Gerold of Cologne

ON ST. GEROLD OF COLOGNE, VENERATED AS A MARTYR, NEAR CREMONA IN INSUBRIA,

IN THE YEAR MCCXLI.

HISTORICO-CRITICAL SYLLOGE.

Gerold of Cologne, venerated as a martyr, near Cremona in Insubria. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The Saint's memory among very few martyrologists: whence his deeds were first received, and by whom written and published in print.

This Man, born to the world indeed at Cologne Agrippina on the Rhine, In both Catalogues of the Saints of Filippo Ferrari but slain by robbers in the territory of Cremona among the Insubres about the middle of the 13th century during a pilgrimage undertaken for religion's sake, and better known by the cult of a martyr than by certain deeds, Filippo Ferrari, the first of the martyrologists whom I know, inserted in both his Catalogues of the Saints on this 7th day of October. In the Catalogue of those of whom no memory exists in the Roman Martyrology, praising the Tables of the church of Cremona, he has thus in few words: At Cremona, of St. Gerold, martyr; and he adds in the Annotations in the same place: He was of Cologne by fatherland, slain near Cremona while on pilgrimage; whose Life exists printed. He treats of him more broadly in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, reciting on the same day his elogium, or a certain compendium of his Life, which I subjoin in as many words, to be examined below.

[2] Gerold, born at Cologne Agrippina in the year of Salvation MCCI, on this day with an elogium, as a martyr, devoted from boyhood to piety and abstinence, having grown older overcame many temptations of the devil. When he had come to manhood, clothed in a hair-shirt he lay on the ground, and, in meditation on the Lord's passion, scourged himself until the blood flowed upon the earth, intent on fasts and prayers. He, covered in humble garb, undertook many, and those distant, pilgrimages without the support of any secular help. And when, after the pilgrimage to St. James in Spain and to Rome, he was preparing to cross into Palestine, near Cremona, in the village of Mamica, swallowed up by the river Po, while he ran up to pacify two robbers who were feigning a quarrel between themselves, he is impiously slain by them, who thought that he had money, many wounds being inflicted on his head. His body is related to have been discovered by a notable miracle, the bells of the city ringing of their own accord, a most sweet odour breathing from it, and lights divinely shining in that place.

[3] Wherefore the holy Man was found lying with a little book, in which his name and that of his fatherland were written with other things, he is read inscribed; whose body, carried out with solemn procession by the bishop and clergy with the whole city, which had flocked together at so great a novelty of the thing, and brought into the city, was laid up in the church of St. Vitalis, since the bearers, trying to turn aside to another church, had been made immovable. It is now piously kept in its own church. From his Life printed at Cremona MDLXXXI. So Ferrari there, subjoining these things in the Annotations in the same place: Since, besides the things narrated, new miracles were done after his death at his tomb upon the blind, the lame, and others labouring under some disease, a sacred church being dedicated to his name, his birthday began to be celebrated on this day, namely the 7th of October. These things are taken from the edited Life, to be weighed below, from which also Pellegrino Merula wove a more prolix elogium of St. Gerold into the Sanctuary of Cremona on the same day.

[4] but in the Martyrology of Chastelain, as a Confessor. Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology likewise on this day so followed Ferrari that he thought the title of Confessor should be ascribed instead of the laurel of martyrdom. Receive the words made Latin from the French: At Cremona, St. Gerold, confessor, born at Cologne Agrippina, whose relics, which rested in the church of St. Vitalis, were afterwards translated into a church built under his invocation. Why he judged that he should be called Confessor instead of Martyr will be clear from what is to be said, from which it will also be established that he and Filippo Ferrari would have written more rightly if, omitting what they have of the Saint's body translated into a church founded under his invocation, they had said that it was at some time raised from the earth and transferred into a marble tomb under the altar of a chapel within the same church of St. Vitalis, dedicated to the name of the same St. Gerold, and that the same church of St. Vitalis, from the benefits divinely conferred in it through St. Gerold's patronage, began also to be called by his name. Of his cult too I shall give more below.

[5] Borgo, who published his Life in print in the year 1581, I said above that St. Gerold is better known by cult than by certain deeds; not because no Life of his exists, but because those which exist were written much too late to be able to create belief, and nevertheless contain many things which could not be known except by contemporaries or men of his age, nay, also many other things which could not be known even by contemporaries, unless they had been handed down by the Saint himself, or divinely revealed. Merula in the Sanctuary of Cremona praises Romano Borgo in the Life of the Saint himself, printed at Cremona; nor did Ferrari, whose words we have already given, praise any other. Hermann Crombach, priest of our Society, known also by other hagiophile Works published, likewise cites the same, writing Romano Borgo, in the Life of St. Gerold published in print in the German tongue at Cologne Agrippina in the year 1652; but he assigns in the same place older biographers, from whom Borgo drew his material, and whom no prudent man would refuse, provided it were established concerning their writing.

[6] He says, then, first, that St. Gerold himself, in a book [a book found with the Saint himself, or a contemporary writer, is said to have lighted the way;] found with him after his death, left in writing his own name and those of his parents, his fatherland, family, age, manner of life and pilgrimages; but that Romano Borgo judged that these things were written in the same book not by Gerold himself, but divinely. He says secondly (whatever may be the case concerning the author of that book) that it is certain that the Life and miracles of the same Saint were written in the Latin tongue shortly after his death by a certain contemporary writer, but of a name now unknown, from the aforesaid book of St. Gerold and the things which that Anonymous had seen and had heard from witnesses worthy of credence. He says finally that this Latin Life was translated into the Italian tongue by the praised Romano Borgo, a noble citizen of Cremona, but written more prolixly and rather in the manner of an elogium than of a Life, and dedicated in the year 1581 to the archbishop Elector of Cologne of that time.

[7] The first biographer of St. Gerold, then, who is known by name, but from neither could all the things which the former narrates have been known. and on whose credibility the whole authority of his Acts depends, Romano Borgo, wrote about three hundred and forty years after the Saint's slaying, which is tied to the year 1241. That letters or sheets were found with him, from which it was established concerning his fatherland, parents, age and other things of this kind, I would easily believe; since such pilgrims are accustomed to carry with them letters witnessing the baptism received, and testimonials both from the sacred and from the civil magistrate for the sake of security. But who would at once believe Borgo that all the things which Crombach recorded from him were divinely written in the little book found with the holy Man; or who would even assent to Crombach himself that the greatest part of them was noted down in it by St. Gerold himself, and the rest added by the writer? I think indeed that, since both acknowledged that the greatest part of the things which they had heard and narrated of Gerold could not have been known except either divinely or by the Saint himself alone, they were compelled, the one to say that they were divinely revealed in the often-said little book, the other that they were noted down by Gerold himself. Each opinion suffers great difficulty; that of Borgo on account of the strangeness of the fact, not to be lightly believed; that of Crombach because it is not credible that St. Gerold, a man in any case humble, heaped together so many praises of himself in it.

[8] Further, since I have neither Gerold's book, nor his original Life, Crombach published his Life in German in the year 1652, written in Latin, as they say, by a contemporary, which Crombach praised but never (I think) saw, nor the Italian version of Romano Borgo, I am compelled to estimate both in some way from Crombach. He, on the occasion of notable relics of the same Saint translated to Cologne Agrippina, of which we shall treat more fully below, published his Life in the German tongue, as I have already said, in the year 1652, confessing that he had found nothing of him in the Annals of Cologne, and therefore followed Romano Borgo, yet not so closely but that he frequently left him, as a Manuscript annotation appended to that Life advises; namely because Borgo's narration seemed to him too prolix and an elogium rather than a Life. And Crombach mixed into his many digressions taken from the Chronicles of the time in which Gerold flourished, but by no means pertaining to him, and besides pious conjectures and salutary admonitions, which hold no small place in that Life. For which reason I thought I would by no means repay the trouble if I made it Latin from the German, especially since I have already given above from Ferrari an ample elogium composed from Borgo and comprising the chief deeds of St. Gerold.

[9] the arguments of whose chapters That the studious reader, however, may have as it were a brief compendium of Crombach's lucubration, it pleases me to record here, made Latin from the German, the arguments of the chapters of the whole Little Work. It is divided into two books, of which the first treats of St. Gerold's boyhood, youth and manhood. Chapter I. By whom his Life was written. Chapter II. Of St. Gerold's name, fatherland and parents. Chapter III. In time of war, in the year MCCI, he is born at Cologne Agrippina. Chapter IV. He is brought up in the fear of God. Chapter V. He venerates the Mother of God; flees idleness. Chapter VI. He avoids evil company in the time of the interdict from sacred rites. Chapter VII. Under St. Engelbert the archbishop virtues flourish at Cologne Agrippina, and Gerold pursues chastity. Chapter VIII. His temperance in food and drink. Chapter IX. Through obedience shown to his confessor he overcomes the anguish of a scrupulous conscience. Chapter X. His manner and zeal of praying. Chapter XI. By the example of the king of Jerusalem venerating the three holy Magi at Cologne Agrippina he is kindled with the desire of making pilgrimage. Chapter XII. The glorious martyrdom of St. Engelbert spurs St. Gerold on to a like crown. Chapter XIII. He bestows his goods on the poor. Chapter XIV. He advances day by day in humility and purity of mind. Chapter XV. He avoids praise and esteem of himself. Chapter XVI. His conversation useful and patient. Chapter XVII. His watchfulness in temptations. Chapter XVIII. His cheerfulness and constancy in adversities. Chapter XIX. In manhood he chastises his body severely, yet temperately. Chapter XX. Gerold renounces all worldly things. Thus far the chapters of the first book.

[10] are recited; There follows the second book, treating of his pilgrimages, martyrdom and cult. Chapter I. Gerold in the year MCCXLI makes pilgrimage to Compostela to St. James in Spain. Chapter II. Thence he sets out to Rome to the sepulchres of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Chapter III. On the 6th day of October, which was a Sunday, he arrives at Cremona. Chapter IV. On the 7th day of October very early in the morning he goes out from Cremona. Chapter V. The occasion of his martyrdom is fetched from soldiers and plunderers. Chapter VI. Near Manica, an old village, he falls

among quarrelling robbers. Chapter VII. Striving to reconcile them, he is stabbed by them. Chapter VIII. God manifests St. Gerold's body to fishermen by prodigies. Chapter IX. The fishermen announce these things in the city of Cremona, and the citizens hasten to the sacred body. Chapter X. The fishermen, not without a great prodigy, carry the body. Chapter XI. The body is carried in vain to various churches. Chapter XII. At the church of St. Vitalis innumerable wonders are done. Chapter XIII. There he is buried by the bishop. Chapter XIV. The church of St. Vitalis on account of many wonders takes the name of St. Gerold. Chapter XV. His sepulchre is made illustrious by night with heavenly light, fragrance and song. Chapter XVI. The sacred body, incorrupt, is raised from the earth amid great prodigies. Chapter XVII. St. Gerold is enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints. Chapter XVIII. The priests of the congregation of Somasca from the year MDLXI promote St. Gerold's cult. Chapter XIX. By images which had touched St. Gerold's head many are delivered from fevers. Chapter XX. Certain relics of St. Gerold's head translated from Cremona to Cologne Agrippina to the church of the Society of Jesus.

[11] You have, learned reader, the argument of the whole Life of St. Gerold published in German by our Crombach, and how much it seems to be worth is declared. who had Romano Borgo in hand, plainly similar to the elogium which I recited from Ferrari, but much more prolix, and enlarged with various pious conjectures and with an exposition of both the ancient and the more recent cult. But there are many things in it which could scarcely, and some not even scarcely, have been known even by a contemporary writer. I indeed do not doubt at all that either Borgo or Crombach, or even both, indulged their conjectures more liberally than was fair in composing it, that they might make their sacred Hero such as they piously meditated he had been. Not all their assertions, however, are to be held in the same place. For there are some things among them which could have been known without difficulty soon after the Saint's death, and into which it is altogether probable that inquiry was then made. There are besides things pertaining to his body found and carried into the city of Cremona which it is permissible to believe were transmitted to posterity, whether by writing or by tradition (although more probably not without some foreign circumstances). There are finally more certain things concerning his cult. So I shall relate and discuss only those things which pertain more nearly and certainly to the history of his life, the rest, which seem to have been said in it from uncertain conjectures alone, being dismissed.

§ II. The chief heads of his life examined: the time and cause of his slaying: the translation of his body into the city of Cremona, burial, elevation, and deposition in a more honourable place within the same church: the canonization of the Saint lightly asserted: his powerful patronage.

His fatherland and the year of his birth could easily have been known, That Gerold was born to the world in Germany at Cologne Agrippina among the Ubii in the year 1201 I willingly believe Crombach, and Romano Borgo, whom he followed here; since these things could very easily have been known from letters found with his corpse, say those which they call Baptismal, and other written testimonies of that kind which pilgrims everywhere carry with them. Alone, of those whom I have read, Lodovico Cavitelli in the Annals of Cremona at the year 1241 said that he sprang from the city of Constance in Germany …, I do not know whether by his own fault or the typesetter's. Certainly I have known no other who claims this glory for his city besides the praised men of Cologne, the Cremonese themselves also agreeing, among whom he was slain and buried, and first venerated. And this silence of all others confirms not a little the possession of the men of Cologne: for unless it had been established concerning this his fatherland, there would not have been lacking others who would have tried to ascribe him to their citizens.

[13] The names of his parents, nay, also of his ancestors, and their noble lineage, not so, however, many other things which are narrated of him. obscured by the poverty of their descendants, were indeed noted, Crombach affirms after Borgo, in the often-said little book found with the dead man's body, but passed over by the first Latin biographer; but since they will have it that these and many other things were consigned in that former little book, long since lost, if it ever existed, by Borgo divinely, but by Crombach by St. Gerold himself, neither persuades me. It is nevertheless certain, says Crombach, that his progenitors sprang from a noble stock, but were diminished in their ancestral fortune by the time and iniquity of wars. I fear indeed that he divines these things rather than asserts them from certain indications, and that the rather common proclivity of biographers to ascribing an illustrious lineage of birth to the Saints, who need none of these things, has place here. I pass over the rest, as being still more uncertain than these, whose arguments you will understand from the titles of the chapters given, and I proceed to the Saint's pilgrimages and death.

[14] His pilgrimages, the time of his coming to Cremona That the pilgrimage of Compostela in Galicia to the tomb of St. James, and the other, the Roman, to the holy Apostles, the Princes Peter and Paul, were accomplished by St. Gerold the Cremonese could have learned either from himself when he entered Cremona from Rome, or from little sheets found with him after his death; not likewise the other particulars which Crombach recorded besides from Borgo or from his own pious conjectures. Perhaps they also learned from him the journey to Jerusalem planned by him, which the same writers likewise assert; although, to proceed from Rome to Jerusalem, he would by no means have had to go to Cremona. There seems less to be doubted concerning the year in which he came to Cremona, and soon, going out thence, was slain. It may have been the year of the Christian era 1241, which Crombach marks after Romano Borgo, the above-praised Cavitelli agreeing, who is however to be corrected when he says that Gerold came thither from the city of Constance in Germany, from which he sprang. Crombach adds that the day of his coming was a Sunday, and the 6th of the month of October.

[15] and of his slaying, which is fixed to the 7th day of October of the year 1241, The same writers fix his martyrdom on the day after the same day, namely the seventh of October, on which also he is venerated at Cremona to this day. Cavitelli, agreeing concerning the year and day, writes that this was done not in the return from the City of Rome, but in the approach to that metropolis of the Christian world; whether rightly or otherwise I would not dare to affirm certainly. And he has thus at the cited year 1241: On the 7th day of October, about that very time, the divine Gerold, when, from the city of Constance in Germany, from which he sprang (I have already noted that these things are to be corrected), betaking himself in hermit's habit to Rome, to visit there the relics of the Saints, having made his passage through Cremona, and beyond it about a thousand paces beside the nearer bank of the Po in the contrada (that is, village) of Menica, soon after eaten away by the river itself, he had arrived *, and had wished to calm two there fighting with one another; and they had believed that there was money on him, he was slain by them.

[16] have no difficulty, Of his slaying, but with the year, month, day and determinate place passed over, the Catalogue of the bishops of Cremona published by Ferdinando Ughelli in the Sacred Italy, volume 4 of the enlarged edition, column 607, under Bishop Homobonus, records briefly thus: Under this pontiff also Gerold was affected with martyrdom by certain foreign assassins, outside the city however. For the rest, it is established from the same Catalogue that this Homobonus sat in the chair of Cremona in the aforesaid year 1241; and as regards the village Menica, which Ferrari calls Mamica and Crombach Manica, since they agree that it has long since lain hidden under the river Po, you will seek it in vain in topographical or geographical maps. The manner and cause of the slaying carried out Crombach narrates, from Borgo, as I think, thus, as if one or other had stood by, or the same things had been known from the testimony of some eye-witness, and partly also divinely revealed. I shall set out the matter in a few words.

[17] Not far from the aforesaid village, in a thick wood, certain highwaymen, but the cause and circumstances of the same slaying, such as are related, lying in wait for travellers, as soon as they had seen St. Gerold approaching clothed in a mean habit, thinking him a bearer of money, agree on dividing his spoils among themselves; and that they might lure him nearer, two of them leap out from the wood and feign quarrels and fighting between themselves. Gerold, a gentle and merciful man, fearing the eternal loss of another's salvation, ran up to reconcile them, although by no means ignorant into how great a peril of his own life he was hastening. But they, as he urged pious admonitions, attack him with drawn swords; and when he noticed this, he calls upon God with prayers that he may obtain the long-desired martyrdom. Meanwhile they wound his head and pierce his shoulder and breast, and, no money being found on the holy Man, they leave the lifeless body in the same place, with the often-mentioned little book found with it.

[18] But whence did Borgo, who went before Crombach, understand all these things? whence could they have been known, Certainly the Saint himself could not have written them while alive in that little book, nor could the said robbers have known everything, whom no one relates to have ever been captured or to have confessed this their crime. It would be necessary, then, that these things were noted in that book, as Borgo asserted, divinely, or, as he speaks, in a supernatural manner, which not even Crombach himself dared to admit as a thing ascertained. I, to set out my mind candidly, of all these things hold as certain only that St. Gerold, deserving no evil, was slain in that place by robbers, most probably lured by the hope of booty. For the first is established from the sacred corpse found finished off with wounds; the second becomes probable from the common bent of robbers, who slay that they may plunder. But indeed, you will say, if these things are so, by what reason, then, can St. Gerold's slaying be called martyrdom, or by what reason can he himself be called a Martyr and venerated as a martyr?

[19] That for martyrdom of the strict name, which word, Greek μαρτύριον, whence will martyrdom of the strict name be proved for him? is in Latin confession, it is altogether required that death be inflicted out of hatred of the divine faith or of an act commanded or counselled by the divine law, Benedict XIV, supreme Pontiff, proves more fully in his excellent Work On the beatification of the Servants of God etc., book 3. But who would prove from what has been said this cause of the death inflicted on St. Gerold, even if he admitted all the circumstances of his slaying such as we have related from Crombach? For these indeed could have made the holy Man a martyr in desire before God and a victim of excellent charity, yet not a martyr of the true name. Let St. Gerold, then, so far as we know of him (for I do not wish anything to be detracted from his praises), have been venerated as a martyr already from the 13th century by that reason by which some other Saints too, wickedly slain and illustrious after death by miracles, were once held as martyrs. This without doubt was the cause that moved Chastelain, related at number 4, to record Gerold in his Universal Martyrology not with the title of Martyr but of Confessor, and likewise moved me to write him at the front of this Commentary not simply as Martyr, but as venerated as a Martyr.

[20] Concerning the prodigies by which God, soon after his death, declared the death of His Servant precious in His sight, That his sacred corpse was soon made illustrious by heavenly prodigies, Cavitelli, agreeing with Ferrari, in words

given above, subjoined the following: From whose body, when he had breathed out his spirit, a wonderful fragrance of odour emanated, and, when it was about the twenty-fourth hour (that is, near sunset), the sun shone beyond measure in that region, and the bells of the churches of Cremona began to be rung of themselves; and, while the bishop there and other ecclesiastics, and very many seculars, astounded by these things, came to that region etc. Crombach narrates the same prodigies, but for the unusual splendour of the sun at that hour of the day he substitutes a very bright comet, which reached the sacred body with its ray; to which assertion the images of the same Saint lend support, which show above his head a very bright star with a ray sent forth upon it.

[21] [it is altogether probable, but whether the things which are narrated to have happened as well in his finding,] I, although I cannot deservedly doubt that the sacred body of Gerold was made illustrious by some divine prodigy (for why otherwise would the Cremonese so soon have begun to hold in such honour the corpse of an unknown Pilgrim?), yet cannot assert these things mentioned as undoubted, because I do not know of what credibility and age the Life was which is related to have lighted the way for Borgo. For the rest, the fragrance of the body, and its designation by heavenly light, are more usual prodigies of divine Providence in similar cases, and accordingly more probable, than the spontaneous ringing of all the bells of the city. Further, Crombach narrates that fishermen, who were casting their nets in the river Po not far from there, were led by the unusual fragrance and that new star to the sacred body, and when they had found it also surrounded by heavenly light, they hastened forthwith as messengers of so great a thing into the city, greatly moved by that prodigious ringing of the bells. It was decreed, then, by the bishop, that that sacred corpse should be carried with great pomp to the city, to be honourably buried.

[22] as in the translation to the city, Then he subjoins that, when they had come to the venerable body, it was tried in vain by very many to move it from the place, until this was accomplished without any trouble by the fishermen who had first found it. On the way, when by order of the bishop it was to be carried into the suburban church of St. Creatus, the fishermen themselves too are said to have stuck immovable, and this prodigy was repeated a second and third time, while the bearers tried to set it down first in the church of the old city called that of the holy Mother of God in Bethlehem, then in another of the same most holy Virgin, and finally in the church of St. Pantaleon; and at length, by the common consent of all, it was easily carried into the church of St. Vitalis, and in it buried by the bishop in a sepulchre already prepared by the fishermen. Cavitelli set out all these things more briefly, pursuing the narration begun thus: While the bishop there and other ecclesiastics, and very many seculars, astounded by these things (the aforesaid prodigies), came to that region, and wished to raise the body itself, pierced with many wounds, found prostrate on the ground, it could not be raised by some, except by the fishermen who had found it while they were fishing in the waters of the river Po, and, raised, they could not lay it down in the church of the divine Creatus, near there in the suburbs outside the gate of Mosa, and in others of the city nearer to that gate, except in the church of the divine Vitalis, near which the fish-market was then held, and in which it is kept; and his solemnity is celebrated yearly on the 7th day of October.

[23] Merula in the Sanctuary of Cremona agrees still more with Crombach, so that Romano Borgo seems to have lighted the way for him, who would say certainly? equally as for the latter. He adds conveniently, however, that the church of the said St. Creatus did not survive in his time: and I indeed do not know even by name any St. Creatus, and although Crombach calls him the sixth bishop of the Cremonese, none of that name is read in the series of the prelates of that see in Ughelli, volume 4 of the enlarged Sacred Italy, except Creatus de Ponte, placed there in the twentieth place and dying in the year 594, who, although he is much praised there for piety and charity, yet has not the title of Saint or Blessed, or any indication of cult, ascribed to him. So who is designated by the name of St. Creatus, what churches of his are designated in the praised writers, I leave to the Cremonese to declare. For the rest, the other churches named are known to me, and the gate of Mosa, commonly called della Mosa. Further, on how firm a monument those prodigies rest which are said to have happened then is plainly undiscovered by me; yet they are not altogether new in translations of sacred bodies of this kind.

[24] I have it no better explored how certain are again other prodigies Whatever too may be the case concerning other prodigies, which the same Crombach affirms gave occasion for raising the body from the tomb and made the elevation itself illustrious, Cavitelli, Merula and Ferrari being silent. Namely that the whole church of St. Vitalis was seen for many nights to shine with heavenly splendour; and the very tomb of St. Gerold surrounded by angels singing the Matin praises to God, and the body finally found incorrupt, with entire flesh, of natural and lively colour, fragrant with a wonderful odour, the wounds in the head, shoulder and breast even then red with flowing blood. At what time, or under what bishop sitting, these things happened, there is deep silence there, and only the bishop's vicar Peter is named, who by his mandate then raised the body from the earth; which silence indeed renders very suspect to me such great prodigies, which, if only on account of their magnitude, would have deserved to be consigned by certain testimonies.

[25] That the sacred body of Gerold was nevertheless once raised from the earth [his body was raised from the earth, and his head, separated from it, was enclosed in a silver reliquary;] is established from the place which it holds in the same church of St. Vitalis, of which Merula in the Sanctuary, after he had said that it was first buried in the aforesaid church, added below, in Italian like the rest: In this church rests the body of the said (St. Gerold) enclosed in a marble tomb under the altar of the chapel dedicated to the same Saint, and his head is kept in an honourable place of the same altar, and on some solemnities is exposed to public veneration. Crombach says that that reliquary of the head is a half-length silver statue of St. Gerold, and Agostino Grasso agrees, in a Manuscript account of a jaw separated from the head of the same Saint for the church of our Society at Cologne, which he himself composed in Italian at Cremona in the year 1652, and which our Father Francesco Zaccaria transmitted to us in the year 1748. For in this that reliquary is called an ancient and precious silver herm. But at what time, or on what occasion, that elevation of the sacred body and separation of the head from it were made, and whether at the same or at different times, I have not hitherto found out. This one thing may be conjectured, that the sacred head was by no means separated from the rest of the body at the time of the elevation, if the body was then such as Crombach asserted above.

[26] But whenever these things happened, at least they could not rightly have been done without the authority of the bishop, and they contain a certain beatification, or, as others prefer to speak, a particular canonization, by which bishops were once accustomed to decree public cult to the Servants of God in their dioceses, [at an unknown time and by an unknown author: his canonization by the supreme Pontiff] as may be seen in Prospero Lambertini, or Pope Benedict XIV, book 1, chapter 6, and elsewhere, On the beatification of the Servants of God etc. But, you will say, was St. Gerold, then, as Crombach asserts, placed in the number of the Saints, or canonized, by no supreme Roman Pontiff? This indeed I cannot affirm, nor do the words of Crombach persuade me, which I recite here in Latin from chapter 17 of his book 2. When the miracles had been so multiplied, they became known everywhere through Italy and France, and, as is probably related, Innocent, the IVth of this name, inscribed him (Gerold) on the roll of the Holy Martyrs and canonized him, but the year is not established, which, however, he himself thought more probably to have been the year of Christ 1251, in which Innocent returned from France into Italy; but he acknowledges that no Pontifical letters of the thing survive

[27] asserted by Crombach, is not proved, Wonderful again here, if it be so, the carelessness or misfortune of the Cremonese in preserving the things pertaining to their holy Protector, to me at least not sufficiently probable from elsewhere to be admitted. For as regards the year indeed, it was not that time, in which the Cremonese under Uberto Pallavicino were following the Ghibelline side, a convenient one for the Cremonese to beg that grace of canonization from Innocent. Then, although the Pontifical letters had been lost, yet the name of Gerold, placed among the Saints whether by the same Innocent or by another Pontiff his predecessor or successor, would have been inscribed in the Calendars of Cremona. But that this was not done up to the fifteenth century I gather from a threefold Calendar of Cremona, which our Francesco Zaccaria published at the end of the series of the bishops of the same city, taken from as many Manuscript books of the cathedral church of Cremona, and which the editor himself pronounces is not older than the same 15th century. But in vain will you look for the name of St. Gerold in these; and who would sufficiently wonder at this, if he had been canonized in the 13th or 14th century by the supreme Pontiff? Who, I say, would sufficiently wonder at this silence, except one who would wish again to blame the supreme negligence of the Cremonese without any argument?

[28] and perhaps rests on a place ill understood. Now as regards his Ecclesiastical Office in the diocese of Cremona, Crombach himself fetched its beginning from no higher than the 14th century, saying: This is certain, that his festival had already for a hundred years (and he wrote in the year 1652) been celebrated with double rite in choir through the whole diocese (of Cremona). I do not know, finally, from what source Crombach learned that canonization, unless perhaps from the words of Cavitelli, already praised above, which, however, need not be expounded in that sense. Here they are: Since many miracles had been done at his body for his merits and approved and praiseworthy * life by the power of almighty God, he was numbered among His Elect. For since in these no word is made of the supreme Pontiff, what hinders them from being taken in their proper sense thus, that Gerold is said, on account of holiness proved by many miracles, the bishop of Cremona decreeing it, to have obtained the honours of the Heaven-dwellers among the Cremonese? Perhaps too his cult so begun in that place was afterwards approved by some supreme Pontiff together with the grant of an Office for the diocese of Cremona; certainly I shall recite below the letters of Pope Innocent X, in which Gerold is called both Saint and Martyr, and plenary Indulgences are granted on the feast day of the translation of part of his relics, but to be obtained only once, in the church of our Society at Cologne Agrippina; of which it will be treated more broadly in its place; but these do not contain a canonization, nor prove that one was ever made.

[29] I noted above at number 4 that not rightly by Ferrari,

and still more expressly by Chastelain, is it said [Why some believed that the Saint's body was translated into his own proper church] that the relics or body of the same Saint, translated from the church of St. Vitalis, in which it had first been buried, rest in another proper church built under his invocation; since they ought to have said that it was at some time raised from the ground and translated into a chapel, sacred indeed to his name, but situated within the same church of St. Vitalis. Why I have noted this is sufficiently clear from the words of Merula which I recited at number 25. That error could have arisen from the name of Gerold added to the church of St. Vitalis, so that this single church comes now under the name of SS. Vitalis and Gerold, now also under that of the latter alone, as may be seen in Giuseppe Bresciani's Sacred Diary of Cremona at Sexagesima Sunday, at the 10th day of June, and at this 7th day of October, in which latter place it is read thus: St. Gerold, martyr. His feast is celebrated in the church of the same Saint, where his body rests, which is administered by the reverend Fathers of the Congregation of Somasca, to whom, namely, it was granted a little after the middle of the 16th century. And all these things manifestly designate the aforesaid church of St. Vitalis.

[30] Hence more rightly Agostino Grasso, in his Manuscript account already praised above he is invoked especially by the blind and to be praised below, called the same the church of SS. Vitalis and Gerold. There is indeed at Cremona also another house, called after the same Gerold, which Coleti, in the Additions to Ughelli's Sacred Italy, volume 4, column 579, among the pious houses erected in that city for caring for and cherishing the poor, indicates thus in few words: For keeping orphan boys, it is called St. Gerold's, under the care of the Somascan Fathers; but in this the body of the same Saint is not kept. Let these things said of the place of that sacred body suffice: of his patronage Crombach writes that, although he is customarily invoked with happy result in all infirmities, and most of all in fevers, he is yet a peculiar physician of the blind, and that even then, while he was writing, it was probably related that seven years before a certain blind man had been presented with the light of his eyes at his tomb, at which votive offerings of every kind, hung up, gave credence to the benefits conferred by him.

[31] He adds that his images, sanctified by the touch of his head, are applied most salutarily against fevers, and by the feverish and that for this end prayers are read placed upon them, which I shall recite more opportunely below in the following §. Pellegrino Merula in the Sanctuary, recording nothing in particular of the curing of the blind, agrees in the rest, saying: This Saint not only presented the Cremonese before the rest with his body, but also healed as many as, afflicted with any infirmity whatever, had recourse to him for the sake of a remedy: nay, even at this time little sheets inscribed with a prayer to him and sanctified by the touch of his head are wonderfully salutary to the sick who piously carry them with them. Add to these also another testimony from Crombach, which I report here in Latin from the German in as many words. Giovanni Battista Vertua (soon below written Vertica), Provost at St. Gerold's, testifies (he says) that he very often saw with his own eyes that those lying sick with fever to whom he had given these images with the aforesaid prayers were presented with health.

[32] most happily, with effect. When in the year MDCXLVI a burning fever afflicted Cremona, an innumerable multitude of the sick flocked together to the church of St. Gerold to implore his help; and in the same year the praised Provost Giovanni Battista Vertica (above Vertua) wrote to me that innumerable of them, on whom he had laid his hand before St. Gerold's altar and for whom he had recited the aforesaid prayers, were cured, and shortly after, returning safe and sound to the holy Martyr, paid thanks to God in His Saint for the health obtained. Thus far Crombach, by whom the Provost named was probably the superior of the Clerics of the Congregation of Somasca, to whom I observed above that the church of SS. Vitalis and Gerold was granted in the middle of the 16th century. His powerful patronage in fevers will also be confirmed below.

* Perhaps fuerat?

* Perhaps accesserunt came?

* Perhaps voluerunt wished?

* Nay, laudabili.

§ III. The archbishop and senate of Cologne obtain the Saint's jaw from the Cremonese: its solemn exaltation at Cologne in the year MDCLII; raging fevers driven away, even from the archbishop himself: annual cult there in the church of the Society of Jesus.

The cult of St. Gerold begun at Cologne Agrippina in the 17th century: The things which I have thus far set out of the sacred veneration of Gerold pertain to his cult which he obtained already some centuries ago at Cremona in Insubria, near which he himself was slain; now it is to be treated of that by which he began to be honoured in the middle of the 17th century at Cologne Agrippina, a city of Germany on the Rhine, where he had been born, from the time when a notable portion of his relics was translated thither. Crombach and Agostino Grasso light the way for me here, of whom the latter wrote at Cremona his Cremonese Manuscript, often praised by me, at the same time at which that sacred portion was granted by the Cremonese; and the former was flourishing in the college of our Society at Cologne Agrippina. I have besides another Manuscript Account of the same matter, which Friedrich Reiffenberg, of pious memory, priest of our Society, had prepared to be inserted in the second volume of the History of the same Society on the Lower Rhine, and which the most kind and most learned man Augustin Aldenbrück, likewise priest of our Society in the same College of Cologne, a very great friend of mine, kindly communicated to me. I begin from Crombach.

[34] through a portion of his relics received For nearly seven years (he says, book 2 of the Life, chapter 20) labour was spent before something from the bones of St. Gerold could be obtained, carried to Cologne Agrippina, and exposed to public veneration, various mischances opposing, as is clear from what follows. In the year MDCXLV the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Cologne, by letters written, consulted the Cremonese through a friend whether any hope shone of obtaining something from the body of St. Gerold, and in what way it should be attempted, that it might be done conveniently. It was answered them that first of all the faculty of the Roman Pontiff was needed here. Wherefore in the following year MDCXLVI that Pontifical assent was obtained through Ferdinand, archbishop Elector, and the provident senate of Cologne, and in the year following, MDCXLVII, sent to Cremona, and the praised Elector and senate of Cologne through letters of recommendation besought the bishop and senate of Cremona, and the Provost of St. Gerold's, and the superior General of the Congregation of Somasca, that the relics sought might the more easily be granted to the aforesaid Fathers.

[35] But since two superiors General (of the Congregation of Somasca) succeeding one another next, namely Agostino Socio in the year MDCXLVI long sought. and Giovanni Ambrogio Varese in the following year, had died before they could assent to the requests; and he who succeeded them, the General Giacomo Antonio Valtorta, had wished to do nothing in this matter without the consent of the general chapter (which was deferred until the year MDCL), in the month of May of the same year Paolo Carrara was created General, who, by various repeated letters and by the exhortation of the bishop himself and of the city of Cremona, was at length moved, since in the general chapter of his Congregation it had not seemed expedient to open the tomb, to grant that something from St. Gerold's head should be sent to Cologne Agrippina for propagating the veneration of the holy Martyr in his fatherland. After this he subjoins that the portion of the relics sought was separated from the Saint's head in the year 1651 on the 16th day of December, enclosed in a sacred reliquary, to be sent as a gift to the most serene archbishop and Elector of Cologne; all which things I shall subjoin here more rightly from Agostino Grasso, praised above, who was present at Cremona, made Latin from the Italian, beginning from the beginning of his Account.

[36] When a few years ago, on a certain occasion of singular divine providence, at the prayers of the archbishop and senate, with the consent of the Pope, the memory of the glorious martyr St. Gerold had been renewed at Cologne Agrippina in his fatherland, there came also upon the most serene prince Elector archbishop and the most renowned senate of the same most noble city a huge desire of obtaining some relics of this Saint. To this end they gave most eloquent and most urgent letters to the most illustrious and most reverend lord our bishop, to the most illustrious lords deputed for the government of this city, and to the most reverend Father General of the sacred Congregation of the Somascans. Besides, that they might better compose their desires with the divine will, they made supplication to Pope Innocent X, who by a Brief directed to the bishop of Cremona kindly granted to the Elector archbishop of Cologne that, with the consent of those whom it concerned, he might separate one or more portions from the body of St. Gerold the martyr and transfer them to Cologne, to be exposed to public veneration there in the church of the Society of Jesus, as in the church of his most serene house of Bavaria, by which it was once magnificently founded.

[37] The so pious requests of persons so notable, the Cremonese and the General of the Somascans assenting, commended also by the assent and favour of the supreme Pontiff, the bishop received with equal devotion and promptness, who brought all his effort to bear on this; the general council of the city of Cremona also received them, which not only gave its assent, but they also by decree elected the lords Niccolò Ferrari and Gerardo Asti to assist in this business as one of great weight; and finally the most reverend father General, Dom Paolo Carrara, a man of singular kindness, prudence and learning, who with the consent of the chief fathers of his Congregation, by letters given, commanded that for this end a notable part of the jaw should be taken from the sacred head of the most blessed martyr St. Gerold.

[38] [they hand over the jaw to the procurators of the people of Cologne in the year 1650.] This mandate being received, the very reverend father Giovanni Pietro Comenduco, Provost, ordered his church of the holy martyrs Vitalis and Gerold to be prepared, in which, while he himself was present with his fathers, on the 16th day of December of the year MDCL, the most illustrious bishop together with the two lords elected by the city and many other lords Canons and noble men came thither, before whom the sacred and venerable head of the holy Martyr was taken out of the ancient and precious silver herm, exposed in the middle with great decorum and many lighted candles, and the assigned part separated from it. This the most illustrious lord recognized, venerated with the accustomed ceremonies, and, wrapped becomingly with his own hands, and sealed in two places with his greater seal, handed it over to the procurators of the most serene princes, the Elector archbishops, Ferdinand of holy memory and Maximilian Henry now sitting, and of the most renowned senate of Cologne, ordering that an authentic instrument be made of all these things and subscribed and sealed by the two chancellors of the bishopric and of the city.

[39] which, however, were first brought to Cologne in the following year. Meanwhile there had been sent to Cologne Agrippina, as harbingers of the lodging of this holy Martyr, some printed images of him, which, when they were distributed, were sought in rivalry even by men of the first rank; and when they were already beginning to produce their accustomed kindly effects in the sick, they kindled so much the greater desire of the sacred relics in the minds of all. But since it was the wintry season, and the roads little secure, a suitable occasion for sending them had to be awaited: wherefore they first arrived at Cologne in the following year on the 8th of March, a day of common joy, inasmuch as by all

they were held as a precious treasure. What was then done at Cologne we shall subjoin more rightly from Crombach, then living there, and from Reiffenberg, praised above, who had in hand Crombach's Manuscripts and the annual letters of the college of Cologne; and first of all the very letter of the most illustrious Francesco Visconti, at that time bishop of Cremona, given on this matter to the most serene Maximilian Henry, of the dukes of Bavaria, archbishop and Elector of Cologne. Thus Reiffenberg reports it from Crombach's Manuscripts.

[40] The letter is recited by which the bishop of Cremona To the most serene and most reverend Lord, my most worshipful, the Lord Maximilian Henry, archbishop of Cologne, Elector of the H. R. E., duke of Bavaria etc. etc.

Most serene prince, the most serene predecessor of your Highness, of holy and to-be-recalled memory, Ferdinand, archbishop of Cologne and prince Elector of the H. R. E., being held by a more vehement desire of transferring from here some sacred relics of Blessed Gerold the martyr to that his most noble see of Cologne, and the fatherland of the holy Man, long ago deigned to signify this to me by letter, and thereupon to ask my help, by a singular kindness toward me. While I was trying to comply according to my strength with his so excellent piety, many difficulties arising did not indeed render my efforts vain, but, being drawn out longer, delayed them, with great grief and feeling of mind on my part. Meanwhile it seemed good to the divine Goodness to call the already said most excellent prelate into that fatherland which is truly the Just's, as we piously believe. And it is to be judged that this was done thus by heavenly counsel, that in the heavenly court the most pious Pontiff might obtain more nearly from the divine Majesty that ornament for his spouse which on earth seemed most difficult.

[41] And assuredly in these last two months such easy approaches lay open to my diligence everywhere, Maximilian Henry, archbishop of Cologne, so did all things conspire in favour of the cause, that it must be believed that these things could only have flowed down to us as first decreed by the company of the Heavenly ones. For which reason, having set out on the fifteenth day of December to the church of the holy martyr Gerold, with solemn rite and with the piety which is fitting, illustrious and most religious men standing by, I took into my hands the greater part of the halved lower jaw taken from the sacred head of the same Martyr, and, having diligently inspected it, I handed it over with the highest joy of mind to the procurator of your Highness, as a most clear proof of my most obedient mind and perpetual service toward so great a pontiff and prince. I would indeed confess that I do not equal by the quantity of the gift your most illustrious merits and those of your predecessor: yet if I regard the most difficult conditions of the thing itself, I seem to myself to have reaped no small fruit of my industry, and, if account be taken of my most ready will toward your service, my conscience testifies that it could not have been greater.

[42] This certainly I pray of your Highness submissively, informed of these things. that it may look kindly upon this my effort, such as it is, and commend it in my name as ratified to the most dear predecessor; which, if it was not happy in digging out the whole treasure, yet sweated most willingly in one part, in which the most powerful Martyr * is to be believed no less to have his whole spirit watchful and most present for help, for miracles, for the bestowing of benefits. Finally, I vehemently wish, and as a suppliant ask of Y. H., whom I venerate most humbly, that it will be pleased very often to use the same help and all my efforts. Given at Cremona on the 20th day of the month of December. In the year 1650.

Y. H.

Most devoted servant

Francesco, Bishop of Cremona.

Ferdinand, the predecessor of Maximilian Henry in the archbishopric of Cologne, by whom the sacred relics of Gerold are said in the recited letter to have been first sought, was the son of William V, duke of Bavaria, and paternal uncle of Maximilian Henry, distinguished for virtues and piety, who died on the 13th day of September of the year 1650, and the praised Maximilian Henry, who had long since been elected and proclaimed his coadjutor, succeeded him, as may be seen in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 713 and following. Now let us subjoin the rest.

[43] After this Reiffenberg proceeds thus: This letter was delivered in the following year, These relics, recognized by the suffragan of the archbishop of Cologne, in the month of March, when, Liège having been pacified, Maximilian Henry had returned to the Ubii. He answered the prelate of Cremona with a most courteous letter, and testified his grateful mind for the benefit: and the relics themselves he handed over to be inspected carefully to Paul Stravius, suffragan of Cologne (elsewhere called Georg Paul Stravius, and I have read that he was also bishop of Joppa); who, on the day before the Ides of March, clothed in the pontifical robe, entering the church of the College of Cologne, ordered the Cremonese documents first to be recited; then went up to the high altar, and unsealed the casket sealed in four places with the bishop's ring, and found the jaw of Gerold the martyr, with this prayer against the heats of fever added: "Through the merits of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and of Blessed Gerold the martyr, and of all the Saints, may God deliver us from every evil of fever. Amen."

[44] are approved; Indulgences are asked from the Roman Pontiff, Stravius then drew out the jaw with the three teeth which clung to it, and asked a physician standing by whether this was a jaw of a human body. The physician assenting, he showed it to the skilled in Theology and Laws; and then declared publicly that the part of the bones which they saw before them had been cut from the head of the divine Gerold, and was plainly the same of which the Cremonese letters made mention: that they therefore merited public cult, and could be exposed openly to veneration. Then he venerated them, enclosed in glass panes, with a religious kiss, and was the author of those present doing the same. There had been put into the same casket the bodies of two Roman martyrs, Constantius and Faustus, which, happily dug up from the cemetery of Callistus with their sarcophagi, names and a phial full of blood, Cardinal Ginetti, Vicar of the supreme Pontiff in the City, had surveyed and held as legitimate. When Stravius had recognized these with the same diligence, and venerated them with the fumes of incense, he ordered them, sealed again with his ring, to be set aside for a while, until, Indulgences having been obtained from the Pontiff, they could be exposed to public cult with greater celebrity.

[45] and for laying them up a chapel is adorned, a silver reliquary prepared, The Roman Pontiff fulfilled these wishes of the people of Cologne in the year MDCLII *, when by an ample diploma he offered the remission of faults and penalties to all who, their sins duly expiated, should receive the Eucharist and make supplication to God in the fitting manner before the sacred relics. That this might be done with greater apparatus, the Marian chapel of our basilica was paved with elegant marble, and a statue cast from silver for Gerold by the will and at the expense of Catharina de Colonia (von Collen). It represents Girold in half-length, and in the guise of a traveller; the head wears a hat, and the right hand is furnished with a staff; the left holds tablets; within the breast a dagger sticks fixed, and from the breast the relics shine through a crystal: beneath this herm is set a base, on which, besides silver reliefs, this inscription is read of the same metal: St. Gerold, Citizen of Cologne. The same image was then engraved on copper, and distributed among the people together with a synopsis of his life and a form of prayer.

[46] which we subjoin here I have in hand a copy of these images by the kindness of the Reverend Father Augustin Aldenbrück, praised above, in which, besides the prayer already recited at number 43, this is read besides, from the common of Martyrs: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that, Blessed Gerold Thy martyr interceding, we may both be freed from all adversities in body, and cleansed from evil thoughts in mind. Through our Lord etc. And the synopsis of his Life is taken from Filippo Ferrari's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, whose words I gave at number 2. Further, that the curious lover of the saints may lack nothing, I gave the very picture of the statue to our engraver to imitate, the things being omitted which, as the same Augustin Aldenbrück advised, were added only on the day of the exaltation of the enclosed relics, such as I exhibit here.

[47] I add also the annotations of the same learned man on the same statue, in a letter given to me. with a few things noted about it. On the base (he says) of the statue, which (base, namely) is skilfully worked of wood, and adorned with a silver relief, and in the middle with a rather large plate of the same metal, showing the assassins rushing upon the Saint and stabbing him, these words only are read inscribed above, in letters cast of silver: Saint Gerold, martyr, citizen of Cologne; but the statue itself is wholly of silver, the sword, staff, star etc. being gilded, and is of even greater size (than the base), as the picture shows, and easily of sixteen pounds, the gift of Catharina de Colonia, commonly Von Collen. Thus far he. The picture given manifestly shows the place of the plate on the base, but that was too narrow in the same picture to be able to take the image of the Saint's slaying, and a similar reason seems to have stood in the way of the aforesaid inscription being added to the same picture.

[48] I return to Reiffenberg's narration, in which the very solemnity of the exaltation of the same relics of St. Gerold is set out. In the year 1652 the archbishop, by public letters, his people of Cologne Receive his words. The archbishop appointed for this sacred ovation the seventeenth * day before the Kalends of Quintilis, which then fell on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Here are subjoined the archbishop's public letters for celebrating it; a copy of which, then published in print, I have, and I append it here, some of the same archbishop's titles which contribute nothing to the present argument being cut off for brevity's sake.

Maximilian Henry, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See elected and confirmed archbishop of the holy church of Cologne, prince Elector of the holy Roman Empire, and archchancellor through Italy etc. etc., to the venerable clergy and to all and each of the faithful of Christ of our city and archdiocese of Cologne, everlasting salvation in the Lord.

[49] While dangerous fevers are raging in our city and archdiocese of Cologne, to the solemnity of the translation of the same relics the divine Goodness opportunely offers a heavenly physician, St. Gerold, of Cologne by fatherland, a martyr of Cremona, who, since in Italy, when invoked, he is accustomed to free innumerable persons by his patronage from every kind of fever, we hope will no less, in his own fatherland, provided he be lawfully venerated, help his fellow-citizens struggling with the same diseases. Whose sacred relics, translated from Cremona, and diligently examined and approved by our Vicar general in Pontificals and at the same time in spirituals, that they may be honoured with greater cult, our Most Holy Lord Innocent, by divine providence Pope X, for the feast of the translation of the said St. Gerold, M. (which will be celebrated solemnly at the Fathers of the Society of Jesus on the IVth Sunday after Pentecost, which is the XVIth day of the month of June), mercifully imparts plenary Indulgences to all the faithful of Christ who have confessed and been refreshed with holy Communion and venerate the said Martyr there, in this tenor.

[50] plenary Indulgences granted by Innocent X being also set forth. "Pope Innocent X, to all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect the present letters, Greeting and Apostolic blessing. Intent with pious charity on increasing the religion of the faithful and the salvation of souls by the heavenly treasures of the Church, to all the faithful of Christ of either sex, truly penitent and having confessed, and refreshed with holy Communion, who the church of the house of the Priests of the Society of Jesus of Cologne, on the day

of the feast of the translation of St. Gerold, M., from first vespers until sunset of such feast, shall devoutly visit, and there pour forth pious prayers to God for the concord of Christian princes, the extirpation of heresies and the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, we mercifully grant in the Lord plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins: the Presents to be valid for one time only. And we will that, if anything, even the least, be given for the obtaining, presentation and admission, or publication of the presents, or be received when offered of free will, the presents be null by that very fact. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the ring of the Fisherman on the 25th day of November. In the year MDCLI. Of our Pontificate the VIIIth.

Gratis for God's sake, the writing also. Franc. Caetanus."

[51] invites and exhorts. To these again the archbishop subjoins: We exhort all parish priests and preachers in the Lord, therefore, that they inflame their hearers to receive with fitting honour, to venerate and to invoke this their holy Fellow-citizen, that, as hitherto he has more often freed Cremona from fevers and the incursions of enemies, so he may deign henceforth to be the guardian, protector and advocate of his fatherland. In faith of which we have caused these to be subscribed by our above-said vicar in pontificals. At Cologne, the 1st of July, in the year MDCLII.

Georg Paul Stravius, bishop of Joppa, suffragan of Cologne and vicar general etc.

There follows finally, in the German tongue, an invitation of the people to celebrate the same solemnity piously, and to invoke against them St. Gerold, celebrated among the Cremonese as patron against fevers. Now let us at length come to the solemnity itself, the same Reiffenberg relating it from the annual letters of the College of Cologne.

[52] The festivity of the translation is set forth, the sacred apparatus, Meanwhile, when the eve had dawned, with Stravius's permission the silver statue which was to enclose Gerold's relics was consecrated. Then there was raised in the middle of the high altar a stage of excellent workmanship, on which stood a purple canopy, to receive the image of Gerold and show it from a higher place to the flocking people. Beneath, in uncial letters, this inscription was seen: St. Gerold, Martyr of Cremona, of Cologne by fatherland, Patron against fevers. There followed a rather long pealing of the bells, and a pleasant contest of strings, gut, horns and voices, which, protracted for nearly two hours, wonderfully held the minds and ears of the hearers. Scarcely at other times has the city of Cologne been seen to go about in greater rejoicings. The concourse of citizens and neighbouring men to the sacred tribunals was very great, which the following day so increased under the musical Sacrifice, and the panegyric which followed a little after, that not only the lower circuit of the basilica, but also the hanging choirs and the galleries next to the vault were filled with men, and there were very many who, shut out from the spaces of the church, otherwise very ample, were compelled to wait outside until those about to go out should make room.

[53] Those who frequented the sacred Synaxis on the Sunday were not far from the number of six thousand. the concourse and piety of the people, and the benefits obtained, No Paschal festivity in this place has been celebrated with so great a throng of men, none with greater fruit to the citizens, none with equal either concourse or congratulation: to which this contributed very much, that the people not only received Gerold as a Saint, but also loved him as a citizen. A huge commotion of minds certainly arose when, all things being completed, the Ambrosian hymn was sung, and the statue of the Saint was carried by men in linen to the Marian chapel. There stood out on the altar there several statues, of which some represented the assassins, others Gerold with a heavenly genius bearing a palm before him. The relics, laid up in a loftier place within the altar, were honoured for eight whole days with the singing of the catechetical youth and votive candles. Our Crombach then published, as he relates of himself in the Annals, the Life of Gerold in the vernacular idiom (of which I have often made mention), and handed it on to the clients with such fruit that the Saint's images were sought in rivalry, and a huge number of the feverish recovered.

[54] There was also among these a pregnant woman near to childbirth, especially in driving away fevers, who with other symptoms had contracted besides a dangerous fever: the force of the disease had now so prevailed that her stomach failed in its office and retained or digested nothing of food. When the physician himself despaired of human remedies, one of our priests was the author to the woman that, having drunk the water of Ignatius, she should vow an annual religious observance to this Saint and to Gerold, and then at length commit herself to the heavenly fates. Scarcely had the woman conceived the vow and drunk the water when at once her stomach obeyed, retained the water, and laid aside its nausea; and within the next month the woman in childbed happily brought forth her offspring. Then through the whole city the heat of fevers subsided, and the evil ceased to rage through the neighbourhood. When this was announced to the Belgians and French, there were many also in their provinces who gratefully ascribed to Gerold the benefit of fever driven away.

[55] by whose help even the archbishop acknowledged himself freed. Maximilian Henry, archbishop of Cologne himself, when he had brought back a dangerous fever from a journey to Hildesheim, and could no longer close his eyes in sleep on account of inward heats, asked that the jaw of Gerold be brought to Bonn, and, having performed expiatory observances, soon rested at night; and the intemperances of the disturbed blood being removed a little after, he wholly recovered. He acknowledged himself bound by the vow, and sent a candle of fifty pounds, adorned with the Bavarian arms, and to be seen with this chronogrammatic inscription: anatheMa sanCtI geroLDI. The same prince, about to go a little after to the diet of Regensburg, would not commit himself to the journey without having obtained from the Rector of the college a tooth of Gerold, which, enclosed in silver, he carried about, and felt it so salutary that, although the physicians had foretold a quartan fever for him, he yet contracted nothing of this stain and fault in his blood, but both began and completed his journey sound, vigorous and whole. For the rest, the city of Bonn, where the archbishop is said above to have lain sick, called also in the vernacular Bonn, is the chief seat of the Electors of Cologne, founded on the Rhine four German miles above Cologne Agrippina.

[56] His annual cult at Cologne Agrippina. Further, from that time up to the present day our Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Cologne celebrate the feast of St. Gerold every year with an Office of double rite, not however on the 7th day of October, as the Cremonese do, but on the second Sunday of October, to be counted from the very Kalends of the same month, which, if it falls on the 11th day of October, the feast of SS. Gereon and his companions, MM., otherwise to be celebrated on the same day, is transferred to the following day. So the often-praised Aldenbrück.

* Add: to have.

* Read: MDCLI.

* Read: sixteenth.