Godfrey

ON ST. GODFREY, BISHOP OF AMIENS,

IN THE YEAR 1115

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Godfrey, bishop of Amiens. (S.)

BY A. P.

§I. On the sources of the history of St. Godfrey.

[1] The deeds of St. Godfrey were narrated The deeds of St. Godfrey, who from abbot of Blessed Mary of Nogent was made bishop of Amiens and died and was buried in the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian at Soissons, were written by no one of Amiens, by no cleric, but by two monks: in few words by Guibert, his immediate successor in the abbey of Blessed Mary, in many more by Nicholas, a monk of the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian; the former a contemporary of the saint, whom he also survived, the latter about thirty years more recent. And Guibert indeed, a man endowed with great talent, fair and at the same time severe in judging, a keen and sincere appraiser of things and men Cf. B. Monod, Le moine Guibert et son temps (1053 – 1124). Paris, 1905., in the commentaries On his own life, which he composed in his mature age within the years 1114 – 1117, perhaps 1114 – 1115, and therefore while Godfrey was living [Cf. G. Bourgin, Guibert de Nogent. Histoire de sa vie (1053 – 1124) (Paris, 1907), p. XLVI – XLIX.], made mention twice of that younger predecessor of his — for Godfrey was about twelve years younger in birth, — in book II, c. 2 and book III, c. 14 [Ed. Bourgin, vol. cit., pp. 108 – 12, 197 – 205 (= P.L., vol. CLVI, col. 898 – 99, 943 – 47). We have transcribed these passages after this commentary.]; in which passages, although he pursues with praises the things done by him as long as he was abbot, and attests that he was looked upon by others as a mirror, as it were, of all religion, yet he plainly has a mind estranged from him from the time he was made bishop, and sometimes openly, elsewhere somewhat obscurely, he mocks and censures him. The cause of this ill will, or rather of lesser goodwill, they have judged to be this: that, whereas Guibert so abhorred that free and immune government of cities which they called a commune or communion that he rejected even its name as new and very evil De vita sua, book III, c. 7 (ed. Bourgin, p. 156)., among the people of Amiens a commune had been instituted with Godfrey freely favouring it. in few words Guibert of Nogent, I should not believe that the matter is fully and clearly explained by this reason, but rather that it came about that Guibert, since he was by no means a eulogist but an austere cultivator of truth, both freely proclaimed what he judged worthy of proclamation and did not keep silent about what seemed to him to deserve censure, though perhaps having become somewhat more severe because of the cause adduced. Whence, as we must not agree with his opinion at once and as it were blindly in all things, so also we must take care lest, carried away into the opposite direction by I know not what partisanship, we neglect the words of a most weighty and most honourable witness.

[2] in many more Nicholas We have another witness, no less honourable, of great authority indeed, yet not so great, Nicholas, a monk of Soissons. For since he was both younger in age and more recent in time, he had seldom and perhaps never seen Godfrey; yet he had heard some who had lived familiarly with him narrating, and had diligently questioned them about the things done by him. Instructed by these testimonies concerning the holy bishop, whose body he gloried in resting in his monastery, he wrote a work not so much historical as hagiographical, in which throughout he adorned Godfrey with large and lavish praises, so that he celebrated whatever was done by him as done in the best way and almost always successfully, while the things which were said or done against him by others, even reverend men, he rebuked in the sharpest words, and declared to have been unjust, malicious, or at least imprudent, and at length finally fruitless. Further, although it is not the part of a wise man to believe so zealous a eulogist freely in all things, yet we willingly profess that a work written by an upright and sincere man, very near to the events, provided each thing be weighed diligently, as is right, is both fruitful and worthy to be read. These things, because this is the only monument remaining from which we are taught most of the deeds of St. Godfrey, must be explained a little more distinctly.

[3] a monk of Soissons, in the Life, The few things we know of our Nicholas we receive from this Life alone, besides which no other book either was written by him or at any rate has been preserved for us. But it is far from being the case that even those few things are clear. Nicholas reveals himself as a monk of the abbey of SS. Crispin and Crispinian of Soissons in the letter which he prefixed to the Life and which to Rohard [The name is not altogether certain. Rohardus is written in the single manuscript of the Life, and that one not older than the 16th century; Rothardus in Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, III, 14, which work was edited from a transcript of the 17th century; Rehoardus in a letter of the year 1132, ed. Gall. christ., vol. X, instr. col. 112 c.], dean of the church of Soissons and also son of the sister of St. Godfrey [Which Nicholas teaches in the prologue: of Rohard too, a venerable man … for he was his nephew by his sister, who was called Hodierna. Cf. Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, book III, c. 14 (p. 205): Rothard the cleric, the bishop's nephew, reported this. Since Godfrey's parents lived in the district of Soissons, it is very well understood that his sister's son was co-opted into the clergy of this diocese. But why the dean of Soissons was solicitous that the Life of a bishop of another diocese should be written is very well understood, both from the kinship

by which he was joined with him, and from the fact that Godfrey's body had been buried at Soissons.] he inscribed it. He attests that Rohard often asked him to narrate the history of St. Godfrey; but that he at first resisted, both because of the weakness of immature age, being then not more than twenty-five years old, and because of inexperience: For I had not yet fully known the combinations of syllables, not yet the elements of the alphabet itself; at length, after he had delayed too much and too long, he complied with Rohard's command. These things, set out in many and vehement words, I do not think surpass the customary excuses of writers who falsely and feignedly cry down their own ignorance. For who would believe that one was chosen by Rohard to write the Life of Godfrey who did not know even the elements? For the rest, it is manifest from the whole work that the poets and ancient writers were read by Nicholas, that he was steeped in no ordinary way in the grammatical art, as one who, for example, not seldom and not inelegantly uses indirect speech See for example book I, c. 24; book III, c. 9, 14 at the end., that he abounds in that copiousness of words and sentences by which, sometimes pressed, he heaps up very many things verbosely and emptily [The good man has shown that remarkable garrulity even in certain very small things. I shall adduce at least two examples, almost ridiculous: book III, c. 2: Now it was the Sabbath and the vigil of the most exalted martyr Sebastian, whose celebration likewise was to be on the morrow, that is, on the first day of the week; book III, c. 22: For on the fifth day of the week, namely the vigil of the blessed apostle Bartholomew, whose solemn feast likewise the devotion of the faithful was to take up and at the same time celebrate on the morrow…], and that he sometimes interrupts his discourse ἀνακολούθως See for example book I, c. 3., so that he is to be judged by no means meagre and needy, but diffuse and redundant. Nor would you say that this fluency of speech came to him only with time, and that many years passed after he was first bidden by Rohard to write. For, when the Life is finished, he seems to speak humbly of himself and his work in almost the same words (III, 42): But I ask those into whose hands this little work of our study shall come, that they forgive a humble boldness, give pardon to immature age, and also condone a contemptible ignorance.

[4] which he published between the years 1136 and 1138; He composed the Life not before the year 1130, since he speaks of John, bishop of Thérouanne († 27 Jan. 1130), as already dead (III, 25); yet before the year 1140, since in no document more recent than the year 1132 is Rohard named dean Cf. Gallia christiana, vol. X, instr. col. 111 – 12. and in the year 1140 Norman had already succeeded him Ibid., col. 115 – 16.. The year itself, however, although it is not fixed and certain for us, clearly comes nearer to 1140 than to 1130; for Theulf, Nicholas's abbot, was already dead III, 30: Theulf too, of pious memory., whom we know to have lived at least to the year 1136. Nor yet had the body of Godfrey then been raised and translated to a more honourable place; which took place on the 5th of April 1138, in the presence and sight of him who narrates these things briefly, as the last sentences of book III teach. Those sentences, however, although they seem to have been written by our Nicholas, were nevertheless added afterwards to the work already completed, as is manifest, both because before this last narrative the Life itself was ended with the usual clause (in the reign of … our Lord Jesus Christ … Amen), and because in the ample table of chapters which is prefixed to book III that translation is not mentioned.

[5] for writing which especially Nicholas clearly indicates his sources. For he openly attests: Of the things which we are about to say, a few indeed we received by our own light, but all the rest by the in every way faithful report of truthful men who merited to see and at the same time to hear him more familiarly (prol.). At two of the things he narrates he seems to have been present: in the year 1138 at the translation of which we have just spoken III, after c. 42: This, I say, we saw done… and in the year 1115 at the funeral of the holy bishop [III, 40: I recall that I was mingled with the assembly of the brethren singing psalms, and behold, as I think, five old women and so on.], both of which certainly took place at Soissons, in the monastery of which Nicholas was an inmate. A third perhaps will have to be added, if we take literally what he wrote about the synod which was celebrated at Beauvais in the month of December of the year 1114 (III, 9): Even to this day, when I consider some most reverend fathers who were present talking with one another about these things, I see them again pouring out sobs, again sighs, again tears, and bedewing their faces. But I should willingly conjecture that these things were rather said rhetorically.

[6] by many and excellent testimonies The rest the writer received from witnesses, some of whom, truly reliable, he names: from Rohard, dean of the church of Soissons, whom the same servant of God, keeping him with himself from the very cradle — for he was his nephew by his sister, who was called Hodierna — educated and advanced to reverend morals, … who can speak about him the more truly the more familiarly he merited to behold his illustrious words or deeds … (prol.); from Reinger, a monk of Saint-Quentin-du-Mont, who from his very boyhood clung in happy discipleship to this Godfrey of ours who is to be proclaimed (prol., cf. III, 18); from Gislebert, a man likewise most faithful in all things, who was an undivided and inseparable companion on land and sea to the end of his life (prol.); from another Gislebert, as it seems, who, after he had been St. Godfrey's cook, had become a monk in the monastery of St. Mary of Nogent when the bishop died (I, 21); from Andrew, who was a monk of the same monastery under St. Godfrey as abbot, and afterwards himself abbot (I, 28); from Odo his abbot, who at the time when he presided over the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian — for he had already been made abbot of Saint-Remi of Reims — went to the Chartreuse and there heard many things about Godfrey (III, 10); from other monks of his monastery (I, 16); from Herbert and Walter, archdeacons of Thérouanne (III, 25); from a certain great churchman who lived familiarly with Godfrey (II, 4). Although therefore, as he himself teaches, he set forth things heard rather than seen (prol.), he had nevertheless been able to be well informed about many things. Of the things done in governing the church of Amiens, which were more in the open, he adduces no witness; for the rest, which had happened either at an earlier time or in a more remote place, he had excellent witnesses: Rohard on the family and the first years; Reinger on the boyhood and youth spent in the monastery of Saint-Quentin; Gislebert on very many other things and also, as it seems, on the Italian journey; Abbot Andrew on the life in the monastery of Blessed Mary of Nogent; Abbot Odo on the time during which Godfrey lived at the Chartreuse. The narratives of Guibert of Nogent, however, Nicholas seems not so much to have neglected as not to have known. For the books of Guibert On his own life were, by their character, not much known, much less widely circulated Cf. Bourgin, p. XXXV – XXXVI., and it is all but certain that Nicholas, being most zealous as he was for the fame of his Godfrey, would have contradicted him sharply if he had known that Godfrey had been censured and blamed by Guibert.

[7] he used them faithfully, What he had received he wished to report faithfully, not by adulterating but out of sincerity (prol.), adding nothing from outside but what we have learned, as we have already said, by the confirmed report of faithful men (II, 1); and therefore he affirmed that he should be believed, because, as we have already said beforehand, we do not invent from our own resources, but have learned from the pious report of faithful men who saw and heard all these things (III, 1). Yet he shows at times that he fears he may not be believed: But if anyone should try to bark against us with biting tooth, as to why I have set forth things heard rather than seen … (prol.). Likewise: But if anyone shall be incredulous, he himself will sin. I recall that a certain man, whose name I think it of little worth to bring into the open, lately said to me why I was hastening to entangle my sheets with such great dirges or ravings. O wretched man, and, if I may so say, worse than a demon! and so on (III, 1). And this splendid thing we received from the report of Herbert and Walter, archdeacons, not the lowest in skill in letters, who were then present, lest anyone should slander us as setting forth frivolous things (III, 25). These things can certainly give suspicion of some fraud, since it is known that even lying writers willingly use asseverations of this kind and lay bare a guilty conscience. But the more often I read our Nicholas through again and again and enjoyed, as it were, his company, the more firmly I seemed to myself to prove that that good man did indeed, after the manner of eulogists, enlarge and amplify things, fabricate speeches and other things of that kind for ornament, and even affirm certain few things — on which in the following paragraph — which may seem doubtful or even false, yet that he was by no means a liar, nay rather that he almost always, at least as regards the sum of things, narrated what was true and worthy of credence. Certainly, almost wherever it was possible to compare the things reported by him with other documents, whether he names men, or mentions councils, controversies and other events, we have found either that all things happened just as he said, or at least that what he sets forth agrees well with what is known from elsewhere.

[8] although in celebrating the saint's praises he exceeded measure Yet he must be read with caution. For, as we have already warned, since he is a fervent eulogist of his Godfrey, he celebrates too much and even enlarges the parts which Godfrey had in various affairs; as when he affirms that the council of Beauvais of the year 1114 was assembled chiefly for this reason, that the city of the people of Amiens, after Godfrey had withdrawn to the Chartreuse, was seen to be destitute of its own pastor (III, 9), whereas we know that causes of much greater moment were debated in it and that in fact the council was celebrated by Cardinal Cuno, legate of the apostolic see, chiefly against the emperor Henry V and his supporters [Cf. G. Schoene, Kardinallegat Kuno, Bischof von Präneste (Weimar, 1857), p. 26 – 28; G. Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich IV. und Heinrich V., vol. VI (Leipzig, 1907), p. 317 – 18.]. And as we have caught him, after the rhetorical manner, saying things plainly false about his inexperience in writing, so he is also altogether far from the truth where he asserts: Lest we should incur the mark of falsehood, we have expressed the simple sense of the history rather than the trappings of words of the learned (II, 1), or that he had pursued the truth of the matter rather than heaped up the exaggeration of polished speech (III, 42). Nay rather, exaggeration of this kind, to speak with him, wonderfully

he heaped up, and with untiring zeal, through the three books of which the Life consists, he monstrously abused the trappings of learned words and the inventions or cosmetics of eloquence. Yet that he is not to be distrusted, both in these things and where he urgently proclaims his own credibility and rebukes those slower to believe, if there were any, but that all these things are to be held as I know not what ornaments of speech and little flowers of discourse of a fervent man, I think becomes manifest from c. 6 of book III, which begins thus: I am going to tell in brief a certain thing which will perhaps seem incredible, were it not held ratified by his own revelation and by the confirmation of many who were present, unless someone be so unbelieving as to think that Godfrey wished to invent frivolities about himself, or that the others could proclaim lies about him to win his favour; and it ends: The faith of Christ compels me to bring forth nothing but faithful things, although I do not doubt that the minds of hearers waver over these things. But I think it must be pardoned, nor ought it to seem strange to anyone, since hitherto very many seem to have applied neither an eye for seeing nor a faithful ear for perceiving the sense to the sayings or deeds of the ancient fathers, much less should I think that all believe our Godfrey in all things … and there follow other things said also to rouse the sloth of the lukewarm. You would expect, candid reader, that within these magnificent and vehement words I know not what rare, stupendous thing, surpassing belief, would be brought forth. Not at all. A thing is narrated entirely likely, in accordance with nature, commonplace and, so to say, everyday: that in winter time, when Godfrey was addressing his people under the open sky, blood was seen, by the straitness of the excessive cold, to drip from his fingers to the ground — since he was of a most delicate body!

[9] and he played the part of a hagiographer rather than of a historian. What Nicholas proposed to himself in writing this Life he himself indicates not obscurely toward the end: For the rest, I think I have satisfied the belief of the faithful, while on the one hand I have partly depicted the virtues of the inner man, in which he flourished so illustriously, and on the other hand that I have partly culled certain of the last of his miracles (III, 42). The work is therefore, as we have warned, not so much historical as hagiographical, in which the things done by the saint are reported in order that his virtues may be celebrated and his miracles extolled. Hence it has come about that Nicholas has kept altogether silent about certain things which we miss sorely, and above all what part Godfrey had in establishing the commune, as it is called, of the city of Amiens. This matter, inasmuch as he, like most writers of this age, did not rightly estimate its importance, he so neglected that, had not Guibert of Nogent made mention of it, we should be altogether ignorant that Godfrey favoured the commune. Yet it is of great importance for understanding certain principal and grave events of his life. For from this help which he gave to his people striving toward liberty there certainly arose the enmities against the bishop, from this the manifold tribulations and innumerable straits, so that he was weary of living and was compelled once and again to depart from his diocese and to take refuge in the Chartreuse. These adverse events Nicholas mentions Book II, c. 31 at the end; book III, c. 8, 26., but he indicates no apt cause, and uses such words that, if we did not have Guibert's narrative, no small part of the history of the holy bishop would be very obscure to us.

[10] Of the Life Nicholas's work, not indeed most excellent, yet useful and by no means to be neglected, we shall edit from the one complete exemplar which we have found: the manuscript exemplars, B = the Brussels manuscript, Royal Library 11987, of the 16th century, folios formerly marked CXXXVIIIv – CLXV, now 100v – 127. This is volume IV of the legendary of Antoine Gentius († 1543), canon regular at Rouge-Cloître near Brussels On whom see what we wrote in Anal. Boll., vol. VI, p. 31 – 34.. The Life was copied not carelessly, yet not without manifest faults; for removing which, although we had to rely almost on probable conjectures alone, yet in some places we were helped by another exemplar of the Life, but that one greatly contracted. For the manuscript from which Antoine Gentius transferred Nicholas's work into his legendary was kept at Rouge-Cloître itself or at any rate in some neighbouring library, and the same was in the hands, about forty years before Gentius, of the subprior of the same monastery, John Gielemans, who used it to prepare an epitome of the Life for his Sanctilogium. This, written in Gielemans's own hand, has been preserved for us by V = the Vienna manuscript of the private library of the Austrian emperor 9397 a, of the 15th century, volume IV, fol. 953v – 959 Cf. Anal. Boll., vol. XIV, pp. 14 – 15, 26.. Altogether omitted are the letter, the prologue, chapters 9, 10, 26, 27, 30, 31 of book I, chapters 1, 4, 6, 7, 9 – 28, 30 – 35 of book II, chapters 1 – 16, 20 – 24, 31, 40 of book III; the rest are contracted now a little, now much, yet so that Gielemans preserved the genuine words of the Life as far as could be done. Of the same epitome, a transcript of which John Baptist De Mez, canon of Rouge-Cloître, had sent in the year 1673 to Paris to Pierre Nicolas Grenier [On whom cf. our Anecdota ex codicibus hagiographicis Iohannis Gielemans (Brussels, 1895), p. 302.], two copies are kept in the National Library of Paris, Collection de Picardie, vol. LXV, fol. 96 – 103 and 146 – 150v. editions, Laurentius Surius alone prepared an edition of the Life, who brought it out among the approved histories of the saints, vol. VI (1575), p. 179 – 214 [Among the same histories it was printed again in the later Cologne editions, vol. VI (1581), p. 190 – 225; vol. XI (1618), p. 209 – 227; in the Venice edition, vol. VI (1581), fol. 57v – 69; in the Turin edition, vol. XI (1880), p. 338 – 69.], "whose diction, however," as he himself warns, "he changed here and there and for the most part contracted somewhat, only the dedicatory letter being changed in nothing at all." That a manuscript was available to Surius which had been written before the middle of the 12th century, since in it the letter ȩ with a tail had been written for the letters ae, oe, was the opinion of the learned C. Brunel [Les actes faux de l'abbaye de Saint-Valery, in Le Moyen Age, vol. XXII (1909), p. 190 – 91.]; wrongly, unless I am mistaken. For these tailed letters, if one may so speak, Surius commonly uses also in documents which are much more recent than the 12th century, as for example in the Life of St. Elizabeth the landgravine (vol. cit., p. 442 – 64) and in the Life of St. Homobonus of Cremona (ibid., p. 294 – 98), both of which were composed in the 16th century, and in his very preface to volume VI — to omit others. This one thing, having made a collation, we can affirm of Surius's manuscript, that it was most similar to the Rouge-Cloître exemplar. From Surius [From the same Surius was taken, in the 18th century, a transcript of the whole Life which is kept in the National Library of Paris, Collection de Picardie, LXV, fol. 112 – 145, and also fragments copied in the 18th century which have been found in the Amiens manuscript 516, fol. 132 – 137v.] fragments of the Life were copied by M. I. I. Brial, in Recueil des historiens des Gaules …, vol. XIV (1806), p. 174 – 81, and L. Le Vasseur, among the Ephemerides ordinis Cartusiensis, vol. IV (Montreuil, 1892), p. 99 – 102. French version. From Surius's edition the Life was not so much translated into French Which is affirmed in the Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. XI. p. 735. as contracted in a few words by Arnauld d'Andilly, Vies de plusieurs saints illustres (Paris, 1664), p. 587 – 94; 2nd ed., vol. II (Paris, 1665), p. 266 – 80 [Some more recent writers, who narrated the history of St. Godfrey from this Life, are listed by H. Macqueron, Bibliographie du département de la Somme, vol. II (Amiens, 1907), p. 398 – 99. To these are to be added very many books published on the history of the church or the city of Amiens and also of Soissons, in which some things are usually reported about Godfrey.].

§ II. On the controversies which Godfrey carried on with the monks of Saint-Valery.

[11] Although Nicholas has been undeservedly censured Nicholas set these out at length in book II, c. 9 – 24, and chiefly on account of this narrative he has been sharply censured by some, as one who had brought forth things altogether foreign to the truth and had falsely slandered the monks of Saint-Valery. Mabillon rendered its sum thus Annales O. S. B., vol. V, book LXX, § CVII.: "When the man of God Godfrey was going round his diocese, he came to the monastery of Saint-Valery, where certain presbyters of those parts offer him chalices and linens, in which the sacred mysteries are handled, to be blessed. Then the monks resist, alleging that no right there belonged to the bishops of Amiens. But it is lawful for bishops, he said, in any place whatever to consecrate the vessels of the Lord's ministry. He yielded, however, and went away from there. When he returned home, having called together the clergy, he sets out the injury done to him. All, moved at this, judge that the abbot must be summoned. He comes, and with much gold corrupts not a few, who began to defend the abbot against the bishop. The bishop refers the matter to Manasses, archbishop of Reims, at a time when a most celebrated assembly of the nobles of Gaul was being held there. The abbot was present with the monks, complaining that his immunity was being unjustly harassed by Godfrey. By order of the archbishop, letters are read proving the immunity; which those who had been depraved by gifts applaud. The bishop demands that they be shown to him; and having inspected them carefully, he detected their fraud. For, wiping them lightly with his garment, he proved before the eyes of all those standing by that the writing was recent. Thus put to shame, the monks appeal to the Roman pontiff, and both parties at once proceed to the City. that in narrating the contention of Godfrey with the monks of St. Valery But the monks, more diligent than the bishop, at once obtain by gifts what they seek, and soon return home eager and exulting with new letters. When the bishop reached Rome, the advocates, since they saw that nothing was to be hoped for from him, say that the monks are being unjustly harassed by him. Thus frustrated in his hope, he sets out for Bari for the sake of a vow. Having returned thence to Rome, he is received with honour by the pontiff, who had learned many things about his holiness after his departure; and he received from him letters in which it was enjoined upon the abbot and monks of Saint-Valery that they should obey the bishop of Amiens in all things as a father and pastor. Having at length returned to his own, he summoned the abbot and ordered the letters to be read before him. Having heard and inspected these, the abbot was compelled to yield and thereafter obeyed the bishop of Amiens."

[12] brought forward many things Now those who have undertaken to defend those monks against the monk Nicholas [L. d'Achery, Guiberti de Novigento opera (Paris, 1651), p. 568 – 72: "Parergon de privilegiis abbatiae Sancti Valerici"; Robert Quatremaire, Concilii Remensis quod in causa Godefridi Ambianensis episcopi celebratum fertur falsitas demonstrata (Paris, 1663), 101 pp; Mabillon, place cited; Gallia christiana, vol. X (1751), col. 1233 – 34; Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. XI (1759), p. 730 – 35; J. Corblet, Hagiographie du diocèse d'Amiens, vol. II (Paris-Amiens, 1870), p. 395 – 404. Other disquisitions besides, made in the 17th and 18th centuries, which have remained unedited, were read through and adduced by the learned C. Brunel, Les actes faux de l'abbaye de Saint-Valery, in Le Moyen Age, vol. XXII (1909), p. 179 – 96; who explained the whole matter learnedly and clearly and weighed it wisely, but at length finally confessed that the knot cannot be untied.] attack his sayings with many reasons, some very slight, others of no great moment, one very weighty. unheard of, a) They have said: "There is no mention of that little story either in Ivo, bishop of Chartres, who would not have spared the monks if they had been guilty of this fraud (of which Nicholas accuses them), or in the other Life of Godfrey himself, which we received from an old manuscript of Rouge-Cloître near Brussels." But that the silence of certain men, who are silent not only about these controversies but also about the whole life of Godfrey and the history of the monks of Saint-Valery, prevails over the testimony of an almost contemporary writer, only those will judge who, against the most approved rules of the critical art, otherwise altogether spurn the argument which they call negative, but where it favours their opinion do not hesitate to thrust it forward sharply. And they would by no means have adduced another Life of St. Godfrey if they had paid attention to what and of what kind it was. It is that brief epitome made by Gielemans [The transcript which Mabillon said was in his possession is one or the other of those which we warned are kept at Paris to this day (above, p. 892, no. 10).], in which, since Gielemans was studying brevity, he omitted both these chapters and very many others. Whoever has perceived this will not, I think, be led by this omission to conjecture that the narrative of which we are speaking here has been interpolated into the Life.

[13] uncertain, b) They have said that no council of Reims was held at which Godfrey could have convicted the monks of forgery. Yet one was held, as Mabillon himself warns, in the year 1105; in which Odo, abbot of Saint-Martin of Tournai, was elected bishop of Cambrai. For so the monk Herimann in the book on the restoration of Saint-Martin of Tournai, c. 82: The lord Manasses, archbishop of Reims, summoning other abbots generally to the council, among others called by name Odo, abbot of Saint-Martin of Tournai; and when, wondering thereupon, we were waiting astonished and in suspense for what would be reported to us about the council, behold, suddenly we heard that he had been elected to the bishopric of the see of Cambrai and consecrated without delay by the archbishop and the bishops of the province MG., Scr. vol. XIV, p. 313.. These things are excellently confirmed by two records which Mabillon did not know, the Gesta of Galcher, bishop of Cambrai, c. 30 Ibid., p. 205., and above all by a note written in a contemporary hand in the psalter of Saint-Martin of Tournai, which is now the Paris manuscript Bibl. Nat. lat. nouv. acq. 2195, fol. 118v – 119 [This was edited by L. Delisle, Mélanges de paléographie (Paris, 1880), p. 153 – 54; from there it passed into MG., place cited, p. 313, annot. 3.]: In the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and five, and the fourteenth from the restoration of this monastery, this book was written in this very monastery by a certain brother, a monk and subdeacon, at the command of a man of venerable memory, the lord Odo, first monk and first abbot of this holy monastery. Which venerable abbot, snatched away in the same year to the bishopric of the city of Cambrai, was taken from us not without loss to our whole congregation, and was consecrated bishop of the aforesaid city of Cambrai by Manasses, metropolitan of Reims, and seven bishops of the province, in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand one hundred and five, in the thirteenth indiction, the third epact, on the 6th of the Nones of July, a Sunday, and so on. And Mabillon rightly warns: "If the things which the monk Nicholas relates about the case of the monks of Saint-Valery are true, they must have been done at that council of Reims. Certainly not earlier, since only in the preceding year did Godfrey enter upon the see of Amiens; nor later, since Archbishop Manasses, in whose time this is said to have happened, died in the year 1107."

[14] false c) They have said that Nicholas hints clearly enough that Godfrey set out for Rome not long after this council; but that in fact he was in Italy only in the year 1109, since Hugh, a monk of Cluny, narrates in a letter to his abbot Pons (BHL. 4011) that on the very day on which St. Hugh, Pons's predecessor, died, that is on the 29th of April 1109, Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, while he was in Italy at Pavia, saw the hosts of the heavenly ones going forth in the triumph of glory to meet St. Hugh as he passed from this world [Marrier and Duchesne, Bibliotheca Cluniacensis (Paris, 1614), col. 558 E; Act. SS., Apr. vol. III, p. 658, no. 2.]. To extricate themselves from this difficulty, some have conjectured that the Italian journey was undertaken twice by Godfrey, once in the year 1105 or a little after, once in the year 1109; which is a mere conjecture confirmed by no other document. Perhaps therefore it will be better to say with the learned C. Brunel that this narrative of the monk Hugh is not of so great authority. For not only does he himself in another work, I mean in his Life of St. Hugh (BHL. 4012), narrate indeed that Godfrey was informed of the death of St. Hugh on that day in Italy, yet he explains the matter in an altogether different way: that on the night on which the saint departed, when Godfrey had given his limbs to sleep, it seemed to him that he was at Cluny, and, being asked by the brethren, that he anointed Abbot Hugh with holy oil and, crowned with the episcopal mitre and celebrating Mass, administered to him the viaticum of the Lord's body and blood Marrier-Duchesne, vol. cit., col. 446 B.; but other writers of the Life of St. Hugh differ from both narratives of Hugh. For Gilo, a monk of Cluny, teaches that on the very day Fulgentius, abbot of Affligem, was informed of the saint's death [BHL. 4007; A. L'Huillier, Vie de saint Hugues, abbé de Cluny (Solesmes, 1888), p. 616 – 17.]; Rainald, abbot of Vézelay, names two others to whom a vision of this kind happened, Baldwin, a religious brother living in England, and a certain abbot of Cambrai BHL. 4008; Act. SS., vol. cit., p. 653, no. 30.; Hildebert of Le Mans two others, Bernard, a monk of Cluny, and I know not what abbot of Noyon BHL. 4010; Act. SS., vol. cit., p. 647 – 48, no. 50, 51.; so that it seems likely that the several writers wished to confirm their opinion of the glorious departure of St. Hugh by a certain wonderful vision, the names being changed by each according to his own bent and sometimes, though not always, the very sequence of events. And since Godfrey had turned aside to Cluny once and again Cf. below § IV, at the year 1112 and at the year 1114 in the month of November. and was very well known there, it could come into the mind of the monk Hugh to mix into his narrative that man, famous for his reputation for holiness, who was reported to have made a journey into Italy.

[15] and incredible, d) They have said also that there are many things in Nicholas little likely and all but incredible. "For, to omit that the abbot, making no declinature, presents himself before the bishop to whose jurisdiction he flatly denied that he was subject, how could it happen that so many clerics of Amiens, of Reims, of Rome, could be corrupted by him with gold or silver and gifts? Then, granted that they could, who would believe that so much gold and silver could be available to the abbot of a monastery not very rich, that he could satisfy the cupidity of so many men? Or was that abbot so stupid and insane that he dared to produce before perspicacious and sharp-eyed men so recent a writing as an old one?" All these things will perhaps not seem so incredible nor so unlike the truth to those who wish not so much to plead the cause of the monks against the monk as truly to estimate and define things as they were, without anger and without partisanship. Dom de Sainte-Beuve, for example, himself a monk [In the Disquisition on the council of Reims held in the case of Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, which is kept unedited at Paris in the Bibl. Nat., Collection de Picardie, vol. LXV, fol. 154 ff. On which cf. Brunel, place cited, pp. 189, 192.], has warned that it could very well happen that the abbot of Saint-Valery presented himself at the synod of Amiens, not as if ordered by the bishop, but on the contrary in order to confirm publicly that he declined the episcopal jurisdiction. Certainly this wins much credit for Nicholas, the writer of the Life, that he who is accustomed to proclaim Godfrey and his deeds so sedulously by no means dissembles that he lost his case twice, both at the synod of Amiens itself and before the Roman pontiff. Nor is it to be omitted that he is not ill disposed toward the abbey of Saint-Valery, nay rather he praises that house excellently, as one which, now changed for the better by the change of the right hand of the Most High, stands forth as a mirror of all religion in those parts (11, 9). If, however, anyone should persuade himself that he, after his manner, somewhat enlarged things and, in order to stir up hatred and odium against the bishop's adversaries and to make Godfrey's repulse honourable, invented, or at least proclaimed on a larger scale, those gifts which had formerly been offered by the monks to the judges, I shall willingly agree.

[16] yet in setting out the outcome of the controversy e) There remains against Nicholas's narrative a very weighty argument and, to speak with Mabillon, a decisive one: that those letters of Paschal II by which the monks of Saint-Valery were ordered to obey the bishop of Amiens in all things have nowhere been found, have never been produced; nay, that in the controversies which not seldom arose afterwards on the same matter between the monks and Godfrey's successors, the bishops relied by no means on those letters to confirm their demands, but on the common law. On the contrary, that the monks produced letters of the Roman pontiffs, of Benedict VII in the year 981 [Jaffé-Loewenfeld, n. 3805. Brunel has lately edited them again, place cited, p. 182 – 84.], of Paschal II in the year 1106 Jaffé-Loewenfeld, n. 6071. Edited again by Brunel, vol. cit., p. 184 – 86., of Alexander III in the years 1165 and 1168 Jaffé-Loewenfeld, nn. 11177, 11386.,

and also other more recent ones Cf. Brunel, place cited, p. 186., by which it came about that certainly from the 13th century onward the abbey, no one contradicting as regards the sum of the matter, was exempt from the bishop's jurisdiction and subject immediately to the Roman church. These must be examined one by one in a few words. The credibility of the letters given by Benedict VII is doubtful. For there is that in them which you may praise, there is that which you may censure, and since of these, as of the rest, only recent transcripts survive, it seems that nothing certain can be determined See what Brunel wisely sets out, place cited, p. 194.. Yet what prevents us from conjecturing that those are letters forged by the monks and written on parchment — whereas genuine ones would have been on paper or papyrus — which Godfrey showed at the synod of Reims to be spurious? But these things do not go beyond a mere conjecture, and an uncertain one. That the bull granted by Paschal II on the 12th of March 1106 is altogether genuine C. Brunel teaches [Ibid. That the same must be said of the more recent letters Brunel rightly warns, ibid., p. 194 – 95.], with whom we freely agree. I wonder, however, that it seemed to the learned man to contradict the Life of St. Godfrey [Ibid., p. 184. "La bulle suivante, par sa date, est en particuliere opposition avec la Vie de saint Geoffroy." [The following bull, by its date, is in particular opposition to the Life of St. Godfrey.]]; nay, it agrees with the Life admirably. For Nicholas narrates that the monks, having paid out much money, won their case at Rome, having obtained everything according to their wish from the Roman pontiff, returned to their country, and announced that they had been made free from the dominion of the prelate Godfrey (II, 14). Up to this point Nicholas and the letters agree exactly. Whether, further, the monks, moved in mind and elated by victory, in fact added that Godfrey was now an exile and had lost his prelacy, or whether Nicholas feigned these things in rhetorical manner to bring Godfrey's enemies into odium, who will determine? For neither is improbable, and it could happen that, when the monks had learned that Godfrey had suffered a repulse from Paschal II, had left Rome and gone on farther into Apulia, they freely persuaded themselves that he would not now return to his diocese.

[17] he seems to have strayed altogether from the truth. But although we judge that Nicholas is to be trusted in the sum of things, that each particular in these controversies was done and said just as he reported, we shall then safely believe when it has been confirmed by a fairer and, so to say, calmer witness. One thing too affirmed by Nicholas we not only accept doubtfully, but altogether reject: that those letters, which he invented, were at length granted by Paschal II to Godfrey, by which the abbot of Saint-Valery and the monks were ordered to comply in all things with the prelate of Amiens as with a father and pastor. That letters of this kind, which would have made void and empty the bull very lately delivered by the pontiff to the monks, were by no means given is shown clearly by the more recent letters, most certainly genuine, by which the Roman pontiffs confirm the exemption of the monastery after the example of our predecessors of happy memory, Benedict and Paschal, Roman pontiffs, — so Alexander II in the year 1165, — that is, mentioning the letters which we said favour the monks, no mention being made of letters which Godfrey had received. Did Nicholas then lie? I confess that I cannot be brought to affirm it. That he said false things I freely pronounce; was the monk of Soissons perhaps taught false things by I know not what people of Amiens, who were more zealous than was fair for the right of the bishops? Or, which I should judge by no means improbable, did the eulogist of Godfrey persuade himself that his saint, who had at length been treated most honourably by Paschal II, could not have failed to obtain from the pontiff the things which he had demanded? Let the judgement rest with the reader. For my part, in a matter certainly perplexed, the fair opinion seems to us that by which the writer of the Life is acknowledged to have his authority [Of which only those formerly seemed to doubt who defended the monks of Saint-Valery against Nicholas. But today learned men are much fairer toward Nicholas, for example A. Molinier, Les sources de l'histoire de France, première partie, vol. II (Paris, 1902), p. 41; C. Brunel, place cited, pp. 179 – 80, 190 – 91. He is criticized, however, by the learned A. Lefranc, Le traité des reliques de Guibert de Nogent, among the Études d'histoire du moyen age dédiées a Gabriel Mondo (Paris, 1896), p. 303, annot. 1, as one who was easily impelled to believe anything whatever: "Cet hagiographe, crédule à l'excès, dépourvu de toute espèce de critique… Son œuvre a, au plus haut degré, un caractère légendaire et suspect" [This hagiographer, credulous to excess, devoid of any kind of criticism… His work has, in the highest degree, a legendary and suspect character]. For my part I fear that that learned man was excessive in censuring, and, carried away by the impetus of his discourse, imitated Nicholas himself, who, we have said, kept measure neither in praising nor in blaming. Certainly this wins credit for Nicholas, that, although he was certainly credulous, as almost all his contemporaries were, yet he was sparing in adducing wonderful things, and sometimes, after his manner, celebrated as wonderful, with vehement and many words, things which seem to us plainly commonplace.], not that supreme authority nor intact in all things, yet a great one.

§ III. At what time St. Godfrey died.

[18] That Godfrey died in the year 1115 There is another place in which our Nicholas may seem at first sight to have erred. For thus he closes the last chapter of the Life: Now the most pious pastor Godfrey, the renowned prelate of the people of Amiens, rested in Christ on the 6th of the Ides of November, at the 9th hour of the day, in the 11th year of his priesthood and the 50th of his age, about to receive from Him the true jubilee of remission and rest, in the 18th year of the reign of Louis, son of Philip, king of the Franks, and in the year of the incarnate Word of God 1118, and so on. These things conflict wonderfully both with the truth of the matter and also among themselves. For Godfrey's 11th year of pontificate is to be computed from the month of April or May 1114 to the month of April or May 1115, King Louis's 18th year from the month of August 1125 to the month of August 1126. You see, then, Nicholas teaching in one and the same sentence that Godfrey died on the 8th of November in the year 1114, it is certainly established that is, in the year 1125, that is, in the year 1118! But, what is even worse, it is established that Godfrey died in none of these years, but in the year 1115. For, to omit other things and to confine ourselves to testimonies altogether clear, there survive letters given by Godfrey on the 16th of June 1115, in the 12th year of his episcopate [Mabillon, De re diplomatica, book VI, § CLXXV (2nd ed., Paris, 1709, p. 597 – 98).]. Therefore he survived after the 8th of November 1114, and did not die before the 8th of November 1115. But not later either; since on the 10th of May 1116 Ingelran, bishop of Amiens, in the first year of his episcopate, makes mention with praise in a letter of his deceased predecessor Godfrey Gall. christ., vol. X, instr. col. 303., and we have other letters of the same Ingelran given on the 28th of October in the year of the incarnation 1124, the 9th of his episcopate [They survive unedited in the cartulary of Lihons (Paris manuscript Bibl. Nat. lat. 5460, fol. 8 – 8v). They were adduced by C. Ducange, Histoire de l'état de la ville d'Amiens, ed. Hardouin (Amiens, 1840), p. 282 – 83, and in Gall. christ., vol. X. col. 1173A.].

[19] although the Life teaches otherwise And when we have added — what will become manifest in the following paragraph — that very many testimonies are available about the things done by Godfrey from the year 1104 up to the year 1115, but that after the month of November of the year 1115 he is named as living in no genuine document, and is indicated as present anywhere by no narrative, the reader will take it in good part if we abstain from examining and refuting the opinions of those who, led either by this passage of the Life or by spurious letters, contended, some that the saint died in the year 1118, others in the year 1121 [For the names of the several men who embraced the true year 1115, or, following the testimony of the Life, the year 1118, or even, imprudently, the years 1108, 1116, 1127, see Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 433 – 434]. For where testimonies clearer than light are present, we do not wish, in setting out empty subtleties [The year 1121 was defended at length by Fr. Guerard, Notice sur quelques circonstances de la vie de saint Geoffroy et sur l'époque de sa mort, in Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, vol. VI (1843), p. 147 – 202; which came out separately at Amiens in the same year under the title: Essai sur St Geoffroy, évêque d'Amiens, 58 pp. Guerard relies chiefly on the spurious letters of which below, p. 901, at the years 1118 and 1121. His disquisition was refuted by J. Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 433 – 41, with reasons adduced, some apt, others empty (for example, p. 439 at the 3rd, p. 440 at the end).], to waste both our own and the reader's time and oil [By what art Guerard extricates himself from the things that clearly oppose his opinion it is pleasing to show by at least one example. We have said that in the letters given on the 10th of May 1116, in the first year of his episcopate, Ingelran, bishop of Amiens, speaks of his deceased predecessor Godfrey. Yet even by these, clear as they are, no light is brought to Guerard. On the contrary, he obscures them with that strange and absurd interpretation: that Godfrey is called deceased by Ingelran only because he had withdrawn to the Chartreuse; for those who professed the religious life were customarily held as deceased (place cited, p. 189 – 90: "l'usage établi alors et qui faisait regarder comme morts ceux qui entraient en religion" [the usage established then, which made those who entered religion be regarded as dead]). To which Corblet rightly notes (vol. cit., p. 440): "Guerard confond ici le langage de la mysticité avec celui des chartes, où n'a jamais été admise cette manière de parler." [Guerard here confuses the language of mysticism with that of charters, in which this manner of speaking was never admitted.]]. On the contrary, it will help to have adduced at least two things by which our opinion — nay, not so much ours as the common opinion of learned men — is not badly confirmed. One was read in the necrology of Mont-Saint-Quentin, in which monastery Godfrey had spent his youth: In the year 1115, on the 8th of November, died the lord Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, a monk of this congregation, who gave the altar of Chuignes with the small tithes in the same place, likewise a golden chalice and many other goods; for whom a pittance is given Corblet, vol. cit., p. 441.. The other is the testimony of Nicholas himself, who says that John, bishop of Thérouanne († 27 January 1130), almost three times five courses of years after Godfrey in

the Lord rested (III, 25). These words are spoken so correctly and precisely (from the 8th of November 1115 to the 27th of January 1130 there are in all 14 years, 2 months, 19 days = almost three times five courses of years) that it is by no means likely that Nicholas so gravely lapsed in memory as to affirm in another place that Godfrey died in the year 1118. corrupted by a copyist. Wherefore, unless one wishes — which seems to be proved by no reason — that the last sentence of the Life was added afterwards by another, it must be said that in writing the manuscript which Gielemans, Gentius and Surius used, or in some manuscript intermediate between this and the archetype exemplar, the copyist erred and copied the dates wrongly.

[20] He died, then, on the 8th of November, But although he slipped three times in this place, in the year of the episcopate, in the year of King Louis, in the year of the incarnation, we believe nevertheless that two other things can be accepted and kept: one altogether certain, namely the day of death, which not only Nicholas distinctly relates in another place also to have been the 6th of the Ides of November, that is, the day of the Four Crowned Martyrs (III, 30), but which two contemporary men confirm in poems written in praise of Godfrey, Bernard, dean of Soissons: Increased by the crown of the Four Crowned (Life, III, 31), and Goislen, bishop of Soissons: Here lies, seeking the stars, on the eighth day of November (ibid., III, aged, as it seems, fifty years. 32); the other not so clear, yet very probable, that Godfrey was then in the fiftieth year of his age; for that this number was indicated by Nicholas himself and not corrupted by the copyist is shown by the words that are joined to it: about to receive the true jubilee of remission and rest… Whence it comes about that we use this passage confidently to compute Godfrey's first years. This we shall do at the beginning of the following paragraph, in which it has seemed good to embrace briefly the things done by Godfrey and to assign them, as far as can be done, to definite years.

§ IV. The series of the things done by St. Godfrey.

[21] Godfrey After in §§ II and III we have striven to elucidate the things which had some difficulty, the rest are now plain and — whether certain or only probable — can be set out more briefly.

1065 – 1066. — Godfrey is born in the district of Soissons (Life, I, 1). — The year is determined sufficiently certainly from the fact that the saint died in the year 1115, and at that time was in his fiftieth year (Life, III, 42).

1070 – 1071. — At five years old he enters the monastery of Saint-Quentin-du-Mont near Péronne (Life, I, 5).

1090 – 1091. becomes a presbyter, — When he was already completing his fifth lustrum, he was consecrated presbyter by Ratbod II, bishop of Noyon (Life, I, 17). A little after, "then a young man" (Guibert of Nogent, abbot of St. Mary of Nogent, De vita sua, II, 2), he is appointed abbot of St. Mary of Nogent (Guibert, place cited; Life, I, 18).

1095, June 14. — Philip I, king of the Franks, confirms the donations made or to be made to the abbey of St. Mary; which letters Godfrey, abbot of the same place, subscribed. — The letters were edited by Toussaints Du Plessis, Histoire de la ville et des seigneurs de Coucy (Paris, 1728), p. 131 (some things omitted), and M. Prou, Recueil des actes de Philippe Ier roi de France (Paris, 1908), p. 340 – 41. Cf. Mabillon, Ann. O. S. B., book LXIX, § VII.

1097. — At the command of Archbishop Manasses he was present at the council of Reims, and refused the government of the abbey of Saint-Remi of Reims offered to him (Life, I, 26; Guibert, place cited: at first there was talk indeed of richer abbeys). — On the council cf. Th. Gousset, Les actes de la province ecclesiastique de Reims, vol. II (1843), p. 137 – 38.

1100. — Hugh, bishop of Soissons, asked by Godfrey, grants three altars to the monastery of St. Mary. — The letters were edited by L. d'Achery, Guiberti … de Novigento opera (Paris, 1651), p. 626; from there P. L., vol. CLVI, col. 1125 – 26.

1100. — Ingelran, bishop of Laon, delivers to Abbot Godfrey the altar of Otmundicurtis and ten measures of wine at Broncourt. — Cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 606 D.

1102. — Baldric, bishop of Noyon, gives to Abbot Godfrey, who had come to him, the altar of St. Peter of Condren. — The letters were edited by Du Plessis, vol. cit., p. 132 – 33.

1103. — Godfrey subscribed the letters given by Ingelran of Laon, by which the altar of Corbeny was delivered to the monks of Saint-Remi of Reims. — The letters were edited by G. Marlot, Metropolis Remensis historia, vol. II (Reims, 1679), p. 232 – 33.

1103, Nov. 5. — He was present at the council of Laon assembled by the same Ingelran. — Cf. Mabillon, Annales O. S. B., book LXX, § XXIV.

bishop of Amiens. 1104. — He is elected bishop of the people of Amiens (Guibert, place cited; Life, I, 29).

1104, at the beginning of the month of April. — He is present at the council of Troyes [In this place, than which we have not found a more apt one, there must be briefly mentioned the narrative which is read in the Life of Bl. Andrew, abbot of Averbode (BHL. 443), c. 5. This Life its first editor, Sebastian of St. Paul, of the Carmelite Order, affirms he copied "from a certain book written on parchment by Nicholas Altaterra or Hoochlant", abbot of St. Mary of Middelburg, of the Premonstratensian Order (in the years 1334 – 1343); the same affirms that he brought it out "in exactly the same style in which it had been written", although he confesses that "many things which had been written less in good Latin were corrected by him, yet no sense was deliberately changed." But as the work of that Sebastian has seemed suspect to others too (cf. L. Goovaerts, Écrivains, artistes et savants de l'ordre de Prémontré, vol. I, p. 394), so no one will fail to wonder at the things which are narrated in this chapter 5; of which some are manifestly false (for example, that in the year 1109 the council of Troyes was assembled by Pope Paschal II, that Paschal himself was present at the council, that in it Bishop Godfrey was not only confirmed but also consecrated), the rest, to speak more mildly, are altogether unheard of. But since the editions of the Life are not in everyone's hands, we have copied here from the fabulous narrative the things which are said about St. Godfrey, so that the reader himself may judge the matter: (Andrew remained at Rome) until the year 1109, when the said pontiff Paschal, the second of that name, took him with him beyond the Alps to the council which he had convoked at Troyes in Champagne (rather, Paschal was present at the council of Troyes of the year 1107; see below at this year); in which the said blessed Andrew found one of his singular and intimate fellow students (Andrew had given himself to studies at Cologne), St. Godfrey d'Ally (whence Nicholas Hoochlant or Sebastian of St. Paul received this surname, we do not know), bishop-elect of Amiens and confirmed in that council (rather, in the council of Troyes of the year 1104) and at the same time consecrated (rather, he was consecrated at Reims). When the council was finished, blessed Andrew, having humbly asked the blessing of the said supreme pontiff Paschal and obtained leave, accompanied the said bishop as far as Amiens, holding all the way between them discourse about the monastic life. For the said bishop was a Benedictine religious, who had been taken up, reluctant, to that episcopal dignity. Meanwhile blessed Andrew had decided to take the monastic habit in the monastery of Nogent, if the holy bishop had not asked him to remain with him for some time, to help him in the reformation of his diocese. At which time his mind panted more and more from day to day after the monastic life, so much that one day, rendering thanks to the said holy bishop, he excused himself, saying that he could not be with him any longer. On the same night the holy bishop saw in a dream blessed Andrew shining in white garments and carrying a crozier in his right hand; to whom it was then revealed that he should warn his friend blessed Andrew not to enter the monastery of Nogent, because it had been ordained otherwise by God concerning him. And when day came, as the said blessed Andrew came to the holy bishop to ask his blessing, he made known to him the vision made to him by God and declared that he had been reserved by God for another monastery than that of Nogent.], in which that election is confirmed (Guibert, place cited; Life, I, 30). — On the council cf. Hardouin, Acta conciliorum, vol. VI, 2, col. 1873 – 1876; Mansi, Concilia, vol. XX, col. 1179 – 82.

The principal things done 1104. — He is consecrated bishop at Reims by Archbishop Manasses (Life, I, 32).

1104. — The new bishop enters his city, accompanied by Lambert, bishop of the Atrebates, and John, bishop of the Morini (Life, II, 2).

in the year 1105 1105, Feb. 26. — By letters which he gave at Amiens on the 4th of the Kalends of March, in the first year of his episcopate, Bishop Godfrey confirmed the donations formerly made by Robert, count of Flanders, to the monks of the church of Lihons. — The letters were edited by L. d'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. VIII, p. 163 – 65; 2nd ed. vol. III, p. 438 – 39; from there P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 735 – 37. — Inc. Adierunt nos…

1105, Feb. 28. — At Amiens, on the 2nd of the Kalends of March, in the year of the incarnation 1104, the 1st of his episcopate, Brother Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, granted to the church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs situated in the suburb of Paris the church of Linigeium. — The letters were edited by M. Marrier, Monasterii regalis S. Martini de Campis Paris. ordinis Cluniacensis historia (Paris, 1637), p. 349 – 51; from there P. L., vol. cit., col. 737 – 39. — Inc. Orthodoxorum patrum…

1105. — At Corbie he consecrates the oratory of St. Thomas (Life, I, 6).

(1105.) — While he goes round his diocese, he comes to the abbey of Saint-Valery, where a controversy arises between him and the monks over the liberty of the monastery (Life, II, 9).

(1105.) — Having returned to Amiens, he complains in a synod of the injury done to him by those monks (Life, II, 10).

1105. — In the synod of Amiens Brother Godfrey, bishop of the people of Amiens, confirms the possessions of the monastery of Saint-Fuscien-au-Bois. — The letters were edited in Gallia christiana, vol. X, instr. col. 299 – 301; from there Th. Gousset, Les actes de la province ecclésiastique de Reims, vol. II (Reims, 1843), p. 161 – 65; P. L., vol. cit., col. 739 – 42. — Inc. Sanctarum scripturarum auctoritate didicimus,

my brethren… [The punctuation between the salutation and the letters themselves having been wrongly made and one word badly read, in the editions it begins thus: Si dicimus, fratres mei…].

1105. — In the same synod Godfrey, bishop of the see of Amiens, assigned and granted some altars to the same monastery. — The letters, unedited, were seen by the writers of Gallia christiana (cf. vol. cit., col. 1169 G), Ch. Salmon, Notice historique sur l'ancienne abbaye et le village de Saint-Fuscien-au-Bois pres d'Amiens, in La Picardie, vol. I (1855), p. 234, and separately (Amiens, 1857), p. 6. A copy of the same sent in the year 1666 from the abbey of Corbie to our predecessors is kept in the Brussels manuscript, Royal Library 8936, fol. 59 – 60v. — Inc. Quoniam, dilectissimi…

(1105.) — When the abbot of Saint-Valery, summoned, had come to Amiens, and most of the clerics had given their opinion for the monks and against the bishop, Godfrey appeals to his metropolitan, the archbishop of Reims (Life, II, 10).

1105, at the beginning of the month of July. — Godfrey and the monks of Saint-Valery are present at the provincial synod of Reims; and they, having at length lost their case, appeal to the Roman pontiff (Life, II, 11; on the time of the synod, cf. above, no. 13).

(1105.) — The monks of Saint-Valery set out for Rome (Life, II, 11).

[1106] 1106, Jan. 22. — On the 11th of the Kalends of February 1105 (= 1106) Godfrey gave some altars to the monastery of Blessed Mary of Breteuil. — Cf. F.-I. Darsy, Bénéfices de l'église d'Amiens (Amiens, 1869, 1871), vol. I, p. 376, annot. 3; p. 392, annot. 3; vol. II, p. 133, annot. 5; p. 170, annot. 3; p. 175, annot. 3.

1106, Mar. 12. — By letters given at Benevento Pope Paschal II confirms the possessions of the abbey of Saint-Valery and decrees that the monks are placed under the sole jurisdiction of the Roman church (Jaffé-Loewenfeld, 6071; cf. Life, II, 14).

(1106.) — Godfrey, he too going to Rome, having lost his case, goes on pilgrimage to Bari to the relics of St. Nicholas; having returned thence to Rome, he is said to have won his case before Pope Paschal II (Life, II, 12, 13, 15 – 21). — It could happen that in this year Godfrey met Pope Paschal at Rome, since Paschal, though often absent, yet in the months of May, June and perhaps also afterwards stayed now at Rome, now not far from it. Cf. Jaffé-Loewenfeld, 6082 – 6090.

(1106.) — Godfrey, having returned to Amiens, is said to have shown the abbot and monks of Saint-Valery letters of Pope Paschal II by which they were ordered to obey the bishop of Amiens in all things (Life, II, 24). But cf. above, no. 17.

1105 – 1106. — With John, bishop of the Morini, he settles a suit that had arisen between the brethren of Corbie and the canons of Bruges. — We know of the matter from the letters by which Pope Paschal II approved the sentence on the 23rd of October 1106 (Jaffé-Loewenfeld, 6095).

1106, after the 4th of August [For the letters were given in the 47th year of King Philip. On the beginning of his reign cf. M. Prou, Recueil, p. XXV – XXVIII.]. — Godfrey subscribes the letters by which Manasses II, archbishop of Reims, delivered the altar of Condé to the monastery of Saint-Remi. — The letters were edited by G. Marlot, Metropolis Remensis historia, vol. II (Reims, 1679), p. 235.

(1106, Aug. 23?) — While, going round his diocese, he was staying in Ponthieu, he is informed that the city of Amiens has been burned by fire. He at once returns to it (Life, III, 22, 23). — The Life teaches that this misfortune happened on the fifth weekday, on the vigil of St. Bartholomew; if this is truly said, the year 1106 is indicated, the only one, during Godfrey's episcopate, in which the 23rd of August fell on a fifth weekday [The thing is said to have happened on the 3rd of August of the year 1107 in the narrative of the miracles of St. Firmin, a considerable part of which our Stilting edited, Act. SS., Sept. vol. VII, p. 40 – 41, no. 73, 74 (cf. BHL. 3011). For in the unedited part is read: … let us report the destruction of our city, which was done for our correction. For in the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and seven, on the day on which the finding of the blessed protomartyr is celebrated, almost the whole city, destitute in part of divine help, blazed up as with the fires of Sodom (so a transcript of the 17th century "from a manuscript of Amiens", which is kept in manuscript 150 of our library). This narrative was followed by the one who composed the lessons "on the reposition of Bl. Firmin" inserted in the breviary of Amiens printed in the year 1554, on the 16th of October, on which that feast was celebrated; but by a manifest error it came about that in Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1170 A, it was affirmed that the fire happened on that 16th of October in the same year 1107. Now those miracles of St. Firmin were done in the time of Warin, bishop of Amiens (1127 – 1144), and written at the same time, as it seems (cf. Act. SS., place cited, no. 73). Since, therefore, their writer was almost contemporary with our Nicholas, which of the two should rather be believed is a matter difficult to say. This is certain to us, that Stilting judged wrongly where he thought that the fire was reported by Nicholas "a little before the death of St. Godfrey, so that it seems to have happened in the very year 1115 in which St. Godfrey died". (Act. SS., place cited, no. 71). For in this part of the Life Nicholas by no means follows the order of times. Cf. below, annot. to book III of the Life, c. 11 at the end.].

1106, Sept. 23. — With the permission and at the request of Lambert, bishop of Arras, Godfrey with John, bishop of Thérouanne, consecrates the church of Arrouaise. — So the Foundation of the church of Arrouaise, by Abbot Walter, c. 5 (Act. SS., Jan. vol. I, p. 833, no. 12; MG., Scr. vol. XV, p. 1120); cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1169D [Ibid., vol. IX, col. 1104 C it is affirmed that on the same day, the 23rd of October 1106, the basilica of Saint-Quentin-du-Mont was consecrated by the same bishops Godfrey and John and by Baldric, bishop of Noyon.].

1106. — At Abbeville he confirms the donations made by Guy, count of Ponthieu, to the priory of Saint-Pierre. — Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1169 D; Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 429 – 30.

1106 (?) — He translates the relics of St. Firmin into a precious reliquary (Life II, 26, 27; but cf. Guibert of Nogent, De pignoribus sanctorum, book I, c. 3, § II).

1106, Dec. 25. — He celebrates the feast of the Lord's nativity with Robert II, count of Flanders, at Saint-Omer (Life II, 29); thence he returns to Amiens (ibid., II, 30). — On the year see at the following number.

[1107] 1107, Jan. 19. — A little after he had returned to Amiens, he came to Picquigny, to free from prison Adam, castellan of Amiens, captured by Wermund, vidame of the church of Amiens (Life, II, 31 – 35; III, 2 – 4). — The saint is said to have set out on a Saturday, the vigil of St. Sebastian; now the 19th of January fell on a Saturday in this year alone from the year 1104, in which Godfrey was made bishop, to the year 1111, in which Count Robert died.

1107. — Lambert, bishop of Arras, complains to Godfrey that he has excommunicated certain parishioners of Arras, among whom some who went over to Guarmund of Picquigny. — The letters were edited by Baluze, Miscellanea, vol. V (1700), p. 356 – 57, epist. 122; Recueil des historiens des Gaules …, vol. XV, p. 203 – 4; P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 692.

1107. — He goes to William, count of Ponthieu, by whom Wermund had been captured and cast into chains. From these, Godfrey interceding, Wermund, released, himself also lets Adam out of custody (Life, III, 5).

1107, about May 23. — He is present at the council of Troyes, over which Pope Paschal II presided (cf. the letters of Lambert, bishop of Arras, to Paschal II, P. L., vol. CLXIII, col. 455 – 56; on the council itself see Jaffé-Loewenfeld, vol. I, p. 730). There he had confirmed the church of Saint-Remi given by him earlier (see at the year 1105) to the monastery of Saint-Fuscien. — Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1169 D.

[1108] 1108, in the month of May. — † I wrote at Saint-Quentin, my delight, near the town of Péronne, in the year 1108 in May. Godfrey exhorts Baldric, bishop of Noyon, that, as of the bishops of Cambrai and of the Morini, so also he write the deeds of the bishops of Amiens. — The letters, found afterwards in no manuscript, were first brought out "from the archives of the church of Amiens" by G. Colvenerius in the prolegomena to the Chronicon Cameracense et Atrebatense (Douai, 1615); they have often been edited since (for example P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 742). These, as well as two others, of Gerard, bishop of Cambrai, and of Rainald, archbishop of Reims, which Colvenerius also first gave in the same place, our Pierre Bosch held suspect (Act. SS., Aug. vol. II, p. 670, no. 22) and after him L. C. Bethmann (MG., Scr. vol. VII, p. 395; P. L., vol. CXLIX, col. 13); that they are altogether spurious I in no way doubt, and I strongly suspect that they were forged at the beginning of the 17th century by that Claude Despretz whose hand we have detected elsewhere in a similar misdeed (cf. Anal. Boll., vol. XXIX, p. 241 – 57). — Inc. Me indignum…

1108. — With Godfrey's assent, Baldric, bishop of Noyon, establishes canons regular in the church of Ham. — The letters of Baldric were edited in Gall. christ., vol. X, instr. col. 372 – 73.

1108. — By letters given, Godfrey confirms and increases the possessions of the nuns of the monastery of Bertolcurtis (Bertaucourt). — Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1323; Darsy, Bénéfices, vol. I, p. 480, annot. 4; vol. II, p. 36, annot. 5; p. 82, annot. 3; p. 154, annot. 2. A transcript of the letters, of I know not what kind, was preserved for us by Grenier in the Paris manuscript, Bibl. Nat. Picardie, vol. XCIII, fol. 42v – 44. — Inc. Oportet nos… — At his own request Pope Paschal II confirmed the same possessions on the 11th of May 1109 (Jaffé-Loewenfeld, 6237).

1108, Nov. 8. — Brother Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, gives some altars to the monks of Saint-Arnoul of Crépy, in the diocese of Senlis. — The letters were edited in Gall. christ., vol. X, instr. col. 208 – 209; P.L., vol. CLXII, col. 742 – 43. — Inc. Dilectis fratribus Cluniacensis monasterii…

[1109] 1109, Apr. 29. — Godfrey, while he was staying on this very day in Italy at Pavia, is reported to have been informed by a wonderful vision of the death of St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny. — So Hugh, a monk of Cluny, in a letter to Abbot Pons (BHL. 4011). On which matter cf. above, no. 14.

1109, May 11. — Pope Paschal II, at the petition of Bishop Godfrey, approves the canons regular whom he had instituted in the church of Saint-Martin of Amiens, and confirms their possessions. — Cf. Jaffé-Loewenfeld, 6236.

1109, at the time of the summer synod. — Godfrey confirms the agreement by which the chapter of Amiens granted the church of Torsincurtis to the monks of Lihons. — The letters were edited in the Cartulaire du chapitre de la cathédrale d'Amiens, vol. I (Amiens, 1905 = Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, Documents inédits, vol. XIV), p. 17. Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1170; Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. cit., p. 430. — Inc. Agnoscat universa…

1109, in the 2nd indiction. — Brother Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, confirms the goods of the church of SS. Firmin, Acius and Aceolus. — The letters were edited by J. Roux, Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Acheul-lez-Amiens (Amiens, 1890), p. 491 – 92. — Inc. Innotescimus vobis…

[1110] 1110, Feb. 1. — In the year 1109, in the 2nd indiction, the 7th of Godfrey's episcopate [So in the cartulary, which was written in the 14th century (London manuscript, Brit. Mus. add. 15604, fol. 10v); it is clear that the number was copied out faultily or added.], in the church of Amiens, on the Kalends of February, Bishop Godfrey confirms the goods of the same church. — The letters were edited by Roux, vol. cit., p. 492 – 93. — Inc. Cum universis ecclesiis…

1110. — Godfrey, invited by Anscher, abbot of Centula, to see and bear witness in person to the miracles of St. Angilbert, first sent ahead the priest Ingutio, and afterwards himself, as it seems, came to the monastery of Centula. — So Abbot Anscher in the work on the miracles of St. Angilbert wrought in the year 1110 (BHL. 471), book I, c. 37 and book II, c. 1 (Mabillon, Act. SS. O. S. B., saec. IV, 1, pp. 137, 139).

1110. — He is said to have established the parish of Saint-Remi in the city of Amiens. — Cf. A. Goze, Histoire des rues d'Amiens, vol. III (Amiens 1858), p. 55.

[1111] 1111, Mar. 16. — He informs Lambert, bishop of Arras, that he has promoted clerics, at his bidding, to the order of the priesthood, the diaconate and the subdiaconate, and is sending them back to Lambert. — The letters were edited by Baluze, Miscellanea, vol. V (1700), p. 355 – 56, epist. 120; P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 691. — Inc. Fratres de titulo…

1111, June 11. — He translates the relics of St. Salvius into another reliquary (Life, II, 28). — The time is taught by an inscription written in capital letters on a lead plate, which was found in the old casket in the year 1702, when the relics were translated again: In the year of the incarnation of the Word 1111, in the 4th indiction, on the 11th of June, the present body of St. Salvius, bishop of Amiens, was translated by Bishop Godfrey into this honourable vessel, in the third year of the reign of Louis, king of the Franks. Cf. de Lestocq, Dissertation sur la translation du corps de S. Firmin le confesseur … (Amiens, 1711), p. 232 – 233; Act. SS., Oct. vol. XIII, p. 4, no. 6.

1111. — "In the year 1111, the 8th of his episcopate, he confirmed to the monks of Lihons the church of Méricourt and half of the altar of Herbonières." — Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1170 e; Darsy, op. cit., vol. I, p. 312, annot. 1. The letters are read, unedited, in the cartulary of Lihons (Paris manuscript Bibl. Nat. 5460, fol. 13 – 13v). — Inc. Sicut sollers et providus artifex…

[1112] 1112, Mar. 27. — Pope Paschal II charges Lambert, bishop of Arras, to judge the controversy of the clerics of Arras and the abbot of Saint-Vaast, in the presence of the bishops (John) of Thérouanne and (Godfrey) of Amiens. — Cf. Jaffé-Loewenfeld, 6312.

1112, before the 18th of April. — He meets at Paris with the king and with some archbishops and bishops, and subscribes the letters by which Louis VI confirms and enriches the abbey of Blessed Mary of Puiseaux. — The letters were edited by Dumesnil, Notice historique sur l'église et la ville de Puiseaux, in Mémoires de la Société archéologique de l'Orléanais, vol. I (1851), p. 135 – 38. Cf. A. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros. Annales de sa vie et de son règne (Paris, 1890), p. 69 – 70, n° 131.

1112, Sept. 15. — He is present at the council of Vienne (cf. Martène and Durand, Vet. scr. ampl. coll., vol. VII, p. 67); nay, he is even said to have presided over it in place of the legate, Guy, archbishop of Vienne, at the latter's own request (Life, III, 7). On the council see Hardouin, Acta conc., vol. VI, 2, col. 1913 – 16; Mansi, Concilia, vol. XXI, col. 73 – 76.

1112. — On his return he turns aside to Cluny and stays there for some days with Abbot Pons (Life, place cited).

1112. — "He is found in the same year in the instrument of the composition of Adela, countess of the Veromandui, advocate of the town of Fiscampum, with Nicholas, abbot of Corbie." — Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1171A.

[1113] 1113. — Godfrey favours the citizens of Amiens, who, with the consent of King Louis, "make a commune" (Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, III, 14). Cf. A. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. 86, n° 169. — The "original articles of the charter of the commune of Amiens", which A. Thierry excerpted by conjecture from the letters of King Philip Augustus given in the year 1190, Recueils des monuments inédits sur l'histoire du Tiers État, vol. I (Paris, 1850), p. 37 – 42, and judged by conjecture to have been established in the year 1117, were in an altogether strange manner edited again in P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 747 – 50, as articles of a charter "given in the year 1106 by St. Godfrey, as it seems".

1113, before Aug. 3 For it was then the fifth year of King Louis VI.. — At Châlons Godfrey subscribes the privilege which Louis VI, king of the Franks, granted to the monastery of Saint-Victor of Paris. — See the letters elsewhere and also in Gall. christ., vol. VII, instr. col. 46 – 48; R. de Lasteyrie, Cartulaire général de Paris, vol. I (Paris, 1887), p. 187 – 89. Cf. A. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. 82 – 83, n° 160.

1113, Aug. 19. — At Beauvais Godfrey subscribes the letters of Louis VI, king of the Franks, by which he confirms both the precept granted by himself and the donation of six bakeries made by Guaffrid, bishop of Beauvais, to the canons of Saint-Pierre. — The letters were edited by L.-H. Labande, Histoire de Beauvais et de ses institutions communales (Paris, 1892), p. 262 – 63. Cf. A. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. 89 – 90, n° 175 [So in the letters: Done at Beauvais in the chapter of Saint-Pierre on the 14th (omits Labande) of the Kalends of September in the year of the incarnate Word 1113, in the 6th indiction, in the sixth year of the reign of King Louis. Now the 6th indiction and the 6th regnal year agree with the month of August of the year 1113, but not of the year 1114. Moreover, among the witnesses Peter the dean is adduced, but he had been made bishop before the 12th of June 1114 (Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 720B). Whence, by a very slight correction, it seems one should read: M°. C°. XIII[I]. Otherwise Luchaire (and after him Labande), who thinks the year 1114 is to be kept but the day changed, so that the letters are judged to have been given in the year 1114 before the 12th of June. By this correction, not so slight, the fault in the regnal year is indeed removed, but not that in the indiction. Luchaire adduces one reason for his opinion (place cited, cf. also p. 88 – 89, n° 174), that it seems probable that the letters were given after the death of Bishop Guaffrid, who they say died on the 2nd of December of the year 1113; for he neither subscribed the letters, nor is he adduced among the witnesses present. But that this is enough for the bishop, who in the letters is called the lord Guaffrid, bishop of Beauvais (not "formerly" or "of blessed memory, bishop of Beauvais"), to be judged actually dead, I for my part do not see.].

1113, after Sept. 1 Which seems to follow from the fact that it was already the 7th indiction.. — In the 10th year of his episcopate Godfrey confirms to the brethren of Marmoutier the possession of the monastery of Saint-Denis, which had formerly been built in the meadow of the suburb of Amiens. — The letters were edited by Mabillon, Ann. O. S. B., vol. V, appendix, n° LXXXVI; P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 744 – 46. — Inc. Necessarium ducimus…

1113. — Recent writers affirm that in this year St. Godfrey raised from the earth the body of Bl. Lupicinus, presbyter, who first found the bodies of SS. Fuscian, Victoricus and Gentian, martyrs, and laid it up in a seemly bier. — Cf. Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. III, p.180 – 81.

[1114] 1114, Apr. 17. — Brother Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, in a synod gathered at Amiens, confirms some altars to the monastery of Lihons. — The letters were edited by L. d'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. VIII, p. 171 – 72; 2nd ed., vol. III, p. 464. — Inc. Notitiae fidelium omnium…

1114, July 4. — At Amiens in the church of Blessed Mary, Brother Godfrey confirms to the monks of Marmoutier the possessions of the cell of Bodinicurtis in Ponthieu. The letters, unedited, were copied by E. Martène among the instruments or proofs of his history of Marmoutier (in the Paris manuscript Bibl. Nat. lat. 12878, fol. 317 – 318v). Cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1171 B; E. Martène, Histoire de l'abbaye de Marmoutier, vol. I, ed. C. Chevalier, in Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine, vol. XXIV (1874), p. 488 – 89. — Inc. Quod tempore Gervini…

1114, Sept. 2. — He is present at the provincial council held at Reims. — Cf. Martène and Durand, Thes. nov. anecd., vol. IV, col. 131 – 34; Th. Gousset, Les actes de la province ecclesiastique de Reims, vol. II (Reims, 1843), p. 178 – 79.

1114, Sept. 6. — He is present at the dedication of the church of Blessed Mary of Laon. — This is attested by Herimann of Tournai, On the miracles of St. Mary of Laon, book III, c. 1 (P. L., vol. CLVI, col. 988 – 89; MG., Scr. vol. XII, p. 654).

(1114). — Godfrey, having lodged at Beauvais, comes to Ivo, bishop of Chartres, his unbearable miseries and straits, with which by violators

of the peace he is harassed, he tearfully discloses, and anxiously seeks his counsel in so great an affliction of his. And Ivo advises him to take refuge with King Louis. — So Ivo in a letter given to the king, in which he commends Godfrey's cause. The letter has often been edited, both among Ivo's letters (for example P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 258 – 59) and elsewhere, as in the Recueil des historiens des Gaules …, vol. XV, p. 164 – 65. — Cf. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. 93, n° 182.

Having left his bishopric, 1114, in the month of November. — Having left the see of Amiens, he sets out for the Chartreuse (Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, III, 14; Life of St. Godfrey, III, 8).

1114, in the month of November. — On the way he turns aside to Cluny and consecrates an altar there (Guibert of Nogent, place cited).

he takes refuge at the Chartreuse; 1114, Dec. 6 to 1115, Mar. 3. — He stays at the Chartreuse (Life, III, 11).

1114, Dec. 6. — Cuno, bishop of Palestrina and legate of the apostolic see, celebrates a council at Beauvais (see the testimonies, for example, in Hardouin, Acta conciliorum, vol. VI, 2, col. 1925 – 26; Mansi, Concilia, vol. XXI, col. 121 – 24; G. Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich IV. und Heinrich V., vol. VI, p. 317 – 18). Hither came both the people of Amiens, to demand that a new bishop be given them, and the envoys of St. Godfrey bringing letters in which he abdicated his bishopric (Life, III, 9).

thence ordered 1115, Jan. 6. — In the council celebrated at Soissons it is decreed that Godfrey must be commanded to return from the Chartreuse to his see (Life, III, 10). Cf. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. 95, n° 188.

he returns to Amiens. 1115, Mar. 28. — Godfrey, returned from the Chartreuse (Guibert, place cited; Life of Godfrey, III, 11), is present at the council which Cuno, the apostolic legate, had summoned to Reims (see the testimonies in Hardouin, vol. cit., col. 1929 – 30; Mansi, vol. XXI, col. 129 – 32; cf. Schoene, Kardinallegat Kuno, p. 29 – 31) (Life, place cited; cf. the letters on which Mabillon, Annales O. S. B., vol. V, book LXXII, § XCII; Mansi, vol. cit., col. 131 – 32).

1115, Apr. 11. — On Palm Sunday Godfrey, returned from the Chartreuse, at Amiens exhorts King Louis to storm the tower of the Castillon (Guibert, place cited); which, however, was not taken until two years later (Life, III, 13 near the beginning; Abbot Suger, Life of King Louis VI, c. 23, ed. Molinier, p. 83) [Nowhere, neither in the Life nor elsewhere, is it said that Godfrey survived among the living when the Castillon was stormed. There is therefore no argument which some seemed to take from this two-year interval to show that Godfrey died in the year 1118.]. Cf. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. 96, n° 190.

1104 - May 1115. — Godfrey hands over to Lambert, bishop of Arras († 16 May 1115), the priest Theoderann, to be under his obedience. — The letters were edited by Baluze, Miscellanea, vol. V (1700), p. 343, epist. 96; P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 683. — Inc. Hunc sacerdotem nostrum…

(Before June 16, 1115). — Godfrey celebrates a general synod at Montdidier. So Godfrey himself in the letters of which presently.

1115, June 16. — In a plenary synod celebrated at Amiens, in the 12th year of his episcopate, Godfrey ratifies the restitution of certain altars made to the church of Compiègne. — The letters were edited by Mabillon, De re diplomatica, book VI, § CLXXV (2nd ed., Paris 1709, p. 597 – 98); P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 746 – 48; V. de Beauville, Histoire de la ville de Montdidier (Paris, 1857), vol. I, p. 498 – 99; 2nd ed. (Paris, 1875), p. 486. — Inc. Quia altaria possidentes…

1115, (in the month of June). — By letters written in synod, Godfrey renounces, in favour of the monastery of Saint-Silvin of Auchy, the right of "personatus" in the altars or parishes which the monastery possessed in the diocese of Amiens. — Godfrey's letters were edited from the cartulary of Auchy by A. de Cardevacque, Histoire de l'abbaye d'Auchy-les-Moines (Arras, 1875), p. 183 – 84; cf. p. 49. It is manifest, however, that the man who composed the cartulary did not copy the letters word for word, but contracted them somewhat. — Inc. Quia in domo Domini speculatores…

1115, at the beginning of July. — Godfrey is present at the council celebrated at Châlons by Cuno, cardinal and apostolic legate (see the testimonies in Mansi, Concilia, vol. XXI, col. 135 – 136). Cf. the letters of Cuno in Mabillon, Ann. O. S. B., vol. V, appendix, n° LXXXIX; Mansi, vol. cit., col. 137.

1115, at the beginning of July. — Ivo, bishop of Chartres, gives letters to Godfrey of Amiens and the other bishops gathered in council with the cardinal. — The letters have often been edited, both among Ivo's other epistles (for example P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 272 – 73) and elsewhere, as in Mansi, vol. cit., col. 138 – 39; Recueil des historiens des Gaules …, vol. XV, p. 172 – 73.

1114. — He visits John, bishop of the Morini, in his own city (Life, III, 25).

1115, (after the middle of the month of October). — He sets out for Reims (Life, III, 27).

1104 – 1115. — Hugh, a monk of Cluny, informs Bishop G(odfrey) and all the sons of the church of Amiens about a certain allod delivered to the church of Saint-Lucien of Beauvais. — The letters were edited by Mabillon, Ann. O. S. B., vol. V, appendix, n° LXIX.

1108 – 1115. — He gave judgement about the mill of Bl. Quentin, over which the abbots of Saint-Quentin and of Saint-Lucien of Beauvais were contending. — This is mentioned by Ivo, bishop of Chartres, in a letter to Radulf, archbishop of Metz (P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 263 – 64).

Near Soissons 1115, Oct. 25. — Near Soissons he turns aside into the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian (Life, III, 27).

1115, Oct. 26. — He sets out thence, but soon, as the sickness grew stronger, he is compelled to halt in the village of Parvanit not far from the city; where he stays three days (Life, III, 28 – 29).

1115, Oct. 29. — He is carried by boat to the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian (Life, III, 29).

he ends his life. 1115, Nov. 8. — He dies near Soissons in the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian and is committed to burial there in the middle of the choir of the basilica (Life, III, 30).

1116, May 10. — Ingelran, bishop of Amiens, in the first year of his episcopate, adorns with praises his predecessor Godfrey, of whom among other things he writes this: The aforesaid predecessor Godfrey having therefore died and, as is believed, been gathered to the society of the just… — The letters were edited in Gall. christ., vol. X, instr. col. 303.

1118, Oct. 23. — † Godfrey confirms the possessions of the church of Blessed Denis at the castle of Picquigny. — The letters were edited formerly by P. Louvet, Histoire et antiquitez du diocese de Beauvais, vol. II (Beauvais, 1635), p. 113 – 15, then more recently from an exemplar of the end of the 12th century by F. Guerard, Notice …, in Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, vol. VI (1843), p. 151 – 53. — That they are spurious was shown by G. Desjardins in Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 435 – 437.

1121, Oct. 9. — † Godfrey confirms the possessions of the same church at Pulteiae. — The letters were edited from an exemplar of the end of the 12th century by Guerard, vol. cit., p. 153 – 154. — That they are spurious was shown by Desjardins, place cited.

1127. — † In letters forged in the French language Walter Tyrell attests that there was then present révérend père en Dieu monseigneur Godefroy évesque d'Amiens the reverend father in God my lord Godfrey, bishop of Amiens. — The fraud, perpetrated in the 16th century in the same church of Picquigny, was exposed by Desjardins, place cited.

1138, Apr. 4. — The body of St. Godfrey is raised and laid up with honour before the high altar (Life III, after c. 42)

§ V. On the cult of St. Godfrey.

[22] A most excellent man, Although we cannot help gathering from the things which Nicholas himself narrates that Godfrey was not always of a constant and steadfast mind, and at least several times allowed himself to be broken by difficulties, yet he was manifestly a man adorned with many outstanding gifts and virtues, pious, humble, living sparingly, a strenuous cultivator of justice, inclined toward the poor and all the lowly, not unskilled in administering affairs, who, as Guibert of Nogent, a witness not too kindly, teaches, even before he became bishop was everywhere thought, as it were, a mirror of all religion De vita sua, II, 2 (ed. Bourgin, p. 111).. Afterwards, however, although the minds of at least some of the citizens and clerics of Amiens were estranged from him, chiefly because he supported and fostered the nascent commune of this city, yet we know that he did not fall from that fame and esteem. For, to omit the contrary and mutually conflicting things which that Guibert and Nicholas, the monk of Soissons, bring forward about Godfrey once made bishop — the latter his eulogist, perhaps excessive, the former a detractor not fair enough, being exceedingly hostile to any commune whatever, — as many others as have spoken of our saint praised him, whether living or dead.

[23] by many So Ivo, bishop of Chartres, in the year 1114 commends him to King Louis VI as a religious and honourable man P. L., vol. CLXII, col. 258.; Anscher, abbot of Centula, names him a venerable bishop [Miracles of St. Angilbert, book I, c. 37; book II, c. 2 (Mabillon, Act. SS. O. S. B., saec. IV, 1, pp. 137, 139).] and makes mention of his alms [Ibid., book I, c. 32 (Mabillon, p. 136): A certain poor little woman in the city of the people of Amiens, sustained for a long time by the alimony of the lord Godfrey, bishop of the same city …]; outstandingly praised much more magnificently does Hugh, a monk of Cluny, praise him, who in the Life of St. Hugh calls him illustrious for holiness Marrier, Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, col. 446B., and in his letter to Abbot Pons the glory of pontiffs, illustrious for doctrine, conspicuous for holiness Ibid., col. 558E.. So his successor Ingelran, six months having elapsed after his death, proclaims Godfrey adorned with a manifold kind of discretion and, as is believed, both dear and acceptable for many insignia of virtues, … and, as is believed, gathered to the society of the just [R. Quatremaire, Concilii Remensis … falsitas demonstrata, p. 54 – 56; Gall. christ., vol. X, instr. col. 303BC.]; the same in other letters, in which him of blessed memory

bishop [In letters written in an uncertain year, which Mabillon edited, Annales O. S. B., vol. V, book LXXII, § CXXVI. That Mabillon edited these letters in his Annals at the year 1116 is certainly not enough for us to affirm with J. Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 440, that they were given in this year, and to take an argument from it to show that Godfrey was by then already dead.], his predecessor of holy memory [In letters given in the year 1124 to the monks of Lihons, on which above, p. 895, annot. 4; cf. Guerard, vol. cit., p. 189. In other letters given in the year 1126 to the monks of SS. Crispin and Crispinian of Soissons, on which Roze, Nécrologe de l'église d'Amiens, in Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de Picardie, vol. XXVIII (1885), p. 358.], he calls him. Still more lavishly did Goislen, bishop of Soissons, praise the saint in these verses, which he composed, as it seems, in the year 1138: Glory of pontiffs, ornament of the clergy, and model of monks, leader of the flock, exemplar of morals, Godfrey here lies, seeking the stars, on the eighth day of November Life, III, 32.. But above all in the monastery of the same city of Soissons, in which he had died and lay buried, his memory began to be cultivated. at Soissons soon after his death he seems to have been honoured as a saint, Its abbot, immediately after the saint's death, kept for himself his comb and girdle as a memorial of so great a man (Life, III, 10). Although Godfrey had asked to be buried within the monastery in the chapter of the brethren (ibid., 30), he seems nevertheless from the beginning to have been buried in the middle choir of the basilica (ibid., 37, 38); but twenty-three years after, the body was translated and laid up in the same basilica before the high altar, in a more honourable place, by Bishop Goislen (ibid., after c. 42), who also composed for adorning the tomb the three verses which we have adduced above.

[24] in the church of Amiens much more recently. When, however, a beginning was made of a legitimate and liturgical cult is not sufficiently established. Silent about Godfrey are the calendar of the 13th century which is joined to the obituary of the church of Amiens [Amiens, Archives de la Somme, G. 2971, fol. 146. Cf. Roze, Nécrologe, vol. cit., p. 427.], and also the martyrology of the same church written in the 15th century [Amiens, Archives de la Somme, G. 2975, fol. 232 – 32v. In the margin of folio 232, at the 8th of November, a hand of the 17th century added: On the same day, of St. Geoffrid, bishop and confessor.]; and in the liturgical books of Amiens of the 12th – 15th centuries, many of which we have inspected [Manuscripts of the library of Amiens 3, 13th century, fol. 150, 152; 20, 15th century (not 13th), fol. 6, 125; 111, 13th century, fol. 1v; 112, 13th century, fol. 65v – 66; 113; 15th century, fol. 207 – 207v; 125, 14th century, fol. 60; 126, 15th century, fol. 6, 106 – 106v; 136, 13th century, fol. 6, 124, 126 – 126v; 148, 13th century, fol. 6, 96 – 96v; 154, end of the 12th century, fol. 6, 68; 159, 13th century, fol. 132v, 134.], he is not named even once, either in the calendar or in the litanies of the saints. Among outside martyrologies the first, at least that has been found, to mention him is the copy of Usuard which is called Greven's, published in the year 1515 Sollerius, Martyrologium Usuardi, p. 661.: At Amiens, of St. Godfrey, bishop and confessor; afterwards he was listed in others, for example in Molanus's Usuard, in Wion's Lignum vitae, in Ménard's Benedictine martyrology, in Saussay's Gallican martyrology, and in the Roman Martyrology itself from the first edition: At Soissons in Gaul, of St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, a man of great holiness. His office was inserted into the breviary of Amiens in the year 1618, and from this time his feast has been celebrated, formerly on the 9th of November (since the 8th was judged impeded by the octave of the solemnity of All Saints), more recently, that is from the year 1851, on the 14th of November Cf. Corblet, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 442 – 43; vol. V, p. 62.. In the diocese of Soissons, however, the memory of the saint is recalled in the liturgical office formerly on the 8th, now on the 7th of November.

[25] Of his relics His relics, which were sought in vain in the 17th century [Cf. Giry, Les Vies des saints, vol. II (Paris, 1719), col. 1668; Corblet, vol. II, p. 441 – 42.], seem not to survive at all. Of images, besides one, and images. of which presently, and the seal of Geodefrid., bishop of Amiens, in which a certain common likeness of a bishop is sketched [Cf. A. Demarsy, Armorial des évêques d'Amiens, in Revue nobiliaire, new series, vol. I (1865), p. 215; Corblet, vol. cit., p. 443.], none are indicated except recent ones of no importance Cf. Corblet, ibid.. The memory of the excellent bishop, who favoured the nascent commune of Amiens and suffered much for it, is preserved not only in this city by a street marked with his name, but also by a beautiful stone image lately placed on the front part of the public buildings of the town hall of Amiens Cf. A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens, vol. I (Amiens, 1899), p. 142..

I. FROM THE BOOKS OF GUIBERT OF NOGENT ON HIS OWN LIFE

Cf. Prelim. Comm., no. 1.

Godfrey, bishop of Amiens. (S.)

BY GUIBERT OF NOGENT

When Godfrey, the abbey of St. Mary of Nogent B. II. c. 2… But since the aforesaid abbot (Henry, of St. Mary of Nogent) was both heavy with age [On whom Guibert says more in the earlier part of the chapter. He, before the year 1059 abbot of the monastery of Homblières (Homblières, near the town of Saint-Quentin), from about the year 1074 made abbot of the abbey of Saint-Remi of Reims, had afterwards undertaken, together with those two, to rule this third abbey of St. Mary of Nogent. Presiding, then, so Guibert says, over these three monasteries, he supplied the wants of this third, which had begun to grow together, from the abundance of the two richer ones. How needy it was in fact is taught by Nicholas in the Life of St. Godfrey, book I, c. 19; who, however, G. Bourgin thinks, Guibert de Nogent (1907), p. 107 – 108, annot. 5, somewhat enlarged the matter in order to extol Godfrey after his manner.] and blind in his eyes, he betook himself to the two wealthier abbeys Homblières and Saint-Remi of Reims., which could more easily be governed by their own sufficiency; this third, which could by no means be held without laborious attention, he proposed to give up. And when he was attempting, having called the brethren of the church to it, to commit it to a certain monk, his nephew, he could not obtain it On this matter Nicholas is silent in the Life., but the election leapt forth upon a certain young man of that time, named Godfrey, who was a native of those parts and had been a monk of Saint-Quentin-du-Mont near Péronne [The learned G. Bourgin slipped in a wonderful manner, place cited, p. 109, annot. 2 and 3, where he wrote that our Godfrey was not only a monk but also abbot of Saint-Quentin, and that from the year 1058 – 1059; whereas in that year Godfrey was not even born. The learned man seems to have forgotten that there was another Godfrey, who in fact presided over the monastery of Saint-Quentin, had baptized our Godfrey, given him his own name, received him into the monastery at five years old, and more than twenty years after had with reluctance suffered him to be made from his monk abbot of St. Mary of Nogent. Cf. Nicholas in the Life, book I, c. 2 – 5, 18, 19.], he himself too taking it ill. When, therefore, that most sagacious elder saw the wishes of the electors transferred elsewhere, he deserted the place which he had kept with most gracious and most indulgent largesse, and made a lawful cession to him whom they had elected. wisely governed, So, he having been elected and promoted to the custody of the place, since he bore himself with much circumspection, and the common people as well as the nobles had both the will and the means of increasing churches, very many advantages of lands and revenues flowed together to it in this following time. For he knew how to bear himself well toward the character of outsiders, since he showed himself affable and generous to them, and in the conduct of external cases, in learning which he had given no little effort, to them [G. Bourgin understood, place cited, p. 109, annot. 5, that Abbot Henry was praised by Guibert with these words. Rather, it is manifest that these things are said with praise of Godfrey.]. But in truth men at that time, of which I treated at the beginning of this work Book I, c. 8., having liberal minds for founding monasteries, conferring lands and much money, spent their own more gladly on such things than their sons bestow good words on us in these days. Since, therefore, in the monasteries situated round about less zeal for religion was had than there ought to have been, and he with his monks was seen to be very much exercised in such things, just as the smallest light has its place in the midst of darkness, so, for winning brightness of name, the temperance displayed by the person who presided and the obedience of the subjects to his command obtained an opportune time. he had won great praise, He therefore forbade anything simoniacal to be done or held in that same church, and, merchandise excluded, admitted grace alone, holding both the deed and the name of base gain in no different execration. Since therefore the same man was thought shrewder in forensic business than many of his fellow abbots, and was therefore held better known to towns and cities, there was at first talk indeed of the richer abbeys See the Life, book I, c. 26., afterwards a negotiation about conferring a bishopric on him. The pontificate of Amiens at that time had been vacant for almost two years See ibid., c. 29.; he too had been the procurator of a certain archdeacon of the aforesaid city, who was being sought by the favour of some parts of the clergy and people On this matter Nicholas is silent in the Life.. Whence, both for his worldly astuteness and for the regular habit which he wore, while he was seeking it for another, he himself is sought, and under Richard, formerly bishop of Albano, then legate of the apostolic see in France, who had assembled a council in the city of Troyes, to rule the church of Amiens given as bishop to the aforesaid see of the people of Amiens, he was translated, it is established, from his Nogent See the Life, book I, c. 30.. And when he bore himself there in much glory and felicity, and was so greatly cultivated by all that he was feared most of all, with special veneration, even by the pontiffs who were set over him, and, not to delay long, when everywhere, as it were, a mirror of all religion

he was looked upon, suddenly to this — whether he is elected; desired it, God knows, or feared it [No one will judge that these words were written with any particular goodwill toward Godfrey. It is not to be denied, however, that, as Nicholas himself, nay Godfrey himself, teaches (Life, book I, c. 28), our saint had thought of soon taking up the episcopate, so that this matter even presented itself to his mind in sleep.] — he emerged. But I have learned that an inheritance hastened after at the beginning shall lack blessing at the last. Prov. 20, 21. in which at first he managed affairs prosperously; Although he plainly had beginnings full of the usual praise, and for some years a laudatory report attended him, now, as one may see, whatever of glories seemed to glow before men has not only grown lukewarm but grown cold. For on the first day of his reception within the city, when, about to speak to the people, he held the higher part of the pulpit Cf. Life, book II, c. 2., he protested that he would so pursue arduous things, as one who did not wish that poetic saying to be fitted to himself in his failings, namely: The mountains are in labour, a ridiculous mouse will be born. HORAT. Epist. II, 3, 139. This sentence impregnated the minds of all to watch for his subsequent deeds; for his state, slackening abundantly day by day, began unceasingly to make his pledge worse than itself Cf. Prelim. Comm., no. 22.. But of these things let us be silent for the meanwhile, perhaps to have in what follows places where… So the chapter ends, mutilated or not completed by Guibert..

B. III, c. 14… So, when the province of Laon was being shaken by these evils on both sides, the calamity, by the judgement of God, was transferred to that of Amiens. For after the deadly event of the destruction of Laon [The atrocious crimes committed by the people of Laon in the year 1112 in defending their commune Guibert narrated at length above, c. 7 – 12.], [but when the burgesses of Amiens, with the bishop's favour, had established a commune,] the people of Amiens, having enticed the king with money [All know that King Louis VI was greedy of money. Cf. A. Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, p. XXXV.], made a commune [Guibert alone taught posterity about this matter, from whose narrative modern writers have written about the origin of the commune of Amiens, especially Augustin Thierry, Recueil des monuments inedits de l'histoire du Tiers État, 1st series, Région du Nord, vol. I (Paris, 1850), p. 25 – 33 (= Œuvres d'Augustin Thierry, IX, Paris, 1867, p. 434 – 47); the same, Lettres sur l'histoire de France, letter XIX (= Œuvres… I, Paris, 1867, p. 293 – 302); A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens, vol. I (Amiens, 1899), p. 123 – 42.]; to which the bishop, compelled by no force, ought to have shown favour [It is certainly to be understood: to which the bishop, even compelled by however great a force, ought not to have shown favour.], especially since no one was urging him [It has been asked whether Godfrey was led to act thus by zeal for the common good alone and by goodwill toward the lowly, or also because, the more the power of the count, against whom the commune at Amiens was chiefly being made, was brought down, the more the authority of the bishop in the city would be strengthened. It is the opinion, or rather the conjecture, of almost all who have written on this matter — for by conjectures alone, where testimonies are lacking, does one reach the inmost counsels of men — that each cause had some weight with Godfrey.], and the miserable end of his fellow bishop [That is, the unspeakable slaying of Gaudry, bishop of Laon, on which Guibert, book III, c. 8.] and the clash of the unhappy citizens On which civil war ibid., c. 9 – 12. were not hidden from him. So Ingelran [Ingelran of Boves or of Coucy, count of Amiens from the year 1085. On whom cf. Bourgin, vol. cit., p. 133, annot. 1.], count of the city, seeing that by the conspiracy of the burgesses the ancient rights of the county were cut away from him, attacks them, now rebels, with arms, as best he could. Nor was there lacking to him the help of Adam (for so he is called) and of his tower, over which he himself presided [The same was called the Castillon, and is so called by Guibert himself below. Of that castellan Adam Nicholas relates more in the Life, book II, c. 30 – 35; book III, c. 1 – 5.]. Driven out of the city, then, by the burgesses, he betook himself from the city into the tower. And when they were raging against the count with unremitting assaults, and, calling Thomas [Thomas de Marle, Ingelran's son, "a most abandoned man, hostile to God and men" (as Abbot Suger says in the Life of Louis VI, c. 7; ed. A. Molinier, p. 15); on whom cf. Bourgin, vol. cit., p. 177 – 78, annot. 6.] as their dearer lord to the oaths of that commune, they raised up the son against his parent, as is thought. For he had a very ignominious mother, and therefore always lacked his father's affection. Ingelran meanwhile, considering that innkeepers and butchers were mocking the gravity of his age, summoned Thomas and, a treaty having been made with him, also won that stepmother over to him with a new love, innumerable oaths having been offered. She, assuredly not slack on her own behalf, exacted from him treasures of no small weight for the renewed peace. Thomas, at length, having exhausted the very great heap of treasure which he had, promised help also to Ingelran against the burgesses, whom the bishop was supporting together with the vidame [Guermund, vidame of the church of Amiens, of whom also below and in Nicholas in the Life, book II, c. 30; book III, c. 2 – 5.]. Thomas therefore and Adam, who presided over the tower, began to press most fiercely upon the vidame and the burgesses, and as soon as possible, so great a storm arose against him, since they accused the bishop and the clerics of the faction made with the burgesses, Thomas invaded the possessions of the church. And in one of its villages he fortifies a garrison for himself, by which he soon exterminates the others with fires and plunder. When from one of them he had led away a very great band of captives and much money, the remaining crowd of mixed sex and of diverse age, a very great company indeed, which had fled there, he burned, the church being burned. Among the captives, moreover, a certain hermit, who had come into the village for the sake of buying bread, was captured and led before him; and the feast of blessed Martin was imminent, namely on the next day. And when he had cried out tearfully to Thomas of what profession he was, for what cause he had come there, that at least for the honour of St. Martin he should have pity on him, he, drawing a dagger from its sheath, pierced his breast and entrails, saying: "Take this, for St. Martin's sake." But his stepmother [Sybil, who, having left her husband Godfrey III, count of Namur, had become the wife of Count Ingelran, after Adam himself had repudiated his wife, Thomas's mother.], seeing the man (Thomas) thrusting himself into such great dangers, eager to destroy him, sends word to the vidame Guermund, of whom above. that he should subtly watch Thomas's sallies. And when he had surrounded him with ambushes as he was going I know not where on a certain night, he was pierced in his limbs with wounds and received also in the hollow of his knee the lance of a foot soldier of the enemy. And being very severely hurt, both elsewhere and in the knee, willy-nilly he desisted from what he had begun. so that at length, But the bishop, before his church suffered such extermination, was about to celebrate Mass on a certain feast day. A certain presbyter, religious in appearance, had unknowingly made the sacrament before him from water alone; after whom the same happened to the bishop also. And when he had taken the libation and perceived that it was nothing but water, he said: "Assuredly a great evil threatens this church." This very thing the misfortunes of the presbyter, which had happened before, confirmed Nicholas does not have this narrative in the Life.. When, therefore, he had seen that his presence was pleasing neither to the clergy nor to the people, since he could help no one, he took with him a certain monk of ours, and, consulting no one, gave to his clergy and people a bill, so to say, of divorce, and sent back his ring and sandals to the archbishop of Reims, and sent word to both that he would go into exile and never afterwards be a bishop. Made thus an ex-pontiff, when he had reached Cluny, he was again made bishop of his own accord and consecrated an altar there Nor does Nicholas make mention of this matter.. having left his church, he took refuge at the Chartreuse. Departing thence, he went on to the Chartreuse, of which place we spoke at the beginning of this little work Book I, c. 11.. Dwelling there outside the community in a little cell, he kept back for himself six marks of silver from his provision for the road. When he had returned from there to Amiens, He, after two months, recalled not by any of his own people but by the archbishop, made no delay in returning [Nicholas teaches that things were not so expeditiously done (Life, III, 9 – 11), who in this part at least seems the more truthful.]; for he knew that the marks would be useful to him for this [Those six marks, of which Guibert, in this whole passage by no means kindly toward Godfrey, speaks twice, Nicholas either did not know or did not think of such worth as to be recorded.]. And the clergy and people received him not without grief [Nay, if you believe Nicholas (Life, book III, c. 11), he was solemnly received with the wishes of all. But which is to be believed? or is full faith to be given to either? If Guibert increased the grief in his telling, did not Nicholas also increase the joy? Certainly he will judge that the gladness was not so great for all who reflects that Godfrey had lately been compelled to take refuge at the Chartreuse, and that a little after his return, as Nicholas himself teaches, he again thought of going to the Chartreuse (Life, book III, c. 26).], who in his absence did not busy themselves, not without great contempt of him, about electing another [So the editions. It seems, however, that one should read: did busy themselves, not without great contempt of him. For they did busy themselves at the council of Beauvais, of which the Life, book III, c. 9.]. For he himself had stirred up a commotion which he could not quell. Thomas, then, having betaken himself to his own and already acting feebly from the wound already mentioned, since the son of Adam The castellan, of whom above., named Adelelm, a most beautiful boy, had betrothed his daughter This daughter of Thomas was called Melisende. as his future wife, who [Who… concubine, that is, Sybil, Thomas's stepmother. As sometimes elsewhere, so above all in this place Guibert is by no means clear. For the rest, the matters themselves seem to be very much entangled. I fear that B. Monod has not well disentangled them, Le moine Guibert et son temps (Paris, 1905), p. 165 – 67. But it is not our office to linger in this history.] had already injured Thomas in Adam and in his tower, she herself, the base concubine of Ingelran,

prepares to turn her arms. He himself, however, had up to this time stood in fidelity to Ingelran against the burgesses. The king therefore having been hired, she surrounds the tower with a siege. And certainly Adam had done homage to the king, nor had he defected from him, and the king had received him into his fealty. The slayings of burgesses done by the men of the tower, both before the siege and more frequent afterwards, cannot be reported by anyone, not even by those whose party was in danger. For among the townsmen there was no action, but only suffering. the disturbances in the city were not quelled, Which Bishop Godfrey, as is known to all, would easily have quelled at first, the evil not yet having advanced, had he not feared the vidame [Guermund. How strikingly Guibert has described the man's character in what follows is shown by the narratives of Nicholas in the Life, book II, c. 30; book III, c. 2.], who always held him in the greatest contempt. It is plainly his habit to revere no one and to be beneficent to no one, unless one either speaks ill of him or does him harm; and he, while he fears to be bitten by one man and knowingly longs to please a most faithless one, is, God being just judge, torn above all by him and by all. Thomas, then, could not come to the help of the tower, within which he had left both his daughter and the better of his knights. But he had done such great evils everywhere… nay, rather stirred up the more. So on Palm Sunday Bishop Godfrey, returned from the Chartreuse, begins to propagate things far other than he had learned there. He therefore summons the king, and on a celebrated and venerable day he sets himself to provoke him and the people standing by against the men of the tower, a speech having been delivered not of God but Catilinarian, promising the kingdom of heaven to those who should perish in storming the tower. On the next day huge engines are stretched out before the wall of the Castillon (for so it is called), and knights are placed on them. The men of the tower had protected themselves beforehand with curtains, lest their presence be betrayed. The bishop, however, had gone barefoot to Saint-Acheul A known abbey near Amiens., not then to be heard for this. Meanwhile the men of the tower allow them to come close to the walls, to move up the engines. When these had been applied, a certain Aleran, very skilled in such things, sets against them two phalaricae which he had built, and arranges almost four score women to hurl the stones which he had placed on them. The knights inside, meanwhile, were conducting battles at close quarters with the sword against those outside. And while they defended their bulwarks with Achillean spirits, the women, to be equalled with men, broke both engines with stones sent from the catapult, and, as the hurling of missiles grew hot, four score having been wounded, as was reported, they hurt even the king with a javelin in his mailed breast. Of those who were pierced by the darts none escaped except one. This was reported by Rothard the cleric, the bishop's nephew. And the knights who were hanging from the engines, seeing themselves overwhelmed, take to flight; and without delay the rest. When these had withdrawn for a little while, the men of the tower leap forth, cut down the engines and carry the timber to themselves, while almost three thousand, who had attacked before, were watching them from afar and did not dare to attack. The king therefore, seeing the place impregnable, yielded, ordering it to be besieged until they should surrender, compelled by hunger. Up to this time the siege perseveres [That it was continued for two years was taught by Nicholas the monk and Abbot Suger (see above, p. 900, at the year 1115, Apr. 11).], and it cannot be said how many of the burgesses alone perish almost every day. Adam, however, posted outside the suburbs, presses both Ingelran and the vidame with frequent hostilities. Isai. 28, 19. Whence, even if vexation should give understanding to hearing, they might know that, even though Thomas has succumbed, yet not all causes are equal, nor are the judgements of God equal toward all, so that a bishop should have licence to provoke to slaughter.

II. LIFE OF ST. GODFREY BY NICHOLAS, MONK OF SOISSONS

Godfrey, bishop of Amiens. (S.)

BHL Number: 3573, 3574

BY THE MONK NICHOLAS

From the Brussels manuscript, Royal Library 11987, of the 16th century (=B), collated, where it could be done, with the epitome of the Life which the Vienna manuscript of the private library of the Austrian emperor 9397 a, of the 15th century (=V), presents. — Cf. Prelim. Comm., no. 10.

Letter of Nicholas the monk to Rohard, dean of Soissons, on the Life of St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens and confessor.

At the bidding of Rohard the dean, To the reverend father Rohard, dean of the holy see and mother church of Soissons, Nicholas, servant of the blessed martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, apostles and patrons of that city, the homage of due veneration. Quite often, most loving father, your added in the margin B. holiness has admonished my littleness that I should commit to the posterity of the faithful, by my pen, some things concerning the deeds of Godfrey of pious memory, prelate of the city of Amiens, to the praise of almighty God. Which, as you yourself, I think, remember, Nicholas, though he long hesitated, I at first undertook with difficulty. Nor is it strange. For on the one side the weakness of immature age called me back from expressing the pious praises of so great a man; for, as I kept it fixed in memory from the report of the midwife, I had reached no more than the circle of five lustra. On the other side the slowness of my humble little knowledge especially held me back; for, to be silent about the rest, I had not yet fully known the combinations of syllables, not yet the elements of the alphabet itself. And when I behold the moderns, more acute and, if I may so say, after the manner of lynxes, subtly penetrating every obstacle, while I contemplate each one abounding in his own sense, and while I consider almost all both searching out the flowers of eloquence and studying compendiousness, I fear too much and too much that, if the rudeness of so little practice and the slowness of an uncultivated little wit should reach Pythagorean or Platonic ears, generating disgust rather than profit, I may seem videar adds again B. to cackle, a heavy goose, among the clear-voiced swans. Rom. 14, 5, VERG. Ecl. 9, 36. For indeed it is said to be the way of a picture to be blamed, that from afar it appears very beautiful, but when you have fixed your gaze more attentively and subtly, it becomes the more worthless. Which I too greatly dreaded, lest I should incur something similar; and so I should deservedly lie open in the judgement of all to derision rather than to praise, since it is too hard, according to the sense of a certain saying, to extol with one's pen the merit of one whose imitator you cease to be. When I was objecting these and very many other things to myself, you revive my faint-heartedness with these words, you admonish my slowness and sloth, that it would not be fair, if I had received from heaven the talent of the word of God, by keeping silent to pass over in silence a life that has set — according to that saying of Crispus where he speaks of the brute animals, which nature has fashioned prone and obedient to the belly, — which is also to lay up the mina in a napkin; but that it is worthy and pious to write down with the pen the acts of the servant of God, for his favour and at the same time the exhortation of the faithful, as the unction of the Spirit should teach us concerning all things, not at immense length, commending them to the knowledge of mortals. SALLUSTIUS, Catil. 1, 1, Luc. 19, 20, I Ioh. 2, 27. Inclining my mind to these and others of your addresses as well as allegations, although it had long since been burning to accomplish it, yet I vehemently feared for the rudeness of my dull intelligence, He is now about to write the Life of Godfrey. lest, if I undertook it, I should be striving as it were against a torrent, and so should succumb, pressed by the mass of the history to be proclaimed. So again in that excellent manner of yours you rouse me when I was sluggish with these words, namely that I should remember that I am held guilty if, when I could, I were unwilling to offer fittingly for adorning the vestment of the true and supreme Priest. And lest I should distrust at all the inequality of my strength to accomplish it, or waver about the slowness of my wit, you quite often impressed upon me that, placing my hope in Him who fashioned the deaf and the dumb, this work, useful to all who desire to imitate, should be in my will, but would, the prayers of the servant of God himself supporting it, be happily brought to perfection as soon as possible. Exod. 4, 11. But because, according to what is read: And the more it is covered, the more the covered fire burns, OVID. Met. 4, 64. having delayed too much and too long your precept, which I held it wrong not to obey abaudire B., I at length applied my mind to writing, and determined to recount the outstanding and memorable morals of the glorious Godfrey, for the favour of Him who is proclaimed wonderful in His saints, though I am unskilled in knowledge. Ps. 67, 36. And so, venerable father, by no means seek in these things the wisdom of speech, but the surpassing life of the man, set for imitation to all who live soberly and piously and justly in the house of God. Tit. 2, 12. But since you know that for unrolling a sea of so immense a depth the quill is feeble, obtain by your prayers that the breeze of the Paraclete Spirit may now deign to come to us and direct our course, so that where so Surius; non B. our discourse leads us we may reach it with our vessel unharmed. I pray, may you fare well, may you run happily with time; after the death of the flesh may you enjoy the peace of paradise. End of the letter.

There follows the prologue to the Life of Godfrey of divine memory, bishop of Amiens.

As the deeds of the other saints are to be narrated, It is recalled that it was the custom of the ancients to have bequeathed the illustrious sayings or deeds of men in the strokes of letters to the succession of their descendants, as a monument of outstanding virtue, and also to have set before the eyes their images or names carved on golden or bronze plates to rouse boldness of mind. Further, if this pleased the sagacity of mortals for prolonging the fame of momentary praise, whom it is the utmost madness not only to extol with superfluous applause, much less to imitate, why should we not rather imprint, at least on cheap little sheets, the pious acts of the athletes of Christ, for the praise of the Creator of all and at the same time for strengthening faith or rousing the sloth of any hearers whatever, whom the divine graciousness has raised to this summit of triumphal glory, that they should be called and be sons of God; to whom He has granted to be not only sharers of the heavenly kingdom, but even heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ? And lest this Cf. I Ioh. 3, 1, Rom. 8, 17. should seem to anyone beside the point, let him remember that all the faithful are compelled by the outstanding harpist prophet to be supplied with voce or monitis? cf. p. 907 p. D. to praise the Lord in His saints, whom the heavenly clemency from the very beginning of the world appointed for this, that in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation they should hold the word of life. Ps. 150, 1, Philip. 2, 15, 16. Of whom, although many things might be brought forth in this manner, yet the discourse once begun must be checked a little, lest what is said should perhaps seem burdensome to anyone. so the writer, the history of St. Godfrey From their company it pleases me now to bring into the midst the chosen prelate of Christ, namely the lord Godfrey, pastor of the city of Amiens, whom the sacred election of the Saviour, from His inner chambers, set forth openly to all on the watch-tower of the orthodox mother church, in the time of the glorious Philip, son of Henry, king of the Franks, as an outstanding star to illumine the darkness of sinners. Of how great holiness and of how great innocence he was his end indicates, in which, according to what has been said before us, all praise is sung securely. Concerning whom, since more things stand out and very many occur to memory, it pleases me to insert into the reading only those things which have become known to almost all. But while I am altogether ignorant which of them I should choose above all, or what I should imprint upon the belief of mortals, while my mind wavers whether it should take up the first or the last, I am straitened from every side exceedingly, I am weighed down very strongly by ignorance, and at last

unequal to so great a burden and succumbing to the immensity of his pious deeds, it pleases me to exclaim with a certain man: Plenty makes me poor. OVID. Met. 3, 466. For indeed, if I should wish to set forth how often revelations about the state of the present church were shown him by God; how very frequently, mingled with that inmost assembly of the supreme spirits beyond what the infirmity of our common nature, dulled, permits, he foreknew the faithlessness of the exalted of this world and their tyrannical domination over their subjects, and also the unspeakable commingling of concubines and matrons, prejudged there in the strict balance of the most just Judge — for their stench came into His sight — and assigned to the avenging fires of Avernus; and that, kindled with the fire of brotherly charity, announcing to all that the sword of divine punishment was even now impending, he suffered [ne] innumerable straits of his labours; likewise, if I should long to pursue in full the torments of cold, nakedness and fasts, by which he tamed his body as much as possible, and again all the works of chastity, patience, humility and the rest of his virtues, in which, flourishing most illustriously, he ran cheerfully the way of God's commandments with enlarged heart, I confess that I should exceed the measure of a volume, nay rather the belief of the hearers, so innumerable are they known to have been. Ps. 118, 32. What then? he will explain at least briefly If we cannot tell everything, shall we, to rouse the sloth of the lukewarm, to kindle to the ardour of heavenly things the idleness of the sluggish, neglect, as slothful men, to touch upon at least some few out of very many, and allow the lamp lighted by the clemency of Christ to furnish mortals the way to the heavenly fatherland to be delivered to silence, as if set under a bushel? But what more impudent than this, or what more miserable can be said? For indeed it is a spectacle to speak of so great a man, honourable, worthy and equally pious to speak of him, plainly wholesome to meditate on him in places, hours and moments, nay even desirable to imitate him, as far as one's strength allows, where he has already gone before. Matth. 5, 15. Putting an end, therefore, to speaking of these things, the graciousness of the Paraclete Spirit going before, and the urgency of the prayers of Godfrey himself for these things especially supporting, we undertake to write his birth, his pious morals and his happy departure from the things of clay, not adulterating, but out of sincerity, but as from God, before God, speaking in Christ. II Cor. 2, 17. But first it must be seen that of the things which we are about to say, a few indeed we received by our own light, which he heard from contemporary witnesses. but all the rest by the in every way faithful report of truthful men who merited to see and at the same time to hear him more familiarly: namely of Reinger, a monk of the monastery of Quentin, witness of Christ, adjoining the town which is called Péronne, who from his very boyhood clung in happy discipleship to this Godfrey of ours who is to be proclaimed; who also, from the time when I myself spoke collocatus B. with him, had already completed the sixty-sixth year of his age and the fiftieth of his monkhood; of Rohard too, a venerable man, who now, by God's dispensation, discharges the office of dean of the holy mother church of Soissons; whom the same servant of God, keeping him with himself from the very cradle — for he was his nephew by his sister, who was called Hodierna, — educated and advanced to reverend morals, a man worthy of pious memory for ever; who can speak about him the more truly the more familiarly he merited to behold his illustrious sayings or deeds, to be embraced with all veneration of sweetness; of Gislebert also, a man likewise most faithful in all things, who was an undivided and inseparable companion on land and sea up to the end of his life. But if anyone should try to bark against us with biting tooth, as to why I have set forth things heard rather than seen, let him take that saying of the Dialogue of blessed Gregory, pope and doctor, Dial. I, prol. that Luke and Mark learned the Gospel which they wrote not by sight but by hearing. Since, therefore, we have truly perceived by the voice of the teacher of the Gentiles that faith comes from hearing, supported by the authority of such great men, let us gird ourselves briefly for the things which we have proposed about the blessed man. Rom. 10, 17. But since we consider that strength is wholly lacking to us for pursuing it, let us implore from the marrow that the grace of that Indweller, namely the Holy Spirit, may be present to us, so that we may be able to conceive things worthy of so great and such a father and bring forth things profitable to the hearers, whom He deigned by His free clemency to illumine illustriously with very many charisms. Cf. Rom. 8, 11. Here ends the prologue.

There follow the chapters of the first book.

I. Whence and from what parents he was born. II. Of the venerable Godfrey, abbot of the monastery of St. Quentin the martyr on the mount near Péronne. III. That he was granted by Christ to his parents through alms, prayers, fasts. IV. Where and by whom he was baptized. V. At what time he was made a monk. VI. Of the bird, and that it unexpectedly fixed its beak in his eye. VII. Of his conduct among the brethren. VIII. That he was assiduous in vigils. IX. An illustrious miracle which happened in the church of St. Giles the confessor. X. Another which happened in the greater church. XI. That the care of the sick brethren was enjoined on him, and how devoted he was toward them. XII. That he saw the devil with carnal eyes. XIII. Of the conduct of his brother Odo. XIV. That the management of the wine was enjoined on him. XV. That he was loved by all. XVI. That he fittingly subdued gluttony. XVII. How he was promoted to the grade of the presbyterate. XVIII. How he was appointed abbot of the church of the blessed Mother of God Mary of Nogent. XIX. How he came to Nogent. XX. Of two fathers who, led by love of him, left the governments of their monasteries. XXI. That he spurned delicacies of food. XXII. That he was humane toward his subjects. XXIII. That he ordered a saddle to be burned. XXIV. That by his own prayers he restored to a nun what she had lost. XXV. Of the drought which happened in his time. XXVI. That he would not leave the government of the poor little church. XXVII. Of the viscountess Adelaide. XXVIII. That we pass over very many of his things, and how he foresaw that he would be raised to the mitre. XXIX. That by litanies and fasts he was asked of Christ as pontiff of the city of the people of Amiens. XXX. That in the council convoked at Troyes in Burgundy he was elected by all. XXXI. Of the woman named Emma, who prayed Christ that she might be buried by him. XXXII. How he was conducted to Reims and there mitred.

On the 6th of the Ides of November. The first book of the Life of the same venerable man.

[1] The pious spouses Frodo and Elizabeth, So the venerable Godfrey was a native of the district of Soissons, of parents freeborn according to the dignity of the world, Catholic in faith fideque V. and in work. His father was called Frodo, his mother Elizabeth so V; Elyzabeth B, and so henceforth.. They, dwelling on the estate named Moulicurtis [A strange name, which is handed down only in the transcript B, of the 16th century; one would expect at least Moli- or Mulicurtis. I should believe, however, that the name in B was wrongly copied and should perhaps be read Morellicurtis; certainly Godfrey's parents possessed goods at Morellicurtis (cf. below, c. 3). For the rest, whether you read Moulicurtis or Morellicurtis, or correct to Monticurtis with some (Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 605 A), the place remains equally unknown. See the things which learned men questioned by Corblet collected learnedly, acutely and in vain, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 373 – 75; cf. p. 376, annot. 3.], conferred very many things from their own revenues, lands or vineyards, on the monastery of Blessed Mary of Nogent [Nogent (dép. Aisnes, arr. Laon, cant. Coucy-le-Château). There, about six years before Godfrey was born, a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict had been founded in the year 1059, over which presided as abbots first Henry, second our Godfrey, and third that Guibert who narrated many things about the origin and the first times of his house, De vita sua, book II, c. 1 – 3. Cf. also Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 602 ff.]; in which the same Frodo, living for some years in the habit of a monk, left to those who beheld him illustrious examples of patience and innocence; and his mother, after the bereavement of her husband, after the manner of the turtle-dove that by some chance loses its mate amittens B (nothing in V)., remaining perpetually in widowhood and purity of mind, survived so long tam diu V. until she saw with her own eyes her son obtain the government of that same place.

[2] of Godfrey, abbot of St. Quentin on the mount Now there is a famous monastery built in memory of the blessed martyr Quentin on the soil of the Viromandui, adjoining the town which is called Péronne [Saint-Quentin du Mont or Mont-Saint-Quentin (dép. Somme, arr. Péronne, comm. Allaines). Cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 1097 ff.]; over which at that time presided a man of pious memory, named Godfridus here V. Godfrey He was made abbot about the beginning of the year 1059; he died on 23 Feb. 1099., strong as much in probity of morals as also in the stock of his flesh. For he was the paternal uncle of Ida, daughter of the most noble count Albert of Namur, who, joined in marriage to Eustace, the excellent count of the province of Boulogne, bore by him, the grace of Christ watching over her, Godfrey V spells out Godfr. de Bullyon, and omits the rest. and also Baldwin [On Bl. Ida cf. Act. SS., Apr. vol. II, p. 139 – 50. Albert III, count of Namur, was not the father of this Ida. The rest of what the writer brings forward is very well known.]; and they afterwards, as time went on, appointed by God as the most invincible preceptors and leaders of the journey to Jerusalem, which in those days was then first begun by the precept of the lord Urban, universal bishop, manfully storming with warlike arms that very city in which the life of the whole world, hung on the gibbet of the most holy cross, according to the voice of the harpist prophet, drinking of the brook in the way and lying for an hour in the sepulchre, therefore lifted up its head — that city, I say, the clemency of the very Son of God and man assisting, — and obtaining its rule one after the other, living there for some courses of years to the honour and glory of the supreme King, subduing the ferocity of the heathen on this side and that, obtain there the debt of the setting life with a blessed end, and thus are buried with fitting honour within view of the sepulchre of the Saviour, to be embraced. Ps. 109, 7. These things I would say for the commendation of the excellent lineage of so great a father. This venerable father, then, very solicitous about the care of the flock committed to him, most celebrated for religion, was found to be eminently instructed in the knowledge of letters and in the wisdom of worldly things.

[3] helped by the prayers, When, then, on a certain day he was passing through the district of Soissons, he turned aside for the sake of lodging into the house of the aforesaid Frodo. Him he with his wife received with due honour, as a servant of Christ, and bestowing on him very much humanity with every office of charity, prostrate at his feet they received with devout heart the word of salvation from his mouth — for all his speech was of the divine pages, of the glory of the just, of the punishment of the reprobate, of the contempt of visible things, perishable, slipping, fleeting, of the seeking of invisible things, permanent and rejoicing without bound; — and in the course of speaking he inquires whether already of their children — for he had heard that they were with a twin

pledge of sons supported [He says sons, not daughters. But Godfrey's parents had also borne daughters, or at least a daughter, of whom in the prologue.], — they had vowed any to God. At this both groaned from the marrow and bedewed their faces more profusely with tears; they confess that they had not yet done it, although growing old, they beget a third son: but that the twins whom they had long since brought forth, of whom one was called Fulk, the other Odo, were now entangled in the warfare of the world; that for the rest, ten full years having now elapsed, they remained barren, from this were declining into old age, and remained exhausted of all hope of offspring; that they suppliantly implored Christ, by his merits, to grant them the male sex, which they could deliver over to the monastic profession. Then the elder said: "To merit this, the merits of the just must be asked, the tears of the pious, the prayers of monks and the suffrage of the servants of Christ round about. For to obtain this I see that I alone am not sufficient; but since, by the teaching of the psalmist, we have learned that the Lord is faithful in all His words, Ps. 144, 13. receive with the faithful ear of the heart His voice promising some such thing in the Gospel: Whatever, He says, you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give you." Cf. Ioh. 15, 16; 16, 23. These things exortes B; extorres V. having been said, preparing to return home, bidding them farewell, he admonishes them to give their effort to prayers and works of piety; and since they were not without share exortes B; extorres V. in the bowels of charity, they deliver to him two vineyards, one at Morellicurtis An uncertain place. See above, p. 907, annot. 1., the other at Cufeyae Cuffies (dép. Aisne, arr. and cant. Soissons)., together with the revenues, for supplying the need of the brethren living under his hand. Receiving these with thanksgiving, having returned to the monastery, he calls all the brethren together into one and discloses what had happened on the journey, what had been done or said, the devotion and piety of the man and of the woman, and also the usefulness of the benefice perpetually assigned to him by them. The monks, hearing these things, repay Christ manifold thanks; they piously celebrate the sacred days; with fasts and litanies they assail, so to speak dicam before correction B., the Creator of all, that He may deign as soon as possible to satisfy their wishes. Why do I linger on many things? Iudith. 9, 16. And so Christ, to whom the prayer of the humble and meek always is pleasing, heard the desire of the poor, gave conception to the aforesaid Elizabeth, who brought forth a flower of lilies and a great light in His house, which is the Church, a boy worthy of God. Ps. H. 10, 17. There is therefore a very great concourse of kinsfolk and neighbours, great joy and great dancing. They congratulated themselves on so great a birth, not only men, but also the phalanxes of the heavenly ones, his fellow citizens and future companions.

[4] who, baptized by that Godfrey and called Godfrey, So, for receiving the grace of baptism, he is carried by his parents, at his mother's command, to the often-mentioned servant of Christ Godfrey, at the mount of the holy martyr Quentin. He, embracing him with every affection of honour, delivered to him the sacraments of the new regeneration, and, receiving him from that sacred font with his own hand, imposed his own name, and, foreboding I know not what divine thing in him so V; praesagians B., ordered him to be nourished with all diligence, so that in the temple of the Lord, like another Samuel, girded at the fitting time with a linen ephod, he should continually labour, and at length, as the grace of the spirit advanced, entering into the holy of holies, carrying the logion, that is, the truth and reason of judgement, on his breast, he should offer for the offences of the children of Israel. I Reg. 2, 18. Which also was done, as will be clear from what follows.

[5] Having been weaned, then, by the care of his parents, when he was already five years old, he is presented again to the gaze of the aforesaid father. in the abbey of St. Quentin he becomes a monk; He, kissing him again, delivered to him the habit of religion and instructed him abundantly in monastic as well as liberal disciplines. And so the little boy Godfrey, as the earth burnt by the excessive heat of the sun swiftly drinks in the coming shower, and as the best soil, having received the seed, is cultivated the more, accustomed to bring a hundredfold fruit to the reaper, so, eagerly receiving what he heard from his teacher, he busied himself eagerly to fulfil it in pious work. Hence he was loved more and more both by the father of the monastery, that is, his godfather, and was also venerated as much as possible by those of his own age. The divine grace was increased in him, and before God and before men he advanced day by day in age and wisdom. Luc. 2, 52.

[6] where, after When, then, the little boy Godfrey was walking alone through the cloister, he met on his way a crane, which, worn out with age, armed with a hooked beak as nature gave it, unexpectedly drove it so violently into the pupil of his eye that you would have believed it had reached the farther parts of the forehead. Hence, whereas anyone would have incurred not only pain, he escaped a grave danger to his health, but very soon death itself, this one, lovable to Christ, crying out His name with believing faith and impressing the saving sign more frequently with his thumb upon the wound, felt, I do not say death or loss of sight, but, the grace of the Paraclete supporting him, not even the least pain. At this all the brethren, together with the father of the monastery, rushed up vying with one another, pouring forth tears and sighs with inmost affection, for they believed on the spot that he was losing his sight and that the inner parts of the brain, where the wicked bird had driven its beak, were flowing out to the ground, and that thus he was hastening to close the last day of light. But God, foreknowing the things to come, preserver of things fixed, did not wish him to be disfigured in his own sight, whom He had already provided to be raised with the title of abbot and also the mitre of pontiff. And when they saw that he had incurred no loss of deformity, and stood before them sound and unharmed, sighs are turned into joy, grief and mourning into gladness, the name of Christ is in common praised, proclaimed, magnified, who is known faithfully to be the true guardian of His own. Yet as a monument of so illustrious a mighty work, as long as he survived, a scar without mark of deformity remained in his eye where the bird had fixed its beak.

[7] he shines with all virtues He, then, placed in the company of the brethren, shone forth as it were with an angelic countenance, and surpassed not only those of his own age, but also those greater than himself in years, in honourableness and gravity of morals. For he spent whole nights in vigils, was frequent in prayers, a most skilful investigator of the divine Scriptures, and not, as very many do, only to seem learned, but he searched out in them the sweetness of the inmost light and rivers of tears, and so, raising himself to the heights on the wings of his understanding, he ruminated with perennial memory the things he had read, like a clean animal tied to the manger of the Lord. He was very abstemious in food and drink, mindful of that Anicius Boethius, by whom he establishes that nature is content with few and very small things. Cons. phil. II, prosa 5. Wherefore he quite frequently withdrew from his body, I do not say superfluous things, but even necessary ones, so much that very often, while the brethren were refreshing themselves, he alone remained in the church, giving his effort to meditation or reading, and so prolonging his fast until night, at length he filled his weakened limbs not with diverse viands, but bread and water sufficed him. He had perennially stopped his mouth from detractions and idle words, nor did he allow these poisons to be brought into his ears. To all, not only superiors or equals, but even inferiors, burning to imitate, even from afar, the footsteps of the Saviour, he had submitted himself with all obedience, so that whatever extreme things were commanded him by them, as if He Himself commanded, he knew not how to suffer delay in doing. The portion of wine which was poured out for him he was never seen to have drunk wholly, but very often half, most frequently even the whole, he reserved for the needy; doing the same with the fish and other dishes which were set before him, he distributed them to beggars. What more? He was placed before the eyes of all as a kind of mirror, so that all could clearly gauge in him how far they were distant from the summit of perfection.

[8] and to prayer Two oratories had been built there, namely of blessed Thomas the apostle and of St. Giles the confessor; of which one was adjoining the house of the sick, the other the dormitory. In these the blessed man was accustomed to keep watch on very many nights. he applies himself earnestly. For rising from his own little bed without the brethren knowing, and anticipating the nightly vigils, he flew thither, giving himself to hymns and praises to God, and in purity of heart and a shower of tears he thirsted for the satiety of perennial life, singing piously with the psalmist: My tears have been my bread day and night. Ps. 41, 4. In these he delighted, took enjoyment, was consoled; accompanied by such things, he flew securely through the desert of Idumea, that is, the aridity of this exile, burning with desire for the heavenly life, pursuing toward the prize of the heavenly calling. Ps. 62, 1, Philip. 3, 14.

[9] In the same monastery, by more than one wonderful thing And since mention of the little church of blessed Giles the abbot has presented itself and we have come to that place, let us briefly set forth what worthy of telling happened in it. On that night on which the narrowness of a manger received the Son of Man crying, one of the monks, who was called Richard, a very reverend man, who was also reported to have spent his life in the order of monastic profession for fifty years and more, went there to offer sacrifice at midnight to Him who commanded His own to do these things in memory of Him. Luc. 22, 19. And when, the linens having been spread out, he had placed the chalice and the other things pertaining to that sacrament upon them, he carelessly left a burning candle there, and soon returned to the choir of those singing psalms. Then, reading through the sixth lesson assigned him by the precentor, calling this very thing to memory in the midst of reading, he gapes, trembles, is in anguish, because he could neither leave what he had begun, nor hasten there, nor manage to tell anyone; at length, the lesson finished, he hastens there as if lifeless. And when he believed that everything had already been consumed by the devouring flame and altogether reduced to ashes, behold, he finds that the candle had fallen down upon the linens and was putting forth the flame of its tresses to an immense height; but he found everything unharmed, and, what is scarcely credible to say, you would have thought the fire had fallen not upon cloths but upon a mass of marble, iron or some indissoluble metal. To the spectacle of this unusual event he calls very many; who, searching everything more curiously, could not find even a trace of burning. In that very altar of St. Giles, placed lower down, relics were found from the manger of the Saviour, and also from the garments of the theothocos or christothocos and of very many saints; by whose power there is no doubt that the fire lost its strength, so as not to prevail. These, at the time when the altar together with the oratory was destroyed by the venerable Adelaide [The wife of Robert I, lord of Péronne; who died on 12 Sept. 1121 (cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 1105 A).], countess of that castle of Péronne, — for the place was very narrow for building a dormitory, — were found and placed in the greater church in a fitting receptacle. That house, by her industry and at her expense, was built as it is seen today and brought to completion in beautiful work.

[10] illustrious, About the same time, on the night of the finding of the precious martyr Stephen, a multitude of captives shut up in that very often-mentioned town, hearing the voices of the monks singing psalms in the monastery of blessed Quentin on the mount, imploring with faithful voices the help of that martyr, how

illustriously they experienced a honey-flowing remedy. For the solemnity of matins had not been completed before, their chains, fetters and manacles loosed and all the guards unlocked, exceedingly rejoicing, they fell down before the sacred altar freed from all bonds. Very many miracles of that martyr we could report; but since our discourse draws us back from here in good time, let us now take up again the things from which we digressed a little for the sake of commending the place.

[11] the care of the sick entrusted to him So the father of the monastery, considering that Godfrey held perishable things cheap and was climbing very swiftly with every effort the heights of the virtues, was filled with spiritual joy. Desiring, however, to make him approved to mortals by the virtue of obedience, he enjoined on him the care of the sick brethren, that he should obey their wishes in all things and supply all necessities as far as he was able. he carries out diligently, By this precept the servant of Christ complied with them as eagerly as sweetly; he washed their hands, feet and the other members of their limbs with his own hands, very often pouring over them rivers of tears with the pious affection of his heart; placing them on his shoulders, he carried them to the needs of nature and carried them back; he diligently strewed their beds with pillows and the rest, and bestowed with honey-sweetness the other services of humanity. Trusting that by such things he would obtain the blessedness of Him who, promising, will say to His own: As long as you did these things to one of my least, you did them also to me; come, possess the kingdom prepared for you. Matth. 25, 40, Ibid. 34.

[12] he eludes the arts of the demon, One day, as evening was coming on, the brethren summon him, earnestly begging that he bring the necessities of food. To whom he: "Although, see, Hesperus has covered the lands with shadows (t. o. u.) tetras o. umbras V, perhaps more correctly., I go nevertheless where your will bids me go. And yet deign to pour out prayers to Christ for me. For know that on this journey I shall suffer the deceits of malignant fraud." Having said this, lest perhaps he be defamed with the sloth of disobedience, leaping up with the fervour of zeal for God, he quickly sought the kitchen, to bring what was commanded. But the age-old leviathan, who once strove to turn the Roman monk, ministering bread to blessed Benedict, from the work of charity by breaking the little bell [Cf. the Life of St. Benedict, or Greg. the Great, Dial., book II, c. 1 (P. L., vol. LXVI, col. 130 A).], so also tried to mock this servant of God with a trick of his cunning of this kind, so that he should shrink from that journey of obedience. Between the refectory and the kitchen there was a low little hut, through which was the passage. When, then, Godfrey had come to that place, he sees near him a most dreadful, most foul, most black shadow rising up against him with a vast onrush. For it was a demon transfigured in the likeness of a certain monk very lately dead, his hands bound with bands, wrapped in a dark cowl, so that, if you had been present, you would have been confident without doubt that you saw nothing other than the prince of darkness. At the event of this encounter, although foreknown yet unusual, he gaping a little, as one who held before his carnal eyes the very master of all envy, who, now feigning himself an angel of light, now, as he is, showing himself to mortals as Satan, assails in a thousand ways the innocence of the pious, burning to see who he was or for what he had come, when, behold, the wisdom of Christ revealing it to him, understanding the snares of his counterfeited image, he confidently opposes the sign by which the same Saviour drew all things to Himself, or by which He triumphed over him. II Cor. 11, 14, Cf. Ioh. 12, 32. Then the enemy, shrinking from the thunderbolt of so great a deity, vanishing from his eyes, filling the whole space of the hut with an intolerable stench, appeared by evident tokens who he was. Instructed to resist the devil by these and other temptations, he burned in the love of God and neighbour the more, the more fiercely he felt the rival of all good raging against him. In receiving guests, pilgrims, the poor — for that office had been enjoined on him — he showed himself cheerful, knowing that he was receiving Christ above all in them; he gave them even his own garments, bearing the rigour of winter and cold.

[13] he has as companion of his life his brother Odo, a holy man. He had in the same monastery a brother, named Odo, a man of wonderful simplicity and innocence. Him, drawn away from the warfare of the world by prayers and honey-flowing words as by certain enchantments, he had associated to the peaceful companionship of the monks. Of his conduct, since mention has now presented itself, let us speak in passing. For forty years and more he lived soberly, piously and justly in the rule of sacred profession. Tit. 2, 12. He did not know the sacred letters, but he busied himself to fulfil in pious work the divine precepts received from others. For eighteen years he abstained from all flesh and blood, until, constrained by obedience to the abbot and by the sentence of the other brethren, he follows, even unwillingly, the common rule of the monastery; on the days of Lent he kept silence from every word, except for the sake of confessing sins, for ten years. In these not only by bread and water, but on very many other days through the year he subdued his body with crosses, wearing it down daily too with rods and thongs. In the affairs of the church [(In r. v. e.) In r. e. V; In reliquis vero e. B; In 〈rebus adds another hand in the margin〉 reliquis v. e. B corrected.] entrusted to him he was so faithful that, incredible to say, he never willingly gave a farthing gratis, I do not say to strangers, but not even to kinsmen. To him So B, V., when the last day had come, partaking of the Lord's sacraments before the brethren standing by, with a cheerful face, his hands stretched out in prayer, he breathed out his last spirit. These things I would say for this reason, that all the faithful may remember from how pious a stock of race Godfrey drew his descent.

[14] Bidden by the abbot, he procures wine for the monastery Now that province, full of almost all produce, is seen to be for the greatest part unfruitful only in the fruits of vineyards. Wherefore the inhabitants are made strangers to the gift of Bacchus, unless it has been brought into those parts from elsewhere. The abbot, therefore, and the monks, considering Godfrey very fit for this, command him to watch with the utmost care to bring wine from wherever it might be for the uses of the brethren living there and of the poor and guests turning aside there. This the man of God at first received hardly; for he knew that minds wandering through worldly things can scarcely advance in virtues. But because that humility is true which its companion, obedience, does not desert, since he had decided to obey not his own judgement but another's command, he undertook what was commanded with all reverence of subjection. He, not trusting in his own merit, sedulously begged the help of the brethren; who quin V. also bestowed on the healthy, the weak and the poor very many services of humanity, so that they might pray Christ more attentively that, going the royal road and humbly carrying the ark of the covenant placed upon the neck of his heart, he might merit to reach manfully Beth-shemesh, that is, the house of the sun, not turning aside to the right or the left. Cf. I Reg. 6, 12. To him the divine grace looked so far that the goods of the church, dissipated stirpatas B before correction. by his predecessors and entangled in debt, he, by the help of almighty Jesus Christ protecting him in all things, restored to his own mother wholly freed from debts, and he administers the domestic affairs excellently. and also supplied abundantly the necessities for the uses of the brethren dwelling there and of the others flocking thither.

[15] He makes journeys unharmed even in time of war; At that time, at the prompting of the envy of the serpent, through the faction of seditious men, namely Robert of Péronne, Odo too of Namur [Rather of Ham (Ham, dép. Somme, arr. Péronne), as Corblet rightly warned, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 380. In fact at this time the lord of Ham was Odo I (cf. Ch. Gomart, Les seigneurs et gouverneurs de Ham, in Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de Picardie, vol. XVIII, 1861, p. 328), while the count of Namur was Albert III. Since this passage is handed down in the one recent manuscript B, it seems likely that not Nicholas himself erred in the name, but rather the copyist.], and also Clarembald, lord of the castle of Vendoil [Vendeuil (dép. Aisne, arr. Saint-Quentin, cant. Moy). Among the noblemen who, after the council of Clermont of the year 1095, undertook the journey to Jerusalem with Robert, count of Flanders, Clarenbald of Vendeuil is listed, both by others and by Abbot Herimann, in the Book on the restoration of the church of Saint-Martin of Tournai, c. 19 (MG., Scr. vol. XIV, p. 283, l. 8).], and the other satellites of Satan, raging more from day to day, the horrid face of war resounded so through the borders of the Viromandui, of Soissons and of Laon that no one, I do not say of clerics or monks, but not even any of the rulers of churches dared to tread the paths of those regions. But Godfrey, being most dear and best known not only to the people but to the princes themselves, fearing the terror of no one, ran about here and there securely; and if ever he went to them, some need of his own or of his neighbour intervening, they, rejoicing exceedingly, clemently granted to this blessed man what they granted to no mortal. Therefore, beloved of the Creator, he was cherished from the marrow by the creature.

[16] in which, of the monks of Soissons At a certain time, while he was going round the district of Soissons, namely his native one, he came to a certain monastery of monks [Saint-Crépin-le-Grand near Soissons; in which monastery Nicholas, the writer of the Life, lived.]. On that same day the faithful people were celebrating with a great concourse the solemnities of the saints resting there, namely the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, whose memory the servant of Christ kept perpetually before his eyes. Joined, therefore, to the choir of monks and clerics singing psalms, he made clearly known the devotion of his sincere mind in the psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles of the sweetly sounding church. For he was eminently steeped in skill not only of reading but also of singing, and he re-echoed the praises of Christ so sweetly with modulated sweetness that he drew tears from the eyes of the hearers. When, then, a little before the solemnities of the Mass were celebrated, he gravely reproves loose morals. he had entered the refectory, by chance he came upon very many monks there given to drinkings and the eating so V; usibus B. of meats. As soon as they saw him, they were a little ashamed; but since he was very dear to them, repressing their blush, they beg him to refresh himself with them. To whom Godfrey: "Do not, brethren," he said, "do not impose this upon me"; and at length, not without great astonishment, he adds: "Is it fair to put the food of the belly before the refreshment of the mind? For the celebrations of the Mass have not yet been completed, and already it pleases you to stuff the belly with viands? Let us pray, let us sing psalms, let us pay to Christ and His saints the due offices of praise. Let us fatten the hungry soul with the fatness of the word of God. Cf. Ps. 102, 5. Let our desire be filled with good things. Matth. 6, 33. Let us first seek the kingdom of God and His justice. Ibid. 22, 21. Let us render to God the things that are God's, and afterwards restore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." They, having taken in these words, by which they ought to have been advanced to better things, were thereby rolled down to worse. For, suffused with dark turva B. bile and their gall stirred, they assail him with these words: "Come, come, you whitewashed wall; approach, you gilded one. Act. 23, 3. Steep your windpipes in this very rich savoury food, so that your voice may pierce our ears more clearly." With very many other things too, which we refuse to insert here, they bitingly reviled the holy man. It is unknown, therefore, to none of the prudent that the perverse

craftily interpret even the right deeds of the pious. So Godfrey, receiving these words, was not at all moved, and, calling to memory that saying of the wise man, that he who rebukes a scoffer does injury to himself, with head bowed, his eyes cast down to the depths, returning as quickly as possible to the church, he solemnly completed the feast of the day once begun with divine fear and trembling, with spiritual joy. Prov. 9, 7. O skilful man, filled with the simplicity of the dove, not ignorant of the astuteness of the serpent, who knew how to bear humbly the poisons of whisperers and wisely to avoid their very wiles. Cf. Matth. 10, 16. For indeed, as once Jacob, the dish of red lentils having been despised, enjoyed his father's blessing, so this wrestler of ours too, by these and other sweats of the virtues, has now merited to obtain the inheritance and at the same time the blessing of the Father, the Creator of all. This is reported in that very monastery by the still recent report of the brethren; in which, now by the gift of Christ going before, the merit of the saints resting there interceding, and the labour of the monks living there following, the religion of the monastic profession shines forth exceedingly.

[17] Ordained presbyter, When Godfrey was now completing his fifth lustrum, the father of the monastery, considering that he held earthly things cheap and sighed with all his strength after heavenly things, determines to promote him to the grade of the presbyterate. Immediately Godfrey, flinging himself at the feet of him, that is, his godfather, wept most abundantly, and, not as very many do in word only or feignedly, but with the inner affection of his mind, proclaimed that he would not be worthy of the ministry of a lector, much less of a priest. What more? He is brought to the holy church of Noyon, over which at that time presided Ratbod Rachodus B before correction, Surius; Racbodus B corrected (nothing in V)., pontiff 1068 – 1098., eminently learned in all knowledge. To him, although Godfrey was very well known and very dear, yet the life and at the same time the morals of the perfect monk worthy of God are recounted one by one. Having summoned him, he embraces and kisses him. He disputes before him quite clearly from the divine pages that subjects must obey their superiors in all things. Hebr. 13, 17: cf. Col. 3, 22. And so without any procrastination Godfrey is made a priest, the prelate himself exulting greatly that he had merited that a minister should be made by the ordination of so great a man. So the venerable man, the more he grew in the summit of grade, the more he advanced in the probity of good acts; the fame of his most chaste life spread, under Christ's auspices, not only in the neighbourhood but far and wide. All burned to have him as pastor. For who would not burn to be taught by his mastership and steeped in his instructions, or who would not burn to enjoy his happy government?

[18] The monastery of Blessed Mary, Mother of God, which is held at Nogent, venerably built, was at that time under the government or management of Henry, abbot of Saint-Remi of the city of Reims See above, p. 902, annot. 1.. Ingelran, therefore, count of the castle of Coucy, namely the father of Thomas, famous in warfare [On Ingelran, count of Amiens, and that Thomas de Marle see above, p. 903, annot. 12 and 14.], together with Elinand, prelate of Laon 1052 – 1098., seeing that it was being increased less than they would wish, both in spiritual and in worldly things, sent to the aforesaid Henry, suppliantly beseeching that he restore that very poor hostel of Nogent better than he had begun it; if otherwise, that he make himself altogether a stranger to it; that they did not wish any longer to be in want through the loss of the house by whose benefaction and zeal it had been founded. Then the elder, considering that, hindered both by sickness of body and by the weight of old age, he was by no means sufficient for these things, grants them free option in choosing a pastor [See on the whole matter the narrative of Guibert of Nogent (above, p. 902), now more distinct, now more meagre.]. soon he is elected abbot of St. Mary of Nogent; Soon they, having taken counsel with the lord Rainald, archimandrite of Reims 1083 – 1096., and other bishops, with common assent destine the lord Godfrey — for the fame of his goodness and modesty had reached them — to be put under this burden. All these things are reported in order to Philip, prince of the Franks. He, greatly congratulating himself on the election of so great a man, orders the business to be quickly brought to ripeness [That Count Ingelran, the bishops, the archbishop, the king had any part in Godfrey's election Guibert had not related, place cited.]. And so, a secretary having been summoned, he directs letters marked with the royal majesty mtē B. to Godfrey, father of the monastery of Mont-Saint-Quentin, praying that he deliver the lord Godfrey, monk, his godson and disciple, to be promoted to that for which he had been elected by the will of God. But when the elder drank these things in with trembling ears, his eyes suffused with tears, going on in such words: "Lo," he cries, "lo the staff of my old age, lo him by whom I was wont to run back from the whirlpools of the floods, from the eddies of the waves; behold him in whom, tossed by strong winds and south winds, I was wont to breathe again; certainly him whom I was purposing to take up the government of this place. Tob. 5, 23, Cant. 7, 4. Do you now hasten to take from me the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus, in which indeed I laboured?" At this the monks wept together from the marrow, repeated "alas, alas" more frequently, feared the desolation of the place, preferred to die rather than be frustrated of the friendly company of such and so great a fellow citizen and be deprived of his presence. Upon him was the unanimous opinion of all; him as father, him they hoped to merit as ruler. Yet not daring to resist the royal will nor the demand of the leading men, they bring forth from the inner shrines of the saints the purple, the hyacinth and the scarlet twice dyed, henceforth to suffer the darkening of the dust, the force of showers or rains or the onset of other storms, which the rams' skins dyed red and the hair-cloths protecting the tabernacle of the covenant are wont to suffer. Exod. 25, 4. But if anyone wishes to know what the purple, what the hyacinth, or what the scarlet twice dyed signifies, let him take the man as he is, that is, purple, most cleanly; let him understand also the mind sighing after the promises of the heavenly fatherland, that is, hyacinth † parie; let him at the same time remember the heart kindled by the precept of charity, that is, scarlet twice dyed, doubly. So the venerable Godfrey is brought by Godfrey, namely his godfather, to Laon Clavatum, and is presented to the prelate Elinand as a kind of faithful deposit. And when, drawing frequent sighs, he objected to himself before all who were present the immaturity of his age or morals, his ignorance of letters, being needy of wisdom and knowledge, not yet fit as a minister in the temple of God, or as the lowest sacristan, how much less as guardian of the vessels; and when he declaimed these and similar things, not only is he not heeded, nay he is not even heard, but at once he is blessed, raised to the pastoral honour, brought to Nogent with fitting honour, not only those born of earth but also, as it is worthy to believe, the heavenly ones rejoicing over this.

[19] in which monastery, restored by his labour, When, then, Godfrey, pastor of the Lord's sheepfold, had come there, he found there no more than six monks and two little boys [Cf. what Guibert teaches (De vita sua, II, 2, ed. Bourgin, p. 107) about the state of the household at the time when the monastery was founded, that is, in the year 1059: for the revenues provided for that place seemed not much more abundant than for the use of six monks. And although under the government of Abbot Henry the monastery advanced somewhat, yet it was by no means wealthy, and, as Guibert attests (place cited, p. 108), could by no means be held without laborious attention; cf. above, p. 902.]; he found the larder and the barn empty and void of all hope of Bacchus or Ceres; the little workshops very lowly and narrow, or rather huts woven of rods or wickerwork. In that place thickets, thistle-beds, bramble-beds and the other shrubs had grown up everywhere. These having been cut down and reduced to a level, the field having been cleared, he diligently prepares from the foundations a cloister, a dormitory and all the other things suitable for the uses of monks. He also built a house for the reception of the weak and the poor, for whose provision he assigned lands and vineyards. There, then, he hastened every day, washed their feet, gave them clothing, and also committed the dead most dutifully to burial.

[20] many desired to live under his discipline, Hence to him, as a swarm of bees to the sweetness of thyme or clover or the other nectarous plants, many hastened in flocks. Among whom two outstanding fathers, namely Lambert of the monastery of Florennes [Florennes, in the diocese, at that time, of Liège. Beware of understanding — what Nicholas, the eulogist of Godfrey, would without any trouble have persuaded the incautious reader — that Lambert abdicated his prelacy in order to enjoy the familiarity of our saint. In fact Lambert, who had been made abbot by evil arts, a little later, in the year 1099, his conscience convicting him, voluntarily deserted the abbey of Florennes (Chronicon S. Huberti Andaginense, c. 89; MG., Scr. vol. VIII, p. 620, l. 44 – 45). Cf. U. Berlière, Monasticon belge, vol. I (1890 – 1897), p. 8.] and also Walrad of Saint-Nicolas of Ribemont [Ribemont, in the diocese of Laon. Walrad was not made abbot before the year 1092 (cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 617 C – D, II); beyond this we know nothing certain about him, nor is he named in the cartulary of the monastery which the very distinguished H. Stein edited.], leaving their native soil and the government of their monasteries, submitting themselves anew with all devotion to his discipleship, desired to attain even the least of his deeds. So, when Godfrey reclined in the middle of them at dinner like a very bright star, and when, at his nod, an abundance of dishes was set before him plentifully, scarcely ever, except very rarely, tasting a little of it, sustaining his delicate little body with green herbs or the produce of fruits, he eagerly held out the rest to the needy or to those confined to their beds by the intervention of weakness of the flesh; and all wondered vehemently at this, that with so great a heel of abstinence he had subdued gluttony.

[21] as one who dealt austerely with himself, Moreover, from the report of Gislebert, formerly his cook, but now a monk of that same church, we have learned what we are about to tell. One day, when the same Gislebert had put to the fire the pot so V; olam B. which was being prepared for Godfrey's coming supper — for it was cooked apart, holding no liquid but water, a little salt added, with wild herbs gathered from everywhere, — behold, by chance, rubbing down a piece of white bread, he mixed it in at the same time, so that he, as if delighted by this, might sup it more eagerly. So after the meal Godfrey, speaking secretly to Gislebert, said: "O man, why did you dare to do this? Why did you try to set before me, poor wretch, so delicate, nay, to speak more truly, so peppered a dish? Or do you not know that the incitement of the proud, nay of the unhappy, flesh cannot be tamed except by various and excessive torments? For the rest, take care not to add this again; otherwise know that I shall rightly be indignant with you." Accustomed, then, to such things, the glorious Godfrey strove to advance the minds of his adopted sons from virtue to virtue, until with unveiled face they could behold the glory of God. Ps. 83, 8, II Cor. 3, 18.

[22] with others And so under Godfrey's hand the army of the soldiers of Christ was renowned in merit and in number, which, taught by his example or formed by the grace of God, was to fight against the principalities and powers of this air, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, and by his assistance was happily to triumph.

For that most sweet father, although he was set over all in the summit of grade, had nevertheless become a little one in their midst, in a manner not knowing himself. Eph. 2, 2, Eph. 6, 12, I Thess. 2, 7. He admonished them to meditate sedulously whence and for what they had come, whither they were tending, which way they were going; to be without private property, to break their own will, to show to Christ at every moment of life purity of heart, truth of mouth, cleanness of body, and, as chosen athletes, placed in readiness for the spiritual fight, packed in a brotherly battle-line, glued together with the birdlime of charity, to watch the more anxiously, lest in any way a place should lie open in them for the snares of the tempter. kindly and mercifully, Over the sick, however, he was led by excessive compassion of mind, after the manner of a hen over her sickening chicks, so much that he seemed in a manner to bear what they themselves were suffering; and he spared neither his means for the sake of their health, nay, nor himself, if there were need. I Cor. 9, 22. What more? He had been made all things to all, that he might gain all for Christ. Therefore, while toward the upright of heart, as has already been said, he was wholly honey and submissive, those who strayed from the way of God, or the perverse of heart, found him rigid, or, if I may so speak, in a manner myrrhed. For indeed he knew what was owed to nature and what to vice. These, therefore, he vehemently rebuked, constrained, burned sharply with the cautery of spiritual medicine, busying himself in every way that they might in some manner be restored to perfect health.

[23] yet so that the ill-mannered, A certain man, then, came to him, earnestly demanding that he order a saddle for riding to be fitted out for him. Soon the servant of Christ, having summoned the prior of the monastery, named Theobald, commanded that he furnish to the petitioner what he asked as quickly as possible. Immediately the monk, swollen with pride, elated with arrogance, is suffused with bile and proposes in his mind by no means to obey this precept. Yet secretly dissembling his wicked thought, he exhorts the man to wait before prae V. the doors until he himself should return. There, then, he lingers a very long time awaiting his coming out; but when he found that he was being deceived by but by name the disobedient, the monk, running back to Godfrey, he complains that he had not only not received it, but had been gravely mocked. Meanwhile Godfrey, before all the brethren, asks the monk whether he had already fulfilled the precept. To which he, not without disdain, said: "By no means; for your commands are in every way so heavy that they can scarcely be borne by any mortal, he would severely chastise. much less carried out." Godfrey therefore, considering that, if he let this so V; hc B. go unpunished so V, B first hand; inulta B corrected, as if dissembling or making light of it, the rest would grow insolent with similar things, then gravely rebuked the disobedient brother and subjected him to a fitting correction for his contempt. Then in haste he orders a huge pyre to be built in the shrubbery, and the saddle too to be brought into the midst. And when it was now putting forth globes of flame to an immense height, seizing the saddle, he cries: "Lo, little sons, let us call to memory the edict of the teacher of the Gentiles, by which he instructs us to take away the evil from among us. I Cor. 5, 13. Lo the evil which is in the house of peace and justice; lo," he said, "the scandal which may not remain in the hall of obedience. Cf. Ps. 68, 10." And so, zeal for the house of God devouring his soul, he threw it into the pyre and burned it to ashes. Come, readers of this little work of ours, behold here diligently, I pray, the astuteness of the serpent inserted in the highest degree into the simplicity of the dove; if he, unfaithful, lacked either the one (s. u.) I have written; simia B (nothing in V). or the other, he would be judged stolid, or rather, rightly, cruel. Cf. Matth. 10, 16.

[24] To a certain outstanding nun, A certain matron, named Viveta, sprung from a noble lineage of the province of Flanders, having spurned the pomps of the world, left the hindrances of carnal union, set aside the delights of the world, went with simple and sincere devotion of heart to the church of the glorious Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, within the walls of the city of Soissons, now built with seemly and recent stonework, which also in our age is held famous throughout the world for signs of miracles and prodigies almost unheard of hitherto [A booklet on the miracles of Bl. Mary of Soissons was published by a writer contemporary with our Nicholas, Hugh Farsit (P. L., vol. CLXXIX, col. 1777 – 1800; cf. BHL. 5410).]. Mingled, then, with the venerable and most illustrious choirs of the nuns living there, she truly married the true Bridegroom, veiled her head with the sacred veil, and remained there for very many years in chastity of mind and body. This woman, without offspring of the better sex, flourished in a threefold offspring of her body, of whom the first was called Ida, the second Helvidis, the third Havydis. Of these the eldest was seen to be not more than eleven undenis B. years old; the rest were bearing almost † and unteachable infant years; these she brought with her and subjected to sacred profession. She survived thirty years in the sacred order. She persevered perpetually in prayers and tears and sacred meditations; she was clothed underneath, next to the flesh, with a very rough hair-shirt; she sustained her failing limbs with bread and water or pulse, tasting nothing of food or drink from outside except rarely, late; and with very many other straits she so tamed her members that are upon the earth that all wondered how she could even subsist. At the last, having undertaken the journey to Jerusalem, which at that time was newly blazing, arriving there, going round barefoot the places which the Saviour deigned to mark with His presence, she was so distressed both by sickness of body and by the length of the journey that blood was seen to drip from her footprints. She survived there also a few days, and so, struck by the affliction of the body, she sent forth her spirit, wearied by many things for Christ, [and] to the paradisal Elysian seats. These things, then, we would say by way of digression about the conduct of so great and such a woman, that all may know that this most illustrious woman submitted herself from the marrow to the disciplines of this blessed man, commended herself to his prayers, and burned for his footsteps, even from afar. For indeed, if that Anna of the Gospel, who did not depart from the temple of the Lord, giving herself to fasts and prayers, had been present, she would not wish to be separated even for a point of time from the honey-flowing presence of this Godfrey of ours, whom to see was gladness, whom to hear was life, whom to follow was eternal salvation. Luc. 2, 37. A certain venerable abbess, then, of the aforesaid church, named Ogyva On whom cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 444 c., orders her to be summoned to her. When, called, she was present before her, she commands her, setting excuse aside, to go to the Teutonic province for the answers of the church or for the common utility, because she knew the idiom of that region more accurately than all. Receiving this with all reverence of subjection, her equipment having been seemly prepared, she took to the road thither; but not daring to pass by the lord Godfrey, turning aside her retinue, she came with her companions to Nogent. There she found him. When she had related to him in order whither and for what she was setting out, she begged with all contrition of heart the accustomed blessing. Having received it, captured and despoiled by robbers, she entered that forest which lies between Carisiacum and Saint-Paul [Quierzy and Saint-Paul-aux-Bois (dép. Aisne, arr. Laon, cant. Coucy-le-Château), both of which places are not far from Nogent.]. That place at that time was held most infamous, both for the beleaguering of robbers and for the inroad of plunderers, so that whoever came into those parts was either slaughtered or, captured, thrust into a dungeon. Arriving there, then, the handmaid of Christ came upon robbers beleaguering the narrows of the roads. They, surrounding her threateningly with drawn daggers, without reverence for the sacred order, without shame for the condition of a woman, throw her to the ground, lead away with them all her things, servants, horses and the rest; they cast all into the depths of a prison, and fix their feet in the hardness of wood, bind their hands and arms with very hard thongs. Then, exceedingly rejoicing for such a victory, they are filled with the luxury of viands and drinks. While feasting, too, they determine that the spoils shall be divided on the morrow. But the divine clemency forestalled their wishes and changed their counsels far otherwise than they hoped. For, soaked with excessive drinking, they are scattered in every direction, and so the prison is deserted by all guard. Those bound, then, were burned by the frost, which had bristled more harshly than usual; fear, anxiety, sighs had filled the inward parts of all, and the expectation of suffering still worse things. So the nun, as has already been said, left alone, destitute of all human help or company, taking the road back, weeping and wailing, when evening had now risen, returns to Nogent. The venerable Godfrey, seeing her coming wandering alone at such an hour, wonders, is astounded, groans, and diligently inquires what had happened. She at once, flinging herself at his feet, discloses all that had happened to her. Having learned these things, the servant of God, greatly pitying her misfortune, exhorts her to restrain her weeping a little, to grant a little food or drink to her wearied body. But she said: "By no means, father, will I take anything, until the divine goodness deigns to console wretched me and, kindly mindful of me, restoring by its free clemency the things which I lost a little before, deigns to have mercy on me. Now, therefore, intercede about these things with the Deity and with the Mother of mercy, and with the most pious confessor Nicholas also, on whose feast this loss befell me by the snares of the adverse party; and, believing without hesitation, I profess that you will by no means be frustrated of your wish." The man of God, therefore, although he resisted exceedingly, he is present with his prayers proclaiming that he would not be fit to be one through whom the Saviour should show even the least miracle, yet, overcome by the urgency of her weeping, enters the propitiatory, applies himself to prayers and tears before the altar of the Mother of God; the woman consecrated to God follows him at once, and in the sanctuary, before the altar over which an icon of the Saviour hung, she spends the night in like work. While they, then, were supplicating with devotion of mind, and obtains He who promises some such thing to His faithful: "Before you call upon me, I will say: Behold, I am here," was present and heard the groaning of the poor; He mercifully and wonderfully loosed the chains of the fettered. For suddenly the bars of the prison leap apart, the bonds of the arms or hands altogether perish, the stock too in which their feet were held fast is split through the middle. One of them, named Guntard, feeling himself now altogether free of bonds, holding it deadly unless he should indicate this very thing to his companions as quickly as possible, first addresses John, his fellow soldier and fellow captive, with these words in silence: "O inseparable companion of this our journey and danger, do you yourself experience the same things as I?" To which he, so rejoicing that the immensity of his joy shook tears from his eyes: "What, I say, my sweetest, what but that, by the intervention of I know not whose merit, nay command, I see myself loosed from the fetters." And when the rest too, exulting together, confessed this, behold, the wood in which a little before their feet had been bound, no one putting a hand to it, but divine power compelling it, is raised upward with its top upright. so that her companions Thus those who a little before were bound with heavy chains are made free; the doors lie open, no one unlocking them; they leap out glad and eager, no one resisting, and through the very dense opacacissimam B. forest, through the windings of the roads and through fords, torrents or rivers, which had swelled vehemently with the winter rains, with Christ as their leader, they reach Nogent by a direct road. When in

the forecourt of the church they stood astounded, as being ignorant of the place, not knowing whither they were tending, and exceedingly fearing lest they should again run into what they had escaped, one, who was, as I think, of greater faith or spirit, reviving the trembling ones, cries out: "Companions of fortune, who have now suffered such great dangers, do not fear, do not waver. We are protected by the unconquered right hand of Christ, who makes poor and makes rich, humbles and raises up. I Reg. 2, 7. Lo, it seems to me that we stand in the square of the church from which we set out yesterday." At this all, rolling the orbs of their eyes this way and that, when they saw that they had now been snatched from the borders of death, as from the whirlpool of a seething sea and strait, and were now even now in possession of the longed-for shore, affirming that he perceived the truth, hasten with great dancing up to the door of the church. Roused by their voices or sound, the nun, flying up and recognizing her people, did not open for joy, but running forward to where the man of God Godfrey was applying himself to prayer, are freed cries out: "Now, now, venerable father, rise; your prayers have been heard, your tears have penetrated the ears of the heavenly clemency. Lo, they are here together for whom you, filled with the love of Christ, prayed." Then he, raising from the ground a face bedewed I have written; orantia B. with tears — for while praying there was in him so great an abundance of tears that the ground round about, where he let down his face, seemed a wave, — turning to her, said: "Do not speak so, handmaid of Christ; I reckon this altogether not to my merit, but to your faith." On the contrary, the nun: "This, plainly worthy of the eternal memory of all, I rightly ascribe not to my littleness but to your humility, innocence, love. For indeed not only I, but all who think soundly, would truly pronounce that you worked here together with Christ." And so, going forward to the door in this alternate friendly altercation, they open to those knocking. They ask of them what had been done with them; they report in order how they escaped, by what way, when they returned. Having learned these things, they render in common innumerable thanks to Christ and His saints with great dancing. When the evening of the night was now breaking into light, Godfrey, going to the haunts of the plunderers, assails them with biting words: why they had dared to touch with criminal hands a woman beloved of God and of Christ, to hinder her journey, to plunder everything; that it was wonderful that they had not been immediately burned up conflagranti B. by heavenly fire, or swallowed by the earth gaping, or consumed by some other unusual kind of destruction, except that the overflowing propitiation of God does not at once condemn criminals in their crime and drive them into the abyss or thrust them back into Tartarus; that they should now correct what they had wickedly done, and restore to her what they had plundered the day before. and the things taken away are restored to her. Having heard these words, kindled with the torches of fury — for the words of the wise were in the heart of the impious like goads fixed deep, — breathing fire in their spirit, they run headlong to the prison. II Mach. 9, 7. For they thought they could turn back their madness upon them. When they arrive there, and find neither those whom they had left, but on the contrary find that all the bolts of the prison had perished entirely, exceedingly astounded and as if struck by lightning, they fling themselves vying with one another at the knees of the blessed man, confessing with tearful voices that they had sinned, that they had done very wickedly. They bring back also all that they had taken, vessels, beasts of burden and the rest. Nothing at all was missing, except a little knife, which had been given over to forgetfulness. Having received these, the servant of Christ, absolving the poor wretches from their guilt, returns, and restoring everything to the woman, admonishes her briefly that, if ever some such thing should happen, she should not become faint-hearted, but should bear adversity with an equal and manly mind as she bears prosperity. Thus, then, he dismissed her, abundantly furnished with everything, with the peace of Christ, secure for the rest.

[25] A very great drought At that time, then, when Godfrey was renowned with the title of abbot, the transgressors of God's commandments are burned up by a heavy scorching of the sky. For indeed what the Creator of all long ago threatened the Jewish people with the voice of Moses: If, He says, you will not obey me, I will give you the heaven above as iron and the earth as brass, the moderns atrociously experienced. Levit. 26, 18, 19. For the fiery force of the sun scorches heaven and earth, so much that by assiduously burning this region which we inhabit it would have rendered it wholly uninhabitable, its inhabitants having been withdrawn, had not the heavenly propitiation, in its usual manner, looked down from on high as quickly as possible upon the earth-born [In this year (1097) a great part of the summer was without rain, and it was very necessary for the trees and crops. So the Annals of Sainte-Colombe of Sens, MG., Scr. vol. I, p. 106 – 7.]. the people of Soissons who had suffered it For the shrubs and other bushes, altogether lacking sap, dry up; the sown crops and whatever seeds, empty of all moisture, had taken from mortals all hope of harvest at the root. The beds of rivers too are for the greatest part laid bare of water, and by the fiery or even steaming edge the swimming creatures, which used to swim in the deep eddies, choked by ī (= in for ui) B (nothing in V). a certain force of harsh nature, were carried on the surface of the water. Beasts of burden too, sheep and cattle and the other living things, fell dead here and there at home or through the fields from the heat of thirst. The very human members too, infected greatly by corruption from the corrupted air, showed the appearance of death, the skin swelling and livid. What more? Almost all the elements are mingled and, if it is permitted to say, all things are confused together as in the ancient chaos. So the transgressors, admonished by the fatherly blow, return to their heart and see fulfilled in themselves that saying of the wise man: The world shall fight for Him against the senseless. Isai. 46, 8, Sap. 5, 21 Now their spirit is taken away and they fail and return to their dust; now the mountains, touched, smoke; now they consider how cheap is the matter of the flesh, and so they take refuge in the laments of penitence. Ps. 103, 29, Ps. 143, 5. Meanwhile the lord Hugh, prelate of Soissons 1093 – 1103., was gravely distressed in mind, because he saw the flock committed to him being laid waste by atrocious extermination, and could not, in fairness, oppose the divine and just sentence. he helps with wise counsels, He sends, therefore, to Nogent, summons from there the precious Godfrey, leader and patron of that place; he consults him as to what needs to be done that the heavenly wrath may cease. At Godfrey's nod, therefore, a fast is proclaimed throughout all the borders of the diocese of the city, not only for the rational but also for the irrational creature, after the manner of the Ninevites, so that what the guilt of the harmful had contracted the abstinence of innocent sucklings or of brute animals might at least wash away. Ionas 3, 7. On the day of the fast proclaimed, therefore, an infinite people of both sexes of Soissons is gathered, carrying with them the relics of the saints, to the church of Christ's protomartyr Stephen, because that place seemed more ample and more spacious for receiving so great a throng of people. he consoles with words, The pontiff, therefore, as was fitting toward a man of so great authority, so sharp a dart of eloquence, and so clear a stream of sacred doctrine, prays him that by a consoling word he should console and soothe those standing round, greatly constrained by the long calamity, proclaiming that by his merits, together with those of the saints whose sacred relics are kept here, Christ would have mercy on His people. This Godfrey did not refuse. AUG. Conf. 4, 16 Addressing, then, all — not as very many who, airing wisdom with crackling cheeks, render their hearers astounded rather than softened, but after the manner of leaven that raises the mass into which it is put to higher things and sweetens it with its own savour, so by the charm and sweetness of his word, seasoned with salt in grace, he kindled the minds of the hearers from the marrow to the sweetness of compunction. and, rain having been obtained, revives them. When, then, he was prolonging his discourse further, suddenly the air is clouded, there is dense lightning, a huge outpouring of rain, so much that rivulets of the vehement shower ran down here and there through the squares and fields, and the people returned home in haste. For they reported that a deluge, a cataclysm [Here and elsewhere, when synonymous words are heaped up ἀσυνδέτως (for example I, 30: exspectans, operiens; II, 8: misit, legavit; III, 2: campanam, nolam), I seem to myself to detect the hand not of a copyist inserting glosses, but of the verbose Nicholas.], had happened publicly and privately. Who, I pray, would hesitate that the Almighty imparted in a moment this most necessary remedy to mortals by the merits of His servant and the suffrages of the blessed whose ashes the pious memory of the faithful venerated there? For indeed what wonder if all the just obtain what they ask of Christ, who, although they are detained in body in the valley of weeping, yet in mind dwell with Him in the heavens, with whom also they are one spirit, as it is written: He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. I Cor. 6, 16.

[26] He refuses the government of the abbey of Saint-Remi of Reims. One day the lord Manasses, archprelate of Reims 1096 – 1106., summoned the venerable Godfrey, father of Nogent, to the synod of Reims In the year 1097. Cf. above, p. 896, at this year., beseeching him before the whole throng that, undertaking the government of the monastery of St. Remigius the confessor, adjoining the city, he should discharge the office of pastor to the brethren living there [Guibert attests the same, though more obscurely, the monastery not being named. See ibid.], because it excelled the monastery of Nogent in riches, honour and glory. Hearing this, the man of higher counsel objects first that he was not so prudent as to be able to bear with an equal mind the volumes of so great a government, and then that he would by no means desert the fellowship of the little church once received from Christ. And so, when he was pressed about this again and again more insistently with prayers by the archimandrite and the other prelates, he, with inflexible rigour of mind, a keeper of that canon of Nicaea That canon 15 of the council of Nicaea was very well known., leaping into the midst, proclaims that he could not and would not spurn the covenant of a poor little bride for the embraces of a richer adulteress. Hearing this, all who stood by wonder at the constancy of the man, that he placed riches after poverty, worldly glory after inmost humility. They could therefore gauge in him more than enough how near to heaven something seems to have fallen out., and how far, separated from the loftiness of his humility, they, embracing with the whole bosom of the mind slipping glory and deceitful riches, were rolled in the deep mire.

[27] Adelaide the viscountess and others Adelaide, viscountess of the castle of Coucy, giving to mortals in her age illustrious examples of all largesse and chastity, formed especially by the honey-sweet address of this Godfrey of ours to carry these things out, having spent her own treasury in great part in the use of the poor and orphans and also in ecclesiastical utensils — for she had a panel placed on the most holy altar of the blessed Mother of God at Nogent and wrought with gold in open-work, and a similar one also for the altar of St. Eligius, prelate of Noyon, — having left the pomps of the world, he forms to live holily. came to Nogent and persevered there in all purity and holiness as long as Godfrey, acceptable to Christ, remained there. Very many too, fulfilling the same thing at his exhortation, have already, as we believe, received what Christ has promised to those who love Him, reigning with Him perpetually. Iac. 1, 12.

[28] That in sleep Very many things worthy of eternal memory the blessed man did while placed there; which we, hastening to his other deeds, too sluggish to insert here

we pass over, and, as a weak flock of bees or ants falls under its burden, so we, overcome by the mass of the illustrious and admirable history, hand down to the posterity of the faithful in whatever style the last of things, by culling, to speak more truly, rather than by weaving in anything. Now, therefore, let us unfold, with the help of the grace of his Indweller, how, Christ revealing it to him, he foreknew that he would be promoted to the grade of pontifical dignity, and when and how, under the auspices of Christ, he obtained it. When, then, one day Godfrey was turning over in his mind many things about the ineffable sweetness of the heavenly fellow citizens, continuing the night also in this, and was prolonging it sleepless in tears and prayers and in the praises of God, when the morning star had risen, when twilight had already begun, and he had laid his wearied little body on his little bed, as the infirmity of frail nature demands — for at that hour the limbs of mortals are wont to be pressed down by heavy sleep, — as he himself afterwards related to a certain man very dear to him, being accustomed to talk with him more secretly, neither fully awake nor altogether asleep, by St. Firmin he sees a certain man standing by him, of middle age and stature, with a long beard, bright with flaming eyes, wrapped in a whiter gown, showing the appearance of an angelic countenance, carrying in his hands certain letters and a golden ring. While the venerable man hesitated about this — for he knew that very many had been deluded by the crafty serpent by phantasmal illusion, — impressing upon himself the banner of the eternal King, he first addresses him with these words: "Proceed to disclose who you are, whence or from whom, and for what you have come." To this the elder, turning aside his venerable eyes a little and exceedingly rejoicing, answered: "Do not fear nor shudder, servant of God. I am not of the adverse party. But if you ask who I am, you can perceive it clearly from this, that, not shrinking from the mystery of the cross, nay embracing it, I burn to cling from the marrow to the triumphal sign. If whence, know that I have been sent from the throne throna B. of heavenly brightness. But if for what, receive what has pleased the most just Judge so V; conditori B.: that over the multitude of the people, which He snatched from the jaws of leviathan by the price of blood paid, I have now appointed you pastor, to be betrothed with this golden ring, and also to be raised to the pontifical chair." To which again Godfrey said: "Although, satisfying omits B. me in many things [satisfeceris mihi et V, from Gielemans's emendation, as it seems; for Nicholas elsewhere used a similar syntax, for example below, p. 918 B, VIII; p. 920 E at the end.], I am not incredulous of your words, yet I beseech you earnestly that you set forth of what city I am to be pastor, and when the things which you prophesy are to be fulfilled." Then the elder, smiling, cries out: "O citizen of eternal peace, do not go on asking further. I have fulfilled the precept divinely enjoined on me; for the rest, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of His power. Eph. 6, 10. For the things which I have sung will be fulfilled in their time." These things said, in a moment he is snatched from the eyes of the beholder. Soon the venerable man, turning to the right, sees a certain hall of wonderful beauty and size, placed not far off; entering which, he beholds a multitude of men clothed in white on this side and that. When all, rising reverently to him, their eyes cast down to the depths, suppliantly besought him to deign to bless them, he, somewhat stupefied both by the brightness of the light and by the unexpected event of the multitude, impressing the sign of the cross upon himself, asks who they were and why they offered such things. it had been foretold to him, To which they cry out: "O venerable father, let not what is said seem strange to you. For know that the sentence has already proceeded from that unchangeable counsel of the Creator of all, that you will soon be a prelate, that you are to be ordained pastor over our fellow citizens and companions, that you will rule the sheep of God's pasture with the rod of equity, and that you will lead them thither whence the first-formed fell." Ps. 73, 1, Hebr. 1, 8 While they were going on with these and similar things in this manner, the venerable man, raising his eyes, sees in the higher part of the palace a certain man sitting on a lofty throne, of a lightning-like countenance and showing the glory of a raiment flashing beyond what can be comprehended. When he feared to approach him, he, with outstretched hand, beckons, commands, that he not delay to come near. And when, called, he was present nearer and desired to fling himself at his feet, the elder, preventing him, converses with him in these words: "Receive diligently, servant of God, what I say, and remember to keep it in continual memory. Lo, I am the first prelate and unconquered witness of a certain city of the region of Gaul, who, imitating the pious example of the supreme and true Pastor, exposed my own body to innumerable injuries even to the shedding of blood, and for this very thing, as you yourself are able to perceive, I have now been given the garland certo B. of immortality. This, then, I now commit to you under the testimony of Christ, this I consign again to your custody; take care to preside diligently over this see in our stead, by our authority, nay trusting in the will of God, as a faithful steward, that you may merit to be set over all His goods in the day of retribution, and so to be faithfully associated to our company." When, however, the venerable man received all these things with faithful ear, and busied himself to learn his name and that of the city committed to him, he by no means prevailed to incline his mind to these things, by no means to extort this from his mouth. And so, waking from sleep at these words and exceedingly wondering at the vision, he kept the matter silently in his mind, believing that what Christ promises He is able also to do. These things, then, I learned from the report of the reverend Andrew, a monk of that monastery of Nogent, who also held the government of that place for some years, third after this Godfrey of ours who is to be proclaimed He had already died by the year 1138. Cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 607 D., and who affirmed that he had heard all these things from his mouth, as they are written, quite often calling the faith of Christ to witness.

[29] by the people of Amiens So Gervin, bishop of Amiens, a man not of very sound mind [Abbot Hariulf most sharply criticizes and accuses Gervin in the Chronicle of Centula, book IV, c. 36 (ed. F. Lot, 1894, p. 274 – 84). Whoever wishes to estimate these things justly and fairly must remember that Hariulf bore a most hostile mind toward Gervin.], certain misfortunes rushing upon him, left his own see entirely [Hariulf, place cited (p. 282 – 83): His means failing and all the clerics aspiring to insult him, he was compelled to leave his see, and, without the clergy or people knowing, withdrew to Tours, to Marmoutier, where … he survived a few months and departed from this life on the 4th of the Ides of January.], and so the church of Christ remained for some time widowed of a pastor [As Guibert of Nogent teaches, De vita sua, II, 2: The pontificate of Amiens at that time had been vacant for almost two years. Since, therefore, Godfrey was elected bishop before the month of April of the year 1104, it seems that Gervin withdrew from Amiens in the year 1102 and died on 10 January 1103 (cf. annot. 3).]. The people of Amiens, therefore, fearing that if they remained as sons of Belial, that is, without a yoke, they might fall into worse things, and at the same time considering that the pontifical chair could by no means stand firm without a ruler, then the clergy, the nobles and the rest of the common band, deciding that this business was to be accomplished from the supreme Pastor by fasts, Iudic. 19, 22. a bishop is sought, works of mercy and at B. prayers, a universal fast is proclaimed not only within the walls of the city but also in all the borders of the whole diocese of the city Cf. above, p. 915 B: throughout all the borders of the diocese of the city.. To them, worthily asking, seeking, knocking, Mercy itself, opening the door of its clemency, destines to them from its inner chambers a shining vessel of grace, filled with the oil of gladness, namely the lord Godfrey, patron of the monastery of Nogent. Matth. 7, 7. That venerable father was indeed the good odour of Christ in every place; whence also the repute of his goodness, like most precious spices, had spread, under Christ's auspices, into those parts. II Cor. 2, 15. When, then, as has already been said, the whole people was devoutly celebrating litanies for a pastor, admonished by divine inspiration, with one voice and unanimous opinion they elect Godfrey, abbot of Nogent, as their pontiff. They, not content with their own authority, declare so great and such an election to Philip, king of the Franks. Hearing this, the glorious prince renders manifold praises to Christ; for the same man, on account of the reverence of his holiness, was most dear and most familiar to him; whom he was also planning, Christ consenting, to raise to the summit of the prelacy when an opportune time should intervene. And he, rejoicing with them and kindly favouring their petitions, commands in royal manner that the divine offices be carried out speedily in him.

[30] and in the council of Troyes he is appointed against his will. In those days Richard, cardinal and legate of the apostolic see [Bishop of Albano after 20 November 1100, apostolic legate in Gaul from the year 1102. On whom cf. Brial, in Histoire litteraire de la France, vol. XIII (1814), p. 24 – 28.], had summoned to Troyes in Burgundy a very great assembly of bishops, abbots of both professions and nobles of the Gauls [At the beginning of the month of April in the year 1104. Cf. above, p. 896, at this year.]. Thither the envoys of the people of Amiens fly, leap into the midst, complain that they have been bereaved of their own pastor, and set forth declamatorily the unanimous opinion of the people and also the royal permission concerning the election of the lord Godfrey. Hearing this, all who had known him both by face and by deed render innumerable thanks to God. Meanwhile the servant of Christ Godfrey, hiding among the others, was seeking a way of flight; but, intercepted by those standing round, at the command of the pontiffs and the cardinal he is set in the midst. Seeing him, they cry out together that he is a worthy minister of the church of Christ, a vigorous steward; that blessed will be the people to whom it has been granted to have such a patron; and, as is reported, their voices mingled with the heavenly spirits, they jubilate in common, in manifold manner, the Te Deum laudamus. Thence the servant of God returns to Nogent, awaiting, expecting Cf. above, p. 915, annot. 3. there Manasses, prelate of Reims, the minister of his consecration. Meanwhile the fame of so happy a deed is spread round about, and it is proclaimed everywhere that Godfrey is now to take up the prelacy. From this, however, a huge grief arises in the breasts of all who, delighted by his presence, considered that they would soon be deprived of it.

[31] Buried first In the village which is called Guni Guny., which is distant almost two miles from Coucy, there lived at that time a certain matron, named Emma, namely the maternal aunt of Ado and his other brothers. This woman spent her life in all chastity, a nourisher of orphans and widows. She covered the naked with clothing, came to the help of the sick, and toiled piously at the other works of the practical life. She ran together quite often to the church of the blessed Mother of God and perpetual Virgin at Nogent; which she also decently illumined with the brightness of lamps lignorum B. and candles; on which also she conferred very many gifts from her own revenues. Learning, then, that Godfrey was being promoted to the summit of the pontificate, she makes for Nogent at a quick pace, diligently inquires whether the things were true which

report was bringing. a pious matron, his disciple, For she was led by an exceeding affection of pious heart toward him, formed by whose address and example she eagerly carried out the things which we have touched upon concerning her. But when she learned without doubt that the matter stood so, falling to the ground as if lifeless, she prays the Creator of all that Godfrey should not leave that place before he had committed her little body to burial. A wonderful thing: sickness followed her voice, and death the sickness. And indeed she was at once seized by a sharp fever, and, the sickness growing stronger, lying on her little bed, she was anointed with oil by the same father, and, receiving the Lord's sacraments from his hand, in a wonderful manner, glad and exulting that she had merited to be heard, she put off the human, and her little body was buried with honour, as was fitting, in the cloister by the same servant of God.

[32] He is consecrated pontiff at Reims. When, then, Archbishop Manasses had returned, the nobles of the people of Amiens come to Nogent and with great favour conduct the lord Godfrey to Reims, so that he might be enthroned there according to the custom of the province. There is a very great concourse of the pontiffs of the whole region, among whom the prelates of pious memory Lambert of the Atrebates 1093 – 1115. and also John of the Morini [1099 – 1130. On whom cf. Act. SS., Jan. vol. II, p. 794 – 806; BHL. 4439. He is venerated on the 27th of January.], distinguished in wisdom and knowledge, celebrated for religion and holiness, the strength and bases of the bride of Christ, served this servant of God before all with a special homage of devotion. With how great purity of mind, humility of body and fountain of tears he approached the anointing of the sacred chrism cannot be comprehended by the sharpness of human understanding, much less unfolded by the expression of an uncultivated style. For he knew that, even if it is a great honour, it is nevertheless also a heavy weight, because, as Scripture attests, the mighty shall suffer torments mightily, and a stronger torment presses upon the stronger, unless they have striven to fulfil soberly, piously and justly the ministry entrusted to them. Sap. 6, 7 and 9, Tit. 2, 12. The oil of the most holy blessing, then, is poured upon the head of Godfrey, and, as the custom of the ecclesiastical rite requires, he is invested with the priestly vestments. And when, according to custom, the book of the Gospels placed upon his head was opened, at the first chapter is found: Elizabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son. Luc. 1, 57. Hearing this, all who stood by in suspense jubilate for a very long time to God the Saviour of all, and proclaim him in this respect very like him of whom the Truth says that among those born of women none has risen greater than he. Matth. 11, 11. For they recalled that his mother was Elizabeth, and that he too was procreated by divine counsel from a barren and aged parent to give knowledge of salvation to His people, and they proclaim that this man's mother, called by the same name, and remaining barren already for ten years and declining into old age, had by prayers and works of mercy been promised to the Catholic church as by a divine oracle. Luc. 1, 77. They declared too that he, filled with the grace of God, had been appointed for this very purpose by the will of God, that he should make level the rough road for His coming. It seemed truly fitting to the divine graciousness to show to the earth-born, with so happy an omen, the life of His servant well pleasing to Him, who, entering the sheepfold of the sheep by the door and not otherwise, strove to instruct them by word that they should sincerely hear the voice of Christ and not of strangers, and to form them by the example of pious conduct that they should busy themselves to reach as soon as possible the heavenly court of the angels. Ioh. 10, 1 – 5. Here ends the first book.

Here begin the chapters of the second book.

I. From here are unfolded the things which he did in the episcopate. II. How he came to Amiens. III. That he was not lifted up into pride, and how devoted he was toward the needy. IV. A commemoration of honey-flowing piety. V. Of the fish which he gave to the lepers. VI. That he dedicated the oratory of St. Thomas, first without a teacher. VII. How devoutly he celebrated the most holy mysteries of the Mass. VIII. That, as he kept infamous or married clerics from the choir, a woman sent him poison. IX. Of the conflict which he had with the monks of Saint-Valery. X. He returns to Amiens, complains of the monks. XI. The monks compose false privileges and go to Reims. XII. That he undertook a very great labour on account of this. XIII. That he gave his garment to a poor little woman. XIV. The monks hasten to Rome, and what they did there. XV. How Godfrey entered Rome. XVI. The pope wonders at his freedom of speech; he desires to know who he is. XVII. That he went to Bari for the sake of prayer. XVIII. That to him [us] the prelate sent, for a blessing, in a flask, the oil flowing from the body of St. Nicholas. XIX. That the flask, falling into the sea, could be neither broken nor sunk, but was restored unharmed to Godfrey. XX. He reports the recovery of the little flask to the prelate, and again makes for Rome. XXI. That, having received the apostolic blessing, he returns home. XXII. That, staying in the parts of Apulia, he was called Herveus by the companions of his journey. XXIII. Of the woman who saw Satan in the likeness of a certain religious man. XXIV. That he brought back with him the ring of St. Honoratus. XXV. He goes to a woman placed in reclusion. XXVI. That in his time he translated the body of the holy martyr Firmin. XXVII. A miracle which happened on that day. XXVIII. That he translated the body of St. Salvius. XXIX. That, having entered the court of Count Robert, he performed illustrious things. XXX. That, taking Adam with him, he was circumvented by Wermund, captured before his eyes, and thrust into prison. XXXI. That on account of this he laid the bodies of the saints down on the ground. XXXII. A pious commemoration of his virtue. XXXIII. Of two little men whom he kept with him. XXXIV. That, finding them fulfilling works of mercy, he asks that God be entreated for him. XXXV. Godfrey exhorts Godfrey to go barefoot to Picquigny.

〈BOOK TWO.〉

[1] Made bishop, Thus far we have culled the last of the things which Godfrey, the precious odour of Christ, wrought as a monk, adding nothing from outside but what we have learned, as we have already said, by the confirmed report of faithful men. Wherefore, lest we should incur the mark of falsehood, we have expressed the simple sense of the history rather than the trappings of words of the learned, taking precaution also against this very thing on account of the disgust of the hearers. For each is worthily defamed with the crime of falsehood, both he who tries craftily to withdraw the true deeds of the pious, and he who strives in any way to insert fallacies. For neither do the deeds of the just need this, that they be established in the ears of mortals by inventions or the cosmetics of eloquence, as if by this very thing they could be either increased or diminished, whose Judge is in heaven and Witness on high, and who makes those who confess Him before the Father and before the angels recline with Him, adorned with glory and honour, in the kingdom of the Begetter. Cf. Iob 16, 20. Now, therefore, running back to Godfrey, let us gird ourselves, under Christ's auspices, for the things which he did in the episcopate.

[2] So Godfrey, anointed with the ointment which ran down from the head into the beard of Aaron and which ran down to the skirt of his garment, departs from the city of Reims. Ps. 132, 2. Thence, when he was approaching the see he had received, after he came to Amiens, report running ahead, the whole city rushes in haste to meet him, to receive its own patron. When he had come to the church of St. Acheul the martyr, situated outside the walls of the city, leaping down from his beast to the ground, along a very rough and horrid road, planted with flints and rocks, the prelates, namely Lambert and John, flanking him on each side, carrying the book of the Gospel reverently on his breast, beating his breast with frequent sobs, he proceeds barefoot to the church of blessed Firmin the martyr, all looking on. Thence he steeped abundantly with the pasture of the word of God the flock entrusted to him by the supreme Pastor. At this matter there were plainly present very many grammarians, rhetors, orators, many also who afterwards were made prelates, abbots and rulers of the Catholic mother church; who declared together to one another that they had never perceived from anyone's mouth things so divine, so mystical, so profound as from him then, and, as the truth of the matter compelled, they confessed that he was truly the organ of the Holy Spirit.

[3] the highest humility toward all And so Godfrey, set in the pontifical chair, and confirmed by Christ as the first leader on the holy mountain, namely the orthodox church, was made a spectacle to angels and men. I Cor. 4, 9. Following the pious footsteps of the Saviour, he tried to do something rather than to say it, so that, while his tongue was silent, his life, deservedly to be proclaimed by the wishes of the faithful, cried out whither his subjects ought without intermission to look or tend. Ps. 130, 1. By no means was his heart exalted by this, nor were his eyes lifted up; he did not walk in great things or in wonderful things above himself. Ps. 83, 8. But what? He made himself equal, nay lowest, to those who do right, made the first of the little ones of Jesus Christ, growing from virtue to virtue, until, the wall of the flesh broken through, he should merit to behold more freely Him who penetrates, namely the God of gods, in Sion. Ps. 83, 8. He did not delight in the adornment of pompous garments, but was clothed in the simple habit of a monk, namely the cowl, and over it an unambitious cloak. and charity, Daily he made thirteen poor men recline at his own table with him, washing their hands and feet and refreshing them abundantly with food, and, as a senator of the heavenly court, he truly served them most devoutly. For indeed his dwelling was seen as the palace not of a bishop but of Christ; bearing especially in his mind the solicitude for orphans, wards and the wretched, he abounded toward them with bowels of charity, and, according to the psalmist's precept, by snatching the needy man from the hand of those stronger than he, the poor and needy from those who plunder him, he laboured with all his efforts that he might merit to be counted among the gods or sons of the Most High. Ps. 34, 10. Whence also he was carped at by some venomous tongues; whom the servant of Christ, flying past them as rabid dogs with ear stopped, laid up treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches nor moth corrupts. Luc. 12, 33.

[4] I have learned besides from a certain intimate of his, a truthful and very reverend man, and set by the graciousness of Christ upon a lampstand in His house, which is the Church constitutus B., that in summer time, meeting the poor, whom many passed by with stopped noses, since, neither washed in baths nor clad again in changes of garments, they give off somewhat of stench, as the matter of frail flesh brings; these Godfrey certainly embraced and kissed, his benevolence poured out upon the poor, so that not only with honeyed addresses, but also with manifold alms he clemently relieved their want. Matth. 5, 15. These things indeed seem heavy to very many, and to innumerable people not to be borne, which Godfrey, accustomed, nay delighted, by the very habit of good, strenuously fulfilled. For indeed, as the poet truly and clearly sings: The jar, once steeped when new, will long keep the odour, he plainly, accustomed almost from his mother's womb itself to bear the sweet yoke of Christ and His light burden and to tame his flesh with very many sweats, could not fail to keep that with which he had once been steeped. HORAT. Epist. I, 2, 70, Matth. 11, 30.

[5] outstanding toward the wretched One day, then, a multitude of lepers entering Godfrey's court ask whither the pontiff himself had withdrawn. They learn from the dependants keeping watch in the forecourt of the house that in the church of Christ's martyr Firmin, according to custom, he was in prayers

was giving his effort. Following him at once, they await his happy coming out together with the other needy. For this was the custom of the blessed man, that, going out from the threshold of the church at the morning hour, he imparted with his own hand gifts of gold or silver to all the poor who met him. Scarcely ever did any needy man meet him who did not go away glad, having received alms or an agape, according to that edict of the Saviour: Give to everyone who asks potenti B. you. Luc. 6, 30. So Godfrey, coming out from the church, is surrounded by the band of lepers. They, trusting in his piety, as being most familiar -mo B. to them, cried out, in a manner commanding, or rather compelling him, that he should supply them with the necessities of food. They were so squalid with livid skin and running gore that the extreme of the face seemed covered under a single wound. Whence some turned their eyes away from the sight of them; for they could not look at them for excessive horror. These, then, the blessed man did not shrink from, but, greeting them most dutifully, with bowed head, he besought them to bless him. He was exceedingly distressed in mind, on the one hand because he had nothing in his hands to bestow on them, on the other because he was suffering them pressing upon him very greatly. At length, having summoned the steward of the house, he commands that an abundance of food be ministered to the needy without delay. But he, intent on other things, making light of the father's precept, gave it over to forgetfulness. Then, an interval as of three or four hours having passed, rushing in flocks before the doors of the prelate's house, having seized their cups [That is, hollow vessels within which little balls hung (the writer calls them knots); with these, as with castanets, the lepers warned men coming toward them of their presence.], from which knots hung, they resounded after their manner with a huge crash. Immediately Godfrey bursts out. Seeing him, they complain with what voices they could that they had been mocked by the steward. What, however, was he to do? For nothing of glittering money had remained in the chest; he shows liberality. for he had already distributed the rest for similar uses. Straitened at length, he seeks the kitchen with hasty proprio B before correction step, and, entering it then — which he had never entered from the time he had obtained the government, nor ever afterwards — true humility impelling him, nay unfeigned charity going before, he found a fish of wonderful size, which was being kept for the coming supper, which we commonly call a salmon. This, then, forgetful of the pontiff's mitre, placing it on his own shoulders — for it was of such enormity that it could be carried in the hands by no mortal, — this, I say, laying it before their feet, he said: "Receive this little gift of my littleness, and, mindful of me, when I shall have failed, deign to receive me into the eternal tabernacles. Luc. 16, 9." They, returning home and carrying the fish with them, proclaimed to all, the sincerity of the matter compelling them, that no mortal could be equalled with a man of so great piety. When, then, the steward had returned home, not finding the fish which he had ordered to be brought the day before, when he learned that the bishop had distributed it to the lepers, he, as is reported, kindled with infernal fury, bursting in where the venerable man was giving himself to reading, the demon supplying him more and more strength, belches a thousand insults against him, asserting that he was not a man of sound head who rooted out everything for I know not what uses; that now, even now, the treasury would be exhausted, and, unless he restrained himself from what he had begun, he would succumb to miserable beggary. Godfrey, therefore, not at all moved, as if satisfying him with a gentle address, said: "Is it fair that those who, redeemed at one price, given to drink of the blood of Christ, are to be presented with eternal blessedness, should be tormented by the want of hunger, and that for me, the least of little men, the luxury of delicious dishes should be reserved?" To this truly shrewd sophist that saying of the psalmist may rightly be fitted: He has dispersed, he has given to the poor, his justice remains for ever and ever. Ps. 111, 9. For indeed it is worthy that his justice should remain for ever, who had decided to distribute everything in the present for Him, so that he might be able to possess everything with Him perennially in the future. Ps. 110, 3; 118, 142.

[6] The rite of the dedication of a church, When, then, Godfrey had received the pontifical chair, a man of pious memory, Nicholas, abbot of the church of Blessed Peter of Corbie From at least the year 1096 to the year 1123., came to him, beseeching him to consecrate the oratory of St. Thomas the apostle built in the meadows of that same town. At once the priest clemently assented to his prayers. On the day appointed for the dedication, then, there is a very great concourse there of peoples of both sexes, men and women. The said father was present too together with his monks, and very many most skilled grammarians of the liberal arts. Now the blessed Godfrey had a tutor A writer of a more recent time would say "master of ceremonies"., named Gislebert, who was defamed by many. Him, then, he kept with him rather under the compulsion of necessity than willingly. For, needing to be steeped especially in the ecclesiastical rite, being as he still was a neophyte, he was being catechized by him in the rudiments of the priestly office. The same man perceived also that he was looked on with an oblique eye by the blessed man, by whom he was also quite frequently rebuked for levity of mind, infamy of morals and inconstancy of heart. Whence, exceedingly embittered, he contrived very many snares against him, by speaking against him and twisting all his doings into hypocrisy. the master of offices withdrawing himself, When, then, Godfrey had been invested before so great a throng of people, Gislebert, thinking he had found an apt time to do injury to the prelate, namely that he should be accused by all of sloth and ignorance if he should undertake it without the tutor, as if shut off by those standing round or hemmed in by the people, hiding among them, was absent. The priest, learning this, calls to memory that where human support is lacking, the divine must needs be present; trusting in the help of Christ, he ran through the ministry once begun — for His unction taught him concerning all things without the aid of flesh and blood, he carries out excellently. — so solemnly that all believed he had done nothing else from his youth, whereas indeed he himself too, wondering in a wonderful manner, had undertaken the very beginning of performing it.

[7] He celebrates Mass most piously daily. And since we have now made mention of the sacraments of the church, we think it worthy also of telling how devoutly in daily use he celebrated the most holy mysteries of the Mass. For we greatly fear lest perhaps we should be justly accused by those who knew him, if we keep silent where so great an abundance of things to be said is seen to have been present. When, then, the priest, clad in the vestments pertaining to that office, had gone forward to the altar, it is pious to commend to memory how, forestalled by the large gift of the Holy Spirit — for he did not receive the grace of God in vain, — he seemed in a manner to show forth in his very countenance the glory of angelic dignity. II Cor. 6, 1. For indeed, while immolating the sacrifice to almighty God Dei B., he did not allow his thought to flow away, but, not detained even by any wrapping of phantasms, transcending even himself, he contemplates with the eyes of faith the mystery of the incarnate Word of God, and at the same time the throng of the ministering blessed spirits; and so, resting with his whole body on the extreme joints of his feet, nowhere fixing his knees, nowhere his sides, nowhere bending his arms, so did his mouth speak out of the abundance of a clean heart, so was his voice believed to be consonant with his mind mente B., so was he consumed by the desire of inward things as a holocaust of most sweet odour, so was he abundantly drenched with a fountain of pious tears, that he could scarcely raise his voice, scarcely open his eyes. Matth. 12, 34. So, so, devout, he completed the mystery begun; so he laboured with all the efforts of his mind to persist clean at every hour in the sight of the Saviour and Judge, keeping his heart with all watchfulness. Iob 11, 4, Prov. 4, 23.

[8] A poisoned cup So illustrious and zealous a cultivator of holiness was he everywhere held that he manfully kept infamous clerics, or those joined in impure matrimony, not only from his company but also from so V; omits B. entrance into the choir. For this he was assailed most of all by them with insults, and, having suffered very many snares from those who laid them, he ran through all things eagerly with a manly mind, testifying to all that he would be blessed if he merited to be afflicted for justice's sake. sent by a shameless woman So the livid snake, who once made the first-formed without share exortem B. in the gift of the inmost light by offering through a woman the cups of death, so also tried to extinguish this most bright lamp of the people of Amiens through the same instrument, very well known to him, by such a trick of his cunning. A certain woman, the concubine of a certain cleric favouring the party of the faction, is kindled with a great fire of fury against Godfrey, because he dared to blame them for impurity, and, hastening to set his part speedily among the dead, one day she sent him, as if for a guest-gift, a cup infected with nectarous roots, but with hellebore hidden within, most hostile to mortals. The servant of God, receiving it with thanksgiving and placing it before his eyes, gazes at it for a very long time. But what can holy men be ignorant of, who, knowing Christ, know all things? For indeed, His Spirit revealing it to him, he understood that a deadly poison lay hidden there. A little dog, then, accustomed to run about in the hall so V; aulea B., happened to be present. To it Godfrey held out a morsel of bread dipped in that deadly potion. What more? It took it, ate, went off, and, laying itself down to rest on the blessed man's little bed, obtained death together with sleep. He forbade all that anyone should touch it illum V., because the deadly poison reigned in it with all reins. When, then, black night had covered Olympus, one of the chamberlains, coming to the bed of the blessed man and seeing the little dog lying there, lifting it up by its little ears, thought it was pressed down by sleep. But when he understood that it was put to sleep by deep death, running together not without trepidation in haste to the bishop, he cries: "Lo, most blessed father, the little dog to which you held out the dipped bread, lo, I say, is stretched in cold death upon your bed. But if you yourself had touched what that most unspeakable woman sent, dispatched Cf. above, p. 915, annot. 3. to you a little before, no one doubts that, having experienced the same as the little dog, the people committed to you, now lacking its pastor, would repeat 'alas, alas' very frequently." Hearing this, Godfrey, giving thanks to the almighty Lord, said: "Did I not, little sons, did I not foretell that what you now see would come to pass? But lest anyone should believe that I was led by zeal or deceived by vainglory, I held out the poison to the little dog, so that, if not by words, at least by works you might believe. Now, therefore, together with me exalt the name of the Lord in the same, who, saving those who hope in Him from the snare of the hunters, makes them immune, as He wills. Ps. 33, 4, Ps. 16, 7, Ps. 90, 3." Having said this, he orders the vessel together with the death-bearing draught to be thrown into such a place where it could not be discovered by any mortal, even with the eye. With such things, then, Godfrey fought against the devil and against his satellites, which, the grace of Christ assisting, he pursued in triumph toward the prize of the heavenly calling. Philip. 3, 14.

[9] The monks of Saint-Valery At a certain time, while the prelate Godfrey was going through the diocese entrusted to him by God, he came to the monastery of blessed Walaric [Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme. On the narrative which follows (c. 9 – 24) cf. Prelim. Comm., § II.]. This

the monks, together with their father, named Lambert [To Lambert, abbot of the monastery of Saint-Valery, were given the letters of Paschal II on which above, p. 897, at the year 1106, Mar. 12.], having learned, contending with Godfrey over the exemption of their monastery, hasten in haste into the crypt where the man of God had sat down; they ask for what reason he had come. To whom Godfrey said: "These presbyters" — for he was surrounded by a band of them — "far removed from the city of Amiens, supplicate my littleness that I should consecrate and bless according to ecclesiastical custom the chalices, or the linens or corporals (v. c.) c. v. B., in which the mysteries of the Lord's body are performed." At this they, kindled with great fury, so that they scarcely restrained their hands from injury to him, roar together with savage voices: "Never here has the prelate of Amiens fulfilled the office of any consecration or blessing." When Quod B. Godfrey considered most keenly that they were gnashing at him, wishing to soothe with a mild address the bile with which they were swelling, he said: "It is permitted to all bishops everywhere to bless the vessels of the Lord's ministry, catechumens a word is missing, as it seems, baptizare., or to do some such thing. What, then, is permitted to all everywhere, is it not permitted to me to perform here?" And so, yielding for the time to envy, rising from the place where he had sat, weeping, he repeats "alas," that the house of prayer had been made a den of a robber. Matth. 21, 13. For at that time that church seemed overgrown with a sevenfold dominion of vices, which, however, now changed for the better by the change of the right hand of the Most High, stands forth as a mirror of all religion in those parts. Ps. 76, 11.

[10] after, victors at Amiens, So Godfrey, going forth from there, returns to Amiens, and, having called the clerics together into one, discloses that the monks of the monastery of Saint-Valery were boasting that they were free from subjection to the church of Amiens, and that for this reason he had been driven from the place with great dishonour. And soon, letters having been sent, he summoned the aforesaid abbot thither. So they came to Amiens. But whom does dire cupidity not bind with the heaviest chains? For very many, having received didrachms of silver from the abbot himself, favouring especially the party of the monks, fought most sharply against the father of the household and against the mother church. II Mach 10, 20. Godfrey, seeing this with a sharp eye, decides that the matter must be published in the presence of the lord Manasses, archimandrite of Reims. And so they departed from the place.

[11] defeated at Reims, Meanwhile the monks, forging frivolous privileges and sealing them falsely in the name of a certain Roman prelate [These are perhaps the doubtful letters of Pope Benedict VII, on which above, p. 894, no. 16.], come to Reims with a great throng. A very great assembly of the leading men of the region of Gaul was being celebrated there; the venerable pontiff of the people of Amiens, Godfrey, was also present. So the father of the often-mentioned monastery, together with the monks of his charge, leaping into the midst, complains that he is being afflicted most unjustly by the prelate of the church of Amiens, at the same time bringing forth the privileges which, as we have already said, he had a little before forged for himself according to his wish, by which it was declared that he ought to be subject to no mortal except the Roman prelate alone. When these had been read through at the archprelate's command, suddenly a huge din arises against Godfrey from the unbound very doubtfully I have written; invictis B., or from those who in (ī) B. had already been corrupted by the appearance of flourishing gold. For they belched such things: "Desist, O most holy prelate, O dove without gall, from persecuting the innocent monks, you who formerly were zealous to love even enemies; nor let the mitre or a higher grade drive you to this, unless it is nothing wonderful or new if honours change morals." While, then, they tore the illustrious man with these and innumerable other reproaches of derision and serpentine bites, in their midst, like a lamb among wolves, with the countenance of a dove, as he was in spirit too, he stood unmoved. Luc. 10, 3. Silence having been made, then, at the nod of the presiding archimandrite, Godfrey, not sufficiently believing their words, demands that the writings be given him to inspect. And while he searched them with a keener sharpness of heart, rubbing them lightly on the top with the garment in which he was clothed [Recent writers have interpreted this in various ways, some so as to confirm the fraud of the monks (for example, that they had sprinkled the recent parchment with dust, to make it appear older, which was wiped off by Godfrey), others so as to show that the writer of the Life feigned false and unlikely things (for example, that Nicholas means that the ink was so recent that the bishop spread it out by applying his cloak).], and tracking down the concealed fraud, he said: "Lo, most skilled and scholarly men, bring your eyes here more diligently. Lo the old parchment, the ink or the writing very recently forged, and not sealed in the Roman manner. These I plainly judge must be refuted and wholly all rejected." When all, vying with one another, fixed the sharpness of their eyes there, proving that the things which were said by the prudent Godfrey were in every way true, those who a little before had gnawed at him with canine mouth, unable to resist open reason, wondered at his prudence, venerated the man, and with raised voices extolled him on high even to the heavens. From this the monks, exceedingly astounded and deservedly confused with blushing, they took refuge at Rome, not knowing by which side to escape, appealing to the dignity of the apostolic see, turn their journey thither swiftly.

[12] the saint sets out for the same place; The venerable man, therefore, since he had decided to suffer all adversities for justice's sake, does not delay to follow them. For indeed he greatly feared lest the church of Christ, over which he presided in His stead, should at some time lose something of its right, his own sloth intervening. So in his retinue there were very many reverend heroes, who afterwards, Christ consenting, were appointed rulers of His bride. When, then, they had come from there to the wild Apennine, he bids his companions go before him; for in riding there was in him a custom to be proclaimed, that he commanded his companions to go before him or to follow, nor did he suffer anyone to approach nearer to him, lest perhaps idle or harmful speech should come in; but, intent on psalms and sacred meditations, groaning, he recalled that he was a stranger and a pilgrim from the heavenly ones. Ps. 38, 13.

[13] who on the journey When, then, he had for the greatest part traversed the vaults of the Alps, by a narrow and horrid path covered with ice and snows, hearing there someone's very faint groaning, he halted, and, pricking up his ears and turning his eyes round more diligently, he found a certain poor little woman who had suffered shipwreck in those very snows and, the sinews of her limbs contracted by excessive frost, was drawing her last breath between her teeth. Seeing her, almost wholly flowing away in tears and grieving exceedingly with the pious affection of his heart at her misery, he repeats: "Woe to me, the last of all mortals, that, unrolling the journey begun with so pompous a retinue, arrogating to myself as special what nature provides as common, I both use superfluously the abundances of fleeting life, and this poor little woman is tormented beyond measure, lacking, alas, even thin clothing. he bestows his garment on a poor woman." Immediately the honey-sweet Godfrey, pulling off from himself in his piety the garment in which he was clothed, so that he was seen almost naked, gave it to her like another Martin, and so, her limbs gradually growing warm again, he restored her to the road. At length he follows his companions. And when he had now reached them, almost dissolved by the harsh straitness of the cold, they, greatly astonished — for he stood before them trembling, covered only with his hair-shirt and cowl, — ask where he had left his garment. To whom he, busying himself in every way to hide what he had done, protests that, weighed down by a great bundle before him, he could by no means reach the ridges of the mountain, that he had laid up his garment in a safe place, to be repaired for him anew by the large mercy of Christ. Saying this, soberly hiding what he had done, he truly declared wisely, namely that no one weighed down by the weight of riches can climb the holy mountain of God, and that he and the others, assiduous in works of mercy solely with regard to eternal recompense, truly receive a hundredfold, as He Himself promises. Cf. Matth. 19, 29.

[14] When the monks had won their case at Rome, So the monks, arriving at Rome, having paid out gold or silver very profusely, return home glad and eager, having obtained everything according to their wish from the Roman pontiff [In fact, by letters given, on which above, p. 897, at the year 1106, Mar. 12, the Roman pontiff adjudged the case to them.], and, entering the borders of the people of Amiens, with a huge roar and a lifted cackle they say: "Lo, free from the dominion of the prelate Godfrey, we have returned unharmed to our country. He himself, however, lives an exile in a foreign region. For know that for this very thing he has lost his prelacy and has fallen into the pit which he opened for us." Ps. 7, 16. Hearing this, the people began to fear and to be suffused in the face with blushing.

[15] Godfrey, about his repulse Godfrey, having entered Rome, devoutly sought the thresholds of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, and then went to the presence of Pope Paschal. The sons of Romulus at once crowd round him, profess that they will be fortunate and happy; for they hoped to receive from him diverse weights of treasures. But Godfrey, who did not trust in man nor make flesh his arm, so that his heart should depart from the Lord, declares simply, without colouring of words, without promise of talents, for what reason he had undertaken so great a labour. Ier. 17, 5. When he had finished speaking, his words were vehemently attacked by those standing round; they said that the monks were being unjustly harassed by him — for they considered that they could obtain no profit from him, — and therefore denied that he had a just cause. And so, destitute indeed of human but not of divine assistance — for he knew how to persist square and the same in all things, he knew also that all who desire cupientibus B before correction to live piously in Christ suffer persecution, — making light of all slipping things with great loftiness of mind, having complained sharply to Pope Paschal II, he cries out: "O pastor of the orthodox mother church, for this Christ willed you to preside in His place, that you should distinguish light from darkness, the true from the false; for indeed, as the members are ruled by the head and the faults of the limbs are corrected at its nod, so by you not only the unhappy act of all, but also the thought, must be repressed, and, lest it be able in any way to prevail, must be cut out by the roots as far as possible. II Tim. 3, 12. But, alas, since I now see the fair and right confounded and, as the poet sings, the just man sometimes suffering the crime of the unjust by the hidden judgement of Christ, I judge it more just and more fitting that I, deprived of my office, should live in some way or other, than that the church of Amiens, entrusted to me by the heavenly Judge, should so unjustly lose its right and law while I exist as prelate of whatever kind." BOET. Cons. phil. I, metr. 5, 35. Having said this, he sets out for Bari, bidding him farewell, he went at a quickened pace, with fervent panting of mind, to the city of Bari, to visit the honey-flowing limbs of the glorious confessor of Christ Nicholas [Most celebrated was certainly then the fame of St. Nicholas, whose body many and much-read booklets narrated had been translated to Bari thirty years before, in the year, I say, 1087. Cf. BHL. 6179 – 6195.].

[16] the pope meanwhile repenting When he had gone out, Pope Paschal inquires more diligently of what merit or of what authority Godfrey was, who had so freely spoken out to the full the logoi, that is, words of reason. And so, since, according to the voice of truth, a city cannot

be hidden that is set upon a mountain, Godfrey, beloved of God, who by the proclamation of his holiness was held famous by almost all through the places on this side of the Apennine Alps, from this became most distinguished also to the city of Romulus. Matth. 5, 14. For the sons of Romulus who stood by, having been questioned about the man's life, who had formerly learned his morals in part [quā adds the first hand in the margin. Something is missing; perhaps you may conjecture: tam 〈fama〉 quam experimento.] as † by experience, report to the pope in order that from the cradle he was delivered over to ecclesiastical disciplines, that, growing in virtues from grade to grade, he was advanced by pious works first to the office of abbot, then justly and piously to the summit of the pontificate, that he was endowed with religion, that he was to be preferred to all priests for the merit of his life, that he was a nourisher of widows and most zealous for the poor, that he was very well known to the most powerful men of the Gauls, that he was most dear to almost all, and that he was filled with all charisms. that he had not received the saint well. At once the priest began to beat his breast heavily, to draw very frequent sobs from the depths, he confesses that he had acted foolishly and very unwisely in having lightly embittered such and so great a man even for a moment, in not having received him with great favour, in not having willingly complied with his wishes in all things. He therefore commands his most familiar men that, if ever Godfrey should return, he should be set in his presence as quickly as possible.

[17] At Bari Godfrey venerates the relics of St. Nicholas So the holy Godfrey, having entered the city of the people of Bari, flings himself before the mausoleum of the illustrious confessor, glorious in miracles, and prelate of the Greeks, Nicholas, and lingers there a very long time with a shower of tears. On the morrow, crowned with the golden ring, the mitre and the other priestly vestments, he performed most devoutly and solemnly the most holy solemnities of the Mass upon those very oil-bearing limbs.

[18] and from the bishop of Bari Then the archbishop of the place, considering that Godfrey, of constant and unchangeable mind, surpassed all pontiffs, wonders at him beyond what can be said. For the prelates of the region of Gaul and of the other provinces, coming into those parts, lest they should be detected, taking the habit of little servants or jesters, laboured in every way to hide what they were; but Godfrey, shrinking neither from the length of the pilgrim journey nor from the ferocity of the barbarian nation, nowhere changed his habit, nor studied to hide what he was. For indeed, like a lion confident without terror, he reckoned all men his friends, because he desired to harm no one. Prov. 28, 1. The prelate, then, seeing all these things, as has already been said, persisting in blessed Godfrey, embraces the man from the marrow with the eye of faithful mind, and, inclining his mind most of all to love of him, proclaims unfeignedly that he is to be cultivated before all mortals. the oil flowing from the same He himself too, bestowing most dutifully very many services of humanity on his companions, at the last solemnly sent, with a great throng, according to ecclesiastical custom, to the lodging where he was staying, as a blessing, the oil which exudes from the most holy body of the precious prelate Nicholas, in a glass flask. enclosed in a flask he receives; Godfrey, receiving it with great devotion and a huge fear of veneration, embracing it more dearly and weighing it more worthily than refined topaz or a precious pearl, devoutly rendered manifold measures of praises to almighty God and His servant Nicholas, that he had merited such and so great gifts from his members. Hanging it also from his neck, he judged it, with believing faith, an impregnable defence against the wiles of all who attack.

[19] which, having fallen into the sea, When he had thus gone round the places of the saints for the sake of visiting them, having mounted their horses, together with his companions he enters the harbour of the sea where report said that the body of blessed Nicholas had been brought to shore by ship. For the place is so convenient that between the ships, which are made fast there by casting anchors, it can be crossed without shipwreck or any misfortune intervening. Walking about there, then, he watches for a long time the fishermen 〈drawing I have thought it should be supplied.〉 to the shore nets filled with a density of fish, when meanwhile, putting his hand to his breast and not finding the flask, as if made lifeless, he was affected with exceeding grief. His companions, seeing him so stupefied, ask what chance of so sudden a grief had befallen. Then, tears springing forth, weeping most abundantly, he cries: "Woe to me, unhappy one, that, frustrated of so great a help, destitute of such a patronage, I have not merited to enjoy for long the blessing granted by God. For know that the little flask sent to me yesterday by the prelate, through carelessness, nay my sins demanding it, has fallen into these waves, its little cord broken, and, unless the large graciousness of Christ Jesus be present, no place lies open for finding it. he recovers in a wonderful manner." He spoke, and, turning to the right, he sees it borne upon the wave like the lightest feather, whereas all recalled that it had been of so great a mass that, wonderful to say, you would have believed it showed the likeness not of glass but of marble, tin or bronze, or of any heavy metal. Who would believe that it reached the water unharmed? Who would not believe that it was trampled by the feet of the horses, or broken into a hundred pieces, as is said, by the pushing of ships or oars or even by collision with the steep rocks, which abound there most of all? This, then, Godfrey, the clemency of Christ supporting him, snatching it from the very waves with huge joy and looking at it diligently on every side, found sound and free from every trace of collision, as if it had fallen from a low place onto the softest cushions, so that neither was a little oil seen to have flowed out, nor the little linen with which the higher part of the boss is stopped to have fallen out. Hence joys were doubled, the power of Christ extolled, and the blessed name of His servant Nicholas declared the more. For this did not happen to the loss or blame of Godfrey, but so that it might be declared to all everywhere of what piety were the relics he carried with him.

[20] brought back to Rome Reporting these things one by one to the prelate of the city, going forth from there with great dancing, he is carried again to the city of Romulus. Soon, then, he is brought in by the courtiers into the presence of the universal bishop, namely the lord Paschal. He, rising reverently to him and kissing him with the greatest affection of piety, compels him to recline with him. Burning to test his prudence, foreknown by report, proposing many things both divine and worldly for unravelling, and things which seemed difficult to understand, he found him by no means unprepared.

[21] Paschal II adjudges the case against the monks. Paschal, therefore, seeing the summits of all prudence and piety abounding in Godfrey, supplicates him not to take it ill that the day before he had not been received, heard and heeded by him as a faithful steward of the house of God; let him know that a mind dispersed over innumerable things can by no means suffice for each one. Luc. 12, 42. It did not seem hard to Godfrey to forgive from his heart his neighbour who had offended against him. From then Paschal delivers to him letters marked with his seal, inserting among other things that the father of the monastery of blessed Walaric, together with the monks, should comply in all things with the prelate of Amiens as a father and pastor [That letters of this kind were by no means obtained by Godfrey we have warned above, p. 894 – 95, no. 17.]. Fortified, then, by apostolic authority and blessing at the same time, he was returning to Amiens and going back home as quickly as possible.

[22] [When in Italy, at the bidding of his companions, he had been called by another's name, Herveus,] While Godfrey was staying in Cisalpine Gaul, it seemed good to the companions of his journey that, his own name being changed, he should be called Herveus, so that, his own name being changed, his person also might be hidden. For the names of the rich, as a certain man says, are celebrated everywhere, and many, recognizing the man's name, detect also the person of the rich man. And therefore they greatly feared lest, if he were reckoned in foreign parts by his known name, they should incur some misfortune, lest they be deprived of their goods or life, the perfidy of the barbarian nation prompting. This the servant of Christ at first received hardly; but since he could not resist their will, he bore unwillingly the adulterine name falsely imposed on him, and yet wherever he turned aside for the sake of lodging, all proclaimed in a wonderful manner that he was a prelate. But what in the world is more cunning than the ancient serpent? What in the world more artful than his malignity and wiliness? who, keeping not only our harmful but also our idle things in continual memory, strives to accuse us in the sight of our God day and night.

[23] the devil abuses this matter There was, then, at that time in the soil of the people of Ponthieu Pontinorum B., at the castle which is called Domnus Medardus Domart-en-Ponthieu (dép. Somme, arr. Doulens)., a certain woman beloved of God, placed in reclusion. She, though she was afflicted with a grave paralysis, a lethargy of the body, so that she was seen to have lost entirely the capacity of standing, yet, invigorated by the strength of the spirit of the inner man, which is renewed in the fear of God, knowing not how to succumb to the enervation of vices, fought manfully against the incitements of the flesh. For fifty years and more, as report said, she persevered immovable in that place. To her the venerable prelate of Amiens, Godfrey, was accustomed to send a little barley meal. From this she, a little salt or green herbs added, sustained her failing limbs, plainly preferring this to delicious dishes of swimming creatures or quadrupeds. This so narrow arti B. a diet, then, was that of the blessed woman almost all her life. Through the whole space of time in which the man of God Godfrey lived in a foreign region or country, she most earnestly besought the Creator of all that he might merit to return home as soon as possible with safety and health; so much did the needy and those endowed with religion await his happy return into the city. To her, then, as she was praying one day and supplicating more ardently for this very thing, the cunning demon, who has a thousand arts of harming, appeared before her eyes in the likeness of a certain religious man; SULP. SEV. V. Martini 22. and he said to her: "About what do you sedulously beseech Christ, weeping so profusely?" To which she answered: "For my lord Godfrey, prelate of Amiens." To whom the wily demon: "The prelate of the people of Amiens is by no means called Godfrey now, but Herveus." On the contrary the woman: "Stop deceiving me any longer; for I know, and know well, the blessed man." Satan dared again to impress the same words of fallacy: to disturb a pious woman, greatly devoted to the saint. "As I see," he begins, "you are suffering forgetfulness 〈or I have added it, following what the writer himself has at III, 14.〉 lethargy. Therefore you do not know what you are saying. I have already told you, and I repeat this very thing again and again, that you should not go on further beseeching Christ for Bishop Godfrey, but for Herveus. For he is not now called Godfrey, but Herveus. Do you believe me? It is a wonder if you do not believe me, as one proclaiming true things to you." But she said: "As long as I shall live, I will beseech Jesus Christ for Godfrey, my pastor and patron, I will commend his body and soul to the passion of the only-begotten Son of God, that he may return home safe and with eagerness." To whom the demon at once: "Do you recognize me?" To which she, keeping silent a little, at length, the breath of Christ revealing it to her, understanding the wiles of Satan, breaks out in these words: "O artificer of all perversity, O rival of all piety, O persecutor of all sacred virtue, cease now from the harassment of the pious, by whose judgement you will be delivered into the fire of Gehenna. For, supported by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, I recognize who you are; in whose power I command you, unclean spirit, to depart as quickly as possible from my face." Then, indeed, like frosty before the ray of the sun

rime, split, perishes from the eyes of the beholders, so also this ancient petty king, not prevailing to bear the name of so great a majesty, nor able to resist the sign of the trophy of the eternal King, as if struck by lightning, fled howling from the sight of that religious woman with a great sound of terror.

[24] Which frauds of the demon, after he had returned to Amiens So Godfrey, passing through Italy, bringing back with him, a fitting price having been paid, the ring of the glorious confessor of Christ Honoratus, pontiff of Amiens, which Gervin his predecessor had sold in those parts [At least twice, in the years 1091 and 1093, Gervin made a journey into Italy to Pope Urban II.], returns to his own see. He having been solemnly received with rejoicing, the abbot of Saint-Valery is summoned again; Godfrey brings into the midst the letters delegated to him by the apostolic one, and, handing them to Simon, master and provost, commands them to be recited before the whole throng. When, then, they had come to the place where the lord Paschal enjoined the father of the monastery of blessed Walaric to comply in all things with the pontiff of the people of Amiens as with a father and pastor, and he brought the monks of Saint-Valery into his power, and when the abbot and monks charged that he was pronouncing otherwise than the writing stood, they too, reading it again, when they perceived that the things which had been recited by Simon were true, neither able nor daring to resist the edict of the Roman prelate, fling themselves at the feet of the blessed man, beg pardon for things done lightly; which they obtain by fitting satisfaction. And thus to this day the abbot of the aforesaid monastery is subject to the prelate of Amiens in all things with all obedience according to the custom of the ecclesiastical rite.

[25] he recognizes with great grief. From then, therefore, when Godfrey was going round his parish according to custom, to minister the pasture of the word of God to the sheep entrusted to him, or, if anything was being done too negligently about the ministry of divine worship, to reform it for the better, he came to the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, placed in reclusion for love of Him; for he supplied such persons with the necessities of food and most diligently filled their want from his abundance. Seeing him, she said: "Are you my lord Godfrey? Who, then, was he who was striving to blot you out from my memory and impudently to insert I know not what Herveus?" So, having begun, she puts it together, and relates in detail what and how great things she had borne from the wicked demon about this. Hearing this, Godfrey shudders exceedingly, and Herveus within himself recalls a little, with great grief, that she spoke the truth; at last, falling down to the ground and beating his breast with his fists for a very long time, he grieves greatly that he had yielded in any way for an hour to a feigned name. O blessed man, to be pursued with every proclamation of favour! For how could he burn in grave things, who examined himself so strictly, by so severe a sentence of examination, even in the lightest?

[26] the relics of St. Firmin Firmin, glorious martyr and first prelate of the people of Amiens, having completed the course of his happy contest and been buried in the same city, declares that he truly lives with Christ by imparting innumerable benefits to the inhabitants in caelis Surius reads.. One day, then, while the priest Godfrey was solemnly dispensing, according to custom, the seeds of the word of God to the flock committed to him, in the course of speaking, turning his eyes to the ashes of that same illustrious champion Firmin — for until then they were contained in a lowly urn [That the genuine relics of St. Firmin were laid up in it neither Nicholas doubted nor Godfrey. On the contrary Guibert of Nogent showed that he doubted vehemently, and, besides other things, adduced as a reason for doubting the things which had been narrated to him by his very predecessor Godfrey. So he, in that remarkable treatise On the relics of the saints, book I, c. 3, §2 (P. L., vol. CLVI, col. 625): Plainly my predecessor, the bishop of Amiens, when he was carrying out from one case into another the body of the martyr Firmin, as he thought, found in it no tag, not the testimony even of one letter as to who lay there. I heard what I relate from the bishops of Arras and of Amiens himself. For which reason the bishop of the city soon inscribed on a lead plate that Firmin, martyr, bishop of the people of Amiens, was laid there. Without delay the same thing is done in the monastery of Saint-Denis. A more ornate casket having been prepared by the abbot, while it is lifted out from there, while the head is unrolled with the members, a little parchment is found in the martyr's nostrils, in which it is set forth that he was Firmin, martyr of Amiens. Since, therefore, nothing supports the people of Amiens in so great a business, whereas for others, on the opposite side, testimonies of whatever kind supply at least a voice, let reason, I pray, sit to give judgement on the matter. Will not whatever was written by the lord bishop on the lead plate be rightly annulled, to which in that writing nothing at all bears witness? And certainly those of Saint-Denis mutter somehow at least, who are supported in some way at least by little letters, and so on. Whether Guibert judged rightly we do not inquire here, and we freely confess that the relics of Saint-Denis, even with that opportune little parchment found, are not sufficiently confirmed against the other reasons for doubting. But, setting aside this judgement itself, I should believe that Guibert brought forth true things, and I cannot agree with our Stilting, who inveighed more fervently than wisely against Guibert's narrative and against Guibert himself (Act. SS., Sept. vol. VII, p. 43 – 46). Godfrey thought that the relics of Firmin, martyr of Amiens, were kept at Amiens; no prudent man would say that he thought so imprudently for this sole reason, that no tag had been found in the casket. The rest, which seems obscure, does not belong to this place and pertains to those who inquire into the history and cult of St. Firmin.]: — "O little sons," he cries, "behold how much we are beholden and how much we are debtors to the blessed martyrs, by whose patronage we trust to be snatched in the present from the dangers that rush upon us, by whose suffrages to obtain heavenly things. laid up in a most beautiful case And therefore let us meanwhile be zealous to frequent their memory diligently in this valley of weeping, that they may deign to become mindful of us among the stars. Accordingly it has pleased the devotion of the faithful that basilicas should be built in their honour, their tombs covered with electrum, gold or silver, not because they need these things or are rendered more illustrious or more blessed thereby, but so that by such things the devotion of the faith and piety with which they burn toward them may appear. Considering, therefore, in how narrow a receptacle the limbs of blessed Firmin, prelate and martyr and our patron, are held, offer with ready wish of mind the form of glittering metal for fashioning a receptacle worthy of so great a martyr." These words said, a very great ardour of carrying it out was born in all. Hence you would see most bringing gold and silver out of their inner chambers, hence pushing bracelets, rings, earrings, vying with one another, from ears and fingers, some even sailing across the winding volumes of the sea, very many too seeking unknown regions of the earth with seething desire of mind, golden cloths or all-silk ones and great carpets being brought for adorning the basilica of that champion of Christ. So, the receptacle of the zealot of Christ having been elegantly completed, when the day came on which it had been decreed that the limbs of the precious martyr should be translated, he translates before an innumerable multitude. so infinite a multitude met that you would have thought the whole of Europe had flowed together there in a moment [Nicholas enlarges the matter after his manner both here and in the whole narrative, as when he affirms that, although that huge multitude had run together to the spectacle, scarcely a few people of Amiens were present at it. Whoever considers these things with an even mind will not be moved by the most sharp vituperation of the good d'Achery, by which he reproaches Nicholas that he composed all these things deliberately to deceive and to cloud the truth (Guiberti de Novigento opera, p. 566; P. L., vol. CLVI, col. 1027 – 29).]. The prelate Godfrey goes up with the other priests to where the heavenly treasure was kept and places all 〈of them〉 one by one, with huge trembling of mind, before the eyes of those standing round. The faithful people, seeing these things, paid with a very great shower of tears the offices of praise to Jesus Christ, that they had merited fuisset B. to behold the limbs of His unconquered witness. The servant of Christ Godfrey exhorts all to visit the places of the saints quite often, to pay faithful vows there, to commit themselves and their own to their protection, asserting that innumerable benefits come to the faithful from this. And so, blessing all, he released them each to go home with joy. From this pious spectacle almost all of the suburb of the city of Amiens were absent, some occupied with receiving guests and kinsfolk, others giving their effort to the market, all the nobles and leading men watching anxiously lest any tumult or sedition should arise in so great a multitude of people. These things, then, having been done, and each, as has been said, having departed home, the people of Amiens demanding that the relics be shown to them also, the citizens of Amiens, mingled with the rest of the multitude, meeting the prelate Godfrey, pray that he expose to their eyes the long-desired limbs of the martyr, namely of their pious patron. To whom the friend of God, not without great wonder, said: "Whither did you withdraw the day before yesterday, when I showed with my own hand the martyr's members to all who were present?" When all objected diverse things to him, and saw that his mind could not be bent to it, they complained together with tearful voices, going on in such words: "Lo," they say, "we shall be deprived of the sight of him, led by love of whom we have despoiled our treasury of gold and silver, have drawn earrings, rings and the other ornaments from the very fingers and ears of our wives or daughters, and, making light of the very light of life, have passed along with grave difficulty, in a frail vessel, the dangers of the sea, very often falling into the borders of death, and have reached the borders of barbarian nations, very frequently falling into the pit of death, have brought hither and thither with huge sweat hangings and the other insignia of ornaments for adorning the basilica of such a martyr, our bishop and patron. Shall we, then, who have suffered such and so great things for Firmin, be kept from contemplating his most holy ashes like heathen?" he complies While they were going on in these and similar words in this manner, Godfrey, being of most clement heart, is bent to their prayers, and decides to fulfil their desire on the day of the celebration of All Saints, a fast having been held beforehand.

[27] and so brings it about At that time a continual fog and dense mist had so covered that region that the globe of the sun was thought to have slipped from the sky. For, a space of twenty days and more having passed, it had withdrawn from all daylight, nor was it ever granted to mortals within so great a term of days to use its lamp. Whence the inhabitants of the region, conjecturing all dire things, exceedingly fearful, feared that something sad would happen to them. When, then, the solemnity of All Saints came, the dawn breaking the darkness, all, awakened, gather to the church of the martyr, awaiting the promise of the prelate Godfrey. And he, coming, orders the casket in which a little before he had laid up the limbs of the blessed martyr to be set down on the ground. It having been broken open, crowned with the pontifical vestments, barefoot, beating his breast with frequent sobs, approaching reverently — for in such things he was very fearful and devout, — pouring out the sacred limbs upon a purple cloth and pressing them to his breast, he stood in a higher place, where he could be seen by all. At length, after the solemn words of exhortation, he cries: "Lo, dearest ones, lo that over which your devotion long burned; lo, I say,

the sacred members or tomb of Firmin, witness of Christ and our protector." At this word the radiance of the sun, as it shines in its strength, lit up the whole space of the basilica; whereas, as has already been said, almost a whole month having elapsed, none of the inhabitants had been able to see even a thin trace of its ray. that serenity may be restored to the sky. Cf. Apoc. 1, 16. Exceedingly gladdened by this, they proclaimed such things: "Glory to you, Christ, unfailing light, who, rewarding your saints with the laurel of immortality in the heavens, deign worthily, for their merits, to work such and so great things through them on earth. We ask to be fortified by the prayers of Firmin, whose precious death has pleased you by evident signs." Declaiming these and very many things in the praises of Christ, they besought the servant of God Godfrey to place the martyr's right hand apart, so that they might more opportunely be able to see and kiss it when the advantage of the matter should demand. Which also was done. These things having been duly done, rendering innumerable thanks to Godfrey for such great benefits, they return home.

[28] He translates the relics of St. Salvius. The venerable prelate translated also the body of the most holy Salvius, confessor and pontiff of the people of Amiens, into the place where it is now venerated by the pious memory of the faithful, and the bodies of very many others Cf. above, p. 899, at the year 1111, June 11.. But when and how these things were done, under Christ's auspices, and what and how great things happened, the very Son of God and man declaring to the earth-born the merits of His servants, we have not rashly refrained from inserting into this little work, in order to avoid the disgust of readers or hearers.

[29] In the town of Saint-Omer It pleases me also to bring into the midst and to hand down to the memory of the faithful the humility of this servant of Christ and his continual conflict against the madness of the perverse, fortified by which two, as by a shield or a two-edged sword, on the one side he received providently and constantly the assaults of attackers and the darts of enemies, on the other he drove far off, as far as he could, the ferocity of the more savage wolves, lying in wait for the Lord's flock and never sparing except feignedly. Robert, count of the Flemings, most famous for worldly warfare and the pomp of treasures, and the foremost leader of the journey to Jerusalem, decided to keep the day of the Lord's nativity festively and solemnly at Saint-Omer In the year 1106, as it seems. Cf. above, p. 898.. There were present there dukes, counts and magnates of divers places and knights of the whole province, and also very many bishops of the region of Gaul; among whom also Godfrey, the prelate of pious memory. By him he was received most dutifully, and, leaving everything, he talked with him more secretly and for a longer time, as with a man of great authority, beseeching him among other things that on that most holy night, as ecclesiastical custom requires, he would offer the sacrifice to almighty God. Godfrey, receiving this humbly, he severely restrains the effeminate manners of certain men. devoutly carried it out. So after the reading of the holy Gospel, when all without distinction were hastening to the altar to offer their offerings, the renowned prelate Godfrey refused the offering of all who were seen unshorn of hair, without respect of persons, faces or garments, holding it unworthy to receive the gifts of those who, after the manner of little women, wore manes so V; iubar B. with hair on their necks. At this all, stupefied, ask with savage voices of what name or importance the priest was, who had dared such and so great things even when placed in foreign parts. 〈But [(At … reppulisset) These words, passed over in B by chance, we have supplied from the epitome V.] when they learned that he was Godfrey, prelate of the people of Amiens, and that he had refused them〉 because of the altogether omits B. unshorn state of their hair, wonderful to say, you would see very many vying with one another to cut off their tresses with swords or knives — for they lacked shears, — crying out that they were unhappy and wretched if they were deprived on that account of the blessing of so great a man; and with celebrated fame, not only in the count's hall but also in all the borders of the region of Gaul, the fame of this illustrious act, worthy of eternal memory, spread, namely that Godfrey, even when placed in foreign parts, had exercised upon the princes of this region what the other pontiffs, set in their own sees, neglect or cannot do even upon the least of little men. For this he was held reverend not only by the rest of the multitude, but also most of all by the count himself.

[30] Adam, castellan of Amiens So the prelate Godfrey was returning to his own city, taking in his retinue Adam, prince of that city [That is, lord of the Castillon of Amiens, of whom Guibert above, p. 903. Adam's son Adelelm, in letters given in the year 1151, calls himself the fourth prince of the city of Amiens (A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens, vol. I, p. 144), that is, as it seems (cf. ibid.), one of the four princes or lords (the other three were the bishop, the count and the vidame). The same Adam Abbot Suger, in the Life of King Louis VI, c. 23 (ed. A. Molinier, p. 83), calls a tyrant: (the king), having returned to the city of Amiens, besieged the tower of the same city of a certain tyrant Adam, who was plundering the churches and the whole neighbourhood. Although I confess that the matter is not clear, I should believe nevertheless that Adam himself is noted by our Nicholas below (book III, c. 21), where he speaks of Adelelm, tyrant of this city (cf. annot. to this place).]. When, then, he had entered his own borders, the same man, looking at the bishop, said: "Do you not know, venerable father, how great snares Guermund, vidame of the municipality of Picquigny [Picquigny (dép. Somme, arr. Amiens). Guermund was an inhabitant or lord of Picquigny, and vidame of the church of Amiens. On whom Abbot Guibert wrote shrewdly, the man's name not being brought forward, above, p. 904.], is contriving against me? For indeed, quarrelling with one another for many preceding years, we have fought with varying outcome of combat; but now it is well established to me that, if I am caught in any way, I shall either pay unheard-of kinds of punishments, or certainly be given over to be struck with the sword. Now, therefore, if it seems good to you, I will depart by another road; for, destitute of the help of my knights, if he comes to meet us, I shall by no means be able to resist his tyranny." At this Godfrey, exceedingly wondering, said: "Is he not mine as you are too? Did he not the day before promise me on oath, as his lord, that he would perennially keep honour and peace with pledged faith? I trust indeed in almighty God that, if he should come now surrounded by thousands of cohorts of knights, he would not dare even to bring forth a harsher word, much less to take you away from my side or company. But if, with changed face, he should not fear to commit so monstrous a crime and wickedness, I call Christ to witness that I will follow you chained, you bound by the hands, wherever the will of the tyrant shall take you. But whence so inept a speech? Drive all fear from your mind. So let us leave such things and unroll the journey begun. captured by Wermund, vidame of the church" While they were thus conferring with each other in alternate speech, behold the vidame, relying on a band of horsemen, the horses sweating, meets them; and having saluted the bishop, turning to the left, raging before them, he cries: "Are you Adam, always most hostile to me? O most unhappy of mortals! What unlucky omen has driven you hither, when it would be better for you to lead a private and slender life than to be intercepted with such a man? But what need of words?" What more? So, without reverence for so great a priest, he is thrust from his steed, thrown to the ground, assailed on this side and that with drawn swords. Seeing this, Godfrey, leaping from his horse and lying with his whole body over the wretched man, his throat stretched out, drenched with a shower of tears, said: "What inclemency, what insatiable rage, what dire Erinys, Guermund, has driven you to this, that before me, namely your lord, transgressing faith and right, you should make this attempt? Now, therefore, since I foresee that the last things are at hand, I stretch out my own neck to the lictor, if it pleases, I lay down my life for my Adam, provided that life be granted to him, that he be granted to return home." Seeing these things, all the companions of that journey, leaving him, flee hither and thither; for they expected that he had fallen together with Adam. Matth. 26, 56. At length the wretched man is lifted from the dust of the field, placed on a steed, brought in chains with huge dancing to Picquigny. Him the Godfrey who is to be proclaimed follows alone, weeping and wailing and tearing the hair from his sacred head, protesting that he was his betrayer and the author of so great an evil. They came, then, to Picquigny. All having been let in, the tyrant orders Godfrey to be kept off before the doors. From then, groaning more and more, destitute of all human help, complaining many things to himself, that he can by no means be freed by him he returns alone to Amiens. Then, calling together the clergy and the rest of the multitude, he reports all that had happened to him. Learning this, grief and huge confusion cloud the whole face of the city; on the one hand some bore more gravely the unexpected capture of their lord and the harsh custody, on the other hand others bore more gravely the injury of the prelate.

[31] Godfrey, grieving very greatly, So Godfrey sets the bodies of the saints Firmin and the others down to the ground, closes the churches of the province of the faithless vidame, and, striking him and all who favoured him, by mouth and hand, with the rod of anathema, delivers them to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. I Cor. 5, 5. From then Punic wars are waged most fiercely by both parties; on the one hand the depopulation of fields and plundering of villages, the overthrow of men and women or little ones, or the burning of churches assiduously struck the ears of Godfrey. Caught in these straits, the servant of God wept most abundantly, protesting that he was wretched in having been reserved for such a time.

[32] Therefore, from the voice of his groaning I have written according to the Psalm, place cited; Godefridus B., his mouth had cleaved to his flesh, namely by suffering with the weaker, and, remembering the quiet of his former conduct which he practised as a monk, he was like a pelican of the wilderness; and while the rest were snoring in the sleep of sin, solicitously seeking out the spiritual food of the soul by pious works, he had become like a night-raven in the house; and lest he should be entangled in the snares of the enemy lying in wait, or run into the fetter of despair, relying on faith and the love of God and neighbour, flying up to the heights, he remained like a sparrow alone on the roof; and admitting no solace at all of flesh and blood, except that of Him who is the true helper in due time, in tribulation, and does not suffer anyone to be tempted beyond what he can, but makes with the temptation a way out, so that he may be able to bear it, thirsting for the fountain of perennial life, his tears were made his bread day and night. Ps. 101, 6, Ibid. 7, Ibid., Ibid. 8, Ps. 9, 10, I Cor. 10, 13, Ps. 41, 4.

[33] by pious men, Now the outstanding Godfrey had with him two heroes, poor in spirit, pre-eminent in religion and purity of mind, outstanding in honourableness of morals, of whom one was called Godfrey, the other Otbert. To these he had enjoined the care of the house, the work of feeding the animals and also the exercise of agriculture. And this Godfrey, although he was wholly ignorant of the elements of letters, yet, having received a blessing from Godfrey, sowed the seeds of the word of God among the peoples so vigorously that both the blessed pontiff himself and the other orators wondered exceedingly whence an unlettered and simple man brought forth things so mystical and so profound, except that He who once filled the herdsman boy and made him a prophet, no wonder if He also this man with His knowledge and wisdom, by His free clemency,

had illumined. Amos 7, 14 – 15. To these, then, the blessed man, not able to bear the restlessness and tumult of worldly men, took refuge very often, for he was delighted most of all by the assiduous company and sincere conversation of such men.

[34] whom he had familiarly visited, One day, then, Godfrey, coming upon the cell in which they lived, finding them washing the feet of the poor and giving them their own garments, and refreshing the needy with the food which they had received a little before from the steward of the house — for they frequently withdrew this from their own bellies, — with a cheerful face, as he was, he cries reverently: "What are you doing, O happy and worthy of God?" To which they answer: "Most blessed father, your prayers assisting, a good and pleasant thing." To whom Godfrey: "Explain more aptly or more clearly what you bring forth." "For," they say, "does it not seem to you, father, a good and pleasant thing to recreate the poor? For by this are merited the joys of the blessed spirits, the pleasant kingdoms of the just, the happy and continual contemplation of Christ, King of all kings." To whom Godfrey, with neck bowed: "As you assert," he said, "so it is. Now, therefore, I pray, entreat Christ for me, that I may merit to enter into the palace with these."

[35] having received counsel, When, then, the priest was sitting alone within the inner rooms of the house, the often-mentioned most humble Godfrey came to him. And when he perceived that he was distressed with an unusual anguish of mind, with most familiar boldness he addresses him first: "Why, venerable prelate, are you affected with so great grief? Whence does the grief of so sudden a mischance cover your face? I believe that you are not led by any levity of mind, nor hurt by the loss of any earthly advantage." At this Godfrey, as best he could — for tears flowed abundantly from his inmost eyes: — "Whence," he repeats, "whence should I rejoice, or what is sweeter or more fitting than to be stripped of the frail flesh and to enjoy with the heavenly ones the vision of peace? Alas! lo, as a sailor, his tiller lost, is compelled to follow wherever the tempest has driven his vessel upon the rocks or crags, so my needy mind, straitened on every side by immense waves of tribulations, wavers this way and that, nor anywhere grasps the sweetness of quiet which it had long since left. For I consider that the churches of Christ are being overthrown, the flock committed to me ruined, the region entrusted to me for protection about to be overturned, its inhabitants withdrawn, by sword, flame, famine; these, pierced with swords and stakes, those deprived of their eyes, others burned in fire, choked by precipices or waters, are reported to be departing from the present light by innumerable disasters of destruction. Yet I see that one thing only remains, namely in Christ the only refuge, as for hedgehogs in the rock. Ps. 103, 18." Gaufrid, adding to these words, said: "O most serene of prelates, although you have attained the summits of supreme wisdom, although too you have already fully known the treasures of worldly knowledge, and for this you seem by no means in need of our little counsel, the cause and tinder of so great a disaster clades B. is Adam of the tower of this city, whom the unlucky vidame, seized before your eyes and before your hands, does not fear, he decides to accomplish the matter by humility. nay longs, to hold until now in chains. Since you cannot turn him from his sentence by the prayers of kings or counts, imitating the pious example of the eternal King, assail him with humility and satisfaction." Having said this, he withdraws [Nicholas placed the end of book II here awkwardly, and reserved the rest of this narrative for book III.]. Here ends the second book.

The chapters of the third book.

I. Apostrophe or digression, or a necessary commendation of the little honey-flowing history. II. Godfrey turns over very many things, takes off his shoes, hastens to Picquigny. III. His exhortation to the people. IV. He goes out from the town, returns to Amiens, prostrates himself before the limbs of blessed Firmin, bishop and martyr, invokes divine vengeance. V. That the vidame, captured, called on Godfrey. VI. That blood was seen to drip from his fingers. VII. How he set out for Vienne. VIII. How he went to the promontory of the Chartreuse. IX. That for recalling him a council was celebrated at Beauvais. X. They meet at Soissons and there choose those whom they may send thither. XI. Godfrey, having gone out from the Chartreuse, enters Reims and returns to Amiens. XII. Of him who, against Godfrey's precept, approached the mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord. XIII. That by his prayers he restored a fugitive monk to the monastery. XIV. Of the nun whom he illustriously calls back to the church from which she had gone out. XV. An illustrious commemoration. XVI. Of his cup, which he ordered to be sold and the price distributed to the poor. XVII. That, accustomed to drink water in a silver cup, he spurned the luxury of foods. XVIII. That he was never sated with any food or drink. XIX. That, remaining alone in the church after matins, he applied himself to works of mercy. XX. Of the horrible vision of the city to be overthrown, and that he saw St. Firmin and that he conversed very much with him. XXI. A speech or apostrophe to the people. XXII. A vision of demons in the likeness of ravens. XXIII. That, having learned of the burning of the city, he came quickly. XXIV. That he foresaw his departure from this world, and of the altar which he gave to the church of Saint-Quentin-du-Mont. XXV. He prophesies of his death to John, prelate of the Morini. XXVI. That, weighed down by the mass of tribulations, he prays Christ that he might not complete the course of life in these regions. XXVII. How he departed from this life, and that he was buried in the church of the Blessed Crispin and Crispinian of Soissons, and of the venerable Odo, abbot of that place. XXVIII. He is seized with fever and on the morrow sets out. XXIX. The report of a truthful vision, and that he is carried by boat to the monastery of the aforesaid martyrs. XXX. In what place he asked to be buried, and on what day he passed from this light, and that Bishop Lysiard wished his body to be translated to the mother church. XXXI. Of master Bernard the dean. XXXII. Of Goislen, bishop of the people of Soissons, who is to be proclaimed. XXXIII. That many rulers of churches were present at his funeral. XXXIV. He is carried on a litter into the greater church. XXXV. Of the vision which a nun saw of him. XXXVI. Of the collapse of the multitude standing on a ladder. XXXVII. He is carried to the tomb decently adorned. XXXVIII. In what place the body of the outstanding prelate was buried. XXXIX. That innumerable people from the borders of the province of Amiens run in throngs to his sepulchre. XL. A pious commemoration of the poor. XLI. Of the presbyter who was assailed by his bishop. XLII. At what time he passed from this world.

〈BOOK THREE.〉

[1] (The writer commends his credibility in narrating). An illustrious thing, O worshippers of the Deity, and hitherto, as I think, unheard of, my inept discourse goes on to unfold, scarcely stammering, which, I do not say none of the highest prelates, but not even any of the priests of the second order, would deign to undertake. I ask you, believe me, because, as we have already said beforehand, we do not invent from our own resources, but have learned all these things from the pious report of faithful men who saw and heard them. But if anyone shall be incredulous, he himself will sin. I recall that a certain man, whose name I think it of little worth to bring into the open, lately said to me why I was hastening to entangle my sheets with such great dirges or ravings. O wretched man, and, if I may so say, worse than a demon! For indeed, as the apostle James attests and confirms, the demons believe and tremble. Iac. 2, 19. For truly they recognize the acts of the prophets and apostles and the other saints; willy-nilly, they venerate them and tremble; but on the contrary this unhappy man, I do not say does not venerate them, nay he does not even busy himself to know them. For this is proper to the perverse, to hate in others too the good which they perceive themselves to lack. So this man here — how upright and how faithful to himself would he proclaim me with the whole affection of his mind, if supplied by the first hand in the margin B. I were writing out the impure rape of Ganymede, if the incest of Jupiter and Juno [(si I. et I.) I have written doubtfully; Semonis et Vlonis B; Surius omitted the words, corrupt, as it seems, in his exemplar too.] and the other spurious deeds of that one after illi a short empty space in B; perhaps to be corrected: illa., to be condemned most of all by the mouth of all the faithful and to be avoided in all places, hours and moments. Therefore, whoever you are of such a kind, according to that saying of Aurelius Augustine: Empty yourself of what you are full of, that you may be filled with what you are empty of. This much only I would say against rivals and detractors. Now in whatever style let us set out the remaining deeds of this illustrious man.

[2] Godfrey, therefore, So Godfrey, when night had brought sleep, sitting on his little bed, turned over very many things in his mind, whether he should obey Gaufrid's counsel or not. For on the one side the priestly rigour held him back, lest the other plunderers should grow insolent at his humility; on the other side piety impelled him to come to the help of the captive. Yet, considering among many volumes of thoughts that he was not the least of the flock of Christ, to whom He too says: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom, and that he could declare nothing other than what the supreme Shepherd of the flock Himself should reveal to him, he decides to obey his counsel in all things. Luc. 12, 32. And so, after the praise of matins to almighty God had been completed, when to Picquigny calling Gaufrid together with his colleague Otbert, hanging his own shoes from the neck of the one and placing his little cloak on the shoulders of the other, wrapped in a hair-shirt and the simple habit of a monk, namely the cowl, barefoot he undertakes the horrid and pilgrim journey leading to Picquigny; which municipality is separated from the city by a space of eight miles, as is reported. Now it was the Sabbath and the vigil of the most exalted martyr Sebastian, whose celebration likewise was to be on the morrow, that is, on the first day of the week. And now the sun had entered the sign of Aquarius, now with savage north winds whistling a colder winter had bristled, and now the snows so burned the mountains and the open plains, and the frosts not to endure once the sun was seen, the earth shaggy hirca B. with its tresses, that not only men, but even herds and flocks could not burst out of the stables even for the sake of grazing the grass. LUCANUS, 4, 52 – 53. Groves, rivers, pools and the courses of the paths were white with frost and snow, so that the path could scarcely be found even when searched with a keen eye. So stood the surface of the earth. This so delicate a road, then, the magnificent prelate Godfrey, to be named with all reverence of heart and mouth, taking it barefoot, true love of neighbour compelling him, and arriving at the church situated in the grove in honour of blessed Remigius, confessor of Christ [This was the priory of Our Lady of Grace, otherwise of Saint-Remi-au-Bois, near Amiens to the west.], is received by the meeting of the monks of Christ living there. They gape, and with huge grief anxiously inquire whence and whither and why so great a priest displayed the appearance of so mournful a habit. They begin also to go on together with him, if he would deign, if he would suffer it. These the servant of Christ by no means suffered to set their step outside the enclosure of the monastery, asserting that they would be a solace to him if they deigned to pour out prayers for him to the Creator of all. Thus, then, blessing all and bidding them farewell, accompanied only by the noble company of those two whom we have mentioned above, singing sweetly to the Lord on the way psalmody after that manner of his, he arrives where he was going. Having entered it, his face veiled with his hood lest he be recognized, he comes upon the vidame in the square, surrounded by a band of both sexes. had come as a suppliant Flinging himself at his feet, with his own

hands clasping them he kissed them and watered them more abundantly with tears, when he, with a grim look, as he was, said: "O whoever you are, do not delay to disclose whence and for what reason you have come." To which Godfrey, his breath growing scant — for he was caught by the straitness of intolerable cold, so much that he seemed to spit blood: — "I am," he said, "Godfrey, prelate of the people of Amiens, rightly also your temporal lord, of whatever sort. By that charity by which Christ mounted the trophy of the cross, to snatch the first-formed Adam from the jaws of the devil, I have been compelled to come here, that you may give back to me my Adam, whom you hold in chains." Then those standing by, at the novelty of the thing, as if struck by lightning, by fire fallen from the sky, falling to the ground together, could speak nothing. STAT. Theb. 5, 606 – 607. At length, the grief relaxing, when the voice found its way and the groans were loosed into words, a shower of tears overflowing, they cry together: "O splendour of pontiffs, O model of all the just, O glory of the people of Amiens, O ornament and protection of the fatherland, O hope and gladness of us all, why do you fling yourself so submissively before the feet of a bloody tyrant? Why, reckoning us among asps or tigers, did you wish to come here as a stranger or another Ninevite?" Going on with these and many other things with huge grief of mind and blushing of face, placing him in their arms, they compel him by force to rise from the place where he had fallen down. But that criminal vidame, gaping after the deaths and crosses of men, seized by fury, was carried this way and that, raving. Ps. 57, 5, STAT. Theb. 2, 411 – 14. Therefore, as a deaf asp, when a stone is thrown at close quarters, rears up, and, agitated through all its limbs, gathers its venom into its jaws and scaly neck, so he, his heart transfixed as by a javelin by the man's humility and the servant of God's words, gnashing terribly against him, belches such things: "O monk, with what face have you dared to look upon our countenance? and had besought the vidame in vain, Have you judged me effeminate and wholly without a manly spirit? Or do you decide that I am so exposed to you that, as if struck with fear, I should hasten to loose this man from his chains? Know, then: Adam, whom fortune gave me, I hold and will hold for long and long; setting before his eyes what he formerly inflicted, let him bear the deserved penalties, wretched, for ever. Ibid. 2, 429. But what levity has carried you here? May you be heard by God in all things exaccieris B. just as I shall release your Adam from his chains. Withdraw from here at once, far off, in haste, lest you be thrust from our hearth with dishonour." Provoked by these and very many other irritations of words, Godfrey, not at all moved, withdrew into the church of blessed Martin built there, and there, barefoot as he was, before the altar, with bent knees, a mat laid beneath, he prostrates himself; and so he spent the night sleepless in the praises of almighty God. What, then, was the prelate Godfrey in the thoughts of the swollen rich man, when barefoot and wrapped in a hair-shirt he flung himself at his feet, but a lamp despised? Iob 12, 5. For indeed, 〈to〉 use the words of the outstanding Roman prelate and doctor, namely blessed Gregory, he was a lamp, because within the flame of charity burned; despised, because outwardly no glory of comeliness shone. Moralia 10, 51. For thence he received words of derision, reproaches of irritation and insults, whence he gave forth examples of humility, innocence, patience and kindness. But is this lamp always hidden? Does it not at some time put forth the force of its brightness? It plainly puts it forth; it is now prepared for the time. Iob 12, 5. So, to pass over that time when, coming with Christ, he will shine like the sun, even in the present he showed, as what follows declares, a little spark of his brightness. Matth. 13, 43.

[3] he complains before the people of his repulse So, as the darkness grew thinner with the brightness of the morning star, Godfrey orders the bell, the nola See above, p. 915, annot. 3., to be rung for summoning the people. And so an infinite multitude runs together, vying with one another, not only from that town but also from the neighbouring fields and villages — for they hoped that peace had been restored to the church. These the pastor himself, instructing them abundantly and plentifully from divine things, warns beforehand that the losses of temporal disadvantages are to be borne patiently, that God corrects in manifold ways those who obey Him and kindly scourges every son whom He receives. Hebr. 12, 6. At the last he protests that he had come there from the city for this reason barefoot, clad in a hair-shirt, that he had fallen down at the feet of the vidame, to bend him to piety by humility, and that, by releasing his Adam from his fetters, he might restore him to the bosom of the mother church; but that he himself had profited nothing in this, but on the contrary, provoked by very many injuries, had lain open to derision. And when it was cried out by those standing round that he should speak more mildly than he had begun against the vidame, the strength of his mind unbent, reckoning himself first among those of whom the outstanding teacher says: Do you not know that we shall judge angels, how much more worldly things, he delivered the tyrant and all the accomplices of his faction, and all their things, to him of whom it is read in the Apocalypse: And his name was death, to perdition. 1 Cor. 6, 3, Apoc. 6, 8. O cultivators of the fair and right, O searchers of the divine law, it pleases me to behold how this true Israelite in whom there is no guile, our Godfrey, I say, enjoyed with clean heart the ray of the sun of justice, and therefore was blessed; and who, sitting on a lofty summit of merits, neither succumbing to fear nor yielding to labour, having suffered such and so great things for one man, charity compelling him, having assailed the satellite of Satan in manifold ways, now with rigour now with humility, now with blandishments now with terrors, justice impelling him, — even if the pen were silent, the outstanding sincerity of his life would extol him as an exemplar of morals, a mirror of justice or mercy, a model of all who live soberly and piously and justly in this world, mercy and truth of eternal life. Ioh. 1, 47, Tit. 2, 12. For, as far as was in him, he neither shrank from the person of the poor nor accepted the face of the mighty, but in all he paid attention to the nature of the common condition, not to the loftiness of treasures or the dejection of miseries, an heir of merits, a co-heir of Christ, lest the name of God be proclaimed frivolously. Levit. 19, 15, Rom. 8, 17. praedicatur B..

[4] and, having returned to Amiens, he commits the matter to the Lord. So, then, Godfrey, directing his step from the town, the business unaccomplished, returned on foot in the evening to Amiens, and found the people running about through the squares. Seeing him, they run to meet him, crowd round, are astounded, lament. These he soothes, addressing them briefly, and so, going on as far as the asylum of the illustrious witness of Christ Firmin, he prostrates himself before his sacred ashes, supplicating that, mindful of his labours, mindful also of all that the wicked vidame Guermund had exercised against him, he should be repaid as soon as possible according to his merits. He spoke, and withdrew into his own house. But, as we are taught by the mouth of the wise man, since the Lord will not despise the prayers of the fatherless nor of the widow, if she pours out the speech of groaning, seeing He saw the affliction of His servant, and He who lets no offence go away unpunished determined to avenge Godfrey. Eccli. 35. 17, Iob 24, 12.

[5] But soon the vidame, captured by the count of Ponthieu, So, a few days having passed, the most insane vidame, ravaging the province far and wide, is deceived by the ambushes of the knights of William, count of Ponthieu [He was William Talvas, count of Alençon and of Ponthieu, son of Agnes of Ponthieu and of Robert of Bellême, count of Alençon.], and is presented before his eyes with great triumph. He orders him, tortured with excessive injuries and bound with iron, to be thrust into prison, and there he is held for no little time, is straitened, nor is it permitted him to run about wherever his will carried him; while, gaping at every moment of the hours for his downfall, he is rendered uncertain of life, he is compelled, happily, to return to sobriety from many things. Considering, therefore, that in no mortal but in Godfrey alone, bishop of the people of Amiens, was hope of escaping death to be fixed, he was distressed in mind beyond measure, also that he had cruelly treated him, harassed with innumerable injuries. At length, he asks the bishop's help straitness compelling him, taking boldness from his singular piety, by which he embraced even enemies with sincere love, he submissively supplicates Godfrey through a faithful man that, unmindful of the things which he had formerly inflicted on him, deceived by the cunning of the poisonous serpent, he would have pity on him and deign to come and help the wretched man. At the same time also he promises to restore the churches which, unhappy man, he had overthrown, and besides to give back to him most willingly Adam too, for whom he had supplicated, for whom he had undertaken infinite labour, whom he, unspeakable man, was until now holding in chains, and for the rest to lead his life more soberly and mildly. Hearing this, Godfrey recalls that he has been heard by Christ, not glorying beyond measure or vainly exalting himself. II Cor. 10, 13. Yet, because he knew how to render good for evil, which is established to belong to the perfect, he grieves with his misery and professes that he can help the wretched man, and hastens there as quickly as possible, and he himself, freed, supported by true charity. Seeing him, Guermund, as the eye grows dull when, after the densest darkness of opaque night, it has drunk in the new radiance of Phoebus, having beheld the honey-flowing, nay the longed-for, presence of so great a man, gapes, and, as if he had now been snatched from the very jaws of hell, exults with immense dancing. Behold, he who a little before, swollen, had mocked the lamp wrapped in a hair-shirt and shining with no comeliness of brightness, flung at his feet, now, a spark of its splendour, however little, flashing, trembles, and, the tables turned, prostrates himself at his feet, and professes that he would be blessed if he had merited to touch even the last of the fringes of his garment. Matth. 14, 36. It is long to unfold every detail. lets Adam go free Godfrey brings Adam back to Amiens, free from all, and calls back Guermund himself too, with very much sweat, to Picquigny. Such were the things, then, at which Godfrey laboured, busying himself greatly lest he who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour should scatter the souls of his subjects in diverse directions, lest he should prevail, or rejoice over their destruction. I Petr. 5, 8. And because he knew by the attestation of the psalmist that the place of God is made in peace, he watched in every way to insert all into that unanimity of which it is written: One is my dove, she is the only one of her mother. Ps. 75, 3, Cant. 6, 8.

[6] In winter Godfrey addresses the people under the open sky, I am going to tell in brief a certain thing which will perhaps seem incredible, were it not held ratified by 〈his〉 revelation and by the confirmation of many who were present, unless someone be so unbelieving as to think that Godfrey wished to invent frivolities about himself, or that the others could proclaim lies about him to win his favour. The thing was done thus. At that time when the glad fields are white, that is, in winter, with hoary snow, going round his diocese to renew the hearts of his sons to the examples of the pious, he withdrew to a certain little village, whose name has fallen from memory, for the sake also of dedicating or consecrating a little church which had been built there. To this spectacle, then, a concourse of peoples had flowed together for the sake of obtaining diverse remedies of souls; and since the space of the little church did not suffice for receiving so great a people, Godfrey orders a seat to be prepared for him for speaking, out of wagons or the axles of wheels, under the air or open sky on the level of the field. When he had mounted it, his hands stretched out — for he persisted perpetually in the salvation of his sons, forgetful of himself, — he stood so immovable that before

the straitness of the harsh cold blood was seen to drip from his fingers to the ground. For he was of a most delicate body and, the cold being disregarded. as has already been said, most patient toward all injuries, so that he could easily be affected by the inclemency of frost or heat. The faith of Christ compels me to bring forth nothing but faithful things, although I do not doubt that the minds of hearers waver over these things; but I think it must be pardoned, nor ought it to seem strange to anyone, since hitherto very many seem to have applied neither an eye for seeing nor a faithful ear for perceiving the sense to the sayings or deeds of the ancient fathers, much less should I think that all believe our Godfrey in all things. If they had merited to be present at the presence of this most illustrious man, they would equal no keeper of the law of the Most High of his age to him, nay rather they would rightly judge that he had surpassed the pious sayings or deeds of all mortals. Eccli. 44, 20. But so nature stands. Hence with my 〈…〉 agrees, unless I am mistaken, that two-formed poet who, speaking forth among his eloquent songs: Things let in through the ears stir the mind more slowly than those which are set before the faithful eyes, HORAT. Carm. II, 20, 2 – 3. proves briefly and beautifully that things seen cling to memory more closely than things heard. This I would say, not absurdly, in a very few words, to rouse the sloth of the lukewarm.

[7] he is present at the council of Vienne; In those days the unspeakable emperor of the Lotharingians and Romans Henry V. took away with him the universal prelate, namely the lord Paschal, captured by guile after the kissing of his foot and mouth. For this reason, therefore, Guy, archprelate of Vienne, who also was afterwards made pope and called Calixtus, summoned a multitude of both sacred orders in the aforesaid city Cf. above, p. 899, at the year 1112, Sept. 15.. Letters having been sent also to Godfrey, prelate of the people of Amiens — for from many preceding years he was most dear to him, — he suppliantly asked him to go there. He, at once obeying his will, came to Vienne at a quickened pace. Guy, learning that he had arrived, is made glad, and, setting aside all others, he assails him with very many prayers that he should discharge his part in the synod itself and become his interpreter — for he is known to have been somewhat impeded of tongue [These things, since Nicholas is not accustomed to keep measure in the praises of Godfrey, I should judge are to be held at least doubtful, until they are confirmed from elsewhere.]. Godfrey, although he was driven by a sharp fever, yet, being dove-like in spirit as he was, determines to obey his wishes in all things as far as he could. Having received the blessing, then, having mounted the step, when he distrusted the inequality of his strength for carrying it out, his Indweller so filled, invigorated and illumined him with the infusion of His spirit that all, astounded, proclaimed that he was truly a disciple of Christ, a son of the Paraclete, His shining instrument, filled with the spirit of the prophets, their equal, and that he had now been made one of the heavenly ones. For the sake of brevity we pass over the illustrious things which he exercised in that synod or province, lest we seem too verbose to the hearers. he turns aside to Cluny. So Godfrey, having gone forth from the city amid the applause of the pontiffs and the throng of that most celebrated synod with great favour, coming to Cluny, was solemnly received, although unwilling, by the lord Pons, at that time father of that place 1109 – 1122., and, staying there for some days and festively celebrating the most holy solemnities of the Mass, pouring the words of God excellently, after his manner, into the ears of that notable multitude, having set out to the grief of all, he returns to his own see. So famous was Godfrey held through the climes of the fourfold world for the merit of his outstanding life.

[8] Having left his see Father Godfrey, therefore, considering that it was very difficult and exceedingly intolerable to bear with an even mind such great volumes of worldly tumults, not suffering to linger in them any longer, going out from Ur of the Chaldeans, leaving with the faithful patriarch Abraham his own country and kindred, that he might possess as inheritance the true land of promise of the children of Israel, trampling with solid strength of mind the said mitre and all the fruit of worldly loftiness, he takes refuge at the Chartreuse; learning the illustrious fame of the servants of God living in the parts of the city of Grenoble, namely on the promontory of the Chartreuse, sweetly burning with that fire which Christ came to send on the earth, he flies there swifter than the south winds, that he might more quietly be at leisure for God alone. Gen. 11, 31, Gen. 12, 1, Luc. 12, 49. So the prior of that same place, named Guigo 1110 – 1137., steeped in all knowledge, outstanding for the proclamation of an innocent life and to be extolled by the mouth of all the faithful, rendering immense thanks to almighty Christ, would at once have admitted the man of angelic countenance and simple nature into the peaceful and most holy college of the monks, except that he feared that, constrained by obedience to the Roman prelate or to the archbishop, the archimandrite of Reims, or to the other prelates of the region of Gaul, he could by no means remain there longer, nor would he himself be sufficient to oppose so great an authority. Yet meanwhile, until that should be done, he places him in a little cell. For they dwell each apart in separate huts; they come together to the church at the fitting hour; departing from there they return to their own in silence. Of their excellent conduct, to be duly pursued with the favour of all mortals, we shall try to say some things here [Cf. another testimony, a little more ancient and fuller, on the life of the first Carthusians in Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, I, 11 (ed. Bourgin, p. 33 – 34). Nicholas had been taught these things by Abbot Odo, of whom below, c. 10.]: how they are continually clad underneath, next to the flesh, with a very rough hair-shirt; how twice a week, namely on the fourth and sixth weekdays, content with bread and water only, they chastise the body and bring it into subjection; that they cling so to divine contemplation that that saying of the teacher of the Gentiles can truly be brought forth about them: Our conversation is in heaven; that by their prayers, together with the merits of the saints, the world is believed to stand. I Cor. 9, 27, Philip. 3, 20. But while we fear lest perhaps we seem to have exceeded the bound of our discourse, leaving this to be set out by other greater men, we now run back from here to what we began, to explain the things that move us. From this, then, the servant of Christ Godfrey was greatly delighted, namely that he enjoyed the purity of an undisturbed mind, although even before, surrounded by the importunity of peoples, he had in mind removed himself far from the crowd of carnal desires, lifting himself up into the high contemplation of God, and remained persevering in solitude with an unmoved action of mind; but having obtained, God being propitious to him, this place of longed-for solitude, he was borne so fervent in fasts, prayers, tears and sacred meditations and divine readings that, although he had been assiduous in these, as has been touched upon, from his very cradle, yet he then thought, wonderfully rejoicing, that he had seized the beginning of serving God. Ps. 54, 8. Now earthly things are vile to the man, he goes up to the heavens in desire, STAT. Theb. 10, 837. deploring continually with the psalmist that he was separated from the vision of almighty God, and that his sojourning was much prolonged. When, then, the venerable Guigo was going round the little cells of the monks with pious solicitude for the sake of consolation, he came to where Godfrey was staying and found him reading I know not what of the divine treatises and bedewing his face and garments more abundantly with tears, and sacrificing himself as a living victim on the altar of the heart with wonderful sweetness to Christ the Lord. Seeing him so affected and embracing him with all the efforts of his mind, trying also to learn whether he could bear reproaches of words with an even face or mind, among other things assailing him as with a spiritual jest, he said: "Did you, O bishop, did you obtain from the sacred orders which you conferred a favour of gold or silver or of any temporal profit?" For very many rulers of churches at that time — alas, alas! — were held by this vice, so that they scarcely delivered any ecclesiastical thing to anyone unless they saw that they could obtain a gift from his hand. To which Godfrey, groaning the more, said: "No, most blessed father, I did not fill purse or pouches. But, alas, my wretched heart! I, wretch, quite often, enticed by the wiliness of the poisonous enemy, was infected, even unwilling, by the superfluous breeze of favour." Hearing this, he wonders that he did not flatter himself, but, judging most sharply in himself the least things, and those which humility alone compelled him to confess, punished them. O blessed man, O truly a nursling of Christ, and one who, altogether lacking Pharisaic pride, does not disdain to confess himself a transgressor of the law! For indeed I would call him a young one of the ravens, that is, of the prophets and apostles, who in nothing degenerated from their blackness, that is, humility. Truly, calling upon God and triumphing over the devil, he reclines, as we believe, together with Him in the kingdom of the heavens, and it is given him to eat of the tree of life. Luc. 13, 29, Apoc. 2, 7.

[9] but by the prelates in the synods of Reims Meanwhile by the lord Cuno, cardinal and legate of the apostolic see [Bishop of Palestrina 1108 – 1122. On whom cf. G. Schoene, Kardinallegat Kuno, Bischof von Präneste, Weimar, 1857.], and also by Radulf, archbishop of Reims 1108 – 1124., a council is held at Beauvais, a city of Gaul, chiefly for this reason, that the city of the people of Amiens was seen to be destitute of its own pastor Cf. above, p. 891, no. 8, and p. 900, at the year 1114, Dec. 6.. The citizens of that city are present there, complaining that they had been deprived of so great a father. Then the prelate of Reims said: "O most eloquent men, why have you dared to bring such things to our ears? Did you not, gnawing one another in canine manner, drive from your borders a notable man, chaste, orthodox and adorned with every merit of life? Will you ever be able to have after him, I do not say a holier priest, but not even one of the same merit? O slothful, O unhappy, O degenerate, O wretched men, who have lacked so great a patron even for a moment! Did you ever find him pursuing the favour of base gain, or gaping after obscene things, or selling ecclesiastical stipends, or giving them?" To which all cry out that he was altogether free from these things. Tit. 1, 7. To them he speaks thus: "Then, anxiously seeking him out, bring back with you the skilled architect of the house of God and the vigorous guardian of the Lord's sheepfold. For I call to witness the Word, which crushes every proud thing, that, as long as the breath of life shall blow in the nostrils of Godfrey, you will have no priest but him." While they were conferring these things, envoys are present, carrying in their hands letters of the servant of Christ Godfrey, in which he confessed that he had renounced the mitre and all the glory of worldly loftiness; that they should now seek another father; that he would by no means return to them any further. So among other things he goes on that he had never been fit to undertake the government; that he was the other woman who is read of in Solomon, who, sleeping, overlay her own son whom, waking, she had been accustomed to suckle; that he had indeed kept awake in knowledge, but fallen asleep in a reprobate life; that he had nourished his hearers by the watchfulness of preaching, but, alas, had overlain them by snoring in a reprobate life. III Reg. 3, 19. At this saying a shower of tears flowed from the eyes of almost all; they wondered at his humility, they venerated him, who, though he was held the most sublime of all for the merit of his life, was seen the humblest in the lowliness of his heart and the dejection of his words. Even to this day, when I consider some most reverend fathers who were present talking with one another about these things, I see them again pouring out sobs, again sighs, again tears, and bedewing their faces. Therefore in the breasts of all humble

and honey-flowing love for the letter gratefully settled.

[10] and gathered at Soissons So they decide to meet together at Soissons on the day of the Epiphany and to discern in common what needs to be done about these things. They came, then, to Soissons Cf. above, p. 900, at the year 1115, Jan. 6.. Now, by the precept of the glorious Louis, king of the Franks, they summon Henry, abbot of the church of Christ's most exalted martyr Quentin of the Mount, lying near the castle which is called Péronne From at least the year 1101 to the year 1133., in which the same servant of God Godfrey, as the things above declare, educated soberly and piously from his very cradle, had flown to the highest summit of the virtues; Hubert too, a man of great authority, a monk of the most celebrated monastery which is called Cluny; these, with letters fortified by their own seal, they direct to the brethren of the Chartreuse, beseeching, nay commanding, that they should not suffer Godfrey, prelate of the people of Amiens, to linger there any longer, but should compel him to return as quickly as possible to his own see. The servant of Christ himself too they constrain by the authority of ecclesiastical force, to return most quickly to the desolate flock of his charge; that he ought not so easily to desert the people once received from God. For let him know that he would contract more harm from the very destitution of the flock, falling down the precipices of vices, than reward, if he himself, as a private man, should practise a most austere life in some remote solitude. At the last they affirm that the sacred canons had forbidden that any bishop be substituted in another's place, unless he himself, overtaken by sickness, should suppliantly ask that it be done, or, convicted of a crime, it should not be permitted him to minister to it any further. Learning this, Godfrey, dismayed in mind, prostrates himself at the feet of the monks, imploring with huge weeping that they should not allow him to return any further to the furnace of Babylon, which, kindled with tow or pitch, stretches forth its harmful flame to an immense height, from which he had once already drawn out his foot [Far otherwise Guibert of Nogent, De vita sua, III, 14, who not only teaches — what is true and redounds to the praise of the obedient bishop — that Godfrey made no delay in returning, but mentions not without derision the six marks which the same had kept for himself, with which to pay the expenses of the journey on his return.]. Dan. 3, 46 – 47. Him they address with very many tears together, console: that he should not waver to go there with a manly spirit; that it is nothing great to be good among the good, but that it is of illustrious virtue and outstanding merit to be good among the perverse; let him know also that where the fight is harder, there too the laurel is worthier. Thus, then, unable to resist the authority of the royal dignity and at the same time of the prelates, they dismiss him with the peace of Christ, escorting him with eyes suffused with tears. His girdle, with which he had been accustomed to gird his loins, and the comb with which he had been accustomed to comb his head, after he had put off the human in the church of the holy martyrs of Christ Crispin and Crispinian, which is seen built in the suburb of the city of Soissons, the venerable Odo, who at that time presided there To the year 1118., kept with him as a memorial of so great a man. And he not long after, constrained by Roman authority, 〈when〉 he had received the government of the famous monastery of blessed Remigius, patron of the city of Reims From the year 1118 to his death († 1151)., not fully twice ten years having been completed there [Certainly not after the year 1137, in which Guigo, prior of the Chartreuse, died.], for certain causes intervening, devoutly sought the promontory of the Chartreuse. There too he lived for some days inserted in the happy company of the monks and passed his life in all purity, as we have received from the report of the faithful. When, then, the said Guigo was coming to him for the sake of his soul's profit, among other words of spiritual exhortations he made mention, not without groaning, of the conduct of the precious Godfrey, how soberly, how piously, how justly he had lived there. Tit. 2, 12. He added also that he wondered vehemently at this, that he had merited from Christ so great a grace of compunction that in a manner a fountain of tears was seen continually to flow from his eyes. Yet none of the faithful would deny that so excellent a gift is divinely given to a clean and simple heart. To which the venerable Odo said: "All these things, most blessed father, I have known more fully to be in him, as you affirm. For he was very familiar to me indeed. I was present also at his funeral, and committed his little body to burial with my own hands in the church of the Blessed Crispin and Crispinian, where those illustrious witnesses of Christ rest in body, over which, by God's dispensation, I presided at that time. His girdle and also his comb I have continually kept with me, out of devotion to him and for my own protection, from the time that he then rested in Christ." The memorable Guigo, hearing these things, it is incredible to relate with how great affection of pious remembrance he embraced and kissed these very things, calling the faith of Christ to witness that they would truly be happy who merited to possess not only his ashes but also the fringes of his garment. So great and such was Godfrey held in the hearts of the pious. This we received from the mouth of the venerable father Odo himself. Which, even if too hastily, yet not, I hope, unprofitably, I would have said.

[11] ordered to return, So Godfrey, coming down from the mountain by force rather than willingly, quite frequently turned back thither his little eyes wet with showers; protesting most bitterly that he was wretched, that he was unhappy, who had not merited to remain in that angelic companionship to the end of the present life, and that he could not more quietly practise the contemplative life for God alone. He was there, then, from the festivity of blessed Nicholas, which is recalled on the 8th of the Ides of December, until the beginning of Lent [6 Dec. 1114 - 3 Mar. 1115. Guibert of Nogent writes that Godfrey returned after two months, place cited.], continually paying innumerable acts of thanksgiving to almighty God; filling his soul with marrow and fatness, namely with the infusion of heavenly hope, he exulted in the Lord and was delighted in his salvation, that, removed from the volumes of earthly things, he possessed the longed-for quiet. Ps. 62, 6, Ps. 34, 9. He also left there many examples of all probity to be embraced, so that even today they confer with one another very many things about him. he comes to Reims to the council So, as has already been said, departing thence he enters the city of Reims in Gaul — for in those days the said Cardinal Cuno had summoned a very great council there Cf. above, p. 900, at the year 1115, Mar. 28. —. He is led into the midst by the hand by the lord Radulf, archprelate, so wasted by fasts, vigils and the other sacred exercises that he could scarcely stand. When they had seen him, they wondered exceedingly that he was seen so crucified to the world, and the world to him, that he was believed neither to love the world nor to be able to be loved by it. Galat. 6, 14. Then, accordingly, the venerable Cuno addresses him a little more harshly, as one who had left the office enjoined on him. Then he exhorts him that, placing his own advantage after the need of many, he should return to Amiens, devoutly carry out the offices of Christ in His stead; that it would be better for him to enter the palace of the heavenly vision with the salvation of many than content with his own, that he might merit to be set by Christ over all His goods. Matth. 24, 47. and he returns to Amiens. He, not able to oppose his authority and that of the rest, returns to his own chair, is solemnly received with the wishes of all Cf. above, p. 904, annot. 5.. From then, not long after, he is known to have run past the goal of this setting misery and to have received with joy the sleep from the pious Rewarder of good works. When or how this happened we shall now try to write and to put an end to the little book. But since certain memorable things of his now occur to memory, it will be burdensome to no one if we touch on them briefly, since we judge them in every way worthy of telling [After Nicholas had up to this point in his narrative almost followed the order of times, that sentence clearly indicates that he is now about to insert certain things which were passed over in the earlier part of the Life and are now brought forward out of their place. Some did not notice this and judged that the things related in c. 12 – 23 were done in the year 1115, after Godfrey had returned from the Chartreuse. Yet they could have been better taught not only by the last words of c. 11, but also by the first words of c. 24 (Hence now let the pen turn …).].

[12] The law of abstinence When the fast of most holy Lent was at hand, a multitude of both sexes flowed together into the church of Firmin, illustrious witness of Christ and bishop, namely on that day on which, by the pious tradition of the faithful, which is observed even to this day, ashes are placed on the head of all the faithful [That the things narrated in this chapter were done in the year 1115 Corblet affirms, Hagiographie, vol. II, p. 420. Which is shown manifestly false even from this, that on this very ash day of this year, that is, on the 3rd of March, Godfrey set out from the Chartreuse. Cf. above, annot. 1 and 4.]. For from this nature is compelled to remember what it is to be some day, and that every living man should presume nothing else of himself than what he does not ignore that he merited, alas, in the first parent transgressing the word of life. So, when all ran together, the prelate Godfrey too was present, barefoot after his manner and wrapped in a hair-shirt. he impresses on his people Among the other words of correction or pious exhortation, by the authority of the divine pages, he forbade all without distinction that anyone should touch the flesh of animals with his mouth, until, the solemnities of the Lord's resurrection having been duly completed, he should merit to be fed with the flesh of the Lamb redeeming and saving the fallen human race with His own blood, and at the same time to be given to drink of His blood. This, then, all received with the ears of the flesh, but few with the hearing of the mind. For on the following first day of the week [From which you may not undeservedly gather that those people of Amiens did not abide by the bishop's precepts on Sundays alone.], spurning Godfrey's edict, they are dissolved in the eating of meats, proclaiming that he was conjecturing harsh things from his heart, bringing forth unheard-of things; that all his precepts were by no means to be borne; that they would by no means wish or be able to leave what they were accustomed to; that it would be fair not only to use foods but to abuse them, and to lead their life sweetly in the other delights. This did not escape Godfrey, and he severely punishes the disobedient; who, keeping the matter in his mind in memory, awaiting an apt time at which he might bring in a fitting injunction, on the fifth weekday before the most sacred celebration of our redemption, which is venerably called by the mouth of all the faithful the day of absolution, when the multitude of the faithful ran together to the basilica of the said martyr to merit diverse remedies of their crimes, the prelate Godfrey too goes forth crowned with the priestly vestments. And when, after his 〈manner〉, he had spoken out clearly before them many things about divine matters, treating also very many things about the contempt of disobedience, recalling the offence of the first-formed, who, incurring death for the mere bite of an apple, had, alas, irretrievably laid himself and his offspring under eternal damnation, repeating "alas, alas!" very frequently, "that for so little a thing he sustains such heavy eternal losses of soul and body, that you nos B., though you have experienced it atrociously, nay adding new things to old ones, neither the ear

inward to our counsels, nor a mind open to the arrows of God, alas, have you shown until now. What? I say, do you decide that I am inventing frivolities, when you deny that I act in Christ's stead and have faithfully set His words before you? And, to use the example of the outstanding teacher, do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me? Does not the Saviour Himself speak out about me and those like us: He who hears you, hears me? Therefore, since we have now briefly proved that we have faithfully announced to you Christ in me and His will and justice, why, I say, have you scorned to comply with my, nay His, command, that you should abstain from the eating of meats? So you have fallen into the fall of the first-formed; lo, you have incurred the ruin of the scorner; lo, may Christ now forgive me, you will deservedly pay the penalty." II Cor. 13, 3, Luc. 10, 16. At this saying the transgressors of the command, rushing vying with one another to the ground, beat their guilty breasts with their fists, publicly confess their errors with frequent sobs, beg pardon from the Almighty with showers of tears, and submissively implore Godfrey that they 〈may merit〉 to obtain it. Matth. 3, 8. To whom he said: "Showing fruits worthy of penance, ask indulgence from the heavenly Judge with sure hope, and, bearing the confusion of so impure a transgression, abstain from participation in the life-giving sacrament until the second day of the week That is, until the Monday of Easter., so that what wicked presumption admitted, pious confession may at some time be able to abolish." So with huge blushing or grief they depart from the place, complaining many things to themselves, that for a momentary delight they were deprived of the communion of the faithful on the day of so great a celebration. And so Godfrey, stretching out more anxiously and more strictly the strictness of the pastoral rod, admonished all the presbyters that they should keep all those defiled by the transgression of this wicked mixture from the Eucharist, and not suffer them to approach for the sake of any intervening thing. For he studied most of all that they should not grow insolent with such things for the rest. But what is more stolid than human wisdom, or what more impudent than carnal cunning? For this which has been said before us, namely that divine wisdom catches the wise in their own craftiness, we have here more than enough experienced. I Cor. 3, 19. of whom one, contumacious in sin So, on the holy day of the sacred resurrection of the Lord, when the multitude of the faithful was running together to the bosom of the mother church for the reception of the Eucharist, one of the wise of this world, nay, to speak more truly, of those foolish as regards God, who was held guilty, his conscience accusing him, of the often-mentioned transgression, having taken a theristrum, that is, a woman's ornament The theristrum is a kind of woman's mantle, Ducange, under the word., sweeping his footprints with the train of a woman's garment in fashion, his head carefully wrapped in a little flammeum That is, a veil. Cf. Ducange, under the word Flamines. — for the down had not yet covered his cheeks, — his loins girded succincturus B. with a projecting strophium woven with various colour, and, not to prolong my discourse further, scarcely touching the ground with his slippers for softness, and carrying his shoulders lightly, he walked with so composed a step that, if you had been present [ad ōnes B. (in the exemplar there seems to have been adēēs, whence ad ōēs or ad omnes). Cf. I, 12; III, 20 at the end: si coram adesses; III, 14 middle: si adesses.], you would have believed, wonderful to say, that you beheld nothing but the female sex, without any distinction. He was able, therefore, to deceive the eyes of those beholding him, but by no means to escape the judgement of Him to whom all things are naked and open. Hebr. 4, 13. This actor of ours, then, mingling himself with the rest of the multitude, as if he would at length insult his accomplices, namely because, making much of the edict of the prelate Godfrey, they were seen shut out like heathen from the communion of the sacred altar in so great a throng, goes forward to the altar, not discerning the body of Christ, nor remembering that he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgement to himself. I Cor. 11, 29. In that little church built in honour of Christ's confessor Remigius a most reverend man, who was called Fulk, was at that time discharging the office of priest. So this man, of whom our discourse treats, came to the altar, as has already been said, believing that he could somehow deceive for a moment the gaze of the minister of the sacraments, but he could by no means escape the sentence of the true Priest who remains for ever according to the order of Melchizedek, because He can never be mocked nor deceived by fallacies, as the sons of men. Ps. 109, 4. Why do I linger on many things? Receiving unworthily, O shame, the bread of angels from the hand of the priest, he did not draw his foot back from the step of the altar before, he is divinely punished. divine vengeance pursuing him, falling to the ground, he was straitened with immense twistings of his bowels. For almost breathing out his wicked spirit, casting bloody foam from his mouth, what he had unworthily usurped he vomited, all looking on, through that very opening of the mouth with a great flux of blood. When all flowed together there vying with one another and grieved greatly at his misery — for they were not yet able to distinguish the sex, — the aforesaid priest too flies up as if bloodless. He asks who she was, and whence she had come, and how this so horrible thing had happened to her. For he declared that such a thing had not happened without cause. Then the unhappy man, recovering his strength a little — for he no longer prevailed to dissemble what he was, — threw off the women's garments, and he who lay hidden, willy-nilly, long tormented, soon became plain. Him the venerable presbyter Fulk assails with these words: "Come now, O man, what did you think, or what did you contrive in the hidden place of your cloudy heart, that you should undertake the unlucky omen of so unheard-of a deception? Why, I say, changing the male sex by a feigned habit, with all the reins of a faithless mind, into feminine use, did you not fear, like an impudent dog, to plunge yourself into the terrifying and life-giving sacraments against the precept of the outstanding prelate Godfrey? What, I say, crept upon you, that you should attempt such things? What if Christ, as if not seeing your crime, should spare you in the present, would you be able to escape the penalties of the torturers in the future? Addressing you, then, with the words of the Gospel: Amen I say to you, you shall by no means go out thence until you pay the last farthing. Matth. 5, 26." At this the unhappy man, exceedingly torn and exceedingly confused, cries: "Woe to me!" and at the same time repeats "woe!", "who for a long time, like the horse and the mule which have no understanding, flowing through unlawful things to all that pleased my impudent mind, thought myself born free like a wild ass's colt. Ps. 31, 9, Iob 11, 12. Thence it happened that, coming into the depth of sins, I incurred the last of all evils, namely contempt and faithlessness, and so, heaping up guilt, with neck erect, kicking against the wholesome precepts of the glorious prelate Godfrey as far as I could, at length, vexation itself giving understanding to hearing, I have now experienced clearly enough that his words neither are carried into the void nor flow away to the ground, but I profess that firmly — for truly he was Christ's should minister, praeco or something similar be supplied?, — they stand for ever and are to be fulfilled in their time. Prov. 18, 3, Isai. 28, 19." Hence you would see the people shuddering greatly at the hearing of the unspeakable crime and growing pale, lest such things should befall them, their thoughts accusing or also excusing one another; and hence, on the other hand, embracing the judgements of Christ, who had brought hidden things to light, extolling on high the merit of Godfrey, and they testify that for the rest they will cling more closely to his precepts. Rom. 2, 15. Let this be said for the terror of those who try to despise the precepts of spiritual masters, however brought forth, or, as far as they can, to empty the sacraments of the orthodox church.

[13] A monk who, having committed a theft, There is a monastery in honour of Christ's illustrious witness Denis, venerably situated outside the walls of the city of Amiens [This is the priory of Saint-Denis-des-Prés, on which above, p. 899, at the year 1113 after Sept. 1.], in which a devout band of monks, walking in the regular path, continually pays the offices of praises to the Creator of all. Thither, then, very many citizens of Amiens had carried weights of gold and silver and of diverse treasures, for the sake of keeping them, and had assigned them at their pleasure to the brethren living there to be guarded more diligently. For at that time of civil wars (N. ea t. i. b.) twice in B. the seditions a corrupt or mutilated passage. Perhaps it can be corrected: seditio. barefoot ran more atrociously in it publicly and privately, and the uncertain running about of assassins had rendered the whole surface of the city most astounded. For the tower in it, surrounded by an impregnable circuit of walls and at the same time fortified by the height of its battlements and the density of its bulwarks, besieged in manifold ways for almost two years Abbot Suger attests the same. Cf. above, p. 900, at the year 1115, Apr. 11., at the instance of Louis, king of the Franks, and also of Godfrey of pious memory, prelate of that place, at length compelled by hunger to surrender, was finally overthrown from its foundations, lest it should further lay waste the neighbouring provinces. So one of the brethren, seeing daily the heap of diverse riches, is struck by a clandestine thought, and the poison of unlawful persuasion cloaks itself under the hope of good, and, while negligent he scorns to crush the head of the dragon in the middle of the threshold, or while, intent elsewhere, he does not attend: Ovid. Rem. 83. So delay gives strength, alas, alas! gradually he slips in wholly. For he quite often turned over in his mind that, if he could in any way possess what he desired, he would keep it more safely by distributing it for the uses of the needy and the liberation of captives or the restoration of churches than if an Octavian or Neronian satellite himself should guard it more closely with thousands of bars. These and very many other things resounded night and day in his miserable mind like a kind of barbarism; condescending to which as if from open reason, he did not know that, although all things are lawful, yet not all things are expedient. I Cor. 6, 12. Having waited until the other brethren had gone to sleep, he, as if about to undertake illustrious and famous things, does not sleep nor slumber, nor grant his eyelids any rest however small, — but, having seized an axe, at dead of night, — for he who does evil hates the light, — having broken the locks by which the treasury was closed, as his will or ability allowed, he withdraws very many of the things that came to his hands, and, lest he could be detected by any mortal, had fled from the monastery, mammon leading him, swifter than the south winds — for fear added wings, — he sets out upon the fields of the crossroads. Ps. 120, 4, Ioh. 3, 20. And the brethren, waking from sleep and perceiving that one of their fellow citizens was missing, searching the corners, the rooms, while he is not found, finding the treasury broken open and at the same time despoiled, were affected with exceeding grief of sadness, on the one side for the departure of the fugitive into the open jaws or bites of the lion, on the other because, want compelling them, they could not restore what was lost to the man pressing them — for, having heard this, he had flown there, — but most of all because they were burned by the infamy of an impure repute. Not knowing what to do, whither to turn, taking refuge in the asylum of the wretched, namely the lord Godfrey, flinging themselves at his feet, they relate one by one with tearful voices the misfortune that had happened; what is to be done about this, they supplicate quite submissively. He was not unprepared for this, but, inspired by God, he soon brought forth fitting counsel to his neighbour, according to that saying of the outstanding teacher: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I do not burn?

together with him he could truly bring forth by the things themselves. II Cor. 11, 29. And he said: "O dearest ones, do not wonder, do not be saddened. For know that the time is at hand when, the Lord's threshing-floor having been winnowed, the wheat is thrown into the barn, the chaff into the eternal fire. Matth. 3, 12. But if the devil from an angel of light became Satan, and Judas from an apostle an apostate, what new thing now if this man from a monk has become a Gehazite gyerita B first hand That is, like another Gehazi (cf. IV Reg. 5, 20 – 27), greedy of gain.? But if you recognize that you are citizens of the heavenly fatherland, remember with my Paul now to bear false brethren; nor let this seem strange to you, because, as has been soberly said before us, no one can become Abel whom the malice of Cain does not exercise. II Cor. 11, 14, GREG. MAGN. Hom. in Ezech. I, 9, 22. This, then, I ask, this I desire to insert into your minds, nay to make cling there, what that saying of David is: Your commandment is exceedingly broad. Ps. 118, 96. Accordingly, extend your love even to the gathering of enemies; pray for those who persecute and calumniate you, so that at some time, from a persecutor, he may become a performer of good things. Matth. 5, 44. I too, according to my small measure, will supplicate Christ about this very thing; I will minister alms to the poor, widows and orphans, and, believing, I promise that the wretched man will very soon be converted to his heart. Ps. 84 9." The monks, having taken in these words, placed between hope and fear, go back to the monastery, waiting to embrace the prelate's promise. by his prayers he brings back to good fruit. When they had gone out, Godfrey prostrates himself in prayers, does not delay to offer the sacrifice to almighty God after that pious and holy manner of his; in these too he lingers more insistently for the recall of the fugitive. Then he goes out to the aforesaid monastery for the sake of consoling. But what does the petition of pious faith not merit, or what does the just affection of sincere prayer, poured out especially for the advantage of a neighbour, not obtain? The venerable man had not yet completed the middle of the journey, and behold, the monks meet him greatly rejoicing, rendering manifold thanks to his holiness. For they cried out such things: "O pious patron, O demonstrator of heavenly doctrine, behold, the sheep which, at the prompting of the kid, had gone out of the sheepfold and fallen into the pit of perdition, its mind changed, the path of perversity changed, your merits supporting, has now returned within the enclosure of the ever-green pasture. Nothing too was missing of the things which he had plundered a little before. Why should we unroll very many things? The tongue grows faint in your proclamation." To whom the reverend man: "It is the gift of God, plainly the propitiation of God, who, hating none of the things which He makes in His goodness, wills all to be saved. I Tim. 2, 4, Eph. 2, 9. For this is not from works, or from one's own merit, lest anyone should glory. Wherefore to His name, not to us, be the glory. For the rest, little sons, be strengthened in charity, that in this very thing, the clemency of Christ assisting, he may be able to persevere for the rest even to the end." Having exhorted those standing round with these and very many other words, then, they departed from the place with huge joy of piety.

[14] A pious nun At the town of Durlens Doullens., situated in the territory of Amiens, the memory of blessed Michael the archangel is kept, in which church a choir of virgins dedicated to God happily lives [On the monastery of St. Michael, of the Order of St. Benedict, in the town of Doullens cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1324 – 25.]. One day, then, the mother of that place, prolonging the hour of supper until evening, having called one of the nuns, commands her to stand by her while she dined. This woman, endowed with religion and simplicity and known by no man, who had also three times gone to the glorious sepulchre of Jesus Christ which is held at Jerusalem, on which journey she had borne very many crosses, labours and agonies for His name, and of whom also illustrious things were said publicly and privately by the mouth of the faithful, which we refrain from inserting here, lest perhaps they seem incredible to the minds of the weak; her, then, so worthy to be proclaimed, as has been said, she commands to stand by in the manner of handmaids, to hold a candle in her hand, to comply reverently with fear and trembling, to turn her eyes down submissively and not to depart anywhere until she should rise from the place. And when she busied herself to fulfil what was enjoined with all reverence of subjection, as if Christ had thundered from heaven, by I know not what fault intervening, behold, the light, slipping from her hand, fell to the ground, and the shadow of dense night unexpectedly, alas, alas!, covered the whole space of that cell. Then she, greatly fearing the harsh and irrational fury of the mother, flinging herself at her feet, tearfully supplicates that she would deign by her clemency to pardon what she had committed by her own negligence. The other sisters join in the prayers. But what has burst forth more harsh than female fury? She could by no means be inclined to this so easily, that she should forgive the suppliant susplicanti B. in a moment. But if you had been present, you would have seen her face, not as nature gave it, but horribly changed into various forms of beasts or serpents. She rises from the table and grew pale in her whole face. OVID. Met. 4, 106. Then indeed she began to gnash her teeth, to whirl her head-covering and her hair, scarcely to contain herself, and with the other motions of her limbs to lay open the wild madness of her mind, to proclaim her most unspeakable and to be anathematized, and so to judge her deservedly to be driven from the fellowship of the common life. At length she burst out so far that she went for her with fists and heels, by a wicked abbess and, affecting her day by day with excessive injuries, at the last compelled her to go out from the monastery. So the nun, having gone out of the enclosure of the monastery, although she seemed exposed like a sheep to the ferocity of wolves, yet her steps are directed by the pious Shepherd, lest she slip in anything. For the just man, thrust out of the monastery when he falls, shall not be bruised, because the Lord puts His hand under him. Going to the angel of counsel, namely the servant of Christ Godfrey, patron of the people of Amiens, she complains tearfully what and how great things she had borne from the mother of the monastery, and by what fault intervening. Ps. 36, 24. Hearing this, he grieves with her with great affection of heart, for he knew with Paul to weep soberly with those who weep. Rom. 12, 15. He wonders also exceedingly. For he had the fame of her simplicity very well established. He exhorts her also to bear these things patiently; at the last he orders her to withdraw into the house of a certain religious matron, named Eremburgis, placed in the neighbourhood, and not to go forward anywhere until he himself should consent. She withdrew, and so remained at home until she should be recalled by the prelate. Immediately Godfrey, letters having been sent to the aforesaid monastery of virgins situated in the town of Doullens, commands that, the letters seen, the mother of that place should come to Amiens as quickly as possible without the help of any vehicle. She, learning this, gapes, runs about this way and that, meditates flight, is in anguish. For she knew that so strict a precept had by no means proceeded in vain from Godfrey's mouth. What was she to do? If she fled, it would by no means turn out prosperously for her. If she remained and did not carry out the precept, she would incur the ruin of disobedience. When, then, she had turned over in her mind innumerable twistings of evasions, at length, considering that she could by no means go against the prelate's precept, all looking on, with huge blushing she sets out on foot for Amiens, and so flings herself at Godfrey's feet. Then, as vinegar thrown upon nitre vitro B. boils the more, so she, provoked most of all by this, vomits unheard-of insults against Godfrey, and goes on to lay open the madness of her heart not only by mouth but also by the other gestures of her body. Prov. 25, 20. But Godfrey, neither moved by these things he most sharply protects. nor frightened, cries: "O woman, drive all madness from your heart, and so turn your wretched mind to sense. Lo, I preside in Christ's stead at the tribunal of judgement, and now hasten to examine you on your unlucky deeds. II Cor. 11, 2. The soul of the sister, whom I betrothed to one husband to present as a chaste virgin to Christ, whom I commended — as I believe you now remember, unless you are suffering forgetfulness or lethargy — to your custody and your protection, I require of you, whom, as report says, I lament to have fallen into the pit of perdition." Then she, not knowing what to answer to the charges, professes that she did not know what he was saying; that a frivolous report was flying about; that she had never lost any of the sheep entrusted to her; that she exercised the care of them soberly and justly and piously. Tit. 2, 12. To this Godfrey: "I see that you speak the truth, since you profess, alas, that you are altogether ignorant of what I say. For indeed, if you held it as experienced what judgement shall be on those who preside wickedly, if you had fallen into that very Gehenna which is prepared for the uprooters of the Lord's sheepfold, you would keep in continual memory what I have set forth. Sap. 6, 6. Come now, O woman, if from your earliest age you had suffered the loss or damage of any temporal advantage, could it ever be blotted from your heart even lightly? Why many words? What excuse is there in sins? Ps. 140, 4. That, that sister, that, I say, virgin of outstanding repute, whom the day before you commanded to stand by you as you dined and 〈to minister〉 the light, and because, through carelessness, it fell to the ground, you compelled her on that account, affecting her with very many things, to go out from the sheepfold, her I plainly demand of you, I require her blood at your hand. Ezech. 3, 18. Perhaps she has entered the pit of despair, perhaps she lies prostituted in arches, theatres or brothels; perhaps she is held swallowed in the jaw of leviathan. Where, I ask, is the faith of Christ? Where is the edict of the apostle, by which we are commanded not only to give outward things for the brethren, but even, if it should be necessary, to lay down our life for them? I Ioh. 3, 16. What, I say, detestable woman, crept upon you susplicanti B., that for so small a thing you should try to thrust into Avernus a soul for which Christ died, which He redeemed and washed with the water and His own blood flowing from His side? What to these things? Has not this voice pierced the hearing of your inner man?" When she, as if turned into a statue of salt, kept silent at all these things, her eyes cast down to the depths, the servant of Christ, with a great roar, cries out: "Rise, rise, wretched woman, now, unhappy one, hasten even if late; give no sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber. Gen. 19, 26, Prov. 6, 4 – 5. Deliver yourself as a little doe from the hand and as a bird from the snares of the fowler; rouse your friend, if perhaps he may deign to pardon, if perhaps in some way to restore the soul which you have lost by your own fault. Ibid. 3." And when she delayed to rise at this, Godfrey rebukes her: "As the Lord lives, you shall take nothing of food or drink until you assign to my littleness the sheep that has suffered shipwreck in manifold ways." Having said this, guards having been appointed, he departs from the place. The mother of the household, therefore, considering that no remedy would ever come to her if she did not fulfil the precept as far as she was able, rises up, runs through the squares and streets of the city, asks the watchmen whether they did not know anywhere where the nun of her charge was lying hidden, where she was staying. Cant. 3, 2 – 3. For she had heard that she had come there. While, then, this until

she had continued until evening, and nothing had come to effect, at sunset she seeks again Godfrey's threshold, confessing her errors with tears: that she had not found what she sought; that he should deign to pardon the fault; that for this, until she found her, as long as she lived, she would go through sea and land. Godfrey, therefore, understanding that she was greatly wearied by labours, fasts and other injuries, orders the nun to come forth from the inner rooms of the house and to leap forward into the midst. Seeing her, he cries out: "Lo the sheep that has suffered very many dangers; she scarcely prevails to lift her head, sated with affliction and misery. Her I restore to you, her I consign again under the testimony of the faithful. It has pleased me, however, to exercise upon you a little dire severity That is, direly, severely?, so that for the rest you may deal more mildly and cautiously with her, and according to that saying of the comic poet: Nothing too much. TER. Andr. 1, 1, 34. For know that the government of souls is the art of arts." These things having been set forth, the mother of the household receiving her own as her own, thus on both sides they departed home with the peace of Christ On syntax of this kind see above, p. 916, annot. 4.. GREG. MAGN. Reg. past. I, 1.

[15] Desirous of martyrdom, In the breast of our pontiff, of ours, I say, who is to be imitated, as once in that ark of Moses, was the rod with the manna; because, though he knew how to strike transgressors fittingly, he knew also how to revive suppliants clemently. Hence, indeed, we can gauge what he would suffer for the flock committed to him, if it were necessary, if he does not delay to undertake such and so great things for one little woman, sincere piety intervening; how blessed he would judge himself if he merited to shed his own blood for love of neighbour. Spare A corrupt passage. if, by the attestation of the divine pages, about to celebrate in the mind a martyrdom A corrupt passage., I do not doubt that he obtains the laurel of martyrdom who was torn the more sharply, the more inwardly, by that spiritual sword of which, as the evangelist attests, Simeon is reported to have said to the most blessed Mother of God: And a sword shall pierce your own soul. Luc. 2, 35. Do you think, I ask, that he bore it lightly, when he perceived by sight or hearing the minds of his subjects slipping down through the incitements and precipices of crimes? the delinquent subjects For the sake of this, tortured, as is said, a thousand times and torn a thousand times, he could not restrain mouth, hand and mind from grieving, nay from strictly rebuking the despisers of the words of God. For indeed, if the Neronian or Diocletianic rage had come upon his times, he would have gone up of his own accord upon the rack for the defence of the Catholic faith; and if a bloody man had threatened the gridiron, I believe that, strengthened by the presence of God, he would have mounted the machine of glowing iron fearless; but if a mad judge, hastening to take him out of the way, had cast him into the flames, I profess that, following the footsteps of the three boys, he would have sung a hymn to God in the furnace; since also, if it had befallen him to run into the other kinds of torments by which the soldiers of Christ, grace leading, have conquered the prince of the world together with his satellites, he would have run with a brave mind, a glad face, already conscious of the crown, a victor; and so, laurelled with his own blood, about to see the King in His beauty, he would happily have entered, happy, the palaces of heaven. Dan. 3, 51 ff., Isai. 33, 17. Leaving these things, then, to be ruminated by the faithful, we pursue the rest in haste.

[16] he gravely rebukes; When the most holy solemnity of our redemption came, when he had been solemnly brought by the clerics from his own house into the church at the evening hour, the work of God having been celebrated, called back again by them equally festively to his own house, an abundance of cups is poured out according to custom for all sitting there. There happened to be among them a certain cleric, whom I know indeed by face and name, but the person is to be concealed, lest, if perhaps he should recognize this which we bring forth about him, he should not fear to rush into madness or certainly into worse things. This man, then, being not the least of those whom we have mentioned above, joined in impure wedlock cōpulatus B., against whom we have related that Godfrey exercised many things in what went before, having seized the bowl from which the venerable prelate was accustomed to drink, pouring wine over it, does not fear to drink it off with a cackle. Godfrey, considering this, lest perhaps in the joy of so great a solemnity he should seem to pursue his own injury unadvisedly, pressing down the exasperation of his mind within his throat, at length, when all had gone out, having called adnotato B. Nicholas, the steward of the house, addresses him with these words: "O man, why did you wish to waste my cup on the dunghill? Do you not know that there is no communion of light with darkness?" And when he, vehemently terrified at this, cried out that he had put it back in a safe place, Godfrey adds: "Go away from here in haste, carry that bowl to the market, and, a fitting price received, pay it out to the poor of Christ. II Cor. 6, 14." Which also was at once fulfilled. So did the fiery word of God, which he also vehemently loved, cook his inward parts that, according to the voice of Paul, with a brother who is named a fornicator or covetous, with such a one he would plainly not even take food. Ps. 118, 140, I Cor. 5, 11. So, so he studied to keep his life without contamination, so, so to walk without complaint toward those who are outside or on the opposite side. Wherefore it is worthy to venerate and equally to imitate such and so great a father, that at some time he may draw by his own merits to where he has already happily come, reigning with Christ, after the pathless and desert land of this exile.

[17] but he himself, abstaining from wine Although some things have been said about his abstinence, yet it is not beside the point if we bring forth for the faithful something more to be wondered at, or rather to be imitated. So Godfrey, when, supported by a throng of clerics or knights, he reclined in the symma In the chamber or at table. Cf. Ducange, under the words simma and sigma., water was poured out for him in a silver cup, polished with seemly work of chasing, so that the multitude of those reclining believed it filled with wine; and each would think himself very fortunate if he touched it even once with his mouth. Another, of wood, likewise filled with wine, was brought before his eyes; gazing at it for a very long time, so that he might be the more tormented by it, tasting nothing of it, he poured it out with his own hand to the needy. Practising this soberly, lest he be exalted by some superfluous applause, he busied himself, as far as was in him, that it should be hidden from the knowledge of mortals. At dinner, while the meats of diverse fatted fowls, wild animals or birds were set abundantly before all at their wish, he enjoyed the fruit of the arbutus or herbs, and moderately. This he is known truly to have preferred to the more sumptuous foods of others, and throughout his whole life.

[18] and content with slender fare, A certain illustrious thing I have learned about him from the report of his beloved, named Reinger, a very truthful monk, namely that he was never so filled by any food or drink that he did not always remain most hungry; so outstanding a cultivator of abstinence and sobriety was he held.

[19] in vigils What shall I report of the urgency of his vigils, since these are wont in a manner to accompany fasting most familiarly? For when, the vigils of matins having been completed, each one hastened to return to his own, he, delighted by the company of God alone and of the blessed spirits, remaining alone in the church, taking off his garment and shoe, his knees fixed in prayer, devoutly spent the rest of the night in this. Very often, for the sake of visiting the places of the saints, taught by the example of blessed Severin, prelate of Cologne Cf. Gregory of Tours, De virt. S. Martini, book I, c. 4., barefoot, content with one boy only, going round at that very hour, at length, having gone out so V; progressus B. of the walls of the city, he betook himself with pious solicitude to the huts so V: ī appalia B. of the lepers, and, coming also to the beds of each, handling with his own hands the livid and itching limbs, he kissed them, and, impressing the saving sign, they were restored for the better On the syntax cf. above, p. 916, annot.4. To them too he delivered the mysteries of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and he presses on with pious works. confession of offences having been made first, and bestowed submissively the other services of humanity; and so he returned secretly, as quickly as possible, covered with little rags, to his own house, lest he could be caught by human praise.

[20] Warned by St. Firmin in a vision, While, then, one night he was keeping watch in works of this kind, and had fallen down with weeping before the limbs of blessed Firmin, bishop and martyr, to supplicate for the excesses of the flock committed to him, pressed down by heavy sleep, or rather placed in ecstasy, he sees himself to have gone out of the circuit of the city and to have stood on the road which leads to the church of the holy martyr Acheul; and behold, from the side of the south he beholds a carriage of fiery horses, of horsemen too vomiting sulphurous flame, an infinite multitude rioting, imitating the manner of armies; the clash too of manifold arms, shields, helmets, breastplates and fiery darts. To the heap of horror, too, alas, alas! he perceives them hanging headlong over the destruction of the city, by whose din he thought that the world had trembled. The venerable man, therefore, caught in the moment of so horrible a vision, opposes with most firm faith the saving sign, to which every knee is bent, by which every faithful man is fortified, without which there is no salvation, without which heaven is by no means attained. And when he was vehemently afraid and shuddered exceedingly at the overthrow of the city, behold, suddenly he beholds standing by him, upon a ray of the sun, a certain splendid man of lordly form, clad in pontifical vestments, brandishing in his hands a golden ring and a palm, carrying on his head also a garland filled with roses and lilies, in which too the little sign of the Lord's cross was most aptly inserted. At this the outstanding man, breathing again a little, when he desired to fling himself at his feet and to ask who he was or for what he had come, he cries: "Desist from what you are beginning, O holy priest Godfrey, happy successor of our see, faithful executor of our labour or zeal. I am Firmin, first martyr of the present city, prelate and at the same time patron, about to bring help, as far as I can, according to merits, to the city about to be destroyed." To whom Godfrey: "Tell me, come, saint of God, by what causes intervening so great a calamity, like that once of the people of Gomorrah, threatens the city." Then the saint: "The sins of your people and their cry, alas, have gone up in the sight of the strict Judge. For according to that saying of the prophet: Lying and theft have overflowed, and blood has touched blood. Ose. 4, 2. Now, therefore, rise up, and set forth manfully the things which you have seen and at the same time heard, insisting in season, out of season, rebuking, beseeching, reproving, fearing or flattering no one, and together with me entreat more earnestly the mercy of Christ, that His fury may be turned away from the people and from the city. II Tim. 4, 2." Having conversed with him in these and very many other words, which, because they are very prolix to relate, we have avoided depicting, the saint of God, blessing him and bidding him farewell, is lifted up on high. The outstanding man follows him with the sharpness of his eyes, until his sight grows dull in the immense vastness of this air, and he could no longer look upon him, received into heaven. So Godfrey wakes, and lest perhaps you should think that something had happened like the things by which the spirits of mortals are mocked in dreams, you would have seen, if you had been present, his garment, incredible to relate, besprinkled with tears, and these falling to the ground; so ratified was the vision. II Cor. 10, 13. And when the Lord's day came, all the people having been called together into the church, standing on the step, saying nothing indeed about the vision, lest by chance he should seem to glory beyond measure, he began thus:

[21] he himself warns his people "Whoever has been set, either by the will or by the permission of God, on the watch-tower of the mother church, seeing the sword impending, if he does not announce it, is himself deservedly held guilty of the blood of all who perish. Considering that I have been placed in this very one, O would it were by the will of God, to bring forth the knowledge of salvation to His people, greatly fearing that the sentence of the strict Judge must be turned back upon me if I withdraw anything, Luc. 1, 77. again and again, dearest ones, I admonish you: while there is leisure, flee from the face of the wrath of the dove, and while the heavenly Judge holds suspended the sword of vengeance, direct your feet into the way of peace. Ier. 25, 38, Luc. 1, 79, Isai. 1, 16. Wherefore, taking away the evil of your thoughts from the eyes of the Lord, speak the truth each one with his neighbour. Zach. 8, 16, Prov. 20, 10. For know that weight and weight, measure and measure, both are abominable before God. Know too that with what measure you shall have measured, it shall be measured to you again. Matth. 7, 2. Come, lovers of this world and pursuers of base gain, what fruit did you then have, when you awaited with joy the overthrow of the churches, the depopulation of wards pupillarum B. and widows, the plundering too of their goods, carried out with one mind by Adelelm, the tyrant of this city [A difficult passage. We know of a son of Adam, castellan of Amiens, named Adelelm, whom Guibert of Nogent teaches was a most beautiful boy in the year 1113 (De vita sua, III, 14). That he is not designated here is all but certain; but I should believe that Adam himself is designated, who, as letters of the year 1069 teach, was called by another name Adelelm, which letters were subscribed by Drogo of the Tower, that is, castellan of Amiens, and by Adelelm his son and successor (Cartulaire du chapitre de la cathédrale d'Amiens, vol. I, p. 10; cf. A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens, vol. I, p. 145). Yet the matter is not so settled. For if we believe Nicholas, the fire which is narrated in c. 22 happened in the year 1106 (cf. below, annot. 2), and therefore the speech which is brought forth here was delivered in the same year. But it was only some years later, in the year, I say, 1115, or certainly not before the year 1113, that Adam defended the party of the count against the citizens of Amiens, who were striving for liberty, and committed those savage deeds which both Nicholas in this place and also Abbot Suger (see the words adduced above, p. 926, annot. 2) reproach him with. What then? I, who desire to be taught better, would wish it noticed that that speech was not pronounced by Godfrey in so many words, but was invented by Nicholas. I should believe, therefore, that Nicholas erred and interchanged the times, so as to bring in Godfrey in the year 1106 — which year Nicholas does not indicate, but leaves for us to define from what he brings forth — speaking of the things which happened only in the year 1113 or 1115. This, as in an obscure matter.], and by the other satellites of Satan? Do you wish to know what you will receive for such deeds, when the God of gods appears as judge? Paul, the vessel of election, trumpets to us that not only those who do them, but also those who consent, are worthy of death. Rom. 1, 32, Ier. 17, 5. Cursed, says the prophet, is he who puts his hope in man, not in the Man God, but in earthly man; who, when he is dead, shall inherit serpents and beasts and worms. Eccli. 10, 13. Daily we see, willy-nilly, daily we experience that pale death knocks with equal foot at the towers of kings and the taverns of the poor. HORAT. Carm. I, 4, 13. Now, therefore, dearest ones, put off the old man with his acts, and put on the new, who has been created according to God in justice and holiness of truth, if perhaps you may be able to render the strict Judge appeased to us, if in some way you may be able to escape the wrath impending over you. Eph. 4, 22, 24. But if you neglect it, I foretell to you — for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard — that very soon you are either to be burned up by that fire once of Sodom, or to be overthrown utterly by that horrible destruction of Dathan and Abiram. Act. 4, 20. Accordingly, lest I should be involved together with you in the crime of silence, I am clean of the blood of all of you; for I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God. Act. 20, 26 – 27. Nay, as you yourselves, I believe, remember, how often I have been in danger for this very thing even to the dividing of body and spirit. I testify again to everyone who hears, lest, making light of the remedy granted, he fall into the pit of damnation." Making an end of speaking with these words, he withdrew. But since, according to the sentence of the wise man, wisdom will not enter into a malevolent soul, the words of the servant of God seemed to them as ravings, crying out together that he was giving his effort to infinite questions and certain dirges. Sap. 1, 4, Luc. 24, 11, Ps. 93, 13. And so they rush into worse things, until the pit is dug for the sinner, and their last state becomes worse than the first. Matth. 12, 45. Even now the wrath of the inevitable divine examination, reserving their crime for the day of perdition, wished to visit them and at length to thrust them down justly, according to their merits, with avenging flames. Yet Ut tamen B., because He always rules His creation with pious affection — for by the mouth of the harpist prophet He is proclaimed to be patient and of much mercy, — bent flexus est B before correction to mercy, as is believed, by the prayers of the patrons of that people, He preferred that they should be chastised momentarily rather than be assigned to the everlasting punishments of hell. Num. 14, 18; Ps. 144, 8.

[22] of the city of Amiens, soon after For on the fifth day of the week, namely the vigil of the blessed apostle Bartholomew [We have warned above (p. 897, at the year 1106, Aug. 23) that only in the year 1106, as long as Godfrey was bishop, did the 23rd of August fall on a fifth weekday.], whose solemn feast likewise the devotion of the faithful was to take up and at the same time celebrate on the morrow, a very dense cloud covered the city, so that all believed, groaning exceedingly, that the light had been changed into night; and soon fire, coming out, consuming in a moment the stubble standing everywhere through the fields and the immense heaps of crops, with very vehement north winds blowing, slips in between the walls of the city. And when the devouring flame licked without any distinction houses or huts of stone as of wood, no one dared to approach nearer to remove anything; for so very fierce a fire had covered the whole surface that you would have believed you beheld not many pyres but one. Then too all things were mingled together at the same time, and the globes of flames were borne up even to the stars; further, by so hidden, just and dreadful a judgement of the Deity had all things everywhere been given over, that rare, nay rather no dwellings remained there, except the church of Christ's witness Firmin, the house too of Godfrey and also the huts of certain needy people, which were not utterly overthrown; and scarcely anything was removed from the place which was not at once consumed by that horrible fire. The hides too of diverse animals, sunk in the deep eddies of the river Somme flowing past, incredible to relate, were drawn out half-burned against the nature of the element, so that, if fortune had borne you there, you would have seen it differ nothing from the infernal Stygian waters themselves. This would altogether have exceeded belief and would by no means have appeared heard of, had not more certain sight supplied the wings of belief. Meanwhile among those things birds too like ravens, full of leanness and every deformity of horror, carrying fire in their beaks, were seen to have flown harassingly through the city; whence also swift vorax B before correction report flamma B before correction spread that the place had blazed with infernal fire. There is, then, a deep silence in the city, and she who formerly luxuriated in glory and honour is now straitened, filled with bitterness; and she who, thirsting for the depopulation of her neighbours and of those placed far off, had raised up her neck, now, Christ avenging, receiving what is worthy, sits in sadness. There are left in her deserted ruins under the open sky, as if every inhabitant had utterly perished together, some unlucky omen rushing upon them. She, she, once for the abundance of her pleasantness called Somanobria [Rather Samarobriva, from the bridge built over the Samara or Somme. Cf. A. Holder, Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz, vol. II (1904), col. 1336 – 37.], is now rightly reckoned Ambiani, surrounded on every side by the eddies of rivers, that is, by the impulse of temptations.

[23] by fire. In those days Godfrey, forewarned of so great a disaster, going through his own diocese, was staying in the soil of the people of Ponthieu. Learning this, coming as quickly as possible, when he saw everything reduced to ashes, tears springing forth — for he did not deny this even to the ungrateful: — "O little sons," he said, "it would have been fitting that, believing my voice, you should have spared yourselves this loss, and so should have taken refuge with fitting laments of penance under the covering of the wings of God from the face of the bow stretched out. Act. 27, 21, Ps. 60, 5, Isai. 21, 15. But if even now, late, you will incline your ear to our words and bear the scourges of God with an even mind, and O if you will be zealous to set your morals for the rest in better order, I promise that the large propitiation of Christ will make all good things overflow upon you, and will grant that the last shall surpass the former joys." All these things they promise to fulfil as far as they can. And so, two years not fully completed, all things are so filled with the necessities of the present life that, according to the word of the man of God Godfrey, all the misery passed behind was given over to oblivion. This is recalled by the fame of all, this is proclaimed by the opinion of those living there, as if still recent, and mothers teach their children that Godfrey was quite filled with the prophetic breath.

[24] Foreknowing his death, From here now let the pen turn to the order in which the venerable man foresaw that he would be taken from the earth and advanced to the Elysian things. The holy man, understanding that the dissolution of the fragile vessel of clay was now even now impending over him, applied himself the more tante B. earnestly to works of mercy, the more readily he trusted that by these he would merit it. he bestows alms liberally; So among the other things which he bestowed on churches, the poor, widows and orphans — which, because they are too prolix to relate, we avoid expressing, — he conferred on the monastery of St. Quentin the martyr of the Mount also, in which, as has been said before Book I, c. 5 ff., he had been justly and holily educated in the regular disciplines, a golden chalice for celebrating the most holy sacraments of the Lord's body and blood, very many other things too, and also the altar of the village whose name is Cymimolae [I believe one should read Cyviniolae or Cyvinniolae, that is Ceviniolae, commonly Chuignolle (dép. Somme, arr. Péronne, cant. Bray), which place is not so far west of Péronne. This church indeed had been given by Godfrey to the monks of Lihons, and was in their possession even after

the death of the saint, in the year 1124 (cf. Gall. christ., vol. X, col. 1173 A; Darsy, Bénéficis de l'église d'Amiens, vol. I, p. 307, annot. 3.) But it could happen, as in fact happened in the churches neighbouring this one (see for example Darsy, vol. cit., p. 308, annot. 2), that the revenues were assigned partly to the monastery of Lihons, partly to the monastery of Mont-Saint-Quentin.], for providing the lights of the church, and so that on the very day on which he is recalled as having been taken from the earth, by the care or providence of the treasurer, an abundance of foods and drinks should be supplied plentifully in the refectory to all the brethren or the poor. Which is observed even to this day as a monument of the outstanding man. This also very many of the saints are known to have done, so that even the commemoration of their withdrawal from visible things may not seem empty of works of mercy.

[25] He visits John, bishop of the Morini. He went to the city of the Morini, to confer about some spiritual things or about the state of the present church with John, prelate of that place, of great authority, of whom I recall that I have touched on some things in the present little work too Book I, c. 32; book II, c. 2.. When, then, he had spoken out very many things about these matters before the brethren, John, weeping most abundantly, cries: "O brother Godfrey, remember to offer the sacrifice to almighty God for the absolution of my offences, and to be present at my funeral, if the means be at hand." At this Godfrey, flinging himself at his feet, answered with huge groaning: "By no means, most blessed father, will you depart from here before me; by no means will you go before me to the kingdom. Lo, I am being stripped of the frail flesh; lo, I enter gladly, Christ being propitious to me, the way of all flesh; lo, I pay the debt of the human condition. Ios. 23, 14. This, then, which you wish my littleness to do for your holiness, I, a little man of whatever kind, by that charity by which we bear to honour one another, by which also we are commanded to pray for one another, supplicate your paternity that you deign to fulfil for me. Eph. 4, 2, Iac. 5, 16." Immediately tears flowed abundantly from the eyes of all, recalling that not even the least word ever went forth in vain from his mouth. That you may know, then, that he by no means uttered eructuasse B. this to no purpose, he is proved to have rested in Christ almost three times five courses of years before the said pontiff John died on 27 January 1130. Cf. above, p. 895, no. 19.. And this splendid thing we received from the report of Herbert and Walter, archdeacons [Of the Morini or of Thérouanne, on whom cf. O. Bled, Regestes des évêques de Thérouanne, vol. I (1904), p. 14; vol. II (1907), p. 137.], not the lowest in skill in letters, who were then present, lest anyone should slander us as setting forth frivolous things.

[26] And since, being a sharer in the chain of him of whom qua B. the divine voice says: I, He says, will show him how much he must suffer for my name, he was, as it is pious to think, to be equally a partner in glory, God, wishing his merits to be increased the more by manifold kinds of tribulations, again there arise against him the wiles of the envious, the curses and insults of those opposed to the divine law, nor was there a safe place for him to dwell in that region; When he had thought to take refuge at the Chartreuse again, again he meditates flight, again hiding-places, exile, again to lead the solitary life, again to go, Christ consenting, to the promontory of the Chartreuse. Act. 9, 16. For that place sat most of all in his mind. For he was accustomed to narrate also about a certain brother dwelling there a certain illustrious thing, to be commended continually to memory, namely that for three years he never at all let his hand down as far as the groin, whatever necessity pressed; so pious a follower of holiness was he held. Thither, then, Godfrey would very quickly have flown and satisfied his pious desire, had not the due end from Christ been at hand for him. For meanwhile, embittered and caught by innumerable straits, so that he was weary of living, he was borne so beyond the measure of his strength that he very frequently prayed the Creator of all that he might never obtain the goal of the setting light in those parts. II Cor. 1, 8. Which also happened, and in this you would see that Christ obeyed his will. When, then, where and how this came about, let us set out briefly.

[27] Having set out for Reims For I know not what reason intervening, he sought Reims, the metropolis of Gaul, to confer with the venerable Radulf, surnamed the Green, archprelate of that place. In those days there presided he stops at the monastery of Saint-Crépin of Soissons over the monastery of Christ's martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, the first apostles and martyrs of the city of Soissons, a most reverend man, named Odo On whom above, p. 932, c. 10., an eminent cultivator of all sacred religion and honourableness, who rebuilt from the foundations all the dwellings of that monastery, and also the wall by which these are seen fortified, and made that place illustrious, as it shines even today, most of all by the rule of the monastic order, the grace of Christ going before and the suffrage of the saints whose pious patronage is kept there. This venerable father, then, on the day of the celebration of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, which is recited on the 8th of the Kalends of November, hearing that Godfrey, prelate of Amiens, was passing through the city of Soissons, commands boys to forestall the narrows of the paths, so that, if perhaps the man of God should come, they should persuade, nay compel him to come as quickly as possible to the solemnity of the martyrs. And behold, Godfrey, making his journey along the public highway, was arriving about the third hour of the day. Detained at once by them, by a pious force, nay by the providence of God, he is brought to the church of the martyrs. Solemnly received by the lord Odo, abbot of that place, he too festively and with huge jubilation of heart performed the celebration at hand. But since Christ had now decided, for the sweat of patience, chastity, humility and the other virtues which had come together most densely in him, to reward His servant now together with the heavenly ones with the garland of immortality, it pleased also His ineffable goodness that he should be mingled with the ashes of His witnesses, whose memory he sedulously cultivated, only one urn being between.

[28] and in vain On the following night, then, when he had given his blessed limbs to rest, he is struck by a moderate fever; and on the morrow he prostrates himself in prayer before the bodies of those martyrs, and then, desiring to unroll the journey begun, he had gone on as far as the village whose name is Parvanit, belonging to the possession of the aforesaid church; which, as I think, is separated from it by a space of three miles. And behold, the sickness growing stronger, he indicates to the companions of the journey that he cannot go progredi V, perhaps more correctly. further, but that he must be brought back to the monastery of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, and there await his last day. Soon all groan and weep together; they say that he by no means thinks the truth; that he ought not to speak such things; but rather that, resting there a little, he should refresh his wearied stomach a little with food, and so, his strength recovered, reach where he had begun to go.

[29] having tried to go further, But he, foreseeing his limbs failing, said: "By no means, O little sons, by no means can this be done. For last night, laying my wearied limbs down to rest, I seemed to myself to see myself carried on a litter into a certain oratory by four heroes illustriously covered with gowns whiter than snow, and a millstone laid upon me, all looking on and at the same time grieving greatly over this." At this all cry out with the greatest grief: "The will of God be done!" He had in his retinue a certain young man of outstanding character, named Nicholas, a monk of the monastery of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, of Cluny; who, running ahead to his father, named Henry, once indeed renowned in secular warfare, but then a monk of the often-mentioned church of the martyrs, then also the most faithful manager of that village, a man of wonderful simplicity and innocence, reports that the lord Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, has arrived and, powerless in strength, cannot go further. Immediately the elder, leaping up, received the prelate with fitting honour in a prepared house, rendering innumerable thanks to almighty God that he had merited to receive such and so great a guest in his lodging. There, then, the venerable man, remaining three days, is destitute more and more of the strength of his body. Learning this, the venerable Odo, father of the aforesaid monastery, a retinue having been made ready, the horses sweating, came to him. Having greeted him and kissed him quite frequently, he had him reverently placed in a boat and brought with great groaning by water to the monastery of the martyrs of Soissons [For the river Aisne flows past the monastery and is not far from the road which leads from Soissons to Reims.]. So the venerable man applied himself to prayers and tears the more attentively, the more swiftly he felt the setting of the present life to be at hand. He bore patiently, then, the scourges of the Father, knowing that, if the earthly house of his habitation be dissolved, he would have a building, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. II Cor. 5, 1.

[30] he dies piously in the same. So, when the hour came at which he should go out of the house of clay, he received the sacraments of the Lord's body and blood with most entire faith from the hand of the lord Lysiard, prelate of pious memory of the city of Soissons 1108 – 1126.. Then, having kissed the brethren, blessing and bidding farewell to those standing by, he suppliantly entreats that his little body be buried in the chapter, where the brethren were accustomed quite frequently to go in, to bend their knees, to accuse, to bewail, to correct their own excesses, and at the same time, Christ pardoning, to receive pardon, namely before the tribunal of the most holy cross, which is also kept there very beautifully depicted in a glass window — in that place, I say, to be embraced — so that, going to the throne of grace of Him who bore on it the offence of the whole world, he might obtain mercy and merit to find grace in timely help. Hebr. 4, 16, AUG. Civ. Dei 10, 21. And so, fortified with the trophy of the eternal King for conquering the aerial powers, with hands stretched out and at the same time eyes raised, he paid in prayer the debt of the common condition, and so, as we piously believe, entering into the joy of his Lord — for he was faithful in all his house — he received from His hand the inheritance incorruptible and unfading and undefiled, kept in the heavens, to reign happily with Him for ever. Matth. 25, 21, 1 Petr. 1, 4. His face, flourishing, spangled with snowy and rosy colour, afforded a pious and beautiful spectacle to the faithful, so that you would believe him pressed down not by death but by the lightest sleep. In this manner Godfrey, prelate of the people of Amiens, on the 6th of the Ides of November, namely the day of the Four Crowned, fighting the good fight, keeping the faith, finished his course In the year 1115. See above, p. 895 – 96, no. 18 – 20., himself clothed by God with the first robe and secure about the rest. II Tim. 4, 7, Luc. 15, 22. But Lysiard, prelate of that city, strove to translate the clod of the precious body of Godfrey to the episcopal see, namely the church of SS. Gervase and Protase; but it was not lawful, the reverend Odo, father of that place, resisting, and Theulf too, prior, of pious memory, who also, a little time having passed,

succeeded him in the government [He was abbot of SS. Crispin and Crispinian from the year 1118 to at least the year 1136; cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 397. Ernald had succeeded him in the year 1138 (see below after c. 42), who died in the year 1155; cf. Gall. christ., vol. cit., col. 397 – 98.], and the other monks dwelling there, nay by the piety of the blessed martyrs Crispin and Crispinian and the will of the friend of God himself. For it was worthy and fitting that the place which, for love of the blessed martyrs, he had cultivated with pious affection of heart as long as he lived, he should also mark with his bodily presence.

[31] The praises of the dead man are celebrated by Bernard the dean, About this the lord and master Bernard, dean of the holy church of Soissons At least in the years 1107 – 1126. Cf. ibid., col. 386., sang very many things; who, although he was exceedingly constrained by the disease of gout, so that he could scarcely walk, yet love of the glorious confessor supplied him strength to come quite often to his tomb, as if he suffered no inconvenience. And he says thus: By the merits of these saints it is believed to have been brought about that you sleep here in the Lord, Godfrey, priest. For you had been present, devout, at their feasts. Hence too you were going away, but sickness stops you as you go; and, carried back here, you die and rest with the saints, whence you are increased by the crown of the Four Crowned. From a boy the sacred rule directed you, and you were, the greater, the better, first abbot, afterwards prelate, protecting in your pontificate the soil of Amiens; now the people of Soissons keep your members for their protection. To this city, from which you sprang, God has well brought you.

[32] and Bishop Goislen. The lord Goislen too, formerly archdeacon of Bourges and master at Paris, most distinguished of all Europe, but now, by the consenting grace of God, bishop of Soissons 1126 – 1152., rightly to be called father of the fatherland, and in his age the most skilful founder of very many monasteries of monks, clerics and nuns, enemy of all depravity and most certain cultivator of all cleanness, embraced almost all things of this Godfrey briefly thus: Glory of pontiffs, ornament of the clergy, and model of monks, leader of the flock, exemplar of morals, Godfrey here lies, seeking the stars, on the eighth day of November. These things, lest they should ever be blotted out by any oblivion, he ordered to be carved round the stone of that mausoleum, which is seen to have been brought there from the city of Cambrai, and which holds in itself very beautifully the ring, the mitre and the pastoral staff and the rest of the episcopal ornament, and also an image of the venerable Godfrey. Very many most eloquent orators too sang illustrious things about this very matter. These things I would bring forth for this reason, that both those to come and those of the present may know of what merit or orthodox fame Godfrey was among mortals in his age, of whom the concert of rhetors brought forth such and so great things with the unanimous wish of the heart. Of them we have brought two outstanding ones into the midst; for every word is faithfully proclaimed to stand in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Deut. 19, 15. Now, therefore, let us touch briefly on where and how the venerable prelate was buried.

[33] Very many leading men When, then, the report of so mournful a message reached the ears of the peoples, an infinite multitude of both sexes and every age ran together, vying with one another, to the funeral of the blessed man. There were present also the lord Lysiard, prelate of the people of Soissons, Clarembald likewise, prelate of the people of Senlis 1115 - ca. 1133., the venerable Odo, at that time patron of that monastery, very solicitous about the burial, Radulf, father of Blessed Medard [Abbot of Saint-Médard of Soissons after the year 1093 until the year 1119 or 1120.], with the whole notable community of his church, Peter of the hostel of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes [Abbot of the monastery of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes of Soissons from at least the year 1100.] with his adopted sons; Matilda, abbess of the church of the kindly Mother of God [She succeeded the abbess Adelaide, who is said to have died on 5 September 1116 in Gall. christ., vol. cit., col. 444. Which passage is to be reconciled with the testimony of Nicholas.], in whose times it was built very beautifully from the foundations and illustrated by very many signs of miracles Cf. above, p. 913, annot. 1., flies there very quickly with the flock committed to her; Benedict, formerly of that place, but then pastor of the monastery of St. Peter the apostle of the city of Châlons 1110 – 1118.; Helbert, prior of the monastery of Lihons built in the territory of the Viromandui, a man of wonderful simplicity and compunction, and than whom in his time nothing more just existed in the order of monastic perfection; whose fame of holiness, purity of heart, cleanness of body was held so approved that not long after he was set over the monastery of virgins which is called Maxciliacum [Or rather Marciniacum (Marcigny), a monastery of men and women of the Order of St. Benedict.]. There were present also very many other rulers of churches. And what I see as more to be wondered at, that so many and such great fathers flowed together there from such diverse regions of the world so suddenly and so unexpectedly, except that we read that Christ, taking care of His servants even after their withdrawal from the things of clay, has quite often sent His angels to bring services to their funerals. I think it is to be believed piously too that all these were admonished by His inspiration to fly together there in a moment from diverse seats and to bestow devoutly their services at the funeral of the servant of God.

[34] to his funeral So, washed with water according to custom, decently adorned with ring, tiara and the other priestly vestments, he is carried on a litter by the sad office of the monks before the precious members of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian.

[35] flowing together, When all, then, had entered the choir, one of the nuns, named Helvidis, of whom we made mention above Book I, c. 24., seeing the funeral of the pontiff and calling to memory the vision shown to her the night before, was distressed beyond measure over this, that she saw no one present, as she thought, to whom she might set it out. Her so V; Nam B. one of the brethren, named Amatus, seeing so stupefied and bloodless, asks in silence what she was turning over in the inner rooms of her heart, what had happened to her, why her face seemed so unexpectedly darkened. Then she said: "I would bring it forth, if I could in any way receive a fitting explanation." "Do not delay any longer, O virgin," he follows; "for I profess that, if you have come with contrite heart to the funeral of blessed Godfrey, nothing of anxiety, nothing of difficulty will remain in your heart, but you will return home very soon rejoicing." She, having delayed too much and being too much in suspense, answers: "O would that, Amatus, a prosperous report, O would that, under Christ's auspices, a more fitting interpretation may follow! I seemed to myself, in the night when sleep had come sopora V., to see a certain man carried into a certain oratory, addressing those standing round, blessing and bidding farewell, and, incredible to relate, buried alive in that very place." To which Amatus, as the truth of the matter required, the sacred breath revealing it to him, prudently interpreting what she had seen, said: "It is true, O virgin, it is true. For this is Godfrey, the servant of God, that man most famous for the proclamation of his religion and holiness throughout almost the whole world, which the sun, running back with his flame-bearing chariot, beholds from ocean to ocean; who, although he seems for the hour to be withdrawn from the eyes of mortals, paying the debt of the condition, yet it is given him to live with Christ by perpetual right his portion †. For he is said to have uttered eructuasse B. these words at the last." Soon the nun, tears springing forth, repeats: "A true vision, true, plainly most true. Most true, the clemency of Christ supplying it, is the interpretation that has followed. May his intercession to God be suppliant for us."

[36] and so great a multitude also Meanwhile the people climb in haste the beams, the tiles, the panelled ceilings, the windings of the arches of the basilica, for the sake of beholding the funeral. The ascent was by a ladder which, its sides drawn out to an immense length, was seen to touch with its top the summits of the beams. When it was seen, like bees crowding the combs of honey, packed with a number of both sexes, men, boys and pregnant women, from the bottom to the top, not prevailing to bear so great a burden, that a ladder broke in the church, it is split through the middle. And so, from its crash and from the cry of the multitude rushing to the ground and the darkening of the dust rising on high, the vast space of the basilica so trembled that all believed the whole fabric had come apart, fallen to the ground and utterly perished. From this all, astounded, groaned more deeply, and cold sweat filled the faces of all. For who would believe that they, falling to the earth, were free from injury? LUCANUS, 4, 623. Who would not cry out in the very ruin of the collision, while falling, that they had suddenly breathed out the vital spirit? But, yet with no one hurt, that it might become known to all of how great merit with Christ he was for whose funeral's sake they had come together there, they are made strangers not only to the pain of death but to every mark of injury. Of whom one of the matrons, named Ava, wife of Ingelran, a very rich citizen of the city of Soissons, who was also seen to be weighed down with the burden of her womb for the sake of offspring, very lovable to Christ, intent on assiduous prayers and alms, considering, as has already been said, that all were weeping together over the sudden event, cries: "Why, O citizens, why are you so astounded? Why, I ask, are you made needy apporiati B. by the sadness of so great a grief? Behold, we have incurred no loss, no ruin and no danger. Behold, God being propitious, we all stand together before you unharmed. Lo, the power of the blessed Crispin and Crispinian, witnesses of Christ, and of the glorious prelate Godfrey, which we have experienced so illustriously preclari B., is now more than enough." There was there, then, a certain man who seemed to have fallen from higher up, so that, the framework of all his members dissolved, he was thought to have perished; he, reviving the hesitant with an eager voice, as a testimony to so outstanding a mighty work, showing to all his shirt, undershirt, breeches, leggings and slippers torn, having suffered no inconvenience, leapt up unharmed from the place, all looking on and rejoicing and exceedingly astonished at this. Of this thing there are still as many witnesses as there were also onlookers present. Then all grief and all mourning is turned into joy. The name and merit of Godfrey is extolled the more, even to heaven, by the proclamations of the mouths of all.

[37] he is buried in the basilica So, the sacrifice having been offered to almighty God for the devotion of Godfrey's soul, the whole basilica radiant with the brightness of candles and lamps lignorumque B. and smelling sweetly with censers, the clod of the blessed man is carried with huge grief and at the same time joy to the tomb, decently furnished with a new sarcophagus and Parian stone. And thus the body of the outstanding prelate and true pastor of the Lord's sheepfold, untouched by any stain of pollution — for from his very mother's womb, as we have truly learned, Christ being witness, he remained a Nazirite — is laid up in the earth, to be clothed with glory and honour by the supreme Judge on the day of the heavenly examination.

[38] of SS. Crispin and Crispinian. The blessed man was buried, then, in the middle of the choir of the basilica of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, in the suburb of the city of Soissons, between two pyramids under the very great arch which on the right and the left encircles the whole space of the sanctuary with a winding curve [Nicholas does not explain why Godfrey was not buried in the chapter of the brethren, as he had asked (cf. c. 30); nor is it clear what difference there is between the place in which he was first buried and that into which he was translated in the year 1138 (see below, after c. 42); certainly it is not the same place, since Abbot Theulf adorned the one, and in the other, under Theulf's successor Ernald, Godfrey's

body was laid up.]; over which, in our age, we have seen a tower of wonderful size and great height, built from the foundations with wonderful stone storeying by the lord Theulf, venerable father of that place, of whom mention has been made above C. 30., at the urging of the lord Arnulf, monk and at the same time treasurer of the present monastery. But 〈if〉 you shall be a seeker of the precious body of Godfrey, letting down a perpendicular perpendi culmine B. line from the battlement of that arch straight semetra †, all ambiguity removed, you may presume that you will find it for certain.

[39] The people of Amiens, at the death of their prelate, When, then, the death of the pastor came to the knowledge of the flock of his charge, intolerable sadness, mourning and groaning filled the whole surface of the city and of the whole province; publicly and privately they lamented the desolation of the fatherland, they repeated that they had, alas, their sins demanding it, lost the unconquerable strength against all the surges of attackers. I cannot unfold how many phalanxes of both conditions, sexes and ages, going forth from those borders, hasten in throngs to his venerable mausoleum, bedewing it with weeping and tears and kissing it as if still warm. There too they pay faithful vows, placing their offerings upon it after the manner of the faithful, protesting with huge grief of mind that they had not merited to possess his sacred ashes.

[40] grieve very greatly. I recall that I was mingled with the assembly of the brethren singing psalms, and behold, as I think, five old women, scarcely able to walk, sprinkled with grey hairs and covered with garments and the cheapest rags, came there, who, kneeling round the sacred tomb and embracing the feet of the image placed upon it, brought forth such words: "You, Godfrey, father, we weep for with pious love, O solace of the wretched, father of the widow, nourisher of the needy, O light of our eyes, O refuge of our poverty and misery, how we now see you! With these hands you were accustomed to impart to us and to those like us garments, food and the other necessities; with these footsteps, for the sake of our advancement, to run about like the little servant of all. Whither is our refuge, or whose suffrage is to be implored henceforth? Lo, wandering hither and thither, like a flock destitute of a shepherd, and not able to find anyone like you. O how happy are those who merit to obtain your funeral, to be protected by your patronage, to enjoy your presence!" Going on with these and very many things with plaintive voices, they persisted so long that they compelled the voices of the monks, turning aside from the psalmody, to weep together with them. So devoted and solicitous was the blessed man toward the needy as long as he drew the breath of life.

[41] A presbyter of Soissons implores his help. A certain presbyter dwelling in the city of Soissons was so assailed by the bishop, named Lysiard, for I know not what reason, that he was almost driven out of the province. He, exceedingly straitened, and finding no place of refuge anywhere, going to a certain fellow presbyter of his, named Robert, Norman by race, not the lowest in morals, discloses what and how great things he was suffering from the prelate, and asks what is to be done about this. To whom he answers: "O my beloved, if you will lend your ear to my counsel, I promise that you will experience a swift remedy." To which he said: "There will be no difficulty of any kind in carrying it out, but I will fulfil most willingly and speedily what is commanded." And he: "Hasten," he begins, "to the patronage of the blessed martyrs Crispin and Crispinian; prostrate yourself before the sepulchre of the glorious prelate Godfrey, very lately buried there, believing that you will be heard altogether in these things. Lo, I go together with you, to obtain similar things according to my wish." Why many words? They go with great devotion to the tomb of the blessed man, fling themselves down there in prayers, linger for a long time with tears. Then the presbyter, going away resedens B., spent his life secure for the rest.

[42] The writer's epilogue. These things about the birth, life and departure of the venerable Godfrey, patron of Amiens and worthy of God in all things, we have brought forth in whatever style, passing over very many things worthy of report, lest perhaps we should seem to be carried on to an immense length. For the rest, I think I have satisfied the belief of the faithful, while on the one hand I have partly depicted the virtues of the inner man, in which he flourished so illustriously, and on the other hand that I have partly culled certain of the last of his miracles. But I ask those into whose hands this little work of our study shall come, that they forgive a humble boldness, give pardon to immature age, and also condone a contemptible ignorance. But if you look for the superfluous windiness of decked-out words, you will nowhere find it. For neither do holy men seek these things very earnestly, bringing back to mind that saying of the outstanding teacher by which he protests that the kingdom of God consists not in speech but in the power of the spirit. I Cor. 4, 20, Ibid. 2, 1, 4. And so I, a little man, have described these things not in loftiness of speech, nor in the learned words of human wisdom, pursuing the truth of the matter rather than heaping up the exaggeration of polished speech. Now, therefore, may we be rescued everywhere and in all things from the temptation of the malign one by the help of him, led by love of whom we have undertaken so great a labour, even setting aside the madness of detractors. Now the most pious pastor Godfrey, the renowned prelate of the people of Amiens, rested in Christ on the 6th of the Ides of November, at the 9th hour of the day, in the 11th year of his priesthood and the 50th of his age, about to receive from Him the true jubilee of remission and rest, in the 18th year of the reign of Louis, son of Philip, king of the Franks, and in the year of the incarnate Word of God 1118 Rather in the year of priesthood XI〈I〉, of King Louis [XVIII, of the incarnation MCXV[III]. Cf. above, p. 895 – 96.], the very Son of God and man, our God and Lord Jesus Christ, reigning, to whom be honour and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

The translation of St. Godfrey made in the year 1138. In the year of the Word of God made man 1138 the venerable body of Godfrey, the prelate worthy of God, bishop of Amiens, was translated by the venerable Goislen, prelate of the city of Soissons, and laid up honourably, with pious affection of remembrance, before the high altar, under the stone arch which encircles the propitiatory with a winding curve. In which place the Saviour of the world hears the vows of suppliants. This was done on the Nones of April, on the third weekday of the paschal solemnity, there being present the venerable fathers, namely the lord Ernald, abbot of that monastery Cf. above, p. 941, annot. 5., and also Guy, governor of the church of Saint-Jean On Guy, abbot of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, cf. Gall. christ., vol. IX, col. 457.; this, I say, we saw done, to the honour of the supreme God, for whom, as is read, our bodies do not perish in dying, but are changed for the better, when, clothing the tombs of His saints with glory and honour on the day of examination, He will configure them to the body of His brightness, when also He will show forth from angels and men one city, in a manner one commonwealth. Philip. 3, 21.

Here ends book III and last of the Life of blessed Godfrey, bishop of Amiens, which is recalled on the 6th [II] of the Ides of November.