Clarus

ON ST. CLARUS, HERMIT AND MARTYR, IN THE VEXIN, AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME,

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Clarus, hermit and martyr in the Vexin (S.)

BY A. P.

§ I. The older monuments of St. Clarus which survive are reviewed.

[1] St. Clarus, whose history is obscure As I begin to treat of that saint, than whom certainly few in all Normandy are more famous, let me at once confess, by way of summary, what that skilful and, above others, praiseworthy writer of the ecclesiastical history of Normandy, Charles Trigan, once wrote wittily indeed, but even more truly than wittily: "We have," he said [Namely in a letter given to a certain anonymous monk on 17 February in the year 1734. It is to be found in the Paris codex, National Library, Latin 10051, fols. 294–5.], "in Normandy a certain St. Clarus, who is honoured with great celebrity both in very many places and also at Paris in the abbey of Saint-Victor; but as his name is clear and illustrious, so the history of his deeds is by no means clear [Compare also what the same Trigan wrote, Histoire ecclésiastique de la province de Normandie, vol. II (1759), p. 204.]." And in actual fact, although most of the many who have written about our saint over the last three centuries relate the homeland of St. Clarus, the time of his birth and martyrdom, his journeys and his acts, with great assurance and as though there were no room for even the slightest doubt, yet when anyone deliberately sets out to investigate what foundation underlies these affirmations, he wonders that nothing firm, nothing safe appears, and, having collected and sifted what has been written abundantly enough on this matter, he complains that he has brought back scarcely any reward for his labour.

[2] and his age defined differently by different writers, That I may not be accused of having exaggerated these darknesses in which this Clarus of ours is wrapped, I would wish this argument alone to suffice: how much, namely, the more recent authors disagree among themselves in defining the time in which he lived. For some report that Clarus was crowned with martyrdom at the beginning of the second century, others in the third century, others in the seventh, others in the eighth, others finally at the end of the ninth century; some also, a practice we have already noted elsewhere, distinguish two Norman Clari [We shall see below (§ IV, no. 36) that this appellation "Norman" is not in every respect accurate; we nevertheless use it now, both because it is convenient and because it is commonly employed.]: one who, with Pientia, a pious matron, in the Vexin by the river Epte, arranged the funeral of SS. Nicasius, Quirinus and Scubiculus in the third century; the other who, coming from England in the ninth century, was put to a violent death in the same district, near the same river. But the palm was carried off by those who devised not only two Clari, but also two Pientias and two Quirini; who were supposed to have lived and died at different times indeed, as has been said, but in the same place, and in such a way that the first Clarus with the earlier Pientia buried Nicasius when he had recently died, while the second Clarus with the second Pientia, many centuries later, promoted the cult of the same Nicasius in the same place and built a chapel in his honour. These dreams, or at least the greatest part of them, have not even a trace of foundation in the historical monuments, even in those that are more recent, even in those that are of plainly slight credit. It is not, then, my intention to examine one by one so many opinions of modern authors, who with their licence of opining have made the obscure life of our saint still more obscure. Those among them which have some appearance of truth will come into the balance of their own nature when we weigh the very few older documents on St. Clarus that survive, attempting to shed some light on the history of the most celebrated martyr.

[3] Usuard mentions him First of all Usuard makes mention of Clarus in his martyrology; for thus he writes on the day before the nones of November: "In the district of the Vilcasinum [In the vernacular le Vexin. This is the seat of the ancient Veliocasses, whose capital was Rotomagus, and it extends along both banks of the little river Epte, by which it is divided into two parts, one Norman, the other French. Compare Acta SS., October vol. II, p. 140, annotation t, and below, no. 36.], of St. Clarus, priest and martyr." This commemoration, however very brief, since it has the greatest weight in our matter, we must show was written down by Usuard himself in the first writing of his martyrology, and did not, as has happened to countless others of this kind, come into the pure Usuardine text afterwards at the hands of some interpolator. That it belongs to the genuine work of Usuard, then, is taught not only by the two more recent and wiser editors of Usuard, our Du Sollier, I mean In the edition which is joined to our volumes VI and VII of June, p. 650., and Jacques Bouillart Usuardi San-Germanensis monachi martyrologium sincerum (Paris, 1718), p. 180., who, although they disputed in sharp contention about the authentic text of Usuard, yet in agreed opinion wished a place in it to be adjudged to the commemoration of St. Clarus transcribed above; but it is shown most of all by the codex formerly of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, now Paris, National Library, Latin 13745, which was written in the ninth century and seems to have been written by the hand of Usuard himself [Compare Mabillon, Acta SS. O. S. B., saec. IV, part II, p. lXXXVII, no. 173; Bouillart, op. cit., pp. XV–XVII; Longnon, Notice sur le plus ancien obituaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Germain des Prés, in Notices et documents publiés par la Société de l'histoire de France à l'occasion du cinquantième anniversaire de sa fondation (1884), p. 19, note 2; A. Molinier, Les Obituaires français au moyen âge (1890), p. 168.]. For the mention of St. Clarus which it presents was plainly written by the first hand, nor at this place Folio 77ro. is any erasure or any sign of a later addition detected. Since, moreover, none of the older codices of Usuard, at least of those I know, lacks the mention of Clarus, I do not at all doubt that Usuard himself brought the name of our saint into his martyrology, which he completed before the end of the year 875 [Rivet, Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. V, p. 439; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, vol. II (1880), p. 386.] [It is worth recalling also that Usuard died before the end of the year 877. Compare Mabillon, l. c.; Rivet, op. cit., p. 437.].

[4] and to some extent also Dudo, dean of Saint-Quentin. Another testimony on St. Clarus, which, although it is slight enough, we do not hesitate to bring forward in our poverty, is read in Dudo, dean of Saint-Quentin; by whom a certain place is named, situated in the Vexin near the river Epte, which is called "at Saint Clerus" [De moribus et actibus primorum Normanniae ducum, book I, c. 28; compare book II, c. 89 (ed. J. Lair, 1865, pp. 168 and 246). These passages of Dudo were copied almost word for word in the twelfth century by William of Jumièges in the Historia Normannorum, book II, c. 17; book IV, c. 8 (ed. A. Duchesne, Historiae Normannorum Scriptores (1619), pp. 231 and 243).]. Dudo, namely, who was writing a little after the beginning of the eleventh century Lair, l. c., p. 21; G. Waitz in M. G., Scr. vol. IV, p. 94., relates in book I, c. 28, that in the place mentioned above Charles the Simple, king of the Franks, and Rollo, duke of the Normans, met in the year 911, and there concluded that famous "treaty at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte," as they call it; and it is in the highest degree probable that already at this time, namely at the beginning of the tenth century,

this name belonged to this village, and that Dudo reported not some modern appellation that had recently been devised, but the ancient appellation of that place. Since, further, there is no reason why we should believe that any other Clarus is named by Dudo than the Norman or Vexin one, and since the unanimous tradition of the later native authors asserts that our saint met a bloody death in this very place, we can already infer with probability, from what Dudo has said, in which part of that Vexin district, which Usuard alone had indicated indefinitely enough, the martyr Clarus found the last field of his combat. Let this, then, be settled: that the saint about whom we are inquiring died both before the year 875, and probably in the village which already in the eleventh century, and perhaps even at the beginning of the tenth, had the name "at Saint Clerus," and is now called Saint-Clair-sur-Epte.

[5] Moreover we have his Life, Further, passing over both the compilers of martyrologies, calendars and other works of this kind, inasmuch as they have merely followed Usuard, and the historical writers who copied Dudo's aforesaid narrative into their books, there occurs only a third and last author in the whole Middle Ages who treats of our saint, namely the anonymous author of the Life of St. Clarus, still unpublished, which we shall give to our readers after this commentary. I say third and last: for why we are entirely silent here about the Life of St. Nicasius, in which some contend that St. Clarus is named, will soon be clear Below, nos. 18–20.. Nor should there come into the reckoning that "ancient poem on St. Clarus, published in the age of our forefathers by some bard," namely "by a certain anonymous monk of Saint-Denis," which Robert Denyald mentions [Officium S. Clari (1633), p. 8; compare the same author's Vita S. Clari (1633), p. 19, where the author is called by Denyald an "old poet"; compare likewise the same author's French work Histoire … de S. Clair (1645–46), pp. 14–15, 45, etc. Denyald, however, points out that only fragments of this poem were found by him: "lequel poëme ie n'ay veu qu'à bastons rompus et par lambeaux" which poem I have seen only in broken bits and in shreds (ibid., p. 15).]. For, besides the fact that only slender fragments of this poem have been preserved for us [Denyald brought them forward here and there in his little works; we shall collect them after the prose Life, so that the reader may pass judgment on them.], which teach us nothing of any moment, it is moreover manifest that this metrical Life, if one really existed [For it is not established whether that poem was a sort of metrical Life, or rather a mere series of antiphons or a metrical office; of which kind of poems it is known that a fairly large number has come down to us.], was derived from the prose Life which we have begun to treat. Nor should it move us that Denyald calls the poem ancient and the poet old; for these words, when used indefinitely, in Denyald's time were not wont to imply so remote an antiquity, and Denyald himself places among the ancients John Capgrave Vita, p. 7. Denyald, l. c., names him Caphranius, and elsewhere also Castranius., a man who died when the fifteenth century was well advanced. From the same prose Life, too, either very probably or certainly, are derived both the ecclesiastical hymns composed in honour of St. Clarus, and the French Life of the same painted on the wall of the chapel of Saint-Clair in the town of Gisors This was published by R. Denyald, La Vie de S. Clair (1644), fols. 42–4., and the lessons for matins which Denyald read in certain liturgical codices, and which we too have read See below, no. 8.. Rightly and deservedly, therefore, we shall take account of the prose Life alone.

[6] in a few codices, Of this Life, after diligent search, we have obtained a certain few copies [We have sought in vain some codices praised by Denyald, namely the "Sanctorale of the church of Gisors, of the parishes of Flavacourt and Sancourt, and of both towns called after Saint Clarus on either bank of the river Epte" (Vita S. Clari, p. 7); all of which places are situated in the Vexin. Of only one of these codices have we come upon some trace (see below, no. 8, where the compendium C4 is treated). The rest we have found nowhere, and to our inquiries the answer was given that those codices no longer exist. Denyald does indeed present here and there certain passages of the Life to be published below, which he copied from the codices of the towns of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (compare Histoire … de S. Clair, pp. 27, 35, 54, 93), of Flavacourt (ibid., pp. 12, 35, 48, 49, 57) and of Sancourt (ibid., pp. 110–11, 136–7); but since these fragments are few and of the least moment, we have judged that they should be disregarded in establishing the text of the Life. Let it suffice to have pointed out that they mostly agree with the recension of Guy de Castres, of which presently; and that sometimes the text of the Life is represented in somewhat fuller words. One passage only, and that a longer one, from the Sancourt codex we shall bring forward in the annotations to chap. 8 of the Life, since in it certain miracles are narrated which we had not read in the Life.], namely only two complete, two others somewhat contracted here and there and somewhat reworked, and finally some compendia. The first and complete recension of the Life (= V) is presented by two transcripts made in the seventeenth century: one, which is now preserved among the Bollandian collectanea in the Brussels codex of the Royal Library 8932, fols. 134–135vo (= V1), was transcribed from the manuscript of Belfort; which manuscript codex was itself a transcript; for John Bolland noted at the head of our copy: "Belfort had it from papers sent from Medonta Mantes, a town in the prefecture of Seine-et-Oise. to D. A. Raisinius (sic)"; and it is to be noted that Mantes is the head of the district (arrondissement, as they say in the vernacular) in which the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte is situated. The other transcript is to be found in the Amiens codex 467, fols. 141vo–144vo (= V2); which agrees so closely with the former transcript that one might believe the same exemplar lay before both copyists. But on the first folio of the codex this note is read: "From a very ancient manuscript codex of D. N. de Francia, president in the parlement of Malines [Compare Catal. gén. des mss. des bibl. publ. de France, Départements, vol. XIX, pp. 227–8.]," which "very ancient" codex was not written before the thirteenth century, since there is found in it the "Translation of the Holy Cross to Bronium," a work written in that century.

[7] in the Sanctilogium of Guy de Castres The other recension of the Life (= G) was made and inserted in his Sanctilogium by Guy de Castres († 1350), abbot of the monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris. He, namely, when to the names of the saints which are inscribed in the martyrology of Usuard he was joining a shorter or longer encomium taken from the martyrology of Ado, from Vincent of Beauvais, from James of Genoa, or from the very Acts of the individual saints where they survived, in book XI, which contains the month of November, after the Usuardine commemoration copied out something from the deeds of St. Clarus, namely, if you look at the substance of the matter, almost the whole Life which we read in the copies V. That text of Guy is to be found in the codices of London, British Museum, among the Royal manuscripts, marked 13. D. IX, of the fourteenth century, fol. 251 (= G1), and of Paris, National Library, Latin 14649, of the fifteenth century, fols. 149vo–150vo (= G2).

[8] Of this recension G I shall name four compendia (= C), and in some compendia one only written by hand in a breviary of Coutances [Coutances in Normandy. The lessons which were printed in the breviary of the same church in the year 1609 (Denyald cites them from time to time, e.g. Histoire de S. Clair, pp. 9, 25) are entirely different, and, though very brief, they add two things passed over in silence by the ancients: that St. Clarus devoted himself to learning theology and to hearing confessions!] of the fifteenth century, which is now preserved in the Mazarine Library at Paris under no. 774 (= C1); there, on 18 July, one may read, divided into nine lessons which were to be recited at matins, a certain compendium in which, though more briefly, the words of the text G are nevertheless preserved almost to the letter. The same text is also most faithfully represented in another compendium, which John of Tynemouth made after the middle of the fourteenth century and inserted in his Sanctilogium [See e.g. the London codex of the British Museum, Cotton. Tiber. E.1, vol. II, fol. 101.]; from there John Capgrave († 1464) copied it out, in whose Nova legenda Angliae London, 1516, fol. 59. it was put into print (= C2). The same recension G, but more freely reworked, is presented in a compendium by Benoît Gonon Vitae et sententiae patrum occidentis (Lyons, 1625), pp. 262–3., who testifies in the margin that he received his text "from ancient codices" (= C3). That he said this truly we have found from the fact that Nicolas Denysse, who more than a hundred years before Gonon's time published a certain sermon on St. Clarus See below, no. 30., wove into his discourse a good many shreds of some Life (= D), which almost everywhere agree word for word with the text C3 [The parts of the narration nevertheless sometimes follow one another in a different order in C3 and in D, so that it is manifest that the text C3 was not excerpted by Gonon from a manuscript copy of the sermon D.]. Finally there exists among the Bollandian collectanea in the Brussels codex of the Royal Library 8932, fol. 133, another compendium written by hand in the seventeenth century [At the head of the transcript Bolland noted that he had received it from Fr. William Thiersault S. J. († 1666).], which is inscribed: "Life of St. Clarus, martyr, excerpted from the manuscript codex of the church of the same Saint Clarus on the river Epte, of the diocese of Rouen, by Br. John de Thoulouse He died in the year 1659. Compare below, no. 33., canon regular of Saint-Victor of Paris, and transcribed and transmitted (sic) by the same into the Victorine breviary in the office of the feast of the same saint" (= C4).

[9] preserved for us; And although now and then in these compendia the words and manner of speaking have been changed by the abridger, yet, as far as the substance of the matter is concerned, they do not depart even a nail's breadth from what is narrated in the complete copies V and G [Except that in C4 notes of time have been interpolated, by which Clarus is asserted to have been born

in the year 884. If these were read in the codex of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte itself and were not added by John de Thoulouse, they make it manifest that that codex was by no means ancient.]. It was not fitting, then, to put those compendia into print, which would have been a long business; but the whole care must be placed in establishing the form of the original text as accurately as possible. This matter has some difficulty. For the recensions V and G differ not a little from each other; and although Guy de Castres indicates not obscurely that the older text which he had in hand was to some extent reworked by him, for he prefixed these words to his narrative: "Of the same, from his deeds, the author," yet because of the recension V we have found only recent transcripts, and it did not befall the same recension to leave any trace of itself in any compendia, at least any that we know, one is sometimes in doubt in which of the two the original reading has been preserved, and in which it has been changed by the reviser or by a careless copyist. But since the disagreement which is detected between the two recensions is not such as in any way to touch the substance of the narrative, and since the Life itself, as we shall soon say, is not of such great value, omitting a deeper investigation, which can hardly be undertaken, we shall present the text of the recension V, with the variety of readings of the recension G added, and, wherever it seems useful, with certain readings of the other compendia also noted [This will not be useless both for other reasons and because in this way it will be possible to see where certain small details originated which are wont to be mixed by more recent writers into the narrative of the Life of our saint.].

[10] to this Life, which before the fourteenth century, But of how great authority this Life is, from which has flowed all that has been written more wisely about our saint by the moderns, we must first of all inquire. For determining this it will certainly help most if we find out at what time it was composed, and from what sources it was derived. But again we must confess that we are at a loss. Certainly the Life was written at some time after the ninth century, since at its very beginning Edmund, king of the English, is named († 870), and that in such a way that at least some years or decades seem already to have run on from his death [Chap. 1: "In the time of the glorious Edmund, king of the English, there was… a certain man…"]. Nor yet was it composed after the thirteenth century; for before the middle of the fourteenth century it had come to the knowledge of Guy de Castres and had been received by him into his Sanctilogium; but also in the thirteenth century itself we come upon it recorded in the Paris codex of the National Library, Latin 976, which was written in this century [The authors of the catalogue published in the year 1744 assert that this codex was written in the fourteenth century, but wrongly.]. It contains the "order of the divine office according to the use of the monastery of Saint-Denis in France" Compare the same catalogue.; in which, when on 4 November Fols. 143vo–144; compare the calendar, fol. 69. the manner of reciting the office of St. Clarus is indicated, it is prescribed that the first eight lessons of matins be taken from his Passion; and of this Passion only these first words are given: "In the time when the glorious king Edmund"; with which also, if you take away a slight variation, the Life to be published by us below begins [Compare the beginning of the compendium C1: "In that time when the glorious king Edmund…"].

[11] but a good while after the ninth century But to designate some definite time within those two outermost limits would be the work of a diviner, since no ancient author has praised this Life, and in the text itself scarcely anything is found to shed light for us. I am able to adduce one passage, which indeed is read only in the recension V, but seems nevertheless to belong altogether to the original writing [Life of Clarus, chap. 8. It is almost manifest that at this place the recension G presents a mere compendium of what is read in V.]. The author, namely, having recorded a miracle which had occurred three years after the saint's death, extols in general the more recent benefits of the holy patron, and adds that they are of such a kind that, as new miracles come on daily, there is no need to recount old ones for the manifestation of St. Clarus. Here, surely, are the words of a writer not so ancient, and from which one may gather that this legend was written later rather than earlier. A certain author indeed asserts that it was found by Guy de Castres "in a certain old martyrology of Autun" Le Bon, Histoire et vies des … saints Victor … et Clair (1630), p. 39.. But besides the fact that in such a matter, relating to the fourteenth century, we cannot rely much on the solitary and insufficiently definite testimony of a modern writer, it is worth recalling again how readily authors formerly often abused those words "old codex, ancient codex," etc., to designate books written scarcely one or two centuries before [Let an example be Robert Denyald, whom we mentioned above, who in the year 1633 listed among the sources used by him (Vita S. Clari, p. 7) "the ancient English legend by Caphranius," that is, Capgrave († 1464).]. If anyone, further, should please to affirm that the legend of St. Clarus has a recent origin, and was not written before the thirteenth century, we shall indeed demand proofs by which to defend his opinion, but we ourselves shall be able to bring no weight of reasons with which to attack him.

[12] by a monk, as it seems, of the priory of Saint-Clair Who that author was, or where he wrote, he himself nowhere teaches. Yet someone might conjecture not improbably that he is to be sought among those monks of the abbey of Saint-Denis who lived in the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, where the same abbey possessed a priory. For what is eagerly proclaimed in chap. 8 of the Life about the miracles which did not cease to be performed at the tomb of Clarus manifestly aims at this, that the faithful people should be stirred to invoke the holy martyr and to visit his relics [The author writes, namely, l. c.: "Those weighed down by various ailments flow daily to the place of St. Clarus, carrying back the benefits of health… Therefore the blessed martyr Clarus is to be invoked by all worshippers of the true religion…"]. Moreover the most ancient copy of the Life of which any trace survives was preserved in the library of the abbey of Saint-Denis, namely the one to which the Order of the divine office written in the thirteenth century refers Compare above, no. 10.; and Guy de Castres, abbot of Saint-Denis, must be thought to have used a codex of the same library when he prepared a recension of the Life to be inserted in his Sanctilogium; and since this recension had the fortune to be used in making most of the compendia which we have seen, we may rightly gather that not many copies of the Life were found outside the library of Saint-Denis. And this conjecture is indeed very like the truth; but with hesitation I add another on top of it, perhaps it was written in the middle of the twelfth century, namely that perhaps the Life was written at the time when the monks of Saint-Denis first came into possession of the priory; which happened not later than the middle of the twelfth century Compare below, no. 32.. Certainly this was above all an occasion on which it would seem both opportune and most useful to commit the Life of the holy patron to writing and publish it among the people.

[13] learned men have not undeservedly denied Of the sources, however, to which the anonymous author of the Life had recourse, he himself neither tells anything nor hints at it by even the slightest indications. It remains, then, that, as far as can be done, we should determine to some extent from the narrative itself how much credit it deserves. On which matter this must first of all be noted, that all the wiser men who have passed judgment on the things narrated in this Life have not passed it much to its praise. So Charles Trigan: "Would," he says Hist. ecclés. de Normandie, vol. II, p. 203., "that there were at hand a more genuine narrative of the deeds of St. Clarus, and one that taught us something more; for the rest, the one that survives offers nothing unlike the truth." Somewhat more severely, according to his temper, Baillet, a man of the keenest judgment, pronounced thus Les Vies des Saints, ed. 1739, vol. VII, p. 534.: "If we except the apostolic labours and bloody martyrdom of Clarus, you will find nothing in his deeds, as they are commonly narrated, which seems like the truth." Our Bye, for his part, although he had read the text of Capgrave, in which the whole substance of our Life is exactly reported, regretted that no ancient document had been found by him, though he had made the most diligent search, on which he might safely rely in weighing the history of Clarus Acta SS., October vol. V, p. 518, no. 30.. Nor did our Du Sollier either approve "the things which Denyald and others seemed to have heaped together, if not rashly, at least liberally, about Clarus of the Vexin In his edition of Usuard, p. 650, at the foot.;" and yet Denyald followed our Life step by step, and added not much of his own.

[14] great authority. And in actual fact it raises some scruple that in that Life certain names occur which appear nowhere in the other historical sources of Normandy; of which kind are the abbot Odobertus, the abbey of Malduinum, the river Costus. We grant, however, that something of this sort is not so unusual in history both hagiographical and profane. But more displeasing is that old wives' fiction in chap. 7, by which Clarus is placed in the band of the cephalophore saints. These and certain other lesser things, which here and there do not smell so well, we would perhaps care little about, if we had been made more certain of the age or author of that Life; but since this matter is not clear, this alone can at length be our estimate: that this Life, as it is not to be rejected too hastily, so it is not of sufficiently certain credit. We shall nevertheless publish it after this commentary, because it is the only somewhat older and fuller document extant which treats of St. Clarus; but in the rest of the commentary we shall use it and rely on its testimony only so far as we shall examine the opinions of those who employ it as a substantial witness and give full credence to its assertions.

§ II. At what time and place St. Clarus lived.

[15] The Clarus seems to be the same These, then, are the monuments of St. Clarus which the writers of the Middle Ages have left us, few, and all [It will be useful to point out that in the letter of Fr. P. Dubois, dated 17 July 1766 (compare Catal. gén. des mss. des bibl. publ. de France, Départements, vol. X, p. 195), nothing at all is read which has even the slightest weight.]. Concerning which it must now be investigated whether they all treat of one and the same Clarus, and accordingly whether that Clarus whom Usuard commemorates on this 4th day of November did not, before the times

of Edmund, king of the English, flourish, under whose rule the Life just praised and examined relates that the father of Clarus took a wife. And indeed that a certain Norman saint is named by Usuard may be gathered even from this, commemorated by Usuard that he prefixes to his commemoration the topographical note "In the district of the Vilcasinum"; by notes of this kind he is accustomed elsewhere to indicate the place in which some saint lived or suffered, or in which he is honoured with special celebrity; and the other saints who share our saint's name have another and definite day on which they are honoured [Compare R. Denyald, Vita S. Clari, pp. 9–10; U. Chevalier, Répertoire, cols. 458–9; W. Smith and H. Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol. I (1877), pp. 547–9.]. Moreover, lest the suspicion move anyone that it could have happened that some confusion arose on account of the similarity of names, it must by all means be noted that there is no Clarus who is honoured in the last days of October or the first days of November except the Vexin one [I omit for the present a certain supposititious Spanish Clarus, of whom below, no. 51.]. For there scarcely come into the reckoning either Clarus, the priest of Tours, whom the Roman martyrology praises on 8 November: since his ecclesiastical cult was slight elsewhere and nonexistent in Normandy; or that bishop Clarus of whom mention is made on 5 November in certain Parisian liturgical books See below, § IV, nos. 41, 42.: for he, as the lessons for matins written out in the same books show, is the same whose solemn memory is celebrated almost everywhere on 1 June [Compare Acta SS., June vol. I, pp. 7–16; certain things about the same are mentioned from time to time by the Acts of St. Severus; compare ibid., November vol. I, p. 943, in the index.]; and the same, by some error or chance, probably however on an occasion taken from our Clarus himself, has been inscribed on 5 November in not very ancient books of almost the church of Paris alone. It is established, then, that the Clarus praised by Usuard is to be numbered among the saints of Normandy.

[16] and praised in the Life; But is the Usuardine Clarus the same as he whose Life we have? There are indeed those who deny it and distinguish two Norman Clari, of whom one, named by Usuard, was that priest who buried St. Nicasius and afterwards obtained the palm of martyrdom not far from the river Epte; this one they would have suffered, according to their opinion about the time at which Nicasius came to Gaul, either in the third century, or in the first century itself or at the beginning of the second. The other Clarus they say was an Englishman by nation, who, born in the time of king Edmund, that is, in the ninth century, bore those various chances of fortune which are narrated in the said Life, and at length himself fell by the river Epte, a glorious martyr of chastity. And indeed a controversy can arise only between those two Clari, since there is not even the slightest reason why any other Norman Clarus should be thrust upon us besides those two. Now, to confess it sincerely, for there never existed I am moved by this very strong reason not to distinguish two Clari, and furthermore to refer both the elogium of Usuard and the narrative of the Life to one and the same man; namely because that Clarus whom they say performed the funeral rites for St. Nicasius never existed, but is a mere shadow and an altogether fictitious person.

[17] that other Norman Clarus, I hear certain men raising an outcry with a loud voice, who have written about this Clarus at some length, with some heat, and for the most part more vehemently than wisely. But I ask of them by what document, after all, they can demonstrate that that saint really existed. They bring forward one [Formerly they also tried to show that two Clari must be distinguished from the fact that the martyrology of Usuard, in which Clarus of the Vexin is named, was written in the time of Charlemagne (so Denyald, Vita S. Clari, p. 11; Histoire de S. Clair, p. 5). But it has long since been doubtful to no one that Usuard flourished in the time of Charles the Bald.], from which, namely, the remaining few things which the same men heap together in the appearance of a "unanimous consensus" are manifestly derived. It is, namely, the last chapter of the Passion of St. Nicasius; in which, the death of the holy martyr and his companions having already been narrated, the author continues thus Analecta Bollandiana, vol. I, p. 632, no. 10.: "Quaedam autem matrona nomine Pientia, sanctorum monitis ad fidem Christi conversa, assumpto sanctissimorum actuum viro nomine Claro [So indeed the word Daro, which is read in the edition cited, must be corrected. No one, namely, is unaware how often the letters cl in ancient codices take the form of the letter d; the error, however, was not so much the editor's as the scribe's: for the codices of Namur 15 (thirteenth century) and Brussels 9289 (twelfth century) plainly have darum at this place, whereas elsewhere they accurately distinguish the letters cl, as for example in the word clemens (chap. I of the Passion).] ex ipsorum collegio presbytero, suscepit corpora sanctorum et sepelivit ea honorifice in eodem loco…" [But a certain matron named Pientia, converted to the faith of Christ by the admonitions of the saints, having taken with her a man of most holy deeds named Clarus, a priest of their own college, took up the bodies of the saints and buried them honourably in the same place…] Using, or rather abusing, this text, the authors whose opinion I am now attacking imagined that there was a certain Clarus, formerly a priest of idols, who, brought to the faith of Christ by St. Nicasius, afterwards took care of his funeral and at length himself died a martyr.

[18] certain writers And Pommeraye indeed alleges "a certain manuscript codex" in confirmation of this narrative Histoire des archevesques de Roven (1667), p. 33.; but he by no means gives the age of that codex, nor is it possible to see whether what in his narrative goes beyond the text of the Passion of St. Nicasius recited above Pommeraye read in that codex, or added himself for the sake of explanation. Before Pommeraye, however, another historiographer of the archbishops of Rouen, François Farin, when he related that Clarus was converted to the faith not by St. Nicasius indeed, but by St. Pientia, had set this in the margin: "A certain old man, a petty priest of idols, blind in his eyes and Clarus in name only, was converted to God and received his sight. From an old manuscript codex of Rouen [Farin, La Normandie chrestienne (1659), p. 48.]." But before Farin too, Nicolas Davanne, in a Life of St. Nicasius composed in French [La vie et martyre de sainct Nigaise, Roven, Le Lœu (n. d.), fol. 35; compare fol. 48vo; second edition (1643), pp. 80–1; compare p. 105.], had related that he had read in a certain ancient manuscript book So he writes: Un vieil liure manuscrit que nous auons veu dit… that St. Nicasius, besides other miracles performed at the Roche-Guyon near the river Epte, also did this, that he freed from blindness a certain old man, a priest of idols, who afterwards embraced the Christian faith. What weight, in general, there is in those citations in which some "old" codex is indefinitely praised, I have said more than once above. Moreover the words of Davanne, Farin and Pommeraye have a fitting and full explanation if we conjecture that a certain legend, written in the fourteenth or even the fifteenth century, was in their hands, in which were narrated the things which they, otherwise not entirely in agreement among themselves, report; certainly no other trace of this legend survives. But whatever it may be, surely a man curious about historical truth cannot rely on those testimonies, uncertain on every side, as a foundation, and will at most rely on that chapter 10 of the Passion of St. Nicasius which we are treating here.

[19] judging much more kindly of the authority of that Life, Now two reasons evidently demonstrate that that chapter is of no authority. The first is that the Passion of Nicasius itself is of no authority, written only in the eleventh century and smelling altogether of fable [Compare Rivet, Hist. litt. de la France, vol. VI, p. 420; Acta SS., October vol. V, pp. 511–6, nos. 6–16.]. I know indeed that there have been found those who contended that that work was composed at a most ancient time, namely in the second or at most the third century of our era L. L. Goubert, Dissertation sur S. Nigaise, pp. 94, 96–104, 107, etc., and almost impiously professed that they would hold it in place of the Gospel in narrating the Life of St. Nicasius [Ibid., p. 108; compare p. 95, etc. That work, published only in autograph (Paris, 1867, in-8°, pp. 560), than which one could hardly imagine anything more insipid, deserved to be buried in the same silence with which we pass over the writings of other authors of the same stamp, as being as far as the heavens from historical science. We have nevertheless mentioned it, both because we have found that certain men otherwise not unlearned do not deny it all authority, and because, since copies of it are rare, it will be useful to have pointed out that nothing will be found in it which is in any way useful to historical studies, and that it can accordingly be disregarded with complete safety.]. But these men scarcely deign to attend to the weight of the reasons by which serious authors defend the true opinion, while in proof of their own opinion they bring forward only certain trifles, which are to be received with laughter alone. Add that Usuard, who preceded the writer of the Passion by a space of two centuries, when he made mention of Nicasius on 11 October, named Pientia indeed, but kept a deep silence about Clarus Du Sollier's edition, p. 592.; from which again no slight prejudice arises against the same text of the Passion.

[20] and deceived by a false reading But, setting these things aside, even if the supreme authority which some ascribe to this Life, with the greatest injustice indeed, were to be granted it, the authors whom we are attacking here would profit nothing from it. For the text cited above is by no means genuine. When many codices which have preserved the Passion of Nicasius for us are compared with one another, it at once appears that these are the authentic words of the writer: "Quaedam autem matrona nomine Pientia, sanctorum monitis ad fidem conversa, assumptis sanctissimis viris claris actibus et nominibus et ex ipsorum collegio presbytero, suscepit corpora sanctorum…" [But a certain matron named Pientia, converted to the faith by the admonitions of the saints, having taken with her most holy men, clari (illustrious) in deeds and in names, and a priest of their own college, took up the bodies of the saints…] So the Paris codex of the National Library, Latin 15436 (eleventh century); so most other codices, especially Évreux 101 (twelfth century), except that these omit et after the word nominibus, and present, instead of the singular presbytero, the plural form, namely presbyteris. And the sense is fitting and plain: namely that certain men brought help to Pientia in performing the pious work, whose religiously lived life and fame

were illustrious ["A man clarus (illustrious) in deeds and in name" is a formula not unusual among hagiographers, which was by no means wont to be used only of those who had the name Clarus. So, for example, the provost Liuthard, in his narrative of the translation of St. Justus, calls that Justus "clarus in life and in name" (M. G., Scr. vol. XV, p. 567; Acta SS., October vol. VIII, p. 334, no. 51).]; and that among them there was present a certain priest, or certain priests, who had earlier joined themselves as companions to St. Nicasius. But afterwards certain sciolists tampered with the clear context, and each in his own way twisted it to his own fictions. Thus, besides the reading from the Namur and Brussels codices adduced earlier, in the Rouen codex Y. 41, which is called the "Black Book," certain words have been erased and over the erasure it is written thus: "assumpto sanctissimis actibus viro nomine Claro ex ipsorum …" having taken with her a man of most holy deeds named Clarus, of their …; and in the Utrecht codex, of which Bye had obtained a transcript, the text was contracted thus: "Quaedam autem matrona nomine Pientia cum Claro presbytero ex ipsorum sanctorum collegio …" [But a certain matron named Pientia, with Clarus, a priest of the college of those saints …] Compare Acta SS., October vol. V, p. 516, no. 23.. Once this change had been introduced, it pleased others to build upon a slippery foundation the history of that pagan priest brought to the Christian faith by St. Nicasius or by St. Pientia, have wrongly supposed. according as it pleased each. Here, unless everything deceives me, is the spurious and fabulous origin of that Clarus, contemporary of St. Nicasius!

[21] Our opinion of a single Clarus There remains, further, one Norman Clarus to whom we may apply the Usuardine announcement, namely that hermit who fled from England into Normandy, whose Life we have praised more than once. Indeed, as Usuard proclaims his Clarus as either dead or honoured in the Vexin, is not hindered by certain doubts so according to the testimony of the Life Clarus both fell and was celebrated with pious cult by the faithful near the bank of the Epte, which little river flows along the whole Vexin district. Likewise, as Usuard records Clarus on 4 November, so the Life teaches, chap. 7, that Clarus the hermit suffered on the same day. There are, then, weighty and almost decisive reasons why we should combine those two Clari into one and the same person. It is not to be denied, however, that certain difficulties not to be despised stand in the way of our resting safely in this conclusion. which, when Usuard and the anonymous Life are compared together, And first, Usuard honours Clarus with the title of priest, while the Life not only is entirely silent about his priesthood, but also seems to exclude it, since it reports this in chap. 4: "When blessed Clarus … on a Sunday was making for the basilica of Saint Paul, to receive there, as is wont to be the custom of holy men, the body and blood of the Lord, it happened that…" At that time, then, if we follow the author of the Life, Clarus, having already crossed from England into Gaul, had not been initiated into the priesthood; and yet he survived about two years Compare chap. 5 of the Life., nor does the author anywhere report that he was afterwards made a priest; which certainly was most worthy of record.

[22] concerning the priesthood of our saint These things are indeed true, but they have a sufficiently fitting explanation, so that it is by no means necessary on that account to invent two Clari. For suppose either that Usuard, ill-informed, erred in this matter, or that the anonymous author of the Life omitted something out of ignorance; if you accept either hypothesis, both of which are certainly probable, but which of the two is more probable there is no means of determining, the whole difficulty is at once removed. Indeed from this discrepancy of our two sources we derive no slight advantage. For it could come to mind that in St. Clarus there had happened what not rarely happens elsewhere, that an author of a later age, when he read the name of some saint otherwise wholly unknown inscribed in martyrologies or other liturgical books, or heard it pronounced by the inhabitants who honoured his relics, composed his legend by his own effort for the gratification of those inhabitants, who were exceedingly eager for things of this kind, either by collecting certain popular traditions, or by simply inventing some history, or by transferring to that saint the Acts of another saint. Such a suspicion is wont to present itself most of all when it is a question of some saint Felix or Beatus, Victor or Nicasius, Romanus or Quirinus, Peregrinus or Barbarus, Benignus or Bonifatius, Clarus or Honoratus, and others of this kind; for these names are common, and sometimes they became proper to certain determinate persons only because, since their true name was not known, after miracles had been performed at their tombs or relics, it pleased the faithful to designate them by some honorific appellation. Now I would not dare to affirm that this took place in our Clarus, although that name does not sound foreign indeed for a man who was, as is said, an Englishman. This seems certain from what has been said above, that the anonymous author did not take the occasion of writing the Life from Usuard's martyrology; for he would certainly have remembered the priesthood with which the saint is said in the martyrology to have been honoured. I would rather believe, then, that it happened thus: namely that Usuard heard from some man or other that a certain Clarus was honoured among the people of the Vexin, who was reported to have been a priest and martyr; but afterwards the author of the Life, who had not read Usuard, himself set down in writing and preserved for us what the people, having received it from their forefathers, related about the same saint and about the honours conferred on him. This, as in an obscure matter.

[23] or of his age But this knot having been untied, as it seems, without difficulty, another occurs which is more difficult to solve. We have already recalled, namely, that the martyrology of Usuard was composed before the end of the year 875, and that he was in any case no longer among the living at the end of the year 877. "But," someone will say, after our Bye Acta SS., October vol. V, p. 517, no. 28., "St. Clarus in his elogium in Capgrave," and also in our anonymous Life, of which Capgrave presents an accurate compendium, "is said to have been born under Edmund, king of the English; and since of the three kings of this name who ruled over the English, the eldest began to reign in the year 855, it follows that Clarus the hermit praised by Capgrave was certainly not born before the year 855, and that accordingly in the year 875 he counted no more than twenty years of his age." If this is so, Bye continues, "who would believe that he was already a priest from that year, and was announced as such by Usuard on the 4th day of November? That is certainly very difficult to believe Ibid., nos. 28, 29.." Indeed, even if we wished to gather from the silence of the Life that Clarus was not a priest, the matter would not on that account be in a better position. For in chap. 8 of the same Life we are taught that the holy martyr began to become known to the peoples only when three years had passed from his passion; and all the things which are narrated in the Life could hardly have fitted a youth who, according to Bye's most true computation, had scarcely passed his seventeenth year when he died; moreover it is not very probable, if the notice of so recent a martyr had reached Usuard, who lived not far from the Vexin, that he would have celebrated the glorious witness of Christ only with that meagre elogium which we have brought forward.

[24] arise of their own accord; This difficulty was not felt by a man elsewhere more cautious, Charles Trigan, since, entangled in some error, he thought that the elder Edmund reigned from the year 841 to the year 846 [Hist. ecclés. de Normandie, vol. II, p. 201. The erring Trigan was imprudently followed by the latest eulogist of our saint, the reverend Legros, Vie de saint Clair (1884), p. 44.]. Wrongly indeed, since about the time at which the government was taken up by Edmund there is not even a slight doubt, and it is certain that he ruled from the year 855 to the year 870. I believe that Trigan, through some inattention, had in mind not that elder Edmund, king of the East Saxons, but the king of the same name of the West Saxons, who obtained the kingdom a whole century later, namely in the years 941 to 946 [He seems indeed to have ascended the throne already in the year 940; but there are authors, even ancient ones, who refer the beginning of his reign to the year 941; which suffices for the present matter.]. But it will not be such a great business for us to extricate ourselves from that difficulty. For since we have seen that the anonymous Life of Clarus is not of any special antiquity and authority, it will certainly not be absurd to accept the substance of the things narrated in it, inasmuch as the tradition of the peoples could have preserved their memory faithfully enough in general, but to reject those chronological notes in which, because they are more particular, no one is unaware that error has often crept in in circumstances of this kind, or that the fancy of legend-writers has ranged freely [Perhaps it pleased the author of the Life, since he did not know the name of the king of England under whom Clarus had lived, to name the holy king Edmund, who was celebrated by fame; just as in the Lives of saints of the Merovingian age written at a more recent time, very often, where some king of the Franks is to be named, Childebert is wont to be named.].

[25] which nevertheless can to some extent be solved; Yet I would not oppose it if someone should contend that the anonymous author erred to some extent, but not entirely, in assigning the notes of time. For let us suppose that St. Clarus both lived and suffered in the reign of the elder Edmund, although he had been born some years before Edmund came into the power of the kingdom. What was easier than that the author, setting his hand to the work a good many years later, should both somewhat confuse these times and refer to the very birth of the saint what was to be said of his life or even of his death alone? Of which thing it will not be irksome to bring forward another example very similar to this. We have a Life of Odulf, priest of Stavoren, who died in the middle of the ninth century, composed at the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century by an anonymous author, who seems to have received what he narrates from popular tradition Compare O. Holder-Egger in M. G., Scr. vol. XV, p. 356.; and he begins the narrative thus: "In the time of Louis the most pious emperor there was a certain venerable man … named Bodgis, of whom, by God's predestination, a son was begotten named Odulf. Who soon, when he is reborn in the most sacred wave of baptism…" Ibid., l. c., chap. 1; compare Acta SS., June vol. II, p. 593, no. 2.. Whoever reads this will surely believe that Odulf was born after the year 814, in which year Louis the Pious took up the reins of the empire. But it is not so; for a little later the same author relates that when St. Frederick of Utrecht demanded that Odulf should go on instructing the Frisians in the faith, he resisted and asserted that he would be (= was) advanced in age and altogether too feeble for

that ministry M. G., l. c., p. 357, chap. 4; Acta SS., l. c., p. 594, no. 7.. And yet Frederick died between the years 835 and 841 Compare O. Holder-Egger, l. c., p. 353, note 3., at which time Odulf would have been either less than, or certainly not more than, twenty-seven years old. If, therefore, the passage from chap. 1 of the Life of Odulf presented above must be bent to a somewhat looser interpretation, what prevents us from explaining in the same way the text of the Life of Clarus, which, for the rest, we do not deny is somewhat more explicit?

[26] nor does that Cyrinus, the servant of Clarus, stand in the way The place seems to require that we add a few words about that Cyrinus whom the Life to be published below testifies served St. Clarus and performed his funeral rites when he died. There have been those, namely, who supposed that he was incautiously transferred from the legend of St. Nicasius into the history of St. Clarus Trigan, op. cit., vol. II, p. 204.; for a certain Quirinus was companion to St. Nicasius on his journey and in his martyrdom, who is named together with him both in the Passion of Nicasius and in the martyrology of Usuard. With these we hesitate to agree; but neither, which pertains more closely to the present matter, do we side with those who, if we grant that two Quirini or Cyrini existed (for it is established that this is one and the same name), namely one in the time of Nicasius, the other in the time of our Clarus, at once affirm that two Clari too must be accepted. I readily confess, indeed, that the Life of Clarus is of too little authority for it to be possible to contend confidently on its testimony alone praised in the anonymous Life. that that servant of Clarus really existed, whom we find mentioned in no other document. But we deny also that this similarity of names, which exists between him and the helper of Nicasius, suffices to make it necessary, on account of it alone, to banish among the fables what our Life brings forward about Cyrinus of the Vexin. For nothing except the name itself is common to the two Quirini or Cyrini. The one, namely, is said to have been a companion of St. Nicasius and to have perished by a bloody death with him and with St. Scubiculus; whose funeral was arranged by the matron Pientia; and that a certain Clarus assisted her in performing this pious office is a corrupt reading of the more recent codices See above, no. 20.. On the contrary, in the Life of Clarus not even the name of Nicasius appears, nor is anything narrated which is derived from the Nicasian legend [As such, surely, the "cephalophoria" ought not to be held, which is narrated both of Nicasius and his companions and of Clarus in the Acts of each. For this is a hackneyed little story, which was especially well known to the monks of Saint-Denis; and it is probable that the author of the Life of Clarus is to be sought among these monks (see above, no. 12).]; and Cyrinus did not receive funeral rites from Clarus, but himself rendered them to Clarus. And in the martyrology of Usuard, where St. Quirinus is spoken of On 11 October, in Du Sollier's edition, p. 592., Clarus is not named; where Clarus is, Quirinus is not. In short, what is read in the most ancient documents both about Quirinus, the companion of Nicasius, and about Cyrinus, the servant of Clarus, is plainly different and unrelated [Certain other things which pertain to St. Cyrinus we shall bring forward in a more fitting place below, among the annotations to c. 7 of the Life.].

[27] But because we are moving in obscurity, Thus, then, although I by no means think that everything has been brought to clarity, we have at length been led to the point that, the difficulties having been removed in a manner at least not inept, we can with probability agree with those who affirm that the Usuardine Clarus is the same whose anonymous Life has come down to us. It does not escape me that, if any read this commentary, some will accuse me of excessive diligence, inasmuch as I have laboured more than was fair in sifting and proving things which others hold as firm and fixed, or have lingered too long over examining documents which others think by no means need to be examined with such care, since their credit is not sufficiently certain or at least their testimony obscure. Let both, who have thought in such extreme opposition, pardon me if, taking a middle way according to our purpose, I have tried to strive, from the few ancient documents that survive, towards a truer knowledge, as far as could be done, of the most celebrated saint.

[28] concerning the age in which St. Clarus lived, Further, from what has been set down it must now be gathered what can be determined about the time at which our saint lived. Let it be permitted to comprise it in a few propositions: a) It is false that St. Clarus was among the companions of St. Nicasius, and accordingly [For there is now no man curious about historical truth who would count Nicasius among those "apostolic" bishops who are said to have been sent into Gaul in the first century. Besides the fact that his history is very obscure.] that he flourished in the third century [Parker, Kalendar of the English Church, p. 205, arouses astonishment, where he narrates of St. Clarus exactly the same things as are reported in the often-praised Life, yet asserts that he suffered in the third century.]; b) Wilson and Dempster Compare Acta SS., October vol. V, p. 518, nos. 29, 30. affirm quite improbably that he lived in the seventh century, since there are no monuments which report it, nor does any reason recommend it. c) Somewhat greater appearance of truth has the conjecture of René Toustain de Billy Histoire ecclés. du dioc. de Coutances, vol. I, pp. 61–2., who counts Clarus among the martyrs of the eighth century, although it must be confessed that testimonies are lacking by which this conjecture might be supported. d) Most, finally, all, namely, who follow the anonymous Life in this matter, agree in assigning the ninth century; indeed there are even those who please to indicate the very year of the saint's death, namely either the year 884 or 894; but with these more diligent computers we can by no means agree: for either the Clarus of Usuard is the same as the Clarus praised in the Life, or those are two different saints; if the first is true, those who champion the year 884 or 894 are held by a manifest error; if the second, I ask why they designate these years rather than any others; and they will certainly have nothing to answer. e) The same would be caught by the same dilemma who should contend that Clarus was born at a still later time, namely under the more recent kings of the English named Edmund, we do not wish to propose a certain opinion. who reigned in the middle of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century. f) To us, for our part, as we have said, it seems not improbable that Clarus, not indeed born, but lived under the elder Edmund (855–870), so that he suffered martyrdom some time before the year 875. Since, however, this very opinion neither rests on firm testimonies and meets some difficulties Compare also Trigan, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 104–5; Toustain de Billy, l. c., we have therefore preferred at the beginning of this commentary to note that the time at which St. Clarus flourished is uncertain.

§ III. Of the deeds of St. Clarus, and of the more recent writers of his Life.

[29] What is read in the anonymous Life, Here it will be permitted us to be very brief. For we have nothing at all to bring forward about the deeds of St. Clarus besides what is read in the Life to be published presently. The more recent authors, to be sure, whom these few things did not satisfy, amplified them, as is the custom, with many additions for ornament. Thus, to review some of them, they called Clarus the son of a king, related his theological studies, and, since they supposed him to have been honoured with the priesthood, with certain little stories added from their own invention, asserted that he was ordained by Sigenandus, bishop of Coutances. The same men described the saint's journeys in Gaul and Normandy, and followed up the individual places which the traveller had visited. Other things like these I omit, which, because they rest on no foundation or an entirely slight one, are not worthy of our lingering over them longer. But I believe I shall serve the readers' advantage more if I set out a list of the principal authors who, after the times of the Middle Ages, wrote somewhat more fully about our saint. They are these.

[30] more recent authors have published to the public. Nicolas Deniise, De b. Claro martyre. Ser(mo), in the volume whose title is: Sermones … de Christo eiusque gerula matre simulque sanctorum et sanctarum … ardua … certamina pingentes (Rouen, 1507), fols. CCCXIvo–IIIvo [A very rare volume, which Frère, Manuel du bibliographe normand, vol. I, pp. 338–9, seems not to have known, and which I had sought in vain in the public libraries; it was found at Rouen in the excellent library of the distinguished Charles Lormier by the most learned R. D. E. Sauvage, canon of Rouen, who more than once deserved well of our work; whom, our excellent friend, we grieve to have been lately snatched away by an unexpected death. He, in his kindness, made a transcript of the Sermon for our use and communicated it to us; and that it was worth the labour we have shown above, no. 8. That Sermon is divided into three parts or, as Nicolas puts it, into three principal considerations, which are distinguished from one another by larger letters placed at the beginning of each. Arthur du Monstier seems to have had this division in view when in his Neustria sancta (Paris codex, National Library, Latin 10051; Clarus is treated at fols. 319–20; compare fol. 192, likewise fol. 164), fol. 319, he lists among his sources: "Nicolaus Dionysius, sermons 1, 2 and 3 on St. Clarus" (compare also ibid., fol. 192, no. 4). For besides this tripartite sermon, no other discourse on St. Clarus is found either in the volume praised or in the other works of Nicolas, as far as I know.]. Recueil de la vie et légende de M. saint Cler. Rouen, n. d., in-8°, 8 pp. L(e) B(on), Histoire et vies des glorieux St Victor de Marseille et St Clair-sur-Epte, martyrs, extraites des anciens manuscrits de l'abbaye St-Victor lez-Paris. Paris, 1630, in-8°, 39 pp. Robert Denyald, Vita Sti Clari in pago Vvlcasino monachi, presbyteri, et martyris. Paris, 1633, in-4°, 24 pp. — — Officivm ecclesiasticvm Sti Clari apvd pagvm Vvlcasinum martyris. Paris, 1633, in-4°, 48 pp. — — La vie de saint Clair sur Epte hermite, prestre et martyr au pays du Vexin, Diocese de Roüen. Traduite du latin en françois. Par R. Denyav, prestre, doyen et recteur de la ville et parroisse de Gisors. A Rouen chez Raphaël Malassis, au Portail des Libraires. M.DC.XLIIII. Avec approbation, in-32°, 44 pp.

[I know of only one copy of this volume, which is preserved in the library of the distinguished Édouard Pelay of Rouen. He, in his kindness, sent the precious little book to us here to be examined.]. This little book presents a certain freer French version of the Life of St. Clarus published in the year 1633. There is prefixed (fols. 3–7) a lengthy preface to the clergy and the monks or nuns of Gisors; and there are appended (fols. 34–41, 42–44) the texts of the authentic acts of the visitation made by John Lesley in the year 1586 (of which below, no. 32), and then a French compendium of the Life to be published below, which is inscribed thus: Coppie de ce qui est escrit contre la paroy de la chapelle de sainct Clair, à Gisors. Copy of what is written on the wall of the chapel of Saint Clair at Gisors. In this compendium nothing worth recording is read. — — L'histoire de sainct Clair, et les questions clarianes, historiques et morales, meslees de belles curiositez et de rares antiquitez. Par Robert Denyav prestre cure de Gisors. A Roven chez Raphaël Malassis au Portail des Libraires, M.DC.XLV. — — L'histoire de la vie, martyre et miracles de S. Clair, prestre et hermite au pays du Vexin, diocese de Roüen. Par Robert Denyav, prestre, doyen, et recteur de la ville et paroisse de Gisors. A Roven chez Raphaël Malassis, tenant sa boutique au Portail des Libraires. M.DC.XLVI. Avec approbation [On the reverse of the first title there is an image of St. Clarus carrying his head in his hands.]. The very rare volume in-8°, which we found only in the public library of Rouen, is preceded by that double title printed on separate leaves [We have described the three preceding titles in full because in the bibliographical repertories we have found neither the first two cited anywhere, nor the little books themselves exactly described.]; there follow 7 leaves (signed A2 etc.), then 151 pages. E. Sauvage of blessed memory had conjectured that there were not really two published editions of this book, but that, since not all the copies printed in the year 1645 had yet been sold, the bookseller, changing the title, made in the following year an edition new in appearance only. Yet I would rather believe that the matter went otherwise: namely that the first title was printed at the time when Denyald had begun to submit his work to the press; but that afterwards the author, when, having changed his plan for some reason, he no longer wished or was able to put the Quaestiones Clarianae into print, substituted the other title, as being now the truer, for the first. Certainly our volume stops in the middle of page 151, with the word FIN placed there; and the following page is blank, nor is there any indication that the Quaestiones Clarianae, to which Denyald often refers in the body of the book Pp. 3, 4, 5, 7, 24, etc., were ever published. The present work presents nothing else than a fuller and more verbose narrative of the very things which the author had brought forward in the Latin Life published in the year 1633. That work, either in French or certainly in Latin [Compare the Histoire … in the preface, where the author testifies that he first wrote this very work in Latin, and then translated it into the French language.], had been written before that shorter Latin Life appeared; for in the latter Denyald often refers the reader both to the Historia Clariana, which he calls his "longer work" and from which he says "the present Life has been abridged" Vita, pp. 4, 7, 19, 24; compare Officium, pp. 3, 6, 11., and to the Quaestiones Clarianae, which he also calls the Commentary Vita, pp. 7, 9, 19; compare Officium, p. 3.. Jacques Boireau, La vie de Saint Clair, religievx, prestre et martyr… Paris, 1656, in-12o, 296 pp. Vie de Saint Clair, pretre et martyr. Cherbourg, 1828, in-16°, 60 pp. Le Gros, Vie de Saint Clair, prêtre et martyr. Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, 2nd ed. 1884, in-16°, 130 pp. The first edition, which we have not seen, was printed in the year 1883. Vasseur, Saint Clair, apôtre de la ville de Gournay, in Semaine religieuse de Rouen, 8 March 1884.

§ IV. Of the posthumous glory of St. Clarus.

[31] The relics of the holy martyr To take our beginning from the relics of the godly martyr, first of all there comes to be recorded their finding and elevation, which, made in the third year after his death, is narrated in chap. 8 of the Life. "This elevation of the sacred body," says Denyald Vita, pp. 22–3; Arthur du Monstier, Neustria sancta, fol. 192., "the ancient acts and martyrologies, together with the old tradition of the church of Saint-Clair, refer to 17 July, only the breviaries of Fécamp, Coutances and Meaux putting it back to the following 18th; which latter the devotion of Paris observes in the suburban church of Saint-Victor, where a numerous people is wont to assemble on the eighteenth." What those ancient Acts are which Denyald names I am not able even to suspect; nor can I agree with him when he asserts that in most liturgical monuments Clarus is announced on the 17th, in a few on the 18th. For we shall soon see that the opposite is the case Below, no. 43.. Further, the author of the lessons for matins, which were formerly prescribed to be recited on 18 July in the Proper of the saints for the use of the Parisian monastery of Saint-Victor, spoke more truly. solemnly elevated a little after his death, He wrote, namely, thus in lesson V [In the Paris codex, National Library, Latin 14453, of the seventeenth century, fol. 147vo.]: "His [By that word he designates, indeed, that supposititious Clarus whom some have invented to have been a companion of St. Nicasius; but it is manifest that our saint was honoured by the Victorines under this person.] first elevation from the tomb is celebrated under the name of a translation throughout the diocese of Coutances Coutances., where very many churches of his name stand, and in almost all the other churches throughout Gaul, on 18 July, but especially at Paris in the basilica of Saint-Victor…" But, however the matter stands, that feast of St. Clarus celebrated on 17 or 18 July certainly has a fitting explanation, if either day was in fact that on which the sacred body was long ago elevated and first adorned with ecclesiastical honours; whence some authors wrongly draw an argument for confirming their opinion, by which they contend that there were two Clari of the Vexin, from the fact that a certain Clarus is announced in the liturgical books both on 18 (or 17) July and on 4 (or 5) November; for it is most probable that one and the same Clarus of ours died on the latter day and was elevated on the former.

[32] in the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Further, in that place in which the sacred body of the martyr had been buried immediately after his death and afterwards solemnly elevated, since the faithful did not cease to pursue the precious relics with pious cult, a church was built and a priory of the Benedictine order was founded, which for a long time belonged to the most celebrated monastery of Saint-Denis in France. There still survives a certain part of that older church, which is now the lesser nave, to speak with the moderns, of the present church building, facing north; which part, from the kind or style of the fabric, they assert, or rather conjecture, to have been built in the ninth or even the eighth century [Legros, op. cit., pp. 31, 100. Compare also annotation bb to chapter 7 of the Life.]. The greater or middle nave is said to have been built in the twelfth century Legros, l. c., and the other lesser one, namely that which stands on the southern side, was completed about the year 1500 Ibid., pp. 34, 101.. At what time a beginning was made of founding the priory we do not know [Michel Félibien, Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Denis en France (1706), p. 195.]; in which a Benedictine priory was founded, this alone seems certain, that in the middle of the twelfth century monks of the abbey of Saint-Denis were already established in the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte Félibien, l. c.; [Toussaint du Plessis, Description géographique et historique de la Haute-Normandie, vol. II (1740), pp. 323, 501. Legros, op. cit., pp. 30–1. A few things on the history of the priory were collected by the same reverend Legros, pp. 30–35; compare also R. Denyald, Vita, p. 4.]. To them, namely, the custody of the sacred relics of the godly patron had been committed; they were piously preserved. which in the year 1410 Philippe de Villette, abbot of Saint-Denis, translated into a gilded reliquary which Folquembergus, prior of that place, had had made at his own expense Compare Félibien, l. c.. The relics of the saint rested there, honoured by the monks and the pious faithful. Some relate that after the middle of the sixteenth century they were prudently hidden in a safer place, so that they might be preserved from the sacrilegious attempts of the Calvinists; "but in the year 1586, the whirlwinds of Calvinist impiety against the sacred relics having been calmed, the bones of the most blessed martyr were found on 15 February under the altar of the chapel of Saint Margaret, where they had been hidden, in the celebrated church of the same saint on the Epte, and are displayed up to now to be honoured by the peoples in a silver reliquary hung from the vault of the basilica." So the fifth lesson of the office of St. Clarus in the Proper of the abbey of Saint-Victor written in the seventeenth century We have brought forward another passage of the same lesson above, no. 31.. But that these things are false is shown by a document issued in the very year 1586. For when John Lesley, bishop of Ross [On that John Lesley or Leslie, who was called by the Normans de Lessay or de Lesselie, and whom some have imagined to have been bishop not of Ross (Ross in Ireland) but of Rochester, see T. F. Henderson in Sidney Lee, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXXIII (1893), pp. 93–9.], who was vicar in spirituals of the illustrious archbishop of Rouen Charles II, cardinal of Bourbon, had in this year, on the 15th and 16th days of February [That these things were done on the 15th and 16th days of February of the year 1585 Legros wrongly wrote, op. cit., pp. 89–90.], come to the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, and there had visited and recognized the relics of the saints preserved in the parish church, consecrated altars, and performed other pontifical offices of this kind, he issued authentic letters in which he narrated and attested the series of what had been done [These authentic acts have been published in Denyald, Vie de S. Clair (1644), fols. 34–41.]. And in these we read that the relics of St. Clarus, at least a great part [“A cette époque,” says Legros, op. cit., p. 90, “aucun ossement n'avait encore été distrait du corps du saint martyr” at that time no bone had yet been taken away from the body of the holy martyr. On the contrary, Lesley hints in express words that the whole body of Clarus was not then preserved in that village: “du corps duquel saint Clair au moins une partie

d'iceluy, repose en ladite église.” of whose body, Saint Clair's, at least a part rests in the said church. (Vie, fol. 36). See also below, no. 35.], had long since been preserved in that church, honoured, and frequented by peoples gathering from every side; but that other relics, namely of St. Cyrinus, who is said to have been the servant of Clarus, formerly hidden in the altar of St. Margaret, were found in the year 1585 and solemnly recognized by John Lesley on 15 February in the year 1586.

[33] Particles of them In the often-named basilica of Saint-Victor of Paris St. Clarus was also honoured with a certain special cult, and, as the Proper of that church testifies In the fifth lesson; compare above, nos. 31, 32., a portion of his sacred relics was venerated for eight days by the concourse of the people The codex: colitur, invocatur. and was invoked against diseases of the eyes not without great signs of the divine power The codex: colitur, invocatur.. When the cenobites of Saint-Victor received these relics, and what they did in their honour, we are taught by the already praised John de Thoulouse, perpetual vicar-prior of the same abbey († 1659), in his Antiquities of the royal abbey of Saint-Victor of Paris; into the abbey of Saint-Victor of Paris in which book he narrates this Paris codex, National Library, Latin 14677, fol. 364.: "There are preserved besides in our church … two fragments of St. Clarus, martyr on the river Epte, the first from part of the head, from the brow, enclosed in the form of an eye [Namely because St. Clarus was invoked especially for healing diseases of the eyes. And it soon came about that men believed the very eye of the holy martyr was preserved in this reliquary. Compare Baillet, vol. cit., p. 534.], the other of the saint himself in a silver figure representing his holy image; which two were given us by the kindness of the most illustrious lord Charles de Bourbon, archbishop of Rouen, in the year 1602, since the memory of the same saint had long flourished among us, and the people of Paris, the old devotion to Saint Leodegar having been changed, by a secret instinct and common impulse, as we have learned from our forefathers, had begun many years back to frequent our church on 18 July; for the religious fostering of which we obtained in the aforesaid year the very relics of the said St. Clarus the martyr, brought into our church by Fr. Pierre Lescuier, our canon, in the year cited. From devotion to them and contact with them, and likewise with those of St. Leodegar the martyr, many benefits for the safety of the eyes or of failing sight have at various times been obtained from God by those who piously venerate and cry out to Him, and every year, indeed often and more often in this our age, they are conferred on the faithful who are devoted. Wherefore, so that so great a devotion might be duly and fittingly met, permission was granted us by the bishop of Paris to keep the feast of the saint himself every year solemnly under the rite of the second class on the aforesaid 18 July, and moreover, when we had set forth to the supreme pontiff Urban VIII the petition of the people who flock to us on that day for devotion's sake for a confraternity to be erected in our church under the name of the saint himself, he erected and confirmed it by his brief given at Rome at Saint Peter's under the Fisherman's ring […] Here a space of half a little line is blank in the codex., and moreover granted to the said confreres a plenary indulgence on the very day of their first inscription and every year on the feast of the saint himself, to be celebrated, as we have said, on 18 July, with the concurrence of the most illustrious archbishop of Paris, Jean-François de Gondi."

[34] they say were brought; But again a certain difficulty arises. For some relate that the Victorine monks, although they had often and greatly tried to bring it about, were nevertheless unable to obtain any relics of St. Clarus before the year 1630; but that in this year, when their commendatory abbot François de Harlay had been made archbishop of Rouen, they seized the opportune occasion and asked him for some particles of the sacred relics; further, that by order of the said archbishop Robert Denyald, dean of the church of Gisors, came to the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, to extract some relics from the saint's reliquary and hand them over to the Victorines; but that the inhabitants of the place, even taking up arms, so resisted its being done [It must candidly be confessed that those inhabitants were moved to resist Denyald in this way not so much by a devout mind towards Clarus as by the desire of gain and money. For they feared that, if part of the relics were carried off elsewhere, the crowds of pious faithful who were accustomed to flock to the village of Saint-Clair might also in part betake themselves elsewhere. Compare Hist. de S. Clair, pp. 125, 126: “Je leur dis doncques que ie recognoissois que le motif de leur colere sortoit plutost du creux de leur tire-lire ..” [I told them, then, that I recognized that the motive of their anger came rather from the hollow of their money-box ..]], that Denyald was compelled to change his plan. The series of these events Denyald himself handed down to memory Histoire de S. Clair, pp. 120–33; compare Legros, op. cit., pp. 90–1.. Now, to bring into agreement those two narratives, which, though put forward by authors almost contemporary, yet all but manifestly contradict each other, someone will perhaps conjecture that in the year 1602 there were given to the Victorines relics which were said to be those of that fictitious companion of St. Nicasius named Clarus, whom many men at that time, even among the Victorine monks See above, no. 31, note 11., believed really to have existed, and whose bones Pommeraye asserts are preserved partly in the collegiate church of Saint-Mellon of Pontoise, partly at Mellentum Meulan, département Seine-et-Oise., partly in other places Hist. des arch. de Rouen, p. 32.. We greatly wish that someone might teach us something more certain on this matter. The celebrated Victorine abbey has now perished; and the relics of St. Clarus have been carried to the neighbouring parish of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet.

[35] likewise into the town of Gisors The inhabitants of the town of Gisors contended in Denyald's time that they possessed no small part of the body of St. Clarus Histoire de S. Clair, pp. 118–20.. But these sacred remains were afterwards so mixed with others that they can no longer be distinguished Compare Legros, op. cit., p. 92, note 1.. Besides, I have found noted some other places in which certain particles of the relics of our martyr, as it seems, were preserved. and into certain other places. In the twelfth century, namely, when the pious and noble woman Matilda, wife of the emperor Henry V, and afterwards of Geoffrey, count of Anjou and duke of Normandy, had given as a gift to the monks of Bec her chapel enriched with many pledges of sacred relics, the occasion having been taken, the sacred relics which were preserved in the sacristy of the church of Bec were reviewed and recounted [So relates Benignus Thibault in the work which he entitled Chronicum Beccense auctum et illustratum (Paris codex, National Library, Latin 12884, of the seventeenth century, p. 181).], and a catalogue of them was written out [Thibault presents that catalogue, pp. 182–3: it is manifest that it was copied by him from an ancient codex. And the catalogue of the relics which Matilda had given to the monks of Bec is set out ibid., pp. 183–5. The reverend and learned Porée, parish priest at Bournainville, most kindly brought these catalogues to our notice.], in which we read named "An arm of St. Clarus, martyr"; which Clarus we think it in the highest degree probable is our Vexin one. But in the seventeenth century, by some chance, that arm had perished, and was no longer found in the treasury of Bec [Ibid., p. 185, Thibault lists the few relics which out of so great a number survived in his time.]. The church of Alulfi Villa Allouville. in the diocese of Rouen still preserves a little bone enclosed in a glass reliquary and secured with seals, with this inscription: "S. Clari M." Giry asserts that other relics of the same were honoured in the collegiate church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés Les Vies des Saints, ed. 1719, vol. II, col. 251.. Arthur du Monstier, who learned it from Robert Cenalis, writes this in the Neustria sancta, fol. 164: "Of the relics of SS. Clarus and Cirinus there is some in the cathedral church of Avranches." Other things of this kind I omit. But who that Clarus is whose relics, together with relics of St. Victor, Pope Pius VI sent to the church of Yvetot in the year 1777 [J. Bunel and A. Tougard, Géographie de la Seine-Inférieure, arrondissement d'Yvetot (1876), p. 9.], I have not found out. Nor can it be learned whether our Clarus was he whose finger was found in the year 1185 under a certain altar in the little village of Saint-Paul not far from Jumièges together with relics of St. Paul the apostle and of a certain martyr Cyriacus; a narrative of which finding, and of the miracles which afterwards occurred, was written by Alexander of Jumièges [Alexander's little book was lately published in our Analecta, vol, XII, pp. 389–408. The finding is reported in chap. 5, pp. 392–3; and see the miracles, which were held to have been received from St. Clarus, and which turn almost entirely on the healing of diseased eyes, narrated in chaps. 9, 20, pp. 395, 399; compare chap. 19, p. 399:]. To another Clarus, I think, although Jeantin seems to think otherwise Les Chroniques de l'Ardenne et des Woëpvres, vol. II (1852), p. 388., belong the relics which were preserved in the village of Fontaines in the Ardennes.

[36] St. Clarus is honoured These things having been set out first concerning the relics, which we thought it more opportune to gather together in one continuous account, in order now to relate the other pious honours paid to our saint we must return to the often-named place in which Clarus both died and where there is still preserved by far the chief part of his relics that survive. in the aforesaid village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte It is, namely, the village called Saint-Clair-sur-Epte Département Seine-et-Oise, arrondissement Mantes, canton Magny., situated on the bank of the river Epte, which divides the Vexin as it were into two parts, one French, the other Norman. The village is built in the French part, and was formerly under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris; nevertheless, until the end of the eighteenth century it was contained, as far as spiritual matters are concerned, within the boundaries of the diocese of Rouen, of which, namely, the whole great vicariate of Pontoise was a part. But at the beginning of this century that village passed with this whole district into the power of the diocese of Paris, and soon of the diocese of Versailles, namely when an episcopal see was erected at Versailles in the year 1802. From what has been said, the error of certain foreign writers [Britannia sancta, vol. II (1745), p. 249; R. Stanton, Menology of England and Wales (1887), pp. 524–5.] is at the same time explained and refuted, who report that Clarus suffered martyrdom not far from a certain village on the bank of the Epte which afterwards took from him the name of Saint-Clair and is situated in the territory of Rouen in Normandy, but that the martyr's head is preserved in another village, which is also of Saint

Clarus, but belongs to the territory of Paris [Indeed Stanton, l. c., writes that that other village is "in the neighbourhood of the city of Paris." And Arthur du Monstier (Neustria sancta, fol. 192, no. 4) gives the name of that village as Saint-Clair près Palaiseau. On it see Legros, op. cit., p. 65, note 1.]. They had read, namely, in Alford [Fides anglo-saxonica sive annales ecclesiae anglo-saxonicae, vol. II (1663), p. 329.], who here copied Du Saussay Martyrologium gallicanum, on 4 November, p. 828., that Clarus, after he had been beheaded, gathered up the severed head with his hands and carried it "towards the village which, situated on the river Epte, already from that time glories in his glorious name and contest"; and a little later: "The most sacred head of Clarus, carried to the village distinguished by his name in the territory of Paris, is preserved there with fitting veneration." These words, though not sufficiently clear, nevertheless have a true explanation, if you observe that in the whole passage of Du Saussay one and the same village of Saint-Clair is spoken of, which village belonged indeed to the diocese of Rouen, but at the same time to the territory of Paris. This, however, those whom we are correcting did not see, and they invented two villages named after St. Clarus.

[37] In the church of this village, then, were preserved the relics of the holy martyr, whose history we have brought down above to the beginning of the seventeenth century. They were enclosed at that time in an artfully made reliquary, which Denyald describes in these words [Vita, p. 23; Arthur du Monstier, Neustria sancta, fol. 192, no. 3. J. Boireau, op. cit., p. 81 ff., presents things similar to these.]: "The relics of the sacred body, by the alms of the faithful [Rather, as it seems, by the liberality of Folquembergus, prior of the little monastery at Saint-Clair. See above, no. 32.] stored in a silver-gilt shrine after the times of the holy king Louis (whose images, and those of the blessed emperor Charles, are seen around the circuit of the shrine) Denyald: recondito., which, hanging with iron chains and raised above the altar, is let down and displayed to be kissed on the more solemn feasts, and through the octaves of the feasts both of the deposition and of the translation of St. Clarus." people flocking there for the sake of recovering health From every side the pious faithful flocked to the martyr's tomb Denyald, Vita, pp. 22, 23. and reported many benefits of healed diseases received through his intercession Ibid., pp. 22–4.. "It was the custom," says Denyald [Histoire de S. Clair, p. 141; compare the same author's Vita S. Clari, p. 24; Legros, p. 80.], "which I have seen attested in ancient manuscript monuments [In the Latin Life, l. c., Denyald appeals to a "pontifical instrument," which he said he had transcribed at the end of his larger History of St. Clarus. Nothing of the kind, indeed, is read in the History; but in the other French work, Vie de S. Clair (1644), the letters of John Lesley, bishop of Ross, praised above, were printed (compare above, no. 32); and in these Lesley testifies that he saw an "ancient" tablet of this kind in the church of Saint-Clair (fol. 38vo).], that whenever some healing of this kind had occurred in the church of St. Clarus, it should be written on a certain tablet, with the subscriptions of witnesses added; of which tablets a great multitude hung from the columns, doorposts or walls of the greater church." There was also preserved in the same church, on the testimony of the same Denyald [Histoire, p. 141: “Il y en avoit iadis un volume en l'église du bourg, qui fut presté à Messire Charles de Boues de la maison de Contenant, grand vicaire de Monseig. l'Archeuesque de Roüen au vicariat de Pontoise, lequel il n'a pas rendu ayant esté prevenu de mort, que ceux de sainct Clair ont deu repeter et demander.” [There was formerly a volume of them in the church of the town, which was lent to Messire Charles de Boues of the house of Contenant, vicar general of Monseigneur the Archbishop of Rouen in the vicariate of Pontoise, which he did not return, having been overtaken by death, and which those of Saint-Clair ought to have reclaimed and asked for.]], no small volume in which the miracles performed at the intercession of the holy martyr were narrated; by pious crowds of the faithful. which book, however, had been lost in that writer's time. The same man testifies that "some miracles were found out by him in the persons of certain of his parishioners Vita, p. 24. One of these he narrates in Histoire de S. Clair, p. 142 ff."; and that he composed the Life of St. Clarus he did moved by a sense of gratitude "for the benefit received in the restoration of health to his diseased eyes through the patronage of the blessed martyr implored" [Vita, p. 24; Histoire, pp. 138–141, where he relates the matter at greater length. Compare Le Bon, op. cit., p. 39; Boireau, op. cit., p. 83; Legros, op. cit., pp. 80–2.].

[38] At the end of the eighteenth century, however, when everything within the borders of France was thrown into confusion and disorder, certain men eager for revolution displayed the usual barbarism in the village of Saint-Clair; and the precious reliquary in which the sacred relics were kept enclosed was plundered and destroyed. The relics themselves, however, remained untouched, and they now lie in a wooden reliquary, not inelegantly carved and gilded on the outside. This has been placed in a certain chapel of the parish church; which church devouring time had not spared, but the reverend Legros, when he was acting as parish priest of Saint-Clair ten years ago, did not cease with unwearied care to restore and adorn it. Nor has the piety towards the godly patron cooled, either of the inhabitants of the place or of the neighbouring peoples coming there in crowds Legros, op. cit., p. 83.. More celebrated, however, is The feast day of the saint, which in the village of Saint-Clair is 17 July, is honoured with especially great celebrity Ibid., p. 94.. On the evening, namely, preceding the solemnity they assemble in the church; the praises of the saint are spoken in a sermon; the reliquaries of St. Clarus and of his companion St. Cyrinus are carried in solemn procession into the principal square of the village with lighted candles and torches; while the people sing sacred hymns and the church bells resound, a pyre is lit and consecrated with ecclesiastical blessings. This they call "the fire of St. Clarus"; and the pyre consists of a certain tree adorned with flowers and wreathed with garlands, at whose lowest part brushwood has been heaped. They then sing the hymn Te Deum, and when they have returned to the church they venerate the holy relics, and at midnight the priests celebrate the sacred rites and the laity communicate.

[39] the solemnity of 17 July, Nor is the solemnity of the 17th day less; on which day, after the other pious works, towards evening the pious crowd of the faithful again gathers, which in a numerous procession makes for that place in the village which they say St. Clarus consecrated by his death. Its name is "the Hermitage of St. Clarus"; and it consists of three parts distinct from one another: 1) the fountain, as it is called, of St. Clarus, which they have surrounded with railings and adorned with an ancient statue of the godly martyr; 2) his little cell, as they call it, built, however, in the sixteenth or seventeenth century; whose front is adorned both with certain reliefs and with this inscription: Icy est le véritable Hermitage ou le bienheureux Saint Clair a vescu et a été décolé et martyrisé en l'an 884. [Here is the true Hermitage where the blessed Saint Clair lived and was beheaded and martyred in the year 884.] In the cell itself there is set upon a stone altar a stone on which these words are carved: Sur cette pierre a été décollé le bienheureux Saint Clair. On this stone the blessed Saint Clair was beheaded. Two beautiful statues of St. Clarus and St. Cyrinus stand beside it. And opposite the cell a small chapel has been built. 3) The garden, which the saint is said to have cultivated [See a fuller description of this pious place in Legros, op. cit., pp. 104–7; compare pp. 35–6.]. Into this "hermitage," further, it is a pious custom that the bodies of the two saints be carried, who are said to have spent their life there for some time several centuries ago. From there the festive crowd brings back to the church the pledges of the holy martyrs, which remain exposed for a whole month before the faithful peoples flocking there from every side.

[40] which in the year 1884 was more splendid than usual. But although these things are done every year with great celebrity, yet the inhabitants of the town of Saint-Clair kept the day sacred to the holy martyr more splendidly in the year 1884. For since not a few suppose, wrongly indeed, that Clarus was crowned with martyrdom in the year 884, the diligent and pious parish priest, the often-praised D. Legros, formed with the devout faithful the plan of not letting this anniversary, recurring after a thousand years, pass without great solemnity; which they also did [The narrative of the event can be seen in the Semaine religieuse de Versailles, 27 July 1884, under this title: Millénaire de Saint-Clair-sur-Epte.]. Nor does the godly patron cease to help by his protection the Christians who are inclined to his praise; who report not a few benefits received through his intercession Compare Legros, op. cit., pp. 84–6..

[41] But in many other places too, The present-day veneration of the peoples for the holy martyr is not contained within the boundaries of that parish alone; but his ecclesiastical cult both extended widely in past centuries and extends widely now. For after Usuard received his name into his martyrology, innumerable other martyrologies, whether ancient or more recent, which are for the most part derived from the Usuardine, did not omit to record the glorious martyr with honour; of which we could subjoin a fairly long list, if it seemed worth the labour. But, omitting these, and mentioning only the Roman martyrology, in which on 4 November the Usuardine text about St. Clarus has been copied word for word, we believe we shall do a more useful thing if we relate in a few words in which dioceses and from what time the memory of the holy martyr appears inscribed in the other liturgical books. We are indeed conscious that we have passed over many things in this review; for we could hardly have made a complete list, and it would certainly have been too much labour for the importance of the matter; yet we have gone through not a few volumes, even manuscript ones, namely missals, breviaries, lectionaries and others of this kind, although not always with much fruit. Moreover let it suffice to have pointed out once that in some of the liturgical books presently to be praised it is not our Clarus who is commemorated, but, as is manifest for example from the lessons for matins, that namesake pseudo-companion of St. Nicasius, of whom we have treated at length above, or else the other Clarus, who is wont to be honoured almost everywhere on 1 June See above, no. 15.. Yet those books too bear testimony to the cult of our Clarus, since one or another Clarus was named on the days presently to be indicated for no other reason than that from ancient times Clarus the hermit and martyr had been adorned with ecclesiastical honours on those same days.

[42] on different days indeed, Further, we have found the feast of St. Clarus announced: a) On 4 November in the liturgical books of the diocese of Paris [Compare Catal. codd. hag. Paris., vol. III, pp. 714–5. To the codices of the National Library reviewed here may be added the codex of the Mazarine Library 258, namely a psalter for the use

of a certain monastery, written by hand at the beginning of the fourteenth century, in which at fol. 6, on 4 November, one may read: "Of Clarus, martyr." In the church of Paris a semidouble is made of him; then the breviaries printed in the years 1680, 1700, 1736, 1778, 1787, 1790, 1822; then the martyrology published in the year 1727 and the proper offices published in the year 1874; etc.] from the tenth century [Namely in the Paris codex, National Library, Latin 103, which is a psalter of a certain monastery in the diocese of Paris.], and indeed in the abbey of Saint-Denis from the thirteenth century [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 976, of which above, no. 10, and Latin 1107 (missal, 14th century).]; — of the diocese of Rouen from the thirteenth century [Heures Nostre-Dame à l'usage de Rouen (1586 or 1587), in the calendar; the Proper Offices published in the year 1860.], and indeed in the abbeys of Bec [Compare Martène, De antiquis monachorum ritibus (1690), p. 637, and the Proper published in the year 1766.], of Saint-Amand Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1027 (breviary, 13th century)., of Saint-Ouen [Rouen codices Y. 21 (prayers and capitula with calendar, 12th century), A. 459 (missal, 13th century).] and of Sainte-Catherine of Rouen Rouen codex A. 572 (breviary, 14th century)., and of Saint-Martin of Pontoise [Calendar at the head of a martyrology of the 13th century (Paris codex, B. N. Latin 13889, fol. 6).]; — of the diocese of Coutances in the fifteenth century Paris codex, B. N. Latin nouv. acq. 425 (breviary, 15th century).; — of Lisieux from the fifteenth century [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1065 (breviary, 15th century), Latin 1323 (diurnal, 15th century), and in the breviaries printed in the years 1624, 1704.]; — of Évreux [Breviaries printed in the years 1736, 1744, 1829; nothing about Clarus in the breviary published in the year 1853.], and indeed in the monastery of Conches Paris codex, B. N. Latin 898 (breviary, 14th century).; — of the monastery of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, in the diocese of Séez Martène, l. c.; compare the breviary of Séez, published in the year 1834.; — of the diocese of Avranches Proper published in the year 1635.; — of Beauvais from the thirteenth century [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1030 (breviary, 13th century); Rouen codex A. 489 (breviary, 15th century).]; — of Chartres in the fifteenth century Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1297 (breviary, 15th century).; — of Rennes in the twelfth century Paris codex, B. N. Latin 9439 (missal, 12th century).; — of Saint-Brieuc in the sixteenth century Breviary printed in the year 1548.; — of Le Mans in the fifteenth century Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1302 (breviary, 15th century).; — of Nevers In the order for reciting the divine office published in the years 1833, 1840.; — of Geneva from the thirteenth century [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 16307 (breviary, 13th century), Latin 1318 (breviary, 15th century); codex of the episcopal seminary of Annecy (manuscript breviary of the year 1398; compare Bull. hist. ecclés. Valence, vol. VII, p. 251); missal published in the year 1521 (compare H. Grotefend, Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters, vol. II, 1892, p. 51).]. b) On 3 November in the diocese of Embrun Paris codex, B. N. 1312 (breviary, 15th century).. c) On 5 November in the diocese of Paris [Compare Catal. codd. hag. Paris., vol. III, p. 715, and the breviaries printed in the years 1497, 1584. Add the codex of the Mazarine Library 765 (manuscript breviary of the year 1391), and compare what we have said at no. 15 and no. 41.]; — in the monastery of Saint-Faron of the diocese of Meaux Paris codex, Mazarine Library 731 (missal, 13th century).; — in the diocese of Senlis Codex of the Library of the University of Paris (breviary, 14th century).; — in the diocese of Léon in Brittany [Compare Lobineau, Les Vies des saints de Bretagne, ed. Tresvaux, vol. I (1836), p. 31.]. d) On 10 November in the Paris breviary printed in the year 1636.

[43] The memory of St. Clarus e) That on 18 July Compare Acta SS., July vol. IV, p. 349, c., which is the day of the translation of St. Clarus, the feast of our saint was celebrated long before the beginning of the seventeenth century, we have heard the domestic writer John de Thoulouse testify Above, no. 33.. We are surprised, however, that in very many of the ancient liturgical books of that abbey which we have handled, a deep silence is kept about St. Clarus [So in the Paris codices, Mazarine Library 760 (breviary, 13th century, with additions of the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries) and National Library Latin 14816 (antiphonary, 13th century, with additions of the 15th and 16th centuries), 14506 (calendar and liturgical order, 13th century), 14673 (calendar etc., 13th century; there the name of Clarus was added in the 17th century), 14810 (diurnal, 13th–15th centuries), 14279, 14811 and 14812 (breviaries, 14th century), 14448 (missal, 15th century), 14814 (breviary, 15th century), 14813 (diurnal, 15th century), 14455 and 14456 (liturgical orders of the 15th century and of the year 1556), 14817 (calendar etc., about the year 1500).], and that only in the seventeenth century does his name appear in a certain Proper of the saints, namely on this day [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 14453, fols. 4 and 46–50. Compare Le Bon, op. cit., p. 39. On the same 18 July the same feast continued to be kept in the parish of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet (compare above, no. 34).]. It is true indeed that in the litanies which are read in the Paris codex, Mazarine Library 895, fol. 110rc (13th century), formerly of Saint-Victor, Clarus is listed among the holy martyrs; but that book is not liturgical, and the name of Clarus is lacking in other litanies which were written out in the same thirteenth century in the Paris codex, National Library, Latin 796, fols. 252vo–4, which they believe to be a lectionary of the same abbey of Saint-Victor Compare the catalogue published in the year 1744.. — Further, on the same 18 July we have read the feast of St. Clarus announced in the diocese of Paris from the twelfth century [Paris codex, Mazarine Library 729 (missal, 12th century) and B. N. Latin 1098 (missal, 14th century).]; — in that of Rouen [Codex of the archiepiscopal library of Rouen (breviary, 14th century, on which compare E. Sauvage, Actes de S. Mellon, 1884, p. 111); Paris codex, B. N. Latin 863 (missal, 15th century).], and indeed in the monasteries of Jumièges [Rouen codices A. 145 (breviary, 12th century); U. 50 (martyrology, 14th–15th centuries), in which Clarus is inscribed both on 18 July and on 4 November.] and of Fécamp See above, no. 31. of the same diocese; — in the diocese of Coutances in Normandy from the fourteenth century [Paris codices, B. N. Latin 786, 1271 and 1300 (breviaries, 14th century), nouv. acq. 425 and Mazarine Library 774 (breviaries, 15th century); breviary printed in the year 1609.]; — in that of Bayeux [Paris codices, B. N. Latin 1298 and 1299 (breviaries of the years 1425 and 1436); breviary printed in the year 1627.] and in the monastery of Troarn of the same diocese Paris codex, B. N. Latin 13242 (breviary, 15th century).; — in that of Séez [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 13243, and Rouen codex Y. 166 (breviaries, 15th century).]; — in that of Lisieux [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1065 (breviary, 15th century), breviary printed in the year 1750, etc.]; — in the monastery of Conches of the diocese of Évreux [Paris codex, B. N. Latin 898 (breviary, 14th century). In this, as also in the codex 1065 praised above, St. Clarus is announced on both days, 18 July and 4 November.]; — in that of Beauvais Proper printed in the years 1872, 1885.; — in that of Luçon Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1057 (breviary, 15th century).. f) On 17 July Clarus was honoured in the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte of the diocese of Rouen, of which village we have already treated at length Above, no. 36 ff.; — in the diocese of Rouen itself in the eighteenth century Breviaries printed in the years 1728, 1736, 1777.; — and, if Arthur du Monstier is to be believed Neustria sancta, fol. 192., in the abbey of Saint-Denis in France.

[44] with ecclesiastical honours g) They assert N. Catherinot, Sanctuaire du Berry (1680), p. 11. that in the abbey of Saint-Sulpice of the diocese of Bourges the memory of the relics of our Clarus received on this day was celebrated on 28 August. On the same day the same saint is read inscribed in the calendar placed before the psalter of the abbey of Fontevrault, of the diocese of Poitiers Paris codex, B. N. Latin 1319 (year 1473).. Likewise, that on the same day the feast of some saint of the same name was kept in the village of Saint-Clair in the district of Loudun Saint-Clair-en-Lodunois., also of the diocese of Poitiers, was asserted by Chevalier, parish priest of that church [In a letter to the duchess of Richelieu, which letter is prefixed to the often-cited work of Jacques Boireau, fol. 3.]; who related moreover that the people flocked to the church from every side out of the provinces of Poitou, Anjou and Touraine, to pursue with honours the relics of St. Clarus which were preserved there. Boireau held that this Clarus was none other than our Vexin one Op. cit., p. 102., who for that reason composed a fairly long history of him Ibid., pp. 6–84. taken from Guy de Castres, Capgrave and Denyald; nevertheless the same author not long afterwards Ibid., pp. 112–3. confesses that the relics which are honoured in the said village are those of some other Clarus.

[45] was adorned. h) Finally, on 18 February Dempster († 1625) wrote this in his Scottish Menology: "Between Lutetia and Rotomagus, of Clarus the hermit, who, a king's son, formerly called William, restored to the lady of the place, when she repented, the use of her blind eyes, of which he had deprived her by his prayers when she sinned [In A. P. Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints (1872), p. 192. Compare Acta SS., February vol. III, p. 53, A.]." But the same Dempster in the same Menology on 18 July, copying Wion, announced our saint in these words: "Among the Sequani, of Clarus, a king's son, whose acts are extant [In Forbes, l. c., p. 206. Compare the same Dempster's Historia ecclesiastica Scotorum, chap. 251.]"; and on 18 February

he indicated the sources from which he had drawn those earlier statements, namely Molanus, who has nothing about Clarus on this day and commemorates him only on 18 July, and the History of the Scots by Hector Boece, a work of no authority Cf. Aen. Mackay in L. Stephen, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. V, p. 299. and in which we have found nothing of the kind. And yet it is plain enough that Dempster erred outright in assigning this day; there is therefore no reason why we should believe with Baillet Op. cit., vol. VII, p. 534. that this same day was a feast of our saint in memory of the portentous healing of a certain blind woman.

These, then, are the days, and they are not few, on which we find our saint commemorated. The reader will have been able to notice that in certain dioceses the memory of Clarus was kept now on this day, now on another. But there was also a time when in these same dioceses no place was assigned to the same saint in the breviary or the calendar, as for example in the breviaries of Rouen, whether the manuscript of the fourteenth century (cod. Rouen Y. 95) or those printed in the years 1627, 1675, etc., etc. [Cf. also the manuscript missals of Rouen of the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries (codd. Rouen Y. 50, Y. 1) and those published in the years 1516, 1544, 1585.].

[46] Other testimonies of the cult shown to St. Clarus: The remaining matters which pertain to his cult or posthumous glory may be gathered up in a few words. For there are many particular observances or tokens of piety which hagiographers who are, so to speak, natives of the place should by no means pass over, but on which we ought not to dwell longer. We have found not a few things of this kind indicated in the books which we have turned over; and many more still were taught us, partly by word of mouth, partly in writing, by the reverend and most learned men E. Sauvage and A. Tougard, canons of Rouen, to whom we are glad to return here thanks as great as those we owe them for their kindness. For the present, however, it will be enough for us to follow, for the most part, certain more general matters; parishes dedicated to him; for if we were to review the particulars one by one we should make no end. Further, it is no cause for wonder that the most celebrated martyr was adopted as patron of very many parishes; this was done both formerly and still now, especially in the dioceses of Versailles, Rouen, Coutances, Sées, Bayeux, Évreux, Paris, Meaux, Beauvais, Amiens, etc.

[47] chapels, In many places also, above all in Normandy, chapels or oratories have been built in honor of the divine martyr, which are either part of some larger church statues, or stand by themselves. In many places statues or pictures are seen which for the most part represent St. Clarus carrying his severed head in his hands See the Vita, no. 7.. pious pilgrimages, In many places pious pilgrimages of the faithful are made to the churches, chapels or statues of the saint [There is also a place where some spring is honored with the name of St. Clarus, to which spring pious crowds of people gather.], who implore his patronage both against other diseases and above all to obtain the healing of the eyes. help implored for those whose sight is failing, Some trace the origin of this devotion Legros, op. cit., p. 38. to that miracle which is narrated in chapter 8 of the Vita as having occurred in favor of a certain blind man; most, and indeed more truly, to the well-known play on words, by which it comes about "that the people love to invoke saints whose name approaches the words for the things which they wish to have commended to the saints" Acta Sanctorum, October vol. XII, p. 852, no. 4.. For that is why saints who are called Clarus, Lucia or by a similar name are commonly invoked by those whose eyes are dimmed [Cf. ibid. and Cahier, Caractéristiques des Saints, p. 104; J. E. Decorde in Magasin Normand, vol. VI (1869), p. 87.]. This certain painters have tried to exaggerate even further, when they represented our saint either covering with his hand the eyes of the severed head, or holding the eye itself in his hand Cf. also Trigan, op. cit., vol. II, p. 203..

Among these images, however, of which I have noted a very large number in my notebooks, images, it will be useful to mention only those which have been published: they are to be found in J. H. Parker, Calendar of the Anglican Church (1851), p. 206 [There is shown part of a painted window, which is still to be seen in the church of St. Maclou at Rouen.], in Denyald at the head of his French History; in the Vita of St. Clarus written by the Rev. M. Legros, p. 40–1 [At this place in our copy two images, photographic as they call them, have been inserted; of which one represents the martyrdom of St. Clarus, the other the figures of St. Clarus and St. Cyrinus.]; add a certain image cut separately in wood in the year 1615, which shows St. Clarus, St. Adrian, St. Wulfram and St. Sebastian with this inscription:

La . confrarie . de St Cler. fondee. a leglise . St. Maclov . de . Rouen. The confraternity of St. Clair, founded at the church of St. Maclou of Rouen.

[48] confraternities, Besides this confraternity I have found that two others named after St. Clarus existed at Rouen, one in the church of St. Vivian Cf. the public archive of Rouen, series G, no. 1226., the other in the church of St. Denis Ibid., no. 1246.; that a third was erected in the abbey of Saint-Victor at Paris we have already seen Above, no. 33 at the end., which afterwards continued to flourish in the neighboring parish of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet Cf. above, no. 34 at the end.. Besides these, two rather singular testimonies of popular piety remain to be mentioned. festive fires, Namely, just as in the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte the "fire," as they call it, "of St. Clarus" is celebrated, so in other places festive fires are kindled on the vigil of the day sacred to our saint; whose half-burned ashes the inhabitants carry away with them for the sake of devotion; so for example in the parish of La Haye-de-Routot, in the diocese of Évreux The Rev. A. Tougard informed us of this. Cf. also Legros, op. cit., p. 94.. There is no doubt that some play on words underlies this, similar to the one we explained above. tailors placing themselves under his protection, By a similar play also it has come about that in some parts of Normandy the tailors, inasmuch as they need clear light for their work, have chosen our saint as patron, and keep his feast day, namely 17 July, with great solemnity; which is done for example at Dieppe in the church of St. Remigius. Finally, some adduce as a testimony of the cult shown to the holy martyr both that in not a few places celebrated fairs are held on the day sacred to St. Clarus, fairs. and that from this day, in a great part of Normandy, the beginning is reckoned for the leasing of houses, the hiring of servants, etc. Cf. Legros, op. cit., p. 93–4..

[49] The ecclesiastical Office proper to St. Clarus At the close of this rather long paragraph we may not pass over the ecclesiastical Office of St. Clarus composed by the often-named Robert Denyald Cf. above, no. 30. and approved by episcopal authority Officium S. Clari, p. 3–4.. In the preface of this booklet Denyald briefly reviews and criticizes the other Offices of our saint which survived in his time Ibid., p. 5–9., and explains what he himself accomplished Ibid., p. 9–11.. Since, however, "in none of the Offices" which he had seen "was there a proper hymn," Denyald "composed three for the feast of the day of the deposition, two for that of the translation" Ibid., p. 9.; of which hymns these are the beginnings: p. 12–3, Quae vixit Druydum Who lived among the Druids Cf. U. Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum, no. 16001.; p. 14–5, Angulum terrae fugiens Fleeing a corner of the earth Ibid., no. 1083.; p. 26–7, Hostis impurae Veneris Enemy of impure Venus Ibid., no. 8076.; p. 35–6, Clarus paternis aedibus Clarus, from his father's house Ibid., no. 3373.; p. 42–3, Magnum decus fide pati A great glory to suffer for the faith Ibid., no. 11019.. The same Denyald afterwards found a "rhythmical prayer," or hymn, whose beginning is Ave dies o praeclara Hail, O most glorious day [He published it in Histoire de S. Clair, p. 113–4. It is missing in the repertory of U. Chevalier.]; the same testifies that he read two sequences in a certain liturgical book of Gisors Officium, p. 7., from which he has preserved for us not a few verses [Vita S. Clari, pp. 20, 24. Histoire de S. Clair, pp. 13, 14, 24, 27, 32, 58, 66, 89, 101, 144–5.].

[50] and liturgical songs in his praise. Besides these we have five other sequences to review, the first of which the inhabitants of the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte are now accustomed to sing at the solemnity of the "fire of St. Clarus," and which begins Ad Clari tumulum To the tomb of Clarus [It is published in Legros, op. cit., p. 117–21. It is missing in the repertory of U. Chevalier.]; the second is preserved in manuscript in the church of the village of Saint-Clair-sur-les-Monts, in the diocese of Rouen, and begins Plebs festive collaetetur Let the people rejoice together festively [It is missing also in the same. The Rev. A. Tougard communicated this sequence to us.]; the third and fourth, of which these are the first words, Ecce dies speciosa Behold the beautiful day Chevalier, op. cit., no. 5112. and Celebret Gallia Let Gaul celebrate Ibid., no. 2732., are printed in the missal of Coutances (from the year 1557 to the year 1729) and in the supplement of the same missal; the fifth is to be found among the works of Simon Gourdan, canon regular in the abbey of Saint-Victor at Paris (1646–1729), in the Paris codex of the Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 14841; it begins Christe lux amabilis O Christ, lovable light Ibid., no. 2892.. We have also read three hymns composed in honor of our saint in the already praised Proper of the Saints of the same abbey, that is, in the Paris codex of the Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 14453, namely the hymn at Vespers, O te martyr ovans O martyr, rejoicing, thee, the hymn at Matins, Ingens aetherea Vast, ethereal, the hymn at Lauds, O fons perennis luminis O perennial fount of light; the distinguished Chevalier found the same among the works of the already mentioned Sim. Gourdan, in the Paris codices of the Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 14839 and 14840 Cf. ibid,, nos. 13799, 8877 and 13009..

APPENDIX

Of the fictitious St. Clarus of Villacassina in Spain.

[51] Not once only, both elsewhere and in our Acta, has Juan Tamayo Salazar been beaten, not only as a vendor but also as a fabricator of spurious documents, because, carried away by a false piety toward his native land, he tried by evil arts to transplant the saints of other nations into his Spain. He wished to attempt something similar in the case of Clarus of the Vexin, about to bring forth for himself by his accustomed frauds his accustomed loss. For he inserted these words in his Spanish Martyrology at the 4th of November Vol. VI, p. 63.: At Villa Cassina among the Arevaci of Spain, of St. Clarus, presbyter, who under the savage persecution of the emperor Antoninus, having been seized for the confession of the name of the faith,

his limbs bruised in the contest, coming forth victor, received a glorious triumph over the tyrant with the laurel of martyrdom.

He conjectures, moreover, that this Clarus is the same one whom Usuard had commemorated; although he speaks more modestly than usual, and allows that "each nation, the Spanish as well as the French, may abound in its own sense Ibid., p. 64.. On the side of the French," he says, "stands the place which to this day continues to bear the name of the holy martyr and is called St. Cler on the river Epte"; a slender bulwark indeed! "On the side of our people," Tamayo goes on, "there stands the authority of Julian and this epigram: Cassinae pateris Villae …"; and there is appended a poem which relates in three distichs the deeds of that Spanish Clarus. Of Julian, however, the author had written above as follows: "In the published codex of Julian, archpriest of Toledo, in the Chronicle at the year 202, no. 69, fol. 23, these formal words are read: At Villa-Cassina, commonly Villacis, at the end of Carpetania, St. Parus, presbyter, suffers martyrdom under Antoninus: 4 November"; Tamayo had noted, however, that Julian erred in two things and that one should read Villacastin, not Villacis, Clarus and not Parus. But this care for emendation is useless and all but ridiculous; for no one now is unaware that that work which came out under the name of Julian was concocted by a shameless forger, and that the authority of that Pseudo-Julian, to which Tamayo confidently appeals, is plainly no authority at all. Nor have I any doubt that that epigram is of the same stuff, which is thrust upon us with no author indicated, no guarantor, no source, and is suspect from the very fact that it was first brought forward by Juan Tamayo. Let this suffice concerning the empty attempt of this Spanish martyrologist; for it is shameful to chase a shadow any longer.

LIFE OF ST. CLARUS, MARTYR

Clarus, hermit and martyr in the Vexin. (S.)

BHL Number: 1826

Edited from two codices (= V), namely a) Brussels, Royal Library 8932, of the seventeenth century (= V1), which I copied myself; and b) Amiens 467, of the seventeenth century (= V2), which the distinguished H. Michel most obligingly collated; — compared with the Sanctorale of Guido de Castris (= G), in the codices c) London, British Museum, Royal 13.D.IX, of the fourteenth century (= G1), which the Rev. Fr. Sydney Smith, S.J., collated out of his kindness; and d) Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 14649, of the fifteenth century (= G2), which I collated myself. — Here and there certain variant readings have also been noted which are taken from the abridgments (= C), namely from the breviary of Coutances of the fifteenth century (= C1), from Capgrave (= C2), from Gononus (= C3), from the transcript of the codex of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (= C4), and finally from the fragments of the Vita which Nicolas Denysse inserted into his sermon on St. Clarus (= D). On all of these see above, nos. 6, 7, 8. — I have not indicated transpositions of words and other trifles of this kind. The division into chapters, of which there is none in V1, I have kept as it had been set up in V2.

[1] [St. Clarus, born in the time of Edmund, king of the English, of pious and noble parents,] [In pago Vulcassino sancti Clari presbyteri et martyris. De eodem ex gestis eius actor G.] In the time of the glorious king of the English Edmund (T. g. r. A. E.) Anno Christi 865 C4 *. ^a there was in the city which tunc temporis adds G; tunc adds C1.3.4, D. is called Orchestria (v. O.) O. vocabatur G, C1.2; Orcestria dicebatur C3, D; Orvestria C4. ^b a certain man of the family of the consuls ortus adds G, C2; oriundus adds C3, D. ^c by name omits V2. Edward; who, strong in character, venerable for his virtues and shining with many good things, joined to himself in marriage a certain maiden speciosam adds G. lacking in no good thing (n. b.) nullis bonis V2; nulliusque b. G., but filled with them (s. c.) omits G., not for the sake of pleasure ut multi assolent adds C3, D. but rather for the sake of the offspring to be hoped for [(po. e. pr. g.) g. pr. exoptandae temporalis G1; g. po. exoptandae pr. G2; causa prolis habendae C1.3, D; et divino cultui educandae adds C3, D.].

These two igitur, G, C1., intent with omits G. great devotion on the service of God, having set aside every worldly care, besought the Maker humiliter adds G; iugiter C2; singulis diebus C3, D. of all things that he would grant them an only son obedient in all things to his will. God, regarding their prayers from on high, did not fail their petition, and sed G; quia C1. granted them one son, filled with the diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit moribus praeditum adds G, C2. and comely of form, Clarus by name ^d, as one who [(n. C. ut q.) Clarumque ideo n. dictum quia G; C. re et nomine C1; erat autem Clarus re, Clarus n. adds C3, D.] was to be erat adds V2. bright before omits G. God and men (f. e.) habebatur G. ^e.

[2] shrinking from marriage, he flees from England into Neustria, When this one postquam attigit septem annos adds C1.3, D., learning (H. c.) Qui iussu parentum G. his letters, had surpassed his contemporaries litterali scientia instructos adds G., by the grant of divine providence, and (s. et) superavit. Hunc ergo G. his parents saw that they had no other heir videntes G., they desired to enrich him with riches and dignities and uxori adds G. to join him in lawful marriage. Blessed Clarus tamquam adds G., a man of great religion, rejecting this as though it were a crime, and giving himself in words and works to God alone, relying on divine help, left his parents and his homeland (p. p.) utrumque parentem totamque (et C1.3, D) patriam G, C1.3, D. dereliquit G, C2., and coming v. itaque G. to the shore of the sea ponti C1.3, D. and boarding a ship, he put in at [(et n. i. ad) navesque subintrans in G., navem quae parata erat intrans in C1; conscensa navi in C3; navem intravit D.] the land which was called Neustria, but is now called Normandy (n. a. N. d.) omits G, C1.3, D. ^f, at Cherbourg Cesarbungum V1 corrected; apud Cesarisburgum G, C2, D; apud Cesariburgum C1.3. ^g. Then he came to (T. ad) et exiens a navibus (de navi C1) in G, C1. a certain wood ^h, where two hermits were leading a solitary life (pervenit-vitam) in quo d. e. degebant, Domino ducente, p. G. ⁱ. and having worked a miracle, But before (v. p.) sed antequam G, C1.2. he entered the hermitage subintraret G, C1., he found invenit V2. a certain little servant famulum G, C1.4. of the hermits wounded through the middle of the body by an axe; whom, moved by mercy oratione praemissa adds G, C2; oratione adds C4., having made the sign of the cross (f. c. s.) crucisque miraculo (vel signaculo adds G2 in the margin) f. G., he restored to his former health.

[3] he withdraws into the abbey of Malduinus. Then blessed Clarus, desiring to avoid intrare G2; vitare corrected G2 in the margin. the praise of the world, sent the aforesaid little servant famulum G. back to the place illum adds G. in which the hermits dwelt, and came to omits G. the abbey of Malduinus Maldium G2; Malidumi C3, D. ^k, in which St. Odobert ^l lived agebatur V1., having obtained the primacy of that religious house. Meanwhile [(agebat-Porro) s. O. primatum r. (regionis G2) i. obtinebat, adiit. Sed G; s. O. degebat adiit. Et C2.] the servant restored to health (s. r.) omits G. cried out with tears, seeking his (c. c. l. s.) clamans ac lacrimans suosque G. masters, namely his fathers the hermits (p. s. e) omits G.; to whom he related (q. e.) eis omnia G. the things which had befallen him through the patronage of blessed Clarus (p. b. C.) omits G, C2. enarravit adds G.. While he stays there, he strengthens certain hermits Having heard these things, the aforesaid hermits with the servant suo adds G., leaving the hermitage (e. r.) eremum dimiserunt et G; eremum exeuntes et C2., desiring to see blessed Clarus, followed him omits G. as far as the praedictam adds G. abbey. And when one day (C. e. q. d.) q. vero d. cum ipsum G. they had seen him coming out of the basilica of St. Paul apostoli adds G., at once, without any omni G, C2. informant indicio G1, C2; iudicio G2., recognizing him from omits G, C2. the serenity and cheerfulness of his countenance, they fell at his que adds G. knees and said: O lovable friend of God, whose servants we are, we earnestly beg you to disclose to us some counsel by which we may be able to avoid the mockeries of this world and after death render our souls to Christ. Answering them Illis igitur ita orantibus G., the man of the Lord Clarus said: Hear, brothers, the word of Christ, who says: "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" [m]; and again (et i.) omits G, C2.: "Love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole mind, and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments indeed hangs the whole law and the prophets" [n]. To love God with the whole heart and with the whole soul is to withdraw one's mind from earthly things, so, namely, that we strive to serve God alone, constantly placing our whole (s. t.) studeat totamque suam G. intention in him reponat G.. in good works, Having said these things, he strengthened the aforesaid hermits in good works atque virtutibus G, C2. and sent them back to their own place armed with the breastplate of faith.

[4] he frees a demoniac, Not many days after, when blessed Clarus was dwelling, for love of solitude, beside the river which is called Costus ^o, and (a. s. h. et) a. solitarii loci habitans G; solitarie habitans C2. on a certain Sunday was making for the basilica of St. Paul the Apostle, to receive acciperet G. [p] there the Body and Blood of the Lord, as is the custom with holy men (ibidem-solet) ut i., sicut m. est sanctorum hominum G., it happened that a certain youth, noble of birth and comely of form, who was tormented by a demon graviter adds G., was being led by his parents suis adds G. to the same basilica, with his hands bound behind his back. Him the holy man Clarus omits G., endowed with the simplicity of the dove (c. p. s.) sicut erat c. s. G., beholding, and misericordia et pietate G. the people crying out and atque eum G. pleading for the boy

moved by pity omits G. est adds G., on bended que adds G. knees he prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord God, who preserved Daniel in the lions' den and quique G. kept Jonah the prophet in the belly of the whale tribus diebus et tribus noctibus adds G., and also (S. q.) et S. G. freed Susanna from a false charge sibi imposito adds G., hear me your servant, and for (et i. i. p.) pro isto iuvene deprecantem ut eum G. your most kind mercy deign to free this youth from the demon and to bring him back to the knowledge of your truth. And when this prayer had been made peracta G., the youth qui a daemonio possessus erat adds G. was freed from the evil demon according to omits G. the will of God, who exalts his saints [(a. c. e. l.) amore et meritis sancti Clari sanatus fuit magnasque exinde gratias cum suis parentibus Christo reddidit G.].

[5] In this country, then, blessed Clarus, detained for two years (p. b.) multis annis C3; aliquanto tempore D. commoratus G, C4; moratus C1. [q] by the prayer and friendship of St. Odobert the abbot and of the whole community of monks, and by the prayer precibus C4; rogatu G. of other devout omits G. men eiusdem patriae adds G., established a dwelling beside the aforesaid river Costus, out of love for and fellowship with the same abbot. To him not only neighbors, he heals the sick, but strangers also, oppressed by various infirmities, flocking confluentibus adds G1., were freed from whatever infirmity held them, touching his footprints in faith [(l. e. v. c. t.) vestimentum e. t. firmiterque credentes l. G; t. vestimentum e. l. (liberati sunt C2; curabantur C3, D) C1.2.3, D.]. nay, he even raises a dead man. A certain poor little mulier adds G, C1.4. woman also, whose only son was dead, sought the holy man Clarus omits G. with tears and outcry. He, trusting in the Lord [corpusque proprium super mortui corpus extendens adds G; praecepit puerum afferri et extendens corpus suum super corpus pueri adds C1; extendens (extendit enim D) se super corpus pueri, sicut legimus Helisaeum fecisse adds C3, D; extensis instar Elizaei supra corpus mortui membris adds C4.] [r], imprinted the sign of the cross upon him (si c. su. e. i.) signo c. impresso G; facto signo c. C1. and omits G. humbly besought God; and thus he restored him who had died to his mother alive and (v. a.) omits G. sound.

[6] But when, to flee an unchaste woman, While the Lord Jesus Christ worked these and similar things through the love and merits of his saint Clarus, blessed Clarus was honored and loved by all hominibus G, C1. of the whole country. But the devil, desiring to deceive the friends of God, vehemently kindled the mind of a certain woman with love (in a.) amore G, C1.2. of him. She, being very rich dives G, C2. and noble, promised many things to the most blessed Clarus if he would yield to her shameless omits G, C2. will [s]. But (v. a.) sed v. G, C2. the man of God, despising earthly things and abhorring the crime (et s. a.) omits G, C2., [he had withdrawn from the monastery and after many journeys had retired near the river Epte,] having received leave from the abbot de nocte adds G., withdrew, and going about many parts of Neustria or Normandy (s. N.) omits G, C1.3, D. and of Gaul [t], at length came to a certain wood situated in the regions of Gaul (s. in p. G.) p. G. vicinum C1. [u] beside the bank of the water whose name is the Epte [(r. a. c. E. n. e.) r. a. quae dicitur E., Domino ducente G; E. fluvium in pago Wlcasino C2; usque Eptam, Spiritu sancto ducente C3, D; Spiritu sancto ducente adds also C1.]. There indeed he built a certain cell (q. c.) monasterium C2; eremitorium C3; domunculam C4; c. q. D. [x] with the help of the Lord omits G, C1. God and of a certain servant of his [y]; where ibique G, C1.3, D., suffering many hard things (m. et d.) m. d. et aspera G; multa mala C1; multas necessitates C3, D. for Christ and living vivens G, C1.2. on the roots of herbs alone, he did not cease from the divine praises (a l. d.) a divino servicio G, C1.2. day and night, save for a scanty bodily rest (die-corporali) omits G. C1.2..

[7] at length, by the henchmen of that same woman [The whole chapter is presented in abridgment thus in G: Meanwhile the aforesaid woman ordered two of her servants to seek blessed Clarus and, when he was found, to put him to death. They, traversing all Neustria and Gaul but not finding him, while, wearied by the journey and by vexation, they were returning home, passing near the place in which the holy man lived, they see him digging in the garden (et corpus suum fatigantem adds C1.3, D). They ask him whether he knew a certain man named Clarus, or the place in which he lived. When he said that he did not know, but, as they went away, repented of having told a lie, he called them back and said: "I am he." Then they, learning the truth from his mouth, carried out the command of their mistress, and beheaded him there on the fourth day of November. He, taking his own head in his hands, carried it from the place in which he had been beheaded as far as his own cell (usque ad clivum collis proximum C4); and so his servant, by name Cirinus, buried him there as honorably as he could (anno Christi 884 adds C4). C and D give the same, though more briefly, sometimes even word for word; but in C3 and D certain hortatory passages are intermixed, and these are the same in both.] Meanwhile the aforesaid woman, unable to bear her pleasure being spurned, ordered two of her servants to seek blessed Clarus and, when he was found, to put him to death. They, traversing all Neustria and Gaul and by no means finding him, stopped, weary, and, their business unaccomplished infesto V1., were thinking of returning home. It happened, however, that they passed the place in which the holy man lived, and they saw him from afar digging the earth. They ask him by chance whether he knew a man named Clarus or knew the place in which he was staying. Not knowing what was to happen to him, he answered that he did not know the man they sought or the place of his omits V2. dwelling. As they went away, he repented of having told a lie [z], and calling them back, choosing rather to die than to lie, he confessed and did not deny [aa], saying: I am Clarus, whom you seek. he was beheaded Then they, learning the truth from his mouth, carried out the command of their mistress, cutting off his head in that very place on the fourth day of November. He, indeed, taking his own head in his hands, carried it from the place in which it had been cut off as far as his own cell [bb] [cc]. Seeing this, his servant marveled that the trunk of the body was carrying the severed head in its own hands [dd]. and was buried by his servant Cyrinus. The name of this servant was Cyrinus [ee], who rendered service to so great a saint not without piety. And lest he should fail in the last service, he followed the lifeless body, that he might bury him honorably, as befitted a saint, and he rendered him the last services of burial.

[8] But in the third year after his death [A still briefer abridgment of this chapter is read in G: When three years had passed since his passion, by the will of God, who wished to exalt his holy martyr, a certain man blind from birth fell asleep beside his tomb. He, rising joyful and, as he had been admonished there (idem G1) in his sleep by an angel, taking earth from the tomb (eius adds G2), applied it to his eyes, and at once received his sight. Whence it came about that afterwards a great multitude of the sick devoutly sought out that place and there, through the merits of St. Clarus, obtained the benefit of health from various infirmities. — C4 hands down this abridgment almost word for word, but in still fewer words; — in C2 only the last sentence is read; — in C3 and D this narrative is put forward, to which C1 presents one very similar: When three years had elapsed since his passion (post tres annos a passione sua D), it happened that someone was digging where his body lay buried (terram iuxta coenobium effodere atque tumulum martiris invenire C1). On the same day (et e. d. D) a certain man blind from birth, passing near the place, sleeping by the divine will beside his tomb, heard an angel of the Lord telling him that the body of Clarus was buried there (eique omnibus gentibus praedicare praecepit scil. angelus adds C1). He, rising, touched the place of his eyes (oculis C3) with that earth, and on the spot received his sight (qui omnia quae viderat et sibi acciderant, narravit adds C1). — Finally, it is pleasing to add the text of the codex of Sancourt (cf. above, p. 437, note 14), as Denyald presents it, Histoire de S. Clair, pp. 110–11: It happened, moreover, when three years had passed since the martyr's passion, that Albani (sic) was digging a sarcophagus beside the cell, and in digging had found the tomb of the martyr. On the same day a certain man blind from birth, passing near that place, by the will of God, who wished to make his martyr manifest, was put to sleep (sic) beside his tomb. To him a certain angel sent down from heaven related that St. Clarus, martyr of God, lay there, and commanded him to relate this to all the nations of the earth. Having heard this, he who had been blind, rising joyful and desiring to have his sight, taking earth from the tomb and touching his eyes with it, on the spot received his sight. He, traversing various places, announced to the nations of the whole country the things which the angel had related to him as he slept concerning St. Clarus, martyr of Christ, and how he himself had received his sight upon the tomb of the same martyr. When these reports came to the ears of the people, a great multitude of the sick and infirm, seeking out the place in which the body of St. Clarus the martyr rested, were healed of various ailments by divine dispensation. Ibid., p. 136–7: In the same year (in which that blind man was healed) a certain woman held by the lunatic affliction, hearing of the miracles which God was daily working for his martyr, departing from regions far removed from there, sought the place where the martyr of Christ rested, desiring to be healed of the infirmity by which she was held. She, entering his cell, in which he lay, and keeping vigil the whole night, with frequent prayers God and holy

martyr humbly beseeching, by the will of God she was healed of the affliction by which she was burdened. On the same night also two boys burdened with the paralytic disease, keeping vigil beside the tomb of the holy martyr, besought the holy martyr, whom they had sought for the sake of health, saying: "St. Clarus, martyr and friend of God, we boys, exceedingly distressed by the paralytic disease, suppliant and humble beseech you, that God, whom you served in the world by your life, that you free us from the paralytic disease, by which we are burdened beyond measure, by his love" (sic). As they thus prayed with tears and a devout heart, through the love of the holy martyr and the mercy of God they were freed from the disease by which they had been held, in the sight of all who were present. When these miracles and others not written in this little book had been spread through many parts of the earth, peoples at the far end of Gaul, stirred, frequently sought out the holy martyr. Among them a certain tyrant, oppressed by the elephantine disease, sought the body of the holy martyr for the sake of recovering his health; who, entering the church of the holy martyr and prostrate in prayer, devoutly besought almighty God and holy Mary, Mother of God, and St. Clarus, that he would restore him to his former health (sic); and his flesh appeared in that hour cleansed like the flesh of a little boy. The Lord our God also gave such a gift to St. Clarus, that those who sought him with good devotion were healed of infirmity of the eyes and freed in peril of the sea.] Further, when three years had passed since his passion, God, wishing to make his saint wonderful and to appear glorious in him, revealed him by such a miracle. There was a certain man blind from birth who, asking the intercession of blessed Clarus, fell asleep beside his tomb. He was admonished by an angel to take a little earth from the tomb and, in the name of the Lord and of St. Clarus, to apply it to his eyes, just as Christ had anointed the eyes of the man blind from birth with clay made of earth and spittle [ff]. So this man born blind, taking earth from the tomb of the blessed man and anointing his eyes with it, obtained the benefit of perfect sight [gg]. he began to grow bright with miracles. Thenceforth the report of so great a miracle, going forth through various regions, stirred the devotion of many peoples, who, burdened with various ailments, daily flow to the place of St. Clarus, carrying away the benefits of health, so that, as new miracles come upon us day by day, there is no need to recount ancient ones for the manifestation of St. Clarus. Therefore blessed Clarus the martyr is to be invoked by all worshippers of the true religion, who for virtue and truth completed his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. Whence, glorious, with Jesus Christ our Lord reigning in heaven, he obtains the prize of supernal happiness, to which may all the worshippers of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his saints be brought. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

m. Matthew 10:24.

n. Ibid., 22:37–40.

p. Cf. Commentarius praevius, no. 21.

q. Denyald hands these things down thus Ibid.: "For two whole years he lived in that retreat, except at those times when he was present with Segenandus, bishop of the people of Coutances in Neustria, to receive holy orders. For the Roman martyrology and that of Usuard, with the breviary of Coutances, testify that Clarus was a presbyter." Most of the more recent writers put forward similar things. That Sigenandus is mentioned in this place, however, is a mere conjecture of Denyald; who, since he believed that St. Clarus lived in the years 855–884 and was initiated into the priesthood in the diocese of Coutances, did not hesitate to name in the narrative Sigenandus, who he thought presided over the diocese of Coutances at that time. But others afterwards began to use this name of Sigenandus, as if the matter had been handed down by the ancients, to define at what time St. Clarus lived.

r. Guido de Castris and those who followed him embellished the narrative, transferring to our Clarus the things that are read of Elisha in 4 Kings 4:33–35.

s. Denyald adds Vita, p. 17.: "I observe in one of the old codices that she offered herself as a wife, and at first veiled her lust by the contract of a lawful marriage."

t. It has pleased some moderns [Denyald, Vita, p. 17–8; Histoire, p. 75–7; Art. du Monstier, Neustria sancta, fol. 320; Legros, p. 63–6. Cf. Trigan, vol. II, p. 203.] to review one by one the places which Clarus, as they think, visited on this journey. In proof of the matter they invoke from time to time either the report current in these places, or the fact that St. Clarus is especially venerated in the same places. I for my part would believe that there was no other origin either for that report or for the inventions of the moderns than that "in most of those places Clarus was venerable for piety and famous for fairs and the throng of the peoples" So Denyald, Vita, p. 17.. For examples of popular, or more truly childish, explanations of this kind are an everyday matter.

u. See Commentarius praevius, no. 36.

x. The author seems grandiloquent, and the scribe followed him ignorantly who in the Usuard codex which they call that of Hagenau makes mention of our saint thus: In the monastery of Epta, of St. Clarus, presbyter and martyr See in Sollerius in his edition of Usuard, p. 651..

y. Besides this servant certain moderns, while all the ancients are silent, thrust upon us Pientia, lady of La Roche or of La Roche-Guyon Rocheguyon., who with St. Clarus is supposed to have built an oratory in honor of the divine Nicasius Denyald, Vita, p. 19–20; Histoire, p. 86–8; cf. also Legros, op. cit., p. 67.. Cf. above, Commentarius praevius, no. 2.

z. Denyald does not wish to believe the author when he narrates these things Vita, p. 21; Histoire, p. 95–6., although in other matters he readily gives him full credit. Other authors also are entirely silent about that same lie of the saint Trigan, op. cit., vol. II, p. 203; Legros, op. cit., p. 71..

aa. Cf. John 1:20, he confessed and did not deny.

bb. More recent writers again relate these things otherwise, when they narrate that Clarus carried his head Saussay, Martyrologium gallicanum, p. 828; Legros, op. cit., p. 72. to the building of the church which had been built in the village and of which they believe a part still survives Cf. Commentarius praevius, no. 32..

cc. As to what is to be thought of this narrative and similar ones, see Trigan, op. cit., vol. II, p. 203; Acta Sanctorum, October vol. VII, p. 819, nos. 9 and 10; Cahier, Caractéristiques des Saints, p. 761–7. Denyald wove marvels into marvels when he narrated that in this walk of Clarus there were heard singing not only Cyrinus, but also the angels of God, and even Clarus himself, although he had been beheaded Histoire, p. 104; cf. the Leonine poem below, p. 455, chap. 7..

dd. To a narrative already sufficiently adorned the more recent writers have added a little flower as well [Denyald, Vita, p. 21; Histoire, p. 104–5; Saussay, in the place cited; Art. du Monstier, Neustria sancta, fol. 320; Legros, in the place cited.], when they narrated that the severed head, taken in his own hands by St. Clarus, was carried to a nearby spring, in which Clarus washed it.

ee. Concerning that servant of St. Clarus see above, Commentarius praevius, no. 26. Alford Op. cit., p. 328. erred regarding Cyrinus, who, from certain words of Saussay badly understood, invented that Cyrinus was the same as that servant of the hermits whom we read in chap. 2 of the Vita was healed by St. Clarus. Otherwise there exists no ancient record of St. Cyrinus besides this Vita. The more recent writers say, however, that he too afterwards underwent martyrdom. "He is venerated as a saint," says Denyald [Vita, p. 20; Saussay, in the place cited; cf. Art. du Monstier, Neustria sancta, fol. 164, etc.], "in the Vexin and at the town of Saint-Clair on 13 June." We read moreover in the Proper of Bec, printed in the year 1766: in the year 1505, — rather 1585 Cf. Commentarius praevius, no. 32. — beneath one of the altars of the same parish church, namely in the village of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, the body of St. Cirinus was found, who is also venerated there Page 125, in the fifth lesson on St. Clarus.. The relics of Cyrinus are still today honorably preserved in that church Cf. Legros, op. cit., p. 72–3..

ff. John 9:6.

gg. See above, Commentarius praevius, no. 47.

* Above, p. 438, note 9, let what has fallen out be supplied thus: Clarus is asserted to have been born in the year 865, and to have suffered in the year 884

FRAGMENTS OF A LEONINE POEM ON ST. CLARUS

Clarus, hermit and martyr in the Vexin. (S.)

BHL Number: 1828

On this poem see above, Commentarius praevius, no. 5. Before each fragment we have indicated between brackets in which chapter of the prose Vita the same matters are narrated.

[…]princeps a rege secundus Nato gaudebat, ex re qui nomen habebat Clarus Published in Denyald, Histoire, preface fol. A.2 verso. […]

Solis iustitiae solo fervente calore Clarus cottidie Christi fervebat amore. Spretis illecebris mundi pulsisque Denyald publisque. tenebris, Coniugium Den. coniugeum. crimen reputans, sine crimine limen Egressus patris, auxit suspiria matris, Ad patriam tendens, quae Neustria nomen habebat. Sic mare conscendens mare mundi despiciebat Den. Histoire, p. 15.

[By the burning heat of the Sun of justice alone Clarus burned daily with the love of Christ. Spurning the allurements of the world and driving away its darkness, counting marriage a crime, going out without crime from his father's threshold, he increased his mother's sighs, making for the country which had the name of Neustria. So, embarking on the sea, he despised the sea of the world.]

Iamque Deo totus haerens eremum cupiebat; Ad quam devote (Clarus) festinus abibat. Congressum furi Den. fieri. iuvenem laesumque securi Digne sanavit et verbis aedificavit Den. Hist., p. 47..

[And now, cleaving wholly to God, he longed for the hermitage, toward which (Clarus) went devoutly in haste. The youth who had met with a thief and been wounded by an axe he worthily healed, and edified him with words.]

… pratis multisque locis peragratis, Devenit ad flumen Costi, reddens ibi lumen Lumine privatis, sensum male sensificatis Den. Hist., p. 45..

[… having traversed meadows and many places, he came to the river of Costus, restoring there light to those deprived of light, sense to those ill endowed with sense.]

Sic sanctus sancto socio gaudens Odeberto Profecit tanto patre necnon indice Den. indue. certo. Mortuus aptatur vitae, daemonque fugatur Den. Hist., p. 46..

[So the saint, rejoicing in the holy companion Odobert, made progress under so great a father and a sure guide. A dead man is fitted again to life, and a demon is put to flight.]

Subdita daemonibus mulier dum tentat abuti Sancto, muneribus et vi deliberat uti; Sed non propterea vincitur hic ab ea [Denyald, Officium S. Clari, p. 6. Denyald rightly notes that here a pentameter is badly joined to two hexameters.].

[While a woman subject to demons tries to abuse the saint, she resolves to use gifts and force; but not for that is he overcome by her.]

Costus tristatur, quo gaudens Epta beatur; Hic dolet amisso, laetatur at hic sibi misso. Sanctus ut cellam sibi construit atque capellam, Mellifluus verbis, sanctorum vivit in herbis Denyald, Vita S. Clari, p. 19..

[The Costus grieves, by whom the rejoicing Epte is blessed; this one sorrows for him lost, but that one rejoices in him sent to it. When the saint builds for himself a cell and a chapel, honey-sweet in words, he lives on the herbs of the saints.]

Raptus ab exsilio Clarus fuit ense secante; Conditur in gremio matris qua conditus ante. Dum caput ipse suum Den. suis. manibus deferre videtur, Aer spirituum sanctorum voce repletur Denyald, Hist., p. 100–1..

[Clarus was snatched from exile by the cutting sword; he is laid in the bosom of the mother from whom he was formed before. While he himself is seen to carry his own head in his hands, the air is filled with the voice of holy spirits.]

Martyrii palmam miracula multa sequuntur; Aegri sanantur, claudi recte gradiuntur; Venit et invenit sanctum sub caespite caecus, Et qui perdiderat sua pristina lumina egenus. Huc Den. huic. veniens mulier lunatica sana recessit; Vicit enim sanctus, ubi sancto passio cessit. Visque elephantina plus non est ausa morari, Et virtute Dei Clarique recessit honore [Den. Hist., p. 148–9. The author of the poem had read the narrative of the codex of Sancourt (above, p. 453, among the variant readings) or another similar one. It is to be noted that these verses are no longer all Leonine.].

[Many miracles follow the palm of martyrdom; the sick are healed, the lame walk aright; the blind man came and found the saint beneath the turf, and the needy one who had lost his former sight. A lunatic woman coming hither went away sound; for the saint conquered, when the affliction yielded to the saint. And the elephantine force dared stay no longer, and by the power of God and the honor of Clarus it departed.]

Laetifica flentes oculos et lucis egentes, Clarifica mentes, exaudi digna precantes Den., Hist., p. 135.