Senator

ON SAINT SENATOR

BISHOP OF MILAN IN INSUBRIA.

YEAR CCCCLXXX.

St. Senator, Bishop of Milan in Insubria.

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

CHAPTER I.

The Acts, encomia, cult and age of the Saint.

That St. Senator is to be venerated with the cult of the Saints is testified on this XXVIII by the Tables of the Roman Martyrology, The sacred cult Galesinius in his Martyrology, Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and especially the ancient Missals of the Church of Milan, such as we have printed in the year MDXXII and MDLX, as also the Breviaries of the year MDXXXIX, and those which were afterward published by command of St. Charles the Cardinal Archbishop, according to the custom of his age, calling all his predecessors Archbishops, and so also this Senator. We abstain from that Title: because it seems first to have begun to be used at Milan, after the Kingdom of the Lombards was extinguished by Charlemagne, and the pristine splendor restored and augmented to the Church of Milan, and the Primacy over all the Bishops of Insubria. Nay even then the Founders of the Episcopal Catalogues, as we have seen, even to Anselm, ordained in the year DCCCLXXXIII, continued to use the simple Title of Bishop; but afterward others continued the Catalogues without that Title, or a more ample one, writing only the names in this manner, Anselm sat so many years &c. Moreover in the aforesaid Missals and Breviaries a solemn feast is prescribed, and after the Ambrosian manner the third Lection exhibits a brief compendium of the Life in these words: Senator of Milan, a man endowed with excellent talent, with the knowledge of divine things, A compendium of the Life from the ancient Breviary: with eloquence and the virtues of Christian piety, by interpreting explained the involved and hidden matters of the Prophets. But in the office of the Archiepiscopate most vigilant, he did everything, that both by word and example he might profit the Church committed to him. Which being holily administered, heaped with merits he slept in the Lord, on the fourth Kalends of June. His body was buried in the church of St. Euphemia the Martyr. These things there, but on the fifth Kalends of June he is handed down to be venerated in the Calendar of the same Breviary, and others have that he died on the said fifth Kalends of June.

[2] That Lection seemed too meager: wherefore to the Custodian of the Ambrosian Library Pietro Paolo Bosca, now Archpriest of Monza, was committed the care of composing another more ample one, which conceived and printed in these words he sent to me: Senator, of Milan, was of excellent talent, so endowed with the knowledge of divine things and eloquence, another from a more recent one, that he explained by interpreting the involved and hidden matters of the Prophets. While he was still a Presbyter of this Church, on account of the fame of his virtues and erudition, in the name of St. Leo the Great, he undertook a legation to Theodosius the Second the Emperor; of which office he had as colleagues blessed Abundius Bishop of Como, Asterius, and Basilius. By their work and zeal a Council was assembled at Constantinople; and the same Abundius together with Senator was present at the Provincial Synod, which St. Eusebius had proclaimed at Milan. But blessed Benignus being dead, created Archbishop, in that office most vigilant, he did everything, that both by word and example he might profit the Church committed to him. Which being holily administered, heaped with merits, he slept in the Lord, by Anastasius the second Supreme Pontiff ascribed to the number of the Heaven-dwellers, and commended to St. Ennodius Bishop of Pavia. His Body is honorably kept in the Church of the holy Martyr Euphemia, which he had caused to be built near his paternal house, a sum of money also being bequeathed to be bestowed on the poor every year; but blessed Euphemia he had venerated with peculiar religion, on account of the memory of the Council of Chalcedon, approved by her with a vast miracle. There are added in the Margin of the little leaf, more prudently than in the table of the Archbishops digested. separately printed and sent to me, the Authors from whom the several things are taken: but many of more recent note. By hand also was here expunged, what at the beginning was read Saint, Born of a noble family: for that being anciently unknown seemed better to be omitted. With which caution they would have used more prudently also, who composed the table of the Archbishops of the Church of Milan, by decree of the IV Provincial Council held under St. Charles, and concerning St. Senator wrote thus many things not sufficiently to be approved: XXIV St. Senator Vilanius, Presbyter of Milan (of whom in the Epistle, sent to Pope Leo, Eusebius the Archbishop makes mention) on the Nones of December, on the feast day of St. Ambrose, undertook the governance of the Archiepiscopate. A man endowed with excellent talent, with the knowledge of divine letters, eloquence, and the virtues of Episcopal charity excellently adorned, most diligent in interpreting the Prophets, using a wondrous liberality toward the poor, sat at the helm of the Church of Milan four years, Gelasius being Pope. He died holily in the Lord on the III Kalends of June, buried in the basilica of St. Euphemia. These things there. But the feast of St. Ambrose is not celebrated on the Nones of December, but on the VII Ides of December, and then he is said to have died on the III Kalends, as above on the V Kalends, when it should be written IV Kalends of June.

[3] There was held in the year CCCCLII the Council of Milan by Eusebius the Bishop and others, the proclamation of St. Eusebius of Milan, by which they professed that they had entirely received the doctrine on the Incarnation of the Word written by St. Leo the Pope to Flavian, and in this Synodical Epistle these things are read: Reviewing the Epistle of your Beatitude in the council of the Priests of the Lord, which our holy brother and Co-bishop Abundantius and my Co-presbyter Senator had brought, and the order of the matters done being known, by their report, as your writings had signified; forthwith was sought and recited the Epistle, which, fully digested with the assertion of faith, your Holiness had lately transmitted to the East. Dost thou see, that the things which are here indicated of Senator the Presbyter, are afterward referred above to St. Senator the Bishop? But that Senator was sent by St. Leo with other Legates in the year CCCCL, and of St. Leo the Pope concerning St. Senator. Valentinian VII and Avienus being Consuls, St. Leo himself writes in Epistle 33 to Theodosius the Emperor in these words: That a swifter and fuller effect may be given to the salutary cares, the Lord helping, through the faith of your clemency; to your piety I have directed my Brothers and Co-bishops Abundius and Asterius, but also Basilius and Senator Presbyters, whose devotion is proved to me: through whom what is the form of our faith, the instructions which we have sent being manifested, you may worthily acknowledge. Thus Leo. That anything more was done by Senator in the East, I have not whence to define. The Council of Chalcedon, which the following year CCCCLI was soon celebrated, I know not whether they wish him to have been present at, who afterward will have the temple of D. Euphemia erected by him, because he religiously frequented her tomb at Chalcedon. I think rather that, returned from the Constantinopolitan Legation to Pope Leo, he stayed with him during the Council, and afterward from him brought the aforementioned letters to Milan. Meanwhile Eusebius the Bishop being dead St. Gerontius succeeded, of whom we treated on May V; to Gerontius Benignus, to him Senator.

[4] who sat from 477 to 480 At what time St. Senator sat, we cannot attain by a more certain way, than from the age of his immediate predecessor St. Benignus, whom that he died in the year CCCCLXXVII or thereabouts, I have shown clearly enough in the brief deduction of the Episcopal Chronology of the Prelates of Milan: according to which calculation Senator, with his triennium which alone is given to him, would pertain to the year CCCCLXXX. They have erred therefore who thought Senator presided Gelasius being Pope: not under Gelasius, since he began to preside over the Church in the year CCCCXCII, Senator being already dead. Nor less did Ughellus deviate from the truth, when in the Archbishops of Milan he judged Pope Simplicius to have conferred on Senator the Milanese fillets; for Pope Simplicius had died in the year CCCCLXXXIII. nor under Pope Simplicius: Ughellus adds, that famous for miracles he merited by Anastasius II the Pontiff to be referred into the Album of the Saints in the year CCCCXCVII, which would have been the first of that Anastasius. But although this also Bosca referred into the new Lection, the authority of Ughellus and John de Deo being alleged in the book on the successors of St. Barnabas, published at Rome in the time of Pius V; yet no one will prove to us without a suitable witness, that the Roman Pontiffs in those centuries assumed this office to themselves outside Rome and the suburbicarian dioceses subject to their ordination.

[5] whether in the church of St. Euphemia he founded an annual alms? Ripamontius book 7 says, that in the Euphemian Basilica Senator himself chose a sepulchre for himself, nor would I doubt of this. The same Ripamontius then adds, and he bequeathed a sum of money, from which the poor should every year be benignly provided for; and there remains today the liberality and institute, by the arbitration of a society which is called of the Divine Senator. Twelve poor men, chosen for innocence and especial squalor, are presented with single garments; and their ancient sordidness is changed with sudden cleanlinesses and a sudden brightness. A laudable institute, but which may merit a truer praise from piety than from antiquity, among men versed in the origins of pious donations. The first centuries of the Christian religion had indeed also fixed largesses for the advantage of the poor: but that some one of them perseveres even to this day, after so many conversions of public and private affairs, no one will wisely believe. And so what in that kind Senator did I would rather be ignorant of, than believe those divining about an ancient matter without an ancient witness. Nor through this would I believe anything detracted from the honor of the Saint himself, when for the cause of augmenting it the largess appears to have been instituted, probably more recent than the Society itself by which it is administered; but to this I would not concede the age of many centuries.

[6] Ennodius praised him with an Epigram, Ennodius Bishop of Pavia adorned him with this encomium.

Who surpasses the consular robes, the throne, and the Gabine girding, Excelling consuls, behold, Senator is present. A swift talent, care of rounded speech, The price of virtues, the form of modesty. The hidden mysteries of books, closed, the Prophet Who brought into light, by what figure he willed. Sent to the secrets of the world's far edge, with venerable Studies he cared for what had been torn. Then the East, confessing itself conquered by a foreign light, Clung to the aspect of another lamp.

[7] and wrote an Epistle to him, Among the Epistles of the same Ennodius, the first of book 3 is inscribed, To Senator the Bishop. That the Milanese can here be understood the illustrator of Ennodius, Sirmond, denies, because Ennodius only in the year DXI was made Bishop. But by what argument Sirmond persuaded himself, that it was only by a Bishop

written? The right, of which diminished she complains, regards one bondman, whom Senator, although he said it was of his own right, had nevertheless graciously promised to Ennodius beseeching it to be rendered back, nor on returning from Ravenna had it yet been rendered: Ennodius therefore, Behold again I refer myself, said he, to your conscience; behold, what becomes a son, I exhibit, that through the sublime and magnificent man, Lord Victor, I may confer to humility, whatever could be afforded me by the authority of secular laws. Nothing thereafter either in the prior or in the latter part of that Epistle do I see, still a youth. which is above the condition of a young Cleric, and as yet endowed with no authority, who is unwilling to contend against a Bishop by secular judgment; such as in the time of St. Senator Ennodius still was, by the consent of his wife recently brought over to the sacred Order at Milan.

CHAPTER II.

By what arguments the Most Illustrious family of the Septalii arrogate St. Senator to themselves.

[8] The Life of St. Senator, arguments being scraped together from everywhere, Placidus Puccinelli enlarged and published in Italian in the year MDCL, an Italian Life with praise of the Septalian family, and dedicated it to Carlo Septala Archpriest of Milan. We afterward saw his nephew by a brother, Bishop of Tortona, and experienced the notable humanity of him and his brother a Canon in the year MDCLXII, and the more gladly we read at the end of that Life the deduced honors of the Septalian family, just as they were exhibited in a public Latin instrument in the year MDCXXXIII, when the same Carlo sought to be adopted into the college of the Doctors, Counts and Knights of Milan, which instrument or rather Process we also received. Many names of illustrious persons indeed are there referred after the thousandth year, pertaining, as is believed, to that family: but in my judgment Raphael Fagnanus earned ill thanks from the same, in his Manuscript volumes of the noble families of Milan, book marked S. by many authorities, stones, the splendor not being native added from a fictitious antiquity. and monuments having attempted to prove, that this family flowed from the Albini Posthumi the Romans; nay step by step from Clodius Albinus, who was the colleague of Septimius in the Empire, of whom there still are extant coins, consigned with letters of this kind SEPTAL. CAES. and that, just as through seven grades he attained to the apex of that dignity, so he erected for his posterity seven wings for a gentilitial blazon. The Septalian brothers whom I mentioned being persuaded that these dreams of a sick head are not approved, I candidly confess that to me it seems that the name of the family is from the town Septala, but not the town given its name from the family. Nor do me please interminable genealogies, in devising which for the sake of favor some laboriously sweat; as also did Erycius Puteanus, when on occasion of Satala, which is a city of Lesser Armenia, and the seven brother Martyrs there under Maximian suffering on June XXIV, he devises that the family was thence brought over to Milan by the same Maximian, and retained for itself the name and seven wings in a blood-red shield.

[9] Ferdinand Ughellus, where above, concludes the encomium of St. Senator in these words: a new finding of the body with a suspect title, whose Relics were lately found under the altar, with this very ancient and brief inscription. Under this altar rested the body of St. Senator Septara, the Archbishop, our Patron. This would be an indication of the body, not present, but absent: nor ought it to have been found enclosed within his ark, but sculptured on the altar. The situation may have made it seem very ancient, if it so seemed: certainly very ancient it could not be, nor written from the century, I do not say the V, but nor from the X or XI; since in public writings of this kind no surnames are found added to names, much less to the names of Bishops. But that here is written Septara, elsewhere it is found written also Sertara, Setara, and Settara, in charters of the XII century and others later even to the end of the XV century; although meanwhile there are said not to have been wanting those who also wrote Septala, and by so writing gave occasion to posterity of assuming seven wings for a gentilitial token, which even today among them is preserved, by an institute not very old, as is commonly known, and our Franciscus Claudius Menestrier excellently demonstrated in the little work on the Origin of Armorial bearings, as the Franks call tokens of this kind. Enrolled by the invocation of St. Senator, whose institution that it is very ancient you will not easily prove. Finally not only of scanty antiquity, but of fiction also suspect the inscription is rendered to me; unknown to the Milanese, while I consider that Puccinelli, who without doubt wrote after Ughellus (although the latter delivered his great book to be recognized by the Roman Censor, the former delivered the little book at Milan to be printed, both in the same year) while, I say, I consider Puccinelli, far and wide scraping together the material of that little writing of his, elsewhere indeed weaving so accurate an index of the bodies of Saints found and translated, but making no mention of this finding either here or there; nor even of the inscription in that place, where he laboriously contends, that the Saint ought to be ascribed not to the Villana, but to the Septalian family. He could have proved the cause even by the testimony of that inscription alone, if it had been held legitimate, or known among the Septalii. And so the aforesaid Pietro Paolo Bosca, to me inquiring about that matter, did not doubt to answer; Ughellus must have dreamed, when he wrote that the body of St. Senator had been found. and to the Septalii themselves. The same can be testified by the marble Title, set up by the aforepraised Carlo Septala, in the church of St. Euphemia, in the year MDCLIV to retain the memory, not of a body found there, but of the first foundation by the Saint. And this perhaps is the first care expended in adorning that temple by the Septalii, after Frederick Barbarossa in the year MCLXII, together with the rest of the city, overthrew it, involving in the same ruin the body of St. Senator; if however it was by no one snatched in that horrible confusion of things, and carried elsewhere. Who moreover afterward took the counsel of rebuilding that church, I have not yet found expressed.

[10] [The Instruments on account of which St. Senator was adjudged to the Septalian family,] I would moreover that the Most Illustrious Septalii, as many as even now survive, pardon me, if, notwithstanding the Archiepiscopal sentence, passed on May XV in the year MDCLXXVI, upon the discussion and resolution of the doubt, whether St. Senator was of the agnation and family of the same, contrary to what was defined, I dare to say, It is not clear. For the Instruments adduced in proof for the year DLII, DCCXIV and DCCCCXXXIV are of such a kind, that to them, as sincere and original, faith cannot be given by us. For all three are (to say nothing of the script, which is not exhibited, and within the course of four centuries must have been greatly changed) in style and formulas so similar all among themselves, that they were composed and dictated at least in the same age, more than manifest it ought to seem to one comparing them among themselves, if he have any notice of treating such ancient Charters; such as that the deputed Judges had, is not made manifest to us from their sentence. Which lest I would have believed by my judgment, behold the first of those Instruments.

✠ In the year of the Lord's Incarnation five hundred and fifty-second, on the third Kalends of July, in the fifteenth Indiction. although they begin from the year 552 To thee Khastritianus Custodian of the Church of Saint Euphemia, which is built in the present city, in which the body of holy Senator Archbishop of this city, and brother of good memory Landfrancus my father, happily rests. I in the name of God Senator, Donor of this church, give and deliver to thee the Custodian aforesaid, to be had to the part of this church, all goods in any way pertaining to me, and which I am seen to have in the place and estate of Ozzano, which were of good memory my grandfather Senator, the aforesaid donor, with all their rights and appurtenances entire. And by this Charter on this day, in thee, the aforesaid Custodian, to be had to the part of the aforesaid church I confirm; so that at no time by me, the aforesaid donor, can it be revoked: and that the aforesaid goods be as above donated, and remain in the right of the aforesaid church: and do thou the Custodian aforesaid, in the name of the aforesaid church, do thenceforth whatsoever thou shalt wish without anyone's contradiction. Because so decreed my good and last will, for the remedy of my soul and the souls of my aforesaid deceased, and of good memory Manfredus the aforesaid grandfather of my father. Done in this city.

Sign ✠ of this donor, who asked this charter, as above, to be made.

Beltraminus, Judge and Imperial Envoy, was present, approved, and subscribed.

Signs ✠ ✠ ✠ ✠ of Nabor, John, Ambrose, and Fidelis, Witnesses.

Subscribed with the sign of the notariate (which here and at the beginning, on both sides at the margin, was seen noted) David, Imperial Notary, wrote and gave this charter.

[11] Turn thy mind, I pray, reader. The first inventor of the years to be numbered from the Lord's Incarnation, they have many notes of a later age, by the consent of all the learned, was Dionysius surnamed Exiguus, a Roman Abbot, at that very time at which this Charter would have been written. He neither introduced this invention of his into the use of public records nor could he have introduced it; but through Monks little by little it was propagated, so that among Historians the first Bede in the VIII century is known to have used it; and in the same century the Lombard Kings (disdaining indeed the names of the Roman Consuls, or the years of the Greek Emperors) seem to have introduced it into public records. The names Landfrancus, Manfredus, Bentraminus are manifestly from the Lombards. No one named the Archbishops of Milan, before the age of Charlemagne: Judge and Imperial Envoy, is a title of even later age. Imperial Notaries subscribing, and indeed with the sign of the notariate added at the beginning and margin, are not found until long after. If anyone observe these few things (for the rest I willingly pass over), then the style and formulas of the whole Instrument, can he doubt but that this Charter, if it be not feigned in whole, at least was corrupted in transcribing? and seem to be begun from the year 1152 I indeed believe it was done: and indeed on occasion of St. Senator, named in the first place in the original Charter. For since he seemed suitable here, who might be transformed into the uncle of the Donor himself, first for the year MCLII, which concurring with Indiction XV could originally have been written; some year LII was sought, agreeing with the same Indiction, and less remote from the age of St. Senator; and the nearest DLII was found: then where before was read the church of St. Euphemia, in which the body of holy Senator Archbishop of this city, and of Senator's brother of good memory Landfrancus my father happily rests, the other Senator, or whatever uncle's name was interposed, being rubbed out, the words Archbishop and brother seemed to have been composed; and what was intended was had, without other further violence. Nor would I wish to doubt, but that in the same way here is said Avius, the same who in Latin is commonly Avus, just as the wife of this one is called by grandchildren Avia. There appear

therefore in this charter, besides Senator the son of Manfredus, and grandfather of the Donor, from whom is said to have come the estate which is donated; the uncle of the same Donor, also called Senator, or by whatever other name here rubbed out, and put before the word "brother."

[12] Now moreover the other two Charters have no other difficulty, than that the note of the year, corrupted by a fraud similar to that of the first, be corrected in them by the same reasoning as the first. Therefore in the second charter, which begins, and for the year 713 there is to be substituted 1224, of the Lord's Incarnation DCCXIIV (so I read it expressly noted, I know not by what design) on the Ides of May, in the XII Indiction; substitute the year MCCXXIV, concurring with the XII Indiction; and thou wilt have an interval of LXXII years, within which Senator, the Author of the aforesaid donation, begot Lanfrancus, Landfrancus begot Andreas, who was called of Settera; Andreas begot Manfredus and Albericus brothers, sellers of the estate of Berixianum, of which the Charter is made. And in this nothing abnormal, nothing not congruous appears; whereas on the contrary he, who wished to make St. Senator the uncle of the aforesaid Donor, and so the brothers last named his nephews in the fourth degree, fills nearly three centuries with no more than five generations. Since St. Senator, in the year CCCCL Apostolic Legate and Presbyter, could not have been born long after the year CCCCXIII, from which a passage would be made to DCCXIII: which itself that it might be had, nor yet the Indiction XII changed, from the number XXIV, obvious to all, something unusual was made, and written XIIV, unless this be a copyist's blunder, and it is to be read XIV for XXIV. and for 934 the year 1234. Finally the third charter, made in favor of the church of the Protomartyr Thecla and Pelagia the Virgin, which begins. In the name of Christ. Amen. In the year from His nativity CMXXXIV, on the fifth Kal. of May, in the VII Indiction, where the Author of the donation made by it concerning the estate of Brisius thus speaks; I in the name of God Manfredus, who am called Sattara, dwelling in the borough of Settera, son of good memory Albericus, who am now seen to live by the law of the Lombards: this, I say, Charter in which Manfredus the donor names his grandfather Laudfrancus, his great-grandfather Senator, his great-great-grandfather Manfredus; is conveniently understood, if the number corrupted by an unusual transposition again and omission be reintegrated, and there be read the year MCCXXXIV, concurring with the VII Indiction. Then moreover it would be permitted to Senator, the author of the first donation, to give another son Manfredus, from whom descended Landfrancus, Senator, Manfredus, the Author of the second donation, having a common great-grandfather with Manfredus and Albericus the brother-sellers. Then also, what is most of all, the age of all three charters will be concluded within the year MCLII and MCCXXXIV, that is within less than the space of one century, which that it must be done the similarity of the style almost everywhere the same persuades, as it will be plain to one considering.

[13] Nor yet for that will there be no preferable right over St. Senator to the Septalii, The Septalii can be believed, before any other family; since the name of Senator, so frequent in that family, can persuade, that there intervened to it some peculiar bond either of blood or of devotion with the holy Bishop, for whose cause both Senator the uncle of the Donor wished to be buried in St. Euphemia's, and to the same church the aforesaid donation was made. But that the last Donor Manfredus says he lives by the law of the Lombards, for distinction from others who many at Milan lived by the Roman Law; it is to be known, that that Law founded by Rothari King of the Lombards in the year DCCVII, with the kingdom of the Lombards was not abrogated, but rather stabilized by the Emperors of the West, adding certain few things, namely by Charlemagne, in the 13th century first having passed over into the Lombard law, Louis the Pious, and Lothair; Pippin, and Wido Kings of Italy; Otto, Henry, and Conrad again Emperors and Kings of Germany and Italy, as in the Capitularies the most erudite Baluzius teaches, and from him the equally most learned Cangius in the Glossary. But the last of these lived even to the year MXXXIX, and so in Ughellus Tome 4 column 215 there is found for the year MCLVIII Petrus Vicecomes of the city of Milan, son of Eliprandus Vicecomes, professing to live by the law of the Lombards: which since those ancestors of the Septalii do not profess, who asked the first and second Charter to be written, and Manfredus in the same profession adds the particle Now; it could seem that he was, among the first of his family, who, the Roman Law, or the common and more ancient Right, being dismissed, chose to live by the more recent right of the Lombards.

[14] For the rest whether the Septalii drew their first origin from the ancient inhabitants of the city of Milan before the Lombards, to have some special right in St. Senator, or from the Lombards themselves, I think it probable, that they were among the restorers of the overthrown city, and especially repaired the church of St. Euphemia, and in it the sepulchre of St. Senator; and that on this piety rather is founded the right which they arrogate to themselves in the Saint, than on carnal kinship, not easily discoverable amid the ruins of the Roman Empire. But whatever be of the truth of the matter hitherto hidden, deservedly in their pretension they are preferred to the Villani, who could not even from afar approach to that probability, which the Septalii brought forward for themselves, notwithstanding the already indicated corruption of the old Charters: for those even so prove something. More certainly however the great renown of the same family, and its power among the Milanese, in those centuries XII and XIII of which we treat, is proved (to be silent of historians) by the ancient inscription at the bridge of the Roman Gate, built in the eighth year after the Fredericiian ruin, Passaguadus de Setara obtaining the first place among the Consuls, which inscription such is even now there read. when the city was being restored among the chief men among the Milanese,

✠ In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred seventy-first, in the month of March, this work of towers and gates had its beginning. The Consuls of the Republic, who then were and made this work to be done, were Passaguadus de Setara, Ardericus de la Turre, Pinamonte de Vimercato, Obertus de Orto, Malconventus Cotta, Arnaldus de Mariola, Adosadus Butraffus, Malagallia de Alliate, Malfiliocius de Ermenulfis, Rogerius Marcellinus: and they themselves made the work of la Clusa to be done. And these ten seem also to be represented in the rude carving there, where it can be believed that the aforesaid Passaguadus with a banner leads the column of those returning to the fatherland; whom for the sake of honor I would say the Pontifical Legates follow, the Authors of the Lombard league against Frederick, and of restoring Milan; then the remaining nine Consuls; thence the legates of the Cremonese and Brescians, to whom the verses written above seem gratefully to attribute the chief part of the aid afforded for repairing the ruins: but those who in the last place are marked departing well-horned and hissed out, are surely none other than the Emperor's ministers, as the monument of the city restored in the year 1171 proves whom he had set over the territory of Milan to be governed: of which Emperor also the contempt that exceedingly ridiculous image of him breathes, set above the inscription related, with bare head, a large mustache, a tight little cloak, a tighter garment, with legs shamefully crossed, expressed above the horns of I know not what head placed between the shins: which effigy being omitted, it pleases to exhibit engraved in copper the pomp of the returning Milanese, just as the copy sent to us refers it, at least in that part which is the second, and explains itself by the four verses written above.

✠ Saint Ambrose. The Arians. ✠ Ambrose the celibate took the Houses from the Jews. These to fallen Milan, while by chance it rises again, Put under their (hands). The deed declares friends. God giving, or bereaving, restoring, be Thou blessed. Lo, we sing psalms to Thee (O fatherland), O God, the city being received.

The other part refers nothing else than St. Ambrose, the Arians, and the Jews being driven from the city; which that the sculptors wished here rather to have expressed, than the crowd of the civic multitude with furniture and children returning to the fatherland, the Bishop closing the column, would not be believed, did not the names written above bid this to be believed, St. Ambrose, the Arians, and the verses about the Jews. But how these agree with St. Ambrose, can be examined at his Acts on December VII: here I only wished to serve the Septalian family, and to adjoin to the treatise on St. Senator that curious accessory of no common antiquity, greatly making for the glory of the same family.