Austremonius

ON ST. AUSTREMONIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF THE ARVERNI IN GAUL,

PERHAPS IN THE FIRST CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. V. H.

§ I. The three Acts of St. Austremonius. The argument of the first Passion is briefly set forth.

I undertake to treat the Acts of St. Austremonius, first bishop of the Arverni, not unaware of the difficulties in which this business abounds. The general question of the time at which into the Gauls For we are occupied with a doubtful question, over which the battle-lines of the learned have now been contending with swords for one, two and three centuries, and so great is the array of arms on both sides and so great the spirit of the combatants that it would be impious to hope that peace will shortly follow. For since St. Austremonius is one of the seven bishops whom the Roman see sent into Gaul, the question at once arises whether he is to be referred to apostolic times or to the Decian age. The school of Gallic scholars which they call historical, and which from Bishop Gregory of Tours goes by the name of Gregorian, and which, because it seems to rest chiefly on written history, leaving aside the oral traditions of the people, is named antitraditional, calls back most of the seven to the Decian age, and Austremonius with them.

[2] the seven bishops were sent from Rome To this school is opposed another school of learned men which, because it glories in traditions, has obtained the name of traditional, and because it refers the septenary number of Gregory of Tours to apostolic times, is called antigregorian. The first school refuses to give the name historical to the second, unjustly, as far as I can see, and not rightly. For in the latter no less than in the former there are men outstanding in erudition, renowned in talent, commendable for tireless labour in study, excelling in estimation of matters and in mature judgment. Whose acquaintance with holy antiquity, whose knowledge

of ecclesiastical tradition, I should truly be ashamed not to confess holds the highest place with me. The question itself, which such great men labour to resolve, has more than once been touched on in our Acts, and there was a time when it seemed that on account of Austremonius it should be treated again in this place, with the reasons on both sides weighed. But in truth, the matter having been maturely considered, we have started back from our first purpose.

[3] not to be treated in this place. The authors who have toiled in working over this matter are reckoned in roughly three different kinds. Some of them, having touched not lightly on profane history and being furnished with a knowledge of profane matters, then approached ecclesiastical histories, ignorant of sacred things and unacquainted with the spirit and norm of the Catholic Church. And it came about, as it had necessarily to come about, that they used a judgment not sufficiently fair, interpreted most things falsely, and, led from erroneous principles into consequences full of error, made their way through an unknown forest as blind travellers. Others in turn, excelling neither in talent nor in knowledge nor in labour, faithfully report into new books what they have once found written, neither inquiring into new things, nor judging the old, nor weighing what is customary. Of these there is a legion: if you read them, you will find at last that all of them without exception are reheating the cabbage so often cooked. Lastly there are in each school men greater than all our praise, renowned in talent, distinguished by the acumen of each science, sacred and profane, mature in judgment, prudent in counsel, long and much versed in both histories, sacred and profane, with immense labour and most diligent study, the outcome of whose studies nevertheless goes off to opposite sides. Hence one may suppose that on neither side does so great a light shine as to incline firmly the assent of a prudent judge. Wherefore it seems consonant with our work to refrain now from treating the whole question, until, a clearer light having been received from such great friction and a richer fruit having been found from the labours of so many studious men, it shall be possible to know the whole case thoroughly.

We now proceed to learn and examine the Acts of St. Austremonius..

[4] the Acts of Austremonius. Three exemplars of the Acts of St. Austremonius have come to our notice, of which the third was long ago published in print, while the other two now for the first time come to light from manuscript codices.

[5] of the first Passion The first exemplar we found in the year 1880, in the month of January, in the public library of the city of Clermont in Auvergne. The codex is of the tenth century, of parchment, 0m,35 long, 0m,26 wide. It formerly belonged to the abbey of St. Illidius in the same city of Clermont. It is mutilated by some pages; and so this codex alone could give the Acts of St. Austremonius only as mutilated at the beginning. But we found in the same library of Clermont another manuscript codex, much more recent than the former, which seems once to have served for the sacred lessons of the ecclesiastical office, in which we found the same Life of St. Austremonius, a copy of the preceding. Wherefore what was wanting in the older codex, supplied from the later one, shows the whole series of the narrative entire. This codex is of the thirteenth century, of parchment, 0m,41 long, 0m,28 wide; many drops of wax fixed on the page indicate nocturnal use. These Acts of St. Austremonius are rather simple, and lack the amplification of words and interpolation of matters that have immensely swollen the second and especially the third exemplar. Before we come to the other two exemplars, we shall first subject this one to an accurate examination. And first we set out a brief synopsis of the Life of St. Austremonius, such as the present exemplar describes it.

[6] a brief synopsis Synopsis of the Acts. St. Austremonius, then, disciple of the apostles of Christ, IS READ to have been sent into the Gauls to preach in the times of the emperor Decius with very many other fellow-disciples. But after the departure of the apostles, when the heresy of Valentinian and Novatian, at the urging of the enemy, had begun to rage against the Christian legion, St. Clement, disciple and successor of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, assigned these men, as they had been ordained by the apostles, to individual cities. Then there follow the names of the seven men, of whom the author calls Dionysius and Saturninus martyrs, and the other four, omitting Austremonius, confessors. Having said this he passes on to narrating the deeds of St. Austremonius. He leads the holy man by a straight road to the walls of the Arvernian city, where the greatest error of the gentiles was then practised, in which place he built a church not openly but in secret, in which church he preached. As the people flowed together to his preaching, the holy bishop, rejoicing at the Arverni's readiness to believe, resolved to dip those duly instructed in saving doctrine in the water of baptism. With great labour, much teaching and very many signs he propagated the faith, and from among his disciples, as had been handed down to him, he established levites and priests. Then there is related the prodigy of a peasant saved from shipwreck on account of eulogiae received from St. Austremonius, and it is added that this custom still persists, that, if a priest is at hand, men receive eulogiae, namely blessed bread, before other food.

[7] is set forth. The preaching of the faith, further, goes forward with prosperous success; from the disciples of the holy prelate helpers and preachers are made, images are destroyed and a great multitude of churches arises, so that, the Lord helping, basilicas were built so large as are nowhere seen built in any other one of the cities of that kingdom. The author gives thanks to God and adduces certain texts of sacred Scripture very apt to the purpose. He commends the humility of the holy prelate and the prudent zeal by which he established pastors of the people from the number of his disciples; he himself, to show the norm of evangelical perfection and to avoid the pomp of the world, built the monastery of Issoire. But very many Jews scattered through those regions kindled the zeal of the holy man, who announced Christ to them. Raging with anger, the Jews prepared death for the man of God. He, warned by his disciples, exulted with joy, glad in the hope of martyrdom; he consoled his disciples, approached the Jews with greater zeal and baptized their little ones. One of the chiefs of the Jews, taking this ill, threw into a well his son baptized by Austremonius, as is reported, and beheaded Austremonius, torn with blows. The severed head he threw into the same well as his son; whence the disciples, bringing out the head of their master together with the body of the little boy, committed both martyrs to burial at the monastery of Issoire. The water of the well became a fount of healings. The Jews were punished, so that not one is known to dwell in this city, as in others, up to the present. The place where the holy martyr rests is held in great honour. Then there follows the revelation made to Cautinus, which is narrated almost in the very words of Gregory of Tours, then the translation of the body made by Avitus by divine will to Volvic, and another translation made by Pippin, at the request of Lanfrid, to Mozac; finally miracles are added.

[8] The writer of this Passion read Gregory of Tours Examination of the Acts. Of the finding, translation and miracles there will be occasion to speak below. Now we shall set on foot a diligent examination of the Acts.

These Acts of St. Austremonius relate his deeds, written very many centuries after the death of the holy man. The author had Gregory of Tours to hand and in part copied him, as will be plain from what is to be said shortly. Gregory, namely, had written thus in book I, chapter 28, of the History of the Franks: Under the emperor Decius many wars arose against the Christian name… Valentinian and Novatian, then the greatest chiefs of the heretics, raged against our faith at the urging of the enemy. In his time seven men ordained bishops were sent into the Gauls to preach, as the history of the passion of the holy martyr Saturninus recounts. For it says: Under the consuls Decius and Gratus, as is kept in faithful recollection, the city of Toulouse had begun to have St. Saturninus as its first and supreme priest. These, then, were sent: to Tours, Bishop Gatianus; to Arles, Bishop Trophimus; to Narbonne, Bishop Paul; to Toulouse, Bishop Saturninus; to the Parisians, Bishop Dionysius; to the Arverni, Bishop Stremonius; to the Limousin was appointed Bishop Martial. Of these, blessed Dionysius, bishop of the Parisians, afflicted with various punishments for the name of Christ, ended the present life with the threatening sword. Saturninus, now secure of martyrdom, said to two of his presbyters: Behold, I am now being offered up, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I ask that until I fulfil my due end I may not be wholly left by you. And when he was seized and led to the capitol, deserted by them, he was dragged off alone. Then when he saw himself abandoned by them, he is said to have prayed: Lord Jesus Christ, hear me from your holy heaven, that this church may never for all eternity merit to have a pontiff from these citizens. We know that this has so turned out in that city up to now. He, bound to the feet of a raging bull and thrown down from the capitol, ended his life. Gatianus, Trophimus, Stremonius and Paul and Martial, living in the highest holiness, after gaining peoples for the Church and spreading the faith of Christ through all things, departed in happy confession. And thus, the former by martyrdom and the latter by confession leaving the earth, they are joined alike in the heavenly places.

[9] and on some points contradicts him This chapter of the Gregorian history the writer of the Acts had before his eyes: which in part he followed, and in another part contradicted. He followed it in enumerating the bishops, omitting only Austremonius; he followed it in assigning martyrdom to SS. Dionysius and Saturninus, saying: Of these Dionysius and Saturninus completed their course by the palm of martyrdom. Gregory's words on the other bishops, except Austremonius, he faithfully copied to the end of the chapter. What our author thus passed over in copying Gregory is plain to the eyes, expressed in distinct type. No less clearly plain is the author's intention of contradicting Gregory in those things that regard the time of the mission and the martyrdom of St. Austremonius. In the first place he opposes Gregory, who states that Austremonius was sent with the others in the time of Decius. For in the first period of the narrative he says, indeed on another's credit, which he indicates by the word is read, that Austremonius, disciple of the apostles of Christ, was sent into the Gauls in the times of Decius with very many fellow-disciples. He therefore encloses both opinions in one circuit of words to manifest contradiction, writing thus: St. Austremonius, then, disciple of the apostles of Christ, is read to have been sent into the Gauls to preach in the times of the emperor Decius with very many other fellow-disciples.

[10] especially as to the time of the mission Where then did the author seem to himself to read so flagrant a contradiction? In the books of Gregory of Tours, who here, in book I of the History of the Franks, affirms that the seven bishops, among them Austremonius, whom he calls Stremonius, were sent in the time of Decius; but elsewhere, namely in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 80, and in the book On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 48, he implies that these same men are held to be disciples of the apostles. For of Saturninus himself, first bishop of the people of Toulouse, he writes this in the cited chapter 48: Saturninus the martyr, as is reported, ordained by disciples of the apostles, was directed to the city of the people of Toulouse. On which passage Ruinart very aptly annotates: If Gregory by that name truly understands the apostles, he disagrees with himself in book I of the History, chapter 30, where from the very Acts of Saturninus he marks the beginning of his Toulouse episcopate under the consuls Decius and Gratus, that is, in the year 250. There was perhaps even then, as survives today, a popular tradition that St. Saturninus had been ordained by the apostles themselves

as bishop and sent into the Gauls, which Gregory here followed. That Gregory disagrees with himself in the two places is most true: I ask Ruinart, moreover, what one who names disciples of the apostles could have understood by apostles except apostles. That he should have called men remote from the apostolic age disciples of the apostles I cannot persuade myself, nor can I go along with the opinion of those who strive in this way to reconcile Gregory with himself. Then, Gregory does not say that Saturninus was ordained by the apostles, but by disciples of the apostles. Lastly, who taught Ruinart that the tradition of St. Saturninus having been ordained bishop by the apostles themselves (or disciples of the apostles) and sent into the Gauls was only that of the crowd, and not also of the more learned?

[11] of the seven bishops The same Gregory of Tours, in chapter 80 of the book On the Glory of the Confessors, writes that Ursinus, from whom the Bituriges received Christ, was ordained bishop by disciples of the apostles and appointed to the Gauls. Who then, in Gregory's mind, were these disciples of the apostles, of whom Ursinus was a disciple? The matter is manifest from book I of the History of the Franks, chapter 29, where he says: Of the disciples of these, one, going to the city of Bourges, announced Christ the Lord, salvation of all, to the peoples. Of these, then, very few believing, ordained clerics, took up the rite of psalmody, and were instructed how they should build a church or celebrate the solemnities to almighty God. Gregory thus teaches that this first preacher to the Bituriges was a disciple of those seven men, among whom he lists Austremonius, who had come into the Gauls under the consuls Decius and Gratus: for these he had enumerated in chapter 28 of the same book. The name of the man suppressed here is disclosed by chapter 80 of the book On the Glory of the Confessors, which says: The city of Bourges first received the word of salvation from St. Ursinus, who, ordained bishop by disciples of the apostles, was appointed to the Gauls, and he first established and ruled the church of Bourges, and he, departing from the world, was laid for burial in a field among the other tombs of the people. This Ursinus, then, ordained bishop by disciples of the apostles, was a disciple, on the witness of Gregory, of the seven men.

[12] from Rome into Gaul. It could thus seem clear and manifest to our author that the seven bishops, of whose number, on the witness of Gregory, was Austremonius, belonged to apostolic times according to Gregory himself when writing this. From which it follows that there was known to and approved by Gregory a tradition, whether popular or ecclesiastical, that assigned the seven bishops to apostolic times. These nevertheless, on the authority of a certain exemplar of the Acts of Saturninus, which names none of the others but Saturninus, Gregory called back to the Decian times. From which it is gathered that the first phrase of the author of the Acts of St. Austremonius looks to Gregory of Tours and points out his contradiction. To which the author appends his own opinion by means of the adversative particle but, and writes: But after the departure of the apostles, when the heresy of Valentinian and Novatian, at the urging of the enemy, had begun to rage against the Christian legion, St. Clement, disciple and successor of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, assigned these men, as they had been ordained by the apostles, to individual cities. The sense of the author's two phrases thus comes to this: Austremonius, disciple of the apostles of Christ, is indeed read to have been sent into the Gauls with other fellow-disciples in the time of the emperor Decius; but this is not true: Clement, successor of the apostle Peter, sent them, ordained by the apostles. Then he enumerates the names of the bishops in the same manner and almost the same words as Gregory. Then he briefly states what Gregory relates more fully about the martyrdom of Dionysius and Saturninus, and soon returns to copying Gregory, omitting only Austremonius, so as to make his purpose of contradicting Gregory more clearly manifest; for he had made Austremonius a confessor reaching the end of his life by a quiet death, whom our author knows to be a martyr. Wherefore, the Gregorian phrase having been transcribed, Austremonius excepted, he proceeds to weaving his own narrative.

[13] He reports few facts He reports few facts, most of them congruous with apostolic times: the Christian cause advancing at a slow pace from slender beginnings at first, at length flourishing with an innumerable multitude converted; priests and levites appointed to guard the received faith and propagate it further; the report of the founding of the monastery of Issoire; the gospel preached by Austremonius to the Jews, and the baptized son of one of the chiefs of the Jews, and the same cast into a well for this reason; lastly Austremonius delivered to death by the angry Jews and his head thrown into the well which had already received the little martyr; the burial of both martyrs in the monastery of Issoire.

[14] and a singular miracle; These facts constitute, so to speak, the substance of the whole narrative, into which the author has woven small reflections and brief little sermons; where he speaks of miracles, he says very briefly that they were many, and he also describes one, and narrates that a peasant was saved from a shipwreck to be brought on by diabolic force, on account of a eulogia of blessed bread received from Austremonius. The same miracle, without names of places and persons, the bishop of Tours reported (On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 31), which, he says, I knew in truth to have taken place among the Arverni in my youth. These words of Gregory are ambiguous, and do not sufficiently declare whether the thing was done when he himself was a youth, or whether as a youth he heard of the thing done. To me, however, the Gregorian phrase seems to have this latter sense, not the former. Neither Gregory nor our author brings forward a suitable authority; for the one says: I knew in truth; the other says: it is handed down by the report of the faithful.

[15] then the finding of the body in the sixth century and a double translation. Among the signs and miracles shown after the death of St. Austremonius he recalls in the first place the sick restored to health by drinking the water of the aforesaid well. Then he narrates that the Jews were destroyed and ejected from the region and city of the Arverni, then that many gifts were brought to the holy man's tomb, and very many signs wrought there as long as the people surrounded the sacred tomb with due honour. Afterwards crude rusticity increased, who, although they knew that he rested in the aforesaid place of Issoire, nevertheless showed him no cult of honour. Let the reader mark these words we point out; for they are the words of Gregory of Tours from the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 30, in which place he relates the revelation made to Cautinus, which our author diligently copied out to the end, omitting only the last words of Gregory: this I heard from the mouth of the bishop himself. See the entire text of Gregory below, where the finding and translation of the relics of St. Austremonius are treated. After this revelation of the tomb, our author narrates the first translation of St. Austremonius from Issoire to Volvic, then the second from Volvic to Mozac, and finally he adds some miracles wrought at Mozac, in brief and simple speech.

[16] These Acts, later than the sixth century, These are the Acts of St. Austremonius, which, so far unknown to all, we have dug out from the library of the city of Clermont. From what we have just adduced two things in particular are clear and manifest, namely that these Acts were written after Gregory of Tours, and to the end of contradicting Gregory. That they were written after Gregory is proved by the fragments taken from the very books of Gregory and inserted word for word into this narrative, which we noted above. The end intended by the author of contradicting Gregory we have likewise proved above from the very words of the author, by which, the conflict of opinions having been proposed in the first period, he brings forward his own opinion opposed to Gregory, and assigns St. Austremonius not to the times of Decius, as Gregory did in book I of the History, but to apostolic times, which Gregory had held elsewhere. Then he does not list Austremonius among the number of the confessors, as Gregory had done in the same place, but in the following narrative he awards him the laurel of martyrdom, and for this purpose he truncated the words of Gregory which he inserted into his narrative.

[17] written in an uneven but sincere style, The author used a very uneven style, so that he seems to have stitched together various scraps. The sobriety of the matters related proves him a friend of truth: what seemed certain to him he reports as certain; what was known only by report he reports on another's credit. It seemed certain to the author that the mission of St. Austremonius took place in the apostolic time, certain also the martyrdom of the same saint; wherefore he most strongly affirms both against the contrary assertion of Gregory of Tours. The preaching of Austremonius, the conversion of the Arverni, the appointment of priests and levites he narrates simply, as things that no one would call into doubt. The founding by Austremonius of the monastery of Issoire, the miracle of the peasant saved from shipwreck, the cruelty of the Jew plunging his baptized son into a well, he hands on himself on another's credit, as he had received them. The author's style is very humble and unkempt, and not sufficiently observant of grammar. He has nevertheless woven in some things that have a taste of the elegance of the period and almost a scent of Sidonius Apollinaris. Let these stand as a specimen: Since indeed it was held to be fertile in lands, wooded with trees, most rich in vineyards, crowded with peoples and filled with commerce.

[18] seem to be attributed to the seventh century. We are of the opinion that this account of the deeds of Austremonius is to be attributed to the seventh century. For it is far removed from the richness and redundancy that distinguish the legendary offspring of subsequent times, and it is of a style so humble and abject, so devoid of all art, so incurious even of grammar, that I would gladly recognize here the work of some unpolished Arvernian, a contemporary of Gregory of Tours, were it not that the inserted fragments of Gregory himself indicate at least the following century.

§ II. The arguments of the second and third Passions are set forth.

The second Passion is more ample, Much more ample than this Life of Austremonius is the one which we now publish for the first time from a Brussels codex. It is a parchment codex of small folio format, of the ninth or tenth century, marked with the number 8550 among the codices of the royal library of Brussels. It seems to have been written in Gaul and is to be assigned to Limoges; for we see the name of this city inscribed in more handsome letters. It bears no name of an author, nor does anything occur to me from elsewhere that could lead to knowledge of the author. As far as I can judge from the style, it is more recent than the preceding Life; for that more ample and brilliant manner of speaking seems to indicate about the eighth century.

[20] the third most ample. The third narrative of the deeds and passion of St. Austremonius we shall give from the Vatican manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden, number 426, with a continuous collation carried out with the same Passion from the manuscript codex of the National Library of Paris, of largest folio format, number 5365, of the twelfth century, and also with that which Labbe printed in the Nova bibliotheca manuscriptorum, vol. II, p. 482, from an old manuscript codex of the church of Lérins, in which the prologue is lacking, a copy of which, described in his own hand, André Duchesne, royal historiographer, had formerly given to Rev. Fr. Jacques Sirmond, S.J., a distinguished man. Of this Passion Labbe speaks thus in the list of writers prefixed to this second volume of the Library: Section III. Select lives, elogia, etc… V. Deeds and passion of St. Austremonius, first bishop of the Arverni, written in prose and verse by an uncertain author, who has woven into the more sincere narrative many things doubtless fabulous, with the revelation of the body and various translations of the same and miracles.

[21] Of this St. Praejectus That many things doubtless fabulous are woven into this narrative is plain to one who inspects it. The author is unknown, as to Labbe, so to me. There are those who say that St. Praejectus, bishop of the Arverni, of this St. Austremonius

is the author of the Life; why I cannot agree with them, what I am about to say will explain. In the Life of St. Praejectus Acta Sanctorum, vol. II of January, p. 634 one reads: For he worked out in a glorious style the passions of the martyrs Cassius, Victorinus, Anatolianus and Astrebodius and of the other saints who shed their blood for Christ in the same city. From this passage they extract the argument for establishing Praejectus as the author of the Life of St. Austremonius. But in this passage there is no talk of any Austremonius; the talk is of Astrebodius. And if we grant for the moment that Astrebodius is the same as Austremonius, how will it be proved that Praejectus is the author of our Life of Austremonius and not of another, for there are three? Moreover, if Praejectus wrote some Life of St. Austremonius, he did not write this one, nor any of the three. For it is said in the clearest words that Praejectus wrote the Lives of the martyrs who shed their blood in the same city (of the Arverni). But now none of the three places the martyrdom of Austremonius in the city of the Arverni, but in the village of Issoire, which is many miles distant from the city of the Arverni.

[22] wrongly the author Finally there may be cited the Paris codex 5365 of the twelfth century, where St. Praejectus is declared the author of the prologue in these words: Here begins the prologue of St. Praejectus to the passion of St. Austremonius; and there follows this same Passion of which we are treating. From this it is indeed plain that St. Praejectus was believed to be the author in the twelfth century; that he was the author is not plain. Most of the more recent writers seem to have drawn this opinion of theirs from Surius, who in the Life of St. Praejectus at the 25th of January, in place of Astrebodius, or Astrebundius as some codices have it, wrote Austremonius, whether by his own effort or because he had so read in his codex? I think, however, that Surius faithfully handed on in his usual way what he had found written; for he annotated nothing in the margin, which elsewhere, when he substitutes one name for another, he was accustomed to do out of his sincerity: for example at the 1st of November, where in the Passion of St. Benignus he warns the reader by a marginal note that he has found Aurelianus in place of Aurelius. However that may be, neither from Surius nor from the simple Life of Praejectus (I call simple that which the Surian file has not touched) could anyone learn that St. Praejectus is the author of this Passion of which we speak, nor of any one of the three. If Praejectus composed a Life of Austremonius, it has perished, or lies hidden as yet unknown.

[23] by some What induced Galesini in his martyrology, and Baronius in particular, to write in the notes to the martyrology at the 1st of November that the Acts of St. Austremonius were written in metre by St. Praejectus, I do not at all know. For he could not learn this from Surius, who says only that St. Praejectus wrote the Passions of the martyrs in a brilliant style, nor from the same simple Life of Praejectus, where in place of brilliant there is had in a glorious style; and nothing indicates speech bound in metre. To say what I think, I suspect that Baronius when he wrote this was confused in memory: for he says at the 1st of November, annotating on St. Austremonius: His Acts St. Praejectus wrote in metre, as the author who wrote his life testifies, which you have in Surius, vol. VII, on this day. But Surius in vol. VII says nothing of the kind, nor has he the Life of Austremonius either in prose or in verse, nor the Life of St. Praejectus, which occurs in volume I, not VII. From elsewhere, then, a Life of Austremonius composed in metre became known to these men. Which surely can have been nothing other than the verses with which this Passion is interpolated, transcribed separately or into one series, or the very deeds of Austremonius such as Labbe published, with the prologue taken away; for these begin with verses. It matters little in so small a thing that Galesini or the great Baronius erred; but I conclude from this that there exists or has existed another exemplar of these Acts, which, though most diligently sought through the libraries of the City, I could not find.

[24] has been said to be. I therefore see nothing that compels me to ascribe the Life of St. Austremonius to Praejectus as author, and I shall certainly not go so far as to attribute to him this Passion, the third in number. For to Praejectus, a most learned man and most excellent in the praise of eloquence, nor to any wise and sober man at all, not even of that age, could this insipid farrago of words and fables be ascribed without injury to the man.

[25] The second or little Passion Here I wish the reader to be advised that the three exemplars of the Acts of St. Austremonius will be indicated henceforward by three denominations; we shall call the first the Least Passion, the second will have the name Little Passion, and the third will go by the name Great Passion. Of the Least enough has been said so far: now we must speak of the others.

[26] to those narrated in the Least Passion Argument of the Little Passion. The author of this Passion makes Austremonius a chief colleague of the apostles, received with fitting honour by Pope Clement in the time of Nero, and sent with companions into the Gauls when the heresies of Valentinian and Novatian were sprouting. The names of these illustrious men, who already before had been to be delegated to individual cities by the providence of the blessed apostles, are these: and then, keeping the customary number and order, he enumerates the same men as Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book I, chapter 28, and says that two (Dionysius and Saturninus) were martyrs, and the other four illustrious by the glory of confession. Thence the discourse turns to Austremonius. He asserts in not a few words that, for the sake of preaching the faith, he came to the walls of the Arvernian city, the very city of Clermont, as he clearly indicates, and instructed many in the evangelical law. Then he depicts graphically the miracle of the peasant saved from shipwreck, and compares Austremonius with Saturninus of Toulouse, both of whom he shows to be equally hateful to the demons. Having reported the richest fruits of his preaching, the excellence of the disciples who from worshippers of idols now became master co-workers, the multitude of churches such as we see built in no city of other regions, the splendour of the miracles, he says that skilful and industrious men were chosen by the blessed bishop. These, then, he set over the others as bases of columns.

[27] adds some things about the deeds of Austremonius; Then he makes mention of a meeting accustomed to be held each year by Austremonius, Saturninus and Martial, on the border of the Arvernian diocese, which place retains the name it obtained from the three lords. There follows the journey of Austremonius to Bourges, the healing of Cassius and his brothers (the martyrdom of this Cassius is mentioned), the confirmation of the Bituriges in the faith they had received, the consecration of Ursinus as bishop of the Bituriges, the return to the Arverni. Finally, after thirty-six years spent in the episcopate, he reached about the times of Trajan, and, Urbicus having been substituted for him as bishop, he built the monastery of Issoire. Many Jews were scattered in the Arvernian city, whom the demons stirred up against Austremonius, preaching the faith of Christ so fruitfully. Disciples came and warned their father of the imminent danger, and he gladly received the hope of martyrdom and, exulting for joy, delivered his last admonitions to his disciples; he consoled them in their grief and showed himself ready for martyrdom, by the example of Christ and the apostles.

[28] reports similar things about the saint's martyrdom, Meanwhile Austremonius burned with more vehement zeal in converting gentiles and Jews, and baptized the son of one of their chiefs. The angry father threw his son into a well, which survives to this day. Then they beat Austremonius with scourges and beheaded him. As his soul went forth troops of heavenly beings came to meet it, and Austremonius, laurelled with the palm of martyrdom, was joined to the choir of the apostles, whose imitator and distinguished colleague he had been in the world. The severed head of the martyr was thrown into the well after the body of the little boy; both, drawn out of it, they resolved to lay in the monastery of Issoire. When these were buried, very many miracles shone forth; the sick were healed by drinking the water of the well, and this water overflows each year on the day of the martyrdom. There was savagery against the Jews, who were expelled from their own dwellings and became exiles, so that not one was permitted to dwell in all the Arvernian countryside up to the present. Then the tomb of the martyr began to be held in the highest veneration and to shine with miracles, renowned for gifts and the throng of people as long as his contemporaries lived. Afterwards veneration began to diminish and the former honour to perish. And although they did not doubt that the blessed martyr remained in the same place, they nevertheless did not show him the greatest service, until divine power decreed to transfer him to where he now decently rests interred.

[29] the revelation of the body and a double translation. After these deeds and passion of St. Austremonius there is treated in the same codex his translation by order of the king to the place Mozac and his resplendent miracles. Under this title there are reported: 1° the revelation made to Cautinus, and the honours rendered to the tomb, and the signs wrought there; 2° the translation, made by divine admonition by Avitus, bishop of the Arverni, whose name is kept silent, to Volvic; 3° the translation made by King Pippin, at the request of Abbot Lanfrid, from Volvic to Mozac. The translations being finished, there follows the Book of Miracles. Of all these, of the revelation, translations and miracles, there is room to treat below, where the discussion will recur on the posthumous glory of St. Austremonius.

[30] The third Passion makes Austremonius one of the 72 disciples of Christ; Argument of the Great Passion. After the prologue prefixed to the deeds of St. Austremonius in the Paris codex, which the Vatican codex presents mutilated, the deeds of the holy man begin with a poem, whose verses are thereafter interposed in the prose. These verses, excepting three, are wanting in the Paris codex. The eight verses that precede the prose speech hand on that Austremonius was from the seventy-two disciples of Christ, raised to pontifical honour for the preaching of the gospel, and then the names: To Tours is directed Bishop Gracianus, to Arles Trophimus, to Narbonne Paul, to Toulouse Saturninus, to Limoges Martial. Among them Austremonius, the renowned martyr, took on, next after God, the Arvernian monarchy to hold. From this septenary number, as Gregory of Tours has it, he excludes Dionysius, to the end that, Dionysius having been omitted and Austremonius substituted, he may retain two martyrs, whereas Gregory assigns the praise of martyrdom to Dionysius and Saturninus, and the glory of confession to the other five, among whom he lists Austremonius.

[31] his mission into Auvergne, Then he reports that Austremonius, one of the seventy-two, took part in the sacred supper, was present at the Lord's passion and ascension, and on the day of Pentecost received the Holy Spirit with the others. There follow eight verses that repeat the same. The author goes on to narrate that Austremonius, having entered the Gauls, the aforesaid men having divided from one another, set out for the Arverni, accompanied by Necterius the presbyter, Ursinus, an upright man, and Mametus the deacon, whom he had received from Blessed Peter as disciples and companions. He went without delay to the walls of the Arvernian city and preached the faith of Christ and the evangelical law. Some time later, the Holy Spirit teaching him, he came to the city of that region; which today is called Clermont from its ancient founder. What the difference may be between the walls of the Arvernian city and the city of Clermont in that region, such that Austremonius could first go to the former and preach there, and then not long after come to the latter, let that rest with the author. Perhaps he received a rumour from the tradition of the people or from written books that Austremonius began preaching as soon as he reached the borders of the Arverni, and then, traversing the state of the Arverni, came at length to the town of that state, which is now the city of Clermont. For the holy man is said to have stopped first at Castrum Laudani, and from here after many

conversions to have come to the city of Clermont. There he preached the gospel. There follow twelve verses that briefly repeat what precedes.

[32] virtues and apostolic labours The Arvernian citizens, nobles, townsmen and country people were converted, and Austremonius built a church in the very city of Clermont, which he dedicated to Blessed Peter, in which he also fittingly established the ecclesiastical orders. Here the holy prelate began to shine with virtues and miracles. All of which are reported summarily in fourteen verses. After this Austremonius is said both to have lived most holily himself and to have led the others to holiness, instructed by salutary admonitions, which the author likewise imparts to his readers. Seventeen verses do the same. Further, Austremonius, renowned for holiness, glorious for miracles, instructed in the faith all the people around; in dry places he drew fountains of water from the earth for baptizing the converted; his disciples advanced so far as to become the helpers of their master. Each year Austremonius held a conference with Bishops Martial of Limoges and Saturninus of Toulouse in a place situated on the border of the Arvernian diocese, which retains the name obtained from the three lords. Seventeen verses praise Austremonius and derive his name from the rain-bearing Auster.

[33] even outside Auvergne The fame of Austremonius drew many from every side. Going on from here to Bourges, he cured Cassius and his brothers of illness, which Cassius is said afterwards to have been made a martyr. Austremonius confirmed the Bituriges in the faith and created Ursinus bishop for them. Hence setting out into the Nivernais country he converted the inhabitants; this done he returned to the Arverni. He went through the Limousin region in great part, and preached in Aquitania Secunda. These regions venerated the holy prelate exceedingly as an exemplar of every kind of virtue, conspicuous in action and contemplation. That he might be more free for this, after thirty-six years completed in the episcopate, he chose the most excellent men from among his disciples, and he exhorted them, set over the instruction of the people, to every holiness of life. He substituted Urbicus for himself as bishop, and established the monastery of Issoire. Twenty verses recall the fruit of his preaching, the consecration of Ursinus and the erection of the monastery of Issoire. Then is narrated the miracle of the peasant saved from shipwreck, who had received eulogiae from Austremonius, and the conversation of two demons on this matter, whom Austremonius rebuked. Twenty-eight verses report the same. The author repeats anew that many signs were wrought by Austremonius, who converted nearly all the Arverni to the faith. Twenty-two verses celebrate the virtue of Austremonius and announce his martyrdom.

[34] and among the Jews, The author says that after the overthrow of Jerusalem many Jews were scattered through the city of the Arverni, to whom Austremonius announced the faith; some were converted, others hardened. Twenty-three verses make mention of the gentiles and Jews brought to the faith: which Jews worshipped images; other Jews prepared death for Austremonius. The series of the narrative continues, and Austremonius baptized Lucius, son of the chief of the Jews. He having been baptized, the holy man set out for Plauzat and built a church there in honour of St. Peter. The chief of the Jews threw his son into a well: Austremonius, returning to Issoire, drew him dead out of it and committed him to burial with great pomp. There follow the praises of the young martyr. Twenty-five verses celebrate the preaching of Austremonius, the conversion, martyrdom and burial of Lucius.

[35] finally martyrdom The verses being finished, it is narrated that Austremonius heard of the illness of his disciple Marius, which Marius had preached the gospel through the mountain places, acting in the pontiff's stead. Austremonius visited him, taking with him as companions Necterius and Mametus the archdeacon. With them he made for the valley of Iorna *, where Marius was detained. On this journey he dedicated to St. Peter a church built at the villa of Marojolum. Meanwhile Marius had died; Austremonius committed him to the tomb, and dedicated a basilica in his honour, to which church noblemen gave thirty manses, St. Austremonius urging and confirming it. Out of the very many disciples whom Austremonius had directed into the mountains for the sake of preaching, Antoninus arrived, who invited the holy man to consecrate the church of Compendiacum. Ministers having been ordained in the valley of Iorna, he made for Compendiacum, dedicated the church to St. Michael, and ennobled it with the ecclesiastical order. Meanwhile the disciples whom he had sent out to preach came together to him from every side, and he instructed them with salutary admonitions. But when the chief of the Jews, parent of the martyr Lucius, was preparing death for Austremonius, and this had become known to the disciples, they approached their holy father with an earnest speech, that he should not expose himself to death. The holy bishop answered them that nothing would be more acceptable to him than to end his life by martyrdom, and he exhorted them to serve God eagerly, consoled them in their sadness, and bade them farewell and delivered his last admonitions together with his blessing.

[36] relates at length as distinguished by prodigies; Then, having sent Necterius to the people of Antrambes, taking only Mametus as companion, he returned to Issoire, distant one stade and more; he gave himself to prayer, awaiting the agony of martyrdom. As he prayed the chief of the Jews rushed up, Mametus took to flight, Austremonius was scourged, was revived by an angelic voice, and after many injuries was beheaded; they threw the head into the same well as Lucius earlier. Under the feet of the slain bishop a spring arose; the soul of the martyr ascended into paradise in the form of a dove. After the martyrdom of their father had been announced to the disciples, they at once sought the body and found it, and brought it to the church of Issoire. Meanwhile Urbicus, warned, came to Issoire with many people, and they were led by the drops of fresh blood to the well, from which the head was drawn out; solemn obsequies were celebrated for the martyr, and the body of the martyr was buried in a stone coffin in the monastery of Issoire. Many wonders took place; the water of the well healed the sick, and it overflows each year on the day of the martyrdom. Blessed Austremonius completed his agony on the day of the kalends of November in the year 64 from the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thirty verses celebrate the martyrdom.

[37] and after his death, the conversion of the Jews and the punishments of others, Here the Paris codex places an end to the Passion and the narrative; but the Vatican codex and Labbe's Lérins one pursue the narrative further and set out what was done after the holy man's death. Bishop Urbicus exhorted the Arverni to punish the Jews. A multitude of Jews was captured, to whom it was declared that they should choose whether to die or to be washed in baptism. Of them, those who had seen the signs at the martyr's death and heard the angel speaking took up the Christian faith; the rest were exterminated. The tomb of St. Austremonius began to be held in great honour, shining with miracles, of which one is reported to have happened in this way: At a certain time in Lent, when the priest was celebrating the divine mysteries according to custom, blessed Austremonius, marvellous to say, in the sight of all who were present, came out of his tomb, and, advancing before the altar, raised his right hand according to the custom of a bishop and blessed the priest and all the people, and, the blessing completed, while they watched, he returned to his own tomb.

[38] and the cult shown to the saint. The honour of the holy man's tomb remained until the incursions of the barbarians; the monasteries and churches having been destroyed, the tomb remained unknown, though the fame of the martyr persisted. Peace having been restored, two oratories were erected: whoever desires to learn of this more fully is referred to the book entitled On the Deeds of the Germans. Then, the deeds of Theodoric having been recalled in passing, it is said that in place of very capacious basilicas oratories were built, since the upkeep of all the monasteries located among the Arverni had utterly perished. About that time Cautinus took on the rule of the church of Issoire, discharging the office of archdeacon. But the morals of the peoples having turned for the worse, whatever Theodoric left, afterwards the Vandal nation, excessively savage, coming forth from the scabbard of its cruelty, scattered. Avitus, successor of Blessed Praejectus, took the body of St. Austremonius away from Issoire and placed it at Volvic beside the body of his predecessor. Then some things are said about Pippin, Rotgerius, Eufrasius, about the translation of the body of St. Austremonius from Volvic to another place, at the request of Lanfrid, all of it defective, gaping, disconnected; mention is made of three boys, who took from his head three roses inscribed with letters; finally there follow a few incoherent verses, and so end the deeds and Passion of St. Austremonius, bishop and martyr.

[39] There follow the revelation of the body and a double translation. After the Passion in the Vatican codex and the Lérins one in Labbe, there begins the revelation of the body of blessed Austremonius, which is an amplified and embellished narrative of St. Gregory of Tours on the revelation made to Cautinus. After the revelation, there begins his first translation, made by Avitus II, bishop of Clermont, from Issoire to Volvic, the sacred bones having meanwhile been deposited for a while in a certain convent of girls. After this first translation there begins his second translation, which was made by King Pippin, at the request of Abbot Lanfrid, from Volvic to Mozac, in the year of the Lord 764. The account of this second translation being finished, there begins the text of the book of miracles, and when it ends there begins the book of miracles. This Book of Miracles with the text is by another author. For, whereas all the preceding, the Passion, revelation, translations, are written in an inflated style involved in portentous circumlocutions, these miracles are narrated in a simpler and fitting kind of writing. There follows finally an addition, that the bones of St. Austremonius, translated to Mozac by King Pippin, are preserved there.

§ III. Examination of the deeds of St. Austremonius.

General survey of the history of Austremonius. You now have, kind reader, the arguments of the three Passions faithfully set before your eyes, and if you will deign to run through them as placed below, you will use your own judgment. As regards the deeds of St. Austremonius, the three Passions converge in one thing, namely that they present the form of a most perfect and most holy apostle, who, after dipping in the sacred water a great part of the Arverni instructed in the holy faith by the ardour and diligence of his preaching, builds churches, ordains sacred ministers, at length, many miracles having been wrought, of which the Passions report one, a monastery having been built, and a form of religious life having been given by himself to many disciples, draws the Jews to the faith, and when he had baptized the son of their chief, the father, inflamed with anger, kills both his son and then Austremonius. To these things the Great Passion adds very many others, the Little Passion also one or two. I am led to believe that this history of the Least Passion contains the substance of truth: that Austremonius was a vigorous preacher of the Catholic faith, sent by the apostolic see, that the nation of the Arverni was converted to God by him, and that, churches having been erected and ministers of divine things ordained, the faith having been established, the apostle, full of merits, having also handed on a form of apostolic life and illustrious by signs, passed to the Lord. What the several Passions add besides, whether here in our commentary or below among the Annotations, will come up to be discussed a little more distinctly.

[41] His mission into Gaul, And first indeed all three Passions set Austremonius in apostolic times. The Little and Least Passions affirm him a chief colleague of the apostles of Christ, the Great Passion one of the seventy-two. All three Passions imply or declare that Austremonius with his companions were assigned to individual cities by the apostles themselves; the Great Passion says they were sent by Peter himself, the Little and Least by Clement, successor of Peter. The time of the mission is marked not accurately by the Great Passion, more accurately by the Little and the Least. For the former says they were sent after the coming of the Holy Spirit, the latter two after the martyrdom of Peter, with Clement sitting as pontiff; and the Little Passion adds that it was done while the persecution of Nero was raging. If you add to these things what the Great and Little Passions teach, that the holy man spent thirty-six years in the episcopate of the Arverni when he withdrew into the hermitage of Issoire, and reached to

the times of Trajan, as the Great Passion affirms, or nearly to the times of Trajan, as the Little Passion affirms, the two Passions will be reconciled with each other not without labour.

[42] although not by the same indications of time The chronology of the Great Passion is somewhat disturbed. For although the year 64 from the passion of the Lord can be reconciled with the times of the emperor Trajan, it is nevertheless difficult to understand how St. Austremonius, when he had first entered the city of the Arverni, could have dedicated a church to St. Peter except while the apostle was living; for if he was dead, you will bring Austremonius far beyond the 64th year from the passion of the Lord: for at least thirty-seven years of the pontificate must be counted. In what year he was sent by Peter to the Arverni can in no way be concluded from the Great Passion.

[43] in the several Passions, The chronotaxis of the Little Passion is more easily arranged, in this way. Austremonius was sent by Clement, successor of Peter, in the time of the Neronian persecution. For the author follows the opinion of those who make Clement the first pontiff after Peter. He could then have been sent in the year 70, have lasted thirty-seven years in the pontificate of the Arverni and have persevered nearly to the times of Trajan, provided you are willing to suppose that Austremonius, some years before he was sent by Clement, had been raised to the episcopal dignity and appointed apostle to the nation of the Arverni, which by no means conflicts with the text of this Passion, and rather accords with it.

[44] is referred to the first century, The Least Passion plainly slips into an error of chronology; for it says that when the heresy of Valentinian and Novatian had begun to rage, Austremonius with his companions were sent by Clement. But these heresies arose long after Clement. Yet the author's error lies in believing that these heresies arose while St. Clement, Peter's successor, was living; for his intention is so far from drawing the mission of Austremonius to the second or third century that he rather composed his narrative against those who assigned the Decian times to this mission, as is plain from the very opening, as if he should say: They write that Austremonius, colleague of the apostles, lived in the time of Decius; it is not so: for Clement sent him. Of the other indications of years this Least Passion is altogether lacking; wherefore it is not to be said either to conflict with itself or to slip otherwise than in the first error about the heresies of Valentinian and Novatian.

[45] to which tradition Gregory of Tours In this place, then, there occurs for treatment a question of no light moment, whether St. Austremonius is to be referred to apostolic times or to Decian times. If we are to stand by the authority of these Acts, Austremonius saw the apostles, or at least must be said to have lived with apostolic men. If Gregory of Tours is believed, Austremonius was sent with the six others in the time of the emperor Decius, about the year 250. Whoever will dare in this matter to depart from Gregory of Tours will give great offence to the learned men of the Gregorian school; whoever adheres to Gregory must also expect the curses of the other school. I, however, held neither by love of the prelate of Tours nor by zeal for the Acts, but led by the love of truth, shall diligently inquire into the genuine and true tradition of the Arverni.

[46] so contradicts And first indeed it is plain that the first Acts, which we have called the Least Passion, were written to the end of contradicting Gregory. There were, then, when the Acts were written, those who believed that Austremonius came not in the time of the emperor Decius but in the apostolic age. With these Acts the other Acts agree in assigning Austremonius to the apostolic age; there agree besides most breviaries, and martyrologies rather ancient, yet not older than the Acts themselves; wherefore their authority too is not to be called in here. But let us inspect Gregory himself more closely, to whom why I do not dare to give full credit will become plain from what follows. Before all else the question is whence Gregory has the certainty for asserting that the seven men he enumerates were sent in the time of the emperor Decius. He has nothing beyond the Passion of St. Saturninus; and in that Passion there is talk of Saturninus alone. What reason, then, did Gregory have for assigning the six others together with Saturninus to Decian times on the authority of this Passion. Surely nothing else than that it stood settled and fixed for Gregory that these seven men were appointed to the Gauls in one mission: and whence did he learn this except from some living tradition, whether popular or ecclesiastical, whether flying about in the mouths of men or set down in written books?

[47] so that he not so much was ignorant of it Now it is worthy of note, and all have noted it, that in more than one place Gregory confidently sets down in his books deeds drawn from that tradition. What I have already touched on above, I repeat for the sake of clarity. And of Saturninus himself, in the book On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 48, Gregory himself writes this: Saturninus the martyr, as is reported, ORDAINED BY DISCIPLES OF THE APOSTLES, was directed to the city of the people of Toulouse. At this place Ruinart annotates: If Gregory by that name truly understands the apostles, he disagrees with himself in book I of the History, chapter 30, where from the very Acts of Saturninus he marks the beginning of his Toulouse episcopate under the consuls Decius and Gratus, that is, in the year 250. There was perhaps even then, as survives today, a popular tradition that St. Saturninus had been ordained bishop by the apostles themselves and sent into the Gauls, which Gregory here followed, although his Acts, which we judge to be sincere, have otherwise. See the Acta sincera. Gregory thus seems to have known and followed the same tradition of the mission of Saturninus as our Acts report.

[48] as is to be judged to have abandoned it, The same Gregory in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 80, narrates the following of St. Ursinus, bishop of the Bituriges: The city of Bourges first received the word of salvation from St. Ursinus, WHO, ORDAINED BISHOP BY DISCIPLES OF THE APOSTLES, was appointed to the Gauls, and he first established and ruled the church of Bourges. But in book I of the History of the Franks, chapter 29, after he has enumerated the seven bishops in chapter 28, and by what death each ended his life, he continues thus: Of the disciples of these (namely of the seven bishops), one, going to the city of Bourges, announced to the peoples Christ the Lord, salvation of all. Of these, then, very few believing, ordained clerics, took up the rite of psalmody: and were instructed how they should build a church or celebrate the solemnities to almighty God. Tradition thus taught Gregory that this certain one of the disciples of the seven bishops, Ursinus, was the first bishop of the Bituriges. But Ursinus, as Gregory affirms, was ordained bishop by disciples of the apostles and directed into the Gauls. From the same tradition it must then have become known to Gregory that the seven bishops also belonged to apostolic times; for otherwise they could not have had a disciple ordained by disciples of the apostles. For I shall not be induced to admit with others that by this name of disciples of the apostles there are designated others later than the apostolic age.

[49] with no success among his countrymen. From which it follows that St. Gregory of Tours, when he called the seven bishops back to the Decian times, abandoned the tradition flourishing in his own time, induced by his exemplar of the Acts of St. Saturninus, which assigns Saturninus as first bishop of Toulouse under the consuls Decius and Gratus. The tradition which Gregory abandoned in book I of the History is the same as our Acts, namely the Little and Least Passions, have followed. I confess that it seems to me that no mediocre force accrues to these Acts from the testimony of Gregory. It is plain too that, so far from Gregory having made the tradition doubtful to his fellow Arverni by the authority of the Acts of St. Saturninus, the author of the Least Passion even thought he could pierce the singular opinion of Gregory with the opposing tradition of his homeland as with a most powerful weapon. And in fact he so pierced it that for many centuries the church of the Arverni went on believing that it owed its Austremonius to Peter or Clement. This will be clearly plain below, where we shall unfold the ecclesiastical tradition of the Arverni.

[50] The miracle of the peasant saved from drowning Let the discourse now turn to examining the singular miracle which the three Acts report in nearly the same way. And first the question at once is whether this prodigy is to be attributed to St. Austremonius or to another priest. The cause for doubting is this: St. Gregory of Tours in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 31, to show how great is the power of the priesthood, narrates a deed which, he says, I knew in truth to have taken place among the Arverni in my youth. A certain solitary presbyter, making a journey, sought lodging at the little dwelling of a certain poor man of the Limagne. Having received it, he rose from his bed by night according to the custom of priests and stood at prayer; and the man too, whom necessity compelled to haul wood from the forests, rose very early; and as is the custom of peasants, before the light had begun, he asked his wife for food, which she offered without delay. But the man did not eat the bread he had received before it was blessed by the priest or he received eulogiae from him. Having received them he ate and went off. And when he had come to the river still before daylight, having placed his cart with the oxen on a bridge which was set upon a boat, he began to cross to the other bank. But when he came into the middle of the river, he heard a voice saying: Sink him, sink him, do not delay. A second voice, answering it, said: Without your admonition I would have done what you cry out, if a sacred thing did not stand in the way of my efforts. For know that he is protected by the eulogiae of the priest; therefore I cannot harm him. But he, hearing the voices and seeing no one, and recognizing that words were being tossed about concerning him, signing himself with the cross of the Lord, gave thanks to God that the adverse party could not prevail against him. Then proceeding on to the farther bank, he returned home safe with the load he had wanted. So Gregory.

[51] is also read in the bishop of Tours, A similar history is contained in the Least Passion, which the other two Passions also report to the same effect, and which I append here: At that same time, then, the Lord deigned to show such great wonders through him, that they lifted up the hearts of the gentiles no less by miracles than by preachings. For when one day the same blessed pontiff Austremonius was preaching to the people beside the river Allier and strenuously admonishing them to remain stable in what they had learned from him, one miracle is said to have happened there from the Lord. For it is handed down by the report of the faithful that two peasants wished to cross the river to cut wood, and when the people had halted where the man of the Lord was devoting himself to preaching, one of them, taking bread from which he was going to eat at the hour of refreshment, inspired, as I believe, by the Lord, went on to the bishop and offered it to him, who, receiving the same bread, blessed it and gave eulogiae from it to the same peasant. Soon returning, he boarded the ship with his companion and many others, and when a wind blew the water was stirred up. The ship, tossed among the waves of the waters, was sunk, and all were killed except the one to whom the blessed pontiff Austremonius had given eulogiae, who by swimming reached the bank of the river and by the merits of the man of God, while they looked on, escaped unharmed. But the demon who had sunk the others in the depth of the deep, seeing this man hastening safely to the shores of the river, to his colleague

cried out in the air in the people's hearing. Ho, what are you doing? Why do you not kill this man, who so boldly crosses the waves of the river? To him the other answered: I cannot, though I desire it, because Austremonius, who is casting us out on every side, gave him eulogiae. This miracle having been manifestly accomplished, from that day onward they listened more to St. Austremonius preaching. Also a custom grew up in all the region that those fasting, if a priest is present, receive eulogiae, which are held in place of holy communion. Thus the Least Passion.

[52] but with the name of Austremonius suppressed. So great a likeness exists between the two narratives, namely of Gregory and of the Acts, that it can at first sight seem that one deed is narrated in both with the attending details changed. Each author reports what was reported; neither brings forward an authority to create credence. The author of the Acts received it from the report of the faithful; Gregory knew in truth that it took place among the Arverni; but whether he knew that the thing took place when he was a youth, or as a youth knew that the thing had taken place, the doubtful phrase does not settle. It is nevertheless not doubtful that the author of the Acts read the book of Gregory, from which he copied part of chapter 30 up to the last verse, which is at once followed in chapter 31 by the narrative cited above. One may therefore suppose that a breath of this rustic tradition reached Gregory when he was being brought up as a youth among the Arverni, and that he afterwards inserted it in the Book of Miracles such as memory had retained it; but that the author of the Least Passion, a more diligent examination having been carried out, fished out the deed with all the circumstances of things and persons and committed it to memory. It may also be that the last words of the Acts look to the Gregorian narrative, where it is said: Also a custom grew up in all the region that those fasting, if a priest is present, receive eulogiae. For in Gregory that man did not eat the bread he had received before it was blessed by the priest or he received eulogiae from him. Having received them he ate and went off. There you have a fasting man, who is unwilling to take the bread before the priest, by blessing it, has given eulogiae from it. Nothing bids us believe that the author of the Passion accommodated to Austremonius by his own judgment an uncertain thing floating in the mouth of the crowd; for nothing in this Least Passion, sufficiently sober in its matter, indicates any boldness of invention.

[53] The tradition of the saint's martyrdom, In the last place we must treat of the death of St. Austremonius. The three Acts agree as to the substance of the matter and adorn St. Austremonius with the crown of martyrdom. Gregory of Tours, however, separates Austremonius from the martyrs, and hands on that he died by the peaceful death of confessors History of the Franks, book I, chapter 28. The author of the Least Passion, who we have said wrote with this end, that the Gregorian opinion should be contradicted where it calls St. Austremonius back with the others to Decian times, shows immediately from the start the same spirit of contradicting Gregory as regards the death of Austremonius. For having listed the seven bishops, of these, he says, Dionysius and Saturninus completed their course by the palm of martyrdom; then he copies Gregory, omitting Austremonius, and goes on, in almost the very words of Gregory: Gratianus, Trophimus and Paul and Martial, in the highest holiness (living), the peoples gained for the Church to the faith of Christ spread out before all, departed in happy confession. And thus, the former by martyrdom and the latter by confession leaving the earth, they are joined alike in the heavenly places. To these words of Gregory, somewhat disturbed by the carelessness of a copyist, he attaches the following phrase by means of the adversative particle: for he goes on thus, about to report thereafter the deeds of Austremonius alone: But the holy and venerable worshipper of God Austremonius, who etc. This is the prudence of an author, not faithfully copying another's narrative, but skilfully composing his own. For he could not join Austremonius with the four confessors, seeing that he died not by a natural but by a violent death inflicted out of hatred of the faith, and yet he did not wish to equate his martyrdom with the passion of Saturninus and Dionysius, who, condemned by public authority by Roman judges, underwent a glorious death for Christ, whereas Austremonius was slain in a popular uprising of base men, by a private rather than a public hatred, although for the faith of Christ.

[54] unknown to Gregory So again in this place a most weighty question is raised, whether or not St. Austremonius is to be honoured with the title of martyr. Gregory denies it; the Acts affirm it, and with the Acts the church of the Arverni has affirmed it for many centuries. Nor have some denied the martyrdom of the holy prelate, as has at times the church of the Arverni itself, for any other reason than the authority of St. Gregory. The weight of both authorities having been balanced, then, if one must assent to one or other of the opposing parties, since the suit is still before the judge and is neither defined by any decree of the Church nor perhaps to be settled before the supreme day of judgment, it seems to me that I can adhere to the ancient, rather constant and still enduring tradition of the Arverni without the mark of levity. For it is plainly evident from this very Least Passion that at that time the tradition of the Arverni had by no means been torn up by Gregory's opinion, but had been deliberately asserted by the public cult of the church and propagated for many centuries afterwards, and that, though it could afterwards be shaken somewhat, it could not be uprooted, to the present day.

[55] because among the Arverni But Gregory, born among the Arverni and educated under Bishop Gallus, a most holy man, and under Avitus, a prelate of equal holiness, could not have been ignorant of the traditions of the Arverni. It could be answered that it seems more wonderful that the whole Arvernian church and people through so many centuries should have believed in a feigned martyrdom, in the monuments of a feigned martyrdom, and in prodigies shown at the place of a feigned martyrdom. Yet examples of error commend prudence. But whoever assumes that the tradition of the Arverni about Austremonius could not have escaped Gregory must indeed prove that the name and honour and cult and deeds of Austremonius were in the hands and mouth of all, or at least set down in those books which ecclesiastical men are accustomed to have in hand. But none of this is proved, and that all was otherwise we learn even from Gregory himself. His apostle had been almost consigned to oblivion in the city of the Arverni. Which no one should wonder at; for the city of the Arverni did not rejoice in the sacred body of Austremonius: for he was buried in the hermitage of Issoire. Then so many disasters of wars, overthrows of the city, pestilential diseases, incursions of barbarians had disturbed everything and turned everything upside down, so that there could easily befall the city of the Arverni what befell many cities of the Gauls, that they at length were ignorant of the tomb and the place and the name of their apostles, until the holy men, coming from heaven, revealed themselves to their peoples, to whose fathers they had announced Christ.

[56] obscured, That the matter was so among the Arverni seems capable of proof even from Gregory himself. For what? Gregory assails the people of Issoire with a harsh word, because they showed no honour to Austremonius resting among them, although they were not unaware how great a treasure they had among them. What reason then did Gregory have for inveighing so much against the peasants of Issoire, while sparing the townspeople of the Arverni? That the latter did not know where Austremonius had been buried, while the former knew it well: and knew not only that he was buried among them, but also who and how great a man he was; for unless they had known this also, there was no reason why they should have spent honours on the tomb. Although I readily excuse the people of Issoire too: for crude rusticity did not venerate Austremonius for this reason, that polished urbanity did not venerate him. For it was for the prelate of the Arverni, it was for the deacon sent by him to Issoire, to attend with veneration the ashes and bones of the holy apostle and not to leave the tomb unhonoured in the basilica of Issoire. That so many holy prelates of the Arverni could so neglect the tomb of a most holy man and render no honours to so great an apostle of their homeland, I find no other cause for than oblivion.

[57] could be preserved among the people of Issoire. A certain first ray began to dispel the dense darkness, when a heavenly vision pricked the conscience of Cautinus the deacon: for so Cautinus, afterwards prelate of the Arverni, told Gregory what took place. Then, therefore, the holiness of Austremonius began to be celebrated again by the Arverni; but the series of his deeds did not at once become known to them along with his holiness; and St. Gregory could know a saint, could not know a martyr. I understand that it can hence be objected to me why I should dare to appeal to the tradition of the church of the Arverni, when I contend in this place that it was none. The accusation is not lacking in appearance; I shall however see that it is washed away. I champion a tradition; I do not contend that the tradition was not interrupted. That it was interrupted among the townspeople, or at least heavily overshadowed by darkness, is evident; among the country people of Issoire not likewise. For on the witness of Gregory, the crude rusticity of the people of Issoire was not ignorant; but it did not honour him whom it ought to have known to be worthy of all honour. There remains, then, the freedom of opining, which afterwards prevailed again in the whole church of the Arverni, that the tradition was preserved by the people of Issoire, and not only preserved but consolidated by monuments erected. On one side they showed the tomb of the blessed man, on the other the well into which the martyr's body had been thrown, and not far distant from it the place of martyrdom and the fountain famous for miracles of healing.

[58] Besides these things there can probably be admitted Besides the mission of Austremonius received in apostolic times, his preaching among the Arverni crowned with outstanding success, the miracles, the ordination of sacred ministers, there remain certain other things which we have said pertain to the substance of the history common to the three Passions. These are the building of churches, the foundation of the monastery of Issoire, the martyrdom of Lucius. Although I cannot establish their truth by written monuments, they are nevertheless of such a kind that they can be believed with no trouble.

[59] the building of oratories In this place it is necessary to distinguish the Least Passion again from the two others, in order to observe the marks of the primitive tradition. Of the first oratory built by St. Austremonius, the Least Passion speaks in such words that you can easily detect the circumstances of the first times; for it writes thus: To this place, then, the holy man of God Austremonius hastening, he built with great zeal, the Lord protecting him, a church there which was known neither to the places nor to the peoples. You see slender beginnings, the obscurity and humility of the place, everything such as that time requires. With this oratory, which was perhaps part of a private house or an underground chamber, the apostolic man established the beginnings of his preaching in the apostolic manner. Then, with very many running to him and being baptized, more oratories were erected, in the private houses, as we may believe, of converted citizens; then, as the light of preaching was spread through the region of the Arverni, whether by Austremonius or by the blessed man's disciples, further oratories were added. This, I think, can be reckoned the substance of the matter and the truth of the historical tradition.

[60] such as the time permitted, I willingly concede that the author of the Passion, seeing very many basilicas built, so great a splendour and so great a store of sacred buildings, led by error, ascribed to Austremonius things done long after Austremonius. Which is surely manifest in what he wrote a little later in the same Passion, where he describes the zeal of the holy man's disciples: And as they had yielded their members to serve injustice and iniquity unto iniquity, so on the contrary they strove to serve God unto sanctification. They destroyed the altars where they had before sacrificed to demons, and in those very places they built churches with great effort and marvellous beauty; to which through the same time

the custom and love increased in the aforesaid city so that, the Lord helping, basilicas were built so large as are nowhere seen built in any other one of the cities of that kingdom. For which we offer thanks, supreme Almighty Father, who deigned to send so outstanding a preacher, through whom you once called back so innumerable a lost people to heavenly things. So he, and these things not only do not suit the time of Austremonius, but indicate more clearly than light the seventh or eighth century.

[61] monastic life by Austremonius We must now come to the construction of the monastery of Issoire. They will hiss it off with both hands as a fable and invention who think that there was no monastic life before Antony or Pachomius. Monastic life was not invented by Antony or Pachomius, but handed down by the apostles, cultivated and propagated from apostolic times on, and afterwards reduced to a more stable form and bound by fixed rules. Let us hear the author of the Least Passion: He is said to have built a monastery in the place called Issoire, where, establishing no small crowd of monks, he happily handed on to them, to be preserved, the apostolic life which he had fully learned, and taught them by the rules of the art to blunt the spirit and ever to submit their necks to the yoke of the Lord. Hence, then, we learn that there was a report that the first monastery at Issoire was founded by St. Austremonius. The author of the Passion adduces a tradition, whether popular or ecclesiastical, and nothing further.

[62] undertaken with companions There can be a question whether this tradition conflicts with or agrees with the tenor of the rest of the Passion. There is no doubt that it must be said to agree most aptly. For, as Eusebius has handed down, it was the custom of apostolic men to leave everything, and having renounced earthly goods they gave themselves to the preaching of the gospel. This is that apostolic life which we read Austremonius had fully learned; these things suit the man, they suit the time. Provided only that no one imagines the monastery of Issoire in the time of Austremonius to have been such as Pachomius or Benedict afterwards built, or thinks of a solitary life given to no apostolic labours. Which is not permitted by these Acts. For Austremonius from this very solitude of Issoire undertook sacred expeditions with his companions. The matter seems to be conceived thus. The holy bishop with chosen companions, every care of earthly things having been renounced, strove according to the norm of genuine and apostolic holiness to procure his own salvation and acquire his own perfection, and with equal zeal devoted himself to the salvation of his neighbours by undertaking sacred missions. Wherefore nothing seems to stand in the way of this building of the monastery of Issoire, understood in the manner we have said, being believed to be true, if credit is given to the rest of the Passion.

[63] and the martyrdom of Lucius. As regards the martyrdom of Lucius, although no written Acts or monuments survive other than the Acts of St. Austremonius, I do not see what can prevent its being admitted with the other parts of the same tradition. For first, it would not have been easy to invent a martyrdom of this kind, since neither necessity nor utility of invention appears. Then the deed fits exactly with the character of the Jews and their furious hatred toward Christians. Finally, the name of Lucius imposed on the baptized youth has the scent of the customs of remote antiquity. Christians loved names of light, for whom baptism too was illumination, a thing demonstrated by others with infinite examples.

[64] More suspect are the things which the Great Passion adds to these To conclude this disputation on the deeds of St. Austremonius, let us disclose what our mind is. Whatever is contained in the Least Passion, which we have called above the substance of the matter, cannot be proved false, although we cannot demonstrate the truth of those matters by certain documents, beyond the report and tradition of the Arverni. To return to the other Passions, whatever is added in the Great and Little Passions to this kernel of truth of which we have spoken seems to us in some way suspect, unless it is confirmed from elsewhere by suitable authority. What is narrated, then, of the discipleship of St. Austremonius, by which he should be placed among the seventy, what of his presence at the mysteries of the faith and of the passion and resurrection, and the rest in the Great Passion, we reject, not because it could not so have happened, but because it rests on nothing other than the will and the invention of the author. The same must be said of the other six apostolic men and of the speech addressed to them by Peter, who sent them two and two, as the Lord had done before. For these things are vain and insipid, and in conflict with the author's own narrative, who one line later says straight off that they were sent singly to single cities.

[65] and the Little, especially These things, however, the author of the Little Passion judged should be reported more sparingly, and he proposed something more likely. He calls Austremonius a chief colleague of the apostles, says he was sent by Clement, successor of the apostles, does not say he was ordained by Clement, and so tempers his speech that Austremonius, being already a man of great name, is said to have been received by Clement and shown honour, but Clement actually delegates Austremonius with the six companions, who were to be delegated by the providence of the apostles. All of which took place while the persecution of Nero was raging. That he should have dragged in Valentinian and Novatian here is a slip in an error shared with the Least Passion.

[66] about the companions of Austremonius, about the church dedicated to St. Peter The Great Passion adds three companions to Austremonius, namely Necterius the presbyter, Ursinus, a man of beneficent uprightness, and Mametus also, holding the office of the levitical order. Since we do not at all know whence the author received these things and on what foundation they rest, we think that they were invented in a more recent age and inserted into the history of Austremonius, received perhaps from popular tradition. That our Austremonius built the first church among the Arverni in honour of Blessed Peter both the Great and Little Passions assert. This seems to be an error in their chronology, as we have shown above, unless they wished this church to have been dedicated to Peter while he was still alive, or thought that a deed done long after should be reported at the beginning of the Passion. That a church was built among the Arverni by Austremonius the thing itself cries out and we have learned from the Least Passion; but I am of the opinion that the dedication made to Peter, and the demolished altars, and the tamed rulers, and the crowds of converts, and the other things narrated there, are either mere figments, or are in part to be referred to later times of preaching. Of the disciples who become helpers of their master, of the immense number of churches, we add nothing to what we said in examining the Least Passion.

[67] and about the annual meeting with Saturninus and Martial. Both Passions narrate in nearly the same words a certain custom of St. Austremonius of which no mention is made in the Least Passion: There is a place on the border of the Arvernian diocese which by the report of the ancients of old retains the name obtained from three lords. For thither once a year came together blessed Austremonius, and also the distinguished Martial of Limoges and the renowned martyr Saturninus of Toulouse. I assert this to be a mere fable, because it rests on no foundation. What place it looks to I have not been able to find, unless perhaps he wished Trissac or Treignac to be understood. The purpose for which they should meet each year, although it is not unworthy of these men, I consequently judge to have been invented along with the invented meeting.

[68] But the journey to Bourges Then both Passions relate the journey of the blessed man to Bourges and the healing of Cassius and his conversion to the faith. The Acts of Cassius written by St. Praejectus neither our predecessors nor we have been able to find. In the apocryphal Passion which Pierre-François Chifflet sent to Henschenius, nearly the same is read about the illness of Cassius, who was later a martyr. Henschenius observed that these things could have happened, provided that Austremonius also lived in the time of Cassius, who suffered martyrdom about the year 264 Acta Sanctorum, vol. III of May (at day 15), p. 455, no. 5. It is manifest that this healing and conversion of Cassius either were invented by the author of each Passion or, if they were true, are not to be ascribed to Austremonius, or, if they are to be ascribed to him, that he did not live in apostolic times; for Cassius and his companions without doubt belong to the third century.

[69] and the consecration of Bishop Ursinus there, When he had reached Bourges, he strove to strengthen by his teaching and example a people still wavering too much in the faith, and having stayed there for a while, at the petition of the people he raised to the pontificate of that see his blessed disciple Ursinus, powerful in the height of nobility and striving to please God in all things. The affairs of clerics and laymen having been disposed with prudent governance, etc. The same is read in the same words in both Passions, except for those words at the petition of the people, which the Great Passion alone reports. If, then, the author of each Passion is to be credited, the city of the Bituriges received its first pastor from Austremonius. It seems certain that the first bishop of the Bituriges was Ursinus; the circumstances of times and persons do not seem so certain. In the proper office of this saint now in use among the Bituriges, no mention is made of Austremonius sending or consecrating; yet nothing is read there that conflicts with our Acts. Gregory of Tours favours the narrative of the Acts. We have copied out Gregory's words above: who in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 80, says that Ursinus, ordained bishop by disciples of the apostles, established the church of the Bituriges, and in the first book of the History of the Franks, chapters 28 and 29, that he was one of the disciples of the seven bishops. The matter seems to have gone thus: Austremonius appointed Ursinus, whether as a bishop or a simple presbyter, to the Bituriges, and he, going there, laid the foundations of the faith and ordained clerics. The beginnings were nevertheless very slender. Austremonius came to the aid of the labourers, confirmed the converts, and gave them Ursinus as their own bishop or ordained him.

[70] to which tradition the bishop of Tours is no obstacle, But if anyone objects to me the same Gregory narrating History of the Franks, book I, chapter 29 that a house was obtained from Leocadius, still a heathen, which he says was the first church of the Bituriges, and should argue thus: This Leucadius, on the witness of Gregory, was of the stock of Vettius Epagathus, the martyr of Lyon; he could not then have lived in the apostolic age; such a one, I say, should remember that both ascendants and descendants, with respect to one given man, can rightly and deservedly be said to be of his stock. Then what we thought the reader should be warned of above, I shall repeat here. Gregory learned of the first preaching of the gospel among the Bituriges from tradition and assigns it to the apostolic age, by saying On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 80 that Ursinus, ordained bishop by disciples of the apostles, was appointed to the Gauls: the same narrative, as it ends, indicates not obscurely an age far more remote than the third century, where it is said that Ursinus, departing from the world, was laid for burial in a field among the other tombs of the people. For that people did not yet understand how to venerate the priests of the Lord and show them due reverence. Which things, as they fit the time of the primitive Church, are with greatest difficulty reconciled with the age of Constantine. To the people of this Ursinus, then, Leocadius gave his house, on the witness of Gregory; of this age, then, was the same Leocadius, who accordingly did not descend from Vettius Epagathus, but from whom Vettius Epagathus must be said to descend. For the rest, it is hard to believe that the offspring of so great and so conspicuous a martyr adhered to the heathen superstition.

[71] less unworthy of credit, From all this we conclude that the journey of Austremonius to Bourges, and the ordering of this church by him, according to the aforesaid Acts, are not unworthy of credit: although the Acts of St. Ursinus and the Proper of the church of Bourges, of Austremonius sending Ursinus

make no mention Labbe, Bibliotheca, vol. II, p. 457. For the former do not make Ursinus a disciple of the seven men, but join him to them as an eighth companion; the latter is silent about Austremonius.

[72] and likewise the preaching of the faith to the people of Nevers. In this place the Great Passion overflows beyond the Little Passion. For the latter continues thus: The affairs of clerics and laymen having been composed with prudent governance, glad in the Lord he returned to the Arvernian fields. But the former: The affairs of clerics and laymen having been disposed with prudent governance, he directed his journey to the country of Nevers. Reaching as far as its inhabitants, he converted the people, still entangled in the errors of gentilism, adoring idols, sacrificing to demons, by his salutary and sweet preaching to the worship of truth and also to the equity of the faith. The people thus being confirmed in the fear of God, glad in the Lord he returned to the Arvernian fields. If, then, the Great Passion is credited, the people of Nevers owe to Austremonius the faith preached and received. The church of Nevers itself, in its Proper, on the feast of St. Austremonius, which it celebrates on the 3rd of November with double rite, testifies thus of itself and of the Bituriges: The church having been founded at Rome, Peter, to whom the care of the whole flock had been committed, sent disciples into various parts of the West to preach the faith. From him the Arverni in the Gauls had Austremonius. When he had sown the gospel among the Arverni, out of zeal to extend the rule of Christ the Saviour, he came to Noviodunum of the Aedui or Nevers on the Loire, where he laid the foundations of the Christian religion, which he is also said to have done at Avaricum of the Bituriges. There is no reason why we should deny credit to the testifying church of Nevers.

[73] An uncertain indication of time. There now occurs the indication of time which we said above is lacking in the Least Passion. For the Great and Little Passions report that after thirty-six years spent in the episcopate of the Arvernian church, Austremonius thought of the hermitage of Issoire, And they add that he persevered until the times of Trajan, or nearly until the times of Trajan, as the Little Passion has it. The emperor's name has fallen out of the Labbe edition; in the Paris manuscript codex there is had Vespasian, by a manifest mistake, which conflicts with the text itself. The Little Passion alone names Trajan. We refrain from clarifying this question, because this indication has no historical foundation. But since at the end the Great Passion assigns the death of Austremonius to the year 64 from the passion of the Lord, we warn the reader again that manifest wounds of chronology are found here, for the healing of which the necessary aids are lacking to us.

[74] Suspect are the things which the Great Passion narrates of churches built, After the honours rendered to St. Lucius the martyr, hearing the news of the illness of his disciple St. Marius, the holy man, taking with him Necterius and Mametus as companions, set out to visit Marius in the valley of Iorna, on which journey he dedicated a church at the villa of Marojolum to Blessed Peter. On Marius and his Acts may be seen volume II of June of the Acts and what Daniel Papebroch comments. As to this journey of Austremonius we have nothing at all to affirm or deny. That a church was consecrated by the holy man in these circumstances we do not believe. As for what is added, that Austremonius built a church over the buried Marius and dedicated it to Marius himself, I cannot believe it; and much less do I believe that noblemen, whom blessed Marius had caused to be converted to the way of truth by salutary preaching, at the suggestion of Blessed Austremonius gave to the same church from their estates, with most ready will, thirty manses for the use of the clerics there serving almighty God and St. Marius, and wished this donation to be confirmed by St. Austremonius with episcopal authority. I hold it a fable pure and simple. Of the church built in the place called Compendiacum, dedicated to St. Michael by St. Austremonius, I have nothing more certain to affirm. Of Necterius also, sent to the people of Antrambes, and of Mametus, the companion of the return to Issoire, who took to flight from the Jews pursuing Austremonius, let the credit rest with the unknown author.

[75] of Urbicus, the successor put in his place by Austremonius, The Little Passion, after the journey to Bourges and the return to the Arverni and the putting of Urbicus in his place, brings Austremonius to the hermitage of Issoire, where, a monastery having been built, he preached the faith to the Jews and converted Lucius; he having been slain by his father, the holy man was sought for death and at last killed. What we have reported above besides these things is had in the Great Passion alone. In the very circumstances of the martyrdom the Great Passion overflows beyond the Least and the Little. Before we examine these, a few things must be said here about Urbicus, whom both the Little and the Great Passion say with equal consent was put in the place of Austremonius. That one or more of his disciples were substituted in his place by the holy bishop, desirous of the hermitage, the thing itself cries out, even if all the Acts were silent. But by what name this man, whether future successor or, as we now say, coadjutor with right of succession, was called, the Least Passion is silent; both the Little and the Great Passion name Urbicus. On Urbicus may be seen Godfrey Henschenius at the 3rd of April in our Acts. It seems it must be said in this place that if Urbicus had Austremonius as his master, Austremonius does not belong to apostolic times. Wherefore if credit is given to the Least Passion and Austremonius is believed to have been sent by Clement, an interpontificate between the first and second prelates of the Arverni must be admitted with Claude Robert and others, or it must be established that the first bishop of the Arverni after Austremonius is not this Urbicus, but that this is the first whose name history retains. If anyone inquires of me what is to be held and to which side of the contradiction assent should be given, I shall say at once that it is certain that the name of no prelate of the Arverni between Austremonius and this Urbicus has become known, and it is certain that Urbicus lived one or two centuries after apostolic times, and thus it seems false that Urbicus was a contemporary of Austremonius; I would not, however, wish an interpontificate admitted, but with the Least Passion I believe that a bishop was ordained by Austremonius to act in his stead, or perhaps several bishops, who gave Austremonius one of the companions as successor, and that thus the succession followed in turn down to Urbicus, who held the see of the Arverni at the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth. That the names of bishops should have fallen out across so great an interval of time is so frequent a fact in ecclesiastical history that one comes to wonder why some should conclude that there were no bishops from the lack of names handed down. The most learned Dom Chamard, O.S.B., is worth reading on this question Les églises du monde romain, p. 399 ff.. Wherefore I warn at once that the author of the Great Passion invented out of his own head when he brings in Urbicus holding an assembly of senators and instructing them to persecute the Jews.

[76] also of certain circumstances of the martyrdom, Let us now return to the narrative of the martyrdom. The three Passions hand down nearly the same substance of the martyrdom. I said nearly the same; for whereas the Little and the Great say that the martyrdom took place by the cutting off of the head after scourging, the Least, using another circuit of words, seems to imply that Austremonius, killed with whips, then at last had his head cut off; for it writes thus: But blessed Austremonius the prelate, torn with many blows until he breathed out his spirit, at the very last adorning him with the palm of martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. The head cut off from Austremonius, on the authority of the three Passions, was thrown into the well into which the body of St. Lucius had been thrown, and was drawn out of it together with the body of Lucius according to the Little and Least Passions. The Great Passion had placed the martyrdom of Lucius a long time before, together with the martyr's burial. We believe that credit should be given to the Least and Little Passions. Of the miracle of the angel speaking to Austremonius and of the spring arisen in the place of the martyrdom, of the head found by drops of blood indicating the way to the well, the Little and Least Passions make no mention. The glorious exit of Austremonius from the body and his entry into the heavens, which the Least Passion clothes with no prodigy, the Little and Great render miraculous. Wherefore I am led to reckon that whatever the two others have added beyond the simple report of the Least Passion was gratuitously invented or perhaps added for the sake of expanding the speech. As regards the spring, although one may call its miraculous origin into doubt, the spring itself nevertheless existed in the place called of the martyrdom, illustrious by signs and gifts of healings.

[77] of the prodigy of the water overflowing each year That the water of the well into which the holy man's head was thrown brought health to many both the Least and Little and Great Passions affirm. But the prodigy of the well overflowing each year on the very day of the martyrdom only the Little and Great Passions report. Let it stand, then, as it is indeed most worthy of credit, that bodily health returned to many from drinking the water sanctified by the contact of the holy head; the rest let us set among the fables, the more securely as a deeper oblivion covers this kind of prodigy among the people of Issoire. For when in the year 1880, in the month of January, I most diligently investigated through the district of Issoire everything regarding St. Austremonius, no one could communicate anything to me about the well or about water overflowing each year. The very place of the martyrdom, which was formerly distinguished both by the aforesaid spring and by a sacred little building erected there, would scarcely preserve traces of the holy man, did not a stone cross erected on the site of the chapel admonish the traveller, with the following inscription added on both sides on the stone base:

ST. STREMONIUS, SENT BY ST. PETER

INTO GAUL, CAME AMONG THE ARVERNI

AND, THE FAITH HAVING BEEN GIVEN TO THESE

REGIONS, CROWNED HIS APOSTOLATE WITH MARTYRDOM

IN THIS VERY PLACE

ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE LORD LX.

IN MEMORY OF WHICH, HERE WHERE

ONCE A SPRING LEAPT UP, THERE LONG

STOOD A SACRED BUILDING ERECTED BY THE PIETY

OF THE FAITHFUL; WHICH HAVING BEEN OVERTHROWN BY TIME,

THIS CROSS WAS ERECTED BY MR. AND MRS. FALLON-HARDY ON THE 31ST DAY OF THE MONTH OF MAY

IN THE YEAR MDCCCLXVII.

[78] and of Austremonius from the tomb blessing the people. That the Jews were at once made exiles from Auvergne after the death of St. Austremonius we have said from the consensus of the three Passions: in which matter the author of the Great Passion shows the fertility of his talent by the circumstances of his own invention which he adds. That the tomb of St. Austremonius began at once to shine with signs and to be frequented by the devout gathering of the people the three Passions unanimously assert; which devotion afterwards cooled, as the same Passions testify. But the Great Passion narrates a splendid prodigy of Austremonius rising from the tomb and blessing the people. A kind of prodigy which we have known more than once to have occurred both in the first and in more recent centuries; wherefore we dare neither to deny nor to confirm it. For to deny it a priori is foreign to the gravity of a historian, and to confirm it without a suitable authority is of the highest levity. Here the Acts of St. Austremonius properly so called end. For what is added in the codices, and which we shall give connected in one tenor with the preceding, regards the posthumous glory of the holy man.

§ IV. Ecclesiastical monuments of the Arverni on St. Austremonius.

The Martyrology of Clermont, seventh century Besides the Acts treated in the preceding paragraphs, one of which, which we have called the Least Passion, we have shown above to have belonged to the liturgical office, we have thought that other documents of the church of the Arverni should also be adduced, to the end that the tradition of this most excellent church, illustrated as far as possible, may render its proper testimony concerning its holy apostle Austremonius. In the first place I put the manuscript parchment Martyrology of Clermont, of the National Library of Paris, new Latin fund no. 9085, of the twelfth century; in which the following elogium of St. Austremonius is read on his feast day: In the Gauls, in the city

of the Arverni, the natal day of blessed Austremonius, martyr, who, ordained bishop at Rome by the holy apostles, was directed to the same city to preach the gospel of Christ.

[80] and another of the thirteenth century, In the second place I put a manuscript parchment martyrology of the year 1284 which is preserved in the library of the chapter of Clermont, which there goes by the name la canone; in which on p. 34 there is likewise read: Kalends of November. In the Gauls, in the Arvernian city, the natal day of blessed Austremonius, martyr, who, ordained bishop at Rome by the holy apostles, was directed to the same city to preach the gospel of Christ.

[81] breviaries of Clermont of the fourteenth century, one In the third place I put a manuscript parchment breviary of the National Library of Paris, new acquisition Latin no. 116, which came from the common library of the Friars Preachers of Clermont, of the fourteenth century. The lessons of this breviary nearly accord with our Acts treated above. In the calendar at the head of the breviary, at the VII ides of November, Austremonius has been added in another hand; but in the breviary itself there are responsories and lessons on the life of St. Austremonius, which seem to be taken partly from the Passion we have called Great, partly from that which we have distinguished with the name of Least. In this codex from p. 473 onward blessed Austremonius is read of, exalted in pontifical glory and the palm of martyrdom; there is also narrated the miracle of the peasant saved from the waves. Further: The first and chief prelate of the Arverni was Austremonius, who first showed them the knowledge of truth. Then Austremonius is narrated to have been of the seventy disciples of Christ, to have been present at the supper, and a witness of the resurrection of Christ, seeing that he was present when Christ appeared, and that he saw him ascending into the heavens, and on the day of Pentecost received the Holy Spirit. Then there is added, in nearly the same way as in the Least Passion, in the manner of one wondering: St. Austremonius, then, disciple of the apostles, is read to have been sent into the Gauls to preach in the times of the emperor Decius with very many others. Then, as if to refute this late mission, which is read (in Gregory of Tours, that is), it is added that Austremonius was sent by Clement, disciple and successor of Peter, and the rest according to the Acts. At the end, where mention is made of the martyr, it is said that where his head fell a spring arose, and his soul ascended in the form of a dove, according to the Great Passion.

[82] and another To this I join a similar breviary of Clermont of the fourteenth century, whose lessons are put together or rather extracted from the most ample Acts with all their swelling of words. Thus: Blessed Austremonius, then, designated by the Lord Jesus Christ in the number of the seventy-two disciples, reclined with those at supper at the banquet of the sacred supper. He sorrowed with the other disciples over the passion of the Lord, and subsequently merited to rejoice at the glorious revelation of his resurrection. And he was with the disciples when the Lord Jesus stood in their midst and said to them: Peace be to you; whose most sweet and splendid voice he himself also heard… All the rest, except the lessons, agrees nearly word for word with the office from the Clermont Breviary of Louis d'Estaing, bishop of Clermont, of the year 1654, for which see below.

[83] the tradition of the Arverni on the apostolic mission of Austremonius Here we must stand a little. I have set before the reader's eyes a written tradition of six or seven centuries. From this tradition, then, we learn that Austremonius belongs to apostolic times, and ended his life by martyrdom, notwithstanding the contrary tradition of Gregory of Tours. Let us now examine closely what the church of the Arverni held thereafter. If you listen to Dufraisse Origine des églises de France (Paris, 1688), chapter 9, the church of the Arverni held entirely the contrary, and received its apostle Austremonius, sent by the Roman see, in the time of the emperor Decius; and he says that he read this in ancient breviaries. I greatly regret that I have not been able to see these breviaries; I suspect, however, that the matter stands in the breviaries which that most learned man consulted as it stands in the Least Passion. I shall cite the opening of the Least Passion and then I shall cite the lesson of the breviary which Dufraisse adduced to prove what he had assumed. Then it will become plain to everyone why dots follow the first phrase, substituted by the writer for the words omitted: St. Austremonius, then, disciple of the apostles of Christ, is read to have been sent into the Gauls to preach in the times of the emperor Decius with very many other fellow-disciples. But after the departure of the apostles, when the heresy of Valentinian and Novatian, at the urging of the enemy, had begun to rage against the Christian legion, St. Clement, disciple and successor of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, assigned these men, as they had been ordained by the apostles, to individual cities. These were sent: to Tours, Bishop Gratianus; to Arles, Bishop Trophimus; to Narbonne, Bishop Paul; to Toulouse, Bishop Saturninus; to Paris, Bishop Dionysius; to Limoges, Bishop Martial; and to the Arverni was appointed Bishop Austremonius. So the Passion we call Least; where it is clearer than light that the second phrase, in the mind of the writer, confutes the first, which rests on another's credit (is read, he says).

[84] confirm, with Dufraisse protesting in vain; But Dufraisse, intending to prove that it is the tradition of the church of the Arverni that the seven bishops came into Gaul in the time of Decius in the year 253, says by way of argument: The breviaries printed by order of our bishops and chapter for the use of the churches of this diocese, at the house of Jean Petit in Paris in the year 1528, and at Thiers at the house of Robert Massalin in the year 1557, in the legend of St. Austremonius on the 8th of November, say that they (the seven bishops) were sent into Gaul in the reign of Decius: St. Austremonius, then, disciple of the apostles of Christ, is read to have been sent into the Gauls to preach in the times of the emperor Decius with very many other fellow-disciples… These were sent: to Tours, Bishop Gratianus; to Arles, Bishop Trophimus; to Narbonne, Bishop Paul; to Toulouse, Bishop Saturninus; to Paris, Bishop Dionysius; to Limoges, Bishop Martial; and to Auvergne was appointed Bishop Austremonius. Thus far Dufraisse cites the breviaries. But why did the good man omit the second phrase and give us dots for words? Was it because he read the same phrase that the Least Passion has, and so the breviaries teach the opposite of the thesis which Dufraisse in this chapter defends by the help and authority of the same breviaries? For the lessons of those breviaries seem to be the same as the Least Passion. Hence it comes about that willy-nilly I am compelled to suspect that the manuscript breviaries of the diocese of Clermont, which the excellent canon adduces in the second place to prove his thesis, speak for the thesis by being silent about the same things, but, where they are free to speak, contradict the thesis and accord with the manuscript monuments and breviaries cited by us in this paragraph.

[85] nor do the breviary of the year 1654 oppose We must now go on to the following century, that the tradition of the church of the Arverni as expressed in the sacred liturgy may be known. To which end I shall adduce the breviary of Clermont printed in the year 1654, with the title: The Clermont Breviary, restored to a better form and due manner, published by the authority of the most illustrious and most reverend Father in Christ, the Lord Louis d'Estaing, bishop of Clermont, and with the consent of the chapter of the same church. Clermont, at the house of Nicolas Jacquard, 1654. In this breviary the following office of St. Austremonius is read:

Come, let us adore the Lord, king of martyrs, who exalted blessed Austremonius with pontifical glory and the palm of martyrdom.

In the First Nocturn. Antiphon of the 1st tone. Austremonius was the first and chief prelate of the Arverni, who first showed them the knowledge of truth. Ps. Blessed is the man, with the rest from the common of one martyr. Antiphon of the 2nd tone. The praiseworthy athlete of God had companions, namely Nectarius the presbyter and Mametus, holding the office of the levitical order. Antiphon of the 3rd tone. This pontiff is surely to be honoured with heraldic praise, who dedicated to the Lord the first fruit of his preaching. There follow lessons from the book of Wisdom, chapter 10. Resp. 1. The white-robed throng of praiseworthy martyrs glories in the victorious laurel of triumphs, in which blessed Austremonius exults with dancing gladness. ℣. For adorned with the praiseworthy flower of virtues, he rejoices laurelled in the light-streaming palace of the heavens and honoured with perpetual glory. With dancing. Resp. 2. The anointing of the Holy Spirit taught blessed Austremonius of all things and instructed him in all science and doctrine. ℣. Glorifying him with saving munificence and wonderful gentleness. And instructed. Resp. 3. Honestum, etc., from the common. In an ancient Clermont breviary of the fourteenth century the following responsory is read: St. Austremonius, while the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching, wisely learned the teachings of the divine mystery, and saw in person the signal works of power which he did. He heard the voice of the Lord Jesus saying: Peace be to you; for he was worthy of that blessing with which, ascending into the heavens, he blessed the disciples.

In the Second Nocturn. Antiphon of the 4th tone. The man of the Lord Austremonius, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, joyfully sought out the crowd, and confidently pronounced to it the teachings of his preaching. Antiphon of the 5th tone. As the number of the faithful grew, he built a church, which he dedicated in honour of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. Antiphon of the 6th tone. For the seeds of the divine word were scattered everywhere, the bountiful sacraments of the orthodox religion were spread abroad. — Lesson IV. St. Austremonius, sent into the Gauls by the Roman see and the supreme Pontiff, first came to Noviodunum on the Loire, and there laid down the sacraments of the Christian religion and instituted an episcopate. The Christian religion having been established there, leaving St. Patricius as successor, he came to Augustonemetum of the Arverni, a city, as St. Sidonius says, in the Limagne, most celebrated for its site, walls, towers, buildings, antiquity and citizens, with a most delightful level expanse of fields, in which profitable waves billow in the crops without danger; which the more anyone industrious frequents the less he suffers shipwreck; easy for travellers, fruitful for ploughmen, delightful for hunters; which the mountains gird, with pastures on their backs, with vineyards on their flanks, with villas on their earthy parts, with fortresses on their rocky ones, with coverts on the shady, with tillage on the open, with springs in the hollows, with rivers in the steeps; which is, finally, such that, once seen, it often persuades many strangers to forget their homeland. Resp. When our God had willed to scatter the glorious titles of the Christian religion through the regions of the world, he adorned blessed Austremonius by the hands of the apostles with the dignity of the sacred prelacy. ℣. He attributed to him the elegant norm of a frugal life and the most gracious eloquence of the truest preaching. Blessed. — Lesson V. There, breathed upon by the divine Spirit, Austremonius proved with evangelical words to the purblind pagans that the images of the gods were mere ravings, but that there is an invisible unity of God in essence, a Trinity distinct in persons, and that the differing natures in Christ subsist in the one hypostasis of the eternal Son; and he so demonstrated these things by words and miracles that he persuaded the Arverni to divorce themselves from pagan impiety and adhere to the Catholic religion. That he might carry this out more readily, he appointed Saints Lirenatus, Marius, Mametus, Antoninus and Nectarius, companions of his way, life and doctrine, to the upper and lower parts of the province as to fertile crops whitening for harvest and peoples divinely leaning toward Christ, and Bishop Ursinus to the Bituriges. He baptized the instructed catechumens, confirmed them anointed with sacred chrism, promoted the lettered and approved to the ecclesiastical orders, formed the ecclesiastical hierarchy as handed down by Christ to the apostles and apostolic men, and taught clerics and monks the rule of perfection. At length, weary with years and labours, for a share of the episcopal burden which he had borne for thirty-six years, he chose St. Urbicus as coadjutor and successor, and to the hermitage of Issoire, to contemplate divine things, yet nothing of pastoral duty

omitting, he withdrew. Resp. The praiseworthy athlete of God Austremonius was venerated by all, since he was strong in the teachings of commendable knowledge and flourished in the springing titles of his merits. ℣. For he was an outstanding teacher, a follower of justice, a lover of truth. And springing. — Lesson VI. There a crowd of stinking Jews, Christ-killers, had fixed its dwelling; St. Austremonius taught the dogmas of religion to very many of them and to the son of a leading man, Lucius by name, and baptized them. The abominable father, taking this ill, plunged his son in the waters of a well and suffocated him. When the blessed bishop learned this, he ran in haste to Issoire and honourably buried the holy martyr. Thereupon the foul race of the Jews conceived greater anger, the father of the martyr Lucius urging them on, and by means of assassins they at last cruelly cut off the head of Austremonius, afflicted with various blows. His body was honourably laid by his groaning disciples in the church which he had built at Issoire. There it afterwards remained unhonoured until about the year five hundred and sixty, when his tomb, revealed by God's inspiration to Cautinus, then a deacon and afterwards bishop, enclosed by railings, began to be held in veneration. From there St. Avitus, second of this name, bishop of Clermont, translated the relics to Volvic. From Volvic they were afterwards brought to Mozac, where they are religiously preserved, distinguished by frequent miracles. The history of his life was written by St. Praejectus, bishop of the Arverni and martyr. Resp. While St. Austremonius preached, the people ran to him, the number of believers increased, the praise of Christ Jesus resounded from the mouth of all. The Christian faith was magnified by all. The venerable pontiff rejoiced with spiritual gladness, while he beheld the flock of the Lord increased in manifold number by his labour and zeal. Christian. Glory. Christian.

In the Third Nocturn. Antiphon of the 7th tone. The vain shrines of the images were destroyed, the idols fell, and the wonderful standards of the holy cross were raised. Antiphon of the 8th tone. The venerable pontiff rejoiced with spiritual gladness while he beheld the flock of the Lord increased in manifold number by his zeal. Antiphon of the 9th tone. The peace of Christ was preached to the Church, the true knowledge of salvation was diffused, the praiseworthy order of preachers was everywhere magnified. Lessons from the homily of St. Ambrose on the text: The Lord appointed also other seventy-two, etc. Resp. 7. The pious affection of the glorious prelate challenged the people to the sacrament of faith, because in all his actions he showed himself worthy of praise to all. ℣. Divine power conferred on him such teachings of eloquence that the hearers of the divine word were at once drawn to the love of the Christian name and faith. Because. Resp. 8. The magnificent prelate Austremonius said: O how desirable the news which foretells to me the desire of my heart. ℣. Greatly desiring to consummate triumphal victories through the agonies of martyrdom, he says: O how. Resp. 9. O blessed Austremonius, how sweet it is by the grace of piety to weep your martyrdom, how dear it is for love's sake to praise your triumph. Because as you are strong and praiseworthy in both, so you shine forth wonderful in both. ℣. Secure, kindly shepherd, about yourself, be solicitous, we beseech you, for the college of your little servants, so that we may be able securely to see the God of gods in Sion. Because. Glory. Because. — Te Deum. — ℣. Pray for us, blessed martyr Austremonius. ℟. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

At Lauds. Antiphon. Happy the Arvernian region, which the blessed martyr Austremonius consecrated with his own blood. Antiphon. The soldier of Christ Austremonius, seized by the Jews, was beaten for the faith of Christ; but he could not feel the torments, because he always had Christ in his mouth. Antiphon. Austremonius, said the angel, most invincible prelate, be not broken by punishment, but rejoice in the reward which you will soon receive in the heavenly palace. Antiphon. At the same moment at which blood flowed from the head of the blessed martyr Austremonius, a fount of water burst forth from the earth under his feet. Antiphon. At the hour in which the soul of the holy martyr Austremonius went forth from the body; attended by hymn-singing choirs, with the ministry of angels, it was seen in the form of a dove to be carried to the heavenly places.

At the Benedictus, Antiphon. We who celebrate the feast of Austremonius, your outstanding martyr and pontiff, O Christ, ask by his merits, give the reward of the eternal inheritance. Prayer. O God, who exalted blessed Austremonius with pontifical glory and the victory of martyrdom, propitiously grant that we may ever be supported by the precious merits of him in whose splendid triumphs we glory.

At Vespers. A single Antiphon. Happy the Arvernian, the first from Lauds. At the Magnificat, Antiphon. O blessed Austremonius, how sweet it is to weep your martyrdom, how dear it is to praise your triumph: intercede for us that we may merit to see the God of gods in Sion.

[86] and a missal of the same time, Add to these the proper prose of the mass, from the Clermont missal of the same Louis d'Estaing, published at Clermont in the year 1646:

Let it sing new songs, The rejoicing Arvernian people, To St. Austremonius, Whom as herald of the Lord's word The apostolic see Appointed.

Having obtained the pontificate, He moves the hearts of the gentiles From the vice of error.

He to whom he gave eulogiae, Spurning impious frauds, Comes out of the river.

The son, baptized, through his father's Snares, Perishes by the sword.

Here the prelate is slain, A spring arises from the earth And by holy martyrdom

As a dove is borne, Led down to heaven, The soul with joy.

From the stain of sin May the diligent prayer of this saint Cleanse us,

Of him who lives through the ages, After the gibbets of death, In the palace of heaven.

[87] in which also the saint's martyrdom is especially celebrated. Thus the tradition of former centuries remained in the church of the Arverni down to the year 1654. But from this office we see that the most illustrious d'Estaing, moved perhaps by the fervour of those times in attacking the apostolic mission of the seven bishops, began to act more timidly, so that in the very legend he passed over the mission made by Clement, asserting simply that Austremonius was sent by the Roman see and supreme pontiff; but the rest, above all the martyrdom, is most openly handed on as narrated in the Acts, especially in the Great Passion. Austremonius is referred to apostolic times in the first responsory of the second nocturn: When our God had willed to scatter the glorious titles of the Christian religion through the regions of the world, he adorned blessed Austremonius by the hands of the apostles with the dignity of the sacred prelacy. Yet nothing in this office is proclaimed more gloriously than the martyrdom of the holy bishop.

[88] They abandoned the ancient tradition Only in the following century did the church of the Arverni cast off the ancient tradition, or rather the bishops of the Arverni ordered their own people to cast off the paternal tradition; the Roman breviary was abolished, a new one introduced, to the grief and groaning of the better portion of the clergy. For thus I read in a manuscript codex, called of Issoire *: In the year 1731 in the church of the monastery of Issoire, O.S.B., the honours of martyrs were still rendered to St. Austremonius, and the Benedictine monks of Saint-Allyre near Clermont proved by documents adduced that St. Austremonius was distinguished by the glory of martyrdom. By which it came about that the doubt arisen in the minds of many was removed. But in the year 1737 the most illustrious Lord Massillon, bishop of Clermont, composed a new breviary, which Pierre Boutaudon, royal printer at Clermont, printed. By order of the bishop the secular clergy accepted the new breviary, in which the cult of a holy confessor is attributed to St. Austremonius. Many of the elders of the clergy bore this abolition of the Roman office ill. So the aforesaid codex of Issoire.

[89] the bishops of Clermont of the eighteenth century, New traditions at length prevailed in the diocese of Clermont, and the Clermont breviary of the year 1774 of François-Marie Le Maistre de la Garlaye venerates Stremonius as a confessor. The ancient antiphons and responsories having been cast off, new ones put together from the words of the Scriptures were substituted. The lessons of the second Nocturn were taken, the fourth from Gregory of Tours, History, book I, chapter 30: In the time of the emperor Decius … joined alike; the fifth from the same bishop of Tours, book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 30: Through St. Stremonius … the aid of the prelate is obtained; the sixth, as is indicated there, from the History of the monastery of Mozac See Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., century III, p. 192 f., no. 6: St. Avitus, second of this name … wished to be buried after death.

[90] but the Proper of Clermont asserted it again Finally in the year 1862, on the 11th of September, the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved a new Proper of the Saints of the church of Clermont, where the feast of St. Austremonius, confessor and apostle of the Arverni, is indicated to be celebrated on the Sunday within the octave of All Saints (he thus lacks the title and honour of martyr), and the following lessons are assigned: Lesson IV. St. Austremonius, in the time of the emperor Decius, as Gregory of Tours reports, or also, according to another and very ancient tradition, in the course of the first century, sent by the apostolic see with six other bishops into the Gauls, came to Augustonemetum and sat there. When, the way for preaching having been opened to him through various miracles, he had brought the Arvernian state under the law of Christ, he directed very many heralds of the gospel to the upper and lower parts of the province, of whom the chief were Marius and Necterius. He himself fervently applied himself to instructing and baptizing catechumens, and whomever he found suitable he initiated into sacred orders. From that time also, as we have received by memory, he built in the suburbs an oratory in honour of the Virgin Mother of God, which was afterwards called St. Mary among the saints. After the church of the Arverni had been founded, out of zeal to extend the rule of Christ the Saviour, he came to Nevers on the Loire, where he laid the foundations of the Christian religion: he is said to have done the same at Avaricum of the Bituriges. Lesson V. At length, returning to his Arverni, for a share of the pastoral burden which he had borne for thirty-six years, he chose St. Urbicus as successor, and withdrew to the hermitage of Issoire to contemplate divine things. It is the tradition of the church of Clermont that there, by the Jews, many of whom he had gained for Christ, Austremonius, afflicted with various blows, was punished by beheading; of which, however, Gregory of Tours seems to have been ignorant. For he narrates that the pious prelate, living in the highest holiness, after gaining very many peoples for the Church, after spreading the faith of Christ through all things, departed from this life in happy confession, etc. Here we stop, because the remaining part of the lessons regards the finding of the relics.

[91] recently approved by the apostolic see, The modern tradition of the church of the Arverni thus accords with that kernel of truth which we seemed to have found above in the Least Passion. And first of all, notwithstanding Gregory of Tours, that tradition of the Arverni is called very ancient according to which St. Austremonius came to the city of the Arverni in the course of the first century; and again it is said to be the tradition of the church of Clermont that Austremonius was punished by beheading by the Jews, of which, however, Gregory of Tours seems to have been ignorant. It is thus plain that the tradition of the Arverni contrary to Gregory of Tours prevailed for ten centuries and more, was weakened for one century, yet was not torn up, and is also now in our own times, with the approval of the apostolic see, celebrated by public testimony in the divine offices.

[92] where, however, he is not venerated as a martyr. It may perhaps seem strange to someone that the cult of a martyr is not paid to St. Austremonius, while the martyrdom is affirmed in the public office from the tradition of the church of the Arverni not doubtfully but certainly. More than one cause can be brought forward. The first and chief seems to me to be the elogium of the Roman Martyrology itself, which does not use the title of martyr. Then the authority of St. Gregory of Tours, which moved the bishops of the seventeenth century to take away the denomination of martyr and honour Austremonius with the sole title of confession. Wherefore, to avoid scandal, in a matter not on every side indubitable, the Roman judges may have judged that nothing should be innovated in the external cult.

[93] The martyrdom of Austremonius is proclaimed also by a double inscription Besides the written documents I shall append two others rather ancient, whose age, however, I cannot determine. The first is a marble stone found in the year 1709 in the church of St. Illidius, when the altar of St. Illidius was being destroyed, on which stone was read: Here are the relics of Bl. Austremonius, martyr, and of St. Julian and Stabile Gallia christiana, vol. II, p. 225. The other is the inscription of a little casket that was preserved in the cathedral church of Clermont, which runs thus: Parts of the thigh of St. Austremonius, bishop of the Arverni and martyr Ibid.. Both of these inscriptions, neither of which according to Denis de Sainte-Marthe exceeded seven hundred years (in the year 1720), proclaim Austremonius a martyr.

[94] and the tradition of the church of Brioude. Finally let the series of documents be closed by a slip which I found among the notes of our predecessors, in which there is read the testimony of the church of Brioude on the martyrdom of St. Austremonius: In an ancient parchment manuscript Calendar of the distinguished church of Brioude, some fragments of which the Most Eminent Cardinal de Bouillon, a fugitive from France, showed us in person at Antwerp in the year 1711, one reads thus: KAL. NOVEMBRIS. IPSO DIE NATALIS SANCTI PONTIFICIS AUSTREMONII ET MATRIS EJUS. [Kalends of November. On that day the natal day of the holy pontiff Austremonius and of his mother.] And then, but in a more recent hand: VI IDUS NOVEMBRIS. IPSO DIE OCTAVO S. ASTREMONII EP. ET MART. [VI ides of November. On that day, the octave of St. Astremonius, bishop and martyr.] There is no need to warn the reader that the words et matris ejus are a copyist's mistake, who in his ignorance expanded an abbreviation of the codex he was copying; namely, one must read: et martyris.

* manuscrit d'Issoire. manuscript of Issoire.

§ V. Of the first finding of the relics of St. Austremonius in the sixth century, and of their double translation from Issoire to Volvic and then from Volvic to Mozac.

The history of the first finding of the relics of St. Austremonius, The first finding of the relics of St. Austremonius is reported by Gregory of Tours in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 30, from which two Passions took the history of the finding. It came about by God himself, through a signal prodigy, manifesting the tomb of the holy man and illuminating it with heavenly light and honour. The matter is narrated thus by Gregory: For through St. Stremonius, who himself was directed by the Roman bishops with the most blessed Gatianus and the others we have recalled, the Arvernian city first received the word of salvation, and at his preaching it began to believe in Christ the Son of God, the salvation of the world and Redeemer of all. His tomb is held at the village of Issoire; to which crude rusticity, although knowing that he rested there, nevertheless showed no cult of honour. After long courses of years, Cautinus, who was given as bishop of that same Arvernian city, ruled the church of that village in his diaconate. Then while one night he was lying on the bed of his little cell, which adjoined this basilica, he heard chanting as if with voices faintly resounding, and rising he saw the church shining with a great light, and astounded he looked inside (for that cell was in an upper part opposite the windows of the church), and he saw, and behold, around the tomb a multitude of men in white holding candles and chanting. Having watched this for a very long time, when they had gone away, at once when morning came he ordered the tomb to be enclosed with a railing and covered with shining little palls, and commanded that reverence be paid to that place. For from this prayer is poured out over the tomb and the aid of the prelate is obtained. This I heard from the mouth of the bishop himself.

[96] narrated by Bishop Cautinus in the sixth century, So indeed the thing happened, if Gregory is to be credited: and why, someone will say, would you not credit Gregory? I certainly believe Gregory, but whether one may trust Cautinus, on whose authority the hinge of the whole matter turns, I greatly doubt. For on the witness of Gregory himself, this Cautinus was a very bad man, most fond of money. It is hard to believe that a very bad bishop, infamous for various crimes, lived with holy morals before his episcopate, especially since he ascended to the episcopal see with the utmost ambition and fraud. The sanctity of truth thus demands that I hold this vision suspect on account of the man's unworthiness. But, they say, since graces gratis datae can be bestowed on the unworthy for the benefit of others, why do you doubt that this grace was granted to Cautinus, unworthy as you suspect? Graces can be granted and have been granted to the unworthy; but an unworthy man can also much more easily lie about graces granted, especially where the hope of gain smiles on an avaricious spirit. For in Bishop Cautinus, on the witness of Gregory of Tours, there was nothing holy, nothing weighed: for of all writings, ecclesiastical as much as secular, he was fully free; he was very dear to and subject to the Jews, not for their salvation, as the care of a pastor ought to be solicitous, but for the purchase of wares, which, when he flattered them, and they most openly showed themselves flatterers, they sold him at a greater price than they cost. So Gregory of Cautinus, History, book IV, chapter 12. And if anyone desires to know the monstrous crimes of Cautinus, let him read that whole twelfth chapter; I am disgusted to report them. I say, however, that this single witness is to me sufficiently suspect.

[97] somewhat suspect. For he who as bishop became a friend of the Jews out of avarice could already as a deacon have judaized in spirit, where he had the imminent hope of profit. For what if the whole business was managed in this way? The great apostle of the Arverni was sleeping unhonoured in the tomb, and gifts and offerings slept along with the piety of the faithful; a thing which did not much favour the filling of the deacon's purse. He here devised an easy method for driving away the loss. He invented a miracle, and what piety and religion had long since commanded, he surrounded the tomb of the holy man with some sign of honour. There have always been men who think it right to lie for piety. And if Cautinus is believed, for love of money, under the appearance of piety, to have lied about so harmless a miracle, surely his reputation will suffer only moderate damage. Whatever it may be believed was done, this truly remains, that the piety of the people began to be kindled, that the tomb began to be approached with fervent prayers and the aid of the prelate obtained. In what year these things took place I have not been able to find, but I think a little before Cautinus thrust himself onto the episcopal throne. Cautinus succeeded St. Gallus, who died in the year 562 Savaron, Origines de Clairmont, p. 52, and Cautinus himself ended his life in the year 570 Ibid., p. 53. Wherefore toward the middle of the sixth century Austremonius will have begun to shine again with signs: and we shall call this the first finding of his relics in the wider sense; for the peasants of Issoire were not ignorant of whose tomb they had among them.

[98] The second finding and first translation In reporting the second finding and first translation of the relics of St. Austremonius, we shall follow the first Acts, which we have called the Least Passion, in preference to the others. For it is plain that the Great and Little Passions took from it a theme which they might expand with words and perhaps also augment with matter. The second finding, then, which was followed by the first translation from Issoire to Volvic, was made by Avitus, second of this name, most holy prelate of the Arverni, whose Acts you may see treated at the 21st of January. The Least Passion, after recalling the cult of St. Austremonius restored in the time of Cautinus, goes on to say thus: Afterwards by the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, because the same place had again strayed from its honour, the pontiff of the Arverni came, bringing with him a troop of monks, and besides a multitude of canons and a throng of his people, and ordered the tomb of the most blessed martyr Austremonius to be opened. And when the sarcophagus had been opened and his body raised from it, so great an odour filled the nostrils of those standing around that they truly knew he was to be associated [in] the court of paradise with the merits of the apostles. Thence he was carried with the highest honour to the monastery of Volvic, where the most blessed martyr and pontiff Praejectus lies buried; and there, God so ordering, the venerable one was committed to burial beside the aforesaid priest of God Praejectus, martyr.

[99] from Issoire to Volvic at the end of the seventh century. This translation and the following one from Volvic to Mozac Mabillon narrated Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., century III, part II, p. 191 ff. from the Labbe Acts, which we have called the Great Passion. We may be briefer here, since we shall give the entire documents to be read below. According to the Least Passion, the place illustrated by the burial of St. Austremonius had again strayed from its honour. Mabillon calls this the third disaster of Issoire on the authority of the Acts, I think, of Labbe, the first having been when the Vandals laid it waste at the beginning of the fifth century, then the forces of Theodoric in the course of the seventh century. Now again, according to the same author, when certain Vandals were laying it waste, Avitus II, bishop of the Arverni, erected a monastery at Volvic in the place of the martyrdom of his predecessor Praejectus. This pontiff of the Arverni, then, by the revelation of Jesus Christ, says the Least Passion, divinely admonished according to the Little Passion, admonished in sleep according to the Great Passion, when there stood by him a man in vision, of lively countenance, adorned with white hair, with burning eyes, wonderful in his gait, terrible in his aspect, went to Issoire with many of the clergy and people accompanying him, ordered the tomb to be opened, translated the sacred relics to Volvic, and committed them to burial beside Blessed Praejectus. In other words the Least and Little Passions report the same. The Great Passion adds one fact. Namely, that when the sacred body was translated for a while to a certain monastery of girls, these religious women, at the instigation of the evil demon, mocked the sacred relics, using insulting words; and divine justice punishing them, the pontiff and clergy translated the sacred body from there to Volvic. Let the credit for the matter rest with the author. In what year this translation was made is uncertain; but since St. Praejectus was killed in the year 670, and his successor Avitus reached the year 680, let the translation of St. Austremonius from Issoire to Volvic be reckoned to have been made in that space of time, about the year 680.

[100] The second translation from Volvic to Mozac, We now come to the second translation of the relics of St. Austremonius from Volvic to the monastery of Mozac. In the year 764 from the incarnation of the Lord, indiction II, in the 24th year of the reign of Lord Pippin, this translation was carried out. At the same time Constantine, son of Leo, ruled over the Romans. So I find it noted at the foot of the account of the second translation, which is appended to the Great Passion. But among the instruments of the church of Clermont there is found a diploma of King Pippin for the endowment or restoration of the monastery of Mozac, by which diploma Pippin grants many goods to the aforesaid monastery; it begins: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Pippin, by the help of divine grace king of the Aquitanians...; and it says in the course of the speech: To Blessed Austremonius, first prelate of the Arverni, whose sacred bones we have translated from Volvic to the monastery (of Mozac); and at the end: Given on the kalends of February, indiction XI, in the XXIVth year of the reign of the renowned King Pippin Gallia christiana, vol. II, Instruments, p. 108 ff.. Where the authors of the Gallia Christiana annotated the following, which it is worthwhile to transcribe.

[101] in the time of King Pippin, Where above there is read the 24th year of King Pippin, Le Cointe and Bouchet, who published this precept among the proofs of the true origin of the French house, think one should read 19, where there occur many variant readings, which Le Cointe published at the year 833, no. 3, comparing both editions, that of the Sainte-Marthes from the codex of Jean Savaron and that of Bouchet. For the rest, Le Cointe refers this year 19 to the year

833, which was the 19th of the reign of Pippin, son of Louis the Pious. But to him this diploma cannot belong, in which Pippin himself says that the translation of the body of Stremonius was made by him, which occurred in the year 764. See also the Annals of Le Cointe at the year 681, no. 71 and following. These things moreover agree with the history of the translation of St. Stremonius by the author Abbot Lanfred, which Mabillon published in vol. 3 of the Acta Sanctorum, p. 191. It seems one should read indiction second in place of eleventh, as is also read in Savaron. It was easy to take one for the other, since the notation 11 can be explained now as II, now as XI. Further, where the 24th year of King Pippin is read, the beginning of his reign in Aquitaine is taken from the death of Charles surnamed Martel, who died in the year 741, as all confess. For although Pippin did not at once claim for himself the name of king, it is no wonder if, after he had publicly assumed the title of king, which alone seemed to be lacking to him, the chancellors or those who wrote diplomas in their stead counted the years of his reign from the time of his exercise of royal and supreme power in Aquitaine. Indeed Marianus Scotus assigns twenty-seven years to the reign of Pippin, which he could not have done except by counting its beginning from the death of Charles Martel. This diploma of Pippin was excellently defended by Jean Berthon, rector of the church of St. Martin of Mozac, against Joseph Garachon, rector of St. Paul at Mozac, in a suit pending before the judges of Riom in the year 1707. In this way the diploma is shown to lack every fault in its chronological notes.

[102] father of Charlemagne, Thus they; whose explanation, although it seemed to Le Cointe an interpretation subtle indeed but lacking all foundation Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 833, no. 3, is not to be spurned. For neither could Le Cointe himself, without doing violence, draw this diploma to the year 833, the 19th year of Pippin, son of Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine. For he had to make 19 out of the year 24 of Savaron's codex, in order to agree with Bouchet's, whereas the opportunity for erring from XIX to XXIV was much less than from II to XI, which we are compelled to admit. Then, that the reign of Pippin, father of Charlemagne, was counted from the death of Charles Martel is proved by the example adduced from Marianus Scotus. Another such example is read in the Deeds of the abbots of Fontenelle Monumenta Germaniae Historica, vol. II, p. 285. Finally the times of King Pippin and his Aquitanian expeditions, and the circumstances of those wars, fit especially well the matter narrated in our codex, and designate Pippin, son of Charles Martel, to whom moreover the old author has assigned as synchronous emperor of the Romans Constantine, son of Leo.

[103] or of Pippin I, king of Aquitaine, It must not, however, be concealed that a difficulty remains, namely the title, Pippin by the help of the grace of God king of the Aquitanians, a title which Pippin, son of Charles Martel, never, as far as we know, took, and which seems to designate Pippin, son of Louis the Pious, so clearly that there scarcely remains room for contradiction, especially since the indiction both XI and II fits his reign, indeed indiction II with the last year of his reign, which is the 24th: for he reigned from the year 814 until 838 Art de vérifier les dates, vol. II, p. 251, and died on the 13th of December in the year 838. And if that diploma is proved authentic and given by Pippin, king of Aquitaine, son of Louis the Pious, this second translation of St. Austremonius belongs to the ninth century. Suspicion was perhaps stirred by the very many variant readings, which Le Cointe diligently noted, between Savaron's codex and Bouchet's. It is worthy of note that there is wanting in Savaron's codex at the end the following: I, Y., deacon, in place of Bishop Aldebert, have recognized it. However that may be, the author of the aforesaid account, which we publish from a codex of the ninth century, by adding the name of the emperor Constantine, manifestly designates the year 764.

[104] the king himself ordering This so accurate indication of time the author received, as we may believe, from the archive of the monastery of Mozac; Tillemont and others think that author was Abbot Lanfrid, who is discussed in the Acts of the translation. And if this is so, this Lanfrid must be called the author of the Great Passion; for he uses the same style, is involved in the same circumlocutions, presents the same pomp of words. I am prevented, however, from thinking with Tillemont, first because I find no argument, second because a man such as Lanfrid was must be reckoned foreign by the proper gravity of his character to such a kind of speaking. The authors of the Little and Great Passions tried to extend each of the simple statements of the Least by a more ample kind of speaking. According to the Least Passion, Abbot Lanfrid had asked Pippin to grant them leave to translate someone from the Arvernian city. The king granted it, and coming a little later to Volvic, inquiring about the bodies of the saints buried there, he learned that St. Austremonius had once been the preacher of the same city. Then remembering the petitions of the monks, touched by divine will (as it is written, The heart of the king is in the hand of God, wherever he will he shall turn it), he ordered by swift messenger that the brethren should hasten as quickly as possible and together with him bear away the supreme martyr. This by the will of God of the Least Passion, or, as the Little Passion has it, touched by divine inspiration, is inflated by the author of the Great Passion in so prodigious a manner that it issues into a most splendid history of divine revelation; the credit for which, as for many other things, we leave with the author.

[105] and accompanying; So the people of Mozac at once went on with immense joy, and, digging deep at the place of burial with Joseph, scribe and priest of the king, and passing that night in vigil, they worthily laid out the body of the most holy martyr. When morning came the king arrived with his army, and those hearing of it round about through the whole region, there was no small crowd there. The king followed the body and carried it on his shoulders; there was immense gladness. Those who were carrying it rejoiced; those from whom they carried it away wept. And in such order the blessed martyr Austremonius willed to be transferred to the same monastery (of Mozac). Then, after commenting a little on the opportune and fitting translation from Issoire to Volvic and from Volvic to Mozac, in the circumstances, he proceeds to relate the miracles shown at Mozac. Of the miracles wrought on the journey, which the Little and Great Passions report, not a word or sign has been added to the Least Passion. For that reason it is not my intention either to affirm or to deny them. For they could have happened, but whether they did happen one may wholly doubt. Thus we stand at equal distance from wounding piety and from asserting a lie.

[106] to which translation, according to a later account, We have thought it necessary to bring here a few things from what is read written in Labbe Nova bibliotheca manuscriptorum, vol. II, pp. 505–507 after the Book of Miracles of St. Austremonius. That account was composed, as it seems to me, in the year 1197: for so I judge on account of the date added to the subscriptions, which you may see below. It may be, however, that the whole account is of a later time, with subscriptions and the indication of time added from some authentic instrument. I say this because the whole account does not bear the face of an authentic instrument, and at the end certain things are added that are not usually found in documents of this kind. The style and diction differ by the whole heaven from the style and diction of the preceding, and they cry out another author of a later age.

[107] were present Adebert, bishop of the Arverni, and Roger, duke of Aquitaine, From this account we learn that there were present at the translation from Volvic to Mozac Adebert, bishop of the Arverni, and that Roger, duke of Aquitaine, at the time of the translation itself extorted from Pippin the head of St. Austremonius, which he translated to a fortress of his jurisdiction called Petra-incisa *; whence it was afterwards brought back to Issoire. At length the people of Issoire began to boast that the entire body of Austremonius was preserved among them. Moved by this rumour, the people of Mozac asked Robert, bishop of Clermont, to institute a canonical examination: and when he had done this before many witnesses, the relics of St. Austremonius were found with the seals of Pippin still intact: the relics they replaced honourably with skilful care in the vessel from which they had been taken, and that vessel was most diligently resealed, until it should be transferred at an opportune time into another much more precious vessel. Read the entire narrative with the subscriptions at the end after the Acts.

[108] who also obtained the head of St. Austremonius from the king. We said above that in the Great Passion toward the end many things are read that are gaping and abrupt, which can scarcely or not even scarcely be understood. On these places a light shines from this account. For the Rotgerius who is named there, and who is called the founder of Karrofulum and gave Petra-incisa to the same place, is the same as Roger, duke of Aquitaine, who received the sacred head of Austremonius from King Pippin. To this point refer those things of which you could not attain the bearing even by divination, unless you knew of the donation of the head. We read nearly at the end of the Passion, where by obscure words the translation from Volvic to Mozac is indicated: The king, now conjecturing nothing, trusting in the name as a support , by right takes away the sacred thing from the earthborn sod and suddenly * the celibate is praiseworthily held up by his hands. The little stars which Labbe inserted in his text seem to warn that the place is gaping. I explain these things thus: King Pippin, now delaying nothing and clinging to no doubt, when he had heard the name of Austremonius, ordered the body of the holy man to be raised from the earth, and when it was carried, he held it up with his own hands. Now there follows: Moreover three boys, of equal countenance and grace and brilliant with beauty, their hands bound to one another with garlands and wreathed with mirrors of roses, came to the obsequies; of whom one, seizing the cloth, thereupon, on the covered pillow, not there where the back of the head but where the forehead parts, putting in his hand, carried off three flowers of a rose: namely, the first, to bear a sacred heir; the second, to breathe glad honours on the household; the third, a power from above to be fitted without delay for protection. This, I believe, on the occasion of the head of Austremonius given by Pippin to Roger, a donation which he could read in the written history of the translation, the most fertile talent of the author devised in order to insinuate a heavenly intervention, as it were of angels, who, the roses having been taken from under the head of Austremonius, should portend to Roger, husband of Eufrasia, as is read in the same place, both a pious offspring and honours for the house and heavenly protection. Wherefore in the mind of the author, which he could not express, it would be fitting that Pippin should grant the head of the holy bishop to Roger when he asked. It is clear that the author understands the roses as miraculous from the following translation, which he says was made in the month of February, with much snow falling.

[109] The relics After the recognition made by Robert, of St. Austremonius recognized in the year 1197; bishop of the Arverni, in the year 1197 or thereabouts, the sacred relics were constantly preserved in the monastery of Mozac. It is credible that from the end of the twelfth century until the eighteenth century they were recognized rather often; but we have been unable to find any authentic document, except the authentic instrument which in the year 1839, on the 24th of October,

was found in the casket of St. Austremonius by Rev. Fr. Combes, vicar general of the bishop of Clermont, when he recognized these relics; by which instrument the Benedictine monks testified that they, at the request of the Illustrious Lord Massillon, bishop of Clermont, on the 23rd of February of the year 1731, opened the casket of St. Austremonius and took a bone from the sacred body, to be delivered to the bishop. The procès-verbal of this matter is to be read below together with the letter of request of Bishop Massillon.

[110] more recently by order of the bishop of Clermont, Finally a solemn recognition or visitation of the sacred relics of St. Austremonius was made in the year 1839, on the 24th of October, by the bishop of Clermont, the Illustrious Lord Louis Féron, and Rev. Fr. Combes, vicar general of the aforesaid bishop. We present here the procès-verbal of this visitation, turned into Latin, from a French exemplar which we copied in January of the year 1880 at Mozac in the presbytery, the Rev. parish priest handing it over and kindly helping; the other public acts, of which we shall give here a Latin version made from a French exemplar, we copied at the house of the same venerable man, he too helping very much, whose outstanding charity toward us and piety toward St. Austremonius we cannot sufficiently praise. In preparing these versions our chief concern was to preserve the French form in the Latin dress, so that the version of the authentic documents, which cannot be inserted into our work in the vernacular tongue, might be the more similar and as it were transparent.

[111] on the 24th of October in the year 1839, Rev. Fr. Combes, Let there follow, then, in the first place the procès-verbal of Fr. Combes:

Copy of the procès-verbal of the visitation of the relics of St. Austremonius, St. Calminius, St. Namadia and other saints deposited in the church of Mozac, made by Fr. Combes, vicar general, deposited in the archive of the bishopric. — In the year 1839, on the 24th of October, we, Auguste Combes, superior of the seminary of Montferrand, vicar general, specially delegated to verify the aforesaid relics, went at the request of Fr. Faure, parish priest of Mozac, to the presbytery of the said parish. To carry out this commission we took pains to establish with certainty that the relics of the glorious St. Austremonius, apostle of the city of the Arverni, St. Calminius, St. Namadia, and other saints deposited in the church of Mozac, had been preserved there down to this day.

[112] at Mozac, It is established without any doubt that the precious relics of St. Austremonius were first deposited in the tomb at Issoire, then after the destruction of the monastery of Issoire, from the year 674 to about 689, were translated to Volvic by the bishop of Clermont Avitus, second of this name, and at length in the year 764 were deposited in the abbey of Mozac by Adebert, bishop of Clermont. Besides the monuments of the history of the church of the Arverni, and the piety of the faithful who have venerated the glorious relics of St. Austremonius in the church of Mozac, which leave no room for doubting whether these holy relics were deposited at Mozac, the matter was made certain to us by the letter of Massillon, bishop of Clermont, given to the religious of St. Benedict living at Mozac, in which he requests relics of St. Austremonius for consecrating an altar. We have seen the autograph letter, together with the deliberation of the Benedictine religious, acquiescing in the said request. That letter and that deliberation, found in the casket of the relics of St. Austremonius, are preserved transcribed in the archive of the church of Mozac. It cannot be called into doubt that the relics of St. Austremonius, exposed each year for the veneration of the peoples in the abbey of the Benedictines of Mozac, were preserved in the same place until the unhappy times of the revolution, until the year 1792, in which year the religious left their monastery.

[113] by suitable witnesses We then took pains to collect proofs by which it could be established that this precious deposit remained intact in the times of disturbance and impiety. To which end we heard the deposition of Mr. Jean-Baptiste Rougier, the present mayor and procurator of the commune from the revolution of the year 1793, in his 77th year; of Mr. Jean Auzène, proprietor and municipal agent from the same revolution, in his 74th year; and of Mr. Jacques Jabot, proprietor discharging the functions of sacristan at the same time, in his 79th year.

[114] the authenticity of the relics proved, All these three, men of known uprightness, who have lived at Mozac from childhood, witnesses worthy of credit, questioned separately, informed us by their testimony: 1° That it was notorious before the revolution that the relics of St. Austremonius existed in the church of the Benedictine abbey at Mozac and that they were exposed each year for the veneration of the faithful. 2° That in the time of the disturbance of the republic, when churches were being despoiled and relics violated, the caskets in which were contained the relics of St. Austremonius, St. Calminius and St. Namadia, and the reliquaries of very many others, were secretly removed from the church by the aforesaid Jean Auzène and carried to his house, at the request and with the help of Fr. Henri Ferrier, then constitutional parish priest, and were deposited in a cupboard, the key of which Mr. Auzène constantly kept with himself for the space of nearly two years, and that in that space of time the caskets were not opened. 3° That when tranquillity seemed to return and the fury of impiety to abate, the said caskets were returned intact and deposited in the sacristy, where we found them. 4° That the caskets deposited in the sacristy remained there continuously, and were not exposed to new violations; for they were under the protection of Fr. Henri, at whose exhortation and with whose help Mr. Auzène had withdrawn them from the fury of the impious; the sacristy too, which lies below the rooms of the present presbytery, had become the property of Mr. Rougier, the aforesaid Mr. Auzène and other citizens of Mozac, that part of the buildings of the abbey of Mozac which is now the presbytery having been bought by these good citizens. 5° That the key of the sacristy was with the purchasers until peace and order were restored. 6° That when the Catholic churches were opened, the relics of St. Austremonius and the others were exposed for the veneration of the faithful. 7° That the caskets now deposited in the sacristy are the same which they had seen before and after the revolution.

[115] solemnly recognized the same These depositions, with the added circumstances, having been heard, we proceeded to open the caskets recognized by the aforesaid witnesses, in the presence of Fr. Faure, parish priest of Mozac, Fr. Dalbine, parish priest of Saint-Amable at Riom, Fr. Bernardin, parish priest of Marsat, Frs. Dellestable and Déjardin, directors of the major seminary of Montferrand, Fr. Grand, chaplain of the college of Riom, Mr. Rougier, mayor of Mozac, and Messrs. Auzène and Jabot. The exterior form of the caskets, showing marks of antiquity, testifies that the church of Mozac has possessed them for a long time. In the casket of St. Austremonius we found the autograph letter of Massillon and the autograph deliberation of the Benedictine religious, of which titles we made mention above. The inspection of the relics of St. Austremonius made the truthfulness of the aforesaid testimonies by no means doubtful, and impelled us to judge that this first deposit remained intact in the time of the commotion of the republic and thereafter. These precious relics were wrapped in silk cloths and in linen eaten away by time and covered with dust; a little strip of parchment bore these words: Relics of St. Austremonius. We took care to collect diligently the dust covering the linen and the reliquaries and placed it fittingly in the casket together with the bones and fragments of bones of St. Austremonius, wrapped in a white linen with this inscription: Bones of St. Stremonius.

[116] and declared them authentic, Although we did not find in the casket of St. Austremonius a written title that would positively confirm the authenticity of the relics, we cannot be prevented from continuing to give them the same credit that was given them before the revolution, on account of the deposition, with the added circumstances, of the witnesses heard, worthy of credit; on account of the signs of antiquity of the casket; on account of the state in which we found the relics; on account of the cult rendered to these relics during the whole time in which it was possible to venerate them; on account of the care of Mr. Perier, constitutional bishop, when two other churches at Mozac were suppressed, to preserve the church of the old abbey and to dedicate it to St. Austremonius, as the acts of the mayoralty of Mozac testify; on account of the great difficulty, and we do not fear to say even the impossibility, of taking away these sacred relics and substituting other bones for them, whether in that time when this precious deposit was under the protection of Mr. Auzène, or in the time when it was handed over to Fr. Henri Ferier, who moved every stone to withdraw it from the fury of the revolutionaries, or in the time when it was shut up in the sacristy, the key remaining with the purchasers of the presbytery, or in the time when it was committed to the vigilance and fidelity of the Catholic parish priests who have been set over the church of Mozac since the revolution. The consideration of the slight importance which there could have been in taking away these precious relics and substituting other bones for them; the consideration of the great care had at all times at Mozac to preserve this splendid deposit, which care is manifested by the cult rendered to St. Austremonius and by the dangers which, all fear cast aside, they underwent in hiding these relics in the time of the terror; the good spirit of the municipal administration of Mozac in the days of the revolution; the good affection, piety, zeal, devotion of the citizens of Mozac toward St. Austremonius: all these reasons united most strongly prove that these sacred relics have been preserved down to our times.

[117] as also the relics of SS. Calminius, Namadia The arguments now set forth, which show that the relics of St. Austremonius have been preserved, also prove that the relics of St. Calminius and St. Namadia, enclosed in the same casket, have been preserved down to our times. We found besides in the casket an authentic written in Latin on parchment on the 8th of September in the year 1705, signed by Claude Foussier. These sacred relics were found with their little strips, and in that state which the said authentic designated. We applied vigilant care that these relics should be fittingly replaced in the casket.

[118] and others, We visited four wooden reliquaries, on which, as on pedestals, four small wooden statues were placed. In the first we found two separate little bundles; one was inscribed: Relics of St. Bonitus, bishop and religious of Manlieu; the other: Relics of St. Marius, confessor. In the second there was a bone so inscribed: Jaw of St. Peter. In the third was found a rather large bone, with this inscription: Relics of St. Austremonius. In the fourth there was a copper finger, in the middle of which, behind glass, are found small particles of bones with two inscriptions that could not be read. We have the honour of setting forth to the Most Reverend bishop that no proofs in favour of these relics have been detected by us, except this one, namely that in the time of the revolution those four reliquaries were secretly removed from the church by Mr. Auzène together with the two caskets, returned at the same time, and were constantly exposed for the veneration of the peoples.

[119] an instrument of the visitation having been drawn up; In witness of which we, the vicar general, specially delegated, have drawn up the procès-verbal of our visitation, to which we have subscribed together with the ecclesiastical gentlemen present and the witnesses whom we heard, that it may serve to certify the authenticity of the relics of the glorious St. Austremonius, apostle of Auvergne, of the blessed St. Calminius, St. Namadia and the saints of whom we have made mention above, and to perpetuate their cult on earth.

Combes, vicar general. — Dellestable. — Déjardin, of St. Sulpice. — Faure, officiating priest. — Bernardin, officiating priest of Marsat. — Dalbine, parish priest of Saint-Amable. — Rougier, mayor. — Grand, chaplain of the college. — Jabot. — Ozène.

[120] whose sentence the Illustrious Bishop of Clermont confirmed. From this procès-verbal it is clearly plain with what solicitous care the good citizens of Mozac

kept safe the sacred relics of their patron from the onslaught of the impious. Rightly and deservedly, then, the Illustrious Lord Louis Féron, bishop of Clermont, in the year 1839, on the 20th of November, declared the relics of St. Austremonius so found to be authentic by the solemn decree and statute that follows:

We, Louis Charles Féron, by divine mercy and the authority of the apostolic see bishop of Clermont, having seen the report presented to us by Fr. Combes, superior of our major seminary, having seen the procès-verbal drawn up by Fr. Faure, officiating priest of Mozac, all things having been examined with much care, the unanimous votes of all the members of our council having been collected, the lights of the Holy Spirit having been implored, perfect and full conviction having been acquired, have ordered and order the following:

Art. I. The relics of St. Austremonius which the parish of Mozac possesses shall be acknowledged as authentic. Art. II. The relics of St. Calminius and St. Namadia preserved in the same church shall also be acknowledged as authentic. Art. III. All these relics as such shall be exposed for the veneration of the faithful. Art. IV. Fr. Combes, superior of our major seminary, is specially delegated by us to affix our seal to these precious relics. Art. V. As regards the various bones enclosed in the four reliquaries of which the aforesaid report and procès-verbal make mention, we will that they be kept with honour and placed in a suitable place. We do not, however, permit them to be exposed for the veneration of the faithful, full certainty of their authenticity being lacking.

Done at Clermont, in our episcopal palace, on the 20th of November 1839.

† L. C., Bishop of Clermont. — By order, Osoucard, canon, vicar general.

[121] There are appended the letter To this decree we append a copy of the letter of Massillon and of the procès-verbal of the monks of Massillon requesting relics of St. Austremonius of Mozac, of which mention is made in the procès-verbal of Fr. Combes. Both instruments we have turned into Latin, preserving as far as possible the French face, to increase their credit:

Letter of Massillon. I have had built in the episcopal palace a chapel, which I have dedicated to God under the invocation of St. Austremonius, apostle of Auvergne and first bishop, whose sacred body you preserve in your church. I humbly ask of you, Sir, to deliver to Mr. Théron a little of his ashes or some small particles of bones, to be placed under the altar of the new chapel. In your kindness you will add a written testimony, in which you indicate that you at my request separated these relics from the body of St. Austremonius, to be placed under the altar of the chapel of the episcopal palace. You will write your name and mine, and the year and day; for my authentic is to be joined to the particles which you are going to send me. I await them with great desire, being about to consecrate the altar. If we enjoyed a milder sky, I would exhort you to come and dine with me tomorrow and bring them yourselves. I am, Sir, with the most sincere spirit, your

Most humble and most obedient servant,

† J. B., Bishop of Clermont.

This morning, Tuesday.

[122] and the deliberation of the monks of Mozac Procès-verbal of the monks of Mozac. On this twenty-third day of the month of February, in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-one, at the eighth hour of the morning, Dom Louis Taupin, prior of the royal abbey of SS. Peter and Paul of Mozac near Riom, of the Order of Cluny, of the diocese of Clermont in Auvergne, having called us together into chapter, where the whole community was found capitularly assembled, set forth to us that the Most Reverend Lord Jean-Baptiste Massillon, the present bishop of Clermont, had done him the honour of writing to him a letter given on the 30th of January of the present year, in which he most urgently begged him and all the religious composing the community of the said royal abbey of Mozac that they would be willing to communicate to him some particles of the relics of the body of St. Austremonius, apostle of the province of Auvergne and first bishop of the diocese of Clermont, of which they have been possessors from time immemorial, and which they keep in their church locked up with all requisite decency in a casket, venerable for its antiquity; which relics were to be placed under the altar of the new chapel which the said Lord Bishop has had built in his episcopal palace under the invocation of the same St. Austremonius.

[123] assenting to the request; Reading having been made by the secretary of the said community not only of the letter of his Greatness, but also of another, of the Most Reverend Father Jean Fricout, superior of the religious of the strict observance of the Order of Cluny, given on the 14th of the present month to the prior of the abbey of Mozac, tending to exhort the religious of the said community to assent with a good heart to the wishes and prayers of the said Lord Bishop; deliberation having been made on the business, all unanimously concurred in it by common consent; and they forthwith led the said Dom Louis Taupin, prior of the said abbey of Mozac, to the sacristy, where he was vested in alb and stole; then with him, holding lighted candles in their hands, they went to the chapel where the casket of their glorious patron is; and when it had been uncovered, they prostrated themselves, and having said the prayers required in such a case, they opened the said casket, and, incense having been offered, they drew out a bone of the body of the said St. Austremonius, their glorious patron, which, wrapped in a silk cloth of damask work, they fittingly placed in a little box, which, fastened and sealed with the seal of the said abbey, they gave into the hands of the Dom prior, whom they asked to see to delivering it to the Lord Bishop; which he willingly took upon himself, promising that he would faithfully carry out their commission by delivering the precious deposit committed to him.

In witness of which we have drawn up the present procès-verbal, to which all the religious now composing the community of the royal abbey of Mozac have subscribed, and have affixed the seal of the arms of the said abbey, that it may serve the said Lord Bishop as the occasion requires. — Given and ratified in the abbey of Mozac, on this 23rd day of February, in the year 1731.

Dom Louis Taupin,

Prior of the abbey of Mozac.

The present copy, faithfully written out from the original, was placed in the casket, with the letter of the said Lord Bishop of Clermont.

Place of the seal.

[124] and also the procès-verbal of Fr. Faure, parish priest of Mozac, To these we append the procès-verbal of Fr. Faure, then officiating priest of the parish of Mozac, on the visitation of Fr. Combes itself, the opening of the caskets and the recognition of the relics. From it may be resolved a certain doubt which could arise for one reading the procès-verbal of Fr. Combes, which we put in the first place, namely whether the relics of St. Austremonius and the other saints were found in one or in several caskets. From this procès-verbal of Fr. Faure it is clearly plain that in the casket of St. Austremonius only his relics were found, but those of SS. Calminius and Namadia in another casket.

[125] on the recognition of the relics by Fr. Combes, Procès-verbal of the visitation and opening of the caskets of St. Austremonius, St. Calminius and of four other reliquaries, designated below.

In the year 1839 and on the 24th day of October, Fr. Augustin Combes, superior of the major seminary, vicar general of the diocese, by virtue of a special delegation of the Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Clermont, betook himself to the presbytery and church of Mozac, to examine the authenticity of the relics which the said church possesses, enclosed in two wooden caskets, of which one is said to be of St. Austremonius, the other, covered with copper of various colours, is said to be of St. Calminius and St. Namadia, and in four wooden reliquaries on which, as on pedestals, four small statues, also of wood, are placed.

Lest any doubt should arise about the identity of the caskets and reliquaries designated above, we invited to assist at the ceremony Mr. Jean-Baptiste Rougier, mayor and procurator of the commune from the revolution of the year 1793, Mr. Jean Ozène, proprietor in the parish of Mozac and municipal agent from the same revolution, and Mr. Jacques Jabot, proprietor in the same parish and discharging the office of sacristan from the same time. These three witnesses of known uprightness unanimously declared, before the Rev. delegated vicar general, before Frs. Dalbine, parish priest of Saint-Amable at Riom, Bernardin, officiating priest of Marsat, Dellestable, professor of the diocesan major seminary, Desjardin, professor in the same seminary, Prudhomme, officiating priest of Saint-Georges-de-Mons, Grand, chaplain in the college of Riom, and Faure, officiating priest of Mozac, that they perfectly recognized the said caskets and reliquaries to be the same which the Benedictine religious before the year 1793 exposed for the veneration of the faithful. In addition the said Jean Ozène declared that, when the worship of religion ceased in France after the year 1793, he secretly and directly transferred the aforesaid caskets and reliquaries from the church of the Benedictines to his house, helped only by Fr. Henri Ferrier, then constitutional parish priest, who had asked this of him that he might withdraw the aforesaid objects from the fury of the revolutionaries; that the said caskets and reliquaries were deposited in a cupboard, the key of which he constantly kept with himself, and remained in this cupboard until the restoration of worship, and during that whole lapse of time were never opened, and afterwards were directly carried back by himself to the place from which they had been taken, and committed to the protection of the said Fr. Henri Ferrier, who went on in due time and place to expose them for the veneration of the faithful as had formerly been done.

This information having been collected, Fr. Combes proceeded to open the caskets and reliquaries, as follows. First he opened the casket of St. Austremonius, in which was found the autograph letter of Massillon, bishop of Clermont, requesting from the prior of the abbey of Mozac some portions of the relics of St. Austremonius, to be placed under the altar which he was having built in the episcopal palace; the procès-verbal of the religious, assenting to the request, is joined to the said letter and fastened with the seal of the abbey. Beside the letter there was found an old porcelain vessel containing: 1° a small glass ampoule in which were four teeth; 2° very many fragments of old wood wholly rotted, and a little parchment strip bearing this: Relics of St. Austremonius. After that vessel, thirty-two bones or fragments of bones were mixed with the dust of many other particles of rotted wood, wrapped in a very old and very bad linen. The casket was cleaned; the thirty-two bones or fragments of bones were placed in a little white napkin sewn up on every side, and covered with a cloth of silk and velvety, of red colour, with this inscription: Bones of St. Stremonius, and were replaced in the casket. The fragments of wood were gathered into a linen bag and placed in the same casket on the right side of the door; the old porcelain vessel, containing the small ampoule in which are the four teeth, was also replaced in the casket on the left side of the door.

Then Fr. Combes opened the casket of St. Calminius, founder of the abbey. The first object that was found was an authentic written in Latin on parchment, dated the 8th of September 1705, signed by Claude Foussier, subprior. The said casket contained three bags of sheepskin containing bones, and one of linen containing an entire head and the relics of another; on either side of the casket there were inscriptions conforming to the authentic. The bags with their inscriptions were placed in the same place where they had been; the authentic also was replaced in the place where it had been, and the casket reclosed.

Immediately afterwards Fr. Combes visited the other four wooden reliquaries designated above. In the first he found two small separate bundles bearing, one this inscription: Relics of St. Bonitus, bishop and religious of Manlieu, and the other

this: Relics of St. Marius, confessor. Each bundle with its inscription on parchment was replaced in its place. In the second there was one bone with this inscription: Jaw of St. Peter; the bundle and inscription on parchment were replaced in their place. In the third there was a rather large bone bearing this inscription: Relics of St. Austremonius, bishop of Clermont. The bone with the inscription on parchment was replaced in its place. In the fourth there was a copper finger, in the middle of which under glass there were small particles of bones, and at the side two small inscriptions on parchment, which we could not read, whether because the characters had been notably effaced by length of time, or because the writing is much older than the preceding. Persons skilled in the art told us that they contained these words: From the finger of St. John the Baptist, which we transcribed on paper and enclosed together in the reliquary. The other could not be read. Of all the things reported above the present procès-verbal has been drawn up, to which the Rev. vicar general and the witnesses designated above have subscribed with me, the officiating priest of the parish.

Combes, vicar general. — Dellestable. — Déjardin, priest of St. Sulpice. — Bernardin, officiating priest of Marsat. — Dalbine, parish priest of Saint-Amable. — Faure, officiating priest. — Grand, chaplain of the college. — Rougier, mayor. — Jabot. — Ozène. — Prudhomme.

[126] and on the affixing of the episcopal seal. Let there follow this another procès-verbal of the same Faure on the affixing of the episcopal seal:

Procès-verbal of the episcopal seal affixed to the relics of St. Austremonius, St. Calminius and St. Namadia, which the church of Mozac possesses.

In the year 1839 and on the 27th day of November, in accordance with the first article of the ordinance of the Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Clermont, given on the 20th of November of this year, which declares authentic the relics of St. Austremonius, St. Calminius and St. Namadia, which the church of Mozac possesses; and in accordance with the fourth article of the same ordinance, which specially delegates Fr. Auguste Combes, superior of the major seminary and vicar general, to affix the episcopal seal to these precious relics, he again betook himself here to the presbytery and to the church of Mozac to carry out his commission.

The casket of St. Austremonius having been opened, the linens that contain the bones of the saint were undone; the principal bones were separately wrapped with a white ribbon sealed at either end; the principal bones together with the lesser ones and the fragments of bones were replaced in the same little napkin in which they had been before, which was covered with a cloth of silk and velvety, of red colour, sewn in many places. All this was tied with a little white ribbon that goes round the whole width, and sealed at either end. In the middle there was added a small ribbon of rose colour to supplement the little white ribbon, too short to go round the whole precious bundle; which bundle, duly sealed, was replaced in the casket with this inscription: Bones of St. Austremonius. The linen bag containing the fragments of wood found in this same casket was tied with a little white ribbon sealed at either end, and placed in the casket on the right side of the door: the small ampoule containing the four teeth was sealed at the orifice and replaced in the old porcelain vessel on the left side of the door. The letter of Massillon, the procès-verbal of the religious, the ordinance of the Most Reverend Bishop were placed in the casket, which was locked, and the seal affixed on the outside to the escutcheon of the lock.

Then the casket of St. Calminius was opened, the bags containing the bones were drawn out and carefully tied; the seal was affixed to their ends: all were then replaced with their inscriptions in the same place. The old authentic written in Latin on parchment, and besides an inscription on paper indicating that the ordinance by which exposition is permitted is found in the casket of St. Austremonius, were enclosed in the same casket. The casket was locked and the seal affixed to the chained lock, tied with a little ribbon of rose colour.

All this was done in the presence of Frs. Dalbine, parish priest of Saint-Amable, Dellestable, director of the major seminary, Déjardin, director of the same seminary, Pillière, officiating priest of Volvic, Rordes, officiating priest of Chateaugau, Bernardin, officiating priest of Marsat, Faucher, chaplain of the Visitation of the town of Riom, and Grand, chaplain of the college of the same town.

In witness of which we, the officiating priest of the parish of Mozac, have made the present procès-verbal, to which the Rev. vicar general and the aforesaid witnesses have subscribed with us on the day, month and year as above.

Combes, vicar general. — Faure, officiating priest. — Dalbine, parish priest. — Déjardin, priest of St. Sulpice. — Dellestable, priest of St. Sulpice. — Faucher. — Bernardin, officiating priest of Marsat. — Grand.

[127] The latest recognition of the relics, made in the year 1852. Finally let there follow the authentic act of the second opening of the casket of St. Austremonius and of the extraction of relics made by Louis Féron, bishop of Clermont, through Fr. Brun, vicar general of the aforesaid bishop, by his mandate, on the 29th of January in the year 1852:

We, Louis Féron, by divine mercy and the authority of the apostolic see bishop of Clermont, having implored the light of the Holy Spirit, have opened the casket containing the relics of St. Austremonius, apostle of the Arvernian city, and, piously kneeling before those precious relics, have extracted from it for our cathedral church two particles, which are a rather large fragment of the right tibia, and another less large fragment of the same bone. This done, we have returned the relics to the same state, and, having folded them again with the same linens designated in the procès-verbal of Fr. Combes, vicar general of the diocese and superior of the major seminary, we have sealed them with our seal.

At Mozac, on the 20th of January in the year 1852.

Brun, vicar general. — By order, Aug. Teilhot, Canon Secretary.

[128] Besides the relics of St. Austremonius preserved at Mozac, I had greatly desired the authentic act of this second opening and recognition of the relics; but it was not possible to find it. Perhaps it was not on public but on the private authority of the assisting and examining physician, namely Mr. Imbert, as I have learned from elsewhere, that the account was made which I read in the book of Mr. Gomot on the royal abbey of Mozac, written in French Gomot, Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Mosat, p. 220; where the following are numbered: 1° A right femur lacking the apophysis which they call the great trochanter, and which seems to have been sawn. 2° A left femur entire, except for the rear face of the great trochanter, which also seems to have been sawn. 3° A left tibia and the upper part of a right tibia. 4° A rather large part of a sacrum; three lumbar vertebrae and one patella. 5° The entire base of a cranium. 6° A nearly entire head, two fragments of ribs, a calcaneum not entire. — The casket contained besides very many small bones, from which, apart from some phalanges of fingers and toes, nothing could be distinguished. After this last opening of the casket the episcopal seal does not seem to have been affixed to the door.

I myself, when in January of the year 1880 I copied the authentic instruments at Mozac, was able to inspect the casket diligently inside and outside, the Rev. parish priest opening it; the bundle and the other things mentioned in the procès-verbal I saw with my own eyes.

[129] some others Of the notable relics of St. Austremonius outside the church of Mozac I have learned that one part exists in the major seminary of Clermont-Ferrand, are preserved at Clermont and Issoire. which Fr. Combes seems to have brought home with him from Mozac, another in the cathedral church of Clermont, a third in the parish church of Issoire.

[130] Where the head of St. Austremonius went is uncertain. I have given every effort to tracing the head of St. Austremonius, which is established to have been formerly preserved at Issoire; the translation of which and its various turns of fortune before it reached Issoire you may see in that account of which we made mention above, and which is to be read below after the Acts. When Mabillon wrote the second volume of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict of the third century, the head of St. Austremonius was still preserved in the monastery of Issoire, as the author himself testifies in the Translation of St. Stremonius, bishop of the Arverni (p. 194): The monastery of Issoire has so far (year 1672) persevered under the Order of St. Father Benedict, recently united to the congregation of St. Maur; in which the head of St. Stremonius is even now preserved, but the body at Mozac. At what time it was taken from Issoire or whither it was carried is not established. Rev. Fr. Daguillon, parish priest of Issoire, who received me with splendid hospitality into his house at Issoire, says that he found no memory of this head existing at Issoire, neither before nor after the overthrow of things in France. It is indeed known that in the recognition of the relics made at Mozac by the vicar general Brun, the most learned man Imbert, doctor of medicine, found among the relics a head and part of a cranium. But the most learned physician could not establish with certainty that this was the head of St. Austremonius. It has not been possible to learn more or more certain things.

[131] Certain relics formerly preserved at Clermont in the church of St. Illidius That relics of St. Austremonius have been or are elsewhere also I have gathered from time to time from various documents. One or two I here note down again (for they have already been adduced, as testimony of the martyrdom), according to the authors of the Gallia christiana (vol. II, p. 225): In the year 1709, in the church of St. Illidius, when the altar of St. Illidius was destroyed, a marble stone was found with this inscription: Here are the relics of Bl. Austremonius, martyr, and of St. Julian and Stabile. Although I do not admit that the body of St. Austremonius lay for some time in this church, it is nevertheless plain that certain relics were there.

[132] and in the cathedral church, Then I read: In the cathedral church is preserved a little casket of gilded silver with this inscription: Parts of the thigh of St. Austremonius, bishop of the Arverni and martyr. According to Sainte-Marthe neither inscription exceeds seven hundred years. Whence it is plain from the judgment of Mr. de Sainte-Marthe that it can easily be referred to the year 1197. And if this is so, I should believe that they were brought from the monastery of Mozac to Clermont by Robert, pontiff of the Arverni, at the time when he recognized the relics by a canonical examination. Parts of the thigh, says the inscription; and the account of the most learned physician Imbert, who examined the relics of St. Austremonius on the 29th of January in the year 1852, enumerates among the bones of the holy man two femurs, each mutilated in some part, which seem, he says, sawn. Wherefore it will not be absurd to suppose that the two femurs were mutilated at the time when the solemn recognition gave the pontiff an easy occasion. A later epoch I should not willingly admit, because the antiquity of the inscription seems to require the contrary. I nevertheless dare define nothing certain, because the whole matter stands for me on another's credit, and that of a man asserting rather than judging.

[133] and also at Entraigues. Finally I heard from the mouth of the most learned man, Rev. Fr. Chaix de Lavarène, parish priest of Saint-Genès-les-Carmes at Clermont, that relics of St. Austremonius are preserved in the church of the old community of St. Austremonius at Entraigues. And these are the things that have come to my notice concerning the elevation, translations and existence of the relics of St. Austremonius.

* Saint-Ivoine

* Charroux

* in French maire

* in French marguillier

§ VI. Of the cult of St. Austremonius.

The ancient cult of St. Austremonius among the Arverni. If credit is to be given to the apocryphal Acts, immediately

from the martyrdom the sacred body of the man received the honours of public cult. This cult gradually cooled and at length ceased, until in the time of Cautinus, by a heavenly vision, if Cautinus is to be credited, illuminating the martyr's tomb, the interrupted cult began to be restored. That a true cult, commended also by miracles, began then is certain from Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 30. But afterwards, the monastery of Issoire having been laid waste by wars and incursions of barbarians, the holy man's tomb seems to have remained for some time without due honours, buried under rubble and filth, until the sacred body was raised from the earth by Avitus II and translated to Volvic, as has been related above. From then until our times St. Austremonius has enjoyed an uninterrupted cult among his Arverni. Outside the borders of the Arverni this cult spread late.

[135] The saint is, however, not mentioned in the old martyrologies. The martyrology called Hieronymian does not have the name of Austremonius, in no exemplars, not even the most ancient, for example that of Echternach or of Bern. Ado of Vienne does not recall Austremonius, nor do the other ancient martyrologies. In the pure Usuard he is not found; but in the additions at the kalends of November his name and a brief elogium are read. Namely, in the Anchin codex: Among the Arverni, of St. Austremonius, bishop; in the Saint-Victor codex, and that of the Queen of Sweden no. 130: In the city of the Arverni, of St. Austremonius, bishop and martyr; in the Altemps codex: Among the Arverni, the natal day of blessed Austremonius, martyr, first pastor of that city; in Belin, in the second edition: Among the Arverni, of St. Austremonius, first bishop of the Arverni and martyr. Molanus, doubtless from Belin, according to Du Sollier, added to the text: Among the Arverni, of St. Austremonius, first bishop of the Arverni and martyr.

[136] His elogium in the Roman Martyrology. Galesini has a brief elogium: Among the Arverni, of St. Austremonius, bishop and martyr. Finally the Roman Martyrology at the kalends of November makes mention of Austremonius in these words: Among the Arverni, of St. Austremonius, first bishop of that city. It is superfluous to copy out the longer elogium of Saussay. Add to these the breviaries, which there is no point in listing.

[137] A proper mass granted to the apostolic vicariate of New Caledonia, Finally we append here the proper mass of St. Austremonius, which may at the same time indicate the cult of St. Austremonius propagated to the ends of the earth.

SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS. FOR THE FEAST OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF THE ARVERNI, AND PRINCIPAL PATRON OF THE APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF NEW CALEDONIA. (By a double decree of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide of the 15th of May 1881 and the 18th of December of the same year.)

Introit. Psalm 95. Declare among the gentiles that the Lord is great above all gods; for all the gods of the gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens. Psalm, same place. Sing to the Lord a new song: sing to the Lord, all the earth. Glory be to the Father.

Prayer. O God, who deigned to call us out of darkness into your admirable light by the preaching of blessed Austremonius: grant us by his merits and prayers so worthily to walk in the gospel of Christ, that the faith which by your mercy we have received we may be able to confess by holy works. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reading from the Epistle of the blessed apostle Paul to the Thessalonians. (1 Thessalonians 2.) Brethren: We had confidence in our God … you received it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God, who works in you who have believed.

Gradual. We are your glory, as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ Jesus by the gospel I have begotten you. I beseech you, be imitators of me as I also am of Christ. Alleluia, alleluia. Thanks be to God, who triumphs us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odour of his knowledge through us.

Sequence.

Arvernian people, with glad mind Bring forth songs this day In praise of Stremonius.

He first formed you In the true faith, he first fed you With the word of the gospel.

Sent by the Roman See He flies to you; and suddenly All things are made new.

The people, before without God, Rejoice in Christ the Redeemer, Now faithful and devout.

Those whom foolish error mocked, Whom the horror of night covered, These are light in the Lord.

Where there were briars and thickets, There rises an abundant crop, Stremonius watering it.

O Christ, whom under this shepherd Our fathers worshipped With faith and virtues;

Whose faith we profess, Grant that we imitate their morals too, Pleasing in all things;

That the crown which in heaven You have prepared for your elect We may merit to enjoy.

Amen. Alleluia.

Continuation of the holy Gospel according to Mark. (Chapter 16, 15.) At that time Jesus said to his disciples: Going into the whole world … they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Creed.

Offertory. (Isaiah 61.) You, priests of the Lord, ministers of our God, it shall be said to you: You shall eat the strength of the gentiles and in their glory you shall pride yourselves.

Secret. May your blessing, O Lord, descend upon these our gifts, which we offer to your majesty for the triumph of St. Austremonius, humbly beseeching that, as by his ministry we have received the faith, by his intercession we may live by faith. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son: who lives and reigns with you.

Communion. (Ephesians 2.) You were without God in this world; but now in Christ Jesus you, who once were far off, have been made near, in the blood of Christ.

Postcommunion. O God, who by the ministry of blessed Austremonius conferred on us this grace, that from unbelievers we should be made believers, from sinners just: be present to your works, be present to your gifts, that those in whom is the justification of faith may not lack the strength of faith. Through the Lord.

[134] taken from the proper masses of Clermont. This mass was taken from the Proper Masses for the use of the distinguished church of Clermont, approved by our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX and published by order of the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Louis Charles Féron, bishop of Clermont (Paris, Le Clère, 1865). In which there is read besides this proper preface, to be read on the feast and through the octave: It is truly right and just, fitting and salutary, to proclaim you, O Lord, wonderful indeed in all your saints, but especially on this feast of blessed Austremonius to give you the greatest thanks. For he is truly an apostle to us, by whose ministry you have mercifully brought us from darkness to light and from death to life; you have given him to us as father and teacher, who both begot us in Christ through the gospel and first showed the way of justice by word and example; this grace you conferred on us at his preaching, that we who were strangers and foreigners should now be named and be citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And therefore with the angels and archangels, with the thrones and dominations, and with all the host of the heavenly army we sing the hymn of your glory, saying without end.

FIRST LIFE OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

from two codices of Clermont.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

BHL Number: 0844 a

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER ONE.

The mission of St. Austremonius into Gaul. Apostolic labours. The building of the monastery of Issoire.

St. Austremonius, sent into Gaul with six others by St. Clement, St. Austremonius, then, disciple of the apostles of Christ, is read to have been sent into the Gauls to preach in the times of the emperor Decius with very many other fellow-disciples. But after the departure of the apostles, when the heresy of Valentinian and Novatian, at the urging of the enemy, had begun to rage crassari 2. against the Christian legion, St. Clement, disciple and successor of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, assigned these men, as they had been ordained by the apostles, to individual cities. These were sent: to Tours, Bishop Gratianus; to Arles, Bishop Trophimus; to Narbonne, Bishop Paul; to Toulouse, Bishop Saturninus; to Paris, Bishop Dionysius; to Limoges so 2. Bishop Martial; and to the Arverni was appointed Bishop Austremonius. Of these Dionysius and Saturninus completed their course by the palm of martyrdom, while Gratianus, Trophimus and Paul and Martial, in the highest holiness, after the peoples gained for the Church to the faith of Christ spread out before all, departed in happy confession. And thus, the former by martyrdom and the latter by confession leaving the earth, they are joined alike in the heavenly places. But the holy and venerable worshipper of God Austremonius, who was directed with the most blessed Gratianus and the others we have recalled, where he knew the error of gentilism to be most fervent, there fearless and inflamed with the heat of faith, the Lord leading him, he came to the walls of the city of the Arverni. For filled with the Holy Spirit he did not fear to seek out the savagery of an unbelieving nation, reckoning this would truly profit him for glory, if he could break and cultivate for the seeds of the word of God a raw and long uncultivated land and render it fruitful, the Lord helping, by the contest of his labours; according to what is written: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. A region of this kind with its inhabitants is rightly called a wilderness, because without God in this world, worshipping the vain and insensible things of the element, they were subject to the various wanderings of demons, adoring the creature rather than the Creator. For the same city to which the servant of God first went is held to be situated in the Limagne ^b, and at that time, according to the desires of this error, it appeared renowned both for the gathering of peoples and for nobility.

[2] among the Arverni he builds a church That city, then, where the greatest error ^c of the gentiles was then practised, was situated on the brow of a hill of the same town, firmly fortified with a wall and towers, and it was watered by an aqueduct of great and wonderful workmanship. Since indeed it was held to be fertile in lands, wooded with trees, most rich in vineyards, crowded with peoples and filled with commerce. But the fruitful and fertile land was corrupted by the evil works of its inhabitants. To this place, then, the holy man of God Austremonius hastening, he built with great zeal, the Lord protecting him, a church there which was known neither to the places nor to the peoples. And as he did not cease there unceasingly day and night to scatter the seeds of the word of God, an innumerable multitude of both sexes from the same province, running together to the constancy of his preaching, piously and faithfully obeying his holy admonitions, began to believe in God the Creator of all.

[3] and preaches the faith of Christ. Therefore the holy prelate of God, a man apostolic in all things, rejoicing at the Arverni's readiness to believe, striving to regenerate them by the grace of baptism, addressed them with evangelical words, saying: Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, for through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ you have merited to be changed from insensible stones, that is, from unbelieving fathers who did not yet know God, into true sons of Abraham. For by the grace of God you are saved through faith; who deigned to redeem you with precious blood as of an immaculate lamb. Helped by his benefit and aid, strengthen one another, having hope because he who has begun a good work in you will complete it. The crowds of the peoples having been imbued with many exhortations and teachings, and to the word of God

the knowledge called forth with much labour and with signs and no small miracles summoning them from the Lord, he instituted the offices of levites and priests, as it had been handed down to him, according to ecclesiastical custom ^d. At that same time, then, the Lord deigned to show such great wonders through him, that they lifted up the hearts of the gentiles no less by miracles than by preachings.

[4] A peasant is saved from shipwreck by his aid. For when one day the same blessed pontiff Austremonius was preaching to the people beside the river Flaver ^e and strenuously admonishing them to remain stable in what they had learned from him, one miracle is said to have happened there from the Lord. For it is handed down by the report of the faithful that two peasants wished to cross the river to cut wood, and when the people had halted where the man of the Lord was devoting himself to preach[ing], one of them, taking bread from which he was going to eat at the hour of refreshment, inspired, as I believe, by the Lord, went on to the bishop and offered it to him. He, receiving the same bread, blessed it and gave eulogiae from it to the same peasant. Soon returning, he boarded the ship with his companion and many others, and when a wind blew the water was stirred up. The ship, tossed among the waves of the waters, was sunk, and all were killed except the one to whom the blessed pontiff Austremonius had given eulogiae; who by swimming reached the bank of the river and by the merits of the man of God, while they looked on, escaped unharmed. But the demon who had sunk the others in the depth of the deep, seeing this man hastening safely to the shores of the river, cried out in the air to his colleague in the people's hearing: Ho, what are you doing? Why do you not kill this man who so boldly crosses the waves of the river? To him the other answered: I cannot, though I desire it, because Austremonius, who is casting us out on every side, gave him eulogiae. This miracle having been manifestly accomplished, from that day onward they listened more to St. Austremonius preaching. Also a custom grew up in all the region that those fasting, if a priest is present, receive eulogiae, which are held in place of holy communion.

[5] Many having been converted to the faith, When therefore he now shone from all sides with virtues and signs, it came about in every way that those who a little before had ceased to be worshippers of idols became helpers of their master and preachers of the word of God. By the very ones by whom they had been made with the greatest zeal the images were destroyed. And as they had yielded their members to serve injustice and iniquity unto iniquity, so on the contrary they strove to serve God unto sanctification. They destroyed the altars where they had before sacrificed to demons, and in those very places they built churches with great effort and marvellous beauty; to which through the same time the custom and love increased in the aforesaid city so that, the Lord helping, basilicas were built so large as quatenus 2. are nowhere seen built construere 2. in any one nulla 2. of the other cities of that kingdom. For which we offer thanks, supreme almighty Father, who deigned to send mitti. 2. so outstanding a preacher, through whom you once called back so innumerable a lost people to heavenly things. For now that was being fulfilled which had been said long before through the prophet Hosea in the person of a people of this kind being converted: I will call that which was not my people, my people, and her who had not obtained mercy, one who has obtained mercy. And it shall be in the place where it was said to them: You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. And that of Isaiah: They shall come to you who disparaged you, and the nations that did not know you shall hasten to you.

[6] he establishes pastors. When therefore the holy man of God Austremonius, having lived happily for a long time in the aforesaid region, had led a multitude of peoples to the knowledge of God, as has been said, rejoicing in the happiness of so great a flock, like a good shepherd he implored the Lord that he would deign to guard his sheep in full number, unceasingly giving him thanks for the innumerable multitude which he had gained through him for his name. And although he seemed distinguished by many virtues and miracles, in all things keeping in mind humility, the guardian of virtue, he often said this: It is not I who do anything, but the Holy Spirit who dwells in me. And that of the apostle: By the grace of God I am what I am. After this, when he now saw the flock of Christ multiplied, providing for the rest of the multitude, he established as pastors to preside over them the wiser among them and all those hating injustice, who should not cease at all times to call back the less learned from the road of depravity, and hasten to lead them to the way of truth, which is Christ. Those who had received the care of preaching from so kind a master did not stop in any way, but, devoting themselves to meditation on the law of God, they strove to announce to the rest of the people what they had learned from the holy father.

[7] He founds a monastery at Issoire. These things being so, the most holy man of God Austremonius, not bearing the throng of peoples which he endured at the height of the pontificate, and shunning also the worldly dignity which the sons whom he had begotten in the gospel of Christ offered him, that what was said might be fulfilled: Let the just be justified still, he is said to have built a monastery in the place called Issoire ^f, where, establishing no small crowd of monks, he happily handed on to them, to be preserved, the apostolic life which he had fully learned, and taught them by the rules of the art to blunt the spirit and ever to submit their necks to the yoke of the Lord.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER TWO.

The attempted conversion of the Jews. The boy Lucius slain by his father. The martyrdom and burial of St. Austremonius. The revelation of the body in the sixth century.

The Jews plot death for Austremonius. Through the same time it is established that no small multitude of the Jewish nation was scattered in the Arvernian city ^a. For the ancient enemy, seeing that those had been lost to him whom the Lord had gained through his servant Austremonius, and because from the beginning of the world he has not ceased to fight against the elect of God, strove to stir up his whole art of harming against the man of God through this perfidious nation. But when the blessed prelate reproved this unhappy people with many rebukes for the sacrilege committed against the Saviour, and showed from the authority of the divine Scriptures that for the salvation

of the human race regis 2. he had descended from heaven to earth, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, that same perfidious people gave him no assent in any way, and not only did they not take up repentance for the unbelief and hardness of their heart, as he admonished them, but they even conspired in open persecutions for his death. The disciples of the holy man, understanding this, were eager to announce to their master that the Jews were contemplating his destruction with all the avidity of their minds. The holy father sanctum 2., hearing this speech, is said to have answered with cheerful countenance and tranquil spirit, as he always was: Behold good news brought from a far country, if with the Lord's help it should some day come to the fulfilment of the matter. And when the disciples, troubled at such an answer, complained among themselves, the holy man of God Austremonius said to them: What is it, brothers, that I see you sadder than usual? Do you consider it right to be afraid of the glory of my martyrdom, which with all the desire of my mind I strive to merit from the Lord? Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, saying: The servant is not greater than his lord, nor the disciple greater than he who sent him. And again: If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also. And at the same time remember what he admonished, saying: Do not fear those who kill the body, because afterwards they have nothing more that they can do. What, finally, is more pleasant, indeed what is more lovable to the servants of the Lord than this news which you have brought? This news is said to tell of good things from a far country for this reason, that, when the souls of the faithful have been delivered from the snares of temptations, which is all human life on earth, it is signified that they pass over to the eternal homeland, where without the contest of labours they are to reign with Christ forever.

[9] The martyrdom of the boy Lucius and then of St. Austremonius himself. With these and similar assertions he rendered them stronger against the temptations of this world, and he himself, armed with faith against the most impious people of the Jews resisting him, did not cease to preach Christ to them with open voice. And although they deliberated the more about his destruction, he nevertheless took care both to announce to them the Son of God and to pour over whichever of their little ones he caught the water of the saving bath. Whence it came about that he committed to the sacrament of baptism the son of one Jew who presided over the others as more powerful. When it had been announced to the Jew that his son had been fonte 2. baptized, inflamed with the greatest fury, coming with a multitude of his nation to where the holy man was then staying, he is said to have thrown his son into a well. But blessed Austremonius the prelate, torn with many blows until he breathed out his spirit, at the very last adorning him with the palm of martyrdom by the cutting off of his head, Christ, receiving the soul worthy of him, appointed it to be associated with the merits of the apostles. His head was thrown into the well after the little boy's limbs, but was very quickly taken up by the Christians, and, embalming both with fitting honour, in the monastery which the same holy martyr had built at Issoire they committed them to the place of burial. From the water of his well a multitude of the sick afterwards, faithfully drinking, by the merits of the holy man are restored to health from various weaknesses.

[10] [The Jews having been expelled, the tomb of St. Austremonius, at first celebrated for miracles,] From then on the hatred of the Christians began to grow against the Jews, who had perpetrated this crime. These they pursued with such most atrocious punishments and various torments that not one is known to dwell in this city, as in others, up to the present ^b. These having been reduced to nothing and ejected beyond their borders, as many as could escape, the Lord assigning them a punishment worthy of them, they held the same place in which they had entombed the holy martyr to be worthy of the highest honour, and with great gifts they seek the suffrages of the blessed prelate, and, supported by his merits and intercessions, those who come afflicted by whatever tribulation or weakness return to their homes sound and safe.

[11] then neglected, in the sixth century, through Cautinus, honoured again. For a long time indeed, and as long as there survived the people who retained in mind and work the signs and miracles and holy manner of life of blessed Austremonius, that same people hastened to run together to his tomb with many gifts and devout mind. But when these had departed from the world, and charity was now growing cold in many, crude rusticity followed and increased. Who, although they knew that he rested in the aforesaid place of Issoire, nevertheless showed him no cult of honour. After long courses of years Cautinus, to whom the episcopate of that same Arvernian city was given, ruled that same church in his diaconate. Then while one night he was lying on the bed of his cell which adjoined this basilica, he heard chanting as if with voices faintly resounding, and rising at once, he saw the church shining with a great light; and astounded he looked inside; for that cell was in an upper part opposite the windows of the church. And he saw, and behold, around the tomb a multitude of men in white holding candles and chanting. Having watched this for a very long time, when they had gone away, at once when morning came he ordered the tomb to be enclosed with a railing, and declared reverence for that place. For from this frequent prayer is poured out over the tomb, and the aid of the prelate is obtained ^c.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER THREE.

The double translation to Volvic and Mozac. Miracles.

The body of St. Austremonius is translated from Issoire to Volvic, Afterwards by the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, because the same place had again strayed from its honour, the pontiff of the Arverni came, bringing with him a troop of monks, and besides a multitude of canons and a throng of his people, and ordered the tomb of the most blessed martyr Austremonius to be opened. And when the sarcophagus had been opened and his body raised from it, so great an odour filled the nostrils of those standing around that they truly knew he was to be associated [in] the court of paradise with the merits of the apostles. Thence he was carried with the highest honour to the monastery of Volvic ^a, where the most blessed martyr and pontiff Praejectus lies buried, and there, God so ordering, the venerable one was committed to burial beside the aforesaid priest of God Praejectus, martyr ^b. Where after he had lain for a very long space, afterwards, the Lord helping, he was translated with immense glory to the monastery of Mozac ^c, which stands not far off, in honour of the holy apostle Peter and of St. Caprasius the martyr ^d.

[13] and afterwards to Mozac, For when that same Mozac had been greatly cast down from its honour on account of the invasion of evil men, the venerable man Lanfred, abbot of that monastery, and the troop of monks asked Pippin, king of that … Equitanie provincie adds 2. ^e, that he would grant them in the city of the Arverni leave to translate one of the saints. The king, graciously granting them what they asked, and not long after coming to Volvic, and inquiring about the bodies of the saints entombed there ex-interr. so 1, 2., learned that Blessed Austremonius had once been the preacher of the same city. Then remembering the petitions of the monks, touched by divine will, as it is written: The heart of the king is in the hand of God, wherever he will he shall turn it, he ordered by swift messenger that the brethren should hasten as quickly as possible and together with him bear away the supreme martyr. They at once went on with immense joy, and, digging deep at the place of burial with Joseph, scribe and priest of the king, and passing that night in vigil, they worthily laid out the body of the most holy martyr. When morning came the king arrived with his army, and those hearing of it round about through the whole region, there was no small crowd there. The king followed the body and carried it on his shoulders; there was immense gladness. Those who were carrying it rejoiced, those from whom they carried it away wept, and in such order the blessed martyr Austremonius willed to be transferred to the same so 1, 2. monastery.

[14] where he shines with miracles. I believe it came about by the will of God that first

he was brought from Issoire to Volvic and thence to Mozac. For the same blessed Austremonius, in the place called Issoire, as we have set out, first building a regular monastery, there held to the monastic life. But now not only was the regular habit no longer there, but also, on account of the threatening wars of the pagans ^f, which the Arvernian region suffered, no cult of holy religion was had there; for that reason he willed to be carried away. Afterwards it was pleasing that he be transferred from the regular a-cœn. so 1, 2. monastery again to Mozac, in which place how great wonders, miracles, signs the Lord deigned to work through [him] it is not in my powers to set forth. But lest what is still seen to be new should in future be believed fabulous, let us take up a few of the miracles which the Lord did through him in the same monastery. For the same place had been worn down under such weakness, since it had been held exalted in all opulence, that now scarcely, on account of the oppression of evil men, could the monks serving there get relief from hunger. But afterwards, the Lord assenting, his merits and prayers interceding, it was recovered to such honour that it nobly equalled greater places, and had nothing of little worth in anything.

[15] A possessed man is freed, When therefore the fame of the holy martyr gradually resounded round about, it came about that not only from neighbouring places but also from distant regions they came with hurried step to seek his suffrages. There was a certain man of noble birth, in the territory of Tours, who suffered badly from a demon and was cruelly tormented night and day. In the basilica of the most blessed martyr, prelate and confessor at Tours he was freed from one demon. It is said to have cried out as it went forth: Since now by the merits of this saint I am expelled from you, I will come to your sister. But you, if you wish to be freed from the other demon, namely my companion, go to the Arverni to the monastery of Mozac, and there you will be cured of him by blessed Austremonius. O devil! going out unwillingly from his body and unwillingly foretelling good to come to him that he might merit to be cured, you did not keep silent that you would invade the body of another. Nevertheless the same man, not unbelieving at these words, came to the same place, and entered the basilica where the most blessed martyr of God and pontiff Austremonius still lay buried. He at once vomited up the demon with blood and was freed from it. Paying vows and prayers to the Lord there for three days, he returned healed to the place from which he had come.

[16] the sick are healed, those crippled in the feet, the blind. I shall narrate another miracle which the Lord worked through him. There was a man named Aldegeus, held by a grave infirmity for five years, feeling no health of body, because one sickness held him through all the joints of his limbs. He was carried before the tomb of the most holy man, where, while he passed the night in vigil, he received health and returned safe to his own home. Nor do I think it should be passed over in silence that a certain man, Hildebert by name, had lost the use of his feet; when he had been carried there, he merited to receive health, and he who was brought by others' hands returned healed on his own steps. At about the same time a certain man was carried there, Adalbert by name, with two women, Aufrasia and Adalberga, from whom the faculty of walking had been taken away; and coming they merited to receive health and returned safe. There came also a certain woman, Adalsindis, lacking the faculty of sight, who, led by others' hands, merited to receive the light of her eyes and to return healed. There were brought besides two men, Sigobert and Lantarius, with a certain woman named Adalberga, deprived of the lights of their eyes, and, enlightened, they returned healed. There came also one named Ingalbert and Radulf with Benedicta and Ingelberga; the faculty of walking had likewise been taken away from them; but by the merits or intercessions of the aforesaid martyr they were released from the contraction of their feet, and the knots were undone, and they returned safe.

[17] The bond of a penitent Moreover another marvel that he worked, spoken of, I think should not be passed over in silence. For the holy Blessed Peter, of iron bursts apart at the tomb of St. Austremonius. prince of the apostles, obtained from the Lord this grace, that he is able to cure whomever from various weaknesses. Whence it happened that a certain man coming to Rome had both arms bound with iron on account of the very great weight of his sins. But while he stood with vows before the tomb of most blessed Peter, and supplicated by his intercessions with bowed devotion, at once the iron on his left arm was burst apart by divine will and he was made sound from it. But on the following night the Lord deigned to reveal to him by a vision: Rise and go to the Arverni in Aquitaine, and seek the monastery of Mozac, where the blessed martyr and pontiff Austremonius still lies buried. When by the ordering of the Lord Jesus Christ you arrive there, you will recover the health of your other arm and be freed from the iron. He, rising in haste, came to the Arverni, and arrived at the monastery of Mozac according to the command of the Lord. There, while he paid his vows and prayers before the body of the most blessed man, as had been foretold him in vision at Rome, the iron on his right arm was suddenly crushed and the arm freed. Whence it is sufficiently clear, since he was released at Rome from one iron by Blessed Peter, and by revelation from the other by St. Austremonius, that the blessed martyr and pontiff Austremonius has been associated with the merits of the apostles, and worthily, because he had been ordained by the prince of the apostles and appointed to the Gauls to preach, so that he might be made equal to his merits. The man who came sick returned healed and safe to his own home, God protecting him.

[18] Demoniacs freed, Moreover a certain demoniac came to the same holy place with very many others. A certain monk from the same place questioned him on very many things, many matters having been sought from him; and it is said to have answered him: Why do you question me, what do you want? I do not wish to answer you anything, except only this: While you were sleeping this night, Austremonius stood before the divine majesty supplicating for all these whose bodies we hold possessed, that we should leave them and be cast far away from there. And when the monk asked: At what hour will you be driven out by him? Or how will it be that you are driven out from there? It answered: I know that when the first signal has been rung for terce, I shall immediately go out from here. And thus it was compelled to say the hour of its expulsion and to go out driven. But, O devil, enemy of truth! how can you confess to have said true things of yourself, when you are a liar from the beginning and have not stood in the truth, and promise falsehood to whomever you persuade? I know plainly that you went out compelled, and withdrew more compelled. The man, by the Lord's command, by the merits and intercessions of this saint, at the third hour, at the ringing of the signal, was cured and freed from the demon, and restored to health he returned safe.

[19] the blind cured and other demoniacs. There came also two blind men, both deprived of sight, and, their vision received from the Lord, they returned to their hidden places. At about the same time very many were brought in, full of an evil spirit, who merited there to receive health from the Lord and to be freed from evil spirits. Two certain demoniac women came. There came also three men, all with bodies possessed by demons, and, led to the tomb of the most blessed martyr, by the power of almighty God and by the merits or prayers of this saint they were cured, and restored to health they merited to return safe, as healthy as if the demons had never had their own right in them.

[20] A man healed of leprosy and of possession by a demon. There is besides another memorable miracle that should not at all be passed over in silence. For a certain man, covered over his whole body with leprosy, was led there to the body of the most blessed man, who was also held possessed by an unclean spirit. And while for some days before the tomb of the most glorious pontiff and martyr he paid his vows as he could with his wife, beseeching the Lord that by the merits of the most holy man he would both cleanse him from the leprosy with which he was covered through all his limbs and also cure him of the unclean spirit, he merited to be heard. For his body was cured of leprosy outwardly, and he himself was freed from the demon inwardly, and thus he merited to receive health in both. And when after the cure he remained in the same place and would not return to his little field, he was admonished by his wife to visit again his own and his relations. And when he had been admonished twice and three times, and his wife suggested to him that he return, he is said to have given her at once such a reply: O woman, why do you assail me with such frequent words, that I should seek again my little house and revisit my poor relations? Do you think or believe that I came here to return? Why too do you suppose that I have been praying to the Lord for three days after receiving health by my prayers, was it that I might leave here and see my little hut? Certainly not; far be it from us to return. But since by the Lord's mercy, by the merits of this most splendid saint, I have merited to be cured of my infirmity outwardly and inwardly, here I shall die; and this body, the Lord commanding, shall have burial here, even if a little grave in a dunghill. And so it came about that on the following day, as he had foretold, he was parted from the present life, and was committed to burial in the same place. I believe, although this man was a leper and a demoniac, I nevertheless say that he was of good merit, who when he had been cured by the Lord was unwilling to return, but obtained by prayer that he should not in some way lose the cure he had received by going back to the world. For he chose rather to die where he had been cured than, entangling himself again in the doings of the world, to lose the life which he had received through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

THE PASSION ENDS.

ANNOTATIONS.

e. See the same place.

SECOND LIFE OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

from Brussels codex 8550.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

BHL Number: 0845, 0846, 0847 a

FROM MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS.

CHAPTER ONE.

By St. Clement HERE BEGINS THE LIFE OR PASSION OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR. — While the government of the eternal Emperor ruled all the sceptres of kingdoms, after his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power that was fitting, had raised above the heavens the fleshly form which he deigned to assume, the holy apostles spread through the four regions of the earth, and handed down to all nations the norm of the faith which they had received from the Lord to be observed. And when at that time the most impious Nero had loosened the reins of his rule on land and sea, and his dire rage was raging with excessive bitterness against the servants of Christ, it came about that blessed Pope Clement, successor of the apostles, governed codex, gubernavit. the summit of the holy and supreme Roman see.

[2] St. Austremonius sent into Gaul with six others The most blessed and glorious one of the Lord, Austremonius, then, chief colleague of the apostles of Christ, was at that time received by the same blessed prelate Clement with fitting honour and held in a place of the greatest veneration. It came about moreover that the heresy of Valentinian and Novatian sprouted so throughout in the codex the deponent form occurs for the active. against the Christian religion; whence blessed Clement was compelled to direct St. Austremonius with certain other vigorous codex, strenuus. men into the parts of the Gauls. The names of these illustrious men, who already before had been to be delegated to individual cities by the providence of the blessed apostles, are these: to Tours Bishop Gratianus, to Arles so corrected, earlier Arelatensis. Bishop Trophimus, to Narbonne Bishop Paul, to Toulouse Bishop Saturninus, to Paris Bishop Dionysius, to Limoges Bishop Martial, and finally among them Austremonius, the renowned martyr, took on, next after God, the Arvernian monarchy to rule. All these, then, according to the disposition of almighty God who rules all things, obtained the proper recompense of their merits. For of these Dionysius and Saturninus, two great lights, attained codex, assecutis. by the palm of martyrdom the crown of eternal happiness; while Gratianus, Trophimus and Paul and Martial, spreading everywhere the seeds of the word of God, and returning innumerable peoples from vessels of iniquity to the bosom of holy Church, living in unfeigned holiness, were made partakers of the desired blessedness, and although the former by the agony of passion and the others by the long-lasting confession of rest obtained the present term of their bodies, yet the senate of the one heavenly life holds them alike exulting in the ether.

[3] among the Arverni he preaches the faith of Christ, The venerable in the codex before this word adds SEQUITUR. worshipper of God Austremonius, then, having entered the parts of the Gauls, the aforesaid companions having divided from one another, fearlessly approached the Arvernian land, to which he did not doubt he had been delegated by divine codex, divini tantis. disposition, and he publicly proclaimed that the innumerable shrines of demons, all of which throughout that region they seemed by fanatical error to worship as gods, were most vain fictions, striving to convert them to the life-giving teachings of Christ. Relying therefore on the power of the Holy Spirit and firmly fortified by the defence of the word of God, he went without delay to the walls of the Arvernian city, not fearing to seek out the savagery of a mad nation, because a mind given to Christ dreads no hardships. Moreover he unceasingly evangelized to them the Catholic faith, which he had received from the holy apostles, namely that one God is to be venerated in Trinity, and that the same, existing in three persons, is to be most highly worshipped in unity. He likewise taught that the only-begotten Son of God came down from the heights of the heavens to earth for the salvation of all in the fullness of times; that therefore it was not fair that man, who is both capable of reason and bought with the great price of the blood of the Lord, should bow his neck to codex, ab. the injury of the same God before dumb and vain idols. He preached mutual love toward one another, and that what anyone would wish to be done for himself by mutual help he should not deny to another. He asserted that all should persist in the display of good works, hastening with all his effort to prepare the way for the Lord in the hearts of those same unbelievers, who through the courses of so many ages had grown hard through unbelief, bearing stony hearts, adoring the creature rather than the creator.

[4] he builds a church and ordains clerics. The city, then, to which the man of the Lord Austremonius went on was situated on the brow of a hill, which, according to the errors of that time, appeared renowned both for the gathering of peoples and for nobility, enclosed with very strong walls and towers, and it was wonderfully watered by a great aqueduct. It was also fertile in lands, wooded with trees, most rich in vineyards, filled with commerce, and it seemed undeservedly corrupted by the evil company of the unbelievers. To this place, then, the distinguished one of the Lord Austremonius hastening, and very many having been converted to the rudiments of the faith, and the superfluous worship of the gods having been cast off and the shrines of altars in part demolished, he built a church in honour of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, with the Lord's favour. This business of a good beginning having been accomplished, the blessed pontiff rejoiced that he saw the mother church of the faithful gathered together from the peoples gained for the Lord, where the peoples coming might wash away the aged guilt of their crimes and, returned through faith to the bosom of the inviolate Church, might be transferred to the perpetual court. Seeing, then, that through the urgency of his exhortation and preaching, which flowed ineffably from his mouth at the Lord's suggestion, innumerable troops of both sexes were running to the immortal waters of faith, he paid immense odes of thanks to the creator of all. He instituted, then, according to ecclesiastical custom the offices of priests and levites distinct one by one, and he decreed the most orderly institutions of the several grades, or of those who should resound the psalms alternately.

[5] By the prodigy of a peasant snatched from shipwreck by his aid, The Lord deigned further to adorn this blessed prelate with signal so the codex. miracles so innumerable, that the minds of the rebellious were stirred to believe no less by miracles than they were taught by exhortations. Of which, to pass over the greater ones, one of the least seems to be worth reporting, from which the greater may be weighed. One day while the precious one of the Lord Austremonius stood beside the river Flaver and was watering with heavenly admonitions, like new plantings, by the word of preaching the peoples he had gained for the Lord through faith, such a sign is said to have happened there, from which it is in part given to understand with how great excellence the deeds of so great a man are to be weighed. For it is known by the revelation of those who were present that two peasants, setting out to cut wood, tried to cross the aforesaid river. And when they had stopped for a little where the pontiff of the Lord was devoting himself to preaching, one of them, taking bread which he was going to eat codex, comessurus. at the hour of refreshment, and, as is believed, the Lord inspiring him, went on to the blessed prelate and offered it to him. He, receiving the same bread, blessed it, and gave eulogiae from it to the same peasant. Soon returning, he boarded the ship with his companion and very many others, and when a wind blew the water was stirred codex, commoventur. up. The keel, badly tossed among the threatening storms of waves with the waves gaping, was sunk, and a dire exit lay open for all, their bodies, lacking the vital spirit, rolling in the waves. But he to whom the blessed pontiff Austremonius had given eulogiae escaped, the merits of him from whom he had received in his mouth the gift of blessing protecting him among the waves. But the demon, author of the whole unspeakable art, who had been the tireless perpetrator of this so miserable business, seeing this man making safe for the shores, whom the Lord had decreed to free by the merits of the blessed man, kept crying out in the air to his colleague, likewise evil, in the people's hearing: Hey you, he said, what are you doing? Why do you let him slip away who crosses the waves of the river with such swift wings? To whom the other: I cannot, though it is my will, because Austremonius, who is casting us out on every side, gave him eulogiae. Having heard this, all the people who were present at this spectacle and those who afterwards learned of it clung the more eagerly to the preaching of the blessed prelate. A custom also grew up thence in all the region that those fasting, if a priest is present, receive eulogiae, which are deservedly held in the true manner codex, veracione. of holy communion. O with how equal and just a balance the merits of the saints are weighed by the heavenly observer! Here, as Austremonius, the beloved of the Lord, undertakes to subdue the savagery of the Arvernian nation, the demons confess that they cannot hinder him who was protected by the blessing of that saint. In the same order Saturninus, the renowned martyr of the Lord, his companion, as we have reported above, seeking to soothe the rage of the nation of Toulouse with the word of faith, the deities of the demons confess that they cannot endure his presence nor have leave to maim him: deservedly equal both in the agony of martyrdom and in the protestation of the demons.

[6] and by other miracles The blessed prelate thus shining with bright signs, so that he could not lie hidden in any place, the energumens whom he cured betraying him, all the people began to offer themselves to him, leaving the rite of gentilism; these, sprinkled by him with the water of sanctification, he instructed with most kindly teachings, so that they should gape after heavenly things after they had recognized the grace of Christ. And some of them were filled with such grace of the Lord that those who a little before had ceased to be worshippers of idols became supporters of their master and co-workers of the word of God, and where before they had lain hidden in the shrines of demons, there they resounded to the most high God with great jubilations. Whence also, the Lord assenting, so great an ardour of faith glowed in their hearts that they founded there churches as manifold as we see built in no city of other regions.

[7] the whole nation converted to the faith by very many. Having thus lived happily for a long time in this region, leading his life in the excellence of apostolic holiness, the blessed one of the Lord Austremonius worked innumerable signal works of virtue, which we think it superfluous now to pursue with the pen; especially because it was also very difficult among so many innumerable cohorts of the people to recognize him as he frequented them and in a manner ran about, except as signs declared him. For by giving back walking to the lame, by giving back the dead from the underworld to life, by freeing energumens codex, erguminos. from possessing demons, by offering light to the blind, by curing lepers and by accomplishing signs of other wonderful works of virtue, he converted the whole Arvernian nation, the Lord favouring, to the equity of the faith. For signs, as the apostle says, are not for the faithful, but for unbelievers. The people having thus been confirmed in the fear of God, he provided from among them skilful and industrious men, who should both go before the others in the administration of affairs and be expert with wonderful talent in the sagacity of prudence, who also, filled with the zeal of divine love, should love equity and have no guile on their tongue, nor practise codex, ercerent. evil against their neighbours. These, then, he set over the others as bases of columns, moving them to teach the ignorant and unpolished, and to call all to better things and by no means to stray from the faith which they had learned from him.

[8] Each year St. Austremonius met SS. Martial and Saturninus. There is a place on the border of the Arvernian diocese which by the report of the ancients of old retains the name obtained from three lords ^b. For thither once a year came together blessed Austremonius, and also the distinguished Martial of Limoges, and the renowned martyr Saturninus of Toulouse, like lights shining on this world. They conferred among themselves on heavenly things; they discoursed in mutual conversation on the state of the Catholic Church and on the progress of their sheep, or whether perhaps in the flock of any of them some heresiarch seemed to arise, such as seemed especially to sprout in the beginnings of the nascent Church, that they might be utterly uprooted from the Church by the mutual dart of words, or if he did not recover from his error, might be proscribed among the biothanati. This most holy conference having been examined with one another, each returned to his own folds.

[9] It seems worthwhile not to keep silent about this also, that a certain reason arose for which he decided to go to the country of Bourges; and completing the journey he had arranged, he found a certain most illustrious man, Among the Bituriges he heals Cassius and consecrates Ursinus bishop. named Cassius, with his brothers, disfigured by a grave sickness of infirmity over his whole body and in his very countenance; these, rescued from the same affliction of sickness, he restored, glad, to their former soundness. There was

moreover the aforesaid man Cassius, adorned with the splendour of birth, and that he was of much kindliness the declarations of his relations testified. Of what holiness he was or of what merit codex, meritis. his end proved, on which all praise may safely be sung, he who is said to have attained for God to the palm of martyrdom. So blessed Austremonius, reaching as far as the inhabitants of Bourges, strove to strengthen by his teaching and example a people still wavering in the faith, and having stayed there for a while, he raised to the pontificate of that see so corrected, earlier cathedram. his blessed disciple Ursinus, powerful in the height of nobility and striving to please God in all things. The affairs of clerics and laymen having been composed with kindly governance, glad in the Lord he returned to the Arvernian fields.

[10] He substitutes Urbicus for himself and founds the monastery of Issoire. At length for thirty-six years he ruled the pontificate of that city with great contest, and persevered nearly until the times of the emperor Trajan. Afterwards he ordained the most holy man Urbicus to the height of the pontificate, and commended all the clergy and people to him and left them to him to rule. These things having been duly accomplished, the precious one of the Lord Austremonius, not bearing the throng of peoples and fleeing the old-womanish clamour of the praises of the crowd, set as he was at the height of the pontificate shuddering at the favours of flatterers, resolved with the whole purpose of his soul to cling to spiritual contemplation; and rejecting in every way the delights of the world, he himself desired a hermitage in the southern region; reaching which he built a monastery in the place called Issoire, that he might there be free for the Lord the more freely as he was separated from the worldly clamour of men. Where, establishing no small crowd of monks, he happily handed on to them, to be preserved, the apostolic life which he had fully learned; teaching them to live, namely, after the example of the blessed apostles and of those who believed through them, of whom it is said: The multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, nor did anyone say that anything was his own, but all things were common to them.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER TWO.

The attempted conversion of the Jews. The boy Lucius slain by his father. The martyrdom and burial of St. Austremonius.

The Jews plot death for Austremonius, Through the same time no small bands of the Jewish nation appeared to be scattered in the Arvernian city. And the ancient enemy too, seeing that those had been lost to him whom the Lord had gained through his servant Austremonius, and grieving that innumerable peoples were being drawn from his jaws by his preaching, with all that ancient effort of his tried to exercise this perfidious nation, the demonstration so the codex. of his art, against the man of God. But when the blessed prelate reproved this unhappy people with many rebukes for the sacrilege committed against the Saviour, and showed from the authority of the divine scriptures that for the salvation of the human race he had descended from heaven to earth and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, that same perfidious people gave him no assent in any way, and not only did they not do penance for those things of which he admonished them, from the unbelief codex, incrudelitate. and hardness of their heart, but moreover they conspired in open persecutions for his death. The holy man's disciples, noticing this after long, with perspicacious curiosity, were eager to indicate to their master that the same wicked people were deliberating his destruction with all the avidity of their minds, saying to him: O thrice and four times blessed lord father, are you unaware that the perfidy of this mad Jewish nation is raging codex, crassare. for your ruin? Certainly we confess, that it may be plain to you, know that this evil company by its deceitful machinations wishes speedily to extinguish your paternity and, if it were lawful, to abolish your name utterly from the living. Wherefore we beseech you, holy father, that you deign greatly to take care of yourself, because we greatly fear that you may fall into the snares of this most insane nation. We know that those who did not fear to slay the ruler of heaven and earth when he appeared to the world in visible flesh will perhaps have no pity on your reverend old age, and we have learned from your teaching, holy father, that at the fall of a good pastor there is a great ruin of the subject people. That this may not befall this innumerable people gained for the Lord through your teaching, it is fitting that your paternity should provide with great sagacity. When the man of the Lord had taken in these things from the mouth of his disciples with tranquil mind and cheerful countenance, at length he opened his mouth thus: Happy, he said, the report of this rumour, if the fulfilment should come to (a. d.) codex, adhuc torum. the truth of the words; and it is best to undergo the loss of this bodily mass for Christ, if by it one reaches the most happy unfading prize of heavenly blessedness. For, as I confess that it may be plain to all, know that for the fear of Christ the Lord I am willing to suffer innumerable crosses, and that I do not fear to embrace the horrid jaws of beasts and innumerable kinds of torments, until the vital breath fails; especially since it is to be embraced to fall by the snares of those who did not fear to lay truculent hands on the Lord Jesus in his death. But the divine clemency of the Almighty by its ineffable providence will everywhere protect codex, circumtegeret. his people, and by the mercy with which he willed to call it back from darkness to himself, who is the true light, he will not cease to guard and preserve it to the end. He also unceasingly suggested to all the admonitions of salvation, saying thus: Little sons, let it suffice each to have pursued his own studies up to now and to have served himself in pleasures; it remains that, as long as anyone lives, he should live to God and not to himself, who will render to each according to his works.

[12] which the saint gladly awaits. When the man of the Lord had concluded these and similar words to the sons whom he had begotten in Christ through the gospel, with tranquil countenance, as he always was, and graceful mouth, the minds of the disciples began to be weighed down by a great burden of grief, seeing that he rather sought than feared the snares and threats of those lying in wait for him. Looking at them he said: Why, dearest ones, do you become sadder to me than usual? Do you suppose that I fear the agony of the contest for the love of Christ the Lord? Know that for him I am prepared to endure all the punishments that can be devised codex, excogita. by any executioner perhaps lictore, as in the third Life.. For if it behoved Christ the Lord to suffer and so to enter into his glory, who am I that I should refuse codex, recusam. to suffer for him? Would that I were even suitable to follow the steps of his disciples, who through the wide spaces of the world have suffered various torments. For the servant is not greater than his lord, nor the disciple greater than he who sent him. By these words they were made calmer in spirit, and they expected him daily contending against the most unspeakable nation and pouring out the words of salvation in the manner of a most vehement torrent, which to some indeed was an odour of life unto life, but to those not believing a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal; and fenced by the royal protection, he by no means ceased openly to preach Christ, as one whom he ever bore in mouth and mind and in whose service he unceasingly remained; and those whom he could call back from their depraved synagogue, sprinkled at once with the saving water, he gathered into the holy court to be subject to the Lord of all.

[13] The martyrdom of the boy Lucius, Whence it came about that he joined to the people of the faithful the son fidelium. of one of the chiefs of the Jewish people, washed in the sacrament of baptism. There became known, then, to the Jewish father what had been done by blessed Austremonius, that his own son had been reborn in the saving bath. For codex, quem. this reason his father, moved with the bitterest gall, and bearing it ill beyond belief, a multitude of his nation having been gathered codex, aggloremerata., as they once ran to the death of the Lord Jesus, so likewise now he ran, enraged with like desire and the same obstinacy, to where the holy one of the Lord was staying, and seizing his son, who clung inseparably to the man of the Lord, he obstinately threw him into a well which survives to this day. Attacking blessed Austremonius the prelate at the same time with rash hands, they afflicted him for a very long time with many blows and various torments; and when amid these things he tirelessly offered to the Lord a victim of jubilation and praises of thanks, at length they adorned him with the punishment of beheading. At the departure of his soul forthwith the troops of the heavens came to meet it, and, sweetly hymning, they admitted it exulting to the senate of the heavenly court, and he was joined to the choir of the apostles, laurelled with the palm of martyrdom, whose imitator and distinguished colleague he had been in the world. O how splendid a recompense of merits the eternal judge conferred on this most holy martyr, who in the sight of all entered the ethereal palace, to reign with him for eternity.

[14] and then of St. Austremonius himself. Then the phalanxes of the impious, still raging against the precious martyr of the Lord Austremonius, threw his venerable head after the body of the little boy into the well. But he by whose governance the order of the ages runs its course, taking care of his faithful everywhere, most swiftly prepared religious men who should rescue both the precious head and the body of the little boy from the watery dwelling and lay them up in a better mausoleum. So the treasure of great price having been raised from the well, they decided, with the Lord's favour, to lay both in the monastery (i. c.) codex, incendio. of Issoire, which the same martyr of the Lord had once built. This done, there began to shine at the coffin of this outstanding martyr signal works of virtue so great as no tongue of the living can tell. For a multitude of the sick, faithfully drinking from the water of that well into which the holy body was thrown, were by the merits of the holy man rescued from every affliction, and restored to the desired soundness. Each year too, on the same day on which the blessed martyr, leaving earthly things, entered the starry ones, the water of his well, rising from the depths, was seen wonderfully to moisten its rims, signifying the abundantly flowing and as it were superabundant virtue of the holy martyr.

[15] [The Jews expelled. The tomb of St. Austremonius, at first celebrated for miracles, then neglected.] This crime of the Jew having thus been perpetrated, the hatred of the Christians began to boil vehemently against them, and they began to attack them with such hostility, afflicting them with various punishments, until, expelled from their own dwellings, they were made exiles from their habitation; so that not one is permitted to dwell in all the Arvernian countryside, as in other regions of the world, up to the present, the Lord repaying them a recompense fitting their merits. These having been reduced to nothing, religious men, fervent with the zeal of divine love, began to venerate with the highest honour the same place where they had entombed the holy martyr, and many, coming from distant regions, awaited with great gifts the suffrages of the blessed martyr Austremonius, and relying on his help and supported by his protection, rescued from whatever affliction held them, they returned sound and cheerful to their own homes. And it came about that, as long as there survived the people who had seen the signs and prodigies of the blessed martyr and recalled them with mindful thought, his tomb both shone with great gifts and was venerated by all with a very large throng of the whole crowd. When these had departed from the world and many years had now passed and charity was growing cold, the same place began to be abandoned by the throng of men and gradually to be brought to nothing from the former state of honour. And although they did not doubt that the blessed martyr remained in the same place, they nevertheless did not show him the greatest service of veneration, until divine power decreed to transfer him to where

he now decently rests interred, with the favour of the Lord, king of kings, to whom be honour and glory for ages of ages. Amen. Here ends the life or passion of the blessed martyr Austremonius.

CHAPTER THREE.

The revelation of the body of St. Austremonius. The double translation to Volvic and Mozac. Miracles.

The relics of St. Austremonius, honoured again through Cautinus, Of the translation by the king's order to the place Mozac and of his resplendent miracles.

After the long courses of years for which the glorious martyr of the Lord Austremonius, the agony of martyrdom completed, rested interred for a very long time in the monastery of Issoire, it pleased the divine majesty to make plain to the world of how great virtue the same martyr was, when it decreed that he should be translated from that same place. At that same time a prelate named Cautinus ruled the see of the Arverni, who in his diaconate had previously governed the same church where the man of the Lord rested. Then while one night he was lying on the bed of his cell, which adjoined this basilica, he heard chanting as if with voices faintly resounding; and rising at once he saw the church shining with a great light. Astounded he looked inside; for that cell was in an upper part opposite the windows of the church. And he saw, and behold, around the tomb a multitude of men in white, holding candles and chanting. Having watched this for a very long time, when they had gone away, at once when morning came he ordered the tomb to be enclosed with a railing, and declared reverence for it. For from this frequent prayer is poured out over the tomb and the aid of the prelate is obtained.

[17] afterwards translated from Issoire to Volvic, Then, when the Vandal persecution fell upon them codex, incruente., very many cities through Gaul were demolished; the storm of this persecution the splendid Arvernian city could not avoid; for it too was overthrown in like manner. There remain to this day, as a monument of its ancient nobility, ruins of buildings, with crumbling remains of walls standing out. Churches too having been everywhere depopulated, it came about that the same place where the holy one of the Lord was had been deprived of the veneration of men. Whence the prelate of the Arverni, divinely admonished, a no small people of both sexes codex, xesus. having been gathered, went to the place where the most holy body rested, troops of monks and clerics being joined together. The clemency of the High-Throned One having thus been supplicated, when at the prelate's command the urn in which the holy martyr's limbs rested was opened and the holy body was raised from it, so great an odour of sweetness arose from it, as if spices and balsam were being sprinkled there, so much so that all confessed that he was enjoying that paradisal nectar of sweetness which the rejoicing bride asks for: Draw me, she says, after you; we will run in the odour of your ointments. Raising, then, the holy martyr's remains with singing hymns, they conveyed them to the monastery called Volvic, where the blessed martyr and aforesaid * pontiff lies interred, and beside his tomb they resolved that the holy martyr Austremonius should be laid.

[18] then from Volvic to Mozac, And when his holy limbs had rested there for a long time, the Divinity, unwilling that the twin glory of his Church, namely these two great lights, should be contained in the narrowness of one place, it pleased the divine majesty again that the holy martyr should be removed from the same place codex, locum.. There is a place distinguished by ancient nobility, ten miles distant from the city of the Arverni, by name Mozac, where in those days no small troop of monks devoted itself to spiritual contemplation. The same place then bore codex, serebat. the distinction of the name of Blessed Peter the apostle, and contained likewise the pledges of the holy martyr Caprasius; but after, by God's favour, the kindly martyr Austremonius was brought there, the name of that monastery passed over to codex, adque. the glory of his name in the codex repeats transiit adque nominis.. The rector of this monastery in those days was Lanfred of good memory, who, having entered into codex, mitto. counsel with the flock of monks subject codex, subito. to him codex, subiti., went together to Lord Pippin, king of Aquitaine, unanimously beseeching him that they be permitted to translate to their monastery one of the foremost holy martyrs of the Arvernian city. The king, always lending his ear to prayers, judged to give assent to their said petitions, and not long after, going codex, audiens. to Volvic, inquiring about the bodies of the saints entombed there, he learned that blessed Austremonius had been the teacher and master of the Arvernian countryside and had converted its inhabitants to the rudiments of the faith. For codex, quem. this reason, remembering the petitions of the monks, touched by divine inspiration, as Wisdom testifies: The heart of the king is in the hand of God, and wherever he will he shall turn it, he ordered by swift messenger that the brethren should hasten as quickly as possible and with his help bear away the blessed martyr.

[19] where he shines with miracles. They at once, hastening with immense exultation, and having with them as token of the royal authority Joseph, apocrisiarius codex, apocrisarium. of the king himself, passed that night in vigil, and unlocking the case of the most holy martyr they brought out his holy body for translation. On the morrow, then, when Phoebus with his brightness was illuminating the fields everywhere, the aforesaid king with his retinue codex, comitatus. ran up gladly, and all round about to the borders, who could come from the whole region, arrived with one mind; and taking the holy martyr away from there, they carried him with the applause and cheerfulness of the peoples. The king also, in the likeness of King David, who once danced before the ark of the Lord, exulted gladly before the holy martyr's obsequies and carried his holy limbs on his own shoulders. It was winter; and as they made their way glad and cheerful, suddenly snow of such density began to fall that it covered the surface of the whole land, and, marvellous to say, through all that space of the road along which the holy body was carried, no snow fell. All the sick too and those to whom nature had denied light, who merited to touch the holy martyr's coffin, the former, their steps recovered, were made sound, and the latter were made partakers of the desired light. Then the bands of peoples gradually increased until they came to the monastery of Mozac, where with the Lord's favour he was placed with great splendour, and there to this day his benefits flourish so greatly, and the increase of works of virtue through each day, as no tongue can unfold; which, if they were written one by one, would be called apocryphal by many.

[20] An energumen is freed; Here begin the miracles miraculi B. of the same St. Austremonius, bishop and martyr, after his passing (INC.-TRANS.) INCIPIT TEXTUS LIBRI MIRACULORUM V, L. ^a. The signal deeds of wonderful acts which it pleased the Divinity to show through the glorious martyr Austremonius, prelate and teacher of the Arvernian nation, in the monastery of Mozac, where he rests interred, it is not in our power to retell, because they exceed the powers of human capacity. For the Lord, maker of things, who needs no one's praise, after the triumph of his most holy agony worked very wonderful works of virtue in the aforesaid place to prove the merit of his most faithful witness, and at the same time that human reason might perceive continually the profit of its advantage from that from which it sees unceasingly arise the increase of works of virtue. We believe that by the plea of those saints we are protected before the majesty of the most high God on earth, in whom the prodigies of virtue so evidently shine EXPLICIT TEXTUS. INCIPIT LIBER MIRACULORUM adds V, L.. There was, then omits V, L., a certain man noble (v. n. q.) q. v. n. V, L. by birth from the territory of Tours, who was shaken by the demon of an unspeakable plague. Led by dear ones and acquaintances into the basilica of the most blessed Martin, bishop of Tours, he was freed from the same demon. But going out it is said to have cried out: Since by the merits of this saint I am expelled from you, know that you are to be invaded again by a crueller spirit, from whom if you wish to be freed liberare B. anew, go to the Arverni, to the monastery of Mozac, where blessed omits V, L. Austremonius the martyr rests, and acknowledge him to be the restorer restitutorum B. of your health. The effect of this speech followed immediately, and, seized omits B. by a most atrocious demon, going to the aforesaid place where the pestilent spirit had told him to go, he entered the basilica of the most holy martyr. When he had lain before his tomb for some time, vomiting the demonic poison with wretched gore, he was restored to a sound mind; and there for three days, paying acts of thanks to the Lord and asserting blessed Austremonius as his liberator (s. l. a.) s. a. l. V, L., he returned to his own home.

[21] the sick are healed, Nor do I think that should be passed over in silence which was done at the same time through blessed Austremonius. There was a certain man omits V, L. named Aldegeus, held by a grave affliction of the limbs, having no health of his body for five years. His relations and kinsmen therefore conveyed advenit B. him to the basilica of the holy martyr, and spending the whole night in vigil with him, they felt the power of the martyr to be present. For, restored to soundness, he who had been carried on others' shoulders returned on his own steps.

[22] one crippled in the feet, A not dissimilar miracle occurred in the same days. There was a certain man by name Hildebert, who, punished with a weakness of the feet, had utterly lost the use of walking. He was therefore carried before the venerable tomb of the martyr; and as he implored him with suppliant effort to have mercy on him, the propitiation of the Divinity was present, and, the strength of his feet recovered, he stood safe, and with immense cheerfulness praising the holy martyr with public voice he returned to his own home.

[23] a blind woman with three others, At about the same time there came to the threshold of the same glorious martyr a certain woman deprived of the faculty of seeing; she was accompanied by a certain lame man with two ducibus B. women of the same sex, punished with no unequal weakness of step gressuri V, gressus L. mulctatæ B, V.. Being led, then, into the basilica and proclaiming St. Austremonius on high, divine clemency was present to loose the bonds of the wretched. For her countenance vultum B., which long divina V, L. blindness cæcitatis B. had depressed, being changed into light, the rejoicing woman turned the orbs of her eyes round about, and those who had been carried by others' strength, the bases of their feet restored, ran exulting here and there, and so they returned to their own homes.

[24] three blind persons, There were likewise brought three blind persons, who, weighed down by the long darkness of blindness, had fallen from ad B. an abundance of great wealth into slender want, one indeed of the male sex, two of the female; and with equal desire they implored with loud voices the clemency of the High-Throned One. It pleased the Divinity to assent to their groans, and that the merit of the martyr (m. m.) mer. mart. V, L. might be manifest to all, the black darkness being driven away they were illuminated with the brightness of seeing.

[25] two men and as many women, lame. On the same day there were conveyed two lame men with two women of the same weakness to the threshold of the splendid martyr (l. m.) m. l. V, L.. When they entered intraverunt L. his courts ara B., the divine clemency so doing, having obtained the strength for walking, they returned cheerfully running to their own homes.

[26] The iron bond of a penitent bursts apart at the tomb of St. Austremonius. Moreover another deed marvellous to tell omits V, L. which the often-mentioned martyr performed, I do not think should be passed over in silence (s. n. p.) n. p. s. V, L.. For Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, whom God appoints deputavit V, L. guardian of the ethereal court,

can cure all the sick languentes V, L., no one nenon B. of sound mind doubts. So a certain penitent went to Rome to seek the suffrages of Blessed Peter, having both arms bound with iron: and when before his face and c v. omits V, L. tomb he implored omits B. with bowed head the mercy of the Almighty, at once the iron on his left arm was burst apart omits B. by divine will, and he was made sound from it. But on the following night a voice came divinely to him of this kind: Rise and go to the Arverni in Gaul, and seek out the place called by name Mozac, where the martyr Austremonius rests interred; when you arrive there, you will recover the health of your other arm. He, rising in haste, came to the Arverni, and not au B. slow in executing the divine command he reached the aforesaid monastery. There, while he paid his vows before the body of the most blessed man, suddenly the iron leapt exivit B. far from his arm, and he received the desired health. Whence it is clear that the holy martyr (m. s.) s. m. V, L. in that (i. i.) nullo V, L. senate of the heavenly court is not separated from Blessed Peter in the beatitude of the divine vision, with whom he was of one accord in restoring health to the penitent.

[27] A demoniac freed; A certain demoniac was brought from far off, bound with the tightest bonds of chains, and when he was being shaken in wretched misteris B. fashion before the tomb of the holy martyr, among very many standing around a certain monk questioned percunctatum B. him on many things. To whom he gave a reply of this kind: Why do you question me? I do not at all wish to answer you; but know this, that last night this omits B. Austremonius stood before the divine majesty majestate B., supplicating for those whose bodies we do not cease to harass, that we should be cast far from dominion over them. Then the same man asked him the hour of his departure. And he said to him: I know that as soon as the signal of the third hour has been rung, I shall go out from this man. Which also omits B. so happened. For when the signal sounded for singing lauds to God, that pestilent spirit, leaving the man's dwelling, withdrew into the empty airs aures V..

[28] the blind cured There came veniunt V, L. also two tres V, L. blind men, now for a long time deprived of the aid of seeing, asking from the holy martyr the gift of light. Their prayers the divine majesty decreed to hear. For relying on the merits of the holy martyr, night having been put to flight and day diei B. having come in, those who had come groping returned seeing.

[29] and other demoniacs; There came also three men and two women harassed by the hostility of unclean spirits, begging the suffrage suffragia V, L. of the blessed martyr Austremonius. By divine power, then, and the merits of the saint, the demons were compelled to leave the dwellings of men and to seek deserts uninhabitable for men and birds; and restored to a sound mind, they returned rejoicing to their homes.

[30] a man healed of leprosy and of possession by a demon. Another memorable mirabile B.. miracle was accomplished by the Lord through the glorious martyr, which I judge should by no means be kept silent. For a certain man, sprinkled with leprosy over his whole body, was led to the tomb of the most blessed man; who was also held possessed by an unclean spirit. And when dumque B. for some days he kept watch before the tomb of the holy martyr with his wife, and heaped up prayers of supplication with inward groaning that he might merit to be freed from the twin affliction, he was not disappointed in his hope. For by the merits of the holy man the demon was expelled, and his skin also recovered its whiteness all over; and thus in adds V. lacking both plagues, he so rejoiced with himself that he declared he would neither return to his own little field nor ever leave that same sacred place. His wife therefore suggesting to him that they return and revisit their relations, he utterly refused to agree, but having scolded her he said ei adds V, L.: Allow me for three days to pay to the Lord and the holy martyr vows of thanks for the health obtained, and what shall seem good to us afterwards we shall do. I do not doubt that this was a man of sound mind, who, not believing his evil-counselling male suadere B. wife, chose rather to magnify the holy martyr for the health bestowed than in B. earlier quia, corrected qua. to entangle himself again in the doings omits B. of the world. For two days, then, remaining in his good Dei V, L. vow, when the third day came on (d. i.) i. d. ex V, L., he was deprived migratus V, L. of this light and his soul was made glad with its reward et an.-est omits V, L..

[31] The eyes of a girl born blind are re-formed. Since we lend a readier faith to those works (e. op.) eis V, L. which we judge by looking with our eyes than to those which we scarcely believe by hearing with our ears, let us now take up those things worthy of expectation omits V, L. which, placed in their presence, we have seen done through the blessed martyr Austremonius. For there came from the region of the people of Toulouse a certain girl born of noble stock, to whom nature had denied (n. n.) neg. nat. V, L. light, so much so that, after the fashion of that blind man of the gospel, born blind but enlightened by the Lord through the anointings liniamenta B, V, L. of clay, the countenance of that istius V, L. girl not only was dark (t. e.) tenebrosum esse V, L., but showed not even traces of eyelids where the orbs of the eyes should have been. She, then, by the hands of those leading ducentibus V, L. her, having entered the courts of the basilica of Mozac, asked that she should deberet B. be placed before the mausoleum of blessed Austremonius. On the left side of the railing, which is covered by the curve of the wall, passing the whole night in vigil, before cock-crow she felt approaching her venerabilem V, L. a man venerable in countenance, passing his hands over her face. And when her eyes were being re-formed, and the right having been fully restored the left was being completed, suddenly a certain doorkeeper resting there emitted a wretched sound of obscene stench statu B.. Provoked by which quod B. the saint withdrew, and the little left eye was found to be smaller than the right, yet seeing perfectly. There stood in witness of the deed the blood coming forth from her cheeks genu B; genos V., showing obstestans B. the wall bloody for a long time. The name of the girl was Karissima Karisima V, L., and she asked of all homines B. of what marking these things were esset B., wholly ignorant of the appearance of everything that exists.

Here end [EXPLICIT LIBER MIRACULORUM V, L.].

ANNOTATIONS.

* it seems one should read, Praejectus,

THIRD LIFE OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

BHL Number: 0848, 0849, 0850

FROM MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS.

This third Life of St. Austremonius, which in the commentary we distinguished from the two others by the name of Greatest Passion, we publish from the Vatican manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden no. 486 (in the Preliminary Commentary, no. 20, the number 426 is written mistakenly for 486), of parchment, small folio. It was written in the ninth century; wherefore we cannot agree with the authors of the Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. XV, p. 621, who attribute this Passion to the twelfth century. Further, since the codex, its earlier part having been taken away, presents the prologue of this Passion mutilated, we prefix it from the Paris codex of the National Library, marked no. 5365, of parchment, largest folio, of the twelfth century, which presents the whole Passion, except for the intercalary verses other than one or two, and the whole part that begins at the verses added at no. 26. The variant readings of this codex are noted throughout together with the variant readings of the codex of the church of Lérins, published in Labbe, in the Nova bibliotheca manuscriptorum, vol. II, p. 482, without the said prologue, but with the verses. Labbe says that the codex is old, but does not indicate its age; which we have been in no way able to trace.

The Vatican codex we mark by the number 1, the Paris by the number 2, and the Labbe edition by the number 3.

PROLOGUE.

Austremonius, apostle of Gaul Here begins the prologue of St. Praejectus Projectl 2. to the passion of St. Austremonius. — When the ruler of the ages, by his ineffable condescension, deigned to come to the aid of a perishing world, showing mercy, he himself foreknowing the future, he so decreed to ordain suitable pastors for his inviolate bride, namely the Church, who should both wash in the water of immortality the adopted sons reborn in Christ and water their inmost parts with the nectar of the divine word, or, when the dire storm of the raging threatened and thundered, should call them to the incitements of pious contest, and themselves, provident rulers of the churches, keeping watch unslothfully in the sheepfold of Christ, as built upon the foundation of the apostles, should hurl jacularunt 2. at the hearts of rebels the darts of signal words, so that, by soothing the insolent and inciting the mild to better things, they might merit with innumerable bands to enter the courts of perennial life by a happy transmigration; which they made evident by plain miracles, not only by establishing it with most true assents, but also by shining with copious prodigies, to the happiness of which age those following should strive with all their effort. And after the wonderful mirabile 2. ascension of Christ to the heavens the same founders of churches shone in the world with such a heap of works of virtue, curing lepers, enlightening the blind, giving back walking to paralytics, bringing the lifeless to life, that the truthful sentence of the Lord was fulfilled in them, who said: He who believes in me, the works that I do he also shall do. From whose college the kindly one of the Lord Austremonius, to be named through the whole world, like a most shining lamp, illuminates the parts of Gaul and, so it must be confessed, with the brilliance of his works of virtue he strikes back the very stars, with the favour of divine clemency. He is rightly called by such a name in the world, because as, when the AUSTER blows, the AUSTERITY of frost and cold melts, so the same martyr of the Lord, coming from the parts of Romania to the regions of Gaul, pierced innumerable engines of unbelief with his most skilful dart of eloquence, and made vain by his example and teaching the superfluous frivolities of errors. Although these things are so magnificent that they seem to exceed the smallness of human sense, nevertheless, lest they seem to be wholly covered in the prison of silence, even if we cannot suitably declare his praises, let us at least try to bring a slender speech to the ears of the devout people, because it is the greatest fruit for hearers to go over the deeds of pretiosa adds 1. athletes. Here ends the prologue omits 1..

The Maker, seated on the summit of high heaven, Shines forth in his saints, to be praised continually in them, Whom also he makes to beam on the world with wonderful triumphs. Among whom there gleams, springing with the lamp of virtues, The magnificent martyr of the world, Austremonius, Who merited to be fed on the teaching of the divine word; A disciple of Christ from the seventy-two, Whose bright contests the reading that follows narrates.

ANNOTATION.

a. This

prologue we give, as we have already said, from the Paris codex. In Labbe it is wholly omitted except for the verses appended; in the Vatican codex almost the whole is wanting, the first leaf being lost, so that it begins in the middle of a word, [exi]guitatem humani sensus…

CHAPTER ONE.

The mission of St. Austremonius into Gaul. Apostolic labours in Auvergne.

from the seventy-two disciples of Christ, Here begin the deeds and passion of the most holy Austremonius, first pontiff of the Arverni. — While the government of the eternal Emperor ruled all the sceptres of kingdoms, after his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power that was fitting, had raised above the heavens the fleshly form which he deigned to assume for our salvation, the holy omits 2. apostles spread through the four regions of the earth, and they directed the seventy-two disciples of the same our Lord, who, as the evangelical word reports, had already been chosen by him, few labourers, that is, for a great harvest spread out dilatandam 2. over the whole world, like lambs among wolves, as their pious master had commanded them. For before the most glorious passion of the same our Lord it had been commanded them (f. j.) jus. fuer. 2. not to go into the ways viis 2. of the gentiles and not to enter their cities (i. c.) civ. eorum 2.. But after Judaea, befouled by its most monstrous crime and blinded by its damnable obstinacy, utterly spurned the saving preaching of the Redeemer himself redemptione 3. and the teaching of the apostles, saying to the Lord in its sons: Depart from us, and we do not desire the knowledge of your ways, the same Lord of all things, willing that no one perish, who had come for this, that the light of justice might arise for the peoples who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, said to the same most holy disciples: Going into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. The holy apostles, then, and their aforesaid most glorious companions, living with the Lord himself and rejoicing in his most holy gaze obtutui 1, 2., in no way suffered patiebant 2. themselves to be separated in bodily presence from him, who, they knew, was after a little modum 3. of time to be exalted in the heavens cœlum 2..

[2] consecrated bishop by St. Peter with six others, he is sent into Gaul, After the glorious ascension of our Lord, then, and after the coming of the Holy Spirit, most blessed Peter ^a, prince of the apostles (P. p. a.) pr. ap. Petrus 2., who seemed videbantur 2, 3. most happily to act in place of Christ among them, calling the same most holy disciples, commanded them by a humble precept and a sweet injunction that, mindful of the Lord's precepts, they should not become slothful hearers, and he appointed them two by two to preach, as the Lord had before omits 2. commanded them, and strengthened them with his blessing and that of all the apostles and exalted them with pontifical honour. The names of these illustrious men, who were fuerant 2. to be delegated to individual cities, were these: to Tours is directed Bishop omits 2. Gratianus, to Arles Trophinus Trophimus 2., to Narbonne Paul, to Toulouse Tolosæ 2. Saturninus, to Limoges Martial. Among them Austremonius, the renowned martyr, took on, next after God, the Arvernian monarchy to rule. There, then, all, according to the disposition of almighty God who rules all things, obtained the proper recompense of their merits. For of these only Austremonius and Saturninus, two great lights, attained by the palm of martyrdom the crown of eternal happiness. But Gratianus, Trophimus and Paul and Martial, spreading everywhere the seeds of the word of God, and returning innumerable peoples from vessels of iniquity to the bosom of holy mother Church, living in unfeigned holiness, were made partakers of the desired blessedness. And although the former by the agony of passion passionem 2. and the others by the long-lasting confession of rest obtained the present term of their bodies corporis 2., yet one senate of the heavenly life holds them alike exulting for eternity.

[3] eyewitness of the mysteries of the Lord's life. The most glorious Austremonius, then, designated by the Lord Jesus Christ in the number of the seventy-two disciples, as has been said above, wisely learned, while the Lord himself was preaching, the glorious teachings of the divine instruction, and saw in person the signal works of power which he did. For he reclined with those at supper at the banquet of the sacred supper, and was present as a vigorous minister at the new and mystic commandment. He sorrowed with the other disciples over the passion of the Lord, and subsequently merited to rejoice at the glorious revelation omits 2. of his resurrection resurrectione 2.. For he was worthy to be sanctified with that quoque 2. blessing with which, ascending into heaven, he blessed the disciples. He was also gladdened to hear grat. est aud. 2. the voices of the angels saying: Men of Galilee, why do you wonder, looking up into heaven? He shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven. On the holy day of Pentecost Pentecosten 1, 2. too he received the Holy Spirit with the other disciples, whose inward anointing taught him of all things and instructed him in all science and doctrine, establishing him in the solidity of the faith and confirming him in all patience and truth, bestowing on him the abundant gifts of charisms, and hac 1, 2. glorifying him with saving munificence and enriching him with the wonderful power of works of virtue.

This VERSUS before this word adds 1. martyr of the Lord, with the splendid light of the heart And with bodily eyes, merited piously to behold Christ. By the Lord, as Lord, he is indeed blessed himself, When he seeks the heights of the pole, raising the flesh above the stars. Moreover when the day came, when the kindly Spirit In the likeness of fire came down from the citadel of heaven And betook himself through the honourable apostolic band, He was present, having merited to be enriched by the gift of Christ.

[4] With Necterius, Ursinus and Mametus as companions in the Arvernian region The venerable worshipper of God Austremonius, then, having entered the parts of the Gauls, the aforesaid companions having divided from one another, keeping only a few to accompany him, whom he merited to receive from Blessed Peter as disciples and companions, namely Necterius Nectarium 2. ^b the presbyter, and Ursinus ^c, a man of beneficent uprightness, and Mametus ^d also, holding the office of the levitical order, fearlessly approached the Arvernian land, to which he did not doubt he had been delegated by divine disposition, and he publicly proclaimed that the innumerable shrines of demons (d. d.) del dæm. 2., all of which throughout that region they seemed by fanatical error to worship as gods, were most vain fictions, striving to convert them to the life-giving teachings of Christ. Relying therefore on the power of the Holy Spirit and firmly fortified by the defence of the word of God, he went without delay to the walls of the Arvernian city, not fearing to seek out the savagery of a mad nation, because a mind given to Christ dreads formidabat 2. no hardships. Moreover he unceasingly evangelized to them the Catholic faith, which he had received from the holy apostles, namely that one God is to be venerated in Trinity and that the same, existing in three persons, is to be most highly worshipped in unity virtute 3.. He likewise taught that the only-begotten Son of God came down from the heights of the heavens to earth for the salvation of all in the fullness of times; that therefore it was not fair that man, who is both capable of reason and bought redemptus 2. with the great price of the blood of the Lord, should bow his neck, to the injury of the same God, before dumb and vain idols. He preached mutual love toward one another, and that what anyone would wish to be done for himself by mutual help he should not deny to another. He asserted that all should persist in the display of good works, hastening with all his effort to prepare præparare 2. the way for the Lord in the hearts of those same unbelievers, who through the courses of so many ages had grown hard through unbelief (p. i.) pro infidelitate 2., bearing stony hearts, adoring the creature rather than the creator.

[5] and in its chief city he preaches the faith of Christ; After no long space of time, the Holy Spirit revealing it to him and teaching him, he came to the city of that region which today, on account of its splendid abundance of delightfulness and the firmness of its strength, its store of towers and walls, its plenty of vineyards and woods, the sunniness apriscitate 2; a priscitate 1, 3. of its hills and the beauty of its mountains, is called Clermont a priscitate 1, 3. ^e from its ancient founder. The sun had poured upon Clarmontensis 1. the earth its rosy fiery brightness, when the holy man began to evangelize the Catholic doctrine to the citizens. The rumour of his preaching suddenly stirred the whole city. The athlete adleta 1. of the Lord nostri adds 3. Austremonius, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, fortified with the unconquerable arms of the sacred faith, joyfully sought out the crowd of the gentiles, disturbed by the integrity of his speech, and confidently pronounced to it the teachings of his preaching. Unfolding with the plainest assertions the wonderful mystery of the Lord's incarnation, passion, resurrection and ascension, foretold long before by the oracles of the prophets, he preached the glory of the heavenly life to the unbelievers, saying with affable voice: He who believes and is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit et bapt. in nom. P. et F. et Sp. S. 2. shall be saved. But he who does not believe shall be condemned.

The ruler of Olympus, scattering through the parts of the world His own disciples, decreed that this athlete should be consecrated With pontifical honour through the holy apostolic hands By right, bestowing pleasing addresses. For this man first the happy Arvernian land Receives exulting, allotted by a heavenly gift A pontiff, who had tasted the transparent water Of the eternal teaching flowing from the living fount. He flourished, with companions increased for him from heaven, Ursinus and Necterius, pious in all things, and the just Mametus juxtoque Memeto 1.. Exulting, then, bent by no fear, He assiduously calls the peoples together to the laws of salvation.

[6] by speech and miracles he converts many, The Arvernian citizens, then, nobles as well as quam 2. townsmen, and also country people, when they heard of the terrible perdition proditionem 2, 3. of unbelievers and the desirable salvation of believers, desired at once to obtain both the faith of Christ and the grace of baptism. Meanwhile the people of believers ran to him, the number of the faithful increased; all with one mouth resounded the praise of the Lord Jesus. The Christian faith was magnified by the belief of all, the savage severity of the rulers, God inspiring it, was turned convertitur 2. into sweet mildness, the dire hardness of the people was changed into soft sweetness. As the number of the faithful grew, the man of the Lord Austremonius built a church in the aforesaid dictam 1. city, which he dedicated in honour of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. In it he also fittingly instituted the ecclesiastical orders, and marked with sacred orders commendable persons imbued with the sacraments of the kindly faith and bound them over to divine services. This pontiff is surely omits 3. to be honoured with heraldic praise, who dedicates with humble attendance the first and magnifiable fruit of his preaching to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the prince of the apostles, namely Blessed Peter. For the seeds of the divine word were scattered everywhere, the bountiful teachings of the orthodox religion were greatly spread abroad, the diabolical diabolice 1, 2. fictions were emptied, the shrines of images were destroyed, vain idols fell, and the life-giving vivifice 2. standards of the holy cross were raised. The peace of Christ was preached with no one gainsaying, the knowledge of true salvation was diffused with powerful faith, praiseworthy preaching was magnified with shining strength. The venerable pontiff also rejoiced with spiritual gladness while he beheld the flock of the Lord increased in manifold number by his labour and zeal. He rejoiced

indeed namque 2; ubique 3. in the progress of his sons, whom like a pious father he cherished with heavenly nourishments. Wonderful he shone refulget 2. in his actions, because manifold prodigies of works of power followed on the most sweet declarations of his welcome amplectenda 2. exhortation. At his glorifying command demons were driven from possessed bodies; those worn out by the sicknesses of diseases at once rejoiced in the much-desired cure medella 1., by his saving prayer. Sight was restored to the blind, to the grieving the joys of kindly solace were lavished with a soothing panegyrali 3. ^f speech, to the rich examples of generosity dapsatilis — 2. ^g were disclosed by most rich distribution, to the poor the laws of munificent patience were shown by evangelical instruction, so that, made all things to all men, the man of the Lord might gain all. For rightly do many together praise his wisdom (s. e.) ej. sap. 2., which shall not be blotted out for ever.

In all his actions this saint was wonderful, From whose pious mouth words do not cease to sound Whatever is of justice, whatever is of lovable piety. Meanwhile the Arvernian people hastening stands by, That as a suppliant it may hear the joys of the heavenly life. He fearlessly admonishes them to overturn the temples of the gods, That the images made of metals may perish together. And the standards of the cross are fixed on high beams, And that armed with its sign, under the threefold name Of the Unbegotten Father and et 3. of the Begotten, not indeed created, Word, and of the Kindly Breath, like in all things, They may believe that there is one to whom stat 1. without time the kingdom stands Three in persons, one in perennial deity, Renewed, that is to say, by the water of the purifying stream.

[7] he diligently instructs in the doctrine of the faith, The praiseworthy and often-named Austremonius was venerated veneratur 3. by all, since he was strong in commendable teachings of knowledge and flourished in the springing titles of his merits (m. t.) tit. mer. 2.. He begged, then, very often that with a pure heart he might enjoy flueretur 1; fruerentur 2. the holy spirit; taught too by the sacred anointing, that he might gain the right spirit; supported as well by the principal spirit, that he might be strong, most faithful in holy Church, orthodox, and an outstanding preacher to the peoples. For indeed enim 2. he brought forth from his treasure things new and old, instructing the hearts of the faithful with wonderful prudence. For predicating the essence of the divine Trinity, the power of its majesty majestati 2. ^h, he praiseworthily magnified one God, dancingly glorified and gloriously praised him. O praiseworthy bishop, who with skilful urgency discloses the light of truth and the path of justice, and exhorts by sound and prudent prudenti 2. teaching that the good of a frugal life be held to with happy exercise! O most splendid man through whom the establishment of the Church is solemnly strengthened, the foundation of the faith is advanced to higher things, the order of Catholic belief is adorned with graceful honesty and upheld by being exalted! For what was to be endured in persecution, he showed beforehand with pleasing exhortation; and what was to be followed in the peace of the Church, he made known with most faithful instruction: Our nostrumne 2. scoponi, he said, is by repentance of evil, or the doubtful is directed by authority; but that this same thing may have a saving telos, we must strive (d. n. e. s.) n. e. dil. st. 2. with diligent solicitude. Namely that we may together make for where we know that our archin archon 3. truly is, and where we know our usiam reigns divinely omits 2.. The Topon scopon 2., meditating day and night on the law of the Lord (d. noct. med.) med. die noct. 2., let us seek by the protection of his supporting aid, that by seeking we may be able valemus 1. to find. For our life is hidden with Christ in God. For we know that when he appears we shall be like him and shall see him as he is. Then noble souls will rejoice, natives of the ethereal light. And the Somata, raised from the earthborn dust, will rejoice gaudebis 2. in blessed immortality. Then the number of our brothers will be fulfilled adimpletur 2., and we shall be given two robes, namely the glorious perennity of body and soul, and we shall reign with God for perpetual eternities.

The dawn of day had driven out the darkness of night, And the day was shining under the ruddy sun through the world, When the holy people opens the pious words of its master, That with the dawning day the seeds of the word might be sown serrentur 1. And the eternal day might drive off pellere 1. the shadows of vices. For the treasure of his own heart, ever open, Ever inexhaustible, with radiant gold supplies The brighter commandments of God in the flowing word. He burns, then, exceedingly to join the nations to Christ, That he may bring back to God the entrusted talents a hundredfold, Firmly declaring that God is almighty omnipotem 1., Who rules by his command the land and sea and sky. This noble author shows that the human race, released from mortal flesh, Is to be restored in bodies At the judgment of Christ, but never again to those same To become external, by dying under the earlier law, That torments may increase for the wicked and glory for the just.

[8] and he baptizes, with springs also drawn from the earth by a prodigy. St. Austremonius, then, athlete of Christ, persisting greatly in what he had begun, diligently went round the region, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Divine power conferred on him such teachings of abundant eloquence that the hearers of the divine word, the Holy Spirit working inwardly, were at once extimplo 1, 2. drawn duceretur 1. to the love of the name and faith of Christ. To those, then, to whom he preached the sacraments of orthodox belief he also thereupon washed in the purifying water of baptism, and he powerfully imparted to them the grace of the confirmation and perfection of the Holy Spirit, the salutary charisms. For the pious affection of the glorious prelate challenged them, and his wonderful teaching, praiseworthy life, salutary exhortation, pleasing purity. In all his actions he plainly showed himself worthy of praise to all. For he was an outstanding teacher, a follower of justice, a lover of truth, a splendour of holiness, a vigorous speaker, a munificent munificabilis 2. founder of churches; a foundation of humility, an example of patience, a supplement of largesse, a mirror of chastity and an ornament of all honesty. In him shone perfect charity, kindly sincerity, sincere joyfulness, cleonal clericalis 2, 3. ^k prudence, honourable temperance, the most powerful strength of inward purity, attractive knowledge, and the elegance of holy beauty. Among other virtues, then, he was prudent in counsel, strong in talent, most mighty in eloquence, obeying the precepts of God with every kind of effort, panting as he made for the heavenly homeland. For as often as he had resolved to announce the word of God in dry or mountainous places and water for baptizing was lacking, so did the power of divine grace attend him that, the name of Christ having been invoked, he brought forth producere 1; producerent 3. springs of living water from the depth profundum 1. of the earth. The blessed prelate thus shining with most bright signs, as we have said, so that he could not lie hidden latere 3. in any place, the energumens energumenis 3. whom he cured betraying him, all the people began to offer themselves to him, leaving the rite of gentilism. These, sprinkled by him with the water of sanctification, he instructed with most kindly teachings, so that they should gape after heavenly things after they had recognized the grace of Christ. And some quidem 3. of them were filled with such grace of the Lord (s. g. r.) gr. s. repl. 2. that those who a little before had ceased to be worshippers of idols became supporters of their master and co-workers of the word of God; and where before they had lain hidden in the shrines of demons, there ubi 2. they resounded to the most high God with great jubilations. Whence also, the Lord assenting, so great an ardour of faith glowed in their hearts (in cor. c. inc.) inc. in eor. cord. 2. that they founded there churches as manifold as we see built in none of the other regions.

[9] Each year he met with SS. Martial and Saturninus. For there is a place on the border of the Arvernian diocese which by the report of the ancients of old retains the name obtained from THREE dominis 2, 3. LORDS ^l. For thither illic. 2. once a year came blessed Austremonius, and also the equally distinguished Martial of Limoges and the renowned martyr Saturninus (S. m.) mart. Sat. 2. of Toulouse, like lights shining on this world. They conferred among themselves on heavenly things, on the state of the Catholic church, and they discoursed in mutual conversation on the progress of their sheep omnium 1, 2.; or whether perhaps in the flock of any of them some heresiarch seemed to arise, such as seemed especially to sprout pululari 2. in the beginning of the nascent Church, that he might be utterly uprooted from the Church by the mutual dart of words, or if he did not recover respiceret 1. from his error, might be proscribed among the biothanati biotanatas 1. ^m. Who, this most holy conference having been examined with one another, each returned to his own folds.

The distinguished standard-bearer, father Austremonius, and Bright light of faith and shining lamp, That he might in piety strip of foul darkness all Whom the populous Arvernian land nourished, Unceasingly goes to the villas and all the fortresses, And exhorts them to take up the holy faith by baptism, By which the closed gate of heaven is unlocked for us And without which the heavenly kingdom will lie open to none. And no wonder, since he is duly the heir of his name; For as the wind which by one name is called Auster And by another is called Zephyrus, yet both are one, Bedewing the lands with showers makes them fertile with ears of grain, So the outstanding father dispenses the pastures of heavenly life Among the peoples, rich in saving piety. In him was the fount of life and true wisdom; For that reason he holds a name derived from Auster ⁿ, Whom, brethren, let us venerate exulting with the highest zeal.

ANNOTATIONS.

Nor does this Mammetus have any proper cult; but Branche treats of him after the Life of St. Marius and adds that in Upper Auvergne, near the town of Salers, there is a parish called of St. Mametus; which Jean Aicelin, bishop of Clermont, in the year 1298 gave to his cathedral, where he suspects the saint was buried, whom he also calls Mamertus. So he; see Jacques Branche, in the Lives of the Saints of Auvergne, book II, p. 387. This Mametus is venerated by the church of Clermont on the 5th of November on the feast of all the saints of Auvergne. For in the Proper of the same day, lesson V, it is said: Piety does not permit us to pass over among the confessors Mammetus, Antoninus, Sirenatus, companions of blessed Austremonius.

The learned reader will have noted from the Graecizing style the century in which, by a badly affected method of Graecizing, they sought the reputation of learned speech.

CHAPTER TWO.

The apostolic labours of St. Austremonius outside Auvergne. He substitutes Blessed Urbicus for himself as bishop. The foundation of the monastery of Issoire. Miracles.

Among the Bituriges he heals Cassius and consecrates Ursinus bishop. When therefore the fame of the man of God, on account of the great merit of his (m. s.) magnæ 2. holiness and the frequency of his many works of virtue mult. fr. vir. omits 2., was spread far and wide, from the neighbouring cities noble men and women and very many phalanxes of peoples rejoiced to run together to him (conc. gaud.) concurrebant 3. in troops. To these he abundantly ministered the mystic pastures of heavenly life, and with the assent of the clemency of the heavenly judge arbitris 2. bestowed the desirable health of bodies and souls. For with pious solicitude he taught his disciples in all wisdom and holiness. It seems worthwhile not to keep silent about this also, that a certain reason arose for which he decided to go to the country of Bourges Bituricense 1.; and completing the journey he had arranged, he found a certain most illustrious illustrium 2. man named Cassius ^a, with his brothers, disfigured by a grave infirmity over his whole body and in his very countenance. These, rescued from the same affliction of sickness, he restored, glad, to their former soundness. There was moreover the aforesaid man Cassius, adorned with the splendour of birth, and that he was of much kindliness the declarations of his relations testified. Of what holiness he was or of what merit his end proved, on which all praise may safely be sung; for for the love of God he is said to have attained to the palm of martyrdom. So blessed Austremonius, reaching the city of the Bituriges, strove to strengthen by his teaching and example (d. et ex.) ex. et doc. 2. a people still wavering too much in the faith. And having stayed there for a while, at the petition of the people he raised to the pontificate of that see his blessed disciple Ursinus ^b, powerful in the height of nobility and striving to please God in all things.

[11] He also cultivates the regions of Nevers and Limoges and Aquitania Secunda. The affairs of clerics and laymen having been disposed with prudent governance, he directed his journey to the country of Nevers Nevernensem 2.. Reaching as far as its inhabitants, he converted the people, still entangled in the errors of gentilism, adoring idols, sacrificing to demons, by his salutary and sweet preaching to the worship of truth and also to the equity of the faith. The people thus being confirmed in the fear of God, glad in the Lord he returned to the Arvernian fields. For indeed enim 2. it is reported that he illuminated in greatest part the Limousin Lemovicensium 2. region with the bright rays of his supply doctrinæ? and converted it to the faith of Christ by frequent visitation. He was also a magnificent preacher and chief instructor of Aquitania Secunda, and a vigorous bestower of spiritual charisms. These regions indeed venerated venerantur 1, 2. him as most pious, recalled recolunt 2. him as a renowned teacher, honoured honorantur 2. him as a venerable patron fautorum 2, 3., and with all the desire of their minds showed exibent 2. him fitting honour. One praised him as a man of great prudence, another extolled him as qui 2. a chief bishop. One wondered at his commendable eloquence, another proclaimed his humility and patience. Powerful men and religious women indeed desired to see him rather often (e. s.) sæp. eum 2., to whom he was accustomed to pour out salutarily salubriter 2. the pleasant counsels of modest exhortation; the poor likewise greatly desired to look on him more frequently, because they rejoiced to be mercifully refreshed reparari 2. by his most welcome solace.

[12] Thinking of the contemplative life, For he was now of great omits 2. age, resplendent with comely white hair, and while the outer man was adorned with honourable beauty, the inner man was strong in uprightness of morals and the shining fairness of his merits. And since, after the example of Martha, he had long ministered to Christ the king in the active life with willing spirit, he began to meditate in his heart on the praiseworthy zeal of Mary, who bore the pattern of the contemplative life (sp. v.) vit. sp. 2., because she chose the best part which shall not be taken from her. And he said within himself: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly, and be at rest; that, sitting beside the feet of the Lord, I may hear his word continually? The man of the Lord Austremonius, diligently turning these things over within himself (s. s.) sec. sed. 3., arranged to leave worldly business altogether and to hold earthly occupations of no account. At length for XXX and VI years he ruled the pontificate of that city with great contest, and persevered until the times of the emperor Vespasiani adds 2.. He provided, then, from his disciples skilful omits 2. and industrious men, who should both in the administration of affairs the others supply regerent? and be expert with wonderful talent in the sagacity of prudence, who also, filled with the zeal of divine love, should love equity and have no guile on their tongue, nor practise evil against their neighbours. These, then, he set over the others as bases of columns, admonishing them to teach the ignorant and unpolished and call all to better things, that they might by no means stray from the faith which they had learned from him.

[13] He substitutes Urbicus for himself and founds the monastery of Issoire. For calling one of them, he wished to commit to him the ecclesiastical orders, that he himself might afterwards be able more freely to lead (v. d.) duc. vit. 2. a hermit's and solitary life. And he said to him: Receive, dearest brother, the care of the pastoral office, and handle and conduct it as before God, as one who will render an account to that immortal king before all the saints at the tremendous examination. O happy pastor! O good steward, who surely fulfilled the heraldic affection of a clear disposition, by which he knew that the increase of virtues was divinely enlarged for him! For in the Arvernian church, over which he presided, he established as vigorous bishop blessed Urbicus ^c, unwilling though he was, yet with himself compelling him, the clergy too electing and the people consenting. This ordination the clergy and people judged should be borne gerendam 3. the less ill for this reason, that they knew, by his own making it known, that he would remain within infra 1. the homeland. This pontiff, plainly expert with wonderful and doxological doxo longoque 2. talent, governed the church committed to him with ordered desire and prudent counsel. He surely sought an aid by which he could bear with equanimity the weight imposed on him, not that he might take from him who carried it with him the solace of sacred help, but that, carrying together, they might trade for a greater reward. Behold, so to speak, a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile, since whatever he does he orders with the most upright intention and sincere devotion. Behold, I say, a faithful steward, whom the Lord has set over his household to give them food in due time. For there is the teaching of spiritual grace, there the norm of justice lies easily facile 2. open. These things having been duly accomplished, the precious one of the Lord Austremonius, not bearing the throng of peoples and fleeing the old-womanish clamour of the praises of the crowd, set as he was at the height of the pontificate shuddering at the favours of flatterers, resolved with the whole purpose of his soul to cling to spiritual contemplation; and rejecting in every way the delights of the world, he himself desired a hermitage in the southern region, and reaching it he built a monastery in the place called Issoire, that he might there be free for the Lord the more freely as he was separated from the worldly clamour of men. Where, establishing no small crowd of monks, he happily handed on to them, to be preserved, the apostolic life which he had fully learned; teaching them to live, namely, after the example of the blessed apostles and of those who believed through them, of whom it is said: The multitude of believers had one heart and one soul, nor did anyone say that anything eorum quæ possidebat adds 2. was his own, but all things were common to them.

Thereafter by blessed fame they are spread everywhere This verse is copied out in codex 2; but for vulgantur one reads vulgant. And peoples run together to him and troops rejoice To hasten from all places, that the mystic words They may attentively take in, and store in their learned minds What the splendid faith of the kindly martyr brings forth. Them the athlete of God, pitying, forms and adorns With examples of virtues, and with the arms of divine light. Of whom Ursinus, full of heavenly teaching, Is chosen prelate, and to the people of Bourges, With the consent of all the people and the prayers of those asking, He is set over as pastor, worthily to be venerated and loved.

But the blessed man, desiring to avoid the clamour of men Whom he had already subjected to Christ by sacred baptism, Hastens to found a place, which is said to have been Called of old by the name Flaviacus, which he himself calls Issoire, from the waters ^d in which it lies set, And he dedicates a church under the honour of Blessed Peter (P. s. h.) s. h. P. 1., And exulting he stays there, living a long time; In which he established that there should remain holy Bands of monks, following the worship of the apostolic law.

[14] The prodigy of the peasant saved from shipwreck For one day when the precious one of the Lord Austremonius was standing not far from the monastery which he had built, beside the river Flaver Elaveris 3., and addressing the people in brilliant luculenti 1, 2. speech, and was watering with heavenly admonitions, like new plantings, by the word of preaching the peoples he had gained for the Lord through faith, the Lord showed through him this prodigy of admirable power, from which it is plainly partim 1, 3. given to understand with how great excellence the deeds of so great a man are sit 1, 2, 3. to be weighed. Two peasants, coming with their labourers and carts, wished to cross the aforesaid river by boat, to go to the forest that was beyond the river, to cut wood. When they had reached the place where the holy man was preaching, the others passing by, one of them, inspired, as we believe, by divine will, stopped a little, in order to hear the word verbo 1; verba 3. of the preacher and humbly obtain from him the grace of a blessing. For at the beginning of the nascent Church such was the custom toward preachers, namely that, the preaching being finished, all received (a. o.) om. acc. 2. eulogiae from the preacher for the grace of communion. Whence that peasant, before navem adds 2. he boarded, asked petit 2, 3. eulogiae from the holy man according to custom. Having received them, he at once boarded the ship with his companions (c. s. p.) pr. c. soc. 2.. Meanwhile itaque 2. they turned the wave-tossed waters through the channel of the Flaver Elaveris 3.; a sudden destruction arose by the driving of the winds, the prow was suddenly directed in a transverse course, and while the stern was lifted to the heights by a watery mountain, the former slid down into the depths with a steep plunge. By stormy blows the ship was dashed on this side and that (n. h. i.) h. i. nav. 2. and sunk in a lamentable lamentabile 1. shipwreck. What more? All perished indeed, except him who had received eulogiae from St. Austremonius. And when the same man was making for the shore by swimming, the devil in the air began horribly to cry out (h. c.) cl. horr. 2. to the other devil, in the hearing of the holy pontiff pontifici 1, 2. and of all the people: Hey! he said, what are you doing? Why do you loiter? Why do you not hasten to sink that man who hastens to escape to the shore by swimming? Seize him more quickly, lest he swim across the river and be able to live. To whom the other: With great avidity and ex 1, 3. with all my will I would have done this, if it had been at all possible for me. But the power of saving Christ does not permit this to be done, on account of the merit of St. Austremonius and on account of the faith of the same man. There hinders me also etiam 2. the frequent intercession of the people present. For this bishop has expelled us from the borders of the Arvernian region, in the power and name of that Christ who, rising from the dead, destroyed the bolts of hell and overturned the power of our prince. Hearing this, St. Austremonius, filled with great joy, said: O ruler of heaven, founder of the earth, creator of the waters and lord of every creature, king of kings, Lord of lords, I give thanks to you with bowed devotion (d. a.) ag. dev. 2., who through your only Son our Lord Jesus Christ grant to your servants triumphal victory over the ancient enemy. By whose unspeakable power the bow of the mighty has been overcome and the weak have been girded with strength. Lord, there is no one quis 2. who is like you, who rescue the needy from the hand of those stronger than he. For as he saw the aforesaid man rescued from the danger of the water, using a prophetic apostrophe apostrophale 1, 2. against the demon, rejoicing he thundered in words: How have you fallen from heaven, Lucifer, who rose in the morning? You have crashed to the earth, you who wounded the nations. You who said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will exalt my throne; I will sit on the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the height altitudine 1, 3. of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But on account of your pride you have lost heavenly glory. You have also slipped down to the depths of Erebus, that in the lamentable whirlpool of a miry sink, paying manifold torments with your accomplices, you may learn how great joys you have forfeited read amiseris. by your own offence omits 1, 3.. Why do you still vainly attempt to heap the engines of deadly seduction on those redeemed by a precious death? Christ, I say, Jesus triumphs mightily pellenter 1. over you, whose victory we strive with loving desire to preach to all, and to raise (p. e.) er. pas. 2; eligere passim 3. everywhere the saving standards of the life-giving cross under the title of his nullius 1, 3. praise, that ait 3., as has been prophesied by the truthful prophets, all the tribes of the earth may be blessed in him, all nations may magnify him, and it may be said unceasingly from the mouth of all: Blessed be Dominus adds 2. God of Israel, who alone does wonderful things, and blessed be the name of his majesty. O spectacle full of lament and praise! Of lament, in the perdition of those men who were sunk in shipwrecked naufragi 2. peril, because they spurned the preaching of the holy prelate and did not receive from him the bread of salvation, and so, delivered to Satan, they perished. Of praise, in the salvation of that man who, holding the sacrament of perfect faith, received from the holy pontiff the gift of eulogiae, with which he likewise obtained a space of life. For thereby he experienced the saving benefit, by which he came to know the wonderful mystery sacramentum 2. of the kindly faith and holy belief. In which miracle, therefore, the Christian religion is both praiseworthily made wonderful magnificatur 2., commendably praised, and by being made wonderful is preached, and the glorious merit of the kindly prelate is dancingly published, increasingly magnified and joyfully venerated by all.

This martyr of God, although he completed The monastic office in that same place, which we said before He built for himself from his rich possessions, That, the monks being joined, he might serve servire 1. the Lord there, Yet never takes away from the peoples his former Solaces, but shines forth among the people with great signs. Of which I presume with bold speech to retell One prodigy shining with the power of Christ. While as usual the mightiest hero addresses An innumerable people, turning over the commands of God in speech, Near the august temple which he had founded for Christ, Namely at the river called by the name Flaver Elaverim 3., A certain peasant, hastening with a companion to cross the stream, Seeking to cut wood for himself in the forest, Stopped, turning aside from his companion, who makes for perit 3. the waves. This he does, that the holy blessing may come to his aid, By which the pious father himself strengthens the breasts of the peoples. Then making for the river, while the stern to the heights by storms Is raised, as the sea slips more swiftly with its waves, The kindly salvation came to the others, while those perished. And when, swimming and trembling, he was making for the shore, behold, There sounds the horrid voice of a black demon of the air, Crying out to another perhaps for alii.: What are you doing, cruel, wicked one? Why do you allow this man to live? Why do you not try to sink him? The other to this: Because blessed he will go safe by this Prelate, driving us from these his borders. All soon hasten to render praises to Christ, With the holy martyr who flourishes on highest Olympus.

[15] and other miracles of Austremonius. Having thus lived happily for a long time in this region, leading his life in the excellence of apostolic holiness, the blessed one of the Lord omits 2. Austremonius worked innumerable signal works of virtue, which we think it superfluous now to pursue with the pen, especially because omits 2. it was also very difficult among so omits 2. innumerable cohorts of the people to recognize him as he frequented them and in a manner ran about, except as signs declared him. For by giving back walking to the lame, by giving back the dead from the underworld to life, by freeing energumens energumenos. from possessed bodies dæmonibus 1, 3., by offering light to the blind, by curing lepers and by accomplishing signs of other wonderful works of virtue, he converted the whole Arvernian nation, the Lord favouring, to the equity of the faith. For signs, as the Apostle says, are not for the faithful, but for unbelievers.

As the stars of the star-bearing heaven, brought forth With various lights, shine, so the saints take just rewards For their merits, and with various splendours within The wonderful palaces of the Olympian King they flash. Yet this precious martyr is present brighter than all The light of the sun, to whom the greatest read maxima. piety of Christ Grants that he should be an example of virtue for the age. For he reckons holy fasts his delights, And knows not how to give his weary limbs to rest; Pallor sits on his face, thinness in his whole body. There wanders in his countenance ever the honesty of gravity And the immaculate modesty of the highest chastity pudiciæ 1, 2.. He prays with tears, panting with devout breast For the sun of justice who advances the saints to himself; The rightly highest good, and eternal light of the good, Who whomever he perceives faithful to him in heart Deigns to join to his own holy warfare, Greatly desiring to reign with him within the star-bearing walls. Lastly he counts as least the torments of the flesh, Which this venerable old man suffers long-lastingly, Unless he should fall, for love of God, by the blade of blood, Following the victorious standards of the lovable martyrs.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER THREE.

The attempted conversion of the Jews. The boy Lucius slain by his father. Churches consecrated by St. Austremonius.

[Very many Jews having been converted to the faith of Christ through the work of Austremonius,] The whole church of the saints, then, knows very well how Jerusalem, for the sacrilege committed against the Saviour, was overthrown in an avenging devastation by Titus and Vespasian. Of which overthrow the same Lord Jesus foretold beforehand: For the days shall come upon you, and your enemies shall surround you with a rampart, and shall encompass you and straiten you on every side and lay you level prosternent 2. with the ground, and your sons who are in you; and they shall not leave reliquent 1. in you a stone upon a stone that is not destroyed, because you did not know the time of your visitation. For some of the Jews perished by the destruction exitio 2. of the sword, some by the deadly want of famine in the siege, and indeed by most savage depopulation. Very many too, sold for a cheap coin, were wretchedly led away into captivity, and so through various diversi 1, 3. places, that the prophecy of David might be fulfilled, uttered in spiritual presage concerning the same Jews: Scatter them, he says, in

your power, and destroy them, O Lord my protector, and that the nations might know the execrable blasphemy and unbelief of that people of whom this truthful prophecy is recited against Christ Jesus, and that from the ruinous fall of the Jewish nation they themselves ipse 3., with spiritual grace inspiring them, by believing might avoid declinaret 2. the loss of perpetual captivity and receive the sacrament of faith and the protection of eternal salvation.

Through the same time no small bands of the Jewish nation appeared to be scattered in the Arvernian city. For many of them in that part, in which the venerable father Austremonius had founded the aforesaid monastery, arranged to build huts for themselves to dwell in, as being strangers and soon to be dispersed for their monstrous (p. i.) perimani 2. crime. So the reverend man and vigorous speaker, namely blessed Austremonius, when he often disclosed to them by preaching the way of salvation and the knowledge of equity and the form of belief, also rebuked them in prophetic speech, saying: What is it, Israel, what is it quid est omits 2. that you are in the land of your enemies? You have grown old in a foreign land; you are defiled with the dead, you are counted with those who are in hell, you have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. If you had walked in the way of God, you would surely have dwelt in pace adds 2. upon the earth. Learn where prudence is, where strength is, where understanding is, that you may know at the same time where length of days is, life vitæ 2., strength omits 2., where the strength lumen 2. of the eyes is. Hearing these things, very many were compunct, and with all their vows besought the remedies of penance from the holy man, and were washed in the bath of the holy flood.

[17] others plot death for him. But omits 2. the ancient enemy too, seeing that those had been lost to him whom the Lord had gained through his servant Austremonius, and grieving that innumerable peoples were being drawn from his jaws by his preaching, with all that ancient effort of his tried to exercise through this perfidious nation the demonstration of his art against the man of God. But when omits 2. the blessed prelate (b. p.) pr. beat. 2. reproved this unhappy people with many rebukes for the sacrilege committed against the Saviour, and showed from the authority of the divine Scriptures that for the salvation of the human race he had descended descendisset 1. from heaven to earth and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, that same perfidious people gave him no assent in any way; and not only did they not do penance for those things of which he admonished them, from the unbelief and hardness of their heart, but moreover they conspired in open persecutions for his death.

As the thorny earth is cultivated with labour That it may bring forth worthy fruits, so this saint too, Striving to drive the briars of vices from the peoples, Destroys the gentile error by often admonishing That they should avoid the author of death and follow the light Which saves, invigorates, exalts, honours all. With these holy admonitions of faith he also soothes The Jewish people itself, which then stayed in the same City, in its wickedness worshipping gods which it had itself carved, And in its pollution venerating its ancestral household gods; The greatest part of whom, compunct, sought the bath Of baptism, atoning for sins with assiduous tears. For it grieved that it had fallen of its own accord into these ruins Which prepared rather the mortal destruction of the abyss Than the glory and rest of the delightful heavenly life. Seeing such things done, the most savage enemy, And grieving heavily that the saint had laid low all The gentiles at his feet, burning, stirred up the Jews, Whom he had always as followers in fervent fraud, To destroy the saint. Suddenly too the gnashing faction Of the Jewish people, under hidden fraud, prepares Depraved snares for the innocent man. But the pious hero Contemns all, spurns all, victor in the contest.

[18] [The son of the chief of the Jews, baptized by Austremonius, is slain by his father.] The athlete St. Austremonius, then, in no way feared to spread everywhere the flashing rays of evangelical doctrine, but illuminated the hearts of believers with the lamp-like splendour of spiritual grace, and raised up the lofty summits of the virtues with the examples of kindly acts. What more? All who were preordained to eternal life he converted and purified with the water of baptism. Lastly among the competentes who were being catechized cathezizabantur 2. in the orthodox faith there was present the son of the chief of the Jews, without his father's knowledge, and he humbly asked of the man of God that he might obtain the grace of baptism. The holy man Dei adds 2. baptized him with the others and adopted him as a son to himself and called him by name Lucius, as one rescued from the darkness of unbelief and illuminated by the light of truth, prudently imbued also with the sacred charisms and praiseworthily dedicated to eternal holiness. The sacraments of baptism baptismati 1, 2. having thus been completed omibus 2. according to custom, the man of the Lord Austremonius, inflamed et adds 1. with the manifold fervour of divine love amore, 1, 2., sought out the villa villa 1, 2. called Plauzat ^a, in which he built a church at the expense of the faithful remaining round about, and dedicated it in honour of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. The chief of the Jews, when he learned that his son had been baptized by the venerable pontiff, confounded with intolerable grief and sorrow alike, groaned, and most vehemently inflamed with anger, as one instigated by diabolical malice, at length threw his own son, lacking all paternal affection, into a certain well, lest the Church of Christ should have him living, from whom other Jews might receive the example of belief. When this had been announced to St. Austremonius, he soon returned with the college of the faithful to the monastery of Issoire Icidiorense 2., and calling together with him the troop of the brethren, with thuribles and crosses and the shining lights of candles he went swiftly to the well; from which the youthful body of the holy martyr Lucius was soon drawn out by the brethren and led to the place of burial with the sweet-flowing dulciflua 2. song of hymn-singing modulation the rest of this no. omits 2.. O Jewish perfidy, to be execrated in all ages, which first cruelly raged against the Lord, and does not cease to afflict his servants also with deadly misfortune! Nor did it suffice it once to have struck the shepherd of the flock, but it also pursues the flock itself with the gravest hatred. For this hated father, if indeed he is to be called a father who did not keep paternal affections toward his son, though unwilling showed a venerable martyr to the Christians. The unhappy man lost the reverence of the paternal name, bereft of the attractive dignity of a most happy offspring. And while he desired utterly to destroy the title of Christianity in his son's mortification, he rather brought it about that, the error of unbelief having been left behind, Lucius, marked with a typical name, was written in heaven in the book of life. For the boy Lucius was instructed for the novitiate of Christ by the most skilful teaching of the holy prelate, advanced by commendable authority and fortified with protecting arms. Lucius in the years of boyhood most excellently discharged the warfare of Christ, and was slain with the official severity of a cruel parricide and was drenched with the outpouring of his own blood. Blessed certainly and to be proclaimed is the boyish age, by which the aged machinations of the ancient enemy are wonderfully mocked, by which a most impious father is spurned by a most pious son for the grace gratiæ 1. of truth, by which unbelief is confounded and the standards of the divine novitiate are unfurled brilliantly. This is that age which is magnificently proclaimed in the glorious martyr Lucius ^b and is glorified with heavenly honour. For Lucius, a most Christian boy, devout in faith, most robust in hope, most ardent in charity, a most robust contestant and a most ready martyr, at the command of truth from heaven was received with the munificent services of angels and in the choir of martyrs was crowned with the shining diadem of happy victory. Him indeed the worshippers of Christ venerate as a praiseworthy martyr, and with bowed prayers beg that they may have him as perpetual intercessor for them before God.

The barns are filled, wreathed with sheaves Of the life-giving harvest, our patron rejoicing To spread everywhere the rays of holy doctrine, Who was given to us as a special teacher in the world. Meanwhile the son of a certain chief of the Jewish Crowd prays, touched by a divine gift, That he may merit to be reborn in the fount of living water, Lucius, having obtained his name from the name of light. The saint, unwilling to put off what he seeks and desires, Teaches him fully with what mind he ought to undergo The bath, and renews his death perhaps lætum. by sacred baptism. And when such things are brought to the ears of the savage father, He gnashes and raves, and, exceedingly guileful, strays From a father's affection, thirsting to extinguish by death A magnificent offspring, bright with the seed of merits. At length, renewing his arms with viper-like poisons, He slays the innocent and thrusts him down into a deep well, Hoping, unhappy man, that so great a crime would lie hidden. Say, mighty nature, where are your paternal rights, When a father slays a son begotten of himself? As soon as to the holy ears of the servant of Christ is brought This horrendous crime, with the holy flock of monks He prepares to go there, and the holy body, taken From the pit, he gently commits to an honourable tomb, Himself an outstanding martyr, steadfastly, to be.

[19] [Going to his sick disciple Marius, Austremonius consecrates a church at Marojolum, another in honour of the deceased Marius,] Then the glorious Austremonius, while he fulfilled the office of burial for the holy martyr Lucius, received the mournful lucubrem 1. news of his blessed disciple Marius. Moreover it became known to him that the same venerable man was held by illness, and it was urged monuit 2. on his behalf that he should go to him swiftly for the sake of visiting (o. v. g. i.) vis. gr. oc. ir. 2.. For blessed Austremonius had directed him, traversing the mountain places, acting in the pontiff's stead, to enlighten men blinded by the darkness of error with the bright brilliance of his preaching and to lead them to the path of equity. Which he also did by showing examples of good actions (e. a.) act. ex. 2. and accomplishing commendable prodigies of works of virtue. So St. Austremonius, that he might be able to visit him by a speedy course, made blessed Necterius Nectarium 2., the praiseworthy presbyter, the companion of his journey, and also blessed Mammetus, the venerable archdeacon. These accompanying him, then, he made for the valley of Jorna ^c, where the venerable man Marius remained, held by infirmity. On the same journey he turned aside to a certain villa called Marojolum Maraiolus 2. ^d, in which he dedicated a basilica built by the inhabitants in honour of the prince of the apostles. Thence indeed with hurried steps the man of the Lord Dei 2. Austremonius strove to reach the man of God Marius. It came about, however itaque 2., that before the holy prelate reached the lodging of blessed Marius, the same man of God omits 2. had already departed from de 2. the world and by the will of God entered the shining palaces of the heavens. The often-named blessed prelate Austremonius, then, committed the holy body of the athlete of Christ to a new mausoleum with worthy veneration, and over him, as was worthy, he built a new basilica at the expense of the faithful remaining round about and solemnly consecrated it in his honour. For noblemen whom blessed Marius had caused to be converted (conv. fec.) converterant 2. to the way of truth by salutary preaching gave to the same church at the suggestion of Blessed Austremonius, from their estates, with most ready will, thirty manses for the use of the clerics there serving almighty God and St. Marius. This donation they wished the holy prelate to confirm with episcopal authority, that none of those coming after might dare to violate it with any rashness. For this they did at the most sincere admonition of the most blessed prelate, who greatly desired desiderabant 1, 3. to honour the holy Church of God and to strengthen the Catholic faith. In both indeed he is wonderfully strong, that is, both in desirable preaching and in commendable

action. For by vigorous stewardship he ennobles the churches of God, endowing them with most useful utillimas 2. advantages, that in the land of the living he may receive accipiat 2. a hundredfold portion according to God's promise.

[20] and then a third at Compendiacum. He had also directed many disciples into the mountains for the sake of preaching, of whom one reverend man came to him there, namely Antoninus ^e, who also made known to him how almighty God had through them implanted the sacrament of faith in the minds of men, and how the love of eternal life had grown up in them; and also how the whole people earnestly requested that he should go to dedicate the basilica newly built in the place called Compendiacum ^f. The man of the Lord, hearing this, glorified with sincere heart almighty God, who alone does wonderful things, and truly promised that he would go, as the people asked. Having therefore ordained there the ministers of the church, he went with his disciples to the place mentioned above. There too he consecrated a church ^g in honour of St. Michael the archangel and ennobled it with the ecclesiastical order. And when for some time he stayed there and corrected the errors of the peoples with commendable chastisement (pr. cast. em.) castigaverit prædicatione 2., there came together to him from all sides undique 2. his disciples, whom he had sent over into those parts to preach. To these the venerable pastor poured out the streams of saving doctrine with affable outpouring, and exhorted them, with the honest urbanity of wonderful eloquence, to strive by frugal parcimonili 1. observance to climb to the citadel of the holy virtues. For he kindled ascendebat 1, 2, 3. in their hearts a most perfect and most wholesome love amore 1, 3. of the heavenly homeland, preaching to them the Elysian pleasantness of perennial glory. He urged them, indeed, that, holding earthly desires of no account, they should soldier for Christ the king with all effort and all strength, every inique 2. artifice of pretence being removed, that et 2. they might receive from him without any delay the splendid crown of perpetual happiness.

ANNOTATIONS.

1. That which is believed to have been the house of Cassius, turned into a church after the conversion of its master. It was dedicated to St. Mary and St. Laurence. This was called the mother church of Blessed Mary, the episcopal one, which Gregory of Tours, in the History, book II, chapter 16, calls the oldest of the churches within the walls of the city. In the same place now stands the cathedral church.

2. Of the Holy Cross, a little distant from the cathedral, namely on the south side. It was afterwards called of the Holy Sepulchre, but was destroyed by Jacques d'Amboise, to make a fountain in the place which is now the place Delille.

3. Of St. Peter, in the square of this name, destroyed in the year 1796 by the rebels..

4. Of St. Michael, demolished many centuries back; it was in the place des Gras, near the western door of the cathedral.

5. Dedicated to the holy martyrs Cassius, Victorinus and Maximus near St. Illidius; destroyed after the overthrow of things in the eighteenth century.

6. Of St. Symphorian, crowned with martyrdom at Autun. To this church in the year 660 was given the name of St. Genesius, who had rebuilt it, whose body also was translated into it. It was destroyed by the rebels in the year 1794.

7. Of St. Maurice and his companion martyrs. This church had the name from St. Bonitus in the year 730, from St. Ferreolus in the year 1095; before the overthrow of things in France, it was the church of the minor seminary (sous la Poterne) under the Poterne.

8. The church of Chantoin, which was then of nuns, afterwards of canons regular, then of the Discalced Carmelites, and finally of priests of the missions.

9. Of St. Andrew, of which Tigridius had the rule while St. Leoguntius was living. It was in the western part of the city; it was destroyed in the year 1797.

10. Of SS. Cyricus and Julitta. In the year 470 it was of nuns, then parochial; in the year 1793 it was turned into a horse stable.

CHAPTER FOUR.

The martyrdom and burial of St. Austremonius.

The death intended for him by the Jews Meanwhile the aforesaid Jew, most wicked of the Jews, longed with efforts of every kind to do to the spiritual father of the same son, now a martyr, namely Blessed Lucius, what he had cruelly done to his carnal son, so that he who by evil persuasion had slain the holy martyr might by guileful machination kill blessed Austremonius. The magnificent prelate Austremonius greatly desired, as we have said, to consummate triumphal victories through the agonies of martyrdom. The holy man's disciples, noticing this after long, with perspicacious curiosity, were eager satagunt 2. to indicate to their master that the same wicked people were deliberating tractaret 2. his destruction with all the avidity of their minds, saying to him: O thrice and four times blessed lord father, are you unaware that the perfidy of this mad Jewish nation is raging crassare 2. for your ruin? Certainly, as we confess that it may be plain to you (s. t.) tibi sit 2., know that this evil company by its deceitful machinations machinationibus 2, 3. wishes speedily to extinguish your paternity and, if it were lawful, to abolish your name utterly from the living. Wherefore we beseech you, holy father, that you deign greatly to take care of yourself; because we greatly fear that you may fall into the snares of this most insane nation. For we know that those who did not fear to slay the ruler of heaven and earth when he appeared to the world in visible flesh will perhaps have no (f. n. t.) n. t. f. 2. pity on your reverend old age, and we have learned from your teaching, holy father, that at the fall of a good pastor there is a great ruin of the subject people plebi 2.. That this may not befall this innumerable people gained for the Lord through your teaching, it is fitting that your paternity should provide with great sagacity. When the man of the Lord had taken in these things from the mouth ora 2. of his disciples with tranquil mind and cheerful countenance, at length he opened his mouth thus and, rejoicing with inward cheerfulness and suffused with great hilarity alacritate 1; (gav. magn. hil.) omits 2., he said: O how desirable the news which foretells to me the desire of my heart! O happy me, if I can reach (p. q.) potuero pervenire 2. the glorious zeal of the contest in which the long diutius 3. battle machina 2. ^a is ended, and the victory, renowned in the power of the Thunderer and in the merit of the contestant, is praised! And when he walked more joyful than usual (p. s. l.) l. p. s. 2., the disciples, wondering, inquired of him what the aforesaid envoy had announced to him. And the holy prelate said: Happy the report of this rumour, if the fulfilment should come to the truth of the words; and it is best to undergo the loss of this bodily mass for Christ, if by it one reaches the most happy unfading prize (imm. brav.) præmium 2. of heavenly blessedness. For, as I confess that it may be plain to all, know that for the love of Christ the Lord I am willing to suffer innumerable crosses, and that I do not fear the horrid jaws of beasts and innumerable kinds of torments, until the vital breath fails; especially since it is to be embraced to fall by the guile of those who did not fear timuerunt 2. to lay truculent hands on the Lord Jesus Christi adds 2. in his death. But the divine clemency of the Almighty (o. c.) clem. omn. 2. by its ineffable providence will everywhere protect circumtegeret 1; circumtegere 2. his people, and by the mercy with which he willed to call it back from darkness to himself, who is the true light ad-lux omits 2., he will not cease to guard and preserve it to the end fide 2.. He also unceasingly suggested to all the admonitions of salvation, saying thus: Little sons, let it suffice sufficit 2. each to have pursued his own studies up to now and to have served his own pleasures. It remains that, as long as anyone lives, he should live to God and not to himself, who will render to each according to his works.

[22] Austremonius gladly awaits. At this reply the disciples were exceedingly saddened, heavy sighs were drawn again and again from the bottom of their breasts, the inward grief of the soul was disclosed in tearful lamentation, the affecting sadness of hearts was shown by tearful wailing and lamentable beating of the breast, their pale cheeks were watered by flowing rivulets of tears, and among most frequent sobs words were denied them by the greatness of their grief. But the holy athlete of God and omits 2. venerable prelate, illuminated stratus 1, 3. by heavenly grace, sharing with paternal affection in their excessive minime 2. sadness, spoke a consoling speech to them, saying: Why, my mei 2. dearest ones omits 2., do you become sadder than usual? Do you suppose that I fear the agony of the contest for the love of Christ the Lord? Know that for him I am prepared to endure all the punishments that can be devised excogitare 2. by any executioner. For if it behoved Christ the Lord to suffer and so to enter into his glory, who am I that I should refuse to suffer for him? Would that I were even suitable to follow the steps of his disciples, who through the wide spaces of the world have suffered various torments. For the servant is not greater than his lord, nor the apostle greater than he who sent him. Be unwilling, then, to be saddened about my safety, but rather rejoice with my happiness, because I reckon without hesitation that I shall be blessed and happy, if, persevering in the confession of truth, I pour out my own blood for that very truth (p. p. i. v.) pro. ip. ver. prop. 2.. My glory will beyond doubt be increased, if, when the wrestling fight is ended, I merit to be rewarded with the glorious victory of the heavenly ones cœlitus 2.. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. For to his mercy I altogether commit my desire, that he himself by his ordering may dispose it, from whom it is established

the beginning of all good will (bon. vol.) bonitatis 2.. For no ultra 1, 3. tribute of the world will separate me from his charity, no temporal distress, no monstrous savagery of persecutors; because, although, the Lord permitting, they can possunt 2. weary the body with various bitternesses and at the last also kill it, they can in no way have the soul in their power. For he who has promised us that not one of our hairs capillum 2. will perish will mercifully bring it about that not one of our limbs perishes, but that the spirit and soul and body be preserved eruetur 1, 3. whole at his coming. For my spirit greatly desires to go forth from the prison of fleshly corruptibility, that it may confess the Lord in heaven. But if I am necessary to you, still placed positus 1, 3. on pilgrimage, that I should labour et adds 1. in the camp of the faithful to gain unbelievers infidelium 1, 3., I do not refuse to soldier for the love of Jesus Christ. But it is much better to be with him illo 2. if, as I hope, the desire of my soul is fulfilled in a swift course of time. Let not the absence of my body, then, terrify you, because I shall be able to come to your aid the more when, by his support, I reach the blessedness which God has promised to those who love him (s. d.) diligentibus se 2.. For my heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God, who will not deprive of good things those who walk in innocence. And when the man of the Lord proceeded with such words, he mitigated somewhat their sadness. Then amid friendly embraces there were mingled pleasing kisses of peace, and, bidding them farewell with paternal affection, he also blessed them with episcopal authority, and after the blessing he brought in these addresses: Follow me, he said (i. m.) me inq. 2., most loving brothers, not with the step of feet but with the sacred imitation with which I have taught that the Lord Jesus is to be followed in rivalry. Hold, I beg, the form of that doctrine which you have learned from my teaching. Let no terror of worldly power break you, nor the slippery love of execrable execrabili 2. avarice occupy you, nor the sink of ill-omened gluttony castrymargiæ 1. distend you. But both amid prosperity and adversity keep the royal road, so that neither may prosperity insolently exalt you nor adversity dejectingly cast you down. By keeping, then, the saving purpose of the kindly faith, you will take capiens 1, 2. the reward of eternal recompense. Having said this, he ordered blessed Necterius Nectario 2. diligently to minister the declarations of true salvation to the people of Antrambes ^b (s. m. p.) pop. st. min. 2.. He himself began at once to return to the aforesaid monastery, taking assumpto 2. with him only blessed Mammetus, his deacon diaconem 2.. And when they had drawn near appropinquasset 2. to the monastery, at a certain boundary distant one stade and more, blessed Austremonius stopped substetit 1. for the sake of praying, and, bending his knees to the earth, he prayed for a very long time. For, with powerful faith, his most faithful mind, conscious of a perennial crown, was inflamed with an unspeakable love of perpetual glory. Nor did he hesitate to endure for Christ whatever torments not only Jewish but all human savagery could devise. For now, higher than the world, he was meditating more on triumphal victory in confidence in Christ (Chr. fid.) Christo 2. than on the agony of his aged body.

[23] The martyrdom of Austremonius Meanwhile the aforesaid chief of the Jews ^c, having sent scouts secretly along the road, awaited his coming. And when he learned from them that he had arrived, he met him in the aforesaid place with his accomplices. But Mammetus his deacon, when he saw them coming to meet them, terrified with fear left blessed Austremonius. Not far from the same eo 2. place he entered a certain cave, and because he had left the holy prelate alone from fear of suffering, he thereafter, removed from the sight of men, led a solitary life in that same cave. But the soldier of Christ Austremonius, seized by the Jews, was beaten for the faith of Christ with most atrocious whips; but he could not feel the torments inflicted on him, because he always had Christ Jesus in his mouth; and because faith was wonderfully strong in him, he could not deny Christ for whom he was suffering. And when he had been harassed for a long time, an angel appeared to him to comfort him with pious solace: Austremonius, he said, most glorious prelate of Christ, be not broken by punishment, but rather rejoice in omits 2. the reward which you will soon receive in the heavenly palace. For there awaits you the wonderful company of angels, the army of the heavenly powers also, the white-robed choir of martyrs too, among whom you will ever rejoice, adorned with perpetual glory. Having received this consolation, the athlete of Christ Austremonius, as if a new warrior suffused with the newness of icy perhaps gladialis. gladness, contended exulting in the contest. The aged limbs of his body amid the most dire blows of the executioners were strong pollebat 2. with most robust power. For his mind, conscious of happy patience, was without murmur and complaint. For the most monstrous madness of the lictors did not take away from him ab eo imm. 2. the confidence of dancing victory, because the most high power of divine might had strengthened his mind. Happy indeed utrique 1, 3. the wrestling-ground, in which the athlete of Christ faithfully strives, that he may obtain the desirable trophy of eternal glorification. Meanwhile the most unspeakable chief was very much afraid lest so cruel a savagery against St. Austremonius should be announced by some traveller to the Christians remaining round about, and therefore he greatly desired to kill him swiftly, lest perhaps he should be seized by force by faithful men omits 2.. Which also the holy prelate likewise feared, lest he be cheated by a brief space of time of the long-desired desiderata 2. glorious diadem of martyrdom. For the most wicked chief of the Jews and the magnificent prelate of the Christians had a like desire, but in unlike condition. The former, that he might extinguish the servant of God and sadden the whole universam 2. Church by the slaying of so great a pontiff; the latter, that he might adorn the palaces of heaven with a renowned martyrdom and make the Church of Christ resplendent (t. s.) spl. tr. 2. with triumphal victory. So the swollen timidus 1, 3. and detestable chief ordered by a law-breaking sentence that the holy prelate of God should be punished more swiftly with capital sentence. The unconquerable soldier of Christ was handed over anew to the most cruel omits 2. executioners a carnif. 1, 3., was pushed on this side and that, was mocked with repeated derision and in the mocking was thrown to the ground. And when he had fixed his knees on the earth, the swordsman stood over him and cut off his head with a sword-stroke glavinali 1. seccamine 2.. Withdrawing from there more swiftly, they carried away with them the kindly head of the venerable martyr, and threw it into the well into which the most unspeakable chief Judæorum adds 2. had already cast his son.

[24] distinguished by prodigies. Wonderful indeed is God, who in his saints works very omits 2. admirable mighty deeds. For to show of how great holiness and how great merit the venerable prelate and outstanding martyr was, he wonderfully honoured him with the wonderful power of signs. For at the same moment at which, by the cutting of the sword, blood flowed from his head, a fount of water burst forth from the earth under his feet. For the wonderful bringing forth of the fount evidently indicates (s. i.) ind. s. 2. a testimony of his uprightness. For the earth gave an admirable and commendable indication when St. Austremonius, purpled with his blood, passed to heaven. For at the hour in which his soul went forth from the body, attended by hymn-singing choirs, with the ministry of angels, it was seen in the form of a dove to be carried to the heavenly places. O man worthy of every kind of praise, whom at the Lord's command the warfare of angels serves! O martyr to be exalted by the glory of bountiful veneration, whom the Lord Jesus has judged should be set over all his goods! Over whom the wonderful assembly of the patriarchs dancingly exults, with whom the most splendid order of the prophets applaudingly rejoices, whom the choir of the apostles loftily honours, who also sits in the glorious company of the martyrs, laurelled with the splendid diadem of virtues. Happy for certain the Arvernian region, which the blessed martyr consecrated with his own blood. Happy, I say quam-inquam omits 3., which rejoices in so great a patron, by whose gracious glaciali 1; gloriali 3. merit too it is ever helped and by whose defending patronage it is protected. It is worthy, then, that the whole world should venerate blessed Austremonius, because the universal army of the saints rejoices over him in heaven.

[25] He is buried at Issoire, Meanwhile it was announced to the disciples that the athlete of Christ Austremonius had been slain by the perfidious Jews. Alas for grief! who can set forth how great a sorrow, how great a mourning and groaning alike crept into the hearts of the disciples? Surely, because their lamp-like light had been bodily extinguished. They ran with great sadness of heart, they ran with the greatest diligence, that it might be known where the limbs of the holy prelate and venerable martyr had been placed. At length omits 2. the most holy body was found without the head. Thereupon they were beyond doubt afflicted with intolerable sorrow and anguish alike (et ang.) ac dolore 2.. Heaven was at once filled with lamentable clamour, voices resounded omits 2. on this side and that with sorrowful wailing. Then amid complaining laments they also used such speech: O blessed Austremonius! why (ut q.) inquit 2. amid the shipwrecks of the world have you so soon left your flock? O most holy father, to whom have you committed us to be ruled and ac 2. instructed in the saving norm? Who henceforth will be our pastor and leader? Who so vigorous and chief a teacher? In whom shall we find the counsel of prudent uprightness, in whom the most welcome solace of inward love, in whom the commendable exhortation of true religion? You who are, as the Lord Jesus says, the splendid light of the world, who also through the death of the flesh have conquered the world, in his name be mindful of us, that we may be able to follow you to the glory of heaven whither you often admonished that you should be followed. Meanwhile they strove to send word as quickly as possible to Bishop Urbicus of how the thing had been done. When he had learned that his master had been slain by the impious Jews, moved with unspeakable sadness, at once gathering with him a multitude of clergy and (cl. ac) celeriter 2. people, he reached the monastery of Issoire by a speedy journey. The disciples had carried the body of the most holy martyr, with fitting duties of offices, into the church dedicated by him in ad. 2. honour of St. Peter. They grieved besides at the loss of the head that had been carried off; but at once on the side of the path they beheld fresh traces of blood; and when they followed the same traces, they came as far as the well and recognized that the head of the holy martyr had been thrown into it. But he by whose governance the order of the ages runs its course, taking care of his faithful omits 2. everywhere, most swiftly prepared religious men who should rescue the precious head from the watery dwelling and lay it up in a better mausoleum. For the sudden report of this deed flew through to the ears of all the Arverni. There was also a sudden running together of peoples, with harmonious unanimity lamenting and mourning alike: Who are those who have slain our pastor? Let them be taken from the midst of the Christians. Meanwhile the bishop with the clergy carried out the triumphal obsequies of the blessed martyr with solemn vow. The choir of disciples too, pouring out hymn-singing prayers, commended the holy martyr to almighty God. For mourning was mingled with the jubilation of the voice, the wailing of the people resounded greatly

in its lament, and amid the tuneful modulations of hymn-singing jubilation the venerable body of St. Austremonius was carried to the place of the common burial-ground polyandri 1.. For his glorifiable body was buried in the monastery of Issoire in a coffin loco 2. of hewn præciosi 2. stone.

[26] where he shines with miracles. This done peracta 1., there began to shine at the coffin of this outstanding martyr signal works of virtue so great as no tongue of the living can tell. For a multitude of the sick, faithfully drinking from the water of that well into which the holy head (s. c.) c. s. 2. was thrown, were by the merits of the holy man rescued from every affliction and restored to the desired soundness. Each year too, on the same day on which the blessed martyr, leaving earthly things, entered the starry ones sidera 3., the water of his well, rising from the depths, was seen wonderfully to moisten its rims, signifying the abundantly flowing largiflue 2. and as it were inundating virtue of the holy martyr. O blessed Austremonius, how sweet it is to me omits 2. by the grace of piety and humility to weep your martyrdom! How dear it is for the sake of love and honour to praise your triumph! because as you are strong and praiseworthy mirabilis 2. in both, so you shine forth wonderful laudabilis 2. in both. To honour you indeed is rich in praise, because everyone who solemnly honours you without doubt magnifies the wonderful power of Christ Jesus who has glorified you. For to implore you is profitable, because thereby the desirable pardon of offences is obtained and heavenly grace attained. Now, secure about yourself, be, I beg (s. q.) scis quæso 1; sisque 3., solicitous for the college of your little servants, that, supported by your suffrage, we may merit mereantur 2. to advance from virtue to virtue, so that we may be able securely to see the God of gods in Sion. May all too who celebrate your solemnity with humble omits 2. devotion enjoy present peace and, having received the remission of offences, glory with you in eternal glorification. Blessed Austremonius, then, completed his glorious agony on the day of the kalends of November in the sixty-fourth year from the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings reigning, to whom be honour and glory for ages of ages. Amen Here codex 2, or the Paris one, ends..

Nation ever hostile to the good, unspeakable Judaea, Bearing a cunning fox under a vapid breast, As we said above, in its fury strives to deliver This your patron to death for the name of Christ, At the instigation of the chief who had boldly deprived his son Of the light of life, emptying him of the vital airs. So the open soldier is seized and dragged by bloody curentis 1. Jewish hands, worthy of tragic blood, And thus an angel, appearing from heaven, comforting him Long tortured, says: Venerable athlete ad letha 1, 3. of God, Beloved of the King above, remember to rejoice; You will receive joys that slip away in no end. By these kindly words the saint is rendered more constant, The old man not trembling to proclaim the sublime name of Christ To the proud Jews, until, worn down by their Punishments, for Christ he willingly stretched forth, With his knees prostrate on the earth, his bending neck. The swordsman, standing over him, resolves with one blow To strike the holy neck of his head. So too, climbing the heights summo 1. of the pole, brighter than the stars, He stands in the citadel of the pious king, now victor of the Arverni. O with what sacred praise in heaven and earth is to be venerated This outstanding martyr, whom Christ has judged worthy for his merits Gladly to adorn with a kindly diadem in heaven! Worthy indeed of praise whom the bands of heaven praise; Over whom the world exulting rejoices duly as its patron, Highest glory be ever to our creator. On the day of the kalends of November glorious vows are paid; Sixty and four years are said to run from the death of Christ To the glorious triumph of the prelate Austremonius [so also 1 in the margin; but in the text Ad gloriosum usque triumphum præsulis Stremoni, and again in the margin it is indicated that the syllable Au should be prefixed to this name.].

ANNOTATIONS.

The saint, warned by a faithful servant, took to flight toward Besse, where his companions Necterius and Mametus were staying, following the road into the village of Perrier, by which the way leads to Besse or Saint-Nectaire. The people of Issoire with the prefect's soldiers followed him in his flight; and when the holy man saw them coming, he took the road at a quicker step. The soldiers, seeing him, raised a shout, saying: Hold the fugitive. A certain nobleman of Perrier, who was occupied in hunting, hearing the shouts, was carried on horseback against him as he went, to close the way. But the saint went on, turned back, climbed into the vineyards of Plaigne, where there was then a forest, such as the tract called of the Reeds (des Roseaux), and arrived panting at Tormay, where there is now a chapel dedicated to him, and drank from the water of the spring which still gushes forth in the said chapel, and which has been a solace to many who have drunk of it. In that place this nobleman of Perrier, angry on account of the long pursuit, seized the saint, and ordered him to be beheaded. He himself offered the head of the slain man to Lucius the prefect, who greatly rejoiced at the gift. But Lucius, the prefect's son, hearing of the death of Austremonius, reproached his father; who, blazing vehemently against his son, at once delivered him to death, and ordered, according to some, the corpse to be thrown into a well, which in modern times they say is the well before the church of St. Avitus, as is said in the Life of St. Austremonius. The legend of both martyrs was composed by St. Praejectus and St. Avitus, bishops of Clermont. The memorial of the youth Lucius is kept in the monastery of Issoire on the day after the feast of Austremonius. Thereafter the title of martyr began to be denied to St. Austremonius, because Gregory of Tours calls him a confessor; but it is better to give credit to SS. Praejectus and Avitus, contemporaries of St. Gregory, who call him a martyr. Add the martyrology of Bordeaux, that of Clermont, and the church of the monastery of Issoire, where in his office the antiphons of a martyr are sung. Now too, a little before I wrote this, in the year 1731, the Benedictine fathers of Saint-Allyre near Clermont produced charters, which called back from error those believing that St. Austremonius was not a martyr. Nevertheless in the year 1737 the Lord J. B. Massillon, bishop of Clermont, calls him only a confessor in the breviary which he himself made and ordered to be printed by Pierre Boutaudon, royal printer at Clermont. This breviary all the secular priests were compelled to accept, the Lord Massillon strictly ordering it and forbidding them to perform the Roman office; a thing which many presbyters of more advanced age bore ill. A certain most learned man at Clermont informed me that there survives a certain form of reproach which is still used against the inhabitants of the village of Perrier, and which must be said to have had its origin in the foregoing narrative. For it is said thus: These are the Jews of Perrier who killed St. Austremonius. Perhaps it is worthwhile to add here something about the Issoire Manuscript. Sometimes there is prefixed the title Annals of Issoire. It is attributed to a certain author Charrier, who asserts that he collected notes together with Pierre Guérin, a citizen of Issoire, from a certain manuscript parchment codex, which the soldiers of Captain Merle, having seized it from the treasury of the monastery of Issoire, had thrown into the public square of the town, when the city was taken in the year 1575. Others, among them Mr. Dulaure, make the author Julien Blauf of Issoire. See the Tablettes historiques de l'Auvergne, by the author J. B. Bouillet, vol. VIII, 1847. For the sake of the curious reader I turn the following into Latin from the same Issoire Manuscript: The Life of St. Austremonius written by SS. Praejectus and Avitus was lost or burned by the Goths or other invaders who laid waste the church of Issoire. But that which I found written in Gothic script was transferred, before the city was taken by Captain Merle, to the priory of Saint-Saturnin. This Life had been composed by a certain monk to repair the loss which the region had suffered by the loss of the former Life.

CHAPTER FIVE.

The Jews punished. The cult of St. Austremonius neglected. The revelation of the body and a double translation.

The Jews who reject the faith of Christ are punished with death. Then, the duties of the obsequies having been completed, Bishop Urbicus, calling to him the senators of the city and the leading men of the region, instructed them to seize without delay the detestable synagogue of the Jews with its chief, and that whichever of them preferred to observe the faith of the Christian religion, catechized by a doxological doxoloco 1, 3. teacher, should be washed in the saving scrutiny in the flood of baptism and permitted to live for the love of Christ; but those who refused in stubborn unbelief should be punished by penal condemnation to death. Obeying his acceptable edict at once, the execrable Jews were seized; and when they had been seized, it was proclaimed with the herald's voice that they should choose one of two things, either to soldier for Christ the king or to pay the punishments of death. For those who had heard the voice of the angel while blessed Austremonius was contending in the contest, saying: Austremonius, be not broken by punishment, but rejoice in the reward which you will soon receive in the heavenly palace, and had also seen the admirable sign when his head was cut off, namely the fount of water divinely brought forth from the bowels of the earth, believed with festive pleasure and persuaded very many others to believe. But those who remained in their perfidy, afflicted with the most just penalty of a most dire punishment, endured the torments of a transitory death, and after postquam 3. the temporal blows of manifold harassment and affliction, leaving behind their empty and lacerated bodies, condemned by the divine examination, they made for the penal Tartarus, to pay the horrid punishments of perpetual death.

[28] The cult of Austremonius at first very celebrated, then diminished. These having been reduced to nothing, religious men, fervent with the zeal of divine love, began to venerate with the highest honour the same place where they had entombed the holy martyr, and many, coming from distant regions, awaited the more magnis 1. the suffrages of the blessed martyr Austremonius. Relying on his help and supported by his protection, rescued from whatever affliction held them, they returned sound and cheerful to their own homes. So with many largesses of estates, in no long interval of time, the same place grew, so much so that from the abundance of very many expenses very many churches were built around that monastery cœnobiorum 3.. To this assenting antiquity testifies at the ancient summit of its open record, and the very laboured face of the pavement in many places evidently confesses it. At a certain time in Lent quadragesimi 1., then, when the priest was celebrating the divine mysteries according to custom, blessed Austremonius, marvellous to say, in the sight of all who were present, came out of his tomb, and, advancing

before the altar, raising his right hand according to the custom of a bishop, blessed the priest and all the people, and, the blessing completed, while they watched, returned to his own tomb. The cult of holy religion remained, and also the state of honour of that same place, until, with the permission of the most just censure of almighty God, on account of the innumerable crimes of men, the savagery of the pagans raged crassata 1. far and wide. By the monstrousness of this ferocity many cities were depopulated, very many fortresses utterly destroyed, monasteries demolished to the ground, and what were then the dwellings of men were made the lairs of wild beasts through the excessive devastation. At that same time the monastery of Issoire, commendably surrounded with a praiseworthy throng of very many churches, is known to have been depopulated and utterly overturned by the deadly hand of the barbarians. In this storm too the older monks, who knew where and how the venerable body of the holy prelate Austremonius had been laid up conditum 3., the thread of the Fates having been snapped, held to the ways of all flesh. And so the tomb of the same holy martyr remained unknown ^a; yet the memory of his name, to be recalled, was ever known to posterity. When the whirlwind of wars had been lulled and the time of peace returned, where there had once been so many monasteries, two oratories were restored, in which those who had remained carried out the divine offices.

[29] [the Arvernian region having been laid waste and the monastery of Issoire demolished.] How these slaughters and the deadly disasters of these tragedies took place sunt 3., let him who desires to know fully have recourse to the book which he will know has been written on the deeds of the Germans. For, as is reported there, after the most shameful King Theoderic ^b overran the kingdom of the Franks, burning with excessive cruelty and at the same time cupidity, he took the Gauls and Aquitaine and the city of Pavia together with Lombardy by violent overrunning; and that he might be able alone to possess the kingdoms he had overrun, he waged war with his brothers at Vienne, a most ancient city, in which war he overcame his brother and also killed him ^c. O accursed hunger for gold, to what do you not compel mortals! You who with the poisonous root of all iniquity so lethally infected this wretch that he presumed to do this which beasts shrink from doing. But his army, wearied of the long expedition and the labour of battles, prepared to turn their arms against their leader. He, fearing lest he be deprived of the kingdom with disgrace and given over to a truculent death, calling together all the nobles of his army, broke their anger with such an exhortation and bound their spirits with such an admonition of his cupidity: O bravest and most invincible soldiers, unmindful of all labours, prepare now for the plunder of many desirable supply urbium?, you who up to now have laboured excessively in hunger and cold and also the onslaught of wars. For I shall show you ahead a land rich in metals of gold and silver and fertile in all fruits. When it has been overrun, the memory of your former labour will utterly withdraw from your hearts. And thus having entered the Arverni ^d, levelling monasteries and churches to the ground, as we have already said, and raging crassatus 1. with excessive wickedness, he burst into the village of Brioude, as is read in the Book of Miracles of blessed Julian [e], and broke up everything desirable, nor did he spare the sacred building. Going on from there, he went to the monastery of Issoire and despoiled it of its former glory, as the same Passion teaches, and reduced it to a solitude. Besieging also the city of the Arverni, thinking to take it, by the will of God he was disappointed of his own hope. But lest we seem to be weaving a stratematicon, omitting these things let us return, with the help of the High-Throned One, to the purpose from which we strayed.

[30] The region again laid waste, the body of Austremonius is translated to Volvic These things having so been done, the faithful of God who remained, though very few, defended in safety by hard rocks or steep mountains or hidden tunnels, lest the worship of God should utterly perish among them, began according to their measure to restore oratories in place of very capacious basilicas, since the upkeep of all the monasteries located among the Arverni had utterly perished. At about the same time a certain most illustrious man, surnamed Cautinus, discharging the office of archdeacon, took on the place of Issoire to rule. In his times very many, seeing the aforesaid storm calmed, did not honour glorificaverunt 3. the Lord, author of peace, as they ought, but, adding according to the psalmist's word iniquities upon their iniquities, they rather provoked him to anger. To them it deservedly so happened, as once to the Egyptian people, all whose growing things, after the hail had consumed them, whatever was left the locust coming upon them gnawed away; and as it is said through the prophet: What the hail grandini 1. left the caterpillar ate, and what the caterpillar left the locust ate, the blight laid waste. And he at once adds: Awake, wretched ones, and weep. For whatever Theoderic, hateful to God, left, afterwards the Vandal nation, excessively savage, coming forth from the scabbard of its cruelty, scattered. Avitus, successor of Blessed Projectus, taking away from Issoire the body of most blessed Austremonius, moved it to Volvic beside the body of his predecessor, as is to be reported fully in its translation.

[31] and afterwards, through the work of King Pippin, But almighty God subjected the necks of the kings of the Franks to the yoke of his faith, and by his merciful condescension granted them victory against the barbarians; and thus by the support of those kings and of the other men living with sounder mind and devoting themselves to uprightness, mother Church, who like a base person had remained uncared for, gradually began to resume her former beauty and step by step to cast off her misfortune, and sacred religion in rivalry to resume its growth. Among these kings the divine sublimity chose beforehand one surnamed Pippin, who, as Titan by his brightness and the quivering of his fiery tresses drives off and uncovers the foul covering of clouds, so by his aid and labour destroyed what was harmful and increased the profitable, indeed the saving worship. This cui 1, 3. venerable king, exceedingly skilful and industrious, ordered a synod pleasing to God to be gathered ^f, in which quo 1. were most renowned prelates and innumerable counts. With these, then, the aforesaid king disputed very many things, as the divine sublimity granted, on the faith of the holy Trinity against heretics opposed to God, and he drove all the incorrigible with their accomplices out of his kingdom. Opening at last his own treasury, he most devoutly conferred infinite gifts on the faithful of God as it pleased him libito 3. for the restoration of churches and the repair of their fabric. At this most sacred court there was present as leading figure Rotgerius, a very great duke, approved in the Pythagorean tongue, and an outstanding standard-bearer. He, sprung from the race of the Franks and more renowned than the Agamemnonian stock, was nobly brought up in the court of the aforesaid king. When a certain count of the Arverni, surnamed nomine 3. Hector, died, he received from the often-mentioned king his offspring Eufrasia; with whom celebrating sweet nuptials, he received by right everything that had been her father's. This renowned count, then, built a very great place in honour of the Lord Saviour, to which he gave the name Karrofulum, as if on account of the OFULAM of the dignity of Karolus, his father being then dead, with the support of the same Karolus. To this place, that he might merit to receive fitting recompense from the very Saviour of the world, he gave the fortress they call Incissa Petra, which he had acquired by hereditary right with the aforesaid Eufrasia from the aforesaid Hector. But omitting these things, let us walk the path we have begun.

[32] from Volvic to Mozac. The abbots, then, who were in attendance on the royal majesty majestatis 1., having received very great gifts from him, all gladly returned to their own homes; among whom there was a certain distinguished præclarus 3. man, very dear to the king himself, named Lanfrid, who with every kind of prayer begged to be granted the body of kindly Austremonius, which the monastery of Volvic had long held interred. The king, now conjecturing nothing, trusting in the name as a support, by right takes away the sacred thing from the earthborn sod and suddenly the celibate is praiseworthily held up by his hands ^g. Moreover three boys, of equal countenance and grace and brilliant with beauty, their hands bound to one another with garlands and wreathed with mirrors of roses, came to the obsequies; of whom one, seizing the cloth, thereupon, on the covered pillow, not there where the back of the head but where the forehead parts, putting in his hand, carried off three flowers of a rose: namely, the first, to bear a sacred heir; the second, to breathe glad lætas 1. honours on the household; the third, a power from above to be fitted without delay for protection. Hisoris are together. What those above have willed, although fixed from the breast. But never more, let us part in willing. Let a suitable place be prepared for the distinguished ones as of old. After this he showed the king's standard-bearer, and that the parties be bound, by the affectation of lofty honouring. Swift in the hollow comis 1. valleys nivallibus 1. January triumphs. Let us sing, and let us love. Now you chaste ones, join ours with your praise. Under the sod the soma, with honourable vow, in the midst of waters. Whose highest southern region Flaviacus adorns. Here end EXPLICIUNT 3. the deeds and passion of St. Austremonius, bishop and martyr.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE REVELATION OF THE BODY OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS AND ITS DOUBLE TRANSLATION BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

from the Vatican codex and the edition of Labbe.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

BHL Number: 0853, 0854, 0855 a

FROM MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS.

The body of Austremonius, long neglected at Issoire. Here begins the revelation of the body of blessed Austremonius.

After the long courses of years, during which the glorious martyr of the Lord Austremonius, to be named through the whole world, in the wrestling-ground of this Kedar, whose sojourn the orthogibra, fallen from the seat of paradise, left to his sons by hereditary right, contending with the devil in a happy encounter, the prize and the agony of martyrdom having been consummated, had climbed victorious to the heavenly kingdoms, and his sacrosanct somata had rested interred under a cheap stone in the monastery of Issoire, it came about, through long disuse in evils, as the misery of men grew, that the body of the same most pious father was deprived of fitting service, the innumerable benefits which he had worked there while living in this life being forgotten. And so it pleased the divine sublimity sublimitatis 1. to make plain to the world what and how great the same martyr was, when it willed that he be made known in such a manner. For a lamp vehemently kindled with the fire of the Holy Spirit could not be set under a bushel, but had to be raised on a candlestick, that it might be able to give light to all who are in the house of God.

[2] is revealed to Cautinus the archdeacon, afterwards bishop of the Arverni. At that time, then, a prelate, supported by God's aid, ruled according to his measure the arduous see of the Arverni, who, as I suppose, by a certain happy presage, on account of that very work of his, in which he proved prudent, obtained the name of Cautinus. For the same man, before he was raised to the pontifical throne, in his archdiaconate ruled the church in which, as we have already said, under a cheap clod and a humble sod lay hidden that heavenly and precious treasure. Then, while on a certain night he was lying on the bed of his cell, which was contiguous to this basilica, with his temples pressed down, he caught with his ear a most clear yet most faint sound of certain voices resounding praises to God. He, at once moved by fear, shaking himself from his bed and thunderstruck, longing to know with his eyes what he had taken in with his ear, at once looked inside and saw the same church shining with a great brightness, but not with a material light. He hesitated within himself what this might be. For his cell so held the lofty summit that the upper room was fitted to the windows of the church. And behold, beside the tomb he saw a heavenly host standing, radiant above the brightness of the sun, holding in their hands the saving standards of the cross and bearing candles fragrant beyond the usual manner. The long robes too and the state-robes with whose covering they were clad surpassed the whiteness of snows and every odour of musk and balsam. The more curiously he desired to behold this same vision, the more was his sight dulled by the splendour. I believe that it was an angelic power that had come together to celebrate a vigil at the tomb of the blessed martyr. When vero 3., then, that kindly crowd had gone away, he, returning to himself, when morning came called his companions and the citizens. Then he said: O nugeclirivi nugeclerivi 3., why has the reverence for our father perished in this basilica, and why has the skill of his foster-sons been cheated of the services worthily shown to him through so many ages, by your torpid sloth? Having said this, he ordered the case of the martyr to be enclosed with a railing and thereafter honoured with the greatest honour. From this, then, if frequent devout prayer is poured out over the tomb of the saint, aid is ever obtained from the sacred prelate himself. Here ends the revelation.

[3] Then, his memory again obliterated, Here begins his first translation. Not long a space of time afterwards it happened that the most cruel nation of the Vandals, desiring to increase its fame and spread its glory, should invade nearly the whole of Gaul. It, destroying cities, overturning fortresses, scattering churches, depopulating monasteries and villas, making the greatest slaughter of Christians, allowed no one further to possess his own life whom it could find in its presence. The storm of this persecution the splendid Arvernian city, although it flourished with many pomps and was defended by the swords of robust robustium 1. men and protected by the bulwarks of towers and walls, could not avoid, because it was destitute of divine aid, for the reason that it did not yet honour the author of its salvation as it ought. For there survive to this day, as a monument of its ancient nobility, only remains of walls raising lofty summits, useful for nothing else. The churches too of the same country having been almost levelled æquantis 1. to the ground, it came about, alas for grief! that the same place where the holy one of the Lord Austremonius rested was made desolate, and that most precious pearl, fit for the diadem of the eternal king, was utterly deprived of the veneration of men, and what negligence ignorantia 3. had first done, this afterwards, as is grievously to be groaned at gemenscendum 1., the ignorance of the priests did to him.

[4] through Bishop Avitus he is translated from Issoire; For at that time blessed Avitus, a most vigorous man, held the prelacy of the Arvernian see; who, remembering the past scourges and wasting with grief, was greatly animated by that utterance of Boanerges Banargis 1., by which he says that we must enter the kingdom of God through many distresses and tribulations. When, then, ever devoting himself to prayer, he had commended his weary limbs to rest, on one of the nights, at the balance of midnight, there came to him a man in vision, of lively countenance, adorned with white hair, with burning eyes, wonderful in his gait, terrible in his aspect, who began thus: Hey you! he said, why, torpid with sloth, are you weighed down by sleep and waste, worn out with grief? And when you have a great patron before God, who can obtain most easily, sooner than said, all that he asks of him, do you, neglecting him, seek the aid of his brothers, that is, of other saints? For know for certain that as long as his most blessed body lacks due veneration, your prayer before God will by no means obtain effect. So rise up tirelessly as quickly as possible, and transfer his most holy body elsewhere; because the pestilence that has befallen this city has been chiefly for this cause. For that my speech may be made more certain to you, from the place called Issoire bring the most glorious body of most blessed Austremonius to the monastery of Volvic, that through his most precious gloriosissima 3. merits God may open to the human race the gate of his mercy. Having beheld this vision, the said prelate, rising from his bed, gave thanks to almighty God, and calling the brethren narrated in order the whole text of this vision. A not small people of both sexes having thus been gathered, he went to the place where the most holy body rested, troops of monks and clerics being joined to him together. The clemency of the High-Throned One having thus been supplicated, when at the prelate's command the urn in which the holy martyr's limbs rested was opened and the holy body was raised from it, so great an odour of sweetness arose from it, as if many spices and balsam were being sprinkled there, so much so that all who were present confessed that he was enjoying that paradisal nectar of sweetness which the rejoicing bride asks for: Draw me, she says, after you, we will run in the odour of your ointments.

[5] those who despise the sacred body are divinely punished; Raising, then, the holy martyr's remains with hymn-singing chants and the applause of the peoples, they arrived, God accompanying them, at a certain monastery, I shall not say of girls but of dark birds; because the blackness which they wore in their habit they bore in their heart, the devil accompanying them; and there they turned aside for the sake of lodging. That monastery had been built in honour of Mary the sinner and Martha her sister. Then that water-snake, who had driven first-born Adam from the flower-bearing seat, and who has always known how to be opposed to all goodness and envious of all charity, having recourse to his customary and most trusted arms, sending himself into the hearts of some of the sisters, did not fear with viper's tongue to lacerate the holy body with such insults: O, they said, most beloved brothers, this illud 3. lifeless body that you have brought, say whose it is or by what name it is reckoned. To them the reply was given by the brethren: This venerable body which you behold, know for certain to be that of most holy Austremonius, most excellent father, first and supreme prelate of the Arverni. To them they, as if full of demons, said: This your Austrebodius, as you call him, take away with you as quickly as possible and depart from here, because unless you do this quickly, you will not depart without great loss to you, insulted. Saying this with great fury, and hurling very many other insults at the holy man of God, they hid themselves, not in their cloisters, but in caves. The High-Thunderer, then, who permits nothing to go unavenged, and who says terribly through the prophet: Touch not my anointed ones, that is, kings and priests, and do no evil against my saints, and likewise: He who touches you, he says, touches the pupil of my eye, willed that their damnable triviality should be so terribly struck down and severely avenged, that those hearing this should by no means dare further to utter any insults with rabid mouth against the saints of God. For some of them were seized by demons, others slain by their own nooses, others also consumed by fevers and dysenteries, some indeed labouring under a flux of the belly and digesting their own entrails with their very excrement, and swarming with worms, slain, all departed unhappily from this fragile life within a brief space of time. And thus was fulfilled in them what is written in the book of Wisdom of the impious: With a double destruction, he says, destroy them, O Lord.

[6] the body is brought to Volvic. After no long space of time, then, the aforesaid pontiff, seeing the same place made desolate, calling a crowd of clerics and laymen, commanded that they should again remove the remains of the holy martyr and bring them to the place called Volvic, as had been divinely revealed to him, as has already been said above. Having watched one night, then, and celebrated the vigils according to custom, with joy and dancing, carrying away the body of the holy martyr, they brought it to the monastery called Volvic, where the holy martyr and pontiff Praejectus lies interred, and beside his tomb they resolved that St. Austremonius should be laid. And when his holy limbs had rested there for a long time, the Divinity, unwilling that the twin glory of his Church, namely these two great lights, should be contained in the narrowness of one place, it pleased the divine majesty again that the holy martyr should be removed from the same place. Here it ends.

[7] of the monastery of Mozac Here begins his second translation. With the assistance of the power of the High-Throned One, with the help of his clemency, now the time is at hand when, by the plea of most blessed Austremonius himself, the outstanding athlete, his sacred translation should be disclosed. There is, then, a place very distinguished by ancient nobility and most renowned in religion, ten miles distant from the Arvernian city, by name Mozac; which place in ancient times was built by Calminius, an outstanding senator of the Romulean city, and which he distinguished with the pledges of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and likewise of the kindly martyr Caprasius, and enriched with gifts and enlarged with possessions of fields, giving at the same time splendid estates, with bondmen and slaves. Which place

he ordered to be consecrated under the honour of the aforesaid fathers, namely that it might be supported through the ages by the intervention and aid of those whose sacrosanct pledges it contained. But after the kindly martyr Austremonius was brought there, with the Lord's favour, the name of that monastery also passed over to the glory of his holy name.

[8] Abbot Lanfrid, the body of Austremonius, from King Pippin, The rector of this sacred archimonastery was one of eternal and happy memory, surnamed Lanfrid, who strove in every way to please both God and men; and he so laboured to imitate Martha that he by no means neglected Mary. Almighty God sent into his heart a salutary counsel, according to that apostolic saying: Every best gift, he says, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights; namely that with the flock of monks entrusted to him he should go to the most serene king, Lord Pippin, suppliantly imploring him that he be permitted to translate to his monastery one of the foremost holy martyrs of the Arvernian city. The aforesaid king was staying at that time in the city of the Arverni, flourishing with excessive pomps, accompanied by a great troop of his nobles and attended by a throng both of Germans and of Arverni.

[9] who had also been stirred by a vision to grant this, obtains The same Augustus, hearing the petitions of the aforesaid father, as he ever willingly lent his ear to upright speech, and at the same time mindful of a dream he had seen some time before, that he was as if in ecstasy of mind present at Volvic; and that having entered there, for the sake of praying, the basilica of the Blessed martyr Praejectus, he saw a certain tribunal more splendid than gold placed on the holy altar by certain persons of altogether venerable bearing, and thus a certain king, jewelled and so endowed with incredible beauty that the lights of the innumerable candle-bearers standing by were clouded by the glory of his ineffably radiant majesty, seated on the tribunal itself, and many thousands of saints standing by him. Among whom the kindly Austremonius, clothed with a golden toga, adorned with a stole, vested in a chasuble, stood as if ready for completing a certain journey, and he inquired whom the same Power was directing to him as companion of this journey. To him: The companion you ask for, O most beloved, have him who has now come in here for the sake of praying; and thus the most honourable father, giving his hand to the king, went out of the church. The same inquired of him whither they were to go. The saint answered: There is close by a place dedicated in honour of my lord and master, Peter, prince of the apostles, named Mozac, and I have received this from the Lord in commands, that I should take it under my guardianship and protection, and be the overseer and provider of all that is done there and of itself. And when he had said this, he betook himself under the thick clouds and this vision disappeared from the eyes of the king. He, having heard the abbot's petition, was made cheerful, and with all that royal magnificence, and with no small number of bishops and abbots and clerics, he came to Volvic, and, inquiring about the bodies of the saints entombed there, he learned that blessed Austremonius had been the teacher and master of the Arvernian countryside, and had converted its inhabitants to the rudiments of the faith, and had been brought here from the monastery of Issoire. He at once, filled with great joy and touched by divine inspiration, as Wisdom testifies: The heart of the king is in the hand of God, and wherever he will he shall turn it, at once ordered the abbot to direct a swift messenger to the brethren, that they should hasten as quickly as possible and with God's help bring the blessed martyr to him.

[10] and with great pomp, the king accompanying, They at once, hastening with immense exultation, and having with them as token of the royal authority Joseph, apocrisiarius apocrisiarium 3. of the king himself, who after his departure was abbot of the monastery of Thiers, passed that night in vigil and, unlocking the case of the most holy martyr, they brought out his most sacred body for translation. When, then, that mausoleum was opened, so great a fragrance arose from it that it exceeded the sweetness of all spices. For it surpassed Sabaean and terebinthine incense; opobalsam could not equal it, nor cassia nor cinnamon nor all the kinds of perfumes. On the morrow, then, when Phoebus with his brightness was darkening the golden stars and most serenely pouring his light upon the lands, the renowned king, distinguished with the diadem and covered with most noble purple, ran up gladly with that magnificent retinue of his, and the whole region at once came to meet him, and bringing thence the holy martyr (m. s.) s. m. 3. they carried him with the applause and excessive cheerfulness of the peoples. The most august king, in the likeness of King David, who once danced before the ark of the Lord, forgetting his royal purple, for joy drenched all that distinguished vesture with tears and exulted before the holy martyr's obsequies, and carried his most sacred limbs on his own shoulders.

[11] amid many miracles It was winter; for Janus was then giving place to Februus and by alternate succession was then taking his turn. And as they went their way glad and cheerful, suddenly snow of such density began to fall that it covered the whole Arvernian countryside. And, marvellous to say, through all that space of the road along which the holy body was carried, no snow at all fell: I believe, that the grace of God might show that salvation was coming to that region by the merits of the blessed martyr, and not that it might cause a hindrance to the peoples. All the sick, then, and those to whom nature had denied light, as soon as they merited to touch the holy martyr's coffin, received their former health. For the former, their steps recovered, were made sound, and the latter were made partakers of the desired light, and many others were restored to health.

[12] he translates to his monastery in the year 764. Then the innumerable bands of peoples were pressed upon them abundantly, until they came to the monastery to which its old founder gave the name Mozac, because it is founded among waters ^b. For the same place is so fertile and delightful that it seems to lack almost nothing. There then, with God's favour, Bl. Austremonius was placed with great honour; in which place to this day his benefits flourish and his merits bloom and the increases of his works of virtue through each day, so great as no tongue of mortals can unfold. Which if they were written one by one, perhaps I think that they would be called apocryphal by many. In the year DCCLXIIII from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, indiction Indicione 1. 2, in the 24th year of the reign of Lord Pippin, this translation was carried out. At the same time Constantine, son of the emperor Leo, ruled over the Romans. Here ends the second translation.

ANNOTATIONS.

BOOK OF MIRACLES.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

After the double translation which we have just given, there is read in Vatican codex 486 a series of miracles, which Labbe likewise hands on from the Lérins codex in the same place. But since nothing is found in this book of miracles except what was said in the second Life from no. 20 to the end (see above, p. 59 ff.), the reader will find the variant readings of these codices already noted above.

ADDITION CONCERNING THE RELICS OF ST. AUSTREMONIUS BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

from the edition of Labbe alone.

Austremonius, bishop and martyr, apostle of the Arverni. (S.)

BHL Number: 0856 a

FROM PRINTED BOOKS.

[The body of St. Austremonius translated from Issoire to Volvic, then from Volvic to Mozac.] That the bones of St. Austremonius, translated to Mozac by King Pippin, are preserved there. It remains most well known to all that Bl. Austremonius, first bishop of the Arverni, completed his life by an illustrious martyrdom at the village called Issoire. The Vandal nation long afterwards destroyed that place. After its destruction blessed Avitus, bishop of Clermont, instructed by an angelic oracle, translated the body of Bl. Austremonius from Issoire to Volvic. From which place Pippin, renowned king of the Franks, at the petition of Lanfred, abbot of Mozac, Adebert, bishop of Clermont, being present, afterwards carried it to Mozac. There out of reverence for the Blessed martyr he left very many distinctions, namely crystal vessels, and precious stones, and very much gold, from which should be made a vessel in which the body of Bl. Austremonius might be honourably laid up. So Adebert, bishop of Clermont, who with Abbot Lanfred had translated the body of the same martyr to Mozac, at his last end, believing that he was helped before God by the merits of the same martyr, wished to be entombed in the church of Mozac, in witness of the truth.

[2] The head to Roger of Aquitaine Of the head of the same glorious martyr we have this as most certain, that at the time when Lord King Pippin was translating the body of the often-mentioned martyr from Volvic to Mozac, duke, given by King Pippin Roger, duke of Aquitaine, extorted from the same King Pippin the head of the same martyr in place of a very great gift, and translated it to a fortress of his own right called Petra-incisa. How the head itself was brought to Issoire we briefly disclose.

[3] and placed in the fortress of Petra-incisa The aforesaid Duke Roger built a very great monastery in honour of the Lord Saviour, which was called Karrofulum in honour of Karolus; to this place he granted in perpetual possession the aforesaid fortress called Petra-incisa, to which he had translated the head of Bl. Austremonius. Then, when the pagans burst into the country of Poitou, the treasures of the monastery of the Holy Saviour of Charroux were brought by the monks of the same monastery among the Arverni to the fortress called Petra-incisa, because the place was fortified and their own possession. After many spaces of years had rolled by, the monks who had been sent to guard the treasures entered into a plan to make monks of the sons of the country people nearest to them, so that those succeeding them might have monasteries in the same fortress in perpetuity.

[4] is translated to Issoire. A long space of time having passed, the aforesaid monks departed from this world, one however surviving, Gislebert by name. Then Bernard, one of those whom they had made monks and brought up, obtained the custody of the treasures. From then on they began to discuss how they could withdraw themselves and their companions from subjection to the abbot and monks of Charroux. There came on, then, the feast of Bl. Austremonius, and the aforesaid monks entered into a plan that, if they could, they should overthrow the aforesaid fortress, and rebuild the monastery of Issoire, once built by St. Austremonius, and bring under the authority of their own power the aforesaid treasures, with what belonged to that fortress. They asked the aforesaid Gislebert, whom they had set over themselves as abbot, that they might go for the sake of visiting to the place in which the renowned martyr Austremonius had once lain buried, and carry his head so that they might celebrate the feast day with honour; which was also done. Then, therefore, the head of the precious martyr, which Duke Roger had laid up in a golden head wrought with wonderful workmanship, was brought from the aforesaid fortress, which is now called Saint-Yvoine, to Issoire with the aforesaid treasures.

[5] Austremonius himself urging it in a vision, The solemnity being completed, then, Bernard, of whom we spoke above, about midnight

labouring with thirst, ordered a certain servant named Benedict to go to the well to bring him water. He, taking a little jug in his hand, when he wished to approach the well to draw water, saw two persons present on the edge of the well; struck with fear he desired to go back hurriedly. One of the persons, calling him, said: Why do you not come near here to draw water? Do not fear, but be steadfast; for know most certainly that I am Austremonius, founder of this place, and for this reason I now appear to you, that you may know that this place has been visited by me that it may be rebuilt; but take care not to tell anyone until the end of your life; because if you tell anyone, you will at once lose the light of your eyes. When blessed Austremonius had foretold these and many other things to the said servant, he disappeared from his eyes. So the servant drew water from the well and brought it to him by whom he had been sent. The often-mentioned Bernard, seeing his pale countenance, asked him what he had seen; but the servant professed that he had seen nothing. Bernard asked him again and again what he had seen; and the servant, holding the vision and what he had heard of no account, narrated to him all that he had heard and seen; and he at once lost the light of his eyes, as St. Austremonius had foretold him. You will find this more fully in the book of miracles.

[6] The church of Issoire is rebuilt. The day of the solemnity having then been completed, the aforesaid Bernard asked of Abbot Gislebert that they should rebuild in the same place a basilica of wonderful size in honour of the aforesaid martyr. After a few days the aforesaid Abbot Gislebert with Bernard and the other monks began to destroy the aforesaid fortress and from the stones of that fortress to build a monastery. When this had been built, they asked Lord Bishop Bernard, who then presided over the church of Clermont, to dedicate that basilica in honour of St. Austremonius and St. Peter; which also was done.

[7] But to the monks of Issoire the body of Austremonius These things so done, not long afterwards, Abbot Gislebert having died, Bernard succeeded, and after Bernard Girard, whom the monks of the same place killed, and they buried him in the tower which he himself had built. To this Girard there succeeded Robert, abbot of Cantinobum; in his time Hugh, dean of Issoire, began to rebuild the aforesaid fortress. Robert having died, Hugh obtained the abbacy. When he passed away, Gaubert *, who had been educated in the school at Mozac, took on the rule of the same church of Issoire. In his time there sprouted the error of the monks of Issoire, which vainly prattled that they had the body of Blessed Austremonius. How and why this happened we have thought it worthwhile to insert in this writing.

[8] falsely claiming that it is among them, This Gaubert, as we have said, was brought up and educated at Mozac. But because he wished to be substituted as abbot of the same church of Mozac after Lord Mancio, abbot of Mozac, and could not, disappointed of his hope, he was afterwards abbot of the church of the monastery of Issoire, and because he had suffered rejection by the church of Mozac, he turned the arms of all his wickedness to avenging himself. For although he knew most certainly that Blessed Austremonius had once been translated to Mozac by Lord King Pippin and was contained there, he did not fear to place on the bodies of certain saints titles in the name of Blessed Austremonius, and to support his lie by certain fictitious and false memorials, etc.

[9] At Mozac there is made of the relics of Austremonius All the people of Mozac, monks as well as clerics and laymen, moved by this rumour, and judging that this was done to the reproach of the church of Mozac, although they were most certain of the remains of Blessed Austremonius, and this is testified by nearly all the churches of the Arverni, which contain in their most ancient writings the translation made long ago by Lord King Pippin, yet fearing that the church of Mozac might be deprived of the glorious name of its patron and of his blessed fame, which is everywhere held venerable, resolved to counter the aforesaid deceits of the people of Issoire and to show openly how great a treasure of the body of Blessed Austremonius remains among them. Then they asked Lord Robert, bishop of Clermont, with humble petition, that he would deign to come to their church, and not shrink from beholding with diligent eye how great a treasure of the body of Blessed Austremonius remained hidden with them. The aforesaid bishop, assenting to their prayers, made for the place of Mozac, and ordered the vessel in which the body of the blessed martyr Austremonius had been placed to be opened, and he found, in certainty of the matter, the body itself as it had been wrapped and laid up in linen and silk cloths by the renowned king of the Franks Pippin, and on top most carefully bound with thongs, that it could not easily be undone, and moreover the thongs themselves fortified with the impression of the seal of King Pippin and of two other seals, that the work of so great a king might remain authentic. The bishop, when he saw that from the side of the seals that little basket in which the body of Blessed Austremonius was contained could not be unlocked without damage to the seals, ordered the thongs to be cut from the other side, that the blessed bones lying hidden within might appear eye to eye to his sight and that of those standing around; which also was so done. So the bishop inspected with his eyes the precious bones of Blessed Austremonius themselves, touched them with his hands and handled them with his fingers.

[10] a solemn recognition At this so splendid showing of the body of Blessed Austremonius there were present W., provost of Clermont, uncle of the said bishop, and W., abbot of the church of Mozac, and Arnald, abbot of St. Illidius, and Durantius, abbot of St. Andrew, and Amblard, abbot of Riom; there were present also very many of the chief monks of the church of Mozac, and with them also some of the clerics, knights and laymen. This showing was made beneath the high altar, in the lower crypt which is called the confession. The bones of the glorious martyr Austremonius, then, the said bishop and the abbots named before replaced honourably with skilful care in that vessel from which they had been taken, and that vessel was most diligently resealed, until it should be venerably transferred at an opportune time into another much more precious vessel.

[11] in the year 1197. This was done in the year 1197 from the incarnation of the Lord, on the IV ides of April, moon nineteen, the fifth feria of the week of the paschal solemnity, Celestine being pontiff of the Roman see, Robert prelate of the Arverni, Philip king of the Franks, William abbot of Mozac. Let all the detractors and adversaries of the church of Mozac then blush and be silent, because whatever they have studied to contrive of guile or fraud against it concerning the body of Blessed Austremonius, willy-nilly it has, possesses and venerates that venerable body; which Christ has disposed to be done thus by the most evident proclamations of truth, to the praise and glory of Blessed Austremonius and the salvation of the people, to whom be honour and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* edition, Gaubertum