Martin

ON ST. MARTIN, CONFESSOR, FIRST ABBOT OF BELLOFONTE, NOW VALPARAÍSO, IN THE KINGDOM OF LEÓN IN SPAIN,

IN THE YEAR MCLII.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Martin, first abbot of Bellofonte, now Valparaíso, in the kingdom of León in Spain. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. Knowledge of the old and new monastery where he presided and obtained cult: his memory in the Martyrologies, cult and ecclesiastical offices: whence his deeds are to be related.

The knowledge of this place, and what we know of its first abbot, St. Martin, The site and names of the monastery, we have almost all from the Annals of the most illustrious Ángel Manrique, bishop of Badajoz, written with great fidelity, of his Cistercian Order. As he witnesses at the year of Christ 1137, chapter 5, number 1, the monastery of Bellofonte, today Valparaíso, near Peleas between Zamora and Salamanca (cities of the kingdom of León), is situated in the diocese of Zamora. Then in the same place, number 8, he says: The name, borrowed from the nearby spring, made the word Bellofonte. This was variously soon retained or omitted, and not rarely yielding to the neighbouring castle, it was called St. Mary, now De Bello-Fonte, now De Peleis, by common use; at length, the place being changed, it vanished altogether, and was changed into Valparaíso by order of Ferdinand, king of León, which we shall say in its place and time. Meanwhile I note that the same Ferdinand, when he secured the translation by his privilege, expressed the original names, when he says: "The abbot and monks of the monastery of Bellofonte, which is generally called Pelaes, of the Cistercian Order." But of these things more below.

[2] Although the cult of the first abbot of the Cistercian Order of the same place is certain and ancient, whose first abbot he is known to very few martyrologists, of whom Crisóstomo Henríquez in the Cistercian Martyrology announces him today in first place with the following elogium: In Spain, St. Martin the abbot, disciple of the most holy father Bernard, whom the emperor Alfonso found in a very dark cave half-naked and cruelly beating himself with scourges: moved by which spectacle the pious prince built a monastery, which today is very celebrated and has obtained the name of Valparaíso, and set the holy Man over it there as abbot. Who, appointed shepherd of the Lord's household, took care anxiously, and the integrity of his life was wonderful, and in bearing all the adversities of the spiritual warfare his fortitude of mind was invincible: and he was renowned with so many miracles both in life and in death that he has been enrolled in the number of the Saints.

[3] More briefly Hugues Ménard mentions him on the same day in the Martyrology of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, in few Martyrologies saying: In Spain, of St. Martin the abbot. That no other than the Abbot of Bellofonte is designated here is established in the same place from book 2 of the Observations, where he noted nearly the same things which I have just related from Henríquez, omitting, however, more rightly, the teaching of St. Bernard. Gabriel Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology on the same day so followed Henríquez that he changed the first part of the elogium, beginning thus: In Spain, of St. Martin, abbot of Valparaíso. Martin, a man of illustrious name and admirable virtue, while still of tender age, enticed by the Evangelical promises, having left his parents and without saying farewell to his friends, hid himself in the cowl,

and having obtained the absolute master of perfection, our mellifluous doctor (St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux), he afterwards seemed most worthy to be sent even into the Spains. Whom when Alfonso etc., nearly from Henríquez.

[4] Finally Juan Tamayo, in his Spanish Martyrology, he is announced on this day for a twofold cause. likewise celebrates the same holy Abbot on this day thus: At Bellomonte (nay, Bellofonte) near Zamora in Hither Spain, of St. Martin, abbot of the Cistercian (add Order), who, having put on the infulae of the first abbacy of that monastery, toiling in good works, flew away to the shining mantle of glory. This and the other elogia already given I shall examine below. Among other martyrologists I have not read the memory of this Saint on this day, not even in Filippo Ferrari, nor in that most sagacious investigator of the Saints, Chastelain. And he could be inscribed in the Martyrologies on this day by a twofold title, namely of his birthday or death, and of his translation, which we shall soon see happened on the same day and is celebrated with the same Office by the Spanish sons of the Cistercian Order. The Cistercian Martyrology, however, edited among the Monastic ones at the end of the Roman one, enlarged and corrected by Pope Benedict XIV, mentions him in first place on the day after thus: In Spain, of St. Martin, abbot of Valparaíso, of the Cistercian Order, renowned for holiness and miracles. The reason for the changed day is that, from what is to be said below, the Office of the same Saint, when it was extended to the whole Cistercian Order, was fixed to the 8th day of October.

[5] His cult is established from votive offerings and pictures publicly exposed, Concerning his notable cult let us hear Manrique at the year of Christ 1152, chapter 4. Ancient tablets (he says there, number 2) testify to the miracles both of him living and of him already dead, or translated to a better life, with which not only his own chapel in which the ashes of the Saint remained for many years, but the very church built some years afterwards, is seen to be adorned, and images fixed to the high altar, no less venerable for their antiquity than for their situation. There one may see very many restored to health from various diseases, and the Saint himself laying hands on each, then beating himself with scourges and praying; and other things of that kind expressing miracles and virtues through pictures (the books of the unlearned). Thus there.

[6] and from the Office on this day in the Spanish Congregation Then again at number 9 he subjoins: The feast of Blessed Martin is celebrated not only in his own monastery, but in the whole kindly Congregation of the Spains (namely of the Cistercian Order) on the seventh day of the month of October, on which his death and translation took place together: on which day likewise the Monastic Martyrology and the Menology of the Cistercian Saints, John the abbot, and the ancient Missal of the Order, Aubert Le Mire, and other more recent ones make mention of him. Of these some things have been said briefly by anticipation; the rest we shall say more fully in their times. The translation, because it falls on the same day, has no peculiar celebration. And that the aforesaid extension of the Office first took place in the year 1540 he teaches in the Appendix to volume 4 of the same Annals, or in the Series of the abbots of Palazuelos, under Mancius, the forty-eighth abbot, number 3, saying: In this chapter (of the year 1540) the feast of St. Martin, first abbot of Valparaíso, was ordered to be celebrated through the whole observance, which hitherto, and that not for many years, was celebrated only in his own church. That the praised Office has its own proper Lessons we learn from the same Annalist, when in the same place, number 3, he set down the eighth Lesson of it, which treats of the translation of the body of St. Martin, which I too shall recite from him below.

[7] and in another of double rite to be celebrated on the day after Manrique wrote these things about the middle of the 17th century, at which time perhaps only the Spanish Congregation of the Cistercians, of which alone he makes mention there, celebrated this annual Office of St. Martin. But at the beginning of the 18th century the faculty of honouring the same St. Martin every year with an Office of double rite was extended to the whole Cistercian Order of St. Bernard. So I learned from a decree of the sacred Roman Congregation of Rites, issued on the 13th day of August of the year 1701, and confirmed, together with other decrees of that kind granted by the same sacred Congregation in favour of the same Order, by Pope Clement XI on the 25th day of September of the year 1710; which is read prefixed to the Proper of the Saints, for the use of the nuns of the said Order who use the Roman Breviary, published at Moulins in France in the year 1739. This cult was transferred here to the following day, namely the eighth of October, because the 7th day was impeded by the likewise double feast of St. Justina, virgin and martyr of Padua.

[8] granted to the whole Order at the beginning of the 18th century. And the Office of St. Martin is made there from the Common of Confessors not pontiffs: the Lessons of the 1st Nocturn are taken from the Occurring Scripture; those of the second Nocturn from the Sermon of St. Bernard on the feast of St. Martin the bishop: those of the third Nocturn from the Gospel of St. Matthew: Peter said to Jesus etc.; with the Homily of the same St. Bernard on the Colloquy of Simon with Jesus: No one of sound mind etc.: the Prayer finally is this: Hear, O Lord, Thy people, subject to Thee with their whole mind, and guard them by the supplication of blessed Martin the abbot, that, protected in body and heart, they may long for what they piously believe, and obtain what they justly hope. Through our Lord etc. From what has been said thus far and is to be said, the legitimate cult of today's St. Martin cannot be called into doubt, and by that reason he can truly be said, as Henríquez said above, to be enrolled in the number of the Saints: but I do not know whether this was done by formal canonization by the supreme Pontiff, and accordingly how truly Henríquez said in the Fasciculus of the Saints of the Cistercian Order, book 2, distinction 26, chapter 24: The diploma of his canonization exists at Rome in the Vatican.

[9] That some Life of this holy Abbot existed Henríquez gathers in the Cistercian Menology on this day, If any ancient Life of his existed, from these words of Seguin adduced concerning him: Whence also he shone forth with many miracles in life and after death, as is read in his History. But could not Seguin, by the name of History, have designated the proper Lessons of his Office, which, since they are not at hand to me, I cannot compare with the other sayings of Seguin related by Henríquez; this, however, I may say, that in the eighth Lesson of the same Office, to be copied out below from Manrique, there exists express mention of miracles wrought by that Saint while he was living. Moreover, however that may be, that Philippe Seguin, monk and Prior of the monastery of Chaalis, or Caroli-locus, of the diocese of Senlis in France, lived in the 16th century, and was still living in the year 1590, as Charles de Visch witnesses in the Library of the Writers of the Cistercian Order, in which both his elogium is given, and among his unedited Little Works a Catalogue of the Saints and Blessed of the whole Cistercian Order, and very many Lives of the same, are praised.

[10] Let us suppose, then, that some Life of St. Martin, abbot of Bellofonte, it seems to have perished long ago. which lighted the way for Seguin, truly existed; none the less it will be doubtful of what time, of what credibility it was, since between the death of St. Martin and the age of Seguin four centuries intervened, in which of which that Life was written is not known. Further, if any Life ever existed, of whatever sort it finally was, it seems to have been seen by Seguin alone (since others praise it from him alone), and in the time of Henríquez either already to have perished or to have lain hidden, since he himself says in the Menology: The festival of this Saint (Martin) is celebrated solemnly on this day in the whole Spanish Congregation, and would be celebrated more solemnly if the Spaniards could have obtained the History of his life, which Philippe Seguin had in his keeping. Nor was it better known to Tamayo, when he noted on this day in his Spanish Martyrology: Philippe Seguin had his Acts in his keeping; but they perished to the loss of our people. In vain, therefore, would I labour to obtain it, and accordingly I am compelled only to gather and, as far as the penury of monuments will allow, to illustrate the things which more recent writers, and especially the most illustrious Manrique, bishop of Badajoz in Spain, in the Annals of his Cistercian Order, wrote of this holy Abbot.

§ II. The Saint's surname and fatherland: the priesthood undertaken: the headship of a hospice of the poor: a monastery of the Cistercian Order added to this, and the prelacy exercised by him there: his death and first successors.

He was surnamed Cid, a Spaniard by race, Martin, as Manrique, praised above, witnesses at the year of Christ 1137, chapter 5, number 1, was surnamed Cid, noble by birth, of Zamora by fatherland, and already a priest and set over a certain pious hospice for pilgrims, when he embraced the Cistercian Institutes. Concerning the surname Cid it is established both from the charter of donation of Alfonso VIII, called VII by others, king of Castile and León, and from the inscriptions which I shall record in their places. But whence he received that surname no one explains. There flourished indeed in Spain after the middle of the 11th century the famous warrior Rodrigo, renowned for many victories won over the kings of the Moors, and saluted by them with the Arabic word Cid, which means Leader, Governor and Petty King, whence he also retained that surname: but I read that this Cid had one only son, slain in battle before his father, and two daughters; nor do I think that Manrique judged that Martin was of his posterity, which from the history of Rodrigo is by no means probable; and I much prefer to believe that the surname of Cid fell to Martin from elsewhere.

[12] and more probably of Zamora by fatherland, not a Frenchman. Hence too I have nothing to bring forward for confirming the nobility of his family, except that he seems to have had a patrimony not unbefitting nobility from the things we shall say below of the hospice of the poor which was erected and over which he presided. For his Spanish fatherland the surname Cidis, or Cid, is in favour; and for his native soil of Zamora, both his dwelling and death in the diocese of Zamora, as well before as after undertaking the Cistercian Institute, and in his latest epitaph, to be recited in its place, the appellation Glory of the people of Zamora. Tamayo, in the Annotations on the Spanish Martyrology on this 7th day of October, seems to have thought him rather a Frenchman by birth, saying: Martin, disciple of the holy father Bernard, who from the surname Cid is believed to be a Spaniard by origin, was sent by the holy patriarch himself with Aegeas, Bernard and Peter of Poitiers into the Spains, that he might extend the Cistercian Order among the ranks of the Spanish soldiers. Perhaps of the same opinion was Bucelin, who in the words related at number 3 said that Martin, having embraced the monastic life at a tender age, made such progress under St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, that he seemed most worthy to be sent even into the Spains. But these rely on a place of Seguin, to be recited below, not to be admitted.

[13] Already a priest, and of a pious hospice for the poor I return to Manrique, who proceeds thus of St. Martin, already a man, and probably then also a priest: That place (in which the monastery of Bellofonte was afterwards built), once a den of robbers, … he had changed first into a house of prayer, and soon, companions being joined, into a hospice for passers-by: thence by the Spanish word Aluergueria, because in it pilgrims

were received, it was called. Martin presided over the Confraters (for so they were called); they served the poor devoutly; and the hospice had possessions from which the poor of Christ might be sustained. There exists (in the archives of Valparaíso, he notes in the margin) a Rescript of Pope Innocent the third, issued seventy years after, in which, not a few possessions being recounted, these words are subjoined: "All which the same monastery" (namely of Peleas, the name being taken from the neighbouring place) "possessed before it took up the Institutes of the Cistercian brethren." By which you may see both that some sort of convent of brethren or confraters preceded there, on whom the care of pilgrims rested; and that endowment for necessaries was not lacking, according to the tenor and norm of the life undertaken. Thus far he.

[14] Whether the Annalist affirmed that the said place was once a den of robbers presiding over those serving, from popular tradition alone or that of the inhabitants, or from some monument or sound ancient Manuscript testimony, it does not please me to divine: but that there was there some pious hospice for pilgrims or the poor we have from the charter of Alfonso IX, king of León, praised above and to be given, in which it is called the new Aluergueria of Peleas. For Aluergueria, or Albergueria, a Spanish word, means that in Latin. Rightly likewise from the alleged words of Innocent III he determines that there was there, before that place submitted itself to the Cistercians, a certain convent or pious community endowed with its own possessions; and of whom rather shall we believe it was than of pious men who served the same hospice or xenodochium? Certainly the praised King Alfonso, when the same place passed to the Cistercians, called it Aluergueria, as has been said, and named Martin in first place as its head, and added to him his Confraters, and the Cistercian monks (namely then recently summoned thither by Martin) who are with him, he says, in the convent in the new Aluergueria of Peleas. Read the words below from number 17.

[15] I proceed with the Annalist, whose words I shall report here only in summary. by the work of the bishop of Zamora While, then, the Saint was religiously presiding over this his xenodochium, which he himself had founded or enlarged with his own money, inflamed with the desire of a holier life, and moved by the recent example of the monastery of Moreruela, which, situated in the same diocese of Zamora, at the sixth milestone from that city, on the bank of the river Esla (of which see more at the year 1131, chapter 8 and the following), had lately passed from the Benedictine Institutes to the Cistercian, he met with Bernard, bishop of Zamora, beseeching him to interpose his authority here with St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, for obtaining some of his monks from Clairvaux, if it could be done, whose examples and manner of life he himself with his own might emulate. That Martin might more easily obtain this from the bishop, he promises that he and his would by no means give up the care of the poor undertaken, but would join monastic observance with the accustomed offices of charity.

[16] Moreover Manrique observes that the praised Bishop Bernard was a Frenchman by fatherland (he is said to have been of Périgueux in Aquitaine in Flórez, volume 14 of the Sacred Spain, page 353 and following) and an intimate of St. Bernard. the Cistercian institute being admitted, he continues to preside, Whatever may be the case of this intimacy, the bishop, approving the pious desire of the Man, wrote to St. Bernard, and so commended his holiness and his tried prudence in ruling subjects that he obtained from him four colonists from Clairvaux itself, to hand on to the rest the norm of living by words and examples; Martin's headship, which he had hitherto exercised in his xenodochium, being confirmed to him in building the monastery. These four the Annalist names Egeas, Gerard, Peter of Poitiers and Bernard, and affirms that after the death of St. Martin they succeeded to the rule of the same monastery.

[17] the emperor of Spain, Alfonso, approving and increasing the foundation, And that this mission and the beginnings of the monastery are to be tied to the year 1137 he proves from the often-praised charter of King Alfonso, which, published by him from the monuments of the monastery of Valparaíso, I subjoin here. I, Alfonso, emperor of Spain, together with my wife Berengaria, with grateful mind and spontaneous will, for the love of God and the remedy of my sins, and that our life and that of our successors may be able to prosper better with the help of God and of His Mother the Virgin Mary, and for the devotion which I have toward Martin Cidis, whom I have found a just and holy man, and for the favour and devotion which I have toward his confraters, and the monks of the Cistercian Order, who are with him in the convent in the new Aluergueria of Peleas around the church of St. Michael the archangel, whom I have found leading a holy and honest life, give and grant to the aforesaid Martin Cidis and his confraters, and the monks of the Cistercian Order who are with him in the said Aluergueria in convent, now and for ever, two villages of mine, which are deserted and depopulated, which are in the boundary of Zamora, and are called Cubo and Cubeto.

[18] whose charter is given here And I give and grant the aforesaid villages to Martin Cidis, and to the confraters and monks above-said, and to their successors, by hereditary right… And I command the aforesaid Martin Cidis and the monks that they make there in the aforesaid Aluergueria a monastery of the Cistercian Order in honour of the Virgin Mary, which monastery shall have by hereditary right for ever the aforesaid villages with their boundaries etc. The charter of donation made at Zamora, on the fourth day before the Nones of October, at the time when Guido, Cardinal of the Roman Church, celebrated a council at Valladolid, and came to the colloquy of the king of Portugal with the emperor, M. CLXXV. The subscriptions of the nobles of the kingdom, which he says were many, Manrique passed over, and added his observations on this royal charter in these words: Hence first you may see the holiness of Martin above the common, and not otherwise to be proclaimed by so great a prince. You may see secondly a preceding convent, of whatever sort, of some confraters of approved life, ministering to the poor under the holy Man. You may see thirdly monks associated with them, without doubt those whom the holy father (Bernard) had sent at the request of the prelate of Zamora. Finally you may see the year of their coming designated, and by that very fact a monastery commanded to be built.

[19] and is illustrated, Let us add our annotations to these too. Manrique observed these things rightly, if you except the mission by St. Bernard, which, though probable from elsewhere, and I would by no means wish to deny it, I cannot confirm from the alleged words of Alfonso. Further, that Alfonso was the VIIIth of that name, by others the VIIth, king of Castile and León, who wished to be called Emperor of Spain, and in the year 1135 caused himself to be crowned and anointed as such; as may be seen in Pagi in the Critique of Baronius at the same year, and in other commonly met writers. Berengaria, whom Alfonso mentions in the same place, daughter of Ramon Berenguer, the IIIrd of that name, count of Barcelona and Provence, he had taken to wife in the year 1124; and since he himself was born of Raymond the Burgundian, count of Galicia, he followed the Cistercian Order with kindly affection, as Manrique had already observed at the year 1131 from Mariana, book 10, chapter 12, where one may read the following to our purpose: He (the praised Alfonso) was especially devoted to Bernard of Clairvaux … his fellow-countryman, and on his authority he caused very many monasteries to be built for the Cistercian family, and almost those which at this time exist as the most magnificent and richest in that whole tract of Spain.

[20] Concerning the year of the commanded building of the monastery it is established from the Spanish Era MCLXXV written down, from which it is established that the first beginnings of the same monastery which, since it runs ahead of the common Christian one by thirty-eight years, designates the year of Christ 1137. Concerning Guido, Cardinal of the H. R. C. and legate of the Apostolic See to Spain from Pope Innocent II, the praised Pagi may be consulted at the years 1136 and the following; and it will help to have observed here in a few words from our Papebroch, on the 30th day of May, in the Commentary preliminary to the Acts of St. Ferdinand III, king of Castile, León etc., § V, that it was once fairly familiar to the Spanish kings to mark the years of their reigns in charters of donations not so much by number as by some thing memorable to all posterity; which Alfonso too observed here, recording the council of Valladolid celebrated by Guido, and his own colloquy with the king of Portugal.

[21] Finally, from the same appended Spanish Era MCLXXV the Cistercian Annalist rightly refutes those are to be fixed to the year 1137, not later. who defer the beginnings of the monastery of Bellofonte to after the year 1162, or even after 1180. And he conjectures that the cause or occasion of so great a discord of the Cistercian writers on this matter arose from this, that only a few, namely four colonists from Clairvaux, were sent by St. Bernard to this new monastery, to obey only the old head of the place. For hence it came about, he judges, that concerning the beginnings of such a house even the ancient instruments disagree, and some do not name it among the daughters of Clairvaux, some put it later: inasmuch as, a convent not being sent from Clairvaux, but a few monks, and these to be under the command of another, it was scarcely of such account that the time should be noted. Whatever the reason for this dissension, all those are refuted from the year of the same charter given who would have this monastery of Bellofonte to be a daughter not of Clairvaux but of any other monastery, later at that time.

[22] Things not a little different from those related Philippe Seguin narrates, book 3 of the Saints of the Cistercian Order, Of others, concerning the Saint's monkhood in youth whose words, from the recension of Henríquez in the Annotations on the Menology on this day, I transcribe here. Martin, a man of illustrious name and admirable virtue, and a sedulous follower of Evangelical perfection, abbot in Valparaíso of the kingdom of Castile, enticed at that very tender age by the sacred promises of the Gospel, without saying farewell to his friends, having left his parents and repudiated his dearest things, professed the monastic religion, that he might more rightly imitate Christ, poor, celibate and at the same time obedient. According to these things St. Martin was made a monk already from tender age: but in what monastery, or following what Rule? Since no other monastery is named here than Valparaíso, it may seem that, according to Seguin's opinion, he did this in that same monastery, which was always of the Cistercian Order, and only began to be so called when translated to a better site about the eightieth year after the Saint's death, as we shall set out below.

[23] and mission into Spain by St. Bernard, and its cause. Nor can I assent either to Henríquez himself, Bucelin and Tamayo, who, when they make Martin a disciple of St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, seem to have held that he laid the rudiments of the Religious life at Clairvaux, and that indeed at a tender age, as Bucelin adds. The words of the first two you have at numbers 2 and 3, those of Tamayo at number 12. Quite another cause too, or occasion, of founding the monastery the same martyrologists alleged; namely that St. Martin was seen by King Alfonso half-naked scourging himself in a very dark cave, and the prince was so moved by that spectacle that by his vow he caused a Cistercian monastery to be founded, and set him over it as abbot. Perhaps Martin was called by someone a disciple of St. Bernard, not because he was imbued with the monastic disciplines by that holy father himself, but because he took up the Institute of the same, then still living and consenting, and introduced it into his community: and this

another interpreted in a more proper and obvious sense of the same man as instructed by the holy patriarch himself and sent into Spain.

[24] or the narration of the occasion of the monastery's founding is disapproved. Then, when he had heard that in that place there had been a cave, which in Manrique is said to have been converted by St. Martin first into a retreat for prayer, soon into a hospice for poor pilgrims, and finally into a monastery of the Cistercian Order, and did not know by what means this had been done; and had learned from elsewhere that among the tablets hung in the church of Valparaíso there is one which shows the Saint beating himself with scourges (as was said at number 5), perhaps he thought these words of Alfonso in the charter of donation, For … the devotion which I have toward Martin Cidis, whom I have found a just and holy man, were to be explained thus, that Alfonso found him scourging himself, and, moved by that thing, caused the monastery which he was seeking to be built. I cannot indeed divine whether that tablet praised by Manrique contains anything besides which favours this opinion, or is of such antiquity that it can add some weight to it: but the things which we have thus far produced from Manrique present a far greater appearance of truth. And let it suffice to have said these things from conjectures.

[25] The other deeds of the same Saint are unknown. The other deeds of the holy Abbot lie hidden, whether through the injury of time or the carelessness of the ancients, except that he stood by his covenant of not giving up the care of the xenodochium while he lived. The xenodochium (says the Annalist at the year 1137, chapter 5, number 9) remained subject to the abbey for a long time; certainly up to the last years of that century donations are read to have been made to both houses, this one inhabited by monks, that by confraters, both under the disposition of the abbot. Nor did Seguin hand down more peculiar deeds of his, who concluded his elogium, the first part of which I recited at number 22, only with general praises in this manner: In which manner of living he with incredible fervour of mind often passed the night in prayer with Christ, adored almighty God in spirit and truth, brought many companies of Religious men over to a more perfect life by word and deed alike: whence also he shone forth with many miracles in life and after death, as is read in his History. Of this History I have treated above in §1.

[26] That the precious death of the holy Man is to be tied to the year of Christ 1152 The Saint dies in the year 1152, the Annalist proves in the same place, chapter 4, number 1, saying that it fell in this time, as MEMORIALS hand down, whose words are these: Era MCXC, on the day before the Nones of October, died Dom Martin Cidis, first founder and abbot of this place. The Spanish era given truly agrees with the year of Christ 1152, the 38 years by which it precedes the latter being subtracted from it. The same era also agrees rightly with the eighth Lesson of the proper Office to be given below, in which both the same year of Christ is marked and fifteen years are numbered from the foundation of the monastery up to his death, their beginning, namely, being drawn from the year 1137, in which we saw the charter of the emperor Alfonso given for the foundation of the same monastery. The inscriptions likewise agree, to be recorded likewise in their places, which record that his body lay for eighty years in its first sepulchre, until it was first translated thence.

[27] But do the Memorials alleged by Manrique, of what age they are he did not explain, on the 6th or 7th day of October. also mark the day of death rightly? If so, Martin, contrary to what Manrique himself determined, must be said to have died not on the 7th but on the 6th day of October; for On the day before the Nones of October indicates this, not that day. Either, then, these memorials are faulty in this part, or vitiated by the error of the copyist or typesetter; and in them On the Nones is to be read for On the day before the Nones, or the death of the holy Abbot is to be brought forward one day from what is otherwise believed. However that may be, concerning the year, not concerning the 6th day, the eighth Lesson of the Ecclesiastical Office agrees, which in Manrique at the place cited, number 3, has thus: Fifteen years having passed from the foundation of the house, leaving his dear sons as heirs of holiness, and his land adorned with his virtues and enriched and made illustrious with wonderful signs and innumerable benefits, the despiser of the world and the vanquisher of its prince ascended above the world, abounding in the riches of merits, renowned in triumphs, glorious in miracles, in the month of October, on the seventh day, in the year of the Lord one thousand and fifty-two. His sons and brethren laid up the sacred body of their holy Father honourably in the church of the former site; and there it was kept for eighty years.

[28] I have already said above that the fifteen years which are said to have passed from the foundation of the monastery up to Martin's death having completed 15 years in the prelacy: his immediate successors are to be begun from the Charter of donation of the emperor Alfonso, given in the year 1137 on the 4th day of October, from which time, if you count up to the 6th or 7th day of the same month of October of the year 1152, you will find fifteen years completed by two or three days; and accordingly the reckonings placed in the proper Office are right. For the rest, of the four Cistercian monks whom Manrique had said Martin obtained from St. Bernard, he says that Egeas succeeded him, Gerard succeeded Egeas, and finally Peter, called of Poitiers, succeeded Gerard; and he subjoins: Such was Bernard's reverence for Martin, under whom he placed none except those whom he knew to be worthy to preside over others; such the modesty of the Spanish monks, who never set any of their own over themselves as long as those sent by Bernard lasted.

§ III. The change of the site and name of the monastery of Bellofonte: the twin translations of the sacred body, the inscriptions or tablets made concerning them: relics granted to the church of Zamora: the fortune of the monastery.

The monastery of Bellofonte, by the munificence of St. Ferdinand the king, Thus far we have drawn those few things which we know of the deeds of St. Martin from the Cistercian Annals of the most illustrious Manrique, from which we shall also relate certain other things pertaining to his posthumous glory. He began chapter 5 of the year 1232 thus: In this year Ferdinand, king of Castile, translated to another more convenient place the monastery called de Bello-fonte, or de Peleas, in the diocese of Zamora, which his grandfather (nay, great-grandfather), the emperor Alfonso, had once founded, on account of the inclemency of the air and other inconveniences which the monks had long experienced in it, and ordered the name to be changed with the place, new dwellings being built at the king's own expense, which, whether from the estate itself, exceedingly pleasant, on which they rose, or from the conversation of the saints for whom they were prepared, he directs to be called Valparaíso, letters concerning the translation and the name being issued, which, from the archives of the same monastery (a notable monument of royal piety and largesse, and of the veneration which he showed to Cîteaux), short and grave, I shall transcribe according to my custom.

[30] whose charter is recited, "Ferdinand, by the grace of God king of Castile and Toledo, León and Galicia, to all to whom the present writing shall come, greeting and grace. It is declared by the testimony of holy Scripture that the spiritual man does not change his purpose when he meditates something more useful for the salvation of his soul: hence it is that, since the abbot and monks of the monastery De Bello-fonte, which is generally called Peleas, of the Cistercian Order, have lived there for a long time, and on account of the unevenness of the place and the intemperance of the air have suffered grievous sicknesses of body and very many other inconveniences, on account of which they cannot conveniently fulfil the divine service to which they are more especially bound, as they are held by vow; wishing to provide for their tranquillity, and that religion may receive increase in the service of God in our times, we transfer the said abbot and monks to the monastery which we have commanded to be established in the place which is commonly called Valparaíso; firmly forbidding that anyone hereafter dare to call the place or monastery anything but Valparaíso."

[31] he changes its site and name in the year 1232. "If anyone, then, presume to break this charter, or diminish it in anything, let him fully incur the anger of almighty God, and pay to the royal part a thousand gold pieces in penalty, and restore double the damage done on this account to the aforesaid monastery. The charter made at Ávila, at the king's expense, on the second day of November, era M CC LXX," that is, in the common year 1232, 38 years being subtracted from it. Ferdinand, whose charter it is, was the IIIrd of this name, king of Castile and León, most celebrated no less for holiness than for warlike deeds done against the Moors in Spain, whose deeds have been illustrated by us on the 30th day of May, on which he is venerated, and he is read inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. He had as mother Berengaria, heir of the kingdom of Castile, as father Alfonso IX, king of León, as grandfather Ferdinand II, third son of Alfonso, emperor of Spain, who accordingly, the emperor Alfonso, founder of the monastery of Bellofonte, was the great-grandfather, not the grandfather, of St. Ferdinand, as Manrique said, whether this was done by chance or from confusion with the other Alfonso, king of Castile, whom the same holy king had as his maternal grandfather.

[32] The monastery being translated to a milder place, the sacred body of its first Abbot also had to be translated, At about the same year the body of the Saint which was done about the same year 1232, as the inscriptions or tablets placed at his second and third tomb, or places of the deposited bones, teach. The first, at his second tomb, transcribed by the Annalist at the year 1152, number 7, runs thus: Under this stone tomb is a flat stone, and under that stone is a stone hollow, in which the sacred body of our father Martin Cidis, first abbot of this monastery (which monastery, built elsewhere, was called at the beginning the Monastery of St. Mary of Peleas, and, translated hither, is called Valparaíso), was buried in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord M. C. LII, in which sepulture it was kept for eighty years, namely up to the year M. CCXXXII, in which year the said sepulture and the aforesaid sacred body were carried over from the church of the former building to this chapel, which from then is called St. Martin the Abbot's, where for three hundred and two years it remained laid up in the aforesaid sepulture, covered with a stone, and for many years fenced around with an iron grating. Afterwards, the grating being removed, this stone tomb, not rudely worked, was placed upon it, in the year MD.XXXIV.

[33] Manrique says that this inscription is of the former tomb; is translated into another chapel but the inscription itself proclaims that it is to be understood not of the very first, but of the former one from the first translation. The number of years added, for which the sacred body lay in its first sepulchre, agrees with the time assigned for the first translation; for eighty years added to the year of Christ 1152, in which he died, produce the year 1232. Hence the Annalist in the same place, number 3, deservedly advises that the eighth Lesson of the Ecclesiastical Office should be emended, in which, although by the words given above the same year of death and the same space of eighty years between death and the first translation are assigned, nevertheless this is read to have happened in the year of Christ 1202. For thus, as the same Annalist witnesses, in the same place

it is said: Afterwards, about the year M. CC. II (in which King Ferdinand issued the royal letters for the translation of the house from the city of Ávila), they carried that precious treasure to the chapel which the ancient fathers had acquired for themselves. That M.CC.XXXII is to be substituted for M.CC.II is also proved by the praised letters of Ferdinand themselves, given not before the 2nd day of November of the year of the Christian era 1232. For which reason in the other inscription, likewise to be given in its place, the same translation is more rightly read to have been made about the year M.CC.XXXII.

[34] It is to be observed besides that in this first translation not only the body of the holy Abbot, but also the very sepulture in which it lay, which the same inscription calls a stone hollow (I interpret it a marble or stone coffer), was carried over together, [together with its coffer: then too perhaps an Office of him began to be celebrated.] and sunk in the ground in that chapel, a sepulchral stone being placed on top, and iron gratings being added for religion's sake, to prevent the profanation of the sacred deposit. And the veneration of the Saint increasing thereafter, after three hundred and two years, or in the year 1534, a more honourable tomb was substituted for the gratings, concerning which in Manrique, in the Appendix after volume 4 of the same Annals, or in the series of the abbots of Palazuelos, abbot LXXIX, number 16, in the same inscription less accurately repeated, there is added: Although it was piously defaced by devout faithful; namely that they might have something from the Saint's tomb in place of relics; but perhaps these words are rather of an interpolator than of the original inscription. It is probable too that on the occasion of this translation there began to be celebrated in that new church or chapel the Ecclesiastical Office which in the year 1540 was extended to the whole Spanish Observance, which hitherto, and that not for many years, was celebrated only in his own church; as was said at number 6.

[35] A tradition concerning the inspection of the same body divinely prevented. Further, the sacred pledge remained in that same chapel until the year 1619, in which lapse of nearly four centuries I have learned that nothing further was done concerning it besides the things which the Annalist narrates at the year 1152, chapter 4, number 5, and which I prefer to set out in his words rather than my own. It is more ascertained, he says, by tradition than by writing or picture, that from the year M. CC.XXXII, in which the first translation was celebrated, up to the year M. DC. XIX, in which the second and more celebrated one in this our century, it settled in the minds of many to visit (that is, I think, to inspect) the remains of the sacred body, all of whom, however, either a penalty inflicted on their audacity, or a terror suddenly struck from heaven, kept from their undertakings: first a priest, the subprior of the convent, who alone dared, being blinded; to whom afterwards, penance having been performed, sight was restored at the sepulchre of the holy Man: then, when the whole convent had approached, and a priest vested in albs was undertaking the work, all, struck by a sudden trembling, abstained from the work, more than grateful enough to the divine Godhead that they escaped unharmed: finally, in the age of the fathers, a cloud being spread and filling the chapel, those who dared the very same thing desisted, not without the great wonder of all. These things Manrique gives from tradition, to me altogether uncertain.

[36] It is translated again into the church of Valparaíso in the year 1619; More explored are the things which he subjoins in the same place, number 6, prefacing modestly thus: This glory, then, was reserved for us by heavenly providence; not because we were better, but because more in need of the Saint's patronage; in the aforesaid year, namely of Christ M. DC.XIX, it fell happily to the reverend father, brother Andrés de Córdoba, then abbot of Valparaíso, and to the other sons of the same house, nay, to the whole church of Zamora, after many prayers indeed and sacrifices, that the sacred body, taken out from the former sepulchre, was translated, the Saint himself willing it, to the greater chapel of the church, with a huge concourse of the neighbouring peoples. With these the eighth Lesson of his proper Office agrees, in which after the words recited at number 29 it proceeds thus: And at length most honourably, with notable apparatus and a great concourse of peoples, of noble men and women, and of clergy and Religious, carried from the aforesaid chapel on the shoulders of priests, by the hands of John, bishop of Zamora, it was placed in the tabernacle of the church of the monastery of Valparaíso with the highest joy and most fervent affection on the seventh day of the month of October in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord M. DC. XIX, to the honour and glory of God almighty, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

[37] Receive also the inscription which the Annalist asserts in the same place, number 8, was placed at this new place of the sacred deposit, as the inscription also teaches, which is recited. and records thus: The sacred body of St. Martin Cidis, first abbot of this monastery, was buried elsewhere immediately after his happy passing, namely in the church of the former building, where it rested for eighty years. Thence it was translated about the year M.CC.XXXII to the church which from then is called St. Martin the abbot's; and there it was kept for CCC. LXXXVII years: at length most honourably, with notable apparatus and a great concourse of peoples, with no small company of noble men and illustrious women, this great church being adorned with silken tapestries, with the melody of singers, with very many and manifold varieties of the poetic art, religious men of divers Orders standing round, the reverend abbots of the monasteries of San Martín de Castañeda, of Nogales, of Benavides, and of this house accompanying, carried on the shoulders of monks from the chapel of his name, by the hands of the illustrious and most reverend Lord Don Juan Zapata Osorio, bishop of Zamora, the illustrious dignitaries of the aforesaid holy church assisting him, and the noble men of the same holy church accompanying him, it was placed in the tabernacle of the church of this monastery, commonly called Valparaíso from the most ancient times, with the highest joy and most fervent affection, on the seventh day of the month of October, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord M. DC. XIX, the supreme Pontiff Paul, the Vth of this name, governing the whole holy Catholic Church, and the most Catholic king Philip III reigning, to the honour of God almighty, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns through infinite ages of ages.

[38] There follows (so the Annalist proceeds in the same place) another inscription or epitaph: Let there be given likewise the epitaph of the Saint, and the last part "Who is here? That brave Cid? Not he. Mars, the bravest? Neither: but braver than both, Martin Cidis, the splendour of Cîteaux, the ornament of Spain, the shield of Castile, the glory of the people of Zamora, a gem outshining the earth, a most bright star of heaven, the firmest foundation of the house, the first archimandrite of a sacred and great lineage, a tree of salvation in the Valley of Paradise." From the surname Cidis the author of the epitaph alludes there to that celebrated warrior Rodrigo the Cid, of whom I made brief mention at number XI. For the rest, I subjoin here the last part of the inscription which we said was placed at the tomb of St. Martin in the chapel of his name, to which his body was first translated, and whose first part we have already given at number 32. In this, then, after the things transcribed there, which record that former translation, there follow in Manrique other things which mention the second, and set out what remains in that place, in this manner.

[39] The said body of our Holy Father was translated to the church of the monastery, of the inscription at the second tomb. and there most gloriously placed in a most beautiful tabernacle beside the high altar by the hands of the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Don Juan Zapata Osorio, bishop of Zamora, on the 7th day of October. Therefore under the already said flat stone (see number 32), from that day, in the said hollow there is only the earth in which the aforenamed body of our Holy Father was wrapped, and that into which it was resolved, and together with it some small relics of the same sacred body, and finally there will be found shut up there a little stone casket, covered with another flat stone, in which the often-said sacred body remained laid up for some days until the time of the translation assigned above. Moreover the darker earth also, which will be found immediately placed upon the flat stone itself which covers the sepulture (and was left there at the time of the translation), let it be handled reverently; because it ought to have been put under the said stone, if it could be contained; but it was left over, and remained covered with whiter earth and loose and rough stones * in the upper hollow of the aforesaid sepulchre. To the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through infinite ages. Amen.

[40] Relics granted to the people of Zamora, sought by others. Thus far concerning the body of St. Martin, his translations and sepultures, from Manrique, who in the Series of the abbots of Palazuelos praised above, concerning the relics of the same granted to the city of Zamora, after he had narrated the last translation in the same place, number 17, added these things: Not long after, the same city of Zamora was presented by the abbot and monks with an entire bone of the Saint, which it received most devoutly, and placed becomingly in the sacristy of the cathedral church, with no less a concourse of clergy and people. He had likewise set down beforehand a mention of the same donation in the Annals at the year of Christ 1152, chapter 4, number 6, saying: There exist letters of the church of Zamora, and of its bishop himself, to the same abbot (Andrés de Córdoba) and convent, full of congratulation and reverence toward the Saint, of whose bones they had received a piece (an entire bone was said above). There exist also others of the abbot and convent of Carracedo, asking that the same be conferred on them; but which, written in the vulgar idiom, it is better for us to report than to transcribe. Whether the prayers of the people of Carracedo succeeded according to their wishes I do not know, Manrique being silent.

[41] The state and fortune of Valparaíso. Further, in the same place, number 9, he had promised that he who had thus far said certain of all these things briefly by anticipation would set out the rest more fully … in their times; but he did not carry the Annals of his Order beyond the year of Christ 1236, nor are more things available to us from elsewhere. Wherefore we are compelled to put an end to this Commentary, grieving that the deeds of this holy Abbot were either never consigned to letters through the carelessness of his contemporaries, or have been lost, or at least lie hidden, through the negligence of posterity or the injury of the times. In place of a coronis, then, I write here what the often-praised Annalist noted at the year of Christ 1137, chapter 5, number 9, concerning the old and more recent state of the same monastery of Valparaíso. These things (he says) concerning the beginnings of a notable monastery, which, for the holiness and learning of its monks, will have to be repeated by us more than once. It is numbered in the letters of Pope Innocent the third and of Gregory the ninth, legations and causes being committed to its abbots, of which below. It is also in the books of the Apostolic Chamber, in the diocese of Zamora, to which it belongs, valued at only sixty florins, a house otherwise very rich, although in this century (the seventeenth) with slenderer revenues, as nearly all others.

* Perhaps ruderibus rubble?