Perpetuus

ON ST. PERPETUUS, BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT,

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY

Perpetuus, bishop of Maastricht (S.)

BHL Number: 6638

BY A. P.

§ I. Of the history of St. Perpetuus.

[1] As of other early bishops of Tongres and Maastricht, No one is unaware in what deep darkness the history of the earlier bishops of Tongres or Maastricht is wrapped, and how few and uncertain are the things that have been handed down by the older writers to the memory of posterity concerning their number, name, age and fortunes. That lamentable and wide gap the most diligent collectors of monuments of that kind, Gilles of Orval and Jean d'Outremeuse, did indeed try to fill with little narratives heaped together from every side, and above all those writers of Liège who in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries strove to illustrate the history of their country in writing; but however much they sweated over these things, they won so little credit with the wiser critics that the most recent compiler of the list of the prelates of Liège, Pius Bonifatius Gams of blessed memory [Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae, p. 248. Mas Latrie copied this catalogue, Trésor de chronologie (1889), col. 1518.], among the bishops who sat at Tongres or at Maastricht on the Meuse before the middle of the seventh century, enumerated indeed Maternus, Servatius, Falco (?), Domitian, Monulf, Betulf (= Gondulf?), and John the Lamb, but ordered seventeen others in number to be banished from this series, as having been either wrongly brought in here or at least doubtful. thus the history of St. Perpetuus is obscure. What in the end is to be thought on this matter is both difficult to say and foreign to the present purpose. For we have to deal with only one of these ousted bishops, namely with Perpetuus, whose ecclesiastical cult, fixed to this day, is certainly sure and illustrious, while the other things that concern him are plainly obscure and doubtful, very nearly all of them.

[2] He is mentioned by Heriger of Lobbes, The first of all to mention Perpetuus is the tenth-century writer Heriger of Lobbes, in the Gesta of the bishops of Tongres, Maastricht and Liège, in these meagre words: But St. Perpetuus, who presided 23rd, rests at Dinant Book I, chap. 28 (MG., Scr. vol. VII, p. 176).. He calls him the twenty-third bishop, that is, if you continue the series of the bishops of Maastricht with the common series of the prelates of Tongres, which takes its beginning from St. Maternus; for those who enumerate the bishops of Maastricht alone [On this designation "bishops of Maastricht", which once stirred up no small dispute among learned men, see Act. SS., Nov. vol. I, pp. 183–6, no. 95 ff., especially nos. 107–8. It is now certain that the prelates of this see themselves sometimes assumed the name of "bishops of Maastricht": for one of them subscribed the acts of the council of Paris of the year 614 in these words: From the city of Maastricht, Betulf. Cf. E. Amort, Elementa iuris canonici, vol. II (1757), p. 416; I. Friedrich, Drei unedierte Concilien (1867), p. 16; F. Maassen, in MG., Legum sect. III, vol. I: Concilia aevi merovingici (1893), p. 192, line 21.] assert that Perpetuus was the fourteenth See the passage from the metrical catalogue to be adduced shortly.. Heriger names as predecessors of Perpetuus: 20. Domitian, 21. Monulf, 22. Gundulf; and as successors 24. Ebregisus, 25. John the Lamb, 26. Amandus. In entire agreement with Heriger is the most ancient catalogue of the prelates of Tongres that has been preserved, written at the beginning of the eleventh century, which however does not seem to have been excerpted from Heriger's book Cf. MG., Scr. vol. XIII, p. 290.; the ancient catalogues of the bishops, the other catalogues of the same, written in the twelfth century, agree MG., ibid. and vol. XII, p. 126., one of which, namely the metrical one, further records the noble origin of Perpetuus thus:

Perpetuus the fourteenth, of illustrious blood.

[3] the presbyter Jocundus, If you add to these a very few things that are read in the presbyter Jocundus's little work on the translation of St. Servatius and in the so-called Annals of Liège [What comes under this not entirely true designation, see explained by G. Waitz in Nachrichten von der kön. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften… Göttingen, 1870, pp. 302–9; more briefly in Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, ed. 5, vol. II, p. 128, note 1.], you will have absolutely everything that was handed down to memory concerning St. Perpetuus before the thirteenth century. Jocundus indeed, who was writing not long after the year 1088, relates the following in the work cited, chap. 22: For he it is (namely Servatius) from whose bosom have sprung, and under whose breast have been nourished, all the martyrs and confessors who are in all the cities and castles and towns of almost the whole of Lotharingia. But because it is perhaps long and tedious to treat of each one, let your charity receive a few things out of many. For Dinant has the blessed Perpetuus, a great confessor, the Ardennes two, St. Remaclus and Hubert, and so on MG., Scr. vol. XII, p. 99..

But the Annals of Liège, and the Annals of Liège. which were written in the eleventh century, state thus under the year 598: St. \\\\\\\\\\\\ presides at Tongres Ibid., vol. IV, p. 10.. Some word has indeed been erased after the word Saint in the single manuscript; but that Perpetuus is to be supplied is thereby made sufficiently probable, that Gilles of Orval in the middle of the thirteenth century read this passage so, who in Book I, chap. 35 of his Gesta noted in the lower margin: About the year of the Lord 598 St. Perpetuus presides at Tongres Ibid., vol. XXV, p. 29; cf. Notae Aureaevallenses, ibid., vol. XVI, p. 681..

[4] From whose testimonies it is probably gathered, Now then, if only you set aside this last chronological note, of which we shall treat shortly, from these older and more trustworthy witnesses we have in the end this much: that a certain Perpetuus sat at the beginning of the seventh century in the see of Maastricht or, if anyone prefers, of Tongres, and was buried at Dinant; at the beginning, I say, of the seventh century: for his third predecessor is said to have been Domitian, who it is certain took part in the fifth council of Orléans in the year 549 [Conciliorum Galliae collectio, Maurist ed., p. 1042; F. Maassen, Concilia aevi merovingici, p. 109, line 18.]; while that Gundulf whom the authors praised above name immediately before Perpetuus seems to be altogether one and the same with Betulf, bishop of Maastricht, whose name is read subscribed to the canons of the council of Paris of the year 614 [I. Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. II, p. 320. It is a trite matter, and very well known to all who have touched ancient documents even in passing, how easily names of this kind were deformed or confused by copyists.]. But the next, or almost the next [For we leave entirely open the question whether Ebregisus, who is said to have been the twenty-fourth bishop of Tongres, was rightly or wrongly inserted at this place in the catalogues of bishops, namely out of a mere confusion made between him and St. Evergislus, bishop of Cologne. See the most recent writer on this question, J. Demarteau, Saint Ébregise de Termogne in Conférences de la Société d'art et d'hist. du dioc. de Liége, 5e série (1892), pp. 137–54.], successor of Perpetuus, John the Lamb, was already sitting at Maastricht about the year 625 [See Heriger, Book I, chap. 31 (MG., Scr. vol. VII, p. 178); cf. Ghesquière, Act. SS. Belgii, vol. II, p. 424, no. 5; Rettberg, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. I, p. 554; I. Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. II, p. 321.]. Whence it would have to be inferred that the Perpetuus who is venerated at Dinant, if he really held the see of Maastricht, held it between the years 614 and 625. although some authors, There are indeed those who deny that he held it; with whom for our part we are reluctant to agree. For although the testimonies we have brought forward are of neither such antiquity nor such authority as to produce certainty and leave no room for doubt, yet what the writers praised put forward concerning Perpetuus, and above all the most cautious and most diligent author Heriger, seems to present an ancient and probable tradition of the church of Liège; and for departing from it in this matter no solid reason is available.

[5] having brought forward no valid reason, For the grounds for doubt, certainly not light ones, which are put forward by some against the first successors either of St. Maternus, — I mean Navitus, Marcellus, etc., — or of St. Servatius, — namely Agricolaus, Ursinus, etc., — or even against St. Ebregisus [Rettberg, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 204, 552–3; Friedrich, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 309–10; vol. II, pp. 316–7, 320.], in no way touch our Perpetuus. And the single argument which moved some to exclude him from the series of the bishops of Maastricht is not at all firm. It is drawn from this, that whatever is established with certainty from historical monuments concerning the chronological order of the bishops of Maastricht of this time cannot be reconciled with what is commonly handed down about the time and duration of Perpetuus's episcopate. That indeed is true; but it is equally true that the things which, as we were saying, are commonly thrust upon us concerning the chronology of St. Perpetuus's episcopate deserve no credit. To be sure, apart from the Annals of Liège, whose testimony is both ambiguous [For it is not altogether certain that the erased word, which in this place is certainly the principal one, was really Perpetuus from the beginning.] and in any case not of much weight, nothing is brought forward concerning this chronology except the mere opinions of certain more recent authors, and those differing among themselves in a wonderful manner [Thus Jean d'Outremeuse in his Speculum historiale (ed. Ad. Borgnet, vol. II, pp. 270, 271) ties the time of Perpetuus's entry into the episcopal dignity to the year 586; Mathias of Lewis in his chronicle (ed. St. Bormans, 1865, p. 18), Gilles of Orval and some moderns, with the Annals of Liège, to the year 598; but others, themselves also moderns, whom I have read through in good number but consider it superfluous to adduce one by one, to the years

604, 607, 608, 609, 614, 617… Indeed, Chapeaville, soon to be praised, in one and the same work, namely in the Life of Bl. Perpetuus, assigns in one place the year 598 (fol. 5), in another the year 608 (fol. 11). — That Perpetuus sat in the see of Maastricht for 3 years Jean d'Outremeuse teaches in the place cited; 13 years the same Jean in his metrical chronicle, Book I, verse 7454 (ed. Borgnet, vol. II, p. 589), and most moderns; 12 or 18 years others. — Finally, that he died is related in the year 589 by Jean d'Outremeuse in the Speculum, place cited, in the year 611 by Gilles of Orval (in the margin of the autograph manuscript), in the year 618 by the Annals of Liège and after them by the same Gilles (in the lower margin of the same manuscript), by other more recent writers in the years 617, 620, 630, etc. In a word, nothing on this matter is fixed and settled.].

[6] have denied it, Among these, however, there comes to be mentioned a certain hypothesis of I. Friedrich Op. cit., vol. II, pp. 320–1., who conjectures that this part of the Maastricht series is to be constituted in one or other of these ways, namely either

Monulf (c. 550 – c. 580),

Gondulf, the same as Betulf (c. 580 – c. 623),

John the Lamb;

or Monulf, the same as Gondulf,

Perpetuus, the same as Betulf,

John the Lamb But in either case he ejects Ebregisus from the series, as spurious..

But hypotheses of this kind seem to us not at all necessary; for they are brought in, in the end, only because it is presupposed that Perpetuus is presented as one who sat at Maastricht in the years 598–608, or at any rate before the year 614. That St. Perpetuus was bishop of Maastricht between the years 614 and 625. Now this is urged by no historical monument that deserves credit; by no historical monument is it made improbable that Perpetuus was made bishop only after the year 614. Let it therefore be permitted to us, while surer aids for searching out the truth are entirely lacking, to rest in this last conclusion as truly probable, namely that Perpetuus held the see of Maastricht within about the years 614 and 625.

[7] A little more about him To the few things that Heriger had handed down concerning Perpetuus, the monk Gilles of Orval added few, except that he appended a brief narrative of certain miracles which had happened in his own time through the intercession of the blessed prelate. But what he relates about the very life of the holy bishop is contained for the most part in a certain commonplace encomium, and was so judged by our Ghesquière, with whose opinion we entirely agree: There is nothing, and that not improbable he says Act. SS. Belgii, vol. II, p. 317, no. 3., in Gilles's narrative of St. Perpetuus which, if you except the chronological notes (namely those which Gilles added in the margins of the autograph manuscript), cannot be admitted by learned men; although, to confess the truth, whatever that writer consigned to writing about our saint cannot be called altogether certain and verified. Yet since I have nowhere found things surer and more probable than these, I do not see why I should be ashamed to set them out in this collection. Before we too, however, reprint this passage of Gilles, mention must be made of a certain Life of St. Perpetuus Henschenius cites it in Act. SS., May vol. VII, p. XXIX, no. 31 at the end., which our predecessors copied in the seventeenth century "from the Utrecht manuscript of St. Martin" [That transcript is preserved in the manuscript of the Royal Library of Brussels marked 8932, fol. 265.] and collated "with the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître which is entitled 2nd part of the Hagiology of the Brabanters", now, as we have often lamented, lost, and "with the manuscript of the canons regular at Korsendonk"; which Korsendonk manuscript, written in the year 1498, is now preserved in the Mazarine Library at Paris under no. 1329 [Cf. Aug. Molinier, Catal. des mss. de la bibl. Mazarine, vol. II, pp. 203–8. The "Vita Perpetui" is read at fol. 151.]. But this so-called Life is copied word for word from Gilles, with a few things omitted or changed which are of no importance. Neglecting it, therefore, as is fitting, we present Gilles's narrative from the excellent edition which Joh. Heller prepared for the Monumenta Germaniae historica.

[8] Thus, then, Gilles, Book I, chap. 35 MG., Scr. vol. XXV, p. 29.: Of St. Perpetuus, the bishop who succeeded him (namely Gondulf) See the index of chapters, ibid. p. 14..

Therefore, after the departure of the blessed bishop Gondulf, the blessed Perpetuus the most gentle confessor of Christ [The words which appear here and in what follows enclosed in brackets are those which were not indeed written at the beginning in the autograph manuscript, but which Gilles afterwards either added in the margin by the hand of a scribe or wrote over the line with his own hand, namely with the intention that they should be inserted into the text. But those things which, added at a later time as well, do not at all fit the narrative, we have placed below in the following notes 2 and 3. Cf. Heller, place cited, p. 4.] is ordained twenty-third bishop for the church of Maastricht [Gilles added in the lower margin: About the year of the Lord 598 St. Perpetuus presides at Tongres.]. Gilles of Orval has handed down; This blessed man, being renowned for signs and miracles, brought back the talent entrusted to him to his Lord with profit; for in all things that he could commendably do with God's favour, he sought not his own glory but Christ's. Supported, then, by these and other pursuits of good works, he came to a holy old age, and thus in the confession of the Lord on the day before the nones of November he passed to Christ. This blessed confessor of Christ was at first buried in the church of the blessed Vincent, levite and martyr, in the town which is called Dinant. For oil is said to have flowed from his tomb for a long time. But afterwards his body was translated into the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary situated in the same town and fittingly placed in a shrine. There, both reverently frequented and faithfully invoked by the citizens, through manifold benefit he is to them a second patron after Christ. Concerning him we have taken care to relate here, among other things, some miracles which happened in our times.

[9] There was at Dinant a certain burgess named Theoderic who, having a boy named Fucher who was suffering miserably from the disease of rupture or of the stone, summoned a physician with his instruments to bring help to the boy. And when the said boy was to be cut on the morrow, the said father of the same boy, making a vow to the blessed Perpetuus and promising that he would advance the fabric of his church to the best of his power [if through his merits health were restored to the boy, that same night the said boy recovered the health desired and not hoped for.]

There was also in the same place a certain cleric named Clemens who one day, while from a new house beside the tower of the Blessed Virgin he was watching the Meuse overflowing its banks, suddenly fell from on high into the said river; but in the very fall, calling the blessed Perpetuus to mind, he faithfully invoked him, as best he could, to stand by him. When therefore he was being submerged in the said river and the force of the water was dragging him into the depths, he suddenly saw the blessed Perpetuus, clothed in pontifical dress, holding him by the head and bringing him unharmed to the bank. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

[10] A certain girl too, while she was drawing water from the well which is situated in the middle of Dinant, suddenly fell into the well and, her head being gravely injured and her other limbs almost broken, she was drawn out dead, as was said. But those who had drawn her out, invoking the blessed Perpetuus and carrying the lifeless body with haste to his altar, after a short space had passed, received back alive, through the merits of the blessed Perpetuus, the girl whom they had brought, as they thought, dead.

After St. Perpetuus, St. Ebregisus is substituted as twenty-fourth bishop for the church of Maastricht [Gilles added in the lower margin: In the year of the Lord 618 St. Ebregisus presides at Tongres.] [about the year of the Lord 611; who sat more than 14 years under the apostolic popes Honorius…]

[11] So much Gilles. But from this point that rather meagre legend of the holy bishop began to be adorned with flowers heaped together from whatever could be found, more things also but those certainly suspect and in any case neither many nor remarkable. The column of amplifiers of this kind is led by that most diligent collector of the traditions of Liège, even the most fabulous, Jean d'Outremeuse. He indeed, in the metrical chronicle to which he gave the name Les Giestes de Liege or also Les Giestes des evesques de Tongre et de Liege, had followed out the life of Perpetuus with a sober pen indeed, in these words [Chaps. 260 and 261, verses 7451–7462 (ed. Borgnet in his edition of the prose chronicle or Speculum historiale, vol. II, p. 589).]:

CCLX. Le XXIIIe evesque. CCLX. The 23rd bishop.

John of Outremeuse, Et puis fut fais evesque XXIIIe, sens refus,

Unc canoine proidhomme qui astoit de Namut.

Perpetueis olt à nom, dignement là rechut

Ne regnat que trase ans que Deu l'at recoilhut.

Droit à Dynant morit li evesque menbrus,

A Saint Vincent fut mis, où mult longtemps il jut,

Et puis le translatont.

[And then there was made the 23rd bishop, without refusal, a worthy canon who was from Namur. Perpetuus was his name; he was worthily received there. He reigned only thirteen years before God took him to himself. Right at Dinant the renowned bishop died; he was placed at Saint Vincent, where he lay a very long time, and then they translated him.]

CCLXI. Le XXIIIIe evesque. CCLXI. The 24th bishop.

Perpetueis l'evesque, de quoy je vos raconte,

Fut puis enseveli en unc fiestre parfont,

A Dynant en l'englise la virgene, qui confont

Tot le poioir al dyable, où soventes fois font

Grans miracles et beals ses osseals qui là sont.

[Perpetuus the bishop, of whom I tell you, was afterwards buried in a deep shrine at Dinant in the church of the Virgin, who confounds all the power of the devil, where his bones that lie there often work great and fair miracles.]

[12] but these partly very suspect But afterwards, having found new documents in a certain chronicle, he wrote in the margin of the manuscript at this place: Altre chronique dient qu'il fut fils de conte d'Osterne, que ons dit de Loos, 〈et〉 del filhe de conte de Colongne, et regnat XIII ans. [Other chronicles say that he was the son of the count of Osterne, which is called Loos, 〈and〉 of the daughter of the count of Cologne, and that he reigned 13 years.]

Finally, when after the lapse of many years he was composing the Speculum historiarum in prose, he had to add things now more ample and even at times disagreeing with these earlier ones. For thus he writes Ly Myreur des histors, Book I (ed. Borgnet, vol. II, p. 270).:

Apres la mort sains Gondulphe, fut consacreis et ordineis à evesque XXIIIe de Tongre uns sains hons, canoyne de l'engliese Sains-Bertremeir que ons nomme maintenant Sains-Servais, qui oit nom Perpetuus, et tient le siege trois ans. [After the death of St. Gondulf, there was consecrated and ordained 23rd bishop of Tongres a holy man, a canon of the church of Saint-Bartholomew which is now called Saint-Servatius, who was named Perpetuus, and he held the see three years.]

And a little later Ibid., p. 271.:

Item, l'an Ve IIIIxx et IX, le quart jour de novembre, morut à Treit l'evesque Perpetuus: chis fut uns valhans hons de bonne vie, et à son poioir multipliat grandement la vraie foid. Si fut promierement ensevelis en l'engliese Sains-Vincent à Dynant, mains depuis fut son corps translateis en l'engliese Nostre-Dame de Dynant, où ilh fut mult reveremment mis en unc fiestre, pro les grans myracles que Dieu faisoit par li. Si fut sa fieste estaublie par le pape le dierain jour sens unc de decembre, assavoir: le vigiel de sains Silvestre, pape. Chis sains Perpetuus fut d'Allemagne, le fis d'on riche chevalier et poissans de la ducheit d'Ostriche, qui oussi oit nom Perpetuus; et sa mere oit nom Prudenche, qui estoit la fille d'on [Item, in the year 589, on the fourth day of November, the bishop Perpetuus died at Maastricht: he was a worthy man of good life, and to the best of his power he greatly multiplied the true faith. He was first buried in the church of Saint-Vincent at Dinant, but afterwards his body was translated into the church of Notre-Dame of Dinant, where it was very reverently placed in a shrine, on account of the great miracles which God worked through him. And his feast was established by the pope on the last day but one of December, namely: the vigil of St. Silvester, pope. This St. Perpetuus was from Germany, the son of a rich and powerful knight of the duchy of Austria, who was also named Perpetuus; and his mother was named Prudence, who was the daughter of a]

vallant chevalier, qui estoit maire de Colongne. Chis sains evesque Perpetuus fist mult de miracle à Colongne, car ilh resuscitat III hommes que li thonoir et oraige deseurdit [A little above Jean had written: Item l'an Ve IIIIxx et VIII, le XVIIe jour de may, fist unc grant tempieste de thonoir et d'alumure… [Item, in the year 588, on the 17th day of May, there was a great tempest of thunder and lightning…]] avoit ochis à Colongne. [valiant knight, who was mayor of Cologne. This holy bishop Perpetuus worked many miracles at Cologne, for he raised up three men whom the above-said thunder and storm had killed at Cologne.]

[13] and disagreeing with the sayings of the ancients, Then he relates three miracles which Gilles had already reported and which we have copied from him above, namely of the son of Theoderic, burgess of Dinant, of the cleric Clemens, and of a certain woman sunk in a well. These indeed he took from Gilles's book itself, although he told the second miracle a little differently. But also a little later Ibid., pp. 276, 279, 280. he again brings forward three miracles, of which the first is indeed different from the first miracle which is read in Gilles, but it too happened in favour of a certain borgois qui oit nom Thyris burgess who was named Thyris; the second has been turned word for word from Gilles's Latin narrative into the French language, though with some circumstances added for ornament; the third is likewise a more ornate amplification of the third miracle recorded by Gilles. But these prodigies, which Gilles had related to have happened in his own time, that is, in the thirteenth century, our Jean will have to have occurred in the years 596, 598 and 599. This repeated and incautious relation of the same things certainly commends his diligence rather than his prudence; anyone who wishes to read it may go to the edition prepared by the distinguished Borgnet; for we do not wish to extend this commentary by copying them out.

[14] partly also certainly false; Nor need we dwell much longer in sifting what our chronographer brings forward concerning the birth and ecclesiastical offices of St. Perpetuus himself; for not only is Jean's authority in general too slight for these things, stated by such a witness while all the older ones are silent, to win any credit at all; but they are also certainly false and scarcely worthy of being seriously examined. For, to pass over the fact that, contradicting himself, in the metrical chronicle he makes Perpetuus the son of a count of Loon, but in the prose history the son of a duke of Austria [He took the occasion for his error, unless I am quite mistaken, from that name of "counts of Osterne", by which, as we shall shortly point out, the counts of Loon were at that time accustomed to be called.], it is perfectly well known that the counts of Loon — or, as the chroniclers of Liège are accustomed to put it, of Hostia or Osterne — were so named only from the eleventh century, and that this county did not exist at all before that time [See J. Daris, Histoire de la bonne ville, de l'église et des comtes de Looz, vol. I (1864), pp. 377, 378. Ch. Piot, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Trond, vol. II (1874), pp. lxxii–vi.]; it is well known how much the more recent chroniclers or historiographers of Liège delighted in assigning to the prelates of that church, even the most ancient, a fabulous origin from illustrious stocks which arose only long afterwards.

[15] whose fictions were imprudently received by And as regards Perpetuus, later historians received Jean d'Outremeuse's fictions as imprudently as greedily, and amplified them with new fictions added for ornament. Some wrote, namely, that the prelate's father was a count of Loon, or a count of Osterne, or a duke of Hostia, others a duke of Austria, others a count of Namur [So, for example, a certain French chronicle abridged from Jean d'Outremeuse, of which we keep in our library a copy written by hand about the year 1650. Concerning Perpetuus it has these wonderful things, p. 38: Après lui (Gondulfum nempe) fust eslu evesque Perpete, qui estoit chanoine de St Piere et fils du conte de Namur. [After him (namely Gondulf) Perpete was elected bishop, who was a canon of St. Peter's and son of the count of Namur.] Nevertheless on p. 37 there is clumsily depicted, as though it belonged to St. Perpetuus, the family shield or arms of the counts of Loon.], etc., etc. Nor did a learned and otherwise more cautious man, Jean Chapeaville, refrain from chanting these fables, in the Life of St. Perpetuus which he was the first to compose [Vita B. Perpetui Leodiensis episcopi et confessoris ex officialibus ecclesiae Dionantensis libris collecta. Liège, 1601, 4°, 20 ff. The same work was published in French in the same year. The Latin text, though with the middle part omitted, which is entitled Descriptio oppidi Dionantensis (Chapeaville, fols. 10–16), Surius received into his collection and had reprinted on the 4th day of November. The French version R. Gaultier inserted into his translation of the Flos Sanctorum of Pedro de Ribadeneira, etc…]; who, if, though lacking the monuments of antiquity, he was nevertheless able to put together a rather long history, stuffed it almost entirely with hortatory discourses and with what they call commonplaces. More copious still in heaping up trite praises of this kind was the other biographer of St. Perpetuus whom we have to review, P. E. Evrard [Abregé de la vie et des miracles de saint Perpete eveque de Liege et patron de Dinant. Dinant, 1721, 16°, 76 pp.]; who indeed sets before the pious reader some things useful for the edification of the soul, and more recent writers amplified them. but has nothing to supply to historical writers. The same judgment must be passed on most of the encomia of Perpetuus which are read in the historiographers of Liège, and which, as being supported by no ancient testimony, there is no leisure to examine one by one: as when Perpetuus is said to have received the name of "doctor of the faithful", to have attacked the Arians, Nestorians and Eutychians, to have promoted ecclesiastical discipline, to have resisted secular men who were plundering ecclesiastical goods, and very many other things of this kind; let the credit of which rest with their authors. Therefore let us now come, according to the purpose of our undertaking, to setting out the cult paid to the holy bishop and what they call his posthumous glory. In relating these things we shall observe the order of time, so far as it can be done.

§ II. Of the ecclesiastical cult of St. Perpetuus and of the miracles worked through his intercession.

[16] After his death In what year Perpetuus died we have already said is uncertain; nor can it be determined any better what his day of death was. Jean d'Outremeuse indeed asserts, and many after him, that Perpetuus departed this life on this fourth day of November. Whether he affirmed it truly, or relying on the reason, probable after a fashion, that the feast of the blessed pontiff was celebrated on this day, is not clear. It is to be noted, however, that in this very place Jean assigns for keeping this feast le dierain iour sens unc de decembre the last day but one of December, that is, the 30th day of December; in which matter he is in any case certainly deceived, as it altogether seems, by a certain similarity of names: that feast day, namely, belongs to the holy Perpetuus, bishop not of Maastricht but of Tours Cf. Act. SS., April vol. I, p. 750, nos. 9, 10.. However that may be, our blessed one is said to have been buried in the church of St. Vincent, or by another name of St. Clement, as Joh. Placentius will have it [Catalogus omnium antistitum Tungarorum, Traiectensium ac Leodiensium (1529), fol. D. ij.]; and from there — at what time is uncertain — his sacred body was translated to the greater church of Dinant, which was dedicated to the B. V. Mary; renowned for miracles where he became renowned for miracles. On which matter this is above all to be noted, that Perpetuus is numbered among the ἐλαιοφόρους or μυροβλύτας saints, namely those from whose relics sacred oil has flowed [Read Ghesquière, Act. SS. Belgii, vol. II, pp. 318–9, nos. 6, 7: cf. Cahier, Caractéristiques des Saints (1867), pp. 129 and 742.]. The first to testify to this is Gilles of Orval, praised above; who however asserts it not so much from sure and personal knowledge as following popular report: For oil, he says, is said to have flowed from his tomb for a long time.

[17] he began to be venerated For the rest, no document concerning the ecclesiastical cult of St. Perpetuus, indeed, as we have said, no document at all concerning St. Perpetuus himself, exists older than the tenth century. But from the time his name appears in the historical monuments, he is at once honoured with the designation of saint or blessed, I mean in Heriger, in the Annals of Liège, in Gilles of Orval See above, p. 292, nos. 2, 3., in Alberic of Trois-Fontaines MG., Scr. vol. XXIII, p. 695., in the calendar of the psalter of Hastière on the 4th day of November [Cf. A. Lechner, Mittelalterliche Kirchenfeste und Kalendarien in Bayern (1891), p. 219. That this psalter (cod. Monac. lat. 13067) belongs to the monastery of Hastière, and not, as Lechner thought, to the church of Regensburg, the Rev. Fr. Ursmer Berlière has clearly shown in the Revue Bénédictine, vol. IX (1892), pp. 109–12.], etc., etc. In the older martyrologies, indeed, Perpetuus is named nowhere; but from the fourteenth century and especially the fifteenth his commemoration was added in some manuscripts of Usuard See the Martyrology of Usuard edited by Du Sollier, pp. 651–2.; at least from the tenth century from which it passed into not a few more recent martyrologies published on private authority; some of which Ghesquière has reviewed Vol. cited, p. 319, no. 8., and we could besides add others with easy labour, if it were worth the trouble. But that the cult of St. Perpetuus was not undistinguished in the eleventh century itself is witnessed by the presbyter Jocundus praised above, when he says: For Dinant has the blessed Perpetuus, a great confessor, at Dinant, and he names him together with the more illustrious saints in whose patronage Lotharingia gloried See above, p. 292, no. 3.. Yet until the fourteenth century that cult was content within narrow bounds, namely the walls of the church of the B. V. Mary, which had also begun to be called the church of St. Perpetuus. For Jean d'Outremeuse manifestly errs when he writes that a day for venerating St. Perpetuus was established by the Roman pontiff himself: Si fut sa fieste estaublie par le pape le dierain jour sens unc de decembre And his feast was established by the pope on the last day but one of December See above, p. 294, no. 12. But in the year 1323 Adolf de la Marck, bishop of Liège, ordered that thenceforth "all the faithful in the whole town of Dinant should celebrate and observe the feast day of the blessed Perpetuus and also its dedication, as was done and customary in the mother church, that is, the church of the blessed Perpetuus himself" [See his letters given on this matter in Chapeaville, Vita, fol. 17; Surius, De probatis sanctorum Vitis, vol. XI (1618), p. 57; Ghesquière, place cited, p. 321, no. 13. Cf. Foullon, Historia Leodiensis, vol. I (1735), p. 395.].

[18] afterwards in the whole diocese of Liège Whether the feast of St. Perpetuus was kept before that in the rest of the diocese of Liège and in the city of Liège itself, we cannot decide for lack of monuments; but the missals and breviaries of Liège teach us, whether written by hand in the fifteenth century [Brussels MSS. 3782, 5611, 9217; Paris MS., Mazarine Library

224; Liège MS., Library of the episcopal seminary 6. M. 2.], or printed from the year 1486 onward [Missals printed in the years 1486, 1502, 1509, 1513, 1515, 1540, 1552; breviaries in the years 1488, 1498, 1535, 1558, etc.; the breviary of the church of St. Servatius of Maastricht on the Meuse, in the year 1503.], that this feast was then celebrated in the whole church of Liège on the 4th day of November. But not long after the year 1610 [The first edition of the Liège breviary published after the year 1610 came out in the year 1622, the second in the year 1636. The first we have not seen; for the copy of it, perhaps unique, which the distinguished de Theux asserts is preserved in the library of the university of Liège, we did not find there.], in which year Charles Borromeo was enrolled among the heavenly ones by solemn canonization, the ancient bishop of Maastricht gave place in the breviaries of Liège to the glorious archbishop of Milan, and was ordered to be content with a mere commemoration in the office of the day [See the Liège breviary of the years 1636, 1746, 1766, 1792… The Liège breviary of the year 1636, however, presents a strange thing: in its calendar, indeed, these words were inscribed on the 4th day of November: Of Charles, bishop and confessor. Semidouble, and commemoration of the octave and of SS. Perpetuus and Amantius…; but in the body of the breviary itself the Proper of the saints presents on the 4th day the office of St. Perpetuus under the semidouble rite with three proper lessons, and on the 5th day the office of St. Charles, likewise under the semidouble rite. See the summer part, pp. 1049, 1050.]; but in the printed Proper Offices of the feasts of the church and diocese of Liège [In the years 1644, 1666, 1683, 1698. In the proper offices printed in the year 1623 there is nothing in the calendar, but a commemoration of St. Perpetuus at the second vespers of the 3rd day.] Perpetuus meanwhile kept his honour, since he continued to be inscribed there on the 4th day of November under the semidouble rite. At length, about the beginning of this nineteenth century, the feast of the blessed Perpetuus was transferred to the fifth day of November, and in that of Namur. on which day he is venerated both in the diocese of Liège and in that of Namur under the semidouble rite [Proper offices of Liège of the years 1805, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1857… Only from the year 1806 does the Liège Directory list this feast on that day. Proper offices of Namur of the year 1830, etc… In the diocese of Namur this feast began to be celebrated in the year 1810 by an indult of the S. C. R. granted on the 27th day of January of the year 1809. Cf. Directorium… ad usum diocesis Namurcensis pro anno Domini M.D.CCC.X.].

[19] namely at Dinant In the town of Dinant, however, our blessed one was honoured, as was fitting, with a more ample and more solemn rite, as having been buried there and long since adopted as patron of the city; for which reason his feast is celebrated there on the 4th day of November under the double rite of the first class. To him was formerly sacred the principal church, which already in the year 1096 occurs in public monuments called the poor little church of St. Mary and of St. Perpetuus the confessor in Dinant [St. Bormans, Cartulaire de la commune de Dinant, vol. I (1880), p. 13; likewise ibid., pp. 15, 21–2; cf. p. 65. The college of secular canons attached to this church we find named in the twelfth century "the monastery of the blessed Perpetuus" (Anal. Boll., vol. XI, p. 134, chap. 11).], but now it is called only after the B. V. Mary assumed, and it is the head of the deanery of Dinant. There was also formerly to be seen [Saumery, Les Délices du pays de Liége, vol. II (1740), pp. 261, 262.] in the middle of the church a stone statue of the holy patron, not unskilfully carved, and likewise behind the choir a chapel and an altar dedicated to him; his relics were preserved, while in the treasury of the church there was kept a precious reliquary, namely a head of silver overlaid with gold and abundantly adorned with gems, in which the head of Perpetuus himself was contained [Ibid., p. 262. Cf. St. Bormans, Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. II (1881), p. 331: "le chief de monseigneur saint Perpete enchassé en argent doré" the head of my lord St. Perpetuus enshrined in gilded silver (a charter given in the year 1474).]. Besides, the rest of the blessed prelate's body was enclosed in a beautiful casket which was very much adorned with gold and silver [St. Bormans, place cited: "le corps de monseigneur saint Perpete,… à tout sa chasse et fertre avec l'or et l'argent y appartenant" [the body of my lord St. Perpetuus,… with all its casket and shrine, with the gold and silver belonging to it]; cf. ibid., pp. 332, 336, 338; — p. 339: "la valeur et extimacion que estoit ladite fiertre,… qu'ilz extimoient… à deux cens marcs d'argent ouvré ou environ" [the value and estimation of the said shrine,… which they estimated… at two hundred marks of wrought silver or thereabouts].]. That chapel no longer exists, nor the altar, nor the stone statue. We found only, behind the choir, a certain wooden statue which presents the saint's likeness. But what fate his relics met must be related at a little more length.

[20] which in the fifteenth century were carried off to Bouvignes When, namely, in the year 1466, by a most wretched misfortune, Dinant, once a most flourishing town, was besieged, occupied, plundered and burned by Philip, duke of Burgundy, and his son Charles, count of Charolais, who was afterwards called Charles the Bold, the greater church itself went to ashes, and it came within a little of the sacred body of Perpetuus, with the casket mentioned above and all the precious furnishing of the church, being consumed by the flames. But it happily came about that the casket was snatched from the advancing fire, through the energetic help of the nobleman Antoine de Lalaing, as the above-said Charles testifies in letters given in the year 1475 See ibid., p. 337.. Further, a little later, namely in the year 1474, they were soon brought back to Dinant, when the affairs of Dinant, which had so greatly collapsed, had been restored after a fashion, and the church of the B. V. Mary had been rebuilt Cf. ibid., pp. 315–20., at once there came into the minds of the canons of that church a longing for this precious treasure, which in the meantime had been carried off to the neighbouring town of the people of Bouvignes Bouvignes. and was kept there. They therefore sent letters of supplication on this matter to Charles, now become duke of Burgundy; who commanded the people of Bouvignes to restore to the people of Dinant the body of the blessed Perpetuus with its casket or shrine See Charles's letters, ibid., pp. 330–3.. When the people of Bouvignes were reluctant to obey this order and interposed I know not what subterfuges and evasions See ibid., pp. 332–3, in the note., the matter was at last brought before the court of the parlement of Mechelen and diligently debated there; the people of Dinant won the case, and on the 10th day of November 1475 a solemn sentence of the parlement came out in their favour [Ibid., pp. 334–42. About half of the same document, turned into Latin, may be read in Chapeaville, Vita, fols. 17vo–18vo; Surius, De probatis SS. Historiis, on the 4th day of November; Ghesquière, Act. SS. Belgii, vol. II, pp. 322–3, nos. 15–6.]. The people of Bouvignes at length obeyed, and on the 6th day of January of the year 1477 the body of the blessed Perpetuus was brought back to Dinant with great pomp [The history of this translation, related in a certain public instrument, read in Chapeaville, op. cit., fols. 19–20vo; Surius, place cited; Ghesquière, op. cit., pp. 323–5, no. 17.], some noble pledge being left meanwhile to the people of Bouvignes "for the preserving of mutual union and peace by an indissoluble covenant", namely "one part or small portion of the said sacred body", that is, "one of the ribs of the holy body".

[21] where they are still honoured. From this account of a contemporary and public narrator, however, most of the more recent writers from the seventeenth century onward dissent, who affirm that not a rib but an arm of St. Perpetuus is kept in the church of Bouvignes So J.-B. Gramaye, Namurcum (second ed. 1708), p. 65; [Aeg. du Monin, Sacrarium perantiqui comitatus Namurcensis (1619), p. 23; A. Rayssius, Hierogazophylacium belgicum (1628), p. 117; A. Henri, Notes sur l'histoire de Bouvignes (1888), pp. 195–6, where the accounts of expenses noted down in the church of Bouvignes in the eighteenth century are also cited. Aeg. du Monin, praised above, relates in the place cited that another arm of St. Perpetuus was formerly kept in the church of the monastery of Waulsort.]; but when we recently visited that church we found neither a rib nor an arm inscribed with the name of St. Perpetuus. Nor did we find at Dinant that precious casket of which we were just treating; for it perished long ago by I know not what mischance; indeed, some years ago no relics of St. Perpetuus at all were to be found in the church of Dinant. But the present dean, the venerable l.-B. Houba, who by the unflagging labour of many years has restored the church building to its former splendour, having found in the parish house certain remains which were said to be St. Perpetuus's, placed them, cautiously and at the same time reverently, in a wooden chest, simple indeed but made with work not inelegant; which may be seen in the treasury of the church, together with another small reliquary in which a tiny part of the sacred body is contained. So much concerning the body itself of our saint.

[22] But the head of the same saint The other of his principal relics, namely his head, enclosed, as we said above, in a silver reliquary, was preserved from the fire in the same disaster of the city in the year 1466 and carried away from Dinant; but it did not meet a similar fortune, namely of being soon restored to the people of Dinant. For we read in the already cited letters of Charles of Burgundy given in the year 1474 that "le conte de Bouchem, seigneur de la Verre en Zélande" the count of Buchan, lord of Veere in Zeeland was ordered by the chapter of Dinant to give back and restore to the above-said chapter "le chief de monseigneur saint Perpete… que icellui conte a fait transporter en l'église de la Verre en Zelande" [the head of my lord St. Perpetuus… which the said count has had carried into the church of Veere in Zeeland] Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. II, p. 331.. That count was Wolfert, the sixth count of Borssele of this name [On him see Jacques Ermerins, Eenige zeeuwsche oudheden… behelzende de Heeren van Vere uit den Huize van Borssele (Middelburg, 1786), p. 91. Cf. J. Reygersbergen, in the place to be cited below.]; who, having taken in marriage Mary Stewart, daughter of James I, king of the Scots Ermerins makes her the sister of James I, but wrongly., received from his royal brother-in-law as his wife's dowry the earldom of Buchan [On the district of Buchan, which is situated in the present county of Aberdeen, but was formerly a not undistinguished earldom, see Vivien de Saint-Martin, Nouveau dictionnaire de géographie universelle, vol. I, p. 540.], whence he was also accustomed to be called "count of Buchan" [Which name is written Bouchem in the letters of Charles the Bold, but elsewhere Bouchain, Bouchane, etc.]. He, namely, after he had stood on the side of the duke of Burgundy with his father Henry at the siege of Dinant and fought energetically, when the town was taken, got possession of the head of St. Perpetuus, and it into the church of the town of Veere

[Vere or Veere, Ter-Veere, Kamp-Veere, a town of the island of Walcheren in Zeeland, not far from Middelburg.], in which his ancestors of the stock of the counts of Borssele had resided for about two centuries, translated. But when Wolfert refused to comply with the request of the people of Dinant, on the 5th day of July of the year 1474 Charles enjoined on him to return the carried-off head of the saint to its lawful possessors [Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. II, pp. 331–2. With what Charles puts forward in these letters there agrees not much what the inhabitants of Veere used to relate (see the passage of the Zeeland chronicle by Reygersbergen, to be cited shortly), namely that Henry of Borssele, father of Wolfert VI, had received those relics as a gift from Charles. It is to be noted, however, that Reygersbergen was a familiar of the counts of Borssele. Cf. S. de Wind, Bibliotheek der nederlandsche Geschiedschrijvers, vol. I (1835), p. 152.]. But not even then did he obey; at length in the year 1496 the people of Dinant recovered the precious pledge, as is witnessed by an authentic instrument recently found by us in the public archive of Namur [Archives de l'État. Fonds du chapitre Notre-Dame de Dinant, carton de chartes. The seal of the chapter of Veere still remains attached.], which we are not reluctant to present here in full.

[23] it was afterwards returned to the people of Dinant The dean and chapter of the collegiate church of the blessed Mary of the town of Veere, of the diocese of Utrecht, to the venerable and circumspect lords the dean and chapter of the collegiate church of the blessed Mary of Dinant, of the diocese of Liège, greeting. We make known and certify to you that the head, together with the reliquary, of the most blessed Perpetuus, which some time ago, at the time of the destruction of the town of Dinant, was carried off and translated into the aforesaid collegiate church of Veere by the noble and most mighty Lord, Lord Wolfert of Borssele, count of Grandpré, lord of Veere, of Zandenburg, etc., and has been honourably and religiously preserved up to the present day, we have returned and handed over to the venerable man lord John Salmon, provost and canon of your church and also your proctor, a certain definite part of the same head being reserved to us with the consent of the same lord provost, in accordance with the most diligent request most urgently made to him on this matter by the Lord of Beveren, present lord of the same lordship of Veere. In faith and testimony of all and each of which premises we have ordered and caused the present letters to be made thereupon and to be subscribed by our public notary and to be strengthened by the attaching of our seal. Given and done in our chapter house in the year from the nativity of the Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-six, on the twenty-second day of the month of April.

By mandate of the said dean and chapter, John Bailletti, public notary, with his own hand.

[24] and is still piously preserved by them; This public document has this usefulness, that it explains what previously seemed to us quite wonderful, how Dutch writers not only of the sixteenth century but also of the eighteenth could assert, inaccurately indeed, yet with some appearance of truth, that the head of St. Perpetuus was kept and venerated in the church of Veere even in their own time [Jan Janssen Reygersberch, Dye Cronijke van Zeelandt (Antwerp, 1551), chap. 46 toward the end, under the year 1467. Similar things are put forward by H. F. V.(an) H(eusden) in the year 1719, Historia episcopatuum foederati Belgii, vol. II, the bishopric of Middelburg, p. 27, and in the year 1722 by H. V(an) R(yn), Oudheden en Gestichten van Zeeland, first part, p. 208. But these perhaps rely only on the sayings of Reygersbergen himself.], whereas from the seventeenth century, as we shall soon see, the people of Dinant believed that they possessed the same head in their church and honoured it with pious cult. To be sure, that silver head or reliquary which the people of Veere returned in the year 1496 no longer survives; in its place another reliquary, also of silver, has been made with exceptional art, it too presenting the form of a head, which is still kept in the treasury of the church and is its most precious treasure. That this was made in the year 1671, with money contributed both by the chapter of the church and by the magistrates of the city, seems to be shown by three inscriptions written around three so-called heraldic shields, which shields adorn a certain not inelegant base on which that head is customarily placed [Siderius is mistaken, Dinant et ses environs (1859), pp. 166–7, when he asserts what we say of that base of a certain casket in which the saint's bones were enclosed.]. In the first shield, namely, which stands in the middle of the base, is read: "F. Tabollet abbas saecvl. Dion." F. Tabollet, secular abbot of Dinant; in the second, which is on the right: "Dionantense capitulum" The chapter of Dinant; in the third, which is on the left: "1671. Oppidum Dionantense" 1671. The town of Dinant. But even if the reliquary was made at one time and the base at another, that the reliquary is certainly not much older is sufficiently indicated both by the very character, or, as they say, style, of the work, and we also gather it from the letters by which Maximilian Henry, bishop of Liège, in the year 1669 ratified and confirmed the statutes of the society of crossbowmen of Dinant: in these, namely, mention is made more than once of a certain casket which was then being made, in order that the head of St. Perpetuus might be enclosed in it [Recueil des ordonnances de la principauté de Liége, 2nd ser., vol. III (1872), p. 343.].

[25] who for their piety toward the holy patron To comprehend at last in a few words the rest that pertains to the cult of St. Perpetuus, it is pleasing to note these things: that it was formerly the custom for the same crossbowmen of Dinant to have a mass celebrated every week on Tuesday in honour of the holy Perpetuus [Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. IV, ed. L. Lahaye (1891), pp. 233 and 287–8; cf. vol. III, p. 330. But what Siderius asserts, op. cit., pp. 5 and 55, that the city itself established that a solemn mass should be sung every Monday in honour of the holy Perpetuus, I have read nowhere in the ancient documents.], and every year on the Tuesday after Pentecost [Chapeaville asserts in the History soon to be cited, fol. 11vo, that this was customarily done "on the fourth day of the solemnity of the Holy Spirit". But from a document of the year 1456 we have learned that at least in the fifteenth century this procession was celebrated le jour de la procession saint Perpette, qui est derniere feste de penthecouste [on the day of the procession of St. Perpetuus, which is the last feast of Pentecost], that is, on the Tuesday after Pentecost (Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. II, p. 54).] to carry round the sacred relics of the holy patron with reverent spirit in solemn procession through all the streets of the town, almost all the inhabitants accompanying the sacred pledges, and strangers coming in crowds from every side to the pious ceremony [See Chapeaville, place cited; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Traditions et légendes de la Belgique, vol. II (1870), pp. 257–8.]; for the privilege of carrying the head and body of the blessed Perpetuus in this procession and in others of the kind belonged formerly to the company of the said crossbowmen [Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. II, p. 54; vol. IV, p. 289; Recueil des ordonnances, vol. cited, p. 342.], but afterwards to the principal citizens; but now, in the annual procession of the Most Holy Sacrament, — for there is no longer any procession of St. Perpetuus, — that head is carried by men of the family of those pious brothers Charlot who, in the French upheaval which seethed at the end of the eighteenth century, hid that reliquary and so preserved it from the hands of the impious Siderius, p. 167.. Besides, apart from other testimonies of public piety toward the holy patron See for example Cartulaire de Dinant, vol. III, p. 225., the citizens of Dinant had established an annual sum of money by which a lamp burning before the holy bishop's relics should be perpetually maintained Cf. Siderius, p. 55.. If we mention two images of the blessed Perpetuus engraved on copper, of which Jean Chapeaville presents one [History etc., soon to be cited, fol. 6vo. The same, but expressed much more inelegantly, Evrard presents at the head of the work cited above.], and Jean Galle the other Sanctorum Galliae Belgicae imagines et elogia (Antwerp, 1663), no. 6., we shall certainly have touched on the principal things that belong to the present purpose.

[26] in turn not a few It remains for us to go through what favours or miracles the faithful, in their piety, have attributed to their holy patron. Omitting, however, those things which Jean d'Outremeuse wrongly, indeed even foolishly, as we have pointed out, invented as having happened in the sixth century itself See above, no. 13., the first to come into account is what Chapeaville relates in the place where he records the illustrious triumph won by the people of Liège in the year 1213 over Henry, duke of Brabant, at Steppes. For thus he has it Vita… fols. 8vo–9.: There was at that time a fierce war between Henry, duke of Brabant, and Hugh of Pierrepont, bishop and prince of Liège. Many people of Dinant were serving the prelate with others. These had already sweated under arms for some days, and were now about to join hands with the enemy; when behold, a certain woman of Dinant named Mary, outstanding in faith and piety toward God and the holy Perpetuus, lying at home in the grip of illness, foresaw in spirit the danger which was threatening her fellow citizens; and she is admonished to implore the help and protection of St. Perpetuus. The woman obeys, whether God or St. Perpetuus, intercessor before the divine majesty for the safety of the imperilled people of Dinant. And so, gazing in spirit, as best she could, sick in her bed, toward the church which keeps the sacred bones of St. Perpetuus, she addresses the patron with mouth and mind in words of this kind: "Illustrious confessor of Christ, most kindly patron, be present as a zealous helper in this conflict to your citizens and worshippers, who under your protection are fighting for their prelate". Nor were the prayers poured out in vain: at once St. Perpetuus was present to the fighters. For it was immediately learned by sure messengers that at that very hour in which the woman had foreseen the danger of her fellow citizens and had made supplication for those in peril, the people of Dinant had engaged with the enemy and had steadfastly and bravely laid them low.

[27] benefits from him So far Chapeaville; Fisen relates the same things [Barth. Fisen, Sancta Legia romanae ecclesiae filia (Liège, 1699), part I, Book XII, no. 20 (p. 299).], though hinting that he is somewhat doubtful; and Evrard the same Abrégé de la vie de S. Perpete, pp. 44–5.. What credit these things deserve, — that is, none, — is easy to see. For not only do they bring them forward without adducing any guarantor or indicating any source, while all the ancient authors of Liège who have described that battle of Steppes are entirely silent about that woman, and indeed about Perpetuus; who, if they relate that any heavenly helper stood by their fellow citizens, name only St. Lambert; but besides, this little story is suspect even for this reason, that it bears all too much the appearance and likeness of those visions which the credulous author of the Life of Odilia related, certainly more copiously than wisely, in Book III, which is almost wholly concerned with the same event, namely "the triumph of St. Lambert at Steppes"

[How slight the authority of this writer is, above all in this part, see set out by J. Daris, Examen critique de la Vie d'Odile, in Bulletin de l'Institut archéologique liégeois, vol. XI (1872), pp. 183, 187; Joh. Heller in MG., Scr. vol. XXV, p. 170.].

[28] they testify that they have received. What further happened well and fortunately to certain inhabitants of Dinant in the thirteenth century through the help and protection, as they piously believed, of their blessed patron, we saw Gilles relating above Above, nos. 9, 10.. After Chapeaville has reported these things polished in his more elegant style, he adds another of this kind, namely how a certain pious woman named Gertrude was freed from a sharp pain of the head at the entreaty of the holy Perpetuus Chapeaville, Vita, fol. 8vo.; of which healing we have found no trace in the older authors. More illustrious, however, are the miracles whose narrative is presented by another little book of the same Jean Chapeaville, to which he gave the title: History of the wonderful cures which by divine power, through the help and entreaty of the holy Perpetuus, bishop of Liège and confessor, took place at his sacred relics at Dinant in the year 1599 and some preceding years. To it is added the Life of St. Perpetuus, with a description of the town of Dinant and certain other things illustrating the History [Liège, 1601, 4°, 14 ff. This whole history, omitting indeed the prefatory poems, the preface, etc., was printed again by Surius on the 4th day of November, and by Ghesquière, op. cit., pp. 325–30. But the Life which is said to be added is the same one we have often cited, and to which a special title is prefixed.]. When, namely, between the years 1585 and 1589 certain wonderful healings were said to have taken place at Dinant at the shrine of the holy Perpetuus, which almost all consisted in the restoring of the strength of those who were deprived of the use of their limbs, Ernest of Bavaria, bishop of Liège, ordered that an ecclesiastical process be drawn up on the whole matter [See Ernest's letters, and likewise Chapeaville's preface, in which each clearly relates what was done, ibid. fol. 2 and fols. 7–8vo.]; and after this had been completed most diligently in the year 1600, by mandate of the same Ernest our Jean, then vicar general in spirituals of the bishop of Liège, took pains to comprehend himself, in a more concise narrative, for the edification of the faithful, the things which had been set out by the public notary William Jadoule, under the supervision of six leading men from each magistracy, namely the ecclesiastical and the civil, "in authentic records written down from the mouth of the witnesses" [Some part of the public instrument in which these testimonies are written is still possessed by the public archive of Namur (fonds du chapitre Notre-Dame de Dinant).]; and in performing this he professes that he has not written even one sentence which was not drawn from the public testimonies of very many upright men and surely proved Chapeaville, op. cit., fol. 8vo..