Remedius

ON ST. REMEDIUS, OR ROMEDIUS, CONFESSOR, IN THE TERRITORY OF TRENT,

IN THE TERRITORY OF TRENT.

Perhaps at the beginning of the V century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Remedius or Romedius, Conf., in the territory of Trent. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The memory of the Saint in few Martyrologies: his cult in the dioceses of Trent and Brixen, relics, and some benefits ascribed to his patronage.

Our Bolland, among the Passed Over at the XV day of January, annotated the following about this Saint: St. Romedius, This Saint by Ferrarius at the 15th of January, or Remedius, confessor, is venerated on this day at Trent, as Ferrarius is the authority; who writes that the dedication of his church is kept on 1 June, and that he died on XIII January. But in the Life which our Rader exhibits from old Mss. in volume 3 of Bavaria Sancta, with the agreement of certain Martyrologies, he is said to have died and to be venerated on 1 October. Thus Bolland, giving the reason why he deferred the examination of this Saint's deeds and cult to the Kalends of October. In fact Filippo Ferrari, in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, announced him at XV January in these words: At Trent, of St. Remedius, confessor; and praised in the Annotations the Tables of the church of Trent and his printed Life. The same martyrologist, treating again of the same Saint in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, first in the Index prefixed to the whole Work, says: Romedius, confessor, in the territory of Trent, XV January: his body in his own church in the Pieve of St. Zeno.

[2] But in the Work itself he exhibits his elogium, taken from the Life, not at XV January but at I June, and the dedication of his chapel on the first Sunday of June are announced; this title however being prefixed: Of St. Romedius, confessor of Trent, whose feast day is kept on the XV day of the month of January. That he mentioned him at the beginning of the month of June, the reason was not that he was venerated on the Kalends of June; but because (as Ferrari himself added at the foot of the elogium) on the first Sunday of this month (of June) the dedication of his church is celebrated. This very thing is also read in an old Kalendar which the most illustrious man Girolamo Tartarotti called the Trentino-Veronese, and lately published in the year 1758 among the documents after his Apology on the ancient Monuments of Rovereto, which at the beginning of June has it thus: Note that always on the first Sunday of the month of June is the angelic Consecration of the happy and devout chapel of St. Romedius in the Val di Non, of the diocese of Trent. Of the day of his death I shall treat below; but whatever that day was, it will be established from what is to be said that the Saint is venerated both on the XV day of January and on the Kalends of October. The praised Ferrari in the General Catalogue announced him again, as an abbot in Bavaria, at the Kalends of September, where he says: In Bavaria, of St. Remedius, abbot; noting there: From the Martyrology of Canisius on this day. By others he is put on the 1st day of October. We have only two editions of the Martyrology of Canisius, or of Walasser, made at Dillingen in the years 1573 and 1599, in which St. Remedius is recorded at the Kalends of October, not of September, in words presently to be given. It must therefore have been the very first edition of the year 1562, which I have not been able to consult, that lighted the way for Ferrari.

[3] by a few others he is mentioned today. As to the Martyrologies, besides the praised Catalogues of Ferrari we have scarcely three, and those plainly recent in relation to the time at which the Saint is said to have lived, in which his memory exists. Of these the most ancient is the Hagenau Codex, written in the year 1412, which in our Sollerius, among the Augmentations of the Usuardine Martyrology at the 1st day of October, announces thus: In the bishopric of Tridemiensis (read Tridentinensis) of saint Remedius, confessor. More obscure is the phrase of Greven, which has it thus at the same place: Likewise of the holy confessors Remedius, Abra, who is also Deodatus, David, disciples of saint Germanus the bishop. Greven was followed by Adam Walasser in the German Martyrology, which, on account of the labour contributed by Peter Canisius in adorning it, is usually called Canisius's. His words, from the German,

receive in Latin: Likewise of the holy confessors Remedius, Abra (who was also called Adeodatus) and David, disciples of the holy bishop Germanus, who all sprang from Bavaria. What these things mean I shall explain below; but since no more are had from the Martyrologies, and his Acts which are circulated are of such a kind that, both on account of the lack of due antiquity and on account of the assertions which they contain, partly openly false, partly deservedly suspect of falsity, I see it called into doubt by some whether this Saint ever existed, I have judged that what I have received about his cult and relics should be set before the examination of those same Acts, so that from those things which are certain I may proceed to rejecting the false and discussing the doubtful.

[4] The most illustrious man Anton Roschmann will carry the torch before me here, The labour contributed to us here by the most illustrious Roschmann. prefect of the public library at Innsbruck in the Tyrol of the sacred Imperial and royal Apostolic Majesty, and also sub-custodian of the more secret archive, known by his published learned Opuscula, and often mentioned in our Acts according to his merits. For he rendered us kind and strenuous service in seeking out all things which pertained to the life and cult of St. Remedius, and most courteously sent to us a Commentary composed by himself about them. He added also more recent Notices, which he partly procured himself as an ear- and eye-witness, and partly obtained, written by the learned man the Rev. Mr. Severin Holzhamer, beneficed priest of Thaur, about the more recent cult of the Saint and the relics honoured in that place. He added also another Collection concerning the sacred relics and cult of the same Confessor in the monastery of St. Georgenberg of the Order of St. Benedict, likewise in the Tyrol, excerpted from the archive, library and other records of that house, by a certain Religious of the place, as it appears. Finally, when the most illustrious Tartarotti, already praised above, in the Appendix to his Apology, had published in the year 1758 a short Life of St. Remedius composed by Bartholomew of Trent in the XIII century, and had illustrated it with notes, Roschmann himself also worked out annotations, by which he partly confirmed Tartarotti's and partly undertook to refute them. That learned man would have rendered us still more, had he not been prevented from elsewhere (which we regret) in this most courteous and to us most useful work of collecting monuments. Let these things meanwhile be said by me as the due expression of a grateful mind.

[5] And so, to begin with the public cult of the Saint through the whole diocese of Trent, He is venerated in the diocese of Trent as an advocate Tartarotti in his Annotations on the Life, number 6, page 316, says this in the Italian language: The perpetual Madruzzo Calendar of the year MDLX (the most illustrious Cristoforo Madruzzo, Cardinal of the H.R.C., then presided over the church of Trent) has at the XV day of January: Of Remedius, confessor; and congruently with these, in the reform of the Trent Statute made in the year MDCIX, the feriae of St. Remedius were also prescribed. For the Latin word feriae one reads also in Italian ferie; which word, both for the Latins and the Italians (as far at least as I have been able to learn from their Lexicons), in phrases of this kind signifies a feast among the people with cessation from servile work. I suspect, however, that the proclamation of that feast day is older than the year MDCIX, and that it was only confirmed then. For in Tartarotti, at the same place, page 281, there is praised a synodal constitution of the most illustrious lord Cardinal Ludovico Madruzzo, likewise bishop of Trent, made in the year 1593, in which the feast of the same St. Remedius is placed among the feasts to be observed of the holy Advocates of the city and diocese of Trent. Receive the words of the Constitution, which is in Latin, from chapter 23, On Feasts.

[6] Besides the feasts which are to be celebrated by precept of the Church, with an annual feast and Office on the 15th of January. in our bishopric of Trent there is to be solemnly celebrated by all the feast of the divine Vigilius, glorious bishop and martyr, patron of that city and of the whole diocese… But the feasts of saints Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, martyrs; likewise of St. Maxentia, mother of St. Vigilius, of St. Remedius, confessor, and of St. Simon, innocent martyr, advocates of the same city and diocese of Trent; at the dedications of churches; and according to the pious custom of each place, are to be observed, as the feasts of St. Martin, Catherine, Anthony, Mary Magdalene, Roch, Agnes, Gregory and the like. However that may be, that St. Remedius is honoured in the same diocese with an annual Office we learn also from the Proper of the Saints of the city and diocese of Trent, which, printed by order of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Carlo Madruzzo, Cardinal of the H.R.C., and bishop and prince of Trent, in the year 1627, we have in our Museum. In this at the XV day of January one may read these things: Of Saint Romedius, Conf., double, from the Common of a Confessor not a Pontiff. Prayer: God, who. In the first Nocturn Lessons from the Scripture occurring. In the second, from the Sermon of St. Gregory: Deridetur. In the third the Homily on the Gospel: Let your loins be, from the same Common.

[7] His relics in the cathedral of Trent, more in the Val di Non Thus far of the general cult of this Saint in the bishopric of Trent, whose beginning is unknown: of the particular cult I have learned these things besides. In volume 5 of the Italia Sacra of Ferdinando Ughelli, that is, in the Additions of Niccolò Coleti, column 585, among the sacred relics which are honoured in the cathedral church at Trent, there is listed something from the neck of St. Romedius. In the same diocese lies the valley Anania, otherwise Anaunia, now commonly called Val di Non, in which the holy Anchorite is believed to have lived and died, and even now has a church. The situation of the place and the cult Count Maximilian von Mohr, in German manuscripts on the affairs of the Tyrol, volume III, page 24 of my copy, on the Val di Non, hands down in the praised Roschmann in these words: Beside this village (Ermulum) a long valley stretches out to the right, which has its name from the divine Remedius. A stream flows out of it, partly in the mountain Mendola, and partly in the mountain Rovegno. In this valley and on a lofty rock the church of St. Remedius is built like a tower, to which one ascends by a hundred steps. Here St. Remedius dwelt. In this sacred church the relics of this Saint are shown… The right of patronage belongs to the counts of Thun.

[8] in the church, where he has a distinguished cult. Two fairs are celebrated here through the year, and on each Sunday of every month a procession. The stream running through this valley, and abounding in fish, is called St. Remedius's, and again belongs to the aforesaid counts. Thus far Count von Mohr, whose testimony Roschmann confirms by his own vote. Of the same place he had set before this in the same place, from the Work of Michelangelo Mariani published at Trent in the year 1678, these things also: One ascends to the church by ninety-four steps… Formerly on the altar the sacred relics (namely of St. Remedius) were in a wooden chest, today in a more elegant one, which is the gift of William Francis, free baron of Firmian (Roschmann adds here, actual Chamberlain of His Sacred Imperial Majesty, and envoy to the elector of Bavaria) and of the baroness Claudia, his wife (Roschmann adds finally, daughter of George, free baron of Firmian, therefore born and married a Firmian), offered in the year MDCLXVI. There is kept there also with them a pilgrim's staff. Below the church is the cave of this holy Anchorite. The feast is celebrated on the XV day of January with a great concourse, and on the feriae of Pentecost. The counts of Thun name the Prior. Count Romedius of Thun transferred part of the holy arm to Prague in Bohemia; because he was planning to erect there a chapel or church to this Saint. Of this chapel, which was afterwards in fact erected, we shall treat below.

[9] His cult in the diocese of Brixen. To the diocese of Trent on the North lies adjacent that of Brixen, whose bishop has his see, suffragan to Salzburg, in the city of Brixina, called by the Italians Bressanone, by the Germans Brixen, in the county of the Tyrol. The distinguished cult of St. Remedius in particular places of this diocese, in which he is said to have been born, I shall presently set out; but of the general cult the before-praised Roschmann speaks thus in his manuscript Observations on Tartarotti's: Whether Brixen itself venerates this Saint, I do not know: he is, however, inserted in the Calendars of this diocese at the XV day of January; and that he was inserted long ago, we prove by the clear testimony of the illustrious man Johann Wilhelm Putsch; for he, in his autograph manuscript Rhapsodies, kept in our public library (of Innsbruck), at the year MDLVI (at which time he wrote) has this: "On the XV day of the month of January, on the feast of the most holy Remedius, count in Thaur, confessor of Christ, and apostle and patron of the renowned principality of the Tyrol, there died at Innsbruck the noble lord Heinrich Kuen of Aur, etc." Certainly these things written by the praised Putsch in the diocese of Brixen not only hint that the name of St. Remedius was at that time customarily read in the Calendars of the same diocese, but also deservedly raise a suspicion of a general cult of him there as Apostle and Patron.

[10] However that may be (for Tartarotti too denies that he has learned anything of such a cult or Office), in the same diocese there are certainly the village of Thaur and St. Georgenberg, especially in the church of St. Peter of the village of Thaur, and the monastery of the Order of St. Benedict which was formerly on the latter, but now stands, translated to its foot, in the place Fiecht opposite the village of Schwaz; in which places I have ascertained from the manuscript Notices of Roschmann that a solemn cult is shown to the same Saint on account of the relics religiously kept there. I begin with the village of Thaur, in which the writers commonly agree that he was born, situated anciently in Raetia, today in the county of the Tyrol, near the town of Hall on the Inn (river), famous for its salt-works, says the same most illustrious man, adding after some things that there formerly stood in it an old castle, still great in its ruins. Again he gives another notice, bearing more nearly on our purpose, in words which I subjoin. When in the year MDCCLIII I had applied myself to collecting these Acts, it seemed equally necessary to visit both the monastery of St. Georgenberg and the village, church and castle of Thaur. That was done, as I have said, on the XVIII of October MDCCLIII; where (namely in the village of Thaur) first of all I beheld the huge ruins of the castle; and situated not far from here the very ancient church of St. Peter, where on the vault above the high altar these words are read: "Saint Romedius, count in Thaur, erected this church; but by the gift of God and of pious persons master Georg Meringer, parish priest there, rescued it from ruin in the year MDCXXXII."

[11] *I then descended on the Epistle side by twelve steps into an underground chapel, of which notice is given, in which he is solemnly venerated corresponding immediately to the table of the said high altar, and above the altar, on which a statue of the divine Remedius is placed, I read again this inscription: "To God Best and Greatest and to St. Remedius this chapel was erected in the year MDCXXVIII." This place, namely, was believed to have been a hollow rock, or cave, into which this holy Confessor had withdrawn to pour out his prayers. For the rest, since some days would have been necessary for visiting and investigating everything, the learned

and venerable old priest, the Very Rev. Mr. Severin Holzhamer, beneficed priest of Thaur, I besought to collect everything and to answer my questions on his priestly faith. He performed this excellently, from his singular devotion towards this Saint. The first question, then, was put to him in writing: Whether, how and where this Saint is venerated. The answer contained this: "To the ancient cult there succeeded a new and more fervent one, after the life of this Saint was exhibited in a public theatre in the year MDCCXIV in the village of Thaur.* Roschmann inserts here that the author of this sacred spectacle, as far at least as he knew, was the venerable presbyter himself, whose words he then goes on again to report.

[12] on the 15th of January and the 4th Sunday after Easter, in the same village "From that time his feast on XV January is most solemnly celebrated: this is done also in the villages of Tulfes and Rinn on the other bank of the Inn. On the fourth Sunday after Easter a solemn procession is made from the village in memory of the Translation of the sacred relics instituted in the year MDCCXIV. On Sundays and feast days a great concourse of the people takes place before his images, especially from the village, although by a way not convenient and with no easy ascent. There will hardly be anyone in the whole village who does not venerate this Saint in a singular manner. No one leaves the sacred little church of St. Peter without inward consolation; even if he does not obtain what he asks. Notwithstanding the not sufficiently convenient access to it, often through many weeks two or three Masses are said on each day; namely by those who, as I think, being pious priests, come there to celebrate either of their own accord from particular devotion, or for a stipend offered by others. Almost every house of this very large village has and venerates an image (of St. Romedius), which are also sought by outsiders. Again there will hardly be a dwelling in which from that time (from the year 1714) one or more have not received this name in holy baptism.

[13] his relics are honoured, to which both fixed and extraordinary processions To Roschmann's second question the praised Holzhamer returned these things: "We venerate four small particles of the holy body, from his ribs. Two are in the parish church of the Blessed Virgin; the larger in the pedestal of the statue of St. Remedius, generally exposed in the middle of a side altar, at which also many Masses are said in his honour: this is also wont to be carried about in public processions. The smaller is enclosed in a silver cross, which is also exposed on the greater feasts and carried by a priest in public processions. The third rib was inserted into the heart of the statue of St. Remedius at the time of the translation instituted in the year MDCCXIV to the church of St. Peter. It is believed to have been present already long ago, kept in the altar of the underground vault erected beneath the high altar in the year MDCXXVIII. This place, by tradition, is believed to have been the sacred hermitage and retreat of our divine Benefactor." To the third question, which was whether public supplications with banners are made to him, he answered that they are made on the fourth Sunday after Easter, as said above: but extraordinarily more often, to remove storms harmful to the fruits of the sky. So, he says, two days ago there came in a singular necessity the neighbouring village, although of another parish, called Absam.

[14] and supplications are made; and some benefits are narrated, "The community of Thaur and the neighbouring one of Rum, moreover, are wont every year to proclaim public devotions and thanksgivings in honour of St. Remedius. He is invoked chiefly in dangers of fires, floods and harmful storms: likewise against fevers, etc." He subjoins also some recent benefits, as obtained in his time through the invocation of St. Remedius, in these words: "In the year MDCCLI a certain student was freed by the help of this Saint, through the invocation made by his parents, from great fury and insanity, so that he had had to be shut up and guarded. So in the year MDCCLII Michael Kirchebner, a stocking-weaver in Naters, and the son of a peasant in Gunzen, recovered from a dangerous illness. The same happened to one in the year MDCCXLI, to three others in the years MDCCXLVIII and MDCCLI; for two, moreover, fever was taken away. A child of four years at the prayers of its parents is freed from the danger of blindness in the year MDCCXLVIII; indeed it enjoys better sight. A burning fever in MDCCL, prayers being made, diminishes hour by hour. In the year MDCCLI a difficult childbirth succeeds happily; as also at another time. In the year MDCCXLIX a child held for dead returned to life and health.

[15] "In the year MDCCXXXIV the horse and cart of Joseph Höpperger of Thaur, which are ascribed to the patronage of the same Saint. loaded with wood, thrust over some precipice, remain unharmed. In the year MDCCL an ox with a cart loaded with wood, driven headlong over the ice, meeting two horses on a road on which no one could give way, at the words Saint Remedius help, stood still like a wall. In the year MDCCXXX a child also, driven headlong down the staircase into the underground vault of the church of St. Peter, at the words: Jesus, Mary and saint Romedius help, is raised on its feet without any harm. He is invoked also in afflictions of cattle; especially of horses. In the year MDCCXLIV Simon Magerle, a workman in the neighbouring salt mountains, lost a cow while he was working, and, hearing that it had already been sought by his people in vain for a day and a half, invokes the Saint; then, as though led by the hand through a certain valley, he sees a deserted mine shaft extending for a longer stretch, and hence dark on every side; he enters, and at length with his staff detects the mine going down deep; and at length he perceived the bell tied to the animal's neck. Joyfully, therefore, he brings candles and ropes. He lets himself down with a rope to the bottom, thirty feet deep, and, full of wonder, finds the cow unharmed on every side. He seeks therefore implements and companions; and with them happily draws the cow out; torpid indeed with hunger, but soon refreshed, he kept it profitably for some years. In a word, in all necessities this our tutelary Saint is invoked." Thus far he, of the benefits ascribed to St. Romedius; which, as it would be levity to admit as undoubted without a more certain guarantee, so it would be of too severe a brow to banish them among fables without other reason. Nevertheless from these at least it will be proper to gather that the confidence of the natives in this Saint is great, whom they both invoke in their necessities and profess the present help of him when invoked. This very thing is proved also by the answer to the fourth question: Whether pilgrims also frequent this place. For the same presbyter answered that by all means, especially at this time, not only the neighbouring towns but also more distant ones frequent the church of St. Peter at the castle, of which things very many votive offerings make proof.

§ II. The head of the Saint, to which afterwards other relics of his also were added, honoured for some centuries in the monastery of St. Georgenberg: the same relics, the monastery having burned down, given new adornment at Schwaz and brought back to the new monastery: an old hymn.

He has also had a celebrated cult already for some centuries on St. Georgenberg, that is, in the monastery of St. George founded on the same mountain. That monastery, of the diocese of Brixen, is in the county of the Tyrol, and on geographical maps is marked about three miles, more or less, below Oenipontum, In the monastery of St. George of the diocese of Brixen, commonly Innsbruck, on the left of the river Inn. A more intimate notice was given by Roschmann, reported in our Work in volume IV of September on St. Notburga, page 742, at letter m, where he says this: It pleases me here … to bring forward a short and apt description of it from Count von Mohr, who asserts thus: "This monastery is situated in the lower valley of the Inn, in the lordship of Freundsberg behind the village of Stans, built upon a rock in a gorge towards the North, surrounded on all sides by Alps; at the foot of the rock two torrents meet one another." And so (Roschmann adds) I beheld its situation. Consult the topographical chart added there. Of the obscure beginnings of the same monastery the author of our Collection, of which I made mention at number 4, discourses thus. Although concerning the first settlers on St. Georgenberg, or the church built there, there is not one opinion of authors in circulation, since there are not lacking those who contend that in the year after the birth of Christ CMXCVI a church already existed for presbyters and clerics serving God and saint George in this place; while others again, several with the most illustrious Franz Adam Brandis, contend that Rathold, a nobleman from Aibling (a not ignoble place of Bavaria), penetrated to these rocks in the garb of a pilgrim about the year of the Lord M, in order that, known to no one but to God alone, whom he had resolved to serve solely, he might lie hid more securely in their holes.

[17] formerly established on the mountain, now translated to its foot, Brunner finally, in part 3 of the Annales Boici, book 12, altogether records that Rathold, initiated into holy orders, gave beginnings to St. Georgenberg about the year MCXII; on a foundation, however (if credit be given to the monuments of the monastery), not sufficiently firm; which gathered society of noble ascetics Reginbert, bishop of Brixen, having also obtained from Innocent II in the year MCXXXVIII a bull of confirmation, afterwards changed into an abbey, serving under the Rule of the most holy patriarch Benedict. More about the same place can be read in the Germania Sacra of Gabriel Bucelin, part 2, page 184 and the following. However these things may stand (for this is not the place to inquire into the beginnings of that monastery), on the aforesaid mountain stood the monastery of St. George of the Order of St. Benedict until the year 1705, in which, together with the church, woods, farms, bridges and all buildings (only the archive and the relics of the Saints being saved), it burned down; and the church indeed was afterwards repaired there; but the monastery itself was translated to the foot of the same St. Georgenberg in Fiecht, as we have from the same Collection. Roschmann agrees, who, praised in the preceding number, says to our purpose thus: Today, this monastery (the old one on St. Georgenberg) and the church having been restored somewhat from the fire for a very few Religious, the monastery itself has been translated to Fiecht, opposite Schwaz. Consult the topographical chart given there, in which the ancient monastery on the mountain is shown marked number 18, and the new one at the foot of the same mountain number 19.

[18] for some centuries now the head of St. Romedius is kept, Further, the monks of St. George religiously keep distinguished relics of St. Remedius, namely first of all the head, about whose ancient possession the author of the Collection has gathered many things. It seems, however, he says, *to be established by constant tradition through several centuries and by the unanimous sense of our Annals, that Henry III, whom others also, on the occasion of Henry the Fowler, name the fourth, emperor, in the year MXCVII, before the Benedictine monks inhabited the dwellings of St. George, conferred as a singular gift the sacred head of the divine Romedius on the company, even then, of clerics, or the noble company of hermits, being a benefactor munificent to them in few things, besides many others; and that from these first inhabitants of St. George, afterwards in the XII century, the second inhabitants of the newly introduced Order of St. Benedict, together with the oratory, the dwellers, the goods,

revenues and things which were then present, of the church, received them from the liberality of the above-mentioned Reginbert, founder and bishop of Brixen, a confirmation of all of them having been obtained besides from the Apostolic See. Of this Henrician donation, moreover, there is kept in the archive of the monastery a very ancient tablet, without, however, the day or year of its writing, whose capital letters are painted with colours, in which there is no comma, no dot above the vowel I, no Æ, but everywhere a simple E; whose tenor, among other things noted there, is as follows.

[19] "Of the head of St. Romedius, confessor, given by the emperor Henry the third. which was given by the emperor Henry III, In the year of the Nativity of the Lord one thousand ninety-seven, in the fourth indiction, and in the forty-first year of the reign, and the thirteenth of the empire, of the ordination of the lord Henry the third, august of the Romans, the same lord [] to the monastery the head of the most blessed confessor Remedius, who is handed down to have been lord of the county of Thaur. Of which inestimable donation the unfading memory endures to our times." To this very ancient tablet there corresponds entirely the Chronicle of the monastery printed in the vernacular in the year MCDLXXX, in the words here subjoined. The German words of the Chronicle Roschmann rendered thus in Latin: When there were numbered from the Nativity of Christ MLXXXXVII, in the IV Indiction, the XLI of the reign, the XIII of the empire, the emperor Henry the third gave to the venerable new abbey the sacred head of the holy count and confessor Remedius, with five farms and their men, male and female, according to the tenor of the imperial letters extant thereon, and at notable expense caused a cutting to be made along the rocks and the mountain, and led a spring and a mill-stream to the church.*

[20] Both Henrician epochs, namely the 41st year of the reign from the death of his father, said by others to be the fourth, which took place in the month of October of the year 1056, and the 13th year of the empire, the beginning being taken from the XXXI day of March of the year 1084, when he was crowned at Rome by his antipope Guibert, agree rightly with the year of Christ 1097, on the Ides of March of which Roschmann writes that that diploma was given; but the V Indiction was then running, not the IV, unless the beginning of the Indiction was reckoned here later than from September of the year then just elapsed, or from the Kalends of January of the year then passing. The most illustrious Tartarotti, in the Annotations on the Life, number 6, disapproves the words of the Chronicle given, because St. Georgenberg was not yet an abbey, but only a hermitage, in the year 1097, in which Henry's diploma is noted as given. But to this Roschmann has already answered in his manuscript Annotations that, although there were then no Benedictines there, there were nevertheless clerics or presbyters who spent their life under their Prelate. He proves this from the very same diploma, in which Henry is said to have given certain manses or small farms to the church of St. George built in Indale, so that prayer may continue in the aforesaid church in perpetuity, and that a presbyter may be faithfully ordained by the Prelate of the same church from that estate, to serve God and St. George there day and night. This one thing therefore can perhaps be said, that the author of the Chronicle wrongly called that society, of whatever kind, of ascetics or clerics an abbey, such as it was when he wrote.

[21] I omit more, because, on the testimony of the same Roschmann, who testifies that he consulted the autograph diploma, in it there is read indeed of various donations made by Henry to the aforesaid church, tradition and the domestic tablets hold; but nothing of the head of St. Remedius. For which reason I judge that that diploma is praised by the Chronicler not for the gift of the sacred head, but for other things which the same Henry, by whom he had said that head was given, gave to the same church. Therefore this diploma contributes to our purpose in no other way than that from that munificent benevolence of the emperor Henry towards the monks of St. George some likelihood is added to the tradition of the head of St. Remedius received from him; whether the donation of this was made before, or after, or even at the same time; but it did not at all seem necessary to confirm it, like donations of profane things, by a royal diploma. Further, not idly does Roschmann also observe from the augmented Italia Sacra of Ughelli, volume 5, column 593, that the same Henry in the year 1082 gave the castle of Castellaro, situated near Mantua, to the church of Trent; for on this occasion it could have come about that the bishop of Trent gave to the same emperor the head of St. Remedius, which was kept with the rest of his body in his diocese, and that he bestowed it on the monks of St. George, whom he favoured.

[22] Brunner believed that gift to be of Reginbert, bishop of Brixen. Andreas Brunner, in the Annales Boiorum, part 3, book 12, at the year of Christ 1112, treating briefly of the beginnings and progress of St. Georgenberg, likewise attributes to it the head of St. Remedius, but makes its donor not the emperor Henry but Reginbert, bishop of Brixen, saying thus: Worship and wealth were added a little afterwards (to the monastery of St. George) by Reginbert, from abbot of St. Peter's among the people of Salzburg made bishop of Brixen, and the same set Eberhard over the place, and, the head of the divine Rhomedius, lord of Thaur, having been carried to the same place, he restored to the valley of the Inn its Citizen, nay its Lord, in the seven hundredth year after he had emigrated thence, a rare pledge, and one venerated by our forefathers with the highest devotion and frequent pronouncing of vows; which praise in our century (the XVII century of Christ) the sloth of mortals has taken away. Thus far Brunner, who, I do not know whether he ascribed the donation of the sacred head to Reginbert by any other argument than that he is read to have handed over St. Georgenberg, erected into an abbey, to the Benedictine monks, as we saw above. I return to the author of our manuscript Collection, who after some things proceeds thus.

[23] Other distinguished relics of the same were added in the year 1470 To this sacred head of the divine Romedius, most religiously guarded on St. Georgenberg from the year MXCVII, there were afterwards added in the year MCDLXX other relics of the same holy Confessor, which were kept hidden in the Val di Non (as the letters say), given by John, bishop of Trent, letters of donation thereon having also been dispatched, of this tenor: "John, by the grace of God bishop of Trent, to all and each of the faithful of Christ who shall inspect the present letters, everlasting greeting in the Lord. We judge that it is incumbent on us from the pastoral office to rouse the souls of the faithful of the Lord, as much as we can, to devotion and veneration of the Saints; since, as we see, evils, our sins requiring it, are multiplied upon the earth, for which we merit the wrath of God and the scourge, for the averting of which we deem it necessary to implore the Saints of God, and to hold their relics in greater veneration, and not to keep those precious pledges so in hiding, but to distribute them among the faithful of Christ, that they may be held in greater veneration. Coming therefore to us, etc.… Favourably assenting to his supplications, judging it worthy that the valley of the Inn itself, which had had him (St. Remedius) while [] in life, should rejoice in the presence of his relics on earth, and should have the same also, after his most happy passing, as intercessor and patron in heaven; with the counsel and assent of our venerable chapter we have bestowed of the same relics, namely one shoulder-blade, one bone of the arm, one rib, one joint of the spine of the back, one ankle-bone of the foot, one joint of the hand…*

[24] In testimony and faith of which we have commanded the present letters to be made, from the Val di Non, by Johannes Hinderbach, bishop of Trent and to be fortified by the appending of our greater seal. Given in our castle of Buonconsiglio at Trent on the third day of the month of November in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy." The lacunae which you see in the letters given our apograph also has, whether this defect is from words worn away in the autograph or primary exemplar, or was committed only in our manuscript from a desire for brevity. Which indeed I regret; since through this fault the person of the petitioner to whom the said relics were given lies hidden here. Indeed not even the name of the Saint whose they are occurs in the whole instrument, except once enclosed in brackets, which seems rather added by the copyist for the sake of clarity than by the donor himself. Yet the other circumstances sufficiently hint that the relics of St. Remedius are in question, and this is also expressly taught by the above-praised German Chronicle of the monastery of St. George, printed a decade after that donation, from which the writer of the Collection excerpted the following, turned into Latin, subjoining these things: And the Chronicle of the monastery, published in the vernacular in MCDLXXX and translated from German into Latin, narrates this donation of relics at the year MCDLXX in the following words.

[25] "On the vigil of All Saints, out of singular graces, the most reverend prince and lord, the lord John, bishop of Trent, given with the consent of the chapter of canons gave to this venerable church of St. Georgenberg the following sacred relics, with the counsel, favour and will of his reverend chapter: an entire shoulder-blade of St. Romedius, an entire bone of the arm, a vertebra of the spine of the back, an ankle-bone of the foot, a joint of the hand of the same Saint, besides those relics of the same Saint which were already present before." Thus the contemporary Chronicler, who, however, or his interpreter, passed over one rib among the relics then received. Nor does it matter that he says the same donation was made on the Vigil of All Saints, that is, on the day before the Kalends of November; while the letters of the bishop were first given on the third day of the month of November: for by these he must be said to have confirmed the donation made three days before. Now as regards the persons, the bishop John was Johannes Hinderbach, who in the augmented Italia Sacra of Ughelli, volume 5, column 638, is said to have held the bishopric of Trent from the year 1463, when he was elected, until the year 1486, in which he died. And from the notice presently to be given we learn that the abbot of St. George who obtained the often-mentioned relics was Caspar, whom Bucelin, in the catalogue of the abbots of the same monastery, surnames Augspurger from his native city or family, and says he presided from the year 1469 to 1491.

[26] The notice just praised we have from Roschmann, who recorded it thus, to Caspar, abbot of the same monastery of St. George. I do not know from what place, where it existed in Latin: Of a great part of the body of St. Remedius, confessor. In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seven (read MCDLXX), on the Vigil of All Saints, the reverend father in Christ the lord Caspar, prelate of this monastery, by the command and consent of the most reverend father in Christ, the lord, the lord John, bishop of Trent, in the presence of two venerable brothers, Georg Nothafft and Johann Fogler, canons of the church of Trent, whom the aforesaid pontiff [] sent thither to be present there, the altar of the chapel of St. Remedius, confessor, on the crag of the Val di Non, where the greater part of the bones of the aforesaid holy Confessor, and of his holy disciples David and Abra, lay hidden and neglected (a verb is lacking here or above, perhaps opened), the divine office having first been celebrated upon the altar for five days; whence the aforenamed prelate with the consent and will of his chapter piously conferred on the aforesaid abbot these relics: one entire shoulder-blade of the same, one vertebra of the spine of the back of the same, one ankle-bone of the foot of the same, one joint of the hand of the same holy Confessor. Of which inestimable donation the testimonial letters [*],

with his greater seal hanging on a silk cord, he handed over to us, and to all who devoutly visit the aforesaid relics and pour out prayers before them he remits forty days of indulgences from enjoined penances.

[27] For the uninterrupted possession of all these relics I return to our manuscript Collection, whose author, in order to claim for his monastery of St. George the uninterrupted possession of the relics of St. Remedius from the donations of the emperor Henry III, otherwise IV, and then also of John, bishop of Trent, praises other things besides those already said. For the XIII century he asserts that at the dedication of the conventual church, made in the year 1204 at the request of abbot Sigebot by Conrad, bishop of Brixen, among other relics of the Saints then present the remains of St. Remedius also were listed; which he concludes from what has been said and from the reckoning of the times to have been nothing other than his head. In the XIV century he writes that the whole monastery was indeed consumed by fire, but that the sacred relics were saved; for the XV century he cites the Chronicle mentioned above, and the letters given by John, bishop of Trent. For the XVI century he praises a catalogue of relics made in the year 1512, and the Annals of the monastery written by Bernard Empel, Prior, and turned into the German language by Fr. Jakob Edemann in the year 1580. For the XVII century (so he himself proceeds) there exist various bound volumes of Annals and of Catalogues of the sacred remains, in which, even printed, mention is made not only of these sacred pledges of the divine Romedius, but also of special pilgrimages to these sacred bones of the divine Romedius to be venerated; which pilgrimages are also noted among other authors.

[28] various notices are praised, etc. For this XVII century there serves especially the Catalogue of relics which appeared in the year MDCLII under the title Athos Georgianus from the Wagner press at Innsbruck, dedicated to the most high and most reverend lord, the lord Anton, prince of the H.R.E., bishop of Brixen, most clement ordinary of the place, etc., with the approbation of the most reverend ordinariate of Brixen prefixed to the Work, in which not only are the relics of the divine Remedius listed above festively mentioned on repeated occasions, but they are also shown in images engraved in copper. Roschmann also makes mention of the same Catalogue and images, and exhibits the annotations added to them, from German into Latin, in this manner. On Folio 27 (of the Work just praised) there is seen an elegant chest or tabernacle with these words: "This repository is among the chief ones; namely the entire head of St. Romedius, the celebrated count in Hohenwart in Bavaria, and count in Thaur in the Tyrol." Added to these at the end: "On account of this sacred head formerly many celebrated processions and pilgrimages were set on foot hither to St. Georgenberg with great solemnity and a concourse of the people." On Folio 28 again a similar repository engraved in copper is shown, to which is inscribed: "In this similar work is contained the shoulder-blade and several larger relics of the aforesaid St. Remedius." On Folio 29 there is shown the figure of another oblong one, like an altar, with these words: "In this is contained the entire bone of the arm of St. Romedius." The praised most illustrious man subjoins finally: As regards processions, I have seen some bound volumes of the Annals of this house (of St. George) in which the celebrated processions alleged above to the head of St. Remedius were noted.

[29] Of our century the author of the Collection asserts these things: The old monastery having burned down, the same relics were deposited at Schwaz As for the century, the XVIII, which is now running, no one is ignorant by how destructive a fire, on the Vigil of All Saints (in the year, as was said above, 1705), the whole monastery, with woods and farms, bridges and all buildings (only the archive and the relics of the Saints being saved), burned down. The sacred relics saved from these ruins, in a truly mournful flight, amid the most burning tears of the onlookers, migrated to Schwaz, to the palace of the most illustrious lord, the lord Joseph, free baron of Tannenberg, lord of the lordship of Rottenburg on the Inn, etc., lord of the lordships of Freundsberg, Schwaz and Neuhaus, of pious memory; as the History of the monastery recently built at the foot of St. Georgenberg in Fiecht relates. Where by the most illustrious family they were not only most tenderly guarded with the greatest care, but also most devoutly venerated continually every day on bended knee amid prayers. Indeed a little after, these sacred remains of the divine Romedius were most elegantly clothed by the most illustrious hands themselves with Phrygian work and silk adornment, not without copious pearls, together with a repository skilfully made by the work of a sculptor and gilded; as the present slips, wrapped in silk at the head of the Saint, written also in the vernacular by no less gracious hands of their own, testify.

[30] Copy of the first slip, turned into Latin. "Praised be Jesus Christ. and were given new adornment and a chest by the widowed baroness of Tannenberg; This sacred head of the divine Remedius, with the adjoining smaller ribs and five other bones of this Saint, in the year MDCCXXIX I and my two daughters, virgins, Maria Margaretha and Maria Anna Elisabetha, with singular joy, love and devotion to this Saint, wrapped, adorned with Phrygian work, and the chest made by the labour of a sculptor and gilded, with silks [] and all expenses, I consecrated to the honours of saint Remedius. With these I commend myself with my only son Joseph Anton Ignaz and three daughters to the patronage of St. Remedius. Elisabeth, widow of the Free Baron of Tannenberg, born Free Baroness of Risenfels."*

Copy of the second slip, turned into Latin. "Blessed Romedius, pray for me, and obtain for me the grace which I ask of God. Maria Anna of Tannenberg."

Of these illustrious persons frequent and deservedly honourable and grateful mention exists with us in volume IV of September at the XIV day, in the Acts of St. Notburga, virgin servant, which were also dedicated in a separate volume to the aforesaid most illustrious lord Joseph Ignaz, count of the H.R.E., who deserved very well of the same Saint and of our Work. These things having been observed for the sake of a grateful mind, let us return to the Collection.

[31] then carried to the new monastery, and held in the same honour as before. In this adornment with which they were recently presented (the before-praised relics) not only in the year MDCCXXXVIII, before the most reverend and most high lord, the lord Caspar, of the counts of Künigl, prince of the H.R.E. and bishop of Brixen, most clement ordinary of the place, the venerable remains of St. Romedius were called to Schwaz, to be carried on the shoulders of clerics through the procession, so that, while the sacred remains of the divine virgin Notburga were being most solemnly exposed to public cult on XIV September by his above-mentioned highness, they might also accompany the sacred body of the divine virgin Notburga in its festive conducting through the streets; but also in the year MDCCL, when the most reverend and most high lord, the lord Leopold Joseph Maria, of the counts of Spaur, prince of the H.R.E. and bishop of Brixen, most clement ordinary of the place, etc., in pastoral visitation, all the things of the church having been visited, and all the sacred furniture together with the sacred relics having been inspected, consecrated through two continuous days the newly erected basilica of the monastery with seven altars, besides other relics of this Saint there was also exposed before the above-mentioned most high lord, the lord ordinary, and the most reverend lords visitors, to the devotion both of these and of all present, the head of the holy confessor Romedius.

[32] The collector's epilogue for the possession So that not only the ecclesiastical diptychs, and the most ancient and constant tradition of the church inscribed on parchment titles and on chests, the public pilgrimages instituted, the public cult and the festive carryings through the streets, the most frequent expositions on the altar to rouse the devotion of the people, but also, besides the approbation prefixed by ordinary authority, pastoral visitations as well emphatically support these our sacred remains. And just as from these premises not only the donation and the undisturbed possession, for so many centuries now uninterrupted, of the sacred relics of the divine Romedius, but also the most devout cult of the faithful shown to them, are deduced; so the veneration of these sacred bones is further inferred, and indeed at the dedication of the conventual church solemnly performed in the year MCCIV by Conrad, bishop of Brixen, it shines forth without any difficulty, where among other relics exposed to public cult by ordinary authority in the aforesaid church express mention is made of the remains of St. Romedius.

[33] and the cult of the sacred head. There were exposed, moreover, for many centuries back, by Apostolic authority also (would that the collector had proved this) in a public place outside the church too, together with the venerable Sacrament of the altar and other relics, before a very crowded assembly of pilgrims, the sacred remains of the divine Romedius likewise, as all the catalogues of relics testify. Of processions formerly to the sacred head of the divine Romedius, or of special pilgrimages, there exist several bound volumes in the archive of the monastery. Again after some things: The votive offerings, says the collector, the last fire consumed together with the church and the whole monastery, of most sad memory; among other writings, however, about St. Romedius there was found the present Hymn, composed more devoutly than elegantly; which, since it reviews the benefits, graces and aids from heaven which the piety of the faithful, from its confidence in the divine Romedius, both implored and obtained from above, I judge will be unwelcome to no one devoted to the honours of this Saint, or zealous for enlarging his cult, if it be added even for this purpose alone.

[34] An old hymn of the Saint. Hail, head to be venerated, To be loved a thousand thousand times, Hail, splendour of the fatherland. Thou art the ornament of nobility, Thou art also the gem of probity, The summit of our glory.

We love thee, we praise thee, We implore thy help, Strength and aid. Have mercy therefore on us, Bring help, protect us, Be a remedy for our ills.

III.

Sick body, anguish of mind, Fever, languor, fury of the tooth, Fire, hail, let them depart. Flee, demon, flee, witch, And let the flooding plague cease, Let strength return to the sick.

IV.

The poor man cries, the rich man cries, All the citizens cry to thee, The whole fatherland cries. Cherish this thy company, And to all these after death Open the halls of heaven.

[] otherwise gave*

[] perhaps the lord*

[] add to*

[] letters*

[] Roschmann: locks*

§ III. The cult of St. Remedius in the new monastery of St. George and in the old one somewhat repaired: what is to be judged of the part of the skull kept in the Val di Non: other relics at Hall on the Inn: others in Bohemia in a chapel erected by a count of Thun.

The cult of the Saint's relics, and the feast of 1 Oct. in the new monastery: Of the present-day veneration of St. Remedius in the monastery restored at the foot of St. Georgenberg after the burning of the old one, as was said, the often-praised author of the Collection hands down these things besides. *On all the principal feasts today the relics of St. Romedius are exposed on the altar of the church to public veneration, where the devotion of the faithful frequently implores help in various diseases, pains, dangers, infirmities of beasts of burden, straits of land or of men, falls, floods, the annoyances of demons and witches, and is accustomed to bring back from above the aid which it asked with prayers poured out from a sincere and clean heart … The divine Office, moreover, of St. Romedius in the choir and at the altar of St. Georgenberg is most ancient, on account of the distinguished relics of the same (I have no doubt), among which, by Pontifical decrees, the heads of holy servants of God are counted most of all worthy of veneration. The feast

we keep solemnly every year on the 1st day of October; and indeed for more than a hundred years now it has been the sacred function of the father Prior, who, the office in choir being finished, the sacred remains having already been exposed on the altar the day before, solemnly sings the festive Mass with deacon and subdeacon, and the other ceremonies customary on a greater feast, amid musical harmonies.

[36] These things of the present-day cult in the new monastery; of the old one he subjoins these: some veneration of him also in the old one, repaired after a fashion: That in the painting of the high altar of the old monastery the divine Romedius also stood beside the divine James the Greater, apostle, and saint George, martyr, patrons of the place, I learn from the solid narration of others; as also that at every time, as far as was possible, someone of our religious company, distinguished by this sacred name, professed the testimony of perpetual devotion towards this Saint. At length, since in the year MDCCV the fire most sadly consumed not only the monastery and several of its other buildings, but also, together with the church, the altars, pictures and votive offerings; and in the church repaired in MDCCXXXIII on the same mountain the wonder-working Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows now occupies the high altar, the most illustrious lord, the lord Johann Georg, free baron of Sternbach, Stock, Luttach and Angerburg, lord in Oberfalcken and Grossenstein, counsellor of the exalted chamber of the sacred imperial and royal majesty, today director of the Austrian salt-works of Gmunden, etc., restored the divine Romedius on the Gospel side, most elegantly painted by the work of the very celebrated Grassmayer: to whom opposite corresponds the divine Notburga, skilfully represented by the same painter, the poor and humble servant from Rottenburg to the very rich Lord in Thaur, Notburga to Romedius. Here made an end of his Collection the Religious of St. George unknown to me, whose diligent labour very opportunely came to my aid for illustrating the cult of St. Remedius.

[37] The head among the monks of St. George is entire except for both jaws: But since by head a part of the head sometimes comes to be meant, it will help to add here also from the often-praised and ever-to-be-praised most illustrious Roschmann what kind of head that is of which we are treating. In his manuscript Commentary he speaks thus: All these things I collected when in the year MDCCLIII, on the XVIII of October, I visited the most reverend, most illustrious and most ample lord prelate himself, Lambert, of that monastery which has now been translated to the place Fiecht opposite the village of Schwaz: where among other things I asked this most reverend lord abbot that I, as appointed collector of the Acts of St. Remedius, might be permitted to look upon and consider the sacred head itself of this Saint. The very Rev. Fr. Columban Laimprucher, professed there of the same Order and sacristan at the time, therefore brought it, and, drawn out from its very elegant and precious adornment and its wrappings removed, offered it to me to be looked at. I examined it therefore, in the presence of the same most reverend lord abbot, of Fr. Columban, and of my son Cassian, then a student of Rhetoric; and I found it, except only the jaws with one entire and two half teeth, otherwise most entire. I found besides two slips, whose copies I exhibit here rendered into Latin. See above at number 30, where I recited both.

[38] [yet the skull of the same, or a part of it, is also said to be kept in the Val di Non,] This is certainly rightly called the head, even if both jaws are lacking, which alone cannot come under the name of the head. But in the Val di Non also (concerning which consult number 7 and the following) some head, or part of a head, is shown as St. Romedius's. So again I learned from Roschmann, who, after the words just given and the two said inscriptions recited, continues thus: I then conversed at Schwaz with this most illustrious lady Elisabeth, now widowed countess of Tannenberg, who with her daughters, the young countesses, put in order this sacred head of the divine Remedius (kept among the monks of St. George), as also all the bones of the divine virgin Notburga, and of St. Pirmin, bishop and confessor, and most preciously clothed and adorned them: who testified to me that the head and the shoulder-blade duly agree, and seemed to her similar in the quality and condition of the bones to those which she had seen in the Val di Non; that that part of the head which was shown there (in the Val di Non), with this added, that in it the most blessed Virgin, and St. Remedius kneeling before her, were shown by a singular prodigy, she had considered with all care, but had not been able to find that this part could be of the holy head (kept in the often-mentioned monastery), nor had the picture seemed to her to be so.

[39] I confess indeed (Roschmann subjoins) that when on the XII day of October in the year MDCCXXXIV I venerated the divine Remedius, or part of it, which, to believe it genuine, my fellow-citizen, in his church and in the Val di Non, something similar was shown to me, which I no longer rightly remember: I duly remember that certainly an entire head was not seen by me. If at that time I could have imagined this labour for myself, I should certainly have considered all these things more accurately. To the same purpose tends the answer of the beneficed presbyter of Thaur, Severin Holzhamer, praised at number XI, who says in Roschmann that he doubts whether the head which the monks of St. George have is truly St. Romedius's, since he has heard from several that a skull painted by miracle is shown in the Val di Non. If a skull is really shown in the Val di Non, it certainly cannot be a part of the head venerated among the Benedictine monks of St. George, since this is entire except both jaws, on the testimony, as we have seen, of the most illustrious Roschmann, who affirms that it was drawn out from its adornment … and, its wrappings removed, looked at and examined naked by himself. It is unknown to me from what time the people of the Val di Non began to hold that skull, or whatever part of a head, for the head of St. Romedius; for on this matter I have read nothing elsewhere. No more do I know whether the same people of the Val di Non allege other titles in this matter of theirs than the ancient possession of the body of the same holy Confessor, buried there immediately after his death and honoured for many centuries.

[40] But certainly the asserted painting of the head cannot profit them: I require arguments for either it is doubtful, or manifest. If doubtful, as what was said at number 38 and the following makes one suspect it to be, what certain thing will be proved from it? If it is manifest, and it is established by certain indications that St. Romedius is shown in it; by what argument do they prove that that painting is not the work of human art, but made by a divine miracle? Although even so it would be only a probable argument for attributing the same head to St. Romedius. As regards the ancient possession of the sacred body, the people of the Val di Non cannot so defend it, nor, as I think, do they wish to, as to maintain that in the lapse of time no parts were separated from it and deposited in other places: for the opposite is established from what has been said and is to be said. For the head formerly given to the monks of St. George, however, those things tell which I have reviewed in this and the preceding §§, from which it is clear that they have already for some centuries been in the tranquil possession of it, continued with a public and celebrated cult. And what cause shall we believe there is that the people of the Val di Non did not impugn this, if they judged that the true head of St. Romedius, visible by a prodigious painting, always remained with them? For the two places, situated in contiguous dioceses, are not so far distant from one another that that celebrity of the head among the monks of St. George could have been hidden from the people of the Val di Non. And yet that nothing of this kind was attempted by them I am compelled to suspect for a threefold cause.

[41] The first is that, as I have said, I have read no writer [to be opposed to the monks of St. George. Some relics of the Saint at Hall on the Inn:] who affirms that the sacred head of Romedius survived in the Val di Non during that space of time. The second, that Brunner also, to whom it mattered nothing at all in which of the two places it was honoured, ascribes its possession to the same monks of St. George, in the words given at number 22, as by no means disputed. The third finally, that Roschmann also, a diligent investigator of Tyrolese affairs, a lover of the saints, and a sincere lover of truth, makes no word of any impugning of this kind published in print or writing, except those things which I have related above, and which he himself deservedly thought were to be disregarded until more certain things are brought forward. What if that head which the people of the Val di Non keep is that of David or Abra, who are said to have been companions of the same Saint, as we shall see below? Again, other relics of St. Romedius at Hall, which is a town of the county of the Tyrol below Innsbruck in the valley of the Inn, Roschmann mentions in his manuscript Commentary in words which I subjoin. The illustrious man Florian Waldauf of Waldenstein, chancellor of Maximilian I, collected a huge treasure of sacred relics, and left it to the parish church of Hall on the Inn with a most ample endowment and a most celebrated foundation. Of these sacred relics there was published at Innsbruck in the year MDCC a little book in octavo, containing the Lives of the Saints through the whole year, and it relates what relics are present of this Saint, and in what necessities he is wont to be invoked. From the same little book, published in German, he recites these things in Latin: On the XVII day of June. St. Remedius, confessor and hermit. Of his holy body two small particles are present… He is invoked in dangerous accidents or falls. So there; but why his memory is related there at the XVII day of June, I do not know.

[42] others brought into Bohemia by a count of Thun, From the county of the Tyrol the cult of St. Romedius was propagated also into Bohemia with a distinguished portion of relics; the beginning of which matter Michelangelo Mariani, in his Work published at Trent in the year 1678, or Roschmann from him, indicates thus: Count Romedius of Thun transferred part of the sacred arm to Prague in Bohemia; because he was planning to erect there a chapel, or church, to this Saint. What the praised illustrious count was then planning, that either he himself, or his son or grandson afterwards, munificently performed, not indeed at Prague, but in his castle of Choltitz, which is situated in the Chrudim district of the kingdom of Bohemia, as Amandus Friedenfels, canon of Strahov of the sacred Premonstratensian Order, teaches more fully in the Work which he published in print at Old Prague in the year 1699. This is a fairly substantial volume in small folio, entitled Gloriosus S. Romedius, etc., and also Gloriosa domus comitum de Thun, etc., and published under the auspices of the most illustrious and most excellent lord, the lord Romedius Constantine, count of the H.R.E. of Thun, lord in Choltitz, Castelfund, Upper and Lower Marckersdorff, Ledetz and Schwogschitz, intimate actual counsellor and chamberlain of His Sacred Imperial Majesty, and royal lieutenant in the renowned kingdom of Bohemia, most munificent founder of the most sumptuous chapel of St. Romedius in the castle of Choltitz. Further, that the reader may understand from what cause this piety of the count of Thun towards St. Romedius was kindled, and how the distinguished relics of the same Saint could easily be obtained by him, I shall note here some things from the same Work, which we have in our Museum.

[43] in whose family was the patronage of his church in the Val di Non, At page 125 he writes that Count Bernardino of Thun restored the church of St. Romedius in the Val di Non, and by that title the right of patronage of it from

the Apostolic See received. Then in the Ectypus of the chapel of Romedius, which is as it were the second part of the Work, at page 28, he hands down another cause of the patronage received, or at least adds it: As concerns the right of patronage, he says, of the chapel of St. Romedius in the Val di Non, it came to the most illustrious family of Thun in the times of the most illustrious lords Christopher and Bernardino of Thun; for since the annual revenues of the aforesaid chapel rose only to twenty-four gold florins of the chamber, they liberally enriched it from their own goods with another twelve gold florins to be paid annually. Whence the right of patronage in the said chapel was granted by Leo X to the aforenamed lords benefactors; and so they were made patrons of the chapel of St. Romedius, and treasurers of its sacred relics. From this pious munificence, then, of the counts of Thun towards St. Romedius, and the patronage of his church obtained on that account, it most probably came about that the name of Romedius was brought into their most illustrious family, and that Count Romedius Constantine either himself easily obtained the said relics of the same Saint, his patron, or determined that those received before should be honoured with that magnificent chapel.

[44] These relics Michelangelo Mariani, in the words given, calls part of the sacred arm; and a magnificent chapel erected in the castle of Choltitz to lay them up, Friedenfels, however, simply the arm. The latter, who professes that he performed the office of chaplain in the same chapel for eight years, would deserve the greater credit, were it not that, by omitting the adjective entire, he makes one suspect that, by a sufficiently received custom, he named a great part of the arm the arm. Of the chapel itself the praised Friedenfels began thus: Among the sacred prerogatives of Bohemia it is not the least that this renowned kingdom abounds in so copious remains of the Saints that it can with every right be called a treasury of sacred relics. With so precious a treasure the castle of Choltitz also is rich, in whose magnificent chapel the arm of St. Romedius is religiously kept. The founder of this so sumptuous building is the most illustrious and most excellent lord Romedius Constantine of Thun. … The form of this most splendid chapel is as it were of an oval figure, transformed into a somewhat elongated octagon. The inner walls are encrusted with stucco, representing various ornaments and effigies of divers things; mingled with which are seen most elegant paintings, finished by the hand of skilled artists; so that it remains doubtful whether the trowel of the skilful plasterer or the brush of the painter prevails. The topmost peak of this sumptuous building resembles a little tower, which, to increase the inner light of the chapel, is furnished with transparent windows.

[45] Presently he goes on to describe the whole chapel in detail, four larger plates engraved in copper being added, a magnificent chapel, which show as many inner faces of the chapel, and a great number of smaller figures with which it is adorned; all of which it would be too long to narrate here. A few things, however, I add about the high altar, dedicated to God in the name of St. Romedius. The high altar (he says), situated towards the South, skilfully wrought with the sculptor's art, is for the greater part coloured blue and covered with Indian varnish, which gives such splendour to this work that it rivals the beauty of lapis lazuli. In the remaining ornaments and projections this most splendid altar is clothed and rich with refined gold drawn out into thin leaves. The picture which fills the space of the altar shows, on one side, St. Romedius accompanied by a bear, the carrier of his baggage; on the other, the possessed, from whom the holy Man casts out the worst demons. This picture, most gracefully formed by the hand of a more excellent painter and procured at no common price, the most high John Ernest (of the counts of Thun), archbishop of Salzburg, the most pious consecrator of this chapel, liberally donated to increase the magnificence of the high altar.

[46] *In place of a crowning finish there is set upon it a most splendid shield containing this inscription: dedicated to the same Saint. The sacred remains of the Patron, translated within the WALLS OF GOD (DEI MUROS), The builder DE FACTO honours with his wife.* For the elucidation of these verses the editor observes that the words Dei muros are an anagram of the name Romedius; and that the family name De Thun is turned into Latin as De facto. Friedenfels subjoins again: *Above the altar on the surface of the wall are seen expressed two figures of genii, supporting the family arms of St. Romedius, as count of Thaur. Beneath these the following inscription is read: Illustrious in his arms, but he stands forth more illustrious in his signs.* For the rest, the before-praised most high archbishop Ernest of Thun is read, at the same place, page 6, to have consecrated this chapel with solemn rite on the 2nd day of September of the year MDCXCII.

§ IV. The Lives of the Saint neither ancient nor free from fables: the century in which he flourished; the place of birth and condition: a conjecture whether perhaps he is the same as the count James whom St. Vigilius of Trent praised: the fables of others.

[Of the Saint's biographers the first known the first known is Bartholomew of Trent,] So far are we from being able to hand down things equally certain about the deeds of St. Remedius as about his cult, that on the contrary we have scarcely anything ascertained of them which cannot deservedly be called into doubt; not because writers are lacking who have mentioned him, as a celebrated Saint, partly in passing, partly also at sufficient length, in Latin, Italian and German, whom Roschmann reviewed in great number in his Commentary; but because all these lived very long after the times of St. Remedius, whom by the common consent of all they determine to have lived at the same time as St. Vigilius, bishop of Trent, who obtained the palm of martyrdom in the year 400 or 405; and because, besides, they stain what they narrate about him with manifest inventions. Further, there are twin sources from which the writers commonly drew their assertions about St. Remedius; namely the Acts of St. Georgenberg and those of Hohenwart, as it may be permitted to call both from the places in which they are kept. The first of these have as their writer Bartholomew, called of Trent from his homeland, of the Order of Preachers, who in the Legendary of the Saints, hitherto unpublished, which he compiled about the middle of the XIII century, that is, about the year 1240, gave a certain short Life of St. Remedius. It exists in a manuscript codex of St. Georgenberg, from which Roschmann sent us a copy obtained from the abbot of the same monastery, and Tartarotti printed another in the Appendix to the Apology for the Monuments of Rovereto, to which he also added critical annotations.

[48] [he was preceded by an older Life of unknown age, which lies hidden or has perished.] But although Bartholomew of Trent is the first of the biographers of St. Remedius known by name, he is not on that account to be judged the first of all; indeed it seems certain that here too, as elsewhere, older Acts lighted the way for him. He also wrote the deeds of the before-praised St. Vigilius, bishop and martyr of Trent, which Tartarotti, taken from a codex of the Barberini library at Rome, printed in the same Appendix. In these, when he made mention of the holy Martyrs of the Val di Non, Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, he presently added: As their Deeds relate; namely such as exist in our Work at the XXIX day of May. In like manner, when in the same Acts of St. Vigilius he mentions St. Remedius, he says thus: Meanwhile Remedius, a noble of Taurus, with his companions Abra and David, went to Rome, and returning, left more than a thousand souls with all his possessions to St. Vigilius, and, AS IS READ IN HIS DEEDS, in his diocese near the castle of Tau, next to the place where the Saints suffered (the martyrs just mentioned), he passed with his companions to the Lord whom he had devoutly served. By these words, As is read in his Deeds, Bartholomew undoubtedly praised some older Life of St. Remedius; just as above he had praised the Deeds of the holy martyrs of the Val di Non. Of what antiquity, however, or of what stamp that Life of St. Remedius was, and what Bartholomew copied from it, what he added, is like a riddle, because that older Life, sought in vain by Roschmann and Tartarotti, now appears nowhere.

[49] The other Acts of St. Remedius, which I called above those of Hohenwart, Other Acts of the same Saint published by Rader. Matthäus Rader, presbyter of our Society, copied from Summontorium, or Altaspecula, commonly Hohenwart (which is a community of sacred virgins in the upper part of Bavaria), and, sent to him by the most ample lord Stephen, abbot of Scheyern, published them in volume 3 of Bavaria Sancta. They are twofold: the shorter have the same abbot as author, and are therefore recent. The longer are noted as taken from Lessons on St. Romedius or Remedius, and are more fabulous than the others, nor do they bear any mark of great antiquity. For the rest, these or similar Acts, or also the Acts of St. Georgenberg mentioned above, were commonly used by the more recent writers, both those who in their Histories and Annals mentioned the same Saint, and those who published his Life, among whom a certain anonymous writer published a short one in Italian at Trent in the year 1627; Georg Seiser of the Society of Jesus, in a little book on some Saints of the Tyrol, at Innsbruck in the year 1661; Amandus Friedenfels of the sacred Premonstratensian Order in Latin at Old Prague in the year 1699; Jakob Schmid, likewise of the Society of Jesus, in German in the Lives of the Saints of the Tyrol, part 1, at Augsburg in the year 1732, and others, some of whom we shall praise in the course of this Commentary when there is need.

[50] Now let us come to the examination itself of the deeds of St. Remedius. The Saint is said to have lived at the same time as St. Vigilius of Trent; All, both the Lives and almost all the writers, agree that he was a familiar of St. Vigilius, bishop and martyr of Trent, and some also add that he died before him. The Acts of St. Vigilius of Trent our Papebroch gave from a Trier manuscript of St. Maximin at the XXVII day of June, and showed that his martyrdom is to be placed at the year of Christ CD or CDV. St. Remedius, then, would have lived in the IV century, and have ceased to live towards its end or at the beginning of the following. But when we seek the author of the asserted familiarity with St. Vigilius, we find none sufficiently suitable for so great an antiquity. Certainly we know by name none older than Bartholomew of Trent, a writer of the XIII century, and how much older than he the Deeds were which he praised is not ascertained from what has been said. With Bartholomew agree the Acts of St. Vigilius in a manuscript of the Charterhouse of Cologne, from which Papebroch, in the Annotations on the purer Trier Acts, chapter 1, letter m, gives the same things which Tartarotti recorded above from the Roman Barberini ones; and the last named testifies that the same period is similarly read in a manuscript of the library of the chapter of Verona of the XVI century.

[51] The most illustrious Roschmann in his manuscript Commentary praises for it besides three Lessons on the same St. Vigilius, which, although testimonies older than the XIII century are lacking, of which the first, on the testimony of the most illustrious man Simon Peter Bartholomaei, jurisconsult, exists in a very ancient manuscript Lectionary written in Gothic letters, as they call them, of the thirteenth century, as is thought, which is kept in the archive of the chapter of Trent. The other two lessons he says were taken from two Lectionaries published in the years 1534 and 1538. I omit more; because all these things can increase the number, not add weight to the asserted familiarity; since of all of them the older is Bartholomew, or the writer of the Trent codex,

who, since he too is said to be of the XIII century, it matters little whether an older Life, of which moreover we know nothing, lighted the way first for this one or for that. To this is added that in the Acts of St. Vigilius of better stamp, such as Papebroch published from the Trier manuscript, no mention is made of St. Remedius, and there is a like silence in the same in the codex of the chapter library of Verona marked letter R, number 214, and written towards the end of the IX century, on the testimony of the most illustrious man Giovanni Giacomo Dionisi, canon of Verona, in Tartarotti in the Appendix.

[52] may be true. You have, learned reader, on what foundation rests the friendship of St. Remedius with St. Vigilius of Trent, and therefore also the age in which he is said, by the common consent of writers, to have flourished; which, since we can neither establish nor overthrow it by any more certain reason, we neither dare to assert certainly nor to deny. Nevertheless, lest anyone should make more of the silence of the sincerer Acts of the same St. Vigilius here than it deserves, let him know that in these Acts, which are by no means lengthy, very many things have without any doubt been passed over, so that this negative argument can be of no weight, or certainly of very slight weight, for the opposite. Tartarotti, who vehemently shook the Acts of St. Remedius, suspected that perhaps Remedius was referred to the times of the praised holy prelate from some old instrument badly understood. He suspected, I say, that it was read somewhere that Remedius gave something to St. Vigilius, that is, in a manner of speaking sufficiently usual in the middle age, to the church of St. Vigilius; just as to give something to St. Peter was the same as to give it to the Roman Church. I confess this manner of speaking was formerly very usual; but why should we recur here to the interpretation of an instrument of which no one makes mention, and of which the suspicion whether it ever existed is gratuitously thrust upon us? Indeed rather, since from what is to be said the church of Trent is read never to have possessed anything in the place which in his Life is said to have been given by Remedius to St. Vigilius, it is more likely that that donation was fabricated by the biographer, or the interpolator of the Life, from the Saint's familiarity with Vigilius known from elsewhere, than that the familiarity was fabricated from it.

[53] He is believed to have been born in the present-day Tyrol Let us proceed to examine the few remaining things which Bartholomew recorded about him, and which others besides have added. From his homeland and condition the former began the Life thus: Remedius, a noble man sprung from Bavaria, possessed the castle of Thaur in the Valley of the river Inn, with many other riches. Stephen, abbot of Scheyern, in our Rader, also makes him a Bavarian, who inserted him under this title into his Bavaria Sancta. Others speak a little differently. The Lessons of Hohenwart published by Rader have it thus: Remedius, a noble of the castle of Thaur, was sprung from Hall, a salt-producing city, which city is subject to the castle of Tyrol. Not to detain the reader in vain by reviewing many, I only add the testimony of Roschmann, who says in his manuscript Commentary: That the place (of the Saint's birth) is Thaur, situated anciently in Raetia, today in the county of the Tyrol near the town of Hall on the Inn, famous for its salt-works, is the unanimous assertion of all. Again in the Observations, likewise manuscript, on Tartarotti's Notes, he hands down this notice of the same place: Thaur is a most ancient place, and this parish includes four other villages, older than Innsbruck itself and Hall: for these things are the more clearly perceived by me since the archives of these three were long ago entrusted to me.

[54] But because Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy called the homeland of St. Remedius Hall, between Innsbruck and Hall in the castle of Thaur; excusing the error in the praised Commentary, he says: The error is also to be pardoned in Ferrari, who said that he was born of a respectable family at Hall on the Inn: for the present-day lordship of Thaur embraces Hall also within its compass, and the judge of this city also acts as judge of the whole lordship in criminal matters; Ferrari therefore spoke according to the custom of his times. Finally, why he is called a Bavarian by others, he assigns this reason in the Observations: Bartholomew says he sprang from Bavaria by an anachronism. For our Tyrol belonged to Bavaria only from the time when Raetia and Noricum were ceded by the Goths to the Franks in the V century, until the VIII century was well advanced, when it was taken from Tassilo and wholly added to the kingdom of Charlemagne, and given to counts to govern, as the contemporary Einhard testifies: by writers, however, and indeed by emperors, it was for some time held under the same right as Bavaria. And hence Otto of Freising, a writer of the XII century, in book 2, chapter 27, speaks of Bolzano (situated now on the border of the principality of Trent, where it lies adjacent to the county of the Tyrol) as being a town placed on the boundary of Italy and Bavaria, etc. These and more the most illustrious Roschmann in the same place.

[55] Having admitted, from the common consent of writers, the Saint's birthplace in Thaur, [a certain learned man judges it is to be explained of the place where the castle was afterwards built,] between Innsbruck and Hall, he does not on that account judge it to be admitted with them that Thaur was then a castle or stronghold such as existed in the middle age, and whose ruins still survive. For he denies that strongholds of this kind, placed outside cities or towns, befit the times of the Romans, and asserts that it is established from the remains of the same castle that it is the work of the middle age. And indeed it is by no means likely that in Roman times, in which St. Remedius is believed to have lived, a fortified stronghold of that kind was in the power and right of a private person and family; as the same writers with Bartholomew affirm. Of its structure these are his words: The castle of Thaur, whose ruins I looked at a year ago, is a structure of the middle age, not Roman: for there are still in our Tyrol not ignoble remains of Roman architectural works, which can easily be compared with other monuments of the middle age of the same region, and distinguished from them. For which reason it appears most likely to me that writers much later than Roman times, when they saw a stronghold in that place near which St. Remedius was said to have been born, were easily induced to believe that it was his natal and hereditary one.

[56] Accordingly I add the conjectures of the same most illustrious man about the birthplace. explaining it The place therefore (he says) in which the divine Remedius was born was either on the higher ground on which the village with the very ancient parish of Thaur is situated today, the chief place of the ample lordship which is likewise called Thaur; or near the higher hill of the castle or of the church of the divine Peter. It is uncertain whether at that time there was a villa there of some noble Roman citizen, such as it is right to believe the father of the divine Remedius to have been; or whether there were also several houses placed on the very ascent of the mountain, whose name has vanished through the length of time. The name Thaur also I should think befits rather the lofty mountains there than the place itself: for our princely archive at Innsbruck keeps charters, namely of the years MCCCXXV, MCCCXCVI and MCCCCXCIV, which call the castle of Thaur Das burg gesats auf Thaur, as if they should say, The castle situated on the mountain… With us Tyrolese too, in the Puster valley, those highest mountains are called die Thaurn; especially in the lordships of Virgen and Kals above the town of Lienz, etc. He adds more examples in the same place; but let these suffice concerning the place in which tradition holds that St. Remedius was brought into the light, which we know has been continued now for some centuries, and whose beginning, for the rest, we do not know.

[57] There are those who affirm that St. Remedius was born a count, As regards the time of his birth, the anonymous writer, in the Italian Life published at Trent in the year 1627, fixed it about the year of Christ 330, and Georg Seiser, presbyter of our Society, and Peter Tecinus, doctor and Prior of the hermitage of Remedius, followed him; but Jakob Schmid, likewise ours, preferred to tie it to the beginning of the IV century. But that these, and any others who wish to fix the year approximately, all divine, is manifest from this, that of the Saint's age nothing is known from the older writers except that he lived at the same time as St. Vigilius, bishop of Trent, taken away by martyrdom in the year CD or CDV; and I have shown that this very thing is not established by such old testimonies that it cannot be called into doubt. This one thing therefore it is right to gather from that common consent of older and more recent writers about the friendship of Remedius with Vigilius, that he was born in the IV century. To this tradition, however, is opposed another assertion of certain writers, which if we wish to admit, we must depart from the former. By Bartholomew of Trent St. Remedius is said only to have been a noble man… to have possessed the castle of Thaur in the valley of the river Inn: in the Lessons of Hohenwart: A noble of the castle of Thaur: in the manuscript Life of St. Vigilius from the codex of the Charterhouse of Cologne: A noble of Taurus; and in Janus Pincius, book 1 of the Lives of the Pontiffs of Trent: Rhomedius of Taurus, a noble man.

[58] and to have possessed by hereditary right the county of Thaur with the castle, The Italian Life published at Trent hints something more, according to which he was born of illustrious blood … and lord of the castle of Thaur, the ancient patrimony of his forefathers. Concerning the castle and its possession I have set out my mind above. There is no reason why I should hold the splendour of his birth suspect, except from the common zeal of men for ascribing nobility to the Saints. But others, and indeed more, have added to him also the dignity of count of Thaur, which some have called hereditary, such as the counties of this time are wont to be; others have interpreted it, more aptly for those times, as the prefecture of the place. The patrons of both opinions Roschmann, disapproving them, reviewed thus in his Commentary: So indeed the tablet cited above (see number 18) and the Chronicle of St. George (see the same place), Lazius, Burglechner, Count von Mohr, Tecinus, Friedenfels and Fr. Schmid address our Saint. Rader, in Bavaria Sancta, volume 3, folio 18, explains that he was count, that is, prefect of the place, toparch and judge. Brunner, in part 1 of the Annales Boici, book 4, affirms that he was also Lord of Summontorium, which today we call Altaspecula, in Bavaria, and, as we now speak, count.

[59] Rader believed him a count by office; Receive Rader's words. The lords of Summontorium, sprung from a most ancient stock, founded both the castle of Schrobenhausen in Bavaria and that of Summontorium, and also Thaur between Innsbruck and Hall… Of these counts, I say, the most ancient of all is mentioned in the tablets of Summontorium, St. Remedius… The name of counts, further, in that age meant nothing but the prefect of the place and toparch and judge; as is established from the Notitia Imperii. Thus far he. From the opinion of those who thought that Remedius was born count of Thaur by hereditary right, Friedenfels entitled his Work, which we mentioned above, in this manner: The glorious St. Romedius, of the counts of Thaur, Andechs and Hohenwart, apostle of the Val di Non in the Tyrol, etc. Nay more, the most illustrious count Romedius Constantine of Thun, in the splendid chapel which I have said was erected by him to this Saint in Bohemia, set up a family shield, as

belonging to his family and proper to him, to be hung on the altar with this motto:

Illustrious in his arms, but he stands forth more illustrious in his signs.

I forbear from reviewing the names of more writers. Of Lazius and Aventinus I shall say something below; of the lineage of the counts of Summontorium and Andechs, and of the castles founded by them, it does not pertain to me to inquire, who treat of St. Remedius alone.

[60] Those who affirm that he obtained the dignity of count by the condition of his birth, the opinion of the former cannot be reconciled with the Saint's age. and acquired by hereditary right the castle of Thaur distinguished by that title of honour, or even that he first brought both into his family to be possessed by the same right, need no other refutation than that it is established that counties of that kind were altogether unknown in the age in which they hold that St. Remedius lived, and only began to be erected some centuries afterwards. Of the antiquity of the castle of Thaur conjecture from what has been said; but at whatever time it was first founded, Roschmann makes me doubt whether it ever bore the title of a county. I indeed (he says in his Commentary), having for twenty years now searched the chief archives of my homeland, and almost innumerable charters, and having used every effort, have been able as yet to find no counts of Thaur. It remains that we inquire whether it is in any way likely that St. Remedius held a county, not by right of birth, nor such as are possessed in our time; but by office and the favour of the emperor, such as counties are established to have been in that age. Of a count of this kind there exists an honourable mention in the letter which St. Vigilius, already often praised, wrote to St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, not long after the martyrdom of the saints of the Val di Non, and sent together with their relics through the same count.

[61] You have it in our Work, volume VII of May, page 42 and following, St. Vigilius of Trent left a distinguished testimony whence I copy some things here, certain corrections being applied, without which the phrasing, otherwise sufficiently obscure, is also inept and gaping. To holy ears (he says) a new guest of charity would not otherwise apply himself… nor would an unknown man imbue an address, unless the reward also provoked him. From an apostolic man, therefore, most dear brother, the tenor and fullness of the present letter will begin; that you may understand by an easy connection what the praises of the Martyrs follow. For James, a man faithful to heavenly desires, being about to lay down his comital dignity among the companions of Christ, asked for the relics of recent Saints, still smoking with vapour. I have said "about to lay down", because that dignity cannot be laid aside which is heaped up with the Lord. Whom I … almost, while I fear (lest I should bestow so great a treasure too imprudently), refused, what I considered one always ought [] to spend in order to gain interest. I had made (I confess), by private fear, the loss of many, had I not looked to James, that to saint John … a delegated love might be carried through the religious names of the martyrs, and a not foreign brotherhood be joined again by blood.* He looked here, as Papebroch annotated in the same place, to the holy apostles John and James, brothers german, of whom the holy bishop of Constantinople bore the name of the first, that count the name of the second. Further, if we weigh all the things said by St. Vigilius about James, they so fit our Romedius that, if they are two, they are certainly very similar.

[62] about a certain count James, which fits St. Remedius so By comital dignity Papebroch, in the Annotations at the same place, Tillemont in volume 10 of the Mémoires, page 548, on St. Vigilius, Tartarotti in the Historical Memoirs of the same holy martyrs of the Val di Non, page 42, and Roschmann in the manuscript Commentary understand the county; and that is beyond doubt the natural interpretation of comital dignity. We have therefore a noble man, and a count, towards the end of the fourth century, contemporary with St. Vigilius of Trent, present with him, his friend, and held by him in great esteem for his virtues; such, namely, as St. Remedius is said to have been. That James was a man faithful to heavenly desires; which no one will deny fits Remedius aptly, who preferred the anchoretic life to worldly riches and pleasures; James is said to be about to lay down his comital dignity among the companions of Christ: from which manner of speaking the praised Tillemont gathers that he had resolved to give himself to the solitary life; Tartarotti, that, having bidden farewell to human affairs, he was ready to visit the holy places of Palestine. The words of Vigilius indicate something similar not obscurely; especially since he subjoins: I have said "about to lay down"; because that dignity cannot be laid aside which is heaped up with the Lord, namely on account of contempt of the world and Christian humility. The same things are read of St. Remedius in the Life in Bartholomew, whose words I subjoin.

[63] so that there may be a suspicion that that James And he heard the Lord saying (in the Gospel) "Go, and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor." Having taken to himself therefore two … (companions) he began to travel through the thresholds of the Saints. Then he is said also to have gone to Rome, and at length, having returned, to have spent the remaining days of his life in anchoretic exercises in the Val di Non, where the aforesaid holy martyrs had suffered. Finally, the title of apostolic man, given to James, can rightly be attributed to Remedius, whether it signify the apostolic manner of food and clothing, or also zeal for souls; for he too is called by some the apostle of the Val di Non. I confess it is unknown whither that James at last came: yet what wonder would it be if he (such as he is described by St. Vigilius), out of love for the same martyrs, had made for himself a solitary cell beside the place where they had suffered not so long before, where he could be confirmed in his purpose by their recent memory and as it were by their sight, and, not far from there, enjoy the conversation of his absent friend Vigilius when he wished. From all these things I should altogether believe that this James is St. Remedius or Romedius, were it not that the too great diversity of the names stood in the way.

[64] was perhaps Remedius Who, however, will make me certain that the Saint was not two-named, and that St. Vigilius did not use the name James rather than Remedius because, when he was writing to St. John Chrysostom, it pleased him to allude to the holy brother apostles John and James; and finally that the name Remedius did not prevail, both because it was more proper or more usual for him, and because it also seemed more significant and more fitting on account of the remedies or benefits wont to be obtained from God at his invocation. Besides the diversity of the name, some Lives are opposed to my suspicion, in which St. Remedius is said to have died before the praised martyrs of the Val di Non, and his funeral to have been cared for by them together with Vigilius. These things would plainly overthrow it, were they not more recent, and did they not otherwise render that very narration more suspect by the fables added, which I shall briefly mention below. Older than they, Bartholomew, in the Life of St. Vigilius, puts the martyrdom of the saints of the Val di Non before the coming of Remedius to Vigilius; but of his death, both in this and in the Life of our Saint himself, he speaks so ambiguously that it cannot be said for certain whether he judged that one survived the other: and although his sense were established, he himself is not of such authority that he can make certain a matter so far removed from his time.

[65] For the rest, I do not wish more weight to be attributed to this suspicion of mine, which may be mistaken, called by another name. Of Johannes Aventinus than what on the one side the same time of life of both gives it, the friendship with St. Vigilius, the same illustrious condition, the like contempt of worldly things, and the other things said about James by Vigilius; and what on the other side the diversity of the name and the unknown remaining life of James diminish; which things I leave to be weighed by the prudent reader: but at the same time let him remember that, if that James is different from Remedius, no certain notice of this Saint exists older than the XIII century, in which Bartholomew of Trent wrote; and that that James, so greatly praised by St. Vigilius, has also, as to the rest, fallen utterly out of all memory. Singular are the things which Johannes Aventinus and Wolfgang Lazius wrote about the same Saint. The first of these, in the Annales Boiorum, book 3, makes St. Remedius in the VI century prefect of Noricum, opposing himself in vain on behalf of the Romans to Theodo, petty king of the Bavarians, and at length at page 261, after the year 520, subjoins: That in that season the divine Vigilius, pontiff of Trent, was killed with certain fellow-initiates by the Bavarians, and that the divine Remedius, prefect of Noricum, was driven out with his companions, I have authorities whom I may follow.

[66] The credit of the authors whom he does not name, and who are otherwise unknown to me, and of Wolfgang Lazius I cannot estimate: meanwhile it is now sufficiently established among the learned that that Theodo with his deeds is fictitious, and that the first duke of the Bavarians of this name is he who about the middle of the VII century received St. Emmeram and kindly detained him. It is likewise established that St. Vigilius, in whose Acts nothing similar is read, underwent martyrdom certainly not later than the year 405; and that the boldness of Aventinus in fabling is great. Wolfgang Lazius also sold trifles, in book 6 of the Migrations of Peoples, page 176, where, under this title, Counts of Thaur, that is, the posterity of the Taurisci, who held power in the Raetias or on the river Adige as far as Vindelicia, etc., he put in the first place Evin, under the emperor Maurice, in the second Gaidoald; in the third Alachis, and finally in the fourth Remedius with this short elogium: Remedius, on account of the continence of his life, was received into the number of the Saints; whose sepulchre is still venerated at Nansperg. In the fifth place follows Henry, count of Altdorf from Swabia, son of Etichon and brother-in-law of the emperor Louis the Pious, who on account of his wife named Beata, descending from the stock of St. Remedius, presided over the Adige district. He adds also others, whom he brought down to the middle of the XII century.

[67] But whence, you will say, did Lazius learn these things? For the first three he praises Paul the deacon in the Deeds of the Lombards; fables about the same Saint are rejected. for Henry and his wife Beata, Conrad of Ursperg in his Chronicle; for Remedius none. From Paul the deacon we have that Evin, Gaidoald and Alachis were Lombards and dukes of Trent; that they had anything in common with St. Remedius, neither he nor any other of the ancients has handed down. In like manner Conrad of Ursperg, in the Chronicle, Strasbourg edition, page 209, writes indeed that Henry Welf married a wife from Bavaria, named Beata; but that she descended from the stock of St. Remedius, he indicates by no word. These are therefore trifles of Lazius, who asserts without a witness things unknown to the rest, and removes saint Remedius to other times against the common opinion of the writers.

[] ought*

§ V. The remaining assertions of Bartholomew of Trent examined, and other things handed down besides by others.

The donation of the castle and territory of Thaur From the false opinion mentioned above, according to which St. Remedius was believed to have been count of Thaur by right of birth and inheritance, flowed also another, which hands down that the castle of Thaur with its subjects was given by him to St. Vigilius, that is, to the bishopric of Trent, or, as it pleased others, to the see of Augsburg of the Vindelici. Let us hear Bartholomew in his Life. St. Remedius (coming to St. Vigilius from his Roman journey) *two thousand men with the castle

of Thaur and the churches and all their appurtenances he conferred on the bishopric of Trent. And to the Church of Augsburg he left many things. Roschmann observes that in the St. Georgenberg manuscript, in place of bis mille (two thousand), there is read by abbreviation bn mille, which perhaps signifies bene mille (a good thousand). The same Bartholomew, in the Life of St. Vigilius in Tartarotti, says again: Meanwhile Remedius, a noble of Taurus … went to Rome, and returning, left more than a thousand souls with all his possessions to St. Vigilius. The Cologne manuscript praised by our Papebroch in the Annotations on the Life of the same holy Prelate of Trent, volume V of June, page 166, at letter m, agrees; for in his sincerer Acts nothing of the kind is to be read. The most reverend Stephen, abbot of Scheyern, in Rader in Bavaria Sacra, partly agrees, partly dissents.

[69] made by the Saint to the church of Trent or Augsburg, For he (says he) is handed down, renouncing the world, to have magnificently enriched the episcopal see of that city (Trent) with the abundance of his means, and with a number of about a thousand of his household. For it is affirmed that he conferred the town of Thaur, of splendid extent and distinguished by three churches, the castle having been destroyed, into the ownership of the see of Augsburg: for there he is said to have possessed the habitation of a hereditary dwelling. Of both donations the Lessons of Hohenwart, and the Italian Life published at Trent in the year 1627, are more rightly silent. For who does not see that it is the invention of a writer of a later age, who, having read that Remedius renounced worldly things for the love of God, and believing that he had been the hereditary count and lord of the castle of Thaur (such, namely, as counties already existed at the time when he was writing), consequently opined that the same castle, with all the serfs and subjects belonging to it, was given by him to none more likely than to the church of Trent, whose prelate St. Vigilius he followed with singular affection and veneration, not otherwise than his father. By a like reasoning, since he knew that the church of Augsburg had possessions in the lordship of Thaur, he could conjecture that these too were received from the same Saint, and thrust his conjectures upon us as ascertained facts.

[70] is the invention of a more recent age, It will help here also to add the observation of the most illustrious Roschmann. He has it thus: That donation is asserted without a witness; the church of Trent possesses nothing in Thaur, nor ever possessed anything. It is the church of Augsburg which obtained very ancient rights and possessions not only in Thaur but in the very bishopric of Trent, namely in the district of Bolzano; so much so that it liberally maintains in perpetuity in the same Bolzano a Provost, commonly called of St. Afra, a sufficiently noble and conspicuous man. But these revenues came to the church of Augsburg not from St. Remedius (as I know these things certainly), but from great princes and, as is believed, from very ancient times, and perhaps from Frankish kings, or at least from more powerful lords. I once saw a diploma of Henry, king of Bohemia, made at the beginning of the XIV century, by which he took upon himself the guardianship of these things, which our princes still exercise. If the older writers had not scraped together what they published from others in good faith, as it seemed to them, the acts of the Saints would not swarm with so many fables. Thus far Roschmann; the justice of whose last complaint we too frequently experience, when we see the Lives of the Saints so shamefully infected by the levity of interpolators that the things in them which are genuine lose even their own value from the fables mixed in.

[71] There are others who interpret the donation of two thousand or a thousand souls or men perhaps born from true facts. of as many unbelievers converted by St. Remedius to the faith of Christ, and handed over to St. Vigilius, his pastor, to be gathered into the church of Trent and governed; which is not abhorrent from the truth, and this opinion is favoured by the title of Apostle of the Val di Non which some attribute to St. Remedius; and if he is the same as the count James about whom I disputed above, there will favour it besides the saying of St. Vigilius, who in his letter calls him an apostolic man. Further, although we think the donation of the castle of Thaur and of the things pertaining to it fictitious, it cannot prudently be doubted that Remedius was munificent towards St. Vigilius: and as fables are often wont to be born from true things, as regards those three churches, St. Vigilius, in his Acts at the XXVI day of June, and in the Acts of the holy martyrs of the Val di Non published in our Work at the XXIX of May, is read to have founded two churches; one at Trent at the Verona gate, in which he himself was also buried, the other in the Val di Non in the place where the martyrs just mentioned had been crowned; in the building of each of which Remedius could have been his helper with his wealth. The third may perhaps have been a sacred little chapel; if it is true, as the Lessons of Hohenwart assert, that St. Remedius built one (which they more liberally call a basilica) for his own use and that of his companions.

[72] I proceed to the place in which the Saint is believed to have led the solitary life and ended it by a blessed death. The Saint led the anchoretic life in the Val di Non Bartholomew, in the Life received by Tartarotti from the St. Georgenberg apograph, mentions it in a few words thus: But the Saint had lived in Anania serving the castle, and renowned for his life and miracles he rested. Roschmann, who copied the same Life for us from the St. Georgenberg codex itself, reads a little differently in this manner: But the Saint lived in Anania. Serving the castle, renowned for his life and miracles he rested. Each reading is faulty, and I should believe it should be corrected by substituting Christ for the castle, did not another passage of the same Bartholomew persuade that one should rather read near the castle. For in the Life of St. Vigilius in the same Tartarotti he says again: As is read in his (St. Remedius's) Deeds, in his (St. Vigilius's, of Trent) diocese, near the castle of Tau, next to the place where the Saints suffered (the martyrs of the Val di Non), he passed with his companions to the Lord whom he had devoutly served. The same things are had in the interpolated Cologne Acts of the same holy bishop in Papebroch, volume V of June, page 166. The Lectionaries praised by Roschmann agree, in the first of which, of the XIII century as is believed, his cell is assigned near the castle of Tavonum, the place where the Saints suffered: in the second: Near the castle of Taonum, next to the place where the aforesaid martyrs suffered: in the third, that is, the Breviary: Near the castle Eam (this word is so faulty there) next to the place where the Saints suffered.

[73] [not far from the place of the martyrdom of SS. Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander,] Not to be longer, all, or almost all, set the place of the solitary life and death of St. Remedius not far from that where SS. Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander were killed and burned by a crowd of gentiles in the year 397, although some disagree somewhat in the name of the place. That place, moreover, is in the diocese and principality of Trent, in the valley Anania, sometimes called by others Anagnia and Anaunia, by the Italians Val d'Annone and Val di Non. For a further notice of the place let us hear Roschmann again. The St. Georgenberg manuscript (that is, Bartholomew in the Life of St. Vigilius) says not Tau but (which I considered on purpose) Thaum, and so wrote it, Thav; which a separate printed map of the Val di Non in our public library calls Taon, and another, of the most illustrious man Joseph Sperges, made from ocular inspection, Tavon, and places it in the vicinity of the church and the stream of St. Remedius. Tartarotti agrees in the Memoirs of the same martyrs, where at page 32 and the following, disputing about the place of the martyrdom, he teaches that Tavon is a village of the pieve, or parish, of St. Zeno, in Italian Pieve di S. Zeno, so called corruptly for St. Sisinnius; and neighbouring to it: which I wished to be observed here briefly, because Ferrari, adduced at number 1 of this Commentary, has that the body of St. Romedius is kept in his own church in the Pieve of St. Zeno.

[74] where he died at the beginning of the century. On Blaeu's geographical map of the principality of Trent, the church of St. Remedius is placed between two streams, which, joined below, flow into the river Nux, commonly Noce, a mile and a half Italian from the Pieve of St. Zeno; whether this is accurate the people of Trent will know. See also what was said above in this Commentary at number 7 and the following. The holy Man therefore chose a place apt for the anchoretic life not far from that where St. Sisinnius with two companions had received martyrdom for his apostolic labours, and he chose it probably with this design, that from this nearness of a sacred place and the recent memory of the martyrs he might take new courage day by day in his holy purpose. Hence, however, gather that those are not to be listened to who, without a suitable witness, put the death of St. Remedius before the martyrdom of the same, and that therefore my suspicion about count James, which I set out from the letter of St. Vigilius in the preceding §, cannot be weakened by their sayings. How long he lived there, or about what year he departed from the living, none of the ancients has handed down, nor is any monument praised from which it could be gathered. Rashly therefore must be said to have divined the author of the Italian Life already frequently named, and those who with him tied his death to the year 400. To me, from what has hitherto been adduced, nothing more likely seems able to be asserted than that it happened some years after the fifth century had begun. Bartholomew assigns the 1st day of October, on which he is also venerated in the monastery of St. George; but in the bishopric of Trent his Office is celebrated on the XV day of January.

[75] He is read to have had two companions, Up to this point I have deferred treating of the two companions of the Saint, so that the things which pertained to him might flow more readily. In the Life of St. Vigilius by Bartholomew, and in the Cologne manuscript, these things are to be read about them. Meanwhile Remedius, a noble of Taurus, with his companions Abra [] and David went to Rome, and returning, left more than a thousand souls with all his possessions to St. Vigilius, and, as is read in his Deeds, in his diocese near the castle of Tau, next to the place where the Saints suffered, he passed with his companions to the Lord whom he had devoutly served. In the Life of St. Remedius himself, however, the same Bartholomew writes: Having taken to himself therefore two, namely Abraham, who was surnamed Adeodatus, and David, he began to travel through the thresholds of the Saints, etc.; and at length of the death of all three he subjoins: The Saint … rested on the Kalends of October; whom his companions also followed. The faithful therefore made a church over the holy bodies. Stephen, abbot of Scheyern, in Rader in Bavaria Sancta, made one of them a servant, saying thus: Blessed Remedius, with a certain colleague of his, Abraham, whose surname was Deodatus, and a servant named David, applied himself unceasingly to the divine service, etc.* On the contrary, in the Lessons of Hohenwart published in the same place, the same companions are said to have been two noble youths, not of the lowest rank, namely Abraham and David.

[76] Likewise the author of the Italian Life calls both noble and rich, whom certain writers, from a faulty announcement of Greven, whom Filippo Ferrari followed in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at

the Kalends of June, and others. Which of these is truer, who, in such great darkness of antiquity, would declare without some other light? Singular is Greven's announcement about them, which I showed above was adopted by Adam Walasser in the German Martyrology, commonly called Peter Canisius's. It is necessary to repeat here Greven's words at the Kalends of October. Likewise of the holy confessors Remedius, Abra, who is also Deodatus, David, disciples of saint Germanus the bishop. Behold, not only Abra and David, but also Remedius himself, are said to have been disciples of St. Germanus the bishop; but who that Germanus was is not added. Tartarotti, who vehemently attacked the Acts of St. Remedius, forged an argument against them from this also. He denies that this Germanus can be other than the bishop of Auxerre or of Paris; and since the former was born in the year 378, was made bishop in the year 418, and died in the year 448; while the other met his last day in the year 576, he observes that what is narrated of the companionship of Abraham and David with St. Remedius, and of his death, met before or not long after the martyrdom of St. Vigilius, cannot be reconciled with the age of either. Therefore he wishes it to be believed, or at least makes it likely, that Abraham and David were disciples of one or the other St. Germanus, and were imprudently added to St. Remedius by an inept writer who neglected the reckoning of time: and that the silence of the biographers of both holy prelates, who have also omitted other things, does not stand in the way.

[77] Why did he not by the same argument contend also for making Remedius the disciple of one or the other bishop, he tries in vain to take them away from him: since Greven speaks of all in the same manner? Indeed, why did he not rather accuse Greven of error than Bartholomew of Trent, almost three centuries older than he, who praises older Acts and has others agreeing with him? To me it appears most likely, not to say certain, that Greven came into this error either by the omission of a single point, or from a passage badly understood. Greven reads thus: Likewise of the holy confessors Remedius, Abra, who is also Deodatus, David, disciples of saint Germanus the bishop. Of Imerus, confessor. Likewise, etc. Just as he himself here separated Imerus from what precedes by interposing a point, so let us also separate Germanus in this manner: Likewise of the holy confessors, of saint Remedius, Abra, who is also Deodatus, David, disciples. Of Saint Germanus the bishop. Of Imerus, confessor. Likewise, etc. If we read so, Abra and David will have to be said to have been disciples of none other than Remedius, and will have nothing in common with that St. Germanus. And lest you think these things are said by me gratuitously, observe that on this same day in various Martyrologies the translation, in others the deposition, of St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, is announced, and that hence it could easily have happened that Greven, finding in some apograph the bare announcement of St. Germanus the bishop placed, in the manner I have said, after St. Remedius and his disciples, the punctuation being omitted or worn away, believed that these were disciples of St. Germanus.

[78] of their cult we have no certain knowledge. Assuredly no one who is accustomed to turn over the apographs of the old Martyrologies can be ignorant how frequently, through carelessness of this kind on the part of the copyists, Saints torn from their true places are referred to foreign classes. What apograph Greven followed here I have not ascertained; yet that it was different from the Usuardine Augmentations which Sollerius reviewed in his Martyrology of Usuard is clear from the announcement of Imerus the confessor, which is absent from all of them. In vain, then, did Tartarotti try to persuade from this passage of Greven that Abra and David, as disciples of one or the other St. Germanus, were ineptly attributed to St. Remedius, for the confirmation of which he could produce neither any older testimony, nor solid reason, nor finally anyone of the more recent writers except Walasser. For which reason I for my part do not see why we should believe that those two companions of St. Remedius, who could have been passed over without any loss to the praise of the same Saint, were gratuitously fabricated. Not on that account, however, do we dare to give them a place among the Saints and Blesseds in our Work; because I have found nothing from elsewhere which proves their cult. Bartholomew indeed says that a church was built by the faithful over the holy bodies of all three; but this too does not suffice to assert the cult of these two, since this church bears even today the title of St. Remedius alone, nor is it read ever to have been dedicated to the companions; so that burial indeed, but not cult, seems able to be called common to all three.

[79] To be held for fables are the things about birds carrying tiles elsewhere, Now let us run briefly through certain other things, unknown to Bartholomew, or at least prudently passed over by him, which are related by others about our Saint. I shall not, however, take care to mention all the things added besides by more recent writers from mere conjectures without any foundation; which would be no less tedious than useless. Without doubt to be held for fables are the things which are read in Rader, in the Lessons of Hohenwart, about him building his cell, in this manner: For then, intending to build the basilica itself on a certain smaller crag, not far from that (on which he afterwards built), he saw and proved by the judgment of God that that place was not worthy to lodge so great a Worshipper of God. And in sign of this, birds of no small size carried wooden tiles and other things with their beaks from that smaller crag to the same eminent crag, where now the basilica itself is built. The appearance of an invention also has the story of the bear, related in the same Lessons, and adopted by the author of the Italian Life of Trent and by others, whose sum is this. A bear devoured the horse which St. Remedius was wont to use on account of his strength worn out by old age or ill health, when he, foreseeing his approaching death, had resolved to go to St. Vigilius for the last time.

[80] about the bear taking the place of the devoured horse, He commands his disciple David to put a bridle on the bear and bring it, to take the place of the horse. He obeys; the bear complies, and the Saint, sitting on it, proceeds to Trent, on the way freeing by his prayers a possessed woman from a demon, and another girl from fevers: all of which are also shown in an image engraved in copper, which I have printed. Rader, since he held that narration suspect, most of all on this head, that so prodigious a riding of a bear little befitted the holy Man, who sedulously avoided popular favour and the appearance of miracles, preferred to make the bear the carrier of his baggage, adducing as an example another bear, which is read to have rendered the same service to St. Corbinian, bishop of Freising, in his Life written by Arbeo, prelate of the same see, which you have published by us at the VIII day of September, on which he is venerated. So also it seemed good to the painter, or whoever caused to be painted the picture exposed on the high altar of the chapel of Choltitz in Bohemia, concerning which see what was said at number 45. I, to declare my mind in a few words, judge that that bear of Remedius, whether you prefer to make it the carrier of the Saint himself or of his baggage, since it lacks a suitable author, deserves no credit. The cures of the possessed woman and of the feverish girl labour only under the same fault, which otherwise suffer no difficulty and are sufficiently frequent in genuine Acts of the Saints.

[81] Again the little bell and the consecration of the church by angels, of the little bell ringing of itself, and the church consecrated by angels, which are read in the same Italian Life, sound like fables. Namely St. Remedius is said, bidding farewell to St. Vigilius and foretelling his imminent death, to have promised that in his last agony the little bell which the latter had would of its own accord give forth a sound, and that this prodigy actually happened with a threefold sound. This sign being received, the holy bishop (if the same writer is believed), together with his three disciples, afterwards martyrs, Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, having presently set out to his cell, buried the dead man with solemn obsequies in the little church which he himself had erected while living, and resolved to consecrate that church on the following day. But the same night, roused from sleep by a certain venerable man and sent to the church, he saw it and its altar being dedicated by angels. So almost in the Life: in the Lessons of Hohenwart both miracles are promised by the Saint, and the author undoubtedly wished it to be believed that they took place. Both also some more recent writers have admitted without criticism: but no one, I believe, will wonder that I require older guarantors than are that anonymous writer of Trent, a writer of the XVII century, and the compiler of the Hohenwart Lectionary, of an age unknown to me, but certainly not sufficiently suitable for creating belief.

[82] Nevertheless it must be confessed that the aforesaid consecration of the church, certain others have narrated. as done by angels, is inscribed in the Trentino-Veronese Kalendar which Tartarotti published, at the beginning of the month of June, as I mentioned above, in words which I subjoin. Note that always on the first Sunday of the month of June is the angelic Consecration of the happy and devout chapel of St. Romedius in the Val di Non of the diocese of Trent. The praised Kalendar, in Tartarotti's judgment, was indeed written between the year of Christ 1255 and the year 1313; but the additions or interpolations, among which is this announcement, made by another hand, are not older than the XV century. If this is so, it can add no weight to the said narration, and perhaps has as its author one who, to the old announcement of the Dedication of the same church, which he had learned from elsewhere, added from the Hohenwart Lectionary the word Angelic, because namely he had read in it that it was performed by angels. I have said: to the old announcement of the dedication, which I do not doubt to be much older; and which, as can be seen above in §1, is rightly affixed in the same Lectionary to the first Sunday of the month of June.

[] otherwise Abia*

§ VI. The arguments are weighed and refuted by which Chastelain and Tartarotti have tried to prove that St. Remedius of the Tyrol is St. Remigius, prelate of Reims.

Answer is made to the arguments which Tartarotti Besides the things which we have disapproved in the Acts, Tartarotti disapproved many more; and indeed so that he not only wished the Acts themselves, as stitched together from the Lives of other Saints, to be of no credit at all, but also to call into doubt whether that St. Remedius of Trent ever existed. The things, however, which he objects partly attack all the Lives of the Saint, partly only Rader's monuments, or the particular assertions of others. Against all tell the reasons which he drew from the silence of the older monuments, from his non-cult in the diocese of Brixen, from the very name of the Saint, Remedius, and from the days on which he is venerated. He argues from silence, first, that, although he is called a Bavarian by some, nevertheless the diligent writers of Bavarian affairs, Veit Arnpeck, Bernard Noricus and Wiguleus Hund, have not mentioned him; indeed, that not even Marcus Welser knew other things about him than what he had learned from Pincius: secondly, that neither in the old Martyrologies nor among the old collectors of the Lives of the Saints, Jacobus de Voragine, Petrus Calo and Peter de Natalibus, does any mention of him exist. I do not inquire whether, and how much, it was to the purpose of the first three to mention St. Remedius; but certainly older than all of them is Bartholomew of Trent, who also praised an older Life. Bartholomew wrote before

the middle of the XIII century; Bernard Noricus in the XIV century, Arnpeck towards the end of the XV, Hund finally in the XVI.

[84] objected from the silence of the ancients and the lack of cult. The compilers of Lives praised by Tartarotti are also younger than Bartholomew; of whom Jacobus de Voragine wrote after the middle of the XIII century, Petrus Calo perhaps survived up to the year 1310 or even later; Peter de Natalibus wrote after the middle of the XIV century. A Life of St. Remedius therefore existed in their times, nor can anything else be inferred from their silence than that he was not among the more celebrated Saints whose Acts had become known more widely. As regards the Martyrologies, I confess that I have none older in which he is mentioned than that of Hagenau, which our Sollerius judged to have been first written in the year 1412: yet his cult much older is proved both by what was said in §§1 and 2, and by the church sacred to his name, which Tartarotti himself acknowledged already existed in the time of Bartholomew, and whose beginning he did not assign, nor could assign. Why the diocese of Säben, afterwards of Brixen, in which he is said to have been born, does not venerate him, and whether it never venerated him, let it see to that itself: but certainly he is venerated, and for many centuries was venerated, in two places of the same diocese, namely in the village of Thaur and in the monastery of St. George; he is likewise venerated through the whole diocese of Trent with an annual Office, and besides with particular veneration in the Val di Non, in which he led the eremitic life and crowned it with a blessed end. Let us proceed to the argument which the same most illustrious Tartarotti formed from the name of the Saint and the days of his cult.

[85] He observes, then, that St. Remigius, prelate of the people of Reims, is also called Remedius by various ancients; The same writer tried to persuade that this Remedius is St. Remigius of Reims, that he is said by Hincmar in his Life and by Flodoard in the History of the church of Reims to have died on the XIII day of January; and that nevertheless his feast is ordinarily marked in the Martyrologies at the Kalends of October, in others at the XV day of January. In like manner, he says, the death of St. Remedius of Trent is referred by some to the XIII day of January, but his feast is celebrated through the diocese of Trent on the XV of the same month. Moreover, that the translation of St. Remigius of Reims is venerated on the Kalends of October, on which same day Bartholomew and others write that St. Remedius of Trent died, confusing the day of the latter's death with the day of the former's translation. These things premised, he concludes that it must altogether be said either that the things which are read on this matter about St. Remedius of Reims are inventions, and received from the Acts of St. Remedius of Trent; or on the contrary that the things which are said about St. Remedius of Trent are borrowed from the monuments pertaining to St. Remedius of Reims. The first he deservedly denies can be admitted, and accordingly determines that whatever we have about our St. Remedius in this part is to be held for fictions and things fetched from elsewhere.

[86] Hence he argues further that the true day of his death and feast was unknown in all past centuries and is so today; deformed by fables; which also seemed so to Chastelain: which he notes would be the more to be wondered at if he had been the first confessor and protector of the Tyrol, and if the prodigies were true which are narrated to have happened at his death, by which it would necessarily have become much more celebrated than the death of St. Remigius of Reims. By all these things the praised writer hints not obscurely that St. Remedius of Trent seems to him to be the same as the one of Reims, but plainly deformed by fabulous deeds ineptly scraped together from the Lives of other Saints. In this opinion he had as his forerunner Claude Chastelain in the Observations on the first two months of the Roman Martyrology turned into French, page 231, where he asserted it as by no means doubtful in words which I subjoin rendered from French into Latin. At Trent there is a church called St. Romegius's (in French called Saint-Romege). Ferrari believed that this Saint was different from St. Remigius (of Reims), since he calls him a Confessor of Trent, naming him in Latin Romedius. But since he himself says that he died on the XIII day of January, and that his feast is kept on the XV; and he is also read to be honoured on the 1st day of October, as Rader writes in his Bavaria Sancta, where, not recognizing him, he called him Romedius; and since Bolland found the same called Remedius, as is clear in the Passed Over at XV January; who does not see that this is St. Remigius himself (of Reims), who in various manuscripts, even of Reims, is read named Remedius; with which word the name Remy (so the French call Remigius) has a greater analogy than with the word Remigius.

[87] Our Sollerius also favoured it, when in the Usuardine Augmentations at the Kalends of October he took up this announcement of the Hagenau codex, In the bishopric of Tridemiensis, of saint Remedius, confessor, whose reasons, sought from the synonymous name of each, thus: I understand neither Tridemiensis nor Tridentinensis, as others speak; and he referred his reader, without further examination, to the given passage of Chastelain. But it is now my part to weigh the reasons alleged by those two. That the holy bishop of Reims, Remigius, is also called Remedius by various ancients, I shall show in his deeds, to be illustrated on this very day. There likewise I shall teach that his happy death is fixed by Hincmar and Flodoard to the XIII day of January, and that his memory is celebrated in the Martyrologies on the same day, and also two days after, and also on the Kalends of October. The diocese of Reims venerates its patron on the XIII day of January with a feast among the people; but where outside that diocese he is honoured on the XV of the same month, this is done because the XIII is impeded by the Octave of the Epiphany of the Lord, so that it was necessary for his feast to be transferred. On the Kalends of October the translation of his body is celebrated, as the Martyrology of the Roman Church also notes, which, with all who follow its rite, honours him with an annual Office on the same day.

[88] and from the common days of cult, etc., Now to come to St. Remedius of Trent, Roschmann denies that his death is referred by anyone except Ferrari to the XIII day of January; nor have I found anyone besides; all the rest being silent about the day of his death, or marking it with Bartholomew at the Kalends of October. Unless therefore it is a misprint of the typesetters, Ferrari must be said to have slipped in memory here. So falls the argument sought from the day of death: for they have praised no other writer for tying the death of St. Remedius of Trent to the XIII day. As to cult, it must be confessed that St. Remedius has two days in common with St. Remigius of Reims, yet in a different manner. The latter's chief festival among the people of Reims is kept on the XIII day of January, as the day of his death; on which day St. Remedius of Trent is neither venerated nor said to have died, except by error on the part of Ferrari. He is venerated, however, on the XV day of January through the whole diocese of Trent, and in the villages of Thaur, Tulfes and Rinn, of the diocese of Brixen, into whose Kalendars also his memory on that day was long ago inserted.

[89] are carefully weighed, On the same day, indeed, St. Remigius of Reims is also announced in some Hieronymian apographs and from them in Greven; and Fiorentini notes that he is then venerated by the Carthusians of Cologne; but they transferred that feast from its proper day for a just cause, as I shall say on St. Remigius; and perhaps from a like custom of some particular place the memory of the same holy bishop was referred in the above-said apographs to a place otherwise foreign to it. There remains the third day objected by the praised writers, namely the Kalends of October, which is sacred to the celebrated translations of Remigius of Reims, and on which therefore his feast is recalled in the Roman Breviary. On the same day the Benedictines of St. George in the diocese of Brixen solemnly celebrate it, and have long celebrated it, alone differing from the rest. What the cause is I do not know; nor is it easy to say whether they chose that day from Bartholomew of Trent, by whom it is handed down to have been the day of the Saint's death, or whether on the contrary Bartholomew fixed the day of death from the same festal day. Meanwhile the greater likelihood stands for the XV of January, from the annual cult in the whole diocese of Trent, whose beginning is unknown. Besides, there could also have been a particular reason why in the monastery of St. George that feast was kept on a different day than elsewhere; for example, because on the Kalends of October the exaltation of his relics perhaps took place there, or because in the month of January access to the monastery was more difficult for those coming, set as it was in a rugged place among the Alps upon a precipitous rock; or another similar reason unknown to me.

[90] and it is shown that nothing can be proved from these Finally, if synonymous names of Saints who are otherwise sufficiently distinct and venerated on the same days suffice for such grave suspicions, what shall we say of the Roman Martyrology, which supplies several examples of this kind? Of Alexanders it has two on the VI day of January, two on the IX of February, two on the XXIV of March, two on the III of May, two others on the VI of June, two Aarons on the I of July, two Cassians on the XIII of August, etc. Even less strength has what Tartarotti adds about the day of the death of St. Remedius being unknown up to our times. For although it is not now established, whence will he prove that it was unknown in all past centuries? And what is so much to be wondered at in Remedius which we know often happens even in the most celebrated Saints? Is it because he was the first confessor and protector of the Tyrol? So indeed he is called only by Peter Tecinus, a writer of our century; and from elsewhere it does not appear why these titles should necessarily have preserved the certain day of his death right up to our times. Is it because the prodigies which are said to have happened at his death would have rendered it more celebrated than the death of Remigius of Reims? But these are not read in Bartholomew, older than the rest whom we know, and can therefore be held as added fables. That they are fables, however, one would strive in vain to prove from that pretended greater celebrity of his death alone, which is said would have followed.

[91] Let the fair reader now judge how likely it is against the opposite opinion. that from the most celebrated Remigius of Reims our Remedius was feigned in the Tyrol; namely, out of a Gaul a Raetian, out of a bishop a layman, out of the apostle of the Franks in the Gauls a solitary in the territory of Trent. Let him judge whether it is the part of a prudent man, on account of the reasons brought forward, to assert a fiction of this kind against a tradition whose beginning is unknown, but which is established from Bartholomew to have been already flourishing in the middle of the XIII century; let him judge, I say, whether it is the part of a prudent man to rub so gross an error upon the whole diocese of Trent, which honours its Remedius with an annual Office of a Confessor not a Pontiff; nay, and upon that of Brixen, whose prelates, equally with those of Trent, permit his relics to be exposed to public veneration and solemnly venerated, and have permitted it for many centuries. And yet these relics cannot be said to be of St. Remigius of Reims, whose body is kept entire at Reims in a magnificent mausoleum. Tartarotti, to make so wonderful an exchange of persons less abhorrent from the truth, recurs to examples.

[92] On the summit of Mount Osoppo in the dominion of Friuli

there is a certain sacred little chapel, Other arguments by which the same Tartarotti dedicated to St. Columba, who is invoked there as virgin and martyr from time immemorial, and whose head is exposed for veneration and solemnly carried about every year on the second Sunday of July. The most illustrious Giusto Fontanini, when he had betaken himself there in the year 1717, found there an epitaph which has it thus: Columba, or rather Coluba, a virgin consecrated to God, laid there when Opilio, a most illustrious man, was consul, that is, in the year of Christ 453; and he believed that the St. Columba venerated there was she whose epitaph it was, and not the celebrated one of Sens; and he afterwards illustrated this opinion of his with a commentary. Yet he himself afterwards had some doubt, on the testimony of Tartarotti, and asked that my Predecessors should not stir the matter; and they placed that Columba among the Passed Over at the V day of August, the examination being deferred to the XXXI day of December, on which St. Columba of Sens is venerated. Now let us hear what Tartarotti concludes from this in his own favour. If (he says in Italian words) that celebrated man of letters, relying on no more solid a foundation than has been said, introduced a new Saint into Friuli, it would not be a wonder if by a similar or even less one a celebrated Saint had been brought into the bishopric of Trent. He alleges as a reason the pious indeed but too credulous simplicity and ignorance of the common people in barbarous times, and also the ignorance of the clergy of Trent itself, so great that towards the end of the X century none was found in it worthy to hold the episcopal chair, but another had to be fetched from elsewhere, etc.

[93] tries to persuade that St. Remedius of the Tyrol Then again he proceeds thus: Now what wonder would it be if in those or other similar times occasion for making a Life of St. Remedius had been given by some old chapel in the Val di Non, dedicated to St. Remigius of Reims, into which some ancient count of Thaur, or other illustrious man of that region, after enriching the church of Trent with his gifts, withdrew to spend his last days, and in which he wished to be buried? He believes it favours this suspicion of his that Michelangelo Mariani, in the Life published at Trent in the year 1678, writes that the relics of the Saint do not rest in the high altar, but that behind the altar of the church, in a secluded place like a Sanctuary, the altar of the Saint with the chest of his relics is honoured. To the same purpose he likewise thinks it makes that in Rader, in the Lessons of Hohenwart, Remedius is said, while he lived, to have himself prepared his sepulchral chest for himself; namely, as I think, because this care seemed to Tartarotti to befit rather another pious count than a holy anchorite. And to make it more likely that this old chapel in the Val di Non anciently had as its patron Remigius, bishop of the people of Reims, he makes mention of another chapel formerly dedicated, as he asserts, to the same Saint at Verona.

[94] is none other than St. Remigius of Reims, He relates also another example of excessive levity or rashness in changing a tutelary Saint: that in his times, in a church of the valley in Gardumo, sacred to SS. Felix and Fortunatus, martyrs, some tried to substitute for the former of these Saints a certain unknown Felix, whom he suspects to have been some illustrious man, similar to our Remedius, buried in the same. He adds a third from Muratori's Dissertation 48 in the Antiquitates Italicae, page 256, where he narrates that in the territory of San Cesario, of the diocese of Modena, an image of a holy woman was venerated by stupid peasants, whom they called St. Alberga, and who was born from nowhere else than from their brains, because in that place there had formerly been a pious hospice for poor pilgrims: for a hospice is called albergo by the Italians. A fourth he produces from Jean Mabillon, who in his Iter Italicum, page 145, asserts that Pope Urban VIII, asked by some Spaniards to promote the cult of a Saint whose name was Viar, refused that he would do it unless it were established to him who that Saint was, and by what title he was held for such. That a stone was then brought inscribed with these words: S. VIAR; and that it was judged by experts to be a fragment of an inscription in which a certain PRAEFECTUS VIARUM (prefect of roads) was read.

[95] and that the relics venerated there are of some other person, Finally, because Tartarotti knew that relics which cannot be St. Remigius of Reims's are honoured with public cult as St. Remedius's in the dioceses of Trent and Brixen, he recurs to the ill-advised and superstitious avidity and levity of the ancients in procuring relics of the Saints by any means whatever; hinting, namely, that the aforesaid relics seem to him to be not St. Remedius's, but of some unknown count of Thaur, or of another illustrious man, once buried in the chapel of St. Remigius of Reims in the Val di Non. And these are the principal things which Tartarotti produced to persuade the confusion of St. Remedius of Trent with the holy bishop of the people of Reims, Remigius: and whether they are sufficiently strong, let us inquire in a few words. The reasons by which the most illustrious Fontanini was at one time induced to believe that the Columba or Coluba buried on Mount Osoppo was the patroness of that same sacred building, and which afterwards appeared to himself not sufficiently solid, can be examined at the before-cited XXXI day of December.

[96] Meanwhile, as regards the present matter, this example differs very greatly from that as by no means solid for the persuading of which it is employed by Tartarotti. For who does not see how different the change of person is in the two cases. Fontanini, wishing to divine the not sufficiently known Columba, patroness of the sacred building, but venerated there as virgin martyr, opined that she who in the epitaph found in the same place was called Columba or Coluba, a virgin consecrated to God, was rather the patroness of that building than the one of Sens, or any other; and the name, the place of burial, and the honourable inscription of the stone favoured him, if you except the omitted title of Martyr, in which improper manner it could formerly have been given to her he indicated in his praised Commentary, page 91. On the contrary, in the case of Remedius, that most celebrated Remigius, bishop of the people of Reims, and patron of the nation of the Franks, most celebrated in the Martyrologies, would have had to be suddenly changed, in the very church of his name, into a hermit of the territory of Trent (it is not known at what time, or by whom), and the bones of some illustrious man, buried in the same and substituted for the tutelary saint, would have had to be exposed to public veneration as sacred relics, the clergy and bishops of the dioceses of Brixen and Trent looking on and approving.

[97] Let Tartarotti exaggerate, as much as reason allows, the simplicity of later times, are refuted. the immoderate greed for obtaining relics, and the ignorance of the clergy; errors of that kind, however, are not to be painted on to twin dioceses without more solid arguments: and Fontanini by his diffidence has taught that learned critics of our time too, while they esteem the ancients less than is fair, can be deceived by a new appearance of truth. Nothing more do the things profit which he mentioned about the attempt of certain persons to substitute an unknown Felix into the place of the holy martyr of the same name, and about the fictitious saints Alberga and Viar, for which the reckoning was most dissimilar, and the authority and antiquity of the cult far unequal. Finally I do not see how his observation set down at number 93 from Mariani and Rader, about the situation of the body of St. Remedius in the church of the Val di Non and the chest made by himself, can help him: for that place is suitable for religiously keeping a sacred body; and what crime would it be if the Saint himself, while alive, had prepared his sepulchral chest for himself? But on this matter nothing is read in Bartholomew, as will be evident from the Life.

LIFE

By Bartholomew of Trent.

From a Ms. of the monastery of St. George in the Tyrol.

Remedius or Romedius, Conf., in the territory of Trent. (S.)

BHL Number: 7142

BY C. S.

Remedius, a noble man, sprung from Bavaria, possessed the castle of Thaur in the valley of the river Inn, with many other riches ^a. And he heard the Lord saying: Go, and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor: having taken to himself therefore two, Abra ^b, who was surnamed Adeodatus, and David, he began to travel through the thresholds of the Saints. And this was his more familiar prayer in the churches of the Saints: Lord Jesus Christ, these and all the Saints pleading for us before thy mercy, despise us not; but rescue us from all worldly business and diabolical illusion and hindrance, and be not far from us ^c, O Lord; but deign to strengthen us with ready will to serve thee. And [d] he heard that the Lord had conferred the power of binding and loosing on blessed Peter: and first he made for Rome, and thence returned to Trent, where blessed Vigilius ^e then held the bishopric, whom he greeted with these words: Hail, gem of prelates, bishop, and look upon us with the countenance of thy piety. The prelate, as he was cheerful, looking upon him with cheerful countenance, made him sit; and the word of life having gone before, St. Remedius conferred on the bishopric of Trent bn ^f thousand men, with the castle of Thaur and the churches, and all their appurtenances. To the Church of Augsburg also he left many things ^g. But the Saint lived in Anania. Serving the castle ^h, renowned for his life and miracles, he rested on the Kalends of October, and his companions also followed him ⁱ. The faithful therefore made a church over the holy bodies ^k, which while the architect was roofing ^l, he slips from the top down into the stream ^m, and, the crowd hurrying to gather him up and bury him, behold, to the men ⁿ, whom they were seeking not only dead [o] but also crushed to pieces, he goes down [p] with the silk and the axe, and, praising God, he completed the work. Many such signs the Lord works through him [q].

ANNOTATIONS.

d. Ibid. Also.

a thousand souls with all his possessions he left to St. Vigilius. What is to be judged of these donations I have set out in the Preliminary Commentary, §5.

p. So it is also in Tartarotti; but comes to meet (occurrit) must without doubt be substituted. For serica & assia he put securi & ascia (with axe and adze); but perhaps for serica one should substitute serra (saw).

q. It ends in the same manner in Tartarotti also.