ON ST. WILLIAM THE DUKE
AFTERWARD MONK OF GELLONE IN GAUL.
ABOUT DCCCXII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the Acts of his Life and miracles, the cult on various days, and the Relics of the same Saint.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
[1] The monastery of Gellone, in the Life of Louis the Pious less rightly called of Galuna, pertains to Septimania or Occitania, The monastery of Gellone of St. William. or by the barbarous (as we now speak) word of this age Languedoc; situated among the high ridges of the mountains, in the valley of Gellone by the river Hérault; almost in the middle of the way between the Episcopal cities of Montpellier and Lodève. As Founder it acknowledges St. William the Duke, or as in his age they rather called him the Count, and afterward there a Monk, from whom now the monastery is wont to be called St. Guilhem-le-Désert. His Acts from a Manuscript of that Monastery, transcribed by Fr. Georgius Grandroguamius the Infirmarian, The Life from various Manuscripts. R. P. Pierre Possin sent to us in the year MDCXLVI from Toulouse, since then a favorer and strenuous helper of our studies, but to both some things are lacking. The same Acts but without the miracles, we have written in our notable codex of the month of May, likewise in the Manuscript codices of Trier of the monastery of St. Maximin, of Clairmarais of the diocese of Saint-Omer, and of Dunes now established at Bruges, both of the Cistercian Order: in whose chief monastery the same too we found, but did not describe. We have the same, but contracted, from the Manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloître near Brussels, with the Title of Count of Hainaut, by I know not what error fixed to him by the Collector Gillemann. Likewise in the Manuscript of Böddeken of the diocese of Paderborn, equally of the Order of Canons Regular, and printed books, and the Manuscript of Utrecht of the church of St. Salvator. Finally we collated them with the Augsburg edition of the year MDCXI, and the Parisian one of the year MDCLXXVII. The former edition Carolus Stengelius took care of, subjoining to it the Life of St. William of Hirsau, who on the IV Nones of July ended with a blessed end: the latter the most diligent Achery and Mabillon inserted into the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, and into the first part of the fourth century of this.
[2] But who was the writer, says Mabillon, of the Life of St. William, or at what time he lived, I cannot certainly define. by a grave author That he was a grave author, whoever at last he be, it is established, and that he composed this little book before the XI century; nay, as is probable, not long after the death of William, whose deeds, as if an eye-witness, he commemorates. Thus Mabillon. But unless we much err, written in the XI century: we deem one and the same author of the Life and of the miracles, which hitherto unpublished below we give; in which is narrated the coming of St. Fulcrannus Bishop of Lodève to the tomb of St. William, and he himself is called Saint, and for the grace of cures and the virtue of miracles
most renowned, as more amply on February XIII, we deduced at the Life of St. Fulcrannus himself, where we said he about the year MVI migrated from this life; therefore this Life with the miracles does not seem to have been able to be written, unless at least in the XI century now somewhat flowing. compendia in the Life of St. Benedict of Aniane We do not doubt meanwhile, but that several before described the deeds of St. William, of whose narrations this Author made use. One of these can be reckoned chapter VI of the Life of St. Benedict Abbot of Aniane and Inde, by us on February XII brought forth: to which St. William in the charter related below subjected his monastery, and that compendium therefore before the other Acts we bring forth, because the Author Ardo a disciple of St. Benedict could also have known St. William more certainly. Another compendium, but contracted from these Acts, Ordericus Vitalis had in his Ecclesiastical history, deduced to the year MCXLI, and in Ordericus Vitalis, book 6 at the year MLXVI, where; Because, says he, mention of St. William has fallen to us, it pleases briefly here to insert his life. I know that it is rarely found in this province, and to some a truthful relation of such a man will please. For this Antonius a Monk of Winchester lately brought, and showed it to us desiring to see it. Commonly a song is sung by jesters about him, but the authentic relation is by right to be preferred: which by religious doctors has been skilfully published, and by studious readers reverently read in the common hearing of the Brethren. But because the bearer hastened to go away, and the wintry frost prevented me from writing; the sincere abridgment, just as I delivered it on tablets compendiously, so now I shall be busy to commend it summarily to the membrane, and to make known the fame of the bold Marquis. Thus Ordericus, in whom the subjoined compendium of the Life can be seen. But the jesting things indicated by him, commonly Romances, and others. Catellus brings forth and explodes as fabulous in book 5 of the history of the Counts of Toulouse chapter 6. Another compendium Peter de Natalibus published book 5 chapter 61. Another Manuscript was sent from Cologne. Another Arnoldus Rayssius in the Additions to the Natales of the Saints of Belgium of Joannes Molanus: which (but the Hagiology of Molanus being cited) reprinted, some errors being emended, Joannes Plantavitius de la Pause Bishop of Lodève in the Chronology of the Prelates of Lodève page 25, a most erudite man, from whose pen we have the Synonymic Hebraico-Chaldaico-Rabbinic Thesaurus, likewise the Rabbinico-Biblical Florilegium. Finally also another compendium or Epitome is had in the Viola Sanctorum, printed at Hagenau in the year MDVIII.
[3] Desiring to learn more concerning the miracles of the holy man, and concerning the state and present veneration of his body, The little book of miracles from a double Manuscript. again we have recourse to the aforepraised Possin, opportunely returned from Rome into these parts. He first indeed, from an old Manuscript of the monastery of Gellone obtained a certain little book of miracles; then the history of the recent finding and translation, there written in the French tongue, sent to us. And this rendered into Latin we place at the end; but that one, from a codex torn, two leaves being plucked out, while we grieved that it was had imperfect; opportunely the other part of the IV Benedictine century is brought, and in it the little book on the miracles of St. William, Duke and Monk of Gellone, by the Author an Anonymous Monk of Gellone, from the Manuscript of Eysses; commonly called Eyssez, of the diocese of Agen, not far from the river Lot a monastery, distant about fifty leagues from Gellone. The style of this Manuscript, somewhat more polished than the Gellone one, shows that it is later: wherefore the original simplicity being preserved as far as is permitted, from this one only we shall supply the defects and lacunae of the original work.
[4] As to the finding, it altogether happened beyond hope. and the history of the Finding from the French For when about the year MDLXVIII the people of Gellone feared the extreme ruin to their monastery and all the sacred things, the Monks wishing to bring their Founder's body away into safety, in his marble tomb found only a few ashes remaining from the prior elevation, and collected them: which after about seventy years they placed under the altar: of which matter the above-praised Plantavitius is witness, in the said Chronology of the Prelates of Lodève page 28 has these things: The ashes of St. William, while quite lately that monastery in our diocesan visitation by office we surveyed, enclosed in a marble urn, and from seventy or about years, lest they should fall into the sacrilegious hands of heretics, drawn out of his monument, which behind the greater altar of wondrous structure even today is seen, after only ashes once found and recently translated. under the marble tablet of one altar breathing forth a most fragrant odor, we found; and to all the people, to be beheld at once and venerated with due cult, we exhibited. In memory of which matter testimonial letters, confirmed by our hand and secured by our seal, and enclosed in an iron box, our fiscal Procurator so requiring this, we granted to the said monastery; and the sacred Relics in the same place we replaced, together with the said testimonial letters; until the most religious Monks of the Congregation of St. Maur, soon to be introduced into that monastery, can lay them up in a silver casket: which we hope for the greater glory of God and of so wondrous a Saint and the consolation of the pious. Thus Plantavitius Bishop of Lodève, who presided over the said Church from the year MDCXXV, then in the church of St. Louis of the Professed house of the Society of Jesus at Paris inaugurated, to the year MDCLXI, in which on May XXVIII on the feast of Pentecost he died. Besides the ashes nonetheless there was had in a silver gilded shrine, a ray of the arm gilded of wondrous size, reserved namely from the prior Translation to a place unknown to the Monks, as Mabillon writes, in the Appendix to the Life: who also the memory of the same Translation, as made in the year MCXXXVIII, on the III Nones of March, had found in the Martyrology of Gellone. But when in the year MDCLXXIX in the month of September, there was an undertaking of removing the principal altar at the apse, there was found that treasure which now was held among the despaired-of, in the manner to be explained below.
[5] The ancient cult of St. William is gathered from the altar, placed in honor of him at the right side of the greater altar, and from the tablet of excellent Parian stone engraved, where also the sepulchre of the same Saint behind the said altar with excellent images is constituted, An altar erected to him, and his sacred memory is thus celebrated in the old Martyrology of Gellone: V Kalends of June, at Gellone in the territory of Lodève the deposition of Bl. William, Monk and Confessor, memory in the Fasti 28 May, once most illustrious Palatine Consul. Nay his feast is celebrated with a double rite in the diocese of Lodève and Béziers: and in the Martyrology of Brioude his deposition is mentioned: as also in the Manuscript Florarium, and in Greven, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius; and in the monastic fasti of Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, Bucelinus. But on the Ides of August among the people of Gellone is read, 13 August, the Dedication of the altar of the most holy Guillelmus of the Gellone monastery, which was made by Amatus Legate of the holy Roman Church, in the year MLXXVI from the Lord's nativity. But the day before the Nones of February is celebrated some Translation of the body of St. Guillelmus Confessor of Christ: 4 February, which perhaps ought to be reckoned the first elevation of the body, from the humble sepulchre into the marble tomb. Moreover when Garsendis a noble woman, in the year MXXIX, had offered to the monastery of Gellone the church of St. Peter of Salve, Gausfredus the Abbot, the banner of the Cross and the clod of St. Guillelmus being taken with him, with a gathering of faithful Monks, Clerics, Soldiers, Laymen … went to the place, that it be a cell of the monastery of Gellone in perpetuity, just as is set forth in Mabillon. 5 March, The day before, or rather on the III Nones of March is marked the above-indicated Translation of the body of the most holy Confessor of Christ, in the year MCXXXVIII, by the hands of the Lord Ugo Bishop of Albi, and Raimundus Abbot of Gellone, and Raimundus Abbot of Nant, in the times of Pope Innocent II, Louis the Seventh or the Younger reigning King.
[6] Under this Pontiff and King flourished Ordericus Vitalis, who in book 6 above indicated writes these things in commendation of the place: The venerable monastery there even to the present day perseveres, and a huge army of Monks to the Lord God of Sabaoth with huge dancing wars, and by the merits of St. Guillelmus from an illustrious Soldier a religious Monk, Virtue in healing the sick, a crowd of the infirm convalescing exults in Christ Jesus, who glorifies all adhering to Him. The said Abbey was now from about the ninetieth year above the thousandth, by the decree of Pope Urban II, withdrawn from the dominion of the people of Aniane; and then by the letters of Callistus II and Alexander III, immediately subjected to the Roman See: and itself exercises Episcopal jurisdiction over the whole valley of Gellone, and the town adjoined to the monastery, and also over two parochial churches there of St. Bartholomew and St. Laurence: nay to it are subject Hermits, dwelling together on the precipitous ridges of the mountains, to whom by Pope Benedict was given the faculty of building a little edifice by letters, signed at Avignon in the year MCCCXXXVI on the Ides of September.
COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE
From the Life of St. Benedict of Aniane, Written by Ardo his disciple,
and published on the day XII of February.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
Guillelmus the Count, who in the court of the Emperor was more illustrious than all, with so great an affection of love thereafter adhered to Bl. Benedict, that the dignities of the world being despised, he chose him as a leader of the salutary way, by which he could attain to Christ: Converted by Bl. Benedict Abbot of Aniane, and leave of converting being at last received, with great gifts of gold and silver, and kinds of precious garments, he follows the venerable man. Nor did he suffer delay thereupon of having his hair cut, but rather on the day of the Nativity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the garments woven with gold being laid aside, he put on the habit of the worshippers of Christ, rejoicing to be admitted as quickly as possible into the number of the Heaven-dwellers. But a valley about four miles distant from the monastery of the blessed man Benedict, whose name is Gellone: in which the aforesaid Count, still placed in the dignity of the world, had ordered a cell to be built: there for the time of his life he delivered himself to serve Christ. And since born of noble birth, from a Count a Monk of Gellone, he strove to be made nobler by embracing the poverty of Christ; and the highest honor, which by birth he had received, for Christ he cast away; I think it ratified, if of the pious acts of his conversion for those not knowing them I lay open. For into the aforesaid cell the venerable Father Benedict had now placed his Monks: by whose example imbued, within a few days, those by whom he was taught, in virtues he excelled. His sons also aiding him, whom he had set over his Counties, and the neighboring Counts, to perfection the fabric of the monastery, which he had begun, he quickly brought. Which place is so secret, that the inhabitant does not desire solitude: it is girt finally with cloud-bearing mountains on all sides, nor is there access there for anyone, save whom a willing mind for the cause of praying has led: but it is suffused with so great pleasantness, that if one has decided to serve God, he does not desire the places of others: since there are vineyards, which the aforesaid man ordered to be planted, and abundance of gardens also, stocked with various kinds of divers trees. He acquired very many possessions: for the Most Serene King Louis at his asking enlarged this with a spacious boundary, granting from his fiscs places to be cultivated:
he gave very many sacred garments, prepared silver and gold chalices and offertories, brought with him very many books, clothed the altars with gold and silver. Having entered this cell he dedicated himself wholly to Christ, leaving no vestige of worldly pomp. But thereafter he was of so great humility, that rare or none of the Monks could be so bowed, he excels in every virtue, when it happened to meet him, that he was not overcome by him in humility. We often saw him beating his ass, carrying a flask of wine on a pannier, and seated upon it, bearing a chalice on his shoulders behind, meeting the Brethren of our monastery at the time of harvest to refresh their thirst. In vigils also he was so wakeful, that he surpassed all. In the bakery, unless some occupation hindered or sickness delayed, he worked with his own hands. especially by contempt of himself, He filled the kitchen in his turn; in habit he had assumed the form of the highest humility; he was a lover of fasting; instant in prayers, continual in compunction: and scarcely could he receive the body of Christ, before the drops of his tears ran down to the ground. He avidly sought the hardness of the little bed; but on account of his infirmity Father Benedict caused a mattress, though he was unwilling, to be spread under. Some say, that he often for the love of Christ ordered himself to be beaten with scourges, no one being conscious except him who was present. About the middle of the nights, exposed to the glacial colds, covered with one very rare covering, often in the oratory, which he had built in honor of holy Michael, and he dies piously. known to God alone, free for prayers he stood. With these and other fruits of virtues stocked within a few years, knowing the day of his death imminent for him, to all the monasteries almost situated in the kingdom of the Lord Charles by writing he ordered it to be made known, that he had now migrated from this world: and so thereafter bearing back abundance of virtues, Christ calling him he migrated from the world.
LIFE
By a grave author, written in the XI century of Christ.
From various Manuscripts and a double edition.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
BHL Number: 8916
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] About to treat, to the highest glory and praise of God, of the laudable life and holy conversion and conversation of Bl. William, The Author invoking the Holy Spirit, we invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit, who even in the least things is to be implored: that He who prevented and followed him in the contempt of the world, in the denial of himself; He may deign to prevent and follow us also in this retracing, and make us fitting relaters of so great a history. For nothing worthy is said without Him, nor is even He Himself invoked without Himself, whose gifts indeed they are, if anyone merit to announce the works of the Omnipotent, and to magnify God Himself in His Saints. And first indeed let us propose this beloved one of God, as an exemplar and mirror to us, and let us venerate in him the Apostolic form and the Angelic life on earth; and, as far as is possible, good emulators, let us imitate the same. For since it is great and very good, to preach the merits of the Saints and to extol their virtues; to seek the virtues themselves, and by imitating to acquire them is truly best and most excellent. Both however are both given from heaven, and divinely inspired: and the administration of it is gratis to Him, who the distributor of graces gives from them to whom He will, and divides to each as He will.
[2] Now therefore the things which pertain to common edification, and which can profit the devout minds of hearers to imitation, of the life and merits of so great a Duke and so glorious a Prince, he excuses the omission of William's warlike deeds. let us undertake: the rest which were of the world, namely strong deeds, pertaining to earthly dignity and to secular warfare, although renowned and worthy of relation in eternal memory, we have decided nevertheless to pass over in silence, applying the pen only to the spiritual deeds in part to be recited. For what kingdoms and what provinces, what nations, what cities, speak not the power of Duke William, the virtue of his mind, the strength of his body, his glorious triumphs by zeal and frequency of war? What choirs of young men, what assemblies of peoples, especially of soldiers and noble men, what vigils of the Saints, do not sweetly resound, and with modulated voices chant, what and how great he was, how gloriously under Charles the glorious he warred, how bravely and how victoriously he tamed and conquered the barbarians; how great things he bore from them, how great he brought; and at last from all the borders of the kingdom of the Franks the conquered and fugitive he frequently disturbed and expelled? For all these and the manifold history a of his life since they are even now everywhere almost over the earth most known, nor do they seem necessarily to pertain to this description; now let the hand and pen begin to labor at those things which the religion and sanctity of the blessed Man demand; concerning his birth and the nobility of his stock, which of great and holy Men is generally inquired, briefly prenoting.
ANNOTATION BY D. P.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's life in the world, his warfare against the Saracens, the foundation of the monastery, the oblation of his Sisters.
[3] In the time of King Pippin of renowned a praise and perennial memory, was born Bl. William of the illustrious progeny of the Franks, namely from a noble father and great b Consul c Theodericus by name, Most noble by stock and rightly educated, whose mother equally generous and a most noble Countess was called d Aldana: both indeed of the highest Princes of France, Consuls of Consuls, in life also and morals pleasing to God and men. Since therefore they were such, and religious worshippers of the true divinity, the boy received from God with all diligence they nourish, and deliver to the liberal disciplines, and specially cause to be informed and instructed. But him erudite in the divine letters and divers doctrines of the Philosophers, his parents, as was the custom to be done of the sons of Princes, nonetheless instruct in the stronger studies and exercises of secular warfare.
[4] Then when now King Pippin had migrated from this light, in the court of Charles he is honored, and his son Charles, who was called the Great and glorious, had sat on the throne of the kingdom; the renowned youth was commended to him by his parents, that he should always stand by the King; and in the palace, as was fitting, should war. And when in the Royal court he conducted himself irreprehensibly and laudably, and was acceptable to the King, and pleasing to the army; yet by the envy of no one was he bitten, nor was any injury moved against him. Since the name of William was now held celebrated, and of the fortitude given him by God, of the most beautiful greatness of his body, of his magnanimity, and of the quality of his morals well composed through all, renowned fame everywhere spoke. Therefore William commended by his father, stands before the King's sight, takes the name of Consul and the Consulate, in warlike affairs obtains the principate of the first cohort. He is principally employed in the Royal counsels, as one of the chief ministers of the King, treats strenuously with the King of the kingdom's affairs, of warfare and arms; he becomes Father of the fatherland, defender of the republic; for peace he watches, in wars he labors; he fosters the citizens, conquers the enemies; to all placed in straits, constituted in distresses compassionately he succors, and for whom the matter demands intervenes with the King. But this was the intention and chief care of the King, to seek the glory of Christ, and above all nations to elevate the triumph of the Christian name: which also he did God cooperating in all, and William with the other Dukes by counsel and virtue bringing him aid. For so he was fortified by their zeals and honest counsels, and especially leaned on the arms of William, as a golden throne, which is propped by silver columns. William was present to the King on the right and on the left, he indeed in prosperity equally and in adversity.
[5] In those days the Saracens equally massed together produce a very great and unhoped-for army: appointed Duke against the Saracens in Aquitaine, they cross the Pyrenean mountains, and all by one conspiracy to these parts of Aquitaine, Provence and Septimania hasten, namely the confines of the Christians. They burst into the kingdom of Charles, give f infinite slaughters of the Christians; they exist victors, plunder the spoils, and lead the captured captive with tight cords, occupy the whole land far and wide, as if to be possessed by perpetual right. This is announced to the most Christian King, nor does it please him. This message heard, the faithful one invokes the very name of Christ, and soon after the royal manner convokes the Princes and Counsellors of his virtue, and consults them what need be done for such things, and he himself thence with them attentively and solicitously treats. All by the providence of God concord into one opinion, namely that Count William, renowned in arms, victorious in war, glorious in the zeals of Gallic warfare, be chosen for this work, and he himself with his legions against the barbarians be quickly directed. It is adjudged also, the army crying out, that of all Aquitaine, since he is worthy, he be invested with the Dukedom g, and from a Consul be exalted into a Duke. Charles does not defer the effect of the counsel, and forthwith holds William by the hand and promotes him. Therefore William exalted with the glory of Count and Duke, becomes first among the Princes, himself second from the King, takes the legation, nor refuses the labor, is sent against the barbarians.
[6] And so Duke William saluted by Charles, and himself to his pious Lord making a benign farewell, proceeds, leads forth a strong and chosen army; and so having entered Septimania, the Rhone h also being crossed, to the city of Orange swiftly disposes his columns and camp (which those Spaniards with their Theobald had long ago occupied) that city easily and in a short time, the invaders being slain and put to flight, he snatches away, Orange being recovered he conquers them often: although afterward both in it and for it many and long labors from the enemies he bore, and always prevailed by fighting. But the city being snatched away, it pleases all that he retain it for himself, and make it i the first seat of his own property: whence also that city to the glory of so great a Duke, most famous and much celebrated and of great name, through the whole world even today is commemorated. But what after these things he did, how many and how great battles with the barbarians beyond the sea and the neighboring Hagarenes he committed; how with his sword with divine aid he saved the people of God, and enlarged the Christian empire; as above is said, neither does this need writing, nor is it of the present purpose, except this which can be said succinctly. Since although for a long time and with much pertinacity it was very long fought, yet at length by the virtue of the Most High with the virtue of war so he subdued the Saracens and disturbed the tyrants, scrutinizing them and crushing and bringing to destruction, that thereafter they did not dare, nor had they k license to return to these parts which they had invaded, nor to seek again the land snatched from them. But for the rest the magnitude of his deeds and the abundance of his battles, sometimes the various events of the Duke and his hardest labors, but always his glorious triumphs, if anyone dared to attempt with the pen, would need a very great and proper volume.
[3] Therefore William the Duke giving his pains and God cooperating, at length from so great a persecution the land rested, he devotes himself to works of piety, and peace was restored to the people of God and the holy Empire. The churches rise again, or new ones are built. He too the triumpher and standard-bearer of Christ, the glorious Duke I say, peace and quiet from the enemies being obtained, and he himself peaceable with all good men, began now more freely to adhere to God, as being freer from the cares and tumults of wars; and, as once in heart he had conceived, to gape wholly after divine cults. He was not loosed by sloth, nor indulged in quiet in the delight of the flesh, as very many are wont who have suffered very much labor: but so much the stronger, the freer, he was free for pious zeals and good works. First indeed of the state of the republic and of the common utility of all night and day he treated. of justice, Secondly that the sacred laws healthfully constituted should be ratified and inviolate; the lawsuits of all and divers business by most equitable judgments resolving and discerning; of the poor especially, of the orphan and the widow he himself a propitious judge. Thirdly he tempered the princes and lords of the land, lest they should violently oppress their subjects against right: but all, as far as in him was, with the bonds of peace and grace he constrained. Besides of the monasteries and sacred places and orders, professing the common life, he had taken so great a care, as scarcely is any householder wont to take of his own house or family to be governed. of religion, And while generally to all monasteries he was held large and munificent, those however with a certain special prerogative he protected and fostered, which his lord Charles had once newly built, or rebuilt destroyed; devoutly bringing gifts, granting estates, administering also the necessary stipends, but the Priests of Christ, and of charity. as Apostolic men, he held worthy of so great reverence, that first rising to them and first supplicating them, he committed himself to their angelic prayers, and to their hands and the sacred altars daily offered his oblations. Moreover of the peculiar alms, which his right hand stole from the left, and hid in the bosoms of the poor, it is not necessary to speak praise: which He better knows and approves with His praise, who saw them above number many and in the hidden, and alone numbered them, and Himself received them in the persons of the needy.
[8] Among all these zeals of virtues and holocausts of true sanctity pleasing to God, He seeks a place for founding a monastery: yet the man of the Lord and servant of Jesus Christ as if he did nothing sighed, nor did it seem to him that he had yet offered anything acceptable to God. But it seemed to him, the grace of God inspiring, that he ought to build a new monastery by a new work to the omnipotent King, namely in such a place, where no oratory had been before; in which the divine service might always be done, perpetual oblation, continual sacrifice. He proceeds therefore to explore and seek, in what of places he ought to build the monastery, lay the foundations, hasten the work. There fell to him therefore a will to proceed to the high mountains of the territory of Lodève, to go round and seek, if perchance he could in that vast solitude find a place according to his heart, which to the glory of omnipotent God he might build. Then he enters, God as we believe accompanying, and a holy Angel as leader preparing the way, the trackless places of the desert, the steep alps, the lofty promontories, the way indeed narrow and rocky, rough throughout, very laborious. The divine grace quickly abbreviates the roughness of the way, and fulfilling the desire of His dear one ends his anxiety.
[9] For having entered the straits of that valley, and to the interior hermitage a little further advanced, and finding a fit one in the valley of Gellone, suddenly there meets him among the very ledges of the mountains a certain small and uncultivated plain, on all sides crowded with airy ridges and rocks, all around shaded with woody trees, a rivulet l of living water flowing down through the midst, and into the river Hérault by which that valley is closed not far entering. The name of the place is inquired, and is found that it was anciently called the Valley of Gellone: and therefore perhaps, as some interpret, because in that solitude of the desert, among the immense rocks and horrible hills, a little field as it were or a small field seemed to have remained. Seeing therefore the friend of God the quality of the place, and a certain opportunity for building a monastery, he knows himself manifestly heard by the Lord, and his journey expedited by the Lord. Whence returning thanks to the Creator, and impatient of all delay, he gives his hand to the work, insists and watches over the holy and pleasing labor. The masters also being called whom he led with him, and the wise men whom in his company he had, as soon as possible he measures a fitting oratory, measures also the space of the whole cloister, the house of refection and the dormitory, the house also of the infirm and the cell of the novices, he builds it with a church: the forecourt of guests, the hospice of the poor, the bakery joined to the oven, on the side a mill. These things being thus disposed and congruously and regularly designated, the Duke himself returned to the work, places workmen, sets artificers over them; who should insist on what works, or exercise what zeals, diligently and opportunely he disposes. And so indeed beginning from the head, as it is said, Begin from my sanctuary, he began from the sanctuary: in which indeed first he himself putting the stones, in the name of the Saviour, that is Jesus Christ, by which He is truly the Saviour of the world, he initiates the foundation, erects the walls, raises the roof, consummates the perfect work, finishing the pavement with precious marble. Ezec. 9, 6. The holy Queen of heaven and the Prince of Archangels, Peter the Pastor of the sheep and Paul the Doctor of the gentiles, with John the Theologian and Andrew the Apostle, with the whole twelvefold number of the Apostles, the principal memory of the Saviour m being premised, to whom before all things all honor and glory is fitting, it pleased the holy Prince, that specially they be venerated in the same church: and he made for them also there proper and venerable altars.
[10] Therefore the work of the temple and certain offices being perfected, the servant of the Lord hastens to bring servants of God from the neighboring monasteries n, from regular and religious places, chaste men, of holy conversation. He brings Monks thither and endows them: To whom also solemnly o an Abbot being given and the temple being sanctified, he made also a solemn donation to the church and the altar, protesting in the gifts his intention of mind toward God. For estates with a writing he bestows huge, a family very many to serve the place always and the Brethren, of gold also very much and of silver, wonderful and many treasures of manifold ornament, flocks also of no small number and of either sex, of cattle and of herd. But that this his donation, and his holy through all and just constitution might have indissoluble stability, and in every way in the eternal ages might possess firmness; first by his own writings [p] he ratifies it, then by the vigor of the royal precepts he corroborates it.
[11] There were to blessed William two virgin sisters, He offers his two sisters to God. of so great a lineage quite and more than enough noble, of whom one was called Albana, the other Bertana; both in all elegance and antiquity preeminent, shining also with the lamps of morals and life; both of the number of the prudent, having nothing with the foolish virgins. These together by one counsel, with equal vow, with the same desire, approach their lord and brother, fallen at his knees with tears address him with words of this kind: Hear, our lord and brother, our petition, and fulfill we beseech our devotion, and to the heap and great perfection of thy oblation, offer us ourselves to the Lord as an oblation: if in thy eyes we have found grace, do thou thyself offer to God our chastity, and make us to Him a living and true victim, for whose sweet love we abominate all concupiscence of the flesh. For we have a vow, God helping and thou granting it to us, in this place while we live to persist under the habit of holy religion, to war for Christ under the title of holy profession, and here to await the day of our calling. Therefore the pious brother with great joy offers his sisters in the sight of the divine majesty, in the spirit of humility, a sacrifice to God in the odor of sweetness, bearing in their lamps the oil of joy with the splendor of incorrupt virginity. But they persevere in the monastery [q] burning with divine love, and with holy desire keeping the vow, holding the purpose, never returning in mind to the world, nor looking back to the peril of Sodom.
[12] These things being thus gloriously accomplished by the nod of God, Father William, bidding farewell to his Sisters and the brethren, Returned to his own home, and greatly comforting them, and promising them the great aid of God, returns to his own home. For he still seemed to have his own, although his mind and purpose tended chiefly to this, that someday God being propitious, all his own being denied, and even himself, he might possess nothing in this world except God. He withdrew therefore again to his own. And indeed in his house were riches and glory, abundance of all things, the grace of offspring, the chaste and faithful friendship of a wife. No enemies fanned him as once, nor did the nations of the Hagarenes solicit him: since God being propitious the land in his sight had rested, and he himself from all assault was safe and quiet. But among all these things the love of God was so great in him, that it utterly took away from him all love of the world: and whatever in this world smiled as it were sweet, compared to the sweetness of the divine love he held for wormwood: for the one love of the Most High all
affections of this world it cut off from him, and the fear of the one gehenna broke all the delights of the flesh in his heart. Then indeed recalling to memory the strong deeds of his sisters and their manly constancy, and how suddenly they had preceded him to the heavenly warfare; he rejoiced indeed for them, yet he blushed, as one who in the warfare of the world always held the first lines, he ponders the lot of monks. and never appeared the last; but now women had snatched away both his audacity and his palm. But when among other things of that solitude, in which a little before he had built a monastery, he diligently recollected, and the holy zeals and celibate life of the servants of God whom he had there left brought back to mind, and always had in mind toward emulation of this kind; whatever to him was in this world chief grew vile; and himself displeasing to himself, because he had not remained with the religious Brethren, in mind he wasted away. With these and such thoughts the man of God was both saddened, and comforted; he was satiated with sighs, and fed with tears.
ANNOTATA.
p These writings to be related below, were given in the year 804, on the 19th day of December.
q Now it is a parochial church dedicated to St. Bartholomew, distant twenty paces from the monastery of Gellone. That the tomb of these sisters, erected on four marble columns, is in the chapel of Bl. Mary and that they are reputed Saints, yet are not honored with public cult, Mabillon indicates. And the Nuns of the said monastery were wont to be called Nuns of St. Guilielmus, who without the Abbot being consulted could not be admitted.
CHAPTER II.
With the good grace of the King and farewell said to his friends, William assumes the monastic habit.
[13] Honorably received into the court of Charles, Meanwhile a cause arose, that he himself very necessary to Charles being called sought France, and after much time revisited his native soil and the inheritance of his paternal Consulate, nay of his own. Received by the King with wonderful joy and all the affection of love, the praise also of his merits was acclaimed not the least: and he himself with huge gifts was, as was fitting, honored. By the King's holding he stayed for some time in France, with him proceeding and likewise feasting, a powerful Prince in the palace and the empire, and in so great grace with him, as a son with a father. All the Franks exulted over him, and his noble kindred and also his natural family rejoiced with especially due gladness. But he returning to all the turn of love, and not only as much only, but doubly loved all, the Lord saying; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Mat. 5, 43 Yet for this so great love, and for so great affections, the love of God huge and in the matter exceeding measure, could not in his heart grow lukewarm: but so much the more ardently, the more secretly it was kindled, and in the inmost parts of his heart with growing flames it burned.
[14] He meditates flight from the world. For among the delights of the Lord namely Charles, among the delights of the world, and among the blandishments of carnal friends, night and day he treated, with the greatest care and wakeful heart, how, all this noble pomp and transitory glory of this world being left, which passes like the flower of grass or the likeness of smoke, poor and small he might follow the poor Christ; and He being leader and the same bestower he might attain the glory which is not ended, and eternal riches in heaven, and merit to be a soldier of the immortal King and invisible Father. Yet in this his mind fluctuated, and was suspended by a certain doubt, He asks leave of Charles. whether his Lord Charles not being consulted, to whom so greatly in friendship he was bound, it ought to be done. Therefore it seemed to him best, and he deemed it worthy, that with the grace and consent of so most beloved a Lord and so most Christian a King, from his to Christ's warfare he should transfer himself: lest perchance, unless this were done, he should be held guilty to his Lord and the power, but neither could he be charged with any offense or fault: otherwise secretly and without witnesses, the Divinity alone conscious, long before he had thought to flee away. He approaches therefore with accustomed familiarity the King: and finding him opportunely, the great and most healthful counsels for which he had come being first given, then beginning of himself, thus he pursues: My Lord, my father Charles, whom the heavenly King gave to His people as King, of whom He Himself willed me for some time to be soldier and prince; thou thyself knowest, and thee by thy grace I call as witness, how truthful, faithful, and how unanimous to thee I always was, how great toward thee was to me the affection of love; so that thee dearer than life, and thee above health and all pleasantness I held for light to me. Thou knowest also, what I thy soldier did for thee, how great things I bore, how often I followed thee into death and into the perils of death; always prepared and prompt for thee to lay down my soul, and thine (as far as in me was) to preserve and protect. If a battle rose against thee, I myself was guardian of thy side and head: if the assault of camps, or a sword armed against thee; I opposed myself, and between thee and the arms set myself a wall: never did I shirk, never did I desert thee. Now therefore I beseech, my Lord, patiently hear me, nor harshly take the words of thy soldier, nay of thy beloved: and lest I draw thee out longer, behold before God I show thee my conscience. I ask leave, that to that eternal King's a new soldier I may transfer myself to His warfare: for I have a vow, with great indeed and long desire, that, all things being renounced and myself being denied, I may go to serve God, namely in that monastery, which long ago for the cause of thy charity I built in the desert.
[15] These unexpected words being heard the clement Charles, for a little stiffened, and his countenance fell; and gravely sighing, and from him weeping he obtains it: nor refraining from tears, in few words answered his friend: My Lord William, how hard is what thou speakest! how bitter what thou suggestest! with a sword thou attackest me, with a dart thou strikest, while such things thou pursuest. Thou hast wounded my heart for this petition, thou afflictest vehemently my soul for thy departure: yet because the petition is just, and as religious as it is reasonable this thy request, I have not what I may say, nor is it lawful that I contradict. If any of the mortal Kings, me being left, thou hadst wished to go to; if a man an Emperor, who more pleased thee, thou hadst preferred to our love; this surely to my injury I could by no means bear, but against that King I would move the orb of the earth: if thou hadst done it for honor or greater dignity, or perchance for the riches in which powerfully thou aboundest, all mine surely I would gladly have offered thee, and at pleasure given. But now because none of these is, but thou desirest to be made a soldier of the King of Angels, the present things contemning in hope of future goods; behold so will I do for thee, willing or unwilling I will consent, I will not pull away the purpose, nor hinder the vow: so only, that thou comply with me, and grant me one a thing, that without my gifts thou by no means depart from me. For in this thou shalt have me consoled and more even-minded, if of the royal treasures me giving thou take whatever is best, in sign and remembrance of our love and perpetual covenant, whence at least thou mayest honor the place, which to inhabit thou so greatly lovest. This he says, and bursting into tears,
he fell upon the neck of his friend; and, as is wont to be done over a dead man, long and most bitterly wept.
[16] William also not bearing the tears of his Lord, and therefore mourning more, and afflicting himself more grievously, after he himself had emitted exceeding weeping, and the most beloved King's angelic face and royal garments had drenched with so great weepings; at length the Lord's mourning vehemently prohibiting, and himself with great virtue of mind comforting and containing, thus answered: It does not become, most clement King, your Royal Highness, neither for me your faithful one, nor for anyone ever, so greatly to condescend, that your eyes, full of grace and all beauty, more comely than gems, more splendid than beryls, he refuses to admit the gifts offered. should be drenched with tears or seem to mourn. O would that I myself had not seen those very tears of your starry countenance! would that yesterday or the day before I could have been foreknowing of this matter! I confess my sin, before I had borne it, your majesty not being consulted and not saluted I would rather have fled away. But now, my Lord, in the name of Christ, what is expedient for me and much agrees with you, look upon my cause: and neither with sad countenance, nor with mournful mind, but with pleasantness and spiritual joy dismiss me from you, and to the common Lord and King of all direct my course. But that your grace deigns to offer me from your treasures gifts pleasing to me, you indeed do this after your Royal and Imperial manner; but if I renounce all mine for Christ, how do I take yours, or how do I receive anything from anyone? for the abundance of my things suffices, of gold also and silver a quite huge sum of money. Yet if it much pleases you to give me something, and through me to present something to omnipotent God; there are to you religious gifts, there are precious presents, which it is yours to give without reprehension, and mine to receive without offense: I speak namely of the glorious wood of the Lord, which me being present once was sent to you from Jerusalem. He asks of him the Wood of the Cross transmitted from Jerusalem: Which heard Charles first indeed took it hard; then returning to himself, and conquered by the love of so great a friend; Happy me, said he, for this petition! and this shall be done with God's blessing. For when the venerable King himself in the first year of his Empire tarried at Rome, and restored the Imperial dignity to its first glory; the Patriarch b of Jerusalem desiring to honor him, and much to please him, had sent him from Jerusalem through c Zacharias, a Priest of great purpose and great testimony, and through two d Monks of Jerusalem of great religion and not small authority, that venerable phylactery of the Lord's Cross and to be adored by all mortals, with the splendors of gems and purest gold, as much as human devotion could, most decently adorned, and afterward by great and frequent virtues explored and proved: so that to none is it doubtful, but that it was truly of that very wood of our redemption. This gift, worthy of a King, the venerable Patriarch sent to Charles from Jerusalem: which that wonderful worshipper of God the Emperor, above all that could be offered or presented, held grateful and acceptable. For the King received the sacrosanct gift, presented indeed to himself, but promised to William by God and from heaven destined.
[17] Therefore the King ordering it is sent without delay: that wonderful wood is carried with the sanctified and venerable altar, and obtains it with sacred gifts. and also the precious furnishing of the altar itself and very many ornaments, the glorious pledges also of the Saints, which Charles with his own hand gives his friend in these words: Receive now, most beloved, these gifts of thy Lord; against the malign spirits and against all adversities, illustrious and most strong arms; receive the gifts of thy King, the last rewards of thy malice. These to thee always shall be the true and most certain signs of our love, frequent remembrance, eternal memory. For there is no doubt, that as often as thou shalt behold these holy things with thy eyes, or hold them in thy hands, of thy Lord Charles thou wilt not be able to forget.
[18] Meanwhile now it began to be heard and the murmur to grow, that, William, leave being received from the King, wished to leave the world, Friends and kinsmen resisting, and the habit being changed to seek a monastery or desert. Then suddenly the whole royal house rises up, all the city equally rushes. There is present suddenly no small throng of the Chiefs, there enters with violence all that warfare of the noble Franks, strongly bound to him in great friendship. There runs up, with lost mind and vehemently astonished, that his special and natural family, all wailing and with disordered voices crying out before the King: What, Lord William, what is it that thou thinkest to do? why wilt thou withdraw, leave the King, overturn the kingdom, lose all of us? Whither indeed wilt thou go? If thou wilt go to God, everywhere of places thou canst find Him. Therefore, excellent Prince, it becomes thee to consider, and for the salvation of many to retract thy sentence. But the faithful one of God, whose mind now wholly conversed in the heavens, gave no answer to them: but like an immovable mountain and a tower of fortitude, neither was moved by words, nor bent by tears. To whom although there were in him the bowels of piety and the great virtue of due compassion; yet he stood most strong, with countenance utterly unmoved and eyes not turned. And when he held an unconquered countenance, yet at length on account of the tears and groaning lifting his eyes, he looked at the heavens, here in his purpose he remains unmoved: and answering all briefly said: If to me, O my dear ones, you could give faith and confirm it with hostages, that always in this life I could remain with you, happily live, never see death; I could somehow, although not well, acquiesce to you: but if this you cannot, suffer me, I pray, if you are my friends, if, I say, you are not enemies; suffer me to go to life, to follow the light, to hold the way, to seek the truth, truly to find it. Today perhaps or for a little time I could remain with you: but it is established, as you know, that the necessity of death and the condition of nature take from us to remain.
[19] Saying these things Bl. William, and bidding all farewell, and quickly and strongly shaking himself off from all, and departs, he goes out of the city, bearing the cross in a figure, but the cross of Jesus Christ in truth; King Charles his beloved Lord long with tears conducting him, the army of the Franks with grief and groaning, and the whole multitude further, as long as was fitting, accompanying him.
[20] Therefore the friend of God at length expedited, and so great bonds of this world being broken, the churches being honored, many alms being bestowed on the poor, At Brioude he offers his arms to St. Julian. servants also not a few being given liberty, goes out of France, enters Auvergne. And when to the notable village, which commonly is called e Brioude, he had come; and there at an opportune space of the journey most officiously, as was fitting, he had been received into hospitality; he goes to pray to the venerable temple of the holy Martyr f Julian; where devoutly prostrate and much weeping, he celebrates a pure prayer: and gifts being worthily offered to the holy altar, even of his warlike arms he made an oblation. He offers therefore before the tomb of the Martyr a most decent helmet and a notable shield: but outside, beyond the temple, he had presented at the door a quiver and bow, a huge spear, a versatile sword: of which the shield in the temple even today is preserved, which itself also of William, who and of what sort he was, sufficiently testifies. But now all the arms being offered and with gifts consecrated to the Lord, again he bends the knee, and three and four times is prostrated on the pavement, and the holy Martyr of God in prayer with tears he addresses: I know, holy Julian, I know and hold for certain, how great a soldier, how strenuous in arms thou wast in the world, never conquered, never deserted by God: therefore before thy altar these arms I leave behind, which to omnipotent God I dismiss, and to thee commit them: moreover my soul to thee instantly I commend, and this way, by which now to God I go, that thou keep me from evil, guard from sin, save from the malign enemy.
[21] He seeks the monastery of Gellone: These things being thus duly accomplished Bl. William, now by the grace of God a pilgrim and a sojourner of this world, having gone out of that suburb, hastens the begun journey, enters Aquitaine; and turning his eyes away from that land of his Dukedom, and disdaining now to see those parts, directs his course, and rejoicing hastens to that monastery, which he himself a little before had built in the desert: thither he pants, there he hopes to be saved, thither, the Lord leading, he desires to come. At length he enters the province of Lodève, and by the desired Angelic leading comes to the valley of Gellone. But seeing the pleasantness of the place and its pleasing beauty, and well recognizing that his beloved solitude, returning thanks he adores the Omnipotent, who had directed his way and well prospered it: he salutes the monastery, implores the Holy Spirit. Come, said he, from heaven holy Spirit, with grace and accustomed piety always visit this place, do thou save, do thou build, and to thy great glory this dwelling and those dwelling in it bless and sanctify. Here, O Holy of holies, may thy propitiation receive me, here may remission of sins be granted me, here may rest be given me and a sleeping in peace, and in the last day the blessed resurrection of the flesh which I believe, that with the Saints and Elect I may meet my Judge, and in eternal glory always rejoice with Him. Among these words of prayer, of praise and confession, and of all devotion toward God, the holy Man approaches the monastery, with bare feet, clothed to the flesh with a hair-shirt not soft nor smooth. It is heard of him, there is a coming to meet him far off at the crossroads; there is made for him, although resisting and vehemently contradicting, a festive and religious procession, willing or unwilling. Received by the Brethren whom he himself once there had constituted, the Abbot going before whom he had set over them, with the utmost reverence, with great joy and common gladness, he is led to prayer: bringing with clean hands and clean heart the most beautiful oblation of the salutary g Cross more precious than gold and more splendid than gems, the wood of life, the redemption of the world. he confers gifts to the church: Nor less also the altar full of deity, illustrious with wondrous virtue, of which above we made mention, he himself in his arms carried to this procession. The gifts so holy and so precious being offered, and other very comely and excellent gifts, namely gold and silver chalices with their offertories, books also very good and much necessary, the Relics also of the Saints incomparably precious, and no less silken garments with stoles woven with gold and palls from beyond the sea: and all things being reverently placed upon the altar of the holy Salvator, he himself is prostrated on the ground, and with hands stretched out thus is crucified to the world. The prayers which for about two hours he pours forth to heaven, and the sweet tears with which he waters the earth or floods the pavement, we believe that God heard and propitious heard fully: for the virtue of the prayer and the flame of compunction ascended from the earth in the sight of the Creator, like a little rod of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh and frankincense, and like the evening sacrifice in the grace of a most sweet odor.
[22] he is received as a Monk, But the prayer being completed, and to all the altars its own due veneration being made (for huge gifts on each he offered to God, and covered them with gilded and decently gemmed ornaments) there is a going into the auditorium i, and the Brethren being kissed, and a lection being read after the manner, and a brief sermon for the time being made on the edification of the soul, soon the man of God adds and indicates manifestly, why he himself had come or with what intention. I wish, said he, you to know, my Lords, henceforth Fathers in Christ and my Brethren, that to this today hither I have come, that, all things which are of this world being denied and renounced, I may merit to be joined, if it please, to your society by the grace of omnipotent God, according to the Rule of Bl. Benedict. Therefore if it please your sanctity, and if you judge me worthy of eternal life, hear my prayers, and knowing my desire perfect it, and be not willing to defer. He saying these things, all who were present were held by astonishment; and considering this truly divine dispensation more deeply, as much as they wondered, so much also they rejoiced: and adjudging that his petition ought to be done, they duly prepare all things, and themselves are prepared.
[23] Therefore in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord eight hundred and sixth, in the year 806. but of the Empire of Charles the fifth, on the day of the Nativity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, William the Count, the garments woven with gold being laid aside, by the grace of God is solemnly blessed, that whole sacred order is perfected in him; the noble hair, the venerable beard l being laid aside and consecrated to God, with the Apostolic garment in the likeness of a Cross he is clothed; and stretching out his hands and to be led whither he would not, by another he is girded: and when he denies that he is his own, Father Benedict, thine; nay wholly thine, holy God, he is made.
[24] These things being thus digested, to the praise and glory of omnipotent God, William the servant of God, and now numbered and assigned to the disciples of Jesus Christ, How suddenly he is changed into another man, suddenly changed, truly altered, began to be held a new soldier, and another from himself in all ways to be seen. For he was not himself, in whom, what he once had been, now that very being was not: so finally the new man had put off the old, that not even the signs remained of him who once had been. For he who was wont a little before to dwell in palaces, radiant with gold and painted with vermilion; to possess adorned dining-halls, couches strewn with glory; to hold lofty bulwarks or the highest citadels: this one now abject in the house of the Lord had chosen to dwell, and in a corner of the cloister the last and viler than all loved to lie hid. He himself also who even a little before had known to give laws, to inform the people, to teach the unlearned, to promote the learned more; and who had been worthy to preside over innumerable servants and a family too great, and had merited to profit, and like a King with the army standing around to stand in the midst, to be a householder; this one now was taught without indignation, in all patience, without murmuring, by whatsoever persons, by boys even and of younger age. He was taught, nor was he confounded; he was rebuked, but was not angry; sometimes struck and injured with wrongs, he neither resisted, nor threatened. He rejoiced plainly to be in subjection, and was delighted in all abjection, willing to be subject for God's sake to every human creature, prepared to serve all, to comply and obey, profiting daily in sanctity and religion and in all observance of the holy Rule, like gold in the furnace by wondrous baking.
[25] Now therefore it seems necessary and to pertain to the matter, he perfects the monastery his sons helping, to relate some of the many things which he himself afterward did in the monastery. For not yet had he brought the monastery to perfection wholly: but afterward in the habit of holy Religion, his sons aiding him, namely Bernard n and Gaucelinus, whom he had set over his Counties, and the neighboring Counts, he perfected as he had begun. Difficult therefore to the said monastery for the roughness of the mountains was the entrance: but the servant of God himself, now a Monk, the rock being skilfully cut, with hammers and axes and divers kinds of irons, and the stones being joined firmly and diligently with iron and lead, and a foundation being cast beside the river Hérault, raised the way higher, directed it as much as he could, and joined it to the mountain. Likewise for his love and at his asking, Louis o son of Charles, King of Aquitaine, with all goodness from the right of his fisc gave to the monastery with his precept, confirmed by the authority of his ring. Bl. William also caused around the monastery vineyards and olive-groves to be planted, himself laboring with his hands. very many gardens to be constituted; the valley itself, the unfruitful trees being destroyed, to be better planted with fruitful orchards. But works of this kind, which were very necessary to the place, not only through others did he do, but also in the labors themselves, for the love of God and true humility and religion, he exercised himself.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER III.
The most humble ministries exercised by the Saint: his pious death.
[26] Besides frequently coming before the Abbot and the Brethren, he was humbly prostrated at their knees, He strives more ardently for humility. asking and persuading with great obsecrations, that it be granted and consented to him for the mercy of God to be still more abased, to be more humbled, to be made most vile, and to be held in contempt: that to none any longer be in memory that dignity and glory which he had left; that to no one the name of William be in reverence; but in that most holy Congregation he be held the offscouring of all, and the refuse of all. Likewise he asks with great instance of prayers, that if there be in the monastery any offices, which by some others are held unworthy, or as it were dishonorable or indecent, be perchance light or difficult; these to him in the name of Christ be enjoined to be provided, and with good mind and good conscience according to his strength to be fulfilled. Hence turning himself to the Brethren, and secretly or in confession speaking to them, he besought them saying, that all and each use that servant, and as one of the hirelings so to command him, and each to enjoin his own works by no means revere. He wishes to be as a beast of burden, and like the foal of an ass to bear the burdens of the Brethren in that house of the Lord, according to that of the Psalmist, in the person of a holy soul prompt to obedience, As a beast I am become with thee; and, Thou hast led me in thy will. Ps. 72, 23 & 24. For truly he was very often seen for the highest humility to sit on a humble and vile little ass at harvest time, and to carry flasks of wine to the Brethren to refresh them. O how wonderful is God! what a change of His right hand! O of what sort from what sort is made this His servant Bl. William! how greatly changed, how greatly humbled! For he who once most decently used wonderful horses, chosen and exquisite
from many parts of the world; whose servants also numerous and the servants of his servants went on horses and precious chariots and many; this one now did not blush to be carried on a vile little ass with his flasks! Nor indeed content with these, if any of the Brethren was detained in a vile and as it were contemptible office, in which also as it were a place of injury or contumely seemed to be; of this one indeed Brother William soon was the deputy present, the lifter of the burden, the humble workman, and to all indiscriminately the one weekly-servant.
[27] He obtains meanwhile at his own petition the service and administration of the kitchen, a labor indeed daily and reborn: which however with much greater joy he embraces, He performs the offices of the kitchen, for the love of omnipotent God, than if once, while he still lived to the world, it had befallen him to obtain the glory of a Kingdom or the honor of an Empire. For behold the Lord William, from a Consul a cook, from a great Duke a tenant is made, carrying wood on his neck, bearing amphoras of water, striking out fire and himself kindling it: and he who once had lived in illustrious delights among the dishes and bowls of the Imperial table, having very many ministers of the kitchen; he himself now a humble cook and faithful servitor, with his own hands washes the platters, gathers herbs, seasons the pottages, soaks the legumes; and at the very hour of refection, no delay intervening, all things sumptuously prepared, clean and purified, with clean hands and clean heart, he sets before the Brethren, ministers to them reclining: but he himself does not recline, nay continuing his fasts he tends and guards the hearth. Moreover the table being accomplished and the lection finished, the servant of the servants of God with all diligence recognizes all the vessels pertaining to him, which again washed and again numbered he consigns to the same work and labor under custody.
[28] Besides to him carrying all these things, as if nothing burdened or little laden and little humbled, he takes care of the bakery and mill. the care of the bakery is enjoined, the office of the mill. There is added work to work, the burden is increased to the burden, labor accrues to labor. Still also that workman of God asks another burden, and it is granted him; namely the care of preparing the oven and heating it, of placing the loaves to be baked, and of drawing out the baked: which however kind of work before he had never touched, nor in this world in such an art had he ever exercised himself. Therefore William the baker and heater of the oven, himself a servitor of the kitchen and minister of the pottages, with so great vigilance and so great providence administered all things, that by right in no obedience could he be blamed. O how an imitator of that heavenly minister, who the form of a servant being assumed in the species of our mortality came, not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His soul for many, saying to His disciples: I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so also do you. Ioa. 13, 15
[29] Therefore on a certain day to the man of God, intent on prayer and holy meditation, an unwonted thing happened to him, He enters the burning oven and cleans it, whether through the envy of the devil, who never ceases to oppose all good men; or through the dispensation of omnipotent God, who wished the merits of His servant and the virtue of obedience to be made manifest, and now to be held in the light. For the loaves being prepared for baking after the manner, but the wood for heating the oven less at hand; when now the hour of his office seemed to delay, but the hour of the Brethren's refection to approach and strongly hasten; William the servant of the Lord, fearing to be blamed for negligence, to be accused of disobedience and gravely judged; hastened runs up, goes round the court, runs hither and thither, gathers brushwood, collects stubble, and whatever his hand finds: and so in whatever way, by whatever fuels he can, he heats the furnace strongly and quickly. Which suddenly being well blown up and heated for the work, when now necessarily the furnace had to be emptied of vapor, and to be voided of the flame with the coals flourishing, to be cleaned with the steel, to be wiped with the ashes; likewise it happened that all the implements for this use were less at hand, and no instrument at all of this kind for accomplishing that work could be found there. And when now the servant of God the time vehemently urged, the care blamed, the hour of refreshing the Brethren a little more passed, no counsel, no help from man he found; what should he do? From heaven more quickly he seeks counsel, and to the divine aid he recurs: and nothing delaying, the name of Christ being invoked, and being made most safe by the fortification of the holy Cross, he enters the burning of the furnace, extinguishes the flames, overcomes the fire, mitigates the vapor, his garments also unharmed. renders the pyre harmless: and so with his own hands the coals being made outside, and with the scapular unharmed the ashes being set forth, he fits and tempers the hearth for the loaves to be put in; he himself indeed in body neither feeling any injury, nor even in his garment sustaining any burning whatsoever. For He namely, as we believe, who in the furnace of Babylon with the three children appeared the fourth; to this His servant also, in the furnace of poverty and true humility, the Son of God was present, who tamed the flames, prohibited the fire and therefore neither did the flame harm him, nor in him the odor of fire prevail, according to that which once the Lord said through the Prophet: My child, fear not, when thou shalt pass through fire, the flame shall not harm thee, and the odor of fire shall not be in thee. Esa. 43, 2. Whence also from the oven so unharmed in all ways he went out, and so undamaged, as strong in body and with garment uncorrupted into it he had entered. And so the loaves being diligently baked and best prepared, carrying full baskets, to the venerable Abbot and the Brethren he ministered. Nor is it doubtful that this was done by divine providence therefore, that it might be made clearer than light, the grace of the Holy Spirit revealing through fire, how great in him was the fiery faith of the servant William, his simple obedience, his ardent humility: and lest to the Brethren be any longer in a graver fault the wicked labor and continual injury, which the same man of God and more truly a victim, had long sustained, their negligence, with wondrous innocence, and much patience: likewise therefore, lest that splendid gem and so great a lamp should burn in the hidden or in a corner alone; but rather drawn from under the bushel and lifted higher, and to all made manifest, should shine in the Church.
[30] absolved from servile works, he is free for contemplation, From then therefore the renowned man, God willing it known, and himself unwilling betrayed, with the highest veneration in that holy congregation was held: and crying out against it, from the aforesaid offices was suspended and altogether prohibited. Therefore from all servile work he is commanded to abstain, and it is granted him to have himself at pleasure, and to exercise himself in the work of God to his desire, to be free for prayer and holy meditation, to adhere to God in mind. There is assigned him a cell according to his own will, which despises all vanity of the world: from which also he could see heaven, and sigh after the brightness of the starry throne. And so exercised longer in the active life, he begins to rest in the speculative life: and after the service of Martha and frequent ministry, he is delighted with Mary in perennial contemplation. But while by the force of mind and with spiritual eyes he contemplates heavenly things, whatever is earthly, whether vile, or precious, as the abominations of Egypt he disdains to regard; the nature also of the flesh the soul preeminent transcending, the angelic purity as far as is possible he emulates. Whence also as it were now beginning, and as a new workman and recently coming to the work of God, with a new fervor of spirit. and with the Apostle forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forth to those which are before him, again to a greater strictness he adjudges himself, to a new penance and a new affliction, to continual tears, to a twofold compunction. Phil. 3, 13. And when in him before through much abstinence all titillation and all pleasure had been dead, the flesh contrite, the vices of the flesh lulled; yet now again with so great austerity of fastings he mortifies the flesh, and with so great pertinacity, that by right could Hagar, who is the handmaid, complain of the violence of her mistress Sarah, because she is too much oppressed. But indeed the Father of things, who both commands nature, and it itself obeys; so corroborates him, and so refreshes him with love and satisfies him with the word of life, that neither does he feel hunger, nor fail in strength. In the virtue also of prayer and divine reading the same holy contemplator is so greatly delighted, by how much he is preoccupied with no offices or cares, so indeed that not so much frequent as continual in this zeal he is always held.
[31] He receives the Eucharist reverently. Abstaining therefore from all delights of the body and the flesh, and in a manner not kept tempering himself from foods, he himself refreshes his soul with the feasts of the heavenly table, and ceases not to fatten it with the life-giving Sacraments. To the sacred altars he keeps this reverence, before he goes to receive the Eucharist of Christ, even if it be winter binding the waters with ice, snow also strong and huge; yet with waters he is drenched, by the force of cold he is decocted: and to whom all things are clean, that very wave by which he is washed, is rendered cleaner. Nor indeed only this did he do, when he was to receive the divine Mysteries; but also at many other times and indiscriminate nights with such a laver he flooded his whole body. Who after much and long cooling coming out of the waters, entered the oratory of Bl. Michael a, and there covered with one very rare covering wakeful in prayer he remained, both knees bent and fixed to the bare marble, frequently striking his breast, emitting sighs, and flooding his face with many tears. He had also in custom before the sacred altars a hundred times in the day and a hundred times in the night to bend his knees; and not only for his own, but also for the sins of all to implore the mercy of the Lord. Besides recollecting the slaying of the Lamb, those injuries, that accusation, the buffets, spittings, scourges, and all the derision, by a familiar Brother and singular friend he causes himself in a private room for Christ to be stripped, for Him to be adjudged, He meditates on the Passion of Christ, himself the judge to be condemned; and so to be beaten with rods and sharply scourged: thence cleaner than electrum and purer than glass, he approaches the sacred altar. Therefore always with tears, he stands at the sacred Mysteries; and with bitter lettuces, he is refreshed with the feasts of the saving Host. By this heavenly bread he is fed unto health, by this spiritual drink he takes life and virtue: the soul is nourished unto immortality, the frailty of the flesh feels no debility.
[32] By a prophetic spirit he foreknows the day of his death. Moreover among these excellent and holy exercises, among the gifts of virtues and zeals of sanctity, Bl. William is gifted with the spirit of prophecy, and by divine oracles very much his life is declared. The spirit of the Lord rests upon him, and the presence of God suggests future things, and announces to him the things that are to come. Whence also the day of his most holy passing in spirit long before he foreknew, which, the time approaching, not only to the Abbot and the Brethren he foretold to be imminent, but also to the neighboring places and the monasteries set all around or established afar by writing he signified, also to his most beloved Lord King Charles b he sent a messenger; moreover, what sign should be made, when his soul should go out of the body, most manifestly he indicated. Therefore Bl. William, full of sanctity, grace and truth, consummated in obedience and true humility, rejoicing awaits the day of his calling: on which
now imminent and present, again he himself foretells that his hour has come. He sends for the Abbot, asks the Brethren to be present; who being made present, but greatly angered and saddened above measure for his departure, he himself persuading with sweet and powerful words, prohibits them all mourning, mitigates the weeping, restrains the grief: that those are not to be bewailed, who through the faith and confession of Christ pertain to the blessed resurrection. Thence admonishing them of true religion, of fraternal peace and pure love, he asks himself to be fortified with the divine Sacraments, namely that, by which souls live, the Communion of Christ. And so bidding the Brethren farewell, and to them committing his death; he himself also commending them and the beloved place to God, The Viaticum being received he dies, and leaving them in His hand; he lifts his eyes and hands in prayer, and his spirit now free and prepared to migrate, is wholly elevated in the contemplation of God: and so the burden of the flesh and the earthly mass being laid down, he seeks heavenly things with exultation, the Angels conducting him with a brisk and tuneful procession, with sweet organ, with gentle modulation. Bl. William therefore migrated from this light happily on the fifth Kalends of June, he proceeds glorious to the court of the eternal King, that he may always stand before the throne of the Lord in the sight of the Lamb, before the face of the Son of God.
[33] The bells being rung from heaven, But at the very hour of his most holy passing, there was suddenly through all the provinces all around, through all the greater and smaller churches, a very great and unwonted clangor of bells, and the sound of bells, a long pealing, a wondrous tinkling, no men drawing the ropes or moving the bells, but only by the divine virtue which came from heaven. Whence it is given to understand, that the love and grace of omnipotent God wished to reveal by unwonted miracles the beloved merits of His own, to the praise and glory of His name, who lives and reigns through all the ages of ages, Amen.
ANNOTATA.
APPENDIX.
The charters of the donations made to the monastery.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
[1] The charter of William himself. In the name of the Lord. I William, by the grace of God Count, recognizing the chances of my human frailty, therefore my crimes to be lessened, or concerning my parents who are dead, that is my begetter Theudericus and my mother Aldana, and my brothers Theudoinus and Adalelmus, and my sisters Albana and Bertana, and my daughters and sons Parnardus, Witcharius, Gotcelmus, Helimbruch a; and my wives Cunegundis and Guitburgis, and my nephew Bertrannus, for all of us above named, give to the monastery which is called Gellone, situated in the district of Lodève by the river Hérault, constituted in honor of the Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ and St. Mary ever Virgin, and St. Michael the Archangel, or the glorious Apostles Peter and Paul, and also St. Andrew and all the Apostles, which I the aforesaid Count William ordered to be built for the cause of my Lord and Senior Charles, and from the doctrine of the venerable Father Benedict placed Monks and an Abbot, that they may continually serve the Lord God there, and donated I wish it to be in perpetuity: that is my things which are in the district already said of Lodève; in the first place namely the fisc Litenis, with the churches of St. John and b St. Genesius under all integrity, with villages and hamlets vineyards and fields, cultivated and uncultivated, fruitful and unfruitful trees pastures, meadows, mills, fisheries, waters and water-courses, as much as to that fisc and to its colonies looks or by right is seen to look; all I give, deliver to be had as property at all time. It has these collaterations and boundaries on the East, as the river Hérault runs; on the south, as the torrent Lacatis diverges in that river; on the West it bounds on that Avisus, which runs through the hollows of the mountains in ancient Bodena, which is on the brow of the mountain; on the North even to the boundary of the monastery. Likewise in the village Marcomitis, I give as much as Deodatus the Presbyter there a price being given purchased, or as much as there is possessed by me. Likewise I give the village Saturatis with that church of c St. Saturninus with all integrity, of many estates of my right, with houses, cottages, fields, vineyards, meadows, woods, d scrubland, gardens, mills, waters, water-courses, as much as there I am seen to have or possess, cultivated and uncultivated, to that house of God I give to be had. Likewise I give in Cannetum the village, as much as there I am seen to have or possess. In the district also of Maguelonne in the village Soregia, as much as there I am seen to have or possess. But in the district of Albi I give the village Nivitiacum or Wiciacum, with all its integrity or with all its adjacencies. Likewise I give in the district of Rodez in the village Bracojalum two manses with vineyards and lands, cultivated and uncultivated, as much as to those manses looks and is seen to look. All these things above named I William the said Count, for me and for the aforesaid persons, give and deliver and transfer to the said monastery of Gellone, and to the altars there consecrated to God, and to the Monks and Abbots both present and future, for the eternal remuneration, that we may be able to have omnipotent God propitious through all, and that the same Monks, praising [God] there assiduously may have whence they can live. But if anyone (which I do not believe will be) or I myself, or any of my heirs, or any person whatsoever against this my donation, which I with prompt mind and most full will make, shall attempt to come, interrupt, or break anything, made in the year 804. let it not be permitted to do. But if he shall presume, I beseech the omnipotence of God, that it itself take vengeance on him: because be it known to all men, this honor possessed by me, both from the original part and also from acquisition, without complaint of any person. This donation was made on the XIX Kal. of January, the 1st feria, in the XXXIV year reigning our Lord Charles King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans, and in the fourth year, Christ being propitious, of his Empire.
In the name of the Lord I Gallarius being asked e wrote it.
The IV year of the Empire agrees with the year of Christ DCCCIV, when the year of the Frankish Reign XXXVII, of the Lombard XXXI was numbered, and the day XIV of December fell on a Sabbath. Many things therefore here concur, which bid the Charter to be held suspect: but a greater cause of suspecting will find whoever shall collate it with the following, in a far more barbarous style, such as in most Aquitanian Charters is noted, described, in the same year and almost the same day, and making most express mention of the subjection to the monastery of Aniane, indispensably binding the Gellone monastery from its founder's will (of which not even the least vestige, nor even mention of Benedict the Abbot, in the prior Charter appears) and will be vehemently compelled to doubt, whether the ruder and fuller one be not that very sole and original charter of William: which the Monks of Gellone, in the year MLXXXX exempted by Urban II from the jurisdiction of the people of Aniane, took care to rewrite more elegantly, but less entirely, thus desiring to abolish all memory of the old subjection: but in vain: since the duplicate of it, or another copy (for from this institute of doubling charters arose the name of Diplomas) was kept elsewhere, to obliterate the subjection of the Gellone monastery. and probably in the monastery of Aniane, although perhaps less solemn and destitute of subscriptions. I know not whether Mabillon turned his mind to this, and considered how it is not probable, that in the same place and almost the same day, and (which would seem consequent) by the same hand, the same one at least asking, were written concerning the same donation two charters of so diverse a style, and in a matter so notable and of so great moment discrepant. But since for his most religious and most candid ingenuousness he confessed, that this scruple was by no means moved by me without reason, let him not wonder that we fear concerning the sincerity of several similar charters, in which we detect the mention of the Benedictine Rule importunely injected, for those monasteries, which whether from their first institution they received it, we reasonably doubt. But let it please to read that other, and as it seems to us more sincere and more entire charter, just as the same Mabillon offers it to us.
I in the name of God William, reconsidering the chances of my human frailty, therefore my crimes to be lessened or concerning my parents who are dead, that is my begetter Teudericus and my mother Aldana, and my brothers Teodoinus and Theodericus and Adalelmus, and my sisters Abana and Bertana, and my sons and daughters Witcarius and Hildehelmus and Helinbruch; my wives Witburg and Cunegundis, for all of us above named, by which its Founder subjected it to Aniane. give to the sacrosanct basilica, which is built in honor of holy Salvator and St. Mary ever Virgin, or St. Peter and St. Paul, and St. Andrew and St. Michael or all the Apostles, in that cell of Gellone, which I above named William by the counsel of the Lord Abbot Benedict, or with his help built, which the Lord Benedict the Abbot himself is seen to rule; and donated I wish it to be in perpetuity, that is my things which are in the district of Lodève, that is Litenis the village, f &c. All these things above named for us aforesaid to that house of God or to its Rectors I give, deliver, and transfer from this present day to that house of God, provided that if that cell is subject to the monastery of Aniane, as today it is seen to be, that house of God or its Rectors may have, hold and possess them. For if any man through evil cupidity or iniquitous device shall separate that cell from the monastery of Aniane, then those things above named we wish them to be donated for us all above named to the monastery of Aniane, to those houses of God of St. Mary and St. Salvator. For while that cell is subject to the monastery of Aniane, as above we said, we pray that the Abbot of Aniane benignly and mercifully rule that cell of Gellone and the Brethren dwelling there: and what there it shall have less of stipend, in this smallness which I have given to that cell, let him for God's sake from elsewhere help and succor it, as it becomes an Abbot to rule his own with benevolent mind: for he shall not diminish from that smallness to those Brethren, provided that cell
shall be subject to the monastery of Aniane, as above we said. But if anyone (which I do not believe will be) if I myself or any of my heirs; or any person whatsoever, who against this my donation, which I with prompt mind and most full will caused to be made, shall attempt to come or to act, if he is without sin, perhaps he can bear the sins of us all. For if he has already sinned, I think he wishes to burden his own, and to sustain ours, and for both to render account: because we God helping through this donation hope something of our sins to be lessened. And moreover let him not avail to claim what he repeats, but let him pay to the fisc 1 pound of gold: and let this my donation remain firm at all time. The donation made on the XVIII Kl. of January, in the XXXIV * year reigning our Lord Charles King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans, and in the IV year, Christ being propitious, of his Empire.
Moreover the charters which we have premised being collated among themselves, let the Reader consider, whether he would admit the following confirmatory one of it, as by no means suspect, in that it makes no mention of the people of Aniane.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Louis by the divine providence ordaining it the most serene King of Aquitaine. Since we must consider, The Diploma of King Louis, how the love of the eternal King, the weight of sins resisting, we may not lose, it has pleased to bestow on places insisting on divine cults for the eternal kingdom of our Saviour, opportune benefits on those serving Him there; that remunerated by Him, we may merit to enjoy joy without end. Therefore we wish it to be known to all the Faithful present and future, that at the asking of the Lord William the monk, who in the court of our begetter Charles Augustus was a most illustrious Count, but for the love of God exercising a better life strove to be poor by refusing high things; but for the irrevocable fidelity of his love toward us, giving assent to his petition; it pleased us, both for the augment of our reward, and for the love of him, to the monastery, which is called Gelloni, situated in the district of Lodève by the river Hérault, below the castle of Verdun, augmenting the donations made to the monastery by William and others, consecrated in honor of the Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and St. Mary and St. Michael, and the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and St. Andrew and all the Apostles, built by the said Count William for the cause of our begetter, where Juliofredus a Rector and Abbot is seen to preside, to deliver something of our things, that is a certain fisc of ours in the district of Béziers which is called Miliacus, with the village and church of St. Parargorius g, and the village Milicianum and Campanianum, with all their appendages and adjacencies under all integrity, just as by our Envoy Count Gotcelmus, through crosses sculptured in stones, or water-courses in the boundaries it was delivered and assigned, possessed by our begetter and by us. And in the district already said of Lodève the place which is called Gastrias, but in the vernacular Castrapastura, for feeding their cattle, with the church of St. Martin with its bounds and adjacencies, with all integrity for their divers uses. And in the same district the village which is called Magarantiatis with the church of St. Felix, with all its appendages and adjacencies. But that honor which the Lord William or other faithful by instruments of charters delivered to the aforesaid monastery, and confirming them, in whatever places it be, and also whatever henceforth the divine piety shall wish to be augmented to the right of that holy place by us or by others, the whole we for the eternal remuneration grant to the aforesaid monastery, that for perpetual times in the alimony of the poor and the stipends of the monks serving God there it may profit unto augmentation. All these aforewritten things with the churches, villages, hamlets, houses, buildings, fields, lands, vineyards, olive-groves, woods, scrublands, meadows, pastures, mills, waters and water-courses, ways exits and returns, cultivated and uncultivated, with all their adjacencies, the whole and entire to the aforesaid monastery of Gellone by this authority of donation perpetually we grant to be had: so namely that whatsoever from this present day and time of the aforesaid things to do or ordain, or also to dispose the inhabitants of this place shall wish, with free in all things they may enjoy the discretion of doing.
Godolenus the Notary in the stead of Guigo recognized it.
This precept given on the V Kl. of January, in the Indiction X, in the XXVII h year of the reign of the Lord Louis, at Toulouse publicly: but of the Empire of Charles i VIII. And that this authority for our and future times the Lord protecting may avail to remain unshaken, we have subscribed with our own hand, and ordered it to be signed by the impression of our ring, in the name of God happily. Amen.
The sign of the Lord Louis the most clement King k.
ANNOTATA.
The sign of Theobald Count of Blois our Steward.
The sign of Guido the Butler.
The sign of Matthaeus the Chamberlain.
Given by the hands of Hugo the Chancellor and Bishop of Soissons.
* rather XXXVII
HISTORY OF THE MIRACLES
From the Manuscripts of the monastery of Gellone, and the edition of Mabillon.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
BHL Number: 8917
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PrefaceAfter therefore the most holy passing of Bl. William, it pleased the divine grace over the monastery of Gellone to show more manifestly the regard of His love, both on account of the merit of His beloved one himself, and most evidently on account of that most holy Wood of the Lord, which the same man of God, Charles giving it, had carried thither with him, for that banner of Christ and admirable sign, full of all virtue and deity, began in the same place to flash with miracles, to irradiate the place, to heal many sick, to free the afflicted, but the demons strongly and powerfully to put to flight, of which we have deemed worthy, to the glory of the holy Cross, briefly to retrace, somehow to write, magnificently to proclaim a.
AnnotationCHAPTER I.
The miracles of the Cross brought by St. William, the demons put to flight.
[1] There is namely not far from the same monastery a river, called by the name b Hérault, with great force descending from the mountains, where there was a boat, with which those seeking the monastery and wishing to cross the river necessarily had to be conveyed across. This river therefore a demon God permitting possessed, there drowning many and the drowned destroying, now single, now several pressing into the waters and absorbing: for often the boat itself, the things being lost, the men being suffocated, suddenly it submerged. But the men of that place, not bearing this scandal, By the Wood of the holy Cross is put to flight the demon hostile to navigators, seek St. Guilielmus, and specially ask the singular protection of the Wood of the Lord, by which they know the devil to be conquered. They pray with tears, strong in faith; the petition of the people is made, that the Wood be carried. It is carried to the river, the Abbot of the said monastery bearing it, with choirs of Monks and Clergy singing psalms. Many venerable men assemble, desiring to see the virtue of the Lord against the frauds of the devil. For soon as the Wood appeared on the shore, the diabolical phantasm, not sustaining the force of the holy Cross, the river being left, like smoke vanished; nor there any longer was that dragon seen, nor found.
[2] Monks of a certain monastery of France, led by zeal and avarice, it being stolen by two Monks, on account of the gifts and oblations which were made in the monastery c of Gellone, for the reverence and devotion of that most precious Wood; took counsel, that, if otherwise they could not, by theft they should snatch it, and transfer it to their monastery; so the gain of the manifold oblation might consequently come to them. There are chosen therefore two of the several, not Monks, but demoniacs; not Brethren, but thieves; and to the monastery of Gellone they are directed, armed with deceits, composed of many lies. Near the vestibule of the temple they enter into the lodging of a certain one, they say they are pilgrims, they feign sickness, for the cause of recovering health and pardon. To the Wood of the Lord and the blessed William they lie that they have come; that so long they wish in that place to remain, and in the church before the holy altar to keep watch, until they merit mercy, and the virtue also of the Cross through the merit of Bl. William in themselves they experience. And so the Prior of the monastery and the Brethren, too credulous of their words, exhibit humanity toward them; grant them to frequent the cloister and the church; to watch and pray at their will. But they on the contrary, taught by an iniquitous thought, frequent the church by day, feigning prayer without devotion: but by night watching and multiplying prayer without compunction, observe that place in which the Wood of the Lord was kept; and the place being noted they commit themselves to diabolical arts; they prepare instruments for invading the holy treasure. And so one night, feigning the accustomed vigils, with not a few candles, the church of holy William
they enter; to the venerable altar of God, fear being set aside, they approach: the ark in which they think the treasure to be, irreverently they invade; and by most evil art unbarred without keys, they cannot carry it beyond the bounds of the monastery: and opened without sound, with the most holy treasure, no one perceiving, suddenly they go out of the temple, and desire to flee: but by the virtue of God they can by no means flee away. For from the bounds of the monastery by no part, and by no effort can they go out, going round like drunkards, and returning into their own same footsteps.
[3] But now the dawn of day beginning, when they had come to the place which is called At the Cross; they know themselves through the virtue of the glorious Cross of the wood of the Lord fixed and immovable to be held, and by the apparitors of Bl. William nonetheless to be apprehended, and to be drawn to hanging: seeing also their footsteps impressed in the snow, and they hide it under snow miraculously fallen: which that night miraculously through the mud by the providence of God had fallen, neither have they place of fleeing, nor counsel of escaping. Terrified and desperate, and wonderfully compelled, the Wood of the Lord, which they had stolen, they draw out of the bag, and on the ground deposited under the thick snow deeper they hide; and soon the virtue of the Wood, which by vengeance they had assailed, by the clemency of God they feel and recognize. For, the step suddenly recovered, they resume strength; God permitting it free they depart. Meanwhile came the hour, when the wakeful suppliants of Bl. William, the matutinal Mass being completed, with that blessed Wood for the peoples after the accustomed manner should ask a blessing to be given by the Priest. And when the Priest with the ministers had advanced to the venerable shrine, that thence they might bring that Wood, and the bars being unbarred and opened had not found it; how great and what a cry, and how great a grief suddenly invaded the people and the Monks, can indeed be thought, but cannot be sufficiently expressed. Therefore those pilgrim Monks being sought and by no means found, there is a running after them, by the investigation of the snow sent from heaven, where a column of smoke pointing it out it is found. declaring and more clearly designating the footsteps of the fugitives. For when they had come to the place, in which the thieves disturbed and weakened in the sinews had stopped, and had left the Wood; they see under the snow as it were a column of smoke gently steaming rise up and ascend on high. All come together to the column; the Wood, which they seek, under the snow they find with great joy: they send for the Abbot, and thence they take it reverently, and to the monastery of Bl. William to carry it they do not delay, with hymns and canticles and inenarrable glory; to the honor and glory of the name of Christ, and the praise of Bl. William, and the devotion of the Christian people. d
[4] A certain Deodatus, an Italian man, overrun by a demon, An Italian demoniac, for much time horribly raged, and by his invader without ceasing was cruelly vexed: delivered indeed to satan for the destruction of flesh and soul, he had no rest at all; but in the torments, by which the seized and demoniacs are tortured, the whole night he continued and the day; so that to none was it doubtful, but that those penalties which are owed in hell and the wraths of demons he now among the living sustained. He gave cries suddenly with disordered voices, and at all hours and moments of his torments he himself was the herald and witness: to whom his parents with due piety too greatly compassionating, and desiring to seek for him a remedy from heaven, which from earth they could not; through many places of the Saints, and through many provinces led him, after various Saints in vain implored. where indeed frequenting the sacred vigils, their prayers for him with tears they offered, but to be heard if they would they nowhere merited; nor did the wretched obtain from the Saints the cure, which to him otherwise by the divine clemency was owed. And when now they almost despaired, and failing with so great weariness of ways and labor deliberated to cease henceforth, nor in vain thereafter to wander; they hear, God disposing it, of the merits and virtues of Bl. William, and how great an efficacious hearer of the wretched and putter to flight of unclean spirits he is. Whence resuming the constancy of hope and faith, and confirming in that wretched man charity and grace, they more diligently seek the way to the Gellone territory, and to the monastery of Bl. William, led to Gellone; of whom they had heard. But coming to the place and having entered the temple, they approach suppliant the altar of holy Salvator, and present their captive before the body of the most holy Confessor, with his demon and with his thongs, not without tears and mournful voices. The cause of grief is asked by no one, because it is plain to all from him who rages.
[5] The Abbot comes with all the Congregation, and a common prayer being made by all, they adjure him with powerful exorcisms and the invocation of the name of Christ, that he now cease from the vexation of that wretched man, the demon confessing that he is driven out by the Blessed one, and go out of him without delay. But he compelled to answer; Wait, said he, a little, and do not hasten: my standing or going out is not so in your authority, but rather in the virtue and power of another, whom you perhaps do not behold; for do you not see the Monk William, vehemently angry against me, and prostrate before God, how he confounds and presses me, and compels me to go out? Whose violence because I cannot bear, willing or unwilling I will go out; and behold now I go out. But you do not care to adjure me henceforth, nor much for me any longer to labor. But the servants of the Lord, not acquiescing to him, for the aid of the wretched and the terror of demons, bring the wood of the Lord, that the virtue and glory of the holy Cross appearing, and Bl. William insisting with prayers, the wretched man might more quickly be saved the demon fleeing. Which the demon seeing and envying, and vehemently indignant, began to roar, to bellow, and with much howling to cry, saying: O perverse Monks! O superstitious, nor that he would await the Cross to be brought, and in all things superfluous! Could not the Monk William, as I had begun to tell you, by the virtue of his prayers and merits himself alone expel me, unless moreover you now bring against me the terrible wood, the formidable banner, which none of the demons for the name of the Crucified dares to see, nor avails to sustain? O now, since on every part I suffer violence, and have not at least license of speaking and rendering reason, there is no doubt that now I depart, the Wood I will not await: the Monk William who compels me, I will flee: I will give up my inheritance, I will lose my possession: but also I tell you, that departing I will inflict damage on you, and sustaining injury I will do injury.
[6] These things being said he was silent, and forthwith invisibly from that man, whom he had long possessed and long vexed, going out; through a glass window, comely enough and beautiful enough, he bursts, and it in a moment all crushed; nor less than also e a silver bell, hung at the panelling of the temple, by the same impulse and the same moment, he shook and dashed: which Bl. William had carried thither with him, and with many other illustrious offerings to the praise of God had offered, which at the several hours the first announced the work of God, and by the melody of its clear-sounding voice excited the ears of the hearers and minds by soothing them. This damage that enemy, as he had foretold, inflicted on the church: which indeed the church did not grieve, but held most grateful, because through this very thing he himself was a witness to himself and left to us an eternal testimony, that at the prayers of Bl. William and before the presence of the most glorious Wood that robber could not stand; but the vessel being left which he had long polluted, and the prey lost which he had ill possessed, groaning to hell and confounded he departed. But that man free from the demon falling on the pavement slept; and refreshed and awakened from sleep, and in mind and body appearing most sound, stood upon his feet: and what thanks he knew and could he rendered to God, and the whole choir and assembly of the Church for him sounded praises to the Divinity longer. freed he returns. But afterward, food being taken and the stomach comforted, the Abbot also and the Brethren being bidden farewell, to the parts of Italy he returned; and the land of his nativity, about to make joy to his own, he sought again, and what he himself in himself of Bl. William and the holy wood of Christ had experienced, he neither could keep silent nor kept silent. And so it came to pass, that he who had come led and drawn by the hands of others, full of a demon and bound with chains; he himself now free from the phantasm, and loosed from the bonds, with sound mind departed; and his leaders, himself the leader of the column and the leader of the journey, led back to their own homes.
[7] From Finis-terrae f (namely a province which is so called, because terminated and closed by the great Ocean sea, which never there in any way is crossed, the land seems to make an end) a certain demoniac to the monastery of Gellone was led, by name Benedicta; so indeed she was called, yet in fact not so, since by the Holy Spirit forsaken, and to the wicked spirit for punishing delivered, of every divine blessing and grace she was unworthy. This wretched woman therefore, full of a demon and miserably furious, by carnal friends from a land so distant to the clemency of Bl. William by a long and laborious peregrination was led; and into his church, the demon namely much unwilling and altogether ungrateful, was introduced. And when she had begun after the manner to be seized and vehemently to rage, to say wondrous things, to do also stupendous things; began nonetheless very many to assemble, eager to see the furious woman, and to hear the words of the demon who spoke in her. There is present therefore no small throng of the common people, the whole village runs together, the church is filled. On those days perchance St. Fulcrannus g Bishop of Lodève had come thither, in the presence of St. Fulcrannus the Bishop exorcized who himself also for the grace of cures and the virtue of miracles was most renowned. He indeed at that very hour, in which the aforesaid woman entered the church, before the wood of the Lord near the tomb of Bl. William lay prostrate on the ground, beating heaven (as we believe) with prayers and transcending the stars with his mind. But the tumult being heard, and the cause quickly known; that servant of God, moved by piety and mercy, by no means rises from the ground, but the prayer in which wholly he gaped being a little intermitted; he begins specially and properly to pray for that wretched woman, for that demoniac. Geraldus h the Father of the monastery being called moreover and the whole Congregation equally, he asks them to become companions to him in prayer. And so it is long prayed by the common devotion of all: but they are not heard in this petition; because neither is that possessed woman cured, nor did the fury of the demon rest by their intercession: nay rather that devil, nor aided, as if to the injury of those servants of God, undertook to vex the aforesaid woman more than usual, to torture in divers ways, to tear, to shake, to dash to the ground; likewise leaps being given to lift her aloft, and from on high to precipitate her, with gnashing of teeth and horrid-sounding cry; so much that the holy Pontiff, for too great piety and compassion, could not now see and tolerate the death of that sinner: whence also he commanded her to be cast out of the temple, and outside to rage; saying, i that
it would be better for her to be shaken outside the church, and to end her life, than before the holy altar; because St. William would not aid her, nor free her from the demon.
[8] But the venerable Abbot Geraldus, humbly contradicting, yet at length she is freed. began to persuade the holy Bishop saying: Do not, Father, do not I pray be disturbed: for now we have seen many miserably tortured, and torn to death, but afterward by the mercy of God and the merit of Bl. William more quickly healed. Let her not therefore be expelled, but rather let her approach the tomb of the friend of God, and God will have mercy on her. These things being said the venerable Abbot, the mind of the Pontiff being calmed, hastens, the companions aiding, to lead the demoniac to the sepulchre of the most holy Confessor. Then the devil, understanding himself now to be held and drawn, with so great a weight fixed and pressed the step of the woman, that like a trunk in its root she remained immovable. The Abbot held that lost woman and drew her; the demon retained her, and drawing her back wore her down; he toward deliverance, this one toward perdition. At length although much resisting, and much drawing herself back, when at last before Bl. William she had been led, not only suddenly was she struck dumb, but also her body too greatly dissipated she could not stand. Moreover she after two days sound and whole, those friends rejoicing who had come with her, held the feet of Bl. Fulcrannus the Pontiff, and asked devoutly to be blessed by him. The Pontiff assented, she vowed a vow: and so with the Pontifical blessing blessed, to Finis-terrae, whence she had come, she returned. If she was called Benedicta, to be named Benedicta she merited.
[9] Another also furious woman, Gitburgis by name, of the valley which is called k Solhas (which valley indeed to the monastery of Gellone, where the body of Bl. William rests, Another so absolved is held neighboring) by the hands of her friends to the sepulchre of Bl. William was led: whose dementia took many and various voices in the church; finally she imitated dogs by barking, lions by roaring, bears by growling, and to all by gnashing of teeth she struck horror. Which the Monks of Bl. William seeing, with great affection of piety they turn themselves to him; with common prayer beseeching, that he succor that demoniac, and for that wretched woman pour forth prayers to God. What more? Bl. William intercedes for her, and she forthwith by the prayers and merits of Bl. William fully and perfectly was healed. Moreover she the virtue of God being known, there she becomes a Nun. and the health both of mind and of body being obtained, asks to be more quickly absolved from the marriage bond, and to become a handmaid in the house of Bl. William, to the honor of God and under the nun's habit. Which also was done; and she as long as she lived, humbly served in the church, and from every malign spirit secure remained.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER II.
A boy submerged in the Rhone and freed. Those injurious to the Saint, and to his men and goods, punished.
[10] A certain man feeble and an illustrious Soldier, with his wife and sons and not a few companions, A boy fallen into the Rhone was coming to the tomb of Bl. William, for the cause of devotion and prayer; who coming as far as the Rhone, enter a boat, and the fare being given strive to cross over. But all laboring in crossing, and each intent on rowing, by chance it happened that one of the sons of the same Soldier fell from the prow, so that no one saw and no one knew it. The river being crossed, when now they had begun to go out and hold the shore, the boy is sought, but by no means found: nor is it doubtful but that he had fallen into the river; and, because he nowhere appeared, that absorbed he had perished. There arises mourning, grief and tumult, there is made wailing without discretion, there is weeping for the dead without consolation. But all bitterly weeping, and the shore resounding with such mournful voices; only the mother of the boy stood and wept not, but with great constancy of mind both comforting herself and others, thus said: And commended to the Saint, My son is not dead, nor can my mind feel or believe it; but, wherever he be, with him is God and Bl. William: for whom I have always both night and day not ceased to commend to the same Bl. William, and now to this I was coming and was leading him, that I might present him to the holy Father before his tomb, and before his altar, and for him my gifts and myself offer and give; I know and believe that he can save him, nor can death seize him, nor the river slay him. The mother saying these things, suddenly is seen afar that boy, gone out of the waters, walking along the shore, returning to the others, and now approaching. The virtue of God is acknowledged, Bl. William by all is acclaimed, the faith of the mother is praised, the mourning and grief is turned into joy. The same boy being asked, what had seemed to him, how in so great a peril he had fared, or how this death (which manifestly had invaded him) unharmed he had escaped; answered: Know truly, that Bl. William the Monk, when I fell, was present; and while I was drawn from the river, gave me his right hand; and his left hand being applied to my mouth and nostrils, prevented the waters from harming me. The boy being recovered and the joy doubled, alive he is restored to his own. the father and mother and those who were with them, the journey which they had begun exulting hasten, come to the monastery, with great briskness approach before the presence of Bl. William, with the utmost humility giving thanks to God, relating their tears and their joys for their son, and the merits of Bl. William as true heralds announcing a.
[11] Although there be many and illustrious in Bl. William by the grace of God gifts of the virtues of the Saints, and since it be manifest that he has not the least power against malign spirits; this indeed seems pleasant and worthy of relation, that the very demons sometimes, wishing as it were to please him and serve him in favor, of his enemies and invaders of his things make themselves avengers and exactors: whence briefly this page has undertaken something to be remembered. A certain noble man and of excellent stock, by name b Rennaudus, wishing to lay up treasure in the heavens, and desiring to make Bl. William a special Patron to himself, had given him a certain estate, for the common stipend of the Brethren serving God in the monastery of Gellone; namely a huge and competent territory, called Malabucceria, with all the family, which was seen to pertain to the same possession. This estate therefore after some time a certain c Abolenus… of the Military order, too much swollen with secular power, An impious robber of the possessions of the monastery, and too much neighboring to this possession, began to disquiet, oppress and depopulate, and violently to subjugate to his dominion, neither fearing God, nor caring for man, nor exhibiting reverence to the merits of Bl. William: for in all ways to the men of that territory he was intolerable, with unwonted robberies and undue exactions, importunate carousals, many violences, unjust slayings. But those wretched men, who suffered these things, and who without remedy by the tyrant were oppressed, when now they could not live, imprecated death upon themselves. It pleased therefore the divine Clemency, to give an end to this death, to glorify the merits of Bl. William, and his family crying to him daily, from that tyrant as from another Pharaoh to receive and save. him in his very crime Whence it came to pass, that that malefactor, on a certain Lord's day, rose very early, and a horse being mounted to the aforesaid village proceeded, about to do violence and robbery as was the accustomed manner: but by divine disposition no one being found, neither man nor woman, whom he could question (for all had gone to the church by the Catholic religion to hear the divine ministry) kindled with too great anger and too great fury, he began for indignation as it were wholly to burn, and fire being set he began to burn and consume the village, to break the doors of the houses, to exterminate all.
[12] But the divine vengeance was not far off: for forthwith at the same hour the malign spirit vexed him; possessed by the devil, he lost his sense, he lost his understanding: the horse on which he had come could not carry him back to his own home, but to the church of Bl. Mauritius d (where those men and many others had assembled for the cause of hearing the divine office) led him mad, and there from the seat shamefully deposited him on the ground, and vehemently dashed him. in the church he rages, But he not by his own sense, but by diabolical impulse having entered the church, began before all wonderfully to rage, to bite his own flesh, to gnaw and tear his hands and arms; others also with his teeth like a dog to attack and to lacerate with bites, and the whole church to disturb and trouble. All knew the divine judgment, and is conquered by chains: they understand the patronage of Bl. William and the help of defense: they seize the furious man, they bind the seized, and so bound hold him within the oratory, until duly is accomplished the sacred mystery. O how just art Thou, Lord! how just and true and holy is Thy judgment! He who was wont to bind the men of St. William, now bound is held: he who had come to destroy his possession, now his sense being lost himself also is wholly possessed by satan: and he who on so holy a Lord's day had withdrawn himself from the church, then in the church chained rages, and hears astonished and with senseless ears what is celebrated in him. There come meanwhile his friends, kinsmen, his soldiers and neighbors; they too acknowledge the judgment of God and the cause of the fault, namely the invasion and oppression of the men and goods of Bl. William. restitution being promised he is healed. Therefore bound in hands and constrained with thongs they lead him to the tomb of the most blessed Confessor: and he being presented before the altar of the Lord Salvator, all are prostrated to the ground with tears, asking pardon for the faults of that wretched sinner: they promise also with the greatest oaths, they affirm with hostages in the hand of the Abbot then presiding in the place, whatever he had committed against Bl. William and his own, that they would amend, and would restore the things taken away, and would satisfy for all.
It came to pass therefore, as soon as the Abbot himself received the promise, the Soldier on the spot received a sound mind and an entire sense with health: the demon, who to do vengeance not bidden had come, the vengeance being done bidden departed: and that man who was saved, as long as he survived, in the fidelity and service of St. William remained.
[13] About that time another certain one of the order of secular warfare, called Theutrannus de Salsis, gravely oppressed and devastated a certain estate of Bl. William, bringing many evils with frequent detriments. But that man according to the pomp of the world was a strenuous and illustrious Soldier; Another about to eat of an ox taken away, but yet that his warfare a greater malice and base avarice rendered ignoble and infamous: prodigal indeed of his own things, and greedy of another's and wholly given to vain boasting, he could not live except by plunders and robberies. Therefore the Royal fisc, called Castra-pastura, ill-neighboring to him and too contiguous, which once King Louis had conferred on the monastery of Gellone, and to which he had confirmed immunity and protection under a royal precept and great authority; that Soldier to all confusion and extermination brought, ate, drank, gnawed, and to the marrow absorbed. The wearied men of it invoked God, and the tyrant did not care: they cried out for St. Guilielmus, he made little of it. But those unhappy men sad and angry, and as if now desperate, because St. William did not hear them, murmured, saying: That he himself was sleeping, who did not do the accustomed vengeance, nor more quickly succor. Yet Bl. William, as if roused from sleep, suddenly did vengeance and unexpectedly. For when on a certain day that Theutrannus had gone to that village, and a huge plunder being made as was the custom, had led away thence very many oxen, and when he had returned home as a victor with triumph; he commands one of those oxen forthwith to be slaughtered, and for himself and his own a great dinner to be prepared: and the banquet being prepared, he first reclined and first began to feast. And behold the judgment of God, and the virtue and merit of Bl. William: for the first morsel, which of that plunder and of that robbery into his mouth that butcher put, so adhered to his jaws, and closed the opening of his throat, that neither could it pass through his mouth, nor go out of his mouth, nor could he reject it nor avail to swallow it. There is astonishment in the banquet, all rise from the dinner, mourning for their Lord, wondering at the miracle: physicians are brought, medicines are applied, but in vain are all things done, because they work nothing: they stand by him on every part, but neither by hand, nor by art, nor by any charm, nor by any medicament can they profit him.
[14] At length the divine virtue is recognized, and manifestly by all is acclaimed, that St. William works in his mouth: that nothing can avail him, unless he propitious and quickly have mercy. and restitution being promised he is freed from death. Therefore his friends and kinsmen, servants and clients, not sustaining delay, and confiding in the mercy of God and the piety of Bl. William, place him laboring in death somehow upon a horse; and leading him to the tomb of Bl. William, ask his pardon and seek his indulgence: all promise before God, and with hands lifted to heaven swear and confirm for him, that if the holy one of God deign to spare him, and from this present death at least this once to snatch him; he, as much as he could and as much as faculty would be to him, would amend to him whatever against him he had transgressed at the discretion of the Abbot, restoring what he had ill taken away, restituting what he had robbed. But he who had been led, because by himself to ask or to plead he could do nothing (for that morsel, which of the robbery he had taken, was glued to his throat and as it were birdlimed adhered) that which by others was promised, because his tongue could not, with his hand he assented, and making a sign signified that he wished to become a Monk. He stood meanwhile as guilty, in affliction and in all contrition of mind and body, before God the Saviour and the holy and glorious Confessor, before the venerable Cross and the sacrosanct altar, with bent knees, with bare feet, holding his rods in his hand, not without the e shears. Who shall speak the powers of the Lord, who shall make heard the merit of Bl. William? At the same hour, in which this promise is confirmed, the morsel slips from his mouth, and he who now was dying now lives and is freed. And it was manifest, that He who struck him, He also indulged him; He who wounded, He also healed. Therefore that Theutrannus, the virtue of God being known, and through Bl. William snatched from death, and health being received, with the utmost devotion delivered himself and his things for amendment.
ANNOTATA.
HYMN
From the Böddeken Manuscript drawn out by Joannes Gamans of the Society of Jesus.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
Now now with wondrous light he shines, Girt with the lights of the seat of the poles, William rejoicing, to behold Christ He seeks, who governs all the ages. To whom now for his merits the gate of heaven Already lay open to the great. There cries the lordly Trumpet from on high to the soldier; Enter. As they are ample in the star-bearing seats, So on earth his merits; the supernal judge Christ Granting it to the prayers of William. At whose tomb the throng being safe The long-lasting languor leaves the sick now. Wherefore, Companions, both with heart and with mouth Let us bring forth to the Lord with sonorous voice Innumerable odes, in all time; To whom be hymn, honor, perpetual glory. Amen.
PRAYER. Whence now we subjoin pious prayers, and we ask him adorned with six hundred garlands, having laid waste the camps of the enemy, remunerated with eternal glory, whose today the annual commemoration is festive to us, that he implore the divine mouth for us: and as he was before an intercessor of his companions to the mortal King, so let him beseech Christ the King, Lord, immortal, all-powerful, to relax our crimes. Hence therefore we ask Thee, Christ, whom faithfully we await, to come in the glory of the Father and of the holy Angels, that Thou make us free from the eternal punishments, the merits of Thy beloved William interceding, who without defect of times, with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, through all the ages of ages. Amen.
HISTORY
Of the body elevated and translated.
from a French Manuscript relation.
St. William, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, Monk of Gellone, of the Order of St. Benedict.
FROM A FRENCH MANUSCRIPT
St. Guilielmus had been placed, one or two centuries perhaps after his death and first burial, The sacred bones in the year 1129, Feb. 27 translated, in a marble tomb skilfully wrought (which even now is shown) behind the greater altar in the church of the monastery: whence when and by whom the body was elevated, is to be read in a lead plate, afterward together with the holy Relics themselves found, and with these words sculptured. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord MCXXXVIII, on the third Kalends of March, the second feria, was elevated the body of the most blessed Confessor of Christ Guilielmus, and laid up on the III Nones of the same month, by the hands of the Lord Ugo Bishop of Albi, and Raimundus Abbot of Gellone, and Raimundus Abbot of Nant, in the times of Pope Innocent II, and Arnaldus Archbishop of Narbonne, and Petrus Bishop of Lodève, Louis being King of the Franks. Thus far the Plate, signifying to us Louis VII, great-grandfather of St. Louis; and noting the year, from the old style of the Franks, that which we should now number MCXXXIX, when the Dominical letter A composed with the Feria II of the week, the day XXVII of February.
[2] But the aforenamed Prelates replaced that sacred pledge, together with the plate itself, within a leaden casket, and hidden under its own little altar, another wooden one clothing it on the outside; and hiding it under the earth, caused to be built over it and consecrated a small altar, at the horn of the Epistle of the greater altar, in honor of St. Guilielmus himself: whose tablet is wholly of Lydian (as the Latins call it) or black marble, such as we use for testing gold, whence also it commonly drew its name, two tablets of white marble elegantly chiselled supporting it on both sides: which now translated to the front of the greater altar, likewise seem to support the same black tablet here transposed. But these things being then thus composed, so that no indication of the sacred body appeared above the earth; when it had now passed from memory; that smaller altar indeed retained the name of St. Guilielmus, but the treasure hidden under it oblivion so far removed from the memory of men, that nothing of it was believed to remain, except that little which was contained in a small marble urn, placed under the aforesaid little altar (within which had been heaped the ashes and the smaller bones, at the time of the aforenoted elevation) and except one bone of the right arm, which they call the Humerus, and which enclosed in a silver arm skilfully made even today is shown; miraculously so to say preserved from the diabolical rage of the Calvinists, who in the memory of our grandfathers all sacred things through Aquitaine contaminated and dissipated. For that these too are truly the bones of St. Guilielmus was established by the testimony of one physician and two surgeons experienced, who in the year MDCLXXX in the month of May declared, that all the bones of the holy body found were translated into a new casket, except the humerus already said. But the manner of that happy finding was this.
[3] When R. P. D. Gabriel le Comte, sent by the choice of the General Chapter as Prior and Official of this Abbey, sent thither in the year 1679 as Prior and by a vow healed, which immediately subject to the Apostolic See, holds over all the jurisdiction around the valley almost Episcopal; a little time after his coming was seized with a perilous infirmity, even to the despair of the physicians. Perceiving himself reduced hither, to the holy Patron and Founder of our monastery Guilielmus he vowed a vow, that if by his intercession he should recover full health, with all zeal of solicitude he would be busy to promote his honor, especially in repairing and adorning the church, very much in need of such care. Without delay the disease began to lighten, and the physician judged him snatched from peril, admiring the sudden change, which the precepts of his art scarcely within a longer space promised: but a few days being passed he appeared altogether sound.
[4] Therefore intent on fulfilling the vow by which he had bound himself, he instantly asked of the Superiors and obtained the faculty, of determining whatever necessary for the restoration of the church and monastery: in the demolition of that little altar, among which before many opportune seemed the translation of the greater altar, which was removed farther from the wall, and thereby rendered the church dark, and the Presbytery less fit for the solemn offices of the greater festivities. This counsel
being taken, as before all useful, happily he found it on September 5, not only that greater altar had to be destroyed, but also that small one, of which above we spoke, collateral to it; that of two one might be made, which should adhere more nearly to the wall of the church. The workmen were insisting on such a work, when on the day V of September of the year MDCLXXIX, under that smaller altar they detected a stone as it were sepulchral, three and a half palms long, placed upon a leaden casket, which another wooden casket surrounded; and this rot had now almost consumed, but lest it should fall apart certain iron plates held it, adorned with the impressed flowers of lilies.
[5] At the news of the unexpected matter the Prior ran up with the whole Convent, and being taken out of the now almost consumed caskets, and the Vicars of SS. Bartholomew and Laurence dependent on this monastery, and other chief persons of the place itself, by the holograph of all of whom was signed the verbal instrument of the Process drawn up thereupon. And when it was judged necessary to extract from the rubble those caskets, and their bottom, not only where it was wooden, but also where it was leaden and iron now almost reduced to ashes, and disjoined from the sides subsided; there remained within that small sepulchre a great number of bones, with a square leaden plate, whose every side seemed to fill three quarters of a palm, written in ancient characters, and a notable monument of antiquity, he places them within another new one, making faith of the translation made in the year MCXXXVIII. This being read through, when now it was established to all, that this was the body of St. Guilielmus; the aforesaid R. P. Prior, with great reverence, collected all the sacred bones, and replaced them within a new wooden casket; simple indeed in material, yet outside and inside clothed round with silk cloth, since at that point of time nothing more precious was had at hand. That casket forthwith was carried to the treasury of the church, fortified with two keys, where all the silver furniture and several other sacred Relics are kept: and among other things, a particle of the true Cross given by Charlemagne to St. Guilielmus, when to him and the world he bade farewell; and one shift, which old tradition records to have been of Bl. Mary the Virgin.
[6] But this seemed worthy especially of consideration, that those sacred bones, altogether entire and sweetly smelling, after more than nine hundred years breathed forth a sweet odor; nor were they at all violated by the waters of the neighboring torrent, which often inundating these places, ought also to have penetrated thither; since physicians say, that the bones of the dead within stagnant water quickly molder and rot. It pleased moreover the divine majesty to honor His Saint with miracles, at the prayers of those who daily implore his suffrages, seeking a remedy for their evils; of which to relate a few will be enough.
[7] A certain woman of this place, long afflicted with remittent fevers, not without miracles following. after the finding of the sacred Body caused herself to be led to the church; and at the very approach of the febrile paroxysm to be placed within the trench, whence the Relics had been dug out; and thence fully healed she went out. Likewise was cured another, suffering a fistula, which they call the weeping one, and which produced great pains for her. An honorable citizen also of the same place, whose knees affected long before denied him the faculty of walking and standing, not without torment; as soon as he bent them there, felt himself expedited, and free of all weakness and pain. But very many others come daily, and leave the memory of the graces obtained; or asking health they drink water, with which is mixed somewhat of dust taken from the sepulchre, which is given to them, the effect for the most part of the desired health following, to the praise of God and the glory of our holy Founder.
[8] Moreover on the day XX of May in the year MDCLXXX, the aforesaid R. P. Prior and Official, procuring the adornment of the house of God with the same zeal with which he had begun; after he had caused a casket to be fabricated more elegantly elaborated, in which the art of the sculptor had omitted no ornament, and gold smeared between the blue color presented a pleasing spectacle to the eyes, and again in the year 1680 on the 20th into a more adorned casket, and the same nonetheless clothed within with silk; into it he translated the sacred bones, until he should procure a silver casket for keeping so great a treasure. And at this translation were present, besides the Convent of Monks, D. Gaspar Ranchin, Vicar of D. the Bishop of Montpellier; D. Fulcrandus Audeberti, Canon and Promotor of the same Lord Bishop; D. Joannes Audeberti, his brother and a citizen of Montpellier; and several other notable persons, subscribed to the verbal Process made upon these things. Thus far the relation, sent to R. P. Pierre Possin at Toulouse in the year MDCLXXXII on the day XIII of February: until another wholly of silver be made. to which would that it might soon be permitted to adjoin the history of a new Translation, when the aforesaid silver casket shall have been made, on procuring which then the Prior was striving with all his strength.