not its shrines destroyed, it may put error from its heart; & knowing & adoring the true God, more familiarly run together to the places which it has been wont. And because they are wont in the sacrifice of demons to slay many oxen, some solemnity also ought to be changed for them concerning this matter; that on the day of the Dedication or the Birthdays of the holy Martyrs, whose Relics are placed there, they make for themselves tabernacles about those same churches, which from shrines have been changed, of the branches of trees, & celebrate the solemnity with religious feasts: nor now immolate animals to the devil, but to the praise of God for their own eating kill animals, & to the Giver of all give thanks for their satiety; that while some joys outwardly are reserved to them, they may be able more easily to consent to the interior joys. For to hard minds to cut off all things at once it is no doubt impossible: because he too who strives to ascend the highest place, is raised by steps or paces, not by leaps. So to the Israelite people in Egypt the Lord indeed made Himself known: but yet to them the use of sacrifices, which to the devil they were wont to exhibit, in His own worship He reserved; that He commanded them in His own sacrifice to immolate animals; that, changing their heart, one thing of the sacrifice they should lose, another retain; so that even if they were the same animals which they had been wont to offer, yet immolating these to the true God & not to idols, now they should not be the same sacrifices. These things therefore it is necessary for thy Love to say to the aforesaid Brother, that he himself there placed in the present may weigh how he ought to dispense all things. May God keep thee safe, most beloved Son. Given the fifteenth day of the Kalends of August, our Lord Maurice Tiberius the most pious Augustus reigning the nineteenth year, after the Consulate of the same Lord the eighteenth year, the fourth Indiction.

ANNOTATIONS.

Before all altars thou art called this Gregorian one, By whom thou art hallowed, the English race seeks thee, art given: After hither thou art carried, here with bones thou art associated, With whom thou sayest thou wishest to be & of equal merit.

* by which

* receiver

* whom

* sends

* let them be able

* thou shalt have indicated

* men

* otherwise, of July

CHAPTER III.

Miracles wrought. The Epistles of S. Pope Gregory. Deeds with the Christian Britons.

[28] Then also so many & so assiduous miracles of B. Augustine being heard, as rejoicing to the praise of God he exclaims, The saint works miracles. so fearing to human weakness lest it grow insolent, by this Epistle he tempers him: Bk. 9 Ep. 58 Glory in the highest to God, & on earth peace to men of good will, because the grain of wheat falling into the earth died, lest alone it should reign in heaven, by whose death we live, by whose weakness we are strengthened, by whose passion from passion we are exempted, by whose love in Britain we seek brothers whom we knew not, by whose gift those whom not knowing we sought we found. But who can suffice to narrate how great a joy here arose in the heart of all the faithful, that the nation of the English, the grace of the Omnipotent working & thy Fraternity laboring, the darkness of errors being expelled is suffused with the light of so great a faith; that with a most entire mind it now treads the idols, to which before with mad fear it lay subject; that to the omnipotent God with pure heart it is prostrated; that from the lapses of depraved work it is bound by the rule of holy preaching; that to the divine precepts in mind it lies subject & in understanding is uplifted; that even to the earth it humbles itself in prayer, lest in mind it lie on the earth; whose work is this, save His who says; My Father works until now & I work? who that He might show the world, not by the wisdom of men, but by His own virtue to convert itself; chose His preachers, whom He sent into the world, without letters; doing these things also now, because in the nation of the English He has deigned to work strong things through the weak. John 3, 17 But there is in that heavenly gift, most dear Brother, what with great joy ought most vehemently to be dreaded. & he is admonished by S. Gregory not to be puffed up: For I know that the omnipotent God through thy love in the nation, which He willed to be chosen, has shown great miracles: whence it is necessary, that of the same heavenly gift both fearing thou rejoice, & rejoicing thou greatly fear. Rejoice namely, because the souls of the English through exterior miracles are drawn to interior grace: but greatly fear, lest among the signs which are done, the weak mind lift itself into presumption of itself; & whence outwardly in honor it is exalted, thence through vainglory inwardly it fall. For we ought to remember, that the disciples with joy returning from preaching, when to the heavenly Master they said; Lord, in thy name even the demons are subject to us; forthwith heard; Rejoice not over this, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Luke 10, 17 For in a private & temporal joy they had set their mind, who rejoiced of miracles; but from the private to the common, from the temporal to the eternal joy they are recalled, to whom is said; In this rejoice because your names are written in heaven. For not all the elect do miracles, but yet their names are held inscribed in heaven. For the disciples of truth ought to have no joy, save of that good which they have common with all, & in which they have no end of joy. It remains therefore, most dear Brother, that among those things, which God working thou doest exteriorly, thou ever interiorly subtly judge thyself & subtly understand both thyself who thou art, & how great in that nation is the grace, for whose conversion thou hast even received the gifts of signs to be done. And if ever thou rememberest to have offended our Creator, either by tongue or by works, ever recall these to memory, that the memory of guilt may press the rising glory of the heart; & whatever of signs to be done thou shalt have received or hast received, count these donated not to thee but to those, for whose salvation to thee they were conferred. But there occurs to the mind thinking these things, what was done of one servant of God even egregiously elect. Certainly while Moses led the people of God out of Egypt, by the example of Moses, after so many miracles, wonderful (as thy Fraternity knows) signs he wrought in Egypt. On Mount Sinai forty days & nights fasting he received the tables of the Law; among the corruscating thunders, all the people greatly fearing, in the service of the omnipotent God alone, by familiar colloquy also he was joined; the Red Sea he opened, on the journey he had for leader the pillar of cloud, to the hungering people he sent down manna from heaven, flesh to those desiring even to exceeding satiety in the wilderness by a miracle he ministered: but when now in the time of thirst it had come to the rock, having suffered diffidence, he was diffident; & doubted that he could draw water from it, which the Lord commanding he opened indeed with large flowings. But how great things after these through thirty & eight years in the desert he did, who can enumerate, who suffice to investigate? As often as a doubtful matter struck his mind, recurring to the Tabernacle secretly he sought the Lord, & of it forthwith God speaking he was taught. The Lord angry with the people he appeased by the intervention of his prayer; those rising in pride & in discord disagreeing the gaping earth's chasm he absorbed, with victories he pressed the enemies, signs he showed the citizens: but when now to the land of promise it had come, he was called to the mountain, & therefore did not enter the land of promise. & the fault which before thirty & eight years (as I said) he had committed, he heard, that he doubted of drawing water; & on account of this, that he could not enter the land of promise, he recognized. In which matter it is to be considered by us, how to be feared is the judgment of the omnipotent God, who through that servant did so many signs, whose fault for so long a time still He kept in His consideration. If therefore, most dear Brother, we recognize even him after signs dead for a fault, whom from the Omnipotent we know especially elect; with how great fear ought we to tremble, who not yet know if we are elect? But of the miracles of the reprobate what ought I to say, since thy Fraternity well knows, what in the Gospel the Truth says: Matt. 7 Many will come in that day saying to me, Lord in thy name we prophesied, & in thy name we cast out demons, & in thy name we did many virtues; but I say to them, I know not who you are, depart from me all you workers of iniquity. Very much therefore is the mind to be pressed among signs & miracles, lest perchance in them it seek its own glory, & exult with the private joy of its own exaltation. For through signs the gains of souls are to be sought, & the glory of Him, by whose virtue those same signs are wrought. But one sign the Lord has shown us, of which both we can vehemently rejoice & recognize the glory of election in us, saying: In this it shall be known that you are my disciples, if you have love toward one another. John, 13, 5 Which sign the Prophet sought when he said: Ps. 85, 17 Do with me, Lord, a sign for good, that they may see who hate me & be confounded. But these things I say, because I desire to prostrate the mind of my hearer in humility. But let thy very humility have its trust: for I a sinner hold with most certain hope, that, through the grace of the omnipotent Creator & Redeemer our God the Lord Jesus Christ, now thy sins are forgiven. And therefore thou art elect, that through thee others' may be forgiven: nor wilt thou have mourning of any guilt in posterity, who of the conversion of many strivest to make joy in heaven. But the same our Founder & Redeemer, when of the penitence of man He spoke, said: Luke, 15, 7 So I say to you, there will be greater joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, than over ninety-nine just, who shall not need penance. And if of one penitent great joy is made in heaven; what joy do we believe was made of so great a people, converted from its error, which coming to the faith, the evils, which it did, by penitence condemned? In this therefore joy of heaven & of the Angels let us repeat the very voices of the Angels which we premised: let us say therefore, let us all say: Glory in the highest to God, & on earth peace to men of good will.

[29] by letters sent by S. Gregory Rejoicing together also at the kindly faith of King Æthelbert the same Pope wrote in this order with pious gifts. Bk. 9 Ep. 60 For this the omnipotent God brings all good men to the governance of peoples; that through them on all, over whom they shall have been set, He may bestow the gifts of His piety. Which we have learned was done in the nation of the English, over which your Glory is therefore set, that through the good things which have been granted to you, also to the nation subject to you the supernal benefits might be furnished. And therefore, Glorious Son, that grace which thou hast received divinely keep with solicitous mind, hasten to extend the Christian faith among the peoples subject to thee, multiply the zeal of thy rectitude in their conversion, pursue the worships of idols, overturn the edifices of shrines; build up the morals of thy subjects in great purity of life by exhorting, terrifying, blandishing, correcting, & by showing examples of good work; that thou mayest find that rewarder in heaven, whose name & knowledge thou shalt have dilated on earth. For He Himself will render the name of your Glory even to posterity more gloriously, whose honor you seek & preserve among the nations. For so Constantine, once the most pious Emperor, recalling the Roman Commonwealth from the perverse worships of idols, subjected it with himself to the omnipotent God our Lord Jesus Christ, & with the subject peoples with all his mind converted himself to Him. Whence it came to pass that the name of the ancient Princes that man surpassed by his praises, & by as much in opinion preceded his predecessors, as in good work he excelled. And now therefore let your Glory hasten to infuse the knowledge of the one God, the Father & Son & Holy Spirit, into the Kings & peoples subject to himself; that both the ancient Kings of his nation he may surpass in praises & merits; & by as much in his subjects he shall have wiped away others' sins also, by so much also of his own sins before the terrible examination of the omnipotent God he may become more secure. But our most Reverend Brother Augustine, instructed in the rule of the monastery, filled with the science of sacred Scripture, endowed God being author with good works, whatever he admonishes you willingly hear, devoutly perform, studiously reserve in memory: because if you hear him, in that which he speaks for the omnipotent God; the same omnipotent God will the more swiftly hear him praying for you; but if (which be far) you postpone his words, how shall the omnipotent God be able to hear him for you, he is commended to the King as a learned & holy man, whom you neglect to hear for God? With all thy mind therefore with him bind thyself in the fervor of faith, & aid his endeavor by the virtue which the Divinity has bestowed on you, that He may make you to be partakers of His kingdom, whose faith in your kingdom you cause to be received & kept. Moreover that your Glory know

we wish, that as in sacred Scripture from the words of the omnipotent Lord we recognize, the end of the present world is now near, & the kingdom of the Saints is to come, which can by no end ever be terminated. But the same end of the world approaching, many things impend, which before were not; namely so many changes of the air, & terrors from heaven, & against the order of the seasons tempests, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes through places: which yet not all are to come in our days, but after our days will follow. You therefore, if any of these you know to befall in your land, in no way perturb your mind: because therefore these signs of the end of the age are premised, that of our souls we ought to be solicitous, of the hour of death suspicious, & to the coming Judge in good acts be found prepared. These things now, Glorious Son, in few words I have spoken, that when the Christian faith in your kingdom shall have grown, our discourse also among you may grow broader; & it may please to speak so much the more amply, by how much the joys in our mind of the perfect conversion of your nation multiply. But small gifts I have transmitted, which to you will not be small, when by you from B. Peter the Apostle's blessing they shall have been received. May the omnipotent God therefore in you perfect His grace, which He has begun; & extend your life both here through the courses of many years, & after long times receive you into the congregation of the heavenly country. May the supernal grace keep your Excellency safe, Lord Son. Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July, our Lord Maurice Tiberius the most pious Augustus reigning the nineteenth year, after the Consulates of the same Lord the eighteenth year, the fourth Indiction.

[30] The venerable Queen Bertha nonetheless, the most excellent Illustrator of Churches himself gracefully praises by this epistolary series, likewise to the Queen, both for the King's conversion, & for her own care toward B. Augustine & his companions, & exhorts more attentively to increase these famous merits. Bk. 9 Ep. 59 He who after earthly power desires to acquire the glory of the heavenly Kingdom, ought to labor more strenuously to make gain for his Creator; that to those things which he desires by the steps of his working, he may be able to ascend, as we rejoice you have done. Returning therefore our most beloved Son Laurentius the Presbyter & Peter the Monk, what your Glory has been toward our most Reverend Brother & Co-bishop Augustine, & how great solaces or what charity she bestowed on him, related; & we blessed the omnipotent God, who deigned propitiously to reserve the conversion of the nation of the English to your reward. For as through Helena of recordable memory, mother of the most pious Constantine the Emperor, He kindled the hearts of the Romans to the Christian faith; so also through the zeal of your Glory in the nation of the English we trust His mercy to work. who is roused to accelerate the husband's conversion. And indeed long ago you ought to have bent the mind of our glorious Son, your husband, by the good of your prudence, as truly Christian, that for the salvation of his kingdom & soul he should follow the faith which you worship; that both of him & through him, of the conversion of the whole nation, a worthy retribution might be born for you in the heavenly joys. For after, as we said, both your Glory was fortified by right faith, & taught by letters, this neither slow nor difficult ought to have been to you. And since, God willing, the time is now fit, act that, the divine grace cooperating, with increase you may be able to repair what has been neglected. So strengthen the mind of your glorious husband into the love of the Christian faith by assiduous exhortation, let your solicitude infuse into him an increase of the love of God; & so kindle his mind also for the fullest conversion of the nation subject to him, that both you may offer a great sacrifice to the omnipotent God by the zeal of your devotion, & those things which have been related of you, both grow, & by all means be approved to be true. Because your good deeds have now reached not only the Romans, who have prayed more strongly for your life, but also through divers places & even to Constantinople to the Most Serene Prince. Whence that, as to us of the solaces of your Christianity joy has been made, so also of your perfect working may joy be made to the Angels in heaven; so show yourselves in the aid of the aforesaid most Reverend Brother & our Co-bishop, & of the servants of God whom we have sent thither, in the conversion of your nation devoutly & with all your strength; that both here happily with our glorious Son your husband you may reign, & after long times of years also the joys of the future life, which know not to have an end, you may receive. But we pray the omnipotent God, that He kindle the heart of your Glory both to working the things we have said by the fire of His grace, & grant you the fruit of eternal reward of the working pleasing to Him.

[31] These mellifluous honeycombs of flower-bearing Gregory, these nutriments of Apostolic & Roman fostering, Augustine profits much from these letters, with what pious avidity the desirous ardor of Augustine drank, the poor sense suffices neither to comprehend nor to set forth. In this divine armature of paternal letters the now-veteran athlete of God delighted himself; in this most limpid mirror, before the eyes of his most elegant King, he consulted his beauty & ornaments; in this balance, what should incline, what should overweigh of his price, he weighed. To whom when his holy conscience answered with so many praises of virtues, all things to the emolument of thanksgivings he laid back into the bosom of the Bestower of good things: nor did he fear lest by his triumph he should be overwhelmed, who leaned not on himself, but on his Author. He feared not a fall, whom the holy fear of the Lord had possessed, whom founded upon the firm rock neither glory nor ignominy bent, who stood not in himself but in the Lord: nor did he emulate Peter slippery by presumption but stable by faith, & Paul glorying in infirmities for the virtue of Christ, unto unending clarity. Lastly what ought he to boast, who had crushed every type of boasting, who sought poverty & vileness for glory, the foundations of whose architecture are depressed with so great a height of humility & solidified with their own masses, that while his tower constructed of pure gold & every precious stone rose into heaven, it laughed unmoved & unhurt at the blows of all tempests? King Æthelbert also so much resounded with the Apostolic exhortations of supreme Gregory, with the King, by how much he knew himself a debtor of thanks in Christ redeemed, that from eternal perdition he had been made a son of the adoption of God. Whom unless because the Royal power was supremely necessary for dilating the kingdom of Christ, we believe to have preferred to serve rather than to command the monastic institutions, & to set the crown of Peter before the crown of the kingdom. But what then was not permitted to be done by office, appears now to have been by mind. But neither is the devotion of Bertha the most Christian Queen to be postponed, & the Queen, whom so great a Pope similarly judged worthy of the favor & apologetic of the aforesent epistle. For she was a door pervious to light, through which shining the Lord's paranymph Augustine infused the true sun Christ into the recesses of the Royal mind.

[32] Since therefore this friend of God was the most faithful key-bearer of the Royal heart (namely of that King, he treats of the conversion of the Britons, whose heart is in the hand of the Lord) with diffused charity & dilated mind extending his affection into the salvation of all, he acted with the most obedient Prince himself, that the Pontiffs of the Britons, deviating from the Ecclesiastical rule, should come together to his colloquy: for from these Britons this country before the English was anciently called, which also of old had been initiated to Christ. For in the year of the incarnate word the hundred fifty-sixth, Marcus Antonius Verus from Augustus the fourteenth with his brother Aurelius Commodus reigning, the King of these Britons ^a Lucius S. Eleutherius then the Pope by an epistle suppliantly besought, & gratefully obtained, that he should destine faithful doctors, who should regenerate him & his nation in Christ. Nor did the Britons fail from the integrity of the piety received, even to the storm of the persecution of Diocletian & Maximian, in which several were crowned by passion. But also thereafter in the Lord's faith they persevered, so that they neither yielded to the Pelagian heresy, & they being called to him, but through the summoned Bishops of the Gauls, convicting them perfidious & enemies, drove them from themselves. Nevertheless at length corrupted by luxury & arrogance, while they prefer to be subject to vices rather than to the yoke of the Lord, destroyed by the sword of the Gentiles, & with few remnants almost driven from the whole country, into woodland & sterile places they were straitened. These therefore the Apostolic Legate of the Lord Augustine desiring to heal, & to make the English & them one nation & one body of Christ; the more illustrious of the nation being convoked, he began to insist with all the persuasion of paternal sweetness, with all the bowels of charity, that, abdicating all dissension adverse to Christ, they should admit the God of peace, & with him together acquire for God sons of adoption & coheirs to themselves of the heavenly kingdom. He insisted also with earnest prayers & admonitions, that the Lord's ^b Easter by the common use & concord of the whole world they should celebrate in its time, he urges Easter to be celebrated with the Romans, the error being left, by which from the fourteenth moon even to the twentieth they usurped these feasts, by which circuit eighty-four years are calculated: moreover in many other things deviating from the Ecclesiastical rule, they are asked to repent. But the Britons the more mildly they are asked, the more fiercely they resist: & since they gloss their observances to be more excellent than all others, by no modesty of reason are they bent. They authorized their ceremonies, dictated not only by S. Eleutherius the Pope their first institutor, from the very infancy almost of the Church; but observed by their holy Fathers, friends of God & followers of the Apostles, hitherto, which they ought not to change on account of new dogmatists. What to these the prudence of most learned Augustine answered, let a perspicacious not pertinacious mind gather: Your holy Fathers, if these Apostolic decrees, which we bear, now received by all the world, they had proved to be holier, would of their own accord have obeyed, & their ignorances & irregular observances would have corrected: otherwise they would appear not Saints, but rebels of sanctity. And indeed the Apostles of the Lord in the beginning of the faith this one work everywhere exercised, that they should teach all nations to believe in the Saviour of the world, & to hope eternal life in Him. So not by mortal arms, but in all patience & by the indications of signs & holy works they subjected the whole world to the footsteps of Christ. Meanwhile they could not publicly hand down the Lunar cycles, according to the constitutions of the Councils: lest they should obscure the heavenly promises with earthly solicitations, & the Cross of Christ being made void they should have run in vain. Few or rare then disputed of Easter, especially since the rage of the whole world punished every soul believing in Christ. But when, the Kings & Tyrants being subjugated to Christ, the Church began to reign, then publicly Councils being held of Easter & of the other Ecclesiastical Sacraments the Apostolic decrees were sought; & what before had been neglected, or in divers places in divers manners was done, whatever was demanded for the integrity of the one faith, was formed on the anvil of the one Church.

To this regular unity of Christianity therefore let him communicate, whosoever wishes not to be cut off from Christ. To all these things the Britons strive to repugn rather than to acquiesce. Scarcely ever could I believe, that the herald of God Augustine was wearied by any of the Pagans with a greater circuit of words: so much is nothing more savage than a domestic enemy or civil irrationality: for this is to fight against beasts, or to wage intestine wars.

[23] But the follower of the Lord, after Christ & the Apostles taught to conquer by patience, that the truth of the miracle may be discerned, strives to try all things, that at least to the divine examination they may yield, who resist the Lord's legation. By God, says he, of peace & truth, who makes the unanimous to dwell in a house, let us ask to be taught by the indication of an evident sign, whose sentence is holier, what line in this controversy is to be held. Seek in some sick or weak person the experience of truth, who being admitted in your presence may prove in the name of the Lord his healer the true assertion. This proposition all approving, & the rebels themselves although unwilling, there came to hand a certain one of the English, whose eyes the joys of light were extinguished. I believe by God's nod an Englishman was found, lest the Britons (if he were of their own) should puff up their eyebrows. To their Priests therefore first the blind man to be cured is brought, that these failing the true witness of truth & the true physician might shine forth. All temerity therefore being confounded, humble Augustine bends his knees; praying his most well-known Hearer & most illustrious Illuminator of the world, that He restore sight to the blind man, he illumines the blind man. that in faith & spiritual grace the breasts of many may be illumined. Then the sign of the Cross being imposed on the man, with this word of faith, In this sign let the Lord of things show, whose doctrine is true; the blind man, his eyelids being unsealed, is illumined, & after the long night is suffused with serene day. By all the people praise is acclaimed to the Lord, & the faithful witness of God & truthful asserter of the true doctrine Augustine is celebrated: even the Britons themselves, overwhelmed by so great a light, now favor; & attest that his preachings are true, declared by so great a sign: but that they cannot without the consultation & assent of their Elders abjure their native laws. Hence a truce was asked & given, while the Synod should be repeated, & more men assembling what was to be followed should be treated. These things are recorded to have been done in the place where even today in the tongue of the English it is called Augustineac, that is the Oak of Augustine, on the confine of the Wiccii ^c & the Western Saxons, where the greatest province of the Britons is contiguous.

[34] Seven therefore Pontiffs of the Britons, with several most learned men, especially of their most noble monastery, which is called in English Bancornaburh ^d, over which then the Abbot Dinoot presided, about to go to the council, approaching a certain man, distinguished among them for the anchoretic life, a holy & prudent man, & setting forth the order of the matter, consult him, whether by following the doctrine of Augustine they should abdicate their native observances. To whom he, The servant of God, says he, if you have recognized, follow. But we, they say, whence shall we recognize him? Then he, Hear, says he, & learn from the Lord commanding: Take my yoke upon you, & learn from me because I am mild & humble of heart. Matt. 11, 29. From a mild therefore & humble heart it will be knowable to you, that Augustine bears the yoke of the Lord, & condescends to those bearing it. But if he shall hold forth fierceness or contumacy, how shall it be established that he is a man of God or of God? But they asking an example of this understanding: Suffer, says he, him first to enter the Synod, if when you come he shall rise, as to a servant of God reverently obey; but if remaining seated he shall scorn to receive you with equal honor, since you are more numerous, let him also be contemptible to you.

[35] Girt with these arms to their own destruction, when they come into his presence, they find Augustine sitting in the Episcopal chair, he is permitted to enter the Synod first, & not rising to them at all. Then indeed wrath, indignation, contempt, repudiation, suits, contentions bristled, nor could the barbarous fury be mitigated by any meekness of the Father: nor only did they suffer not to hear him, but even tried to refute & confute all his preachings. Whom the man of the Lord still striving in all ways to gain, of the many things, in which they were adverse to the universal Church, three he proposed to be observed, that the rest contrary could be tolerated; namely that they should celebrate Easter in its time as all the Churches, that they should perform the Sacraments of Baptism in the Ecclesiastical order, & with him together by evangelizing to the English acquire brothers & fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God. But the adversaries reject all things, he asks three things of them, & assert that not only do they not wish to obey his mandates or prayers, but neither do they wish to have him as Bishop. For who, they said, when we came disdained to rise; how much more will he oppress us if we be subjected to his dominion? It is clear therefore with how mild & humble a heart that faithful & prudent Vicar of the Lord bore the yoke of Christ, who sat; & with how hard a neck & swollen a heart they betrayed themselves to rebel against the yoke of the Lord, who stood by. Nor indeed in sitting or rising, but in meekness & fraternal love is the man of God recognized, since both sitting one most clement, & standing one most savage can be found: moreover it would be held unbecoming to the Ecclesiastical sanction, that he should puff up by rising men so fierce & erroneous, whom he should rather correct by rebuking. But at length the Lord's armor-bearer, brandishing the sword of the Lord over the incorrigible, promulgates this sentence with a prophetic spirit & mouth: If, to whom these being denied he predicts ruin, says he, he is not heeded admonishing, believe him threatening: because those whom you repudiate to have as peaceable brothers, you will have as most savage enemies: & those to whom you envy the society of the kingdom of God, from this life & kingdom by those warring you shall be taken away. So the rebels to truth, at length experienced the truth-speaking seer. ^e For at the last time, which they suffered from Æthelfrid. Augustine being now assumed to the Lord, the arms-potent King of the English Æthelfrid, with a vast force invades the city of the Legions which, by the English is called Lega-cestra, but by the Britons more rightly Carlezion. There had assembled a grand company of Britons both Priests & Monks, to pray against the King's onset: but of the monastery of Bancor so great was the number, that distinguished into seven troops, in no portion was it held less than three hundred men, who all lived by the labor of their hands: whose sum was reckoned over two thousand. These all, with the arms of prayers & a three-day fast warred against the enemy: whom composed in a safer place when the King saw, & weighed the cause; Lo! says he, against us those fight with unarmed right hand, but armed prayer, & against us their God in every battle more bitterly stir up: scatter first that more pernicious line, soldier, & destroy it to extermination. They had for defender one whose name was Broithmailus, who, the enemy rushing in fleeing, exposed to the swords the unarmed left, whom he should defend. Of the orators twelve hundred are reported slain, only fifty rescued by flight: then the rest of the forces of the perfidious soldiery the just savagery of the victor destroyed. So therefore the perverse felt in their punishment that Augustine, long after the stars were triumphed, had been truth-speaking, whose prophecy while still placed in the body they had despised: namely that they should be conquered by the English enemies, with whom in Christ they would not have peace as brothers.

ANNOTATIONS.

* thunders

* chasm

* God.

the Pontiffs deviating,

* with the few remnants,

* rage,

* dedicated.

* Lega cestra.

CHAPTER IV.

The preaching & conversion through the kingdom. Various miracles.

[36] When therefore that seer of truth predicted these evils to the implacable Britons, to the city of York, as solicitous of all, The Saint going to York, he set out. His whole journey was as busy as his abode, that everywhere he might prepare a straight way & a perfect people for the Lord. He went always on foot without a vehicle, patient of labors, [who] as a true follower of the holy Apostles, had taken nothing with him on this way of the world, of worldly cupidity. Free & unencumbered through the paths of God's commands he ran to the heavenly things, drawing with him following hosts. There surrounded the ethereal Leader the auxiliary colleges of the holy Brethren, with a throng of believers; & the farther he proceeded, with so much the ampler following, as fire acquires strength by going, it grew. For who would not pantingly run together to so pious companies, desiring nothing of the world except the salvation of men even persecuting, to so certain promises of heavenly joys? to which faith was given both by the examples of holy conversation, & the divine grace of signs, & a unanimity prepared to die for truth. Therefore about the borders of York, beside the way by which the Seed-sower of the word of the Lord was tending, a man, paralytic in his whole body, & destitute of the light of his very eyes & a beggar, lay: who at the noise of the passing people having learned by inquiry the author of the way, is borne with frequent clamors against the Saint: Holy, says he, Augustine, he heals a blind paralytic: by the bounty of thy famous piety, succor this man, needy of things & of health. To these things the most clement Father, mindful of the Lord curing the blind man in the Gospel, approached the languid one; & with the voice of the Lord's Key-bearer Peter, whom as a god-father institutor he emulated with all devotion, said: Silver & gold is not mine, but what I have this I give thee; rise sound in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 3. 6. Scarcely had he spoken, & the infirm one, who hitherto could not move himself, cured by so great a power of the word leaped up, & at the same time his eyelids springing back he drank the clear day; & believing gratefully in the Saviour whom Augustine taught, with full vigor of body he received the happier health of his soul.

[37] On the Lord's Birth 10000 men are baptized in a river, So the herald of the Lord, both in procession, & in the city of York, & wherever he came, what by doctrine he thundered, by manifold corruscations of signs he confirmed: & rejoicing in his success, like those who rejoice in the harvest, & as conquerors exult at the captured prey, copious peoples for Christ everywhere he acquired; so much namely, that on that day of the Lord's Birth, celebrated by the concerts of all the heavens, more than ten thousand of the English, besides an infinite number of little ones & women, in the river, which is called in English Swale, were reborn by the laver of holy Baptism, as by one birth & womb of the Church. Who at the command of the Divine preceptor, as at the voice of an Angel from heaven crying, all equally two by two, the threatening depth of the river as if a solid field they enter; & there in the true faith & confession of the supreme Trinity by turns, one from another, the water the Apostolic leader blessing, they are baptized. O how great a solemnity! how great a joy! how pleasant a spectacle of the heavenly & earthly citizens! when the bosom of the most capacious channel seemed not to suffice for so great a multitude, & the generation of so many troops & hosts as one offspring was poured from the womb of one parent, so great a progeny was born into heaven from the deep of the gulf! With how great lights of the born did then the day of all being born shine & the glory the nativity of Christ! how great a joy all the Angels of God, who rejoice over one penitent, then exulted over so great a germ of the divine harvest, singing in the born Saviour, Glory to God in the highest, & on earth peace to men of good will.

[38] without anyone's harm, With all whom, that is the supernal citizens, so much the most blessed Pope Gregory congratulated in the Holy Spirit, that of so illustrious a number of the faithful, the holy friend of God, equally about to congratulate, he sent an epistle to Eulogius the Patriarch of Alexandria. This joy also is heaped up by an illustrious miracle; that in so great a pressure of the rushing throngs, in so diverse a peril of sex & ages & of the infirm, when all crossed through that unfordable deep, no one at all perished, no one bewailed himself straitened or hurt: nay, health being conferred on their bodies: but all reborn in Christ, & as flocks of the shorn ascending from the laver, the hand of the Lord transmitted to the farther bank, that all might have one both Christ's & their own in Christ birthday. Too little I said, no one there hurt; all the sick, as of souls, so also of bodies, the troubles in the water laid down; & with the health of both man, as the people of Israel from the red sea or from the midst of Jordan with a heavenly dance the white-robed armies came forth. There stands hitherto in the same place a church, founded & dedicated in the honor & name of this illustrious Baptist Augustine, which by curing the frequent throngs furnishes most celebrated indications of so great a salvation. Bk. 7 Ep. 30 But also of the abovesaid epistle of Pope Gregory to Eulogius we subjoin these things for the sake of faith.

[39] We give thanks to the omnipotent Lord, because we see fulfilled in you what is written: Where there are very many crops, there is manifest the strength of oxen. Prov. 14, 4. [which all things with the joy of S. Gregory are indicated to Eulogius of Alexandria] For if a strong ox had not drawn the plough of the tongue in the earth of the hearts of the hearers, so great a crop of the faithful would by no means have risen. But since in the good things which you do I know that you congratulate others, I render to you the turn of your grace, & announce things not dissimilar. Because while the nation of the English, placed in a corner of the world, in the worship of woods & stones perfidious until now remained; from the help of your prayer it pleased me, that to it a Monk of my monastery, the religious & God-worthy Augustine, in preaching I ought God being author to have transmitted. Who, license being given by me, by the ^b Bishops of the Germanies being made a Bishop, with their solaces also to the aforesaid nation at the end of the world was brought. And now already of his health & work writings have come to us, that with so great miracles, either he himself, or those who were transmitted with him, in that nation corruscate, that the virtues of the Apostles in the signs which they exhibit they seem to imitate. But in the solemnity of the Lord's Nativity, which in this ^c first Indiction passed, more than ten thousand English were announced by the same Brother & our Co-bishop baptized. Which therefore I have narrated, that you may know, what among the Alexandrian people by speaking, & what in the ends of the world you do by praying. For your prayers are in that place where you are not: whose holy operations are shown in that place where you are. & to the Bishops of the Franks, Of these things also which the same mellifluous Pope wrote to the Bishops of the Franks, we except these few. As fire by the breath of a breeze becomes greater, so the zeals of a good mind advance by commendation. Bk. 9 Ep. 52 Because therefore the grace of our Redeemer cooperating, so great a multitude of the nation of the English is converted to the grace of the Christian faith, that our most Reverend Brother & Co-bishop Augustine asserts that those who are with him to execute this work, through divers places cannot suffice; we have foreseen that some Monks should be transmitted to him, with our most beloved & common sons Laurentius the Presbyter & Mellitus the Abbot. And therefore let your Fraternity show them the charity, which is fitting. What also to Lothair King of the Franks, of the reception of the Saints; to the King & Queen. what to Queen Brunichild, of their miracles everywhere known, by gracious writings he suggested, how sweet were it to weave again, & with avid hand to gather so many margarites & honeycombs? But one must comply with the hearer whether slothful or fastidious, since most are found in the Register of that most blessed Pope Gregory himself. Augustine cures a leper,

[40] Therefore, that we may resume the journey above, at length the Evangel of the Lord Augustine, going out from York with the company of his holy companions & assiduous virtues, met a certain leper, deformed with ulcerous & purulent foulness. The wretch cries out with miserable complaints to Augustine the bearer of unsought salvation. What said I, Cries out? to whom the pestiferous disease had taken away his voice, to whom a hiss was for speech, to whom a rattle was for a cry. The benevolent curer needed no pointer, the most compassionate pitier had not need of much prayer: he felt the straitness of the languid one, which he saw; & that he might work health for the wretched one, the charity of Christ urged. Why should we delay the swift bounty by a circuit of words? The diseased one approached suppliant, & the Pontiff prodigal of blessing blessed him, & thus animated by the presence of Christ said; In the name of the Lord Saviour, be cleansed from all the filth of thy leprosy. He said: & immediately all the calamity of the putrid humor like a cloud fled away; & the clean skin, the uncleanness being utterly absorbed, clothed the whole man. Not so quickly was Naaman the Syrian cleansed, whom before the curer Elisha had ordered to wash seven times in the Jordan. But Augustine in the word of Him, who said in the Gospel, Be cleansed, prevailed by swiftness. Mark 1, 41. O blessed & rich in Christ poverty of the Apostolic preacher, richer than all the wealth of the earth! O most opulent treasure! where not gold to avid mortals, but incomparable to gold the gratuitous health of souls & bodies is poured out. Could the soundness be bought for the languid by the infinite wealth of Crœsus or Darius? There is lifted therefore from so great a sign the cry of the wondering people to heaven, & everywhere there is a running together to the life-giving baptism.

[41] driven from a certain village with mockery, So the Lord's negotiator working on the journey, turned from the Northern into the Western region; bearing the manner not so much of a traveler, as of a hunter or fowler; not so much hastening to his own, as seeking the Lord's gains; there stretching nets, where the divine capture should come forth. And when he had reached the Province, which is called Dorset; & that everywhere as an Angel of the Lord he might be received, & at the same time by the faith of the hearers whom he fed be fed; he fell upon a certain village, as upon the tartarean seat of Pluto. There an impious people, blinded by its own darkness, & hating the divine light, not only could not hear the life-giving documents, but with a whole tempest of mockeries & opprobria raged against the Saints of God, drives them far from all its possession; nor is the unbridled audacity believed to have spared its hand. But the messenger of God, according to the Lord's precept & the example of the Apostles, the dust of his feet also being shaken off upon them, he shakes off the dust of his feet: cast a sentence worthy of their merits (not by the wish of one cursing, who desired the salvation of all; but by divine judgment & the type of Elias) upon the atrocious ones, that the contemners of the Saints, both in themselves & in all their posterity, with due punishment he should refute, who had repelled the commands of life. Fame is, that they, to be thunder-struck, appended to the Saints the prominent tails of marine fish; & to them indeed had brought forth everlasting glory, but on themselves had retorted a perennial ignominy, that this disgrace be imputed to the degenerating race, not to the innocent & generous country.

[42] elsewhere worse received, Here also an argument of correction consequently seems to be subjoined, which in another nation of unbelievers at that season salutary Augustine is recited to have wrought. That people also, by inveterate profanity incorporated to demons, hating from love of darkness the friends of light, who in their infidelity would say to God: Depart from us, the knowledge of thy ways we will not, we have made a pact with death; the Angelic Doctor, by Angelic conversation & the lightnings of signs proving the true doctrine, not only repudiated, but even either burned to cut off with swords, or to burn alive with fires the bearers of life. Isa. 28, 15. Whatever the benign preacher promised to believers, they spat out; whatever in prophetic type he threatened, they mocked. What in such desperate ones then should that God-amiable soul do, bringing forth the salvation of all, which would give itself even for such in perpetual charity? & what to so great a faith will be impossible & to so strong a love invincible? Therefore fleeing to the inexhaustible clemency of Christ, he prays that He grind that pot of worldly petulance & diabolic worship, such as the Prophet saw boiling from the face of the North, with an iron rod as a potter's vessel; or smelt that mass in His furnace for the better, & redeem by correction those worthy of perdition. Forthwith with an unwonted punishment is seized that whole conspiracy of the perverse, that the sole vexation might give understanding to the hearing. All burn ^d with an invisible fire; not as those boiling with quartan fevers or other burnings of diseases, but, wondrous to say & miserable to see! the skin being burnt & the flesh growing raw, bloody footprints & gnawed thighs were shown. But in that whole furious people, as there was no one who repented, so there was no one who escaped. Age & sex, old men & sucklings, parents & children, all by one sentence of punishment were struck: everywhere clamor, groan, & howling of torments was tossed about. he obtains a docile heart, Then at length the transgressors returning to the heart, understood what to them despising the heavenly promises prophetic Augustine had threatened. Who at once gathered together, run to him whom they had spurned, flee back to him whom they had repelled; to his footsteps, whose prayers & admonitions they had laughed at,

mournful they succumb; the saving laver, which they had assailed, they earnestly demand; & the punitive ardor being changed into the ardor of faith, all implore that they be reborn in Christ. This change of the right hand of the Most High, nor can they now be incredulous to Augustine promising, that in Baptism they should be regenerated for the health of mind & body. There is made therefore a vast solemnity to the heaven-born & earth-born, where so many thousands of the reborn are joined to the supernal citizens: & that this dance, the cloud of griefs being wiped away, may more serenely shine forth, that pestiferous fire devouring the putrid flesh, inextinguishable by all waters, incurable by all arts, & health of bodies to the baptized: by the sole baptism, Augustine intervening, in all there baptized is extinguished. From that day also this pest, which in other lands sometimes rages, Augustine patronizing is exterminated from all this country. Those, the freedmen of God, could then gratefully cry: Unless the Lord had freed us through Augustine, or Augustine through the Lord, we should have been as Sodom or Gomorrah, or by the fires of Elias with the fifty enemies deservedly perished.

[43] afflicted with thirst & heat with his own, From this therefore byway of like fury & just correction, that we may resume the upper way to be performed, the most holy couriers of God Augustine & his companions, five miles from the abovementioned injurers of theirs, having gone forth through solitary places in a desert & waterless land, with grievous thirst & heat under the open sky sat down wearied. The one hope of the dying for safety, in God & the merits of their Augustine. He, boiling not so much for himself, as for the Brethren, to his beneficent Lord, in every petition ever tried, made with all the refuge of prayer. To him praying therefore the Lord Jesus, compassionating His Martyr (for even without passion a mind prepared for martyrdom makes a Martyr: & this man's martyrdom was, among persecutors a patient & benign conversation) with ineffable clemency deigned to show Himself here, & thus consoled him with familiar address: Be comforted, my good & faithful servant, & act manfully: because with thee am I the Lord thy God, in all thy doing; & my ears to thy prayers, Christ appearing, that ever for whomsoever thou shalt ask, thou mayest obtain. For to thee lies open the gate of eternal life, where with me thou shalt rejoice without end. So great gifts of the Lord's vision & address B. Augustine drinking with all the ardor of his heart, forgetful of bodily thirst, more & more thirsted the tasted sweetness, & pursued the departing one, gratefully meeting him with his tears, with more abundant weepings.

[44] But adoring there, & feeling that supernal benefits redounded to that place where the feet of the Lord had stood; nor that that land suffered dryness, in which the Fountain of life appeared; he obtains a fountain, forthwith he fixed there the staff of his journey. Nor delay, a most pure fountain as a struck vein leaped out, which refreshed all abundantly, & cheered them as much by miracle as by health; & thenceforth even forever, derived into rivers & rivulets, made these places habitable & most populous. But the divine Father himself, possessor of so blessed a contemplation, for the eternal memory of so great a grace, called the place from seeing God Cernhel. Which name composed of Latin & Hebrew (for as the first syllable from seeing, sounds Sight, so the following, Hel, sounds God) indelibly grew upon it. To this also a Church in the name of the Lord Saviour, who deigned there to reveal Himself, is constructed & consecrated: & then a monastery ^e, long since exalted in honor of B. Peter the Apostle with edifices & opulence of things, at present flourishes with a conspicuous company of Monks. But that sacred fountain is celebrated by the name of Augustine its administrator; not only affording to those drinking the use of water, but also to those believing a remedy of divers diseases: whence of a miracle lately wrought we here give an indication, which there & through that province is widely held most celebrated.

[45] There is to the most learned Abbot of Cerne a Parochial Presbyter, The Saint appears to a sick Parish priest, & heals him at the fountain. who is wont to perform the Divine offices to the people in that monastery. Him a languor brought to the extreme compelled to ask the Monastic habit. There was put on his head the garment of holy profession, who then at last fled to this, when death pressed; that is, then seized the armor of God, when the enemy invaded. It was night, & sleep was catching the wearied sick man. There stands by the trembling one benign Augustine, conspicuous by the very habit & Pontifical rod. Nor indeed long does he deny remedies to such a one, who perhaps still lived with a secular mind; inviting him to the heap of the prize, who bestows His sun on the grateful & ungrateful, & often recalls the averse by benefit rather than punishment. The pious consoler refreshes the anxious one with such address: Rise, says he, & to the fountain of S. Augustine go, & there sing the fiftieth Psalm with a triple repetition, & with the invocation of the aid of Augustine himself thrice in the same fountain wash thy body: so thou shalt obtain the wished life & health. But lest thou be hindered by any ambiguity, know that he himself is present to thee & persuades these things, through whom thou shalt convalesce. Among these things the dying one is raised, & the staff being snatched, all wondering he goes out. It seemed then to his watchers, that he so wandered with the presage of impending death: yet they prefer to follow, & to observe whither he tends, rather than to prohibit. He coming to the sacred fountain, thrice is washed in its stream, thrice the fiftieth Psalm with the implored suffrage of Augustine is chanted; & before the holocaust of prayers was completed, the sick man wonders himself recalled from destruction by a sudden health. For what the ancient one had done by sevenfold washing in the leper, this our Elisha the confessor of the supreme Trinity exhibited by the triple form of Baptism to the one about to die. Returned therefore, now not languid, but wholly safe to his little bed, he sweetly rested; & at the very twilight of light entered the monastery, & chanted Matins to the people after custom. A vast stupor & ecstasy seizes the Abbot & Brethren & people, with joy & an effusion of thanks; that whose obsequies they were awaiting to receive, they saw alert & unhurt performing the wonted office. He also set forth to the people with public voice, how through S. Augustine he was so speedily healed.

[46] He fixes his See at Canterbury. Therefore the Angelic Legate of the Lord Augustine, that we may end his journey, after long spaces of land & Britain for the greater part traversed, after innumerable salutary solaces of virtues & documents, to his perpetual seat & dwelling Canterbury, with that most blessed company of companions, returns: where as the begetter & light-bearer of all, & the most desired return of his sun, with the favor & joy of all he is received.

[47] Among the throngs frequenting so powerful a curer of the weak, there came a young man, leaning on his knees instead of his feet, he heals a contracted, deaf & dumb man; as twisted by a grievous contraction of both feet, at the same time also dead in hearing & speech; by the eyes alone the way lay open, but the deformed step denied the way; what he sought he saw, but by which he should seek the intervening tongue had failed: his straits the dumb man was silent of; what it would help to know, the deaf man heard not; one lacking so many offices of life, whether half-alive or half-dead I should say, the mark is pitiable. But the pitier Augustine by pious prayer absolved this misery, & in the grace of the Trinity drove off the triple calamity by a triple cure. The steps are directed, the tongue is loosed, the ears are unsealed, the triform sick man is gladdened by a triform soundness. He goes, runs, speaks, hears without hindrance, plainly, clearly. Nevertheless the slippery man, with so great vanity & insolence, abused the soundness received, that Augustine seemed to have done violence to God, who sought so undisciplined a one to be given health. & fallen back into the same evils through insolence, For, to be silent of the other vices of his levity & scurrility, coming to the church with so great garrulity & lasciviousness he affected the people, that he scandalized all by his wickedness; while he neither showed reverence to the holy place, nor acquiesced to anyone's rebuke. So divine punishment bound the intemperate one with the former bonds more grievously, & the health being taken away which was to the untamed one for ruin, with the garments repeated by greater grief tamed him: namely the mouth of the fool bubbling forth folly, & the ears intent on fables & all lasciviousness, the feet also running to the precipice, with a bronze key it obstructed, & retorted to continence. Straitened therefore by keener torments, to the heavenly physician he is dragged by friends & kinsmen; he restores him through penitence. & cleaving to the steps of the Saint, what with obstructed words he could not, with dire sighs he bewails: weeping & wailing he asks pardon, the undue soundness with presumed clemency he seeks again. The paternal bowels are more deeply wounded by another's misery, & with the Judge of mercy mercy wrestles, by which alone the merciful justice is wont to be conquered. Between the guilty & God stands the advocate mediator: hence he rebukes him to be punished, thence he intends him to be saved. The wicked one is confounded of his fault, is corrected by penitence; that corrected he be clothed with justice, justified obtain the grace of the just Saviour. So intervening Augustine prevailed by victory, extorted with Jacob the blessing, with Moses the propitiation, & the soundness snatched from the Lord the victor brought back again to the wretch. He both in steps & speech & hearing reformed entirely, ceases further to be led by another's help, ceases to speak with fingers, & other signs by which they may satisfy the deaf grow disused to be taught; restored also saner in sense, he desists from the former windiness (which is more useful than bodily health) namely by the instruction, correction, prayer, & salvation of the Father Augustine.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

S. Livinus baptized & instructed. The death & burial of S. Augustine.

[48] But now among so many marks of virtues, who may worthily exalt the praises of so great a Doctor, Having set out to Scotland, through whom not only the fiercer receive the sweet yoke of Christ, but even holy & signs-potent men, even by Angelic admonition, come to him by a wonderful way to be instructed? It is a matter not to be commended by the straitness of a chapter, but to be set forth by a plain & lucid sentence. We read in the ^a Life of the most blessed Pontiff & Martyr Livinus, described by the faithful commendation of his holy companions, how the same most faithful dispenser of the Lord's businesses Augustine, came to the religious King ^b of Scotland Colomannus consulting the salvation of all, he baptizes S. Livinus: & baptized B. Livinus then a boy with S. Menalchius the Pontiff, & how the King & Queen & the Nobles of the kingdom received him from the font. Then moreover, the baptized one a column of solar splendor shone before all, & in the splendor a right hand more flashing than gold appearing thrice blessed the boy with the sign of the Cross, & a heavenly voice sounded into these words: Beloved of God & men, whose memory is in benediction. Hence the illustrious

Augustine glorified the Lord, & gave to all a document of glorifying. Meanwhile by holy increases of life that adolescent, & him with his Companions an Angel leading his little son both in age & merit, was so beloved to the King & all, that with wondrous affection & prayers they tried to retain him. To him fearing the nets of the world & over this anxiously fluctuating, an Angel of light shone; & saluting him by his own name, Hail, says he, Brother Livinus, cease to be troubled, & hear by what thou shouldst be consoled. Go hence to the Pontiff of the English Augustine, & from him receive the document of all holy institution, through whom God advancing thou mayest attain the summit of virtues. But the Confessor of the Lord hastening to obey the Angelic commands, the King's dismissal being sought & the bonds of his favorers being broken as the webs of a spider, with three blessed (disciples Foilanus, Helias & Kylianus (who also in describing his deeds shone forth most approved authors) of his own accord hastens to the sea, by which he might be able to sail across to the most desired Father Augustine. But there met an Angel of the Lord on the journey, of youthful beauty, splendid face, gracious in gait, sweet in address; Trust, says he, Brother, because the Lord has sent me to thee a leader & inseparable keeper in all thy way. Do thou only without delay follow me: because to that doctor of thy advancement whom thou seekest, walking over the sea, the Lord favoring, I will bring thee with prosperous successes. Recognizing therefore prudent Livinus the spirit of truth saying these things to him, he confidently follows with the aforesaid disciples the one going before, & that great & spacious sea they cross likewise with dry feet. But it seemed both to the most sacred Livinus & to his blessed companions, in all that journey, by which with pedestrian gait they trod the waves of the vast gulf as a solid floor, that they passed through meadows or plain verdures, verdant with roses & lilies & every most beautiful variety of herbs & flowers. But when the starry Leader had happily set forth his followers on a safe shore, with an unspeakable brightness & ample corruscation of light, they beholding, he sought again the heavens; that by this splendor he seemed to say: Hither me, sons of light, the darkness of the world being spurned, hasten to follow. Who therefore doubts to ascribe or communicate these so florid & gleaming miracles to the merits of glorious Augustine, that to those seeking Augustine the wave grew green, the deep flowered, the flood verdured; & the very gulf, under the feet of those seeking the Evangelizer of peace, showed itself as a solid field? There came therefore, with the aforenamed three Confessors of the holy Trinity, desirous Livinus to the desirable Father Augustine; he came by Angelic leading as to another Angel, from a florid journey to a flower-bearing paradise, from the way of the sea to a mellifluous fountain, from pernicious wealth to a treasurer of incorruptible riches, who from the chamber of the true King might bring forth for him infinite opulence of things & unfading beauty of all forms. O how festive a joy arose to so preeminent a Doctor of the Saints, he instructs the one coming to him when he received such a disciple divinely destined to him, whom by the Holy Spirit he had foreknown to come, who was a worthy master of others! But the generous disposition of Livinus, from one so divinely inspired prefers to learn humbly, what afterward he may teach confidently. He hears him, who set his mouth in heaven, with Angelic mouth disputing of the infinite multitude & glorious of the supernal Virtues, of the most excellent hierarchy of Apostolic sublimity, of the innumerable army & triumphal palm of the Martyrs, of the most white crown of Confessors & Virgins; that all the punishment of the world is not worthy compared to so great rewards; that nothing can be compared, nothing be valued to that beauty; to that dignity, to that unfailing solemnity & joys, by every kind of labors, by every fragrance of virtues, now is to be run. To that prize of everlasting beatitude he led the most avid emulator through all the flowery places of the sacred Scriptures; he opened to him the treasuries & storerooms of Christ & the Church, in the delights & delectations of the Lord's treasures & life-breathing aromatics, in the everlasting charity & clarity of the Saints. With these & very many other exhortations the renowned Leader of the Lord's camps armed the most valiant athlete of Christ, kindled the most ardent: & now according to the promise of the leading Angel he carried him to the perfection of Apostolic conversation, that he might also attain the Martyrial palm. So having detained him with himself for five years & three months, he consecrates him Priest & sends him away: advanced by most holy examples & instruments in all sanctity, tender in age but aged in religious maturity, at length he consecrates him a Priest most chosen to Christ. He gives also the most liberal master in the very ordination of his beloved disciple a most sweet pledge & memorial of his perpetual love, namely a purple Chasuble, presaging of glorious martyrdom, with gold & gems woven like merits: he adds a Stole & Maniple, similarly insignia decorated with golden & precious gems' stars. And now having prayed for himself all good things, & the mutual suffrages of prayers, not without mutual tears, he sends him back to the King & his nation a most desired instructor, with his aforementioned holy companions. Finally as bees the mellifluous flower, & as harts the fountain of water, so they sought Augustine from everywhere making heavenly honey.

[49] There was a certain veteran, who asserted that his grandfather was baptized by S. Augustine, a mocking young man & this the grandfather to his father, & the father to him had related in such manner. When I was, he said, a young lad, & had seen to that new & unheard-of Protodoctor of our salvation Augustine, as to a certain Angel, the throngs of peoples running together; I, to whom vanity was a crown, to whom joy was folly, to whom delights were ridiculous things, with wondrous dullness of sense derided all things, as phantasms; & believed all to err except me & my fellow-erring, with great ineptitude. But when I had heard that he cured all the bodies of the weak & dying, more incredulous I cackled with greater madness. I conceived at length the craft of my lasciviousness, & like a windy bag I came to see him as a kind of sycophant, or to hear the seed-of-words; for this namely, that I might catch some trick from his mouth or cure, whence I might move laughter for my likes. And when I had immersed myself in the pressing throng, as an insidious one & little robber, he amends him called to him, & had noted with my eyes his paternal & reverend look; forthwith confounded with vast terror I grew stiff, that there seemed in him a certain divine punishment to be indignant at my impurity. But he full of the holy Spirit of God (as has been clear hitherto) regarded the unseen one as most known: & a minister being sent, That, saying, young man bring to me; he ordered me to be brought to him from the midst of the people. Then indeed more deeply considering that without a pointer I became known to him, with so great a stupor I trembled, as if with a drawn sword I had seen the questor & punisher of my crime. & instructs & baptizes him: Forthwith to the clemency of so great a seer I fled, & prostrate I clasped his sacred feet. There all the swelling of windiness as a pricked bladder I emitted, all the filth of fluid levity I vomited, my whole self to the precepts & documents of so benign a Father I gave. He placidly rebuked & instructed embracing me with paternal arms, baptized me believing in Christ, & into the sons of sons with prolonged longevity blessed me. The Saint was of tall stature. These & more things the aforesaid old man, heard from his grandfather by his father, & related by the father to him, represented to the hearers with the assertion of faith, as known from another age. But he intimated the form & patrician person of B. Augustine himself, insinuated to him by his parents, his tall & lofty stature, so that from the shoulders he overtopped the people, & exhibited a Saul by height, not by atrocity. The face amiable & reverend, the forehead between the hair on its columns resounded windowed. But the signs & healings, which among the people of those frequenting & the company of the weak he made assiduous, he asserted that no one could narrate or enumerate. He was continually remembered to have traversed the provinces with a pedestrian gait, more often unshod, Illustrious for miracles with Apostolic devotion, & to have drawn callouses of the knees of James the brother of the Lord on his soles: he asserted also that several of his holy companions were wont either to imitate or equal the same virtues. Hence therefore, since charity believes all probable things, & since we voluntarily believe what we love, but what we do not believe we prove that we hate or spurn; let the sons of love & not strangers weigh, that those things which the Saints did in life, either through writings, or through aged elders, or through fame (which is the law of history) propagated from generation to generation, God making known, could have come to the notice of the holy scriptures, which & of what kind it is no injury to believe. Now after the rivers & the fierce repulses let us set forth the palm-record of glorious Augustine.

[50] he pants for the heavenly glory, But long since that supernal inhabitant, struck with that wound of supernal love, which is strong as death, abhorred all earthly delights as detriments of life; & worldly glory as bonds, as prisons, as punishments; which yet with death itself it would be sweet for the Saviour to suffer all things. By the body alone therefore bound on earth, nay by the sole paternal care of begetting & forming sons for God constrained, for the rest he wholly conversed in that eternal country; with all his mind, all his soul, with continual & violent instance he caught at the heavenly things. What burnings of prayers, what laments of holy desires, what unspeakable sighs he sent to heaven? Who, says he, will give me wings like a dove & I will fly & rest? And, When shall I come & appear before the face of my God. My soul has coveted & failed for the courts of the Lord. So with unresting clamors he forestalled the face of the Lord, & did violence to heaven, with frequent knockings asking to be admitted, desiring to be dissolved & to be with Christ. But at length understanding from the response of the holy Spirit his desire heard, he ordains S. Laurentius his successor: that he should come to Him desired by all the upright of heart; he began with parental bowels anxiously to fear, lest after him the milky infancy of the born or being-born Church, bereaved of a Pastor, should be scattered by the invasion of wolves. Hence B. Laurentius, a man of Apostolic sanctity, illustrious by Apostolic signs, & the chief of his companions, the Lord saying to him in spirit; Anoint this one for me a chosen Priest, with perspicacious mind & supernal instinct he intended to be ordained for himself. He refers these things to the Clergy, to the King, to the people: it pleases all, all favor, together they bless & demand. The King therefore with a confluent people immensely congratulating, he ordains with all solemn joy Laurentius his successor; as once Peter the Prince of the Apostles Clement, namely on account of the abovesaid necessity of the new instruction: which example yet ought to be presumed by no one in posterity. No one rightly did this after Peter, let no one incompetently do it after Augustine. For one Christ, one Church, one Bishop, nor is the one & the unity divided. The consecrated one therefore he destines most prompt to all things, as Paul Timothy, into the work of the ministry, into the edification of the body of Christ; that he run, hasten; insist in season, out of season; argue, beseech, in all patience & doctrine. But he himself the contemplative beholder, as a fugitive of the oppressing world, he gives himself to God alone: as a solitary sparrow on the roof, rejoiced exceedingly, the bonds of things being broken, with the wings of eternal love to fly away to the Lord, in the best part of Mary to rest,

to be free for God alone, with revealed face to assist the glory of the Lord, & to be fed by His perpetual sweetness. Then at last he believed himself to live & reign, then first to have begun to serve God. Yet never did he fail to increase the Lord's gains, in gathering peoples into one, & the Kings themselves to serve the Lord: nowhere was he wanting, where the Divine matter required. Now, as an eagle, to the supernal things he flew; now, the Lord's cause requiring, the low pastures he revisited.

[51] sick he gives admonitions to the King & others: Why does discourse fear with long tergiversation to give the departure of the present light? At length the most victorious Athlete of the Lord, in all sanctity & perfection of merits the stadium of life being run, came to the prize & long desired rewards of the eternal Kingdom. Now to the Lord knocking through sickness he opened, with unspeakable dance & aromatic sacrifice of thanks. Then with magnanimous affection of paternal love he exhorted, both the King & Princes, & the Clergy & people, to serve the Lord in fear; & the filth of demoniac sacrifices being profaned, in the faith of Christ divinely delivered to him immovably to persevere; & to the one living & true God, by faith & love, perpetually to adhere; & His commands, through the anointed Pontiff & the Lord's ministers, diligently to observe. There came therefore the end of the worldly storms, & there shone the dawn of the eternal joys: & the King being blessed, & the primitive Church of his begetting confirmed in Christ, leaving to all the pledges of perpetual love & the documents of the blessed life, amid the tearful crowds of his holy companions & disciples, he dies holily. B. Laurentius standing with a populous frequency, the burden of the flesh being laid down he is assumed into heaven, with the triumph & glory of the supernal virtues, with the inestimable concourse & reception of all & everlasting joy. O with how great solemnity is then adorned & crowned all heaven, namely at the coming of so illustrious a citizen. The ethereal troops encircle the palm-bearing victor, the Apostles invite into their seats the Apostolic companion, the purpled camps of the Martyrs surround the martyrial standard-bearer, the splendent hosts of Confessors & the venerable throng of Priests embrace the distinguished Hierarch, & he is crowned in heaven: with sweet hymns the white choirs of Virgins sing the virgin leader; & that we may speak by mortal usage those ineffable sacraments of the supernal concerts, then that great Jerusalem the city of the great King at once saw its peoples & tribes, at once in the triumph of Augustine resounding to the Lord thanks & untiring praises. Whom all we the lowest, though praisers as unworthy as unequal, let us follow as we can, not with funereal wailings, but with these triumphal songs: Thou reignest, Augustine, more sublime than the Augusti of the age in name & dignity, who hast increased the commonwealth of Christ, & hast added Britain to the Roman Church, better than Cæsar Augustus added Alexandria to the Roman wealth. Thee Kings & Princes & the Senate of the English, & the throng of nations accompany to heaven; thee the Angels & Archangels triumphing lead, the Thrones & Dominations receive, thee the King of Kings crowns.

[52] But the most precious pearl of his body, in that very Apostolic & Royal monastery, he is buried in the monastery, which he himself God being author had founded, the most chosen Laurentius, a magnificent dedication being made, with the most devout King Æthelbert & confluent peoples of England, laid up namely in the Northern portico of the same sacred hall, where in eternal memory the deposit of the heavenly kingdom he treasured.

[53] But while we hasten to finish so pious a history, still obstinately we are held, & by the gracious sweetness of this Angelic place & the infinite gift of the charity of the Saints, which sits the satisfied, satisfies the desirous, sweetly to recollect, how that portico so many first Instructors of Britain, where are buried also several other Saints. nay so many Angels of God, have filled the heavenly mausoleums. In which it is gratefully to be observed, how generous pledges the universal Mother Rome gave forth, who to the very British Ocean might be Fathers & institutors: whom while one love bound together in one chamber, the several Patrons singly distinct several nations might have illustrious by their proper rays. Of these the most preeminent Augustine, Laurentius the dedicator of that temple, created his successor (as has been foreshown); Mellitus of London, Justus of the Church of Rochester he ordained Bishops; whom both exiled for Christ, the third Mellitus, the fourth Justus the successor received. To these ^e Honorius, & he himself the seemly honor of Roman instruction, was annexed the fifth. The sixth Deusdedit in order, but the first flower of the English nation, passed into the enrollment of the Roman Fathers: whose first-fruits from England the Roman principles of Canterbury had nothing more grateful. The seventh also Theodore, an eminent follower of Roman preeminence, was buried with kindly Augustine on the right side, only one wall of the monastic precinct intervening, because the portico not yet amplified could not receive all: which afterward being dilated, to these holy companions is joined Adrian to be loved by all ages, the most clement Abbot of the same monastery; who by the Apostolic at Rome most chosen as Archprelate of Canterbury, brought the blessed Theodore himself in his stead, with whom he made the English teachable of God as well by Greek as by Latin erudition. Likewise the most white lily of the English the Royal virgin of Christ Mildreth, most gratefully illustrates with her whiteness the splendid ornaments of so great Fathers. Of all these therefore the author the most blessed Pope Gregory, having the middle altar as a patrician throne, & keeping that very portico dedicated to God, with eternal love embraces, not so much the funerals of those buried together, as the dining-couches of the feasting sons: but before all binds to himself Augustine, as the first-marked of his instruction, the first-born of his bringing-forth, & the altar is of S. Gregory, & first both in life & order. The other sons also, who are the Ecclesiastical Protoparents of England, recline as new shoots of olives in the circuit of his table. But in the authentic tomb of the most preeminent Augustine an Epitaph is written of this kind: Here rests the Lord Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, who formerly directed hither by B. Gregory the Pontiff of the city of Rome, & by God supported by the working of miracles, led King Æthelbert & his nation from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ, & the days of his office being completed in peace died, on the seventh of the Kalends of June, the same King reigning. Of these also seven first columns of the English Church, cut from the Tarpeian rock of Rome, these verses are substituted.

Seven Primates are to the English & Protofathers, Added verses of the seven Bishops, Seven Rulers & seven through the heavens the oxen-stars; Seven are the stars, these the floor of one cell holds; Seven cisterns of life, & seven lamps; And seven palms of the kingdom, & seven crowns. Nay seven eyes, by which Christ sees this orb, As the world runs through seven ages in days.

Their titles, in their order superscribed, are these.

Leader Augustine excels first in the order. Laurel-bearing & pure, Laurentius sit second. The third is pleasing Mellitus, honey-bearing. Fourth is present Justus, giving sweet tastes by his name. Fifth Honorius, the vigor of the Church stands & its honor. Deusdedit is sixth, to whom Christ gives his gifts. Theodore next bears the kindly sabbaths the seventh. By these seven Leaders England flourishes & by so many days.

There is added the eighth leader of the Monks Adrian: & to other Saints buried there together. The star of the English Mildreth brings back her honey. Eight Fathers of Rome, the rest accompany in honor Born of the English, associated by the merits of these. Hence flows to the divine the way of the Gospel by streams: These are Brithwaldus, Tatwinus, & you Nothelmus, And now Bertha, the first Fathers imitating the Nobles, So many together gird the brow of the Church with piety.

But of the innumerable signs, which in this dormitory of his rest, or anywhere among nations or places, B. Augustine for the faith of those asking exhibited, some which have been proved to the eyes of the faithful, the following little book will narrate, God directing us in His truth, who reigning through all ages, ever shows Himself wonderful in His Saints.

* it is sweet

APPENDIX

From the Chronicle of John Bromton.

Of the dead, raised to prove the eviction of Tithes & the force of Excommunication.

Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury in England (St.)

Among the ten Writers of England, struck at London in the year MDCLII, the sixth place holds the Chronicle of John Bromton Abbot of Jervaulx, brought down from the entrance of S. Augustine into England even to the death of King Richard, or the year MCXCIX. He among other things narrates a wonderful matter & by no means to be despised, as written by a more ancient Author; whom would that he had indicated to us! for it would have the more faith, by how much he were more ancient. Now in the faith of an unknown Author I report whatever it is: to whom whether & how far it can be believed, Bede being silent of so notable a matter & this author of the Life Gocelinus, I leave to the Reader to estimate: the narration itself thus has.

Of that S. Augustine it is read, that when in the County of Oxford, in the village which is called Compton, to preach once he had come; there approached him the Presbyter of the same village, Augustine about to correct one refusing to pay Tithes, saying: Father, know, that the Knight, the Lord of this estate, often admonished by me, will not pay tithes of those things which God has given him: & having threatened him with the sentence of Excommunication, I found him more obstinate. Hearing which S. Augustine, the Knight being called to him said: What is this, son, I hear of thee? Why dost thou not render thy tithes to God & the Church? Knowest thou not that the tithes are not thine, but God's? To whom the Knight angry answered: Who cultivated or sowed the land? was it not I? Let all know, that his shall be the tenth sheaf, whose are also the nine. To whom Augustine: Wish not, son, so to speak: for know that, if according to the custom of the faithful thou tithe not, I will excommunicate thee. And turned to the altar that he might celebrate, before all the people he said, I command that no excommunicate person be present at Mass. Which said, in the very entrance of the church a buried corpse raising itself, [excommunicated for that cause, & therefore seen to go out of the church, he raises:] & going out of the cemetery, as long as S. Augustine celebrated Mass, immovable there stood. Which being seen the faithful there present, almost beside themselves, coming to B. Augustine report to him the deed. To whom he says: Be not afraid: but let the Cross with holy water go before us, & let us see what this is. Proceeding therefore Augustine

with the people, came with them to the entrance of the cemetery: & seeing the corpse said: I command thee in the name of the Lord, that thou indicate to me, who thou art. To whom the dead one answered: When on the part of God thou didst command, that no excommunicate person should be present at Mass; the Angels of God, who are the assiduous companions of thy journey, cast me out of the place where I had been buried; saying, that the friend of God Augustine ordered the stinking flesh to be cast out of the church of God. For I in the time of the Britons, before the fury of the Gentile English laid this region waste, was the patron of this village: & although often admonished by the Presbyter of this church, I never gave my tithes: at length excommunicated by him I died, & was thrust into hell. Which heard the Saint himself & all who were present wept much. & by him who had excommunicated him similarly raised again, And Augustine said: Knowest thou the place where was buried the Presbyter, who excommunicated thee? He answering, In this same cemetery he rests; Go before us, said Augustine, & show us the place. The dead one went before, & came to a certain place near the church, where no sign of any burial appeared: & Augustine & the whole people following him, he said: Behold the place, here dig, & you will find the bones of the Presbyter. By the command therefore of B. Augustine they dug, & in the deep found a few bones, by the length of time converted into dryness. Augustine asking, if these were the bones of the Presbyter, the dead one answered; Yes. Then Augustine, praying long, said; That all may know, that death & life are in the hands of God, to whom nothing is impossible, in His name rise: for we have need of thee. Which said all present saw dust united to dust, & the bones compacted with nerves, & he himself rising. He standing before Augustine, Augustine said: Knowest thou this man, Brother? He answered: I know him, Father: & would that I knew him not! To whom Augustine: he causes him to be absolved, Didst thou excommunicate him? To whom he answered; Indeed, & deservedly: for in all things he was ever a retainer of the church's tithes, & a perpetrator of many crimes even to the last day. To whom Augustine: Thou knowest, Brother, that God is merciful: whence also you ought to have mercy on the creature & image of God, which redeemed by His blood has so long borne the punishments of hell. Then he delivered to him the scourge: & his knees being bent before him, absolution being tearfully asked, the dead one released the things committed to the dead one. Which absolved Augustine commanded, that he return to his sepulchre & await the last day. Who immediately returned to the sepulchre, soon was resolved into ash. Then Augustine said to the Presbyter, How long hast thou lain here? Who answered; A hundred fifty years & more. after 150 years from death: And he; How, says he, hast thou fared hitherto? He answered, Well, & in the delights of eternal life. And Augustine; Wilt thou, says he, that I pray the Lord, that thou return to us, & the souls deceived by the devil with us by preaching lead back to their Creator. Be it far, says he, from thee, Father, that me disturbed from my rest thou make to return to the laborious life of the age. Then Augustine said to the Presbyter: Go, most dear one, & rest in peace: & at the same time pray for me, & the whole holy Church of God. Who soon entering the sepulchre, was made ash. Then the Knight being called to him Augustine said: What is it, son? still wilt thou not render thy tithes to God? But the Knight trembling fell at his feet weeping, & confessing his guilt, & asking pardon: & all things being left & his hair laid down, he followed S. Augustine all the days of his life, & in all sanctity closed his last day, & entered the joy of eternal felicity.

That the usage of absolving from Excommunication even the dead still flourished in the age of S. Gregory, is clear from his Life book 2 num. 45: but among the Greeks the same usage even now obtains, to whom by experience it has been found, that in Excommunication the bodies of the dead are not dissolved, but foully swell, the usage of such absolution is ancient, until over them the formula of Absolution has been pronounced. But this can profit only those souls, whose exit was in the state of grace, the bonds of ecclesiastical Excommunication remaining, & hindering them from enjoying either the heavenly glory, or the communion of prayers & merits. But if with the guilt of eternal damnation those have died who had been excommunicated, the absolution indeed cannot profit their souls, but at most their bodies that they may be able to be contained in the ground & dissolved by the common lot, unless perchance for someone God has suspended the sentence of due damnation from the foreseen prayers & merits of the Saints, that to the raised one He might give space of penitence; of which extraordinary clemency some, but rare, examples are had. See Goar on the Euchologium page 688 & following, & with the place alleged from the Life of S. Gregory, to be read with us XII March, compare this formula of the Euchologium, by him who bore the Excommunication, & the form, or another sustaining his person, to be read from a writing over the dead one: It happened indeed that our humility bore an excommunication on the most devout N. on account of a certain unbecoming crime, such as many are born to human nature. But since, in those ways, which the Lord knows, who knows all things before they are done, he paid the common debt, rolling away with himself the storm of Excommunication; by the present diploma in the holy Spirit from such Excommunication we free him, that both in the future he may be loosed, with all Christians about to perceive the vision of the Lord, & with the blessed of the Father about to hear the blessed & happy voice of Christ; namely if he be capable of that good. But these things & others similar, excused & explained into a right sense, see in the aforesaid Goar, & confirmed by examples. Moreover that phrase about the stinking flesh, ordered to be cast out of the church, was used in a similar case by S. Gregory book 2 Dialog. chapter 52, where he brings in S. Faustinus commanding the same at Brescia, in respect of one excommunicate.

MIRACLES

By the same Author Gocelinus the Monk.

From the same edition of Mabillon.

Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury in England (St.)

BHL Number: 0779

BY THE AUTHOR GOCELINUS.

CHAPTERS OF THE FOLLOWING BOOK.

Chap. I. Of the robber of the pall of the tomb of S. Augustine, by the very robbery wonderfully convicted & amended; & his barbarian companions, by his example converted: & of his temporal felicity.

II. Of one contracted miserably deformed & wonderfully reformed, S. Augustine with two companions gloriously appearing to him watching, & commanding him to be cured.

III. Of a rich man dying, convalescing to life, the venerable Pontiff visiting him.

IV. Of a certain Prince, who when he had blasphemed S. Augustine, the earth gaping & a tartarean dog terribly rushing upon him, was absorbed into the abyss.

V. Of the sea stilled, & the suppliant King freed from peril.

VI. Of a fitting breeze, restored to the sailors asking; & a beam, divinely increased by the space of three feet.

VII. Of a shipwrecked man, preserved among the waves.

VIII. Of a ship, the other vessels being submerged, saved from a tempest.

IX. Of another ship, powerfully snatched from peril.

X. Of a tempest stilled, & the winds in turn demanded & quickly received.

XI. Of a ship guarded from shipwreck, because the sailors celebrated the festival of S. Augustine.

XII. Of a dumb girl, restored to the office of speaking.

XIII. Of another girl dumb from birth, endowed with speech.

XIV. Of a gouty man cured.

XV. Of a certain lame & maimed man, reformed from both deformities.

XVI. Of a certain bound man, loosed by a powerful virtue.

XVII. How & in what necessity B. Augustine procured a feast for his festival.

XVIII. Of a blind man illumined.

XIX. Of a violator of his sepulchre, punished by himself.

XX. Of the irreverence of a certain matron, immediately seized & quickly remitted.

XXI. Of a certain one, at the invocation of S. Augustine, freed from the importunity of robbers & birds.

XXII. Of a rich dead man, who after death appearing in a vision to his wife, ordered a silver chalice to be made for the rest of his soul to B. Augustine.

XXIII. Of another rich man, to whom the holy Antistes appearing a double time, ordered a silver chalice to be procured for his monastery.

XXIV. Of one born blind illumined.

XXV. Of an iron ring, wonderfully springing apart far, in the double apparition of the glorious Prelate.

XXVI. Of two wretches, one blind, the other lame, each restored.

XXVII. Of the same contracted one, growing insolent blinded, & repenting illumined.

XXVIII. Of another contracted one raised.

XXIX. Of a matron, who derided the image of saint Augustine, by him amended; the Reverend Pontiff himself appearing to her a repeated time, first chastising, second propitiating, & ordering his image to be restored.

And this indeed is the genuine division: but it makes the Chapters so unequal, that, content to have noted their numbers in the margin, we prefer to divide the paragraphs otherwise.

* the gem of life.

CHAPTER I.

The injurers punished: the contracted & the dying healed: those imperiled at sea aided.

CHAP. I

When the army of the Danes still Pagans besieged Canterbury, all being driven into the city, exteriorly the monastery of B. Augustine, namely the watch-guard of the city, seemed exposed to the hostile prey, which was left only to the supernal providence. A Dane having stolen the covering of the sepulchre, Forthwith the adversaries rush in, as to spoil; & the sepulchral portico of the Saints, holding holy things as profane, they invade. Of whom one a not ignoble pall, with which the monument of S. Augustine was covered (because the sons of paternal love, neither in flight nor by hostile hand, could leave the Saint unadorned, whom they presumed to be protected from heaven) stealthily snatched for himself, & under his armpit folded hid. Therefore after the rest with gaping step gaping for other things, wondrous to say! the robber is held by the prey, the thief is convicted by the theft. The pall adheres inextricably to his rapacious nails, adheres for skin to his clandestine side; by this he is held, by which he gloried that he held; & now openly to all he is compelled to confess, what secretly he thought to forge.

[2] With this Saint of the Lord therefore they seek again for satisfaction, against whom they had rushed for plunder; he is converted with his companions, they become interveners, who had been persecutors. Having promised therefore with most abundant tears that he would be a Christian if he were loosed, by the large indulgence of Augustine he is forthwith absolved, & free rejoices to replace the liberated spoil over the tomb of the Saint, as it had been before. At so great a miracle of Christ or of Christ's servant the stupid breasts of the barbarians grew stiff, & by the greater wondrousness of God the stony hardness of the inhuman men flowed down into unwonted streams of tears. Nor only do they preach the power of Christ & of their Augustine, but of their own accord with that very companion, whom by a double miracle of divine justice & indulgence both bound & loosed they saw, & he is baptized, with very many of the army. they fly together to the Baptism of Christianity. There grow from this fountain of beneficence rivers, while this fame irrigates the whole army with heavenly nectar, & very many pass over into the Sacraments of Christianity. So the Lord, who turns darkness into light & night into day, made of enemies brothers; &

by the English, whom they had come to assail, they are captured from a diabolic captivity into divine liberty, & for prey they take the fellowship of eternal immortality: but to all both faithful & unbelieving the experienced hand of Augustine is revered, & the prodigal paternity is blessed. Whence let not even this be passed over, that the aforesaid robber of his, after Christianity received, from a mediocre Soldier shone forth rich & powerful, & his whole progeny hitherto increasing in riches.

CHAP. II

[3] A Saxon man, by name Leodegarius, by a monstrous twisting in his whole body was from birth contracted. Why said I a man, who leaning on his hands instead of feet was more like a reptile than a man? The calves & legs grown into the hips, had coalesced into one with flesh & skin. The heels constrained were fixed in the bowels, A contracted man with limbs balled together creeping, the feet stood out supine, the knees bent to the breast, on which the man bowed leaned on the ground. So the wretch dragged through the earth, took his way by little footstools of the hands, or (so to say) by footstool-shod hands; the use being changed namely, after the manner of one swimming or creeping, the hands & arms caught the steps, the hams supported with deceiving footprints. He was a balled-up hedgehog when he lay, a curved reptile he seemed when he came forth. Behold Adam the image of God, when through ambition, not through grace, he desired to be like God, was compared not only to beasts & quadrupeds, but even to muddy reptiles. Nevertheless in Christ now resolidified, what he lost through vanity, he could attain through virtue. But these things by describing we intend to pious ends; that of the greater misery of mortals the greater wonders of God in His Saints may be praised. This man therefore so powerless over himself, who could nowhere advance without torment, to the great confusion of the safe & strong, whom it grieves even to go to the Church, in his weakness for the sake of praying wandered over a great part of the orb of the earth, after various Sanctuaries visited, made a wonderful & miserable, reproachable & blushable example of human inertia. He crossed lands & rivers, surmounted the airy ridges of the Alps, went to Rome & the Roman confines; & after so many suffrages of the Saints sought, that he might also cross the wrath of the sea, he was translated into England. Which country being circuited, he came to West-Minster contiguous to London.

[4] He goes to England. There at last after so many labors he found the document of salvation, where he might obtain the remedy so greatly sought: there to the protection of the heavens' Key-bearer Peter watching by night, & at length doubtfully sleeping, a luminous messenger shone forth with clear form, with bland address. He asks, what he, watching here while the rest sleep, demands. He answers, that he seeks that both the bonds of his soul & body be loosed by the key of blessed Peter the Apostle. admonished from heaven sent to S. Augustine, The consoler answers, that here by no means is this man to be healed; but that he ought to go to the first instructor of England Augustine, there at last to obtain the salvation elsewhere anywhere not granted of the Saints. To these things the stranger, complaining that he knew neither the Saint nor the place to which he was destined, is taught by the divine pointer, that entering the next city London, he should inquire of travelers the way which leads to Canterbury, where the promised salvation & the salvation-bearing Saint should be found for him. Following therefore the weak one the pointing travelers, he came to the village of Greenwich, watered by the river Thames, hallowed by the Martyrdom of B. Ælfeg: thence carried over by an almsgiving boat, by manual footstools he enters Canterbury. Him wandering through byways, & seeking with his eyes whither he should betake himself, a certain benign matron regarding, inquiring of the unknown stranger, & having heard all his hardship from birth, & especially the cause of his coming, pitying the wretch gathers & cherishes him with hospitable clemency. Rejoicing also at the salvation promised him from heaven, she brings him to the suffrages of the holy Father, a light being given which he should there offer. Admitted therefore within the Holy of holies at her asking, three nights there he keeps vigil in prayer, the more attentive namely as the more certain of health.

[5] [there a wax taper being offered visited by S. Augustine, Laurentius & Mellitus,] Now the third dawn being at hand the watcher sees the gain of his perseverance impend: there come to him conspicuously three Fathers of Angelic clarity & principal eminence, with supernal splendor (as he related) radiant. Of these the middle one excelled in stature & authority: his hair shone, not by art, but by grace curled, whitened by heavenly snow, patriarchally lily-like; the contemplative forehead lay open to the Lord's cross, which the middle hair beautifully windowed as a column; his look sweet & amiable, who by his brightness poured forth the joys of light. Then his mitre far surpassing the splendor of gold, & byssus & scarlet, & the other ornaments, surpassing the glory of Solomon, beyond mortal brightness afforded their lights. But the labarum of the Cross, which the standard-bearer of the Lord with corruscating right hand bore, by which he should strike down the victorious eagles of the Augusti, with ineffable splendor glowed red. But the right side-companion was of mediocre stature befitting, flamed with the stars of his eyes, was white in face, purpled with smooth hair. But the left side-companion represented in stature the Evangelical Zacchæus, whose littleness, the tree of the Cross uplifting, merited not only to see Christ, but also to receive Him into his house; roses & lilies he held forth in face, & the whole mode of his body most graciously befitted his bearing; but the apparel & garments of all above human understanding glorious & with manifold variety lightened. The side ones went when the middle went, stood when he stood. But approaching the wretch, regarding them tremblingly, together they stood still. Then he who stood preeminent in the middle, imposes such things on the companion of the left: Go, Brother, & from this pilgrim crying out to us, what he demands, inquire. The messenger goes, & relates, that the weak stranger had sought blessed father Augustine, & in the mercy of God prays him, that he deign to cure him from his native contraction. The sick man also interrupted, avid of his health, the legate prayers, sending forth these cries: To thee, most clement Father, by divine command I came; in thee, after so many Saints sought, remains the salvation of this destitute one, as by a heavenly oracle I learned. amid great pains raised he is healed,

[6] Then he preeminent in mediation, whom we have hitherto dissembled to declare to be Augustine himself & by his name, to both side ones (of whom the right we faithfully believe to have been Laurentius, the left Mellitus) with benign regard & paternal exhortations suggests these things: Go, most dear ones, go; & him, the native bonds of the nerves loosed, raise into his state. Forthwith the right companion grasps the weak one from the head with both palms, but the left the inborn ankles in the bowels, like the strength of a tree, from their knot draws out & plucks, & the twisted hams shows into straightness. But most abundant blood, the flesh being ruptured, flowed: which health on this account perhaps was made bitterly, when it could be done most gently by the Saints; that the sick man might be healed from the weakness of soul & sins, & from the difficulty might learn not to be ungrateful. He cried therefore amid the straits of the cure, when the inveterate disease feared the virtue of the new medication: Have mercy, says he, have mercy, my Lords, spare the twisted & frail one. Still he was vociferating, & now with all his body extended he was driven safe on the ground. Nor delay he is raised into his state, & fully invigorated those three ethereal Hierarchs, wonderful to see! he beholds to have entered each his own tomb. & to those running together he narrates all things. But by so great a fear with which he had cried excited & terrified the keepers & ministers of the church, are driven from their little beds, are hurried at a run to the sanctuary of the Saints, wonder at the tall man standing, whom before they pitied creeping through the ground. He sets forth in order the wonderful sacrament of his whole vision & cure: he indicates with hand & voice the tomb of B. Augustine, by which the middle one; & the tomb of sacred Laurentius, by which the right one; & the tomb of kindly Mellitus, by which the left of the mentioned Princes he had clearly seen to enter; with every kind of asseveration namely affirming, that all the things which he related he had manifestly heard & seen: the blood also abundantly poured on the pavement, with the bloodied limbs, added the more propensely the faith of so great a miracle & the praise of the divine works.

CHAP. III.

[7] Because our Augustine & our Abraham, is the father of many, nay of all, asking him; A citizen of York dying he appears by many arguments of signs, & in this series shines forth. A most opulent citizen of the city of York languished unto death: half the body verging from the girdle, was now wholly held dead; in the breast only the last breath palpitated. Now confessed, anointed, & communicated the end was awaited; & now lying without voice & sense, his friends sitting around & the house wailing, he was thought to migrate. Meanwhile the dying man beholds a starry man, girt with Pontifical excellence, assisting him, who clemently touching him from the side with a golden rod roused him, saying: Rise quickly, & follow me. The languid one denying the faculty of rising; Hold forth, says he, thy hand, & accompany me thy leader. Soon the Angelic leader, the right hand being given seizing it raised the sick man; & the companion being led into a certain hippodrome of his, he is healed by S. Augustine appearing: he brought forth such an antidote of consolation: This infirmity will not be for thee unto death, because by supernal mercy my suffrage granting, even now from sickness thou shalt return to full soundness, from death to life; but thy vow, by which thou hast vowed to visit the supreme Apostles for the sake of praying, diligently mature to execute, ever giving thanks to God, the author of thy soundness. After, the patronages of the Saints being prayed, thou shalt run back into England, & shalt approach Canterbury, suppliant enter the monastery of the illustrious Apostles, which from the East impends over that city: & the pious suffrages of the Saints there happily resting being sought, announce to my Monks there serving God, how to life & health from destruction, by my intervention, thou art restored. For I am Augustine, the affectionate Father of all the English nation, bringing forth you all in Christ with native bowels, whom once the most sacred Pope Gregory with many helpers destined to the salvation of all of you.

[8] & to go to Rome, Among these glad tidings the sick man awakes, & now darts livelier glances of his eyes at those sitting by, recalls his weeping friends with a revived voice into joys, intimates most certainly that he is now restored to life, & that by the universal Patron of England Augustine, the interventer & true pointer appearing to him, this was conferred & made known to him. All therefore being astounded & congratulating about the sick man so desperate, & blessing God in so salutary a physician, the faithful man now restored to his former vigor, then he is bidden to narrate all at Canterbury. Hey, says he, the time urges me to execute the commands of so great a preceptor & my promises, that I seek B. Peter at Rome, & after my country revisited, to his monastery & family, report his mandates by the miracle done in me. Who when he had executed these vows, & set forth the paternal affection of Augustine to his domestic flock, all with unanimous devotion poured thanks to the Lord, for so grateful a deed & message of the pious Father. But that man, in sign of his cure, placed four silver coins at the four corners of his monument.

CHAP. IV.

[9] Illustrious in arms & religion the King of England ^b Ethelstan, against the foreign onsets of the Nations had gathered a fleet of a naval army in the port of Sandwich, A Prince angry with the King running to S. Augustine, & to conduct this he was going: but the help & blessing of his supreme Leader & Patron Augustine first

to seek he prudently chose, through whom he not vainly believed he should act more prosperously, for he himself loved this chief Father eminently, & advanced his church with royal wealth & privileges after the manner of his best predecessors ^c. With few therefore turning aside hither for prayer the King, is detained by the venerable Abbot Ælfonth by the violent charity of the sought Patron. To him devoutly dining, one of his Princes, rushing in with furious irony, Finely, says he, the King of so many nations, has turned aside to the sepulchre of one I know not what transmarine dead man; & so many legions being left, wandering without a leader, to the injury of the Kingdom & his Nobles, here with a despicable reclining is fattened: we are occupied with the array of war, & our war-bearer is girded for clandestine feasts instead of arms. The prudence of the King wished to temper the senseless one against him, whose madness the defender of the Saint thus meets. This one whom thou calumniest a foreign stranger, of all of us, in vain rebuked by the King for blasphemy; whom the Ocean widely encircles, is the divine begetter, & all the sons of this orb are by no earthly parent more illustrious, than by his generosity are we generous. No one of this world has been nearer to us, no one conferred more, than he who gave himself, & came to lay down his soul for Christ. This gratuitous father of the ungrateful, & voluntary pitier of our darkness, left the most ample glory of natal Rome for us, not for our things; & from that summit of the world to this our corner he turned aside, & with perpetual charity for our perpetual salvation chose to remain perpetually with us; by the example namely of the Saviour of the world, who from the eternal glory of the heavens descended to our lowest age, that he might raise us to the clarity of his loftiness. And we, for so great benefits of God & His emulators, render repulses & opprobria? Cease therefore, unhappy arrogance, to blaspheme, & rather with us in blessing & paternal charity partake: for whosoever shall have despised so true a Parent, shall be forever degenerate. These threatenings therefore rightly fell upon the head of the contemner.

[10] the earth gaping he is absorbed. The mentioned Prince therefore, the charity of the saint spurned, the King & his license spurned, with the prayer of all, his horse being mounted hastens to the army with savage indignation. Who coming to the place, named Ciol, situated not far from the monastery to the East, the wrath of God rushing in, sees with his companions the earth gape with a vast chasm, a dog of immense enormity & infernal blackness leap out, & with terrible jaws rush upon him. By this monster therefore terrified the horse rears backward; & the impious rider being shaken off, the neck of his pride broken, is plunged into hell, & is made the morsel of the abyss. But the Lord just shall cut the necks of sinners: let all who hate Sion be confounded & turned backward. So the vengeance of God being accomplished, the dog which seemed vanished: for by such an enemy he ought to perish, who against the holy one of the Lord Augustine so savagely feared not to bark. But so quickly was the matter hastened, that to the King still reclining the deed was announced. Who trembling & groaning; Rightly, says he, does he incur the malediction, who spurns the blessing of the Saint: rightly has he inherited hell, who disinherited our Patriarch from this his country with brutish disdain.

CHAP. V.

[11] What also he can do at sea, who everywhere of lands or places succors those believing, who shall worthily relate? In the Translation of the God-beloved Virgin ^d Mildreth we have sufficiently set forth, of the tempestuous peril of ^e Cnut King of the Danes stilled at the invocation of so wondrous a Father, which also at this table to the avid guest we set, with the same sense indeed, though with another apparatus of words. He therefore from an assailant made the Father of England, from a devastator of churches an eminent builder. This change of the right hand of the Most High, who from darkness light, from tribulation renders exultation. He, toward the Saints of his country & the ministers of God being devout, to the preeminent Augustine as to a parent of the Saints was more attentively devoted, to him he commended himself more earnestly. Therefore setting out to Rome to the suffrages of the Apostles, this one as his Apostolic leader & patron in all things by visiting he suppliantly sought, & joined to him with gifts & vows: relying on whom he went happily & prosperously, most acceptable both to Princes & peoples & to the Emperor himself, having journeyed to Rome, as to the Clergy & Priests & to the Prelate of the Roman monarchy himself. A grand spectacle it was & a grateful miracle to peoples & nations, that the King of four sublime Kingdoms went, unarmed indeed with iron, but armed with Apostolic faith, as an Apostolic pilgrim of the Lord. The race of men avid of reigning had not deterred him from his undertaking, whose empty kingdoms the surrounding nations encircled, as girding with a siege. Increased therefore by the protections of the sought Saints with the Apostolic blessing, & at length returning to the English sea, he is received gladly by the fleet of his own running to meet him.

[12] on the return near England imperiled by a tempest, With a prosperous wind therefore the sailors had now passed the middle of the deep, now his England lay open to his eyes; when suddenly the serenity turned into severity, vomited forth the fury of all storms & whirlwinds. The deep is overturned from the bottom, with mountains of waves rages to the heavens; here the earth opens among the waves, there heaven is beaten by the billowy summit, to the hanging vessels the open Charybdis is intended. How great here the trembling & terror of all, where the rushing horror of death overwhelmed all hope of escape & remedy! Heaven everywhere & everywhere the deep, everywhere assailing wind & wave; the ships in the sea, & the sea in the ships. Against this Mars nothing avails the cuirass & shield, the spear & sword; this warrior fears no multitude; not King Xerxes, to whose army the land failed, to whose fleets the sea was lacking; all with one gulf, as one man with one sword, he would devour. What here wilt thou say, Monarch of Kingdoms? Never on a land array or in the contest of a calmer wave didst thou incur such a question. Where now thy kingdoms, which offered to thy avid sight, thou hast now almost lost with thy life? Let them now snatch thee out in whom thou trustedst, if with Augustine as helper, relying on thy forces, thou needst him not. Nay rather unless he himself shall have succored, now thou hast lost all, now with all thou hast perished. Then indeed the King, so many roarings of tempests, the creaking of cordage, the bellowing of storms, the blows of whirlwinds, the clamor of sailors, now almost lifeless, with such a voice interrupted, saying; he invokes S. Augustine, What is this wrath, most holy Father Augustine, or what my crime, that having everywhere trusted in thy patronage, now the long journey almost completed, brought into the sight of my Kingdom, here at last thou deliver to destruction? & in this abyss with so many waves overwhelm me, with so many mountains of perils destroy? If I was to be punished, at least in such spaces of lands or in a most vile place thou wouldst have procured human burial, provided I were not delivered into this most vast pool, & for prey to be devoured by marine beasts. In which of the Saints will he now dare to trust, who shall have heard me to have perished in trust of thee?

[13] These things with eyes & hands lifted proclaiming, his treasures being opened he drew out a golden plate, & with this his whole Royal ship by its capacious length he girded around; he added also a most decent pall with other festive wealth, & these ornaments to the interventer Augustine with these prayers & vows he held forth: Succor, says he, most clement Father, in the name of Christ, & by thy holy intercession from this lethal peril snatch me, that these & other little gifts of our devotion we may merit to exhibit to the temple of thy blessed sleep. & freed he offers gifts: Still he turned Augustine in his mouth, & now all the fury of the deep was turned into the highest tranquility; as if a sudden sun should put to flight the dense darkness from all the heaven, or a seditious tumult, the Emperor coming, soon should be quiet. The very sailors now sweating at the oars desired the winds, which gladly they rejoiced laid, which lethally they had dreaded grown fierce: now they seek as helpers, those whom they had feared as destroyers. This change of the right hand of the Most High, to have come through Augustine or in Augustine, the faithful King knew with most glad thanksgiving longer to celebrate. When at length, all things & companions being safe, he reached the wished shore, to his liberator Augustine with swift horses with all he came, the promised gifts & to the promised added most gratefully he offered, & both by the preached miracle of the Father & by his presence gladdened the whole country.

CHAP. VI

[14] We have related the pious interventer, calming tempests; Egelwius the Abbot obtains a wind long awaited, we relate also him restoring a breeze to those asking it for navigation. Rome & the triumphant Consuls of Christ's city Peter & Paul Egelwius had visited, the devout Abbot of the monastery which is called ^f Ethelingey: but on his return, repulsed by the storms of the sea & the winds, through whole six weeks he is kept from his country. The money poured out on food, the horses & the very garments sold, afflicted them hungering with trembling penury. At length the Abbot, by the counsel of his Monk Withgarus, advanced in age & prudence, is animated; that as those who had been well prospered by the leading & intervention of the transmarine Saints, now should abundantly implore the helps of the Saints of their own country, by which they might be brought over to their own. The supreme Prince therefore of the Saint Patrons of England Augustine the suppliant Abbot specially with prayers earnestly entreats: after a vow of building a tower: & binds himself with these vows, that if he snatch him from the present peril, if he grant him to see the tower of his blessed temple & to come safe to his own, he should there straightway strive to erect an Augustinian tower from the foundations. To him sleeping on this promise, the form of a ship in which he should be carried is seen to come to him from afar with a swift surge, & in it a man of Prelatical excellence & starry comeliness, clothed in a Clerical habit, in a most shining robe, who by the waving of his right sleeve invites those wishing to sail to him: whom to have been blessed Augustine faith refuses to doubt. Nor sooner did the dreamer awaking open his eyes, or begin to weave the vision again to his companion, than with a glad message the steersman came, said that the best breeze with obeying winds was at hand, drove the boiling ones to the ship. So having landed prosperously in England, to their leader Augustine in thanksgiving they came. Here the guest Abbot with his own by the Augustinian Abbot, as befitted the dispenser of so great a Father, not only is benignly received, but also with large expense of the lost things is refreshed.

[15] The Island Father therefore of the aforenamed Ethelingey, into his cœnobium gladly received, which while it is built, mindful of his vow, erects the Augustinian tower from the foundations, sought with difficulty six beams for this, but the seventh long denied at length for the love of the bestower Augustine he obtained to be given. Of whose sufficiency when with frequent measuring the avid author saw a foot & a half ever to be wanting, without which the work would fail; now the workmen dining the anxious Abbot forestalls, & with the zeal of loving Mary, who again & again looked into the empty monument of the Lord, again strives to measure by himself the now-known quantity of the wood. Perhaps, says he, with some solace Augustine will be present. A matter as wonderful as unusual! It appeared that the beam had grown by the space of three feet, that is, that now so much remained over for it, as before it had been clear to be wanting. Meanwhile he again asks the returned craftsman

the Abbot to attempt the length of the wood. But he moved, the beam shorter than just, is suddenly found longer. Not if, says he, I shall have measured a thousand times, will it be more than it has been. Having measured therefore, it equaled the measure surpassing the Abbot's, & with exceeding admiration as if placed in ecstasy he was astounded. But when he prepared to cut off the surviving part of this standard-bearing beam, & to conform it to the rest: Be it far, says the Abbot, that this injury be done to the bountiful wondrousness of Augustine, be it far that anything be diminished of his beneficence; let rather Augustinian increases project on either side & on both horns; let the heavenly prerogative surpass the mortal composition. Let there be a beautiful deformity, let there be a continual inequality, while hence forever shine the gracious power of Augustine. Now therefore this wondrous wood, in the towered roof exceeding the order of the rest, lucidly speaks the indelible sign of Augustine.

ANNOTATIONS.

* to you.

* cured

* barbarian

* mention

CHAPTER II.

Other shipwrecked or imperiled men, freed from death & tempests.

CHAP. VII

[16] After so great signs of the surmounted deep, who would not wonder at a shipwrecked man preserved among the waves, the ship submerged? Elfnothus shipwrecked in the midst of the waves is preserved unharmed, The matter so came about. There was a man in the court of S. Augustine nourished from boyhood, by the zeal of the Augustinian Abbot ^a Wlfricus exalted among the chief men of London, by name Elfnothus. He when with the first of the Normans King of England ^b William he stayed in Normandy, at length by the Royal nod a ship being mounted returns into England. Now the keel furrowing the middle of the deep, a tempest arisen immensely lifts the straits. Here mortal disaster needs no long exposition. The cordage is broken, the sail is rent, the mast is broken, the ship is overturned, with all things & men is plunged into the deep. Only Elfnothus, whom in the court of B. Augustine we said nourished, the name & help of so great a Father being continually invoked, naked of things rushed to the mast; & there as a deposit of death he sat declining, or hanging clung to the embraced wood. So the survivor all the indignation of the gulfs pursues: he is now overwhelmed by storms, now emerging is cast back, now shaken off from the mast he leans on the yard or a plank, or whatever of the broken ship the wave-wandering one could seize. So the wretch for two days & nights wrestling with the marine rage, in so continual a death, thee, Father Augustine, by invoking he experienced the keeper of his life. For thou hadst deferred to succor openly, who didst help secretly, that he might be exercised in faith; & (which is more sublime) might profit to the greater glory of Christ, that in such perils of whirlwinds, cold, & hunger he had endured, than if he had been forthwith freed; & at the same time the delayed salvation might return more grateful. On the third day therefore with Christ rising serenity shone again, & Augustine being leader a ship from Normandy came up; whose sailors pitying the perishing one, received him within that their naval refuge, & brought him to the destined shore. We see here, that we may compare lesser things with great, the virtue of great Paul thrice shipwrecked our Augustine exercising in his shipwrecked man, & dedicating the praise to the Lord. Coming therefore the shipwrecked man to his Pastor & liberator Augustine, with the devotion of thanks, when to the Lord Abbot ^c Scollandus & all the Brethren he set forth his events, he kindled all into a great celebrity of so great a miracle: but for the destruction of his companions he obtained the voluntary prayers of all.

CHAP. VIII

[17] Behold as one, saved from one ship absorbed with its sailors, we have related; Carrying stones for the building of S. Augustine, so at another time one ship the minister of the same Father, all the others sunk, carried out, we relate: for neither by a lesser miracle do we hold those preserved among the warring straits, than those whom first we said snatched the wars of the waves being stilled. Therefore under the first of the Normans King of the English William abovementioned, merchants from England, with fifteen ships landed at the Caen market in Normandy, when, the trades being performed, they prepared to return, for carrying stones to the King's palace of West-Minster were assigned by the Royal exactor. Over this office presided an upright man Vitalis by name, who, the brotherhood being received from the Lord Abbot Scollandus, in the conveyance of stones to the monastic building of S. Augustine showed himself most efficacious. So to one of the aforesaid fifteen ships' masters most faithful he persuaded, that he should give himself to the sacrosanct ministry of this perpetual rewarder with God, whence to him present & perpetual reward should accrue. Soon to him voluntarily complying he gives sealed letters to the aforenamed Abbot, of the agreement of the ship & stones, according to the measure of the rest.

[18] At length the matters being composed, in a serene dawn, all fifteen ships are sent forth into the judgment of the sea. Alas the mind of men blind of the future & the deceptive countenance of the Sirens! There is a common proverb, Praise the morning at evening; praise the felicity of the navigator, but when he has reached the port. They gladly gave sails, & with the favoring west wind alertly ran. Now the third part of the caught sea seemed traversed, when soon with so great a roaring Nereus bristled, the South winds raging, that you would believe Æolus had poured forth all the breath of storms. Why should I strive to weave the human calamity longer? But who would dare to discuss the hidden, but ever just, not fortuitous, judgments of God? the other 14 ships submerged by the tempest, Of the fifteen ships set forth, fourteen in a short time were absorbed, with the men & stones & all their burdens, the whirlwind not sparing the very Royal buildings. Some the waves had overwhelmed, others the seizing whirlpool had swallowed, these & those the gaping deep buried. May she have mercy on the wretched, that mercy which in misery superabundantly compassionates, which in tribulation forgives the faithful all sins: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

[19] the very ship also vehemently shaken, But there survived alone that fifteenth ship, which Augustine being ruler bore the great stones of the sanctuary of God, for the bases, for the columns, for the capitals & architraves. The pitiable carrier trembled at its questing, awaiting as condemned the judicial sentence of those consumed, not regarding the presence of Augustine the defender: for so many turbulent destructions did the orphans of this solitary raft bear, as shipwrecks of companions they saw. And when to God & God's servant Augustine amid so great perils they cried out, still by a stronger blow they were struck, that more strongly they should cry, & the terror persevering more attentively in prayer should persevere; until the more wonderfully as the more desperately they should escape. Finally a vehement blast, as an enemy indignant at the cry of those fearing, & grown fierce against this sole survivor, with a keen onset rams it, the sail with the yards & the very mast shaken off into the sea it casts, the ship it scatters, & almost to overturning inclines. The fear being increased the vociferation is increased to God & His Saint Augustine, that the Lord by command, the servant by service, may succor. Some prepare to cast out the stones & lighten the ship: whom the faithful & prudent steersman rebuking: Whither, says he, mad ones, do you cast out our aids? Do you not weigh, that unless by these riches of the temple of God & of His procurator Augustine we were supported, either with the first, or with the middle, or with the last perishing we should have perished? Nay rather let us believe, that by these sacred burdens we are more lightened than pressed, the steersman not wishing the stones to be cast out, more borne up than sunk; only let the supernal Clemency deign to free us, through the suffrages of so great a Patron. But if our crimes exacting we are here sentenced, let us never distrust, that this tribulation works perpetual salvation for our souls; while as if for reverence of God & His Saint we have borne these things, who casting out the stones perhaps could escape & would not, lest through the losses of the church we should seek the uncertain gain of life. Now, O most faithful breasts, our most holy Patron & Apostle, we especially his ministers, in the common peril with common continual prayer let us invoke: now, I say, through him God helping rise up, & the losses of the ship & of our course according to time & means repair.

[20] So all being comforted invoke the most-hearing Father with hope, who before had cried for fear. wonderfully it is brought to port: Forthwith they empty the wavy ship, the sea they cast back into the sea, the chinks of the worn raft they close with tow, & where a larger hole the more violent blow had made, folded cloths or some garment of one sitting by, which should resist the waves, they thrust in. The more prompt hasten to draw the sail from the deep within the ship, with cords, poles, & long stakes they intend it, & to the madness of the winds they temper it: & so by the wondrous providence of God & the diligence of His Saint, through rough & uncertain, through long & continual perils of tempests & deaths wandered here & there, at length into the port, which the English call Brembre, safe with all their own they landed. Then indeed they undoubtedly recognized, how faithful a ruler from heaven they had had, & there dashed it springs apart into parts, who wished to prove them by perils, not to punish. Witness is the very keel, which as if for its sailors, whom it had conveyed, there was delivered. For for a more evident miracle of the suffrages of Augustine, not sooner had all unharmed gone out, than it from end to end cleft, into twin parts sprang apart. And lest any loss should infect the heralding of so great a Keeper, the carriers & stones being safe. all the stones which it had brought, unhurt it deposited in the lap of the sands. To convey which the leader of the ship acquired another ship at a price, & in it placed all: thence coming to Canterbury with the sailors, to the illustrious Abbot Scollandus he brings forth the letters of the agreement received above; & of his chances, how wonderfully through the advocate Augustine he had escaped, both to him & to all the Brethren gladly & weeping he set forth. There are made to God by all libations of thanks with solemn dance, namely of so great a Father's miracle, in the remedy of such desperate men. But the memorable Abbot more deeply compassionating & congratulating, of his own accord gives the price of the stones from the letters

proved, & adds besides some solidi in pledge of thanks. The shipmaster not slothful of mind, nor unmindful of benefits, offered to God the whole half of the received gain & money, to that most excellent Interventer himself, giving abundant thanks for his deliverance, praying & asking to be prayed by all tearfully for the perpetual rest of his submerged friends.

CHAP. IX

[21] A similar miracle of the same Father we subjoin to this, the briefer namely as the more similar. In an earlier time, a ship, sent forth from Normandy on a placid sea, Another ship now about to be sunk, sought England with a grateful favoring breeze. Now the land left from sight, the wave rages, stirred by most hostile blasts. The lonely-wandering raft is everywhere assailed by a most vast storm, like a city besieged by an infinite army: the fragile skiff is loosed, as battered by every ram & engine. For what can the unwarlike sole one do against all the darts of wars, which both the air & the seas assailed? Everywhere the chinks gaping, as captured & torn apart, it yields to the rushing waves. The cry of the perishing is borne to the stars, no longer for life despaired (for what would be hoped, death now inflicted?) but that to the wretched souls by indulgence the inexhaustible mercy of the Saviour might succor, through the patronages of His most pious friend whom they invoked Augustine. What more? Now to the highest planks the deep had ascended within, now the mast & sail the furious tempest had driven far into the waves, now the end & all things seemed bewailed. But wondrous to say! God, by the grace of His servant whom they sought, pitying, the wave which possessed the ship for destruction, itself in some manner like the beast Jonah led it down; the wave growing within prepared to absorb its captives, & the ship disarmed of its darts & sails went, nor regarding the threatening gulf held its course. So in a wondrous manner it went or was tossed, as if by the very weight of waters by which it should be sunk, rather from sinking it were preserved.

[22] When therefore by so long & continual a death, nay by so many deaths as blows of whirlwinds, the Saint being invoked the fluctuating ones were dying; at length the Apostolic land of Augustine shone again to their eyes, & then to the dying began with difficulty to return the vital spirit. Then after the lethean nights the morning-star whitened splendid: but to these, whom terror had sunk & a shipwrecked leader bore, still it was cloudy. Now only from despair & certain death to uncertain salvation they begin to breathe again; & those who hitherto from fear had cried, now between hope & fear longed to cry: God the wonder-worker of kindly Augustine, who hast brought us through so great miracles hither, through his merits deign to bring us from the due destruction to the port of salvation. Such things continually vociferating, ^d Wincenesey against mortal hope they reached, safe it lands. & there from the ship as from the whale of Jonah, or the lake of Daniel, or the cave of Lazarus, they came forth. But forthwith, how greatly they had experienced the leader Augustine, running to his rest they showed: & there vows & lights being offered, from how great a destruction he had led them out, to all the ministers of the monastery of God with clear faith of the matters they set forth: to whom desirable with so great love in the rendering of thanks they had hastened, that garments still dripping from the sea in argument of the truth they exhibited, which even before the Saint's visitation they would not change. But here the sublimity of the matter exceeded the proposed brevity, & the wheel running of the begun pitcher an amphora came forth.

CHAP. X.

[23] But here again he frees those crying out the tempest being stilled, Another tempest is stilled, with a more favorable breeze. who before led out the shipwrecked the very tempest persevering. An illustrious elder among the Brethren, the asserter & witness of this miracle is the more certain, as he irrefragably proves it done in himself & his companions. Him therefore the memorable Abbot Scollandus, most ardent in the building of the Augustal monastery, seeing in this art, as in other good things, skilled of genius, made master of cutting & conveying stones from across the sea. Nor indeed was this one less fervent to obey, a raft being mounted he is borne into ^f Marchia, a village of Flanders, fruitful of stones. There the bases, columns, & great capitals being cut, with a just load the naval vehicle is filled. But what ever did the ancient envy leave unperturbed? The sails now raised & they cheerfully going, suddenly the force of winds is poured forth, with its mountains & valleys the savage deep is rolled, the ship is shaken by blows, is overwhelmed by waves. Then the servant of the Father of the English, never constrained by such a cloister, outwardly of the deep, inwardly of the mind by high waves was driven. But breathing again to the known Parent, into this he bursts, & persuades all to burst into this cry: Renowned Father of all England Augustine, here in thy service imperiled snatch us out, that to the Lord's temple our labors thee leading we may merit to bring. At this prayer so all the savagery of the whirlwinds was quieted, that the ship as on dry land or the anchor being cast seemed immovable, like a vast trireme. Then leaning on hands & arms, for the peril they undertook labor.

They sit on the benches, & sweep the blue with oars.

They began again to ask the winds; & soon by the benign helper heard, to spread the ample folds of the sail; & with a broad & happy course into their wished port, singing the rowing-chant, they landed. But these joys of signs, when the mentioned Brother then younger, now more venerable, related to the Lord Abbot Scollandus; he with lifted hands, into the Lord's blessing, the choirs of the Brethren congratulating, burst forth.

CHAP. XI

[24] So great marks of so great a Protector, by which our Ocean & seas shine, how everywhere powerful they are, even the seas of the Greeks having experienced widely preach. In that Pelasgian sea & voyage, by which these things which we shall relate shone forth, there were present of our Brethren men of most proved faith; who to us with most constant asseveration by swearing proved the true things, & still surviving prove by such narration. About Pentecost, they say, from the Royal city of Constantinople about to sail to Venice, we entered the sea. We were in the ship a hundred fifty men, with a throng of diverse race & order, Greeks & English, Clerics & Laymen, most very learned. Our vast trireme ran with full wind & sail, & like a watchtower of the great sea lifted its head. Meanwhile the force of winds swelled more keenly than just, & the waves which led the bulky stern with equal forces, with untamed war prepared to break or absorb it. We are imperiled therefore, since so great a mass could neither proceed with a moderate wind, nor endure with an excessive one, nor enter port save with a tempered one. We did not bear the tempest impelling from behind, how much less repelling in the face? The sails being lowered, a tempest having arisen, the anchors being cast, we withdrew the force of raging from the furious airs; but grievously we were assailed by the back-turning & dashing waves. So for several days by long waste of life we were held captive, as proscribed by a deadly judgment or a judicial death.

[25] Among these things, the auspicious & desirable festivity of our first instructor in Christ Augustine impended, which is wont, according to the Paschal Cycles, either to precede or follow or come between the feast of Pentecost. Then both with mourning & joy, with hope & fear we were driven trembling: with mourning, because the place was incommodious for the paternal festivity; with joy, that through this we should be illustrated by the paternal presence; with hope, that by celebrating this we might be freed; with fear, lest, diverse in nation, we should dissent from the common safety. We suggested therefore to the shipmaster & the rest of the multitude the illustrious name & merit of Augustine, & the impending solemnity, whom formerly Apocrisiary at Constantinople & Apostolic at Rome, for converting the nations of the English he gave as Apostle, a man of Apostolic virtues, as well in life as after the prize of life most powerful of signs, & to all asking most succoring: to whom if with unanimous vow it should please to celebrate his festive triumph, we would dare from his known goodness to promise, that we should obtain the prosperity of a wished breeze. All therefore both Priests & the rest conspiring in the heralding of Augustine, there came with the Lord's day his votive solemnity: & as we were there a grand choir of Priests & Clerics, they celebrate the feast day of S. Augustine, Vespers & Lauds watched the whole night we performed; & glorifying Christ in His Saint, & by his intervention with fear & confidence asking to be saved, all things then with us solemnized to the pious Father, all things warred for the Lord's soldier. The ship was the church; the mast, the watchtower of Sion; the cross, the yards; the canvas, the hangings; the prow, the altar; the Priest, the prow-man; the steersman, the Hierarch; the rowers, the Clerics; the cordage, for cymbals & organs; the windy hisses, for bellows & pipes. In the circuit the vast atrium of the sea & the infinite throng of waves answered the psalm-singers with the frequent dashings of the waves. The watery Church sang; Bless the seas & rivers the Lord, bless the whales & all things that move in the waters the Lord; & the same the waters rendered with the supernal choir: all things so resounded the solemn Christ & the solemn servant of Christ Augustine.

[26] After the nocturnal Lauds celebrated almost into the light, the rest resting, the watchful Shipmaster, while he notes the stars, while he explores the air, sees forthwith & feels what it availed to have sought the suffrages of Augustine. For the hitherto repugnant currents, by his grace turned into a most grateful breeze, were made wholly auxiliary to our navigation. With a glad cry therefore & sonorous lute he rouses all, & as if a piratic force should rush in, he intimates joys as battles. Rise, says he, quickly, O companions: God is present to us in the festivity of His Augustine, present also is Augustine hastening in the directing of His God: well do we celebrate today his feast, by whose intervention not only from the terror of death we are freed, but even with a wished wind & course to a wished shore we are directed. He is the steersman, he the leader & navigator: he himself impels, rules, conveys, goes before & follows. Now therefore let us hasten to complete the divine Mysteries in his veneration, & with so great a leader secure happily to sail out. At these glad exhortations the whole throng, with palms stretched into libations of thanks, lifts Augustine to the heavens, whom they triumph to have found a new helper amid so great perils. And immediately, as one fleeing the enemy should run to his domestic Patron, a festive Mass with lofty jubilee in his honor we sing together, & his merits to the author the Lord we immolate.

[27] But among these things the Standard-bearer of the Lord gives a sign of his presence, coming to shake the new faith of the foreigners toward him with the divine fan, & the Sacrifice of the Mass performed they obtain calm weather, & to make it more attentive in God. For when the sacred Gospel was being read, so great a spirit of whirlwind impelled the sea & ship, that the Priest, unless most robust men here & there from the sides had sustained him, could by no means assist in performing the Lord's Sacraments. But the saving Martyrdom being completed so great a calm returned, that I knew not how to wish a more opportune one for the purposed place, namely for spreading sail, running, & entering port without hindrance. We ran therefore with obeying winds rejoicing & alert, & magnifying the wonders of God in so wondrous a Saint of His, all promising with all affection to celebrate his feasts yearly perpetually, & to declare his name & the marks of his virtues everywhere. But the chief of the ship showed himself so festive among the feasts of so hastening a helper, that not only did he devoutly congratulate at his solemn praises, but even with feasts & flowing wine cheered his guests. Now indeed the happy course of the day to evening

being completed, the English more confidently presuming of the known Patron, & the port, persuaded their companions, doubting of the uncertainty of the breeze & striving for port, that if with unbent faith they should hold the begun journey, they would have that very breeze persevering even to the destined place. But the opinion of the others prevailed, that we should rather enter port, & with quiet refresh our limbs wasting with long labor. But when after sunset we entered the port, wonderful to say! that very daylike tranquility went away, & the former tempest with adverse winds recurred: that namely Augustine might teach, that so long had prosperity been present, as long as the venerators of his festivity wished to sail; & that again the breeze was to be obtained by vows, when with the very station they should decree to proceed.

ANNOTATIONS.

* of solidi

* the greatest

CHAPTER III.

The dumb endowed with speech, the lame with gait, the captive with liberty.

CHAP. XII

[28] Now by a sevenfold miracle, in the seven guests of Christ the fishermen & the sevenfold grace of the Spirit signified, Augustine freeing the fluctuating ones by following, A dumb girl, we have sailed through the sea: now him through the lands, curing divers calamities, we shall lead back. May He here, to the one beginning of the dumb his virtues, obtain for the silent or most infant Writer the powers of speaking. In the most known village of Chilham, situated south of Canterbury, a little girl of eight years, bereft of her father, was to her widowed mother the only solace of an only one left. Her she nourished, her she cherished, her among the miseries of her desolation she reckoned the wretched delights; she wept her bereavement & her own widowhood; she lamented to herself a husband, & to her the lost begetter. But while in this maternal affection she hangs, while in her advances she soothes all hope & mourning; there came an increase of grief, where she expected an increase of consolation. For she who gratified her mother & kinsfolk with sweet speech or maidenly song, suddenly by a chance made dumb saddened all the known: instead of speech a beastlike lowing, instead of song a bellowing, instead of words she rendered a tongueless groan. The mother mourned, wailed, howled, & cried: Alas, my daughter! is this my hope? are these the solaces, after thy father's funerals, that by the best office of the tongue thou art deadened to me? For for a great part funereal is life, from the widowed mother, where there is no speech. Now, alas the grief! thou must speak with fingers, the tongue being silent, & with closed mouth by nods alone wilt give discordant words! Now wretchedly thou wilt teach thy mother absurd signs, by which they may weigh thy senses, not by ear, but by sight, instead of speech!

[29] persuaded by the admonition of the Priest, Such things continually complaining, with complaints she is not content, all remedies untiringly she seeks, helps she demands, medicines she consults: no one knew how to bring aids. She persevered dumb, & the maternal grief daily grew: & whereas the wound of others is soothed by time, hers was increased: but to those persevering in faith ever occurs the regard of supernal clemency. The sedulous woman at length tearfully seeks her Parish Presbyter, by name Elfelmus. He ignorant of human medicine, teaches her to believe herself in the divine. Soon, says he, impends the triumphal solemnity of our standard-bearer Augustine: in his honor make ready a wax taper, & with this lamp (for it befits the friend of the Bridegroom to be sought with a lamp) the light-bearing & salvation-bearing night of his festivity watch through in prayer with thy offspring: where if you shall faithfully persevere, with a taper led to the feast of S. Augustine, we believe by the benefit of God that you will not do it in vain. At these things the devout heroine, armed with faith, as taught by an Angel, hastens the commanded lights. To the heavenly Physician on his feast the girl comes with her mother, & there at his life-giving pledges of the light-flowing festivity the night they watch through in prayer. One prayed & groaned, the other sighed & bellowed, but the supreme Pitier accommodated His ear to both. Now the Hymn of the Lord's praise thrice holy-sounding by the Father of the family is intoned, & by the receiving family of God loftily chanted. In this Hymn therefore the Help-bringer who was sought is felt & recognized, the tongue of the dumb girl long bound forthwith is loosed, the mouth hitherto closed to praise God with the Church is unsealed, for which joy the same Hymn finished most gladly is repeated: she receives speech. but she breaks the long silences, & into the praise of God & thanksgiving leaps forth. The mother exclaims with joy with her speaking daughter, the daughter responds to her mother with harmonious speech. What more? The matins Lauds being performed, the Hymn of praise above chanted, in which this health the people witnessing was made, with loftier praises by all is repeated, & so clear the virtue of God in His Augustine is chanted.

CHAP. XIII

[30] After some intervening years, the same solemnity of his recurring, a similar miracle in a similar person shone forth: another dumb from birth, except that the former received the speech before lost; but this, of whom we shall speak, received it before not granted. For she dumb from birth now a young girl, for the sake of health traversed many dwellings of the Saints; at length with a very great throng of peoples flowing together from everywhere, came to the solemnities of the most solemn Confessor of the Lord, namely to his life-giving tomb, intent to spend the most splendid night in vigils. But she the more attentive she was to watching, the more declivously she was urged to sleeping. Now the lofty prolonged modulation, the nocturnal & matins songs being completed, the Canticle of the Evangelical Prophet Zechariah, which every day of the age for the perpetual heralding of the Lord's Incarnation is made assiduous, with the highest concerts of the psalm-singers is stretched to the heavens. In this song therefore, by which was opened the mouth of Zechariah, which was closed the Angel threatening, under the canticle of Zechariah, in a wonderful order, the Lord's grace the solemnity of His beloved Augustine favoring, the mouth also of the sleeping dumb girl is opened, & the tongue into new words is loosed. For bursting from sleep, as agitated by exceeding terror, she cried thrice in her native speech, with lifted voice: Spare, spare, spare Lord.

[31] Her so vociferating both known & unknown invade from everywhere, the stupefied inquire who knew her never before to have spoken, whence to her this cry & power of speaking. First she delayed, nor dared to utter the seen mystery; but all persuading & urging, with unwonted words, which alone she had learned by ear, thus she related with stammering rudeness: I had purposed indeed to lead this most holy night watching through, & the clemency of the holy Father by which he should succor my calamity to entreat; but the bland violence of sleep snatched me resisting: by which captured, neither sweeter ever nor more pleasantly did I rest in life. Here there shone to me a man of Angelic glory, Pontifical excellence, venerable age, most reverend with snowy & paternal hair. S. Augustine appearing, His splendid face poured forth its rays; with the golden Pontifical zone shone the mitre; whitened beneath the garments gold-woven around: but me anxiously trembling at so seemly & adorned a majesty, more did that sublimity terrify by a worthy rebuke, that namely it might more gratefully console by a paternal cure. For the Pontifical staff, which he held in his hand, intending it to the closure of my lips, he seemed by this point to wish to transpierce my mouth, plainly arguing my sloth, that all watching I alone slept. she receives the use of the tongue: By this terror therefore greatly stirred, my tongue loosed by the benefit of God through the suffrages of so great a Patron, into these new words which you have heard I burst, which how truly it is clear no one ever before used any speech. At these things heard the throng poured around proclaims with wonder, praises to God; who wonderful in His Saints, showed these wonders in S. Augustine. The Sacristans strive only still more deeply to experience the truth, namely groping in a light so evident. But the known & neighbors of the girl satisfy all with great oaths, having protested that she from when she was born hitherto had been dumb. This congruence also is not fastidiously to be recollected for a worthy miracle, that in this Canticle by which the dumb Prophet spoke, prophesying of Christ & His Forerunner; through our Augustine, the dumb girl speaking, the Orient from on high visited us.

CHAP. XIV

[32] By divers weaknesses also our divine Physician powerful of curing in Christ commands. The cure of a gouty man begun by S. Augustine, There lived at London a man illustrious in things, but by the unlucky fear of a most close gout keenly weakened: & whereas by wealth he was dilated, he was the more straitened by the want of going forth anywhere. Hey, riches, what do you? Why do you delay to succor your seeker & keeper? The wealth therefore is spent on physicians, & is lost: the labors in the sick man are made vain, & the griefs are increased. The sick man at length returned into himself, The divine, says he, is to be sought, where the human physician fails. And placed on a vehicle he is borne to the Metropolis of the English Canterbury, to thy, Apostolic curer Augustine, clemency. There with a light watching, there praying, in part he received the sought remedies, & in part is taught the not yet merited to be sought elsewhere: for necessary was in the weak man a delay of health, since there was not wanting in the Saint the sought perfection of virtue, that by more attentively & longer seeking he might obtain, what neither in that place nor time he should merit to attain. Finally Augustine heals the gouty man in one foot, the other namely to his supreme friend S. Swithun leaving uncured, it is perfected by S. Swithun. & as if destining it to that Saint to be cured. So the sick man half-healed brought back to his own, hears the most abundant miracles of the blessed Prelate Swithun, which the supernal affluence poured forth. Thither as if directed by Augustine he came, & on that very day the health of the remaining foot being received he equaled the unequal step, & fully restored with full joy giving thanks returned.

CHAP. XV.

[33] In the castle ^b of Lewes there was a man lame & maimed, whose left palm twisted backward & bent back, not so much supinated as hanging downward, Lame & maimed in hand, glued adhered to the arm, & dire torture tortured the wretch. His miseries the regard of supernal clemency pitying, he is commanded in a vision, by a certain illustrious form, to seek the help of the help-bringing Augustine at Canterbury; there at last this man to be made sound by his intervention. Nor did he delay to believe, nor defer for his own advantage to obey. He came to Kent as the weak man could to the indicated Patron, indicates to the monastic Fathers the mandate of his health enjoined from heaven: he is admitted of his own accord to the bountiful Curer, & there perseveres in prayers, undoubting of the revealed health. Now the eighth day he had spent there which was on the Sabbath, & then came the faithfully awaited promise: for between Sext & None he is seized by a heavenly cure,

& the hand is reformed into its offices, & the whole weakness is turned into right advantages. So the deformed torture, which was for ignominy & torment, Augustine aiding returns to the subsidy of life. Blessed be the Lord God of virtues.

CHAP. XVI

[34] How great a follower also of the supreme Key-bearer Augustine is in the power of loosing, the following will probably show. Canterbury knows three of its citizens, of whom two seem brothers, Wilfronius & Ælredus, the third Ælredus's son Siredus, who with equal skill & art nourished their life, & from poverty had grown to a rich sufficiency. A young man bound in chains by his father & uncle for a slight cause, What ever did human avidity leave unsought out? what did mortal want not penetrate? These three, that is two brothers & the third born of the second, for whom chiefly this series is woven, went about equally divers cities of England & the workshops of craftsmen. They curiously searched out goldsmiths, silversmiths, coiners, money-changers, & the founders of the other metals, for their molten ashes & purgings, for the dross & slag or fragments of crucibles, in which they had liquefied their masses, offering estimated prices; these relics bought they scraped & swept together, whence commonly such collections they call sweepings, which they washed in scorching streams, & the smelted hardness with a hard stone they crushed, these particles being smelted by their fire they extorted a precious mass. In such business coming to the town, which from the hot baths there bubbling ^c Bath in English is called, & the abundant burnings being bought after custom, which they call sweepings, to the next river they bore to be washed. But rashly & inconsiderately a very large stone drawn from the Royal way they took with them, seeing it strong for crushing crucibles & the burnings themselves congealed by fire.

[35] Hence the Governors & Judges of the town indignant rush upon them, & they being dismissed on his surety, as men everywhere are wild gaping for prey, & these three strangers seized, as invaders of the Royal right & public robbers, together in a most close stock harder than every fetter they constrained. They add iron manacles to the hands, & iron collars on the necks, so that through the middle of the stone wall of the chamber the bonds drawn through were locked: for from the abundance of stones all the dwellings there are of stone. But the captives by such torment for some time straitened, the two brothers who were now in senile decline, impatient of the punishment & almost about to be consumed, sureties being given for twenty solidi of silver, with their merchandise were dismissed. But the young man, elegant of aspect & robust of body, whom above we noted the son of the second brother, when the exactors had seen him offering nothing, whom they thought more moneyed & about to fill their gluttony, with more atrocious torments & terrors they assail. The calves & bones are constrained with a closer wood, dragged tight by driven-in stakes: the chains on hands & neck are doubled, the bound one is hedged with keepers as with an iron wall. Among these torments anxious & by anxiety sleepless, the domestic Patron of the citizenry of Canterbury with deep groans he invokes Augustine, more closely constrained, that he who first loosed England from the captivity of the devil, & knew to loose iron knots, & who anywhere among nations guards those asking him, would deign to free his last servant from the hands of those troubling him.

[36] At these anxious prayers, which the keepers also had heard, by a vast miracle it appeared, how great a hearer with God he had invoked. There shook suddenly & terrified the very house a vehement sound, the strong oaken bars are broken & spring apart, with the driven-in nails shaken off far, which more pressingly pained the bound one's footprints; the manacles fall from the hands, the bolts being expelled unsealed: the iron collars also which had straitened the neck, with violent onset spring back cast against the wall. the bonds being of their own accord loosed, The captive free leaping out insults the keepers, rebukes the fierce, instigates the threatening. Bind again, says he, rebels of God, the divinely loosed one, that again your broken bonds may more closely constrain you, & confound the hope of money poured out. But they, by so great a sign keenly terrified, answer, that they wished to attempt nothing of injuries further upon him. Who at dawn bursting forth, through the whole city divulge all things, & hasten the whole people astounded with the Magistrates hither to see. Beholding therefore so clear wonders of God, which no craftiness could contradict, free he is dismissed & acquires whence to pay for the others, they snatch the man with great jubilee of thanks to the principal monastery of B. Peter the Apostle: & there the city flowing together, the monastic assembly congratulating, the signs sounding, the hymns resounding, the Lord the wonder-worker of the Saints is praised together, through whom also Augustine the Apostle of the English shines with so great a brightness of miracles. At whose paternal glory the townsmen so congratulated, that they vied to snatch that freedman of his to feasts & cups, & to cheer him with festive service: among whom one of the citizens grievously blushed & groaned, because whence to give him a wished contribution, or to show some service of friendship, he had not. Whom seeing the upright young man to be saddened for his sake, of his own accord conferred on him silver of his own, praying that he would receive from him, what wishing to give him he had not, or not having he wished to give. By which benefit so voluntary that citizen delighted, A return, says he, we will render. In the morning therefore he brought him sweepings bought at a small price, of which he before the sixth hour twenty solidi of silver the kindly Patron favoring obtained: & these being given for his father & uncle, free & secure he led them away with him, whom namely the Saint Augustine so freed, that he himself should free his own with their gains.

C. XVII.

[37] Whom therefore in the power of loosing we have foreshown a follower of the supreme Key-bearer, the same a foster-child of the same Nourisher, to whom the Prince of Pastors had said, Feed my sheep, here shall shine by a consequent sign. Under King Cnut the most celebrated moderator of the Augustinian hall ^d Elfstanus shone forth, who among other good things ^e Thanet with its most precious pearl, as is clear to all, in the bosom of the Patriarchal Protector Augustine replaced. In his governance there had befallen on the sixth weekday by the yearly recurrence the birthday of that Father, which on the seventh of the Kalends of June is duly through all England performed most celebrated. Hence the Father himself of magnanimous liberality made a great apparatus of feasts, both for the hospitable throngs of the sacred Orders, & the illustrious seculars, & the needy flowing together from everywhere, & for the domestic use of the Lord's family. But his provident mind grievously the penury of festive fish pained, since the buyers sent everywhere returned home empty. The seas & rivers denied their wealth, the lakes & pools conferred nothing, the markets & cellars were empty, the woods & pastures profited nothing, because the perpetual reverence of the day to the Lord's Cross had bound all, made the people equal to monasteries. Among these difficulties, in the want of fish, the faithful Abbot, whom the necessity of charity urged, attended to the sole remedy in the Lord. Finally on the very vigil of the morrow's celebrity, the canticles of Vespers being most solemnly completed, he bursts into the chamber of the paternal rest; & poured on the ground he suggests with affectionate prayer to the paternal ears, that he be mindful of the pleasing blessing of his solemnity & of his ministers & guests: so treasuring his hope into the paternal bosom he went out, attending if he should wish to answer anything.

[38] Meanwhile the whole night being celebrated with most splendid lights & most excellent jubilees, of his own accord he receives a Sturgeon of 14 feet, the day festive to all shone, which, how the most serene Augustine had watched through for his watchers, by divine benefits with the splendid sun declared. For in his very village, which is called Swalwatluia, situated above the sea, set apart from the monastery seven leagues, & given to the food of the Brethren as a cellar, a vast fish namely a Turbot of the length of fourteen feet is offered, which commonly is called a Sturgeon. This the flux of the sea brought, Augustine doubtless impelling; nor could it receding carry it with itself, he himself wholly retaining it. This therefore the country-dwellers of the same dwelling, found at the first twilight of light, hasten to place on a vehicle; & to the Prince of the monastery a new, festive, & most grateful reward of Augustine to present. Seeing therefore the most devout Abbot, that the entreated Father had to his respective prayers on the morning day so bountifully answered, he received the heavenly gift with immense alacrity & infinite exhibition of thanks. Thence the Lord's office being magnificently completed, both the domestic assembly & the hospitable multitude feast festively in the Lord, rejoicing both at the miracle, & at the divine benefit. But beautifully here the foster-child of the supernal Fisher filled the throng flowing to him with his catch, who first drew England from the Stygian gulf with Apostolic nets to Christ. Other Saints took the river prey divinely driven into the nets wonderfully, this one more wonderfully without nets commands the sea to bring & leave on dry land, what a faithful hand may more safely take on the shore. But it is to be noted that no one's memory recollects a fish of this kind either before or after seen in that dwelling.

C. XVIII.

[39] To the most reverend Elfstanus succeeded ^f Wilfricus, endowed with equal probity & skill. Under Abbot Wlfricus a blind man of 15 years is illumined. In whose time B. Augustine corruscated with so great a brightness of healings, so great a throng of divers weaknesses was cured, that to recount it neither writer suffices, nor reader, nor hearer: of which one, for many or greater, for example's sake we inscribe. On his anniversary solemnity the mentioned Abbot Wlfricus at the salvation-bearing clay performed most celebratedly the solemnities of Mass, the people as densely as could rush in standing by: there stood by also a certain known man of the island of Thanet, now for fifteen years besieged with night, the most foul of blindness. He with intent mind & voice prayed to be cured by the intervention of the adjacent Saint, now of his illumination as certain, as by a divine oracle through a vision taught, that namely he should come hither to the splendor-flowing Patron, where he should perceive the wished light. Meanwhile in the lesson of the Gospel, which now to the middle was being read, the blind man by divine virtue is seized; by which impelled over the Deacon the reader he is so cast headlong, that he with difficulty kept from being overwhelmed together. Who turning aside from the falling one, while the Lord's heralding to the end he sounds; he lying on the ground, the cataract flowing away, unseals his eyes, & rising, the day infused into his sight, clearly beholds all things. So persisting at the sacraments of Mass into sacrifices of thanks, he indicates after the end to the people standing by, how to him before these things had been revealed, which through the merits of Augustine after fifteen years of blindness he obtained the joys of light.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The sacrilegious or irreverent punished, & the same penitent healed.

CHAP. XIX

[40] So clement a Father toward suppliant strangers, he is to be shown also strict against delinquent

domestics, who nevertheless preferred to correct rather than to punish the guilty. A Sacristan about to break into the sepulchre, It shames to recount what especially to the sacred Order & aged state is reckoned unbecoming: nevertheless let the wicked have their own foulness, & the upright their own beauty, & the corrected their own soundness. Under the Abbot of good memory Wlfricus there was a senior Sacristan of the Monastery, by name Godricus: he in the tomb, where the heavenly treasure of the precious body of Augustine was laid up, had heard from his very boyhood that a great treasure had been deposited, but he weighed money, not the price of sanctity with brutish understanding. Hence the seed of cupidinous vanity, conceived from that boyish sloth, with daily increases he cherished, & nourished desirous sighs. He grew in age, he grew also in the zeal of avarice: now he whitened with grey hair, & with a covetous mind blackened. Why do we deceive, & are deceived? For the most part both the best & the worst attain their times, in which they bring themselves forth. The lost mind of the man at length found a place, in which it might attempt the iniquitous purpose. The mentioned Abbot had destroyed the presbytery of the old monastery to be renewed, & the access lay open even to the treasury portico of resplendent Augustine. Here the perfidious key-bearer of the church, one of the craftsmen being associated to himself by infinite promises, opportunity of night being given, in the work of darkness the irons being seized, invades the wall, set at the feet of the holy Confessor, & built of a double material. For the care of the ancient faithful had compacted the exterior fortification of hard flint; but the interior with great & strong bricks, as a preserving casket of so great a pearl, had made firm.

Accursed hunger of gold, to what dost thou not compel mortal Breasts?

[41] Now the helper craftsman from the difficulty of breaking & bursting in had failed, he hurts his own knee, but the preceptor of the crime neither age, nor impossibility, nor sacred profession, nor reverence of God or of the present Saints restrained: who urged by fury trusting in his strength, To me, says he, hand the iron; I will try what my hands can do. Forthwith he seizes the beaked iron, & with all effort grown fierce upon his own knee he gave a due blow. So at last by his own punishment driven from the undertaking, calamitously to his little bed he departed, now compelled to bewail his confusion & punishment more, than to violate the monuments of the Saints' innocence. Woe to the hunger & thirst of avarice, which even the needy of things, with insidious suspicion dreams to be wealthy. By what madness therefore did this wretch seek mortal wealth in the life-giving tomb of the heaven-dweller Augustine, who to the crucified world & to himself is related to have said in the stead of B. Peter the Apostle, Silver & gold is not mine? He errs not therefore, but raves, who with Augustine seeks another treasure than Augustine himself, more precious namely than all the wealth of things. Acts 3, 6. So the provident Abbot Wlfricus, while at dawn he searches each sanctuary of the church, seeing that holy of holies violated by a fracture, keenly (as was fitting) is indignant, & the author of so great an injury, the workmen being gathered, he inquires. There was present the companion of the crime, who fearing himself to have been betrayed, whom his conscious guilt accused; From that senior (says he), Lord, seek the truth, who is refreshing himself in bed from a recent sickness: he himself will know to set forth to thee the truth. Forthwith the inquirer hastens to the sick man, the cause of the undermined wall & of his weakness asks, the delaying & dissembling one with adjurations impels, & overthrows the hard wall of an obstinate mind. He mournfully confesses & execrates the so senselessly presumed harm, & thence languishes unto death. weeping continually even to the exit of life both the incurable wound & the lasting punishment. His partner also of the crime, merited a participation also of grief: that with most bitter & long decoction even to death he languished, & from the touch of the Saints, as from the pupil of God's eye, taught posterity to restrain the rapacious hand. But lest anyone judge this sentence the more savage, let him reconsider in these things the greater clemency made: that they who into the abyss were to be thunder-struck, through temporal correction could be freed.

CHAP. XX

[42] Let there be heard hence another correction of the Confessor & soon-obtained remission. A certain suburban matron of Canterbury, Mazelina by name, addicted to the marital bond, An angry mother, with daily devotion frequented the Augustinian temple & the paradisiac chamber of the Saints: the keys being carried with her, she came, & there in prayer prostrated herself. The husband came home, crying out for the keys; & a son being sent to the mother, he asks again the keys carried off. The boy attentive to the paternal mandate, more earnestly presses the praying mother. She forthwith, prayer & the reverence of so great a Protector & the other Saints being postponed, like an enraged lioness leaped out, & with a fierce palm dealt a savage blow to her offspring, nor regarded the asylum of God & the patronage of so many Lordly Nobles violated, & her fury satiated, as if justified, resumes prayer. The boy weeping returned home, & related his weepings to his father for the legation. But the beating, nay the prevaricating hand & arm of the Lord's peace a sudden punishment rebuked. beating her son in the church For at the same hour the lifted right hand, with the whole arm even to the shoulders, with enormous thickness swelled, with oaken stiffness grew rigid, with burning glowed, with grief trembled, with blackness bristled: the inflexible fingers were astounded, it grows stiff, & the uncurvable rigor of the arm could neither be raised to the head, nor laid down to the side, but with extended hardness was held forth like wood.

[43] Then at last the woman attends to the majesty of the place; because, as is written, the sole vexation will give understanding to the hearing. Is. 28, 19. Then she understood that one thing is the holy of holies, another the domestic household gods or the cradles of children. Then wailing, lamentation, & howling emptied the wrath, indignation, & inflammation of her mind; or retorted on herself, what she merited. At whose miserable cry when amid the matins Mass the sacristans had run together, & the monks praying, & had seen her through the exceeding anguish of mind & body plucking her hair with the left hand, because the right could not, & rolling herself here & there over the pavement; they grievously grieved, thinking her mad. From whom hearing the cause of so great a punishment, they exhort her with instant prayer to implore the clemency of kindly Augustine: but they themselves to the assembly of the Brethren report the evidence of the matter. Who trembling & compassionating the afflicted one, by common assent hasten to the church, & before the placable Augustine poured down, the seven penitential Psalms for the guilty one tearfully chant. O swift hearer in the mercy of God! When the prayer being completed they rise, she is healed forthwith all the grief of the groaning one is poured back into the joy of health. The swelling & rigor & anguish, as darkness from light, vanish; the arm & hand, & fingers, by their slenderness, & form, & office grow cheerful.

CHAP. XXI

[44] But not only in divers calamities, but even in the lowest necessities, anywhere appealed to the powerful one of God Augustine succors, as here we shall prove. There is a venerable senior among the Brethren, whom above we intimated a conscious pointer of the paternal miracle wrought on the sea, but now we recall him the most faithful witness of another, done in the place & companion of his legation. He therefore sent to Boulogne a province of Flanders, came to the village of Marchia, fruitful of stones, & the workmen being hired heaped up a great abundance of stones namely for the fabric of his monastery. Meanwhile the Marquis of Flanders ^b Robert, Boulogne dissenting from him, as a daughter from a parent, more keenly chastised; & with an army diffused through the broad fields, was reducing it into his rights. But the trembling workmen at the inclemency of the army, trusting in the Lord & S. Augustine, the mentioned man forbids to tremble, as faithful & magnanimous: whom he also comforted concerning the favor of the aforenamed Prince, whose friendly patronage he had. about to preserve the cow of a poor mother, There was among the workmen a certain young man of the same province, to this ecclesiastical work most faithful & most intent, by name Burchardus: his mother was a widow, so very poor, that all her wealth & all the solaces of life was a single cow, by which the sum of things being lost she would have lost all. For the poor man loses as much, who all the least; as the rich man, who loses all the infinite: & the widow praised by the Lord, gave more than all giving of their part, who gave her least & all.

[45] The young man therefore anxious for his mother, three miles distant, the wages of the past week being received on the Sabbath, prays the aforenoted master, that it be permitted him to bring his mother to that safer place with her cow, proposing on the day of the Moon to return to the work. But the matter being valued at home, it shall be sold at the judgment of the market. He went, the preceptor granting, & exhorting that in all things he should invoke Augustine as helper. he drives her into the wood the Saint being invoked, Who seeing the fires of war & the rapines everywhere to roar, his mother, whom he had come to lead out, he compels to flee into the next church; he himself with the maternal herd seeks the refuge of the contiguous & dense wood. But what ever was safe for fugitives? Whom men pursuing know not the pursuing birds betray. Forthwith thither, where he lay hid, a copious & pernicious company of magpies flowed together, & over him on the full trees, as in a populous theatre, with garrulous council & accusing voices made an uproar, as if they should say to the summoned robbers: Here, here is, what your avid hands may snatch. & from the robbers threatening him Now indeed horsemen & footmen, with dogs & arms, either for hunting or for catching something, had entered the deep grove; now following the inviting voices of the magpies, the fugitives approached, & almost now had taken him. Who, as he had been before taught, to the help of most benign Augustine in straits to flee; Holy, says he, Augustine, of the whole English nation, nay of all seeking thee an eminent patron, as the devout foster-child of thy flock has often taught us & persuaded us to believe; I beseech, that in me thy workman thou deign to confirm this rude faith, & hasten to free me from the importunate men & birds; by this grace I & all things promise to be exhibited to thy work & service, as thy faithful Monk has enjoined, while in this land he shall have need of work.

[46] he is wonderfully freed. Still he prayed, & wonderful to say! all that wicked multitude of birds with querulous din is precipitated into flight, as if by a bow or sling or javelin it were terrified: for the greater splendor also of the miracle, all the robbers vying pursue them flying away, & the cackling persecutors mockingly behind them they draw fleeing. So both the men gaping for prey, & the birds indicating whence they might plunder, by one sentence of flight Augustine eludes both; that is the rational ones, made like the irrational in vanity, whom together he routs farther off, & his fugitive alone with the sole cow left so easily he frees. But he seeing so unencumbered a way to lie open returning to his oft-said preceptor, relates all his peril; & himself now through the help of B. Augustine freed from peril, he not only exulted in thanksgiving, but even the Abbot of the monastery, with all the company of the Brethren, by relating these things magnificently gladdened.

CHAP. XXII

[47] A man in Kent of the village of Chilham, most illustrious in wealth & race, brought to the extreme, [appearing from death he asks a chalice to be made to S. Augustine for the rest of his soul,] distributed his goods largely to churches & the poor: his faithful wife also, what was wanting to him, after his death strove to supply. But among all the services as well of the Saints

as of the needy, the grace of Augustine alone, who was the first, was passed over; perhaps by Divine dispensation, that to the Saint glory might grow. So the dead man appearing in a vision to a certain illustrious matron, commands perennial thanks to be rendered for the alms, exhibited for his soul, to his munificent wife: but he grievously bewails both his own & her negligence, that to the Prince of his & of all England's illumination in Christ Augustine, whom before the rest most it would befit, they had made no fitting offering. He announces to his wife, who thought she had spent the whole money, in what place & in what chest she may find silver, & how much she may find. Of this, says he, silver in honor of our most excellent Father Augustine let a chalice be made, that by the powerful interventer my soul may rest in peace. All things therefore in order announced, found, & done: & the distinguished chalice is present as witness.

CHAP. XXIII

[48] Of the Southern Saxons there was an honored citizen, so chaste, that he is celebrated as inexperienced of the conjugal office: another is bidden to give a silver one instead of a tin one. in whom the Father of all Augustine showed a similar grace. To him showing himself with starry splendor in a vision he commands that of the money laid up he buy a chalice for him, & to his monastery, where with his holy colleagues he rests, bring it; & over his tomb, for performing the mysteries of God, offer it. In the morning the man tends to London, a tin chalice bought for six silver pieces, as if to be brought to Augustine, simply brought home. On the following night the most renowned Antistes, in the same form as before, shone before the sleeping one; the rudeness of the man & the dullness of his straitened mind he refuted: A tin chalice, says he, which thou hast prepared for me with rustic usefulness, give to some needy Parishioner; but for me of the silver, which in such a place uselessly thou keepest laid up, make a chalice honorable, & to my monastery solemnly bring it. But that man, not slightly terrified by the heavenly rebuke, snatches the shown money, goes to the Apostolic monastery of the holy Preceptor, delivers to the Abbot & Brethren the silver of which the chalice might be made, whence a chief chalice shines, & by the miracles of its author Augustine more amply grows bright.

CHAP. XXIV

[49] Among the flowing throngs to the Birthday festivity of the Confessor of the Lord there was brought a man, One born blind is illumined. whom his mother had brought forth blind, blind had brought up into manly strength; & what light & darkness were, he could hear, he could not understand. He performed the festive vigils with the people at the Saint's monument, whom he sought praying suppliantly that he might merit to see, those whom he sought as helpers. He held in his hand, what he knew not, a light; he felt the burning, of which he saw not the splendor; he stood at Mass without light, with his shining taper. It more quickly burning hastens to be consumed, Augustine hastening to render a better light. Now the holy Gospel was being read, & the burnt candle with raised flame ate the hand of the holder. He troubled, & by the presence of Divine virtue seized, cast away the light alien to him; & forthwith received his own, which hitherto had been unknown to him: for forthwith are unsealed to him the native barriers of the eyes, & new light infused he drinks the light everywhere diffused. He marvels at the whiteness of light, the beauty of the world, so divers forms & species of things, all the faces of men both alike & unlike: he triumphs to have come from the age of death & darkness, to the mirror of light & life. But this is the form, of those migrating from this mortality to the most splendid ages of the Saints. The joy of this sign forthwith is turned into every assembly of peoples, into the praise of God & of His servant Augustine & gifts of thanks.

Cap. XXV

[50] Of the German nation a notable man, on account of his guilt with a close iron ring constrained in his left arm, the Roman orb being traversed in seeking the suffrages of the Saints, A penitent bound, at length to the Saint protectors of England crossed into England. Thence he runs into Scotland, to him, of whom the Scots by writing show the Relics, the Apostle Andrew. Thence returning he came to Wilton, to the town & church of the Royal & standard-bearing virgin ^e Eadgith. Here delaying in prayer, he learned that he had not come in vain, while he is taught the place of his loosing. by S. Eadgith he is sent to Canterbury: For the most benign Virgin, impatient that anyone faithfully asking her should be frustrated, was seen splendidly to say such things to him praying, & among prayers sleeping: The remedies which thou seekest here, are to be sought by thee from the Patron of the English: to his clemency is entrusted thy remission & absolution: to Canterbury therefore to his patronages hasten thy journey. Forthwith he leaping from sleep blessed the heavenly messenger of his health; & so as if he were now loosed, with certain faith exulted; so the indicated way he accelerated, that he reckoned wings had grown to his feet: doubtless this the delay of liberty did, that by a longer labor the redemption might be earned. & there admonished by S. Augustine Coming to Canterbury, he is lodged with a certain faithful matron, before the gate of the monastery. Now the middle of the night being passed, the most vigilant keeper of his country himself Augustine, as meeting the stranger entrusted to him, showed himself most serenely to the sleeping one in monastic habit, with the Pontifical staff; with which having touched him he instructs him by such a precept: The dawn dawning, says he, enter our monastery; & whomsoever of our Monks thou shalt behold demand, that, thee given holy water to drink from the sacred chalice, he lead thee into the oratory of my sleeping; for know me to be him to whom thou hast come. As if a physician should say: In such a place tomorrow come to me to be cured.

[51] The stranger executes in order the mandates of his preceptor: he enters the monastery, & has meeting him a Monk called Ælfwinus: he drinks from the offered chalice, namely in grace of reconciliation, blessed water, & so is led to the tomb & judgment of his liberator. The sixth weekday was that day, dedicated to the Cross & abstinence: he is loosed during Mass: at None, while Mass is intoned, he intently prayed: while the Gospel is heralded, not bearing the majesty of the present remedy, with bloodless pallor he fell & slept. But now at the invocation of the immolated Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, his guilt being relaxed, as we conjecture, the dire iron armlet far from the gnawed furrow of the twisted arm is shaken off, & between the altar & tomb of the adjacent Priest is received. The man terrified is precipitated into a spasm; who, water being cast on, returns to his mind & sat down again, & drinking as before the consecrated water from the chalice, the aforesaid senior offering it, convalesced & leaped up. Hence asked by the bystanders whence he had so fainted, he relates that there seemed to him a certain one, adorned with Archiepiscopal dignity, to have burst forth to him from the monument where he lay, & a blow being cast to have so terrified him. These things heard, the praise of the Lord is intoned by all, in the wonder-working of His saint Augustine.

Cap. XXVI

[52] Two strangers, the convenience of life lost, sought a remedy from the gratuitous bestower Augustine: a blind & a contracted man are cured: to the one blindness had denied the way, the other twisted & contracted from the feet weakness had compelled to go with the hands instead of steps; the neck also bent back into the back, was forced only to behold the heavens. The blind man followed a staff for leader or a companion's voice; this one measured the way by the little footstools of his hands. To these therefore [at] the tomb of the pious interventer praying for some days, first the eyes being unsealed light is infused into the blind man; but the weak one, that he may pray more confidently, by this example is kindled; & to him also not long after time, with Apostolic power of succoring, Augustine relaxes the contracted nerves, stretches the legs into straightness, resolidifies the soles & bases, the now flexible neck & head in their order compacts, & in the grace of Christ reforms the man into his state.

C. XXVII

[53] Nevertheless he made sound from a contracted one, more savage burst forth for a time. but he who had been contracted, A citizen matron of the Metropolis of Canterbury, in wealth & morals honest, that oft-mentioned portico of the starry Fathers with devout prayers & services frequented, & other churches she traversed, & with large alms the needy she refreshed. Envying her the adversary of all good, found the mentioned weak one now cured, through whom from her pious intention he might drive out, if he could, her purpose. He stirred against her with a fit of indignation, & like a rabid dog barking, & with virulent teeth attacking; What here, says he, doest thou, dross of women, refuse of the house, snake, viper, lizard, horned serpent, & stygian fury? Why dost thou foul the holy place with thy presence, who art clothed with most deceitful hypocrisy, & under the appearance of sanctimony to the blind & blear-eyed art believed golden? What hast thou with the Saints resting in this hall of peace? Or that with shining face as the Sirens, ending from a virginal form into black reptiles, thou wholly unworthily be reckoned clean? Go into thy house, care for the stinking cellars & the rival household; follow the alluring avidity & voluptuous avarice, then for the petulance of his tongue & leave to the ministers of God their church, free from thy occupation & juggleries. These & many other things, which the foul sink of the man could pour out, the modest woman receiving & persisting in devout prayer, retorted her darts upon the furious one by being silent. So much indeed did he rave, that holy Augustine seemed (if it be lawful to say) to have done an injury, who armed so injurious a one with health.

[54] Whom the prudent heroine, after the departure from the temple still pursuing her with revilings, calling: Hey thou, says she, man, by what merit of mine or offense against thee, dost thou so hostilely rave against me? what is this thy madness, that, unmindful of thy former misery, in which thou dragged thyself through the ground like a languid reptile, & ungrateful to the divine mercy, by which through S. Augustine thou wast restored to human form, now dost thou tear the innocent with bestial & serpentine tooth? Repent, wretch, that so wickedly thou abusest the given soundness, lest by the former examination thou be struck. But he like an irritated beast more savage rises, nor by his companion arguing grows mild. But Augustine, benign & just, so meets his fury, that he punishes not; so seizes him, that he corrects. is blinded, & penitent receives sight. The integrity of limbs indeed, which he had obtained for him, he preserves: but the light of the eyes he takes, which before he had, lest he see whom in quarrels he attacks. Then the grief of the seized one recalls his sense, & the exterior night of the eyes illumines his heart to ask back the light. The lifted horns are broken, the swollen mind falls, the stiff-necked contumacy collapses, the wordy torch lulled was silent; he asks pardon & intervention from the woman whom he had hurt, that she for evils render good. Cast therefore before the holy body & his former curer, for eight days & nights making satisfaction to him, in prayers, fasts, vigils & tears; his sight purged he received the joys of the bountiful light, giving suppliant thanks to God, & for the rest abstaining from the provocation of his neighbor & the fit of reproach.

C. XXVIII

[55] There had shone to the world the triumphal Lord's day of Palms, on which another weak one, as the one above mentioned, Another contracted man is cured. leaning on manual footstools, his body drawn together creeping on the ground, sought with his hands the dispenser of the divine benefit, who with his feet, the office being denied, could not. Admitted to that medicinal apothecary of the Saints, he occupies with sighing prayers, prostrate before the tomb of kindly Augustine, ever prodigal of health. Now the Church's procession white-robed & palm-bearing,

with Angels & children praise-resounding, was leading or meeting on its way the King of the heavens, reigning over the Cherubim, but with us riding on a little ass, triumphing at Jerusalem. Meanwhile Augustine, detained at home by the panting prayer of the wretch lying near, hastens to offer him to the returning procession festively resolidified. Suddenly therefore into straightness are stretched the twisted feet, & the man raised into his own steps unlearns the hands, learns to proceed with feet. Whom meeting the Church's festive with jubilee returning, there grows for all a festivity with a triple dance, namely of the triumph of Christ, of the merit of Augustine, & of the health of the restored.

C. XXIX

[56] But who could comprehend in writings his so innumerable signs, which in the place of his sleeping he makes assiduous? who reigning with Christ & in Christ everywhere reigning, even into foreign Kingdoms or wherever prayer demands, aiding the suppliant & beating back the swollen, corruscates with the rays of virtues. A matter done among the Greeks let the reader or patient hearer hence consider, which known by that faithful pointer with fit witnesses, among whom it shone, this order of narration sets forth. The first of the Normans reigning over England William seizing England, an honorable man from the court & nurture of B. Augustine, with many Nobles of the country fugitives, migrated to Constantinople; & so great a favor with the Emperor & Empress & the other powerful obtained, that over the wise Soldiers & a great part of the companions he received the Dukedom, nor had any of the strangers before very many years profited by such honor. He took a noble & opulent wife, & mindful of the benefits of God, in honor of B. Nicholas & his holy Patron Augustine built a Basilica contiguous to his house, & of each Saint, that is, B. Augustine on the Southern & B. Nicholas on the Northern side, an image which he caused to be beautifully painted. He added also lights, wax tapers or lamps shining with burning oil, before the sacred image of his domestic Protector by night to be kindled, which also might bring back their day in the night, as often as a placid breeze should grant under a serene sky. This namely is the splendid custom of that country. This therefore Basilica & image of the Augustinian memory was to the English ^g exiles a consoling aunt of their country; here to frequent prayers; here to seek again the sweet Parent, as orphan strangers, they held sweet.

[57] he having journeyed thence to S. James, At length the man of this devotion, the Apostolic city Rome, or Galicia dedicated to the name of the Apostle James, for the sake of prayers visited: & he who in four months proposed his return, in fourteen months spent his delays: for man proposes, but God disposes. But his wife bewailed either the death of her husband, or any misfortune, while beyond the appointed term he delayed. Whom her neighbor commother, of equal generosity & opulence illustrious & to her equivocal (for to each the name was Eudochia), as well the husband present as absent with frequent visitation cherished, & then most while the solace of her husband was absent. On a certain day therefore betaking herself to this one after custom, she regards the image of Augustine, a neighbor woman insulting the image of S. Augustine in the wife's house, in the right eye from the South gnawed by the moisture, & reads the title thus superscribed: Agios Augustine, Apostle of the English. Then the woman, filled with faithless vanity, & conceiving in her slippery mind such a one, as she noted in the injured image, turned these things over with herself in foolish thought: Who, says she, is this Holy Provost of the English, condemned in eye, disfigured in face? what shall it profit me, who could not defend himself from his own injury? With such a sense bursting in to the friend whom she sought, thus garrulous either insulting, or reproaching she exclaims: My Eudochia, your English Apostle is one-eyed. But the other trying to recall the raving one: Wish not, says she, friend, against this Saint to chatter to thy own loss, whom not only his own England, but even the whole Roman world knows magnificent in sanctity; whom even the most excellent Pope Gregory, sending to the English a wondrous Pontiff, with worthy heraldings of his scriptures everywhere exalts. On the contrary the guest, holding forth the plough-handle of folly, How great so ever, says she, he be, however much exalt him, at last he is one-eyed. More certainly I hold what I see, than what I hear: whom will he preserve, who suffered his own form to be violated?

[58] Among these jests or serious things, the matron deliciously feasted & drunk, betook herself to her dwellings, but seized by the Saint, & the night succeeding seeks sleep with a nocturnal mind. Here is beheld assisting Augustine in his image yesterday despised, now most beautiful & with both his eyes illustrated by an equal star. Whence the guilty one a sent voice terrifies; Lo, says he, O woman, that one-eyed or that monocular one, of whom thou yesterday satedst thyself with laughter, is present to thee, that thou mayest see this one to suffer no loss of light or of eyes, but with both orbs clearly to behold all things. But thy sight now a troublesome plague shall infect, which undue thou hast imputed to us; nor shall physicians profit, until thou learn to venerate the servants of God for the contempt: at last also thou shalt lose the perishing riches by which thou growest insolent, lest with them thou perish. At these things the woman awaking, felt keenly the due sentence to have lain upon her eyes. A disease is struck in as of a fiery nail, the grief burns with the brand of a carbuncle. The patient one renders for laughter a groan, for cackling mourning, for mockery howling: the anguish also of the eyes denies to her sound footsteps an exit, save as much as the necessity of things urged. Now him, to whom as if to a weak one she yesterday bore a repudiation, with suppliant prayer as her questor she invokes Augustine: but not so quickly, that the ungrateful one should abuse it, did she merit a response. & invoking her for her aching eyes, She lays out on physicians her substance, but the medicine aggravates rather than alleviates the punishment. Long therefore so laboring & preaching the Saint's correction the guilty one, through all Constantinople & within the very Imperial Court the name of Agios Augustine blazed & his fame. But at length many asking for her his clemency, & she herself more attentively with vows & gifts imploring pardon, on a certain night he deigned thus to visit the afflicted one.

[59] He shone to her again through a vision in the clarity of supernal light, so that, the brightness rebounding, she could not look upon him; & with such address he refreshes the sick one: Not by thy meriting, but by that commother of thine, who strove to restrain thee from our injury, interceding, now I come to thee, that, obeying my legation, thou mayest obtain health. Announce tomorrow to the same friend of thine from me, she is bidden to predict to the wife the return of the absent one, that she cause my image to be wholly restored by a hired painter; & by this sign that her husband, for whom as if dead she hitherto fluctuates, within these fifteen days will return to her with joy & soundness, let her hold certain that these things I have mandated to her through thee: she is taught also to despise prosperous or adverse things about to pass, & to hope more attentively the joys eternally about to remain. All these things to the vast joy of all being announced, & the Saint's image with the former epigram & all the rest to his honor being completed, the woman who hitherto grieved her sight, before his image, before mocked, now venerated, kindled to God placable lights. So therefore the pest, which she by laughing with her eyes drew on, by weeping she shook off; & the health, which her boasting took away, the sought indulgence of the interventer Augustine restored. Amid these so great joys, within the prescribed days came the husband of the desolate wife, as he had been promised, safe, cheerful, pleasant, as if from a funeral revived, as if from a tomb raised. He hears, beholds, recognizes the shown prodigies of his Augustine, the edicted mandates of his image hurt & derided, who rejoicing learns the whole matter. & by his command renewed, of his neighbor the insulter by the Saint seized & corrected, of his wife consoled by the promised marital return. The hero is raised to the God of Augustine into many libations of thanks, far & wide the knowledge of this virtue is poured out, with the signs-power & name of Augustine Greece is filled, the Greeks praise, the Athenians preach, the Achaeans venerate, Agios Augustine the Apostle of the English flies through the mouths of all, & occupies the Augustal Palaces. But the rich matron, to the better commerce of eternity, bearing at last the reproaches of mendicity predicted to her by the holy Patron, more amply declared his merits, whose so truthful prophecies she showed. Blessed the glory of the Lord, in His Saint everywhere working wonders.

ANNOTATIONS.

* only

* abundance

* I was held forth

* judge

* whether by vileness?

* Who by the touch

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION.

By the same Author Gocelinus the Monk.

Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury in England (St.)

BHL Number: 0781

BY THE AUTHOR GOCELINUS. FROM THE MS.

PROLOGUE.

To the Venerable Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm.

Leader Anselm of the Fathers, father & vigor of the Churches, Whom the Roman & English Orb celebrates with titles, Spurn not the prone gift of the lowest Gocelinus.

In the citadel of wisdom at the table of heavenly Philosophy, Ecclesiastical Prince, principally presiding, my heart longs to bring to thee a golden dish, precious not by my zeal, but by the wealth of supreme Augustine, filled with his virtues, seasoned with his graces, covered with the gold & gems of him & of his holy companions. It is a little codex of the recent Translation, & of the fellowship of his signs & those of his own, which in divers places through this almost septennium from the Translation itself, the sights of the present faithful witnessing, are known to have been clearly wrought. He proposes to write the deeds through a septennium. Blessed the times of thy Pontificate! in which closed up for so long a duration, the land of the Saints bringing forth, this Angelic pearl with its gems shone again to us. Look from on high upon the humble bearer, devoutly dedicating these to thy paternal Highness: for what more excellent shouldst thou receive, or with what pledge be more gratefully gifted, than with the heraldings of thy leader Augustine,

heraldings, whose Hierarchy thou administerest with lofty offices? & to whom should these be more becomingly exhibited, than to so great an heir of his See? Protect now with pious patronage at least an asserter of his faith only; & as a defender of the truth, refute the incredulous barker.

CHAPTERS OF BOOK I.

Chap. I. First is set forth the new joy of another new solemnity, that is, of the Translation of B. Augustine & his companions: because the first is of the supernal assumption, by which from heaven he irradiated us; this, by which received from the tomb, after a long slumber, by the type of the future resurrection he shone again to us.

II. The old church destroyed & the portico of the Saints over the Saints themselves to the glory of their patience was subverted, only the saints Adrian & Mildreth being first led out. A young man overwhelmed by the sarcophagus with the Body of B. Adrian, by a great miracle leaped out unhurt. There are also chaptered other numerous miracles of the same saint Adrian.

III. Augustine, with his tombs & those buried with him, in the aforesaid overwhelming so ponderous is in nothing hurt.

IV. Likewise the material, about to fall over S. Augustine, falls against those impelling it, with solid integrity, by divine repulsion.

V. They lay under the open sky for nine weeks, to human ignominy, & ethereal compassion & reverence.

VI. To the interventer a Brother sleeping in prayer, is amended by divine rebuke.

VII. A candle over B. Augustine's tomb long burned, nor hurt anything.

VIII. The trembling craftsmen, others being punished, the faithful Prelate struck into the Saint's tomb, & comforted the rest.

IX. The master of the craftsmen, a hole being made, felt with the others & announced S. Augustine to be present from the majesty of the odor.

X. With what sweet grace, position, & form was found the five-hundred-year-old one buried.

XI. The solemnity & joy of the people toward Augustine, as raised from death: whom they translate to the altar of the supreme Apostles.

XII. Now the sepulchre of Augustine, empty of body, full of virtue, is warm toward the languid with swift health: for also from this sacred touch a dying girl given to drink revived.

XIII. Two lethal enemies, their souls being healed here reconciled, are by a greater miracle than the body healed.

XIV. How a Presbyter saw Angels, by a ladder from the summit of heaven descend into the Augustinian temple, a heavenly throng visiting the lands of the heavenly citizen.

XV. How Augustine is composed in his chamber, & a wonderful devotion & compunction of offering seizes the people.

XVI. The title of the miracles of the Saints Laurentius & Mellitus, to be translated.

XVII. The order, memorable by perpetual piety; by what position & grace the Saints rested in their former chamber.

XVIII. While they dig about S. Laurentius, they first find another unknown one: whom a wonderful fragrance & the tomb among the Saints notified a Saint.

XIX. In the translation of Laurentius & Mellitus a woman, rubbing the touch of S. Mellitus's bier on a carbuncled eye, is healed.

XX. A blind woman, believing one discoursing of the Saints, is forthwith illumined.

XXI. The Lord wonder-working His Saints, Justus, Honorius, & Deusdedit, their tombs could not on the sixth weekday be broken by those insisting, that they be translated on the sabbath, the eighth day of S. Augustine.

XXII. A woman dumb, deaf, & lame, by revelation bidden to come to S. Augustine, is there cured by the great munificence of God.

XXIII. A candle before S. Augustine extinguished, while it is carried to be lit, is lit from heaven.

XXIV. An exhortation of the celebration of so many Saints joined together: & that the Octave is computed for one day: & that now equally as in the former rest they are composed.

XXV. The suggestion of the merits of the Saints Justus, Honorius, & Deusdedit, with the testimony of the Apostolic epistles. The first is this: To the most beloved Brother Justus, Boniface.

XXVI. The second is thus, To the most beloved Brother Honorius, Honorius: & by what revelation a notable person defended S. Honorius from a detractor.

XXVII. Against the detractors an exposition of the life, labors, & contests of the Saints, who also converted Kings.

XXVIII. The body of B. Mellitus being drawn out, the empty tomb poured back wonderful aromatics, still on the fourth day.

XXIX. The bricks also & the earth beneath, on which lay the nard-flowing body of Augustine, smoking wonderful cinnamon, are laid up for Relics: the bricks, at the Gregorian altar; the earth, in the empty Sarcophagi of the Saints. His tomb is embraced by a column, which commonly we call a pillar, a place venerable to posterity. There follow also virtues of the reserved brick.

XXX. In East Anglia a matron languishing, taught in dreams, of this brick steeped drank soundness.

XXXI. By the same cup also a faithful Presbyter is cured of a long sickness.

XXXII. A merchant too, swelling unto death, by this antidote subsided & convalesced.

XXXIII. The Relics of this brick & sacred dust horribly terrify the ignorant bearers, that whole night & the following: but the conscious one through a revelation is reproved of negligence.

XXXIV. A mystery of sleep on account of the aforesaid Relics in silver plates: of which the dreamer suddenly struck by grief, by the refuge of prayer is suddenly cured.

XXXV. Abbess Bertina, after the middle of the night, a splendor divinely thrice corruscating, thrice excited, is taught by the present grace of the Relics of Augustine.

XXXVI. A Presbyter (wonderful to say) is seen at the same moment after the Preface, both to consecrate the Lord's libations, & backward for the sake of consulting to descend: which deed is believed done Augustine being author.

XXXVII. In the year of the Lord MXCI, the VIII Ides of September, was made the Translation of the Saints, which is celebrated on the VIII day.

XXXVIII. As a candle before the Translation, over the palled tomb of saint Augustine; so afterward, over the ornaments of his altar, a candle burning hurt nothing.

XXXIX. Here the Birthday of the Saint is illustrated by three signs. First a girl, bearing her right palm grown to the left shoulder, amid the matins Lauds is reformed.

XL. The second is, that a weak man is cured of a contracted knee.

XLI. Thirdly an infant, smiling at its mother, shows the native torture of its little arms cured.

XLII. How a fugitive Monk, from the midst of fire & enemies, through Augustine was snatched.

XLIII. By what revelation a Cleric from bonds & all enclosures was led out.

XLIV. A matron, beyond the sea about to perish from childbirth, by S. Augustine's visitation is given health & sweet offspring.

XLV. A similar miracle of another matron of the same place.

XLVI. A Priest of the Lord seizes with sickness a Knight, rashly accusing himself, heals the penitent.

XLVII. By what slaughter he ground down the plunderers of his parishioners at Exeter.

XLVIII. How benign a Patron the Scholastics there experienced.

XLIX. How a languid man, from the long instance of death, by Augustine's visitation breathed again.

L. Another sick man, from a lethal swelling of the throat, a vow being made, is freed.

LI. Of a little infant about to die a nurse in a vision thrice is bidden, that to offer it to the oratory of saint Augustine she present it to the Father Presbyter: it breathes again, where funeral things are being prepared.

LII. An invader of the church of S. Augustine is punished with madness: by the satisfaction of his kinsfolk in the same church he is recovered.

LIII. How in another church of his, which is in Leicester, a blind Anchoress was illumined, & merited to see him.

LIV. A matron cherished a poor blind woman with hospitality: which benefit the holy Father appearing to her approves: bids, that she cause the wretch to be brought to Canterbury to his presence to be healed: the brought one soon our Light illumines.

LV. These signs of the aforewritten Translation, through this week of years, proved to the eyes.

CHAPTER I.

While the old church is being demolished is found & translated the body of S. Augustine.

[1] After the ancient solemnities of the Evangelical protoparent of the English Augustine, Who on his Birthday is venerated alone, triumphed in heaven, which we lately treated; with festive praise a new glory arises to us, new joy, a new solemnity. It is his own & his holy colleagues' new Translation, which after almost a hundred lustra, in his now-new church shines. In the former feast, from the contest & darkness of the age to the sun of glory palm-bearing he ascended; in this from the long prison of the ground he shows his light, & from the ethereal honor to the life-giving tomb he revisits us. There from the worldly womb to the supernal beings he is born, here from the sepulchral womb to us he is reborn. There with praises we led the victor passing to the stars, here we gather the treasure shining from the earth. in the feast of the Translation with several companions he is honored. Then in the sleep of eternal peace he rested, now from so long a slumber moved by our hand he has awakened; & that he is present as well from heaven as from the sepulchre by evident signs he answered, as in fitting places it will be clear. And the former festivity, is singular by the prize of one: this, shines with as many stars of festivities, as leaders joined with the Prince. Hence the Lord of things, ever renewing the ages with new benefits, & from old age & death restoring to us all things in the revived joys of the Saints, let us glorify with a new glorying of faith & hope, by which by the life-giving representation of their bodies we now foresee the rewards of the blessed resurrection. These illustrious dances therefore, in a long age desired, in our times declared, by miracles & revelations confirmed, lest ever posterity lose them, our piety entreats to commit to letters, charity urges, brotherhood impels, the harmony of all good affection enjoins. But now let us explain the matter itself: although it far exceed our faculty to compose so many divine Princes in one text, as in one chamber of theirs: whom it would befit to flourish in individual books, as in their own halls.

[2] The fabric of the new church being drawn out farther, The more augustly exalted Presbytery of the new church of Augustine embraces all that space with ample porticoes, which the oratory of the holy Mother of God contiguous from the East had possessed, by its own & the continual solemnity & signs of the heavenly virtues most illustrious. Hence the remaining nave of the old monastery, ordered to yield to the rising edifice, & now guilty of threatening ruin, lest it overwhelm is demolished: yet before, all the throng of Saints, diffused through all the sanctuaries, is snatched from the loss, & laid back under new roofs. the old one threatening ruin, As they from the world's ruin with Lot are freed by the Lord; so the Apostolic hall of Augustine tended to the destined goal: but the portico of his sleeping stood in the way. What therefore should the author of the edifice the devout Abbot Scollandus do? while neither those holy recesses, for so great an age untouched, does he presume to move; nor can the begun work, save the obstacles being removed, proceed: especially since his predecessor expiated by death the aforewritten basilica of the Mother of God broken? But he himself meanwhile by the supernal will being taken from the midst of earthly cares, & the tower which impended over the Saints being overthrown, there succeeded Abbot Wido, in whose fourth year was made the Translation which is here ascribed: to whom the King consulted favoring had ordered, that with an affluence of Pontiffs & Abbots & peoples most becomingly he should perform these solemnities. He himself wished also to be present, but then he was going on the expedition of Scotland. But the Monasteriarch, when he had raised the tower preeminent over the aforesaid porticoes with an august summit, after SS. Adrian & Mildreth translated, while he burns to extend the remaining nave of the temple, that chamber of the Blessed, impatient of the delay by which the Saints should be brought out, with a strong ram he subverted: & so many Princes of the supernal Kingdom, lulled in long-lasting peace, by a hastened virtue now excusing the negligence, he overwhelmed. Yet before, the nard-flowing pledges of the worthy Saints, Adrian the confessor & Mildreth the Virgin of Christ, verdant with wonderful sweetness, he caused solemnly to be carried out, & to escape the impending fall.

[3] But the very Chief ones, namely Augustine, Laurentius, Mellitus, Justus, Honorius, ^c Deusdedit in the aforesaid overwhelming being left, the sepulchres of the rest remain unhurt, the divine protection as submitting a hand, the stones & images spared, which the harder human obstinacy spared not. For

when so great a mass of stones, beams, & leaded roofs, which had overwhelmed the sacrosanct bodies, were removed; all those sepulchral little shrines of theirs, although they were fragile & of brick; but also the sculptures & Angelic images, with the Lord's majesty over the tomb of magnificent Augustine wonderfully formed, all proclaiming the miracles of God, appeared unhurt.

[4] & singularly that of S. Augustine: There remained meanwhile the Southern wall, in which part kindly Augustine & sacred Deusdedit rested: which at length by much ramming loosed, while by a certain nod it seemed about to crush the Saints, forthwith by the inestimable virtue of God, as into a leap is shaken off: & to the South against those impelling, wholly, with entire solidity, it is laid prostrate: & how great vast & peaked it was, so much space lying it occupied. Scarcely would the assailants have escaped safe, had not the supernal clemency spared them by the merits of the Saints. Then indeed at so evident a sign a praise-resounding cry of all is lifted: for He who had preserved His beloved Heavenly ones overwhelmed, here forbade them to be overwhelmed. So for the most part the very wonder-worker of the Saints, protected some in the midst of fires, from others even put fires to flight: these through the deep of the sea with dry foot he led across, others over the waves he made to run.

[5] There lay then for nine weeks those heavenly spoils under the open sky, as if common funerals exposed, to which left under the open sky, & to every onset of the air lay open: so much, alas the grief! earthly unworthiness dissembled those, whose vigils we believe Angel fellow-citizens frequented. Yet the devotion of the Brethren strove, after its measure, to prepare special defenses for their special Prince Augustine.

[6] They composed a hut of little laths: & one or two by reason of the straitness by turns kept the vigils, a sleeping Brother is seized, with lights & divine canticles: where one, perchance weighed down by sleep, a voice heard rebuked: And, here, says it, not for sleeping, but for prayer the place is fitting. By which rebuke that Brother was rendered more vigilant in prayer.

[7] Then a candle offered, negligently fixed to the candlestick, over the tomb of the Saint, & a fallen candle hurts nothing. solemnly adorned with linens or palls, fell; & there, the embers marking a tract of three feet (for the keepers were absent), it burned. At length there was a coming-up: the candle removed, the embers shaken off, the linens & palls wholly untouched shone: by which miracle all exulting rendered thanks to God.

[8] That, when no one dared to open it, Now the most grateful day had shone of the sacred Translation: there is present the venerable Pontiff of the Church of Rochester Gundulfus, who then held the authoritative place of the deceased ^e Archprelate: he proceeds with the Abbot & Fathers & hymn-singing Officials to that holy of holies, to that sanctuary & propitiatory of the Lord: he orders first that of supreme Augustine to be opened. No one presumed to approach: fear deterred all. You would see the craftsmen, as guilty, under accusers & questors & the thunderbolt, trembling. They had seen formerly an eminent young man, a craftsman of the monastery, punished with swift death, who by the Abbot's command first impelled this sacred portico: the Bishop of Rochester begins the work: nor could that one so officious be excused, because he obeyed his preceptor, but that he paid the penalties of presumptuous grace. But the most faithful Bishop, now the three-day abstinence being foretasted by the Brethren, armed with faith, prayer, & devotion, of his own accord invades the iron, gave a blow into the front of the tomb, & by his example & exhortation animated the rest to the work.

[9] First the most excellent master of the craftsmen, & the notable composer of the temple Blitherus, a sweet odor is felt the Pontiff's blessing being sought, trembling, weeping, & prostrate approaches: & exhausts the altar of supreme Augustine's head to the pavement. There, the floor being leveled, he meets a white square stone of Parian marble: which a little raised, a nard-flowing vapor bursting forth, beat back its seeker in the face: & that he was present who was sought, by his sweetness to the one knocking he answered. The prudent man understood him voluntarily offered, whom by a deep digging & laborious search he had feared scarcely to be found: & astounded & trembling he replaced the stone, & closed this wondrous incense-vessel; weighing wisely, that it was not of his office to proceed further, he yields forthwith; testifies humbly, the sought pledge to be present: nor was the continual psalmody meanwhile silent. Forthwith by the Abbot's command by the hands of the Brethren the aforesaid stone is removed. the stone which covered the tomb being taken away: Then indeed a vast din of most sweet aromatics, as from the breast & mouth of sleeping Augustine, leaped out: & wafted far, filled all with as wonderful as before unexperienced sweetness: & the more this balsamic apothecary was unsealed, the more profusely the heavenly odor darted forth. Forthwith the place, for the glory of the Father & the onset of the people, is surrounded with curtains: & within by the faithful domestics the most desirable treasure is searched out.

[10] the body is found Then the door lying open clear lights are brought in: & behold the first-marked institutor of the Christianity of England, for so many ages hidden, so desired, with as great as unhoped-for joy shown, after almost five hundred years is beheld. Indeed amid so many storms of wars, so great a deluge of Pagans, the extermination of peoples, the subversion of cities & churches, by the wonderful protection of God the Augustinian vestibule, as the Ark of Noah, ever remained untouched. Whence & where, & as he first with his blessed colleagues from the day of his sleeping was laid, in the same place & the same manner most unmoved he is found. There lay open the form & quantity of the body, the piety & quality of the ancient observance & first entombment. Pontifically clothed: He is beheld with Chasuble, Alb, Stole, Staff, Sandals, & the other Pontifical instruments; so that he might be thought still of fleshy integrity, did not the touch prove the condition of mortality, which yet is to the increase of immortal glory. By the wishes of all therefore that cave, the treasury of inestimable price, the fit Brethren with the highest fear & reverence enter, with prayer & Davidic praise: they gather into linen & palled shrines, those golden & gemmed pledges, rightly composed in bodily compact & harmony. One of them also asserts with truthful constancy, that among that pigmentary dust he touched with his hand the still solid flesh of the five-hundred-year deposit, & suppliantly cherished it: whence deservedly is esteemed this sacred clay, in the custody of supernal grace, to have endured in long-lasting incorruption.

[11] Meanwhile a festivity being enjoined by the Prelate to be venerated with the highest & all brightness of joy, the whole monastery is adorned as with Paschal dignity. Forthwith the fragrance of so great a novelty the remote throng smells from afar, & it is translated exultantly the whole city flows together, Kent inundates, everywhere run together the crowds of peoples: they congratulate immensely, their Augustine, now as if from death brought back, from the sepulchre raised, from heaven & earth restored, representing himself by bodily sight, by signs & virtues as if mouth to mouth addressing. There returns that felicity, by which once he instructed the peoples in the body, & with heavenly nectar beatified those seeing & hearing him: nay rather so much more happily & powerfully we have him, by how much now from mortal captivity into the kingdom of God's clarity translated, more present he can be to his suppliants everywhere. O new & matutinal joy! in which so great a brightness, with all the paternal rays, to our eyes for so great an age closed, to see; nay even with grateful hands those nard-flowing pledges, desirable above gold & precious stone much, & sweeter above honey & honeycomb, to embrace & handle we merited; which we even hoped not to see we never before presumed. Many Kings & Princes, secular & ecclesiastical, wished to see, what we saw, & saw not, neither by prayer nor by price availed: as the Roman Emperor: who a prodigal weight of gold & ornaments being held forth, could not attain thence the least little dust. He is carried out therefore with all ornament & procession & jubilee of ecclesiastical celebrity, to the altar of the Apostles. with the modulation of voices & cymbals, with the fellow congratulation of supernal & lowest, & with this high-sounding glory before the authentic altar of the supreme Apostles, as a heavenly deposit, he is composed, until a couch being decently prepared he be placed. But so great graces of the gifts of Christ were poured back into the people from the sweetness of so great a Father, that as incense everywhere they distilled with tears of joy, by which that day of paternal presence hitherto unvalued could shine.

[12] Nor meanwhile is that place of the former rest, that little bed of the long sleeping, void of health: By the washing of the fingers of him who had touched the body it is warm with the reclining of the great inhabitant, sweats helpful balsams, & by its odor cures the diseased. The sick, languid, weak, contracted come at evening, & return unhurt in the morning. The remaining companions also & Fellow-priests of Augustine, favor that chamber with their blessing, besprinkle it with their floral offering, incense it with their incense. But one of these, a dying girl is healed: who had investigated these pearls of the sacred citizens, from the water, with which he washed his dusty fingers, to a girl, now for two days without voice & sense agonizing to the end, now dying, as an antidote sent: which tasted, forthwith raised in her little bed she sat down, asked for food, refreshed safe she rose: with her herself raised as from death, the mother & kinsfolk are raised into joys & libations of thanks from grief. She is known, contiguous from birth to the gate of the monastery.

[13] Great were then of Augustine's protection the miracles of bodily healings: two pairs of enemies are reconciled, but greater are those of healed hearts. We saw here two irremediable enemies meet. The one had slain the other's father: the avenger shuddered at the slayer, the slayer dreaded the avenger. When each, one by hatred, one by fear, strove to flee from the church; by divine virtue as by thunderbolts beaten back, even the door lying open, they could not go out. So Augustine's grace intervening, unexpectedly before the same pious peacemaker represented, & no other mediating mutually compunct, mutually prostrate in satisfaction, with most abundant tears inflamed, from most desperate adversaries become german friends, as if sons of the same parent. Similarly two others, of whom one had slain the other's brother, after most bloody hatreds, all wondering & congratulating, on the same day of their own accord were pacified & confederated. By whose examples, all being suffused with Augustine's nectar, & the solemnity is ended by the Bishop of Rochester 6 September. no one in so great a people remained an enemy, that the very chief, the standard-bearer of Christ's peace, as a worthy Father of concordant sons might rejoice in all, in so new & so illustrious a festivity. The Bishop celebrates Mass, the white Choir congratulating: & after the Gospel of so great a dance of so great a Patron dispenses a sermon to the people: the mystery of so great a light, with the hope of his blessed resurrection, vision, & perpetual cohabitation faithfully intimates: lastly to sinners absolution, to penitents remission, to all the flowing people, in the stead & by the authority of the same first Prelate & their institutor, gives a blessing, & confirms perennial peace in Christ: the supernal hosts also were seen to congratulate at these solemnities. ^f This celebrable Translation happened on the Sabbath, to which the Nativity of the holy Mother of God succeeded on the third day.

ANNOTATIONS.

of August, returning from Normandy into England, an immense army being gathered & a fleet not small, toward Scotland set out.

CHAPTER II.

The Translation of the Saints Laurentius, Mellitus, Deusdedit, Justus, Honorius, Nothelmus.

[14] On that very Sabbath & the following Lord's night, the watchful keeper of his own Augustine, with the psalm-singers spending the night, [The absent Presbyter meanwhile sees a ladder rise from the sepulchre into heaven,] before the Apostolic altar awaited the apparatus of his rest. Now there is a Kentish citizen, a most known Presbyter, of proved faith & truthful speech, who then perchance lodging at Winchester, on that very Lord's night about dawn prepared to return home. But behold amid drowsiness or ecstasy, as he confirms by oath, he saw from afar heaven opened above the Augustinian temple, & a ladder radiant with flaming brightness, from the very supernal gate even to the head of the same church, where the Saint of the Lord lay, as a balanced column; & a choir of Angels, in most white & most splendid habit, descending through it even into the very Apostolic hall: but the whole monastery, as a vast globe vomiting flame, the ray of the standing brightness with the very extremity of the ladder enveloped; so that, his gaze beaten back, what within or about those places was being done, he could not weigh. And while he marvels at so unexperienced a majesty of contemplation, at length he is restored to the exterior sense. He marveled the more, since he knew nothing at all nor thought of the mystery of the paternal Translation, what of things this vision presignified. The ignorant companions nonetheless were astounded, such a revelation being heard: until coming nearer, they learned the certitude of the matter. Then indeed a greater & greater stupor arose, & that flaming. when by the indication of the new contemplator of the Saint's merits, the heaven was proved a witness: nor let anyone disdain to believe the ladder of dreaming Jacob revealed in the dregs of our time to a mediocre person, because the Lord of all in great & small things does what He wills, & when He wills, & how He wills. We too by faith may see, what he by seeing perhaps weighed not: namely that the Angelic citizens through that ladder amiably descended to the sweet spoils of the soul-companion of Augustine, & the pledges about to live again in their clarity refreshed with a most grateful visitation, & at the same time showed, that they congratulated with the earth-born at his glory: but that this is the flaming ladder, by which by the steps of the supreme virtues & the flaming ardor of supernal love thou didst ascend the heavens, sublime Augustine.

[15] Then after those recent feasts of the Sabbath, the Lord's day shining, On the next Lord's day another glory of festivity is seconded to Augustine: when by the whole choir, again white-robed & purpled, with the headlong river of peoples & high-sounding jubilee of praises, the chamber being most solemnly adorned he is placed; where now at the front & face of the church, the watchful spy & keeper of the house & city & all his England, in a golden little shrine keeping watch, duly by all is venerated, & as the interventer of all is adored. But who saw so great an oblation in gold, silver, wax & candles, the people flow together with oblations: & other little things of the faithful? It was a miracle to all so unwonted an abundance: these altars did not hold them, the contests of those gathering did not suffice, nights & days the throng of those offering did not rest. Wonderful was the grace in all: everywhere ran rivers of tears. Incredible would it seem, were it not openly beheld, this new devotion of the people & unwonted compunction. But doubtless the paternal graces had breathed upon them, that as if from a long age of times or spaces returning with melted soul they should receive the most benign Parent. Nor indeed were they deceived in their faith & charity: for in truth he showed himself present as well by the presence of spirit as of body, & by the evidence of signs & the fragrance of piety; & as above we mentioned, by the public conspiracy of peace & reconciliation.

[16] The tomb of S. Augustine new being closed within three days, They wished then also to translate the blessed citizen companions, that one celebrity of the same day might bind the colleagues of one mind. But both that day & the following (which was, as foresaid, of the Nativity of the Mother of the most high Word-bearer) in composing Augustine alone they put their hands: nor did they at all suffice, the continual crowding of peoples intervening, to complete the work. On the third day at last, that is the third weekday, they scarcely finished the little shrine & covering of the Leader: on the 4th weekday SS. Laurentius & Mellitus are dug up. on the fourth day at last, which is the fourth weekday, as with exhausted arms, to the most blessed companions & successors of his, Laurentius ^a & Mellitus, to the Prince himself to be conveyed they came. Laurentius came first with the Leader Augustine himself: with whom also he first broke the army of the devil, & first ordained by him still living an Archpontiff, succeeded S. Clement to the surviving supreme Peter. But Mellitus the most chosen the most excellent Gregory sent after to Augustine as auxiliary, in the array of Christ strenuously substituted. Of B. Laurentius it would be sweet to recount, how he raised the dead, ran with his feet over the waves of the sea, by fire called from heaven by the virtue of Elias burned the impious: how a fountain produced in dry places he poured forth into a perpetual stream, the eulogy of each, by what punishment every approach of women is barred from the church, which to his apostolate was built & consecrated in Scotland: as lately the renowned Queen of Scotland ^b Margaret, with offerings daring to attempt the entrance, was suddenly struck & repelled, but by the prayer of the Clerics restored. But these things, excluded by the straitness of the place, I omit, elsewhere God aspiring to be woven again. But the most-honeyed Mellitus's, the third Archprelate from the primitive Augustine, most proved sanctity, in the most faithful history of Bede frees the burning city of Canterbury by opposing himself to the fires, the flames he violently drives backward by tempest & whirlwind: from whose face recede both the winds & the pyres, & perish more swiftly with their terror. Of this also first Pontiff & Illuminator of London by his worthy merits it is read ascribed, how the renowned church of Westminster on the night of the Lord's day, on which he was to dedicate it in honor of the Prince of the Apostles, the lofty Key-bearer himself forestalled the work, & carried over by a fisherman across the river Thames, performed all the office & solemnities of the Dedication in the ecclesiastical order (which by clear indications it was possible to behold) & in sign of the deed sent the Pontiff a distinguished fish as a gift.

[17] & the site of the first burial. It is pious also for posterity to hear, what now is not to see, in what position the Saints here formerly rested. First Augustine possessed the Southern side of his portico, & with his sacred feet touched the Eastern precinct-wall. From his left the first successor & side-companion Laurentius, as foreshown, was stretched with a similar space; removed only so much, as the altar of his most blessed Author Gregory occupied of place, on this side & that taking in both. The other part of the Northern breadth, on the left of kindly Laurentius, had received saint Adrian. But the Virgin of Christ Mildreth, the sole gem of the Fathers, from the Northern wall, answered to Southern Augustine in a concordant region; whom, as above, translated we carried out. At her head stood the altar of B. Augustine: but over the sacred head of Laurentius Mellitus, as the next successor, impended in the drawn-out floor of the church. Mellitus joins justly-flowing Justus, according to his succession, to himself at the head: but from the right of Justus B. Honorius, the successor of Justus: from the right of Honorius the holy & God-given Deusdedit, by the order of his succession, was subjoined. He namely from the head of supreme Augustine of the same Southern wall the couch merited, whom only the middle door, by which there was entrance, separated. So nevertheless were all those mausoleums of the Angels of God distinct, that a passage was had between each.

[18] Therefore in carrying out the body of B. Laurentius while the pavement, near the tomb of Laurentius another is opened which before the Gregorian altar between it & illustrious Augustine lay open, it was judged first to be plucked up; that the tomb being broken from the side, an easier exit might be prepared for the Saint; wonderful to say! the hardness of the bricks laughed at the irons & engines of all. Indeed this so solid structure betrayed a treasure, hidden through our ages. But since labor conquers all things, nay faith which persists in God; with most robust iron stakes from the front margin they undermine & impel. At length the rebel strength is subjected to frequent blows: nor yet is the most fortified texture of the little bricks loosed; but, wonderful to see! as a wooden floor nailed together, to the space of an ample door whole it is lifted up. And while thus the pavement being uncrusted the plucked grate is raised, a sepulchral little crypt, which before or under the very altar lay hid, a little stone being plucked likewise is violated. So a small hole being made, forthwith a vast vapor of unexperienced sweetness bubbling out, not only struck the bystanders as a vehement blast in the face, it breathes out a sweet odor; but also breathed through the whole cloister of the monastery & the Brethren residing in it with a new virtue of aromatics. At so unhoped-for a miracle the bystanders said; Who is this? the absent said, What is this? So this man, to all unknown by person & name, became known to all both present & absent by the gift of his merits: for so was he in all our age now abolished, that no one would have observed anything less, than that under that level of the pavement anything besides earth lay hid. Thanks to God, the bestower of all good things. For the known Patron Laurentius, whom we sought, an unknown companion we found: & our doubled joy grows, while we have both. & since it was not known whose it was. But here our unworthiness wastes with one grief; that, while we know, what it is that we have; who he is, we know not; except that he was of the inmost pledges of the Father Augustine, who in such a place merited to be buried together, we suppose. But the name, because the ancient one we have lost, a new & familiar one to him we have faithfully imposed, that until the day of revelation he be called by us saint Deo-notus God-known. Under the same Gregorian altar therefore the sacrosanct clay of the buried one, was stretched to the very Eastern wall contiguous, as those of Augustine & Laurentius; who as a son, he is called S. Deo-notus: equally middle of the twin Fathers, as if by the wings of each, was cherished. That apothecary of aromatics being unsealed therefore, more & more it refreshed the striving peoples with divine fragrance: whence a snatched little dust someone applied to his nostrils, & esteemed the pleasantness of paradise: & that you may more wonder; when forthwith he replaced the dust, his hand long after thence was fragrant. Because therefore on that day, for the onset of the people, they could not; the most sacred clay of Deo-notus himself, who on the 5th weekday translated received in a leaden case, in the morning, that is the fifth weekday, into the new church they translated; & behind the new altar of the new portico of the most mentioned

Pope Gregory decently they replaced. We have one of the seniors of the monastery of so noted probity, that not to believe his assertion is an injury. He testifies, that to him on the following night through sleep as it were the face & form of this Saint was illustriously beheld, worthy by tallness of stature & monastic shape, & thus addressing him: I have amicable thanks & pray a perpetual reward, he said, to your fraternal devotion, for the diligence & labor, which yesterday you exhibited to translating & composing my body. But indeed I am not he, he declares himself to be truly a Saint. whom you reckoned me to be. For the Brethren conferred among themselves, that this was that Rufinianus, whom the Blessed Pope Gregory once, with the Blessed Mellitus & Justus, had destined for the help of the Gospel to the most sacred Augustine, or someone of his company. It is not known, says he, who I am, nor yet will you know: but you will know afterward at the nod of the supernal disposition. ^c

[19] This one therefore forestalling, or, that I may say more pleasantly, supplanting the former translation of Laurentius & Mellitus, let it be returned to them with our pen. Then are translated SS. Laurentius & Mellitus. Their tombs are opened from the side; nor less, than we said above, to the rushing throng their cinnamon & balsams they poured forth. And now ready Laurentius awaits his worthy companion Mellitus. Both being composed in worthily adorned coffins, the former is carried out; the other follows. The white assembly proceeding, the Lord glorious in His Saints high-soundingly is glorified. Now Laurentius had entered the door of the new church, Mellitus impended outside: there a pious & celebrable miracle of God to the good understanding animated the peoples. There was present a certain Knight, whose right eye a carbuncle (which evil the French by antiphrasis call a good malannum ^d) so possessed, that not only of sight, but also of life he was imperiled. The very orb, the very eyebrows, & nose, had exceeded their space from the swelling: the whole languid face bulged. He pressed, he pushed, he panted with force, to reach his one remedy Augustine: his bier being touched a perilously inflamed eye is healed, but the throng, as in the Gospel to the blind man crying, stood in the way; & by repressing with most crowded array, forbade access. But he conquered, as is wont, by perseverance: he conquered, as he could, & snatched health by violence: nor wonder, it snatches the kingdom of heaven. So impelling & bursting through the densed wedges, he stretched out his lifted arm; & leaning from above he touched with the tips of his fingers the extreme part of the bar, by which B. Mellitus's bier was carried; & that very touch, as a collyrium, as a plaster, as the best ointment, on the diseased eye he rubbed: & at the same time, O holy Augustine, succor, he proclaimed. O the power of God! o the grace of the Saints! o the confidence of the man! When the tyranny of that evil, irritated by some hurt, more threatens destruction; forthwith at the sacred touch, as an enchanted snake, it cracked; the pestiferous matter flowed away; the sight & face subsided, & all the grief a sudden health, & the light the darkness routed. He marvels with all at so prompt a change, so swift a return from death to life, from tribulation to joy. In the Gospel, the fringe of the Lord being touched, the noxious flux stood to health: here the vehicle of Mellitus being touched the death-bearing humor ran out, & he safe glorified God in His Saints with all. But lest anyone doubt, whether to Augustine, or to Mellitus this cure is to be ascribed; with more certain faith let it be ascribed to each Patron: to Augustine, because him in the other he sought; to Mellitus, because his bier instead of the other he touched.

[20] Meanwhile, the Saints being deposited before the altar of the Protector Augustine, of them is performed a most celebrated Mass, as befitted the holy Priests of the Lord: during the assembly a blind woman is illumined. in which a sermon being had to the people, their illustrious merits are set forth. Whence by faith illumined a certain old woman, who was present, long lacking human light; while she faithfully appeals to the most clement Fathers, her eyes being forthwith unsealed she clearly catches the day, & exclaims, Blessed be the grace of the omnipotent God, through the suffrages of His Saints, because my night is turned into day; & the darkness in which I came, now the light returning has receded. There is added hence by all to God blessing & thanksgiving. After Mass there are joined to Augustine the worthy Fellow-priests, the former Laurentius on the right, the second Mellitus on the left.

[21] The whole 6th weekday is spent in excavating S. Deusdedit, These things thus on the fifth weekday composed, they obtain the sixth weekday, for the remaining Saints, Justus, Honorius, & Deusdedit to be carried out. But doubtless the divine dispensation intended the Sabbath for these, which day was now the eighth of Augustine's Translation: that of these Saints the grace might be more amply renewed, & to all translated through their days it might be kept festive, & all might join & solemnize equally this one day, as one charity. On that very sixth weekday therefore there was going to the aforenamed Saints, as most easily & most swiftly to be brought. There is approach to the most sacred Deusdedit ^e, who (as was forenoted) possessed the Southern wall after Augustine. Incredible, but true we shall say. That whole day, the whole following night, in breaking or unsealing his mausoleum their strength being worn, they consumed: in the morning at last of the Sabbath, with panting sweat his little crypt they broke through. On the Sabbath are dug up again SS. Justus, Honorius, Then over the crypt of B. Justus ^f even to the first hour more attentively they sweated, & scarcely at last they unsealed it. Lastly that of S. Honorius ^g, who lay the middle of these, the crypt being pierced in the side gave the Saint an exit. Here therefore ask the life of kindly-flowing Deusdedit: the wonderful grace of sweet odors, bursting from his tomb, will narrate. Inquire, who Justus is: there will set forth to thee the house of heavenly aromatics: of Honorius too the virtues & most abundant merits the fragrance of his apothecary speaks. Of all these Patriarchs therefore the single bowels & breasts of paternal affection, one prerogative of divine nards proclaims. Translated therefore were these three, before the supreme Trinity radiant candlesticks, on this eighth day of Augustine: which to this (as we believe) the supernal benevolence deferred & retarded, that (as we have set forth) more amply may be kept & solemnized in so many Hierarchs this same eighth day, & the whole week of feasts being completed, the eighth may be rendered the first: & now the mystery of resurrection in these Saints may be wrought, that after the seven volumes of the age the unending eighth shall be born. & Nothelmus, Archbishops. Nor from these do we separate the Archprelate of blessed memory & his companion Nothelmus ^h, within the altar of S. Gregory among them before laid up, & now a second time with them translated: whom as author & judge of the history of the English the writer Bede heralds. There led these their Leaders, as the former, a most solemn procession & sonorous laudation: & they being deposited before the altar of the protector Augustine, until in their seats they should be enthroned, a festive Mass is celebrated.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

A deaf dumb & lame woman is healed, a candle by chance extinguished is divinely re-kindled.

[22] On this day also, irradiated with clear miracles, the supernal benignity deigned to favor His Saints. A woman here deaf, dumb, & lame, A deaf dumb & lame woman, from a triple namely calamity was changed. A candle extinguished, was from heaven re-kindled, an innumerable people solemnly standing by. But a matter so stupendous more distinctly & copiously is to be set forth. O the pitiable condition of human calamity! She could not, whom we said triply condemned, speak her hardships, nor by wailing seek solace for her grief: she heard not whereby she might be consoled, nor was she heard whereby anyone might compassionate her: whatever necessity urged her, the intervening tongue being excluded, she could not obtain: the ear admitted not the counsel of living, nor the mouth called the remedy of want; she sought to go to helpers, the weak feet denied help: but striving constancy mostly conquers impotence. Many suffrages of the Saints being traversed, with wooden footsteps, any leader being always demanded by nods, the wretch crept at last to mercy. She forestalled in the city of Rochester the impending Nativity of the holy Mother of God: which, as above was related, bidden by the Mother of God appearing, was the third day from the Translation of kindly Augustine. There on the festive night of that most high Virgin spending the night in a certain church of hers, with a heart's groan so much loftier she belched her calamities to the most clement Lady, by how much more her intercluded tongue could not burst into words. Now about cockcrow, when sleep crept upon the wearied one, a person notable for heavenly clarity, & delightful by divine grace, in a vision stood by, who soothing the anxious mind with sweet-flowing voice, thus begins: Now from thy sadness breathe again, daughter: near at hand is thy cure. Now the intervening prayers for thee are clemently heard by the Lord: do thou only with most certain faith, all ambiguity removed, to go to the old sepulchre of S. Augustine, in the morning take thy journey to B. Augustine; & coming to his monument, where hitherto he rested, approach: there both with speech, & hearing, & steps, with full soundness thou shalt be gifted. Nor she delaying, nor lingering at so illustrious an admonition; when she drank the dawn, a leader being found she enters the bidden journey: which a safe traveler in one day or half easily with twin feet would complete, she as with six feet scarcely in six days accomplished: for with two steps she swept the ground, on two crutches she leaned, with two hands she lifted herself; & with these six weak servants scarcely on the sixth day to her curer so laboriously, where she might lay down labors, she came: that very day from the Nativity of the God-bearing Virgin the sixth, from the Translation of the chief Augustine was the present eighth. Deposited before the ancient mausoleum of the found Augustine, now of his body empty, but of life-giving virtue full; she gave deep bellowings instead of prayers, panting groans instead of addresses: more loftily cried the dumb woman, more earnestly vociferated the violent silence: she begs to be heard, that the deaf one may hear; the tongueless asks words, instead of steps prostrate she appeals, she prays with bent knees & stretched hands for supernal remedies. she is there prostrated praying: Among these things suddenly she is seized by the virtue of the heavenly medicine, nor does human weakness bear the force of the ethereal cure: they seized

her forthwith straits as one in travail: for this grief travailed health. She is turned here & there as a furious one: now on her back she is cast, now on her face she is precipitated: she foams at the mouth, gnashes with her teeth, turns her eyes, with her whole body is shaken, trembling beats the ground, now with her forehead, now with her neck, & by a various whirlwind of griefs is dragged. O the deep & inscrutable judgments of God! o the infinite abyss of the mercy & justice of the Lord! who through straits frees from straits, through punishment from punishment. There stood by the Preceptor of the monastery with his Brethren & those of the church of Christ, many being astounded & tearfully asking health for the wretch. Hence after almost half an hour, the supreme clemency favoring the intervention of His friend Augustine, & healed she invokes S. Augustine, she from the source of speech excluded, with these words suddenly her curer invokes, & by a thrice-repeated name designates him; O S. Augustine, o S. Augustine, o S. Augustine: saying these things she fell, & wholly immovable without breath & without voice lay, so that the beholders called her dead: but all magnified & glorified the great miracles of God, & the great merits of their Augustine, whom in the grace of the true Trinity they had heard thrice named by one perpetually dumb, by one never before having spoken. Again she after a little breathes again, unseals her eyes; & then not only Augustine's name she utters, but also all the companion Saints translated with him by their individual names in order, & his companions in order, as a litany, with sent-forth voice she intones. Thence she pursues the Lord's prayer, which with silences interspersed through the words, to the great stupor of all, both entire & without hindrance she chants. Now therefore plainly speaking, now clearly hearing, now with reformed steps coming forth, the Abbot approaching with the Brethren, finds her healed, sprinkles her with holy water. She raised on her feet stands, & her footsteps being firmed with full soundness of her whole body proceeds. Then almost twenty-five years of age, several of her acquaintances attesting to her, she was reckoned; that so long deferred & almost despaired health from her very birth she might the more gladly embrace, as one who is reborn from death itself. A triple medicine therefore in one person, a triple grace of one Deity superabounded. The dumb woman speaks, the deaf hears, the weakened one advances. So from the now empty monument of Augustine, even to the altar where now translated he rests, an immense throng surrounding, & so great benefits of God & merits of Augustine with vast stupor praising, she came: & rushing on her face before that sacrosanct altar of his body, so great thanks to the Lord Saviour in His Saint she rendered, as great joys of health she had received. & receives the sacred Veil, But it seemed too little to have rendered thanks with words: there forthwith herself to the Lord her redeemer in a holocaust of thanks she offered, than which nothing more acceptable in every sacrifice of things she could give Him. She is veiled at that very altar with the shade of perpetual chastity, in pledge of the Lord's betrothal, & repudiation of damnable corruption. The favoring Abbot with the Seniors stood by astounded, the people rejoiced: mortals congratulate on her mortal health, but more perfectly the Angels rejoice at her conversion to their immortality: nor do we empty even this short soundness of blessedness, by which the kindled faith redounds into a more blessed & incorruptible soundness of the soul. But when still some doubtful ones questioned her, how above she had invoked saint Augustine by a triple repetition, & afterward chanted the Lord's Prayer so readily, which she had never learned (inasmuch as she could not even hear a teacher) thus she answered: From no one plainly before did I learn, & she narrates how she received speech. nor did I hear what I pronounced, as you prove: but at the very hour at which S. Augustine by divine instinct, not by mere rude sense, thrice I called; a man of venerable person, in monastic habit stood by, the very sacred words into a breath to me according to my capacity he distilled, & ordered that so I should utter what I uttered. At each word, when I spoke, what he suggested I expressed; but when I was silent, from him what I should say I listened to, in the way a foster-child is wont to hear & emulate a teacher. He said thus, Our Father, I said. Who art in heaven, I pursued. Hallowed be thy name, & those very words therefore I read again. So also that whole prayer the divine teacher leading I made firm, & once said it cannot slip from me: & now he himself having slipped from me, the precepts well by memory I hold. These things by several heard, the more wondering at so new & unwonted, & so invisible, but visibly provable a miracle; the virtue which openly they saw in the cured body, & the great friend of God Augustine they preach with jubilee.

[23] A candle there extinguished, Meanwhile the candle above entitled, which before august Augustine continually burned, was with all its fire extinguished, so that the querulous throng demanded it to be lit. At length when the sacristan recognized it, terrified as if of an injury to the Prince, destitute of the honor of light, through the dense crowds he runs up, snatches, carries out the taper with lifted right hand, that he may light it from that, which before the principal altar of the princes of the Apostles radiated, candle. Scarcely had he moved from the place, nor had he touched any material light, when behold the candle, all the people beholding, with a heavenly flame shone again, & held forth a clear taper on high. To behold then it was the people at the majesty of so great a prodigy to tremble, to stretch their palms to the heavens, to beat their breasts, to press the earth with their eyes; it is divinely re-kindled. some to cry, others gladly to weep, the virtues of Augustine & the other Patrons to the stars to lift. But to be considered & venerably to be embraced is so divine a consequence of things, that on this one day & even the same hour He wrought so clear signs both in the aforesaid woman, cured at the ancient mausoleums of Augustine & his Companions; & in the candle, kindled by a heavenly lamp, before their sacrosanct pledges in a new seat laid up. Then indeed every mouth & every tongue in the voice of exultation & confession, in well-sounding cymbals, & every mode of thanks, resound praise to the Lord of virtues, glorious in the glory of His Saints. The Abbot intones the Hymn, We praise Thee O God: the most solemn Choir pursues the remaining concert, We acknowledge Thee Lord.

[24] This day therefore, irradiated by the splendors of so many Saints buried & translated together, they being equally received & composed, The Octave of the Translation of S. Augustine today let us perform completed with all brightness & celebrity, yearly with indelible repetition festive. Of one of these last we should not suffice worthily to celebrate the solemnity, how much less of all? But also the daily celebrity of these Octaves, would be inferior to the dignity of so great Princes. But it is to be noted, that for one day are celebrated all the Octaves through the year; so that on the Octave of Easter, & of Pentecost, & of the Lord's Birth or Epiphany, & of the Apostles, on the present day in the Collects, likewise as at Easter, This is the day which the Lord made, the whole week is repeated. Wherefore our Saints, translated through the week, let the constancy of faith confirm in one day. But now these our Senators & enrolled Fathers, venerable he is preached with seven Saints together, equally as at first composed rest; just as one spirit, one faith, one charity, one religion & grace was in them. The Major-domo Augustine possesses the front & principal portico of the church, with the first laureled successor Laurentius next to him; on the left & the mellifluous Mellitus the second successor set, on the right he himself sweetly reclines his principal head the altar of the holy Trinity set beside. After Laurentius most just Justus, & by God's gift assumed Deusdedit subjoined, on the left answer to most honorable Honorius, & contemplative Theodore on the right. These are the seven eyes of the Lord, through whom He propitious regards us: these seven stars in His right hand, & seven golden candlesticks shining before Him, by which with the sevenfold grace of His Spirit sevenfoldly He illumines His Church. Of these the exterior Northern wing Mildreth, & the Southern Adrian hold their own porticoes & altars at their heads, in fitting order among themselves placed. as Augustine. Mildreth shines before the altar of the Holy Innocents, all whom she cherishes in her virginal bosom, & with them plays the harp & sings the new song to her Spouse & the Lamb, following Him wherever He shall go. Adrian, holding the altar of the Protomartyr Stephen & also of Laurentius & Vincent the Martyrs, by a martyrial life testifies the fellowship of the Martyrs. Likewise from the Northern region each salutes his successor to the south, Laurentius Mellitus, Justus Honorius, Deusdedit Theodore, Mildreth with the temporal chamber the Father Adrian, & all carry out the protector Augustine.

CHAPTER IV.

The encomium of SS. Justus, Honorius, Deusdedit.

[25] But because of these three confessors of the most high Trinity, Justus, Honorius, & Deusdedit, claim this present Octave of Augustine by their own proper Translation; to dissemble their first dignity, we esteem an injury. Indeed because Bede the Venerable in his manifold History less declared their miracles, not therefore from our faith ought the merits of such great men to be obliterated. Pope Boniface writing to S. Justus, Could it not suffice for the slowness of our hardness, that he described Augustine with his very Companions to imitate the Apostolic life & virtues with innumerable signs, & to be prepared to die for the very faith which they preached? Is it to be esteemed a testimony of small sanctity among other heraldings, that the most holy Pope Boniface, the Fourth from the chief Gregory, praises B. Justus with Apostolic letters, & to his merits & the rewards of the heavens ascribes the conversion of nations? Which the very Epistle partly annotated will more gratefully shine ^a. To the most beloved Brother Justus Boniface. How devoutly, & how also vigilantly for the Gospel of Christ your Fraternity has labored, not only the tenor of the epistle directed by you, nay the perfection granted from above to your work has indicated: for neither did the omnipotent God desert either the sacrament of His name, or the fruit of your labor; while He Himself to the preachers of the Gospel faithfully promised, he congratulates him on the success Behold I am with you all the days even to the consummation of the age. Which by the ministry specially enjoined on you His clemency demonstrated, opening the hearts of the nations to receive the singular ministry of your preaching. For with great reward of your dignities the delightful course He illustrated by the suffrages of His goodness, while of the talents entrusted to you by the offices of most faithful negotiation bestowing an abundant fruit, He prepared for that which you might seal by multiplied generations: & this also was conferred on you by that representation, by which persisting continually in the enjoined ministry, with laudable patience you await the redemption of that nation, & that they might profit by your merits their salvation was offered, the Lord saying, he who shall have persevered even to the end this man shall be saved. Saved therefore are you by the hope of patience & the virtue of toleration, that the hearts of the infidels, in the conversion of nations, purged of the natural & superstitious disease, might obtain the mercy of their Saviour. For the letters of our son Æthelbald the King being received, we found with how great erudition of sacred eloquence & longanimity his mind, to the credulity of the new conversion & undoubted faith, your Fraternity has led: from which matter taking certain confidence of the longanimity of the heavenly clemency, not only the fullest salvation of the nations placed under him, nay also of those neighboring to your preaching

ministry we believe will follow: that, as is written, & he sends the Pallium, the reward of the consummated work may be repaid to you by the rewarder of all good things the Lord, & that truly through all the earth their sound has gone forth, & to the ends of the orb of the earth their words, the universal confession of the nations, the Sacrament of the Christian faith being received, may attest. The Pallium moreover by the bearer of these presents, to thy Fraternity, invited by the zeals of benignity, we have directed. From these & the other testimonies, which the same Epistle pursues, of the most Blessed Pope, it is magnificently to be weighed, of how great merit & how great sanctity this most blessed Justus so holy & just an apex of the Churches esteemed, that so devoutly & so vigilantly for the Gospel of Christ he labored, that with great reward of the supernal dignities his delightful course the Lord illustrated, while of the talents entrusted to him by the offices of most faithful negotiation an abundant fruit manifoldly He prepared for him; weighing his great virtues. that by the merits of his laudable patience & perseverance even to the end the salvation of this nation was offered; that for justice he suffered exile, & a persecuting King to the credulity of undoubted faith by his erudition & longanimity he led: whom, after many contests & many struggles with savage nations, the abovementioned Historiographer sends triumphed to the heavenly things: These things, says he, meanwhile Justus the Archbishop was taken up to the heavenly kingdoms.

[26] Honorius nonetheless, ^b the most holy successor of Justus, the fifth from the chief Augustine, Pope Honorius writing to S. Honorius the Apostolic letters of B. Pope Honorius the successor of the aforewritten Boniface, as a most valiant athlete of Christ, triumph with a victorious crown. But beautiful & a grateful consonance of divine grace, at one time with the same sanctity & the same name, this one met that one; that the Roman orb might have its Honorius, & the English orb likewise its own. Beautifully, I say, that one to this with an equivocal prerogative sends this gift of unanimous love: To the most beloved Brother Honorius Honorius. Among the very many gifts of good things which the mercy of our Redeemer deigns to bestow on His servants, that also clemently He grants by the munificence of His piety conferred, as often as through fraternal affections it represents unanimous love by a certain contemplation to the sight of another: for which to His Majesty we render thanks unceasingly, he praises him as adhering to the Rule of S. Pope Gregory. & with suppliant vows we entreat Him, that your Love, laboring & fructifying in the preaching of the Gospel, & following the Rule of your master & head S. Gregory, He may confirm with lasting stability, & to the increase of His Church through you may raise up more powerful increases: that by faith & work, in the fear of God & charity, your acquisition & that of your predecessors, which through the beginnings of the Lord Gregory sprouts, by convalescing may more amply be extended: that the very promises of the Lord's eloquence in the future may regard you, & that voice may call you to the eternal festivity, Come to me all, who labor & are burdened, & I will refresh you. And again, Well done good & faithful servant, because over a few things thou hast been faithful, over many things will I constitute thee, enter into the joy of thy Lord. The same sent S. Felix to the East Angles, Of the rest of this Epistle consult Bede, that thou mayest understand also from the favor of this holy Pope, that this B. Honorius, a disciple of the Gregorian institution, that is of the Apostolic life & perfection was a worthy foster-child. Nor is that of small glory a heralding, that through S. Felix ^c, a Prelate of the East Angles ordained by him, that nation also he converted to Christ: of whose most recent revelation a little something, but a great monument of faith here we have inserted. A certain rival derogated from this Saint, preferring to him a certain Bishop of secular opulence, because he built the Church of God with much wealth & ornaments, when of this one to have done any such thing of utility in his life there is no trace. one speaking against him is reproved. Which when the foster-child of that place the Prior bore ill being announced; on the following night to a certain Senior, in age & morals venerable, a certain most honorable one stood by in a vision, so illustriously, that he recollects still, to whose form he could liken him: & to him astounded at so special & magnificent a person, thus he says: Why did such a one yesterday wish to tear the Saint of the Lord Honorius with abusive detraction, in the preferring of the praised Pontiff? Why, these things being related, did the Prior not answer from the Holy Gospel? That above all the golden & copious bestowals of the rich, the two mites of the poor woman were worth more with the just judge.

[27] Blessed Deusdedit also we join in like sanctity, With these also saint Deusdedit who to B. Augustine's Apostolate the sixth merited to be subjoined, & to him so closely to be buried together. These are therefore all men of mercy, whose justices have not received oblivion: for because the aforesaid Historiographer esteemed it too much to describe the deeds of each, in the end of all he concluded their merits thus ^d. Of all these rightly & truly it can be said, that their bodies are buried in peace, & their names live unto generations & generations. But who could worthily recount or reconsider, Bede praises. what labors, what contests, what reproaches, what repulses, what martyrdoms of patience they bore in a most ferocious barbarism, pagan or half-Christian, until they should conquer & bear fruit in patience? Of what kind that life of the Saints was, which not only drew the nations to the faith of Christ, but also made the converted Kings even religious. These things I have brought forward on account of the detractors of the Saints, whom they know not, whom they prefer to prejudge swollenly rather than to know. But of the rest, that is, the Kings, Prelates, Abbots, & other Saints translated, now there must be a pause; of whom already elsewhere it has been said or in its time is to be said, when the temple being prepared they shall have received the destined couch.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The odor from the now empty sepulchres, & miracles from a brick taken from under S. Augustine's tomb, & another translated to Berking.

[28] After this Sabbath therefore, with the following Lord's day, the tapestries, which covered the broken & exhausted monuments of the bodies of the Saints, From the empty tomb of S. Mellitus the rain & mud befouling; their venerable keeper hesitated in mind, whether he should attempt to remove them; or in the service of those, who could render better things, suffer them to be corrupted: & again he reconsidered, that their glory would not seek the detriments of the ornaments of the Church. At length approaching trembling, with the incense of psalmody, a sweet odor breathes out, to B. Mellitus's little crypt similarly broken & emptied, he drew the pall a little aside: & behold the vigor of heavenly odors experienced the day before most verdantly beat him back. He struck by the prodigy, What is, says he, Lord God, what is this? Whence breathes the grace? Or does the empty tomb for four days still sweat even absent balsams? Such things with himself that Senior in stupefied heart rolling, replaced the coverings on the nard-flowing hole, ardent to experience more certainly whose this grace was. Forthwith the thrust-back odor, as an excluded ray of light, vanished. Again he uncovered it, again the way being made the poured odor smelled sweet. Then indeed with undoubted faith perceiving from whose fountain he was so soothed, as often as it is uncovered, & at the same time drinking this mellifluous sweetness with inmost heart, he is wet with tears, & resounds with panting words; O, says he, mellifluous truly by name & sweetness of life & the sweetness of all paternal love Mellitus, with how great pleasantness dost thou suffuse the paradise of God, & the altar of the Lord's temple with the incense of thanks, where before the Bestower of rewards perpetually thou growest green in thy nectar; when now even thy emptied tomb, thee being absent, thee being exhausted, thy holy body scraped away & carried off, thy aromatics still breathe, & thee being absent represent their gifts? In a wonderful manner therefore, where the deserted case shows thee to be absent, by the liquid traces of thy piety it testifies thee to have been present. Such things that Senior sounding forth in his delights, & sweetly weeping, scarcely could be torn away thence.

[29] as also from the bricks, set beneath S. Augustine's tomb, On the second weekday thence, the space lying open, the structure of the nave of the church proceeds: a spacious column is founded in the Northern series, in the very place, whence the most opulent treasure of Augustine's body was taken: of whose tomb or little crypt the sacred little bricks with a capacious hollow, for sacred pledges, that column embraces: but of the substrate pavement, on which the most blessed clay lay, the Punic bricks, shining woven with a level floor, & smoking with saffron nard, vying are uncrusted, & in the altar of the new portico of B. Gregory abovementioned are laid up. Under these bricks was found most clean earth, of half a foot's thickness, cast upon the foundation, which projected from the old wall of the Augustinian portico. This earth also, the odor of Augustine penetrating the bricks, with wonderful sweetness was fragrant: which to the flints of the aforesaid foundation exhausted through the sacred tombs of Laurentius, Mellitus, & Justus, which had escaped the persecution of the ecclesiastical structure, they judged to be distributed & preserved. in what place it stood is indicated. But lest our posterity, those who shall be sons of the love of so great a Father, should grieve to know not the hitherto described place of his ancient monument; let him who shall wish note this column, which a little before we designated, to contain his brick tomb: & let him number & know, from that which is arched at the Eastern tower, the third. For what to pious heirs will not seem sweet to discern of so great a progenitor? but what would not be sad to be ignorant of his grace? But of those balsamic bricks the aforewritten most faithful Senior, Secretly thence a brick is taken, who refuses to be made known conscious of this grace, one secretly drew out, not to say stealthily snatched. Praiseworthy this fault, which faith adorns, charity justifies: because he for the remedy of the languid, by a pious sacrilege provided this: for that by divine instinct he reserved these sacred things, the consequence of the miracles proves.

[30] The province of the East Saxons knew an illustrious man a French-born inhabitant, to a sick absent woman through a vision it is indicated he will give health: whose wife by long languor now despaired of health & life. It was revealed to him at length in dreams, that he should swiftly send to S. Augustine at Canterbury, & demand the brick which had lain under his salvation-bearing body to be washed with water: which thence drinking she should trust in Augustine's virtue, that she will receive the remedy of undoubted soundness. By this glad indication her husband cheered, to the heavenly physician's rest honorably with Soldiers came: the Saint being prayed, with a flask of water he seeks the sacristans of the monastery, sets forth the matter in order; the brick shown by a vision, whence he may quicken his water, he demands. Astounded then that keeper of the brick, greatly was astonished; the secret, betrayed to no one besides himself, who had divulged it. And rejoicing himself by a supernal indication published, he brought forth the brick, in the water

dipped it; & that, if he wished his wife safe, of health he should trust, instantly taught. He, willingly believing, gave thanks: &, as he believed, of this sacred cup the sick woman quickly convalesced: whom neither her vision nor her faith deceived.

[31] as also to two others it happened. We know also a certain venerable Presbyter, a celibate & upright man, by the drink of this washed brick wonderfully healed of a long sickness.

[32] When two merchants were lodging in the city of Canterbury, one is destitute by disease: who while by blood-letting he forestalls a remedy, into peril of life he runs. He swelled wholly, so that he was despaired of by all. But the domestics who had received him, grievously condoling, exhort his compassionate companion to hasten to the monastery of B. Augustine, that there a book so medicinal was had, by whose counsel the diseased one could be succored. He obeyed those not knowing what they said: he asks, not knowing what remedy he sought, except if anything of Augustine's bountiful piety he should presume. He requests the medicament of the intimated book: the sacristan answered, that neither medicament, nor physician was had there other, than God & Augustine & the holy College of Augustine: thence his sick one could be healed, if he faithfully believed. And when the interventer professed the intimated credulity, the Sacristan before the body of the blessed Father, the bearer being present, drenched the sacred brick with water, & to the sick man that without delay he should take the drink he sent. It was the day of the sixth weekday: he when he devoutly drank, soon a placid sleep creeping on rested. Meanwhile all the inflation of the body departed, so that after the sleep firm & alert he rose; & on the third day of the Lord's Resurrection, with a large taper, his holy curer, his companion accompanying, with great thanksgiving he revisited, & the benefits experienced of him to the wondering people divulged.

[33] Relics of the precious body of Augustine very many implored, but no one (so great & so pious is the avarice of guarding the paternal treasure) could obtain even one hair thence. Thence taken dusts & fragments of bricks, But of the aforewritten brick the benefits given, still compel us to speak the miracles: of which the aforementioned keeper, while, lodging in the cœnobium of Ramsey, he discoursed of the virtues of that most excellent Patron (as it is ever held sweet to relate the things which are good, & especially to instil him into all as the Father of all) related also that the very incense-bearing bricks, on which he had lain buried, redounded with the gift of healings. Asked therefore by the Brethren for Relics thence, under the condition of celebrating perpetually his Translation, he brought with him a fit Brother of that company: & sending him forward with a sign to the worthy Senior, called Refwinus, most friendly to this faith, at S. Augustine's; he himself awaited his return to Berking, to Berking & Ramsey to be carried, providently namely dissembling, lest anyone should perceive beforehand anything of that sacred secret to be carried off. He sends back a particle of the dust, which he had drawn out of the sepulchral crypt of S. Augustine, & two fragments of the bricks on which the Saint had slept, to the aforesaid Brother in a little casket: that he might equally divide to the church of Berking & of Ramsey the gifts of each grace. The receiver therefore of these sacred things, as a thief fearing to be caught, or as a treasure-bearer to be plundered, more swiftly from S. Augustine's to the church of Christ betook himself: & there with the wonted benignity of the Brethren received, that night with them rested. His wallet, the keeper of the sacred mystery, outside with the servants remained: but the servants growing insolent, & ignorant of the presence or reverence of so great a virtue, that night with so great a terror & horror were agitated, as never in their life they had endured, that they believed themselves now about to perish or to pass into madness. And when, why or whence this dread was, or what it portended, they utterly knew not; the Brother himself also a divine voice rebuked through sleep: Why, says it, Brother, they terrify their careless keepers: hast thou so negligently exposed the pledge entrusted to thee? On the following night nonetheless, he being lodged in the church of Rochester, again the wallet treasurer of the sacred things being left with the servants; again the brutish minds, undocile of divine things, the former dread beat back, & most of the night occupied them as senseless. On the third day to Berking to the Augustinian Monk he exhibited the Augustinian pledges: which he most gladly receiving, the night impending kept with himself.

[34] the bearer Monk's vision of them On that night this treasurer of the sacred things is driven by great mysteries of visions. He beholds a capacious wooden chest full of silver plates, which he, as a servant supplying them, drew out, radiant with so great whiteness & splendor, that all the natural clarity of this metal, all the industry of craftsmen it surpassed. Among these appeared a smaller iron plate silvered: which thinking to retain, while the rest he had decreed to confer on that church, the aforesaid servant thus he seemed to admonish: At least this one silvered plate, the rest being spent, let it be retained by us, if in some way the silver be redeemed from the iron. So much, says he, has the silver grown into this iron, that it can never be thrust out, while the iron shall last. Why complainest thou to have spent the whole? Equally the gift is divided: as much as thou bestowest, so much thou takest away. The pleader assented to equity. Among these visions with a dire torment of breast & bowels the same dreamer is pierced; & by such an anguish struck, by God he is taught, what that vision is, with what reverence or vigilance the sacred things which he held were to be kept. Waking therefore, into a clamorous voice he bursts suddenly of Matins: there follow the Ramsey monk & the Cleric companions, stupefied: & soon amid the sacred concerts all that grief as a cloud fled away. He marveled, what now, what before had been: & a greater stupor the sudden health from the sudden sickness added. the Abbess of Berking hearing, When therefore the dawn, after the terrors of the night, & joy he drank; those dusty, but wondrous Relics into the church he brought; & to the very God-amiable soul the Abbess, whom for her gracious sincerity the Fathers called Caram-gratia, the whole matter of the vision & of the prodigies he set forth in order. She while she marvels at his relation, more wondering thus enters to set forth her own vision, at almost the same time declared.

[35] she narrates in turn a great light beheld by her the same night, Many things, says she, with myself trembling I ruminated, what that which I saw portended: but your, Father, narration has taught me the certain, the more to be wondered, cause. This very night in its middle so great a clarity of light filled our chamber, that eyes buried in sleep with the dart-like blow of the brightness it would excite; & sleep itself, as night by the sun, fleeing, I would unseal my waking eyelids: but the splendor which I felt with closed, I saw not with opened eyes. And when to the Matins hymns I could not excite the Sisters, I sought sleep again: which at the sought times a more flagrant fiery light routed: & then my eyes being opened, I caught the remnants of the fugitive brightness; but the Sisters still a more imperious sleep constrained, & to my stupor & dread no one answered. A third time I reclined my head: & behold so great a force of splendor occupied the whole house, that now to stupor & drowsiness I renounced; & now with clear sight the rays of the vibrating light, although to my nodding eyelids rebellious, I drank. I thought now clear day had shone, & the former signs had been phantastic. But what day ever saw we within these very cloisters so lucid? But soon the singers being excited the unwonted light departed, & night, as it survived, only by domestic lamps appeared, & the nocturnal song to God timely resounded. I marveled, I say, with hope & fear, what of unknown light the sacrament signified: but more I marvel from your vision the proof of the true; namely that in these spoils of yours, the coming of our illuminator Augustine we receive. At these things more deeply astounded the superior pointer, replied: So plainly I weigh our mutual vision, thine vigilantly published, mine in dreams foreknown, the same of Augustine's visitation to consonate in sentence: to thee & thy place in light shone that common Patriarch; to me the plates of most lucid silver gathered from the chest, are the bricks set beneath his body, which we took from his tomb: & she festively receives the Relics: but the iron plate silvered, I judge to be that very little brick, infected with the little dust of his body, which we divided to you. But we leave to a more learned interpreter the conjecture of these: but that is not tediously to be observed, how greatly he shines before God in his glory & crown; when the particles of this dust afford the subsidies of so great an illustration & of so many benefits. The Priests therefore being adorned & Clerics, & also a Sisterly procession festively clothed, its half of the sacred brick & pigmented dust is received by the most devout Church, with sweet-toned praise; the other half being reserved for the other Church, which we foreshowed. This treasure is gathered in a pompously decorated shrine: it is carried about the cloister by the Priests in blessing with jubilee: there accompanies with paternal praises the virginal assembly: during the Mass before them sung: there is performed in B. Augustine's memory a most solemn Mass, the Angelic songs being modulated, & the melody of the virgins surpassing the organs: so much do they vie with a triumph, as if they had held Augustine in solid body. The Augustinian Monk sings the Mass, the most faithful keeper & distributor of his sacred things. He therefore, the sacred Preface being finished, with the Angelic hymn consecrated to the supreme Trinity, a grand prodigy appeared, & to our age as much to be astounded at as unwonted.

[36] S. Augustine appearing, A Sister more mature in age, who served at the altar, while she stands intent on psalms & prayers, beholds openly the aforesigned Priest, just as he assisted in performing the Lord's sacraments, how descending through the steps he approached her, & thus to her said: Provide, Sister, lest by negligence the water to be administered fail. Whence vehemently astounded, such things with herself she revolved: Who ever saw such a thing, the same man at the same time both to stand at the altar, & to descend to me; to be intent on the divine Sacrifice, & turned back to me to whisper admonitions of providence? Behold as I fully wake: I saw & heard at the same moment one turned away standing afar off, & descending to the lower things; conversing with God, & counseling the man: but I know not what this suggestion was, he indicates the water is wanting. unless I try whether the water be wanting. So having spoken in mind, she nods to the Deacon, & learns the absence of the water; she runs forth, & brought it; & how truthful an admonisher she had heard, she recognizes. These things when to the benevolent Abbess & the Sisters & the Priest himself, namely ignorant, she published; all abundantly wondering, it was understood that of another eminence was that Priest, who in the place & form of a humbler one excited the improvident mind; so that either Augustine, or Augustine's vicar to have been it can not absurdly be esteemed. With the same solemnity therefore of procession, & modulations & ornaments & Masses, was received the other half of the oft-mentioned brick & dust, which fell to the Ramsey monastery: & so to be celebrated perpetually the Translation of the most worthy Father Augustine was promised & confirmed, as at Berking.

CHAPTER VI.

The miracles of S. Augustine after the Translation.

[37] This therefore ever to be recollected festive Translation of the Saints, S. Anselm orders this Translation to be celebrated yearly. the thousand-ninety-first year of the incarnate Saviour, the eighth Ides of September, in our age most gratefully consecrated, in which it had the younger King William of England, & Abbot Wido the bearer of this Augustinian feast: to whom the memorable Prelate of Rochester Gundulf, for the Archbishop amiably gave service. The Abbot himself also willing, it pleased the most excellent Archprelate Anselm & the other Pontiffs, to have perpetually this Octave chief & most celebrated for the first: that as well to Augustine

the Leader, as to the rest of his Colleagues, namely foster-children & legates of the Roman Church, & Princes of the Englands their successors, in common to all it might be consecrated, on which the Translation of all made, as already above mentioned, is proved.

[38] A candle harmlessly burns over the palls spread on the tomb. Above we related, that a candle before the Translation over the former tomb of the Saint, solemnly palled, harmlessly long burned: here also after the Translation, where now he rests, with a like virtue he answered, & that he dedicated both places with his presence. Here, I say, a poor man offering a mediocre taper to the altar of the head of kindly Augustine, burning placed it: & forthwith, thinking nothing what fire could do in linen, departed. The fire meanwhile over the purples & linens freely made its way, & through the whole dinner of the Brethren, as on bare marble drew the tract of flame. At length the flock of the Lord, dancing from the meal to the church, the Apocrisiary officially running before, beholds the bold taper on the pall of the Altar. Forthwith as a madman he rushes, snatches, with his hand extricates it, draws off the pyre, & shakes out the ornaments of the altar. The fire destroyed paid an innocent death: for it brought no loss; no trace of injury, as birds the air, & ships swimming the seas, it left; nor did a stain settle on the garments. A miracle is added to the miracle. The very palls & linens, as much as the flame ran over, indicated it: for otherwise separable, in the progress of the fire as if sewed or glued they adhered to the altar. O Martyrial Augustine, by these virtues it is clear, how nothing in thee could the Neronian or Decian burnings, & that the very Babylonian furnace would grow empty to thee; lastly in the very conflagration of the world, when all the studies of mortals the universal fire shall devour, thence not only thou shalt excel, as untouched by punishment as free from fault, but even many thou shalt protect under the shade of thy wings, whence also us with innumerable mayest thou snatch by the clemency of Christ. The miracle therefore being known, to God in His Saint by all is offered blessing.

[39] After these recent dances, recurs the former solemnity of the Father, by which he went to the stars, which by three titles of cures was illustrious. On the Birthday of S. Augustine, The first of these signs on his very light-flowing night at the Matins vigils is published. To an adult girl the right palm, on the left shoulder extended, from the maternal womb had grown; & the arm occupying the breast, into one flesh there had coalesced. She, the most populous throng's density denying access to the salvific Augustine, at the altar of the Evangelical Theologian John implores paternal help. Now therefore the precentor intoning the Hymn, We praise Thee O God; the weak one, by the vigor of the ethereal medicine, as one in travail is struck; & by the Angelic iron the perpetual unity of the flesh is cleft. She with anguish & with clamor is rolled on the ground, while through punishment the fault being loosed from punishment she be loosed. The people beheld, while the aforesaid Hymn is chanted, while the Gospel is recited, how the trembling palm from its coagulum, the blood flowing, was plucked, & little by little & little by little recalled. Meanwhile, while at the Matins lauds this festive & worthy of so great a Hierarch is begun the Antiphon, she is miraculously loosed: Augustine is made the joy of the heavenly Princes; she suddenly into joy leaps out, the now sound hand with the arm freely she draws, extends, bends back, raises, lays down; only the raw & bloody, as flayed, inwardly palm the stupefied throng with the Seniors of the monastery beholds, & to the praises of God's mighty works is animated. So therefore Augustine to this woman, who for the throng could not come to him, as the Lord to Zacchaeus of His own accord salvation-bearing came, who also the crying blind man from the rebuking multitude stopping saved. She thence for some time was nourished by the alms of the monastery.

[40] The second miracle let some attribute to kindly Adrian, at whose body & altar; a weak man of contracted knee, others, to Blessed Augustine, in the dawn of whose feast it was wrought: I would consecrate this to each, whether this one administered it on that one's solemnity, or that one with this pledge smiled at this one's love. Therefore a weak man of contracted knee, sustaining his hanging foot with a staff, leaned on the staff as on another foot; & so alternately in all his steps walked. He on the evening of the sacred feast, rushing with the people to the Augustinian vigils, at S. Adrian's tomb is raised on his feet: before the most sacred Adrian is poured into prayer, & there amid the vigils at length is overwhelmed with sleep. Now Matins being finished the sacristan clears the presbytery of the superfluous throng; & striking this one compels him to go out. He suddenly half-asleep from terror leaps up, & on each foot most sound he stood: then looking about himself he bursts into a cry; Omnipotent God, what has befallen me? Holy Adrian, what so great a piety of thine has restored me to myself? The sacristan therefore inquiring the cause of this dance; Me, says he, now a fifteen-year stipendiary of the public & near hospital of saint Gregory, & hitherto weakened with unequal step, dost thou not know? But he, I know, says he, thee hitherto weak & an almsman; but I see now with upright posture & gait, as another or the same altered, & from the old renewed. Plainly I am he, replies the cured one: truly by the Saint's benefit restored, I myself not knowing nor feeling before how I am changed for the better. Thus having protested, the people flowing back to the sign, resounding to the Saint he said: What to thy bounty, most blessed Adrian, shall I repay? Nothing besides this little staff I have, this to thy altar I offer a little gift, of which thou hast from now forbidden me to be needy. Offering therefore that old support of his, with his own steps, all the people being astounded, he resumes his pleasing journey.

[41] The third portent on the day of the same aforesaid solemnity, at the high-sounding concert of the Mass, a pitiable boy with twisted arms, more gloriously in this manner shone forth. A certain woman clothed with the faith of the Evangelical Canaanitess, of the village of Ludenham, to the most suffrage-bringing Augustine, on the anniversary solemnity of his Translation, brought her seven-year-old son, with hands & arms twisted weakened from birth. She prays, cries, groans: but the Saint answered her not a word: he deferred clemency, that he might prove the perseverance of the powerful one, kindle her diligence, & now make the deferred health more pleasant. At length wearied she withdraws, but failed not; & the patience & persistence of the Canaanitess even repulsed she showed. The little one, not knowing his evils, smiled at his mother: she knowing wept with these complaints; O son, why did I beget thee, by the mother once frustrated, deformed, powerless, an exile, for grief rather than for relief; nor helpful to thee nor to thy mother? thy losses, are my detriments: the twisted hand & arms, continually torment my bowels. O best, o most benign Augustine, deign to cure two most sick in one: heal the mother in the son. Thus deploring, to another festivity of his Deposition in May, after nine months, again brought back to S. Augustine, according to the times of her travail, her uterine burden rather than joy she carried back; & before the altar & body of the pitying Patron she deposited him, & at the same time fell into prayer. Nor longer deferred the Vicar of the Lord, nor restrained the bowels of mercy: but as if his Companions in the midst saying to their Chief, Send her away, because she cries after us, he assented to the approved faith. Now the most celebrated Mass, in the solemn frequency of Angels & men, those to their fellow-citizen, these to their Patron coming together, was being modulated: but when the singers begin Kyrie eleison; the infant by divine virtue seized, Augustine with the supernal ones approaching, on the pavement is stretched; the hands & little arms are directed into their rule; the most confluent people seeing is lifted into stupor & thanksgivings. during the Mass he is cured: Among these things the venerable Prelate of Rochester Gundulf, as he had come to perform Masses in honor of so great a Father, & adorned sat beside the principal altar of the Apostles; an eminent Brother of the monastery, serving him, asks to set forth to him some miracle of that Saint, which after the Gospel he might relate to the people. But he, as he is gracious in prudence & eloquence of matters, & most loving of the Saints, that of the History of Bede prepares to unfold; where B. Augustine, for argument of the Apostolic doctrine a blind man being illumined, had confounded the rebel Britons, & by those whose peace they had repudiated had prophesied them to be conquered ^a. Scarcely had he begun the narration, & the Prelate of the din of the people, exulting at S. Augustine's, asks the cause. Plainly a wonderful congruence! While here he listens to a miracle of old, a miracle in the present beholdable he receives; as if to him the divine voice should answer, A sign from afar thou seekest to hear, which miracle the Bishop of Rochester sets forth in the assembly. come rather by thy own sight to see; that not so much by another's mouth heard, as by thy eyes seen thou mayest assert. But he then intent on the office of the Mass, others & others most approved inspectors being sent, the matter more attentively searches out. But who there would temper from tears, when they saw the little one lying supine, his little arms & hands with frequent regard as if alien or new admiring, to his mother holding out, showing, smiling. Now his health his infancy recognized, which before knew not the punishment: now the mother receives with tears of joy his sound laughter, which before bitterly she had mourned amid griefs a ridiculous thing. The Antistes himself also, by so evident an indication made certain, into tears of exultation & thanks flowed forth; & to the people after the Gospel discoursing thence, all into the praises of God he kindled.

[42] But how among foreign kingdoms a certain Brother of his Pontificate, Of three apostate Monks one returned, from the gaping destruction of body & soul, the everywhere exorable helper Augustine snatched, are long windings of narration; but the very series is to be noted. Three eminent & well-learned Brethren had withdrawn from the church of S. Saviour ^b; & the monastic habit being changed into the clerical or secular, into the voluptuous land of the Danes they had passed: so much does that Leviathan the twisting dragon hunger for all the best things with his gulf, & is his chosen food, & draws the third part of the stars with his tail. Of these therefore the third, after a triennium the habit being resumed, returning to his country, came to S. Augustine; pours forth a prayer, renders most devout thanks. To whom the very Brethren congratulating much, & inquiring his journey; thus he related; Great, [he narrates how on account of a robber snatched from the gibbet & buried imperiled,] says he, thanks to God & my Patron Augustine, for my life & health I owe: but the matter you shall hear in order. After we three departing hence, as you know, came into Denmark; I migrated to Cologne; & thence proceeding, at the renowned Canonry of B. Martyr Alexander ^c, who is recognized to be one of the seven Brethren, to the Archdeacon of that place most acceptably I adhered. But on a certain day having gone out with two Clerics, a hanged robber is shown: whom pitying, I took down with those companions, although knowingly reverencing the furious people. Scarcely thence had we passed: & behold an armed throng pursues, roaring implacably. The very sentence of the robber upon us with difficulty we escaped: I fleeing to the Count of the province Cononus, was most excellently treated by him. Between him & another, of his dominion whence I had departed, a powerful Chief, whose name was Amalangus, hatred, ambushes, fights, devastations were immensely waged in turn: to his power also Grandior-villa ^d obeyed, whence some part pertained to the Count. Who, when by counsel two Soldiers as scouts he destined thither,

I added myself a third, then to the enemies sent to spy & caught, then more prompt to obey & please the worldly Lord, than the spiritual Bearer of the church. But I who fled the sparing rod of Christ, fell upon the most savage sword of the devil. We are received secretly at that very village in a certain house of the Count's dominion, reckoning we should be as cautious as we were bold, & by a provident hiding-place to supplant the plotters. But suddenly we are divulged, suddenly the lodging is girt by a multitude of armed men, by the master of the house we are demanded, either swiftly that he deliver us the spies, or himself with us & with the whole house burn. He on the contrary refusing the betrayal of the faithful of his Lord, & at length most difficultly obtaining, that with his wife & children & his furniture he might escape, we choosing the flame rather than to undergo the hands of the adversaries, alone to a scorching destruction are left. They tried to burst in by the doors, the lodging where he lay hid being burned & his companions extinguished, but we resisting as for life, every exit with a pile of wood they obstruct, the house they set on fire. Forthwith the lifted roofs Vulcan more strongly with an armed wedge surrounded, the peaked flame covers the heaven, we within three alone addicted & constrained to the fires tremble infinitely. From the horror of the rushing judgment those two companions of mine, recollecting themselves Christian Soldiers, mutually confess sins: with the sign of the Lord's Cross they fortify themselves, & with social affection mutually embrace one another that more strongly they might bear the punishments: they commend their souls to the Redeemer, & so casting themselves under the next bench, as seeking a sepulchre, with mutual arms constrained, in the hand of God were consumed. Omnipotent Christ, I shudder relating, & I marvel, how so great a terror turned me not into madness; when from above the fiery hail covered me, he invoked S. Augustine, & beneath to absorb me the gaping hells with infinite jaws I dreaded; when I thought how I should come before the eternal Judge in a secular life & habit, lying to Him the promise of an emended life. O happy Martyrs, who obtained everlasting glory through the flame; when by my crimes not even pardon was presumed through so great a punishment! That from so great a Charybdis I might emerge, the blessed clemency of Augustine suddenly poured itself into my mind, & returned to memory. For that from the very consequence it may be more certainly believed, my redemption was divinely granted to him. It was the very night, & well to the anxious mind it recurred, on which his Translation is dedicated, & then to me his soul radiated: for as, when & where he was translated, with our Brethren I was present; so this festivity from my heart I loved. So as if from hell I had seen him come to me from above, to him suddenly I breathed again. But how should I dare to interpellate him concerning the present life, death itself now possessing me within its jaws? I prayed only that he would have mercy on a perishing soul, & one dreading hell for its commissions. O the benign & swift hearer, & bursting through the very flames, & granting more than our presumption, that he both restored my present life perishing from the fire. Suddenly at the name of Augustine my eyes being turned, at my feet an axe shone to me; as if the very Angelic leader saying, By this open thee an escape. I snatched the divine gift, & rushed headlong to the door: & by one blow a board being cast out, as a door made in the door, through the opposing bars of beams, through the obstructing wedges of armed men, half-burned I burst out. But hence, the glory of my liberator growing from the perils that met me, fleeing through the arms I am seized, by a crown of enemies I am constrained; by all, either limb by limb to be cut up, or into the pyre to be cast back, I am ordered. But He who me from the midst of the fires, He himself from the hands & the very jaws of the executioners drew me out. One of the raging ones beholds me marked with the Crown of Christ: & forthwith rises for me, who was borne against me. What, says he, is this madness, that one crowned of God, a Cleric of the Lord, by laical sedition be extinguished? to what end shall we be punished, who arm against Him, whose minister we persecute? Be it far, be it far, that while I live he be here today condemned: better is it me to die for him: & recognized to be a Cleric, he was preserved, nay rather let us deliver him bound to our Lord Amalangus & his judgment. In such manner the guilty ones being confounded & moderated, by the sentence of a defender out of an enemy I am preserved: but meanwhile, my keeper by God's nod intent on other things, I sent these things by a faithful messenger to my former advocate the Archdeacon. But he intending against the seizers the dart of anathema, unless at the same hour they should dismiss me free; forthwith broken by the terror of the divine sword, without the judgment of their tyrant they dismissed me. So from the jaws of the wolves a sheep shaken out, by the virtue of Augustine my champion, swiftly lo I returned to the fold. Whence I beg, dearest ones, with me or for me repay the merited blessings to so great my deliverer & preserver: because doubtless it is of Augustine's benefit in Christ, from so great a peril that I live, that I stand here. These & other things that memorable Brother weaving in a long series, gladdened all the Augustinians very much, both at the Father's piety & at the Brother's double salvation, & kindled them into a sacrifice of divine thanks.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.

A captive freed, women in travail aided, the injurious against the Saint punished or repressed.

[43] There follows, how another captive the powerful one of binding & loosing Augustine snatched. Our ages being irradiated by the most excellent Antistes of Philosophers & Priests Anselm, & with familiar & generous benevolence the learned as a most learned master setting forth; An innocent man accused of theft, a certain one of the flock of Scholastics under him flourished lately at Canterbury. He to a certain Cleric a stranger known to him from Normandy had granted a lecture among his equals: his name was reckoned Gerardus. After some time the favor being changed, he accuses him of theft. It was judged that with two of his Order he should purge himself by oath. He himself helped with one of the Clerics; the other, that the oath as of an unknown matter he should deny, by a secret promised reward the accuser corrupted, that by jealousy rather than truth he seemed to rage. Who forthwith the wretch, by his companion deserted, invades by the throat as guilty; & convicted drags disgracefully to an inhospitable lodging. The feet are constrained with iron fetters, the hands twisted with thongs behind the back, the bonds condemn flight, the chambers, the keepers' guard; that with stripes & torments on the morrow the persecutor's wrath be sated. Him weeping the furrowing bonds, more grievously tortured the punishments of the morrow's threats & terrors. No hope of escape, no friend, no acquaintance was there for the stranger: one remedy at last occurred to the desolate one, Augustine's most-succoring clemency being known. S. Augustine being invoked, To whose help all night with anxious mournings crying out, at length sleep crept upon him, & a voice heard from without through sleep sounded; Gerardus, Gerardus: Sleepest thou, or wakest thou? To him answering, that he was occupied not so much by sleep as by dread; the voice repeated subjoined, That by S. Augustine's precept thou be loosed, wilt thou profess thyself his minister? Nay, says he, a devoted slave. Then he who spoke added, Quickly rise, & to S. Augustine run. Forthwith both from sleep & from his hands he is absolved; & by a wondrous dispensation one foot is stripped of the fetters for an exit, the other bears the bonds for a sign. The thong, which had constrained the hands, the sounding fetters to the fettered leg, lest they accuse the fugitive, binds: so by the Saint's benefit, he escapes the bonds being loosed & the prison opened: what was for punishment, turns to help. But to the freed captive hastening to go out of his prison, the adverse door most closely bolted, instead of a wall or prison, stood in the way. The wretch groaned, fearing closer bonds from the keeper irritated at the loosing: &, What is, says he, O most holy Augustine, this my deliverance, when with hostile jaw the exterior chain of the house constrains me? Or that with keener punishments the avenger's wrath may thrust me back? I see myself betrayed, not absolved: I see as a fugitive hare under the canine tooth. Send forth I pray, Saint, whom thou hast loosed; lest thy pious liberation atrociously deliver me to the enemy. Thus imploring again he attempts the bar of the door. A wonderful thing! Soon he feels it unsealed; & that the miracle may more grow, he having gone out, found the door made firm as at first behind him. In this manner through the middle of the city, through the nocturnal terrors, through the cloisters & bars of the gates, Augustine with the Angel of Peter opening & prospering all things, he escapes: & to the defending gate of the Augustinian monastery he comes. The watchmen slept, the dogs grew dumb: of whom the throng rushing & meeting him through the whole street, the calumniator being convicted he is absolved. without barking & infestation, more than thirty he reckoned. But the aforewritten gate already safely closed he found: which doubtless, as the other obstacles, would be opened, if the persecutor were feared. Which after a little, the signs of the nocturnal office sounding, the awaiter bursting in opened; to the blessed rest of his supreme liberator he flees. In the morning the patronizing Brethren of the same monastery assist the supreme Pontiff; & before the very rival pedagogue, while the captive offers to prove by the judgment of burning iron the authority of his deliverer Augustine, & his own innocence, the adversaries being confounded they conciliate him to liberty. Who professing himself by head a censual of B. Augustine, four coins on the altar of his tomb he offered in testament of his condition, having promised yearly that debt to be rendered. The whole city of Canterbury congratulates, the miracle being fragrant to all, while he is crowned with the brilliant prize of so great a Father.

[44] That everywhere also his Apostolic benignity flows to those asking it, or of its own accord pours itself in, by the following series is clear. At Antwerp a pious matron, after a Roman journey, Antwerp is a celebrated town of the Imperial dominion, which leaning on the inflowing sea & the river Scheldt, derives the transmarine merchandise into England. Hence a woman called Maenzindis, by race & wealth & a worthy husband renowned, now heavy with offspring, with vows & gifts at Rome had sought the Apostolic suffrages. On her return her womb swelling she is seized with torn anguishes of the bowels, & with much difficulty & delay, since she was to all

gracious, by her companions & friends at length home she was carried. There received in her little bed the grief & swelling growing daily by long decoction had driven her to the extreme: she lay immovable, in tongue & whole body deadened, about to die in childbirth, only a spark of hearing & understanding survived. There had assembled throngs of kinsfolk & noble friends, as to the visitation of the sick woman; but to the funeral rather they see themselves to have assembled: she is wept by all, the whole hall resounds with wailings; but the saner implore the supernal remedy with votive supplications. Meanwhile to the wearied one's sight in ecstasy a certain one of preeminent dignity, thus begins: Compassionating thy afflictions & the tearful petitions of thy friends, I am present to thee a messenger of prosperity: because through the clemency of B. Augustine the Apostle of the English to thy former life & soundness now thou shalt be restored: do thou only loose thy girdle, & to him into his England transmit it for argument of this grace: because that thou mayest live his patronage has obtained. At these things forthwith the dumb woman pours into a praying cry; & all vehemently being astounded, bidden by a vision to vow herself to S. Augustine, who only awaited her funeral, the order of the vision she speaks forth. All congratulate, the laments are changed into joys, that her speech even despaired of was heard: but the mystery of the vision they scarcely at length search out, why her girdle was demanded for the Saint, who suffered none for the trouble of the uterine inflation. By divine instinct therefore a silver little cord being quickly fabricated, which they prepared for B. Augustine, the sick woman where she more bulged, with the invocation of that heavenly physician himself, beyond hope she is freed. they surround. O the grace of the Lord! O the merit of the Saint! At the same moment at the name of Augustine, at the touch of his sacred girdle, the languid one is happily loosed both from childbirth & the lethal grief; & after long torments is given a swift health, with sweet offspring. But the gift of that silver girdle, by faithful bearers, to the supreme Interventer of her restoration she sends. She herself still survives, who through individual years by lights sent gratefully salutes her curer, testifies the conciliator of her life.

[45] We add to this another sign of the same most illustrious Confessor in another woman, Another there similarly imperiled, in the same place & almost the same time wrought; with such likeness harmonious, that, unless thou attend to the names, thou wouldst contend we have not joined another, but repeated that very thing which is aforewritten. There is a merchant, in that same Antwerp's port which we forenoted dwelling, frequent in England, by name Hagano: whose wife, called Emma, imperiled in childbirth was drawn to the extreme. Who amid such straits to the Lord Saviour breathing again, prayed panting, that through the merits of some Saint of His He would succor her. On the following night therefore, when wearied with griefs she dozed a little, an Archiepiscopal figure preeminently appeared to her; & to the trembling one at so illustrious an aspect, most clemently said: If thou wilt, O woman, from the impending peril of childbirth be freed, in nearly like manner she is aided. make a candle in honor of the most blessed Apostle of the English, to the measure of thy stature, & at the same time to the thickness of thy body & womb; & this send to the next church, in the help-bringing commemoration of that Saint. Awaking therefore the woman hastens such salutary mandates, prepares the bidden oblation, directs it to the nearest church in honor of S. Augustine; & forthwith happily having brought forth a boy, from grief joy she receives. After these things her husband coming into England, a silver little cord, to the former measure of the conjugal length & thickness, brought to the most holy liberator Augustine: & himself with the same wife to the very salvation-bearing Patron, if God should give the faculty, vowed to return. So that the most excellent Augustine, reigning with Christ, is clear everywhere among the nations to be able to succor whom he wills.

[46] The benignity of so great a Father toward suppliants grows sweet, let his severity also be revered against the insolent: While for the recovery of the Holy Land for relating which grace of the miracle, let us first open the gate of faith, to the splendid dawn of our time. We have seen, nay we see a new age, a new war & triumph of Christ, a new on the earth, that is in His city Jerusalem kingdom: there reigns now under a new ^a King & a new people of Christians, the long-lasting abuse of the Gentiles being abolished: for He who through the patience of the Cross & of the Martyrs lives & acquired the world, now already by other, that is, secular arms of His warriors, the unconvertible savagery of the enemies being cut off, has led into the mountain of His sanctification His triumphant people, the mountain which thy right hand acquired, King of virtues; & thou hast cast out the nations from before their face, & distributed to them the land of thy nativity & passion, O our Emmanuel. But in this army of the Lord, who from the age has seen such a motion of peoples, so great a congress of battles, from everywhere the sacred soldiery runs together. so great a fervor of those migrating. They left all things, kingdoms, cities, houses, children, fields; & by the sole heat of divine zeal, without command, without leader they flowed forth: to none was there an exactor save his own will, save faith fellowship. The Princes & Magnates directed the rest as brothers, as companions, as fellow-soldiers, not by force, but by examples & exhortations: the law was a public sanction, the Lord alone was their leader. There are reported also Martyrs, by known name, on horses & in military arms, seen publicly to have led them; & the lance of the Lord's side, by divine revelation then found those believing, to have triumphed.

[47] What it was there to behold a new army, singly in his own garment with the Lord's Cross presigned, the English signed with the Cross prohibited from going out that both the bodily as the spiritual adversary this sign might strike down. Not there merely nation against nation, & kingdom against kingdom; but orb against orb, the west against the east, the world of Christians against the world of the Heathen there met. Heaven itself with hell, Michael & his Angels with the devil & his angels to have fought victoriously, you would prove. By the sword the way is opened through the crowded lines of nations, through the most fortified by nature & by defenders cities, through ambushes & engagements leaping in from everywhere. So our people, hitherto wont in scrip & staff humbly to revisit King Christ in His city, now in spear & sword the adversaries being laid low rejoice notably to approach His grace. Therefore also the English orb grew warm for this journey: but the King, the multitude being poured forth fearing the weakening of the kingdom, forbade the going out: they go round the temples: whence very many through the whole country to traverse the patronages of the Saints, & for the unfulfilled vow to demand pardon strove. Of whom the Lord Hubaldus, Archdeacon of Salisbury, & Odo a Soldier & nephew of the Bishop of venerable memory Hermann, no plebeian, whom as our companions under the same Bishop fellow-domestics we knew, to the Patriarch Augustine & the other sacred Protectors of Canterbury came to pray. Whom when after prayer & grateful hospitality their host obsequiously conducted; & among other things, of so many Churches, deserted by their Pastor & devastated, ^b but especially of the chief parent of monasteries the Basilica of S. Augustine destroyed & oppressed, he made complaint; the aforenamed Soldier, on whose occasion this series we have produced, as headlong of mind, so answered. Why do we here so much delay, when now that veteran, one of whom injurious to S. Augustine whom it would behove to defend all the Churches of the country by his principate powerfully or to avenge terribly, has so fallen asleep, that not even to the defense of his own house ruined does he awake? Now his very church, for five years lacking a Rector, is devastated; nor is there who defends it. Scarcely had he finished his garrulous or stomaching words; & behold as with a leaden blow between the shoulders struck the heavenly indignation rebukes him. This so worthy a response to his temerity the Saint rendered, who hence to prejudge the divine correction, thence to provoke the patience feared not. And with what front blind do we gnaw at the supernal counsel? How does he hope his own guilt to be spared, who against another's fault instigates the just judge? suddenly he is seized, So the man began to change his countenance into divers things, to grow pale, to tremble; nor now to hold himself, nor to sit on his horse, for the intolerable grief could he. And now scarcely prevailing to speak, Succor, says he, O companions, succor one now dying. And when they grievously astounded inquired the cause of the disease; he answered, nothing else to be turned in him, than the vengeance of the Saint, against whom so foolishly he had dared to be carried. He is led back therefore most painfully, his companions sustaining him on this side & that, & by them is commended earnestly to the former lodging, with his armor-bearer. There for seven weeks constrained on the dire little bed of languor, that old sleeper taught, how vigilant a chastiser of his calumniator he was; how vigilant a rod for his own he bears, by which in their time he grinds the harmful; he taught also that he by no means sleeps, & penitent he is restored to health. but watches continually in the guard of his own house & of all his England, as much as now the balance of the supernal censure permits. At length by suppliant vows & groans the Father's piety being appeased, from the fear of death & despair of life the sick man emended is restored to entire health: who rising as from a funeral, to the tomb of his consoler prostrate on knees & arms crept; most humbly pours forth thanks with tears of joy, & delivers himself to him, by whose help he had breathed again, that through individual years he may exhibit himself at his solemnities according to his faculty. The Brethren congratulate at the paternal virtue, with divine praises & jubilation.

[47] To these let be annexed a deed of an earlier time, in which the same Father & arbiter more severely defended the injury of his suppliants. Exeter being besieged, things are preserved in the church of the Saint Among the West Angles, under the walls of the city of Exeter, in honor of him everywhere salvation-bearing a consecrated church of Augustine flourishes. This so redounds with the gifts of his paternal piety, that whosoever this seeking benefits faithfully enters, rejoices to have obtained all things. This famous by supernal bounty, both far & near have as their refuge, seek as their protection. When therefore the former William, the King of our former age, besieged the aforesaid city rebelling ^c; from everywhere the neighborhood of the country-folk all their furniture & yearly food drew into this protecting church, into this from the army as from a deluge fleeing into the Ark. There surrounded also from everywhere branchy trees that sacred court, in which the throng of country-folk fleeing the enemy had laid up their harvest. A wonderful spectacle, a wonderful faith of the peoples, all things there deposited by the inhabitants, that there they believed their things safe, in the sight of so many armed wedges, so many gaping & hungering beasts. The whole devastating phalanx of robbers laughed at the subsidy of food of its own accord offered to them by the enemies: nor delaying to invade, they climb the trees lying open to the prey: others below await, who may carry off the broken-down corn. Hey defender Augustine, why delayest thou? Let now thy assailants feel, whom they provoke: let thy devout know, whom they regard as Patron. the soldiers being prohibited access: Now with axes they press, by which they may cast down the branches with the fruits: but forthwith Augustine subverting, they for the corn fall down; & themselves perishing, even the companions whom they should feed they overwhelm: the tree-strengths also, falling on the presumptuous heads, bear the arms of destruction. So very many extinguished, the rest with heads, arms, legs broken, crushed, torn apart, were to all the rest a terror, lest anyone further attempt force on the Augustine there presiding: under whom,

the storm of war now stilled, the returned inhabitants gratefully received their things safe.

[48] the suppliant boys heard. The Scholar boys also, learning in that very church, as often as to the altar of that most-honeyed Father they can flee, forthwith the master's fury being divinely tranquilized, by no means are they whipped, it is most proved ^d. These things also some, instructed there in boyhood, now Monks, earnestly testify, that both they & their fellow-disciples, by his wonderful benignity, very often from the hand of the indignant avenger were snatched.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

The dying preserved: the remaining miracles of S. Augustine.

[49] Now let us enter the city of Exeter, to which above we approached; & thence still draw out the ornaments of Augustinian virtue from a revived man. The very citizen illustrious, an opulent merchant, makes the matter more celebrated. He came with his wife suppliant to the Confessor of the Lord, & after vows & gifts & thanks most devoutly rendered, in such manner unfolded to the Fathers of the monastery, the tenor of his peril & remedy & coming, although before through a faithful pointer they had learned these things. A debtor, says he, of thanks & at the same time of my visitor & restorer Augustine I have come, of whose plainly merit it is that I live, as ye truly shall hear, my Lords & sons of so great a Father. Through eleven weeks I languished desperately, & with so great a decoction my vigor exhausted I had flowed down: A citizen of Exeter narrates how dying, at the last so the tormenting disease prevailed, that it impelled me to the jaws of death. I spent whole nine days sleepless, foodless, save if any liquid had reconciled my dry jaws & failing spirit. My friends pour in, as to a funeral: there pressed on the migrating one the ninth day, which to me doubtless would be the last, had not my Advocate's suffrages rendered the salvation-bearing. The frequency of those sitting around exhorts, that as now about to depart I should dispose & distribute all my things, & thence even late provide for myself in the eternal country, before another's hand should carry them off. I promised on the morrow that I would dispose, if not then the impending evil should grow mild: for languor is wont more to grow heavy toward night, to grow light toward day. And this indeed by as foolish as uncertain a condition I would have promised, had I not a suffrager. I am tortured, I said, O friends, by intolerable sickness; the help of S. Augustine being invoked, but more immensely I am tormented by the dread of eternal punishment: our Saints also, as many as by oblations & obsecrations I have interpellated, increase the terror, by no solace answering me, doubtless offended by my innumerable crimes. As I deplored these things, Hast thou (says one of the friends) asked the very Prince of the Saints of this kingdom Augustine? At this placable name I myself raising my body; Well, said I, my Lord Brother, hast thou admonished: for my hardness had so excluded him for me, through whom also the patronages of the other Saints I could gain. Then indeed I felt, that especially to him my salvation was entrusted. Forthwith my body being surrounded, & the emendation of life promised, through each side from head to feet, by a double measure of my length lights prepared I sent, to the suburban church of our Exeter of my interventer Augustine: & at the same time from all I exacted the suffrages of the Lord's prayer, that through the charity of all those Saints, whom into the starry kingdom he had brought forth, of this his monarchy, he would conciliate for me still spaces of an emended life. I promised for the rest my past misdeeds to be corrected: I prayed also my visitors, that with me that very night for the relieving of my tribulations they would persevere, & either my betterment or end await. All therefore of their own accord remaining, the impending night, after long vigils, closed the wearied eyes of the sick man: who soon, instead of sleep & quiet, with a terrible agitation of all his limbs I bristled. The eyes are turned, the lips foam, sneezing infests, the trembling fingers wander, seek what to grasp, the heels are worn with frequent blows; so that by so many signs nothing else than my sudden departure they awaited: but after these quiet succeeded, & all motion as in a placid sleep grew silent. While so I indulge my wearied sickness, he expelled the poison by hawking onto the grass: I felt a livid phlegm, thrust out from the heart, wandering in my jaws. This my body raised by one blow strongly hawking up, onto an adjacent little bundle of green grass I cast, not weighing where it should fall, or what of pest it had: for there death, which had settled on me, by Augustine's virtue I spat out; & so restored to life, with a sweet slumber at last I refreshed my long sleepless limbs; so that those who had observed me about to die, began to hope I should live. Meanwhile my horse, of which tasting his horse burst. of no vile price, while with the set-by grass that very cast hawking-up to its avid belly it admits, forthwith as if transfixed by a point leaps, rages, roars; & everywhere by turning aside & rolling, with blows & beats shakes the house. The troubled servants while they draw it out, lest it excite me from my salutary pause, themselves rather excite me by this tumult: the steed by the raging pest forthwith dies. I when I learned from my hawking-up it extinguished, a friend witnessing who had seen me spit upon that hay, & a servant confessing that of the same hay he had foddered the horse; so consequently I subjoined: Doubtless that one devoured my death, by my slaying perished, thee, holy Father Augustine, in its loss reproving my injustice, & teaching my sloth, what punishment & what destruction due to me into a beastly animal thou hast deigned to transfuse. At these things, all being astounded & breathing again at my restoration; Now, said I, I am certain that I shall convalesce unto life. Then indeed they more wondering & inquiring, so I unfolded the matter: The anxious motions, I said, which in me, O dearest, in the beginning of this night you bewailed, sang a dire struggle of death in me: but that thereafter I rested, he adds the Saint before seen by him in sleep, the saving coming made of my aforesaid consoler: for there shone to me then a man of sublime glory, of splendid hoariness & with Pontifical insignia wholly Angelic: bearing solar rays from his face, a golden light also he vomited: a golden rod in his right hand, that he seemed to hold forth flourishing gems like the Rod of Aaron, of which you preach. He addresses the trembling one with heavenly sweetness; Why, Brother, art thou so troubled? I am urged, I said, Lord, by the dire bonds of death: but whom should I believe thee to have intervened in our funeral? Whom, says he, by thy & thy fellow-citizens' petitions thou hast drawn, Augustine, know to be present to thee: & as thou hast asked, for the love of all those Saints, whom through me the grace of God translated into the kingdom of His clarity, know me to have obtained for thee the advantage of a longer life & soundness. Do thou at length take care by all means, lest by the granted time of emendation thou abuse it through thy former vices; who promised health to him: nay rather for the perishing gains keep watch perpetually for those about to remain. Indeed, lest thou incur worse punishments, on account of crafty & perjured gains, whence with an infinite gulf of avarice hell absorbs its sons; nor let it irk thee after the restored vigor to come to our dwellings & the interventing pledges, & through us to God offer gifts of thanks. Amid these admonitions he touches for me with the golden point of his staff the seat of the disease: with which touch health entering, drives off the condemned poison: death compelled to depart, seeks panting whither it may escape; upward or downward it should flee. Forthwith that lethal poison occupies my jaws: I with keen hawking expel it, as you have beheld of my attendant funeral. So now to quiet from unquiet, to soundness from sickness I shall be restored, who now from the din of my horse dying for me awake. While these so clear helps of Augustine appearing to me I weave again to my weeping friends, beneficent afterward toward the Augustinians. mourning into joy, bereavement returns into gain: in Augustine's glory all glorify God; & you, O my Lords, the most special sons of so great a Father, by whose swift medicine & authority sound with my wife I have come, with me I pray or for me to him render thanks, at his virtue & my health congratulate. By this certain pointer therefore the faithful relater cheers all: all sound forth divine praise in Augustine. From him perhaps at London an Augustinian minister about to buy something for the uses of the Brethren, began at length in the love of S. Augustine to ask him, when neither knew the other, lest by the repudiation of his money he should do himself a detriment. The merchant, at the amiable name as if deeply stimulated; Which, says he, Augustine intendest thou to me? Augustine, says he, the first & Apostolic Doctor of England. Then the man, melting

in mind from the Saint's piety, as incense from fire; The whole, says he, money which thou owest most willingly for the love of my Augustine I would have remitted thee, hadst thou asked: for what worthily even for him shall I be able to repay, by whose benign suffrage I live? And so both by the relation of his health, & by the receiving of the money he satisfied the buyer.

[50] There serves the monastery of B. Augustine a modest & faithful man, of the province of the East Saxons: whom there dwelling similarly from the instance of death the grace of the same Father recalled. Another, formerly a church bell-ringer, An infinite swelling of the throat had addicted him to destruction, which spreading through the chin & face like an ample gourd had bulged, & had besieged the very breast. To all therefore despaired of, by the Christian faith confessed, anointed & communicated, now he had laid down speech, now he prepared to pass. Whom the parochial Presbyter sitting by while he awaits the agonizing one in words, scarcely begins from him this image of words: Holy Augustine, have mercy, have mercy holy Augustine. Asked by the Presbyter, what he intended to say; the same prayers & the Saint's name, as before, he redoubles. Again the questioner asks, whence to him this special invocation befell; whether anything between him & that Saint or his monastery had been agreed. The sick man answers, perhaps now from Augustine's name stronger, a vow of continence being uttered he is healed of a lethal abscess of the head. that he had served that church in clanging the bells for a five-year period; that now he repented of his former offenses & negligences; if the pious interventer should still grant him time of correction, that he vowed perpetual continence from the conjugal bond, & in a celibate life & in the service of his church a continual perseverance. Then the faithful Priest, If these, says he, vows thou shalt keep, I dare to promise thee of the Saint's clemency a longer life, & converted from vices to be able to return to health. At these faithful words the death-bearing swelling is loosed, the putrid humor bubbles out, the black pest is poured forth, & all the matter exhausted the turgid skin subsided: deformity being driven off, the face, throat, chin, breast are restored to their harmony with entire soundness. By the instinct of this grace he, home & kindred being left, with substitute possession, to his healer Augustine migrated: where now by continual servitude of his life & health he repays thanks.

[51] A Presbyter in ^a Surrey province, seven miles contiguous to London, A dying boy by name Colemannus, dwelt; now in Kent he dwells. His little suckling son a long languor had suspended from the breasts of his nurse; nor could he suck, nor take food for a long time. He was squalid with leanness, & as a corpse in his mother's lap was horrible: scarcely the diligence of the parents, milk being poured to his little lips, detained for him the last breath. And when nothing was hoped, nothing was awaited of him save his fall; behold to the former nurse of the Presbyter's children, a Pontifical person in a vision stood by, & thus to her said: Go & tell thy Lord the Presbyter, that if he wishes his infant to live, he carry & offer him to S. Augustine, the primitive Teacher of the English: after an apparition made to a dim-sighted old woman which if he neglect, a deadly bereavement for his son he will mourn: hasten to fulfill my mandate, because to thee also it will be profitable: for this woman was almost blind, that more often by the touch of hands than by the sight of eyes she proved set-by things. Who in these things awakened, the bidden matter, as a poor woman who would not be believed, to publish she feared. Then on the following night similarly admonished, nor thus indeed did she presume to obey. On the third night reproved of negligence, answering that no one would believe her other, than that she raved by an old woman's phantasy; to her objecting such things that Pontifical person, which most seemly seemed, with stretched hand pressed her shoulder, & a mark of the impressed palm & fingers there left: By this, says he, sign thou shalt satisfy the hearer. Then at last conquered both by terror & by so evident an indication, she reports the mandates to the Presbyter, with that most luculent sign. But the Presbyter, when he saw the infant now almost expiring, scarcely could believe that he could so long survive, until to the nearer church which at London was esteemed of salvation-bearing Augustine he should be carried. Before, says he, the place of the promised health be found, the sick one will be killed by the labor; & vainly health will be sought, while there shall not be who is saved. He came therefore, over the Saint's altar he suddenly convalesces. with the infant's mother & the aforesaid nurse, to a certain oratory of that Saint, which was now burned up & resolved into ashes; only a stone Altar had remained, where the Presbyter, who before had served this aforesaid Presbyter ^b, a shade being made above performed the divine Office. To him indicating the order of the vision the father, offers the little infant over that consecrated altar, a perpetual servant to the preserver Augustine. Then Augustine's Parishioner seizes the infant, & over the altar with both hands rolls it, as if rotating he composes a taper; the parents trembling, & exclaiming, why dost thou hasten to extinguish the dying little one. But he begins the seven penitential Psalms, & the dim-sighted are illumined. & with the same Fellow-priest chants them. Which done the infant forthwith demands the breast, sucks, convalesces, & of the despaired-of one a vast joy for the parents brings forth. Now an alert youth he exults, whom the father every year to B. Augustine, as a censual by head, represents. The aforesaid nurse also, but also the Augustinian Presbyter himself, when their eyes grew dark, with clear light & a youthful sight were gifted: so for one little one, two were remedied with the third himself.

[52] In the town of ^c Norwich, an estimable Priest by name Wolfagus, The injurer of the Norwich church of S. Augustine founded a church in honor of the most chosen Patron Augustine: but the place of this sacred building a certain neighbor of his, by name Copmannus, relying on riches & kindred, by force more than by right strove to claim into his own: & as human cupidity is infinite, insatiable, ever seeking another's, never sufficient of its own, he cries out against the Presbyter as an iniquitous invader of his inheritance & patrimony, & with much ferocity threatened him. To these things intervenes in the midst the mighty president of the divine judgment Augustine, judges the judgment of his minister, & on the iniquitous calumniator retorts the punishment of his lie: he is struck with madness of mind, is stripped of human reason; & he who sought another's, both himself & all his own with lost sense lost. he is made rabid: Whom his kinsfolk, among men bestially wandering pitying, lead through the churches of the city with suppliant vows, for the sake of remedying him, namely to the holy Trinity, to S. Peter, to S. Laurentius, to S. Gregory, to S. Julian. Now there pressed the triumphal solemnity of kindly Augustine, which is celebrated on the seventh of the Kalends of June: the senseless one is led on that very celebrity to that his church, which we foretold; that by the wonderful clemency of God from that house he should receive a remedy, on account of which he had incurred punishment; & should know at last, & on 26 May led into his church, that only by the benefit of him he was healed, whom he himself strove to disinherit. The kinsfolk therefore spending the night with the sick man before his altar, with lights & prayers, at length the day shining, the night & phantasm of errors being put to flight, the man began to be sound in mind, & himself & his acquaintances to recognize, & into his former sense & reason to return. But lest any scruple should remain, whose this help was; he saw at the same hour, with clear & waking sight, a certain magnificent & Apostolic Archprelate, from afar from the very entrance of the oratory, twin Pontiffs from each side leading, coming; the Saint being seen at the altar he recovers his senses. & so through the nave of the church & choir, with the same side ones, ascending to the altar; & there the divine mysteries, until he departed from his eyes, performing. Whence no faithful soul ought to doubt, that B. Augustine gave these indications of his presence, & visited his church & his festivity with such a revelation & health. The aforesaid Presbyter also still hereditarily serves the same church, which he founded.

[53] The recluse of Leicester, blind for 15 years, In the City also of ^d Leicester, illustrious for virtues an Augustinian basilica flourishes. There an anchoress woman lives enclosed: who when for fifteen years she was blind, was wont to receive the Sacerdotal books & vestments to be kept in the evening, & to bring them back at the matins Offices. At length therefore on the most sacred night of the festivity of B. Augustine, when with hastening dawn she awaited the Presbyter's coming after custom solicitous; the ineffable clemency of God favoring, by the merits of her Confessor suddenly she was illumined, & with the unhoped-for dance of sight gifted: by a similar vision on that very feast she is illumined. & she saw with clear sight the most excellent Pontiff assisting at the altar, & twin Prelates on this side & that most devoutly serving him. And when in this so unwonted & heavenly vision with trembling delight she was astounded, the Parishioner came, sign-sounding for the divine Offices to be performed; & that Angelic aspect failed from the beholder. Who therefore should doubt, that Augustine, everywhere powerful of virtues, revisited the place & oratory of his blessed memory, especially on his festivity; & of his salvation-bearing & gracious presence gave this indication with worthy ones? But that handmaid of God, who had shut herself from the cupidities of the world, the most high benignity more highly in its prison, her eyes being closed for a time, had enclosed, keeping her by His custody from carnal allurement, teaching her to despise all things, which with bodily sight could perish to her; but the eyes of her mind, the images of things being excluded, to her Founder with pure sight to lift. At the same time also this we believe the supernal clemency provided, that B. Augustine's merit more amply in her might shine, & she after the darkness with greater joy of light suffused might continually bless God in her holy Patron.

[54] The wife of a craftsman of the temple of the precious Protomartyr of the English ^e Alban, was lodging & feeding a poor blind woman with herself for six years. This benignity the most benign in Christ Protoparent Augustine, who would bind all men with the bowels of paternal charity, did not suffer at last to go ungrateful. The expenses of the one, the straits of the other he prepares to relieve. For to the sleeping almsgiver, in a most excellent form, with Pontifical shape he shone, & the astounded matron with such address he soothes: Well hast thou done, daughter of clemency, that mindful of human hardship & eternal retribution, the poor woman destitute of the solace of light & life thou hast refreshed, for whom thou mayest receive the due reward. Now therefore to a better use transfer thy help, & cause her to be led to Kent to S. Augustine's presence: for there she will put off the injury of blindness & darkness, & put on the gladness of solar pleasantness. Hasten to execute the truth-speaking mandate, nor fear the mockery of phantasy. At these things the matron awakes, & triumphing of so great a vision is borne to the little bed of the poor guest. First she eludes & troubles the wretch, whom she knew at last to be cheered; as Joseph terrifies his brethren, for whom he was preparing abundance of salvation. bidden to be led to Canterbury, Rise, says she, rise, & go seek where thou mayest henceforth receive thyself, where thou mayest be lodged & fed: I have cared for thee as much as seemed, now let another who cares be sought. Forthwith to the terrified needy one the mind flees, & there to die she desires, who, whither to turn herself, whom to seek, by the whole world imprisoned found not. But forthwith the anxious one, whom she had terrified, she relieves; & the order of the vision being set forth, into hope of health from the abyss of despair she rouses; & teaches, whither she should go to be illumined, where she may better receive a gift by her alms; & by a fellow feast

refreshed her, & with horses, a leader, & viaticum supported, to the kindly-flowing Augustine's inexhaustible cure she destines her. By a wonderful order of divine condescension therefore it happened that she came to the most holy Augustine, on the very feast day of his Translation, on the feast of the Translation. utterly unknown to her; that truly it might appear he himself had been the author of her journey. Which that even with much truer & more certain evidence it might shine, the stranger herself praying before the Saint's clay, which she had sought with a panting mind; on the same day between None & Vesper, the six-year blindness being put to flight, with the clear & wished light was re-gifted. The miracle shone farther, & to God thanksgiving resounded: but the woman, lest of so great a benefit she should seem ungrateful, to her former almsgiving to return refused, but with her curer remained, where hitherto with her own hands not slothfully she feeds herself.

[55] These things therefore of the Translation of the most preeminent Augustine & of his signs, through this septennium, that is through this week of years from the Translation itself, not so much by hearing as by sight published, we have first set forth: but the things which before were done shall be expressed in the latter book; that of the Chief one himself & those translated with him a dinner, of the rest a supper be taken. Here a place of breathing again shall be given: a rested field well repays things entrusted to it.

ANNOTATIONS.

APPENDIX

Of the second Translation of S. Augustine:

From the Chronicle of William Thorn.

[56] The body of S. Augustine being translated, as has now been at length related, in the year MXCI, The body of the Saint after the Translation hidden in three parts, because in the parts of Kent both of the Danes & of the Normans there was a frequent formidable irruption, & also against the Saints of God an undue irreverence & detestable; lest unexpectedly a race of barbarian nation bursting in, the body of the holy Apostle Augustine, venerable & to all nations desirable, should violently snatch it: & of so great a treasure, not only this cœnobium, but all England deprive; the solemnity of the Translation being completed & all returning to their own, the venerable Abbot, with certain senior Brethren, to the bier of S. Augustine secretly came: & the cover being removed, which was not yet perfectly completed; & the body of B. Augustine being taken up with the head, except certain little bones & part of the ash; in a stone tomb, prepared for this, in the wall under the Eastern window, beside his bier, the aforesaid body he hid, very few Brethren knowing this, & most secretly concealing it: & some having entered the way of all flesh, the memory of this deed done is likewise extinguished… But lest the people flowing together to his veneration should be frustrated of their wished hope, the aforesaid Abbot Wydo enclosed the remaining part of the bones, although small, & the ashes, in a certain leaden vessel, & hid it in the bottom of the heap of stones of the aforesaid bier. But in the summit of the silver bier, in a certain leaden vessel, but small, he replaced a certain particle of the flesh, not yet wholly reduced into earth, but it was as moist earth coagulated with blood. So the Augustinian Monk William Thorn, in the Chronicle of his monastery, written toward the end of the XIV century: where afterward Chap. 12, §. 2 he relates, that in the year MCLXVIII, on the day of the beheading of S. John the Baptist, the church was burned for the greatest part: in which burning… the very bier of S. Augustine & also of many Saints of this place were lamentably deformed. The old Church of the present monastery was dedicated by S. Laurentius the Archbishop in the year of the Lord DCXIII the 16th year from the coming of S. Augustine into England. In which year was translated the body of S. Augustine from the place where it first lay for VII years outside beside the Church not yet finished into the same Church now finished & reverently in the northern portico where now is the Church of S. Mary it was entombed, where it lay for CCCC LXXVIII years even to the year of the Lord MXCI. In the year of the Lord MXCI the third of the pontificate of Pope Urban II, the 5th of William, King of England after the conquest, the 5th of Wido the abbot, & in the time of the vacancy of the Archbishopric of Canterbury after the death of Lanfranc the third year, the new Church begun by Scotland the abbot, & by Wido the body of S. Augustine was translated with the bodies of the other Saints from the place where it first lay in the first Church even to the place where it now lies, by Gundulf Bishop of Rochester.

[57] The same then chapter 20, §. 2 narrates, how S. Augustine in body through the Abbot Hugo the third is revealed, which above he had promised himself to do: but he narrates in these words. In the year MCCXXI, in the nineteen-year Cycle VI, the Dominical letter C, in the year 1221 27 Apr. he is sought, the fifth of the Kalends of May, John de Marisco, Prior of S. Augustine of Canterbury, with the Seniors of the house, desiring to be certified where was deposited the body of B. Augustine, the Apostle of the English, his Patron; fastings, vigils, with prayers, & disciplines preceding; by the counsel of certain Brethren, to whom a triple revelation was made, caused the wall to be broken beside the altar of S. Augustine, in the Eastern part under the middle window, where was found a stone tomb, with iron & lead most excellently sealed, whose superscription was such:

The renowned Prelate of the English, pious, & a high ornament, Here Augustine the Saint rests in body.

[58] But on the morrow, a solemnity as was fitting being made, after Compline, & on the 28th he is found, by the command of the Prior, the silver bier was removed by certain Brethren, & the altar & all that stone work, over which the bier stood, for the sake of emendation & beauty, was broken. In the middle of which, namely in the bottom of the heap of stones, unexpectedly was found a great lead, almost to the length of seven feet, whose subscription was such: Here is had part of the bones & ash of B. Augustine, the Apostle of the English, who formerly sent by B. Gregory, converted the English nation to the faith of Christ: whose precious head & larger bones in another stone vessel Guido the Abbot honorably translated, as the leaden tablet placed with the same bones indicates, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord MXCI. & separately the head with the larger bones; But because that work could not be brought to effect unless the lead were removed, the stone vessel also was removed, in which was contained the head & larger bones of B. Augustine, which to the great altar by the Abbots of Battle & of Langdon, & by the Priors of S. Edmund of Faversham & of S. Radegund, & by very many other religious men, the We Praise Thee O God being sung, with great veneration was carried. Where afterward each night by four Monks, before the great altar watching & singing their Psalms, even to its first Translation, with great diligence & veneration it was kept; both on account of the absence of the Lord Hugo the Abbot, who at that time for certain affairs, to be dispatched before the Lord Louis King of the Franks, in transmarine parts had made a stay; & because they wished not nor had it seemed honest to them, to have two Translations.

[59] After the coming of the Lord Abbot was unsealed that stone vessel over the great altar, in which was contained the head & larger bones, which as opened many being present, there being present the Abbots, Priors, & Magnates of the land, the clergy & people seeing, for this by master H. Sandford, at that time Archdeacon, there invited; where was found a leaden plate, with the head & bones, whose inscription was such. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand ninety-one, William King of the English reigning, son of King William who acquired England, Abbot Guido translated the body of B. Augustine from the place where for five hundred years it had lain, & replaced all the bones of that Saint in the present coffin, & several other things of the holy Body the Abbot placed in the silver bier, to the praise of Him reigning unto the ages. & by a triple revelation were found, Likewise in the third place, namely in the summit of the silver bier, was found a small lead, in which was of his flesh, not yet wholly reduced into earth, but it was as moist earth & coagulated with blood, whose superscription was such: This lead contains part of the dust of the body of B. Augustine: for the rest here near are had. Beside which lead were found most precious Relics, namely of the hairs of B. Mary the Virgin, of the seamless Tunic, of the Column where the Lord was bound & scourged, & many others of which here no mention is made. And as by a triple revelation it was revealed that in three places his glorious body ought to be found, so in three parts they are replaced. which the outcome of the matter afterward proved to be true; so also now the Lord Hugo III & his Convent, caused the body in three places by divine inspiration honorably to be laid up. For the greater part is above under the silver bier, with iron strongly bound, & with lead most excellently sealed: the second part below under the marble tomb, & the third under the middle window in the Eastern part, where a certain boy through the merits of that Saint received sight. But the head, at the instance of the Magnates who were present, he reserves of the head. & to excite the devotion of the people, the same Abbot Hugo caused to be retained outside the bier, & at his own expense in gold & silver & precious stones, as now is seen, wonderfully to be decorated.

[60] In the years after these so done XXIX, XXXVII, & XLIX; when the year MCCXL, XLVIII, & LXX of the Lord's Incarnation were numbered, that the Augustinian Sanctuary was adorned with three altars dedicated, & the bodies of the Saints aptly disposed round about, we are taught by an illustrious monument which engraved on bronze in tome 1 of the English Monastic is inserted at page 20, from a certain old Ms. Codex of the same once cœnobium,

but then, that is in the year 1652, the form of the Sanctuary; being in the possession of the Master & Fellows of the Hall of the Holy Trinity at Cambridge. This I add to these things: because it will serve to illustrate the following book of the Saints, translated at the same time as Augustine. There is represented there also the great altar, which is set before the Sanctuary itself looking, as I think, toward the choir of the Monks: which indeed in the year MCCXL, namely the same in which the chief altar of the Sanctuary, the same parchment teaches to have been consecrated to the saints Peter, Paul, & Augustine: but after LXXV years, the body of S. Æthelbert the King being composed over it, to this & those again it was named, since perhaps by some chance it had been violated. The consecrator Peter Bishop of Corbavia, perhaps was an Apostolic Legate, bearing the bare title of Corbavia or Corbasia in Pamphylia, the name here somewhat corrupted: because the monastery was immediately subject to the Apostolic See. Furthermore lest the page should be void, the remains of the cœnobium. it pleased from the same English monastic to add the remains of the cœnobium, after the ruin of the monasteries through England, by writers even heterodox deplored & blamed: in which for a notable space of time, among the Catholic inhabitants our P. William Marcius dwelt, & asserts still almost everything to be so; but what our tablet calls the gate of the Cemetery, he himself says led to the church, of which utterly nothing survives, except the single arch of the chapel of S. Pancras, which no violence has hitherto been able to break: but in that part & in that order in which the columns formerly stood, now the series of trees far beyond is extended. He adds, beyond the wall, of which here scarcely two halved sides are represented, toward the East are (as also the entire chart notes) the remains of the church of S. Martin, before the coming of S. Augustine, for the use of Queen Bertha, but built with a smaller work; just as also at the sign 4 there run forth the remains of a certain portico, together with buildings perhaps of the sick, now converted into a barn.

[61] What was done with the bodies of the Saints, He knows who keeps all their bones, as the Psalm says. Before they were dispersed, The Chin of S. Augustine in the year 1526 to Lusitania, there had come to the Kings of Lusitania the whole chin, with three teeth & part of a notable bone of S. Augustine the Apostle of England; which received from the shrine & treasure, left by John III King of Lusitania, to the distinguished Relics of thirty-four other Saints added Henry Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of Évora, afterward King, as in the common approbation of all, made in the year MDCXXVIII, John Alvarez de Luzana Bishop of Portalegre testifies it was found by him. But by what occasion those were brought into Belgium, & at Antwerp in the cœnobium of S. Saviour of the Cistercian Order were deposited, thence carried to Antwerp, & in the year MDCLXXII, under the first Abbot of the place Francis Diericx solemnly translated, & enclosed in silver caskets, the reader will find explained at the day 2 April, where of the relics of S. Mary of Egypt, one of the aforesaid Saints it is treated, & likewise in the Appendix to the aforesaid day. In the solemn procession which then was had there were borne the Relics of the same Saints, distributed under nine banners, of which the last had under it the Apostles & Apostolic men, & among these S. Augustine with this Chronicon:

aVgVstInVs angLIarVM DoCtor.

[62] The aforenamed Abbot two years after published a book, to strengthen the faith & tradition of the aforesaid Relics; the gift was Henry 8's offered to John 3. where I find page 58 to be said, that the Author of the gift was Henry VIII King of England, formerly Defender of the Faith named by the Apostolic See; afterward, alas! the subverter of the same. But it was brought by Cardinal Wolsey, in the year MDXXV sent to congratulate John on the nuptials, contracted with Catharine daughter of Philip of Austria, sister of Charles V the Emperor, & niece of his wife the Queen. For Henry had a wife Catharine, the common aunt of John himself & of Catharine the bride & of Charles: by whose intercession of all the same Cardinal obtained from the Pontiff the title of Legate a latere & Primate in England. With which if he had been content, nor to obtaining the summit of the supreme Pontificate by the help of Charles had his ambition aspired; he would not have grieved himself deluded by this; but grieving he would not have excited the King to the shameful divorce from the best Queen, that he might do ill to Charles; & the Catholic cause & the Relics of the Saints probably in England would have remained inviolate; & retained their pristine veneration & cultus.

OF THE SECOND BOOK

PROLOGUE.

Our primitive Augustine, since he was afterward translated with his side companions, is in the first series of the narration anticipated; the rest of his friends, before him translated, after him are recounted. A preposterous order, but necessarily changed. Why? Because both to him for whom chiefly this solemnity is prescribed, the primacy is owed: & to those hungering for the paternal banquets, he sooner gives a remedy; lest by the long suspense of a lasting circuit, before the dining-room be reached, the sick awaiter faint. Now therefore because the grateful occasion of the renewed temple has brought forth for us this triumph in the assumed Augustine & the other Chief ones; it seems fitting from the superior Fathers, bringing forth that very thing, to second the text; & with intervening miracles, to celebrate the grace as well of their as of our days. So the circuit of the causes shall weigh the delays of the flowers to be gathered from the Elysian meadows, & the divers translations of the preceding Saints, to the sanctuary of Augustine now translated we shall refer.

Although also this book into 42 chapters by numbers is divided, yet because in the transcript communicated to us, & perhaps also in the very autograph, of the same Chapters no titles are had, as after the Prologue of book 1, therefore no account of that division do we judge to be had, & the numbers, as it seemed convenient, we divide.

CHAPTER I.

The restoration of the church designed: & for its sake the translated body of S. Adrian. The succession of the Abbots.

[1] First therefore the Augustinian Abbot Almerus ^a, as by a certain vow & presage of the future translation, the arches & columns, [Abbot Almerus, a beginning being made of demolishing the old work, is created Bishop,] over the bodies of the Saints with Roman elegance solemnly built, removed; & as much as he dared, prepared for them the way of rising: but of those very columns & arches he adorned the cloister of his monastery. Hence from Abbot into Pontiff wonderfully resisting he was assumed to Sherborne; Ælstanus the worthy one, who translated the most Blessed Mildreth ^b to his Augustine, succeeding. But he by the judgment of the merciful God, scourging whom He loves, struck with blindness, the Episcopate as voluntarily deserting as unwillingly he had received, returned to the paternal sign of Augustine; & dwelling in the cell of the sick, exercised his leisure in psalmodies & prayers. Nor is to be passed over here an admirable vision concerning him. His minister lay, & on account of blindness returned to the monastery, an honorable man in the church of S. Mauritius, adjoining the very little cell of the sick: he saw on a certain night, as he lay fully waking, two venerable persons, leading the Bishop, from the same cell in which he rested, here & there into the very basilica of the Theban Martyrs, & there familiarly sitting beside him as their middle one; & holding much discourse with him, which that contemplator could openly hear, but utterly not understand, long conferring; & at length the decree finished leading him back to his little bed. By which vision he was almost lifeless from dread, the Saints showing through a vision he knew whatever was changed, while neither his companion lying near could he in any way excite from sleep. The Bishop himself also contemplated the whole building of the monastery & the site of the place by divine revelation in spirit, namely in that order, in which formerly with bodily eyes he had seen it; or whatever afterward was changed, how it was changed, without a pointer he related: but especially that sanctuary of the holy Fathers, whence now translated we gratefully see them, with a devout sight of mind he beheld; whose life-giving clay to wash with tears & to incense with prayers he frequently panted. But with how great joy do we think this hall of our age renewed, & with so great lights of the Saints illustrated, he beheld even by mind alone, while with exterior eyes he could not, by hand he recognized, by hearing he saw, or by divine revelation weighed? There were also most approved witnesses, that over his tomb, a light, sent from the supernal seats, after his death was often seen ^c.

[2] But the most excellent Abbot Ælstanus, setting out to Rome, his successor Ælstanus by the most excellent Emperor Henry, for the grace of the most famous Father Augustine, magnificently is received. Where when of so great a Hierarch they solemnized discourses; the Emperor exclaims, O if even the least joint, or some hair, or at last the last little dust of so great a treasure I might merit to obtain, with how great prices of things I would wish that bought! Which prize of inestimable splendor, as much as England rejoices to have obtained, he denies to S. Henry the Relics of S. Augustine, so much would Rome weep taken away, did not faith on both sides believe him to be present, & everywhere to profit from the supernal kingdom. Saying these things the most pious Prince insisted greatly upon the venerable Abbot, that he should now translate that so precious ornament of the Roman Empire & of the human race, & confer on him something of such sacred pledges: which if he obtained, whatever he wished, in lands, vineyards, gold & silver loftily he would obtain: moreover he himself the shrine of so great a treasure with purest gold & most precious gems augustly would surround. But the Abbot, although he the access to the paternal sight, which our day merited, above all the wealth of the earth would outweigh; yet for all the wealth of things neither his own nor the Emperor's desire dared he obey. Returned home while, after the advancement of his monastery most strenuously performed, four years before his death he languished; the eminent ram of his flock ^d Wlfricus, by secular & ecclesiastical & literal erudition illustrious, & sick he substitutes for himself Wlfricus; he caused to be ordained Abbot for himself at the Apostolic altar of S. Peter, namely by the old custom of the Roman privilege & liberty, first by Apostolic authority confirmed.

[3] But Wlfricus, who in the dilation of the commonwealth entrusted strove to equal all his predecessors, in the restoration at length of his church strove to surpass all. But the endeavor unpresumed by the rest he feared inconsiderately to presume, & that so old, so chief, so innumerable a dwelling of Saints without public authority to violate. Meanwhile that most splendid & most holy brightness of our age, Pope Leo, the Simoniac Heresy in the Gauls warred against, the tables of the money-changers & the chairs of those selling doves overthrew, & all the negotiation of avarice from the temple of the Lord cast out. There is sent to him the Vicar of the Prince of the English Churches Augustine, who sent to Reims to Leo 9 by the King, this very Wlfricus, for the ecclesiastical magistrates & his nation to answer; namely by King Edward destined, as he was wont, as much as fit, to be sent into transmarine kingdoms & the highest affairs. There are added to him as companions the notable Dudeco Bishop of Somerset, & the Abbot of Ramsey Ælfwinus. Then the great Priest of the Lord dedicated the Reims church of S. Remigius ^e, & showed himself a faithful dispenser of Christ by miracles. The sacred Orders being discussed, & by him for reverence of S. Augustine most benignly received, who entered by the door, who from elsewhere ascended, the Consul of Christ found the English more innocent; the English & especially the Augustinian legate, for the dignity of so great a name, with ampler benignity he received: for before the Pontiff of venerable memory Heremannus of Salisbury ^f, to whom we side ones adhered, at Rome in the most ample Senate ^g of the Pontiffs

had lucidly disputed before the most Blessed Leo himself, of the inexcusable hospitality of the English to all kinds, whether strangers or citizens; of England itself, filled everywhere with churches, to which daily in new places new ones were added; of the innumerable distribution of ornaments & signs through the oratories, & the most ample bounty of Kings & rich men into the inheritance of Christ. The supreme friend of the Lord Leo rejoiced so much, that with lifted hands he gave thanks to God. The aforesaid Bishop added also to set forth the nobility of the English Hierarchy, namely that the Prelate of Canterbury by Apostolic authority at Rome ought to sit beside the Pontiff of S. Rufina; but the Augustinian Abbot beside the Abbot of the castle of Cassino. It was sought in the decrees, & found, & there by the Pope's & all's assent corroborated.

[4] By favors of this kind the same most Blessed Pope held the English more familiarly: but to Wlfricus, for the grace of S. Augustine & his own harmony he was devoted; he obtains license of building a new church: all things rememorating of that Saint & his worthy colleagues most lovingly he heard, to the one suggesting the restoration of his monastery most gratefully assented, & blessed. So Nathan favored the desire of King David in building the temple: but since each was a Prophet, each here from God's counsel, as a man, erred: nor can anyone do anything, save, to whom & when, God shall have decreed. This the desirous Abbot not weighing, & to the work not granted to him vainly striving, a legation being made his temple from the front he demolished; the most blessed Virgin Mildreth, before the principal altar of the Apostles laid, into the portico of the Father Augustine he translated; & beside the Northern wall, opposite S. Augustine, he placed. A part also from the West of the oratory of the holy Mother of God, & the oratory of S. Mary being cast down, with the porticoes by which it was surrounded, he cast down: & between each church, the cemetery of the Brethren which adjoined being purged, the whole space for the fabric he seized, the walls he raises, the columns & arches he composes. Kent rejoiced at the new work, although a thing unsuitable for monastic habitation the unskillfulness of the craftsmen had made.

[5] But offended was the Queen of heaven at the injury of her temple. he incurs the indignation of the Mother of God; This her sanctuary, this according to the English designation her vestiary, this was the bosom & lap of many Saints. Here, as in what follows will be clear, was heard the concert of Angels, here the organs of Virgins, here was made assiduous the virtue of miracles. This Lady of things, deigning to appear through a vision to a certain old woman; Go, says she, & tell Wlfricus the Abbot, that with death he shall be punished for the destruction of my oratory. This once, this again, this a third time the woman admonished; at length through the Abbot's sister well religious (because she feared him) sends to him the heavenly mandates. He dreading at the majesty of so great a Lady, but refusing to believe as old wives' fables for the vileness of the messenger, held the intention of his purpose, & of the starry complaint neglected the satisfaction: for mostly the impetus of men rushes irrevocably, according to that of Naso; Every impetus has difficult approaches. He fell therefore the guilty one into the divine sentence: he was struck with the lethal arrow of sickness about the Lord's Supper. & he dies after the 3rd weekday of Easter. Yet daily, both on the very Supper, & on the Parasceve, & Holy Sabbath, & the day of Easter, the second also & third weekday, the greater Masses in the congregation, stronger than himself & than the very infirmity, he completed. But on the following night, by a sudden departure, before the Brethren could run up, he died, & turned his festive days for them into laments: but his work, with innumerable expenses & labors frustrated, for destruction to others he left. Yet let no one judge so great a man, after the mercy of God destitute, nor of his good will the fruit emptied. The Prophet's disobedience the questor lion punished; but of the dead one's body, as now purged, now justified, to eat, nor his very little ass to hurt did it presume.

[6] The succeeding Egelsinus receives the Pontificalia. After him the Lord Egelsinus the Monasteriarch is raised, & in the palace of the King is consecrated: who going to Rome ⁱ by Pope Alexander with mitre & sacerdotal sandals is gifted, & to use these in the Pontifical place is bidden. This, says he, summit we decree the Augustinian Rector to have perpetually, namely for the dignity of that foster-child of the Romans & Apostle of the English Augustine. This prerogative therefore he carried back home, & meanwhile in Augustine's potency he had: but when he changed the Abbey, to the Augustinian successor his rights elsewhere unpresumed he left ^k.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The translation of the Saints, Kings, Prelates; buried in the Oratory of B. Mary.

[7] Meanwhile William Duke of the Normans, God dispensing the raising of his people, passed into King of the English: by whom the Lord Scollandus, an upright & prodigally learned man, under King William ordained Scollandus, the Augustinian house received a fitting Father. He, as the other predecessors, ordained in his monastery, when, into the building of his church to be more widely extended, he stretched an ample mind; grievously offended him the standing work, hinderingly drawn out, offended also the narrow space of the decreed structure; terrified indeed the judgment of the Mother of God on the superior Abbot, of his broken-off church; terrified of the old monastery, consumed by long rot, the peril of ruin. In these anxieties he is snatched by a Royal ^b legation to Rome to Pope Alexander: there after the Royal answers, counsel he receives from the Pope himself & a blessing of translating the Saints, of destroying & reforming his basilica, Alexander 2 exhorting, according to his vows & the nod of supernal bounty. Then the Reverend Apostolic, of the same outer-wall church, how near the wall of the city should impend; the most excellent Augustine & his most seemly companions, in what part of the church, in what order; at the same time, whether in distinct porticoes they should rest, when most diligently he inquired; & the illustrious Abbot to all his wishes satisfied: This, said he, is the most preeminent citadel of the city, & the most seemly Court of the whole kingdom, where that Leader of the propagation of his Churches, the Prince of the blessed companions, that is, the Prince of Princes, & in his Apostolate the Holy of holies Augustine, his couch, & his triumph stretched to the heavens placed. How illustrious a house of so many & so great stars of heaven! how venerable a hall to the whole nation of the English! how blessed a Country, illustrated by the rays of the Saint Patrons!

[8] he girds himself to the new work: Then the faithful Abbot, at so great a testimony of so great a man astounded & giving thanks, hastens home, the begun mass of the new work subverts. But the residual part of the Virginal oratory of supreme Mary, which delayed his impetus, also the course of our oration here now delays. There occur the supernal heraldings of this sanctuary, & in its lap the miracles of the adjacent Saints. Here the very preeminent Parent of the Most High was often seen, & he destroys the remains of the oratory of B. Mary, & with the sweet-toned choir of Virgins with ineffable sweetness of heavenly harmony is known to have been heard. To this most white company the Angel of the Lord of hosts, & after Augustine & his companions the most shining ornament of the English, it is established the most Blessed Dunstan more familiarly & more frequently was present; & as a hart thirsting to the fountains of waters, where S. Dunstan so he, captured by the sweetness of supernal modulation, insatiably made assiduous this paradise of the Saints. Lest also to our times of this faith there be wanting an experiment, the very keeper of the Lord's flock Scollandus: on a certain night before the nocturnal vigils awakened from sleep, as he lay in a cell adjoining that church, a choir wonderfully sweet-sounding alternately is heard of psalm-singers, as of men & boys, rendering a most grateful consonance of the diapason; while now in all modes they sang together, now in distinct organs the little ones answered the men. He stuck in the unwonted melody; yet not yet observing the heavenly songs, he thought the Brethren now the matins sacred things being completed, had performed a procession (as then days & nights they were wont) in that very church. He asks the awakened companions, whether they had heard the matins signs; all deny: he asks, whether the songs heard by him they had heard; all both monks & laymen assert that they plainly hear. He sends thither a most faithful Brother, Sumoldus by name, to explore the certitude of the matter. He came, & the doors closed found, nor anyone there beholds, nor any sound now hears: they had heard the song of Angels: returned he goes round all the beds of the Brethren, & finds all sleeping. Which when he reported to the Father; he reclining on his little bed, slept a little: & behold the vocal sign of Matins resounded. Then indeed astounded, he understood without delay with all those hearing, that truly in that place the Olympic hosts had assembled, & that the often before narrated miracles by most true experience had become clear to him, & that truly the supernal citizens inhabit these dwellings.

[9] where also several Saints & Kings were buried; For this place of the Father amiable to God & every age, & after supreme Augustine our best Institutor, Adrian ^d his most signs-potent clay especially irradiated, together also the venerable Bodies of S. Albinus ^e his disciple & successor, & of Blessed John ^f in an earlier time Abbot: to this several holy Bishops & numerous Abbots, four also Kings, with their Royal consorts, & a willing & long genealogy of grandchildren, illustrated & ennobled the Lord's hall by their sleeping. But of these Kings the first is known Edbaldus, son of the third ^g of the Kings of the English but first worshiper of Christ Æthelbert: namely Edbaldus, who from the error of idolatry, as from Acheron emerging, through the blessed Archprelate Laurentius, the Apostle Peter for the despaired-of sheep scourging the pastor, fled to the bosom of Christ; & an emulator of his father's piety this church to the preeminent Mother of God founded & dedicated, in which hitherto he rested, inheriting what he made, & possessing what he gave; with the Just namely,

whom in the name of Justus he received: this with an Abbot & monastic order, the founder of that very oratory, that it might be incorporated to the Augustinian cœnobium, religiously he formed; with royal ornaments & wealth, lands & necessaries of things most abundantly he enriched, among which the Royal village, called Northburna ^h, he added; moreover for propagating the Christian faith to the blessed Fathers a helper & devout co-worker he showed himself.

[10] Lotharius, The second was Lotharius, born of King Edbaldus the grandfather, & King Erconbert ⁱ the father, & uncle of the God-beloved Virgin Mildreth: whose most holy mother Queen Sexburga ^k, in the island of Sheppey first founded a monastery to the Mother of God, & instituted choirs of Nuns; & there, the diadem of the kingdom changed into the sacred veil, joined herself to the handmaids of Christ, her son himself favoring, & lands & riches there sufficient royally adding: who afterward to the precious Virgin her sister Etheldreda ^l succeeded in the government of the monastery of Ely. Lotharius, when after his brother Egbright, the founder of the Cœnobium of Reculver, he had reigned twelve years; in the war of the South Saxons by his nephew Edricus, son of his brother Egbright, assailed, & there wounded, while he is treated, dies. But Edricus after a year & a half of the kingdom obtained being taken away, foreign ^m & uncertain Kings ruled for some time: of whom one, by name Mulus, was buried with the former third in order. The fourth was the legitimate King Withred ⁿ, Mulus, the other son of the former King Egbright: who powerful in virtue & religion, Withred, well-deserving of that place, snatched the paternal kingdom from the foreign tyrants. He, B. Martin bidding him through a vision, in his honor at Dover constituted first a monastery, & with royal gifts made it perpetually copious for the servants of God. But to the Augustinian Mary & her most blessed inhabitant Adrian, among other gifts worthy of a Prince, the royal mansion, which Littleburn ^o is called, perpetually he bestowed: & so in that house inherited rest, which with wealth he increased.

[11] About to translate S. Adrian, Therefore so many both holy, & sublime persons, before the casting-down of that church to be translated, the most illustrious Abbot, the Mother of the supernal King by his & his devout Brethren's fastings, prayers & tears being appeased, first to the overthrow of the altar & tomb of the Father Adrian to be carried out venerably approaches. The instrument of the work the floor is leveled, & the Saint's sepulchral stone most attentively is cleared: the treasure to be assumed, as if lifted to hand, is deferred to night, lest perchance the unexperienced hope be hurt. By night with lights, prepared to bring the joy of his light their minds return: they remove the sepulchral stone, instead of the hoped-for body of the Saint, as a wall rising from the foundation they find. Forthwith the confounded breasts a night of mourning occupies, & a cold tremor ran through the inmost bones; first they find S. Albinus, all thinking themselves defrauded of so great a Father's presence. But by the Abbot's command that obstruction of stones being overturned, to those digging deeper from the left a little crypt is offered: which suffused with heavenly odor, the messenger bursting forth, S. Albinus is shown. But on the right a vast sarcophagus of white marble they behold, & soon their minds & joys of the finding of the most wished Adrian return. Which digging around, while at the cover to be removed with vain labor they strive, at the feet a stone brought to the sarcophagus they contemplate. This being taken out, suddenly a witness & herald of the sought desire leaped out, breathing the paradise of the Lord with fragrance. But to a more grateful gladness again they are tried by sadness, while by a certain Brother, then Adrian himself: timidly inspecting, the tomb is proclaimed empty. But the care of others having looked more perspicaciously, it is answered, rather truly full of the true clay of the holy body: which so seemed beautiful, that it was thought still, as at first it was placed, to lie with entire flesh. At length the very Leader of the flock inspected, saw, & forthwith with great exultation, Glory to Thee, Christ, proclaimed. Truly, says he, this is B. Adrian's most precious pearl of body, in the splendors of the Saints truly to be raised again.

[12] whom rashly touching a Brother grows putrid. At these things one of the Brethren, David by name, a Briton by race, into the holy body rashly stretched a finger, wishing to try more curiously whether it were still solid. But he experienced His virtue, whose condition he dared to try. The finger is pricked, as transfixed by a needle, or by burning iron or a venomous water-snake struck: nor only the finger, but the whole hand with intolerable torment swells up. And when by reason of anguish him crying out the Abbot questioned, he showed the cause, the swollen punishment of his presumptuous hand. The Father answers, rightly that done upon so rash a one. But he the rest of the night with sleepless wailing dragged. Hence the Prince of the monastery uncertain boils with a double mass of cares: since neither would it be safe to touch the holy body, nor with so great a weight of stone could it seem to be carried out: for the presumptuous one had deterred even those, to whom the Saint's touch would be salutary. And by the persuasion of Odo Bishop of Bayeux He sets therefore, at so great a treasure, until day, keepers, within the Brethren praying, without the Soldiers watching. He orders forthwith the whole monastery to whiten with hangings, with palls of purple & gold & all ornament Paschally to shine. There was then at Canterbury the Pontiff of Bayeux, Odo brother of the King, & under the absent King the governor of England: he at the twilight of light is summoned by the Abbot; he hears & sees the virtue of the Saint: consulted he exhorts the Abbot, that he should not send him from the ancient couch of his sleeping; but with that, in which first by the holy attendants he was placed, carry out the sarcophagus. The prudent hearer obeys the counsel; & the things being prepared, with the white-robed & purpled solemnly troop of Brethren, & the people vying to burst in, to that Holy of holies most adorned he proceeds. The whole desirable Adrian therefore, his stony mass beautifully adorned, with most robust beams is received; with sweet-toned organs of praise striking the stars he is carried out; into his own chest translated, he is healed: into the portico of the most desired Father Augustine, a most grateful colleague he is deposited; & among his most blessed companions, & beside his first successor Laurentius the most holy Archprelate, with worthy sanctity he is laid up. There is made for the throngs, as well French as English, great exultation: there is made of bursting in & considering the highest intention. The tears run for joy: the Saint adds a dance to the miracle of his clemency, who had terrified by the miracle of his punishment. The Mass of his glory being most celebratedly & most whitely completed, the abovesaid tempter with his swollen hand miserably runs up; a candle, by whose measure his tomb was surrounded, with mournful penitence, with the intervention of the Brethren standing by, he offered: & (O the virtue of the most pious Father!) forthwith all the grief vanished, the hand subsided, health & gladness after the anguishes more grateful returns.

[13] but the offered Relic he dares not receive: Then he, having experienced the double power, severe & serene, added to demand something of such salvation-bearing pledges; swearing upon those holy things, that if even the least he might obtain thence, which to his own place in Britain, of the monastery of saint Saviour [p] at Rennes he could carry; he would bring it about, that yearly his festivity in copes might be celebrated, as in monastic usage it is said. And when the benignity of the Abbot assented, & a little joint taken to be held forth to him bade, he fled the held-out one with so great trembling, that to receive it by no reason could he be persuaded. You would see a man dreading a burning taper in himself, & a right hand more keenly to be beaten back, if he dared to touch. The giver therefore inquiring, why so timidly he refused, what so avidly he had begged: The promise, says he, of the whole world will not inflict this on me. So the petitioner being deterred the sacred gift is replaced in its little coffer, meanwhile a sick woman is healed of the colic. the Saint namely deigning to keep it entire in the chosen place. The apothecary of the odoriferous body being closed therefore, there came from the suburb a girl, now for many years worn with an incurable torment of the bowels: & after prayer she inquires of the Brethren of the cure of her disease. But they, the hand of the Brother being washed which had touched the Saint's joint, give the diseased one a drink. O faith powerful to all things! O the Confessor of Christ bestowing to those believing in Christ all things! The touch of the holy body, as it harms the presumptuous; so to the dutiful, that it might profit others also, it conferred. Of this touch's washing therefore tasted, full soundness forthwith the sick woman drank.

[14] So therefore the most excellent Adrian being translated & glorified, now after the aforesaid solemnities of Masses, Then are translated the others, while amid the same Masses all the rest, who were to be translated, were raised from their caves, & prepared to be carried out; the dispenser of the Lord's family returns with a most white procession: & translating the pledges of the Prelates, Abbots, & the rest of the Saints, with a high resounding of voices & cymbals, in the Western tower of the monastery composed all, before the altar of the Holy Mother of God, until the new church being rebuilt with a new honor they might be laid up: & the altar consecrated by S. Mellitus being destroyed, nor were wanting the four Kings abovementioned to this translation, with their wives & their progeny carried up. Then the principal altar of the Virginal church is demolished. There too while the work is protracted, our following discourse also is prolonged. There shone forth the sacrosanct pledges of the Saints, with ivory whiteness & redness suffused, & with every sweetness redolent: by the most holy Archprelate Mellitus there once, when this altar with the church he consecrated, most seemly replaced: their names & indications inscribed on little charts, & in the manner of a Cross in a hollowed stone placed & distinguished, appeared there sometime consumed by flames. We grieve both of these & of so many other Saints the knowledge abolished from the lands, since this loss reproves our sloth: since neither those worthily to praise, under it Relics are found. whom we know; nor the very deeds of so many so very many to read again do we rise. But innumerable for us the divine dispensation like stars kindles lights of the Saints, most known by books & miracles; that in so great an abundance of the manifest, it may satisfy our desire; but in the want of the hidden, it may compunct our tedium. We judge also the very domestics of God, whom our unworthiness now is ignorant of, of their own accord to wish still to lie hid; & in the bosom of the Lord, to whom they say, To Thee I have revealed my cause, sweetly to rest; & their hidden life with Christ in God to lay up, that at the end of the revelation of the sons of God, so much more clearly with Christ in glory they appear, so much more wonderfully to our eyes they shine, by how much now more deeply they lie hid from human blindness. These things I would have said on account of the pious complaint of the desirous, or the blind incuriousness of the slothful. The manifoldness of heavenly treasures wearies mortals, since no infinity of gold & riches wearies them.

[15] Therefore the aforesaid Relics being assumed, before that very altar uprooted other wealth, other pearls are met. with a little body, There germinates that sacred cave of one little one snowy & milky limbs, so minute, that scarcely could they be held; so hard, that most difficultly could they be broken. All wondering at the unwonted both slenderness & solidity & whiteness; one of the bystanders now of mature age burst into this relation. When I was a boy, I & my coeval boys learned the sacred songs in this church: meanwhile, when on a certain night Matins being completed we sang together after custom, it happened one of us, in age & mind more advanced, as if convulsing suddenly to fall, & as lifeless without sense & voice to lie. At length breathing again & sighing, we inquiring trembling, what he suffered; Did you, says he, not see the miracle seen by me?

All denying; I saw, says he, at the entrance of the Choir a little one standing, white like snow, with his little palms stretched to heaven praying, after prayer by a way bent to the south to the altar hastening, & so between S. Adrian & the principal altar vanishing. While that contemplator trembling & pale had set forth these things, so all both master & disciples were terrified, that equally from the church, the master going before & exhorting, headlong we fled. Truly a terrible & to be feared place, truly an assembly of Angels & a rest of the Saints is the church. It is the very house of God & house of prayer: there the highest peace, a silent voice, within clamorous, & the intention to God, as the eyes of servants in the hands of the Saints, their Lords, ought to be unbent: where he who hinders prayer, aids the infestation of demons, & assails the hearing of Christ. To God therefore he does injury, who sparing his own house, abuses the house of God. But thee, O Boy, whom we have aforewritten, & perhaps weigh as indignant at undisciplined boys; thee, I say, although by name we know not, by merits we know, & to the Bethlehem Innocents by faith we ascribe.

ANNOTATIONS.

oo. The French here are called the Normans, because born in France & thence carried over.

p. By this name now only a church survives in the suburb, subject to the Abbess of S. George, & in the year 1648 it pretended to obtain the title of a parish.

CHAPTER III.

The miracles wrought in the new crypt of B. M.; the translation of five Archbishops.

[16] So therefore the aforesaid church, of its pledges emptied, to the ground is overturned & leveled, & soon in the very front rammed the face of the new hall is raised, The new crypt of S. Mary is built: & embraces all that womb of the old space with an ampler capacity. In that very former & most chosen place of hers the most high Virgin obtains a new crypt; & Augustine's chamber & the house of the Princes of the Apostles is peaked above: but to supreme Mary her receptive throne by the following signs is declared. Not yet was the royal crypt completed, & to our Queen grace smiled. It was the kindly day of Palms, on which the world celebrated the triumph of the Son of God & its own. The festive Church made a flowery & palm-bearing procession, receiving its King with the ancient Hierosolymites, among men sitting on a little ass, & above the Cherubim in heaven reigning. in which not yet completed sight is restored to a blind woman: Meanwhile a certain old woman, with blindness of eyes & long sickness troubled, alone had remained in the crypt; with the Saviour's Mother & the world's Savioress Mary. The mother of mercy pitied the wretch's calamity, & before the performed procession to the blind one restored the light of eyes, & to the languid one the full soundness of the rest of the body. Here therefore the first, after the destroyed church, regard of her clemency wonderfully gladdened all: because hence faithfully it was understood, that she had not deserted the ancient dwelling, restored by the new building: beautifully also to one first bereaved of light light she conferred; imitating in some manner the son, who in the fabric of the world first created light.

[18] There added thence the greatest worker of virtues, in the same crypt now completed her benefits to make frequent, A Royal captive, so in our eyes recent from a septennium, as today's. Lately indeed, after the death of Abbot Wido, a certain man Aelfwinus by name, an islander of Thanet, by the Royal exactors of all his goods devastated, at the court of S. Augustine in fetters long was held captive. But on the nativity of so preeminent a Lady, on which not only of Kent but also of London the province of the East & South Saxons ran together to that very basilica of hers, by ancient custom the captive is added to the people, to the prayers & Masses he enters the crypt, where the supreme Helper unceasingly he beseeches, that to him, deserted of all human solace, by divine on this her illustrious solemnity she would succor with a remedy. And when now the Mass to be ended the Priest messenger of peace said to the people, The peace of the Lord be always with you: he, whom straitness goaded, the bonds springing apart he is freed: with hands stretched to the heavens proclaims; Omnipotent God, succor wretched me, by the intervention of Thy most pious Mother. Saying these things by divine virtue he is seized: which not bearing, on the ground he is laid prostrate; & to him lying as dead, the nails springing apart far off, the fetters from his calves & feet are thrust out. He at length returned to himself, as from a bed of sickness sat down languidly, & wholly distills with sweat: he marvels at his loosened feet, the scattered fetters: a cry is lifted by the people, & thanksgiving. Some offer coins to the healed one, & extort a kiss of his hand from the unwilling: which he offered on the altar to his Savioress. The faithful congratulate: the perverse, the bonds withdrawn by a file or some art, calumniate. The matter is referred to the Archprelate Anselm: by his exhortation the sought bolts are found. The smiths called for God satisfy, that by no art of men could the bolts be so loosed or cast out. In such manner the captive is drawn from the jaws of his rivals, a Hymn of praise to the Lord by all is jubilated, the fetters to the memorable honor of the most powerful Liberatrix are hung up.

[19] Thence the same nativity festivity's most sacred anniversary returning, an extinguished candle is divinely re-kindled: now Vespers being completed on the solemn Vigil & procession, in the same salvation-bearing crypt, the officiating Brother extinguished all the lights, only one burning candle being left. Meanwhile to the fraternal supper he hastens: he looks back; & that, which alone he wished to shine, candle he saw extinguished. He grieved the Queen of heaven meanwhile to lack the honor of light, while he hastens the door being bolted to be present at the fellow pasture. After this he runs back hastily with a light, & sees, instead of the aforesaid candle & all the lights extinguished, a very great taper burning clearly. He weighs forthwith it kindled by supernal flame, salutes the divine benefits, & poured on the ground gives thanks with a host of prayers & tears. Which when the Dean Elfwinus, a holy & venerable man, by his swift indication heard; overflowing with tears of joy, all the lights of the church he bids to be extinguished; & by the gift of that light, which is the parent of perpetual light, all to be kindled. a sick woman is healed, bidden through sleep to offer a gift there. There is known a woman a citizen of the city of Canterbury, who for one year or more afflicted with a fierce disease, by such a voice at length through sleep was admonished, That thou mayest receive the joy of the wished soundness, the gilded penny, with which thou closest thy purse, give to the image of the holy Mother of God, in the crypt which is at S. Augustine's: & ask it to be hung at the sacred neck of that image. O the wondrous condescension of so great an Augusta of the heavens! What to her is so vile a little gift of a humble little woman, save that she desires a cause of having mercy on the wretched? Who would believe this dream true, & not as a phantastic mockery chatter against it, did not the true promised remedy prove it? There came therefore the sick woman to the Sacristan of the crypt, offered the breast-penny: which he being asked hung at the neck of the Virginal image, & soon the following health to the believing woman rendered the reward, & a dying boy. proving the faithful oracle of the dream. A servant of the Augustinian church his little infant son, now by disease about to perish, to be brought by his mother with a candle

made the help of that most powerful Lady: & when the father also with paternal affection more holily accompanied, by each parent the Lord's Prayer is poured forth, & by these a candle through the hand of the little one to the Virginal altar to God is offered: where forthwith the infant convalesces, & after a little with full health grows cheerful.

[20] Nor only by such signs of cures, but even by manifest revelations, there the Angelic songs are heard: & by the sweet-sounding concerts of the supernal citizens, with an odor of inestimable sweetness, frequently the very Queen of the world deigns to show, that she presides no less over this crypt, than over the former oratory of the same place. Finally, that many things be passed over, the same Lady of things seen there at a certain time, by a certain senior Brother the keeper of that crypt, is faithfully celebrated, with an incomparable brightness, with an inestimable fragrance of heavenly aromatics, with a most white & most splendid choir of innumerable Virgins (as he himself earnestly testifies) who insatiably poured around the most excellent & most benign Princess, modulated the sweet-toned praise of ethereal songs. To another Brother likewise, in age & morals venerable, by name Gregory, on a certain night before the nocturnal Hymns still asleep, clearly is heard from the same crypt the wonderful modulation of supernal harmony; so that by that sweet sound he was awakened from sleep. The sick man then rested, as to this day, in the cell of the sick, contiguous to the front & to the very crypt of the monastery. The hearer sat up in his little bed, & listens. The Office was being sung, which there daily in grace of the Virgin the devotion of the Brethren makes assiduous, Hail, holy Parent, who didst bring forth the King, & even to the end, Unto the ages of ages. He thought, Matins being completed the assembly of the Brethren celebrated the wonted Mass, save that stupefied he was rendered by the never before heard sweetness of the song. He hastened to be present at the Mass, came to the door of the crypt, found it obstructed with key & bar. He explores the beds of the Brethren: all a deep sleep held, & now the unexperienced melody was silent. Whence the not yet moved, & afterward sounded signs of Matins, gave him a certain testimony, that the mortals sleeping he had heard a heavenly concert. With the highest devotion therefore it is to be observed, that [to] our songs resounds the choir of the heavenly ones, & the Queen of heaven deigned to give this indication, that after the manner of our service she deigns to be saluted & praised by the songs of the supernal ones. On the Night of the birthday of the Glorious Martyr Cecilia, the same senior Gregory, who still survives, perchance privately wishing to sing for himself Matins of the same Virgin, enters the crypt with another Brother. And when they assisted singing before the altar of the Mother of Christ, with an admirable odor of sweetness Gregory there is suffused: the other smells nothing at all. And when this one feeling, sought the one not feeling, & he denied; the more he was astounded, that he could so wonderfully smell: in the morning [but] he attested to the Brethren, that he had never perceived so great a force of lilies & roses; of which if it were the season, he would believe the whole church to have been filled. By these divine gifts we believe, that divine Mary intimated here the grace of her presence, & herself crowned the rosaries of the blessed Spirits & sacred Virgins.

[21] When therefore over the crypt the basilica rebuilt & prepared had received the Brethren in their choir to the divine praises; [the church being built above, thither from the old one are translated 5 Archbishops,] the remaining body of the old church now about to fall the abovementioned Abbot Scollandus, lest it overwhelm anyone, preparing to demolish; the bodies of the Saints, with which it was all full, he takes care first to bring out. Of the very many the most chosen first are translated: five Archprelates of Canterbury, as five governors of the Lord's hall, namely the most renowned & most holy Theodore ^a, & his holy successors Britwaldus ^b, Tatwinus ^c, Nothelmus ^d, Jambertus. It is long to speak of each, since in the raising of each, the merits of each the supernal fragrance betrayed, & the evidence of virtues: but of the first & last their grace admonishes a little to supply. of whom the last Jambertus, Jambertus, from Augustinian Abbot into Archprelate of Canterbury ^e assumed, suffered many persecutions for justice. Among other things King Offa of the Mercians ^f had begun to transfer the Archbishopric of Canterbury, into the Primacy of his kingdom, to the Church of Lichfield; that there for the rest it might be the head of the Churches of England. Namely against the perpetual authority of the primitive institution of Blessed Pope Gregory. There resisted the armor-bearer of Christ Jambertus in the virtue of Elias: & amid frequent threats & repulses of the King, & frequent goings to the Apostolic ^g at Rome a reclamation, at length the palm of the just Primacy to his own See he carried back ^h. To whom among these & other virtues of illustrious sanctity, so great was his treasury humility that he ordered himself in the Chapter of the Brethren, near the first-marked Augustine, after death to be entombed; judging himself unworthy in the church of the Saints, & among so many most sacred Pontiffs his predecessors to be admitted. So him after his end in the ⁱ Chapter as in a more abject place buried, often a column of ethereal light poured over proved worthy of the heavenly honor of the Saints. And when him at length, for these & other miracles, the tomb being unsealed in the Church to be laid up they took care to carry out; the whole cloister everywhere wonderfully was redolent with nard-flowing incense. illustrious for miracles, There also by the Abbot of that time, on the right side of the altar, he himself venerably being replaced, the wonted signs accompanied with supreme favor: which now we pass over sparing the tedious: only one little revelation of his we subjoin, by which we may prove his perpetual vigilance over the dwelling of his sleeping. It happened sometime on the night of his festivity, that a candle, before the altar of his rest negligently fixed to the taper, complaining of his neglect at another time through a vision; kindled the taper, & the wax flowing down falling onto the substrate pavement made a burning & stench. The Pontiff standing by meanwhile rebukes the sleeping sacristan: Rise, says he, & amend thy negligence. The sleeper delaying: Rise, says he, quickly, & see what kind of honor thou keepest for the supreme Apostles & their cohabitants, who for light makest us smoke & stench. He terrified from his bed suddenly leaps up, the found-open door, which a little before over himself he had made firm, vehemently admiring: to the altar he runs, by the true vision finds himself culpable, the fault of the burning corrects, & more providently sets the light: but to all abusive dispensers of the house of the Lord, & also of the Lord's family, a great example in a small thing he left.

[22] but the first S. Theodore, But of the most aforenamed Theodore the cover of the tomb in the translation being removed, his incensing satisfied all abundantly, so that into the cloister of the Brethren also this delight burst forth. He lay, as from the beginning he was deposited, with the entire form of a Metropolitan Priest, with the Pallium & monastic cowl only covered. So great was the grace, that it was thought he was still vigorous with solid flesh: & their hands being applied the Brethren strove to take him up as entire. But before, the unmoved dust held forth the image of integrity, but the touch proved the faith of dissolution, but the dissolution added a more venerable grace of sanctity. For that most precious ash, destined to the glory of the blessed resurrection, so from the touch with a stronger fragrance grew green, as from the grinding aromatics are wont utterly to be redolent. There receives therefore a leaden case those sacrosanct pledges, most attentively for the best gems gathered: it is clothed with chief ornaments, is placed on the bier by two as lightly as possible Brethren, but it is not carried out with that lightness. The responsory heralding is intoned, the solemn college proceeds, the chosen four Brethren invade to carry out the dish of light: the clay sticks to the ground, as rooted. not allowing itself to be translated save after prayers. The help is doubled, they strive with all their strength with prayers, & by eight shoulders scarcely it is taken up; most heavily it is carried, even with the highest labor scarcely to the steps of the Presbytery is it reached. There at last the endeavor & strength of all the bearers or helpers fell: outweighing all, it fixed all: & the more had succeeded, the more vainly panting with effort, as lifeless it rendered them. And now they were to be overwhelmed by their burden; when at length turned to prayers & tears, to beat their breast, to accuse their unworthiness, to ask pardon, to vow emendation of life they began; only that the Saint would suffer himself to be carried out. He appeased by these vows, forthwith becomes light: & to the principal altar & the prepared place is carried by few, who a little before could not by all. They marvel rejoicing, that the temple of God & dwelling of the Holy Spirit so heavy to the empty, so sweet to the devout was made. He is laid up therefore in the right side of the altar, in a prepared tomb, in which by only two Brethren he is deposited with the leaden case. The other four also above named his holy successors & Co-bishops, while they are translated, of what merit they were by the virtue of the odor are betrayed: to whom that the Lord made a perpetual dwelling of sweetness, & burned the incense of His love, the moved incense-vessels of their sarcophagi proclaimed.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The Translation & praise of S. Æthelbert, the first Christian King of the English.

[23] There was translated also the holy & God-amiable King Æthelbert, There are translated King Æthelbert & Bishop Letardus as the first founder of the Apostolic temple, so the perpetual heir & possessor; the third indeed of the Kings of the English, but the first ascender of the kingdom of heaven. Of the most blessed Pontiff Letardus also, whose sacrosanct larger bones the Abbot Wlfricus long ago had taken into a golden shrine, but the rest of the body in a sarcophagus had remained; but also of the venerable Queen Bertha is performed a pious Translation, with whom & for whom in keeping the faith of Christ, the athlete of God himself feared not, in this barbarism of most vast gentility to be a pilgrim & to remain. They lay in the portico of the most blessed Prelate Martin, the King on the right side of the altar at the Southern wall, the Pontiff on the contrary on the left toward the North, the Queen behind the King. They had their altars at the head of their tomb. Of B. Letardus shall be told hereafter not to be postponed miracles: of whom this one received S. Augustine as a gentile, of Æthelbert now the text the most evident merits through England demand. Namely that England believes in Christ, is his: whatever the Protodoctor Augustine & his Evangelical fellow-soldiers in the vineyard & harvest of the Lord profited, the preventing grace of Christ being saved, to this man first is owed: as much as is in human matters, unless he had granted it, unless he had admitted the divine workers, no cultus, no truly salutary fruit to this land would have come. That now his works after the received faith be deferred, who would be silent, & not most greatly preach so great a benignity of a foreigner, even toward those whom then he did not believe, by whom to be subverted from his old error he was wary, so that he addressed them & heard them only under the open sky, by whom he augured he could be deceived in a house? He received in his legates Christ still unbelieving, he praised the message of eternal felicity, in which he distrusted: he gathered the anxious strangers in his very royal metropolis Canterbury, whom he knew not: he gave them a dwelling, then temporal, then perennial with the necessaries of life, to these whose sect he did not admit. He abhorred not them, as unknown in habit & morals: he condemned not, as the condemners of his deities & ancestral laws: but by clemency of mind, against his own institution he favored those preaching; & that to their faith whom they could they should convert, patiently he bore, clemently he assented.

[24] So benign toward the Christians in his native gentility, what was he at last Christianity being put on? & notably co-operated with him Another leader to the army of Christ shone forth, another Augustine he exhibited: what that man with his companions humbly evangelized, he himself sublimely confirmed: what Augustine Apostolically planted, Æthelbert royally propagated. The Saints flashed with miracles, thundered with documents: he himself by Royal power & constancy of faith, drove the cast lightnings or thunders of God farther. The grace, piety, fear, love, example, authority, & religiousness of the preceding King, indeed much conferred to amplifying the divine matters. Those who believed the signs-bearing Doctors more slowly, or blushed not to follow the believing King, he by exhortation & promise of eternal beatitude more than by his terror strove, as by divine document he had learned, to acquire for God the willing not the compelled. The Kings also subject or his companions with all the benignity of heavenly fellowship he excited to the worship of Christ; but believers wonderfully he embraced as brothers, kinsmen, & fellow-citizens of the eternal kingdom. Everywhere Christ is celebrated, everywhere churches are constructed, or the shrines of the gods are consecrated into churches. he merited to be praised by S. Gregory, With how great a bosom of paternal charity did the most renowned Pope Gregory take this man? with how great an affection of congratulation for the received faith did he cherish him? with how mellifluous instruments of the sent Epistle, as with heavenly kisses, to all piety did he foster him, to all virtue kindle him, to the ineffable reward of dilating the kingdom of Christ, the example of Constantine Augustus being set, incite him? These things among many: The minds, says he, of thy subjects, Lord son, from great purity of life by exhorting, terrifying, blandishing, correcting, & by good works showing examples build up, that thou mayest find that rewarder in heaven, whose name & knowledge thou shalt have dilated on earth. Our most reverend Brother Augustine the Bishop, instructed in the Rule of the monastery, filled with the science of sacred Scripture, replete God being author with good works, what he admonishes you willingly hear, devoutly perform, studiously reserve in memory: because if you hear him with that which in the omnipotent God he speaks, the same omnipotent God will the more swiftly hear him praying for you. By these twin wings therefore, Gregory the writer, & Augustine the admonisher, as Moses & Aaron, the King leaning, with a winged mind conceived the heavenly things.

[25] He built through Augustine the church of the Lord Saviour & the Archbishopric in his royal metropolis, the founder of several churches, where Augustine himself & all his successors should principally preside: he built also the principal monastery outside the walls of the city on the Eastern front, in honor of the Princes of the Apostles Peter & Paul, where both the King & Pontiff with all their successors should perpetually rest. But of the East Saxons the most blessed Mellitus shone forth the first Doctor & first Bishop, whom to this nation the author Augustine gave & consecrated, who afterward to him in his Apostolate more known succeeded. To him also Æthelbert, the friend of God, in the Metropolis of that province London, the church of the Apostle Paul, which more commonly is called Paul's-borough, founded, & to this an episcopate royally he made & advanced. Similarly the Prelacy of Rochester, with the prelatical Basilica of B. Andrew the Apostle, by that Prince first founded & sufficiently endowed, received the most just & most worthy by his name Justus, whom thence the Canterbury metropolis from Augustine assumed as the fourth. Of the monastery of Ely also he is read the founder in the old charters: although also the blessed virgin Etheldreda, after her long desolation, hence merits the primacy. These & other renowned either pontifical or monasteries how greatly the most liberal King & most loving worshiper of the supernal kingdom, with the other lesser oratories, exalted, needs not to be set forth, which in fact more to this day shines.

[26] But that Apostolic dwelling, in which with his Apostle Augustine & all the succession, & of the Augustinian monastery, as forenoted, by the decree of blessed Pope Gregory he should inherit rest, so much namely more excellently he took care to ennoble, by how much more specially this for himself with so many Saints & lofty ones he weighed would be divinely bestowed: outside this he amplified with royal possessions, within he decorated with royal ornaments, the Royal liberty with Apostolic authority stabilized with perpetual sanctions. There are charters, there are privileges, of his & so many Chief ones' testimony signed. whose first Abbot Peter He set over this sacred company the first Abbot, chosen by his holy institutors, Peter: whom in the obedience of the sacred legation martyrially submerged in the sea & cast out, a ray of ethereal light, on individual nights poured over, showed a supernal citizen. Until in a worthier place he have a sepulchre, he rests celebratedly at Boulogne in the church of the Canons, where a lately wrought prodigy seems memorable, to these so namely who derogate from unknown Saints for an example. The sacristan of the place his holy body from the church cast into the cemetery, indignant that in the church should be honored one whom he himself knew not, when also he knew not how great he was whom he had dishonored: who when he had esteemed his predecessors to have erred, who had so honored the Saint, by his own rather error he was caught. For on the following night, when reclining in bed he arrogated to himself to have done magnificently, who had purged the church of so ignoble a corpse; his body's violator he severely punished. there came upon him suddenly the Abbot, in cowl & crosier seen manifestly: who rebuking him with a terrific & threatening aspect; Does it so, says he, please thee that thou hast cast me from the church? The terrified sacristan asking, who he was; The Abbot, says he, am I by name Peter, who stand before God a Saint among the Saints in the heavenly things: whence now thou shalt know, whom thou hast labored to destitute before to recognize. There follows the threats a fierce penalty: he strikes, & strikes with the very Pastoral rod which he bore: he smites the head, beats the sides, shatters all the limbs: at length, him half-dead & immovable being left, the divine avenger departed. And when Matins were delayed even to the rising of the sun the bell-ringer being condemned, nor was there who to those knocking & crying should open, at length the doors being broken they burst forth to the crushed one; & his querulous cause being heard from him, received in a linen they carried him out; on the following day him dead in the cemetery they buried, grieving for the Brother; but the Saint from that very cemetery honorably received in the church they laid up, at so great a prodigy betrayed rejoicing. ^a Of this faith witness is the late Abbot Scollandus, who then was present when these things were recently celebrated.

[27] Augustine here buried These things in reverence of the blessed King Æthelbert I would have recounted, lest anyone prejudge his merits, although his miracles be unknown: but of Augustine himself & his cœnobium the rest let the discourse solemnize. In the near metropolis he reigned: here he rests: so also his Evangelical begetter Augustine, there a see, here has rest: there is his throne, here his chamber. To each Church therefore under Christ he is chief: that he rules, this he inhabits: that he presides over, this he possesses: there he contended, here he triumphed: there he ran, here he received the prize: there he wrestled, here the ladder of heaven he ascended victor: that is the active Jerusalem, this is the contemplative Sion: there he went from virtue to virtue, here he saw the God of gods in Sion: it is a city where he labored, it is his citadel where he rests: one holding both, the present body makes one. But in the prince is the primacy; where he himself lives, he excels; that the head be found, to the head one comes: to the King his kingdom flows together, whether in the city or outside the city he be. how greatly he honors that very place, His most humble place also his presence exalts, because not for the place the dignity, but for the dignity the place shines. The King of the heavens in the cave of resurrection from the orb of the lands is sought & adored: wherever the body shall be, thither shall be gathered also the eagles. The supreme & ancient Patriarchs to be carried hither by a great sacrament from their posterity extorted, where the Redeemer of the world to be born or to die they foresaw. By this similitude therefore, the majesty being saved, that we may compare the least with the greatest & human with divine; Augustine in the place of his deposition by his England is sought, & as the interventer & patron of all by all is adored. Here the throng of his successor & Fellow-priests, with his successors; here the most devout King Æthelbert with the college of the succeeding Kings, by the aforesaid example of the Patriarchs, with their preceptor strove to be buried together, with whom they desired with most certain faith at the end to be raised together. Hither also his after very many lustra coheir the most sacred Dunstan, as a hart to the fountains of waters, on frequent nights came, & the visions wonted to him & hymns of the supernal citizens made frequent: who this also is reported most experimentally to have said, that so the place was full of Saints, that wherever either in the church or in the cemetery he turned his foot, upon some of the Saints he trod. Nor indeed does it lack a great sacrament, that the divine Augustine with his own outside the gate chose a place from the worldly exit, as in the exit of Israel from Egypt, that namely he might go out with the Lord outside the gate who suffered.

[28] But among all those buried together we judge nothing more grateful to Augustine to embrace in the lap of his church than Æthelbert, Æthelbert chiefly there embraced, nothing sweeter & more triumphal than so great a pledge to cherish in his Patriarchal bosom, in heaven nothing more acceptable to have offered to his Saviour. O happy begetting in so great an offspring! whom not only the same Apostolic parent made heir of the kingdom of heaven, but even the English orb through him regenerated & made the kingdom of Christ: whom namely, as a vast whale of the sea, the net of Peter caught, & translated into an Evangelical little one enthroned among the sons of God. But that we have sported these things of the chief authors of the English salvation, through trackless meadows, let it be festive rather than burdensome, although it be lingering. Æthelbert therefore, with all his predecessors more august, the British orb to the river Humber possessing, so showed himself a poor man of Christ, as if he had nothing. Glorious it was to see one widely ruling, serving the needy; terrifying Kings, fearing the Priests of God; presiding over peoples, obeying the Clerics; rebuking Dukes & Princes, venerating the little & weak of the Church. In restraining vices, in exalting virtues, in fulfilling the commands of God & all works of piety, but especially in dedicating to Christ his nations, how great he shone forth, that ethereal book so much more clearly expressed, by how much in these the slothful world grew dumb.

[29] He migrated to the Lord, the kingdom being changed in the heavenly things, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of February, praised by Bede in the year of his reign the fifty-sixth, of the coming of B. Augustine to him & of the received Christianity the twenty-first, of the Lord's Incarnation the six hundred sixteenth: who (that we may set down Bede's word) among other good things, which by consulting for his nation he conferred, even decrees of judgments, according to the examples of the Romans, with the counsel of the wise constituted, which written in the language of the English are hitherto had & observed by them: in which first he set, how he should emend who anything of the things of the Church, or of the Bishop, or of the remaining Orders by stealth carried off: wishing namely protection to those, whom & whose doctrine he had received, & worship as a Saint, to afford. The same venerable Historiographer pursues the high genealogy of the King, to whom we send the Reader: but of his sanctity witness is antiquity, & the favoring authority of the old Saints, namely that anciently from the beginning among the Saints his solemnity was celebrated: which neither by love, nor by error, nor by temerity by anyone, among so many wise & religious men, as we believe, would be presumed; unless he by purity of life & heavenly indications were proved worthy: since his sons & other successors, good & of great virtues Kings, are only among the faithful dead commemorated: nor would the faithful Bede have written him first of the Kings of the English to have mounted the kingdom of heaven, unless he had learned the merit. For also many after him of most celebrated sanctity Kings England brought forth & venerates: but of this very B. Æthelbert some indication here will be given to the judgment of the hearers.

[30] When at a certain time his festivity was neglected, nor his portico with its ornament nor with light was clothed; a certain Brother, & through a vision at one time a Priest of good conversation, who there made assiduous the daily vigils, on the same night of his neglected festivity, there keeping vigil by such a vision is struck. A person of childlike form from the mausoleum of the King, where then he himself (as foreshown) rested, came forth with a ruddy brightness, whence the whole portico shone again as from day or from the sun. A most lucid taper in his right hand, which indignant at the slothful darkness, clothed the hall before the hangings with its light. The face benign & snowy, intertinted with roses, with starry eyes, held forth the dignity of heavenly grace: golden hair with diffused locks most gratefully veiled the white shoulders, for whom a gracious nakedness not to be ashamed of shone. In such manner in form the memorable King seen, addresses his stupefied & torpid contemplator thus: complaining of his neglect. Neither light for me, says he, on this one my night did you take care to administer, nor did you esteem me so worthy: but I illustrated with perennial splendor, by no means need your light. These things when reproachfully he said, his tomb, the same contemplator watching, & most evidently beholding, he entered. These things also the Seniors heard from him most certainly attest. But he seemed to have said in reproach of the darkness, My night has no obscurity, but all things shine in light. But in the mystery of this vision it can be seen, that the form of a boy signifies his after baptism in Christ simplicity, & the innocence of the Evangelical little one; in the nakedness, that he reproved the negligence of the Brethren & the fault of unbelieving blindness. These things of the blessed King we have woven more largely, that we may mitigate the obstinate necks of hearts; lest anyone postpone Christ in His Saints, saying, He who spurns you spurns me: for every Saint, will be the judge of his contemner.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The Translation & praise of S. Letardus the Bishop: the miracles done at his invocation.

[31] Now let B. Letardus's respite be exhibited. Worthy of God the Antistes Letardus, S. Letardus, having followed Queen Bertha from France, appeared the forerunner & doorkeeper of the coming Augustine: he preceded him as the morning-star the sun: he prepared for him the way, the entrance, & the place, as that one prepared for the Lord. Prodigal of a vast soul he feared not the bestial barbarism of the Gentiles, terrible to the Princes of the age. The very servant of God to Queen Bertha, while to Æthelbert still a Gentile she a Christian was sent from the paternal kingdom of the Franks, was a leader, companion, doctor, preserver, & instigator of all piety, from monstrous rites a defense, from idolatry a sanctuary, from the devil's hunting-spears an obstacle, in every adversity of the father a solace: who also merited with the same holy Father of his, with his King now consecrated to Christ, to be buried together. Nor do we judge her unpraiseworthy, nor lacking in piety toward God; but in religion, almsgivings, & the other benign morals abounding; who born of Christian Kings & peoples, had so great an instructor. Among the profane of Christ she bore opprobrium, in the Church a ridicule, in the worship of her God a mockery: she was warily avoided by those, whom she commanded: they turned away from the worshiper of Christ, who venerated the Lady: for all, who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution. One indeed she was, in so great a vastness of foreigners, to whom her King & Redeemer would say, One is my dove. In the most ancient church of the most holy Prelate Martin, situated below the city, the blessed Pontiff Letardus presiding, she made frequent the sacraments of Masses & prayers, with the Christian family of her companions: she lived as a lamb in the midst of beasts, or as Jerusalem in the midst of the nations. But the most holy Letardus who could worthily estimate, how great miracles by so many merits he exhibited in life, of whom so great ones grow frequent in our times after so many ages of his death, of which it is an injury not to mention some.

[32] a blind girl Under the Abbot abovementioned Wlfricus, a girl blind from birth (as he himself was a fit witness) led to that Saint's tomb by her parents, the Light-bearer of God gifted with light unknown before; & to one wrapped in birth-darkness gave the world with the sun. In a certain Lent a woman her son, with the heels grown into the back contracted, at his tomb deposited; & at the exhortation of ^a Nunna a religious woman, who kept that place, the wretch being left she departed. & a contracted boy he heals: Meanwhile at Vespers the Hymn of the Mother of God, My soul magnifies the Lord, is chanted; & the boy from his natural bonds loosed, into a cry is turned. The inverted heels being loosed, the curved shins are extended: a flux from the concrete flesh abundantly bloodies the pavement: the boy with stretched arms strives to grasp the Saint's tomb, soon raised on his feet he stood: the people at the boy's cry strove to burst in, but the Nunna shut the door until the Brethren should come, & a hymn of praise for the miracle they should chant: the boy returned home with his own feet, who had come with another's.

[33] We know an eminent painter of the Abbots of Abingdon, of painting, a lost ring he restores to the seeker, sculpture, & goldsmithery most approved, Sperans by name. He had lost a most precious ring of Queen Edgith ^c: which everywhere vainly sought, he had also lost all hope of finding. At length to S. Letardus (for he then at S. Augustine's, by Abbot Elstanus invited, was working) he fled: with prayers & tears, which the anguish of the precious deposit had extorted, his clemency he demands. A wonderful thing! Forthwith the ring shone to him, where he prayed; where he could innocently swear he had never placed it or assented to. Forthwith he snatched it, with as great admiration & joy, as he had lost it with despair & sadness: nor did he alone rejoice, but also all the Brethren by the relation of so great a miracle festively he gladdened: nor only of so great a benefit was he mindful, but that longer this memory might persevere he labored. For his & the venerable Queen Bertha's, who is the crown of his pilgrimage, images of enormous size & beauty he fashioned, & over his tomb solemnly erected.

[34] A matron, in the port of ^d Sandwich dwelling, by name Edilden, he aids one woman in travail a long languor also of the light of the eyes destitute, & she for an entire year endured the prison of blindness: who saner in mind, this punishment to her sins to impute, by almsgivings & prayers the clemency of God & the suffrages of the Saints to implore, rather than to murmur strove. So through suppliant groans & humble patience she experienced the mercy which she sighed for. For after a year spent in darkness, on a certain night to the sleeping one a form shone, notable for heavenly beauty & brightness: he bids her set out to B. Augustine's church, & in it to go to the tomb of blessed Prelate Letardus, there she would experience both the Saint's grace, & the joy of the wished health. Led therefore to the foresigned patronages of the Saint with a light, before the performed prayer, she received plenary soundness, & light for the gift of light. So by a hastened remedy cured, & now not by another's but by her own eyes led back, she knew, with great thanksgiving & gladness, by how true a vision to health she had been destined.

[35] & another; Another not ignoble matron a defect of bearing had almost made lifeless. Meanwhile to the brow of a steep mountain by the spirit she is snatched, soon with the foul darkness of demons she is overspread; whence carrying her away most savage torturers, with dire punishments pursue her; & now through the narrow hole of a wheel to thrust her out & drag her down, & into the sulphurous abysses of their pit to precipitate, they rage. To her in so great a horror continually invoking the Saviour, & the help of His Saints, at length a star of inestimable clarity from afar shone, which the more drawing near, the more flashingly poured its rays. And behold, in the midst of that corruscating brightness, the most Blessed Letardus shone forth, who by Pontifical authority exterminating the ministers of perdition, said: Depart, most damned spirits, into your hells from the handmaid of God: what have you with a Christian woman? whither do you drag her? By a false, they say, name not by the execution of the faith we claim the Christian into our rights: she is our follower, she shall inherit our torments. I interdict you, says the Bishop, all power

over her: more swiftly depart from her into the prisons of your perdition. O distinguished Priest of the Lord, powerful not only of the keys of heaven but also of hell, who from the belly of hell extorted the absorbed prey! At his command, the captive being left, all the threats of the demons, all the machinations utterly vanished: the woman, the spirit being resumed & B. Letardus's countenance & patronage being seen, to life emerging from so great an abyss of tribulations, happily brought forth offspring, with hope of health & joy: who how greatly to the Lord in admiration of so great a Father she blessed, the magnitude of joy from the magnitude of anguish shows.

[36] with two of her sick domestics: She began thence to her family so horrible a vision, & so powerful a deliverance of the most holy Father to relate; & that she wished to come to his salvific pledges with an offering of thanks & gifts, as quickly as she should convalesce from the recent grief of childbirth. There heard two of her family, a youth & a woman, with grievous sickness then pressed: & at the same time kindled by the love of so great a physician, they vowed the vow of their lady, when health should return. Wonderful grace of God! wonderful virtue in His Saint! Scarcely had they finished the promise, & at the same hour & the same place, all three, both the lady, & the servant, & the youth with full soundness were gifted. There radiated then to the lands the heavenly solemnity of the Archangel Michael, on which it is the custom for the peoples of very many provinces to flow together to Canterbury to the Father Augustine: there came also she with her devout ones to the most proved Letardus: & her vows & those of her own being rendered, with great attention of faith him, as if lively standing by, with sent-forth voice she addresses, breathes deep thanks for her deliverance & for her own & her people's soundness. There had heard a senior standing by of the Brethren her proclaiming thanks: he asks the cause: she narrates in order: the matter widely shines, & praise to God by all increases.

[37] he heals a paralytic: Of the Brother, who at the body of kindly Letardus made frequent Masses, the lay brother, by name Elfgeardus, from the loins downward wholly paralytic, most laboriously came to the Saint, aided by twin crutches instead of feet. To him weeping in prayer & amid weepings sleeping the most clement Father stood by; & what he wished, what he so importunately demanded of him, he asks. The weak one, health from God's clemency & his, answered that he sought. To whom the most truthful Pontiff, When, says he, you pay your due punishments, then suppliant you come; when you shall have obtained the desired things, unmindful & ungrateful to the divine benefits, quickly you turn your backs. At these things the sick man more earnestly insisting & promising emendation, the just & merciful Father subjoined: With one shin healed, with one crutch now thou shalt be freed, with the other thou shalt depart: that the sound part may admonish thee of thanks for the divine goodness, the infirm may reprove the ungrateful negligence; & since so greatly thou seekest the soundness taken away, thou mayest learn not to esteem of little account the conferred. He rose therefore, what before he could not, half-healed, with one leg raised, the other left: & departed with one little staff, the other being left for a sign: a great namely example of supernal piety & equity.

[38] A woman a citizen of the city of Canterbury, was working on the solemnity of the blessed Confessor, the rest keeping it as a feast devoutly; he punishes the neglect of his feast: who reproved by the zeal of her neighbor for the contempt or transgression of the common celebrity, answered obstinately, that she could not attend to so many feasts, & lose the conveniences of life. So that reprover being repelled, & the servants delaying from reverence of the holy day, a vessel of boiling liquor decocted from grain to carry back on her shoulders into the wind to be cooled she strove: but she could not go without hindrance, who against the Saint had offended. Soon stumbling on the threshold, she fell backward; & all the heat, poured onto her face & the other limbs, she received; whence so she was burned, that her life was despaired of. Then she, who had despised the rebuker, recognized the avenger; & with a candle seeking the placable piety of the Saint, after satisfaction received health; yet so that while she lived, a mark on her face either of her fault or of her penalty, she should exhibit: nor only was she corrected, but also to the rest she became a form of honoring the Saint.

[39] In the yearly procession of the Rogations or Litanies, B. Letardus's helpful body is wont to be carried out in a golden shrine, he frees a possessed woman: for the blessing & increase of the fields & peoples. When sometime by two Brethren it was carried out by custom, a certain little woman, seized with the disease of madness, around & under that beatific vehicle frequently frantic ran to & fro, so hostile to the very Brethren bearers, that she gave them blows on the face. But by this onset of her fury, the more frequently she approaches the Saint, the more mildly she acts. Now lying at the deposited bier of the Saint, while the Mass is sung, with full understanding there & reason she is reformed. It is great invisibly to give health of bodies, but greater of minds. There was made therefore on the return a dance, who in the procession had been a spectacle of misery. She brought therefore amid Vespers to the Saint a silver necklace, in devout rendering of thanks of her healed mind.

[40] invoked he bestows rain: At the next time also on the day of the solemnity of the most sacred Antistes, which in the month of May yearly is recollected, the assembly of the Brethren proceeded, for the beauty of that feast festively white-robed, whom in his shrine the kindly Leader's golden clay preceded. The procession being led around there is a halt by all composedly & praise-resoundingly before the doors of the church. Most clear was the serenity in all the heaven, & to all the gladness of the light-vomiting sun rejoiced together; but the rain being withheld, then most desired, it threatened a sterility of things. Meanwhile while there is a halt, while the Hymn of entering the sanctuary is awaited; behold, against custom & season (wonderful!) an Antiphon, on the Finding of the Protomartyr Stephen had, by the Prior is begun, by the Choir also is taken up & chanted: Dost thou not see how great is the dryness in all the world, & thou actest negligently? They would think the man delirious, did not the following congruence prove, that he by divine instinct or faith, not by error, abusively only had brought it forth. Finally before the Antiphon was finished so great an inundation of heavenly waters overwhelmed the singers, that the order being broken & the song omitted at a run within the temple they fled, the irrigation namely pursuing them willing before they willed. But it is to be noted in the aforesaid Antiphon most gratefully, Dost thou not see how great is the dryness in all the world, & thou actest negligently? that the most serene Father Letardus, as if he himself were reproved by those asking, with so sudden his benefits answered. These few of the innumerable virtues of the most illustrious Prelate Letardus, under the eyes of faithful either our or most approved witnesses known, on the occasion of the Translation here we have inserted, whose patronages many provinces of the English, many nations having experienced frequent & preach.

[41] Abbot Scollandus dies at the work. Therefore all things being removed from the old church, & laid up in a more ready translation, the oft-mentioned Abbot Scollandus, that very church, now threatening ruin, now preparing to fall, demolished; & new buildings there, even to the very portico & translation of the most renowned Augustine & his companions raised: but him further to proceed by the supernal nod death meeting forbade. But he forestalled the face of the Lord with a pious execution of almsgivings & the other good acts: & the most famous Archprelate Lanfranc performing all the order of the service, many mourning him, with a placid end he rested. He preceded by one day the death of King William, who left a worthy son, the heir of his name & kingdom: whose in advancing the church & the Saints solicitous desire (which to the gratuitous bounty of God, as if now accomplished, suffices for remuneration) his successor fulfilled, as the first little book set forth.

[42] Now by long windings & divers retirings the causes & translations of the former ones we have set forth; The author's epilogue on the double feast of S. Augustine. & the works of the Saints or the vows of the elders, as temples or tombs, we have traversed: now we return home; where the most preeminent Augustine, with the rest of our Chief ones, into our perennial light by a new chamber we have carried out. Here now by a third rising & a triple birthday the standard-bearer of the supreme Trinity has irradiated us. He rose at a new dawn, when first to this orb, blinded with perpetual night, the morning star appeared: he rose to heaven, when poured out of the pool of the age, there he shone forth: he rose now a third time, when after so long a travail from the sepulchral assumption he shone again: he shall rise a fourth time in the resurrection of the glory of the Saints, of which unsetting beatitude this festive Translation or Elevation holds forth the example. Of these we celebrate two Birthdays, the first of the heavenly, the second of the earthly (that is of the womb of the tomb) nativity. May the Author of all benefit bestow on us, his & the other solemnities of our holy Fathers so with pious devotion & conversion to recollect; that in the regeneration of the Blessed with them we may merit eternally to rejoice, & our Redeemer, reigning with the Father & the Holy Spirit, through infinite ages ever to praise together. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

ON S. GODO THE ABBOT

IN THE GALLICAN DIOCESE OF TROYES.

CENT. VII

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Of his Life, miracles, varied cultus.

Godo, Abbot in the Gallican diocese of Troyes (St.)

G. H.

We give the Life of S. Godo from a faithful codex, formerly sent to us by Andrew du Chesne, by very many books published most known. A great part of this is contained in the same words in the Life of S. Wandregisilus, The Life from the Ms. his uncle, which written by a coeval Author & Monk of Fontenelle we shall illustrate at the day XXII July. & the Miracles from the French, We add a few miracles, wrought by his intercession & merits as well living as dead, which are inserted in the French life by Nicolas Des-Guerrois in the book on the Saints of Troyes.

[2] He died on this XXVI of May, on which day he is venerated in the church & diocese of Meaux & Langres, Sacred cultus 26 May, & chiefly in the church built by himself of Auge, commonly the monastery of S.

Peter in Auge, or Oye, which now from his name is called S. Godo, commonly S. Gand: which word because in the vernacular signifies a glove, at Paris (where very great is his cultus, as also in various other churches through France) he is held the Patron of Glovers. There is celebrated also at the said day his memory by Benedict Dorganius in the Benedictine Calendar, by Ferrarius in the general Catalogue, by Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, with a long eulogy from the Life: but what in this of B. Pippin is said, by him are attributed to Godo. But because S. Godo was a native of the territory of Verdun, the same Ferrarius, as a different one from the former, proposes him a second time, the tables of the Church of Verdun being cited, Menardus & Bucelinus refer the same to the day XXVIII May. 28 May, Another day, dedicated to his veneration in the said monastery, is XIX October, for the Translation of the body. That is kept in a gilded chest, & the head separately in a similarly gilded bust. & 19 Oct. for the translation, But these sacred Relics were extracted before René de Bresle XVI September of the year MDCXXI, with a double sudary placed under & a leaden plate, indicating that it is the body of S. Godo, & that his feast is celebrated on this XXVI of May. In the posterior part of the cranium, with the admiration of the physicians & surgeons, no suture was found. In the old Fontenelle Breviary he is venerated XXIV July, & 24 July among those of Fontenelle. two days after the feast of S. Wandregisilus his uncle.

[3] The said monastery of S. Godo, from the Abbatial dignity in the year MCCCXLIV, the Monks willing, passed to the order of Priories, & was subjected to the Abbot of S. Peter of Celle, by the authority of John of Auxonne Bishop of Troyes, the deed being confirmed by Pope Clement VI. The Priory of S. Godo. The Bull of each at the said year Des-Guerrois published. In this Priory the Benefice, consecrated to the name & memory of S. Godo, for some years commended to himself, a trustee administered Claudius Espencæus, a Parisian Doctor Theologian; & therefore the Life of the said S. Godo in heroic verse he wrote in the year MDLXV, which among his works at Paris in the year MDCXIX struck together, the Reader will find, page 1040 & following, together with scholia pertaining to the same.

LIFE

From the Ms. codex of D. Andrew du Chesne.

Godo, Abbot in the Gallican diocese of Troyes (St.)

BHL Number: 3594

FROM THE MS.

The glorious Confessor of the Lord Godo therefore, before the secular times chosen out by the judgment of the divine Majesty, Nobly born among those of Verdun, represented also in the latest of the Saints' times in the world, of most splendid progenitors & (what is more illustrious) worshipers of the orthodox faith, was born in the territory of Verdun. He was finally the nephew of the most excellent man & most worthy of God ^a Wandregisilus: who procreated of a most noble stock, of the most excellent Prince of the Franks Pippin had been ^b a cousin: but also imbued with all the disciplines of worldly things, by King Dagobert was constituted Count of the Palace. That therefore the illustrious origin of the same holy Wandregisilus I may more deeply set forth, with S. Wandregisilus whose nephew he was, since he was born of most noble & most rich parents, more noble he showed himself no less by the morals of a splendid life, & by assiduous examples of pious conversion; reckoning also all the honors of the age to be more a detriment of souls, than an emolument of justice. Therefore, with the aforesaid nephew of his Godo, spurning the allurements of worldly cupidities, & rather choosing sweetly to pluck the fruits of the contemplative life, to the studies of useless glory & earthly cares utterly he renounced: & instituting also to keep the norm of conversion under the monastic habit, he sought a ^c monastery. But of how great each in the monastery was of abstinence, of how great benignity, embracing the monastic life, humility & patience, who of mortals could set forth? For they strove manfully to insist on the divine offices, & to surpass the sloth of the soul by obedience to the Lord's commands; to bridle the mind from things unlawful; the passions of carnal delights, which daily wound the integrity of the inner man, he excelled with every virtue: by the antidote of humble confession to purge & heal; to burn with ardor of the supernal country; & themselves to the world, the world to themselves to crucify they strove; moreover to watch over the works of mercy, compassion toward the wretched, piety toward the afflicted, solace toward the desolate, obedience to superiors, benignity to inferiors, & every kind of utility of the neighbors to exercise.

[2] With these & spiritual exercises of this kind the aforesaid strove unfailingly to please God the Father, & to become an example of good acts to our Church; For him while S. Wandregisilus prays, & also His sons by frequent admonition to gain. There strove also the most blessed Father Wandregisilus, for the same nephew of his Godo sedulously to entreat the divine clemency, that his mind daily it would deign to increase in constancy, lest it could be made to totter through the craft of the malign deceiver. For although with all the effort of his mind the same eminent youth Godo strove to follow the footsteps of so blessed a man, yet not yet so to the studies of his sublime works did he prevail to equal his contests.

[3] On a certain day therefore, when B. Wandregisilus for him most loftily insisted in prayers, offering them to the divine ears, refreshed by a sweet odor & Angelic voice, in a little cell constituted for himself & apt for such a business; with an odor of incomparable sweetness, & at the same time brightness, that place from heaven is filled; & a voice Angelic to him was brought, Servant of Christ, in the fear of the Lord most devout, peace be to thee ever multiplied: fight the good fight, & ever insist on these works, which through me the bearer daily are offered to the Lord. Because not to those torpid in idleness, but to those running in faith, & with watchful instance most attentively warring for Christ, the gate of eternal life lies open, which now to thee by the Lord is unsealed, that with the companies of the just thou mayest enjoy joys eternally about to remain. Thy nephew also Godo for whom with most frequent prayers thou troublest the ears of the Lord, shall imitate thy footsteps; & all the vanities of this world being abandoned, as a strenuous soldier to the camp of Christ most devoutly shall fly. he learns the serious conversion of Godo: Hearing these things the man of God, prostrate on the ground, most attentively gave himself to prayer; not extolling himself in his heart, because by an Angelic visitation he had merited to be visited; but humbling himself, frail & a sinner he confessed; & that he was not worthy, defiled with the spots of sins, that by a heavenly miracle he should be magnified.

[4] But the eminent worshiper of God himself, desiring to lead a stricter life, the secrets of the desert greatly canvassing, the worldly honors with all effort ever fled, that with Christ he might merit the heavenly ones; & a place altogether opportune he sought apt for such a business: or, if it perchance, the whirlwind of the world forbidding, did not concur with his vows, at least under the yoke of Christ & His pleasing burden a regular life he might most promptly perform, that through him of many Christ going before the salvation might grow. While he turned such things in mind, it happened that, ^d Erchinoaldus the Prefect bestowing, they construct the monastery of Fontenelle, a not small part of soil he received, where the cœnobium of Fontenelle, together with his venerable nephew Godo, as a rude inhabitant he might construct: which the tradition of the ancients, by reason of the abundance of fountains flowing in that place, by this name called. For there were shown in the same place the traces of buildings, by the industry of the ancient inhabitants once made, but by the bestial ferocity of foreign enemies utterly leveled to the ground; in which more the lairs of beasts, than the habitation of men seemed at that time. This place therefore the man of the Lord Wandregisilus, & the aforesaid venerable nephew of his Godo, by the Patrician granted to him, they strove, with some favoring them, by plucking out all useless things, to cleanse, & at last to lay the foundations of the cœnobium, according to the prophecy of Isaiah; in the lairs, in which before dragons dwelt, shall arise the greenness of reed & rush; namely the fruit of good works should there be born, where before beasts were wont to abide & inhabit. Isa. 35, 7

[5] There built in that place the aforesaid men of the Lord basilicas with eminent worship four in number, they build 4 churches: namely in honor of the Prince of the Apostles Peter, & together of the Doctor of the gentiles Paul, & of holy Laurence, & Pancras the Martyrs of Christ. But the same man of the Lord sent, while he insisted on this work, the aforesaid nephew of his Godo to the city of Rome, for the pledges of the Martyrs of Christ; to which S. Godo having set out to Rome brings Relics, that the basilicas being built they might have ready the Relics of the Saints, to whose name & reverence he had disposed to dedicate them. Who obeying most willingly the vows of the pious Father, sought Rome, ^e Vitalian at the same time presiding over the See of that Church: & from him very many pledges of the Apostles & Martyrs of Christ received, together with the Apostolic blessing, returning he brought with him, & sacred codices, & of sacred codices a not small abundance: & a prosperous course, the journey being made, exulting he returns to the man of God.

[6] All things which he had brought, the same venerable Wandregisilus received. And the holy-recollection ^f Audoenus the Prelate being summoned, they are consecrated by S. Audoenus. that the aforesaid churches which he had built he should consecrate, & at the same time the pledges which the aforesaid Godo with his authority at Rome had obtained, on the altars of Christ he should place, suppliant he entreats: which so by the aforesaid Prelate was fulfilled. But the place of that cœnobium so fertile & so pleasant was, that when anyone shall have come there, among the groves of fruit-trees & the pleasantnesses of green gardens, forthwith it would please him to burst into these words; How beautiful are thy tabernacles O Jacob, & thy tents O Israel! as woody valleys, as Paradises beside watering rivers, & tabernacles which the Lord has fixed, as cedars over waters. At whose fame the peoples ran together from everywhere, & to the worship of Religion took care to dedicate very many estates; Three hundred monks being gathered there, that a very great multitude of Monks being united, of three hundred their number was. Thither the children of the noble from everywhere strove to run together, that the delights of the age being spurned, the eternal rewards they might desire with so great fathers to attain.

[7] S. Godo departs to Auge: But the man of the Lord Godo, the companionship of so great a frequentation to bear longer for himself convenient not reckoning, & rather the arena of single combat to enter desiring; bidding farewell to the blessed Father Wandregisilus, & to all the college of the Brethren, alone came to the ^g place of Auge, where he chose to dedicate to the Lord Christ what of life remained. At that season therefore the place of Auge so quiet & so remote was held, that of solitude he needed not whoever in it preferred to abide. This being obtained from the inhabitants of the region, into a portion of the upholding Lord a basilica raised according to his strength; He erects a Church there: as a rude inhabitant, there he built. In which devoting himself more closely to the service of Christ, a holy & to God pleasing one, free from all the storms of the world, the rest he strove to lead his life. In vigils all night, in prayer sedulous, in fasts continual, in reading frequent, in meditation examining himself before God: & so after the age conquered & triumphed over, as a soldier veteran of his King, about to receive the rewards accomplished, & he dies 26 May. the burden of the flesh leaving to the earth, on the VII Kalends of June, he rendered his spirit to the most benign Creator, whom he had ever served.

[8] Therefore after B. Godo's dissolution, a certain tyrant of the Gentiles through Gaul led an army, The church destroyed, by name ⁱ Asthemius: who the abovesaid basilica destroyed, by exceeding ferocity overcome; which after long times again restored Eva the Countess, Eva the Countess restores.

who by infirmity of body had been greatly distressed, but by the kindly Confessor's grace suddenly was restored to health: & therefore in his honor, with a fitting order & number, she established Monks there to serve, who day & night the vows of praises could opportunely pay: but of her own things, for necessary uses, as was fitting, yearly revenues she ordained for them ^k.

ANNOTATIONS.

MIRACLES

From the French of Nicolas Des-Guerrois.

Godo, Abbot in the Gallican diocese of Troyes (St.)

[9] When S. Godo dwelt at Auge, the sins of the peoples requiring it, a great mortality arose from a pestilent air, & some by a burning fever, others by the falling disease, others by other contagious diseases were extinguished. Health conferred on many by the living one, Then various ones fled to S. Godo, whom he benignly received, & of the sick some with blessed oil he anointed, others with the sign of the salvation-bearing Cross he marked, & so sound to their houses sent back. There were brought also blind men, to whom instructed in the way of virtues he restored sight. Women also, whose breasts the disease of cancer ate away, by the sign of the Cross he freed. Various sick infants also, brought by their parents, by his blessing & the name of Jesus invoked, he healed.

[10] The memory of his miracles persevered among posterity, especially that by the merits of him still living a pestilent mortality had been removed. a mortality removed: Wherefore when after the restored church & monastery, so again the sins of men requiring it, the affliction of the same evil recurred, & men perished in so great a multitude, that without any obsequies several bodies into the same pit were cast; with a public vow to S. Godo all fled, & desired that on Good Friday on the Parasceve his sacred Relics should be carried about in a solemn procession. But that devotion was transferred to the second weekday of Easter, when a great multitude of men running together from the neighboring places, that procession with the highest devotion of all & pious tears was performed, & there followed according to the vow the desired deliverance, the mortality ceasing, so that scarcely any in the said year migrated from life. Des-Guerrois adds, from the mouth of Allementus the Prior, & by it Monks preserved. that no one remembers anyone in the said monastery to have been infected with a contagious disease, although thither there run those laboring with plague & other contagious diseases, to whom are conferred the Sacraments of Penance & the most sacred Eucharist; which the Monks attribute to the merits of S. Godo.