Ursinus

ON ST. URSINUS, FIRST BISHOP OF BOURGES,

THIRD CENTURY

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Ursinus, bishop of Bourges. (S.)

BY H. D.

§1. The testimony of Gregory of Tours.

[1] Two testimonies of Gregory After Gregory of Tours, in the History of the Franks, book I, chapter XXX, had spoken of the seven men sent into the Gauls in the time of the emperor Decius to proclaim the Christian faith, he set about narrating the beginnings of the church of Bourges, and opens with these words: Of their disciples a certain one, coming to the city of the Bituriges, announced to the peoples Christ the Lord, the salvation of all. He adds that clerics chosen by the same anonymous man were instructed in the ecclesiastical offices, and that the first church was established in the house of a certain senator of the Gauls, Leocadius by name, who was of the stock of Vettius Epagathus, the most illustrious martyr of Lyons Hist. Franc., I, XXXI.. The name of the bishop he discloses in another place: The city of Bourges first received the word of salvation from St. Ursinus, who, ordained bishop by the disciples of the apostles, was destined for the Gauls; and he first established and ruled the church at Bourges In Gloria Confessorum, ch. LXXIX.. His tomb, long neglected, was discovered in the course of the 6th century, the saint himself revealing it in a vision, and the body was placed, not without a miracle, in the basilica of St. Symphorian. These things Gregory sets out at length.

[2] on the antiquity of the see of Bourges That the indications of time cohere badly is manifest, since what he had said in the History happened in the 3rd century he seems in the other work to refer to the apostolic age. Different writers have tried to reconcile the matter in different ways. There are those who think that the anonymous disciple of the bishops is not the one whose name was revealed together with his very body; that Ursinus was indeed sent by the first disciples of the apostles, but that after his death the faith among the Bituriges was soon extinguished, and many years later was roused again by a certain disciple of the seven bishops, whose name Gregory did not know. Some add that this was Senicianus, who is listed first after Ursinus in the catalogue of bishops [Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. IV, pp. 478, 726–27. Cf. Ruinart, in the preface to the works of Gregory of Tours, n. 61.]. The opinion seems to have been devised more ingeniously than truly, for it never entered Gregory's mind that the Christian faith was restored rather than first introduced. Others prefer not to understand the words by the disciples of the apostles so strictly, and would have them express not the times but the origin and source of the authority. But this is nothing else than drawing the words to one's own sense, lest Gregory should seem to disagree with himself.

[3] He does disagree, however, or to speak more correctly, the sources from which he drew disagree G. Kurth, Études franques, vol. II (Brussels, 1919), pp. 297–307.. What is set out in the History of the Franks about the origin of the church of Bourges is plain and probable, do not agree. and not to be referred back to uncertain witnesses. I should believe these things were received by Gregory from domestic tradition. For Leocadius the senator, in whose house the first church of the city was established, had sprung from the same stock as Gregory himself Hist. Franc., I, XXVII; Vitae Patrum, VI, 1., that, I mean, of Vettius Epagathus, who in the year 177 underwent a noble martyrdom for Christ. We judge, therefore, that these things flowed from the best source. Not so what is related in the Glory of the Confessors. For the narrative which they call of the revelation of the relics is of the kind which is not commended by sure authors, and must be read with due caution. In the latter we have what was then commonly circulated among the people of Bourges; in the former, what was handed down by the forefathers and religiously preserved by their descendants, and which in all probability flowed without interruption from the events themselves. Whoever, then, would define the epoch of the first priest of the Bituriges must listen to Gregory speaking in the History of the Franks, not to those witnesses of whatever kind whom he seems to have copied out inconsiderately in the Glory of the Confessors. Just as, treating of St. Saturninus in two places, he by no means perceived that the indications of time did not agree with each other at all, and wrote both that the saint was ordained by disciples of the apostles In Gloria Martyrum, XLVII. and that the same man came to Toulouse in the consulship of Decius and Gratus an. 250 Hist. Franc. I, XXX., so precisely he asserted that St. Ursinus lived now in the first, now in the third century. To sum up briefly what is gathered from Gregory: the very character of the testimony shows clearly enough that the truer opinion is the one which holds that the see of Bourges was founded not in the most ancient times but in times near the age of Decius; and this is confirmed also by what is concluded from the series of the bishops of Bourges compared with the other catalogues of the bishops of Gaul, on the authority of that distinguished man Louis Duchesne, whose arguments it is surely superfluous to repeat [Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux, 2nd ed., vol. I, pp. 1–61; vol. II, pp. 21–26, 122–24.]. But from the history of the revelation of the relics, if we wish to separate the certain from the uncertain, these things seem worth retaining: that while Bishop Probianus held the see (c. 550), a certain Augustus, of the household of Bishop Desideratus, after he had built an oratory in honour of St. Martin, was appointed abbot of Saint Symphorian; and that into this basilica, in the presence of St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, were translated the relics, recently found in an ancient burial ground, of a certain Ursinus, who was reckoned the first prelate of the Bituriges, from whom the basilica thereafter took the name of Saint Ursinus Cf. Longnon, Géographie de la Gaule au VIe siècle, p. 464..

§2. On the Life of St. Ursinus.

[4] A twofold Life of Ursinus We have, besides summaries, a twofold Life of St. Ursinus, A = BHL. 8412, which has been held the older, and B = BHL. 8413, which we have found in these codices.

A 1 = Codex of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 13220. Parchment, miscellaneous, 10th century Catal. Lat. Paris., vol. III, p. 183.. Fol. 13–19: there begins, with the heading suppressed, the Life of St. Ursinus, which Faillon first brought out from this very book, and afterwards Narbey.

A 2 = Codex of the library of Berlin 120, Phillips 1683. Parchment, 11th century, consisting of two parts, of which the second is wholly about the saints of Bourges [V. Rose, Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, vol. XII, p. 248.]. Fol. 83–85v: Life of St. Ursinus, bishop and confessor. — Fol. 85v–87: Revelation of the body of St. Ursinus, bishop = BHL. 8411.

A 3 = Codex of the library of Orléans 334. Parchment, written partly in the 11th century, partly in the 12th [Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, Départements, vol. XII, p. 179.]. It contains Lives both of the saints of Bourges and of others, and pp. 110–22: Life of the holy and most blessed Ursinus, archbishop and confessor, first pontiff of the city of Bourges.

B 1 = Codex of London, British Museum, Royal 13. B. XIII. Parchment, bound together from two codices, of which the second, written in the 12th century [Warner-Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King's Collections, vol. II, p. 99.], contains, at fol. 125, the Life of St. Ursinus, to which is subjoined, at fol. 127v, the Revelation of the body = BHL. 8411.

B 2 = Codex of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Fell 3. Parchment, of 120 folios, 0.33 m × 0.33, written by various hands of the 12th century. Fol. 77–81: Passion of St. Ursinus, with a prologue as yet unpublished. Fol. 81–81v there follows, with no heading prefixed, the Revelation of the body = BHL. 8411.

B 3 = Codex of the Chapter of Bayeux 55. Parchment, of 93 folios, 0.33 m × 0.215, written by various hands, 12th–13th century Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques de France, vol. X, p. 322.. Bede on the Song of Songs is followed by several Lives of saints, and fol. 67–74: Life of St. Ursinus. The prologue is missing.

B 4 = Codex of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 14364, formerly of Saint-Victor. Parchment, written in the 13th century Catal. Lat. Paris., vol. III, p. 228.. Fol. 147v–50v: On St. Ursinus. This codex, which lacks the prologue and is incomplete, was used by Labbe.

From codices B 1, B 2, B 3 and B 4 (from Labbe's edition) the Life of St. Ursinus now appears entire for the first time.

[5] it is reduced to one; To bring out again Life A, already twice edited, is superfluous. The authority of the little book was extolled beyond measure by Faillon, champion of the so-called apostolic legends, and in his own way also by Wilhelm Arndt, who noted on chapter XXX of the History of the Franks: "Either Gregory reported these things from popular tradition or from the Passion of St. Ursinus which recently saw the light = BHL. 8412… But it is to be noted that the first chapter of the Life of St. Ursinus, which is preserved in only one codex, from which what is written above may have been taken, is defective and mutilated M. G., Scr. rer. merov., vol. I, p. 48.." But truly, if he had examined both the A codices and the B codices, he would without doubt have changed his opinion. That Life A can by no means be counted among Gregory's sources C. Chevalier had already understood Les origines de l'Église de Tours (Tours, 1871), pp. 139, 474 ff., and Br. Krusch followed him M. G., op. cit., p. 796., both thinking that its anonymous writer drew very much from Gregory; you would more correctly say that he copied out another anonymous writer who used Gregory. For nothing is narrated in Life A which you would not find in B, with the phrasing changed, at any rate, and much cut away, so that it is to be held an epitome of Life B, and indeed

put together unskilfully and carelessly. For, besides the fact that chapters I, II and part of III are omitted, it begins abruptly to speak of Justus: for this Justus with blessed Ursinus to the city of the Bituriges, with no mention of him made in what precedes. There are other things too which certainly point to an abridger, so that, leaving aside Life A, the mind must be turned to B alone.

[6] its sources; The writer of this Life read the History of the Franks and freely adapted it to his own uses. And first he falsely claims that both the seven bishops and Ursinus himself were sent into the Gauls by St. Clement, and that Ursinus was one of the seventy-two disciples, whose first deeds he describes with the help of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Ursinus, if you will listen to him, heard Christ teaching, saw His miracles with his own eyes, and was present at the Last Supper, where he was appointed by the Lord to read — so foolishly does that storyteller write; then, a witness of the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, he received the Holy Spirit with the apostles on the day of Pentecost; and having become the companion of St. Stephen, he gathered drops of his blood. Then with the prince of the apostles he makes for Rome, and after his death, by order of Clement, he enters the territory of the Bituriges with his disciple Justus. Soon Justus dies and is buried by Ursinus at the ninth milestone from the city. Entering the city at length, Ursinus preaches the faith. To these is attached the story of Leocadius, again from Gregory, but greatly amplified with commonplaces. Leocadius is baptized together with his son Lusor, of whom Gregory speaks in another place In Gloria Confessorum, xc.; but his other son, called Coromusellus, remains entangled in the error of paganism; and the house of Leocadius, converted into a church, is consecrated to St. Stephen. At length Ursinus appoints Senicianus as his successor, and after twenty-seven years spent in the episcopate, he dies. This is the sum of Life B, whose writer is anonymous. To put the matter briefly, besides what he drew from Gregory and the sacred books, he also borrowed some things from the liturgical memorials of the church of Bourges. Since the cathedral church was dedicated to St. Stephen, he invented that his relics had been brought by Ursinus himself and placed in the house of Leocadius; he also asserted that Justus, who is venerated in a neighbouring district, now Saint-Just (department of the Cher, arrondissement of Bourges), was a disciple of Ursinus. That such things deserve no credence there is no need to demonstrate at length, and it is plain that nothing worthy of memory survives about the first bishop of the Bituriges except what Gregory of Tours records in the History of the Franks.

[7] epitomes. To discuss the shorter Lives, BHL. 8414, which is an appendix to the Golden Legend, and BHL. 8415, which Labbe received, divided into nine lessons, from a very old breviary of Bourges Novae bibliothecae manuscript. librorum vol. II, pp. 460–61., and to which are to be added the antiphons for the psalms, put together from the same sources, seems superfluous, since they depend entirely on Life B. An epitome of the Life of St. Ursinus, under the name of Nathanael, disciple of Christ, from the codex of Saint-Sauveur at Utrecht, now of the University Library of Utrecht, we shall give [From the transcript in the Brussels codex 8936–38, formerly Bollandian, fol. 112–16. In the Life of St. Phaletrus, BHL. 6790, St. Ursinus is also said to be the one who in the Gospel is called Nathanael and is said to be the brother of St. Philip. Labbe, op. cit., p. 436.], lest we should seem to have passed over any of the things which the people of Bourges devised about St. Ursinus. On these, however, we shall not dwell, especially after what has already been said in another place Act. SS., Aug. vol. V, p. 14, n. 32–34., nor either on the statements of those who wrote the Life of St. Austremonius, bishop of the Arverni, when they assert that he went to the district of the Bituriges, strengthened by word and example a people wavering in the faith, and set Ursinus over them as bishop Act. SS., Nov. vol. I, pp. 57, 66..

[8] A spurious diploma. There is no leisure to undertake an inquiry into the churches which St. Ursinus founded or consecrated in the territory of Bourges or in other places, since these are, more certainly than certain, to be relegated among pious fictions, and above all those narrated in the forged diploma of King Dagobert: Dagobert, by the grace of God king of the Franks, I wish it to be known to all present and to come, that to the church of the blessed martyrs Dionysius, Rusticus and Eleutherius of France we give and grant, by the counsel of our nobles and with the assent of the lord Austaldus, bishop of the Pictavi, the church of Plombata, namely the church which the blessed confessors Ursinus, Martial, Cacianus and Julian built in honour of blessed Mary ever Virgin and of the holy Angels, which same church, moreover, the Angels themselves consecrated to God; the church, I say, which is situated between two valleys near the water called Vigona, we grant to the aforesaid martyrs free and released from all service [Labbe cites it, op. cit., p. 463, "from the archive of Saint-Denis in Doublet, p. 676".].

[9] More recent writers. Among the more recent writers who have treated of St. Ursinus the first place is to be given to the anonymous author who compiled the Patriarchium Bituricense Labbe, op. cit., pp. 3–150., and whom some suspect to be Benedict Vernier, on a very slight conjecture, as Labbe notes Op. cit., p. 150.. Whoever he is, he used, besides Gregory of Tours, Life A, and he brought in traditions of Bourges, not all of which, however, he made his own. He openly denies that the first bishop of the place was the Nathanael of the Gospel, and with Gregory places the beginnings of his labours in the times of the emperor Decius. But what the author of the Life of Ursinus invents he by no means rejects, and he narrates it at length, mingling with it some new things received from popular report, of which the chief are these:

a) Expelled from the city by the worshippers of idols, Ursinus halts at the place that bears the name of the chapel of Saint Ursinus, and there, as he prays, a heavenly messenger stands by him, who, consoling the saint, exhorts him to return to the city Op. cit., p. 6..

b) At Bourges "there were halls which the barbarous common people call Salas. In that place the same holy patriarch Ursinus established an oratory in memory of the Virgin Mother of God. This place, still retaining the very ancient word of its name, is commonly called Our Lady de Salis Op. cit., p. 8.."

c) "The man of God had the thong with which our Lord Jesus Christ was bound to the pillar when by order of the governor Pilate He was beaten with rods; this thong, together with the chasuble of St. Ursinus himself, is carefully preserved there to this day, and every year on Good Friday is given to the people to kiss devoutly Op. cit., p. 8.."

d) "It is said that once, when the same holy patriarch, visiting his diocese, was celebrating the divine office in the village called Leprosum, he made cocks, or certain other small birds, which were crowing and twittering too importunately, fall silent by his mere command; and those birds were not seen to chatter there afterwards, until, many years having passed from then, St. Martin, archbishop of Tours, coming there, gave his blessing and allowed them to sing again Op. cit., p. 9.." This little tale he found in the Life of St. Silvanus, BHL. 5638. Of the others who have tried to illustrate the memory of St. Ursinus by their writings, J. F. H. Odoul Vie de S. Ursin, apôtre du Berri, Bourges, 1828, 185 pp., de Lutho Un apôtre du Berry, Bourges, 1858., I. Veillat [Légende de S. Ursin patron du Berry, de S. Léocade et de S. Ludre, in Compte-rendu des travaux de la Société du Berry à Paris, vol. IX (1862), pp. 128–68.], T. de Brimont S. Ursin, son apostolat dans le Berry, et son culte, Bourges, 1884, 139 pp., it will be enough to have said that there is none who has treated his Life critically.

§3. On the cult of St. Ursinus among the people of Bourges.

[10] Commemorations in the martyrologies. The revelation of the relics in the course of the 6th century was the beginning of the veneration of St. Ursinus, and his name is not inscribed in any of the ancient martyrologies. The first mention of him is in Ado, on this day: At Bourges, of St. Ursicinus, who, ordained at Rome by the successors of the apostles, was destined as first bishop for that same city — words which, apart from the ordination held at Rome, are read in Gregory, In Gloria Confessorum. These are repeated word for word by Usuard, and in the Roman Martyrology, where, however, the name Ursinus is restored. In the martyrology published at Paris in the year 1537, it is announced on 29 December: At Bourges, the primatial see of Aquitaine, the deposition of blessed Ursinus, confessor, first archbishop of Bourges, sent there by blessed Clement to preach the faith of Christ, who, the histories relate, was called Nathanael, and at the Supper, when the Lord was about to suffer forthwith for the redemption of the world, performed the office of reader Labbe, op. cit., p. 462.. In the martyrology or calendar which Ph. Labbe copied from a codex of the monastery of Saint-Sulpice there are three announcements of St. Ursinus. October 27: At Bourges, the relevatio (sic) of St. Ursinus, bishop and confessor; November 9: of blessed Ursinus, bishop; December 29: At Bourges, the deposition of St. Ursinus, who converted its people to Christ Labbe, op. cit., pp. 704, 705, 706.. In a calendar of the year 1501 two feasts are inscribed: June 12: Translation of St. Ursinus, and December 30: Of Ursinus, bishop and confessor [Montague Rhodes James, A descriptive catalogue of the Latin manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, vol. I (Manchester, 1921), pp. 113, 114.]. The June feast is announced thus by Saussay on the 14th: At Bourges, the translation of St. Ursinus, founder of this metropolitan see, an apostolic man, made by blessed Philip Berruier, prelate of Bourges In the year 1239., who placed his most sacred limbs from the old tomb in a silver casket; the memory of which event, religiously observed by posterity, is recalled on today's anniversary, which feast is called Saint Ursinus of the Roses A. du Saussay, Martyrologium gallicanum, vol. II, p. 1134.. In the calendar prefixed to the missal of Bourges of the year 1741 the commemoration of St. Ursinus is found on two days: November 9: Of Ursinus, apostle of the Bituriges and first bishop. Greater solemnity, of the Cantor That is, double of the first class.. He died on 29 December about the middle of the 2nd century. Translated by Probianus in the year 558 on this day Missale Bituricense, Avaricum of the Bituriges, 1741.. On 29 December the office was of the octave of the Nativity of the Lord, with a commemoration of St. Stephen, St. Ursinus and St. Thomas of Canterbury. The December feast, therefore, was held to be the natal day of St. Ursinus, while the November feast was the commemoration of the translation, or better of the invention, which formerly was celebrated on 27 October, if faith be given to the calendar of Saint-Sulpice. I find a twofold feast of St. Ursinus inscribed also in the calendar of the year 1831; in the year 1849 a twofold mention remains,

but the festive solemnity of St. Ursinus is kept on the Sunday next following the Kalends of November; so too in the year 1852 Proprium Archidioecesis Bituricensis, 1852, autumn and winter part., and the feast of 29 December is celebrated with the rite of a double of the second class; so also in the year 1913; the December feast, however, is kept with the rite of a double of the first class [Ordo divini Officii recitandi ad usum ecclesiae P. P. Biturigensis, for the year of the Lord 1913.].

[11] Recognitions of the relics. On the relics of St. Ursinus there is a commentary once sent to our predecessors, now preserved in the codex of the Royal Library of Brussels 8936–38, fol. 148–156: Mémoire touchant le culte des reliques de Saint Ursin premier archevêque de Bourges [Memoir concerning the cult of the relics of Saint Ursinus, first archbishop of Bourges], with an appendix: Procès verbal touchant les Relliques de S. Ursin Official report concerning the relics of St. Ursinus, that is, with an instrument drawn up in the year 1742. The various recognitions and translations of the body are enumerated in this order.

1239. Philip Berruier, archbishop of Bourges, translates the relics of St. Ursinus, and on this matter draws up a letter of this kind: In the year of grace 1239, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November, we, Philip, by divine permission archbishop of Bourges, primate of Aquitaine, found the body of blessed Ursinus, first archbishop of the city of Bourges, in its sarcophagus behind the altar which had already been consecrated in honour of St. Ursinus in the church of St. Symphorian, with a leaden inscription reading thus: This is the body of blessed Ursinus, first archprelate of the city of Bourges. And we translated that body into a silver casket above the said altar in the fourth year of our pontificate Gallia christiana, vol. II, p. 5.. It will be useful to have noted that the inscription on the leaden plate is not so old that it should be judged to have been placed in the sarcophagus at the time of the first invention. Archbishop Philip ordered that an annual commemoration of the translation be made. To satisfy the petition of the canons, the supreme pontiff Innocent IV, on 17 April 1249, transferred the commemoration to another day Mémoire, in the Brussels codex 8936–38, fol. 149v..

1242. It is established from the chapter acts that both the head and an arm of St. Ursinus were customarily exposed to the veneration of the Christian people on the feast of the translation Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 148v.. Archbishop Philip, therefore, had not enclosed the entire body of St. Ursinus in the silver casket.

1336. On the Saturday before the feast of the Nativity of Christ a letter is issued by Archbishop Fulcaudus, in which he treats of the feast of Saint Ursinus of the Roses Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 149v: "Avant cette translation [an. 1239, on célébrait la fête d'une autre aussi avec beaucoup de solennité, l'acte capitulaire en forme de statut de 1242 ordonne qu'on continuera de la célébrer avec toutes les cérémonies accoutumées. Il y a beaucoup d'apparence que cette fête est celle que l'on célèbre comme fête de chantre tous les ans le lundi dans l'octave de la fête du Saint Sacrement sous le titre de St Ursin des Roses, car il paraît par une charte de Foucault, archevêque de Bourges du vendredi avant Noël 1336 que cette fête se faisait sous ce titre. Ce ne peut être que la fête ou de la translation du corps de S. Ursin faite par l'archevêque S. Probien en 558 ou de la translation qui se fit lorsque le corps de S. Ursin fut tiré de l'endroit où S. Probien l'avait enterré pour être mis derrière l'autel consacré en son honneur." [Before this translation (in 1239), the feast of another was also celebrated with great solemnity; the chapter act in the form of a statute of 1242 orders that it shall continue to be celebrated with all the accustomed ceremonies. It is very likely that this feast is the one which is celebrated as a cantor's feast every year on the Monday within the octave of the feast of the Blessed Sacrament under the title of St. Ursinus of the Roses, for it appears from a charter of Foucault, archbishop of Bourges, of the Friday before Christmas 1336, that this feast was kept under this title. It can only be the feast either of the translation of the body of St. Ursinus made by the archbishop St. Probianus in 558, or of the translation which took place when the body of St. Ursinus was taken from the place where St. Probianus had buried it to be placed behind the altar consecrated in his honour.]].

1347. By a letter given on 10 September of this year, indulgences are granted by the supreme pontiff Clement VI to each and all who lend a helping hand to preparing a more seemly casket for the head of St. Ursinus Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 149..

1377. March 4. Visitation of the relics of St. Ursinus, of which an instrument of this kind survives: Be it known to all that in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven, on Thursday, the fourth day of the month of March, the relics of blessed Ursinus in the silver shrine were visited, and by the mandate and consent of the lord archbishop of Bourges He was Pierre d'Estaing. certain relics of the body of the most blessed Ursinus were handed over to the lord John, duke of Berry, brother of the king of France and son of John, formerly king of France; namely, he had one piece of the head and one bone of the arm and one of the ribs of the same. These things were done in the church of St. Symphorian, in which the body of the most blessed Ursinus stands, there being present… Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 153.

1400. July 19: In the year of the Lord fourteen hundred, on the nineteenth day of the month of July, by licence of the most reverend Father in Christ the lord Peter, archbishop of Bourges, one small bone of the aforesaid relics was taken from the aforesaid shrine or casket, to be placed in a certain small crystal which an angel holds before the head of the most blessed Ursinus; which vessel has been newly made, there being present very many lords and masters… Memoire, op. cit., fol. 153..

1475. February 25. Copy of the letter of Jean Cœur, archbishop of Bourges Gallia christiana, vol. II, instrumenta, p. 27.: In the year of grace fourteen hundred and seventy-five, on the fifth day before the Kalends of March, we, John IV, by divine permission bishop of Bourges, primate of Aquitaine, and John, by the same permission bishop of Avranches, confessor of the king, make known that at the instance of the most Christian prince the lord Louis XI, king of the Franks, son of Charles VII of good memory, who had come out of devotion to visit the church of the most blessed Ursinus, first archprelate of Bourges, we opened the silver casket placed above the ancient sarcophagus of the same most blessed Ursinus, in which we found his sacred body, honourably placed there formerly, namely in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and thirty-nine, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November, by St. Philip, archbishop of Bourges, in a bag of white leather [The word was omitted by the editor. We have supplied it from Labbe, op. cit., p. 10.]. There were present …; and so that no one henceforth may be able to plead ignorance of the foregoing, we have caused our seals and those of the said church to be affixed here, with the subscription of a public notary, in testimony of the foregoing, as is more fully contained in the letter placed in the said silver casket… The writer of the Patriarchium Bituricense asserts that these things were done on account of the people of Lisieux. For since their cathedral church was dedicated to St. Ursinus (so he says; in reality it had St. Peter as patron), they believed that the body of the holy prelate rested there; but the people of Bourges constantly affirmed that it was kept among themselves. And when the matter was almost being brought to a dispute, King Louis arranged with the patriarch of Bourges that, for the sake of exploring the truth, the pontiff himself should unlock the silver casket in which the relics were believed to have been laid. When the recognition had been made, the people of Lisieux "turned to repentance, and, obtaining with effort that at least a particle of the relics of their blessed patron should be given them, returned home with those relics In Labbe, op. cit., pp. 9–10, 138.." From where the writer learned these things he does not disclose. Whether or not they are easily reconciled with what the people of Lisieux relate about their relics will have to be investigated on purpose.

1727. September 30. Visitation of the relics of St. Ursinus, of which an instrument was drawn up Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 155..

1735. March 30. Recognition of the relics of St. Ursinus Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 155v..

1742. January 3. By Archbishop Frédéric Jérôme de Roye de la Rochefoucauld the sacred relics were recognized again and deposited in a new casket. Of this recognition an ample instrument was drawn up, in which we found the older diplomas copied out Mémoire, op. cit., fol. 152–56v. Transcript of 18 April 1742..

1767. December 21. Georges Philippe d'Herbaut, archbishop, consecrating an altar in honour of St. Stephen in the cathedral church, encloses in it relics of St. Ursinus The instrument is in J. F. H. Odoul, Vie de S. Ursin, p. 83..

1793. The collegiate church of Saint Ursinus, formerly of Saint Symphorian, was desecrated in the civil upheaval and soon levelled to the ground. The relics of the sacred body seem to have perished in so great a ruin of things, unless perhaps, as is the opinion of some, they lie mingled with very many others in the cathedral church Odoul, op. cit., p. 52..

[12] The chasuble of St. Ursinus. From Chenu, Labbe notes that "the chasuble which the same saint used while living among men, woven of a material unknown to our craftsmen and with marvellous thread and workmanship, and which we see today worn only at the Mass of midnight of the Nativity of the Lord by the one who celebrates in the collegiate church of Blessed Mary de Salis, is wonderfully beneficial for bleariness of the eyes, if they merely touch it Labbe, op. cit., p. 465.."

§4. On the cult of St. Ursinus among the people of Lisieux and in various places.

[13] The Lisieux tradition about the relics The people of Lisieux relate [On these read V. Lahaye, Les reliques et les reliquaires de St Ursin à Lisieux, in Études Lexoviennes, vol. II (Paris, 1919), pp. 177–214.] that Bishop Hugh in the year 1055 completed the fabric of the church of Saint Peter, begun by Herbert; and that while he was planning to dedicate it solemnly, a pestilence fell upon the city; that he then, having heard of the miracles of St. Ursinus, obtained that the saint's relics should be sent to Lisieux, both to make the celebration illustrious and to drive off the plague. When this had been driven away and the consecration performed, the people of Bourges began to demand back the sacred pledge. The relics of St. Ursinus were therefore placed on a wagon and escorted out of the city by the bishop and clergy. Wonderful to say: the vehicle began to be prevented from proceeding further towards Bourges, while backwards the wheels moved without any delay; whence it was understood that perpetual possession of the relics of St. Ursinus was granted to the people of Lisieux, and that they were to be carried back to the cathedral church. To the place where they had halted the name of Mount Saint Ursinus clung, and there a stone cross was erected, which was also called Saint Ursinus's. Hence also the custom prevailed that every year, on the Monday after Low Sunday (afterwards on Low Sunday itself), a solemn procession of the clergy and people of the city went there, and there the miracle was set forth to the people. So they say [Lahaye, op. cit., pp. 179–80, from the booklet of J. Leprévost, Vies des saints patrons du diocèse de Lisieux (Lisieux, n.d.), pp. 181–84.]. To us, indeed, those popular tales of carts and beasts of burden, which, if not in writing, were certainly expressed in pictures from the 13th century onward [Lahaye, op. cit., p. 181: "On voyait encore, au XVIIIe siècle, à la cathédrale, l'histoire du miracle représentée sur de très anciens ornements de drap d'or à fond rouge, qui portaient des armes épiscopales, celles de Guillaume de Rupierre, évêque de Lisieux de 1193 à [One could still see, in the 18th century, in the cathedral, the story of the miracle represented on very ancient vestments of cloth of gold on a red ground, which bore episcopal arms, those of Guillaume de Rupierre, bishop of Lisieux from 1193 to]

1201: pallé d'or et d'azur de six pièces." 1201: paly of six, gold and azure." — Hardy, La cathédrale de Saint-Pierre de Lisieux, p. 238.], we are pleased to omit, and it is enough to know that the veneration of St. Ursinus in the diocese of Lisieux is ancient, as is the report of his sacred body having been snatched from the people of Bourges.

[14] 14th century, We have more certain information about the relics of Lisieux from the year 1399, in which they were recognized by Bishop Guillaume d'Estouteville. We make known, so runs the instrument of the recognition In Lahaye, op. cit., pp. 201–203., that we, weighing and attending to the advantage and honour of our said church, on the 14th day of the month of April before Easter in the year of the Lord MCCCXCIX MCCXCIX in the printed edition., in the 8th indiction, in the 6th year from the election of the lord Benedict, last elected pope, seeing also and considering by mutual consent the casket, of wondrous esteem and of veneration from every age, placed from most ancient time above the high altar, whose beauty will be declared here to some extent, assailed and disfigured by many mishaps and damages… Wishing therefore to amend, as far as possible, the disfigurement of so great a jewel, we carried it from its place with lauds and canticles into the treasury of the church, with the greatest solemnity we could; then, desiring to see the inestimable treasure within, which no one among the living had seen unlocked, on the aforesaid day, with devotion and the highest veneration, we searched and found in this manner. And first there was found by us in the same casket, as appeared from ancient writings, and most of all from a certain marble tablet, on which was written thus: The bodies of the saints Ursinus, Bertivinus and Patrick, confessors, the body of blessed Ursinus with a great part of the head and in in the printed edition. very many bones, wrapped in silk and linen cloths, and enclosed in a certain purse of deer leather under the impression of a seal in paste, on which purse was written: The body of blessed Ursinus with a great part of the head. The bishop then relates that after the repair of the casket he replaced the sacred relics in it, setting apart, however, so that the abundance of so great a treasure should not be too much hidden from human sight, the said part of the head, the jaw and one rib, and that he reserved for himself, with the consent of the chapter, one rib with a small portion of the head. And on 29 June of the year 1402 the greatest part of the head, which had been removed from the casket, was enclosed in a reliquary Instrument, ibid., pp. 203–204..

[15] 15th century, In the course of the 15th century, while the English held the city, the relics of the church of Lisieux were stealthily carried off and taken to England. Afterwards they were restored, and a commemoration of the event was celebrated every year, as is had from the processional of Lisieux of the year 1512: On the Sunday next before the feast of Blessed Mary Magdalene a procession is made to the Abbey, namely for the recovery of the relics of the church of Lisieux plundered by the English, and in it the casket or head of Blessed Ursinus is carried by two chaplains Ibid., p. 185.. Also in the year 1512 relics of the cathedral church were stolen by thieves, among which were, unless I am mistaken, those which Bishop Guillaume had kept for himself: three silver-gilt images, of which two bore the likenesses of two angels, and the other, in the middle, that of a certain archbishop holding one of the ribs of St. Ursinus So in the letter of Leo X, pope, of the year 1517, in Lahaye, op. cit., p. 186..

[16] 16th century It remains for us to set out year by year the last fortunes of the Lisieux relics of St. Ursinus.

1562. The cathedral church was plundered by the heretics R. N. Sauvage, Les troubles de 1562, in Études Lexoviennes, vol. I, pp. 51–74. and the relics taken out of the precious casket. Bishop Jean Hennuyer pursues the matter at length in a letter of 10 June of the year 1564 In Lahaye, op. cit., pp. 204–206., from which it will suffice to quote this: Moreover, in this so great desperation of affairs, we think it came about by divine providence that the vast treasure of relics of the cathedral of this city was not only entrusted to Nicolas Sainctard, our brother and colleague, a man indeed certainly of ancient virtue and faith, as to a trusted guardian, but was also commended to him in the best manner; and he, according to his fidelity, preserved it safe and sound from all injury, pure and entire. For when, the storm of sedition having been somehow calmed, we asked for it back, he restored it, in the sight of a crowded people, in such a way that nothing could seem to be missing and nothing moved from its place; everything was found safe and entire, and altogether in the manner which is expressed in the letter of the reverend pastor Guillaume d'Estouteville, formerly bishop of this city, a copy of which we shall subjoin below; and this letter, together with the schedule and the marble tablet and the sacred relics of the tutelary saints, we placed in the original wooden shrine, which had been stripped by the sacrilege of the wicked of its gems and silver and other ornaments; but part of the sacred head, and in addition the jaw and one of the ribs, we set apart and laid up in a sacred embossed vessel, of silver indeed, and worked in the likeness of a human head.

and following. 1626. Recognition of the relics by Bishop Guillaume Alleaume, who replaced each in its place.

1664. Recognition of the relics by Bishop Léonor II de Matignon, in the same way Instruments, ibid., pp. 207, 208..

1685. Recognition of the relics by the same bishop and their placing in another casket Instrument, ibid., p. 210..

1703. Recognition of the relics by the canons Instrument, ibid., p. 211..

1731. Recognition of the relics by Bishop Henri Ignace de Brancas Instrument, ibid., p. 212..

1792. The silver reliquary of the head of St. Ursinus was handed over to the minters Lahaye, op. cit., pp. 197–98.. Of the rest no further trace remained.

1842. To the priest Pierre Nicolas Sauvage a woman otherwise unknown hands over a small leather bag with bones of St. Ursinus, which was said to have been snatched from a fire at the time of the French upheavals. The bones were placed in a reliquary which has recently been found with this inscription: from the bones of the saints formerly in the church of St. Peter of Lisieux Lahaye, op. cit., p. 199..

[17] Feasts of St. Ursinus at Lisieux. In the 15th century three feasts of St. Ursinus were kept in the diocese of Lisieux. In the calendar of the breviary of Lisieux, which is codex 662 of the Chapter Library of Bayeux, they are announced thus [These and very many other things about the feasts of St. Ursinus in the dioceses of Lisieux and Bayeux were most kindly communicated to us by the Rev. L. Le Male, canon of Bayeux.]:

11 June: Translation of St. Ursinus and his companions. Triple (with octave).

9 November: Revelation of St. Ursinus. Double.

29 December: Of St. Ursinus, bishop. Triple feast (with octave) [Nearly the same in the codex of the city library of Caen 41, also written in the 15th century.].

Three feasts are also found in the missal of Lisieux printed at the end of the 15th century In the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Réserve B. 27923., and in the missal of the year 1571 Ibid., Réserve vélin 809.. Not so in the breviary of the year 1704:

11 June: Translation of the relics of SS. Ursinus, Patrick, Candidus and Bertivinus. Lesser double (without octave).

9 November: Of Ursinus, bishop, secondary patron of the church of Lisieux. Greater double (with octave).

The feast of 29 December was suppressed. In the breviary of 1750, however, only the feast of 11 June remained. On this day lesson IV in the second nocturn began thus: Of blessed Ursinus the pontiff, whether he was the first prelate and apostle of Lisieux, as has seemed to some, or the bishop of another see, what certain thing can we say? There stand in the way above all the repeated incursions of the Danes, who raged with fire and sword chiefly in our regions. Lesson V is about the relics, VI about his patronage: For the rest, how much the patronage of blessed Ursinus avails with God, very many have experienced in their sicknesses; indeed the whole city of Lisieux once experienced it too. Hence altars consecrated everywhere under his invocation, confraternities erected; hence that solemn procession which every year on the Monday after the octave of Easter is celebrated with a great concourse of the peoples. On this day the fair of St. Ursinus began, and still does. In the Processional of Lisieux of the year 1827 there is a prayer for the procession to the cross called St. Ursinus's, customarily held on the Monday after Quasimodo Sunday. In our own days the feast of St. Ursinus is kept at Lisieux on 30 December Ordo divini officii, 1923.. On the same day it was certainly celebrated in the diocese of Bayeux as early as the 13th century, as we have from the Ordinary of this church. So too in the breviaries of the years 1628, 1665, 1738, 1771, 1799 (London), 1844. In the year 1859 it was requested that it be transferred to 17 June; in the year 1914 the people of Bayeux returned to the ancient custom [In the old diocese of Bayeux churches dedicated to St. Ursinus were at Courtisigny, Epron, Larchamps (now in the diocese of Séez).]. St. Ursinus was also inscribed in the calendars of Rouen and Évreux, on 30 December or 9 November R. Delamare, Le calendrier de l'église d'Évreux (Paris, 1919), p. 237.; in the diocese of Pamiers a commemoration of him was made on 14 November Breviarium Appamiense, Lyons, 1852..

[18] Relics in the district of Saint-Victor. The church of Saint-Victor, in the territory of Blois (Chaussée Saint-Victor, Loir-et-Cher), also glories in having kept relics of St. Ursinus for many centuries [Identité des reliques de S. Ursin de la Chaussée Saint-Victor avec celles de S. Ursin premier évêque de Bourges et apôtre du Berry au premier siècle de l'ère chrétienne [Identity of the relics of St. Ursinus of the Chaussée Saint-Victor with those of St. Ursinus, first bishop of Bourges and apostle of Berry in the first century of the Christian era], in Semaine religieuse de la ville et du diocèse de Blois, vol. VI (1877), pp. 560–64, 592–93.]. In the casket was found a parchment with an inscription of this kind: In this casket rest the holy relics of the most blessed Ursinus, which had been translated by Hervé, abbot of Blessed Mary of Bourgmoyen at Blois, in the year of the Lord MCCCLXXIX, on Sunday, the eighth day before the Kalends of May Ibid., p. 561.. In the year 1562 they were carried to Blois, to snatch them from the fury of the heretics, and in the year 1582 they were solemnly brought back to the church of Saint-Victor Ibid., p. 562.. By Bishop Jean de Caumartin, in the year 1737, the cult of St. Ursinus was extended to the whole diocese of Blois Ibid., pp. 563–64.. For the genuineness, however, of the relics brought by Abbot Hervé proof is sought in vain. This indeed moved Bishop Alexandre de Thémines to order their cult to be interrupted; it was, however, held legitimate again in the first years of the 19th century P. Guérin, Les Petits Bollandistes, vol. XIII, p. 278..

I. EXCERPTS FROM GREGORY OF TOURS

Ursinus, bishop of Bourges. (S.)

BHL Number: 8411

GREGORY OF TOURS

From the edition of M. G., Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, vol. I, pp. 49, 796–98.

a) History of the Franks I, 31.

On the church of Bourges Of their disciples He had spoken in ch. 30 of the seven men sent into the Gauls to preach. a certain one, coming to the city of the Bituriges, announced to the peoples Christ the Lord, the salvation of all. Of these, then, a few believing in some measure, ordained clerics, take up the rite of chanting the psalms, and are instructed how they should build a church and celebrate the solemnities to almighty God. But as they still had little means of building, they ask for the house of a certain citizen, out of which to make a church. The senators, however, and the other better men of the place were at that time bound to pagan cults; those who had believed were from among the poor, according to that saying of the Lord with which He reproaches the Jews, saying: For harlots and publicans go before you into the kingdom of God. Matth. 21, 31. These, not having obtained the house from the one they had asked, found a certain Leocadius, first senator of the Gauls, who was of the stock of Vettius Epagathus, whom we mentioned above as having suffered at Lyons for the name of Christ Hist. Franc., I, 29.. When they had made known to him both their petition and their faith, he answered: "If indeed my house which I have at the city of Bourges were worthy of this work, I would not refuse to provide it." On hearing this they prostrated themselves at his feet and, offering three hundred gold pieces with a silver dish, said that it was fully worthy of this mystery. He, accepting three gold pieces of these as a blessing and graciously remitting the rest, though he was still entangled in the error of idolatry, became a Christian and made his house a church [Leocadius the senator had St. Lusor as his son, as Gregory witnesses, In Gloria Confessorum, XC. Cf. Act. SS., Nov. vol. II, pp. 264–66. Add that Lusor was expunged from the breviary of Bourges at the beginning of the 17th century. Labbe, Nova bibl. manuscripta, vol. II, p. 426. Leocadius himself was venerated among the people of Bourges on 10 November (Missale Bituric., 1741); but now he is absent from the calendar (1913).]. This is now the first church at the city of Bourges, built with wonderful workmanship and made illustrious by the relics of Stephen the first martyr [The cathedral church of Bourges is still dedicated to St. Stephen. Longnon, Géographie de la Gaule au VIe siècle, p. 464. Of the relics of the protomartyr Gregory writes thus, In Gloria Mart., XXXIV: For a part of the blessed blood of this most holy Levite, as is commonly reported, is contained in the altar of the church of Bourges. On this Ruinart: "Today there is seen in the cathedral church of Bourges a phial full of the blood of blessed Stephen, which, as tradition has it, is the very one which our Gregory here records." That the phial was not brought to Bourges before the 5th century is suggested by the booklets on the miracles of St. Stephen. BHL. 7859–72.].

b) In Gloria Confessorum, 79.

On St. Ursinus, bishop of the Bituriges. The city of Bourges first received the word of salvation from St. Ursinus, who, ordained bishop by the disciples of the apostles Above, p. 101, n. 3., was destined for the Gauls; and he first established and ruled the church at Bourges. When he departed from the world, he was laid for burial in a field among the other tombs of the people. For that people did not yet understand how to venerate the priests of the Lord and to show them due reverence. Whence it came about that, as the earth rose and a vineyard was planted over it, all memory of the first priest of the city was torn away, and until the time when Probianus [He was present, still a priest, in the year 541 at the council of Orléans, as bishop at the council of Paris in the year 552, and was still alive when Fortunatus was writing the Life of St. Hilary, about the year 565. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux, vol. II, p. 28.] was installed as bishop of that city no word was had of him. Now there was a certain man named Augustus [He is venerated on 7 October (Act. SS., Oct. vol. III, p. 922), on which day he is announced in the Hieronymian martyrology: in the Gauls, in the city of Bourges, of Augustus, priest and confessor.], of the household of Desideratus [Who in the year 549 was present at the council of Orléans. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 28. He is venerated on 8 May, Act. SS., May vol. II, p. 303.], formerly bishop, whose hands and feet were so contracted that he could support himself only on his knees and elbows if he wished to go anywhere. This man, by God's inspiration, built from the alms of the devout, at the village of Brivas [The village of Brivas, now within the city of Bourges (rue de Brives); there also survives, though desecrated, a chapel of St. Martin, "Saint-Martin de Brives". Longnon, Géographie de la Gaule au VIe siècle, p. 465.], an oratory in honour of the holy and most blessed Martin the bishop [Gregory seems to err; for it is probable that the oratory was dedicated to St. Martin, the martyr of Brioude.]; and when he had brought his relics into it, at once his limbs were straightened and he was made whole. Then, gathering a few monks with him and living under the rule of a monastery, he was always given to prayer. Whence it came about that in the following time he was summoned by the bishop and ordained abbot in the basilica of St. Symphorian, which the said pontiff had built in front of the wall of Bourges [On the monastery and basilica of Saint Symphorian, Act. SS., Oct. vol. III, p. 924, nos. 13–15.]. Yet he did not abandon the monks whom he had gathered before, but, appointing a provost over them, he himself governed both little cells. At length, while he was staying at this basilica, St. Ursinus appeared to him in a vision of the night, saying: "Dig up the earth and seek out my poor body. For I am Ursinus, first bishop of this city." He said: "Where shall I go, or where shall I seek your tomb, since I do not know the place where you are laid?" But the saint, taking his hand, led him to the place and said: "Under the roots of these vines my body is held." The abbot, awaking, told these things to his bishop; but he, making little of what was said by the priest, put no effort into searching. Meanwhile blessed Germanus, bishop of the city of Paris, arrived, and having been received by the bishop, when after supper in the church house he had given himself to sleep, the saint appeared to both in a vision, that is, to the bishop and at the same time to the abbot, and led them to the place of the tomb, beseeching them to remove him from that place. Awaking, they come together for vigils in the very basilica of St. Symphorian, and when the morning offices were finished, the bishop tells the abbot what he had seen, and the abbot confessed that he too had seen the same. Therefore on the following night, going there with only one cleric, who carried a candle, they came to the place indicated. And digging down to a great depth, they find the tomb. When it was uncovered and the lid removed, they saw the holy body, like that of a sleeping man, undissolved by any corruption. Marvelling at this and putting the lid back again, they made known to the bishop on an appointed day what they had seen. Then he, calling together the abbots and clergy, with honour and psalmody they raised the blessed tomb; and because the poles on which it was carried were very long, when they came to the portico they could not be turned at its entrance so as to reach the door of the building without labour. Then blessed Germanus said with raised voice: "Holy priest of God, if it is your will to enter this basilica, let us feel the relief of your help." And at once, its weight lost, the sarcophagus became so exceedingly light that, the poles being left aside, a few carried in their hands what many had brought as far as that place. And so, Masses having been celebrated, amid the rejoicing of the people, he is buried beside the altar, thereafter manifesting himself by many miracles.

II. THE EARLIER LIFE OF ST. URSINUS

Ursinus, bishop of Bourges. (S.)

BHL Number: 8413

From the codices of the British Museum, Royal 13. B. XIII (= B 1), of the Bodleian Library, Fell 3 (= B 2), of the Chapter of Bayeux 55 (= B 3), of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 14364 (= B 4). Cf. Preliminary Commentary, no. 4.

Life of blessed Ursinus, bishop of Bourges Heading in a later hand B 1; prologum (n. 1) omits B 3, 4..

[1] Prologue. Whoever strives to give his effort with skilful care to weaving histories or also to writing deeds, if he does not depart from the precepts of the discipline of rhetoric, must diligently consider the kind of his case. Once he has grasped its nature praecepta B 1., it will consequently consequentur B 2. come to his knowledge what part of the exordium, and then what method, he ought to use in his prologue. Hence, being about to write, with God's favour, a few things about the deeds of the most blessed Ursinus, I have considered the kind of my narrative to be the honourable. To this kind, whenever it is recited, the mind of the hearer at once gives its favour without any oration. For it was honourable that he forsook the whole world and showed himself a faithful servant to the one God, from whose service he never withdrew in his life. What, finally, is more honourable than to be strong in the holy virtues with which he so shone, inasmuch as it was established that he had been brought up by the supreme wisdom of Jesus Christ? The greatest justice flourished in him who lived on the food of the Catholic religion. For it is written that the just man lives by faith. Rom. 1, 17. And he lived without doubt by faith, armed as he was with its fervour by the infusion of the Spirit, the Paraclete. Be ye therefore imitators of so holy a man and one so faithful to God; by reading his deeds retain retinere B 2. the examples of his virtues. For he is said to be Nathanael corrected, earlier Nathanael B 1., of whom the Truth itself, bearing testimony to his holiness, said: "Behold an Israelite israel ita B 2; israelita B 1. indeed, in whom there is no guile." John 1, 47. But afterwards, baptized by the apostles, he was called Ursinus, just as we read of the apostle Paul, who before his conversion was called Saul solus B 2., and after he had attained the profession of the true faith was called Paul. Acts 13, 9. Who, then, will ever be able worthily to praise one whom God willed to approve by His own testimony? Or what quis B 2. human mind mens B 2. would dare to despair of the merits of one whom it knows to have been praised by omits B 1. the prince of all goodness? Therefore, all you worshippers of the Christian faith, be zealous to imitate a man of such virtue, and above all you, people of Bourges, to whom he ministered the food of the divine word corrected, earlier verbum B 1. papula B 1, 2. and whom he called back from the cult of superstition to the life of truth; labour with watchful mind in reading his acts, and implore your nostrum B 2. pastor with constant prayers that through him you may perseveringly hold tenentis B 2. the increase of the Catholic faith, from whom also you received its beginnings.

Here begins the Life of St. Ursinus B 3; passio S. Ursini martyris B 1..

[2] St. Ursinus, born while Christ was living, When our Lord Jesus Christ had been born in time of et B 1. the Virgin Mary, to redeem man from the snare of the devil, and was delivering the proclamations of the heavenly doctrine to the people populis B 3. on earth, many who were predestined to eternal life embraced them with willing mind and attentive attentis B 4. ears. But those who

were to be tormented in the flame of fierce atrois B 4. Gehenna and burned with perpetual fire gehenne igneque B 4. spurned them and, unwilling to drink in the precepts of life, hastened of their own accord towards death. At that time blessed Ursinus was born into the world, who afterwards, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, exults like the angels, joined iunctus B 4. to their company. He, having heard the most salutary preaching of the Lord pred. domini B 3, 4., who said: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that taketh not up his cross and followeth sequatur B 2. me is not worthy of me," left father and mother and whatever he seemed to possess in the world, and resolved to cling perseveringly to the discipline of the nostri adds B 3. Lord Jesus Christ. Matth. 10, 37, 38. O happy disciple, who deserved to have such and so great a master, under whose teaching is all omits B 3. wisdom, as it is written: All wisdom is from the Lord God and hath been always with him and is before all time eum B 4.. Ecclus. 1, 1. Contemplating the miracles which our Lord wrought in the body corp. est operatus B 3, 4., and continually persuaded together with the blessed apostles by the most holy words of His honey-sweet preaching, he began to grow warm with the fervour of faith calore fervescere B 3, 4., so much so that in the number of the seventy-two disciples he was established as one of the chief after the apostles. Fully imbued also with the Lord's sacraments, at the very banquet of the most sacred sacratissima B 3. Supper he was appointed by the Lord to the office of reading; reader at the Last Supper, and when the supper was over he deserved not only to see how the Lord washed the feet of the disciples, but was also held worthy to hear the discourse and the commandments of His love, with which the loving master did not cease to instruct struere B 1, as it seems. them. Beholding also autem B 3. the pains of His Passion, he was affected together with the apostles by an exceeding distress of grief. But when the resurrection was made known on the third day he was filled with immense joy. And so that he might be free carere B 3. of every omnium B 4. cloud of error, during the forty days in which after the resurrection He conversed conversans B 4. with the holy apostles apostolis sanctis B 1., speaking to them of the kingdom of God, the holy man deserved to be present with omits B 4. them. Acts 1, 3.

[3] Then, after he had beheld intuens B 4. His ascension into heaven and how a cloud received Him out of their sight, returning to Jerusalem he remained with the others, and on the holy day of Pentecost, when all were sitting together in one place, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house corrected, earlier domus B 2. where they were sitting. Acts 1, 9, Acts 2, 1–4. Then there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat sedit B 1. upon supra B 3, 4. every one of them. And he was filled with the Holy Spirit with the others, and began to speak in various tongues as the grace of the Holy Spirit supplied. O how admirable this man, who was taught with the apostles, chosen from the people, called by the Saviour, strengthened by the loving consolation of the Spirit, the Paraclete! It would be long, then, to go over how very many cruel Jews iudeos saevos B 4. and faithless gentiles he converted to the practice of the Catholic faith, when he was ordered there scs Ursinius on an erasure B 3. by blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, to preach with Stephen the protomartyr (pr. cum S. pr.) omits B 4. and other companions. Acts 6, 5, 7, 58. But this too omits B 3. is worthy of relating, that in preaching he stood by Stephen the protomartyr as a most faithful omits B 3. companion, until he was stoned by the Jews. Afterwards he carefully gathered the little drops of his poured-out blood sanguinis B 4. and carried them with him in commemoration of him illius //// B 1., and with God-fearing men delivered his holy body to burial. He gathers the blood of St. Stephen. O blessed man, burning with the ardour of a twofold love, who, not terrified by the threats of the Jews, not only took care most dutifully to perform the obsequies of the protomartyr, but also handled the relics of the gathered blood with great honour. For he knew that it was written: Thy friends, O God, are to be honoured. Psalm. 138, 17. Afterwards, returning to beatum adds B 3, 4. Peter, prince of the apostles, he narrated in order everything that had befallen him and with how great grief he was afflicted for the companion he had lost. To him Peter said: "We must, dearest brother fratres carissimi B 3, 4., assiduously omits B 3. devote our effort to preaching: for the harvest indeed is great, but autem B 4. the labourers are few. Matth. 9, 37. Labour therefore with me, and be a helper and sharer in our tribulations, since he who labours more will receive more reward." 1 Cor. 3, 8.

[4] With St. Peter After these commands had been given him, in all things and through all things omni // a B 2. that were done by blessed Peter he diligently took care to show obedience obȩdiendientiam B 1. as a faithful and wise servant. Matth. 24, 45. For he was with him at the raising of Tabitha thabite B 3. and at the healing of Aeneas the paralytic. Acts 9, 40, 34, Acts 10. Moreover propterea B 1., that he was corrected, earlier fuerat B 2. with him when he came to Caesarea to Cornelius the centurion, a religious man, who deserved to be warned admoneri B 3, 4. openly by an angel to send for Peter, who would show him what he ought to do facere B 3., would be very long to recount. What more? With the aforesaid apostle omits B 1. he came as far as Rome, where he also saw what and how great a conflict confluctum B 2. he waged with Simon Symone B 1, 3. Magus magno B 2., He comes to Rome. and how he overcame him in the raising of a dead youth, and cast him to the ground as he flew upheld by a adds B 3, 4. demons prostravit B 1, 2.. And when on account of a deed of this kind blessed Peter was being crucified by command of the emperor Nero, blessed Ursinus was present before the cross, weeping and groaning together with the faithful Christians who were making lament and groaning over omits B 3, 4. him. These he consoled gently and et B 4. kindly from the cross, saying: "Do not weep, but rejoice with me, for I go to prepare a place for you. John 14, 2, Matth. 16, 19. And as my Lord (d. m.) deus B 1. Jesus Christ handed over to me the power of binding and atque B 3. loosing, and appointed me prince over you, so I too appoint Clement as prince over you, having received the power of binding and loosing et (on an erasure) solvendi B 1., a just man, meek, fearing God and omits B 2. loving men. To his holiness I commit the church to be ruled, that to the regions placas B 4. of the earth in which the name of Jesus Christ is still unknown he may send vigorous and faithful preachers. For through the mouth of the psalmist the Holy Spirit foretold of us: 'Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.'" Psalm. 18, 5; Rom. 10, 18. Blessed Clement, therefore, having taken up the care of the church cura ecclesie B 4., solicitous for the things which had been commended to him by Peter beato Petro apostolo B 3, 4., so that the Catholic faith, polished by the preaching of the faithful, might be spread abroad through the world omnia B 4., took sumpsit B 3. from the whole church eloquent preachers, constant in the faith: the most blessed Ursinus, Dionysius Dionysium B 2. the Athenian, converted by the apostle Paul, Martial, Saturninus, Trophimus, Paul, Austremonius, and Gatianus uacatianum B 1, 2, 3. and their disciples [He has used Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., I, XXX, dishonestly. For Gregory says nothing of Ursinus in this place, and asserts that those seven men were sent into the Gauls not under Clement, but in the consulship of Decius and Gratus (251).], whom he addressed thus: "We must, dearest brothers," he said, "preach the teaching of the holy Gospel through the whole world and announce the kingdom of God, so that the cult of idols, which was invented aduenta B 2. by the devil, may be driven out, and the Christian faith, which is true, may be planted in the minds of men, so that the whole world ut omnis mundus B 3; ut mundus omnis B 4., laying aside vain una B 1, 2. superstition, may serve the one God by whom it was made." Acts 17, 34. Under Clement Instructed by these hiis B 3. and suchlike lessons of blessed Clement, and having received from him the kiss of peace omits B 3., weeping with one another flentes ad invicem B 3, 4., the most invincible soldiers of Christ went out from Rome Romam B 1, 2. and by a direct route entered the territories of the Gauls. Then Dionysius Dionysius B 2, 3, 4. the martyr made for the city of Paris, Saturninus for Toulouse ptolosam B 3., Martial also vero B 3, omits B 4. for Limoges, Trophimus omits B 3, 4. for Arles, Paul for Narbonne, and Austremonius for the city expetiit B 3, 4. of the Arverni Arvernem B 3. Through carelessness he omits Gatianus, bishop of Tours..

[5] he is sent with Justus to Bourges; But omits B 3. the most holy Ursinus, with only his disciple, Justus Iustino B 3. in merits and in name, entered the territory of the Bituriges Bithuricensium B 3., led by the Holy Spirit sancto spiritu B 2, 4.. And when he had resolved to approach the walls of that city, to scatter in it the seeds of Gospel preaching, it happened that his disciple fell sick with a severe fever. He, at the ninth milestone from the city in the eastern region, above the bed of the Utrio Utironis B 3. [The river Utrio, commonly l'Auron, is known also to the writer of the Life of St. Austregisilus, BHG. 839.], closing cludens B 1. his last day, departed happily to Christ. His body blessed Ursinus, very sorrowful, took care to bury there as best he could. Then, not desisting from the journey he had begun, he came alone to that same city, fearless, armed with the warmth of faith and fortified by the help of the Lord, who says: "Fear not, behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." Matth. 28, 20. Then, after the passing succedente B 4. of some days, he began to set forth the divine teachings, disputing about the Catholic faith and exhorting them to withdraw from the cult of idols, which are made by men, having eyes without sight, ears

without hearing, nostrils without smell, hands without touch, feet without walking, as the psalmist says: "The idols simulachra B 3. of the gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men (simul.-hominum) omits B 4.. Psalm. 113, 6; 134, 17; 113, 4; 134, 15; 113, 5; 134, 16. They have mouths and speak not; they have eyes and see not etc adds B 4; et reliqua adds B 3.." The most holy preacher therefore taught them to believe in one God, the creator of all things, and either to burn with fire the statues and idols, not of gods but of demons, or to throw them headlong into the rivers. At his unheard-of preaching no small multitude of the poor and needy of both sexes, astonished, began first omits B 4. to come together to him adeo B 3.. Desiring that they should come to the knowledge of the true God, he did not cease to refresh conficere B 2. them omits B 3, 4. more and more with preaching. For he turned over in his silent mind that saying of the Gospel (illud-revolvebat) omits B 4.: "He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away." Luke 1, 53. Then demum B 4. the powerful too, having learned from the poor the fame of his preaching, ran together cucurrerunt B 4. to hear these same things. At last, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who spoke through his mouth, noble men of greater dignity not only came together, but, having heard his preaching, also confessed professi B 3, 4. that they believed in one God. he baptizes many; No small multitude, then, of poor and powerful of both sexes was baptized by him. Then that adversary the devil, ever hostile to the Christian christiana B 2. name, who deceived the first man by his fallacy and by his envy drove him from the glory of paradise, began to prepare manifold stumbling-blocks for this servant of God. For he stirred up against him the most wicked worshippers of idols, who strove to oppose him with vehement reproach, saying: "What do we, for this man converts many to his God dominum B 4.? If we let him alone so, all will believe his words omits B 1.. John 11, 47–48. Let us take out of our midst the man who blasphemes our gods and subverts the laws and ceremonies of our fathers." Nor is it any wonder if they tried to persecute the disciple, they who unceasingly pursued with hatred the Lord and master Jesus Christ while He dwelt in the flesh among men. For He Himself said thus to His disciples: "Wonder not if the world hate you. 1 John 3, 13; John 15, 18, 20. Know ye that it hath hated hodio B 3. me before you." And again: "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you."

[6] he is expelled from the city, So, after the manner of shepherds who urge on their dogs against a wolf mangling the sheep, they attacked with dogs the servant of the Lord, who was preaching holy words to men, as though he were devouring the people. And beating him with clubs they drove him from the city, saying: "Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways written twice before B 3.." Job 21, 14. When he had been expelled and had gone far a longe B 4. from the city, placed in doubt, he was anxious and did not know what to do. But giving himself for a very long time to prayer, he besought prebatur B 2. the Lord, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, who chose us out of the world and made us come to the knowledge of Thy holy omits B 4; nominis tui sancti B 3. name, which quem B 3, 4. Thou didst also command to be announced throughout the whole world, saying: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to Thee I pour out my prayers with tears, that this people, deceived by diabolical error, may reject expuat B 3. the superstition of idols and know agnoscat B 4. Thee, the true God, who art blessed for ever." John 15, 19, Matth. 28, 19. When the prayer was finished, he was suddenly admonished admonitus B 3. by the Holy Spirit that there was nothing to fear, and that he should not abandon derelinquere B 3, 4. the city which he was to possess and for which he had been destined archbishop by the Lord before he was sent. Rom. 1, 25. Therefore, secure servus B 4., as one relieved by the consolation of the Spirit, the Paraclete, he hastened to return to the city. yet he soon returns, In it he began with constant voice to open the seeds of his preaching to the people, so much so that, the name of Christ having been heard round about and the fame of His omnipotence made manifest, a countless corrected B 2. throng of thronging people ran together eagerly corrected, earlier concurret B 3. to receive his sacred teachings. And as the thirsty hart longs to be refreshed from the fountains of waters, so they strove with thirsty minds to drink the cups of the heavenly preaching. Psalm. 41, 2, Mark 16, 20. So, with God domino B 4. at once assenting and confirming the word sermone B 1; annuente et sermone B 2 on an erasure, the greatest part of the Bituriges, common people plebs B 3, 4. and nobles, and he converts very many. laying aside the superstition of idols, were converted to the Lord, washed by the sacrament of baptism and marked with the seal of the holy cross. O admirable loving-kindness of the Saviour, who, through the prayers poured out by a faithful disciple, so softened the hearts corrected B 2. of the gentiles that of their own accord they flew together to receive the salvation of their souls.

[7] In the stable of Leocadius There was at that time a certain Roman senator, noble by birth, Leocadius Leocadius B 3. by name, who, although he lived under above the line B 3. the rite of paganism, was nevertheless religious in his acts Cf. Hist. Franc., I, XXXI, above p. 107.. He had indeed heard of the Lord the Saviour, and something of the salvation salute aliquid B 4. of the holy faith, but had not yet deserved to come to the knowledge of faithfulness. He, set under the power of the Roman emperor, ruled most powerfully in Burgundy and et B 4. Aquitaine Aquitannia B 3.; and because omits B 3. he was subject to the Romans, he did not dare to call himself king. His own and first seat of royal court was at Lyons Lugdunum B 1; Lugdū B 2., the second at Bourges. For the convenience of water and of fodder for the beasts, the same senator had ordered a stable for horses to be built at the southern gate of the aforesaid city, where afterwards, by the working of divine grace, a church was consecrated in honour of Hippolytus Hippolyti B 4. the martyr. The site of the aforesaid stable, then, blessed Ursinus obtained from the ministers of the aforesaid prince. And casting out from it all filth, he placed in it the blood of Stephen the protomartyr which he had brought with him, he establishes a church. setting a guard over it and paying it the honour of veneration as far as he could. There the sacred omits B 3. solemnities solempnia B 3. of Masses were celebrated by him, vigils and pure prayers were offered to God without ceasing, and the bodies corporeque B 4. of believers were bathed in the water of holy baptism. So great, at length, grew the fame of the Catholic faith that almost all the inhabitants of Bourges ran together there to hear the word of their salvation salutis B 3.. No small miracles did the Lord work in that place through His faithful servant. For He restored sight to the blind, and omits B 4. walking to the lame, and the longed-for health to the sick. But when already above the line B 3. a countless multitude of the faithful multitudo fidelium B 3, 4. was coming together convenirent B 2. to him, moved by zeal for a greater place, he turned over silently in his mind whether anywhere a more honourable place of ampler dignity could be found, where the relics of Stephen the protomartyr might be placed and perpetually venerated by faithful Christians with fitting cum digno B 3, 4. honour [here B 3 inserts: in illo tempore dixit Iesus discipulis suis … in manibus vestris et reliqua.].

[8] He offers gifts to Leocadius, When men strong in age and counsel came together to him, he opened to them the thought of his heart. They, burning with exceeding warmth of faith, pointed out to him the hall of the aforesaid prince as fitting for this honour huic honori fore B 3, 4.. He answered them, saying: "How shall we be able to obtain so great a gift from so great a man?" Giving him counsel of this kind, they answered and spoke thus: "If you offer him illi B 4. small parvula B 3. little gifts, perhaps you will be able to win it without delay." He in turn quibus ipse B 4., as a lover of poverty, answered them that he had nothing. For the loving piissimus B 3, 4. master, when above the line B 1. He sent him with the seventy-two companions before His face into every city and place whither He Himself was to come, had thus que adds above the line B 3. commanded: "Take nothing for your journey, neither scrip, nor bread (n. p.) omits B 3, 4., nor money in your purse, neither have two coats." Luke 10, 1; 9, 3. The holy man, hearing this precept, not unreasonably non absurde vir sanctus audiens B 3, 4. wished to have corrected B 2. nothing. Then they, having persuaded the common people, collected three hundred gold pieces with a great silver vessel, which is commonly called an afferta, and urged the holy man to go to Lyons, where at that time the oft-mentioned prince princens B 2. was staying. Whence, favouring them illius B 1, 2; ille B 3., he made the journey in haste. When he had come pervenisset B 3, 4. there, he showed himself before the eyes of the aforesaid prince; and offering the vessel with the aforesaid gold pieces, he presented them to his highness. But the most gentle mitissimus autem B 3 in the margin prince questioned corrected B 3, earlier intergavit. him kindly, saying: "Who," he said, "are you, or whence have you come? Or by what name are you called?" He answered that he was a disciple of our almighty Lord Jesus Christ and was called by the name of Ursinus, and he professed (prof. est) omits B 3, 4. that he had been sent by blessed Clement beati adds B 3., successor of the apostle Peter, from the city of Rome with certain companions to the Gauls to preach the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he asserted omits B 4. that he alone had come to the city of Bourges, by the Lord's assent, where he had won no small multitude. And he: "What," he said inquit B 3, 4., "do you wish to obtain from us?" Blessed Ursinus answered him and said: "If it please you to do what I ask expe /// to B 3., you will give the hall which you possess in the city of Bourges to the most high almighty God and to His protomartyr Stephen, where I may worthily lay up his relics." By the Lord's will the holy disposition of the prince, receiving the prayers of blessed Ursinus, answered thus gently: "Would that it had pleased the God of heaven that my house should become a house of prayer." Soon the blessed confessor

of the Lord, Ursinus, opening apperiens B 3. to him a few words verba illi B 4. of the heavenly life, exhorted exorsus B 3, 4. him to receive the faith of the Catholic religion and to be baptized in the sacred font in fonte sacro B 3, 4. in the name of Christ. The aforesaid prince answered: "In such wise," he said dixit B 3., "if a span spatium adds B 3, 4. of life be granted summa B 1; summe 2 B; summo B 3. me, I shall indeed omits B 3, 4. strive to serve God." Then St. Ursinus began at once to beseech precatus B 3. him with coaxing prayers that, accepting the price of his offering o. s. B 3., he would grant the aforesaid house to the Most High, in which the blood of the aforesaid martyr might be placed. To him at once this isto B 1, 2, 3, 4. answer responso B 3. sounds forth: who refuses them; "Were it not," he said, "that you would call me a despiser of your gift muneris //// B 3., I would take nothing of yours, but would rather grant ex adds B 3, 4. of my own." Stretching out his hand, then, he took corrected, earlier accipit B 2. three gold pieces from the aforesaid vessel and said this to the servant of God: "Go back, worshipper of the heavenly God domini B 4., go back at once with your gifts, and take the house which you have asked of us, and be zealous to dedicate it in honour of your God and of His protomartyr Stephen, as shall seem good. And I, when a short space of time has passed omits B 3, 4., will return there illic B 3, 4, and before correction B 2. and will gladly supply you with whatever of my possessions shall please placuerit B 4. you; and you shall teach me how I ought oportet B 3. to believe in your God, since He is true and alone, and I shall take pains to hear from you the rule of the Christian Christine B 2. faith." Having received, therefore, a letter fortified with the seal of the glorious prince, he returned to the city of Bourges. the hall granted by him When igitur B 3. the most certain certis B 3. tokens of the letter had been delivered prolatis B 3, 4., he was received, as was fitting, without delay of hesitation cunctationibus B 2., by the very ipsius B 4. keepers conuersatoribus B 1, 2; conuersationibus honorifice B 4. of the hall. When quo B 1 it was learned by the Christians that the matter was actum adds B 3, 4. so, filled with great joy they began to come together to him, now omits B 4. without fear of the gentiles. For they had been hiding, fearing the worshippers of idols, before the venerable servant of God (s. D.) sanctus B 4. Ursinus Ursinus venerabilis B 3, 4. went to audiret B 2. the prince Leocadius Leocadium B 3.. And he, like a loving father over his sons, so exulted over the faithful peoples, whom daily he brought forth to the church sic adds B 4. by regenerating them in the baptism of the font. For what he had learned from the loving master — unless a man be born again omits B 1, 2. of water and the Holy Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven — this he laboured laborat B 3. always and everywhere both to put into practice by his very ipse B 2, 4. action on an erasure B 1. and also to explain in words verbis etiam B 4.. John 3, 5. Having then taken possession of the aforesaid hall, he busied himself zealously to purge it diligently and to cleanse it of all filth. And the stewards themselves, in whose power it had been administered before proc. posita B 4., having entirely laid aside (o. d.) omits B 4. the superstition of paganism through the sweet-spoken preaching of the most blessed Ursinus, deserved to come to the practice of the Catholic faith. By their bountiful aid and continual continuo B 3, 4. work, within the course of a short time, the other Christians also furnishing abundant help as their means allowed, the former royal hall was completed as a church of the heavenly God. he consecrates the church. It was also in B 4. solemnly solempniter B 3. dedicated, on the very day of the Kalends of October, in honour of the supreme and undivided Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and omits B 4; et in B 3. in commemoration of Stephen the protomartyr, with no small multitude of Christians; into it he translated the relics of the blood of the aforesaid martyr, and laid them up honourably, as was fitting, in a most precious casket. The aforesaid church, however, which he had earlier made into an oratory omits B 4. out of the stable, he destined for the use of a baptistery. These things hiis itaque B 3. having been duly accomplished, the most blessed Ursinus, the molestation of the pagans, by whose manifold injury he had been harassed, being at length removed, began to exercise with the faithful church the dignity of his archiepiscopate granted him by the Lord here B 3, 4 end..

[9] Christian doctrine Meanwhile the aforesaid prince, not unmindful of the promise by which he had earnestly bound himself to the blessed man, hastened to return to Bourges according to the appointed date. Entering the walls of the city, he at once asked his faithful citizens what Ursinus, servant of the most high God, was doing and where he was. They, answering his good question with a truthful voice, said that he was given to prayers, fasts and almsgiving, and finally that he had dedicated the prince's hall to God as a church. As they were saying these things, blessed Ursinus, serene of brow, bright of countenance, glad at the arrival of the prince, suddenly came up. On seeing him, the prince threw himself headlong at his feet, and then, taking the holy man by the hands, began to lead him to his lodging. Having questioned him at length about all his doings and learned the course of the matter, he at last diligently inquired how he ought to attain the teachings of the Catholic faith. To him the affable pastor and sweet preacher gave this oracle of answer: "Tomorrow," he said, "you shall revisit the threshold of the holy church, and there you shall be most fully instructed in the divine sacraments." So when the following day dawned, the magnificent prince went in haste with his household to the church, he expounds it to him; and there he found the disciple of the Lord, blessed Ursinus, given to prayers with a multitude of faithful Christians. He, rising at once from prayer, began his discourse in this manner: "Hear, O prince, and let all hear and believe that God is one. Gen. 1–3. He in the beginning created heaven and earth, the sea and all things contained in them; and He made man to His own image and likeness, male and female He created them. And He placed them in paradise, which He had planted from the beginning, that they might dwell in it and keep it. But the devil, because of the glory conferred on man, began to waste away with envy, and entering the serpent he came to Eve, the companion of the first man, and said to her: 'Why do you not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which is fairer than all and sweeter to eat?' And she answered and said: 'Of every kind of fruit that is in paradise it is lawful for us to eat; only of this is it forbidden to taste, since the Lord has threatened us that we should take nothing of it.' What more? The woman, deceived by the crafty words of the serpent, ate of the forbidden fruit and compelled her husband to eat. For this transgression, then, driven from paradise, they were exiled to the surface of this earth, where they began to work with sorrow and exceeding toil, and from it acquired food and clothing for themselves. And thus those who before had been immortal were made mortal through sin. Adam had of his wife Eve two sons, of whom one, kindled with the torch of envy against the other, because his works had pleased while his own had displeased, killed his brother at the instigation of the same devil and became guilty of murder. Gen. 4, 1–8. Then, when men had multiplied upon the earth and been propagated by the union complexionem B 1, 2. of male and female, the ancient enemy so prevailed over them that they entirely forgot their God and, not knowing their maker, began to adore idols, in which the demon, lurking and giving responses, was adored. Gen. 6–7. It repented God, therefore, that He had made man, and, touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He destroyed by the flood not only man but also all living things in which there was life uite B 1., except Noah and his wife and his sons and the wives of his sons, who were saved in the ark. In it also of the living creatures pairs, male and female, were preserved, lest their kind should utterly perish. After the flood, when the human race had been restored from the seed of Noah, the enemy began to lord it over them again, and they became worse deteteriores B 2. than before. Gen. 11, 1–9. For they wished to build a tower whose top should touch the heavens, so that they might no more be overwhelmed by the waters of a flood; and to destroy their pride their tongues were so changed into I have supplied it; omits B 1, 2. a foreign tongue that those below did not at all know what those above were saying. Wherefore they withdrew confounded, nor did their descendants afterwards dare to attempt temperare B 2. anything of the kind. Gen. 12, 1–3. Afterwards the Lord God chose for Himself a faithful man named Abraham, whose progeny He so loved that He brought forth from it a countless offspring, and from them established patriarchs and prophets, through whom the Holy Spirit spoke the things that were to come. In the last times, however, God the Father, grieving that the human race was perishing on account of the sin of the first man, provided for Himself a virgin named Mary, born of the seed of Abraham, illustrious from the stock of David, of whom, by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, without the seed of man, was born our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that by His clemency He might free from the power of the devil those whom he had first deceived by crafty fraud. Luke 1–2. When He was thirty xxta B 1, 2. years of age, He willed to be baptized by John in the river Jordan. Luke 3, 21–22. There, to show that He was the true Son of God, the heavens were opened on an erasure st (sunt) B 1. above Him, and the voice of God the Father was heard by those standing round: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased complacuit B 1, 2.; hear ye him.' Matth. 3, 17; Luke 3, 22. Likewise in the same place the Holy Spirit was seen to descend discendisse B 1, 2. in bodily shape like a dove. By this baptism, assuredly, He signified that men are cleansed corrected, earlier mundare B 1. from every contagion of vices. He taught them also that the heavens are opened if they believe rightly and faithfully in the holy Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, which was there most evidently shown. For the water of baptism will profit nothing except to one who believes that Christ is the Son of God, manifested to men through the humanity He took for them, who through His divinity was known to the angels even before the incarnation. He, God born of God the Father before the ages,

deigned in the fullness of time to become man, as I said before, of the Virgin Mary, not relinquishing the rights of His deity, that He might thus hand down to men the heavenly mysteries by which they could be raised up to those joys of paradise whence they once fell, gluttony having the mastery, transgressing the precepts of the Lord." and him with his son Instructed by these and very many other teachings of blessed Ursinus, the glorious prince believed most certainly in God and asked to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matth. 28, 19. Leocadius was therefore baptized without delay in that same church, together with his son Lusor, splendid corrected B 2. in his boyish age, who afterwards shone forth more splendid corrected B 2. in virtues. His brother, however, he baptizes; whose name was Caremuselus, entangled in the error of paganism, did not deserve to attain the glory of so great a splendour.

[10] the various halls of Leocadius After the religious prince had entirely laid aside the care of secular service, he burned with such warmth of faith that he made over to God and to Stephen, the holy protomartyr of Christ, almost all the most ancient 〈villages of the district of Bourges where he possessed his own halls, together with the property I have supplied it from BHL. 8412.〉 serving there and the servants; and he handed them into the hands of the aforesaid pontiff, with a testament of privilege, and also to the men serving the holy church, to be held in perpetuity. For he wished that prophetic saying to be fulfilled, where /// ibi B 2. it says: "My soul shall live unto God, and my seed shall serve him." Psalm. 21, 31. He wished, indeed, to leave on earth a seed of good working that would serve the Lord, when he offered Him such gifts to be held for ever. For the same pontiff afterwards dedicated the halls of the aforesaid prince as churches in honour of the protomartyr Stephen, consecrated with relics of the holy blood. he converts them into churches. And the same most holy pontiff of God ordained in those churches priests and levites and men of every order, teaching them to be sober, chaste, steadfast in faith, truthful in speech, to resist the devil bravely and to cling constantly to heavenly works. Tit. 2, 2. O apostolic man and faithful servant of his Lord, who, as a diligent trader, by preaching among the people so returned to his Lord, doubled, the talent entrusted to him, that he deserved to hear from Him that saying of the Gospel: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over corrected, earlier supra B 2. a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matth. 25, 21, 23. But when the Lord had now decreed to put an end to so great a work and willed to reward His servant for so great a labour, He first marked the day of his departure from the body by a certain pain of fever. And he, foreknowing that his dissolution was imminent, calls his faithful disciples and announces to them that he is soon to be set free. For which reason he consoled them as they wept, saying: "You ought, brothers, rather to rejoice than to weep, since I shall not leave you without a shepherd. Senicianus For know that Senicianus, a religious man, adorned with good morals, prudent, apt to teach, has been appointed in my place. It befits him to be strong in such wisdom that he may not only sufficiently teach the people entrusted to him, but may also repel from the Catholic church the contradictions contraditiones B 2. of all cuncta B 2. heresies, lest by his own unskilfulness he should deceive dicipiat B 2. the unskilled, and, overtaken by a mishap of this kind, there should befall emat B 1, 2. him what is written: If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit. Matth. 15, 14; I desire him to preside over the holy church, having his children in subjection with all chastity." 1 Tim. 3, 4. And Senicianus, a most religious man, having been appointed, nay consecrated, in the chair of the church of Bourges, he designates his successor. the most blessed Ursinus, having completed twenty-seven years of his preaching, on the fourth day before the Kalends of January, released from the bonds of the flesh, was carried, amid the chanting choirs of angels, to the joys of paradise which Jesus Christ our Lord has promised to those who love Him, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

III. THE OTHER LIFE OF ST. URSINUS

Ursinus, bishop of Bourges. (S.)

From the codex of Saint-Sauveur at Utrecht, following the Brussels transcript. Cf. Preliminary Commentary, no. 7.

Life of Nathanael, bishop, brother of Philip the apostle, who is called Ursicinus.

Saint Nathanael, brother of Philip the apostle, was born at Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. John 1, 44, 47. This is he of whom Christ says: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." That this Nathanael was one of the number of the seventy-two disciples of Christ has seemed so to some. And if it be objected that Augustine writes on John: For this reason the Lord would not place him among the disciples, because He chose the unlearned in order to confound the world Tract. VII, 17, P. L., vol. XXXV, pp. 1445–46., to this it can be said that Augustine there calls the twelve apostles disciples, concerning whom he stated beforehand in the same place that among the apostles he was neither first nor middle nor last. This Nathanael was one of the seven disciples to whom Christ appeared after rising, at the sea of Tiberias. John 21, 2. This Nathanael was afterwards called Ursicinus and was sent by the blessed apostle Peter from Rome to Bourges. He was the first bishop of that city, where, after the distinctions of many good works, he rested in Christ. His body, a long time afterwards, namely about the year of the Lord five hundred and sixty-eight, was found outside Bourges in the vineyards by divine revelation, and was buried by the hands of St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, in the church of St. Symphorian the martyr, which, now overshadowed by the name of blessed Ursicinus, has lost the name of the holy martyr There follows a Catena of the Fathers on Nathanael.