ON SAINT MAXIMINUS
BISHOP OF TRIER.
A.D. CCCXLIX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Maximinus, Bishop of Trier on the Moselle (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
There stands near the city of Trier a monastery illustrious for antiquity and power, which is said to have been built by the Emperor Constantine the Great, and to the honor of S. John the Evangelist by S. Agritius the Bishop consecrated, as more widely at his Life, and the day XIII of January we set forth. That monastery afterward under the name of S. Maximinus remained most celebrated, on account of the sacred body of this man there laid up, and famous for miracles divinely wrought. To the said Agritius succeeded in the Bishopric of Trier S. Maximinus himself, elected about the year CCCXXXII: and in that dignity he lived under the Empire of the said Constantine the Great, The time of his See. and of his sons, first Constantine, then he being slain of Constans; dead about the year CCCXLIX, as will appear from the things below to be observed at the Acts. S. Jerome in the Chronicle, at the year VI of the Empire of Constans, of Christ CCCXLIII, these things writes: Maximinus the Bishop of Trier is held famous: by whom Athanasius the Bishop of Alexandria, when by Constantius he was sought for punishment, was honorably received. We illustrated the Acts of S. Athanasius at the second day of this month of May: in whose works of this S. Maximinus mention is had. And first in his Apology to the Emperor Constantius (under whom from the death of Constantine the Great he had been with the rest of Egypt Alexandria) when he treated of matters done by himself before Constans, these things he subjoins: Never without companions or witnesses did I see thy brother, but always with the Bishop of that place where I was for a colloquy I entered and withdrew … Witnesses of this matter are Fortunianus Bishop of Aquileia … and who are deceased, S. Athanasius received by S. Maximinus: Maximinus of Trier and Protasius of Milan, Prelates … Thus there.
[2] Of the same S. Maximinus also and his writings seems to treat Athanasius in disputation I against the Arians, in which when he had argued their perfidy, he adds these things: and this one in turn praised by him. If therefore those writings proceeded from the orthodox, such as are those of that great one and Confessor Hosius, of Maximinus of Gaul or of his successor, or of Philogonius and Eustathius Bishops of the East, or of Julius and Liberius Roman Pontiffs … there is nothing which in these writings thou wouldst suspect: for sincere and simple are the dispositions of Apostolic men. Thus there. The successor of S. Maximinus was S. Paulinus, who in the year CCCLIII, because he was unwilling in the Synod of Arles to subscribe to the condemnation of S. Athanasius, was sent into exile, and in it died on XXXI August, on which he is venerated. It is doubtful, whether in the second Apology against the Arians or (as we have shown it should be called) in the Sylloge, this S. Maximinus is referred to. For there in the epistle of the Synod of Sardica, held in the year CCCXLVII, are numbered those who were present, or who by their suffrages approved the decrees of the Synod; namely, Hosius from Spain, Julius of Rome through Legates … of Gaul Maximianus, Verissimus, Victor, and others, and in Greek also Μαξιμιανὸς is written; while elsewhere is read Μαξιμῖνος: But if once we admit a slip crept into the name; we cannot disapprove Baronius, who a place of the same S. Athanasius in the Apology, naming the legates of Maxentius to Constantius Servatius and Maximus, wished to be corrected, and read Maximinus. This correction indeed very reasonable we believe to be: since it is probable, that two of chief name and of the same nation Bishops were chosen for such a legation by Magnentius: this therefore I would have noted at the Acts both of S. Athanasius num. 221, and of S. Servatius num. 5.
[3] The Life by older writers, neither elegantly, nor prudently enough (as it seemed) written, more elegantly and gravely wrote a certain Lupus, in the year DCCCXXXIX, as he himself near the end testifies, at the request of Waldo the Abbot, who departed in the year DCCCLXVIII, if we can trust the Catalogue of the Abbots, by Bucelin edited. That Life is extant in Laurence Surius, The Life adorned by Lupus in the 9th century. and we have it copied from illustrious Ms. codices of Trier of S. Maximinus and S. Martin, and from the Mss. Utrecht of S. Salvator and Hautmont in Hainaut. The same from the Mss. Prague, Île-Caesar, and others was offered to us, if we needed. There is in the church of S. Paulinus, between the monastery of S. Maximinus and the city of Trier, behind the altar laid up S. Lupus the Archbishop, but where he administered the Pontificate is by no means known: so the booklet of the relics of that church. But the Author of the Miracles, of which below, professes that he was bidden to write those things, which were done after the book about the life of S. Maximinus put out by Lupus the Bishop. Certainly greater than an Abbot it behooved him to be, who thus begins, Lupus to Waldo his friend greeting. That friends should vie in honorable offices and wish mutually to forestall one another with sincere obsequies, among the chief affairs of human life is not undeservedly reckoned … The consideration of this so great matter persuaded me to thee, Waldo most dear, to comply; and what already from the beginning of our acquaintance thou greatly didst demand, that I should not deny thee it brought about; namely that the Life of B. Maximinus with my style, and what matters down to us by whatsoever letters had run, in a more accurate discourse, suiting the dignity, I should restore … But in this
work that much constrains me, that many things, which that man while he yet lived did (as is manifest) being suppressed in silence, the Bishop probably of Châlons, scarcely a few monuments of his deeds are extant, and in these very ones some things are found like to fabulous things. I, in that time in which the Life was written, find no one in the whole Empire a Bishop of this name, except Lupus of Châlons, a Prelate of great authority, who could to his Archbishop Ebbo, in the deposition of Louis the Pious the Emperor, have been an accomplice; and he being restored, have withdrawn himself from the storm, which involved him, betaking himself to Trier; meanwhile while Ebbo in the year DCCCXXXV, in the council held at Thionville is compelled to write his deposition, where among the XLIII Bishops subscribing thou wilt not find the name of that Lupus, surely absent. The Sammarthani indeed among the Bishops of Châlons, from the Chartulary of Ferrières for the year 835 name Alderius or Aldelmus; but since their numbers often fail, here the more suspect are they, because soon they allege the year of Charles the Bald 35, in which Lupus subscribed the Privilege of Odo Bishop of Beauvais, who on account of the Indiction VIII there adjoined, and other things, only was to be written of Christ DCCCXLV, from the restoration of the aforesaid Ebbo the year 5, and so from the return of Lupus to his See also the fifth: that this of the labor bestowed on S. Maximinus a reward soon to have received he might seem. But how then at Trier Lupus died, it is a light matter if it be unknown; it is enough to have found the cause, by which for some time he was a familiar to Waldo the Abbot, before at his request he should write the Life; and to have found the sad things, by which to the divine grace he glories in the Prologue that he was made equal.
[4] it was taken from an older one of the 8th century, This Life therefore, collated with the Mss., we were about to give, unless the very source, from which Lupus drew his own, had befallen us at Paris in the Library of S. Victor, and in a certain very old Codex under the note of number 899. The style in it is indeed simple; but what to it Lupus superadded, are of scarcely any moment; and what he omitted, are not such, that alone or chiefly they ought to displease. For where the older Author (who in the age of King Pippin to have lived and written seems, since beyond it he refers nothing, and so by almost a whole century older than Lupus he was) where, I say, the older Author chiefly strikes against the history of the IV century, which we give confusing Constantine with his son Constantius; and Maximinus, who under the empire of the Younger Constantine ought to have feared nothing from the Arians, nor from them could suffer anything, many tribulations and straits to have suffered writes; Lupus, no more cautious, this very thing more vehemently exaggerated, recounting how S. Maximinus received S. Athanasius into hospitality, which was done while Constantine the Great yet lived. Similarly what about the deposition of Euphrates of Cologne he believed, the Acts of the Synod being corrupted, deceived that older one, believed also Lupus; nor did he doubt to relate all the same things about the Roman journey, and about the carrying back of the body from Aquitania, which that one related; although they seem rather like fabulous things, than those which he cut off from the miracles later, even those of which the other presents himself a witness eyewitness. Weighing such things, and considering that a more elegant Life can sufficiently be found in Surius; the older other one, as more useful to our scope, we have preferred; with a book of miracles by Sigehard, a writer of the 10th century. leaving free to the reader the power of discerning, in what degree of credibility he wishes to refer, whatsoever here he shall read. We add likewise hitherto unedited, and as a book second we subjoin, which about the later miracles by command of Wiker the Abbot, in the year XXVII of Otto the first, or in the year of Christ DCCCCLXII, wrote Sigehard, a monk of San-Maximin, an Aquitanian man, as Brower judges, in book 9 of the Trier Annals num. 41; but as Scheckmann, in the booklet on the Relics of the monastery of the same place speaks, A man of the highest elegance. Wiker moreover the Abbot, by whose bidding and dictating to have written Sigehard professes, and to the book, which Lupus had written, a second to have added about miracles; is said to have held the Abbacy from the year DCCCCLVII to DCCCCLXVI. Of both treatises, of the life namely and of the miracles, some abridgment is had in the Booklet on the Relics and indulgences of the monastery of S. Maximinus, Appendix on the Relics. from which we subjoin an Appendix on the later translation of the body, the double dedication of the church, and the Relics preserved in it. The Author is John Scheckmann of Trier, a monk of San-Maximin and Librarian, by whom also, from the German of John Enen, in Latin was written and augmented an Epitome or Marrow of the Trier deeds in the year MDXVII, in which on folio LIV he mentions the prior treatise by him edited.
[5] The feast of S. Maximinus is celebrated in the said monastery of his near Trier, both on this XXIX of May, The cult sacred on 29 May on which the body from Aquitania was brought back, and this is the principal one; and on XII September, on which he is said in Aquitania to have died. Meanwhile here and there at this XXIX of May his Birthday or Deposition in the old Calendars is called. So the most ancient apograph of the Hieronymian Martyrology, the Echternach one, At Trier the Birthday of S. Maximinus the Bishop, and indeed of the ancient ones, as is added in other apographs of the same Martyrology. Bede, in the genuine Martyrology, these things has: IV Kalends of June. At Trier of Maximinus the Bishop, and Confessor. Florus adds, who a great advocate to his people by great virtues declared himself. Rabanus his own from Bede copied. Usuard and Ado from the Chronicle of S. Jerome add, that by him honorably S. Athanasius was received, and here and there the later ones follow with the Roman Martyrology. But on the day before the Ides of September, and 12 September. the deposition of S. Maximinus Bishop of Trier is celebrated in the Mss. Trier of S. Maximinus and S. Martin. But more clearly in various Mss. codices under the name of Usuard, augmented, these are read: In Aquitania the birthday of S. Maximinus Archbishop of Trier, who on the fourth Kalends of June to Trier was translated. To which similar things have Greven, and Molanus in the Supplement of Usuard, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius and others. What above from Florus we brought, were excerpted from Gregory of Tours, who in On the glory of the Confessors chapter 93 these things narrates.
[6] Perjurers punished. There is near the city of Trier, in the suburb, S. Maximinus, great with the Lord, the advocate of that people, at whose tomb often are seen miracles glorious. For in the time of King Theodebert, a certain Arboastes a Presbyter, with a certain Frank was contending, the King being present. But while these things were being done, the King the holy places, which under the streets of that city are had, for the sake of prayer was visiting. But when the King saw, that the prosecution of the Presbyter was crafty; turning, to him he says: If true are, he says, the things which thou prosecutest, this upon the tomb of Maximinus the Antistes by an oath confirm. I dare, says the Presbyter, these things, which thou commandest to fulfill: and immediately placing his hand upon the holy sepulcher, he said: By the virtue of this Saint may I be crushed, if anything false I speak, of these things which by my prosecution against this Frank I press. But the Barbarian raging, and as if against the Saint of God furious, they went out of the basilica. And when through the way together they went, suddenly the Presbyter slipping down fell to the ground, and dead was. The Barbarian praised thenceforth the virtue of the Saint, whom before he had disparaged. So also the Archdeacon of that city, when by Nicetius the Bishop for the crime of adultery he was accused, by an oath himself at this Saint's sepulcher to purify sought. And having entered the first threshold of the crypt, he stopped as if stupefied: then descending through the steps, to another door he came. And when to the third he wished to approach, forthwith by a fever seized, his step further to fix not daring, the crime which was imputed, in the peril of death placed, he confessed: beseeching the people, that for him either the holy Antistes's or his Bishop's suffrages they should demand. For immediately as he confessed his guilt, both from the impulse of the fever he was snatched, and into his Antistes's charity was received. Passed to the heavenly ones S. Nicetius Bishop of Trier, under whom the affair was done, about the year DLXIV, and is venerated on V December: nine years before had died King Theodebert, of whom in the beginning was mention made.
LIFE
By an Anonymous of San-Maximin, written in the VIII century.
From a very old Ms. of Paris of S. Victor.
Maximinus, Bishop of Trier on the Moselle (S.)
BHL Number: 5822
FROM THE MS.
CHAPTER I.
The matters done in his life, the bringing back of the body from Aquitania to Trier.
PROLOGUE
To God, in his Saints signs and prodigies wonderfully working, by all the Christian people unceasing thanks are owed; especially in those days, in which of some Saints the annual day is celebrated. Wherefore concerning the virtues or miracles, which the Lord through the Blessed deigned to work Maximinus, to your Charity, dearest Brethren, a few things to narrate we have decreed, that by the example of his institute the more ardently you may attain his felicity eternal.
[2] In Aquitania born with 3 brothers and a Sister, Therefore the holy and to God beloved Maximinus, his origin drew from the province of Aquitania: but a brother of his Maxentius by name, and another Maximus, the third indeed Jovinus, and their holy sister Maxima, in that very province of Poitiers were born. After therefore he himself, whose today the festal day is kept by us, namely Saint Maximinus, and Maxentius his brother, and Jovinus, in the divine laws were well instructed; Maxentius in the city of Poitiers was elected to the order of the Pontificate. At Trier made a Cleric, Then Maximinus went to Trier into Gaul, because he had heard the reputation b of B. Agritius the Bishop; that there he might receive the burden of the Clericate, in that already aforesaid place, which also was done. Afterward c S. Quiriacus by a nocturnal vigil went to an Angel of the Lord coming to him, announced to him saying: Go and tell Maximinus; there, as the Angel had foretold, he shall be Pontiff after the death of B. Agritius. Who going, as the Angel had commanded him, announced to him. Which, when to the holy Maximinus was known, he confessed himself to be unworthy of such an honor. Finally the Angel announced to the Lord's Agritius, that B. Maximinus to him a successor should be made in the Bishopric. Then S. Agritius, the burdens of this world relinquishing, departed from the world. Afterward all with one mind the people seized him, and on the Chair of his predecessor Agritius raised him, and to the Chair of the most blessed man in the year e XXVII of Constantine God helping he is set. he is made Bishop in the year 332 At the same time in which B. Maximinus to the Episcopal dignity was elected; f then the Arian heresy through the whole world, and most of all within Illyricum, began to rage and to sprout, and was persecuting the Church of God. Then Maximinus, his hope manfully placing in the Lord, that heresy gainsaid, and many tribulations and straits suffered under that Emperor g Constantius.
[3] he is present at the Synod of Cologne: Nor this I think to be kept silent, that this venerable Pontiff Maximinus a Synod h gathered publicly in the city of Cologne, and began to contend against Euphrates the most nefarious Bishop, who asserted this, that Christ was not truly the Son of God. And he himself B. Maximinus Jesus our Lord to show took care, how he was baptized and suffered, and on the day
the third rose, then the disciples beholding the heavens he penetrated: and condemning the heretical depravity by a canonical sentence, from his See it utterly extirpated. After these things, through many years doing miracles not small, the blind he gave light to, the paralytic he cured, demons he put to flight. Then to Rome, by the nod and aid of the Lord, the holy man himself going, i to S. Martin is joined: that both, dear to Christ, together might visit the thresholds of B. the Apostle Peter. going to Rome And to them in a certain castle coming, B. Martin went to that castle that he might buy foods, which were necessary on the way: and there the holy Maximinus he left, that he might guard their little packs, and the little donkey together with the baskets. And when S. Maximinus, fatigued by drowsiness and the journey, to sleep had given his body, behold a bear coming out of the wood seized the little donkey, and carrying it with him devoured it. And when B. Martin had returned, and the holy Maximinus had roused, he said to him: What hast thou done Brother Maximinus? By drowsiness, he says, I was overtaken, and here a little my head I reclined. Our donkey, he says, where hast thou it? And he answered, I know not. But S. Martin himself showed him the beast, which had devoured it. Who said: Most certainly it has prepared an injury for itself. Then the venerable S. Maximinus called that beast, and commanded it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ saying: Come, follow me, why didst thou not let it go, and thus foolishly hast acted, that thou shouldst not at all spare our donkey, carrying our things? to thee I bid, what it was doing, do thou also k. He loads upon it the burdens, which that very donkey was wont to bear. But the bear itself, on the bear for having eaten the donkey he imposes the pack: what to it had been bidden, to do without murmuring strove; and went with him, exhibiting obedience, until to the thresholds of B. Peter they had come the Apostle. And the prayer with sincerity of mind being performed, and the Saints' relics venerably honored, they returned even to the place, whose name is the villa Urseria, and with them the bear bearing their burdens. Then B. Maximinus said to that bear: Go whither thou wilt, and see thou harm no one, hurt no one, and by no one canst thou be harmed.
[4] he instructs S. Lubentius: After these things both to the city of Trier came, and there S. Martin Lubentius his spiritual son to Maximinus commended, asking suppliantly, that he should teach him the sacred letters. But afterward S. Maximinus when he ordained him Presbyter, and in a village, whose name is l Cubruno, in the law of God imbued he placed him. Finally the holy of God Maximinus, the Archiepiscopal See of Trier relinquishing, dead in his fatherland he is buried. to his fatherland returned, namely for love of his Brethren, the Antistes of Poitiers Maxentius and Maximus, whom there he had left when he went to Gaul: and the brethren being visited, there his last life, with words at once and deeds adorned, he finished. So the Prelate the heights of heaven joyful ascended; and how great a choir of the Saints sweetly singing to this soul was companion, human tongue cannot relate: and the Prelate died in the aforesaid province, and was buried in the monastery which is situated in the parish of Poitiers m, the years of his ordination seventeen having passed, and thirty days.
[5] Then S. Maxentius his brother the See of Poitiers was ruling: sent by S. Paulinus into Aquitania, at the same time S. Paulinus of Trier was ordained Pontiff, and making with his Clergy and the people of Trier a counsel, all together exhorted, that thence the body they should transfer of S. Maximinus; who in this most doubtful were, saying that they would not find him at all unless to them by someone it were shown. Together therefore a multitude of Clerics and people being gathered, they went to Aquitania, inquiring where the holy of God had rested; because none of them knew the place. taught by a boy And when from the journey already fatigued they were, in a certain place they encamped. Then one of the Elders, prostrating himself in prayer, the Lord, that to him the place he might show, besought. And immediately came one boy, keeping sheep, who to one sheep testified, saying: If hence thou shalt have gone, by S. Maximinus, I have to strike thee. Wherefore he himself calling to him the boy, asked him, where that holy body rested. they go to the body Who answering, said to him: Thou man, what art thou, who knowest not where the holy of God rests? The old man himself answered: I these things know not, but from thee to know I desire. The boy therefore went, and to him the place showed. Then the old man relating to his own, all together praised the Lord: they rose, and to the holy Maximinus they went, and prostrated themselves in prayer. But them praying, behold an Angel of the Lord appearing manifest, showed to them saying: Here the blessed man rests Maximinus. They hearing these things, rejoiced with unspeakable joy. Then those guards and an unspeakable multitude of the people of the Aquitanians gathered themselves, and compelled them out of that place to go. But they answered, saying: Brethren of yours in Christ we are. We indeed for no other reason came, and by the admonition of the Angel, the keys received, they carry it out. except for the sake of prayer. Why do you compel us to go out? This night here we will stay, and tomorrow we will set out. Then the Aquitanians, of theirs seeing the constancy, thought, the people of Trier to be full of fear; and with joy were filled great, and all inebriated, so that none of them his neighbor recognized. Then drowsiness pressing down both the guards and the rest of the people, the Angel of the Lord coming the Blessed roused Lubentius, and said to him: Rise, go into the little cell where the keeper rests; and the key of the church, which is at his head, take: and bear away the great treasure, which thou seekest. But he with the other Presbyters going, found just as the Angel to him had said: the Aquitanians pursuing being hindered from heaven. and took that key, and went with the Presbyters to the church, and raised the body of B. Maximinus, and to the people carried it. They closed finally the door, and that key at the keeper's head placed, whence they had taken it. And thence rising with great joy and gladness, they took up their Patron with psalms and spiritual hymns, returning to their own. Then the people of the Aquitanians, at the third hour of the night awakened, saw how thence the people of Trier had departed: and were saying that they took flight for fear of them. Rising therefore the keeper of that church, and entering within, lighting candles, by no means the body found of B. Maximinus. Then all the people of the Aquitanians a voice together raised, and a groan gave with the guards: and with a great army them they pursued a three days' journey. But on the third day, their eyes lifted they saw them afar having encamped. Then in a wondrous manner flashings, lightnings, and thunders over them began to run, so that none thought to return. But there, where the people of Trier was staying with B. Maximinus's body, neither thunders nor flashings any were heard, but serenity and great joy.
[6] on the journey various miracles are done; After these things the Aquitanians, with fear confounded great, returned to their own. But the nation of Trier with great honor and joy praises offered to God, who to them their Patron, whom in life they had had, after death restored. While therefore they were on the journey, a certain blind man coming to his bier, immediately as the shadow touched him of the bier, whole to receive his sight he merited. And when near the boundary n of the parish they had arrived of Trier to a castle, whose name o Mouzon, a certain paralytic was carried to B. Maximinus's bier, who soon as he touched it was cured. Where therefore the body of the most blessed Maximinus was placed, there the people [p] a basilica in his honor built. After finally coming into the parish of Trier, to a castle which is called [q] Ebosius; behold a certain woman, having an unclean spirit, cried out to the people of Trier, and says: Why hast thou done to us thus? Did not suffice you the Saints of God Eucharius, Valerius, and Maternus, and B. Agritius, who us torment unceasingly, and many straits inflict, because hither thou hast brought S. Maximinus? And forthwith she was cured of the unclean spirit. Hence going on they came to a town, whose name [r] of Arlon is called: and there two coming lepers a voice suddenly gave, saying, Have mercy on us, B. Maximinus, who soon whole were made.
[7] the body is deposited in the basilica of S. John, Then to the city they approached of Trier. Then the whole people of both sexes, with thymiams and incenses and lights and a great frequency of ornaments, to meet against their Pontiff went out. S. Paulinus therefore the city's Antistes, into the basilica of S. John, which his predecessors had built, to be borne him commanded. Namely SS. Eucharius, Valerius, and Maternus another there prepared for themselves a place to rest: and there the most blessed man in the church, of which above we made mention, honorably was laid up. But the Saints Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus from the other rest part of the city, within the church which for themselves far from the city with wondrous they built work.
ANNOTATIONS.
for thus they would have begun the septenary number: a similar error also elsewhere we have often detected. We did not have this writing when we edited the Acts of S. Agritius, whose death then we referred to about the year 335, following Brower. If the year 332 to anyone more pleases, and congruent reasons he brings, willingly we will yield. In the apograph twice was noted Constantius in place of Constantine, once for the father, and then for the brother of Constantius, which we corrected.
moreover, of whose reception at length Lupus treats, was by Constantine the Great relegated from Trier, he being dead was restored to his own See, his brothers prevailing in this with Constantius, as the dying father had commanded. Furthermore since S. Maximinus without any peril of his own received Athanasius, to be corrected in this place is both this Author, and Lupus, exaggerating his fortitude in this.
The inveterate error from the corrupted Acts of the Synod the authors followed, are to be excused by us.
namely, when he with S. Amand and Nicasius of Elnone to Rome set out, the horse which carried the baggage, a bear ate, and then in place of the horse carried the baggage. Let the Reader judge of the truth of the matter: it is to be feared lest, what once perhaps was done, to many was applied, and on occasion of the name Ursaria, far perhaps older, a popular tale grew strong, such as we have often noted coined from a similar cause. But it seems to be indicated the village Ursel, on the right bank of the Rhine between Worms and Mainz: which if true, favors the opinion of Brower about S. Martin of Mainz. There is also a certain Ursaria in Istria.
13 October: who indeed for that time in which he came to Trier, not rightly could be said to have been the spiritual son of a youth still a Catechumen, such as S. Martin of Tours then was.
the right bank of the Meuse, between Sedan and Satanacum, of which we treated 9 February at the Life of S. Victor the Martyr. There at the walls of the city is a fountain, and is said to have been elicited by S. Maximinus.
p. It is a village now Ully, or Oeuilly, or Euelly, on the road which from Mouzon to Ivois leads, and commonly is called S. Maximin in Ully.
q. Ebosius, to Lupus Eviovium, or Ivodium, a most fortified town of the Luxemburg territory, commonly Yvoix.
r. The town of Arlon, commonly Arlon, to others Arlunum, the fourth league from Luxemburg toward the West.
CHAPTER II.
Various miracles wrought at Trier.
A blind man is enlightened. After these things also a certain man blind from birth, Crechto by name, coming from the region of Benevento, to the thresholds of B. Peter went the Apostle, him with all intention of mind asking, that sight to him he would deign to grant. And when more vehemently in prayer he persisted, B. Peter stood by him, saying these things: Go into Gaul to the city of Trier, and seek out where the most blessed Maximinus rests, and sight to receive thou shalt merit. He, having heard this, rejoicing departed, and arriving at the aforesaid city found there a keeper, Gausbertus by name, to whom all that to him had been shown in order he narrated: who immediately introduced him to the sepulcher of the blessed man. The blind man therefore inclining himself to the tomb, in which the illustrious members were contained, when he had given his accustomed prayer to God, without delay to see he merited, and thence rejoicing and exulting, and to S. Maximinus giving thanks, withdrew.
[9] For a little after, before the glorious body was translated from that crypt, The sepulcher being untouched by the higher water the body is translated. that crypt there was filled with water, where this never before nor afterward had been seen: and through the crypt higher round about appeared the measure of one cubit, and the sepulcher itself by no means touched, but as a wall on either part it stood. Then the holy of God, a. namely Hidulphus, Clemens, and b. Lothbertus, knew that the blessed man from that crypt wished to go out, and to be translated to the place where now he is adored, c. as more often to Lothbertus the Bishop it had been revealed; which also was done, with great honor and joy, hymn-singing choirs resounding. the lamps of their own accord are kindled But the cover of that sepulcher those three Bishops carried away, and in one corner placed: which afterward three hundred men thence by no means could raise. Then forty were added yokes of oxen with ropes, nor thus that to draw could they. Nor yet is the miracle of the Lord to be passed over, which frequently with our eyes we beheld, about the lamps, and the cross is moved: which at his feet hang, and by divine bidding kindle themselves and turn, in a wondrous manner and by manifest virtue. And when Kings or Princes of that province are changed, those lamps seem to kindle themselves and to be moved by divine nod: and before these make that of the Bishop to glitter sepulcher, the church itself trembles, and a light appears vast, which splendor brings to this miracle: the Cross also, which before his holy stands tomb, when some in that kingdom arises a new cause, it before makes a circuit and by the bidding is moved of God.
[10] But a certain woman, d. Rodarea by name, from the Frankish Senators procreated, a withered foot is cured: whose leg's foot had become withered, so that little of flesh remained; to the sepulcher coming of B. Maximinus, for a long time in prayer prostrate lay: to which woman both her maidens and her husband's men said: Withdraw hence. To whom she answered: By no means hence will I withdraw, unless S. Maximinus to me health shall have restored. And when her already family compelled her that she should return, she said: By no means can it be done: because he who to the blind sight restored, and to lepers cleanness, and to the paralytic curing, to me wretched if he shall wish will impart health. Then that night coming to his holy sepulcher, and prostrating herself in prayer, forthwith she was healed.
[11] Nor this I esteem to be put off, that to his holy solemnity thirty and seven on one day came demoniacs: several demoniacs are freed. and all on that very day were cured, between the vigils of the night and of the day. From a certain woman's mouth also, on another day so unclean went out a spirit, that all who there were present by it that very basilica esteemed to be set on fire; and an odor sharper than all stenches thence proceeded, so that fear of death it struck into all. For that woman forty and seven years that demon had endured. There coming therefore another year, twenty and two demoniacs, from far-off coming regions, without delay were cured. But in the third year, nonetheless three others by their parents demoniacs were brought, Frisians by race, and a fourth from Aquitania, six also from Germany to the Vigils of B. Maximinus, and amid those Vigils were cured, in the name of the Lord e.
[12] Charles Martel freed from a fever Nor this is to be kept silent, that in the time of Charles the Prince, the Prince himself with great fevers bound to the last almost is brought a day. Then S. Maximinus, in a vision appearing, said to him: What dost thou, wretch? But he said: I nothing of my will do, because now I die. But thou who art, Lord? But he answered: I am Maximinus, of Trier the Bishop; go in the morning to my sepulcher, and there thou shalt be healed straightway. Charles his Credendary f. calling, said to them, Have you seen this B. Maximinus the Bishop? Who said to him, Lord, just now by no means have I seen. Charles says: Go out quickly, if him thou shalt find: nevertheless I tell thee, that a little before I called thee, to me to manifest himself he deigned; and commanded, that after him I should go to his tomb, that there health I might obtain. These things therefore said he commanded for himself a wagon g. the King to be prepared, and himself therein to the sepulcher of S. Maximinus to be carried. And when there he had been carried, by drowsiness pressed down, he saw again B. Maximinus in a vision, saying to him: I for thee the Lord prayed, that safe thou be made. Go now, and beware lest further evils thou do. And when from sleep he had risen, he found himself most powerful in the virtue of his body. Thence therefore going to the h. Sacristy, he offers gifts. he narrated all that through B. Maximinus to him had granted the Lord benefits, and asked that Keeper, that to him to eat he should give, because hunger he was suffering very great, twenty days no food taking before the recovery of health: who immediately gave him to eat, and he was strengthened. Afterward indeed the Prince himself to that place gave three Fiscs, by name Petra salis i., and Vidmar k. the church, and Comitiacum, gave also Andalina l. the villa to S. Peter: very many afterward there bestowed gifts.
[13] Nor this to be passed over, Brethren, I think, that Pippin the King his Cleric, by name m. Brunicus, very full of unclean spirits, through Helluarius the Archdeacon into many regions had sent, Under King Pippin are freed 3 demoniacs, that health he might receive, and by no means obtained it. And when that demoniac had been led to the thresholds of B. Maximinus, immediately the unclean spirit from him went out. But he filled with joy, praises and glory to God and S. Maximinus gave, who him from such an enemy snatched. Again also the same Pippin the King one sent an Alemannian, whose name Guerricus vexed by a demon had been: and when there he was present, they put him in a chain, and that as glass straightway he broke. Afterward him with a stronger they bound chain, that utterly himself to move he could not. Then the Brethren for him for many days to God poured forth prayer. And when one day to the solemnities of the Masses the Brethren assembled, behold he breaking the chain to B. Maximinus's hastily ran sepulcher; and the boys seeing apprehended him. But he crying out said: Do you not see my adversaries, who me were vexing, how now into flight they are turned, 2 women are healed. and the Saint pursues them Maximinus? And so by the merits of the most blessed man from the demon he was cured. A certain woman also, Waltrudis is carried into that basilica: to whom immediately B. Maximinus of her members gave health. Again also a certain daughter of King Pippin, had a boy, by name p. Gumbertus, who he also by a demon not a little was vexed. And when him through several places they had carried, and nothing profited; they came to the place of B. Maximinus. But as the doors of the church he entered, forthwith by the prayers of the servant of God health he obtained. A certain woman also Flictildis q. by name,
her hands and feet broken, coming thither, wondrously by B. Maximinus was cured. A storm of the sea is calmed, the Saint appearing
[14] There was besides a certain man of the race of the Frisians, whose name was called Ibbo: who when to B. Maximinus himself with all that he had giving, for the stipends of the Brethren to be purchased beyond the sea to go had decreed in one ship, other merchants with six ships to him were joined. For when they had entered the sea, a storm arose strong: the ships indeed six before their eyes were sunk, so that none of them escaped. And when he beheld this, he said to the sailors, Let us cry out to the Lord, and to the prayers of B. Maximinus, that us from this he may snatch peril. Then they crying said; S. Maximinus, free thy servants. Immediately Ibbo himself a man beheld splendid, like the sun, before the ship upon the sea going, and he said to them: Fear not. Soon therefore a great tranquility in the sea was made, so that utterly fear from their eyes was driven. They indeed seeing this, glorified God and S. Maximinus, who them from so great a peril snatched.
[15] A calumniator is besieged by a demon and is freed. Nor this to be omitted I esteem r., that a certain man, Rusticus by name, when he had entered the basilica of B. Maximinus, and had seen the lamps by themselves moving, said: O truly seducers, you say that S. Maximinus this works, and you by contrivance do it; and forthwith by a demon he was seized, and to death almost brought. After these things to the church of the holy man he was carried, and by the prayers and obsecrations of men serving God health he merited entire. Let suffice therefore for you the few things, which above we have mentioned, about the Blessed man's miracles: because to our possibility it is not given to narrate, what through B. Maximinus to work the Lord deigned, and daily works s., the Lord himself Jesus Christ aiding, whose praise, honor, and empire without end consists, with the eternal God the Father and the Spirit, the consoler and vivifier of all the living, through the eternal ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
succeeded Numerian under Childeric between the year 660, and 670. Of him we treated in our Diatribe on the 3 Dagobert Kings book 4 chapter 5, and the matter is here confirmed from the order of the relation. In the Life of S. Agritius is said this translation made IV Kalends of June. But in the Life of S. Deodatus, to be given 19 June num. 11 is noted the year 667, and afterward some Relics given to S. Deodatus is said.
title also some things from the preceding Chapter he could have omitted, which alone were had by tradition, whereas in that which follows about the Lamps, an eyewitness the author asserts himself.
even today keeps the name, and is the most ancient of the town so called parish, wrote to us our Alexander Wilthemius; adding that he in old letters also detected Wimmariburgum, a Luxemburg Suburb: a place probably of the habitation of him, who the aforesaid church founded, given to S. Maximinus (as the same has it) in the year 731. But Wilthemius himself doubted, whether the same could not be believed Waymerus Duke of Champagne, by us named in the Dagobertine Diatribe, renewed before the 3rd Volume of April num. 25, to whom in the year 676 Ebroin, Major-domo of King Theoderic, to be guarded delivered S. Leodegar.
p. Gumbertus, to Lupus Cunibertus is called: the Mother's name hitherto lies hidden: for the two daughters of Pippin Rothais and Adelais, as young girls died; Gisla, was an Abbess; S. Itisberga, a virgin remained; Berta, the mother of the fabulous Roland, among the fables is reckoned.
q. To Lupus, Elithildis.
r. Lacking is this punishment and healing in Lupus: because namely incredulous of the aforenoted miracle about the motion of the lamps, as that he omitted, so this also relating to the same he judged to be omitted.
s. Lupus, after relating the curing of the demoniacs, thus concludes: If we should wish both by this and by the manifold kind of other virtues, how often it has flourished, even to this year in which we write, that is from the Incarnation of the Lord the eight hundred thirty-ninth, by the office of the style to designate; neither shall we keep the measure of a book, and to the learned reader less shall we be pleasing, while similar things frequently we shall narrate.
HISTORY OF THE MIRACLES
By the Author Sigehard, Monk of San-Maximin.
Maximinus, Bishop of Trier on the Moselle (S.)
BHL Number: 5826
FROM THE MS.
PROLOGUE.
To Wiker the Abbot, the asserter of the miracles to be written, with a supplement of the Life concerning S. Quiriacus.
To the Lord Abbot Wiker, Sigehard. Thou askest, Father most dear, Compelled by the Abbot's Obedience nay by a certain force of authority thou extortest from me unwilling, that an arduous altogether, and exceeding my powers, to be explained work I should take up. For thou enjoinest and by thine own power compellest, that those things which after the book about the life of Saint Maximinus put out by Lupus the Bishop, through the same glorious Confessor of Christ were done as miracles, lest they utterly to the readers' or hearers' profit perish, by the style I should bind: and into a fitting series of narration digested, after that first, a second over them booklet I should complete, thou sure things to speak suggesting the matter. For which reason I am constrained between two; fearing namely lest, either by resisting thee, the crime of disobedience I incur; or again to obey striving, in the undertaking I succumb; since indeed of my little wit the tenuity and of my eloquence the little drop in executing, for a business of this kind by no means me to suffice I see. Therefore by so great a difficulty of matters, by which nowhere unharmed I can come off, as by a certain circuit of walls enclosed and on all sides hedged about; this only to be done useful for me I have judged, namely in this part to choose a place of escape, by which I perceive less from the precipice of harm can befall. For since it is established, he writes things received from those who saw, or from seers knew. that the contempt indeed of elders to the soul's peril, but failure in things begun relates to the ridiculous; who, sound and wise, more tolerable, nay far more wholesome to be does not judge, for inexperience the mockeries of men to sustain, than for pride himself to condemn? Wherefore the long and much desired work go on securely to undertake: I plainly to thee according to my powers will be present, by no means daring to thy Sanctity longer to struggle. All things therefore which thou shalt have said, either by thyself (as thou promisest) and by those who still live with thee seen, or by those who saw to thee by probable persons ascertained, with whatsoever I shall pursue style; not for this on the confidence of my own possibility leaning, but so laborious a business for me rather to thy and of all the holy Brethren's merits and prayer committing. There will be present also, as ever in all things, so in this part also, our illustrious Patron Maximinus; easily (as I trust) with Christ the Lord obtaining, that as he by God the Father in the Holy Spirit was made to all health and justice, so also to me tongueless may be made a tongue. Which if he shall deign, no doubt, the liquid truth even from a mute lucidly shall be expressed.
[2] Nor is it to be passed in silence, that since easily I trust, to God and all the pious of succeeding times this little work will be pleasing; I fear yet that some of the present will derogate from it, and me senseless, false-speaking, a manikin of no moment, of all reprehension most worthy, as the Abbot himself dictated it. in the whole world will adjudge. Nor thee, I confess, venerable Father, even should they wish, will they be able to except, but that of all this persecution by the plague thou be involved: since indeed both me, according to the assertion of such, false to write thou hast compelled, and to the writer the matter of falsity thou hadst ministered. From which matter worth the trouble I see by the present little preface to the calumniating way to those to obstruct, not by the art of a great defense resisting, but humbly suggesting, that they remember the first and strongest asserters of Christ, to have been simple men, not sophists: nor let them expect me with Mercurial rapidity and Tully's abundance in the court to declaim; but in the little cell of a monastery of the deeds done the truth, by the sober and truthful mouth of a pious Father brought forth, in pure and simple discourse to speak. Then indeed, even if deservedly by them be held in contempt that vileness of the laborer, to honor yet I beseech let be held the prerogative of the commander: nor immediately let them believe our Father, a man indeed by holy life and conversation conspicuous, false to speak, rather than to keep silent to have preferred.
[3] he premises things omitted by Lupus concerning S. Quiriacus, These things thus foretasted, Wiker Father, what to be done presses let us enter, the divine condescension being first besought, that it assenting, what to him and to all the Saints be worthy, both thou by mouth to declare, and I by writing to pursue may be able. With that moreover miracle notable the beginning I resolve to dedicate, which in that time, in which yet the venerable Maximinus by temporal life and bodily presence this city protected and illustrated, was done; although no oblivion through so many ages' volumes this has been able to abolish, but that even today by the admiration of almost all memorable and celebrated it perseveres. Since therefore so illustrious a deed, and everywhere to all known, in that book, which the life and deeds of the saint more fully contains, passed over we wonder; this in silence we also to pass over, unfitting we have judged and unworthy: since indeed even by this alone the merit and sanctity, not only of Maximinus, but also of Quiriacus, by the religious and believing sufficiently can be estimated. But it is of this kind.
[4] whom going round the churches by night In the time in which B. Maximinus lived in the body, holy also there was Quiriacus, a man by faith and virtues illustrious, and to pious and upright acts wholly intent. To whom among other good things, since this also was his custom, namely all this city's monasteries and oratories most frequently to visit, and by assiduous prayer for himself the divine propitiation to conciliate; preferred yet the holy man, boasting avoiding and human praise fleeing,
such pursuits in the nocturnal rather than the daytime to exercise. Meanwhile some of the Clerics, the Saint's virtues envying, who the name only and fame of his sanctity, not also the works coveted, among themselves began to mutter, and of fornication an eyewitness, and the man's reputation by the infamy of turpitude secretly to defile; and gradually into more open vices raising themselves, those nocturnal labors, not now to virtue, but to vice to reckon. Nor delaying, to the very Bishop Maximinus at length, by unhappy rashness to be agitated with sinister suspicions, they leap forth; about the crime of fornication the innocent Quiriacus they accuse. These things heard the holy Bishop (as one who his ear to criminations had applied unwilling) faith indeed entire to the informers is said by no means to have accommodated; Quiriacus yet, with the greatest modesty, from his communion meanwhile and familiar companionship for some time to have separated; and with himself meanwhile to have dealt, that by praying of so great a thing from God knowledge to obtain he might merit, of the doubtful matter. S. Maximinus from his companionship debarred: But Quiriacus was before this, to the sacred hands of the Antistes, daily oblations wont to offer, with which he the Sacraments of Christ confecting, his own equally as Quiriacus's spirit with spiritual nourishment to sacred and heavenly things assiduously strengthened.
[5] But on a certain day Maximinus, the solemnities of the Masses about to celebrate, according to custom proceeds: present also is Quiriacus at the divine Offices, from the grave, as he thought, of so great worn out. And because the very holy Antistes's sight for humility and bashfulness he had avoided; afar himself bashfully withdrawing, by the very Church's doors, in the recess of a certain corner's bosom, more secretly stood. When behold an Angel of the Lord suddenly was present, gently about the anxiety conceived the holy man consoling, and likewise admonishing the oblations of the hosts to be offered according to custom to prepare: the innocence being revealed through the Angel he received him. that no less the Bishop than any suspicion of evil about himself was thinking: that offense, almost feigned, wholly already to have been changed into grace. Wondrous to say! In the same hour and the same moment, to the most glorious Prelate Maximinus, already approaching the sacred altar, nonetheless stood by an Angel; his prayers by God received he announces, the cautious abstinence of communion with the accused he commends, Quiriacus the holy of the objected things excuses: then admonishes, from his hands, that the accustomed hosts to God receiving to be consecrated, the innocent man to the grace of reconciliation and the Sacraments' participation undoubtedly he should admit. And so Quiriacus, first indeed by the kiss of peace to his Antistes confederated, then indeed by the Sacraments of Christ confirmed, outwardly as into the lost his Pontiff's charity seemed to be restored, which certainly in both their hearts most firmly to be believed it is that never either had suffered from the other even slight injury. Now indeed the solemnities being performed seeking secret places, the magnificent and most happy deeds of that time together they confer, into kisses they rush, weep for joy, and in their advancements Christ devoutly praise; who the proud confounds, to the humble grace bestows, and the machinations of the wicked destroys; the innocent and in himself confiding frees, and those loving him ever and everywhere protects and cherishes. These things therefore, through all the peoples of past times by celebrated fame divulged, and to us even brought down, first in our little edition let them obtain place; which as they are said to be true, the churches' pictures also confirm: of which we one, and this most ancient, and by age already almost abolished, in the ancient church of S. Quiriacus, over his sepulcher, in a crypt set up we saw.
CHAPTER I.
Demoniacs cured, those injurious to S. Maximinus punished.
[6] Now indeed to those things let us come which we in the Preface set before promised we would write; in which the order of the times, as they were done, we cannot keep; because to like things like it pleases to connect. Nor do I see what hinders the edification of the readers, that in the relation of deeds of this kind the times be varied, provided what was done be not kept silent. How great this Saint's, toward those who by a malign spirit are vexed, ever has been, and still is the compassion, since more fully in the book mentioned it is digested, we only about a few in number energumens, in what manner through the merits of Maximinus by God they were cured, first let us say. Two formerly women, by this horrible tyranny invaded, together to this monastery were brought; in whom with so great ferocity the wicked spirits raged, that to this fury and madness nothing comparable was deemed. Wild bears in raging more tolerable to thee would seem, so all things they tore, and with teeth and nails raging assailed single persons. Nor to any bonds yielded the immense strength. Since yet by no food, seven or ten days now past, the pitiable little bodies refreshed, by the demon alone were agitated. With many exorcisms the Brethren the malign spirits rebuked: but when nothing was effected, at length they are ordered into the crypt before the Saint's sepulcher to be dragged. Where when without delay they had fallen asleep, by the virtue of Maximinus the demons being put to flight, straightway awaking the cruel guest they lacked. Then in a wondrous manner both women, soon converted to the Lord, immediately a most humble confession of their sins being made, and a satisfaction promised as much as they could, indulgence for themselves from God they prayed. Of the two one indeed, after the hastened reconciliation, the Viaticum taken there straightway died: but the other for life to be reserved scarcely with great labor recovered: nor unmindful of the benefits, each year as long as she lived, to God and S. Maximinus her vows most devoutly offered.
[7] A man also among his own not ignoble there was, who by this plague long and much was vexed; a noble man likewise, before to be freed he merited often his bonds being broken slipping away, often again caught, bound, and hither brought back. But on a certain night, when he was tied to the ladder, by which the pulpit of the church was ascended; the Keeper to renew the lights rising, that holy place, the crypt I say, forthwith approached. But there was this Monk, by name Wenilo, a man through all things of honest life and laudable: when meanwhile, those who with the mournful watches labored sleeping, the bound seized one, I know not, God shall I say acting, or the devil, suddenly from his bonds is loosed, and with a hastened course strives into the crypt. At whose entrance when no place of flight lay open, nor with such a wrestler were at hand the strengths of wrestling; Wenilo for some time stuck fast, amazed. Lying perchance was a rod from nearby: which seen, the constancy of speaking he put on: then the furious one with a terrifying enough command he bids return to his place. But that one with a shrill voice, and much contending himself not to return, but with him to remain; the rod taken, if nearer he should approach, a blow to his head he threatened at once and inflicted: for that one, while these things Wenilo spoke, a little was moving. A thing worthy of miracle, and to be praised the pious man's simplicity. A drop of blood, the skin touched a little, the blow drew out: which seeing, the madman's head he embraces, and persuades with blandishments in his bosom to recline, lest the sacred pavement the blood defile. When that one, as if sound, to all obeys. Then the Monk, on the pavement lying down, the head of the demented in his bosom placed: where quickly falling asleep, under that very quiet of sleep, from the dire agitator's unrest he was freed.
[8] and a certain rustic, Thiethbertus, this monastery's Monk, to relate was wont, that a certain rustic, when still a little boy he was, was seized by a demon, and grievously long was vexed. With whom when his necessary ones to the aid of B. Maximinus fled; on the same day it happened, that the order of singing urging Thiethbertus on the analogium necessarily ought a. an Alleluia to sing. Which since he wholly knew not, and yet when he began to omit dared not, frets for anguish the boy. When behold that one swiftly runs up, the boy lest he fear consoles: Praise, ye children, the Lord (for this Alleluia it was) the childlike imitating voice, strenuously and pleasantly chants: and so Thiethbertus when by singing he had aided, from the imminent scourges is absolved. Nor that one as of a thing well done the reward lacked: for the chant finished to the ground forthwith he fell, but the Evangelical reading not yet completed, unharmed he rose.
[9] and another brought from Worms. At another time also to the same passion subject a certain one was brought: in whom when by the exorcists the demon was rebuked, and to depart from God's creature was bidden, with a lamenting voice he complained; at Worms at the memorial of b. S. Cyriacus likewise himself by some violence driven, this man to have invaded; and with him unjustly to be dealt, that from a dwelling by God to him permitted by men he was driven. O diabolical wickedness! which never so to the clear something of truth brings forth, that it be not with the false ever mixed. There is moreover here a little cross enough stuffed with Relics: which when on the man's head they had placed, he, as if for his expulsion's injury, the demon instigating him, on a sudden seized it with his teeth in the middle and bitingly cut it. Nor longer the enemy to subsist in the man could, but through the shameful passages of the body (indeed condignly for himself) forthwith was cast out. These to declare in the malign spirits Maximinus's power a few of many said let suffice, lest in like things a frequent repetition generate disgust: now the rest of his virtues' notable deeds let us pursue.
[10] In the times of Arnulf c. the Emperor, when already in this place, of religion, alas the grief! Duke Magingaudus received the Abbacy. the state by no small part was slipping, and the monastic profession's rigor gradually to be relaxed and dissolved had begun; the monastery's Abbot d. Herkembertus being dead, the Monks for the election of an Abbot the palace according to custom seek: to whom when, sins exacting it, the election was not permitted, some of the monastery's little possessions being sequestered, which scarcely a strait sustenance to the Monks could have afforded, to a certain Megingaudus of this kingdom the Duke, who then perchance was present, the Abbacy by the Emperor was given. Which received, when joyful to his own he had returned, cheerful himself and pleasant for the received benefit through the whole day to all showing; the night coming with his wife the chamber he entered. And when joyful on the bed together they had lain down, all having departed, the woman alone secretly in these words he addresses; Knowest thou, he says, how great a gift to me the Lord my Emperor has bestowed? calling his servant S. Maximinus he is contracted, But she when herself to know confessed not; A servant, he says, most rich into a benefice to me he indulged: and if thou wishest to know, it is Maximinus with his Abbacy, whom also to thee if thou wilt I will deliver. Which heard, the sound of mind woman her almost insane husband (as much as in herself was) for the rash garrulity vehemently to rebuke, and herself of so great a benefit most unworthy to proclaim. When amid these things there was no delay: and behold the injury of God's beloved a worthy vengeance follows, and the blasphemous mouth divine retribution seized: for that fragile and frail earth-dweller, who in the boasting of mind and swollen spirit himself above the heaven's Consul Maximinus had extended, suddenly within himself wholly is contracted; and a little before of man the form, into a sphere a certain or globe almost shapeless is rolled together.
[11] Then Megingaudus, so sharply divinely punished, into himself returned, what and why he suffered understood, and at his sepulcher penitent is healed: and from his whole heart, his wife exhorting, of the said he repented, and himself with forces prepared with great speed to Trier to carry commanded. At length therefore
to the monastery one came; before the holy altar he is set down; with precious gifts that altar is heaped: and he who before himself Lord proudly proclaimed, then S. Maximinus's servant by nods and hisses rather than words humbly assigned himself. Nor of the fruits of his satisfaction was the man deprived, after to his clemency, whom as it were insolently he injured, suppliant refuge he made: for prayer poured forth for him by the Brethren, by the merits of Maximinus the heavenly wrath is appeased, and by the virtue of the Saint entire health in a point of time to Megingaudus is restored. So the man by a wholesome rebuke by God chastised, lest further he should blaspheme against the Saints, Maximinus from then in his life venerates as most holy, embraces as a father, reveres as a lord: and the deed done to the Emperor forthwith referring, for the election denied to the Brethren he solicited; nor before by request and obsecration about the King did he desist, than a royal fisc, Ribiniacum e. by name, for the Brethren's uses he had acquired f. Of this therefore so great and such our Patron's sanctity who sufficiently shall wonder at? who worthily shall praise? So in the merits and virtue of our Maximinus all things are higher, all things more excellent, than that not even to be estimated, much less even by any of mortals can they be explained. But we whence, by this however small praise of the Saint, we have digressed, to the proposed let us return.
[12] After other usurpers of the Abbacy, Although, as in the foregoing Chapter we related, the order and discipline regular in this place in former time, by the negligence and enervation of the Provosts, in some part had limped; yet never, the divine clemency by the merits of Maximinus assenting, to this place have holy and religious men been lacking (until again Abbots being given, the neglect of regular observance, either to the pristine or even to better, God favoring, was corrected) since from many things, which it is not of the time to explain, and also from this, which at present I shall relate, clearly it appears. For after the mentioned Megingaudus, to the powers and uses of this kingdom's Dukes g. this Abbacy lay subject, these only excepted, which to the Brethren's sustentation long ago had been sequestered: which yet themselves (as also still) to their defense by the Kings were committed. For which cause when Gisilbertus, h. quite a young Duke, was set over the kingdom; as that age has it, Duke Gisilbertus grievous to the monks, to secular delights and pomps and the allurements of pleasures in the first time of his Principate (although afterward an excellent man he was made) giving himself rather, than to the conveniences of his subjects looking; the Monks of this monastery also vehemently afflicted; that namely, which to their uses had passed, taking away, and to his satellites distributing.
[13] But at that time, a most illustrious man Henry i., the father of the most Serene Augustus Otto, of whose Empire k. in the twenty-seventh year these things we have written, the monarchy of the Kingdom possessing, in vain to the King appealing, his subjects indeed by justice, peace and clemency most modestly governed, and the Empire's summit by virtues and glory and all honesty singularly adorned. Counsel therefore taken, the Brethren, as has been said, by intolerable affliction, by Gisilbertus depressed, the royal clemency approached, and what of inconvenience from the Duke they suffered they complained of; nothing yet by so great labor undertaken profiting, the indignation rather of the aforesaid Duke, undeserving, though, they earned. What else should they do? A defection at length from the monastery, by ultimate necessity compelled, they meditated. When suddenly strengths anew they repair of their spirits, counsel in this manner they restore, namely to the King of kings, he is scourged by S. Maximinus; Maximinus patronizing, their business by praying to refer. Which when for some time not slothfully was being done, on a certain night the venerable Maximinus in a vision to the Duke resting came; and first indeed, who he is and on whose account he has come, he discloses; then the guilty one's faults he argues; at the last indeed (wondrous things I am about to say, and almost incredible, to those yet who God believe not all things to be able) his sides and shoulders by scourges beating livid he renders, and immediately disappeared.
[14] and the things taken away he restores and concedes an Abbot. But soon the Duke, from his sleep at once and dream so grievously shaken, to a few familiars, a dream indeed himself to have seen, and what in it he suffered, the stripes attesting, declared; but why this, or who did it, with the greatest care to any of them to indicate he dissimulated, although yet easily from the consequence of the deeds that also could be conjectured. For forthwith toward Trier he hastened his journey, and Maximinus to himself by prayer appeasing and by gift, to the Monks not only the things taken away he restored, but also their lost favor of moneys, of which the fraternal communion much had need, he redeemed with expenses. From this time now from juvenile acts coming to his senses, a magnificent altogether he turned out into a man; and that place and congregation so much he loved, that by his especially zeal, the venerable Ogo clearness of religious conversation, to our life at length more splendidly shone back. These things therefore all, thus as we have related, of himself done, he himself to the holy man Ogo confessed: in which confession also himself to God and S. Maximinus a Monk to be in the future he devoted, if his wife surviving from the conjugal bond he should merit to be absolved n.
[15] I shall relate also another, which to this my judgment not far unequal is decreed; In a contention about boundaries unless perhaps this of Maximinus's virtues to be believed it ought a detriment, that in that miracle of the deed a companion Remigius illustrious to have had it is asserted. A certain Count, by name Ruobertus, the brother of him, of whom above we related, of Megingaudus he was, whose estates in the district of Naachgouve o., to the estates of Maximinus and Remigius bordering, lay adjacent; for which reason his servants with the family of the Saints by frequent litigation strove; those the ancient confines to overstep desiring, these on the contrary with all their strengths resisting. Meanwhile when the cruelty of the servile quarrels and rustic contention by the neighbors could not be checked, our people the covetous injury proclaiming, the cause is referred to the Count. He soon a court appointing, and a day fixing, for the inspection and going-round of the boundaries, by a great crowd of those dwelling round accompanied, came, a false guide, and his own to go before bids guides. Nor delay. One of them, who of this iniquity ever was the head, and himself before the rest snatching a fraudulent leader is made; preceding and with the pointer pointing out, much of the Saints' estates, the ancient limits transgressing, by a false demonstration into the parts of his lord he attempted to transfer. He went therefore, and the gauntlet, which the rustics call a wantum, on his hand drawn over, as he wished demonstrated; our people following and resisting, he loses a finger. and the aid of Maximinus and Remigius by most constant prayer crying out together. Meanwhile that good leader and just one, the gauntlet from his hand draws off; but in the same a finger divinely amputated he left. Then of his malice convicted, and by his lord, as worthy it was, ignominiously treated, his favor he lost; and so the truth declared, all that contention had an end.
ANNOTATIONS.
by one of the boys: to whom on that day by ancient usage are wont the Choir offices all to be committed, just as the same in private families in the place of father and mother then command. There is also where they act the Bishop or Abbot, by childlike innocence and harmless, provided the reverence of the sacred ministries being safe the matter be done.
Worms was celebrated. Hence the church which at Neuhausen by Dagobert King of the Franks to S. Dionysius was consecrated, is said on account of his thither carried Relics to him dedicated by Samuel the Bishop, 15 October in the year 847. Mention of it Bruschius in the Bishops of Worms, Freher in the Origins Palatine part 2 chapter 13, Merian in the Topography of the Palatinate of the Rhine, who asserts this place in the year 1566 by Frederick 3 the Palatine occupied. S. Cyriacus is venerated 8 August, if he be understood who with SS. Largus and Smaragdus suffered. Of the Hierosolymitan Bishop Martyr, whose Relics already of old into Gaul are believed brought, we treated 4 May, on account of the cult then celebrated, both in the Gallican and German churches.
f. Megingaudus, then in the monastery of Rutila on the bank of the Moselle near the town of Sirck by ambush slain, at S. Maximinus was buried: which done in autumn time in the year 893 relates Brower in book 9.
Gerard and Malfridus, in the year 897 invading the Commendam, were cast out; but in the year 900 anew they invaded, and at last in the year 905 proscribed: then Conrad, in that very year 905 dead; then Eberhard, who lived in the year 909; and a certain anonymous Count of the party of Charles the Simple, in the year 911 and 912.
first Count of Hainaut the son, by Charles the Simple of Lotharingia made prefect, afterward first Duke of Upper and Lower Lotharingia he was.
CHAPTER II.
Vengeance taken on others injurious, curing bestowed on the sick invoking.
[16] There is a villa of the monastery which is called Wimar church, which a certain most savage man (whose name has slipped from our memory) in a benefice had. Vexing the rustics of S. Maximinus, Who when the Saint's family most grievously he afflicted, even not finding what to them, whence they could be blamed, he might object; to one of them, who rougher than the rest seemed, his hawk to be guarded committed; knowing the rustic of that art no skill to have, that while the bird neglected perished, having looked the fault on the rustic he might turn back. He indeed long and much to resist and to excuse the inexperience of the art, yet the bird at last was compelled to undertake to be guarded. But what should he do? He kept it meanwhile alive without food, in a smoky house soon about to die. Which dead, the feathers he drew off from it, and sprinkled with salt; for the Lord to be kept he hung it. For foolish rusticity thought, that the cunning of the crafty man it would escape, if to him even the bird's carcass at the time of exaction uncorrupted
he could have shown. and on a futile pretext into judgment dragging, And when now, a long space of time being revolved, the harsh Lord his hawk from the rustic had exacted; he forthwith the carcass offered. There occasion being born the man raged: and a beast more cruel, as if an insult to himself by the rustic done to all his fellows he imputes, alleging by common counsel him to the boldness of the deed to have been animated; and all on the morrow to the palace he calls, of all their property to be despoiled, and with many besides stripes to be afflicted. Terrified therefore and fretting the wretches, that night assembled; and all human entirely despaired aid, Maximinus's help to seek they resolve; and chosen from all two youths the eulogies imposed, and the mandates given hastily to the monastery they send, those with fear greatest the appointed of the court awaiting. But the youths sent, when the Brethren of the hour of None the synaxis had celebrated, the gate of the monastery strongly knocked: those praying to the Saint he foully dies. and because it was thought some powerful person it might be, soon they were admitted. Who running through the midst of the Choir, the eulogies before the altar silently set down: and first with brooms, which with them they had brought, the altar a. they beat about; then prostrate on the ground, with a vast and pitiable howling Maximinus to awake, and to their aid against the tyrant to rise they demand. The same therefore hour and the same moment, in which these here their miseries deplore, that fierce one from the place of the court rising a retreat sought, and there with unspeakable torture the bowels of flesh at once and of cruelty poured out. Another's oxen, sent into the poor's fields,
[17] A certain Bernacher, a noble and opulent man, long after this happened, which hitherto we have related, the same villa by precarious right acquired: who with the torches of avarice kindled, the fields of that villa everywhere contiguous and bordering the poor men's little fields (because that land was fertile) to himself unjustly usurped; and the crowds of plowmen being gathered those fields he ordered to be tilled. Then those, on whom he inflicted violence, him by God to beseech and S. Maximinus, that his own to him might suffice, nor himself unjustly of his little possessions to despoil. To whom when this answer he returned, namely neither the breadth nor the length of a foot himself for Maximinus of all these lands to anyone would concede; they to the accustomed refuge run; those invoking the Saint, in that very place, in which the multitude of plowmen now to dine had sat down, of God and of holy Maximinus the aid, since none they had who to them for protection could be, with great weepings and wailings on the ground prostrate praying. Wondrous things I am about to say. As affirm those who saw, in no part of the sky not even the least little cloud appeared; when suddenly, in this only place, where the yokes of oxen with the plows stood, so great a tempest arose; that by the force of the winds and the whirlwind's vertigo lifted the oxen, with the plows, into a certain valley most deep, a half almost mile from this sundered place, whirled were cast; and without delay, as everywhere it was, so there too serenity was present. And when the husbandmen, every way dispersed, their oxen and plows had sought out; coming to the valley, oxen indeed some half-dead, some already dead, of these the horns torn out, of those the legs or necks broken, the plows indeed into bits shattered, they found. a whirlwind arising they are carried away afar. Then the husbandmen, for their losses much grieved, to Bernacher returned, and what had happened, with grievous lamentation announced. He indeed by great fear shaken, and yet a graver himself vengeance to feel suspecting, by the virtue of Maximinus terrified, from the persecution of the poor ceased further.
[18] Nor to be kept silent what for a similar cruelty to Adalbert, of this our b. Adalbert the father, in Gisilbertus the Duke's time happened. Another pertinacious vexer of the people of S. Maximinus, He indeed when inhumanly altogether the Saint's family he treated, and by the mother of the young Duke, for the father already had died, therefore more often was rebuked, nor from his wickedness could be corrected; at a certain time sixty men from the villa c. Ramiche (for this was his benefice) rising, all hither together came: and all before the doors all night keeping watch, license from the keeper obtained, twelve only within the church sent through three they dispose altars, all night the suffrages of Maximinus with unwearied prayer to seek. Nor the hope of Maximinus's piety presumed the vow of the suppliant wretches deceived. For in the morning that Lady (here namely she then was staying) when to Mass, by Adalbert and many other satellites accompanied, she proceeded; all those men, in her church awaiting her coming, soon as she entered, all together onto the pavement before the sacred altar fall down, with terrible and greatest clamors Maximinus in so great a necessity to patronize, and themselves of Adalbert's tyranny now at last cry out to be snatched. Scarcely those clamors, after a revolved as is said half-hour's space, silence was commanded. protesting that he had done them no harm, Adalbert indeed, seeing the merciful woman with no small grief from compassion of the wretches touched, to swear by Maximinus's virtue began; and that all which they said, those men had lied: and as he was with a sword girt, forthwith his hand stretching to the hilt, insolently too much by his sword d. swore, that most grievous penalties for so great rashness they would pay. by a miracle he is refuted, Not yet the words of threats had he finished, when suddenly all seeing (for with a cloak then he was not clad) loosed divinely the belt, the sword from his thigh to the ground fell; and the fact, that thenceforth for military service he would be useless, an evident portent was. So Maximinus (when by his virtue Adalbert, publicly confounded, soon the benefice lost) from his ferocity his servants powerfully snatched.
[19] Then Wenilo the Keeper of the church, of whom above we made mention, taking a little flask of only three sextarii capacity full of wine, Maximinus's blessing besought, those sixty men, and the wine furnished to the wretches is not at all diminished. by the vigils of the whole night and weepings fatigued, sufficiently abundantly refreshed; and lest also of the corporal of his charity reward he be deprived, soon as returning he entered the church, the same little flask, as it was before, full he found. Furthermore to all these things, which in this Chapter we have related, Rimopertus, Presbyter and Monk, who was present and saw, attests. Of Wenilo moreover, when the arduous of his life conversation, often to me by those who knew him expounded with this I compare, that so familiarly Maximinus's of virtues however small a portion he communicates; what else than holy I should judge? And because so much of this man we have said; it pleases also another to my like ones, namely in heart polluted and in body, for an example of being on guard to relate, which he also related, as often as the more negligent either he admonished or rebuked the Brethren.
[20] [A wicked Acolyte, a spark from the censer fallen into the Alb, is consumed by fire.] A certain one in this monastery was an Acolyte, a youth of disordered manners, in action light and slippery, and very incorrigible; who as often as the Brethren to the Communion of the Eucharist approached, he, nothing his polluted conscience fearing, and likewise secure, and sometimes even having dined, approached. It happened moreover on a certain day, that the censer with incense he carried according to custom: when a most thin spark, where the coals he blew, into the Alb fell; from which kindled so great flames soon poured forth, that the wretch utterly they burned up; nor with much water poured over, divinely sent could the fire be extinguished. To me plainly it seems in this sufficiently declared, how true it is, which the Apostle says, That the law is spiritual: for itself prescribed, a polluted house by fire to be expiated. Rom. 7:14 And what true house of the Lord, what dwelling of the Holy Spirit? This surely, this without doubt, which the Apostle the same insinuating, You know, he says, brethren, that the temple of God you are, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. If the temple we are of God, if the habitation of the Holy Spirit, not with inert zeal, the divine grace assisting, must we labor, lest a house so great by the colluvions of crimes be polluted. Cor. 3:16. Let us fear, by this pitiable man's example admonished, the expiation of fire, which the Apostle consequently to have shown I think, when forthwith he subjoined, saying; But if anyone shall violate this temple, him the Lord shall destroy. Cor. 3:17. Behold how terribly by the expiating fire destroyed this one was, who in himself God's temple feared not to violate; and therefore, as I think, that when we hear or read a man for his sins bodily burned up, of souls more attentively we may beware the burning. These by digression said, to those which we began to explain let us return.
[21] The holy fire is cured A certain Wenilo was a servant of the church, in whose dwelling a certain one lying, with a pitiable foot's pain was tortured. For that which the holy fire is called (but nothing than that plague more intolerably rages) his foot seizing, into the whole of the wretched and pitiable man's body, the extreme things of torments diffused. Then he, for too great pain almost going mad, and what else he should do not finding, with untiring and unceasing howling rather than voice, the name and aid of his Lord Maximinus to cry out, and with that cry the whole not to fail for two days. Now indeed the middle of the third night by such a chant's modulation passed, a little the sharpness of the pain assuaged, somewhat the wretch breathes; and into a most thin sleep resolved for a little, soon Maximinus he sees near to stand; what him with howlings he disquieted, what he wanted, to inquire. To whom he when his straits deplored, the pious Father Maximinus, by the dejection of countenance showing the affection of one pitying, Send, he says, to the sick man, lamentations; and of the oil, the oil of the lamp being applied: which before the altar hangs in a lamp, take: with which the foot anointed, when healed thou shalt have been, to me rest indulge: and into these words he disappeared. Then he from his sleep shaken, Wenilo also from his bed, by the importunity of frequent and immense clamor disturbing, the Saint to have been present Maximinus judges; and what he asked, and what he commanded declares. Nor delay: the man panting to the church runs, and from the keeper oil receiving to the sick man brought: with which when thrice the foot he anointed, sound he rose.
[22] Reginer, this monastery's Presbyter and Monk, a man plainly serious and well-mannered, are healed, the bleariness of the eyes, but before this two years deceased, with me this whole region knows. He once by so great an eyes' infirmity was depressed, that almost of the exterior lights by despair he wavered; while yet the same man of the interior by a serene edge (as also sometimes to us appeared) Christ especially witness rejoiced. Who when on the night of the Lord's day, to the nocturnal vigils rising, the church he sought, and in those of the night and of the eyes darkness anxious groped; not without the nod of God into the linens, with which the past now evening at the Mandatum e. the feet of the Brethren were wiped, he stumbled. Then by powerful faith and constant prayer S. Maximinus's help, as he himself to me often testified, demanding, all the noxious humor's concretion, and that bleariness of the eyes utterly he wiped away: and morning being made, glad I saw him rejoicing over the recovered health, whom the day before I grieved over the infirmity sorrowing.
[23] In the time of pious memory Willer f. the Abbot, the paschal once a week there was: a sudden fever of a Presbyter sacrificing. in whose middle to Brother Richwin (who even now survives) publicly
the celebration of Mass was enjoined. Who the obedience undertaken, after he had now proceeded, and the divine Office strenuously and reverently up to the place of the Apostolic reading had performed; with so sudden a fire of fevers he was kindled, that even by the force of the most acute passion, of his ears and eyes the senses, of his tongue also the mobility, were impeded to him. Which when the Lord Abbot straightway had observed, swiftly he ran up: and taking the stole and pallium of the Saint, when on the head he had placed of the Presbyter, all the pain driven into his breast, the senses were restored. What more? So the sacred spoils the noxious passion from the breast into the belly, from the belly into the hips, thence also into the legs, by divine virtue pursued, that this at last from the feet they expelled. With so great speed therefore Richwin, health recovered, the divine rejoicing and suppliant completed Office; and thenceforth with virtue as much as he is able, so efficacious his Physician unceasingly praises and proclaims.
[24] and another long-lasting one of the Abbot, Now indeed to this at length let us come, which of himself our venerable Father to relate was wont. He by the aforesaid fevers' passion, on the very holy day of Pentecost, to be urged began; nor did the disease desist, daily his weary little body aggravating, until of August month some part had been spent. Meanwhile all his senses almost obstructed, his whole little body by fasting squalid, of his very soul now then a failing threatened: nor yet the hope of life, of Maximinus's piety conceived, failed. His mind burned to approach the sacred sepulcher, but the weakened body's limbs the due denied service: were asked the bystanders for some solace, but the despairing refused. But on a certain day, when all at midday time after dinner were resting, with a more fervent than usual spirit a staff seizing, his step he attempted. But when, two parts of so great a journey now traversed, the traveler with feeble feet had failed; with hands as with knees creeping, at length sometime panting himself before the altar he dragged: and there with many groans and tears his committed things deploring, and amendment promising, of his own also infirmity the remedy demanding, when the prayer he had completed, of being feverish also an end he made.
[25] a boy stealthily carried off is restored, But why the aforementioned miracles do we recount, when new ones are had close by? For thee namely, Wiker, in the Abbatial honor and burden constituted, our Patron's glory shone forth. Regnerus (as thou knowest) and Engela of Braubach g., children from free parents born, themselves and their only son Adelman to S. Maximinus delivered; on this condition, that the boy himself as long as he lived, and his posterity who males should be, two denarii; the females indeed, one denarius at the altar of B. Maximinus on the festivity of S. Martin should pay; but after the death of those, what better they had in cattle or in garments to the Church should cede. Meanwhile a certain Soldier, into this country for the sake of plunder coming, the boy himself aforenamed, his parents not knowing, withdrew: and over the Trier bridge riding, to lead him with himself he had thought. What more? The boy with eyes turned back the monastery of the Divine Pontiff Maximinus beholding, that him the Saint of God, from the hands of the Soldier might snatch, cried out. Whence angry the Soldier the boy struck: but soon by divine vengeance, the horse's neck broken, and to Otto the Emperor is presented. from the bridge into the water he fell: the boy moreover on the bridge whole and unharmed remained. But the boy, the thresholds of the Saint seeking, to thee Abbot Wiker the cause made known: who to God thanks giving, the boy to the parents didst restore. Likewise also this celebrated deed to the most Serene King, Otto namely the first, on that day at Trier being, disclosing, the boy to his royal magnificence didst present: and that by his testament the delivery of the boy aforesaid he should confirm, and also from all Advocates the boy himself mentioned and his posterity should absolve, and that to no one they be made beneficiaries, thou didst beseech. Which finally petition to thy pious vows complying he decreed to be done, and a chirograph thence to be written, and by his seal's impression, in the year of his reign h. tenth third, he ordered to be confirmed.
[26] Exhortation to implore the Saint's aid. Therefore from these things which by us have been said, to be considered it is, how efficacious is with this Patron of ours the healing of souls, who so benign and prompt is a physician of bodies. For indeed he who our infirm and frail and less to be loved things pitying, the collapsed refreshes, the weakened repairs, and the demolished restores; much more also, to our more excellent and spiritual things the fomentations of spiritual medicaments the spiritual physician more abundantly will apply; if yet we by prayer be not torpid. Nor can we wretches of entire health of souls ourselves boast: for as long as in this life we live, as long as our mortality we carry about, this our body which is corrupted aggravates the soul. For who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? who offends not in many things? since man is rottenness, and the son of man a worm: who himself clean to assert shall dare before God? Whence if the wounds of souls ache, if their death now then to threaten we fear; nothing else remains, than that of such Physicians by unfailing prayer the helps we seek out; let us lay open the wounds, let us ask the aids: nor will be able to be lacking, God being propitious, the cure suppliantly requested. But now to those things to be explained, whence a little it had strayed, let the discourse be recalled.
ANNOTATIONS.
958 Adalbert, from the monks of S. Maximinus a Bishop ordained, and to the nation of the Rugi honorably destined, but nothing to profit being able and vainly himself fatigued seeing, he returned. And in the year 966: Adalbert, to the Rugi already before a Bishop ordained, of the monastery of Weissenburg Abbot was set over. And in the year 969, when the Magdeburg Archbishopric by Otto the Emperor was being founded: Adalbert first there a Bishop is ordained, who at first to the Rugi for preaching directed, scarcely escaped. He was at that time of great name and merit, long ago from the monastery of S. Maximinus a monk drawn out and to be committed was of the new acquisition. Finally in the year 970: Adalbert from the Weissenburg Abbacy taken up, and to Rome setting out by John XIII most benignly received as Archbishop is approved, and with the Pallium endowed on the feast of S. Luke the Evangelist, bidden in Germany to have Archbishops, that he might be Metropolitan of the whole beyond the Saale and Elbe of the nation of the Slavs, and at length in the year 981 piously he died. Which and many other things there are read, and I know not whether anywhere so accurately they are indicated.
would be of Christ the year 939: but because then not yet Abbot was Wiker (as appears from Otto's privilege, which in Zylles is extant, to Ogo the Abbot given in the year of Christ 940, and of the reign 4) I have judged to be read thirteenth, so that it is the year of Christ 949.
CHAPTER III.
The finding of the body, hidden on account of the fury of the Normans.
[27] Many things indeed still, of the miracles, through the venerable our Father Maximinus done, to be said remain; but of those hearts beholding the hardness, which to the Truth believe not, saying; Greater things than these you shall do; the style we contract: lest what to edification could be to the devout, of scandals matter and fuel of lacerating to minds become blinded: Transition from the miracles, to the finding of the body. for whom indeed if not by moderate silence it be consulted, while they faith to the sayings shall have abrogated, and the speaker's zeal with vituperation shall have assailed, thence more pitiably in the snares of sin to be implicated they would be, whence rather to escape they ought. John 14:12. For which reason the style, as we said, contracting, those things only briefly touching, which about the finding of the body of this holy one we have ascertained, with the end of such a history the present little work let us conclude. But that more fittingly and more clearly the order of narrating about the very finding cede ought, the cause of so long a hiding of the most sacred clod is worth the trouble that a little higher we repeat.
[28] At that time, in which almost all Gaul, to the cruelty of the Normans to be smitten, The monastery being devastated by the Normans of divine animadversion the censure had subjected; when by their own impiety's torches the Gentiles' fury kindled, the cities and villages and all Christ's churches with fires burned up, it happened this city also a. of Trier, with its suburbs, to the same chances obnoxious to lie subject. And since so pitiable a slaughter of the citizens and the city's overthrow, unforeseen and sudden to have happened is asserted; this monastery among the rest not only was burned up, but with so great of monks and of the ecclesiastical family slaughter was filled, that not even one survivor remained of all, to whom known was the place of the tomb, the Body remains in a little crypt, in which the sacred Relics were enclosed. But it was the same tomb, as afterward by the divine appeared nod, behind the altar toward the East, from the very altar's edge seven feet distant by a space; a crypt namely very small, of a sarcophagus only capable, which very briefly and with small enclosed stones, scarcely above the weight of the spread pavement could sustain. There the precious treasure of the sacred body for a long time to men, on account of the chance above mentioned, lay unknown.
[29] And when by a prolonged time's interval, after the return of the Pagans, in which, while the monastery is being restored, the walls of the church to be restored had begun; it happened meanwhile a certain one, by nation an Aquitanian, by condition Maximinus's servant, a grateful to himself and voluntary peregrination undertaken, by so great a Father's love led hither to have migrated: that namely, whom temporally to have as a lord in fact he ought, a clement to himself with the Lord Patron to merit by assiduous supplication he might be able. He therefore, when of his peregrination the cause to those, who then the monastery presided, he had opened, and they the man's devotion had approved; for administering to the masons of his work the material, to the rest of the workmen to be joined is ordered. And when the daily work together with the rest he sweated at, on a certain day with the weight of a stone on himself imposed the sacred sepulcher unknowingly he touched: when soon as the place itself with his foot he had touched, with so great heaviness of the superimposed mass he was pressed, that against his will and much resisting the slipped from his shoulder stone to the ground fell; and the pavement at the surface bruised, in the crypt's chamber also a small pebble by so great a blow's violence it had broken off. Which he beholding to wonder, and of so great to inquire the cause of the fracture: when amid the doing so great suddenly of a most sweet odor a fragrance, a stone falling being disclosed, from that very concavity of the hole poured forth was; that not only himself, but also all his labor's companions, who to this spectacle perchance had run, with the same odor's sweetness were filled. With what then joy the most devout Wenilo, from the conception of the hope of the most sacred turf to be found, danced for joy, who ever in words shall set forth? He bids the bystanders to run hastily, and the Archkeeper b. of the monastery, Wanbertus by name, in testimony of the hoped from heaven grace to call. But he, the message of so great joy received,
swiftly running, after of the aforesaid odor the sweetness more fully he had drawn in; eager he ran back to the Brethren, it is found itself with vast joy: and by his relation of the things which had happened the hearts of all with vast joy he flooded.
[30] They indeed, when after continued dancings and many to God praises offered from the place withdrew, first indeed what with the deed needful is doubting, and at the miracle's novelty stupefied, stuck fast: when yet forthwith, a triduan fast being indicted a wholesome counsel recovered, this which had happened to refer to the Bishop in common they decree. But then of the time Rathbodo c. the venerable presided over the Church. Who the matter by the Brethren's relation ascertained, soon rejoicing the monastery approached; and counsel with the Monks taken, not suddenly and lightly and as it were rashly, to seek the most precious of B. Maximinus's body treasure to leap forth; but so great a work, by fasts and prayers suppliantly premised, with the highest veneration he resolved to begin. Thereupon also, not in this only city, but in the whole circumjacent parish, a triduan in the deific Trinity's name being indicted fast, on the third of the same fast's day, which the sixth of the sabbath was, all to be present commanding, by the Clergy and people accompanied, with bare feet and with the litanies' solemnities, the monastery he sought. So great then a people's multitude from diverse parts is said hither to have flowed together, emulously and joyfully all to of their salvation the spectacle coming, The Bishop with Clergy and people approaches, that it scarcely the whole city of Trier, much less the narrow place of the monastery, could contain. Nor was lacking divinely conferred by Maximinus's merits the grace of curings: since none, who had come sick, did not return having obtained health cured.
[31] and the Crypt broken through he finds the chest: Received therefore by the Brethren with the highest honor the Prelate, soon as he completed the prayer, with the Monks and Clerics to the place aforesaid, where the hope was of the sacred Relics to be found, devout approached: and an iron tool taken, the surface of the pavement to break he began. Then of the Brethren standing by the frequent crowd the work begun by the Antistes swiftly accelerates: and the fragment of pavement removed, the crypt mentioned, by a stone's blow (as above we said) pierced they found. Which when utterly they had dissolved, within a marble sarcophagus they discern: which opened a chest showed of cypress, which the most sacred body containing, all price exceeding had enclosed a gem. What then the devotion of the Clergy, what the joy of the People, how great for joy of the Monks the tears, what voices in God's praises heaven penetrating, when the crowd of those cured to the Saint's virtues had acclaimed, what to mention it concerns, when it utterly lacks unfolding? So then in his Saint powerfully and wondrously our Lord wrought, as if never, to declare his merits' excellence, in past anything had been done in times.
[32] in which the body incorrupt with the garments entire Now indeed the chest opened (as the venerable Wenilo, who at the things done was present, even with an oath often testified) so d. entire the garments, so incorrupt the whole body was, as if on the same day there it had been laid up; the nose only excepted, which by the sarcophagus's cover a little pressed, and into the left bent had stood e. But these perhaps incredible to some will seem, and me in this to be blamed they will judge, as if to the divine sentence prescribing; and against that which to man was said, Dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return, the body of man incorruptible asserting. Gen. 3:19. But indeed far be it from us so great from true faith aversion, that either to the divine oracles prejudging impiously we struggle, or to God to be anything impossible to think even we should dare; since of him it is written, All whatsoever he willed the Lord did in heaven and on earth. What therefore wonder, the divine virtue's omnipotence, as long as it willed to bestow could have on its own flesh, after the death of the body, that gift of incorruption; which clearly is established to be valid for a time even by art and ingenuity human?
[33] in an assembly the Stole and Pallium shown to the people: Furthermore, as we said, the garments and body found entire, the venerable Bishop the Stole and Pallium for Relics taking away, others straightway on the holy shoulders placed around: and soon mounting a higher step, the people who the voice could hear, with many of exhortations and consolations words (as to himself then the occasion of time and opportunity offered) he addressed. Faith also to the slower to make wishing, lest by any scruple of doubt over the finding of the Saint they be moved; that very Stole and Pallium to all to be seen he spread out: and that day thenceforth solemn to be appointing, the people by spiritual blessings confirmed, and by supercelestial benefits cheerful and dancing, he dismissed. These are the most sacred of B. Maximinus's body spoils, at Trier ever venerable, and than every treasure dearer; which even today in this monastery inviolate are kept: through which also very many to the believing and piously seeking benefits, the merits of Maximinus obtaining, are bestowed by the Lord.
[34] But concerning the sacred Body when the Bishop and the Brethren, The body of the saint for some time kept above the earth, what most fittingly should be done, piously treated; by common counsel at length it was decreed, for devotion and love's sake, and against imminent perils for safeguard's cause, unburied to keep it. So that most holy clod, over the very place of the tomb an eminent and decorous work being constructed, raised and most decently was placed. But many years' courses being passed, when once of his deposition, the solemnity was imminent, to a certain one long ailing, his whole little body now weakened and very far set, in a vision B. Maximinus appeared: and him, whether to that very solemnity he was about to go, inquired. He indeed when the impossibility of his infirmity complained; Go, he said, as thou canst, by friends' supported aids; since when my legation to the Provost thou shalt have related, the grace of cure forthwith thou shalt obtain: and he gave a mandate about burying his body after the manner of human condition, and soon disappeared. Morning therefore being made nothing delaying the man, his friends he calls together, the vision expounds, and the necessary things for traveling prepared, the journey he undertakes, and on the very of the aforesaid festivity Vigil to the monastery comes. And when by his own into the church he was carried, he himself by the sick man cured in a vision bidding, there set down the Provost's coming he awaits. Soon moreover as in the coming one's ears Maximinus's mandates he set down, he himself also, all adverse health laid aside, unharmed rose. The declared therefore of B. Maximinus will, by so evident and illustrious attestation of a miracle; it happened also Rotger f. the Bishop (who to Rathbodo in the Bishopric had succeeded) the same hour to have come, for the sake of praying to the memorial of the Saint. To whom when through the Provost, and him who had been cured, the Saint's also will became known; it is brought back to the crypt. for a little to the rest of the body indulging, the rest of that night with the Brethren in vigils and prayers he passed: and at first morning of the following day, that is on the very festivity of his Deposition, the Body most sacred, in the same place in which before it had been buried, with hymns and prayers magnificently to burial he committed g.
[35] These about the most glorious confessor of Christ Maximinus, to believing and religious ears by us in whatever way heaped let suffice: lest if perchance more to relate we should be eager, at these few some itching, utterly become hardened and entirely become deaf. For the rest I beseech all, who this little work not with envious eyes will deign to regard; Epilogue. that when them the ruder shall offend discourse, an easy to the inexperience pardon they give; nor be amazed that a rustic man, and one who scarcely the first rudiments of the grammatical art has perceived, with an orator's abundance to speak could not. Of rashness indeed, as one who beyond my powers presumed, by no one me I hope to be argued; because the premised little preface sufficiently to the readers will open, how great of the commander the authority me, unwilling and much resisting, to these things at length impelled.
ANNOTATIONS.
At Trier the deposition of S. Maximinus the Bishop, whose Sacerdotal vestments in a brazen urn even to our, nay the Normans', times, in Testimony of his sanctity were seen incorrupt.
APPENDIX D. P.
On the later Translation of the body, and the dedications of the Church, and the Relics in it and elsewhere preserved.
Maximinus, Bishop of Trier on the Moselle (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The body of S. Maximinus to the prior crypt the bringing-back indicated, of which already it was treated, After the conflagration in the year 937 Scheckmann in the prior little work these things subjoins: There came a little after no small loss. For indeed of grace in the year nine hundred thirty-seventh, monastery that a voracious flame almost consumed. There presided then the venerable Ogo, an Abbot not only useful, but also necessary: who the place itself renewed, a religion introduced stricter, and the church anew restored and perfected. Which they dedicated, the church restored in the year 942 under the honor of the ancient Patron B. John the Apostle and Evangelist, the worthy of veneration men a. Rubertus the Trier Archbishop Rutger's successor, and b. Adalbero the Metz Bishop, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation c. nine hundred forty-second, of the reign of Otto the first the sixth year, the fifteenth Indiction, the third Ides of October. On the same day, the precious bodies of the blessed Archpontiffs of Trier, Maximinus, Agritius, the bodies of S. Maximinus and others are translated, into the new church, and replaced under the high altar in diverse sarcophagi, as now it is discerned. The three first conjointly; Maximinus indeed in the middle, Agritius on the right, Nicetius on the left: at their heads, on the right Basinus, on the left Weomadus. This replacement was celebrated by the Reverend Prelates Rubertus and Adelbero aforesaid, by the Religious Abbots Ogo aforesaid, Ageualdus e. of Gorze, Erkenboldus f. of Toul, g. Hubertus of S. Arnulf of Metz, present a great college of monks, and a copious crowd of the people.
[2] There came long after another certain reparation likewise and dedication, another dedication was made in the year 1245. which also the last, of the Virginal birth in the year one thousand two hundred forty-fifth, the most venerable greatly man Lord k. Arnold of that name the second the Archbishop the Trier metropolis governing: consecrating it the Lord Conrad l. Archbishop of Cologne, by the consent of the Lord Arnold aforesaid, in the honor of SS. John the Evangelist, Maximinus, Agritius, Nicetius the blessed Archbishops, on the day eighth of the month of July, in the presence of the Lord m. Sifrid the Mainz Archbishop: which Dedication at once those three, together with the venerable n. Bishops Richard of Worms, and Henry of Courland, with several adorned Indulgences, the same confirming and more adding
the Most Holy in Christ Father, the Lord o. Innocent the Pope fourth …
[3] The showing of the Relics Double, It pleases now the venerable of this Maximin Church Relics by name to describe, and the first of the same festive showing. Annually ever on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, in the morning about the seventh hour, is made the showing of the Relics most celebrated, but of the less principal ones: but of the principal ones, it is reserved from seven years to seven years. But it is celebrated with that most renowned pilgrimage of Aachen, and also now newly instituted, but perpetually to last, the Trier one, on the day eighth of the month of July. Now to the Relics let us come.
[4] which are of Christ the Lord, Of the Lord Jesus Relics. The little knife of the Lord Jesus, which he used in the last Supper in the dividing of the Paschal Lamb. Of the holy Cross. Of the linen, with which Christ was girded in the washing of the feet. A part quite excellent of the wood of the lance, by which his side was opened on the cross. Of his purple garment. Of his white garment. Of the sponge, with which he was given to drink. Of the column, at which he was scourged. Of the cord, with which he was bound. Of the sudarium, with which was veiled the face of him in the sepulcher. Of the table of the last most holy supper of his.
[5] Relics of B. Mary the Virgin. The veil of B. Mary, with which she was covered at the Lord's Annunciation. of B. Mary, The comb of B. Mary the Virgin. Of the hairs of B. Mary. Of the milk of the blessed Virgin Mary.
[6] Relics of the Patrons of our Church. The head of S. Maximinus the Archbishop. of S. Maximinus and the other Patrons, A great part of the Pallium, to B. Maximinus from Rome directed. Of the locks of B. Maximinus. Two staves of the holy Bishops Maximinus and Martin, the use of which they had, seeking the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Of S. Agritius the Archprelate. Of S. Nicetius the Archbishop, illustrious Relics of the legs and arms with the thumb. Of the hairs of the same. Of S. Quiriacus the Confessor, Chaplain of S. Maximinus, several Relics.
[7] Relics of the Apostles and other Greater Ones. Of the beard of S. John the Baptist. of SS. John Bapt. and the Apostles, Of S. Peter the Apostle: likewise of his hairs. Of S. James the Greater: likewise his tooth. Of S. Bartholomew: likewise of the flesh and skin of the same. Of S. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. Of SS. Simon and Jude. Of S. James the Less. Of S. Mark the Evangelist. Of S. Barnabas the Apostle.
[8] Relics of the Martyrs. The arm of S. Stephen the Protomartyr. of the Martyrs, Of S. Clement, Pope and Martyr. Of S. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr. The arm of S. Vincent, Levite and Martyr. Of S. Donatus, Bishop and Martyr. Of S. Erasmus, Bishop and Martyr. Of S. Valentine the Martyr. Likewise his tooth. The thumb of S. Laurence, Levite and Martyr. Of S. Sebastian the Martyr. Of S. Quirinus the Martyr. Of S. Maurice the Martyr: likewise of his fellowship. Of S. Gangulf the Martyr. Of S. Christopher the Martyr. Of S. Pontianus the Martyr. The arm of S. Lazarus, by the Lord raised. Of S. George the Soldier: likewise the tooth of the same Martyr. Part of the head of Oswald King of the English and Martyr. Of SS. Felix and Adauctus. Of S. Thyrsus Leader of the Theban legion, a Martyr in the church of S. Paulinus resting.
[9] of the Confessors, Relics of the Confessors and Pontiffs. Of S. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria. The arm of S. Martin the Bishop. Of S. Nicholas the Bishop. Of S. Willibrord first and last Archbishop of Utrecht: likewise of the chasuble of the same. Of S. Hubert the Bishop. The tooth of S. Servatius. Of S. Lutwinus Archbishop of Trier. Of S. Benedict the Abbot. Of S. Antony. Of S. Simeon Confessor of Trier: likewise a joint of the finger of the same: likewise part of the shoulder-blade of him: likewise the band or linen biretta of the same.
[19] Relics of the Virgins and others. Part of the head of S. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr. Of S. Catherine: of the Virgins and others. likewise of the sudarium with which before the wheels she wiped the sweat: likewise of her locks. Of S. Barbara. Of S. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr. Of S. Dorothy. Of S. Scholastica, sister of S. Benedict. Of the XI thousand Virgins. Of S. Margaret: likewise of the sudarium of the same. Of S. Walpurga the Virgin. Of S. Mary Magdalene: of the locks of the same: likewise of the veil of the same. Of S. Helena the Queen: likewise of the veil of the same. The arm of S. Anne the mother of Mary, who as she was the beginning of salvation, so may she be also of our salvation the augmentation, and moderatrix, through her daughter our Lady Mary, with whom she herself rejoices and her son our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of the divine Majesty, forever. Amen.
[11] Thus far at the beginning of the preceding century Scheckmann, from which time various of war disasters experiencing lower Germany, In the last destruction of the church by the French, and with these the Trier neighboring diocese, frequent of the San-Maximin monastery vexations and of the Monks flights saw; nothing yet in that whole most calamitous century, nothing in the following equally unhappy, so sad suffered the most sacred place, and before thirteen centuries to the faithful venerable, as when the Trier city captured by the French, the Governor set over it and Superintendent, on the pretext of better defending against the Germans and Spaniards the city, the sacred and profane edifices all, within a cannon's shot placed, to be overthrown commanded the King (as is established) utterly ignorant, and the deed vehemently abominating. Not did go to the authors unpunished so execrable a crime: for not long after, before that gate which to S. Maximinus leads, together with his horse struck by lightning, and into a ditch hurled one, his unhappy breathed out soul; another, by a wall ball cut off in that bulwark of the City was, which the same faces; the French themselves of a better mind not obscurely confessing, that S. Maximinus and his fellow Saints, whose splendid and ancient basilicas they had leveled to the ground, the Saint's sepulcher remained inviolate, this from them this penalty exacted. Took care nonetheless the holy Antistes, lest this time also his sepulcher altogether be violated. For of the crypts that one which to the chief altar had been subject (because below the earth built, above the earth to those about to fight enemies of use to none could be) remained as it was, of external ornament only despoiled: and the rest of the Saints' tombs, through the whole circuit of the most ample temple, by sacrilegious daring violated, proceeded S. Maximinus, in the midst between SS. Agritius and Nicetius the Bishops to rest, by the daily Mass sacrifice even then honored; as in the year MDCLXXXII to me wrote the new before two years Abbot Alexander Henn, of his predecessor and uncle a most worthy successor. The same in the same epistle added, that the Saint's head, enclosed in a silver statue of greatest weight and price, at Luxemburg in the house of the Maximin Refuge religiously is kept, and the head enclosed in a silver statue. which the next spring he was about to bring back, together with other Saints' Relics, into the restored by a three-year labor part of the church.
[12] But it is worthy that here entire be read a Relation, by the same Abbot to me through a letter made in the year MDCLXXXVI ending: After the six-year troubles of that desolation, There happened of our monastery and church the destruction in the year MDCLXXIV, in the months April and May, with such of those commanding the inclemency, that not for one even Religious a little dwelling was left. Whence on 10 May, thirty, as many as then we were Monks, to the house of the Maximin refuge within the city of Trier, to receive ourselves we are compelled; where in one chamber three and four, nay even six, through distinct old walled little cells, stabled rather than hosted, the divine Office yet, with great of the whole neighborhood concourse, through a whole nine-years' exile, even to the restoration of the monastery, constantly we kept: and also through every day of holy Mass the sacrifice outside the city we celebrated in the crypt of S. Maximinus: which alone and only, to his Saint's honor, the loving God's providence had kept entire and unharmed against the rushing rubble's and the overhanging arch's mass, and the injuries of the soldiers, all the other Saints' tombs profaning. But when, during this nine-year desolation, the most reverend Lord Maximinus Gulich, our most worthy Abbot, by old age and troubles broken, had fallen asleep in the Lord; and I, in the year MDCLXXX on the day 10 January, by a free Convent's election, beyond all my merit and wish, into his place was substituted; the Most Holy our Lord Innocent XI, the new in the year 1680 Abbot Alexander, in the Bull of confirmation, which, as being to the Apostolic See immediately subject, from the Roman Curia we received, of the ruined church and the Maximin monastery the restoration to me enjoined, with these gravest formal words: We will moreover, that thou to the church Abbatial's repair according to thy powers attend, thy conscience in this charging.
[13] Therefore by that Apostolic mandate stirred, and of the help of God and the Heavenly ones confident, in the year MDCLXXX, the monastery being restored within three years, within the Octave of Pentecost, with the invocation of the Holy Spirit, that arduous work I undertook; with such of the aiding and promoting Deity benignity, that, what even to think would have been presumption, within of one not entire three-years' straits, that vast and quadrilateral of the monastery edifice, together with of the most ample temple of Maximin the appended crypts, not without most manifest of the propitious Divinity's indication we completed: and in the year MDCLXXXIII, on the feast of S. Constantine the Great, who in the year CCCXXXIII our monastery in his Augustal Palace had founded, the whole Trier metropolis applauding, to the pristine lares we returned. He had indicted, to augment of our return the pomp, the most Eminent of Trier the Prince Elector, for that day, from the Metropolitan church to S. Maximinus, a solemn with the Venerable Sacrament procession: which under a vast of drums, of bombards and of cart cannons din, thither festively with his own he is brought back 21 March 1683 and through all the city's basilicas of pealing bells clangor, the whole Trier Clergy, through their troops and colleges distributed; and the whole city, partly festively armed, partly to the spectacle and devotion poured out, going before and following, even to S. Maximinus accompanied. Where sung in thanksgiving the solemn Mass and the Ambrosian hymn, the feast ended a religious of two hundred and more persons banquet, in the Abbacy and the double Refectory. The greater temple's fabric, through God's grace, even so far we have brought, that within a year the final hand it awaits. May God grant, that to the greater glory of his name, in his Saint's service to be strengthened and preserved we may merit. Thus he.
[14] Relics of S. Maximinus at Prague. Of the body of S. Maximinus, a notable piece of the arm or of the leg, and another smaller, brought by Charles IV the Emperor to Prague in the year MCCCLXXII, likewise part of his staff to be preserved at Prague, writes in his Prague Diary Pessina of the same Church the Dean. There is of the same S. Maximinus Archbishop of Trier a Church parochial in the city of Sens; and in it some sacred bone not small of the same Saint is held in veneration, and a feast under the rite of three Lessons, which from the Life are recited, is celebrated in the whole diocese: under which rite also we find the cult of S. Maximinus prescribed in the old Breviaries, of Verdun, of Toul, of Limoges, of Langres, of Sens,
and of Tours, of Amiens too and some others, at Sens, but under the name of Maximus; finally of Besançon also in Burgundy three Lessons, of the Life indeed in some, in most indeed of the Common of a Pontiff Confessor to be said: which all a notable and ancient and through all the Gauls spread S. Maximinus's cult prove. Nay even among the people of Sens under his name there is a parish, and in it a bone not small of this Saint. But at Cologne, which city, as we saw, he honored, being present or even presiding at the Synod there; in the very place in which the Synod is believed held, of most ancient origin there stands a church, which to its village the name of S. Maximinus gave, at least from the XII century, in which that church by the Ursuline Nuns was delivered to some poor Sisters. and at Cologne, So Aegidius Gelenius Syntagm. 56, treating of the beginning of the monastery, which now under the rule of S. Augustine and of Canonesses Regular by the institute is held, not without some S. Maximinus Relics, in Reliquary V preserved: such also some there are in the same place in Reliquary XVIII of the church of S. Pantaleon; and also in a certain very old Cross of the church of Walciodorum in Belgium, as asserts Raissius in his Hierogazophylacium.
[15] Furthermore in the aforementioned Besançon diocese, not only anciently was venerated S. Maximinus: and in the Besançon diocese; but also a little chapel he had very old, at the sixth from the city milestone, near the village of Torpet; to which little shrine on the day XXIX May to go is wont yearly a frequent people: and the gouty, who thither are led, of B. Maximinus's help to experience they say. So John James Chifflet of Besançon, in part 2 of his Vesontio; but another S. Maximinus understanding, who by S. Caius the Pope to Besançon directed, a little chapel, by S. Linus Peter's disciple first built, under the name of S. Stephen restored; and the Bishopric abdicated as a hermit in the place aforesaid lived, and was buried by his successor Paulinus. And these things indeed he sets forth, as received from the tablets of the Besançon church, so ancient, that scarcely another of them the author could have been, than he who in that very, of which he wrote, age lived: this moreover therefore, because the old Ms. says, where they are feigned, by grace, Maximinus and Paulinus to have been Bishops, that the same Maximinus another Basilica in the forum of the city near the Capitol consecrated: and How much, says Chifflet, now from that changed the city's state! Where that forum or Capitol? A feeble indeed for so great an antiquity for some writing to be asserted argument. The same things as above, of S. Maximinus's little chapel, since from Peter Francis Chifflet's sense had said the Sammarthani; they recognize, that to the things said are repugnant the Besançon Martyrologies, in which on the day XXIX May mention is had only of Maximinus of Trier; but nowhere of Maximinus of Besançon a memory is celebrated.
[16] The same from Peter Francis's opinion say, that the Catalogue of the Bishops, in which Linus, Maximinus, Paulinus, the first Bishops are named, six hundred years ago was written: which how scanty an age it is, for proving a thing in the III century done, everyone sees. Indeed scarcely can I doubt, but that just as from that emulation, to most Churches Gallican once common, of arrogating to themselves as great as possible antiquity, from the Romans the people of Besançon borrowed S. Linus, on no testimony or indication from antiquity relying; as well as S. Linus so they snatched occasion, from the old among them cult of S. Maximinus, the same with his successor Paulinus to themselves from Trier to bring; and as to the burial of the master, by the disciple cared for outside the city, the same to say, which were read in the Trier Acts. But such a foundation laid, nothing more easy was, than the churches' by S. Helena at Besançon erected beginnings to the same S. Maximinus to refer. The aforepraised Peter Francis edited a Dissertation one about Constantine's conversion, in which to prove he attempts, that Helena with her grandson Crispus at Besançon lived, the city with gates, towers, public edifices adorned, and at last the city of the Crispolini to be named wished, whence Chrysopolis afterward made the ignorant posterity. There was when these things were done a Bishop at Besançon S. Hilary, whom first I would make in the order of those, whose to us came down the names (which can at his day XXII July more accurately be weighed) for, whom before him Peter Francis puts Eusebius, this one he took from the fabulous of the found Cross acts: and because it was established, that Eusebius who there is named the Roman Pontiff, the things said suit not; first of all he thought to thence make a Bishop of Besançon: which elsewhere we have sufficiently refuted. The Chifflets confess, that nothing among them is known of the pretended that S. Maximinus's body, and S. Eusebius. and therefore they suppose it still to lie hidden there, where buried to have been they believe. Nor more I esteem to be known at Besançon of the body of S. Paulinus; and equally gratis to be asserted, that he in the church of S. Stephen before the altar rests.
ANNOTATIONS.
b. Adalbero, brother of Frederic Duke of Lotharingia, to have sat is found in the year 928, dead in the monastery of S. Trond in the year 964, Albericus notes the year 966.
in the diploma of Adalbero this year 942 given, by whom he from the monastery of Gorze taken up, first after the reformation Abbot was constituted.
h. Frederic, uncle of the said Adalbero the Bishop, from Provost of Gorze made Abbot of S. Hubert, at the request of Richarius Bishop of Liège, dead at Trier, while at this Translation he was present, and first in the said church buried; as more fully is explained in the Life of B. John num. 55.