Artaldus

ON BL. ARTALDUS, OF THE CARTHUSIAN ORDER, BISHOP OF BELLEY AND CONFESSOR, IN BUGEY, A PROVINCE OF GAUL, IN THE YEAR 1206.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Artaldus, from a Carthusian a bishop, confessor, at Belley in Bugey, a province of Gaul. (S.)

BY J. B.

§ I. The cult, birth and way of life of Blessed Artaldus.

The province of Bugey, which some have been pleased to call Sebusiana, Artaldus, a son of the Charterhouse of Arvières in Bugey, is a tract of Gaul situated between the Rhône and the Ain: the Idanus (l'Ain) divides it from Bresse; its other limits are the county of Burgundy, the district of Gex, Savoy and the Dauphiné. The French call it Le Bugey; where it stretches towards the Rhône and the town of Seyssel (Sissel), there is situated a certain small tract of land to which the name Vallis Romana (Val-Romey) has been given. More recent writers call it Valromesium; but elsewhere the valley of Veromaeus, and in the Testament of Humbert, lord of Montluel, made in the year 1236, in Guichenon in the Bibliotheca Sebusiana, century L, page 148, I find it called Verrummeis. Our copy of the Life of Blessed Artoldus has Veronnesium, perhaps corruptly for Veromesium, which indeed comes nearer to the district of Veromaeus. Further, in the Valromey and in the diocese of Geneva, whose see was transferred to Annecy in Savoy by the departure of the Catholics, is situated Arvières, where Blessed Artoldus founded a monastery of the Carthusians, whose Institute he had embraced, and put off the burden of the body.

[2] Few in number are the writers who have mentioned Blessed Artaldus, Artoldus or Arthaud: although by few writers among these, the brothers Sainte-Marthe in the Gallia Christiana, where they treat of the Bishops of Belley; Dom Carlo Giuseppe Morozzo in the Chronological Theatre of the sacred Carthusian Order, page 45; Samuel Guichenon in the chronographic Series of the bishops of Belley, pages 36 and 143: in the former place, from an old manuscript of the monastery of Portes, in which Blessed Artoldus devoted himself to the Carthusian Institute, he relates these things in summary: Arthold, while still both a Carthusian and a Saint, while he flees the concourse of men, is desired by the concourse of men, and, a light from heaven disclosing him as he lay hid, is called out from the solitude and desert of Arvières and set over the church of Belley about the year of salvation 1184. The good Man could scarcely discharge the office of prelate for some years; he renounces the bishopric therefore, the clergy, and the people too, resisting but achieving nothing, and returns untiring to the solitude of Arvières, amid perpetual cold, where he lives piously and dies piously, very old: for in the year of Salvation 1205 blessed Hugh, bishop of Lincoln in England, visited him, an old man and a Saint, dwelling in his little cell.

[3] Of the class of martyrologists, only one, Châtelain, occurs to me, and celebrated by only one Martyrologist; who inserted Blessed Artoldus in his French Martyrology at the 6th day of October in these words, rendered into Latin: At Belley in Bresse, the Venerable Artaldus, bishop of that city, of the Order of Carthusians, honoured by the peoples on account of the prodigies which happened at his tomb: on which I observe a few things. He ascribes the Blessed man to Bresse (la Bresse) for this reason, that Bugey or Baugey is not rarely, for French writers, part of the province of Bresse. And he perhaps announces the Blessed man at Belley because he wore the mitre of this city: for at Belley, so far as I know, sacred honours are not specially shown to Blessed Artoldus, nor do his sacred remains rest there, but at Arvières in the diocese of Geneva (Gebennensis or Genevensis). Further, no one ought to be surprised that Artaldus is honoured by Châtelain only with the title of Venerable: for Châtelain himself advises the reader beforehand that he ascribes this title also to those who lack a more solemn, though not all, ecclesiastical cult.

[4] yet, chiefly in the Carthusian Order, That Blessed Artoldus is of the number of these Guichenon teaches, adding to the words transcribed at number 2 that the blessed Man not only departed from this life in the opinion of holiness among all, but was also wont to be venerated as Blessed by the sons of his Order with the commemoration which follows: The Man of God Arthaud, constrained from the Carthusian flock to the prelacy of Belley, worn out with old age, returning to the quiet of his cloister, rendered his spirit to God in peace in the desert of Arvières. Thanks be to God. ℣ The just shall flourish like the palm tree. The Prayer follows the Versicle: Grant us, we beseech Thee, by the merits and intervention of Blessed Arthaud, Thy confessor and pontiff, so to pass through the way of this life in the course of laborious contest, that, setting aside the things that are of the world, we may be able to come to eternal rest. Through our Lord etc. Hence, therefore, some sort of cult of his is clear: and I have ascribed the title of Blessed to him for this reason, that from what has already been said he enjoys only this among his own, although I am not unaware that he has at times been called Saint. This was done, to say nothing of others, by Jean de Passelaigue, bishop of Belley, who in the year 1640 visited and venerated the relics of Artoldus at Arvières, in the instrument drawn up on this matter, which may be seen in Guichenon, cited, page 143.

[5] he obtained some sort of cult under the title of Blessed. It runs thus: In the year of Salvation one thousand six hundred and forty, and on the ninth day of the month of August, I, Jean, most unworthy bishop of Belley, asked by the venerable fathers the Prior and Religious of the monastery of Arvières of the Carthusian Order, with the consent and permission of the most illustrious and most reverend Dom Juste, bishop of Geneva (since, as I have said, Arvières is situated in his diocese), visited the bones and relics of St. Arthold, formerly bishop of Belley, taken from the said Carthusian Order, found in a certain stone sepulchre near and outside the little door of the choir of the church of the said monastery of Arvières on the South, and, having devoutly venerated them, replaced them with such reverence as I could; so signed: Jean, bishop of Belley; Fr. Claude de Hee, Prior of Pierre-Châtel (in Bugey), co-visitor of the province, present; Fr. Claude Rosier, Prior of Arvières. These few things concerning the sacred cult of Blessed Artoldus have become known to us: likewise we here note a few things concerning his Acts, before we hasten to the deeds of the Blessed man.

[6] Dom Léon de Vasseur of the Charterhouse of Bourbon near Gaillon (Gaillon, According to his Acts, of which an account is given, in the diocese of Évreux) sent the Acts of Blessed Artoldus to our Predecessors in the year 1667, as I learned from his letter written partly on that matter: but whence he received them, by what author or at what time they were written, I have been unable to draw out either from the above-said letter or from the Acts themselves; at their foot these words are read subjoined: His Life, from manuscripts, but which or of what sort is not added. Perhaps Léon himself wrote out the Acts which he transmitted to us from documents of his Order collected here and there. Certainly the age of the writer

the words with which, at number 7, he says that prodigies divinely wrought continually shone forth at the tomb of the Blessed man seem to intimate that he was at least somewhat more remote from the age of Artoldus. But whoever he was, this is certain, that among other documents of his Order he had in his hands the Life of St. Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, written by a contemporary author, from which he borrowed whatever he relates at number 6 about Hugh visiting Artaldus at Arvières; nor perhaps are the other monuments which he consulted of worse mark; the Acts indeed appear to be written sincerely enough; although certain blemishes of lighter moment occur in our copy, which we shall indicate in their places. Now let us hear the deeds of the Blessed man from the Acts.

[7] If Blessed Arthaldus, as the Acts relate at number 7, born about the year 1101 of a noble house in Bugey, departed from this life in the year of Christ 1206, and in the 105th year of his age, he was brought into the light in the year 1101 or the following one: he had as his native place the Valromey, of which you have an account at number 1, being born of a noble Father, the lord of Sothnode, as is expressly read in the Acts at number 1. I have already advised that certain blemishes, but of lighter moment, occur at times in our copy; such a one perhaps lies hid in the word Sothnode, for which Sotonod should probably be written: for Samuel Guichenon, in the History of Bresse and Bugey written in French, part 1, chapter 21, page 33, mentions a place of this kind situated in the Valromey, ascribing Blessed Arthaldus to the illustrious men of Bresse and Bugey in these words: St. Arthaud or Arthold, first Prior of the Charterhouse of Arvières, afterwards forty-seventh bishop of Belley, son of the lord of Sotonod in the Valromey. Further, Sotonod, from the same Guichenon, cited, part 2, page 106, is a castle situated in the village of Songieu, whose lordship was transferred in the lapse of time to various families, enumerated there.

[8] Sprung from such a birth, Blessed Arthaldus could have aspired to profane honours and the delights of the world: to the counts of Savoy but, say the Acts, he turned his nobility to obtaining heavenly dignity, and, the honours of the world trampled underfoot and the delights of the court of the count of Maurienne spurned, he dedicated himself wholly to the service of God from his very adolescence. Maurienne is a tract of Savoy, in which the city of the same name (Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne), distinguished by a bishopric and the title of a county, lies on the river Arc: in the age of Arthold it obeyed the counts of Savoy; but the writer of the Acts seems to intimate that not only Maurienne but also Bugey, the native place of Blessed Arthold, was in the hands of the counts of Savoy when he was growing up, since he signifies not obscurely that entrance to their court lay open to Arthold both by title of his native place, subject, as far at least as appears, to the counts of Savoy, and by title of his nobility: this indeed admits of some difficulty, partly from the fact that Blessed Arthold had already worn the Carthusian habit for some years before he was appointed Prior of Arvières in the year 1132, as we shall see a little later; and partly from the fact that some write that Bugey passed to the counts of Savoy only in the year 1137.

[9] then subject, Among these is Guichenon, who in part 1 of the History of Bresse and Bugey, chapter 9, page 18, writes that Bugey was given by the Emperor Henry IV to Amadeus II, count of Savoy, excepting those things which the bishop of Belley and the abbots of Nantua, Ambronay and Saint-Rambert possessed in Bugey, in the year 1137, in which however no Henry was reigning. But the same writer departed from this opinion in book 2, chapter 5 of the Genealogical History of the House of Savoy, page 209 and following, where he writes that Bugey was granted to Amadeus II, count of Savoy, by the emperor Henry III, when the latter in the year 1077 went through Savoy into Italy in order to be loosed from the bond of anathema by Gregory VII, Roman Pontiff: in which place too he calls the former opinion, which he attributes to Pingon, fabulous. Lambert of Hersfeld, a contemporary writer, committed to writing Henry's journey into Italy, and says among other things that Amadeus obtained from Henry a certain province of Burgundy (probably Bugey, formerly part of the kingdom of Burgundy, and neighbouring to the dominion of Savoy) most richly endowed with all goods: which last not a little confirms Guichenon's opinion; especially since otherwise it cannot be determined, as the same Guichenon says, in what manner Bugey devolved to the counts of Savoy: so that the writer of the Acts seems to intimate nothing in this place that conflicts with the history of those times. Let us hear further what he records of Artaldus.

[10] he devoted himself to the Carthusian Institutes in the Charterhouse of Portes, Artaldus, who from his tender nails had devoted himself wholly to the service of God, did not believe himself safe unless he joined to innocence of morals a voluntary rigour of life and a perfect flight from the world: and so, says the writer of the Acts, he entered the Charterhouse of Portes under the obedience of Bernard, the first inhabitant and Prior of that desert, famous for holiness. Then he commends Blessed Artaldus for zeal in prayer, temperance, vigils, lowliness of mind and accurate observance of the Carthusian constitutions, in few words indeed, yet not moderately; about which things it is neither right to doubt nor needful to say much: yet before I proceed elsewhere, I subjoin an account of the place in which he chiefly drank in the rudiments of the spiritual warfare, from Guichenon's History of Bresse and Morozzo's Carthusian Theatre. This dwelling of the Carthusians is situated in Bugey not far from the town of Saint-Rambert, called by the French Saint-Rambert: it owes its origin to Bernard and Pons, Benedictine monks, who, having set out from the monastery of Ambronay with the good leave of their prelate Desiderius, out of desire for a stricter life, to the place commonly called Portes, so named on account of the rocks there so arranged by nature that they presented a certain appearance of gates, and having been gradually increased with companions and estates, brought the Carthusian institute there.

[11] founded by Bernard and Pons: There are extant on this matter letters of Desiderius himself, not only releasing Bernard and Pons from his obedience but also granting them the lands which the monastery of Ambronay possessed in the desert of Portes, inserted in Guichenon among the Monuments of Bugey, page 222 and following. There are placed before these there certain letters of Falco, bishop of Lyons, drawn from the archives of the monastery of Portes. They were given in the year 1141, the twelfth year of Innocent II, in which Bernard, Prior of Portes (I recite Falco's words), and the brethren whom the Lord gradually gathered to him by the increases of time had served Christ the Lord in the aforesaid desert of Portes for twenty-five years and more: whence it follows that Bernard, who clothed Blessed Artaldus with the Carthusian habit, first began to inhabit the Charterhouse of Portes about the year 1115. This same Bernard, the first Prior of Portes of this name and its founder, besides Blessed Artaldus and other distinguished men, joined to the Carthusian Order St. Anthelm also, likewise afterwards bishop of Belley, whose Acts written by a contemporary author you have in our Work, tome V of June, from page 227. The year, further, about which Artaldus embraced the Carthusian Institute is gathered to have been about the year of Christ 1120 from his Acts, number 7, where he is said to have died in the year 1206, the 86th from his conversion.

§ II. Blessed Artaldus erects a Charterhouse at Arvières, becomes bishop of Belley, and dies renowned for virtues and miracles.

He erects a new Charterhouse at Arvières; Under Bernard as preceptor Artaldus gave himself to himself and to God up to the year 1132, in which Guigo, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse and director of the whole Carthusian Order, the fourth from St. Bruno, resolved to establish a new colony of his own in Bugey, with the assent of Humbert, bishop of Geneva: our copy calls this Humbert de Grandson; but rightly? The brothers Sainte-Marthe, in the series of the Bishops of Geneva, set down Humbert de Gramont in the year 1132, and in the sixth place after him Aymon de Granson. Guichenon agrees with the Sainte-Marthes, Bibliotheca Sebusiana, century 2, chapter 12, where, to the donation of Humbert, bishop of Geneva, by which he granted to the Grande Chartreuse immunity from tithes in the year 1134, he subjoins in the Annotations this concerning Humbert: Of the family of Grammont, ancient and noble among the Bugesians. However that may be, Humbert's munificence towards the Grande Chartreuse persuades one that he showed himself easy and inclined to Guigo when he was planning a new colony in Bugey. And Guigo, to whom the virtue and industry of Blessed Artaldus were thoroughly known, committed the execution and care of the whole matter to no other than Artaldus, who (I use the words of the Acts), an obedient Man and lover of quiet, chose the vast solitude of Arvières, situated not far from his father's castle, rough with rocks and thorns, covered with snows, and passable only to bears and wild beasts.

[13] Artaldus put his hand to the work in the year, as I said above, [which afterwards, in the year 1132; a more commodious one he begins in the year 1142] 1132, and for a whole decade endured in that uncultivated and rough place in great want of things: for so the Acts go on: To which, ascending in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and thirty-two with some pious brethren, in the valley which is now called the Cemetery, he built with cheap work little cells or huts, and there for ten years, in great want of things, yet rich in abundance of spiritual riches, made an example to all ascetics of how they ought to exercise humility, spurn the world and themselves, but worship God alone and pray piously, he led an angelic life. Meanwhile Arducius de Faucigny succeeded Humbert in the see of Geneva, who showed himself no less munificent to the Carthusians of Arvières than Humbert: for, drawn by the odour of the virtues of Blessed Artaldus and his companions, he wished to inspect in person the seat which they inhabited, and, wondering at its roughness, he was the author to Blessed Arthaldus of transferring himself and his own to a somewhat more commodious place, promising both that his own help would not be lacking for building new dwellings, and that he would see to it that the liberality of Amadeus III, count of Savoy, and of other distinguished men, should be at hand for so pious a work; as in fact he excellently performed.

[14] by the persuasion and help of Arducius, bishop of Geneva, For Arducius, as the Acts say, gave the Charterhouse of Arvières the tithes belonging to him, and at his exhortation Amadeus III and Humbert, lord of Beaujeu, also contributed their share; in which matter letters of Humbert, count of Savoy, son of Amadeus III, and of Humbert, Lord of Beaujeu, are cited in the Acts. The same is confirmed by letters of Thomas, count of Savoy, in Guichenon among the Monuments of Bugey, page 177, of which the beginning is such: I, Thomas, count of Savoy and Marquis in Italy, make known to all who shall inspect the present charter that for the relief of our soul and of our parents I have taken the house of Arvières into my custody; for since the aforesaid house has been founded by the alms of our predecessors, it is just that I defend it as my own property. I command therefore etc. For the same cause Louis, lord of Beaujeu, took the house of Arvières into his patronage and protection, having issued letters on this matter, which may be seen entire in Guichenon, cited, and from which I extract the following. Louis, lord of Beaujeu, to all to whom the present letters shall come, greeting and love. Since it is certain that our predecessors, for the salvation of their souls, all the days of their life strongly loved and defended the house of Arvières of the Carthusian Order,

as that which was founded by them … we, following the praiseworthy custom of the aforesaid predecessors … will to defend and maintain the same house and its property, etc.

[15] as also of other Hence too Amadeus III and his son Humbert III, counts of Savoy, confirmed the limits of the Charterhouse of Arvières, as is understood from Humbert's letter in Guichenon among the Monuments of the royal house of Savoy, page 37, where Humbert speaks thus: I too, Humbert, his son, count, my father being now dead, approve this same thing, etc. None of these letters, owing to the carelessness of that age, expresses the year in which they were given. In Guichenon's opinion Amadeus III held Savoy from the year 1103 up to the year 1149; then Humbert III up to the year 1188; whom Thomas, the first of this name, immediately succeeded. That Humbert, lord of Beaujeu (Beaujeu, in the diocese of Mâcon), was munificent towards the Charterhouse of Arvières we shall see presently below. This Humbert married Alice, daughter of Amadeus III, count of Savoy, whence in the Acts of Artaldus, number 3, he is called the brother-in-law of Humbert III, count of Savoy. Consult, if you please, Guichenon's History of the royal house of Savoy, page 230. And these indeed were Artaldus's chief helpers in building the new dwellings: nor were others lacking, whose names and merits the grateful ascetics of Arvières inscribed in their records. I transcribe here the enumeration of each of them from Guichenon's Monuments of Bugey.

[16] He has thus from the archive of the Charterhouse of Arvières, page 177: noble men, Amadeus, count of Savoy, who offered this place to God and to Blessed Mary and to the Carthusian Order. Humbert, lord of Beaujeu, who confirmed the aforesaid house and acquired the grange of Faollet. Guichard his son, who made one cell. Amadeus, count of Savoy, who left us a thousand shillings, and handed over to us, to be possessed by perpetual right, Praallia freed from the men of Sasiriacum. Stephen, dean of Lyons, who made one cell. Artold, dean of Sasiriacum, who built the refectory. Peter, Seneschal of Lyons, who made the chapter-house and conferred the grange of Ravoria. Master Pons made the guest-house of the Religious of the lower house, with the cell of the Prior. Aymo and Hugh de Varennes built the church. Aymo de Rivoria made the dormitory of the brethren. Peter de Chimilieu and his two brothers built the kitchen. To whom are subjoined by name only: Henry, king of England; Pons, bishop of Mâcon; Ardutius (of whom above), bishop of Geneva; Antelmus, bishop of Patras; Bernard and William, bishops of Belley; Peter, bishop of Glandèves; Perrinus de Luyriaco; Antelmus de Balma; Artaldus of Saint-Romain; Hugh Palatinus.

[17] Guichenon mentions the same benefactors of the Charterhouse of Arvières, both of clerics the names partly suppressed and partly expressed, in the continued second part of the History of Bresse and Bugey, page 9, from an old Missal written, as is believed, by the hand of Blessed Artaldus himself. He expresses by name Henry, king of England; Pons of Mâcon, Arducius of Geneva, Antelmus of Patras, Bernard and William of Belley, Peter of Glandèves, bishop; Perrinus de Luyriaco, Artold of Seyseriacum (de Seyserieu) and Stephen of Lyons, deans; Aymo and Hugh de Varennes, Aymo de Rivoire, Antelmus de Balma, Artaldus of Saint-Romain, Hugh Palatinus. To these he adds the lords d'Anthon and of Montluel; and finally our biographer the monks of Nantua and the regular canons of Belley. Have a few words on each. On Amadeus III, count of Savoy, and Humbert, lord of Beaujeu, see what was said above. That the latter, having died in the year 1189, left among others a son, André du Chesne writes in the History of Burgundy, book 3, chapter 87 and following, namely Guichard, lord of Montpensier in Auvergne, mentioned among the benefactors of Arvières at number 16; and that of him was born Louis, canon of the church of Lyons, who perhaps is the same who at number 14 took Arvières into his clientship and called himself lord of Beaujeu: for no other lord of Beaujeu of this name is read in the praised du Chesne when he sets out the genealogy of that family.

[18] The writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, tome 4, column 202, mention two Stephens, than of seculars of whom one was dean of Lyons about the year 1175, called de Roccatallia; and the other in the year 1190, whose surname was de Saintamour: which of the two is designated above I am not pleased to divine; as neither whether the Amadeus, count of Savoy, who is placed in the first and third place, is the same or different. Guichenon mentions Seiseriacum in the continued part 2 of the History of Bresse and Bugey, page 104; and writes that it was formerly a deanery, which from the year 1606 has been united to the capitular mensa of the church of Belley. For the rest, Artold, dean of that village, is unknown to me from elsewhere; Ménestrier says in the History of Lyons, page 332, that Peter the Seneschal is inscribed in the Necrology of the church of Lyons on the 3rd day of January. Pons is perhaps he of whom the charter of foundation of the Grande Chartreuse, made in the year 1116, speaks in Morozzo, page 230, where he is called master of the church of Lyons. To Aymo de Varennes and Aymo de Rivoria (Rivoire), here mentioned, Bernard I, Prior of Portes, under whom Blessed Artaldus gave his name to the Carthusians, inscribed the Letter on flight from the world, which is extant in tome 24 of the Library of the ancient Fathers of the Lyons edition, from page 1501.

[19] assisted by the liberality and gifts Of Peter de Chimilieu, Artold of Saint-Romain and Hugh Palatinus I have found nothing peculiar anywhere; nor do I think it necessary to apply myself more laboriously to find it. Henry, king of England, is the second of this name, who founded the Charterhouse of Witham in the diocese of Bath, and embraced with singular benevolence St. Hugh, its first Prior and afterwards bishop of Lincoln; through whom perhaps Henry's munificence flowed down to the Charterhouse of Arvières. Pons, surnamed de Rochebaron, came to the see of Mâcon about the year 1144, as the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana relate; Bernard left that of Belley about the year 1145, and had as successor William, as Guichenon writes in the chronographic Series of the bishops of Belley. But among the bishops of Glandèves in the Gallia Christiana, after the founding of Arvières, no one appears who was called Peter; unless perhaps it is the Bishop P., who is said to have occupied the see of Glandèves after the year 1190, tome 3, column 1239. That archbishops of the Latin Rite sat at Patras about the age of Blessed Artaldus is clear from letters of Innocent III in Baluze; but their names are in obscurity: Innocent, in Epistle 51 in Baluze, given in the 10th year of his Pontificate, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of May, or in the year 1207 on the 19th day of April, instructs the archbishop of Patras how he is to proceed in the cause of some Greek suffragans who, Achaia having been occupied by the Latins, had deserted their sees. Innocent had scarcely sent this letter into Achaia before he wrote another to the canons of Patras in the same year on the 24th day of April, in which he advises them that the archbishop elected by the chapter had been confirmed and consecrated by him; that they should therefore receive him with due honour. That this was the Anthelmus inscribed in the roll of the benefactors of Arvières is made probable for a twofold cause: the first is that Innocent, in the Letter to Thomas Morosini, patriarch of Constantinople, which you have in Baluze in the Deeds of the same Pontiff, page 66, calls the bishop of Patras elected and consecrated by him in the year 1207 his beloved son A. The other is that in the cited Deeds of Innocent, written by a contemporary author, page 65, that archbishop is reported to have been a Burgundian. If these things are so, Anthelmus could not have been inserted in the above-said catalogue by the hand of Blessed Artoldus, who died before the year 1207. Nevertheless I would not dare to assert affirmatively that no Anthelmus occupied the see of Patras before the year 1207.

[20] he is helped, I come now to Perrinus de Luyriaco and Antelmus de Balma, reviewed at number 16. Guichenon mentions Alard de Luyrieux, who lived in the year 1100, in the History of Bresse and Bugey, third part, part 2, page 142. On the same witness, he had a grandson through his son Humbert, Peter, who made his will in the year 1229, and perhaps is called Perrinus above. The same Guichenon, just cited, page 18, reviews the family de la Balme, and says that its head was Peter de la Balme, lord of Tiret and of Verfey, who he says lived in the year 1300, and that he had a son named Antelmus. But he mentions another family of the same name, both on page 22 of the third part of the History cited and on page 15, which flourished in Bugey from as early as the year 1080, and this produced Sigibald de Balma, who lived in the year 1140; each was beneficent to the Carthusian family; and from one or the other of these perhaps the Antelmus of whom we are treating drew his origin. And the archive of the same house indeed contains, as we have said, the names of these benefactors of the Charterhouse of Arvières: it remains that we add a few things also about those whom the old Missal, written, as is believed, by the hand of Blessed Artaldus, has besides.

[21] These, then, are the lords both d'Anthon and of Montluel. That the family of the lords d'Anthon flourished in the twelfth century whose catalogue, perhaps made by Artaldus himself, and was munificent to the Order of Carthusians I gather from the instrument of Hugh of Geneva granted to the said Order, which may be seen in Guichenon in the Bibliotheca Sebusiana, century 2, chapter 38. It was indeed drawn up in the year 1363; but it mentions a certain Guichard, lord of Anthon, in these words: Whereas Guichard of good memory, formerly lord of Anthon, long ago granted of special grace and for the relief of his soul and of his predecessors to our beloved men of the whole Carthusian Order, indulging them that the Religious themselves and their household and messengers of the whole Order of the Chartreuse, and their property and all their beasts, should pass safe and secure through all his land without any exaction of toll. We etc.: on which Guichenon notes this: That immunity from toll (of which there is here question) he (Guichard) granted to the Carthusian Order in the year 1200 with the consent of Guichard d'Anthon his son, under the seal of Raynaud, archbishop of Lyons. That the lords of Montluel (Montluel, which is a town on the Rhône about three leagues distant from Lyons) likewise flourished in that age is likewise clear from the privilege, Lyons) is likewise clear from the privilege, which Humbert, lord of Montluel, granted to the Carthusian monastery of Portes in the year 1217, and which Guichenon, just cited, century 1, chapter 48, presents entire. Finally, to all these our biographer adds the canons of Belley and the monks of Nantua: and Nantua is a distinguished monastery of the Cluniac Order in Bugey; of these the discourse will return in the Annotations.

[22] I could indeed have spared all these things: but I wished to inquire, as I could, into the age of each of the benefactors of the Charterhouse of Arvières, is said to be preserved at Arvières. for this reason, that Guichenon by his manner of speaking makes it doubtful whether that catalogue of benefactors, inscribed in the old Missal, was also written by the hand of Blessed Artaldus, as the Missal itself is in the opinion of the monks of Arvières; which, as I do not deny, so hitherto

I would not dare to affirm: meanwhile this seems to be able to be asserted from what has already been said, that most at least of those mentioned in it lived in the age of Blessed Artaldus; and so could have been inserted by him in that ancient Missal. Now I return to Blessed Artaldus, acting as Prior of Arvières. Such was the manner of living of Blessed Artoldus and his sons that by the odour of their virtues they drew not a few to follow the same kind of life, so much so that, says the anonymous author of the Life, that place was made from a den of wild beasts into a habitation of the just, living under the pious discipline of Blessed Artoldus. Then he adds: For he was an exceptional master of piety, a wonderful contemplator (or rather contemner) of perishable things, and a wonderful worker of signal deeds. I readily agree with the anonymous writer that Blessed Artoldus, living and dead, shone with prodigies; but I regret that these things are said only in general; nor have I found any prodigy described in particular, which however I think is to be attributed not so much to the carelessness of the Carthusians as to the modesty of those who praise their own sparingly.

[23] For extinguishing the Schism of the Church While Artoldus was governing Arvières, a foul schism shook the Church. The supreme Pontiff Adrian IV having been snatched from the living, Alexander III had been created his successor in the year 1159 on the 7th day of September: but the dignity rightly conferred on Alexander was wickedly usurped by Octavian, who was saluted by his followers as Victor III; for whom Guido of Crema was substituted with no better right, on whose side the emperor Frederick, surnamed Barbarossa, stood. With how great ardour the Carthusian Order fought at that time for the legitimate Pontiff and the Church, led chiefly by St. Anthelm, from a Carthusian monk then bishop of Belley, can be understood from his Life, edited by us in tome V of June and written by a contemporary author, page 232. Animated by the same spirit, Artoldus could not restrain himself, as the biographer narrates, from writing very many letters both to Pope Alexander and to the emperor, by which he urged each to the best of his power to restore peace to the Church.

[24] he applies himself I have not learned that letters of Blessed Artoldus, whether to the Pontiff or to the emperor, are extant anywhere: but of the letters written by him to the Pontiff we have a clear witness in Alexander himself, whose answer to Artaldus, Prior of Arvières, is inserted in tome 24 of the Library of the Ancient Fathers of the Lyons edition, page 1519, from the autograph which is preserved at Arvières. The beginning of this Pontifical Letter is: Alexander, bishop, of the servants of God, to his beloved son A., of the Prior * of Alveria, greeting and Apostolic blessing. That it was inscribed to our Artoldus is clear from the place and time in which it was written. For it is given at Sens on the 4th day before the Kalends of March: Pope Alexander entered Sens on the day before the Kalends of October to winter there, says at the year 1164 the Chronicle of Sens in Martène, tome 3 of the Thesaurus Anecdotorum, column 1453, which runs from the year 708 up to the year 1193. And he prolonged his stay at Sens for a year and a half, and departed thence, as Baronius relates from his Acts, after celebrating Easter, which in the year 1165 fell on the 4th, but in the following on the 24th of April: and so, since the letter is given at Sens in the month of February, it must have been written in the year 1165 or 1166, in which Artoldus was discharging the office of Prior of Arvières. Further, the Pontiff answered roughly this to Artaldus's letter, that he could neither undergo a new judgment nor bid farewell to his dignity without exposing the Church to a greater calamity: whence it can be conjectured on what argument Artoldus wrote to the Pontiff, from whom he received praise for piety, simplicity and right intention. For thus the Pontiff: While we attend with the zeal of solicitous consideration to the pious simplicity and simple piety by which, admonished and induced, you have directed your letter to us, we impute it not to presumption but rather to devotion: believing that this proceeds more from purity of heart than comes about from any duplicity.

[25] Truly Blessed Artoldus must have been of great authority with Pope Alexander, he accepts and lays down the mitre of Belley, since he dared to throw in mention to him of either undergoing a new judgment or even casting away the Pontifical dignity, as far at least as appears from the Pontiff's answer, yet from purity of heart, and received such an answer from him when the state of affairs and of the Church was in the greatest disturbance. Nor indeed did the church of Belley make less of the Man's virtue. About the year 1184 it had lost Rainald or Reginald, its bishop from the Carthusian Order. Before Rainald it had had Pons, Bernard and Anthelm, sons of the same Order, succeeding one another in an all but continuous series. Rainald having been snatched from human affairs, the church of Belley turned to the monks of Arvières, from whom it sought Artoldus as its prelate: Artoldus, on the contrary, tried to avoid by flight the mitre destined for him; but, discovered by a heavenly light, he was compelled to come out of his hiding-places and to put his aged shoulders under the episcopal burden. Thus, then, Artaldus obeyed the wishes of the people of Belley, and, while he presided over the flock committed to him, discharged its care, to say it in few words, vigorously and most abundantly; but, scarcely six years having elapsed, the supreme Pontiff Clement III assenting to his wishes, he exchanged the see of Belley for the most longed-for solitude of Arvières about the year 1190, to give himself solely to himself and to God for the rest of the course of his life.

[26] So illustrious an example of religious perfection, as the biographer testifies, by the odour of his virtues drew not a few to imitate him: among these the same biographer places John, abbot of Abondance (an abbey of canons regular of St. Augustine in the diocese of Geneva), who he says died in the Charterhouse of Arvières in the year 1202, and left his piety attested by various letters written by him. Tome 24 of the Library of the ancient Fathers, already praised several times, presents from page 1506 up to page 1518 the letters of John the Carthusian, which clearly disclose the piety of their author. But their author, in epistle V to his nephew Bernard, inscribes himself in express words a son of the house of Portes, not of Arvières. And Morozzo, in the Carthusian Athenaeum, enumerating the writers of the same Order each at his own age, refers the author of the above-said Epistles to the year 1135; nor does he make mention of another John the Carthusian, still less a son of the house of Arvières, who wrote in the twelfth century; whence, as regards the letters written by John the Carthusian in the twelfth century, I am compelled to doubt whether perhaps the writer of the Life of Blessed Artoldus, deceived by the homonymy of names, did not ascribe the Epistles which were those of John of Portes to John, formerly abbot of Abondance. For the rest, illustrious mention is made of this John, as Guichenon testifies, in the Necrology of the Charterhouse of Meyriat in these words: John, from abbot of Abondance a Carthusian of Arvières, disciple of St. Arthold, excelling in integrity of life and singular charity, died 1202.

[27] Not infrequent in that age was the migration of canons regular to the Carthusians: he draws many to his institute; the two Stephens, one of Bourg, the other of Die, had done this very thing as early as the time of St. Bruno; of which matter Guigo, Prior of the Chartreuse, bears clear testimony in the Life of St. Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, in our work, tome 1 of April, page 40, where he has thus: And he (St. Bruno) had as companions Landuinus (who after him was Prior of the Chartreuse), two Stephens, of Bourg and of Die (these had been canons of St. Rufus, but out of desire for the solitary life had joined themselves to him with the favour of their abbot), Hugh also, whom they surnamed the Chaplain, etc. St. Hugh had also done it, first a canon regular, then a Carthusian, and finally bishop of Lincoln; whose Life, written by a contemporary author, we have in manuscript. Of his canonry it has thus in chapter 1 of book 1: And he was bereaved of the solace of his mother when he had not yet reached the bounds of his first age, and a short time afterwards was joined, together with his father, to a college of regular clerics. Which is repeated elsewhere too in more than one place.

[28] and renowned for miracles he dies in 1206. Further, from the same Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln he copied nearly word for word what he relates at number 6 of this holy prelate's coming to Blessed Artaldus, staying at Arvières after laying down the mitre of Belley. He does not indeed express the name of Artoldus; but in book 5, chapter XIV, he says expressly that a former bishop of Belley was taken to the see from the Prior of the same house (of Arvières), so that it is not permitted to doubt that he is speaking here of Blessed Artoldus. Guichenon, in the chronological Series of the bishops of Belley, bound St. Hugh's coming to Blessed Artoldus to the year 1205; our biographer more rightly to the year 1200: for, as the writer of the Life of St. Hugh testifies in chapter 13, Hugh undertook that journey into Gaul when one year had already been completed after the coronation of King John; and John was crowned king of England in the year 1199 on the 27th day of May, as Matthew Paris writes in the Greater History of England. Blessed Artoldus survived not many years after: for he died, heavy with years and merits, as the biographer testifies, on the day before the Nones of October in the year of the Lord 1206, of his age the 105th, and of his conversion the 86th; honourably buried by Bernard, bishop of Belley, in the little cloister between the doors of the chapter-house and of the church, where at his stone tomb many and signal miracles are said to have been done, but of none of which, as has been said above, has any notice come to us.

* Priori (to the Prior)

LIFE,

By an Anonymous Author.

Blessed Artaldus is enrolled among the Carthusians, founds the Charterhouse of Arvières, becomes bishop of Belley, returns to Arvières, and dies there.

Artaldus, from a Carthusian a bishop, confessor, at Belley in Bugey, a province of Gaul. (S.) BHL Number: 0716

By an anonymous author.

The Blessed man, after some years spent in the Charterhouse of Portes, Artoldus or Artaldus of blessed memory, bishop of Belley ^a, sprung from the noble stock of the lords of Sothnode ^b on the high ridges of the Veronnesium, turned his nobility to obtaining heavenly dignity; and, the honours of the world trampled underfoot and the delights of the court of the count of Mariana ^c spurned, he dedicated himself wholly to the service of God from his very adolescence: that he might be called away from His service on no occasion, he entered the Charterhouse of Portes ^d under the obedience of Bernard, the first inhabitant and Prior of that desert, famous for holiness; where, exercising the novitiate of the spiritual life, he gave the hermits an admirable hope of future holiness, applying himself with them to assiduous prayers, fasts and vigils, and so excelled them in wonderful humility of spirit and observance of the pious constitutions that the reverend Guigo, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse ^e, reputed him worthy to work the salvation of others and to build new cells in the diocese of Geneva by the will of the prelate Humbert de Grandson ^f. To accomplish this, therefore, the obedient Man and lover of quiet chose the vast solitude of Arvières ^g, situated not far from his father's castle, rough with rocks and thorns, covered with snows, and passable only to bears and wild beasts.

[2] To which, ascending in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and thirty-two with some pious brethren, a new Charterhouse in the valley which is now called the Cemetery, he built with cheap work little cells or huts; and there for ten years, in great want of things, yet rich in abundance of spiritual riches, made an example to all ascetics of how they ought to exercise humility,

to spurn the world and themselves, but to worship God alone and to pray piously, he led an angelic life; until the good odour of his virtue, spread all around, drew to him Arducius de Faucigny, the new prelate of the church of Geneva ^h; who, when he wondered at the roughness of the place, and pious conversations had been held, was the persuader to Artoldus of changing his seat and of building a monastery at the steep approach of the mountain: he promised that the favour of the supreme Pontiff, and the benevolence and helping hands of Count Amadeus ⁱ, would not be lacking to him; and so the prelate, wonderfully cheered by such a conversation, having returned to his own, faithfully fulfilled what he had gladly promised.

[3] For he obtained from the aforesaid count the surrounding mountains and the place for the monks of Arvières: he founds at Arvières: he also had the limits designated by Pope Lucius II in the year of the Lord 1144 ^k; he liberally granted every right of tithes belonging to him; and he urged several nobles, ecclesiastical and secular, to the building and endowment of the aforesaid monastery. Whence Count Humbert ^l ratified and confirmed the donations offered by his father Amadeus to Christ and to His holy Mother Mary and to the Carthusian Order in the year of the same Christ 1142: as did also Humbert, lord of Beaujeu, brother-in-law of the aforesaid count Humbert ^m, who also acquired for them the grange ⁿ of Fauolet. Aymo and Hugh de Varennes ^o, kinsmen of dom Bernard, Prior of Portes, built the church. Peter, seneschal of Lyons, made the chapter-house, and conferred the grange of Lauarone. Guichard of Beaujeu [p], son of the said Humbert, made one cell, as Stephen of Lyons also made one. Aymo de Riuoire [q] built the dormitory of the brethren, Peter de Chimilieu [r] and his two brothers the kitchen, and Artold, dean of Saisyriacum [s], the refectory. And master Pons [t] made the guest-house of the Religious of the lower house, with the cell of the Prior. The monks of Nantua [u] too, and the regular canons of Belley [x], granted their right within the aforementioned bounds; very many others not only gave alms but also submitted their necks there to the sweet yoke of Christ; so that that place was made from a den of wild beasts into a habitation of the just, living under the pious discipline of blessed Artoldus.

[4] For he was an exceptional master of piety, a wonderful contemplator * of perishable things, thence he is raised to the see of Belley, and a magnificent worker of signal deeds, and so zealous for the tranquillity of the Church that very often he directed letters to Alexander III, Pontiff of the Romans, and to Frederick Barbarossa, the schismatic emperor, for the sake of composing peace between them and restoring the tranquillity of the Church [y]. Meanwhile, however, Raynald, from a monk of the Chartreuse bishop of Belley [z], having laudably completed his prelacy, departed from human affairs on the last day of November in the year of the Incarnate Word 1184. Whence the people of Belley, bereaved of their prelate, when with fasts and prayers they were earnestly begging that a fit pastor be given them, by heavenly inspiration Artaldus, Prior of Arvières, famous for the fame of holiness, was elected bishop by the choice of the whole clergy and the greatest applause of the people; who, lest he should receive the honour conferred, sought and resorted to the glades of the woods and the hiding-places of Balmanum [aa]. But so great a light could not long be hidden under a bushel; for while he was being sought by all, a light descending from heaven upon him as he lay hid, he is discovered, taken and dragged to the city; and, inaugurated with great jubilation of all, he is set in the episcopal see, carried as it were on the shoulders of the clerics and citizens: and he bore what he had received, not so much an honour as a burden, with such virtue and vigilance that he fulfilled the good pleasure of God, promoted in wonderful ways the salvation of the people entrusted to him, and left nothing of what the Apostle requires in a bishop to be desired in his pursuits and works.

[5] and, having left it, he returns to Arvières, For he retained the former institute of the Carthusian life in austerity of food and clothing, observance of silence and assiduity of prayers, and devoted himself to the divine ministry and to sacred sermons, by which, a spiritual physician, he might cure the diseases of all, and instil into each the incitements of virtue by religious acts; he had a special care of the poor; so much so that he bestowed all things most liberally for their solace, nor spared his daily food. He grieved with those who mourned, visited the sick, to whom also he often restored both health of mind and of body, brought sinners back to better fruit, confirmed the just in good, reconciled those at variance with one another with wonderful dexterity, and allowed no time to slip away empty of the work of God. At length, already great in years and broken by the assiduous labours of pastoral solicitude, having made known his mind to the supreme Pontiff Clement III [bb], with his assent he laid down the mitre [cc], and, abdicating the pontifical dignity, he returned to the former desert of Arvières, most desirous of the solitary life and fired with love of the labour of service to be rendered to God; and there he established for nearly sixteen years a heavenly life, wholly intent on divine contemplations and offices, and by this example of his drew many to the renunciation of the world, among whom John, abbot of Abondance [dd], magnanimously exchanging the abundance of the world for the penury of the desert, spent his last day there in wonderful humility and integrity of life in the year 1202, whose piety letters written on various subjects attest.

[6] where he is visited by St. Hugh of Lincoln, And when St. Hugh, bishop of Lincoln [ee], was returning to England from the Chartreuse, the house of his profession, in the year 1200, about the feast of SS. James and Christopher [ff], he sought Arvières for this special cause, although it was difficult of ascent on account of the mountainous places and rather remote from his road. Blessed Artoldus, made from a bishop a simple cell-dweller, glowing for a long time with desire for the aforesaid prelate, longed to be refreshed by his sight and speech, which he had also often made known to him through messengers: for that blessed Man had indeed advanced in his days, and, the setting of the worldly light being now midway, he sighed for the entrance of the endless day; nor were they unlike in mind, although in unlike age, to the aforesaid holy Prelate. For all perishable things, which he had already held cheap from his tender years, he held in disgust in his heavy age. Each therefore having obtained the desired conversation, they render the recesses of each one's conscience more splendid from the brightness of the other's holiness, while they disclose their hidden things in turn; and at length they came together to the common conversation of all the brethren. Then the lord, formerly Prelate of Belley, asks the bishop of Lincoln that the form of the peace concluded between the kings of France and of England [gg] be related to him before the brethren: for he had learned that he himself had been present at their concord. At which request of so great a Man, the most fervent zealot of the Order, not a little saddened, said thus gently and as it were jesting: "O," he said, "lord Father, to hear and relate rumours, although it is lawful for bishops, is not lawful for monks, and it is not lawful to bring rumours into cells or cloisters." Saying these things *, and to the other brethren, he turned his words to the pursuit of spiritual edification, and, thanks having been rendered by Artoldus and the other brethren for the visitation and for the alms sent to them by the late king Henry of England [hh], the pious Hugh departed.

[7] And blessed Artoldus completed the remaining six years of his life in every office of humility, and dies very old in the year 1206. obedience, patience and charity. After these things, divinely made aware of his death, he fell ill, and, having held a sweet conversation on the heavenly beatitude with the lord Bernard, prelate of Belley, a Carthusian [ii], who came there by divine admonition, and having given to the brethren the offices of a last exhortation, and fortified with the holy Sacraments of the Church, laid in ashes and rejoicing in the Lord, he expired amid the words of prayer on the day before the Nones of October in the year of the Lord 1206 [kk], of his age the 105th, of his conversion the 86th. And his body was honourably buried by the same prelate Bernard, there assisting Guigo, Prior of Arvières [ll], with all the brethren and some of the monks of Belley, in the little cloister between the doors of the chapter-house and of the church. And the very lofty merits of this Saint with the King of glory very many and astounding miracles, which were done at his tomb, afterwards abundantly disclosed. For divine powers continually shone forth there, by which the sick and dying received immense solaces through the prayers of this holy Pontiff, to the praise of God Almighty, who is wonderful in His Saints and blessed for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Lord of Montpensier in Auvergne.

q. See number 18.

r. There occurs in Guichenon a parish of this name of the diocese of Belley in Bugey, under the title of St. Andrew.

s. See number 18.

t. Perhaps Pons, master of the church of Lyons, of whom at number 18.

u. Nantua is a monastery of Benedictines in Bugey, which some have wrongly held to have been founded by St. Amand, bishop of Maastricht, and ennobled by his burial. See the Preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Amand, §§20 and 21.

x. The canons of Belley embraced the Institute of St. Augustine in the year 1142; on which matter there is extant a bull of Innocent the second in the Sainte-Marthes; but the secular

habit they resumed in the year 1577.

y. See numbers 23 and following.

z. He was called to the see of Belley in the year 1178; in the following year he was present, under Alexander III, at the Lateran council.

aa. In French perhaps La Balme, of which name Guichenon reviews three places in Bugey: La Balme in the valley of Veromaeus, La Balme Pierre-Châtel on the bank of the Rhône, La Balme-sur-Cerdon. The biographer probably indicates the first here, since Arvières, whence Artaldus fled, is also situated in the same valley.

bb. He was created Pontiff in the year 1177, and died in 1191.

cc. About the year 1190.

dd. It is a monastery in the Chablais beside the river Dranse, formerly of Canons Regular of the Order of St. Augustine, dependent on the celebrated abbey of St. Maurice of Agaune, now of the Congregation of the Feuillants. So Guichenon, Bibliotheca Sebusiana, century 1, chapter 2, in the Annotations.

ee. He is venerated on the 17th of November.

ff. The 25th of July.

gg. In the year of the Lord 1200, in the month of May, on the Ascension of the Lord, peace was restored between Philip II, king of the Franks, and John, king of England, between Vernon and the island of Andely (Andely): Rigord, On the Deeds of Philip. The biographer of St. Hugh, chapter 14: One year having now been completed after the coronation of King John, at his request the blessed bishop crossed the sea again, to be present at his conference with the king of the Franks, in which at length peace was restored.

hh. The second of this name. He had died in the year 1188.

ii. Bernard II was occupying the see of Belley in the year 1198. The Catalogue of illustrious Carthusians, as Guichenon testifies, has this of him: There died on the 6th of March 1207 Bernard, from a Carthusian bishop of Belley, a mirror of every virtue and holiness.

kk. As Guichenon testifies in the History of Bresse and Bugey, the Catalogue of illustrious Carthusians has thus: St. Arthold, from a Carthusian bishop of Belley, renowned for astounding miracles, died in the year 1206 on the day before the Nones of October. Likewise the Martyrology of the church of Lyons: On the second day before the Nones of October died Artoud, of good memory, monk of Alveria and priest, formerly bishop of Belley.

ll. In the year 1200 this Guigo, Prior of Arvières, together with Bernard, prelate of Belley, just mentioned, settled a suit which had arisen between the Carthusians of Portes and the monks of Ynimont; as is plain from the instrument drawn up by them on this matter, in Guichenon in the Series of the bishops of Belley, page 38 and the two following.

* contemptor (contemner)

* supply: to Artoldus