Piatus

ON ST. PIATUS, OR PIATO, PRESBYTER, MARTYR, AND APOSTLE OF TOURNAI,

AT SECLIN IN FLANDERS.

About the year CCLXXXVII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Piatus or Piato, presbyter, Apostle of the people of Tournai, and martyr, at Seclin in Flanders. (S.)

BY J. S.

§ I. The memory of the Saint in the sacred Fasti: the place where the body was found by St. Eligius, where there is now a church dedicated to the Saint: his cult there, at Tournai, at Chartres, and in other places.

The name of today's Saint is written sometimes Piatus, sometimes Piato or Piaton, and now and then also Piator. In the Kalendar of Corbie, The memory of the Saint in ancient Kalendars and in Usuard, which Martène published in volume 3 of the Anecdota from a codex, as he thinks, of the VIII century, the name of Piatus occurs at the Kalends of October. In another, of the IX century, which d'Achery published in the Spicilegium, one reads: And the birthday of St. Piator. In Fiorentini's Hieronymian codex, on the same day, at the end, one reads: And of saint Piato. But those words are rightly held to be an addition made later, since they are absent from the remaining Hieronymian codices. Usuard mentions St. Piato more distinctly in these words: In the city of Tournai, the passion of St. Piato, presbyter, who with blessed Dionysius the bishop and his companions came from the city of Rome to Gaul for the sake of preaching, and afterwards, his martyrdom completed, passed to Christ. Giorgi, in his Ado, at this day brings forward from three more recent codices certain things which Rosweyde did not find in the older ones, nor published in his Ado. In those, concerning St. Piatus, are the following: In the district of Menen, the birthday of St. Piatus: who with blessed Dionysius the bishop and his companions came from the city of Rome to Gaul for the sake of preaching, and afterwards, his martyrdom completed, passed to the Lord.

[2] not likewise in Ado, but in the augmented codices of him, Then in his Annotations he argues against the observation of our Sollerius, who wrote this: The memory of Piato or Plato, otherwise Piatus, is judged to have been added to the Hieronymian by Fiorentini; nor ought Usuard to have taken it from there, who beyond doubt saw the Acts from which the elogium was composed. Giorgi, because he found St. Piatus in his codices, wishes to insinuate that Usuard could have taken his material from Ado. But since he himself does not make his codices older than the XI and XII century; and since in Mosander and Rosweyde nothing concerning St. Piato is read in the Martyrology of Ado, not even in Rosweyde's Appendix, those things which Giorgi gave from his codices would be attributed to Ado altogether improbably.

[3] In the Martyrology of St. Maximin of Trier, which Martène published in volume 6 of the Amplissima Collectio from a codex [and in other Martyrologies, sometimes in the district of Mélantois, sometimes at Tournai,] which he believed to be of the X century, at 1 October, after others, one reads of Bavo and Pio, by which last word I judge St. Piatus to be designated erroneously. In the same place, in the Kalendar of Stavelot, he is expressed more clearly, and indeed in the first place, in these words: Of Piato, martyr. There again in the Martyrology of Auxerre: In the district of Mélantois, the birthday of St. Pato (for Piato) martyr. In the Vatican Kalendar, according to Giorgi praised above, one reads: In the district of Mélantois, of Piato, mar. There again, in the Martyrology of Fulda, he is ascribed to the confessors in these words: On the same day, the birthday of the holy confessors Piato and Bavo. The memory of the same Saint is read in some augmented copies of Bede and Usuard. The codex of Herenthals, in Sollerius, announces the Saint in the district of Mélantois, that of Brussels in the district of Mélantois. Concerning that place several others also agree, whom I omit for the sake of brevity. But the author of the manuscript Florarium and Peter de Natalibus announce St. Piato at Tournai, with Usuard. Baronius did the same in the Roman Martyrology, where he has it thus: At Tournai, of saint Piato, presbyter and martyr, who with blessed Quintinus and his companions went from the city of Rome into Gaul for the sake of preaching, and afterwards, in the persecution of Maximian, his martyrdom completed, passed to the Lord. These are almost the words of Usuard, but in place of the companion Dionysius in Usuard, Quintinus has been substituted, concerning whom more will be said.

[4] Leaving aside the more recent martyrologists, whose words contribute less to our purpose, in certain ones also at Chartres. I shall transfer here some augmented copies of Usuard recited in Sollerius, in which St. Piatus or Piato, his name also dislocated in some, is announced not at Tournai or in a district of the diocese of Tournai, but at Chartres. In Muneratus there is added at the end, as though a different person, in these words: At Chartres, of Piatus, martyr. In the codex of Bordeaux one reads: In the city of Chartres, the passion of saint Picto (for Piato) presbyter, who with blessed Dionysius, etc. In that of Besançon: In the district of Chartres, the birthday of saint Plato, who with blessed Dionysius, etc. Why the Saint is commemorated in these at Chartres or in the district of Chartres, we can easily conjecture from what will be said about the body formerly translated to Chartres. Wherefore, whether he be written Piato or Plato, he is not different from St. Piato, as is clear from the words who with blessed Dionysius, etc. The Lübeck-Cologne edition added the time of the martyrdom, passed over by Usuard, in these words: And afterwards under Diocletian, his martyrdom consumed, he passed to the Lord. The register of the Charterhouse of Utrecht again has something particular, where one reads: Of Pyato, first bishop of Tournai, and martyr. But Sollerius observes that in the margin these words were noted: Concerning the episcopate of Piato I have seen a great question. Of that question I shall treat as far as shall seem necessary. Meanwhile let us pass to the antiquity of the cult, which is certainly greater than the Martyrologies thus far brought forward are able to prove.

[5] The finding of the body of St. Piatus is related in the Life of St. Eligius, book 2, chapter 7, The Saint's body found at Seclin by St. Eligius, or in volume 5 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, page 202, where St. Audoenus writes this of St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon and Tournai: After these things (that is, after the body of St. Quintinus, long sought, had been found) in like manner, with great labour and persistence, he found in the territory of Mélantois, in the village of Seclin, the holy martyr Piato, the long nails taken out of whose body he likewise showed to the peoples as a proof. Valois, in the Notitia Galliarum, page 327, treats of the district of Mélantois from this very passage, which he partly recites, and he adds other passages in which he believes the same district is mentioned. Since the place is sufficiently known to us at this time, I shall recite only his words which bear most nearly on us. The district Medenantensis, he says, or Medenentensis, is now called le Mélantois… The head of the district Medenentensis is Seclinium (Seclin), renowned for its college of canons and for the relics of St. Piato the martyr. Seclin is of the diocese of Tournai, and St. Piato is believed to have suffered at Seclin or in its vicinity, because his body was found there. Hence in the Martyrology of Paris the Saint is accurately announced in these words: In the territory of Mélantois, in the village of Seclin of the diocese of Tournai, of saint Piato, presbyter and martyr, to whom the people of Tournai credit their reception of the faith of Christ. Seclin is farther from Tournai than from Lille, from which city it is distant about two Belgian miles towards Artois.

[6] and honoured with a magnificent mausoleum, What St. Eligius did when he had found the body of St. Piato, St. Audoenus adds in these words: The body, finally, as befitted a Martyr, he elegantly laid out, and fashioned a mausoleum handsomely above it. Nothing is added about the body being translated to another place, nothing about a church either built or enlarged. Only a mausoleum elegantly arranged above the tomb is spoken of, that is, the adornment of the Saint's tomb. How magnificently St. Eligius was accustomed to adorn the tombs of the Saints, St. Audoenus indicates in book 1, chapter 32, where he touches briefly on many things adorned by him, in these words: This same blessed man, among the other marks of good works, fashioned many tombs of the Saints with gold and silver and gems, that is, of Germanus, Severinus, Piato, Quintinus, Lucius, Genovefa, Columba, Maximianus and Lolianus and Julianus. From this passage, however, some more recent writers seem to have fallen into error, when they wrote that the body of St. Piato was found by St. Eligius before his episcopate. For here St. Audoenus only touches on many things in general, which he afterwards refers one by one to their own times. But since he says that the finding of St. Piato took place after the finding of the body of St. Quintinus, and he found this very one in the time of his episcopate, that error is manifest. Of the finding of St. Quintinus, St. Audoenus speaks thus in book 2, chapter 6: From that time therefore at which Eligius was consecrated pontiff, and of the church

was given as pastor, several things (bodies of the Saints) were found by him and declared to the peoples. Of which, first and foremost, the holy martyr Quintinus, sought with great persistence at the beginning of his episcopate, and long concealed, he brought forth openly into public view. These things show plainly that the finding of St. Piato also, which followed after these, took place during the episcopate of St. Eligius.

[7] which took place after the death of King Dagobert, under Clovis II Hence the finding cannot be fixed before the death of King Dagobert and the reign of Clovis II, in whose third year St. Eligius was made bishop. Hence again another error of more recent writers must be corrected, which, just like the preceding one, has been inserted into the lessons of the Office of Tournai. For St. Eligius is said to have constructed the mausoleum at the expense of Dagobert, king of the Franks. But Dagobert was dead, so that St. Eligius did not do it at his expense, but either at his own, or at that of other benefactors, or of King Clovis, in whose time the finding took place. The passage of the Life of St. Eligius from which the error flowed is found in book 1, chapter 32, and was partly adduced at number 6. After the words given there there follows: And moreover of many others also, but especially of blessed Martin in the city of Tours, King Dagobert furnishing the expenses, he covered the tomb with wonderful workmanship of gold and gems, etc. If anyone weighs the whole passage correctly, he will see that what is said of the expenses supplied by Dagobert refers to those things which are said to have been made at Tours. But the more recent writers referred it to all the preceding things as well. This may be true of some, but not of SS. Quintinus and Piato, since those things were done after the death of Dagobert.

[8] Furthermore, I would not have anyone think that the cult of St. Piato began from the finding of the body. [the cult of the Saint had begun before, and a church was probably dedicated to him,] For we cannot doubt that the Saint was venerated before, and that the body was therefore sought so that the certain place of the tomb might become known to the people. For that this was the intention of St. Eligius when he sought the bodies of the Saints, St. Audoenus declares in book 2, chapter 6, and he adds such a reason that from it this very thing becomes known, that the Saints were venerated before the finding of their bodies. To this most holy man therefore, he says, this also had been granted by the Lord, that the bodies of the holy martyrs, which for so many ages had been held hidden from the peoples until then, should be laid open and brought forth through his investigating and searching them out with exceeding ardour of faith. For some were venerated before by the people in places where they were not, and yet in what place they lay more certainly buried was altogether unknown. The holy martyrs whose bodies St. Eligius sought were therefore venerated, but their tombs were unknown, probably because for fear of the barbarians, who flooded the Gauls in the fifth and sixth century, they had been hidden deep under the earth, or had been buried so from the beginning on account of the gentiles. The church, however, in which the body of St. Quintinus was, seems to have been known, as is gathered from the lengthy account of the finding. So the church in which the body of St. Piato was may have been known, and it was probably already then dedicated to the Saint, and built long before above his tomb.

[9] Molanus, in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, treats of saint Piatus which is now collegiate: a magnificent shrine there, and of the place where he rests. I transfer the latter here: He rests at Seclin in the territory of Mélantois, where in honour of the martyr and first Apostle of the people of Tournai there is a college of clerics or canons, of which mention is made in the third book of the Decretals. St. Eligius, however, laid its beginning. If he means to say this of the college of canons, I find no proof; if of the beginning of the church or of the cult of St. Piato, I think it false. The elevation of the body and the construction of the mausoleum are owed to St. Eligius, as we have already seen. But the cult is much older, and the institution of the canons perhaps more recent. Molanus continues: Usuard has the birthday at the Kalends of October, which the church of Tournai celebrates on that day and through the Octave. The translation, however, is recalled yearly on the fourth before the Kalends of November, which Eligius the bishop made (but it may be doubted whether it is not perhaps another translation), who also wonderfully adorned the Martyr's monument, so as to show by the adornment of the tomb how great a Martyr he is with God in the court of heaven. The people of Seclin celebrate also the feast of the elevated head on the fifth feria after the Sunday on which the introit of the Mass, Cantate, is sung.

[10] As for the bier of the body, this indeed is of silver, different from the ancient mausoleum, and made in the year 1458. gilded, and elegant, but it seems far more recent than that it could be the one which St. Audoenus writes that the divine Eligius, a goldsmith, made for him at the expense of Dagobert, king of the Franks, before he undertook the episcopate. These things we readily admit, provided that what is said of the mausoleum made before the episcopate at the expense of Dagobert be corrected. Indeed it is certain that the present-day bier, or chest of relics, is not older than the XV century, and is far different from the mausoleum constructed by St. Eligius. Of the body translated into it in the year 1458 it will be treated at number 51. Concerning the college of canons, Miraeus agrees in the Fasti Belgici et Burgundici at 1 February, page 69, where he says of St. Piatus: And he rests at Seclin, which is a municipality of Flanders, in the collegiate basilica of canons bearing his name. Concerning the celebrity of the cult in the church of Seclin, more is brought forward by Jean Buzelin in the Annales Gallo-Flandriae, and by Jean Cousin, whom some call by the Latin name Cognatus, but whom we shall call Cousinus after our custom, in the History of Tournai. Some things from them we shall adduce after the deeds of the Saint have been examined, where the celebrity of the cult will be treated.

[11] Not only at Seclin, but also at Tournai the festival of St. Piatus is solemn, But not only do the people of Seclin, who possess at least a notable part of his body, religiously honour St. Piatus, but the people of Tournai also venerate him as their Apostle with a solemn Office. In the Breviary of Tournai, which was printed towards the beginning of the XVI century, the festival of St. Piatus is declared a solemnity in red letters in the Kalendar. In the proper Offices of the holy Patrons of the cathedral of Tournai, printed in the year 1626, a double Office with Octave is set down, and through all the days on which the Office of St. Piatus is performed, other lessons are always set down, composed on the life and posthumous glory of the Saint. In the proper Offices of the same cathedral, which were printed in the year 1712, it is noted thus at 1 October: On the feast of St. Piatus, presbyter and martyr, apostle and patron of the diocese. Greater triple with Octave. In the Office, moreover, not only the lessons of the second nocturn, but also all the antiphons, hymns and responsories are proper, and composed from the deeds of the Saint; but on the remaining days nothing else proper to the Saint is read. The lessons are said to be composed from the hymns of St. Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, from the Life of St. Eligius, from the Martyrology of Usuard, and from Molanus and Miraeus.

[12] whose deeds they recite in compendium in the lessons of the Office. I transfer them here as a compendium of his deeds: Piatus, sprung from illustrious parents at Benevento, and instructed in letters as a boy, submitted himself wholly to Christ. Having reached adult age, he despised the glory of the world, and, reserving to himself a single and that a simple garment, he spent the rest on the uses of the poor. Having set out for Rome by God's disposition, he was directed thence by the Roman Pontiff, with blessed Dionysius and his companions, into the Gauls to preach the faith of Christ, where he fulfilled his ministry first at Tournai and then in the neighbouring places. He washed with the saving waters thirty thousand men, and besides a well-nigh innumerable multitude of women and little ones. Gentle towards all, he was hard upon himself. But when it had been reported to the governor that so great a number of the faithful had been made subject to Christ through the preaching of Piatus, he ordered him to be seized. Seized, after prison, fetters, scourgings, and the other torments overcome, he completed his martyrdom at Tournai by the cutting off of his head, on the Kalends of October, in the persecution of Maximian. He was buried at Seclin, which is a municipality of Flanders in the territory of Mélantois, in that place where a church built under his invocation is now to be seen; and while he was being committed to burial, a most pleasing odour flowed forth. There, after three hundred and fifty years, blessed Eligius the goldsmith, not yet bishop of Tournai, with great labour and industry found that holy body, and showed to the peoples as a proof the long nails taken out of his body. Having found it, he laid it out elegantly, as befitted a Martyr, and fashioned above it a mausoleum of gold and silver and gems, at the expense of Dagobert, king of the Franks. With these the Acts for the greater part agree. The last things have already been corrected at numbers 6 and 7. Of the place of the martyrdom, which is here fixed at Tournai, there will be discussion afterwards.

[13] At Chartres, where we have seen St. Piato announced in some augmented copies of Usuard, The Saint venerated also at Chartres: the lessons of the Office of Chartres he is also venerated with a double Office. Certainly in the Breviary of the church of Chartres of the year 1633 a double Office of St. Piatus is read at 1 October, but without an Octave. In the Antiphon at the Magnificat it is said: And the church of Chartres glories, renowned in the presence of his body. The lessons of the second nocturn differ notably from those of Tournai. Wherefore I transfer them here entire: Piato, who is also Piatus, born at Benevento among the Samnites, ordained presbyter at Rome, was sent into the Gauls for the sake of preaching in the times of the emperor Aurelius [], a severe and truculent prince, who brought the tenth persecution upon the Christians, together with the blessed martyrs Victoricus, Fuscianus, Regulus, Quinctinus, Lucianus, Crispinus, Crispinianus, and certain others. But when Aurelius had been removed, and the Church breathed again a little, he came to Chartres, where, finding the faithful persevering in their ancestral persuasion, he made for Tournai, a town of the Nervii, in the reign of Diocletian and Maximian. In which, having stayed no little time, sowing the seeds of the divine word, he converted the people of that place, still ignorant of Christ but wholly given over to idols, to the number of thirty thousand men and more, not counting the women and those of both sexes who were in tender years, whom, instructed in holy precepts, he washed with the saving waters.*

[14] But as the multitude of believers increased, the lessons differ in some heads from those of Tournai he converted into a temple the house of a certain Irenaeus, a citizen of Tournai, who had earlier given his name to Christ, and dedicated it to God, and there established deacons, readers and chanters who should sing in a subdued voice (which is still observed in the church of Chartres). When Maximian learned of this, he commanded Rictius Varus, prefect of the Nervii under the Roman emperors, to remove from their midst as enemies of the state the men whom we have spoken of above. But, overcome by their faith and their constancy in torments, when he saw that he was achieving nothing, falling from hope he threw himself into the pyre which he had prepared at Soissons for the destruction of the Saints. Wherefore three other prefects having been substituted, he sent them into Belgium. These, arriving at Tournai, ordered Piatus to be seized as the author of the crime. But Piatus, warned by his own people, having exhorted them from the pulpit to remain in the faith which they had professed, when, according to the word of God, he wished to withdraw himself and was making for Seclin, was set upon by assassins bursting unexpectedly from hiding places, first with clubs, together with no small multitude of Saints, and at length, his throat cut with knives,

he was consummated by a glorious end on the Kalends of October, about the year of the Lord three hundred and three.

[15] But when the holy corpse had long been exposed to birds and wild beasts at a spring and they differ from the Acts. not far from Seclin, the faithful secretly took it up and carried it to Seclin, and there committed it to burial. But since he shone with miracles, about two hundred years after, by the work of saint Eligius, bishop of Noyon, to whom the church of Tournai was then subject, the sacred body was raised from the earth and placed in a little chest made by the hand of the prelate himself. But when wars were raging in Belgium, certain soldiers of Chartres, having transferred it from its silver case into a little wooden chest, brought it to Chartres, where it is still seen and venerated entire, as though with a fresh throat and the scar not closed over, continually renowned for miracles. For by the prayers and help of that Saint the whole region feels no small benefits against rains and the inclemency of the air. This account of the Saint's deeds differs from the other, first in that the Saint is brought to Chartres before he comes to Tournai; secondly in that among the companions with whom he set out from Rome into Gaul St. Dionysius is not numbered, but several others are substituted for him. Thirdly, here St. Piatus is said to have departed from Rome under Aurelius, for which Aurelian seems to be the reading; but in the former elogium the time of his departure is not expressed. Fourthly and lastly, death is here said to have been inflicted on the Saint by assassins and on the road; elsewhere, however, by the lawful authority and at Tournai. Several more things I omit for the present: for what seems more probable on each head I shall examine below, as also concerning the possession of the body, about which for many centuries there has been a controversy between the people of Seclin or of Tournai and those of Chartres.

[*] Aurelian

§ II. Threefold Acts, which, compared with the hymn of Fulbert of Chartres, are some better than others: none, however, sufficiently ancient. Of these the more ancient are to be published.

Various Acts of the Saint: one exemplar, older than the rest, agrees The Acts of St. Piatus, which we have not yet seen printed, we have in two of our codices, and in several apographs received from elsewhere. But while I diligently compare all these with one another, I find only one exemplar which I can judge to be much older than all the rest. The reason is that it agrees greatly with the hymn which Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, wrote about St. Piatus, so that it is likely that those Acts lighted the way for Fulbert: for it is not credible that Fulbert composed a hymn about the Saint without an older document. But since that Hymn contains the chief heads of the Life, and receives from its learned and pious writer somewhat more authority than Acts put together by anonymous writers, and those not sufficiently ancient, can have, I transfer it here entire, so that it may shed light both for the appraisal of the Acts and for the doubts shortly to be sifted. Among the Works of Fulbert of Chartres, printed at Paris in the year 1608, under this title, Hymn on saint Piatus, folio 172, it reads thus.

[17] with the hymn of Fulbert of Chartres recited here, In the land of Benevento, born of illustrious fathers, Piatus, distinguished to the world, upheld by holy morals: Soon as a boy, following Christ with admirable efforts, distinguished, afterwards as a grown man he despised the vain glory of the world, reserving nothing of his own but a simple garment.

But giving whatever he possessed to the relief of the poor, not knowing why, he goes to Rome, being now a man, and there he is joined to Dionysius and his holy fellow-companions. So, added to the company of such great men, the light flourishes, added to Dionysius, these being perfect, to preach Christ to the Gallic nation.

Towards Tournai the renowned Piatus directed himself, while blessed Dionysius went to Paris. From Tournai, therefore, spreading widely the seeds of the holy word, he converted to Christ thrice ten thousand men, besides the little ones, and a very great crowd of the second sex of worshippers of Christ, shining meanwhile with twin miracles of powers.

He subdued by frugality the hard strength of the body, so that, strengthened by breaking it, he should not succumb to the enemy, and might valiantly vanquish him.

But Caesar Maximian, when he drank in the fame of Piatus with virulent ears, ordered him to be seized, to be put to death forthwith.

And, as the report is, he, ready for warfare, and knowing not how to be conquered, conquered bonds, conquered scourges, and all assaults.

For at length he is beheaded, with a joyful company of martyrs, crowned with laurel he bore the palm to the palace of heaven.

And while the body of the glorious Martyr was being laid in the clod, an odour of heavenly nectar was poured forth round about, lest the world should hesitate at all about the salvation of the spirit, whose flesh then proved that it reigned in heaven. Thus far

Fulbert, into whose hymn I suspect errors have crept. Yet I would not dare to correct anything.

[18] If now we compare one of the apographs with this hymn, and was written at an uncertain time. we shall find all the things asserted in the hymn in those Acts also, but set out in more words. Wherefore I judge that Fulbert took his material from these Acts. But at what period they were written we cannot so easily say. But at least I suspect that they were written before the opinion had arisen which confused St. Dionysius of Paris with the Areopagite, that is, before Hilduin, abbot of St.-Denis, who in the IX century wished to make Dionysius of Paris the Areopagite. For the author of the Acts reckoned St. Piatus the companion or disciple of St. Dionysius, and even so a martyr under Maximian. But that does not agree with the opinion of those who referred St. Dionysius to the first century. From elsewhere, however, it is clear that our Anonymous wrote a long time after the martyrdom of St. Piatus, of whose preachings he speaks very meagrely and confusedly. This is even more evident from what he relates of the martyrdom: for he has nothing about the torments inflicted on the Saint by means of nails, about which, however, we cannot doubt on account of the nails found in the Saint's body by St. Eligius. Hence therefore I might suspect that the Acts were written before the finding of the body, which must be fixed not long before the middle of the VII century. But this suspicion is opposed by the passage of the Acts about the Theban martyrs, which is clearly taken from the interpolated Acts of St. Mauritius, published by us at XXII September in the second place: for most of the words are altogether the same. But since these Acts are not so ancient that our Anonymous could have drawn his material from them before the body was found by St. Eligius, it remains for us to say that they were written long after the finding of the body, which the Anonymous does not mention. At whatever time they were written, whether in the VIII century or at the beginning of the IX, at least they seem much older than the other, interpolated ones, of which I shall speak presently.

[19] Tillemont, in volume 4, on St. Dionysius, observes that the Acts of St. Piato [The Acts of St. Piatus agree in many things with the Acts of St. Lucianus and of St. Jonius:] which he had seen are very similar to the Acts of St. Jonius, of whom we treat at V August. Baillet, in his critical Table at this day, says they are similar to the Acts of St. Lucianus and St. Jonius. Hence our Sollerius, in his Usuard, in the observations at this day, says: The Acts of Piato are suspect, because they seem to have flowed from other very similar ones; but that controversy will have to be treated in its place. Our Du Bois asserted the same more clearly at V August on St. Jonius, and there in the Commentary, number 7, proved evidently that the Acts of St. Jonius were unskilfully patched together from the common Acts of St. Lucianus, adding this: For we shall bring forward more when we return to January with a freer criticism than was formerly permitted: or perhaps also when St. Piatus or Piato is treated at the day of 1 October: for there too there are many things in common with these Acts, not in substance only, but also in words. For this reason I have diligently compared the manuscript Acts of St. Piato with the twin Acts of St. Lucianus printed at VIII January, and I found not only all the things which pertain to the martyrdom of St. Piatus consonant with those which are handed down about the martyrdom of St. Lucianus in the Acts printed in the second place, and partly also in the first, but also certain other things. The interpolated Acts of St. Piato, however, of which I shall speak presently, are in several things also similar to our second Acts of St. Lucianus. These things cast no small doubt upon me. But first let us speak of the other exemplars of the Acts of St. Piatus.

[20] various interpolated exemplars of the Acts. In two codices of ours, which seem to have been written in the XIII century, one marked P. Ms. 159, the other Q. Ms. 5, the Acts of St. Piatus are read, amplified with many interpolations. We have them interpolated in almost the same way in the Cisoing apograph, which was collated with the manuscript codex of Bonnefontaine. All these, I say, are interpolated, but not in altogether the same way. For in the former codex of ours the martyrdom of St. Piatus is fixed under Maximian, and no anachronism appears. But in the other, from Diocletian, who towards the beginning of the Acts is mentioned as first emperor in all of them, there is afterwards a recurrence to Julian the Caesar, under whom the Saint is said to have suffered. The same anachronism was noted on the apograph from some codex; the same is found also in the Acts of St. Lucianus published in the second place, or at least the martyrdom of St. Lucianus, although he is said to have come into the Gauls with St. Dionysius, is there wrongly fixed under Julian the apostate. We have also shorter Acts from the manuscript of the church of St. Saviour at Utrecht, to which this title is prefixed: The Martyrdom of St. Piatus or Piato, bishop of Tournai. At the beginning, however, he is said to have been ordained presbyter by St. Dionysius, and not another word about his episcopate occurs in the Acts. These Acts, moreover, are a compendium of the first, which was probably taken from them for the lessons of the Office; and they have nothing particular, except that they substitute Julian for Maximian as persecutor. We have almost such a compendium from a manuscript Lectionary of the church of Saint-Omer, not very old, in which similarly Julian the Caesar is substituted for Maximian as persecutor.

[21] Since the Acts of St. Piatus cohere better, and are more probable in themselves, Now from what has been said above we have it that there is confusion in the Acts of SS. Lucianus and Piato, indeed also of Jonius, and that many things from their deeds, especially in the martyrdom, which had first been written of one, were afterwards transferred to others. This seems sufficiently certain of St. Jonius, whose name was unknown to the ancient martyrologists, and which was sufficiently indicated at V August. The matter is more ambiguous as regards SS. Piatus and Lucianus. For the Acts of St. Piatus, as they are found in the apograph to be published, cohere rightly without any anachronism, since Piatus is said to have been ordained presbyter by St. Dionysius, and to have suffered under Maximian after preaching the faith at Tournai. Moreover the hymn of Fulbert of Chartres, who flourished towards the beginning of the XI century, asserts the chief heads of the Acts, so that it seems to have been composed from them. There is also nothing in those Acts which must be called altogether improbable in itself. And so for these reasons the Acts would seem rather to have been composed from the beginning about St. Piatus than partly transferred to him from the Acts of St. Lucianus; unless reasons for doubting offered themselves from elsewhere. For in the Acts

he is said only to have been beaten with rods and deprived of his head. But St. Eligius drew long nails out of the Saint's body when it was found, so that it becomes likely that St. Piatus suffered heavier torments by means of them, as I shall say below. This is the chief reason which renders me doubtful. But neither did Fulbert mention that punishment, and therefore we can judge that it was not known to the writer of the Acts, except for the last punishments by which life was snatched from the Saint. Wherefore, all things considered, it seems more probable that the praised Acts of St. Piatus were first written, and that from them the Acts of St. Lucianus published in the second place were afterwards patched together, the names of places and persons being changed and some things added; and that from this Life of St. Lucianus, which seems the older of the two, certain things were afterwards carried into the one published in the first place, which refers St. Lucianus, together with St. Dionysius, to the 1st century.

[22] For each Life of St. Lucianus is much more improbable than the Acts of St. Lucianus, which labour under anachronisms, than are the uninterpolated Acts of St. Piatus; each is far removed from a correct chronology. Tillemont, in volume 4, Note 1 on St. Lucianus of Beauvais, says that the one published in the first place is full of fables, and that the second, which he believes older, is indeed less faulty, but nevertheless labours under many improbable assertions, which he reviews. The first is that St. Lucianus is said to have come into Gaul with St. Dionysius, and to have been crowned with martyrdom under Julian the Caesar: this last, which is altogether improbable, is not found in the Acts of St. Piato to be published. The second, that St. Lucianus is said to have converted thirty thousand men, not counting women. This will not seem equally improbable to all, and the same is asserted of St. Piato not only in the Acts but also by Fulbert of Chartres. The conversion of many through St. Piatus will be made more probable below. The third, altogether ridiculous, is again absent from the Acts of St. Piatus: for Julian the Caesar is said to have learned that Lucianus had gone out from Rome to preach the faith, and to have sent for this reason three of his ministers to seek the Saint. And those three, after much inquiry, are feigned at length to have learned that he was preaching in Gaul, which they are asserted both to have entered and to have come as far as Beauvais. To these absurdities is added another improbable assertion, namely that St. Lucianus after death carried his amputated head for almost three miles. This again is absent from the Acts of St. Piatus, in which all things cohere rightly, all can at least seem probable.

[23] For these reasons it becomes more probable to me that the Acts were written about St. Piatus, [they were more probably written first about St. Piatus: how they are to be published.] as we have them uninterpolated. For so they cohere rightly, and at least are not openly fabulous. Yet I would not call this altogether certain, nor claim undoubted credit for our Acts, because they were written long after the martyrdom of the Saint, perhaps in the VIII or IX century. I shall publish them from Chifflet's apograph. Further, that the studious reader may better perceive by what augmentations they were afterwards corrupted, I shall recite in the Annotations the principal additions from our codices and another apograph. These interpolations I suspect to be older than the XII century, since before the lessons of the Office which were drawn up in the year 1626 for the church of Tournai, the source from which they were composed is indicated in these words: From manuscript and printed books, Lives of the Martyr, one dedicated by the clergy of Seclin to Simon, bishop of Tournai and Noyon, etc. Among others there is praised a Life offered by the clergy of Seclin to Simon, bishop of Tournai and Noyon, who held the episcopate before the middle of the XII century. And so certain Acts were drawn up at Seclin before the middle of the XII century. In the Acts of Seclin, however, more things are found than in our interpolated ones, so that these seem older. What more recent writers have added about St. Piatus even to the interpolated Acts we shall first examine in order.

§ III. The deeds of the Saint examined in chronological order up to his death.

Homeland of the Saint, name, virtues as a Boy: Concerning the homeland of St. Piatus there is no controversy. For he is said in the Acts to have been born in the territory of Benevento, and in the same sense by Fulbert in the land of Benevento. Hence more recent writers commonly say he was born at Benevento, nor does it matter whether he was born in that city of Italy or in its territory. According to the Acts the name of the holy boy before baptism was Pius, but in baptism he was called Piatus. The name is also written now and then Piato and Piaton. The morals of the Saint in boyhood and youth are much praised in the Acts, to which, however, some things have been added which for this reason are not equally probable, or rather must be held as uncertain. For those very things which are read in the Acts about the Boy's morals are to be held only as probable, since the age of the writer cannot claim undoubted credit for such things. Among the things added afterwards, and exaggerated even beyond likelihood, are the rigid fasts of Piatus. To these I find the monastic life also added in the Office of the year 1626. In a writing which was sent at that time to our Rosweyde, one reads thus about his fasting: He imposed on himself this rule of fasting, which he also followed his whole life, that he should live on coarse bread and water and raw vegetables; adding this also in the time of Lent, that he should eat only twice in the week, namely on the Lord's day and on the fifth feria. Those who after many centuries added such things to the earlier Acts did not even consider that Apostolic men were not commanded by Christ to eat only twice a week during Lent, but plainly other precepts, arduous indeed, yet accommodated to human strength.

[25] he was ordained presbyter by St. Dionysius, more probably in Gaul: Of the time at which the Saint was born we have nothing, except that we can conjecture from the time of the martyrdom that he was born between the beginning and the middle of the III century. Usuard, adduced at number 1, asserts that St. Piatus came into Gaul with St. Dionysius and his companions to preach the Gospel. He probably gathered this from the Acts. The Acts, however, need not necessarily be so explained: for they say only that he was ordained presbyter by St. Dionysius after he had gone out from Rome, so that according to the Acts the ordination seems to be placed in Gaul. And so he could have accompanied St. Dionysius from the beginning in a lower grade of the clergy, and after some years been ordained presbyter. He could also, with others, have come after St. Dionysius, who had long been preaching in Gaul, and then have been ordained presbyter by him. The first, however, seems more probable, because St. Piatus is said to have set out for Tournai when St. Dionysius went to Lutetia of the Parisii. But concerning the time at which St. Dionysius came into Gaul it is not yet certainly established for us, although we can say, in a broad manner of speaking, that he came about the middle of the III century: which agrees rightly with the Acts of St. Piatus. For he could have remained some years with St. Dionysius, who perhaps did not go to Paris immediately, and then, having received the presbyterate, set out for Tournai and preached there. Those who in the middle ages would not join St. Piatus with St. Dionysius do not deserve credit, because they did so only because they wished to refer Dionysius to the times of the Apostles.

[26] Concerning the fruit of the preaching of St. Piatus the Acts, number XI, say: For already there had been converted by the Saint in the Gauls [] more than thirty thousand men, very many at Tournai and in neighbouring places not counting little ones and women. Fulbert of Chartres asserts the same. So great a number of converts seemed incredible to Tillemont in the case of St. Lucianus, as was said above. The number may in truth have some amplification, since the writer is not contemporary. Nevertheless it must be considered that Tournai was already then a notable city, as was observed at XX February on St. Eleutherius, bishop of Tournai; and that so many men are said to have been converted not in one city, but in the Gauls, that is, in several cities and towns, yet most of all at Tournai. Moreover, the preaching of St. Piatus seems to have been very long, since he suffered at last under Maximian, so that the number of converts already mentioned, even if by no means certain, is at least not incredible. The first Life of St. Eleutherius begins thus concerning St. Piatus: In the times of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian there arose throughout the whole world a very great sedition against the Christian name. In those days, therefore, the venerable man Piatus, having gone out from the city of Rome with his peers, came to the Gauls to preach, and settled at Tournai. How great things he did has not been hidden from your fraternity. For to all he evangelized the power of Christ; sowing the seeds of the divine word, he made manifest the mystical teachings to the pagans. What more? In short, many believed through him; many were baptized by him; many were slain together with that same Martyr for the name of Christ.* He adds among the converts one of the forebears of St. Eleutherius.

[27] The same things are read in the second Life, the beginning of which was passed over by us. he converted to the faith. In the third Life Guibert, a learned writer of the XIII century of the order of Minors, at number 4, speaks thus of St. Piatus and other preachers of the faith of the same time: So afterwards Dionysius with his companions made for the people of Paris, Lucianus for that of Beauvais, Quintinus for that of Amiens, Crispinus and Crispinianus for that of Soissons; and Piatus for the people of Tournai. He, being noble in race but nobler in faith, a Beneventan by origin, a preacher by office, sweet in eloquence, a martyr in desire, but an apostle in zeal, after much persistence in preaching converted the untamed and uncultivated nations to the discipline of the faith. And in the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, after many kinds of torments, at length by the cutting off of his head, in the same territory of Tournai, he merited to obtain the prize and crown long desired, leaving after his martyrdom sons and grandsons, whom, begotten in Christ through the Gospel, he made sharers of his glory and confessors of the Catholic faith. These things sufficiently suggest that the opinion of the people of Tournai was always that St. Piatus preached among the people of Tournai with great fruit and for a long time, even if afterwards that nascent church suffered much harm, because the persecution of the gentiles carried off not only Piatus but also many others converted by him, and afterwards drove the Christians out of Tournai, as is narrated more fully in the praised Lives of St. Eleutherius. For the rest, what is said in the first Life of St. Eleutherius about the times of Diocletian and Maximian must not be referred to the arrival of St. Piatus in Gaul, although the words themselves seem to hint at this, but to the time of the martyrdom and to the last times of the preaching of St. Piatus. For the writer treats of St. Piatus only on the occasion of St. Eleutherius, and therefore touched briefly on only a few things about him.

[28] But now another controversy is thrust in by the moderns, which comes to be examined briefly before we treat of the martyrdom. In the year 1619 there was printed at Tournai a French Opuscule, whose title, rendered in Latin, is this: Assertion of the episcopate of St. Piatus, All the more ancient monuments call St. Piatus a presbyter; apostle and first bishop of Tournai,

and of the place in which his relics rest. The anonymous author, as the title indicates, labours with all his strength to claim the episcopal dignity for the Saint. But he has taken upon himself a plainly difficult province. For all antiquity is contrary to his opinion. Both the Life to be published and the interpolated exemplars speak of St. Piatus as of a presbyter, and say that he was ordained presbyter by St. Dionysius. Of an episcopate afterwards undertaken they are profoundly silent. Usuard similarly calls him presbyter, as do almost all the Martyrologies which I adduced in §1. To these are added the already praised Lives of St. Eleutherius, in which St. Piatus is never called bishop. Moreover Guibert, in the third Life, number XI, says of Theodorus, into whose place St. Eleutherius was afterwards substituted: Theodorus is confirmed by a few faithful as the first bishop of Tournai. If Theodorus was believed to be the first by that writer of Tournai, the opinion about the episcopate of St. Piatus had not yet arisen among the people of Tournai in the XIII century, in which he was writing. Indeed, not even afterwards do I find the episcopate of St. Piatus asserted in the Breviaries of Tournai. Certainly in the Office which was printed in the year 1712 he is named presbyter. Nevertheless let us see what that anonymous writer has brought forward to assert the episcopal dignity for St. Piatus.

[29] but the arguments brought forward After many other things, at page 36 he begins to dispute on the matter. His first argument he takes from some very recent writers, of whom he names one, yet does not adduce his words. He increases their number at page 42 by all those who called him presbyter. These are certainly more numerous and older, but they are wrongly adduced for the episcopate of St. Piatus, since they speak against his episcopate. For as to what the Anonymous observes, that bishops were formerly also called presbyters, this is true indeed for the first or second century of the Christian era, not likewise for the fourth, fifth, or all the later ones, in which those lived who called St. Piatus presbyter. Then he brings forward pictures in which episcopal ornaments are attributed to St. Piatus. But neither are those very ancient: and we know that painters have always believed many things lawful to themselves. Slight again is the argument which at page 49 he seeks from the seal of the chapter of Seclin, on which St. Piatus is shown in episcopal attire: for that seal is not old enough to create belief in the episcopate.

[30] for the Saint's episcopate are very slight, He adds at page 44 some things about the Office and Mass, which are neither old enough, and would prove nothing if they were old. At page 45 he recites a prayer from the Breviary of Cambrai, but in vain. For in that prayer six Saints are commemorated together, three bishops, Remigius, Vedastus, Germanus, and on account of those who are named first the word pontiffs is added. The same must be said of all the prayers which he subjoins there. For in all of them St. Bavo is also named, who certainly was not a bishop. What the anonymous writer says, that St. Piatus cannot be comprehended under the word confessors, is true; but this very thing proves that the word pontiffs could have been inserted into the prayer just as the word confessors, even if neither fits all. And so nothing is proved by that argument either; and if it really proved something about the mind of him who composed the Breviary, even so the authority of a particular Breviary against antiquity would be slight.

[31] Another argument, from the episcopate of SS. Chrysolius and Eubertus, After those slight arguments, which can be rejected with a single word, because all are sought from recent monuments, the Anonymous begins to fight more strongly in appearance against Cousin, who in chapter 19 examines the question and denies that St. Piatus was a bishop. But those arguments of his, since they are sought only from the assertions of Cousin and other more recent writers, which we believe by no means certain, do not even touch us. He says, namely, that St. Chrysolius (of whom we treat at VII February) and St. Eubertus (of whom at I February) are called bishops only on slight arguments; but that the episcopate of St. Piatus is not admitted unless certain demonstrations are brought forward. But those at least never seem to have been called presbyters by the older writers, as St. Piatus is called presbyter in all the older monuments. And so the tradition according to which they are venerated as bishops can be more easily admitted, because the ancient monuments do not oppose that tradition. He says again that SS. Chrysolius and Eubertus are commonly held to be companions of St. Piatus in preaching; but that Piatus is named first by all, so that he ought to be called a bishop, since those before whom he is named are held to be bishops. This argument I have seen objected elsewhere also; and it is valid against those who hold as ascertained all that the moderns have said about SS. Chrysolius and Eubertus.

[32] But I have found no argument by which I could prove sought, proves nothing for St. Piatus, that those three Saints preached at altogether the same time at Tournai and in its vicinity, since in the older documents there is profound silence about Chrysolius and Eubertus. But if St. Piatus first began to preach at Tournai, as the more ancient monuments have it, it is no wonder that he is also named first, even if he was only a presbyter while the others are believed to have been bishops. Their episcopate too we cannot prove by certain arguments. Yet nothing occurs why we should deny that they were bishops, since they have been venerated for a long time as bishops and martyrs. There is also no reason by which we should deny that the faith was preached by them in those parts, or that this was done in the reign of Diocletian. For some of the preachers of the faith, who were at that time dispersed through almost all the provinces of the Gauls, having learned of the martyrdom of St. Piatus, could have hastened to that territory to bring help to the endangered church, and so, either quickly or after some years, have fallen into the hands of the persecutors. For that persecution which Maximian stirred up in Gaul seems to have been continued for some years, so that in it others also could have been crowned after St. Piatus in the territory of Tournai. Moreover the general persecution of Diocletian, which began in the year 303, raged less indeed in Gaul, because Constantius Caesar administered it; yet it seems to have carried off some even in the Gauls, so that SS. Eubertus and Chrysolius could have suffered in it, if they came to their crown under Diocletian. But, as I have already said, we do not have sufficiently certain documents about them. From what has been said the studious reader will gather that from their episcopate nothing can legitimately be inferred for the episcopate of St. Piatus, about which not only are the older documents silent, but to which the older monuments are even contrary.

[33] Another argument the Anonymous pursues at length from page 57, so that his episcopate cannot be proved by suitable arguments: to show from the episcopal offices which St. Piatus performed that he was a bishop. But let it be permitted to say briefly that no ministry is attributed to St. Piatus in the old documents which a presbyter could not perform. Certainly the preaching of the faith, which is adduced first, was lawful for presbyters sent to preach the faith. The consecration of a church, which the author also wishes to attribute to St. Piatus, is not proved by any suitable monument. He brings forward indeed a writing of the year 1090, as he says, in which mention is made of a little cell dedicated and consecrated by Piatus to the Virgin Mother of God. But that writing, a full eight centuries later than St. Piatus, cannot have much authority, and perhaps means only that St. Piatus saw to it that the consecration was made; just as princes are sometimes asserted in that sense to consecrate or dedicate churches. If in the same writing, as the Anonymous hints, he is said to have consecrated or established presbyters, that can be explained in the same way, if a writing of the XI century is to be made so much of. Afterwards the Anonymous proceeds to other things, nor does he discourse further to assert the episcopate for St. Piatus. He has, however, brought forward no document of any antiquity in which the Saint's episcopate is asserted. The words from the register of the Charterhouse of Utrecht given at number 4, in which St. Piatus is called bishop, belong to about the beginning of the XV century, so that they too can have no weight. And so, since in all the older documents St. Piatus is called only presbyter, nowhere bishop, the church of Tournai seems to have acted rightly in not changing the ancient title of the Saint even in the Office of the year 1712.

[34] just as neither his preaching among the people of Chartres. Just as I would not dare to attribute the episcopal dignity to St. Piatus, because it lacks ancient testimony; so for the same reason I cannot say with the Office of Chartres, given at number 13, that the Saint came to Chartres to preach there before he set out for Tournai. I see indeed that in the Office of Tournai of the year 1626 that opinion was admitted: but this was done after much doubt, as I learn from letters written on the matter to our Rosweyde before that Office was composed. Certainly about the preaching of St. Piatus among the people of Chartres the Acts to be published have nothing, the interpolated ones nothing, Fulbert himself, bishop of Chartres, nothing, who ought not to have passed over the preaching of St. Piatus in his own episcopal city, if he had found it asserted in some ancient monument and believed it true. Wherefore in the Office of Tournai of the year 1712 the preaching of St. Piatus among the people of Chartres was again more rightly omitted. It is not indeed incredible that the Saint preached in other cities of the Gauls before he came to Tournai. But what the older documents do not have, we ought not to seek rashly by divining after so many centuries.

[35] The Saint suffered in the time of the reign of Diocletian, There remain some things to be inquired into concerning the time, the place, and the other circumstances of the martyrdom. Concerning the time, the Acts agree with the more recent writers that St. Piatus suffered under the rule of Diocletian. Some interpolated exemplars, in which Julian the Caesar, who ought rather to have been called Augustus, is said to have moved the persecution, do not deserve much attention, since in those very ones Diocletian is named at the beginning, from whom the rule of Julian is too far distant, and in the same St. Piatus is again joined with St. Dionysius, who suffered in the III century. And so the interpolator who thrust Julian the Caesar into the Acts must be judged to have done so from mere ignorance, by which out of some prefect Julian he fabricated the famous Julian the apostate, who was first made Caesar in the year 360, and Augustus the following year. Peter de Natalibus, who treated of St. Piatus twice in different ways, says in book XI, chapter 36, that he suffered under the persecution of the emperor Domitian, but from the error of those who referred St. Dionysius to those times. And so it must be said without doubt that St. Piatus suffered under the rule of Diocletian and Maximian Herculius, as his Acts have it, even the interpolated ones, and Fulbert of Chartres, although some rightly say that he suffered under Maximian, because he moved the earlier persecution in Gaul. The Acts of St. Eleutherius adduced above also agree.

[36] and more probably in the year 287, or another of those next following; Further, the rule of Diocletian extends beyond twenty years, namely from the year 284 to the year 305; and Maximian, when as partner of the empire

he had been made by Diocletian, came into Gaul in the year 286 against Amandus and Aelianus, who were in rebellion, of whom mention is made in the Acts. At that very time Maximian began to persecute the Christians atrociously in the Gauls, using for this the work of Rictius Varus, a man notorious for his cruelty, and of other prefects. This persecution was continued for some years, and it is more probable that St. Piatus suffered in it than in the general persecution of Diocletian, which was begun in the year 303. Hence Tillemont in his chronological index assigns the year 287 to the martyrdom of St. Piatus. The Acts themselves suggest that St. Piatus was crowned in that persecution of Maximian, both by mentioning the arrival of Maximian in the Gauls against Amandus and Aelianus, and by asserting that the persecutors were sent by Maximian. Moreover it is established that Maximian was in those parts of the Gauls from the year 287, so that all things agree rightly for fixing the martyrdom of St. Piatus in the year 287, or in one of those next following up to the year 292, in which Constantius Caesar undertook the administration of Gaul. To this is added the age of St. Piatus, which favours this epoch more than the year 303 or 304. For if he came into Gaul with St. Dionysius about the middle of the III century, and at that time numbered only thirty years of age, he was verging on old age in the year 287, so that it is more probable that he was crowned with martyrdom about that time than that he survived until the year 303 or 304. This epoch, however, the Anonymous assertor of the episcopate of St. Piatus wished to assert from the moderns. But what was said above about Maximian is even more opposed to it: for neither in the year 303 nor in 304 was Maximian in Gallia Belgica, or in its vicinity, nor did he give commands there.

[37] Cousin, in chapter 16, discusses the time at which St. Piatus came into Gaul, not in the year 299 or 303 or 304; and at which he was then crowned with martyrdom. He does not think that the Saint came with St. Dionysius, because he refers the latter to the I century; but we have already treated of this matter. Presently, however, he strives to fix the arrival of St. Piatus in Gaul after the martyrdom of the Theban legion, because in the Acts the martyrdom of the Thebans is narrated before the arrival of St. Piatus in Gaul with SS. Dionysius and Quintinus is related. But that exposition of the Acts does not seem probable: for the Acts relate the martyrdom of the Thebans to suggest in which persecution St. Piatus fell, not to designate the time at which he came into Gaul. Then he adduces the words of Heriman, abbot of St. Martin's at Tournai, who flourished in the XII century and says that the faith was preached at Tournai by blessed Piato about the three hundredth year from the Incarnation of the Lord. He adds the words of another abbot, who in the XIV century wrote this of the arrival of St. Piatus: In the three hundredth year blessed Piatus came from Rome, preaching the faith, as far as the city of Tournai, which at that time was gentile, and was beheaded there, etc. If these authorities were of any weight, the Saint's martyrdom would have to be fixed in the general persecution in the year 303 or 304. But Cousin preferred to offer the year 299, by I know not what consequence: for so the martyrdom is fixed before the arrival, or at least the Saint could have preached at Tournai only for a very short time. But the praised abbots of the XII and XIV century did not know so accurately the time of the conversion of Tournai and of the persecution stirred up by Maximian in Gaul that they ought to detain us, or could induce us to fix the Saint's martyrdom at a time when the said persecution had ceased.

[38] The day on which St. Piatus was killed is mentioned in the Acts and confirmed by the consent of the martyrologists. and on the Kalends of October. For the Saint is read to have suffered on the Kalends of October, and on that day his festival has always been celebrated from time immemorial. But more recent writers wished also to express the day on which the Saint was seized, and this flowed from the interpolated Acts. For Cousin, in chapter 13, says that St. Piatus was seized by the persecutors on the sixth before the Ides of September, that is, on the eighth day of that month, and remained in chains until the Kalends of October. The thing in itself is not incredible. But it has been inserted into the Acts so ridiculously that it does not deserve credit. For persecutors are feigned to have been sent from the city of Rome to seek St. Piatus, and after much inquiry to have learned that he was preaching in Gaul. Then they have: And so on the sixth Sabbath of the departure from the City of those who were following him, they find the holy man Piato teaching the people on the sixth before the Ides of September. These things, which will be given more fully in their place in the Annotations, will seem to anyone learned in historical criticism more to be despised than embraced. But even less admissible seems what is said without any foundation in the Office of the year 1626, that the Saint was killed on the sixth before the Ides of September.

[39] According to the Acts the Saint was killed near Seclin, and this is likely: In the Offices of Tournai, in Cousin, and in other moderns, excepting however Buzelin, St. Piatus is said to have been crowned with martyrdom in the city of Tournai. Buzelin determines that the Saint was seized in the city, but led outside the city to execution. Usuard announces St. Piatus at Tournai, as though he had suffered there, whether in the city or outside the city, in a place destined for the punishment of malefactors. If we wish to consult the Acts and adhere to them closely, it must be said that St. Piatus was both taken near Seclin and killed on the same day by the soldiers who had been sent to seize him, not, however, by assassins, as is said in the Office of Chartres. But I confess that the Acts are not such that we can have certain faith in them. If, however, one must depart from the Acts on any head, this must be done chiefly in the manner in which the Saint was killed, since that seems less able to be reconciled with the account of St. Audoenus concerning the finding of the body, as we shall presently see. Nevertheless it is at least uncertain whether St. Piatus suffered in the city of Tournai or near the city, and not rather near the place where he was buried, that is, near Seclin. Certainly Guibert, in the third Life of St. Eleutherius, number 4, says that the Saint's head was cut off in the same territory of Tournai, so that he seems to have believed that he suffered near the place where he was buried, as the Acts also have it.

[40] not, however, in so tumultuary a manner as the Acts hint, In the Acts the martyrdom of the Saint is narrated as if, by the same soldiers by whom he had been seized, after some of the Saint's companions had been killed, he had been at once interrogated in the same place, after some altercations beaten with rods, and forthwith deprived of his head, so that he had indeed been bound, yet not shut up in prison. Fulbert, who seems to have drawn everything from the Acts, mentions no more. But such a manner of proceeding was not customary with the Romans, whose soldiers or attendants were accustomed only to seize the accused and lead them to the judge. I know indeed that it could have been done, provided someone was present with the soldiers who had received lawful power to inflict death; and that St. Phocas, of whom we treated at XXII September, was killed in almost that manner; but that was not the ordinary manner of proceeding. What makes me less able to believe that St. Piatus was killed in so tumultuary a manner are the nails which Eligius found in the body of the Saint, on the testimony of St. Audoenus. St. Eligius found, says Audoenus, the holy martyr Piato, the long nails taken out of whose body he likewise showed to the peoples as a proof. If St. Eligius showed the long nails as a proof, namely of the tortures which St. Piatus had endured, he doubtless believed that the Saint had been tortured with those nails. And he believed this not without reason, since he found the nails fixed in the body and drew them out. But in the Acts no mention is made of a torment inflicted by means of long nails, so that it is necessary to say that it was unknown to the writer of the Acts, just as it could easily have been unknown if he wrote at the beginning of the IX or even at the end of the VIII century, especially if he had not read the Life of St. Eligius.

[41] Now, that we may attain by probable conjecture what kind of torments were inflicted on St. Piatus by means of nails, but after grievous tortures endured before. attention must be paid to the word likewise, which refers to the nails found in the body of St. Quintinus the martyr, of whose finding St. Audoenus had treated a little before in chapter VI, where he has it thus: Then therefore Eligius, with tearful joy, kisses the sacred body found (of St. Quintinus)… The nails also, of wonderful size, which the persecutors had fixed in his body at the time of his passion, drawn out of the brain and the other limbs, he set aside for himself as relics. And so, since St. Audoenus looks back to this immediately preceding passage when he says briefly that long nails were drawn out of the body of St. Piatus, it is a probable conjecture that torments were inflicted on St. Piatus by means of nails not unlike those which are narrated in the Acts of St. Quintinus in Surius at XXXI October, at which day the Acts will be illustrated by us. Meanwhile I transfer the passage here from the edition of Surius. Then the prefect Rictiovarus, seeing him (St. Quintinus) always more strongly strengthened by his constancy, … determined that the tortures should be still increased. He ordered therefore a smith to be called, that he might make two iron stakes, with which blessed Quintinus should be transfixed from the neck down to the legs; and likewise ten other nails, which should be cruelly driven between the nails and the flesh of all his fingers, so that even thus, his body pierced and his members bored through on every side, he should either fail or yield overcome. If St. Piatus suffered similar things, as becomes most probable from the nails found, we can conjecture further that he suffered under Rictius Varus, and that other torments of no small kind were probably inflicted on him also, as happened to St. Quintinus.

[42] There remains to be examined concerning the martyrdom what Peter de Natalibus said in book XI, chapter 36, It is not established that the amputated head was carried by the Saint. and what wonderfully pleased the too credulous writers of the XVII century. The said writer, having related the cutting off of the head, continues thus: Whose trunk of a body carried the lifeless head, received in his own hands, more than two miles, namely as far as the place where by divine appointment he chose his burial, where also, falling gloriously, he rests entombed. By which miracle more than a thousand of the gentiles were converted. Cousin brings forward the same in chapter 14 from Acts drawn up by the clergy of Seclin. That prodigy so pleased the past century that it even begot controversies, while some determined that the head had been cut off and carried by the Saint, others would have it only of the top of the crown; again some believed that the Saint was alive while he carried the amputated head or crown, others thought it was done by him when dead. The painters, I think, either invented that fable about St. Piatus, or spread it more widely once invented. Perhaps also the Saint was first painted with his head in his hands for no other reason than to indicate by what kind of death he had come to his crown;

just as martyrs are wont to be painted with the instruments of their martyrdom. But if this was done, the fable will have had its origin from a picture badly explained. From wherever it arose, of it there is nothing in the Acts, nothing in any interpolated exemplar which has come into my hands, nothing in Fulbert of Chartres, nothing finally in Vincent of Beauvais, who in book 12, chapter 159, treats briefly of St. Piatus, and who in another place attributes the same thing to St. Jonius and St. Lucianus, in whose Acts he had found it, but not likewise to St. Piatus. Wherefore the people of Tournai did most rightly when in the Office of the year 1712 they altogether omitted that fable, not at all ancient as regards St. Piatus.

[*] Gauls

§ IV. The people of Seclin attribute to themselves the chief part of the body, which was often translated: some relics preserved in other places also.

[The body of the Saint buried at Seclin from the beginning, and found there by St. Eligius,] Concerning the body of St. Piatus first buried at Seclin in the diocese of Tournai no one has ever doubted. It was sought and found there by St. Eligius in the VII century, not long before the middle, yet in an uncertain year. St. Eligius did not translate the body, when found, to another church: but he elegantly laid out the body in the same church, perhaps even in the same place, but more elevated, probably in a precious chest, and handsomely fashioned a mausoleum above it. Heriman, abbot of St. Martin's at Tournai, in the Narrative of the restoration of the same abbey, volume 12 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, page 407, treats of the finding of the body by St. Eligius, but less accurately, writing thus: And the same our author, blessed Eligius, as is read in his Deeds, in like manner in the district of Mélantois, in the municipality of Tournai which is called Seclin, entombed blessed Piato the martyr, enlarging, according to the capacity of his strength, the church built already from the passion of the same Martyr, the help of God almighty accompanying him, and establishing the offices of clerics serving the Lord, as we see even to the present. Omitting the finding of the body, he relates only the deposition. But then he adds the enlargement of the church of Seclin and the institution of clerics or canons. These things are likewise attributed to St. Eligius by some moderns, probably from the praised Heriman. Nevertheless St. Audoenus, whom he adduces, is silent both about the enlarged church and about the institution of clerics by St. Eligius. And so on St. Eligius at I December it will be possible to examine whether those things were done by St. Eligius or later. For the authority of Heriman, who is eight centuries later, cannot make the matter certain.

[44] In the IX century for fear of the Normans it was translated to Saint-Omer; In the Chronicle of the Deeds of the Normans in France, in Duchesne, volume 2 of the History of the Franks, page 525, these things are read at the year 846: In the year of the Lord DCCCXLVI the pirates of the Danes, coming to Frisia, laid waste the provinces and churches, and killed the people in them. Hearing this, the Flemings, and the pontiffs and abbots of the neighbouring cities, came with the relics of their Saints to Saint Audomarus, because its precinct had been fortified by divine providence with a strong wall and towers. These are the Saints who on account of that persecution came to the same stronghold: saints Bavo, Wandregisilus, Ausbertus, Vulfrannus, Wasvulfus [], Piatus, Bainus, Winnocus, and Austreberta the virgin; and some of them remained there forty years.* The bodies of the Saints who are named here were far distant from Frisia, which the Normans then invaded. But this terror had doubtless been cast upon Flanders and the neighbouring provinces of Gaul from the known arrival of those men by sea, because they had already laid waste various provinces of Gaul in the preceding years, and it was unknown whither they were heading.

[45] How long the sacred body of St. Piatus remained at Saint-Omer then to Chartres, whence the people of Tournai hold that it was brought back: we do not know. No more do we know whether it was at some time brought back from there to Seclin, or whether it was carried first to another city, or straight to Chartres. But Heriman, to be praised below, testifies that the Saint's body, while the Normans were plundering Gaul, was carried to the city of Chartres. From that translation, however, arose the controversy about the possession of the body, which was already agitated before the XII century between the people of Chartres and those of Tournai or Seclin, and has not yet been decided. The people of Tournai held that the body was brought back; but the people of Chartres denied it. Yet it does not seem to be doubted that at least very notable relics returned to Seclin, and that they were afterwards held to be the body, and were even carried about to various places. For in the XI century the dedication of the church of Hasnon, on the border of Flanders and Hainaut, took place, and many bodies of Saints were brought there, as Meyer relates in the Annals of Flanders, book 3, and among them the body of St. Piato is listed in the second place. The same body in the year 1457 was translated to various cities, and by name to Tournai, as we shall narrate below. Again in the year 1459 it was carried to Bruges, on the testimony of Meyer, book 16, at that year. The people of Chartres, however, contradict, and therefore this controversy comes somehow to be elucidated.

[46] Heriman, praised above, who flourished in the XII century, whose bishop in the year 1143 inspected the relics, their chest being opened, after he had written many things about the devastations of the Normans, which were most violent in Flanders between the middle and the end of the IX century, continues thus at page 53: In the aforesaid persecution blessed Piatus of Seclin was carried off to Chartres, where, before he came to Tournai, he had preached the name of Christ. But since they did not receive his preaching, he made for Tournai, and there defended the faith of our Lord. What is said here of the faith preached among the people of Chartres is not made certain by the authority of this writer, but has seemed to me plainly uncertain and less probable, as was said in its place. But let us continue with Heriman: Concerning whose body, he says, a great dispute exists even to our times, we saying that he was brought back to Seclin, to the places of his passion, the people of Chartres on the contrary affirming that he is preserved with them to the present day. To settle this dispute, it is necessary to confess what we have received from our elders, namely that, the body having been brought back to us, some part must be believed to have remained there. For at Seclin, the chest in which the body of the Martyr was kept having been uncovered, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCXLIII, he was shown to the people: from whose body the monks of St. Martin's of Tournai merited to receive a tooth. Then, restored to his former place, he is kept with great guard, and the church of Seclin rejoices that it is not bereft of the presence of the Martyr. He was abbot at the very time at which he writes that the chest was opened, so that perhaps he saw the relics preserved in it.

[47] Then he subjoins a prodigy in these words: Among the people of Seclin there raged that pestilence which were honoured at Seclin with a prodigy. which is commonly called the fire, so that it not only deprived some of their limbs, but also took away their life: of whom many were carried by the hands of others to the basilica of the blessed Martyr established at Seclin. Hence the church is disturbed with outcries; and the help of God and the suffrage of the Martyr is implored by all. On the bier, moreover, in which the relics of the blessed Martyr were preserved, were sculptured the ten virgins of the Gospel, namely five wise and five foolish. These all, therefore, showing the affection of the Martyr, grieving with the pains of the wretched, and carrying out the will of the Lord, so wept that they were believed to be sentient. In which deed the power of the supreme might and the presence of blessed Piato the martyr shone forth: who, just as while he lived in the body and exhorted the peoples to the Christian faith, poured out for them not only an abundance of tears but at the last his own blood: so now he showed the greatness of his affection through the images placed below. For from the eyes of the wise ones drops of blood flowed, and from the eyes of the others tears flowed like water. After this miracle, moreover, the sick feel the divine help and the comfort of the Martyr, and those who were thought to be dying are restored to health. These things having been said about the presence of the body of blessed Piato and about the antiquity of our abbey, let us return to the point from which we digressed. These last words show in some way that this prodigy is related by the author as if to prove the presence of the body among the people of Seclin. But certainly miracles cannot prove the presence of the whole body, or even of the greater part, since the Saints can give their patronage even where only a small part of the body, or none, is present.

[48] [On account of the contentions of the people of Chartres about the body of St. Piatus, the bishop of Tournai] More to that purpose can serve the visitation of the bones just related, which Heriman said took place in the year 1143. Meyer mentions the same in book 4 at the year 1143 in these words: The translation of St. Piatus the martyr at Seclin by Simon, bishop of Tournai. It is not called a translation because the body was translated to another place, but perhaps because it was honourably carried about before the chest was put back in its place. Nevertheless that visitation of the body or bones did not bring it about that the people of Chartres abstained from attributing the body to themselves. For Sébastien Rouillard, advocate, in the History of Chartres, which he published in French in the year 1609, chapter 6, contends that the body of St. Piatus is entire and incorrupt among the people of Chartres, the head however cut off, and that it was so found in the year 1520 in the visitation then made. Cousin treats that controversy in chapter 20, and to refute the opinion of Rouillard he recites the letters of Michel Desne, bishop of Tournai, who in the year 1609 inspected the Seclin chest of St. Piatus with many persons, and by the said letters rendered an account of what was found in the chest. They avail for asserting a part of the body to the people of Seclin. Wherefore I subjoin them entire.

[49] in the year 1609, the Seclin chest being opened again, by letters Michel Desne, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Tournai, to all and each who shall inspect and likewise hear the present letters, greeting in the Lord, and to give undoubted credit to the present. Whereas, according to the rite of the universal Catholic Church, received from the very beginning of the nascent Church, the faithful of Christ have devoutly and reverently venerated the relics of the Saints, very studiously preserved, especially of those by whose works they have obtained some singular benefit of God, the Lord of all the Saints inspiring their minds, who (as the Psalmist says) keeps the bones of the just, so that not one of them should be broken; with the greatest fervour of devotion (not without reason) our forefathers venerated, and we also ought to venerate, the relics of the glorious martyr St. Piatus, who, despising the pains of the body, did not hesitate to announce the Gospel of Christ to this country, and to undergo martyrdom for the same. Whose body, buried at Seclin, a place of our diocese, afterwards raised by blessed Eligius and laid up in an honourable case, was placed in the church of the place already named, to be celebrated with due honours. Whence also on this present day, notwithstanding the various tumults of wars and changes of affairs since then, the sacred relics of the body of the same holy Martyr are for the greater part preserved in the aforesaid church of Seclin, and are kept enclosed in a silver bier above the high altar, in a more eminent place adapted for this.

[50] *We therefore, on the day of the date of these presents, when, according to the duty of our office, the aforesaid Church

were visiting, he declares, the letters found by him together with the sacred bones to the praise, glory and honour of God Best and Greatest, and out of reverence for the said glorious Martyr and his holy relics, commanded the said bier, magnificently wrought of silver and gold, to be taken down from the said more eminent place and carried to the sacristy of the said church. In which place, there being present and assisting us the venerable men and Lords Gilles du Thilleul, canon of our cathedral church and our official, Sébastien de Molembaix, licentiate of Sacred Theology, provost, Robert de Hoves, dean, Noël Mannie, Antoine Grau, Valentin Choulet, Jean de Flandre, Jean Carlier, Jean Billau, Robert Lenglart, presbyters, Antoine Bouloingne, Louis Sceptre, subdeacons, canons of the aforesaid church of Seclin; brother Adrien Bauvias, presbyter, religious Canon Regular of the monastery of St. Christopher of Phalempin, master of the hospital of Blessed Mary near Seclin; master Jean Cronier, presbyter, pastor of the said place; and also very many other chaplains of the same church, we diligently inspected the aforesaid bier, which we found on every side so skilfully and firmly locked that it appeared never to have been opened since its first making. At length, goldsmiths having been called in, we ordered it to be opened from the lower part. Which done, we found, enclosed in a leather sack and wrapped in red silk, for the greatest part the holy relics of the body of the aforesaid glorious martyr St. Piatus; and beside them authentic letters of the Date the twenty-third of May in the year of the Lord MCCCCLVIII; and two others without Date, written on parchment and enclosed in a silk purse of red colour; by which full faith was made to us of the truth of the said relics. The tenors of which letters we have thought should be inserted word for word into the present, for the perpetual memory of the matter.

[51] And the tenor of the first letters is of this kind: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand, of the visitation of the year 1458, which he inserts into his own, four hundred, fifty-eight, on the twenty-third day of the month of May, in the sixth Indiction, and in the fourth year of the Pontificate of our Most Holy Lord Pope Calixtus the third, to the praise, glory and honour of God almighty, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and out of reverence for the present holy relics of almost the whole body of the glorious martyr saint Piatus, Apostle of these parts, and true patron of this church of Seclin, of the Diocese of Tournai, these same holy relics were translated from the ancient and old shrine, in which they had long before been less fittingly placed, by the reverend father in Christ the lord Jean Chevrot, a native of Poligny, by divine mercy bishop of Tournai, and were laid up and enclosed in the present new bier, made and constructed of gold and silver, as can appear, at the admonition and urgent prosecution of the same reverend father the lord bishop, and by his bountiful contribution of goods for this purpose; in the presence of the venerable fathers the lords Philip, of St. Peter's near Ghent, Nicholas of St. Martin's of Tournai, James of Blessed Mary of Loos, John of St. Nicholas des Prés near Tournai, Dionysius of St. Calixtus of Cisoing, and Nicholas of St. Christopher of Phalempin, abbots of monasteries of the Orders of St. Benedict, of Cîteaux and of St. Augustine, of the said Diocese of Tournai; and also of Jean de Thoisy, provost, Jean Cordier, dean, Bernard du Puits, cantor, Jean Damiens Scotus, Matthias Lambert, Thomas Quieret, Guillaume Porterie, Jean Lanbert, Robert Lanbert, Richer de Bonteville and Nicolas de Wastine, canons of the said church of Seclin, and of our public notaries named below, all concurring with reverence, solemnity and honour. Which, just as the same reverend father the lord bishop handed it over to us, the aforesaid provost, dean and canons of the church of Seclin, to be guarded reverently with all diligence and veneration; so we also leave it to our posterity, with pious certification, to be honourably venerated, and diligently and carefully preserved in perpetuity; that he too may deign to pray for us in heaven, whose memory we keep on earth, rejoicing in the presence of these holy relics. Below was had, on the right side: Bulland., with a certain manual sign. And on the left: Flaming, also with a certain manual sign.

[52] and other older ones, with other indications of the body of St. Piatus, And the tenor and form of the others, written in very ancient characters, is this: In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Be it known both to those to come and to those present who serve the most blessed martyr Piatus and Christ at Seclin, that a charter was found with the revered members in the tomb of the aforesaid martyr, by blessed Eligius when he was raised from the earth, in this manner, which none of the moderns has presumed to change. This is the name of St. Piatus, who rests at Seclin … The space which is marked by dots being left empty. And of the last, of similar antiquity, this: Dou ties Sainct Pias de Seclin & des os. We found also in the same place one iron nail, which we believe to be of those which they relate were driven in under the nails of the holy Martyr. And also some very ancient medals, bearing, as it appeared, the effigy of the said holy Martyr.

[53] the greater part of which he affirms to be held there: All things having been diligently inspected, read and considered, we put back into the same bier both the said holy relics and also the letters, the nail and the medals, arranged in the same manner in which they were found by us, our testimonial letters concerning this visitation made by us being added; and we commanded it to be locked again and closed, and, a solemn procession having been made around the said church, we restored the said bier to the place from which we had taken it; taking only from the same sacred relics one tooth, which we reserved for ourselves together with another small particle of the bones, and a small particle of the skull, which we enclosed in a silver head prepared for this purpose. Wherefore we recognize the often-said holy relics as true relics of the body of the aforesaid glorious martyr saint Piatus, Apostle of these parts, and we decree that they are to be held and venerated as such by all the faithful of Christ; just as we too gladly hold and venerate them: and to all the faithful of Christ of either sex who, led by pious devotion, shall visit the aforesaid relics, and shall pour out some prayers to God for the exaltation of holy mother the Catholic Church, on whatever day they shall do it, we mercifully grant in the Lord forty days of indulgences. In faith, confirmation and testimony of all which, we have ordered the present letters (which we have subscribed with our own hand) to be made and signed by our secretary, and to be fortified by the appending of our great seal. Given at Seclin, of our diocese of Tournai, in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and nine, on the last day of the month of July. There was subscribed: Michel, bishop of Tournai. And below: By mandate of my Most Reverend lord the aforesaid bishop, T. Noppenus, secret., with manual sign.

[54] These letters, which seem sufficient to claim a great part of the body for the people of Seclin, Raisse agrees with the praised letters. Raisse also recites in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, written not long afterwards, treating from page 431 of the collegiate church of St. Piato at Seclin in Mélantois, where he speaks thus of the body: The body of the most celebrated Piato, priest and martyr, apostle of the Nervii, tutelary patron of this church, who carried the crown of his head, cut off for the name of Christ, from Tournai to Seclin, as the Breviary of Tournai and the clergy of Seclin assert. But that about the crown of the head is not in the latest Breviary of Tournai, and has already been refuted. What Raisse has in the margin, that Seclin was so called because St. Piato had bowed himself there, is nothing better; for in the time of St. Eligius it was called Sacellinium, which name, as happens, was gradually contracted. What the author subjoins about the episcopate has been sufficiently weighed, and is therefore omitted. Then he says: The people of Tournai note (from the XII century, as we have seen) that in the time of the persecution of the Normans the body of Piatus was transported to the Carnutes in Celtica: and that, these having been extinguished, it was brought back, a notable part of the body being left there. But Sébastien Rouillard … holds that his body is entire among the Carnutes, indeed without the least corruption. Very recently, however, that is, in the year from the Virgin's child-bearing MDCIX, on the day before the Kalends of Sextilis, the coffin of St. Piato, wrought of silver and gold, was visited by the most reverend bishop of Tournai, Michel Desne, where the greatest part of the body of the glorious Martyr was enclosed, wrapped in a leather sack and red silk, and beside it letters written on parchment, by which full faith was made to him of the truth of the said relics. Wherefore he decreed that they are to be held and venerated as such by all the faithful of Christ. The bishop did this doubtless in order to oppose himself to the assertions of Rouillard.

[55] Before I examine those assertions, I shall review from the praised Raisse Some relics of the Saint in other places. what he hands down about relics preserved in other churches of Belgium. Where he treats of the cathedral church of Tournai, dedicated to the most blessed Virgin Mary, among many other relics in it he lists at page 314 two parts of the head of St. Piato, martyr and presbyter, patron of Seclin. In the church of St. Martin of the Benedictines of the same city, at page 339, among others is numbered a tooth of St. Piatus, martyr, of which it was spoken at number 46. At Douai, in the collegiate church of St. Amatus, on the testimony of the same at page 45, there is held something of saint Piato, martyr. In the monastery of Marchiennes of the Benedictine Order, situated on the Scarpe, something of the relics of St. Piatus is also said to be, at page 295. Ignace-Joseph de Sainte-Marie, in the History of Abbeville, page 433, lists the relics of the church of Rue (it is a town in Picardy by the sea), and among them an arm of St. Piatus, covered with silver plates. All these things are likely, since none of the churches mentioned is very far distant from Seclin. But not equally probable seems to me the conjecture of Molanus, which he gave on account of the assertions of the people of Chartres in these words: Perhaps, however, the Franks, when more than once they overran this region and foully plundered it, carried off that old bier there, the relics of the sacred body having before been extracted and hidden by the people of Seclin, for which they afterwards caused another to be built. For abbot Heriman, whose words I gave at number 46, sufficiently shows that the controversy about the body of St. Piatus between the people of Tournai and those of Chartres was already old in the XII century, and that it began not because the body had been violently carried off in a hostile plundering, but because for fear of the Normans it had been carried to Chartres as to a safer place.

[*] Wasnulphus

§ V. The people of Chartres claim for themselves the entire body: the head at one time snatched from Seclin and brought back there: benefits, and the celebrated cult of the Saint both at Chartres and at Tournai and Seclin.

The body of St. Piatus does not seem to have been carried to Chartres Sébastien Rouillard, in the History of Chartres, which could be not a little reformed, book 6, number 19 and following, strives at length to prove that not only notable relics of St. Piatus are at Chartres, but the entire and incorrupt body, only the head being cut off. I should certainly have wished that the opinion of the people of Chartres had been set out by a more sober and more

critical writer than is that advocate, who does not recite the ancient monuments, but sets out in his own words what he believed he had found in them. He read the conjecture of Molanus given above, as he hints at folio 181, and partly follows it, partly tries to refute it. Not the bier, as Molanus conjectured, but the body itself, he contends, was carried off in a hostile expedition. And to prove a violent carrying off of this kind, he narrates three victories of the kings of the Franks over the Flemings: the first of Philip surnamed Augustus, which he fixes in the year 1213; the second of Philip the Fair, which he ties to the year 1304; the third of Philip of Valois, and that one related to the year 1328. But all these things are nothing to the purpose, since the controversy about the body of St. Piatus was old from the XII century, on the testimony of abbot Heriman, so that it did not begin afterwards through a hostile carrying off. The same Heriman, in whose time the bones of the Saint were inspected at Seclin, clearly hints that the body was not then entire or incorrupt. For if it had been entire, he would not have said that a part seemed to have been left with the people of Chartres. And so the people of Chartres did not afterwards take away from the people of Seclin the entire body which Rouillard attributes to them.

[57] through hostile plundering, but for fear of the Normans. Wherefore no other cause of the controversy seems to be sought than that which was handed down by Heriman, namely that for fear of the Normans the body of St. Piatus was carried in the IX century or at the beginning of the X to the people of Chartres, whose city had strongly resisted the Normans. If the true cause is given of that ceremony which Rouillard says, at folio 180, is observed in the church of Chartres on the vigil of St. Piatus, that very thing will confirm rather than weaken the opinion of Heriman. He asserts, namely, that on the vigil of St. Piatus after first Vespers, and again in the morning on the festival and after the solemn Mass, much incense is burned in the church, so that smoke is raised through the whole of it. The cause of this ceremony he adduces from the archive of the church, namely that that smoke is made in memory of the mist which was raised when the body was carried from the territory of Tournai to Chartres, and which snatched the bearers of the body from the eyes of their pursuers. What there may be in that mist I cannot say, who have not searched the archives of Chartres. But if some prodigious mist freed the bearers of the relics from the danger of pursuers, it would be far more probable that it was a troop of Normans which they feared, than that the victorious French feared the conquered and pursuing Flemings, as would follow from the assertions of Rouillard.

[58] Then, however, he adduces other things more worthy of attention; Rouillard says that the body of St. Piatus is entire at Chartres, and was so but I should have wished that he had rather recited the capitular Acts themselves than narrated everything in his own words. He praises Acts of the chapter written, he says, in the year 1520, on the XVIII day of February. From them he says that on that day the case in which the body of the glorious martyr St. Piatus had been laid up was opened, and that body was found altogether entire and without corruption, the head only being separated from the body. Then he names many who were present, and first of them Milon d'Illiers, dean, but no bishop. Presently he adds that on the XXV day of March, which day he makes the Wednesday in holy week, it was ordered that the body should be wrapped in waxed cloth with the first case, and placed in another, and so shut up in the chapel of St. Leobinus. And these things he says were done on holy Saturday. Finally he says that on the following Monday, which he makes the XXVII of March, a solemn Mass was sung by Cardinal de Bourbon, bishop of Le Mans (who was also archbishop of Sens), and that after the Mass the entire body was shown to him before many persons. Rouillard produces an inspection of the body of this kind as his chief argument. But he has expressed so negligently the days on which he asserts the several things were done that they neither cohere among themselves, nor with Easter or the Dominical letter of the year 1521, to which, according to the present custom of beginning the years from the Kalends of January, everything would have to be fixed; still less with Easter of the year 1520, which is named, and which then ran up to Easter.

[59] Let the reader only notice that the Wednesday in holy week is called the XXV of March and the following Monday is set down as the XXVII of the same month, seen by many persons in a twofold inspection. and he will at once see that there is an error at least in one or the other day. And if he compares both with Easter of the year 1520 or 1521, he will see an error in both. But if Rouillard proceeded so negligently in naming the days, which at least he could have had from the Acts, what shall we think of the author's accuracy in asserting the integrity of the body? Then, however, he mentions another inspection of the body from the capitular Acts of the year 1591, and of the VI day of October, on which the inspection is said to have been made, at the request of Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, and in the presence of the bishop of Chartres, who was then Nicolas de Thou, with others. There was opened, he says in French, in the choir of the church the chest of the glorious martyr Piatus, who was found fittingly wrapped in a silk veil of red colour, a waxed cloth covering all his limbs except the head and hands: and he was seen and recognized entire and without corruption, the head only being separated and cut off from the body. Forthwith, a column having been formed of persons proceeding solemnly through the church, the chest was carried to its sacristy. On the following days, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the said body was exposed to the sight of all in the chapel of the Apostles, otherwise called of the Knights, and was in fact conveniently seen by every kind of men, of every age and sex, by name by the archbishop of Bourges, by the bishops of Nantes, Beauvais, Maillezais, Le Mans, Angers, and by other persons of every condition. Finally on Thursday the X of the same month the said chest was sent back with great reverence to its place. This enumeration of days coheres aptly, and the whole account is set out in a likely manner.

[60] [But that integrity of the body would have to be proved more certainly; and the other] Nevertheless what is asserted about the integrity of the incorrupt body is not without great difficulty. For it can hardly be believed that the body of St. Piatus remained entire and incorrupt up to those times, and that no older testimonies should exist about that integrity of the incorrupt body. St. Audoenus wrote of the first finding of the body, made in his own time: he mentioned the nails found in the body and extracted from it by his friend St. Eligius. If the body had been found incorrupt in the fourth century then running after the martyrdom, so great a thing was worthy for St. Audoenus to commend to the memory of posterity. But here he was profoundly silent about its integrity, just as all the others whose writings have become known to us were afterwards silent about that same integrity, exempt from corruption, so that it becomes most likely either that that body is not St. Piatus's, or that it is not so incorrupt as Rouillard hints. What besides he brings forward here to assert the body of St. Piatus to the people of Chartres proves little or nothing. From the books of the chapter of the church of Chartres he says that there are found in them letters of a certain canon of Tournai, named Cotteau, given about the year 1580 to the canon of Chartres Coilleau, in which he said that it was acknowledged among the people of Tournai that the body of St. Piatus had long ago been translated to Chartres, and therefore he asked for an account from the people of Chartres of his deeds and of that translation. From that Letter, therefore, he strives to infer that the people of Tournai formerly acknowledged that the body of St. Piatus was not kept in their diocese, but among the people of Chartres. But from the Letter nothing can rightly be inferred except that the people of Tournai acknowledge a translation made long ago. This they did indeed acknowledge in the XII century and acknowledge even now. But they both contended at that time, and contend even now, that the greater part was brought back.

[61] The arguments of Rouillard are plainly weak. He objects moreover that a hymn or prose on St. Piatus was composed by Fulbert of Chartres, probably because a great festival of the Saint was celebrated among the people of Chartres. This reason for the composing of the prose is good. But nothing further can be inferred from it which would be against the people of Tournai. For that festival may have been instituted when the body had been translated there, nor did it have to be abrogated when the greater part of the body was brought back to Tournai, provided some relics remained at Chartres, which the people of Tournai do not deny. Indeed the feast could have been continued among the people of Chartres even if no relics had remained there, so that nothing at all follows from the festival or from Fulbert's prose for the presence of the entire body. Rather, that prose is opposed to Rouillard. For Fulbert is silent about the presence of the body in his church, silent about the integrity of the body. But if Fulbert had believed that the body of St. Piatus was kept entire and incorrupt in his church, there was no reason why he should pass it over in silence in a hymn composed in praise of the Saint for the church of Chartres. And so it is more probable that Fulbert was not of that opinion. Finally he says that near Chartres there still exists a village of St. Piatus, two French miles distant from the city. But that village of St. Piatus, which is marked on the map of the Beauce, hints indeed that the cult of the Saint was celebrated among the people of Chartres; but it cannot prove that the body always remained there entire and incorrupt. For the rest, I believed these things were to be discussed from the love of truth alone: for it is not our concern whether the entire body of the Saint is kept at Chartres today, or a great part at Seclin and another at Chartres.

[62] Rouillard never clearly declares whether he believed that the head of St. Piatus was also kept among the people of Chartres. He only asserts and repeats that the head is separated from the body: [The head of the Saint taken away from the people of Seclin and afterwards restored.] and since he does not add that the head was kept at Chartres in another or the same case, he raises a likely suspicion of its absence, even if one should wish to believe that the rest of the body is held among the people of Chartres. Elsewhere also we find that the head of St. Piatus was taken away from the people of Seclin in a plundering of war in the XIV century, but afterwards restored. On this matter Buzelin, in the Annales Gallo-Flandrici at the year 1308, writes the following: Meanwhile the canons of Seclin acted through envoys with John de Dreux, the count, and his mother Beatrice, that they might recover the head of St. Piato the martyr, carried off lately in the Flemish wars and kept at that time in the castle of Gamaches (in Picardy and in the diocese of Amiens): and the embassy succeeded so prosperously that in the presence of Robert, bishop of Amiens, Gerard, canon of that castle, and Peter, the count's bailiff, restored it to the procurators of the church of Seclin. The letters by which the count commands the canons of Gamaches to restore that head to the people of Seclin are recited by the frequently praised Anonymous at page 125, as also others of Beatrice his mother commanding the same to the canons, and finally at page 126 the testimony of Robert, bishop of Amiens, concerning the restitution made, which was given on the feast of the Virgin's Assumption, that is, on the XV day of August of the year 1309. The bishop testifies, moreover, that in his presence there were restored certain relics which they said were the head of saint Piatus, martyr of Seclin, formerly carried off from the said church of saint Piatus of Seclin, of the diocese of Tournai, to the aforesaid church of the castle of Gamaches in the time of the Flemish war.

[63] From these things which have been said about the carrying off of the head,

someone might suspect [but concerning the possession of the greater part of the body nothing certain is determined.] that the body was carried off in almost the same manner, but was not restored, as we have seen of the head. But that conjecture does not seem probable to me, because the controversy about the body is much older. Another will perhaps conjecture with greater probability that the body of St. Piatus was at Chartres from the time of the Normans, and afterwards always remained there, except the head, which was brought back to Seclin, and that these relics of the head, together perhaps with some others, were afterwards called the body of St. Piatus. What is truer in all this could be known much more certainly through the possessors of those relics than I am able to investigate it by conjectures alone. Wherefore I say only that very notable relics of St. Piatus, as far as I can conjecture, are held in both places; but that I determine nothing about the greater or lesser part of the body, nothing about the integrity asserted by Rouillard, with the agreement of the Office of Chartres, whose lessons I recited at number 15. Each church has piously venerated St. Piatus for many centuries, each has rejoiced in his benefits, as the writers relate, but almost only in general.

[64] In the said Office of Chartres the body of the Saint is said to be continually renowned for miracles. The cult and benefits of St. Piatus among the people of Chartres: Rouillard, chapter 5, article 10, treats of the chapel of St. Piatus which is in the church of Chartres, and in which the body of the Saint, or part of the body, rests. He says it was built by the Chapter of Chartres about the year 1349, when, he says, St. Piatus flourished with miracles and there was a great concourse of the people to him. He adds the erection of a college of canons of St. Piatus. All these things Buzelin inserted into the Annales Gallo-Flandrici at the year 1349 in these words: Meanwhile at Chartres, at the invocation of St. Piato … many wonderful things were wrought, and through them various ills were driven from the bodies of the sick. And since the cult and zeal of men towards that Martyr grew day by day, the offerings and gifts also increased greatly. The sacred college of canons of the divine Virgin, therefore, noticing this, formed the intention of building an elegant chapel and consecrating it to the name of that Saint. It was resolved to found it in the outermost part of the Virgin's church. And presently this most beautiful work rose of cut and squared stone, two towers on either side adorning it with remarkable structure. And, taken both by the benefits flowing from heaven through the merits of the Saint and the devotion of the people, and by the zeal of the canons promoting the building of his chapel, Aymeric de Chasteau-luisant, bishop of Chartres, instituted twelve priesthoods in it and endowed them with perpetual revenues. Thus far Buzelin concerning the things done at Chartres.

[65] someone freed in Syria from the danger of enemies and of a river: The same at the year 1138 relates another benefit of the Saint, which is believed to have taken place in Syria, when Thierry, count of Flanders, was campaigning there against the infidels. In this expedition of our count, he says, I persuade myself that there happened what the canons of Seclin committed to writing in the Life of St. Piato: that a certain French Fleming, wonderfully devoted to the divine Piato, had entered the sacred warfare with others; that when he had come into Syria he was caught with some others in hostile territory by the Turks: that there, the multitude of the enemy overwhelming the Christians, in order not to be slain with some others, he took counsel of flight, and because all hope of escaping by another way was cut off, he threw himself headlong into a broad river which was flowing close by with great force: that while he was struggling most grievously in the whirlpools of the waters, and danger to his life was pressing, there came into his mind his patron Piato: that, his help having been humbly implored several times, there was seen by him a man venerable with remarkable white hair, who presently placed himself beneath his body, and, his hand being put under his feet, brought such remarkable aid that he not only sustained him amid the violent waves of the waters, but also at length set him down safe and joyful on the opposite bank: that when he had so escaped the danger, and had at last returned to his homeland with limbs unharmed, nothing was more important to him than to bind himself in perpetuity to so pious a Patron for the service of the church of Seclin. The same at the year 1143 speaks of the chest of St. Piato opened at Seclin by bishop Simon. But we have already treated of this matter.

[66] the relics of Seclin translated to various cities and into a new casket. The praised Buzelin at the year 1457 mentions the translation of the Seclin chest of St. Piato to various places, and chiefly to the city of Tournai, writing thus: In April (of the year 1457) the canons of Seclin, impelled by the frequent words of Jean Chevrot, bishop of Tournai, applied themselves to procuring an adornment for the body of the holy martyr Piatus. And for that reason, to elicit the contributions of pious men, they carried his sacred relics about with the greatest devotion through the cities neighbouring Seclin. When, fittingly laden with that burden, they drew near to Tournai, on the day on which the feast of St. Mark is kept, a Mass having been solemnly celebrated, John the pontiff, all the clergy, the abbots and religious of St. Martin and St. Nicholas, the families of saints Augustine and Francis, with an immense multitude of men, went out as suppliants from the church of the divine Virgin to meet them as far as the gate of the city. And that they might receive the holy Guest with greater delight and honour, the canons of the church of Mary bore the sacred body of blessed Eleutherius opposite. Therefore with as much pomp as was possible the most holy Martyr of Christ was brought into the city, who had once converted it to the faith of Christ by his sacred preachings, and had dipped in sacred baptism in it the forebears of St. Eleutherius. Where they proceeded through the streets, everything charmed the eyes of the spectators with many-coloured cloths and tapestries. Many of the clergy and citizens lit the way together with torches: there with the voices of sweetly singing musicians, here with the sound of bronze bells struck in measure, everything resounded. The sacred bodies having been received into the church of the divine Virgin Mary, again the Sacrifice of the divine Mass was performed by the bishop with remarkable singing of the chanters, the whole number of prelates, canons and monks celebrating. And afterwards a banquet was magnificently given by the bishop to the abbots and canons. In the following year the translation was made into a new and magnificent casket by the above-praised bishop Jean Chevrot, as it is mentioned at number 51 in the letters given there. Then in the year 1459 the casket was carried to Bruges, as was said from Meyer at number 45.

[67] At the year 1519 Buzelin mentions the following from manuscript monuments about the benefits of St. Piatus: Benefits obtained at Seclin: the Saint's church at Tournai, and his cult, At that time a great concourse of men frequented the church of the divine Piato at Seclin: of whom some begged help for curing various sicknesses of their bodies, others were brought to the tomb and relics of the holy Martyr to drive unclean spirits out of their bodies. And indeed to very many the blessed Priest brought help for the expulsion of those ills. Finally Buzelin at the year 1609 relates the inspection of the relics of St. Piatus mentioned in the letters of Michel Desne, bishop of Tournai, which I gave entire above. Many things could be added to these about the celebrity of the cult of St. Piatus in the city and diocese of Tournai, of which Cousin treats in chapter 18. But because such things are frequently changed, and are sometimes increased, sometimes diminished, it will be enough for me to gather the chief traces. St. Piatus has a parish church dedicated to his name at Tournai, and in it, besides the parish priest, various presbyters hold benefices. A cross also, which is called St. Piatus's, is seen erected in the same city, namely in the cemetery of the church. To this church, moreover, on the vigil of the festival of St. Piatus, the whole clergy of the cathedral church proceeds in ordered procession to honour the holy Patron. Some other things also are done to increase the solemnity of the feast. Through the year, moreover, the name of St. Piatus is recited among the martyrs in the litanies, and in the Office a commemoration is made of him as patron.

[68] Moreover Cousin names some rural parishes The Saint patron in many parishes: the concourse which have chosen St. Piatus as patron, not only in the diocese of Tournai but also in that of Arras. Finally he brings forward many cathedral and collegiate churches in which the festival of St. Piatus together with other Saints was formerly performed on 1 October, or is still performed. All these things can be seen discussed more at length in Cousin. Of the church of St. Piatus at Seclin Buzelin writes thus in book 1, chapter 25: It has a great church, renowned both for its antiquity and for various fires. It is common to the canons and the parish. In its crypt under the choir is seen that spring which bubbled up at the arrival of the holy martyr Piato bringing his head, and next to it his old tomb. There is a frequent concourse of men there, begging help especially for quenching fevers and for driving unclean spirits out of human bodies. Cousin in chapter 15 affirms that ninety-four parishes, in a long procession, formerly came as suppliants every year to the church of Seclin, but at the same time hints that already in his time the number had been diminished. What Buzelin says of the spring bubbling up at the head brought by the Saint is no more certain than the very bringing of the cut-off head by the Saint, which has been sufficiently rejected before.

[69] Yet I would not deny that that spring is health-giving. Buzelin treats of it again in book 2, chapter 7, celebrating thus the perpetual concourse of men to the Saint's church: A great number of men frequents Seclin, the perpetual concourse of the people to his church and spring at Seclin. roused by the great name of St. Piato, martyr and Apostle of the Nervii; then by that power in which he excels, of quenching fevers, curing other diseases, and exterminating demons from human bodies. About the three hundred and third year from the nativity of Christ (according to us he suffered earlier), immediately after his body was committed to the tomb in that place, devotion to venerating this Martyr kindled the people of Seclin and other peoples: and so far is that affection from having cooled over so great an interval of time, that it rather seems to gather strength day by day, a great influx of pilgrims always frequenting his church, both for the sake of freeing themselves of vows and of asking for something. For not only do his sacred bones rest there, but also, already from his burial, a spring at his tomb gives a perpetual supply of water, by the health-giving draught of which various diseases of human bodies are allayed. Thus far of the celebrated cult and benefits of the Saint. Now I shall subjoin the Acts, and many interpolations in the Annotations.

ACTS

From a Ms. of the monastery of Anchin, collated with several interpolated ones.

Piatus or Piato, presbyter, Apostle of the people of Tournai, and martyr, at Seclin in Flanders. (S.)

BHL Number: 6845

BY J. S.

Preface. We shall say little to you of how great wonders our Lord Jesus Christ has deigned to work in his servants. Whoever shall read, or hear one reading, let him as a good Christian lend his ear, or apply his understanding, and carefully hold a spiritual understanding: because when small things do not suffice, more cannot profit. And also one must believe very many more things ^a about the servants of God than human reading can supply.

[2] The Saint's homeland, parents, and virtues as a Boy. The venerable Piaton ^b therefore was sprung from a great lineage in the territory of Benevento. His parents, then, were very wealthy, both in money and also in a great and most ample possession of property. There was

blessed Piaton, moreover, elegant and most handsome among all the companions of his youth, wise in words, prudent in morals, firm in counsel, vigorous in intellect, comely in appearance, winning in speech; and, what is greater than these, from the first apprenticeship of his age he so burned with love of the heavenly homeland that he despised all things by which the life of mortals is favoured, and toiled with desire for the immortal life. For the infancy of the holy Boy was nourished with all the virtues by which the heavenly kingdom is attained. And as his age advanced, and the desire of religion grew stronger and stronger, seeking nothing of earthly honours, he kept the sharpness of his mind fixed on the fear and at the same time the love of the Creator of all. And there was in him such diligence of liberality that everything which he could have besides a simple garment he spent on the poor and the needy.

[3] Of the Theban legion which suffered under Maximian. Diocletian, then, formerly prince of the Roman commonwealth, when he had been chosen for the rule of the whole world, and foresaw that all the provinces were being disturbed by the presumption of certain men, made Herculius Maximian, once his fellow-soldier, Caesar ^c for partnership in the labour or rule; and he sent him to the Gauls against Alamandus and Aelianus, who under the name of the Bagaudae had with servile presumption stirred up arms. To him, to supplement the army, he gave the Theban legion from the Easterners. This legion had six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men, strong in spirit and equipped with arms, after the example of certain Romans. Now the soldiers had received the rite of the Christian religion by Eastern tradition, and they placed the sacred faith before valour and all arms. Maximian Caesar, while he was compelling all in his army to the sacred rites mentioned above ^d, learned, as we have said, that the legion had passed on beyond ^e. Suddenly filled with the fury of anger, he sends attendants to call the legion back to the sacrileges of his rites. There was in that same legion Mauricius the primicerius, and Exuperius the standard-bearer, and Candidus the senator; who so presided over their fellow-soldiers that they commanded what was to be obeyed rather by love of equality than by military terror.

[4] But, the glorious triumphs of this most sacred legion being passed over, St. Piatus, ordained presbyter, among the people of Tournai the course of the reading demands that we pursue the wonderful deeds of blessed Piatus in his glorious contest; how, made a precious witness of the Lord, by a happy consummation he conquered the wiles of the ancient enemy like an unconquerable combatant ^f. The most blessed ^g Piatus, therefore, having gone out from the city of Rome, received the office of presbyter from blessed Dionysius ^h, and hastened with fearless course to the city of Tournai: and then saint Dionysius went to Paris: saint Quintinus, finally, chose the city of Amiens; that each of them, from their own cities, by their examples and teachings, might consecrate to Christ the Lord the fruit of good work. Saint Piatus, therefore, as soon as he had penetrated the territory of Tournai, began also to preach the Gospel of Christ, which the Holy Spirit had graciously poured into his breast; that by the word of his preaching he might rescue men made in the image of God from the worship of demons; that they might adore with pure minds one God, founder of heaven and earth, and invoke one unbegotten Father, confess the Son begotten of the Father alone, and believe the Holy Spirit proceeding from both.

[5] With such admonitions, then, most blessed Piatus instructed the people: he preaches the faith. The persecutors arriving, O most dear sons, most unconquered soldiers, and warriors of the divine battle, who for so long a time have been subject to the chains of the ancient enemy, released from wretched servitude, acknowledge now together, even if late, that Christ the Son of God came for your redemption through the womb of the sacred and undefiled Virgin. For if the water of sacred baptism shall render you cleansed from the worship of idols, you will be able to be rescued from everlasting death, when the everlasting light shall have driven away the darkness of your heart, and the glory of baptism shall have rendered you candidates [i] of heavenly glory. Meanwhile, while the holy Man was intent on the teachings of piety, and was converting the people of Christ from the error of vanity, lifting his eyes a little, he saw his persecutors coming from afar. Yet he did not desist from the word of his preaching, but exhorted the people with more salutary [*] admonitions, saying: Behold, brothers and most dear sons, now our Lord Jesus Christ deigns to be the rewarder of my labours: now the body wearied from infancy with continual labour will pass with the fruit of martyrdom to the everlasting palm.

[6] You therefore, most dear sons, stand most firm in the preaching you have received, [he continues to instruct his own with pious admonitions. His companions being killed,] and let neither the terror of princes, nor the threats of judges, nor ill-persuading love be able to call you back from eternal life; that the merits of the flock may follow there where the fortitude of the shepherd has gone before. These things being said, most holy Piatus, lifting his eyes to heaven and stretching out pure hands to heaven, said with all his strength: I give thanks to thee, Lord Jesus Christ, redeemer of the world, who hast deigned to call me to the title of thy dignity, and to make me the partner of thy most blessed martyrs Dionysius, Quintinus, Lucianus, Crispinus and Crispinianus ^k, and of many others who have suffered for thy name. Deign therefore, Lord Jesus Christ, to count me in their number, and that I may become heir of thy everlasting kingdom. These things being said, having gone out from the aforesaid city of Tournai, he began fearlessly to make his journey, and to exercise fortitude in the task he had received; that he might complete the course of his martyrdom in the work of the divine mystery. And when saint Piatus with his companions was rendering to almighty God the dedicated course of his Office, there came the impious persecutors who had been directed by the most wicked Maximian ^l. Then, at once seizing the Saint of God and his companions ^m, they ordered them to be punished with the sword before the eyes of most blessed Piato.

[7] St. Piatus to the persecutors, on various points When these had been killed, and consecrated to Christ as worthy martyrs by the shedding of their blood, they addressed the most holy Piato of God with anger and indignation thus, saying: Art thou he who by thy evil-doings seducest the people, so that they do not sacrifice to the most sacred gods, and despise the precepts of the most unconquered princes? Saint Piatus answered: I am not an evil-doer, but, instructed by heavenly benefits, I show the way of truth to the people of Christ; and I make known how they ought to follow with unstumbling foot my Lord Jesus Christ, who always rules his creation with loving affection, so that, called forth to the heavenly light, they may be rescued from their darkness; and, knowing that the Son of God came to earth for their redemption, spurning the superstitious sect of idols, they may bow the neck of their heart to him alone who willed to be crucified for the salvation of all. To these things the ministers answering said: How dost thou proclaim as God one whom thou assertest to have been crucified? Saint Piatus answered: Although your unbelief, and your deaf and polluted ears, do not deserve to hear the secret of the heavenly and most clement King; yet on account of the multitude of the common people standing by I shall say briefly how he who was God before the ages, and truly man, willed at the end of time to be crucified. God the Father unbegotten: God the Son begotten of the Father alone: God the Holy Spirit proceeding from both; three Persons, but one substance, who neither had a beginning of rising, nor can be enclosed by an end of time; since all things which are seen and which are not seen are established to have been founded by his wisdom, having pity on human transgressions, he chose the holy Virgin of whom he should be born at the end of the ages; that, remaining invisible in what is his, he might deign to become visible in what is ours, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and that, God remaining impassible, the man whom he had assumed should bear the gibbet of the cross for all; that where the fault was graver, the grace might become greater. For unless the Son of God had deigned to become also the son of man, neither would sinners have passed to pardon, nor the wretched to the heavenly ones.

[8] he answers constantly: As most blessed Piato pursued these and other things, the soldiers were more and more burned with the goads of fury, and answering said: Already the time of old age had invited thee to come to thy senses from pressing vanities; but since both excessive vanity besets thee and loquacity carries thee to a needless death, declare to us thy name and condition. Saint Piatus answered: By my fleshly parents I was called Pius; but in the water of the sacred baptism of regeneration I am known to have been called Piatus by the sacred mouth of the priest. And of what condition I am is clearly evident, since for me there is nothing else, according to the blessed Apostle, than both to live for Christ and to die for him as gain. For I have been buried together with him in the font of baptism; I follow the footsteps of him by whose blood I have been refashioned. Then the soldiers answering said: This is what we have said, that thou art a seducer, and art proved contumacious ⁿ towards the gods, and dost not cease to speak all manner of vain things, and knowest not how to succour thy weary old age. Saint Piatus answered: What I say you neither perceive with your ears nor are able to retain in your mind. For the unbelief of your heart has blinded you, and eternal blindness and the gloom of darkness possesses your most savage prince Maximian ^o, by whom you have been directed.

[9] The soldiers, therefore, bearing impatiently the insult to Caesar, [first beaten with scourges, he is deprived of his head, and honoured with a prodigy.] seizing him, beat him with his hands bound. And when he was held by them exceedingly scourged and tightly bound, the holy Man is neither shaken by terror nor overcome by pain of body. But, trusting in the Lord, sustaining the feeble limbs of old age with youthful vigour, persevering with the same countenance, the same mind, he did not fear to confess the name of Christ with his voice, saying: Christ the Son of God I both believe with my heart and do not cease to praise with my mouth. Then one of the soldiers, drawing his sword, the holy neck being now made ready, cut off the precious head. And when the corpse of the holy Man lay lifeless, the soldiers and the multitude of the common people looking on, a light was sent forth from heaven upon the holy body, and a voice came together with the light, saying: Well done, good servant Piaton, who didst not hesitate to pour out thy blood for me on earth, rejoice with the Saints in the ethereal seat: come to the mansion prepared for thee in the heavenly places, come with the palm of martyrdom; receive the promises which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor humanity is able to comprehend; and enjoy the fellowship of thy brothers the Martyrs. And this was done at about the third hour of the day, which is the Kalends of October [p]: all the faithful exulting, and rendering the greatest songs on high.

[10] And by the counsel of God, who proves his Saints with measure, He is buried honourably by the Christians, and glorifies them without measure, the men of that place, who had been converted by the admonition of the Most Blessed, came most devoutly, and wrapping the holy corpse with spices in clean linen cloths, buried [q] it in a tomb in which no one seemed yet to have been laid. In which place, if a devout petitioner coming shall have prayed saint Piato as intercessor for his sins, without doubt whatever he shall ask he will obtain. And while the men of mercy were laying up the holy body, their nostrils were opened, and they perceived the spices of the angels who had been sent by the Lord for the obsequies of the holy Man [r]. And they said to one another: What does this mean? Our nostrils have never perceived such an odour: and so

we are filled, so that we believe [*] there is no further good for us. The more they spoke, the more the odour refreshed them. Then, prostrate on the ground, with great fear and devotion of heart they cried out, saying: We believe that thou, Christ, the Son of God, reignest in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as we have learned from thy holy martyr Piatus. And there were converted in the same hour about five thousand [s] men, giving thanks to God: for already there had been converted by the Saint in the Gauls [t] more than thirty thousand men, not counting little ones and women.

[11] And they built in the same place [u] a new monument; and through his prayers the sick come and are healed, the blind are given light, the lame recover, those troubled by a demon are freed, and the vows of the faithful who pray are heard. and his tomb renowned for miracles. The Lord approved as worthy of himself such a Martyr, who did not fear for his name to undergo the martyrdom of the passion. O blessed Man, chaste, holy, modest, reverent, by whose example the wicked [] are converted to the faith, at whose merits the angels rejoice in heaven, by whose touch the sick are strengthened, by whose merits [] the burden of sins is lightened: whom the whole people celebrates together with festive devotion, whom the princes of the earth entreat with bowed necks. He, now mingled with the Angelic choirs, shines with exceeding brightness. He with the Apostles has taken up the palm of martyrdom. Behold, today we celebrate the solemnities of him who, while he is celebrated by us with a yearly festival on earth, is magnified by the Lord in heaven. To thee, God the Father, in the unity of the Son with the Holy Spirit, be glory and supreme power, who hast deigned so to glorify thy holy Martyr, who livest, rulest and reignest, both then and now, and through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

Here again many things are added in the interpolated Acts, which I subjoin: Then, quickened by the great power of the Holy Spirit and enlightened by his grace, you shall be called sons of God and brothers of Christ, and with him you shall reign in the kingdom of heaven without end. And when the holy man Piatus admonished the whole people day and night with words of this kind, and the fame of his sanctity had filled the neighbouring regions, then many began to withdraw from the worship of demons, and with all their strength to believe, and with pure breasts to confess, that Christ the Son of God had come to earth through the womb of the most holy Virgin for the salvation and redemption of the whole world. But before we approach the glorious contest of his passion, we shall take care to make known the praiseworthy continence of the most holy Martyr and perfect monk. Being, then, filled with the Holy Spirit, he loved the Christian and Catholic wisdom. Abstaining from every evil work, and holding the perfect faith, he rendered diligent service to Christ. Of the virtue of abstinence, then, by which he daily mortified himself, that he might offer to Christ the Lord the victim of his flesh, a few things must be said. For no other food was habitual to him than the eating of green herbs: and he gave cold water as drink to his weary body. On the days of Lent, moreover, he ministered food to his body twice in the week. For the sustenance of heavenly nourishment sustained him, and divine grace strengthened his feeble limbs. And the holy man Piatus was of wonderful patience, of the highest abstinence, of holy humility, and adorned with the beauty of all graces. Time will fail me if I should wish to pursue the grace of all his virtues. He was placid in countenance, tranquil in mind, angelic in splendour; and so great was the sanctity and power of works about him that, placed in the body on earth, he dwelt with the angels in spirit. These things are splendid and beautifully set out, if only they could have authority, and had not been devised by an idle wit many centuries after the death of the Saint, or perhaps transferred from another to our Saint, and indeed exaggerated beyond likelihood, certainly those things which are said about abstinence from food.

But the interpolator does not yet stop, who will presently give other things altogether abhorrent from all likelihood. For he continues thus: And when, as we have said above, Maximian, the most wicked Caesar, inflamed by the fury of cruelty, had boiled over against the Saints of God with the most savage rage of persecution, it was announced to him that the holy man Piatus had gone out from the city to bring the Gospel of truth to other provinces, and to destroy the powers of the idols, to be utterly crushed. Hearing this, the impious Caesar, troubled with excessive fury, commanded three of his servants, very strong men, to search out Piato, the saint of God, wherever they could. And if they found him, they should either present him to his hearing, or he should be punished, to be struck with the sword. The persecutors, having received this command, went out from the City with great roaring, kindled with the rage of fury: hither and thither through cities and provinces they searched for the Saint of God. And when they had searched through the neighbouring regions and cities, and were altogether unable to find most blessed Piato, it came to them that by preaching the Gospel of the kingdom beyond he had taken possession of the peoples of the Gauls. Hearing this, kindled more and more with wonderful indignation, they penetrated to the borders of the Gauls, pursuing him with the swiftest course. And when now almighty God wished the holy man Piato to rest from the labour of this life, and to show his martyrdom as an example to men, the most wicked persecutors came to the city whose name is Tournai. And so on the sixth Sabbath of the departure from the City of those who were following him, they found the holy man Piato teaching the people on the sixth before the Ides of September. In which place a very great throng of the people had already been converted by the admonition of the holy Man; and, the superstition of idols trodden down, it rejoiced that it had been called to the name of Christianity by his admonitions. For the voice of the whole people was one of rejoicing, since they knew that they had been called back from the snare of death to the solace of life. After these things the interpolated Acts continue again

with our Acts. Now whoever is even moderately versed in historical criticism will at once perceive how improbably the things asserted about the ministers sent by Maximian from the City to search out St. Piatus, and about their journeys, have been fabricated. In the other codex, and in the apographs, Julian the Caesar is substituted for Maximian, as is also done in the Acts of St. Lucianus published in the second place, in which the same things are read. But that anachronism, which is afterwards continued to the end of the Acts whenever mention is made of the Caesar, easily strikes the eye.

p. In an interpolated codex: Which is venerated on the Kalends of October up to the present day. And there, the things following here being omitted, there is only added before the burial: But by the counsel of God (it was done), who proves his Saints with measure, and glorifies them without measure. Then, through the word and so, it proceeds to the burial.

q. In the interpolated Acts after the word buried there is added: in the place which is called Sacelinum (in others Sacelinium) in a new monument, in which, etc. Nothing in our codices or apographs about the head carried by the Saint.

r. For the words who … had been sent, which is understood of men, one reads in the interpolated ones which … had been sent, of the spices.

s. This number is incredible, because it is not likely that so great a people was present. In our codex otherwise interpolated one reads only: Five men. In the other one has: fifty men. Again in the apograph five, but in the codex with which it was collated, fifty. The smallest number is probable before the others, because probably few gentiles were present at the burial.

t. Just as all the codices agree about the number of those converted in the Gauls by St. Piatus, so all without exception have in the Gauls.

u. In the interpolated Acts these things are read thus: And they built in the aforesaid place Sacelinium Note: otherwise Sacelinum a basilica, in which they laid the body of the holy Martyr with hymns and praises, where through his prayers the sick coming are healed, etc.

You have, studious reader, whatever worthy of note I found in the interpolated Acts, not because I judge them worthy of credit, but that you may more easily perceive what was afterwards added even to these Acts.

[] otherwise salutary*

[] otherwise to be lacking*

[] otherwise unbelievers*

[] otherwise prayers*